CN116264668A

CN116264668A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN116264668A
Application number: CN202111518094.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 乔梁; 张佳胤; 石蒙
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-12-13
Filing date: 2021-12-13
Publication date: 2023-06-16

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and a communication device, which relate to the technical field of communication and can enable network equipment to reasonably utilize an SCSe mode and an LBT mode to send SSB to terminal equipment, so that communication efficiency is improved. The method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment receives a first SSB from the network equipment; wherein the first SSB includes a first value for indicating a QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the terminal equipment determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in the DBTW, or determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode; or the terminal equipment determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in the SCSe mode according to the first numerical value and the number of the SSBs sent by the network equipment in the SCSe mode, or determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in the LBT mode.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

Background

In the communication system, the network device may send the synchronization signal and the physical broadcast channel block (synchronization signal and PBCH block, SSB) to the terminal device in a listen before talk (listen before talk, LBT) manner, or may send the SSB to the terminal device in a short control signal exemption (short control signal exemption, SCSe) manner.

For LBT, before the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the network device may first listen to the channel and send the SSB to the terminal device after successfully occupying the channel. For the SCSe approach, the network device may send SSBs directly to the terminal device, but the duration of the network device sending SSBs within one observation period cannot exceed 10% of the observation period.

When the network device sends the SSB in the LBT manner, the network device needs to perform channel interception first, which may cause a larger transmission delay. When the network device transmits SSBs in the SCSe mode, the network device can only select a certain number of SSBs to transmit due to the limitation of the transmission duration. Therefore, how to select a more efficient SSB transmission scheme is a technical problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which can enable network equipment to reasonably utilize an LBT mode and an SCSe mode to send SSB to terminal equipment, and improve communication efficiency.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may include: the terminal equipment receives a first synchronous signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from the network equipment; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a short control signal exempt SCSe mode according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a discovery burst transmission window DBTW, or determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a Listen Before Talk (LBT) mode; or the terminal equipment determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in the SCSe mode according to the first numerical value and the number of the SSBs sent by the network equipment in the SCSe mode, or determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in the LBT mode.

Based on the first aspect, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, a part of the SSB may be sent in an SCSe mode, and another part of the SSB may be sent in an LBT mode. By adopting the transmission mode of combining the SCSe mode with the LBT mode, compared with the LBT mode, the transmission delay can be reduced, and compared with the SCSe mode, when the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device can completely transmit the SSBs to the terminal device. In addition, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the first value may be carried in the SSB, and after the terminal device receives the SSB, it may be determined, according to the first value in the SSB, which mode the network device sends the current SSB, and then the receiving beam is adjusted according to the sending mode of the current SSB, so as to improve the communication performance.

In one possible design, when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by way of SCSe, and otherwise, the terminal device determines that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by way of LBT.

Based on the possible design, a feasibility scheme is provided for the terminal equipment to determine the sending mode of the SSB according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of the SSB sent by the network equipment in the DBTW.

In one possible design, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to the first value and a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW; when the DBTW state is in a closed state, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in a SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in an open state, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

Based on the possible design, the terminal device may further determine that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, and determine the sending manner of the first SSB according to the DBTW state, which provides a further feasible scheme for determining the sending manner of the SSB for the terminal device.

In one possible design, when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is an off state; otherwise, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is an on state.

Based on this possible design, a feasibility scheme is provided for the terminal device to determine the DBTW state based on the first value and the maximum of the number of SSBs sent by the network device within the DBTW.

In one possible design, when the first value is the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe method, the terminal device determines that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe method in the unlicensed band.

Based on the possible design, a feasibility scheme is provided for the terminal equipment to determine the sending mode of the SSB according to the first numerical value and the quantity of the SSB sent by the network equipment in the SCSe mode.

In one possible design, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in a closed state, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in a SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in an open state, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

Based on the possible design, the terminal device may further determine that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, and determine the sending mode of the first SSB according to the DBTW state, which provides a further feasible scheme for determining the sending mode of the SSB for the terminal device.

In one possible design, the DBTW state is determined to be off when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network device via SCSe.

Based on the possible design, a feasibility scheme is provided for the terminal device to determine the DBTW state according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode.

In one possible design, the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe method is any one of the following: 48. 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56.

In one possible design, the number of SSB candidate locations is 80 when DBTW is 5ms and the subcarrier spacing is 120 KHz.

Based on the possible design, the time slot for sending the uplink service can be also used as the SSB candidate positions, so that the number of the SSB candidate positions is increased, and when the network equipment fails to send the SSB due to the LBT mode, the network equipment can send the SSB at other SSB candidate positions, and the sending success rate of the SSB is improved.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, where the communication device may implement a function performed by the terminal device in the first aspect or a possible design of the first aspect, where the function may be implemented by executing corresponding software by using hardware. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as a transceiver module and a processing module. A transceiver module for receiving a first synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from a network device; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the processing module is configured to determine, according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the discovery burst transmission window DBTW, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band through a short control signal exempt SCSe mode, or determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band through a listen before talk LBT mode; or the processing module is configured to determine, according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe mode in the unlicensed frequency band, or determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the LBT mode in the unlicensed frequency band.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, when the first value is 16 or 32, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by way of SCSe if the first value is greater than a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, and otherwise determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by way of LBT.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, according to the first value and a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, whether the DBTW state is an on state or an off state; when the DBTW state is in a closed state, determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in an open state, the first SSB is determined to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode in an unlicensed frequency band.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine that the DBTW state is an off state if the first value is 16 or 32, and if the first value is greater than a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW; otherwise, the DBTW state is determined to be an on state.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, when the first value is the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe method, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe method in an unlicensed band.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe manner, whether the DBTW state is an on state or an off state; when the DBTW state is in a closed state, determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in an open state, the first SSB is determined to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode in an unlicensed frequency band.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine that the DBTW state is the off state when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode.

It should be noted that, in the second aspect, specific implementation manners of the communication apparatus may refer to the behavior function of the terminal device in the communication method provided by the first aspect or any one of possible designs of the first aspect.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a chip or a system on a chip in a terminal device. The communication device may implement the functions performed by the terminal device in the above aspects or in each possible design, which may be implemented by hardware. In one possible design, the communication device may include: a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver and processor may be adapted to support the communication device to implement the functionality referred to in the above-described first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect. For example: the transceiver may be configured to receive a first synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from a network device; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the processor may be configured to determine, according to the first value and a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the discovery burst transmission window DBTW, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band by a short control signal exempt SCSe manner, or determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band by a listen before talk LBT manner; alternatively, the processor may be configured to determine, according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe mode in the unlicensed frequency band, or determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the LBT mode in the unlicensed frequency band. In yet another possible design, the communication device may further include a memory for holding computer-executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The transceiver and processor execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory when the communication device is operating to cause the communication device to perform the communication method as described above in the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect.

In this embodiment, the specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the third aspect may refer to the behavior function of the communication apparatus in the communication method provided by the first aspect or any one of possible designs of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may include: the network equipment sends a first synchronous signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to the terminal equipment; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the first numerical value is used for determining that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a short control signal exempt SCSe mode according to the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a discovery burst transmission window DBTW, or determining that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a Listen Before Talk (LBT) mode; or, the first value is used for determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the SCSe mode according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode, or determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the LBT mode.

Based on the fourth aspect, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, a part of the SSB may be sent in the SCSe mode, and another part of the SSB may be sent in the LBT mode. By adopting the transmission mode of combining the SCSe mode with the LBT mode, compared with the LBT mode, the transmission delay can be reduced, and compared with the SCSe mode, when the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device can completely transmit the SSBs to the terminal device. In addition, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the first value may be carried in the SSB, and after the terminal device receives the SSB, it may be determined, according to the first value in the SSB, which mode the network device sends the current SSB, and then the receiving beam is adjusted according to the sending mode of the current SSB, so as to improve the communication performance.

In one possible design, when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by SCSe, and otherwise, the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by LBT.

Based on this possible design, a feasibility scheme is provided for the network device to send SSBs according to the first value and the maximum of the number of SSBs sent by the network device within the DBTW.

In one possible design, the first value is further used to determine that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device within the DBTW; when the DBTW state is in a closed state, the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in an open state, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

Based on the possible design, the DBTW state is determined to be in an open state or a closed state according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the DBTW, and the transmission mode of the first SSB is determined according to the DBTW state, so that a further feasible scheme is provided for determining the transmission mode of the SSB for the terminal device.

In one possible design, when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the DBTW state is an off state; otherwise, the DBTW state is an on state.

Based on this possible design, a feasibility scheme is provided for determining the DBTW status based on the first value and the maximum of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device within the DBTW.

In one possible design, when the first value is the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe method, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe method in the unlicensed band.

Based on this possible design, a feasible scheme is provided for determining the transmission mode of the SSB according to the first value and the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device through the SCSe mode.

In one possible design, the first value is further used to determine that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in a closed state, the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is in an open state, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

Based on the possible design, the DBTW state is determined to be in an open state or a closed state according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode, and the sending mode of the first SSB is determined according to the DBTW state, so that a further feasibility scheme is provided for the terminal device to determine the sending mode of the SSB.

In one possible design, the DBTW state is off when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network device via SCSe.

Based on this possible design, a feasibility scheme is provided for determining the DBTW state based on the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device via SCSe.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, where the communication apparatus may implement a function performed by a network device in the fourth aspect or a possible design of the fourth aspect, where the function may be implemented by executing corresponding software by using hardware. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as a transceiver module and a processing module. A transceiver module for transmitting a first synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to a terminal device; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the first numerical value is used for determining that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a short control signal exempt SCSe mode according to the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a discovery burst transmission window DBTW, or determining that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a Listen Before Talk (LBT) mode; or, the first value is used for determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the SCSe mode according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode, or determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the LBT mode.

It should be noted that, in a specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the fifth aspect, reference may be made to the behavior function of the network device in the communication method provided by the fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which may be a network device or a chip or a system on a chip in a network device. The communication means may implement the functions performed by the network device in the above aspects or in each possible design, which may be implemented by hardware. In one possible design, the communication device may include: a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver and processor may be used to support the communication device to implement the functionality involved in the fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect. For example: the transceiver may be configured to transmit a first synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to the terminal device; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the first numerical value is used for determining that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a short control signal exempt SCSe mode according to the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a discovery burst transmission window DBTW, or determining that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a Listen Before Talk (LBT) mode; or, the first value is used for determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the SCSe mode according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode, or determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the LBT mode. In yet another possible design, the communication device may further include a memory for holding computer-executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. When the communication device is operating, the transceiver and processor execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the communication method as described in the fourth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In this embodiment, the specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the sixth aspect may refer to the behavior function of the communication apparatus in the communication method provided by the fourth aspect or any one of possible designs of the fourth aspect.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may include: the terminal equipment receives a first SSB from the network equipment; the first SSB includes an index of the first SSB and a second value, where the second value is used to indicate a QCL relationship between remaining SSB candidate positions, and the remaining SSB candidate positions are SSB candidate positions except for the SSB positions sent by using the SCSe method; when the index of the first SSB is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode, otherwise, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an SCSe mode.

