CN116156606A

CN116156606A - Paging method, communication device and computer readable storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN116156606A
Application number: CN202111602012.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 孔繁华; 邝奕如; 徐海博; 薛丽霞
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-11-19
Filing date: 2021-12-24
Publication date: 2023-05-23
Also published as: WO2023088082A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a paging method, a communication device and a computer readable storage medium, relates to the technical field of communication, and can reduce power consumption of terminal equipment. The paging method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives first indication information from the network side equipment, and when the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment does not carry the identifier of the terminal equipment in the paging message received in the eDRX period, the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period; when the received paging message does not carry the identifier of the terminal device, the terminal device can keep the dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal device in the eDRX period according to the first indication information. Based on the first indication information issued by the network side equipment, the terminal equipment can keep a dormant state at least one associated PO (point of sale) under the condition of not being paged, and the paging message is not required to be awakened to be received, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved.

Description

Paging method, communication device and computer readable storage medium

The present application claims priority from the national intellectual property agency, application number 202111373274.1, application name "a method of reducing detection of PO" filed on day 11 and 19 of 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a paging method, a communication apparatus, and a computer readable storage medium.

Background

In some communication mechanisms, a discontinuous reception (Discontinuous Reception, DRX) cycle is provided in order to reduce the power consumption of the terminal device. And a plurality of Paging Occasions (PO) are arranged in the DRX period, the terminal equipment can wake up in the PO associated with the Paging occasions, receive Paging messages (Paging messages) issued by the network side equipment, and judge whether downlink data need to be received. And the other POs keep the dormant state, so that the purpose of reducing power consumption is achieved. The eDRX is an extended DRX, each eDRX period includes a plurality of DRX periods, and a paging time window (Paging Time Window, PTW) is set in the eDRX period, so that the terminal device can sleep or receive paging messages according to the DRX periods in the PTW in the eDRX period, thereby further saving power consumption.

However, currently, in the eDRX period, if the network side device issues a paging message at a PO associated with the terminal device, the terminal device needs to wake up at the PO to receive the paging message, and if the paging message does not carry the identity of the terminal device (i.e. the terminal device is not paged), the terminal device needs to wake up at the PO associated with the terminal device in the next DRX period, continue to receive the paging message until each PO associated with the terminal device in the PTW is monitored. That is, in the case where the network-side device does not page the terminal device, the terminal device may need to monitor each PO associated therewith within the PTW, causing the terminal device to generate unnecessary power consumption.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a paging method, a communication device and a computer readable storage medium, which can reduce power consumption of terminal equipment.

In order to achieve the above purpose, the present application adopts the following technical scheme:

in a first aspect, the present application provides a paging method, applied to a terminal device, where the method includes:

receiving first indication information from network side equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in an eDRX period when the paging message received in the eDRX period does not carry the identification of the terminal equipment; and when the paging message does not carry the identification of the terminal equipment, keeping the dormant state at least one PO according to the first indication information.

The dormant state refers to a state in which the network paging is not monitored and is in idle or inactive state.

In the embodiment of the application, based on the first indication information issued by the network side equipment, the terminal equipment can keep the dormant state at least one associated PO without waking up to receive the paging message under the condition that the terminal equipment is not paged, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved.

Optionally, the eDRX cycle includes K POs associated with the terminal device, where the K POs are located in K DRX cycles, where K is greater than or equal to 1, and K is an integer, and the receiving, from a network side device, first indication information includes:

And receiving first PEI corresponding to the K POs from the network side equipment, wherein the first PEI carries the first indication information.

Optionally, the first PEI is configured to instruct the network side device to issue the paging message at the K POs, where the at least one PO includes a PO located after a first PO in the K POs, or the at least one PO includes a PO associated with the terminal device located after the first PO in the eDRX period, where the first PO is a PO where the terminal device successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the K POs.

Optionally, the eDRX includes K POs associated with the terminal device, where the K POs are located in K DRX cycles, and the receiving, from a network side device, first indication information includes:

receiving the paging message at a J th PO in the K POs, wherein the paging message carries the first indication information; the at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the K POs, or the at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the eDRX period, wherein K is more than or equal to 1, J is more than or equal to 1, K is more than or equal to 1, and K, J are integers.

The jth PO may be a PO in which the terminal device successfully receives the paging message. Based on this alternative, since the paging message is periodically sent, the network side device configures the first indication information in the paging message, so that the reliability of the terminal device for receiving the first indication information can be increased. In one implementation manner, the terminal device configured with eDRX and PEI can parse and read the first indication information carried in the paging message, and the terminal device not configured with eDRX and PEI can parse and read the first indication information carried in the paging message after receiving the paging message.

Optionally, the receiving, from the network side device, first indication information includes:

and receiving a first system message from the network side equipment, wherein the first system message carries the first indication information.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

receiving a second system message from the network side equipment, wherein the second system message carries second indication information, the second indication information is used for indicating the network side equipment to issue the same paging message at n POs, the n POs are the first n POs which are located in the PTW in the eDRX period and are associated with the terminal equipment, n is more than or equal to 2, and n is an integer; the at least one PO includes a PO located after a second PO among the n POs, where the terminal device is located when the 1 st paging message is successfully received at the n POs.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

receiving a second system message from the network side equipment, wherein the second system message carries third indication information, the third indication information is used for indicating that a plurality of POs (potential of hydrogen) associated with the terminal equipment, which are positioned in a PTW (packet transport network) in the eDRX period, comprise m PO groups, each PO group comprises p POs, the network side equipment issues the same paging message at p POs in each PO group, and m is more than or equal to 2, p is more than or equal to 2, and m and p are integers; the at least one PO includes a PO located after a third PO in the PO group, where the third PO is a PO where the terminal device successfully receives the 1 st paging message in the PO group.

The system message includes a plurality of system message blocks (System Information Block, SIBs), in one possible implementation, the first system message and the second system message may be different SIBs. For example, the first system message may be SIB1, and the network side device may add one cell to SIB1 as the first indication information. The second system message may be SIB2, and the network side device may add a cell to the SIB2 to indicate the packet indication information (i.e., the second indication information or the third indication information).

In another possible implementation manner, the network side device may also carry the first indication information and the packet indication information in one system message at the same time. That is, the first system information and the second system information are the same SIB, one bit is added in the SIB for identifying the first indication information, and one cell is added in the SIB for indicating the grouping indication information.

In another possible implementation, the packet indication information may be the first indication information at the same time. Namely, when the network side device sends the grouping indication information to the terminal device through the system information, the terminal device can determine that while learning the grouping condition of the PO according to the grouping indication information: in the event that the terminal is not paged, the terminal device may remain dormant at least one PO associated with the terminal device within the eDRX cycle to save power consumption.

Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device configured with eDRX is capable of parsing and reading the first indication information and the packet indication information carried in the system message, and the terminal device not configured with eDRX (for example, the terminal device configured with only DRX but not configured with eDRX, or the terminal device not configured with DRX and eDRX) does not need to parse and read the first indication information and the packet indication information carried in the system message after receiving the system message.

Optionally, the eDRX cycle includes q POs associated with the terminal device, where the q POs are respectively located in q DRX cycles, q is greater than or equal to 1, and q is an integer, and the method further includes:

and receiving second PEI from the network side equipment, wherein the second PEI carries fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment multiplexes the second PEI at the q POs.

Optionally, if it is determined that the second PEI is multiplexed at the q POs according to the fourth indication, at the q POs, the second PEI is kept in a dormant state or a paging state is received according to the second PEI.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

if it is determined that the second PEI is not multiplexed at the q POs according to the fourth indication, maintaining a dormant state or receiving a paging state at a 1 st PO of the q POs according to the second PEI, and respectively receiving third PEIs corresponding to each PO located after the 1 st PO of the q POs, and maintaining a dormant state or receiving a paging state at each PO according to the corresponding third PEI.

Based on the above alternative manner, in the case that the network side device can pre-determine the paging status in q DRX cycles, the network side device may select the second PEI multiplexed at q POs according to the paging status. Under the multiplexing condition, the network side equipment can send one second PEI at q POs, and the terminal equipment only needs to receive the second PEI once, so that the power consumption is saved. Under the condition that the paging state in q DRX cycles cannot be prejudged, the network side equipment can choose not to multiplex the second PEI, so that the network side equipment can flexibly and timely page the terminal equipment associated with each PO according to the burst service, and the paging delay is reduced.

Optionally, if the fourth indication information indicates that the fourth indication information is not multiplexed, the terminal device may not identify the fourth indication information carried in the third PEI after each PO located after the 1 st PO receives the corresponding third PEI. And the fourth indication information carried in the third PEI can be continuously identified, and whether the third PEI is multiplexed or not is determined according to the fourth indication information carried in the third PEI.

