CN116867070A

CN116867070A - Carrier indication method and device, terminal and network equipment

Info

Publication number: CN116867070A
Application number: CN202210286012.XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 胡丽洁
Original assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Current assignee: China Mobile Communications Group Co Ltd; China Mobile Communications Ltd Research Institute
Priority date: 2022-03-22
Filing date: 2022-03-22
Publication date: 2023-10-10

Abstract

The application discloses a carrier indication method and device, a terminal and network equipment, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the terminal receives a first message sent by the network device, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used for indicating an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in carriers configured by the system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used for a random access process.

Description

Carrier indication method and device, terminal and network equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of wireless communications technologies, and in particular, to a carrier indication method and apparatus, a terminal, and a network device.

Background

Under the architecture of multiple carriers, the energy consumption of the base station is high. On the one hand, under the architecture of multiple carriers, the base station maintains multiple carriers all the time, which results in higher energy consumption of the base station. On the other hand, under a multi-carrier architecture, the base station needs to keep the reception detection on the broadcasted carrier all the time, which will result in a higher energy consumption of the base station. On the other hand, in the multi-carrier architecture, if the terminals are distributed on different carriers, the base station needs to send signals on multiple carriers, which also greatly increases the power consumption of the base station.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the technical problems, embodiments of the present application provide a carrier indication method and apparatus, a terminal, a network device, a chip, and a computer readable storage medium.

The carrier indication method provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps:

the terminal receives a first message sent by the network device, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used for indicating an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in carriers configured by the system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used for a random access process.

the network device sends a first message, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used for indicating activated uplink and/or downlink carriers in carriers configured by the system message or uplink and/or downlink carriers available for a random access process.

The carrier indicating device provided by the embodiment of the application is applied to a terminal, and comprises:

the receiving unit is configured to receive a first message sent by the network device, where the first message includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in carriers configured by the system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used in a random access procedure.

The carrier indication device provided by the embodiment of the application is applied to network equipment, and comprises:

a sending unit, configured to send a first message, where the first message includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in carriers configured by a system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that may be used in a random access procedure.

The terminal provided by the embodiment of the application comprises the following steps: the carrier wave indication device comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is used for storing a computer program, and the processor is used for calling and running the computer program stored in the memory and executing any carrier wave indication method.

The network device provided by the embodiment of the application comprises: the carrier wave indication device comprises a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is used for storing a computer program, and the processor is used for calling and running the computer program stored in the memory and executing any carrier wave indication method.

The chip provided by the embodiment of the application comprises: and a processor for calling and running the computer program from the memory, so that the device on which the chip is mounted performs any one of the methods described above.

The core computer readable storage medium provided by the embodiments of the present application is used for storing a computer program, where the computer program makes a computer execute any one of the methods described above.

In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, the first indication information in the first message indicates the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in the carriers configured by the system message or the uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for the random access procedure, so that the indication of the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or the uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for the random access procedure can be implemented without increasing additional overhead, and the energy saving of the base station can be implemented by dynamically indicating the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or the uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for the random access procedure, and dynamically switching the carrier according to the load (load) condition.

Drawings

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

fig. 2 is a flow chart of a carrier indication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a second structural component of the carrier indicator according to the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip of an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The following description of the technical solutions according to the embodiments of the present application will be given with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is apparent that the described embodiments are some embodiments of the present application, but not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the application without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the application.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in fig. 1, communication system 100 may include a terminal 110 and a network device 120. Network device 120 may communicate with terminal 110 over the air. Multi-service transmission is supported between the terminal 110 and the network device 120.

It should be understood that embodiments of the present application are illustrated by way of example only with respect to communication system 100, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. That is, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, for example: a 5G communication system (also referred to as a New Radio (NR) communication system), or a future communication system, etc.

In the communication system 100 shown in fig. 1, the network device 120 may be an access network device in communication with the terminal 110. The access network device may provide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and may communicate with terminals 110 (e.g., UEs) located within the coverage area.

The network device 120 may be a next generation radio access network (Next Generation Radio Access Network, NG RAN) device, or a base station (gNB) in an NR system, or the network device 120 may be a relay station, an access point, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a hub, a switch, a bridge, a router, or a network device in a future evolved public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN), etc.

Terminal 110 may be any terminal including, but not limited to, a terminal that employs a wired or wireless connection with network device 120 or other terminals.

For example, the terminal 110 may refer to an access terminal, user Equipment (UE), subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or User Equipment. An access terminal may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (Session Initiation Protocol, SIP) phone, an IoT device, a satellite handset, a wireless local loop (Wireless Local Loop, WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a handset with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal in a 5G network or a terminal in a future evolution network, etc.