Based on the seventh aspect, when the network device transmits the SSB to the terminal device, a part of the SSB may be transmitted in the SCSe mode, and another part of the SSB may be transmitted in the LBT mode. By adopting the transmission mode of combining the SCSe mode with the LBT mode, compared with the LBT mode, the transmission delay can be reduced, and compared with the SCSe mode, when the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device can completely transmit the SSBs to the terminal device. In addition, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the SSB may carry the index of the SSB and the second value, and after the terminal device receives the SSB, the terminal device may determine, according to the index of the SSB, which mode is used by the network device to send the current SSB, and further adjust the receiving beam according to the sending mode and the second value of the current SSB, so as to improve the communication performance.

In one possible design, the second value is greater than or equal to 1 and the second value is less than or equal to the maximum of the number of candidate SSBs.

In one possible design, the second value is any one of the following: 1. 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40.

Based on the two possible designs, a feasibility scheme is provided for the value of the second numerical value.

In one possible design, the first threshold is greater than or equal to 0, and the first threshold is less than or equal to a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device to the terminal device in the SCSe mode.

In one possible design, the first threshold is any one of the following: 32. 40, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56.

In one possible design, the first threshold is predefined; alternatively, the first threshold is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

Based on the three possible schemes, a feasibility scheme is provided for the value of the first threshold value.

In one possible design, when the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the LBT manner, the terminal device receives, according to the second value, an SSB from the network device having a QCL relationship with the first SSB.

In one possible design, the terminal device determines, according to the first threshold, the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode.

In one possible design, the terminal device determines the remaining SSB candidate positions corresponding to SSBs sent by the network device in the LBT mode according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode; and the terminal equipment receives the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode according to the second numerical value and the residual SSB candidate position.

Based on the three possible designs, a feasibility scheme is provided for the terminal equipment to receive the SSB which has a QCL relation with the first SSB from the network equipment according to the second numerical value.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, where the communication device may implement a function performed by a terminal device in the seventh aspect or a possible design of the seventh aspect, where the function may be implemented by executing corresponding software by using hardware. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as a transceiver module and a processing module. A transceiver module for receiving a first SSB from a network device; the first SSB includes an index of the first SSB and a second value, where the second value is used to indicate a QCL relationship between remaining SSB candidate positions, and the remaining SSB candidate positions are SSB candidate positions except for the SSB positions sent by using the SCSe method; and the processing module is used for determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in the LBT mode when the index of the first SSB is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, and determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in the SCSe mode otherwise.

In one possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to receive, when the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the LBT manner, an SSB from the network device having a QCL relationship with the first SSB according to the second value.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, according to the first threshold, a number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe manner.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe manner, a remaining SSB candidate location corresponding to the SSB sent by the network device in the LBT manner; and the receiving and transmitting module is also used for receiving the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode according to the second numerical value and the residual SSB candidate position.

It should be noted that, in a specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the eighth aspect, reference may be made to the behavior function of the terminal device in the communication method provided by the seventh aspect or any one of the possible designs of the seventh aspect.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a chip or a system on a chip in a terminal device. The communication device may implement the functions performed by the terminal device in the above aspects or in each possible design, which may be implemented by hardware. In one possible design, the communication device may include: a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver and processor may be adapted to support the communication device to carry out the functions involved in the seventh aspect or any one of the possible designs of the seventh aspect described above. For example: the transceiver may be configured to receive a first SSB from a network device; the first SSB includes an index of the first SSB and a second value, where the second value is used to indicate a QCL relationship between remaining SSB candidate positions, and the remaining SSB candidate positions are SSB candidate positions except for the SSB positions sent by using the SCSe method; the processor may be configured to determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the LBT manner when the index of the first SSB is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and otherwise determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the SCSe manner. In yet another possible design, the communication device may further include a memory for holding computer-executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. When the communication device is operating, the transceiver and processor execute the computer-executable instructions stored by the memory to cause the communication device to perform the communication method as described in the seventh aspect or any one of the possible designs of the seventh aspect.

In this embodiment, the communication device according to the ninth aspect may refer to the behavior function of the communication device according to the seventh aspect or any one of the possible designs of the seventh aspect.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may include: the network equipment sends a first SSB to the terminal equipment; the first SSB includes an index of the first SSB and a second value, where the second value is used to indicate a QCL relationship between remaining SSB candidate positions, and the remaining SSB candidate positions are SSB candidate positions except for the SSB positions sent by using the SCSe method; when the index of the first SSB is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode, otherwise, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an SCSe mode.

Based on the tenth aspect, when the network device transmits the SSB to the terminal device, a part of the SSB may be transmitted in the SCSe mode, and another part of the SSB may be transmitted in the LBT mode. By adopting the transmission mode of combining the SCSe mode with the LBT mode, compared with the LBT mode, the transmission delay can be reduced, and compared with the SCSe mode, when the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device can completely transmit the SSBs to the terminal device. In addition, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the SSB may carry the index of the SSB and the second value, and after the terminal device receives the SSB, the terminal device may determine, according to the index of the SSB, which mode is used by the network device to send the current SSB, and further adjust the receiving beam according to the sending mode and the second value of the current SSB, so as to improve the communication performance.

In one possible design, when the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the LBT manner, the network device sends, to the terminal device, the SSB having a QCL relationship with the first SSB according to the second value.

In one possible design, the network device determines the number of SSBs sent in SCSe mode according to the first threshold.

In one possible design, the network device determines the remaining SSB candidate positions corresponding to SSBs sent in LBT according to the number of SSBs sent in SCSe; and the network equipment sends the SSB to the terminal equipment in an LBT mode according to the second numerical value and the residual SSB candidate position.

Based on the three possible designs, a feasibility scheme is provided for the network equipment to send the SSB which has a QCL relation with the first SSB to the terminal equipment according to the second numerical value.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, where the communication apparatus may implement a function performed by a network device in the tenth aspect or a possible design of the tenth aspect, where the function may be implemented by executing corresponding software by using hardware. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as a transceiver module and a processing module. The receiving and transmitting module is used for transmitting the first SSB to the terminal equipment; the first SSB includes an index of the first SSB and a second value, where the second value is used to indicate a QCL relationship between remaining SSB candidate positions, and the remaining SSB candidate positions are SSB candidate positions except for the SSB positions sent by using the SCSe method; when the index of the first SSB is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode, otherwise, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an SCSe mode.

In one possible design, the transceiver module is further configured to send, to the terminal device, the SSB having a QCL relationship with the first SSB according to the second value when the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the LBT manner.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, according to the first threshold, a number of SSBs sent in SCSe mode.

In one possible design, the processing module is further configured to determine, according to the number of SSBs sent in the SCSe mode, a remaining SSB candidate location corresponding to the SSB sent in the LBT mode; and the receiving and transmitting module is also used for transmitting the SSB to the terminal equipment in an LBT mode according to the second numerical value and the residual SSB candidate position.

It should be noted that, in a specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the eleventh aspect, reference may be made to the behavior function of the network device in the communication method provided in the tenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the tenth aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which may be a network device or a chip or a system on a chip in a network device. The communication means may implement the functions performed by the network device in the above aspects or in each possible design, which may be implemented by hardware. In one possible design, the communication device may include: a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver and processor may be adapted to support the communication device to carry out the functions referred to in the tenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the tenth aspect described above. For example: the transceiver may be configured to transmit the first SSB to the terminal device; the first SSB includes an index of the first SSB and a second value, where the second value is used to indicate a QCL relationship between remaining SSB candidate positions, and the remaining SSB candidate positions are SSB candidate positions except for the SSB positions sent by using the SCSe method; when the index of the first SSB is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode, otherwise, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an SCSe mode. In yet another possible design, the communication device may further include a memory for holding computer-executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. When the communication device is operating, the transceiver and processor execute the computer-executable instructions stored by the memory to cause the communication device to perform the communication method as described in the tenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the tenth aspect.

In this embodiment, the communication device according to the twelfth aspect may refer to the behavior function of the communication device according to the tenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the tenth aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may include: the terminal equipment receives a synchronous signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from the network equipment; when the SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in a short control signal exemption SCSe mode, the terminal equipment receives a control resource set CORESET 0 and a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH from the network equipment; wherein, the PDSCH comprises a system message block SIB 1; CORESET 0, SIB 1 and SSB satisfy the quasi co-sited QCL relationship.

Based on the thirteenth aspect, the terminal device may receive the SSB and the CORESET 0 and PDSCH having the QCL relationship with the SSB using the same reception beam, and may reduce the initial access delay.

In one possible design, CORESET 0 occupies two symbols, PDSCH occupies two symbols or three symbols or four symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is time division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB; alternatively, CORESET 0 occupies two symbols and PDSCH occupies two symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is frequency division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB;

Alternatively, CORESET 0 occupies one symbol, and PDSCH occupies two or three or four symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is time division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB; alternatively, CORESET 0 occupies one symbol, and PDSCH occupies two or three symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is frequency division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB.

Based on this possible design, a number of feasibility schemes are provided for symbols occupied by CORESET 0 and PDSCH.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, where the communication device may implement a function performed by the terminal device in the thirteenth aspect or a possible design of the thirteenth aspect, where the function may be implemented by executing corresponding software by using hardware. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as a transceiver module and a processing module. A transceiver module for receiving a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from a network device; the receiving and transmitting module is also used for receiving a control resource set CORESET 0 and a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH from the network equipment when the SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in a short control signal exemption SCSe mode; wherein, the PDSCH comprises a system message block SIB 1; CORESET 0, SIB 1 and SSB satisfy the quasi co-sited QCL relationship.

In one possible design, CORESET 0 occupies two symbols, PDSCH occupies two symbols or three symbols or four symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is time division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB; alternatively, CORESET 0 occupies two symbols and PDSCH occupies two symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is frequency division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB; alternatively, CORESET 0 occupies one symbol, and PDSCH occupies two or three or four symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is time division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB; alternatively, CORESET 0 occupies one symbol, and PDSCH occupies two or three symbols; wherein CORESET 0 is frequency division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB.