In one possible implementation manner, the first PEI and the second PEI are the same PEI, that is, the network side device carries the first indication information and the fourth indication information in the PEI, where k=q.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a paging method, applied to a network side device, where the method includes:

and sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in an eDRX period when the paging message received in the eDRX period does not carry the identification of the terminal equipment.

In the embodiment of the application, the network side equipment indicates that the terminal equipment can keep the dormant state at least one associated PO (point of sale) under the condition of not being paged through the issued first indication information, and the paging message does not need to be awakened to be received, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved.

In one possible scenario, the network side device configures the eDRX cycle and PEI for the terminal device. The PTW in the eDRX cycle comprises r DRX cycles, the PEI is configured to correspond to one or more POs positioned at the same position in the K DRX cycles, r is more than or equal to K is more than or equal to 1, and K and r are integers. One or more POs located at the same position in the K DRX cycles may be understood as one or more POs with the same sequence number (or index, number) in the paging frame at the same position in the K DRX cycles. For a terminal device, since only one PO corresponds to the terminal device in one DRX cycle, PEI received by the terminal corresponds to K POs of the terminal device, i.e. the terminal device receives one PEI, and it may be determined, according to the PEI, whether the terminal device needs to wake up at K associated POs to receive a paging message.

Based on the possible scenario, the network side device may carry the first indication information in PEI (hereinafter, the PEI carrying the first indication information is referred to as first PEI), or may carry the first indication information in the paging message.

For example, optionally, the eDRX includes K POs associated with the terminal device, where the K POs are located in K DRX cycles, where K is greater than or equal to 1, and K is an integer, and the sending the first indication information includes:

and sending first PEI corresponding to the K POs, wherein the first PEI carries the first indication information.

Optionally, the first PEI is configured to instruct the network side device to issue the paging message at the K POs, and the method further includes:

the paging message is sent at the K POs.

Based on the above optional manner, for a terminal device, when the network side device issues paging messages at K POs associated with the terminal device, the terminal device monitors paging at K POs based on the indication of the first PEI until the 1 st paging message is successfully received. When the paging message is detected not to carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment can keep the dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period according to the first indication information carried in the first PEI.

Optionally, the at least one PO may include a PO located after the first PO of the K POs, or the at least one PO includes a PO associated with the terminal device located after the first PO in the eDRX period, where the first PO is a PO where the terminal device successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the K POs.

Optionally, the eDRX includes K POs associated with the terminal device, where the K POs are located in K DRX cycles, and the sending the first indication information includes:

and sending out paging messages at the K POs, wherein the paging messages sent out at the J-th PO in the K POs carry the first indication information, K is more than or equal to 1, J is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to K, and K, J are integers.

Based on the above various optional modes, when the network device issues the paging message at the K POs, the paging message issued at the J-th PO in the K POs carries the first indication information, and when the terminal device associated with the K POs successfully receives the paging message at the J-th PO, the first indication information can be obtained from the paging message. When the paging message is detected not to carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment can keep the dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period according to the first indication information.

Wherein, at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the K POs, or at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the eDRX period, and J is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to K, and J is an integer.

It can be appreciated that, since the paging message is periodically sent, the network side device configures the first indication information in the paging message, so that the reliability of receiving the first indication information by the terminal device can be increased.

In one implementation, the terminal device configured with eDRX and PEI can parse and read the first indication information carried in the paging message, and the terminal device not configured with eDRX and PEI does not need to parse and read the first indication information carried in the paging message after receiving the paging message.

Optionally, the sending the first indication information includes:

and sending a first system message, wherein the first system message carries the first indication information.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

sending a second system message, wherein the second system message carries second indication information, the second indication information is used for indicating the network side equipment to issue the same paging message at n POs, the n POs are the first n POs which are located in the PTW in the eDRX period and are associated with the terminal equipment, n is more than or equal to 2, and n is an integer; and sending the paging message according to the second indication information.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

sending a second system message, wherein the second system message carries third indication information, the third indication information is used for indicating that a plurality of POs associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period are m PO groups, each PO group comprises p POs, the network side equipment sends the same paging message at p POs in each PO group, m is more than or equal to 2, p is more than or equal to 2, and m and p are integers; and sending the paging message according to the third indication information.

In one possible implementation, the first system message and the second system message may be different SIBs. For example, the first system message may be SIB1, and the network side device may add one cell to SIB1 as the first indication information. The second system message may be SIB2, and the network side device may add a cell to the SIB2 to indicate the packet indication information (i.e., the second indication information or the third indication information).

In one possible scenario, the network side device configures the terminal device with eDRX cycles and PEI. The PTW in the eDRX cycle comprises r DRX cycles, the PEI is configured to correspond to one or more POs in one DRX cycle, the network side equipment can judge whether the PEI is multiplexed at one or more POs in the same position in q DRX cycles according to paging conditions, r is more than or equal to q is more than or equal to 1, and K and r are integers. Wherein q DRX cycles may be continuous or discontinuous. Wherein, the one or more POs located at the same position in q DRX cycles can be understood as one or more POs with the same sequence number (or index, number) in the paging frame at the same position in q DRX cycles.

For example, optionally, the eDRX period includes q POs associated with the terminal device, where the q POs are located in q DRX periods respectively, q is greater than or equal to 1, and q is an integer, and the method further includes:

and sending a second PEI, wherein the second PEI carries fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment multiplexes the second PEI in the q POs.

For example, if the network side device determines that the paging lists at the q POs are the same, the fourth indication information is configured to indicate multiplexing. Or if the network side equipment determines that the number of terminal equipment to be paged exceeds the maximum paging number which can be supported by one PO, configuring fourth indication information to be used for indicating multiplexing, and if paging lists at q POs are different, configuring the fourth indication information to be used for indicating not multiplexing; if the paging list of part of the q POs is not acquired, the fourth indication information is configured to indicate not to be multiplexed.

Based on this alternative, in the case that the network side device can pre-determine the paging status within q DRX cycles, the network side device may select the second PEI multiplexed at q POs according to the paging status. Under the multiplexing condition, the network side equipment can send one second PEI at q POs, and the terminal equipment only needs to receive the second PEI once, so that the power consumption is saved. Under the condition that the paging state in q DRX cycles cannot be prejudged, the network side equipment can choose not to multiplex the second PEI, so that the network side equipment can flexibly and timely page the terminal equipment associated with each PO according to the burst service, and the paging delay is reduced.

Optionally, in one possible scenario, the network side device configures the terminal device with eDRX cycle and a fourth PEI. The PTW in the eDRX cycle comprises r DRX cycles, the fourth PEI is configured to correspond to one or more POs positioned at the same position in q DRX cycles, r is more than or equal to q and more than or equal to 1, and q and r are integers. Wherein q DRX cycles may be continuous or discontinuous. The fourth PEI includes a bitmap corresponding to each group of terminal devices in each PO. Based on the PEI configuration mode, the network side equipment can pre-judge paging conditions of all POs corresponding to the fourth PEI in advance, so that the terminal equipment can send one fourth PEI at q POs, and can determine whether the terminal equipment needs to wake up to receive paging messages at q POs only by receiving the fourth PEI once, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal equipment.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a paging method, applied to a terminal device, where the method includes:

receiving second PEI from network side equipment, wherein the second PEI carries fourth indication information which is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment multiplexes the second PEI at q POs (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in eDR period; q is more than or equal to 1, q is an integer;

If the second PEI is determined to be multiplexed at the q POs according to the fourth indication, the second PEI is kept in a dormant state or a paging state according to the second PEI at the q POs.

Based on the paging method provided by the embodiment of the application, the network side device indicates whether the second PEI is multiplexed at a plurality of POs through the fourth indication information, and under the multiplexing condition, the network side device can send one second PEI at q POs, and the terminal device can determine that the q POs are kept in a dormant state or are in a paging state only by receiving the second PEI once, so that power consumption is saved.

Optionally, the second PEI further carries first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that the terminal device does not carry the identifier of the terminal device in the paging message received in the eDRX cycle, and the method further includes, in the eDRX cycle, maintaining a dormant state at least one PO associated with the terminal device:

when the paging message does not carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, keeping a dormant state at the at least one PO according to the first indication information;

the at least one PO includes a PO located after a first PO of the q POs, or the at least one PO includes a PO associated with the terminal device located after the first PO in the eDRX period, where the first PO is a PO where the terminal device successfully receives a 1 st paging message at the q POs.

Optionally, the second PEI is configured to instruct the network side device to issue the paging message at the q POs, and the method further includes:

receiving the paging message at a J-th PO in the q POs, wherein the paging message carries first indication information, and when the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment does not carry the identification of the terminal equipment in the received paging message in an eDRX period, the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period;

when the paging message does not carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, keeping a dormant state at the at least one PO according to the first indication information; the at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the q POs, or the at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the eDRX period, wherein J is more than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to q, and q and J are integers.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

receiving a first system message from the network side equipment, wherein the first system message carries the first indication information; the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in an eDRX period when the paging message received in the eDRX period does not carry the identification of the terminal equipment;

And when the paging message does not carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, keeping a dormant state at the at least one PO according to the first indication information.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a paging method, applied to a network side device, where the method includes:

and sending a second PEI, wherein the second PEI carries fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used for indicating whether q POs associated with the terminal equipment multiplex the second PEI in an eDRX period.