The wireless communication system 100 may further comprise a core network device 130 in communication with the base station, which core network device 130 may be a 5G core,5gc device, e.g. an access and mobility management function (Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF), further e.g. an authentication server function (Authentication Server Function, AUSF), further e.g. a user plane function (User Plane Function, UPF), further e.g. a session management function (Session Management Function, SMF). In the network evolution process, the core network device may also call other names, or form new network entities by dividing the functions of the core network, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Communication may also be achieved by establishing connections between various functional units in the communication system 100 through a next generation Network (NG) interface.

For example, the terminal establishes an air interface connection with the access network device through an NR interface, and is used for transmitting user plane data and control plane signaling; the terminal can establish control plane signaling connection with AMF through NG interface 1 (N1 for short); an access network device, such as a next generation radio access base station (gNB), can establish a user plane data connection with a UPF through an NG interface 3 (N3 for short); the access network equipment can establish control plane signaling connection with AMF through NG interface 2 (N2 for short); the UPF can establish control plane signaling connection with the SMF through an NG interface 4 (N4 for short); the UPF can interact user plane data with the data network through an NG interface 6 (N6 for short); the AMF may establish a control plane signaling connection with the SMF through NG interface 11 (N11 for short); the SMF may establish a control plane signaling connection with the PCF via NG interface 7 (N7 for short).

Fig. 1 illustrates one base station, one core network device, and two terminals, alternatively, the wireless communication system 100 may include a plurality of base station devices and may include other numbers of terminals within the coverage area of each base station, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

It should be noted that fig. 1 is only an exemplary system to which the present application is applicable, and of course, the method shown in the embodiment of the present application may be applicable to other systems. Furthermore, the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein. The term "and/or" is herein merely an association relationship describing an associated object, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship. It should also be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, the "indication" may be a direct indication, an indirect indication, or an indication having an association relationship. For example, a indicates B, which may mean that a indicates B directly, e.g., B may be obtained by a; it may also indicate that a indicates B indirectly, e.g. a indicates C, B may be obtained by C; it may also be indicated that there is an association between a and B. It should also be understood that "corresponding" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may mean that there is a direct correspondence or an indirect correspondence between the two, may mean that there is an association between the two, and may also be a relationship between an instruction and an indicated, configured, or the like. It should also be understood that "predefined" or "predefined rules" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by pre-storing corresponding codes, tables or other means that may be used to indicate relevant information in devices (e.g., including terminals and network devices), and the present application is not limited to the specific implementation thereof. Such as predefined may refer to what is defined in the protocol. It should also be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the "protocol" may refer to a standard protocol in the field of communications, and may include, for example, an NR protocol and related protocols applied in future communication systems, which is not limited by the present application.

In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the following description describes related technologies of the embodiments of the present application, and the following related technologies may be optionally combined with the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application as alternatives, which all belong to the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

The multi-carrier mechanism includes carrier aggregation (Carrier Aggregation, CA) and supplemental uplink (Supplimentary Uplink, SUL). There are respective limitations to the two multi-carrier mechanisms, in which CA can only serve terminals in a connected state for improving throughput. The SUL may serve idle and connected terminals to improve the coverage performance of the random access and connected states, and may be SUL carriers only, and not time division multiplexed (Time Division Duplex, TDD) and frequency division multiplexed (Frequency Division Duplex, FDD) carriers.

In order to fully utilize the gain of multiple carriers in idle state and inactive state, an architecture is proposed in which a single cell is formed by multiple carriers, one carrier among which is called an anchor carrier (specifically, but not limited to, for example, anchor frequency domain resource, primary frequency resource, anchor carrier, primary carrier, etc.), and carriers other than the anchor carrier among which are called non anchor carrier, non anchor carrier may be FDD carriers, TDD carriers, SUL carriers, or supplemental downlink (Supplimentary Downlink, SDL) carriers, etc. The terminal may reside in an idle state, and the anchor carrier, system message, paging message, etc. are all sent by the anchor carrier and may broadcast at least one non anchor carrier. On one hand, because the coverage areas of the multiple carriers overlap, network overhead can be saved by sending the paging message on the anchor carrier; on the other hand, the public system message is only sent on the anchor carrier, so that the cost can be saved; in yet another aspect, the number of cells is reduced and cell maintenance overhead is reduced. In addition, when the multi-carrier frequencies are adjacent, the synchronization and propagation characteristics are similar, and the synchronization signal on a certain carrier can be used for providing synchronization for other adjacent carriers by a single-cell multi-carrier mode of the co-station, so that the expenditure of the synchronization signal can be saved. The fact that certain carriers do not bear synchronous signals is considered later, so that the sleeping of the carriers can be achieved more flexibly, and base station energy conservation is achieved.