It should be noted that, in a specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the fourteenth aspect, reference may be made to the behavior function of the terminal device in the communication method provided in the thirteenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which may be a terminal device or a chip or a system on a chip in a terminal device. The communication device may implement the functions performed by the terminal device in the above aspects or in each possible design, which may be implemented by hardware. In one possible design, the communication device may include: a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver and processor may be adapted to support the communication device to carry out the functions referred to in the thirteenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect. For example: the transceiver may be configured to receive a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from a network device; the transceiver may be further configured to receive a control resource set CORESET 0 and a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH from the network device when the SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in a short control signal exempt-SCSe manner; wherein, the PDSCH comprises a system message block SIB 1; CORESET 0, SIB 1 and SSB satisfy the quasi co-sited QCL relationship. In yet another possible design, the communication device may further include a memory for holding computer-executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. When the communication device is operating, the transceiver and processor execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the communication method as described in the thirteenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect.

In this regard, the implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the fifteenth aspect may refer to the behavior function of the communication apparatus in the communication method provided by the thirteenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect.

In a sixteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may include: the network equipment adopts a short control signal exemption SCSe mode to send a synchronous signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to the terminal equipment; the network equipment sends a control resource set CORESET 0 and a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH to the terminal equipment; wherein, the PDSCH comprises a system message block SIB 1; CORESET 0, SIB 1 and SSB satisfy the quasi co-sited QCL relationship.

Based on the sixteenth aspect, the network device can avoid the network device from performing LBT and reduce power consumption by transmitting the SSB and CORESET 0 and PDSCH having QCL relation with the SSB together in SCSe mode using the same transmission beam.

In a seventeenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication apparatus, where the communication apparatus may implement a function performed by a network device in the sixteenth aspect or a possible design of the sixteenth aspect, where the function may be implemented by executing corresponding software by using hardware. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. Such as a transceiver module and a processing module. A transceiver module, configured to send a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to a terminal device by using a short control signal exemption SCSe mode; the receiving and transmitting module is also used for transmitting a control resource set CORESET 0 and a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH to the terminal equipment; wherein, the PDSCH comprises a system message block SIB 1; CORESET 0, SIB 1 and SSB satisfy the quasi co-sited QCL relationship.

It should be noted that, in a seventeenth aspect, the specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus may refer to a behavior function of the network device in the communication method provided by the sixteenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect.

In an eighteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which may be a network device or a chip or a system on a chip in a network device. The communication means may implement the functions performed by the network device in the above aspects or in each possible design, which may be implemented by hardware. In one possible design, the communication device may include: a transceiver and a processor. The transceiver and processor may be adapted to support the communication device to carry out the functions involved in any one of the possible designs of the sixteenth or sixteenth aspects described above. For example: the transceiver may be configured to send a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to the terminal device in a short control signal exempt SCSe manner; the transceiver may also be configured to send a control resource set CORESET 0 and a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH to the terminal device; wherein, the PDSCH comprises a system message block SIB 1; CORESET 0, SIB 1 and SSB satisfy the quasi co-sited QCL relationship. In yet another possible design, the communication device may further include a memory for holding computer-executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. When the communication device is operating, the transceiver and processor execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory to cause the communication device to perform the communication method as described in the sixteenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect.

In which the implementation manner of the communication apparatus in the eighteenth aspect may refer to the behavior function of the communication apparatus in the communication method provided by the sixteenth aspect or any one of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect.

In a nineteenth aspect, a communications device is provided, the communications device comprising one or more processors; one or more processors configured to execute a computer program or instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the communication device to perform a communication method as described in the first aspect or any of the possible designs of the first aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the fourth aspect or any of the possible designs of the seventh aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the tenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the tenth aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the thirteenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in any of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect or the sixteenth aspect.

In one possible design, the communication device further includes one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more memories for storing the computer programs or instructions. In one possible implementation, the memory is located outside the communication device. In another possible implementation, the memory is located within the communication device. In the embodiment of the present application, the processor and the memory may also be integrated in one device, i.e. the processor and the memory may also be integrated together. In a possible implementation, the communication device further comprises a transceiver for receiving information and/or transmitting information.

In one possible design, the communication device further includes one or more communication interfaces coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more communication interfaces configured to communicate with other modules outside of the communication device.

In a twentieth aspect, a communication device is provided that includes an input-output interface and logic circuitry; an input-output interface for inputting and/or outputting information; the logic circuit is configured to perform the communication method according to the first aspect or any of the possible designs of the first aspect or to perform the communication method according to the fourth aspect or any of the possible designs of the seventh aspect or to perform the communication method according to the tenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the tenth aspect or to perform the communication method according to the thirteenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect or to perform the communication method according to the sixteenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect, to process and/or to generate information according to the information.

In a twenty-first aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing computer instructions or a program which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform a communication method as described in the first aspect or any of the possible designs of the first aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the seventh aspect or any of the possible designs of the seventh aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the tenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the sixteenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect.

In a twenty-second aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising computer instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform a communication method as described in the first aspect or any of the possible designs of the fourth aspect or any of the possible designs of the seventh aspect or any of the possible designs of the tenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect.

In a twenty-third aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform a communication method as described in the first aspect or any of the possible designs of the first aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the fourth aspect or any of the possible designs of the seventh aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the tenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the tenth aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the thirteenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect, or to perform a communication method as described in the sixteenth aspect or any of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect.

The technical effect of any one of the design manners of the nineteenth aspect to the twenty-fifth aspect may be referred to as the technical effect of any one of the possible designs of the first aspect, or the technical effect of any one of the possible designs of the fourth aspect, or the technical effect of any one of the possible designs of the seventh aspect, or the technical effect of any one of the possible designs of the thirteenth aspect, or the technical effect of any one of the possible designs of the sixteenth aspect.

A twenty-fourth aspect provides a communication system comprising the communication apparatus according to any one of the second to third aspects and the communication apparatus according to any one of the fifth to sixth aspects, or the communication apparatus according to any one of the eighth to ninth aspects and the communication apparatus according to any one of the eleventh to twelfth aspects, or the communication apparatus according to any one of the fourteenth to fifteenth aspects and the communication apparatus according to any one of the seventeenth to eighteenth aspects.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the composition of an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a location of a candidate SSB in the time domain according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of yet another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of SSB candidate locations according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of SSB occupation symbol provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a PDSCH occupation symbol according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a configuration of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Prior to describing embodiments of the present application, technical terms related to the embodiments of the present application will be described.

Frequency band: with the evolution of the access technology, the available frequency band is continuously improved, and the frequency band is divided by the new radio access technology (NR) into a frequency range 1 (frequency range 1, FR 1) and a frequency range 2 (frequency range 2, FR 2), where FR1 mainly refers to the bandwidth of 450 MHz-6 GHz, and FR2 mainly refers to the bandwidth of 24.25 GHz-52.6 GHz.

In addition, the frequency band 52.6GHz to 71GHz (which may also be simply referred to as above 52.6 GHz) is also included in the usage range of the next generation mobile communication system (beyond 5.5G system). For this portion of the frequency bands, there are both licensed and unlicensed frequency bands.

The licensed band: the frequency band that can be used only by authorization is needed.

Unlicensed frequency bands: the frequency band that can be used without authorization may also be referred to as a shared frequency band. In the background of the fifth generation mobile communication technology, the technology deployed in the shared frequency band is collectively called wireless unlicensed band technology (new radio unlicensed, NRU).

Illustratively, taking the admission system currently under discussion in european postal and telecommunications conference (conference european post et de telecom, CEPT) as an example, the licensed and unlicensed bands for each country and region in the international telecommunications union (international telecommunication union, ITU) are shown in table 1 below, where U represents an unlicensed band and the remaining bands, excluding the band identified as U, represent licensed bands. For example, for China, 59GHz-64GHz is an unlicensed frequency band, and the rest frequency bands are licensed frequency bands; for the United states, 57GHz-71GHz is an unlicensed band, and the rest bands are licensed bands.

TABLE 1

Synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel block (synchronization signal and PBCH block, SSB): as shown in fig. 1, the SSB may be composed of a two-dimensional region of 4 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing symbols (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) in the time domain and 20 Resource Blocks (RBs) in the frequency domain. SSBs may include a primary synchronization signal (primary synchronization signal, PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (secondary synchronization signal, SSS), and a physical broadcast channel (physical broadcast channel, PBCH).

Wherein the terminal device can complete cell synchronization and coarse symbol-level timing synchronization by demodulating PSS and SSS. The PBCH may include master information block (master information block, MIB) information from a higher layer configuration, the terminal device may complete timing synchronization at a system frame level by demodulating MIB information, and acquire relevant configuration information of system information block 1/remaining minimum system information (system information block/remaining minimum system information, SIB 1/RMSI), i.e., the terminal device may demodulate Type 0-physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, type 0-PDCCH) and physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH) of SIB1/RMSI through parameters (PDCCH-ConfigSIB 1), and Type0-PDCCH may include control resource set 0 (control resource set #0, coreset#0).

Based on the above description, the unlicensed band may include other access systems such as radar (radar), wireless-fidelity (Wi-Fi), bluetooth, and other operators in addition to the NR system, and thus, the regulations require that the system operating in the unlicensed band support all or part of the following key technologies: listen-before-talk (listen before talk, LBT), transmit power control (transmit power control, TPC) and dynamic spectrum selection (dynamic frequency selection, DFS).

The LBT mechanism refers to that various access devices need to acquire interference conditions on a frequency band where a target channel is located before using the channel, and only when the interference level on the channel of the target frequency band is less than or equal to a preset threshold value, the channel can be used. The TPC mechanism means that under the condition that normal communication of other access devices is not affected, the transmitting device operating on an unlicensed frequency band cannot raise its own transmit power without limitation. The DFS mechanism refers to that a system operating in an unlicensed frequency band needs to avoid the frequency band where a high priority system is located in time, and dynamically switches to a frequency band with lower interference to operate.

In addition, for the same unlicensed frequency band, the legal requirements of different countries and regions are different, for example, in some countries, when the transmitting device transmits signals, LBT must be executed, and downlink signals can be transmitted only after the channels are successfully occupied; however, in some countries or regions, when the transmitting device transmits a signal, the transmitting device may transmit in a short control signal exempt (short control signal exemption, SCSe) manner, and the transmitting device may not perform LBT, but at this time, the duration of the transmitting device transmitting the signal in one observation period (which may also be described as a transmission period) cannot exceed 10% of the observation period. Wherein the observation period may be a transmission period of the signal. When the signal is a synchronization signal Block pattern (synchronization signal Block pattern, SS/PBCH Block/SSB), the observation period may be a transmission period of the SSB.