Optionally, the second PEI further carries first indication information, where the first indication information indicates that the terminal device maintains a dormant state at least one PO associated with the terminal device in an eDRX cycle when the paging message received in the eDRX cycle does not carry the identifier of the terminal device.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and sending down paging messages at the q POs.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and sending paging messages at the q POs, wherein the paging messages sent at the J-th PO in the q POs carry first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO associated with the terminal equipment in an eDRX period when the paging messages received in the eDRX period do not carry the identification of the terminal equipment.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and sending a first system message, wherein the first system message carries the first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in an eDRX period when the paging message received in the eDRX period does not carry the identifier of the terminal equipment.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communications device configured to perform a method according to any of the possible implementations of the first aspect, or to perform a method according to any of the possible implementations of the second aspect, or to perform a method according to any of the possible implementations of the third aspect, or to perform a method according to any of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect, or to perform other methods as described in embodiments of the present application.

Alternatively, the communication device may comprise the elements of the method described in any of the embodiments of the present application. Alternatively, the communication device may include a processing unit and a transceiver unit. The transceiver unit can communicate with the outside, and the processing unit is used for data processing. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a communication interface or a communication unit.

The communication means may be adapted to perform actions performed by the terminal device in any of the possible implementations of the first aspect or may be adapted to perform actions performed by the terminal device in any of the possible implementations of the third aspect, where the communication means may be referred to as a terminal device, the transceiving unit being adapted to perform transceiving-related operations on the terminal device side, and the processing unit being adapted to perform processing-related operations on the terminal device side.

The communication apparatus may be configured to perform an action performed by the network side device in any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect, or may be configured to perform an action performed by the network side device in any one of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect, where the communication apparatus may be referred to as a network side device, the transceiver unit is configured to perform a transceiver-related operation on the network side device side, and the processing unit is configured to perform a processing-related operation on the network side device side.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising a processor coupled to a memory, the processor for executing a computer program or instructions stored in the memory, causing a method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect to be performed, or causing a method in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect to be performed, or causing a method in the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect to be performed, or causing a method in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect to be performed, or causing a method described by other embodiments of the application to be performed.

Optionally, the apparatus includes one or more processors.

Optionally, the apparatus may further comprise a memory coupled to the processor, the memory for storing a computer program or instructions.

Alternatively, the apparatus may comprise one or more memories.

Alternatively, the memory may be integrated with the processor or provided separately.

Optionally, a transceiver may also be included in the apparatus.

A seventh aspect provides a communication system comprising a communication device of the fifth aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the first aspect and a communication device of the second aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the second aspect; alternatively, the communication system comprises communication means of the fifth aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the third aspect, communication means of the fourth aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect; alternatively, the communication system comprises communication means of the sixth aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the first aspect and communication means of the second aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the second aspect; alternatively, the communication system comprises communication means of the sixth aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the third aspect, communication means of the fourth aspect for performing the method of any of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a computer program (also referred to as instructions or code) for implementing the above method is stored.

For example, the computer program, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect. The computer may be a communication device.

As another example, the computer program, when executed by a computer, enables the computer to perform the method of the second aspect or any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect. The computer may be a communication device.

As another example, the computer program, when executed by a computer, enables the computer to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect. The computer may be a communication device.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a chip comprising a processor. The processor is configured to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory to perform the method of the first aspect and any possible implementation manner thereof, or to perform the method of the second aspect and any possible implementation manner thereof, or to perform the method of the third aspect and any possible implementation manner thereof, or to perform the method of the fourth aspect and any possible implementation manner thereof, or to perform the method described in other embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory, and the memory is connected with the processor through a circuit or a wire.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising a computer program (which may also be referred to as instructions or code) which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement the method in the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect, or which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement the method in the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect, or which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement the method in the third aspect or any of the possible implementations of the third aspect, or which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement the method in the fourth aspect or any of the possible implementations of the fourth aspect, or which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement the method in the implementations of any of the embodiments of the present application.

Drawings

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

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an eDRX cycle according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram one of a PEI configuration manner provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart of a paging method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic diagram two of a PEI configuration manner provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic diagram III of a PEI configuration manner provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic diagram one of a PO grouping case provided in an embodiment of the disclosure;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram two of a PO grouping case provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a second flow chart of a paging method according to the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram IV of a PEI configuration manner provided in the embodiments of the present application;

fig. 11 is a fifth schematic diagram of a PEI configuration manner provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a sixth schematic diagram of a PEI configuration manner provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 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.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM), code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication system, future fifth generation (5th generation,5G) system, or New Radio (NR), etc.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic architecture of a communication system applied to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system includes: terminal equipment and network side equipment.

A terminal device, also known as a User Equipment (UE), mobile Station (MS), mobile Terminal (MT), access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, user equipment, or the like.

The terminal device may be a device providing voice/data connectivity to a user, e.g., a handheld device with wireless connectivity, an in-vehicle device, etc. Currently, examples of some terminal devices include: a mobile phone, tablet, laptop, palmtop, mobile internet device (mobile internet device, MID), wearable device, virtual Reality (VR) device, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) device, wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), wireless terminal in unmanned (self driving), wireless terminal in teleoperation (remote medical surgery), wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), cellular phone, cordless phone, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), handheld device with wireless communication function, public computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, vehicle-mounted device, wearable device, terminal device in a 5G network or a land-based communication terminal in the future (public land mobile network) is not limited to this network, etc.

The network side devices may include access network devices and core network devices. The access network device may be a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) or a radio access network device, and the access network device may be a transmission receiving point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario, or the access network device may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle device, a wearable device, a network device in a 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, or the like, or may be an access point (access point) in a WLAN, or may be a gNB in an NR system, or may be a city base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a femto base station, or the like. For example, the access network device is used for information interaction with the terminal device.

In one network architecture, the access network device may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node, or a Distributed Unit (DU) node, or a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) device including a CU node and a DU node, or a device including a control plane CU node (CU-CP node) and a user plane CU node (CU-UP node), and a DU node.

Core network equipment for managing one or more access network equipment. For example, the core network device may include at least one of a core network access and mobility management function (core access and mobility management function, AMF), a user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network element, a session management function (session management function, SMF) network element, a Data Network (DN), a unified data store (unified data repository, UDR), or a unified data management (unified data management, UDM).

In some communication mechanisms, in order to reduce power consumption of the terminal device, the network side device may control the terminal device to sleep by configuring the DRX cycle. A plurality of POs are provided in a DRX cycle, each PO may be associated with a plurality of terminal devices, one terminal device being associated with one PO in one DRX cycle. During the DRX cycle, the terminal device wakes up (i.e., turns on the receive circuitry to receive downlink data) at the associated PO and listens for pages. If paged, the terminal device enters a connected state. For example, if the terminal device is in idle state, after being paged, an RRC connection request (RRC connection request) is initiated, i.e. random access is initiated, to enter connected state from idle state. If the terminal device is in an inactive state, an RRC connection resume request (RRC connection resume request) is initiated after being paged to enter a connected state from the inactive state. If not paged, the idle or inactive state is continued and sleep is performed at the other PO (i.e., the receive circuit is turned off and no downstream data is received). Hereinafter, for convenience of description, the PO associated with the terminal device is also sometimes referred to as a PO of the terminal device.

For example, as shown in fig. 2, one DRX cycle includes a plurality of Paging Frames (PFs), each of which corresponds to a plurality of POs (e.g., 10 POs including PO0, PO1, … …, and PO 9). Suppose UE1, UE2, … …, UE6 are associated with PO0 in the 1 st paging frame. The 6 terminal devices UE1, UE2, … …, UE6 wake up at PO0 of the 1 st paging frame in each DRX cycle, listening for pages. If the network side device is to page UE1, UE1 will be paged at PO0 of the 1 st paging frame. If the access network equipment in the network side equipment pages the UE1, the access network equipment sends a paging message to the UE1, and if the access network equipment in the network side equipment pages the UE1, the core network equipment sends information for paging the UE1, such as an identifier of the UE1, time-frequency resource position information and the like, to the access network equipment, and then the access network equipment sends the paging message to the UE1 according to the information sent by the core network equipment.

After receiving the paging message, UE1 may initiate a RRC connection request or RRC connection resume request procedure to enter a connected state. For UEs 2-6, UE2-UE6 continues to remain idle or inactive and re-enter the dormant state since it is not paged at PO 0.

In some communication mechanisms, an eDRX cycle is also provided. eDRX is an extension DRX (extended DRX), for example, as shown in fig. 2, each eDRX cycle includes multiple DRX cycles, and a paging time window PTW is set in the eDRX cycle, and the terminal device may receive paging messages in the PTW in the eDRX cycle in a DRX manner, and keep dormant outside the PTW. The duration of the DRX cycle and eDRX cycle sets different configuration ranges according to the type (or traffic type) of the terminal device based on different communication mechanisms. For example, the maximum duration of the DRX cycle in the current protocol definition may be configured to be approximately 2.56 seconds. In enhanced Machine-type communication (eMTC), the maximum eDRX period that can be configured for an idle state terminal device is about 44 minutes, and the maximum eDRX period that can be configured for an active state terminal device is 10.24 seconds. The narrowband internet of things (Narrow Band Internet of Things, NB-IoT) does not currently support the inactive state, and thus the maximum eDRX period that can be configured in NB-IoT for idle state terminal devices is about 3h.

It can be seen that the terminal can sleep for more time by configuring a larger eDRX cycle and a smaller PTW, and a larger power consumption gain is obtained; but adds a corresponding paging delay. For example, if the terminal device does not successfully receive the paging message in the PTW, or when data of the terminal device arrives at the network side device outside the PTW, the network side device can only page the terminal device in the PTW in the next eDRX cycle, and a larger eDRX cycle causes a larger paging delay.

In order to further reduce the power consumption of the terminal device during paging, a concept of Wake Up Signal (WUS) is introduced in R15 NB-IoT, WUS being used to indicate that there is a paging message issue at the PO. For example, WUS may be sent at some offset (offset) position before a certain PO when the access network device determines that a paging message will be issued at that PO. The location at which WUS is sent may be protocol specified. For example, UEs 1 to 6 associated with PO0 wake up at offset positions specified before PO0, and if WUS is received, indicating that the access network device is paging messages at PO0, UEs 1 to 6 wake up at PO0 to receive paging messages. If WUS is not received at the offset location specified before PO0, UEs 1 through 6 may remain dormant at PO0 without waking up to listen for pages, thereby saving power consumption.

The introduction of WUS also presents a false alarm problem. For example, the network side device needs to page UE1, but not UE2 to UE6, and the network side device will also send WUS at an offset location specified before PO 0. In this case, WUS gives false alarms to UE2 to UE6, so that UE2 to UE6 need to wake up at PO0 without being paged, wasting power consumption of UE2 to UE 6. For this purpose, the concept of a group wake-up signal (Group Wake Up Signal, GWUS) is introduced again. GWUS is used to indicate which groups of terminal devices have paging messages at the associated POs. The network side device divides the plurality of terminal devices associated with each PO into a plurality of different WUS groups according to the paging probability of the terminal devices, and can determine the group number of the WUS group where the terminal device is located according to the Identifier (ID) of the terminal device. For example, the network side device determines UE1 as WUS group1, UE2 and UE3 as WUS group2, UE4 as WUS group3, and UE5 and UE6 as WUS group4, i.e. PO0 is associated with the terminal devices of 4 groups. When the network side equipment determines that the UE1 needs to be paged, the network side equipment determines the group number of the WUS group1 according to the ID of the UE1, the network side equipment determines that the terminal of the WUS group1 needs to receive the paging message, but the terminal equipment of the WUS group2 to the WUS group4 does not need to receive the paging message. The network side device can issue GWUS corresponding to WUS group1 at an offset position specified before PO 0. After receiving the GUWS corresponding to the WUS group1, the UE1 can wake up at the PO0 to receive the paging message; after receiving the GWUS of the non-self group, the UEs 2 to 6 can keep dormant at the PO0, so that the power consumption is saved and the probability of false alarm is reduced.

In one possible implementation, the network-side device configures the terminal device with eDRX cycles and GWUS, which may associate multiple POs (e.g., 1, 2, or 4 POs). The plurality of POs may be a plurality of POs that are respectively located in a plurality of DRX cycles and are associated with the same terminal device. Taking GWUS associated with 4 POs as an example, one GWUS may instruct UEs in the same group to wake up at the corresponding PO for 4 consecutive DRX cycles. For example, UE1 to UE6 are associated with PO0 corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in the DRX cycle, and then PO0 corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in the 4 consecutive DRX cycles in the PTW may be indicated by one GWUS.

For example, assuming that the network side device determines that UE2 needs to be paged, the network side device obtains the group number of WUS group2 associated with PO0 according to the ID of UE2, so that the network side device determines that GWUS corresponding to WUS group2 needs to be issued at an offset position specified before PO0 of the 1 st DRX cycle, and is used to instruct terminal devices (i.e. UE2 and UE 3) of WUS group2 to receive the paging message at PO 0. After UE1 to UE6 receive the GWUS, UE2 and UE3 receive paging messages at PO0, and UE1, UE4 to UE6 may remain dormant for 4 consecutive DRX cycles. After receiving the paging message at PO0, UE2 determines that it is paged (i.e. detects that the paging message carries the identifier of UE 2), and UE2 enters a connected state. After the UE3 successfully receives the paging message at PO0, it determines that the UE3 is not paged (i.e. detects that the paging message does not carry the identifier of the UE 3), and then the UE3 needs to wake up at the next PO0, and receive the paging message until 4 PO0 in 4 consecutive DRX cycles are monitored.

That is, although the power consumption of each terminal device in the non-paged group can be reduced after GWUS is introduced, such as the terminal devices in the non-paged WUS group1, WUS group3, WUS group4 (including UE1, UE4 to UE 6) in the above example, for the non-paged terminal device in the paged group, for example, UE3 in WUS group2, it is still required to wake up to monitor for paging at each associated PO without being paged, and there is a problem of power consumption waste.

WUS and GWUS are concepts proposed in LTE for reducing power consumption of a terminal device during paging, and in NR for reducing power consumption of a terminal device during paging, paging early indication (Paging Early Indication, PEI) is also proposed. The PEI is used to indicate whether groups of terminal devices associated with a PO wake up at the PO to receive paging messages. In the discussion of PEI, one PEI may correspond to multiple POs in DRX; PEI may be represented using a new downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) format in which 1bit may be used to indicate whether one or more groups of terminal devices at a PO need to wake up to receive paging messages.

For example, as shown in fig. 3, PEI corresponds to 4 POs corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in the DRX cycle, PO0, PO4, PO5, and PO9, respectively. PEI includes a 16bit sequence or bitmap (bitmap), with each 4 bits indicating 4 groups of terminal devices in a PO. It should be noted that for a particular UE, only one PO corresponds to the UE in one DRX cycle, i.e., the UE only needs to wake up1 time in one DRX cycle. Thus, all bit-corresponding UEs in PEI are different UEs. For example, when the network side device configures PEI as "0101 0001 0111 1101" according to the ID of the terminal device to be paged, the PEI is configured to instruct the network side device to issue paging messages at PO0, PO4, PO5, and PO9, where the terminal devices in WUS group2 and WUS group4 associated with PO0 need to wake up at PO0 to receive the paging messages, and the terminal devices in WUS group1 and WUS group3 associated with PO0 may sleep at PO 0; terminal devices in WUS group4 associated with PO4 need to wake up at PO4 to receive paging messages, terminal devices in WUS group1 to WUS group3 associated with PO4 may sleep at PO 4; terminal devices in WUS groups 2 to 4 associated with PO5 need to wake up at PO5 to receive paging messages, terminal devices in WUS group1 associated with PO5 may sleep at PO 5; the terminal devices in WUS group1, WUS group2 and WUS group4 associated with PO9 need to wake up at PO9 to receive paging messages and the terminal devices in WUS group3 associated with PO9 may sleep at PO9.

In the discussion of PEI, it has been agreed that a PEI may correspond to one or more POs in a DRX. But at this point the terminal device needs to wake up to receive PEI before each associated PO, resulting in some power consumption. To further reduce power consumption, the possibility of one PEI corresponding to multiple POs in eDRX is discussed in the existing standard. However, one PEI corresponds to multiple POs in eDRX, and there is still a problem of power consumption waste: i.e. if only part of the terminal devices in the same group of terminal devices are paged, the terminal devices that are not paged also need to wake up at the associated plurality of POs to listen for pages.

Therefore, the application provides a paging method which can reduce the power consumption of the terminal equipment. The paging method provided by the application can reduce the power consumption of the terminal equipment from two aspects, on one hand, the number of times that the terminal equipment wakes up to receive paging information is reduced under the condition that the terminal equipment is not paged, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved; another aspect is to save power consumption of the terminal device by reducing the number of times the terminal device wakes up to receive PEI/GWUS.

The paging method provided in the present application is exemplarily described below with reference to specific embodiments.