For example, taking an observation period of SSB of 20ms as an example, the duration of a network device sending a set of SSBs (or SSB burst sets) to a terminal device in SCSe mode cannot exceed 2ms within 20 ms.

In summary, when the network device operating in the unlicensed band transmits SSB to the terminal device in consideration of different regulatory requirements of different countries and regions, the SSB may be transmitted in SCSe mode or in LBT mode.

However, when the network device transmits SSB in LBT, the network device needs to perform channel interception first, which may cause a larger transmission delay. When the network device transmits SSBs in the SCSe mode, the network device can only select a certain number of SSBs to transmit due to the limitation of the transmission duration. When the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device only transmits a part of SSBs when transmitting SSBs to the terminal device in the SCSe mode, and cannot transmit the remaining SSBs to the terminal device.

Wherein the terminal device may receive SSBs sent by the network device within a discovery burst transmission window (discovery burst transmission window, DBTW). The DBTW may be configured by the network device to the terminal device. When the network device does not configure the DBTW for the terminal device, the terminal device may default the window length of the DBTW to a certain value. For example, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the terminal device may default to a window length of 5ms for DBTW.

For example, taking a subcarrier spacing of 120KHz as an example, the terminal device defaults to a period of 20ms for the network device to send a set of SSBs, the configurable maximum DBTW window length is 5ms, and the network device maximum number of SSBs that can be sent is 64. The number and duration of SSBs transmitted by a network device may be different for a group of SSBs, as shown in table 2 below. Within a default period of 20ms, the network device can send SSB in SCSe only if the duty cycle is less than or equal to 10% and the corresponding duration is less than or equal to 2 ms. I.e. when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in SCSe is less than or equal to 56. When the network device needs to send 64 SSBs to the terminal device, the network device can only send 56 SSBs in SCSe mode, and cannot send the remaining 8 SSBs to the terminal device.

TABLE 2

Number of SSB	Duration of time	Duty cycle	Whether or not to adopt SCSe mode
				64	2.29	11.43％	Whether or not
62	2.21	11.07％	Whether or not
				60	2.14	10.71％	Whether or not
58	2.07	10.36％	Whether or not
				56	2.00	10.00％	Is that
54	1.93	9.64％	Is that
				52	1.86	9.29％	Is that
50	1.79	8.93％	Is that
				48	1.71	8.57％	Is that

When the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, in one half frame of 5ms, the starting symbol position of the index of the candidate SSB in each slot may be: {4,8,16,20} +20·n, n=0, 1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,15,16,17,18, n denotes the slot position. The number of the candidate SSBs is greater than or equal to the number of SSBs actually sent by the network device to the terminal device. The schematic diagram of the locations of the candidate SSBs in the time domain may be shown in fig. 2, where 1ms includes 8 slots (slots), a hatched portion is a slot for transmitting SSBs, one slot may transmit 2 SSBs, and a blank portion is a slot for transmitting uplink traffic. It will be appreciated that the number of slots available to transmit SSBs is 32 in one observation period of 5ms, and thus the maximum number of SSBs that can be transmitted by the network device is 64, or may be described as one observation period including 64 candidate SSBs, or may be described as one field of 5ms including 64 SSB candidate locations.

It should be noted that the window length of the DBTW and the absolute time length corresponding to the completion of all SSBs or the number of corresponding slots may be different. For example, taking a window length of DBTW of 5ms as an example, the absolute time length for all SSBs to be sent out may be less than 5ms. For example, taking a subcarrier spacing of 480KHz as an example, 1ms may correspond to 32 slots, each slot may transmit 2 SSBs, a minimum of 32 slots are required for the transmission of 64 SSBs, and the corresponding absolute time is 1ms, less than 5ms.

In summary, how to send SSB to a terminal device by using LBT and SCSe methods by a network device to reduce the sending delay while sending SSB to the terminal device completely becomes a technical problem to be solved.

In order to solve the above technical problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which may include: the terminal equipment receives a first SSB from the network equipment; wherein the first SSB includes a first value for indicating a QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations; the terminal equipment determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in the DBTW, or determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode; or the terminal equipment determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in the SCSe mode according to the first numerical value and the number of the SSBs sent by the network equipment in the SCSe mode, or determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in the LBT mode.

In this embodiment of the present application, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, a SCSe mode may be used to send a part of the SSB, and an LBT mode may be used to send another part of the SSB. By adopting the transmission mode of combining the SCSe mode with the LBT mode, compared with the LBT mode, the transmission delay can be reduced, and compared with the SCSe mode, when the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device can completely transmit the SSBs to the terminal device. In addition, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the first value may be carried in the SSB, and after the terminal device receives the SSB, it may be determined, according to the first value in the SSB, which mode the network device sends the current SSB, and then the receiving beam is adjusted according to the sending mode of the current SSB, so as to improve the communication performance.

The following describes embodiments of the present application in detail with reference to the drawings.

The communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application may be used in any communication system, which may be a third generation partnership project (third generation partnership project,3 GPP) communication system, for example, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, an NR system, a new air interface internet of vehicles (vehicle to everything, NR V2X) system, a system that may be used in LTE and 5G hybrid networking, or a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) communication system, an internet of things (internet of things, ioT), and other next generation communication systems, for example, a 6G or non-3 GPP communication system, without limitation.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication scenes, for example, one or more of the following communication scenes: enhanced mobile broadband (enhanced mobile broadband, emmbb), ultra-reliable low latency communication (ultra reliable low latency communication, URLLC), machine type communication (machine type communication, MTC), large-scale machine type communication (massive machine type communications, mctc), D2D, V2X, and IoT, among other communication scenarios.

Optionally, the embodiment of the present application may be used in a communication system operating in an unlicensed frequency band, where the unlicensed frequency band may be the above-mentioned above 52.6GHz frequency band, and for example, the embodiment of the present application may be used in a communication system operating in an unlicensed frequency band of 60 GHz.

A communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application will be described below by taking fig. 3 as an example.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 3, the communication system may include a network device and a terminal device.

In fig. 3, the terminal device may be located within the beam/cell coverage of the network device. Wherein, the terminal device can communicate with the network device through an Uplink (UL) or a Downlink (DL) via an air interface. Such as: the terminal device can send uplink data to the network device through a physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink shared channel, PUSCH) in the UL direction; the network device may send downlink data to the terminal device in the DL direction over a physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink shared channel, PDSCH).

The terminal device in fig. 3 may be a terminal device supporting a new air interface, and may access the communication system through the air interface, and initiate services such as calling, surfing the internet, and the like. The terminal device may be an entity on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals, and may have a channel prediction function and a channel coefficient feedback function.

The terminal device may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE) or a Mobile Station (MS) or a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc. Specifically, the terminal device in fig. 3 may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, or a computer with a wireless transceiver function. But also Virtual Reality (VR) terminals, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminals, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in unmanned aerial vehicles, wireless terminals in telemedicine, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in smart cities (smart cities), wireless terminals in smart homes (smart home), vehicle-mounted terminals, vehicles with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capability, intelligent network vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles with unmanned aerial vehicle-to-unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV to UAV, U2U) communication capability, etc. are not limited.

The network device in fig. 3 may be any device with a radio transceiver function, and is mainly used for implementing a radio physical control function, a resource scheduling function, a radio resource management function, a radio access control function, a mobility management function, and the like, to provide a reliable radio transmission protocol and a data encryption protocol. The network device may be an entity on the network side for transmitting or receiving signals, and may have a channel prediction function.

Specifically, the network device may be a device supporting wired access, or may be a device supporting wireless access. The network device may be, for example, AN Access Network (AN)/radio access network (radio access network, RAN) device, consisting of a plurality of 5G-AN/5G-RAN nodes. The 5G-AN/5G-RAN node may be: an Access Point (AP), a base station (NB), an enhanced nodeB (eNB), a next generation base station (NR nodeB, gNB), a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a transmission point (transmission point, TP), or some other access node, etc.

In specific implementation, fig. 3 shows the following steps: each terminal device and each network device may adopt the constituent structure shown in fig. 4 or include the components shown in fig. 4. Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication device 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the communication device 400 may be a terminal device or a chip or a system on a chip in the terminal device; but may also be a network device or a chip or a system on a chip in a network device. As shown in fig. 4, the communication device 400 includes a processor 401, a transceiver 402, and a communication line 403.

Further, the communication device 400 may also include a memory 404. The processor 401, the memory 404, and the transceiver 402 may be connected by a communication line 403.

The processor 401 is a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a general purpose processor network processor (network processor, NP), a digital signal processor (digital signal processing, DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable logic device (programmable logic device, PLD), or any combination thereof. The processor 401 may also be any other device having a processing function, such as a circuit, a device, or a software module, without limitation.

A transceiver 402 for communicating with other devices or other communication networks. The other communication network may be an ethernet, a radio access network (radio access network, RAN), a wireless local area network (wireless local area networks, WLAN), etc. The transceiver 402 may be a module, circuitry, transceiver, or any device capable of enabling communications.

Communication line 403 for transmitting information between the components included in communication device 400.

Memory 404 for storing instructions. Wherein the instructions may be computer programs.

The memory 404 may be, but is not limited to, a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device capable of storing static information and/or instructions, a random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device capable of storing information and/or instructions, an EEPROM, a CD-ROM (compact disc read-only memory) or other optical disk storage, an optical disk storage (including compact disk, laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk, blu-ray disk, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, etc.

It is noted that the memory 404 may exist separately from the processor 401 or may be integrated with the processor 401. Memory 404 may be used to store instructions or program code or some data, etc. The memory 404 may be located within the communication device 400 or may be located outside the communication device 400, without limitation. The processor 401 is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 404, so as to implement a communication method provided in the following embodiments of the present application.

In one example, processor 401 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in fig. 4.

As an alternative implementation, the communication apparatus 400 includes a plurality of processors, for example, the processor 407 may be included in addition to the processor 401 in fig. 4.

As an alternative implementation, the communication apparatus 400 further comprises an output device 405 and an input device 406. Illustratively, the input device 406 is a keyboard, mouse, microphone, or joystick device, and the output device 405 is a display screen, speaker (spaker), or the like.

It should be noted that the communication apparatus 400 may be a desktop computer, a portable computer, a web server, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wireless terminal, an embedded device, a chip system, or a device having a similar structure as in fig. 4. Further, the constituent structure shown in fig. 4 does not constitute a limitation of the communication apparatus, and the communication apparatus may include more or less components than those shown in fig. 4, or may combine some components, or may be arranged in different components, in addition to those shown in fig. 4.

In the embodiment of the application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Further, actions, terms, etc. referred to between embodiments of the present application may be referred to each other without limitation. In the embodiment of the present application, the name of the message or the name of the parameter in the message, etc. interacted between the devices are only an example, and other names may also be adopted in the specific implementation, and are not limited.

The following describes a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application with reference to fig. 5 in conjunction with the communication system shown in fig. 3, where the terminal device may be any terminal device in the communication system shown in fig. 3, and the network device may be any network device in the communication system shown in fig. 3. The terminal device and the network device described in the following embodiments may each include the components shown in fig. 4. The processing performed by a single execution body (terminal device or network device) shown in the embodiments of the present application may also be divided into execution by a plurality of execution bodies, which may be logically and/or physically separated, for example, the processing performed by the network device may be divided into execution by at least one of a Central Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), and a Radio Unit (RU).

In the embodiment of the present application, a process of sending the SSB from the network device to the terminal device is described by taking an observation period as an example.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 5, the method may include:

in step 501, the network device sends a first SSB to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first SSB.

Wherein the first SSB may include a first value, which may be used to indicate a quasi co-location (QCL) relationship between SSB candidate locations.

It should be noted that the first SSB may be any SSB that the network device sends to the terminal device, that is, the first SSB may also be described as an SSB that the network device sends to the terminal device, or as an SSB that the terminal device receives, etc., without limitation.

The SSB candidate locations are locations where the network device may send SSBs to the terminal device, or may be described as locations where the network device may send SSBs to the terminal device. The number of SSB candidate positions is greater than or equal to the number of SSBs actually transmitted by the network device to the terminal device.

For example, the network device may use the time slot for sending the uplink service as the SSB candidate location, so as to increase the number of SSB candidate locations, and when the network device fails to send the SSB due to the LBT manner, the network device may send the SSB in other SSB candidate locations, so as to increase the sending success rate of the SSB.

For example, as shown in fig. 2, taking a window length of DBTW as 5ms and a subcarrier spacing of 120KHz as an example, there are 64 SSB candidate positions in a 5ms field, when the network device uses a slot for transmitting uplink traffic as an SSB candidate position as well, the number of SSB candidate positions in the 5ms field increases from 64 to 80, that is, there are 80 SSB candidate positions in the 5ms field.

The network device may configure a QCL relationship for the SSB candidate locations, and when the network device transmits SSBs at the SSB candidate locations, the network device may transmit the SSBs at the SSB candidate locations by using the same transmission beam, that is, the transmission beams corresponding to the SSB candidate locations having the QCL relationship are the same.

For example, taking SSB candidate position 0, SSB candidate position 8, and SSB candidate position 16 as examples having a QCL relationship, the transmission beam used by the network device when SSB candidate position 0 transmits SSB is the same as the transmission beam used by the network device when SSB candidate position 8 transmits SSB, and the transmission beam used by the network device when SSB candidate position 16 transmits SSB.

Based on the above description of the QCL relationship, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the network device may carry a first value in the SSB to indicate the QCL relationship between the SSB candidate locations.

When the network device sends the SSBs on the SSB candidate locations with the QCL relationship, the network device may configure the SSBs with the same first value to indicate that the SSB candidate locations corresponding to the SSBs have the QCL relationship, or may describe that the SSBs have the QCL relationship.

When the network device transmits the SSBs on the SSB candidate locations without QCL relationship, the network device may configure different first values for the SSBs to indicate that the SSB candidate locations corresponding to the SSBs do not have QCL relationship, or may describe that the SSBs do not have QCL relationship.

For example, taking an example that the network device transmits SSBs to the terminal device at SSB candidate location 0, SSB candidate location 1, SSB candidate location 2, assuming that SSB candidate location 0 and SSB candidate location 2 have QCL relationships, the network device may configure a first value 1 for SSB 0 transmitted at SSB candidate location 0 and SSB 2 transmitted at SSB candidate location 2, configure a first value 2 for SSB 1 transmitted at SSB candidate location 1, and indicate that SSB 0 and SSB 2 have QCL relationships by configuring the same first value 1 for SSB 0 and SSB 2, or describe that SSB candidate location 0 for transmitting SSB 0 and SSB candidate location 2 for transmitting SSB 2 have QCL relationships.

Alternatively, the network device carries the first value in the MIB of the first SSB, or the network device carries the first value in the MIB of the SSB sent by the network device to the terminal device, or the first value is included in the MIB.

Based on the above description of SSB, when the network device sends SSB to the terminal device, one or more of the following sending manners may be adopted: SCSe mode, LBT mode. That is, the network device may send SSB in SCSe mode, may send SSB in LBT mode, or may send SSB in mixed mode of SCSe mode and LBT mode.

Wherein, the SSB transmitted in the SCSe mode may be called SCSe-SSB, and the SSB transmitted in the LBT mode may be called LBT-SSB.

When the network device transmits the SSB to the terminal device in a manner in which the SCSe method is mixed with the LBT method, the SSB transmitted by the network device to the terminal device may include both the SCSe-SSB and the LBT-SSB in one observation period.

When the network device transmits SSBs to the terminal device in a manner in which the SCSe scheme and the LBT scheme are mixed, the network device may determine in which transmission scheme each SSB is transmitted, but the terminal device does not know the transmission scheme of each SSB received. Based on this, the network device may adjust a specific value of the first value in each SSB to indicate a transmission mode corresponding to each SSB.

In one possible design, the network device configures a first value for the SSB based on a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device within the DBTW.

For example, when the network device transmits SSBs in an unlicensed band using SCSe, the network device may configure the first value of the SSB to a value greater than a maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device within the DBTW. When the network device transmits SSBs in the LBT manner in the unlicensed band, the network device may configure the first value of the SSB to be a value less than or equal to a maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device within the DBTW.

Wherein the first value may also be used to indicate the number of different beam directions to be employed by the network device when sending SSBs to the terminal device.

When the network device sends SSB to the terminal device in LBT mode, the number of SSB sent in LBT mode is smaller than or equal to the first value.

For example, taking the first value as 16 as an example, the number of different transmission beam directions adopted when the network device transmits SSBs to the terminal device is 16 (or may also be described that the network device transmits SSBs to the terminal device by adopting transmission beams of 16 beam directions), and the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device by adopting the LBT manner is less than or equal to 16.

Alternatively, the first value is 16 or 32.

Optionally, the network device may further indicate that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state by the first value and a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device within the DBTW.

Illustratively, the DBTW state is an off state when the first value is greater than a maximum of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device within the DBTW; the DBTW state is an on state when the first value is less than or equal to a maximum of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device within the DBTW.

It should be noted that, when determining that the DBTW state is the closed state according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the SSB corresponding to the first value is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the SCSe mode; when the DBTW state is determined to be the open state according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the SSBs corresponding to the first numerical value are SSBs sent by the network device in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

Optionally, the network device may carry the DBTW window length in SIB 1 (for example, in the RRC parameter "discovery burst-WindowLength"), and the terminal device may determine the DBTW window length by demodulating SIB 1, thereby determining a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, and further determining a sending manner of the SSBs according to the maximum value and the first value. That is, the terminal device may determine the transmission mode of the SSB according to the first value and the window length of the DBTW.

Wherein, one time slot can send 2 SSBs, and the terminal device can determine the number of time slots corresponding to the DBTW according to the window length of the DBTW, thereby determining the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW.

In yet another possible design, the network device configures the first value for the SSB according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device via the SCSe mode.

For example, when the network device transmits SSBs in the SCSe mode in the unlicensed band, the network device may configure the first value of the SSB to be the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode.

Optionally, the number of SSBs sent by the network device through SCSe is any one of the following: 48. 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56.

Optionally, the network device may further indicate that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state through the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode.

Illustratively, the DBTW state is off when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network device via SCSe.

It should be noted that, when the DBTW state is determined to be the off state according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, the SSB corresponding to the first value is the SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe mode in the unlicensed frequency band.

The network device may indicate, to the terminal device, the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode through the SIB 1 parameter, so that the terminal device determines, according to the SIB 1 parameter, the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode, and further determines, according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode, the sending mode of the SSBs.

In yet another possible design, the network device configures the first value for the SSB based on a maximum of the number of candidate SSBs.

For example, when the network device transmits an SSB in the licensed band, the network device may configure the first value of the SSB to be the maximum of the number of candidate SSBs.

Wherein the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs, i.e. the maximum value of the number of SSBs that the network device can send to the terminal device.

Alternatively, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs is 64.

Optionally, the network device may further indicate that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state through a maximum of the first value and the number of candidate SSBs.

Illustratively, the DBTW state is an off state when the first value is equal to the maximum of the number of candidate SSBs.

It should be noted that, when the DBTW state is determined to be the off state according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs, the SSB corresponding to the first value is the SSB sent by the network device in the licensed band.

Step 502, the terminal device determines a transmission mode of the first SSB.

The transmission mode may be an LBT mode or an SCSe mode. The terminal device may determine a transmission mode of the SSB according to the received first value of the SSB.

In one possible design, the terminal device determines, according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, that the SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band by way of SCSe, or determines that the SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band by way of LBT. In other words, the terminal device may determine whether the transmission mode of the SSB is the SCSe mode or the LBT mode according to the first value and the DBTW window length, because the terminal device may determine the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted within the DBTW through the DBTW window length. It should be noted that this alternative description is equally applicable to the following embodiments.

For example, when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the SSB corresponding to the first value is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by way of SCSe, and otherwise, the terminal device determines that the SSB corresponding to the first value is an SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band by way of LBT.

Optionally, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to the first value and a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW.

Illustratively, when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device within the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is an off state; otherwise, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is an on state.

When determining that the DBTW state is the closed state according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the SSB corresponding to the first value is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band in the SCSe mode; when determining that the DBTW state is an open state according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the SSB corresponding to the first value is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

Optionally, the terminal device may determine the DBTW window length by demodulating SIB 1, further determine a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, and further determine a sending manner of the SSBs according to the maximum value and the first value.

Wherein, one time slot can transmit 2 SSBs, and the terminal device can determine the number of time slots corresponding to the DBTW according to the window length of the DBTW, thereby determining the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the DBTW.

In yet another possible design, the terminal device determines, according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, that the SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe mode in the unlicensed band, or determines that the SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the LBT mode in the unlicensed band.

Wherein, the network device can indicate the number of SSB sent by the network device through SCSe mode to the terminal device through SIB 1 parameter. The terminal device can determine the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode according to the SIB 1 parameter.