Referring to fig. 4, a flowchart of an embodiment of a paging method provided in the present application mainly relates to a scheme for reducing the number of times a terminal device wakes up to receive a paging message. As shown in fig. 4, the paging method includes:

S401, the network side equipment sends first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in an eDRX period when the paging message received in the eDRX period does not carry the identification of the terminal equipment.

S402, when the paging message received by the terminal equipment does not carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment keeps a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period according to the first indication information.

In the embodiment of the application, the network side equipment indicates that the terminal equipment can keep the dormant state at least one associated PO (point of sale) under the condition of not being paged by issuing the first indication information, and does not need to wake up to receive the paging message, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved.

The network side device can issue the first indication information through independent messages, or can issue the first indication information to each terminal device by carrying the first indication information in some messages. For example, the network side device may send the first indication information carried in a message such as PEI, GWUS, a system message, a paging message, etc. to each terminal device. The paging method shown in fig. 4 is exemplarily described below in connection with several possible scenarios.

In a first possible scenario, the network side device configures the terminal device with eDRX cycles and PEI. The PTW in the eDRX cycle comprises r DRX cycles, the PEI is configured to correspond to one or more POs positioned at the same position in the K DRX cycles, r is more than or equal to K is more than or equal to 1, and K and r are integers.

One or more POs located at the same position in the K DRX cycles may be understood as one or more POs with the same sequence number (or index, number) corresponding to the paging frame at the same position in the K DRX cycles.

It should be noted that paging frames at the same position in the DRX cycle refer to paging frames at the same position in each DRX cycle (e.g., 1 st paging frame in each DRX cycle), and the frame numbers of paging frames at the same position in the DRX cycle may be different.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, PEI is configured to correspond to 2 POs (PO 0, PO 4) corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in each of the K DRX cycles. That is, in this scenario, PEI is configured to correspond to K (1 < K < r is an example in FIG. 5) DRX cycles, and PEI specifically corresponds to the 1 st PO and 3 rd PO (i.e., PO0 and PO 4) to which the 1 st paging frame corresponds within each DRX cycle. For a terminal device, since only one PO corresponds to the terminal device in one DRX cycle, the received PEI corresponds to K POs of the terminal device, i.e. the terminal device receives one PEI, and it can be determined according to the PEI whether the terminal device needs to wake up at K associated POs to receive a paging message.

Illustratively, the PEI includes an 8bit bitmap (bitmap), with each 4 bits indicating 4 groups of terminal devices in one PO. For example, when the network side device configures PEI as "0101 0001" according to the ID of the terminal device to be paged, the PEI is used to instruct the network side device to issue paging messages at PO0 and PO4, the terminal devices in WUS group2 and WUS group4 associated with PO0 need to wake up at PO0 to receive the paging messages, and the terminal devices in WUS group1 and WUS group3 associated with PO0 may sleep at PO 0; the terminal devices in WUS group4 associated with PO4 need to wake up at PO4 to receive paging messages and the terminal devices in WUS group1 to WUS group3 associated with PO4 may sleep at PO 4.

For any of the terminal devices associated with PO0 and PO4, for example, for terminal device UE2 in WUS group2 associated with PO0, PEI shown in fig. 5 corresponds to K pieces of PO 0. According to PEI shown in fig. 5, UE2 may determine that the network side device may issue a paging message at PO0 corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in K consecutive DRX cycles, and UE2 needs to wake up to monitor for paging.

It will be appreciated that if k=r, the network side device may send the PEI indication at most once for the PO located at the same position in each DRX cycle in the entire PTW. In this way, the terminal device can perform PEI reception once for all associated POs in the entire PTW, and does not need to perform PEI reception once for each associated PO, thereby reducing the number of times of receiving PEI and saving power consumption. For example, when k=r, if there is a terminal device to be paged at any one of PO0 and PO4, the network side device may issue PEI at an offset position specified before PO0 in the 1 st DRX cycle in the PTW, and indicate, by using the PEI, whether there is a paging message issued at PO0 and PO4 corresponding to paging frames in the same position in each DRX cycle in the whole PTW, and which group of terminal devices of the corresponding PO need to wake up to receive the paging message.

If k=1, it means that within the PTW of the eDRX cycle, the terminal device needs to receive PEI before each corresponding PO, thereby determining whether or not to wake up to receive paging messages at that PO.

If 1 < K < r, it means that every K DRX cycles can be regarded as a PEI transmission cycle in the PTW of the eDRX cycle, and in one PEI transmission cycle, the network side device can send the PEI to instruct once for the PO at the same location. In this way, the terminal device can perform PEI reception once for all associated POs in one PEI transmission period, and does not need to perform PEI reception once for each associated PO, thereby reducing the times of PEI reception and saving the power consumption of the terminal device.

Based on the first possible scenario, in one possible implementation manner, the network side device may carry the first indication information in PEI and send the first indication information to each terminal device. For convenience of description, PEI carrying the first indication information will be hereinafter referred to as first PEI. In this case, for a terminal device, if the first PEI indicates that the network side device will issue paging messages at K POs associated with the terminal device, the terminal device listens for pages at K POs based on the indication of the first PEI until the 1 st paging message is successfully received. When the paging message is detected not to carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment can keep the dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period according to the first indication information carried in the first PEI.

The at least one PO includes a PO located after the first PO in the K POs, or the at least one PO includes a PO associated with the terminal device located after the first PO in the eDRX period, where the first PO is a PO where the terminal device successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the K POs.

Illustratively, the network side device may add a bit cell to the front end or the tail end of the PEI to identify the first indication information. For example, based on the PEI shown in fig. 5, a bit may be added to the tail end of the PEI, resulting in the first PEI "0101 0001 1" shown in fig. 6.

In conjunction with the first PEI shown in fig. 6, it is assumed that the network side device issues the first PEI shown in fig. 6 because it needs to page UE2, and the first PEI indicates that the network side device will issue a paging message at PO0, and terminal devices (e.g., including UE2 and UE 3) in WUS group2 associated with PO0 need to wake up at PO0 to receive the paging message. After the network side equipment issues the first PEI, paging messages for paging the UE2 are issued at K PO0 positions, and the paging messages carry the identification of the UE 2. Since the network side device does not page the UE3, the paging message does not carry the identifier of the UE 3.

UE2 wakes up at K POs 0 according to the indication of the first PEI to listen for pages until UE2 successfully receives the 1 st paging message. When the UE2 determines that the paging message carries the identifier of the UE2, the UE2 enters a connected state and prepares for subsequent reception of corresponding downlink data. It is to be appreciated that UE2 may successfully receive the 1 st paging message at the 1 st PO0, or may successfully receive the 1 st paging message at either the 2 nd or 3 rd PO 0. And after the UE2 successfully receives the 1 st paging message and determines that the paging message carries the identification of the UE2, the connected state can be entered.

The UE3 receives the paging message at K POs 0 according to the indication of the first PEI until the UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message. When it is determined that the paging message does not carry the identifier of the UE3, the UE3 may maintain the sleep state at least one PO0 in the eDRX cycle according to the first indication information carried in the first PEI.

Wherein the at least one PO0 includes a PO0 located after a first PO of the K POs 0, where the first PO refers to the PO0 where the UE3 is located when the 1 st paging message is successfully received at the K POs 0. For example, UE3 may successfully receive the 1 st paging message at the 1 st PO0, where the 1 st PO0 is the first PO. UE3 may not receive the first paging message at the first PO0 or may not successfully receive the first paging message, and UE3 needs to wake up at the 2 nd PO0 to continue listening for the page. If the paging message is successfully received at the 2 nd PO0, the 2 nd PO0 is the first PO.

For example, k=4, UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the 1 st PO0, and UE3 determines that the paging message does not carry the identifier of UE3 by detecting the paging list carried in the paging message, and then UE3 may keep the sleep state at the remaining 3 POs 0 according to the first indication information, so as to save power consumption.

Optionally, the at least one PO0 comprises PO0 located after the first PO in the eDRX cycle. For example, when K < r, assuming r=10, k=8, then r DRX cycles include 2 PEI transmit cycles. Assuming that UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the 1 st PO0 in the 1 st PEI transmission period, and determines that the paging message does not carry the identifier of UE3, UE3 may maintain the sleep state at the remaining 7 POs 0 in the 1 st PEI transmission period according to the first indication information. In addition, since only 2 PO0 s remain in the eDRX period (2 PO0 s in the 2 nd PEI transmission period), when the network device predicts that the UE3 does not need to receive the paging message at the remaining 2 PO0 s, the UE3 may also maintain the sleep state at the 2 PO0 s in the 2 nd PEI transmission period. That is, the UE3 only needs to wake up to monitor the paging at the 1 st PO0 and does not need to wake up to monitor the paging at the subsequent 9 PO0 when not being paged, which greatly reduces the number of times that the UE3 wakes up to receive the paging message, and meanwhile does not need to wake up to receive PEI in the 2 nd PEI transmission period, thereby saving the power consumption of the UE 3.