For example, when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, the terminal device determines that the SSB carrying the first value is an SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe mode in the unlicensed band. For example, the terminal device determines that the first value included in the received SSB is 56, and the number of SSBs sent by the preconfigured network device through the SCSe mode is 48, where the values of the first value and the number of SSBs are not equal, and the terminal device may know that the received SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through the LBT mode in an unlicensed frequency band.

Optionally, the terminal device further determines that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode.

Illustratively, the DBTW state is determined to be an off state when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs that the network device sends by way of the SCse.

When determining that the DBTW state is the off state according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, the terminal device determines that the SSB corresponding to the first value is the SSB sent by the network device through the SCSe mode in the unlicensed frequency band.

In a further possible design, the terminal device determines the transmission mode of the SSB according to the first value and the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs.

Wherein the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs, i.e. the maximum value of the number of SSBs that the network device can send to the terminal device. The maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs may be determined according to the subcarrier spacing. For example, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs is 64.

For example, when the first value is equal to the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs, the terminal device determines that the SSB carrying the first value is the SSB transmitted by the network device in the licensed band.

Optionally, the terminal device may further determine that the DBTW state is an on state or an off state through a maximum value of the first value and the number of candidate SSBs.

Based on the above three possible designs, the terminal device may further determine whether a QCL relationship exists between SSBs according to the first value of the SSBs, and for the SSBs having the QCL relationship, the terminal device may use the same receiving beam to receive, so as to improve communication performance.

Based on the method shown in fig. 5, when the network device sends SSB to the terminal device, a part of SSB may be sent by SCSe method, and another part of SSB may be sent by LBT method. By adopting the transmission mode of combining the SCSe mode with the LBT mode, compared with the LBT mode, the transmission delay can be reduced, and compared with the SCSe mode, when the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device can completely transmit the SSBs to the terminal device. In addition, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the first value may be carried in the SSB, and after the terminal device receives the SSB, it may be determined, according to the first value in the SSB, which mode the network device sends the current SSB, and then the receiving beam is adjusted according to the sending mode of the current SSB, so as to improve the communication performance.

Instead of the network device carrying the first value in the SSB in fig. 5 and the terminal device determining the transmission mode of the SSB according to the first value, as shown in fig. 6 below, the network device may also carry the index of the SSB and the second value in the SSB, and the terminal device may determine the transmission mode of the SSB according to the index of the SSB and the first threshold.

Fig. 6 is a flowchart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 6, where the method may include:

in step 601, the network device sends a first SSB to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first SSB.

The first SSB may include an index of the first SSB and a second value, and the second value may be used to indicate a QCL relationship between remaining SSB candidate positions, which are SSB candidate positions except for the SSB positions transmitted in the SCSe manner.

The description of the SSB candidate location may refer to the description of the SSB candidate location in step 501, which is not described in detail.

For example, when the window length of the DBTW is 5ms and the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the number of SSB candidate positions is 80.

When the network device transmits the SSB to the terminal device, the SSB may be transmitted in a mixed manner of SCSe and LBT. Wherein, the SSB transmitted in the SCSe mode may be called SCSe-SSB, and the SSB transmitted in the LBT mode may be called LBT-SSB. That is, during one observation period, the network device may send SSBs in SCSe mode on a portion of the SSB candidate locations and in LBT mode on the remaining SSB candidate locations.

Specifically, the remaining SSB candidate locations may be SSB candidate locations other than the SSB locations transmitted in the SCSe method, or may be described as locations where the remaining SSB candidate locations do not include the SSB transmitted in the SCSe method, or may be described as SSB candidate locations where the network device may transmit the SSB in the LBT method.

For example, taking the example that the number of SSB candidate locations is 80, assuming that the network device sends 56 SSBs to the terminal device using the SCSe method, the remaining SSB candidate locations include 24 SSB candidate locations except for the 56 SSBs sent using the SCSe method from among the 80 SSB candidate locations. Illustratively, 56 SSBs sent in SCSe occupy the first 56 positions of 80 SSB candidate positions, and the remaining SSB candidate positions are the remaining last 24 positions.

The network device may configure QCL relationships for the remaining SSB candidate locations. When the network device transmits SSBs to the terminal device in the LBT manner at the remaining SSB candidate positions, the network device may transmit SSBs at the plurality of SSB candidate positions for SSB candidate positions having the QCL relationship, that is, the same transmission beam corresponding to the SSB candidate position having the QCL relationship.

Based on the above description of the QCL relationship, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the network device may carry a second value in the SSB to indicate the QCL relationship between the remaining SSB candidate locations.

It should be noted that, the network device may determine the specific value of the second numerical value according to the QCL relationship between the remaining SSB candidate positions. When the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, whether the SSB is an SSB sent in SCSe mode or an SSB sent in LBT mode, the network device carries a second value in the SSB, so that the terminal device determines the QCL relationship between the remaining SSB candidate positions according to the second value.

For example, with an SSB candidate location number of 80, the network device needs to send 64 SSBs to the terminal device, and the network device sends 56 SSBs to the terminal device in SCSe mode, where the remaining SSB candidate locations may include the last 24 SSB candidate locations in the 80 SSB candidate locations. The network device may configure the second value to 8 to indicate that, among the 24 candidate locations, for the remaining 8 SSBs to be transmitted, each SSB has three transmission opportunities, that is, the network device may transmit the same SSB on three SSB candidate locations with QCL relationships, and when a certain SSB fails to transmit, the network device may continue to transmit the SSB using the SSB candidate locations with QCL relationships, so as to improve the transmission success rate of the SSB.

As shown in fig. 7, taking the indices #56 to #79 of the last 24 SSB candidate positions out of the 80 SSB candidate positions as an example, when the second value is 8, the indices of the SSB candidate positions may be used to spare 8, and the SSB candidate positions having the same remainder have the QCL relationship. As shown in fig. 7, SSB candidate position #56, SSB candidate position #64, SSB candidate position #72, each having a remainder of 0, have a QCL relationship; SSB candidate position #57, SSB candidate position #65, SSB candidate position #73 having remainder of 1 each have QCL relationship; …; SSB candidate position #63, SSB candidate position #71, SSB candidate position #79, each having a remainder of 7, have a QCL relationship; the network device may transmit SSBs using the same transmit beam at SSB candidate locations with QCL relationships.

Based on the above description about table 2, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the SCSe mode is 56, and based on this, taking the example that the network device needs to send 64 SSBs to the terminal device, when the network device sends different numbers of SSBs to the terminal device in the SCSe mode, the maximum value of the second value may be as shown in the following table 3:

TABLE 3 Table 3

In table 3, the number of SSBs transmitted by SCSe decreases from 56 to 24. Since each time slot contains 2 SSBs, the number of time slots occupied by SSBs transmitted by SCSe method is sequentially 1/2 of the number of SSBs transmitted by SCSe method. Considering a maximum of 5ms DBTW, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, there are 40 slots within 5ms and 80 SSB candidate positions. When the set of SSBs sent by the network device to the terminal device includes 64 SSBs, if the network device uses SCSe to send 56 SSBs and occupies 28 slots, the remaining 8 SSBs are sent on the remaining 24 SSB candidate positions, that is, at most 8 SSBs are sent in LBT, where the maximum value of the second value is 8. If the network device sends 24 SSBs in the SCSe mode and occupies 12 slots, the remaining 40 SSBs are sent in the remaining 56 SSB candidate positions, that is, at most 40 SSBs are sent in the LBT mode, and at this time, the maximum value of the second numerical value is 40. If the network device does not send SSBs using SCSe, then 64 SSBs are sent on 80 SSB candidate locations, i.e. at most 64 SSBs are sent using LBT, where the maximum value of the second value is 64.

As can be seen from table 3, the maximum value of the second value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network device in LBT mode.

Illustratively, the second value may be greater than or equal to 1, less than or equal to the maximum of the number of candidate SSBs.

Wherein, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the maximum value of the number of candidate SSBs is 64.

For example, the second value may be any of the following: 1. 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40.

When the network device transmits SSBs to the terminal device in a manner in which the SCSe scheme and the LBT scheme are mixed, the network device may determine in which transmission scheme each SSB is transmitted, but the terminal device does not know the transmission scheme of each SSB received. Based on this, the network device may indicate, through the index of the SSB and the first threshold, a transmission manner corresponding to each SSB.

The first threshold may be the number of SSBs sent by the network device in SCSe mode.

The first threshold may be greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device to the terminal device in the SCSe mode.

Illustratively, when the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the maximum number of SSBs sent by the network device to the terminal device in SCSe mode is 56.

For example, the first threshold may be any of the following: 32. 40, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56.

Optionally, the first threshold is predefined; alternatively, the first threshold is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

When the index of the SSB is larger than or equal to the first threshold, the network equipment sends the SSB in an LBT mode, and when the index of the SSB is smaller than the first threshold, the network equipment sends the SSB in an SCSe mode.

Optionally, the network device carries the second value in MIB of SSB.

Optionally, the network device carries the index of the SSB in the payload (payload) of the PBCH of the SSB.

Alternatively, unlike the method that the network device indicates the sending manner of each SSB through the index of the first SSB and the first threshold in step 601, the network device may also directly indicate the number of SSBs sent by the network device and/or the sending manner of each SSB by sending SIB 1 parameters (e.g. "ServingCellConfigCommonSIB" and/or "ServingCellConfigCommon") to the terminal device through RRC parameters.

For example, the network device may indicate to the terminal device SSBs transmitted by the network device in a bit map manner, the network device may indicate that SSBs are transmitted by setting a bit to 1 to indicate candidate positions of SSBs corresponding to the bit, and may indicate that SSBs are not transmitted by the candidate positions of SSBs corresponding to the bit by setting a bit to 0, where the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device is equal to the number of bits set to 1.

For example, taking a subcarrier spacing of 120KHz as an example, a bit bitmap may include 64 bits, one SSB for each bit, and the network device may determine that the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device is 56 by setting a bit to 1 to indicate that SSBs are transmitted by candidate locations of SSBs corresponding to the bit, by setting a bit to 0 to indicate that SSBs are not transmitted by candidate locations of SSBs corresponding to the bit, and assuming that the number of bits set to 1 is 56.

Optionally, the network device may further configure, for a bit set to 1, indication information for indicating a transmission mode, so as to indicate a transmission mode of the SSB corresponding to the bit.

In step 602, when the index of the first SSB is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the terminal device determines that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the LBT mode, otherwise, the terminal device determines that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the SCSe mode.

The terminal device may determine a transmission mode of the SSB according to the received index of the SSB and the first threshold.

When the index of the SSB is larger than or equal to a first threshold value, the terminal equipment determines that the SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode, and when the index of the SSB is smaller than the first threshold value, the terminal equipment determines that the SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an SCSe mode.

When the SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in the LBT manner, the terminal device may also receive, according to the second value, an SSB sent by the network device and having a QCL relationship with the SSB.

Illustratively, the terminal device may determine, according to the first threshold, the number of SSBs sent by the network device in SCSe mode. Determining the residual SSB candidate positions corresponding to SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode according to the number of SSB sent by the network equipment in an SCSe mode; and receiving the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode according to the second value and the residual SSB candidate position.

For example, taking the number of SSB candidate locations as 80, the network device needs to send 64 SSBs to the terminal device, assuming that the network device sends 56 SSBs to the terminal device using the SCSe method, the first threshold may be 55, the terminal device may determine that the number of SSBs sent by the network device using the SCSe method is 56 according to the first threshold, since the number of SSB candidate locations is 80, the terminal device may determine that the remaining SSB candidate locations corresponding to SSBs sent by the network device using the LBT method are the last 24 SSB candidate locations (i.e., SSB candidate locations with indexes #56 to # 79) of the 80 SSB candidate locations, and when the second value is 8, the terminal device may determine that SSB candidate location #56, SSB candidate location #64, and SSB candidate location #72 have a QCL relationship; SSB candidate position #57, SSB candidate position #65, SSB candidate position #73 have a QCL relationship; …; SSB candidate position #63, SSB candidate position #71, SSB candidate position #79 have a QCL relationship; the terminal device may receive SSBs using the same receive beam at SSB candidate locations with QCL relationships.

That is, when the index of the SSB is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the terminal device may adjust the receiving beam according to the second value, and receive the SSB having a QCL relationship with the current SSB sent by the network device; when the index of the SSB is smaller than the first threshold, the terminal device may not adjust the reception beam according to the second value.

Optionally, after the terminal device demodulates SIB 1, rate Matching (RM) may be performed on the remaining SSB candidate positions.

Alternatively, unlike the method that the terminal device determines each SSB according to the index of the first SSB and the first threshold in step 602, the terminal device may also determine the number of SSBs and/or the transmission method of each SSB sent by the network device by analyzing SIB 1 parameters (e.g. "ServingCellConfigCommonSIB" and/or "ServingCellConfigCommon") sent by the network device through RRC parameters.

For example, when the network device indicates to the terminal device the SSB transmitted by the network device in the form of a bit map, the terminal device may determine the number of bits set to 1 as the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device, assuming that the network device transmits the SSB by setting a bit to 1 to indicate the candidate position of the SSB corresponding to the bit, and by setting a bit to 0 to indicate that the candidate position of the SSB corresponding to the bit does not transmit the SSB.

For example, taking a subcarrier spacing of 120KHz as an example, the bit bitmap may include 64 bits, one SSB for each bit, the network device may determine that the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device is 56 by setting the bit to 1 to indicate that SSBs are transmitted by the candidate locations of SSBs corresponding to the bit, by setting the bit to 0 to indicate that SSBs are not transmitted by the candidate locations of SSBs corresponding to the bit, and assuming that the number of bits set to 1 is 56.

Optionally, when the network device configures the indication information for indicating the transmission mode for the bit set to 1, the terminal device may determine, according to the indication information corresponding to each bit, the transmission mode of the SSB corresponding to the bit.

Based on the method shown in fig. 6, when the network device sends SSB to the terminal device, a part of SSB may be sent in SCSe mode, and another part of SSB may be sent in LBT mode. By adopting the transmission mode of combining the SCSe mode with the LBT mode, compared with the LBT mode, the transmission delay can be reduced, and compared with the SCSe mode, when the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs transmitted by the network device in the SCSe mode, the network device can completely transmit the SSBs to the terminal device. In addition, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device, the SSB may carry the index of the SSB and the second value, and after the terminal device receives the SSB, the terminal device may determine, according to the index of the SSB, which mode is used by the network device to send the current SSB, and further adjust the receiving beam according to the sending mode and the second value of the current SSB, so as to improve the communication performance.

Based on the communication methods described in fig. 5 to 7, in the initial access process, when the network device sends the SSB to the terminal device in the SCSe manner, the network device may also send the resource control set CORESET 0 and PDSCH to the terminal device; wherein, PDSCH may include SIB 1; CORESET 0, SIB 1 and the SSB satisfy a quasi co-sited QCL relationship.

The network device transmits the SSB and the CORESET 0 and PDSCH having QCL relation with the SSB in the SCSe mode together by using the same transmission beam, so that the network device can be prevented from performing LBT, and the power consumption can be reduced. Meanwhile, the terminal equipment can adopt the same receiving wave beam to receive the SSB and the CORESET 0 and PDSCH which have the QCL relation with the SSB, and the initial access time delay can be reduced.

Illustratively, taking a subcarrier spacing of 120KHz as an example, each symbol occupies about 8.9us, each SSB occupies 4 symbols, and 56 SSBs occupy a total of about 2ms, about 224 symbols. Correspondingly, for 32 SSBs, it takes about 128 symbols. Thus, when the transmission period of one set of SSBs is 20ms, there are 96 symbols for transmitting downlink signals of other non-SSBs.

Thus, when SSBs are transmitted with CORESET 0 and PDSCH satisfying the QCL relationship, the 96 symbols can be used to transmit coreset#0 and PDSCH having the QCL relationship with SSBs, and a total of 3 symbols are occupied with coreset#0 and PDSCH having the QCL relationship with each SSB. However, coreset#0 and PDSCH having QCL relation with SSB may be described as coreset#0 and PDSCH associated with SSB, without limitation.

The following description will be given of symbols occupied by CORESET #0 and PDSCH associated with each SSB, taking a case where one slot shown in fig. 8 includes 2 SSBs as an example:

alternatively, when the network device configures symbols occupied by PDSCH, the symbols occupied by PDSCH may be indicated by indicating a starting symbol position and a duration of time domain length of PDSCH on the time domain channel.

For example, the network device may indicate a starting symbol position of the PDSCH on the time domain channel through S and a time domain length of the PDSCH sustained on the time domain channel through L.

For example, taking s=4 and l=4 as an example, as shown in fig. 9, symbols occupied by PDSCH are symbol 4, symbol 5, symbol 6, and symbol 7.

In a first possible design, CORESET 0 occupies two symbols and PDSCH occupies two symbols or three symbols or four symbols.

Wherein CORESET 0 is time division multiplexed with SSB and PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB.

For example, as shown in fig. 8, symbol 0 and symbol 1 may be occupied by CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 1, and as shown in table 4 below, symbol 4 and symbol 5 may be occupied by PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 by setting S to 4 and l to 2; or by setting S to 4 and l to 3, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 occupies symbol 4, symbol 5, and symbol 6; or by setting S to 4 and l to 4, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 occupies symbol 4, symbol 5, symbol 6, and symbol 7; or by setting S to 5,L to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 occupies symbol 5 and symbol 6; or by setting S to 5,L to 3 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 5, symbol 6, and symbol 7; or by setting S to 6 and l to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 6 and symbol 7.

TABLE 4 Table 4

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 8, CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 2 and symbol 3, and as shown in table 5 below, may indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 8 and symbol 9 by setting S to 8 and l to 2; or by setting S to 8 and l to 3, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 8, symbol 9, and symbol 10; or by setting S to 8 and l to 4, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 8, symbol 9, symbol 10, and symbol 11; or by setting S to 9 and l to 2 to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 9 and symbol 10; or by setting S to 9 and l to 3, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 9, symbol 10, and symbol 11; or by setting S to 10 and l to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 10 and symbol 11.

TABLE 5

S	L
			8	2
8	3
		8	4
9	2
		9	3
10	2

In a second possible design, CORESET 0 occupies two symbols and PDSCH occupies two symbols.

Wherein CORESET 0 is frequency division multiplexed with SSB, PDSCH is frequency division multiplexed with SSB.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 8, symbol 4 and symbol 5 may be occupied by CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 1, and as shown in table 6 below, symbol 6 and symbol 7 may be occupied by PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 by setting S to 6 and l to 2.

TABLE 6

S	L
			6	2

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 8, symbol 8 and symbol 9 may be occupied by CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 2, and as shown in table 7 below, symbol 10 and symbol 11 may be occupied by PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 by setting S to 10 and l to 2.

TABLE 7

S	L
			10	2

In a third possible design, CORESET 0 occupies one symbol, and PDSCH occupies two or three or four symbols.

For example, as shown in fig. 8, CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 0, and as shown in table 8 below, S may be set to 4 and l may be set to 2 to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 occupies symbol 4 and symbol 5; or by setting S to 4 and l to 3, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 occupies symbol 4, symbol 5, and symbol 6; or by setting S to 4 and l to 4, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 occupies symbol 4, symbol 5, symbol 6, and symbol 7; or by setting S to 5,L to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 occupies symbol 5 and symbol 6; or by setting S to 5,L to 3 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 5, symbol 6, and symbol 7; or by setting S to 6 and l to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 6 and symbol 7.

TABLE 8

S	L
			4	2
4	3
		4	4
5	2
		5	3
6	2

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 8, CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 1, and as shown in table 9 below, may indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 8 and symbol 9 by setting S to 8 and l to 2; or by setting S to 8 and l to 3, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 8, symbol 9, and symbol 10; or by setting S to 8 and l to 4, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 8, symbol 9, symbol 10, and symbol 11; or by setting S to 9 and l to 2 to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 9 and symbol 10; or by setting S to 9 and l to 3, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 9, symbol 10, and symbol 11; or by setting S to 10 and l to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 10 and symbol 11.

TABLE 9

S	L
			8	2
8	3
		8	4
9	2
		9	3

In a fourth possible design, CORESET 0 occupies one symbol and PDSCH occupies two or three symbols.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 8, CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 4, and as shown in table 10 below, may indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 5 and symbol 6 by setting S to 5,L to 2; or by setting S to 5,L to 3 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 5, symbol 6, and symbol 7; or by setting S to 6 and l to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 1 may occupy symbol 6 and symbol 7.

Table 10

S	L
			5	2
5	3
		6	2

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 8, CORESET 0 corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 8, and as shown in table 11 below, S may be set to 9, l may be set to 2, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 9 and symbol 10; or by setting S to 9 and l to 3, to indicate that PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 9, symbol 10, and symbol 11; or by setting S to 10 and l to 2 to indicate that the PDSCH corresponding to SSB 2 may occupy symbol 10 and symbol 11.

TABLE 11

S	L
			9	2
9	3
		10	2

In the above embodiment, the transmission of the SSB is described only from the point of view of the time domain resource, and the frequency domain resource occupied by the SSB is not limited. In addition, the above embodiment only uses 120KHz subcarrier spacing as an example to describe SSB transmission, and it should be understood that the above embodiment is also applicable to other subcarrier spacing application scenarios, and is not limited.