In one example, when k=1, the at least one PO may include a PO associated with the terminal device after the first PO within the eDRX period. For example, UE3 receives the first PEI as shown in fig. 6 before the 9 th PO0 in the eDRX cycle. According to the indication of the first PEI, UE3 wakes up at 9 th PO0 to receive the paging message. If the UE3 receives the paging message and determines that the paging message does not carry the identifier of the UE3, the UE3 may keep dormant at r-9 POs 0 positions remaining in the eDRX cycle according to the first indication information carried in the first PEI. And one possible scenario is that the UE3 does not need to wake up to monitor the PEI corresponding to the remaining r-9 POs 0's, thus saving both the power consumption of receiving the PEI and monitoring the paging message.

Based on the first possible scenario, in another possible implementation manner, the network side device may carry the first indication information in a paging message and send the first indication information to the corresponding terminal device. For example, when the network device issues a paging message at K POs, the paging message issued at a J PO in the K POs carries first indication information, and when the terminal device associated with the K POs successfully receives the paging message at the J PO, the first indication information may be obtained from the paging message. When the paging message is detected not to carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment can keep the dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period according to the first indication information.

When the network side equipment issues paging messages, it can determine which paging messages carry the first indication information according to the number of terminal equipment to be paged. Assume that the network side device needs to issue paging messages at K POs 0. In one example, if the network side device determines that the number of terminal devices paged at PO0 does not exceed the maximum number of pages (e.g., 32) that can be supported by PO0, as shown in (a) in fig. 7, the network side device may carry the first indication information in the paging message issued at each PO0, so as to ensure that the terminal device associated with PO0 can receive the paging message carrying the first indication information.

For a terminal device associated with PO0, the terminal device may successfully receive the 1 st paging message at the J < th > PO 0. For example, UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message at PO0 of 2 (j=2). If the UE3 detects that the paging message does not carry the identifier of the UE3 and detects the first indication information in the paging message, the terminal device may keep the sleep state at the remaining K-2 POs 0 or keep the sleep state at all POs 0 after the PO0 where the paging message is received in the eDRX period.

In another example, if the network side device determines that the number of terminal devices paged at PO0 exceeds the maximum number of pages (e.g., 32) that can be supported by PO0, the network side device does not carry the first indication information in the paging message; when the paging message can page all the terminal devices, the paging message carries the first indication information.

For example, the network side device needs to page 40 terminal devices at PO0, exceeding the maximum number of pages 32 supportable at one PO. The network side device carries the identifiers of a part of terminal devices to be paged (for example, may carry 32 identifiers) in the paging message issued at the 1 st PO0, and carries the identifiers of the rest terminal devices to be paged in the paging message issued at the second PO0, so as to completely page all the terminal devices to be paged. In this case, since the paging message sent by the network side device at the 2 nd PO0 can page all the terminal devices that need to be paged, the network side device may carry the first indication information in the paging message sent by the network side device at the 2 nd PO 0.

It may be understood that, because the paging messages are sent periodically, as shown in (b) in fig. 7, at K PO0, the network side device may carry the identities of the remaining 8 terminal devices in the paging messages sent at the 2 nd PO0, the 4 th PO0, the … … and the kth PO0, and then the network side device may carry the first indication information in all the paging messages.

For a terminal device associated with PO0, the terminal device may successfully receive the 1 st paging message at the J < th > PO 0. For example, UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the 4 th (j=4) PO 0. If the paging message is detected not to carry the identifier of the UE3 and the first indication information is detected in the paging message, the UE3 may keep the sleep state at the remaining K-4 POs 0 or keep the sleep state at all POs 0 after the PO0 in which the paging message is received in the eDRX cycle.

It can be appreciated that, since the paging message is periodically sent, the network side device configures the first indication information in the paging message, so that the reliability of receiving the first indication information by the terminal device can be increased. In one implementation, the terminal device configured with eDRX and PEI can parse and read the first indication information carried in the paging message, and the terminal device not configured with eDRX and PEI does not need to parse and read the first indication information carried in the paging message after receiving the paging message.

In a second possible scenario, the network side device configures an eDRX cycle for the terminal device, and configures a packet condition of a PO within the eDRX cycle.

In this scenario, the network side device may configure the packet situation of the PO through an independent message, or may carry packet indication information in some messages to indicate the packet situation of the PO. For example, the packet indication information may be carried in a system message, a radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) message, or DCI. The second scenario and the paging method implemented based on the second scenario are described below by taking a system message as an example.

The network side equipment sends grouping indication information and first indication information to the terminal equipment through a system message.

In one possible implementation manner, the network side device may send the first indication information and the packet indication information to the terminal device through different system messages. For example, the network side device may send a first system message to the terminal device, and carry the first indication information in the first system message; and the network side equipment can send a second system message to the terminal equipment and carry the grouping indication information in the second system message.

Wherein the system message includes a plurality of system message blocks (System Information Block, SIB), and the first system message may be SIB1, and the network side device may add one cell to SIB1 as the first indication information. The second system message may be SIB2, and the network side device may add an information element in SIB2 to indicate the packet indication information.

In one example, the packet indication information may be second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate the network side device to issue the same paging message at n POs, where n POs is n POs associated with the terminal device in the eDRX period, where n is greater than or equal to 2, and n is an integer. Correspondingly, the at least one PO in which the terminal device sleeps includes a PO located after a second PO in the n POs, where the second PO is the PO in which the terminal device successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the n POs.

For example, taking UE3 as an example, as shown in (a) in fig. 8, r (r+.n) pieces of PO0 associated with UE3 are included in the PTW in eDRX cycles, and r pieces of PO0 are respectively located in r DRX cycles in the PTW. After receiving the second indication information through the second system message, the UE3 may determine according to the second indication information: if the network side equipment issues the paging message at the PO0, the first n PO0 places in the PTW issue the same paging message.

When the network side equipment issues paging messages at the first n PO0 positions in a certain eDRX period, if the UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the 1 st PO0 position, the 1 st PO0 is the second PO. The UE3 determines from the first indication information received through the first system message, and the UE3 may remain dormant at n-1 POs 0 located after the 1 st PO 0. That is, at the first n POs 0 s, in case of not being paged, the UE3 may maintain the sleep state at n-1 POs 0 s without waking up to monitor for paging, thereby saving power consumption of the terminal device.

For the remaining r-n POs 0, UE3 may wake up at each PO0 to listen for pages. Of course, if the network side device also configures GWUS/WUS/PEI for the terminal device at the same time, the terminal device may also determine whether to keep dormancy at the corresponding PO0 or wake up to monitor paging according to whether the network side device issues GWUS/WUS/PEI and the content of the issued GWUS/WUS/PEI.

Optionally, the packet indication information may be third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate that a plurality of POs associated with the terminal device located in the PTW in the eDRX period includes m PO groups, and each PO group includes p POs groups. The network side equipment transmits the same paging message at p POs in each PO group, wherein m is more than or equal to 2, p is more than or equal to 2, and m and p are integers. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment determines that at least one PO capable of dormancy comprises a PO located after a third PO in the PO group according to the first indication information, wherein the third PO is the PO where the terminal equipment successfully receives the 1 st paging message in the PO group.

Wherein the p POs in each PO group may be consecutive POs within the PTW. For example, r (r > m, and r. Gtoreq.p) PO0 associated with UE3 are included in the PTW in the eDRX cycle, and r PO0 are respectively located in r DRX cycles in the PTW. For example, as shown in fig. 8 (b), every consecutive p PO0 is divided into one PO group, e.g., the first p PO0 is the 1 st PO group.

Alternatively, the p POs in each PO group can be discontinuous POs within the PTW. For example, p=4, the 1 st PO group can include 1 st, 3, 5, 7 th PO0 in the PTW; the 2 nd PO group may include 2 nd, 4, 6, 8 th PO0 in the PTW; the 3 rd PO group can include 9 th, 11 th, 13 th, 15 th PO0 in PTW; the 4 th PO group can include the 10 th, 12 th, 14 th, 16 th PO0 in PTW, etc.

Take UE3 and the PO group shown in (b) of fig. 8 as an example. After receiving the third indication information through the second system message, the UE3 can determine that r PO0 includes m PO groups according to the third indication information, where each PO group includes p POs, and if the network side device needs to send a paging message at the PO0, the same paging message will be sent in each PO group.

For example, as shown in (b) of fig. 8, when the network side device issues a paging message in the 1 st PO group, if the UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the 1 st PO0 in the 1 st PO group, the 1 st PO0 in the 1 st PO group is the third PO. The UE3 may remain dormant at p-1 POs 0 located after the 1 st PO0, as determined from the first indication information received through the first system message. That is, in the 1 st PO group, in case of not being paged, the UE3 can maintain the sleep state at the remaining p-1 POs 0 without waking up to monitor for paging, thereby saving power consumption of the terminal device.