The above description has been presented mainly from the point of interaction between devices. It will be appreciated that each device, in order to implement the above-described functions, includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules that perform the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the algorithm steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the application may divide the functional modules of each device according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation.

In the case of dividing the respective function modules with the respective functions, fig. 10 shows a terminal device 100, and the terminal device 100 can perform the actions performed by the terminal devices in fig. 5 to 9 described above.

The terminal device 100 may include a transceiver module 1001 and a processing module 1002. The terminal device 100 may be a terminal device, or may be a chip applied to the terminal device or other combination device, component, or the like having the functions of the terminal device. When the terminal device 100 is a terminal device, the transceiver module 1001 may be a transceiver, which may include an antenna, a radio frequency circuit, and the like; the processing module 1002 may be a processor (or processing circuitry), such as a baseband processor, which may include one or more CPUs. When the terminal device 100 is a component having the above-described terminal device function, the transceiver module 1001 may be a radio frequency unit; the processing module 1002 may be a processor (or processing circuit), such as a baseband processor. When the terminal device 100 is a chip system, the transceiver module 1001 may be an input/output interface of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip); the processing module 1002 may be a processor (or processing circuit) of a system-on-chip, and may include one or more central processing units. It should be appreciated that the transceiver module 1001 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver related circuit components; the processing module 1002 may be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit component (alternatively referred to as a processing circuit).

For example, transceiver module 1001 may be used to perform all of the transceiving operations performed by a terminal device in the embodiments shown in fig. 5-9, and/or to support other processes of the techniques described herein; the processing module 1002 may be used to perform all but the transceiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiments illustrated in fig. 5-9, and/or to support other procedures of the techniques described herein.

As yet another implementation, the transceiver module 1001 in fig. 10 may be replaced by a transceiver, which may integrate the functions of the transceiver module 1001; the processing module 1002 may be replaced by a processor, which may integrate the functions of the processing module 1002. Further, the terminal device 100 shown in fig. 10 may further include a memory. When the transceiver module 1001 is replaced by a transceiver and the processing module 1002 is replaced by a processor, the terminal device 100 according to the embodiment of the present application may be a communication device shown in fig. 4.

In the case of dividing the respective functional modules with the respective functions, fig. 11 shows a network device 110, and the network device 110 may perform the actions performed by the network devices in fig. 5 to 9 described above.

The network device 110 may include a transceiver module 1101 and a processing module 1102. The network device 110 may be a network device, a chip applied in a network device, or other combination devices, components, etc. having the functions of the network device. When the network device 110 is a network device, the transceiver module 1101 may be a transceiver, which may include an antenna, radio frequency circuitry, and the like; the processing module 1102 may be a processor (or processing circuitry), such as a baseband processor, which may include one or more CPUs. When the network device 110 is a component having the above network device function, the transceiver module 1101 may be a radio frequency unit; the processing module 1102 may be a processor (or processing circuit), such as a baseband processor. When the network device 110 is a system-on-chip, the transceiver module 1101 may be an input-output interface of a chip (e.g., a baseband chip); the processing module 1102 may be a processor (or processing circuit) of a system-on-chip and may include one or more central processing units. It should be appreciated that the transceiver module 1101 in embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver-related circuit components; the processing module 1102 may be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuit component (alternatively referred to as a processing circuit).

For example, the transceiving module 1101 may be used to perform all transceiving operations performed by a network device in the embodiments illustrated in fig. 5-9, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein; the processing module 1102 may be used to perform all but the transceiving operations performed by the network device in the embodiments illustrated in fig. 5-9, and/or other procedures to support the techniques described herein.

As yet another implementation, the transceiver module 1101 in fig. 11 may be replaced by a transceiver, which may integrate the functions of the transceiver module 1101; the processing module 1102 may be replaced by a processor that may integrate the functionality of the processing module 1102. Further, the network device 110 shown in fig. 11 may also include a memory. When the transceiver module 1101 is replaced by a transceiver and the processing module 1102 is replaced by a processor, the network device 110 according to the embodiment of the present application may be the communication apparatus shown in fig. 4.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium. All or part of the flow in the above method embodiments may be implemented by a computer program to instruct related hardware, where the program may be stored in the above computer readable storage medium, and when the program is executed, the program may include the flow in the above method embodiments. The computer readable storage medium may be an internal storage unit of the terminal (including the data transmitting end and/or the data receiving end) of any of the foregoing embodiments, for example, a hard disk or a memory of the terminal. The computer readable storage medium may be an external storage device of the terminal, for example, a plug-in hard disk, a Smart Media Card (SMC), a Secure Digital (SD) card, a flash card (flash card), or the like, which are provided in the terminal. Further, the computer-readable storage medium may further include both an internal storage unit and an external storage device of the terminal. The computer-readable storage medium is used for storing the computer program and other programs and data required by the terminal. The above-described computer-readable storage medium may also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or is to be output.

It should be noted that the terms "first" and "second" and the like in the description, claims and drawings of the present application are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular sequential order. Furthermore, the terms "comprise" and "have," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to only those listed steps or elements but may include other steps or elements not listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

It should be understood that, in the present application, "at least one (item)" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more, "at least two (items)" means two or three and three or more, "and/or" for describing an association relationship of an association object, three kinds of relationships may exist, for example, "a and/or B" may mean: only a, only B and both a and B are present, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, at least one (one) of a, b or c may represent: a, b, c, "a and b", "a and c", "b and c", or "a and b and c", wherein a, b, c may be single or plural.

From the foregoing description of the embodiments, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, only the above-described division of functional modules is illustrated, and in practical application, the above-described functional allocation may be implemented by different functional modules according to needs, i.e. the internal structure of the apparatus is divided into different functional modules to implement all or part of the functions described above.

In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the modules or units is merely a logical functional division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another apparatus, 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 parts may or may not be physically separate, and the parts displayed as units may be one physical unit or a plurality of physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed in a plurality of different places. 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. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially or a part contributing to the prior art or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for causing a device (may be a single-chip microcomputer, a chip or the like) or a processor (processor) 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 usb disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, etc.

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 communication method, characterized in that,

the terminal equipment receives a first synchronous signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from the network equipment; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations;

the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a short control signal exempt SCSe mode or determines that the first SSB is SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band through a Listen Before Talk (LBT) mode according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a Discovery Burst Transmission Window (DBTW); or alternatively

And the terminal equipment determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode or determines the first SSB to be the SSB sent by the network equipment in an LBT mode in the unlicensed frequency band according to the first numerical value and the quantity of the SSBs sent by the network equipment in the SCSe mode.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the position of the substrate comprises,

and when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed frequency band in a SCSe mode, otherwise, the terminal device determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that,

the terminal equipment determines that the DBTW state is an open state or a closed state according to the first numerical value and the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in the DBTW;

when the DBTW state is in a closed state, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in a SCSe mode;

and when the DBTW state is an open state, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of,

when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the terminal device determines that the DBTW state is a closed state; otherwise, the terminal equipment determines the DBTW state to be an open state.

5. The method according to any one of claim 1 to 4, wherein,

and when the first value is the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in the SCSe mode, the terminal equipment determines that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in the unlicensed frequency band in the SCSe mode.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein,

the terminal equipment determines the DBTW state to be an open state or a closed state according to the first numerical value and the quantity of SSBs sent by the network equipment in an SCSe mode;

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the step of providing the first layer comprises,

and when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a SCSe mode, determining that the DBTW state is a closed state.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein,

The number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode is any one of the following: 48. 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein,

when the DBTW is 5ms and the subcarrier spacing is 120KHz, the number of SSB candidate positions is 80.

10. A communication method, characterized in that,

the network equipment sends a first synchronous signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to the terminal equipment; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations;

the first numerical value is used for determining that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band through a short control signal exempt SCSe mode according to the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in a discovery burst transmission window DBTW, or determining that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band through a listen before talk LBT mode; or alternatively

The first value is used for determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the SCSe mode according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device through the SCSe mode, or determining that the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in the unlicensed band through the LBT mode.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of determining the position of the first electrode is performed,

and when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed frequency band in a SCSe mode, otherwise, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein,

the first numerical value is further used for determining that the DBTW state is an open state or a closed state according to the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW;

when the DBTW state is in a closed state, the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an SCSe mode;

when the DBTW state is an open state, the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in an LBT mode.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

when the first value is 16 or 32, if the first value is greater than the maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in the DBTW, the DBTW state is an off state; otherwise, the DBTW state is an open state.

14. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, wherein,

and when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a SCSe mode, the first SSB is the SSB sent by the network equipment in an unlicensed frequency band in the SCSe mode.

15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, wherein,

the first value is further used for determining that the DBTW state is in an open state or a closed state according to the number of SSBs sent by the network device in an SCSe mode;

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

and when the first value is equal to the number of SSBs sent by the network equipment in a SCSe mode, the DBTW state is in a closed state.

17. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 16, wherein,

18. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, wherein,

19. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver module for receiving a first synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB from a network device; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations;

a processing module, configured to determine, according to the first value and a maximum value of the number of SSBs sent by the network device in a discovery burst transmission window DBTW, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band by a short control signal-exempt SCSe manner, or determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device in an unlicensed band by a listen-before-talk LBT manner; or alternatively

The processing module is configured to determine, according to the first value and the number of SSBs sent by the network device through an SCSe manner, that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through an SCSe manner in an unlicensed frequency band, or determine that the first SSB is an SSB sent by the network device through an LBT manner in the unlicensed frequency band.

20. A communication device, comprising:

a transceiver module for transmitting a first synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB to a terminal device; wherein the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations;

21. A communication device, the communication device comprising a processor; the processor being operative to execute a computer program or instructions to cause the communication device to perform the communication method of any one of claims 1-9 or to perform the communication method of any one of claims 10-18.

22. A communication device, comprising an input-output interface and logic circuitry; the input/output interface is used for inputting and/or outputting information; the logic circuit is configured to perform the communication method of any one of claims 1-9, or the communication method of any one of claims 10-18, process and/or generate the information based on the information;

wherein the information includes a first synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block SSB; the first SSB includes a first value indicating a quasi co-sited QCL relationship between SSB candidate locations.

23. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium stores computer instructions or a program which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the communication method according to any one of claims 1-9 or to perform the communication method according to any one of claims 10-18.

24. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising computer instructions; when part or all of the computer instructions are run on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the communication method according to any one of claims 1-9 or to perform the communication method according to any one of claims 10-18.