When the network side equipment issues the paging message in the 2 nd PO group, if the UE3 successfully receives the 1 st paging message at the 3 rd PO0 in the 2 nd PO group, the 3 rd PO0 in the 2 nd PO group is the third PO. The UE3 may remain dormant at p-3 POs 0 located after the 3 rd PO0 according to the first indication information received through the first system message. That is, in the 2 nd PO group, in case of not being paged, the UE3 may maintain the sleep state at the p-3 PO0 without waking up to monitor for paging, thereby saving power consumption of the terminal device.

Based on the second possible scenario, in another possible implementation manner, the network side device may simultaneously carry the first indication information and the packet indication information in one system message. That is, the first system information and the second system information are the same SIB, one bit is added in the SIB for identifying the first indication information, and one cell is added in the SIB for indicating the grouping indication information.

Alternatively, in yet another possible implementation manner, the packet indication information may be the first indication information at the same time. Namely, when the network side device sends the grouping indication information to the terminal device through the system information, the terminal device can determine that while learning the grouping condition of the PO according to the grouping indication information: in the event that the terminal is not paged, the terminal device may remain dormant at least one PO associated with the terminal device within the eDRX cycle to save power consumption.

In a third possible scenario, the network side device configures the terminal device with eDRX cycles and PEI. The PTW in the eDRX cycle comprises r DRX cycles, the PEI is configured to correspond to one or more POs in one DRX cycle, the network side equipment can judge whether the PEI is multiplexed at one or more POs in the same position in q DRX cycles according to paging conditions, r is more than or equal to q is more than or equal to 1, and K and r are integers. Wherein q DRX cycles may be continuous or discontinuous.

One or more POs located at the same position in q DRX cycles may be understood as one or more POs with the same sequence number (or index, number) corresponding to the paging frame at the same position in q DRX cycles. Also, paging frames at the same position in the DRX cycle, which means that the paging frames are at the same position in each DRX cycle (e.g., 1 st paging frame in each DRX cycle), the frame numbers of the paging frames at the same position in the DRX cycle may be different.

Based on a third possible scenario, referring to fig. 9, a flowchart of an embodiment of a paging method provided for the present application mainly relates to a scheme for reducing the number of times a terminal device wakes up to receive PEI. As shown in fig. 9, the paging method includes:

s901, the network side equipment issues a second PEI, wherein the second PEI carries fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used for indicating whether the terminal equipment multiplexes the second PEI at q POs.

Q POs are POs indicating that the same terminal device is located in q DRX cycles, respectively. For example, as shown in fig. 10, q=2, and the second PEI corresponds to PO0 and PO4 corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in 2 consecutive DRX cycles. The second PEI comprises a 9bit bitmap, assuming that the first 4 bits indicate 4 groups of terminal devices in one PO0, the middle 4 bits indicate 4 groups of terminal devices in one PO4, and the last bit indicates the fourth indication information. For example, multiplexing may be indicated by assigning a "1" to the last bit and not by assigning a "0" to the last bit. Or by assigning a "0" to the last bit and a "1" to the last bit. For any terminal device associated with PO0 and PO4, for example, for terminal device UE2 in WUS group2 associated with PO0, it may be determined whether the second PEI is multiplexed at both POs 0 according to the fourth indication information.

In one example, the network side device may determine whether to multiplex or not multiplex by pre-determining whether the terminal devices paged at q POs are identical, or determining the paging situation according to whether the terminal devices paged at q POs can be pre-determined, or according to the paging list.

For example, if the network side device determines that the paging lists at the q POs are the same, the fourth indication information is configured to indicate multiplexing. Or if the network side equipment determines that the number of the terminal equipment to be paged exceeds the maximum paging number which can be supported by one PO, the fourth indication information is configured to be used for indicating multiplexing. For example, when the number of terminal devices to be paged exceeds the maximum number of paging supported by one PO, the network side device cannot carry the identifiers of all the terminal devices to be paged in one paging message, so that the network side device can carry the identifiers of the terminal devices to be paged in batches and issue the identifiers in multiple paging messages. The terminal device does not detect the identity of the terminal device in the 1 st paging message, possibly because the terminal device is not paged, or possibly because the identity of the terminal device is carried in a subsequent paging message, so the terminal device needs to wake up at the next associated PO to continue to monitor for paging messages. In this case, in order to ensure that the terminal device to be paged can receive the corresponding paging message, the network side device may configure the fourth indication information to indicate multiplexing.

If the paging lists at the q POs are different, the fourth indication information is configured to indicate not to be multiplexed; if the paging list of part of the q POs is not acquired, the fourth indication information is configured to indicate not to be multiplexed.

As shown in fig. 10, assume that the network side device determines that the second PEI multiplexes at PO0 and PO4 corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in 2 DRX cycles, and determines that the network side device issues paging messages at PO0 and PO4 according to the IDs of the terminal devices to be paged, the terminal devices in WUS group2 and WUS group4 associated with PO0 need to wake up at PO0 to receive the paging messages, and the terminal devices in WUS group1 and WUS group3 associated with PO0 may sleep at PO 0; the terminal device in WUS group4 associated with PO4 needs to wake up at PO4 to receive the paging message, and the terminal devices in WUS group1 to WUS group3 associated with PO4 may sleep at PO4, and thus the network side device may be configured as "0101 0001 1" by the second PEI.

If the fourth indication information indicates multiplexing, the terminal device maintains the sleep state or receives the paging state at q POs according to the second PEI S902.

If the fourth indication information indicates that the fourth indication information is not multiplexed, the terminal device maintains the sleep state or receives the paging state at the 1 st PO of the q POs according to the second PEI, and receives the third PEI corresponding to each PO located after the 1 st PO of the q POs, and maintains the sleep state or receives the paging state at each PO located after the 1 st PO of the q POs according to the corresponding third PEI.

It can be appreciated that, in the case where the network side device can pre-determine the paging status in q DRX cycles, the network side device can select the second PEI multiplexed at q POs according to the paging status. Under the multiplexing condition, the network side equipment can send one second PEI at q POs, and the terminal equipment only needs to receive the second PEI once, so that the power consumption is saved. Under the condition that the paging state in q DRX cycles cannot be prejudged, the network side equipment can choose not to multiplex the second PEI, so that the network side equipment can flexibly and timely page the terminal equipment associated with each PO according to the burst service, and the paging delay is reduced.

It should be noted that the method flow shown in fig. 4 and the method flow shown in fig. 9 may be implemented independently or may be implemented in combination.

For example, in the third scenario, when the network side device determines that the second PEI is multiplexed at q POs, for example, as shown in fig. 11, the network side device may further add a bit to the second PEI, which is used to represent the first indication information. The terminal equipment monitors paging at q (q=k) POs 0 according to the indication of the second PEI until the terminal equipment successfully receives the 1 st paging message, and when determining that the paging message does not carry the identifier of the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment can maintain the dormant state at the rest PO of q POs according to the first indication information carried in the second PEI.

Optionally, the present application further provides a fourth possible scenario, where the network side device configures the eDRX cycle and the fourth PEI for the terminal device. The PTW in the eDRX cycle comprises r DRX cycles, the fourth PEI is configured to correspond to one or more POs positioned at the same position in q DRX cycles, r is more than or equal to q and more than or equal to 1, and q and r are integers. Wherein q DRX cycles may be continuous or discontinuous. The fourth PEI includes a bitmap corresponding to each group of terminal devices in each PO.

For example, as shown in fig. 12, the fourth PEI corresponds to PO0 and PO4 (4 POs total) located in the 1 st paging frame within 2 DRX cycles (q=2). The fourth PEI includes a 16bit bitmap that indicates 8 groups of terminal devices in the 4 POs (i.e., PO0 and PO4 corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in the 1 st DRX cycle, and PO0 and PO4 corresponding to the 1 st paging frame in the 2 nd DRX cycle), respectively. For example, assume that during the first DRX cycle, the network side device will issue paging messages for paging terminal devices in WUS group2 and WUS group4 associated with PO0, and paging messages for paging terminal devices in WUS group4 associated with PO 4. In the second DRX cycle, the network side device will issue a paging message for paging the terminal device in WUS group4 associated with PO0 and a paging message for paging the terminal device in WUS group2 associated with PO 4. Thus, the network side device determines that the fourth PEI can be configured as "0101 0101 0001 0100".

In the scene, the network side equipment needs to pre-judge the paging condition of each PO corresponding to the fourth PEI in advance, so that the terminal equipment can send one fourth PEI at q POs and can determine whether the terminal equipment needs to wake up to receive paging information at q POs only by receiving the fourth PEI once, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal equipment.

It is to be understood that the above-described method embodiments may be separate embodiments or may be combined with each other. Steps of different method embodiments may be combined with each other to form additional embodiments, and steps of the same method embodiment may be combined with each other to form additional embodiments.

It will be understood that the methods and operations implemented by the terminal device in the foregoing respective method embodiments may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) that may be used in the terminal device, and the methods and operations implemented by the network side device in the foregoing respective method embodiments may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) that may be used in the network side device.

Having described the method embodiments provided herein, embodiments of the apparatus provided herein are described below. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

Fig. 13 shows a communication device 1300 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communications device 1300 includes a processor 1310 and a transceiver 1320. Wherein the processor 1310 and the transceiver 1320 communicate with each other via an internal connection, the processor 1310 is configured to execute instructions to control the transceiver 1320 to transmit signals and/or receive signals.

Optionally, the communication device 1300 may further include a memory 1330, where the memory 1330 and the processor 1310, transceiver 1320 communicate with each other through an internal connection path. The memory 1330 is used to store instructions, and the processor 1310 may execute the instructions stored in the memory 1330. In a possible implementation manner, the communications apparatus 1300 is configured to implement the respective procedures and steps corresponding to the terminal device in the above method embodiment. In another possible implementation manner, the communications apparatus 1300 is configured to implement the respective flows and steps corresponding to the network side device in the above method embodiment.

It should be understood that the communication apparatus 1300 may be specifically a terminal device or a network side device in the above embodiment, or may be a chip or a chip system. Correspondingly, the transceiver 1320 may be a transceiver circuit of the chip, which is not limited herein. The memory 1330 may optionally include read-only memory and random access memory, and provide instructions and data to the processor. A portion of the memory may also include non-volatile random access memory. For example, the memory may also store information of the device type. The processor 1310 may be configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, and when the processor 1310 executes the instructions stored in the memory, the processor 1310 is configured to perform the steps and/or flows of the method embodiments corresponding to the terminal device or the network side device.

In implementation, the steps of the methods described above may be performed by integrated logic circuitry in hardware or instructions in software in processor 1310. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in hardware processor execution or in a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor 1310. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 1330, and the processor 1310 reads information in the memory 1330 and performs the steps of the method in combination with its hardware. To avoid repetition, a detailed description is not provided herein.

It should be noted that the processor 1310 in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip with signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the method embodiments described above may be performed by integrated logic circuitry in hardware or instructions in software in processor 1310. The processor 1310 described above may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. The disclosed methods, steps, and logic blocks in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be embodied directly in hardware, in a decoded processor, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoded processor. The software modules may be located in a random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, or electrically erasable programmable memory, registers, etc. as well known in the art. The storage medium is located in the memory 1330, and the processor reads the information in the memory and performs the steps of the method in combination with its hardware.

It is to be appreciated that the memory 1330 in embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the application further provides a computer program product, which comprises: computer program code, when running on a computer, causes the computer to execute the steps or processes executed by the terminal device or the network side device in the above method embodiment.

According to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, there is further provided a computer readable storage medium storing program code, where the program code when executed on a computer causes the computer to execute each step or flow executed by the terminal device or the network side device in the embodiment of the method.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the application also provides a communication system, which comprises one or more terminal devices and one or more network side devices.

The above-described embodiments of the respective apparatus and embodiments of the method correspond exactly to the respective steps performed by the respective modules or units, e.g. the communication unit (transceiver) performs the steps of receiving or transmitting in the embodiments of the method, and other steps than transmitting, receiving may be performed by the processing unit (processor). The functionality of a particular unit may be based on corresponding method embodiments. Wherein the processor may be one or more.

In this application, "indication" may include direct indication and indirect indication, and may also include explicit indication and implicit indication. The information indicated by a certain information is referred to as information to be indicated, and in a specific implementation process, there may be various ways of indicating the information to be indicated, for example, but not limited to, directly indicating the information to be indicated, such as indicating the information to be indicated itself or an index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated can also be indicated indirectly by indicating other information, wherein the other information and the information to be indicated have an association relation. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of the specific information may also be achieved by means of a pre-agreed (e.g., protocol-specified) arrangement sequence of the respective information, thereby reducing the indication overhead to some extent.

In the embodiments of the present application, each term and english abbreviation are given as exemplary examples for convenience of description, and should not constitute any limitation to the present application. This application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms in existing or future protocols that perform the same or similar functions.

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

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may be based on the corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not described in detail herein.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

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

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

In the above-described embodiments, the functions of the respective functional units may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions (programs). When the computer program instructions (program) are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are fully or partially produced. 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 or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, 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 such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

Finally, it should be noted that: the foregoing is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present disclosure should be covered in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A paging method applied to a terminal device, the method comprising:

receiving first indication information from network side equipment, wherein the first indication information indicates that the terminal equipment is in a dormant state at least one PO (point of sale) associated with the terminal equipment in an eDRX period when the paging message received in the eDRX period does not carry an identifier of the terminal equipment;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the eDRX cycle includes K POs associated with the terminal device, the K POs are respectively located in K DRX cycles, K is greater than or equal to 1, and K is an integer, and the receiving, from a network side device, first indication information includes:

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first PEI is configured to instruct the network side device to issue the paging message at the K POs, the at least one PO includes a PO located after a first PO of the K POs, or the at least one PO includes a PO associated with the terminal device located after the first PO in the eDRX period, where the first PO is a PO where the terminal device successfully receives a 1 st paging message at the K POs.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the eDRX includes K POs associated with the terminal device, the K POs being located in K DRX cycles, respectively, and the receiving the first indication information from the network side device includes:

receiving the paging message at a J th PO in the K POs, wherein the paging message carries the first indication information;

the at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the K POs, or the at least one PO comprises a PO positioned after the J-th PO in the eDRX period, wherein K is more than or equal to 1, J is more than or equal to 1, K is more than or equal to 1, and K, J are integers.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the first indication information from the network side device includes:

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second system message from the network side equipment, wherein the second system message carries second indication information, the second indication information is used for indicating the network side equipment to issue the same paging message at n POs, the n POs are the first n POs which are located in the PTW in the eDRX period and are associated with the terminal equipment, n is more than or equal to 2, and n is an integer;

The at least one PO includes a PO located after a second PO among the n POs, where the terminal device is located when the 1 st paging message is successfully received at the n POs.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second system message from the network side equipment, wherein the second system message carries third indication information, the third indication information is used for indicating that a plurality of POs (potential of hydrogen) associated with the terminal equipment, which are positioned in a PTW (packet transport network) in the eDRX period, comprise m PO groups, each PO group comprises p POs, the network side equipment issues the same paging message at p POs in each PO group, and m is more than or equal to 2, p is more than or equal to 2, and m and p are integers;

the at least one PO includes a PO located after a third PO in the PO group, where the third PO is a PO where the terminal device successfully receives the 1 st paging message in the PO group.

8. The method of any of claims 1-7, wherein the eDRX cycle includes q POs associated with the terminal device, the q POs being respectively located in q DRX cycles, q being greater than or equal to 1, q being an integer, the method further comprising:

9. The method of claim 8, wherein if it is determined that the second PEI is multiplexed at the q POs according to the fourth indication, maintaining a dormant state or receiving a paging state according to the second PEI at the q POs.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the method further comprises:

11. A paging method, applied to a network side device, the method comprising:

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the eDRX includes K POs associated with the terminal device, the K POs are respectively located in K DRX cycles, K is greater than or equal to 1, and K is an integer, and the sending the first indication information includes:

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first PEI is configured to instruct the network side device to issue the paging message at the K POs, the method further comprising:

the paging message is sent at the K POs.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the eDRX includes K POs associated with the terminal device, the K POs being located in K DRX cycles, respectively, and the transmitting the first indication information includes:

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the sending the first indication information comprises:

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

sending a second system message, wherein the second system message carries second indication information, the second indication information is used for indicating the network side equipment to issue the same paging message at n POs, the n POs are the first n POs which are located in the PTW in the eDRX period and are associated with the terminal equipment, n is more than or equal to 2, and n is an integer;

and sending the paging message according to the second indication information.

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

sending a second system message, wherein the second system message carries third indication information, the third indication information is used for indicating that a plurality of POs associated with the terminal equipment in the eDRX period are m PO groups, each PO group comprises p POs, the network side equipment sends the same paging message at p POs in each PO group, m is more than or equal to 2, p is more than or equal to 2, and m and p are integers;

and sending the paging message according to the third indication information.

18. The method according to any of claims 11-17, wherein the eDRX cycle comprises q POs associated with the terminal device, the q POs being respectively located in q DRX cycles, q being greater than or equal to 1, q being an integer, the method further comprising:

19. A communication device comprising a processor for performing the method of any of claims 1 to 18.

20. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that a program or instructions for implementing the method of any one of claims 1 to 18 are stored.

21. 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 18.

22. A chip, characterized in that the chip is coupled to a memory for reading and executing program instructions stored in the memory for implementing the method according to any of claims 1 to 18.