Under the multi-carrier architecture, a certain carrier can provide system information, paging information and the like for other carriers, a terminal can obtain random access configuration of other carriers by reading the system information and the paging information of the carrier, and the random access can be initiated on a proper carrier according to the need by combining a random access carrier selection strategy in addition to consistency of synchronization among the multi-carriers, so that carrier splitting of the random access is realized. However, under the multi-carrier architecture, the energy consumption of the base station is high. On the one hand, under the multi-carrier architecture, when the base station maintains a plurality of carriers under a lighter load, the base station has high energy consumption. On the other hand, for the idle state terminal, the base station does not know when the terminal will initiate random access, so if the carrier wave is broadcasted in the system message, the base station needs to keep the reception detection on the broadcasted carrier wave all the time, and the power consumption of the base station is wasted. On the other hand, when the load is lighter, if the terminals are also distributed on different carriers, the base station needs to send signals on multiple carriers, and the power consumption of the base station is greatly increased because the power consumption of the downlink is higher than that of the uplink access.

In order to reduce the power consumption of the base station under the multi-carrier architecture, the following technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is provided. When the applicant puts forward the technical scheme of the application, the most direct thought is to update the system message, so that the base station broadcasts different carrier configurations (the carrier configurations comprise the number of carriers, carrier frequencies and the like) in the system message according to different loads. However, this approach has the disadvantage of: the system information updating speed is low, the rapid change of the load capacity cannot be fed back in time, and the user throughput cannot be improved by fully utilizing the advantages of multiple carriers; the change of the system message can cause the system to need to frequently send the system message change message, and the system message change message is carried by the paging message, so that the energy consumption of the base station and the terminal is increased. Therefore, the applicant provides a more dynamic indication method of available carriers in a multi-carrier scene, and the indication method can be suitable for terminals in idle state and inactive state.

In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, the technical solution of the present application is described in detail below through specific embodiments. The above related technologies may be optionally combined with the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, which all belong to the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application. Embodiments of the present application include at least some of the following.

Fig. 2 is a flow chart of a carrier indication method according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 2, where the carrier indication method includes:

step 201: the method comprises the steps that a network device sends a first message, and a terminal receives the first message sent by the network device, wherein the first message comprises first indication information, and the first indication information is used for indicating activated uplink and/or downlink carriers in carriers configured by a system message or uplink and/or downlink carriers which can be used for a random access process.

In the embodiment of the application, the network device sends the first message on the Anchor carrier or the Pcell, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the first message sent by the network device on the Anchor carrier or the Pcell. The first message includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in carriers configured by the system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used in a random access procedure. Here, the system message is transmitted by the anchor carrier or the Pcell, and the network device may configure at least one carrier through the system message.

In some optional embodiments, for the activated uplink carrier indicated by the first indication information or an uplink carrier available for a random access procedure, the first indication information is further used to indicate a downlink carrier associated with the uplink carrier.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first message is downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) for scheduling paging or DCI for scheduling system message or paging message. This will be described below.

Scheme one

In some alternative embodiments, the first message is a first DCI, whose cyclic redundancy check code (Cyclic Redundancy Check, CRC) is scrambled by a Paging-radio network temporary identity (Paging-Radio Network Tempory Identity, P-RNTI), i.e., the first DCI is a DCI scheduling Paging, which may also be referred to as Paging DCI (Paging DCI). Wherein the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the first DCI. Here, optionally, the reserved bits in the first DCI are 8 bits or 6 bits, for example: when the shared spectrum access is adopted, the reserved bit is 8 bits, otherwise, the reserved bit is 6 bits.

It should be noted that, when some or all of the reserved bits in the first DCI are used for indication (i.e., to carry the first indication information), these bits are no longer reserved bits for the new first DCI, but have new bit meanings (i.e., the meaning indicated by the first indication information). For example: for R16 and the NR protocol of the previous release, for the non-shared spectrum channel access, 6 bits in the first DCI are reserved bits, and when some or all bits in the 6 bits are used for indication, these bits are no longer reserved bits for the new first DCI, but have new bit meanings (i.e. the meaning indicated by the first indication information).

In some optional embodiments, the first indication information occupies a part or all of bits in the reserved bits, each bit in the part or all of bits corresponds to one carrier configured by the system message, and the value of the bit is used for indicating whether one carrier corresponding to the bit is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access process. Here, the form of the first indication information may be referred to as a bitmap (bitmap).

Specifically, the value of the bit is a first value, which is used for indicating that one carrier corresponding to the bit is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used in a random access process; the value of the bit is a second value, which is used for indicating that one carrier corresponding to the bit is not an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used in a random access process.

Specifically, when the value of the bit is the first value, the network device detects uplink random access information on one carrier corresponding to the bit; and under the condition that the value of the bit is a second value, the network equipment does not detect the uplink random access information on one carrier corresponding to the bit.

In the above scheme, the first value may be 1, the second value may be 0, or the first value may be 0, and the second value may be 1.

In some optional embodiments, the first indication information occupies a part or all of bits in the reserved bits, where each value of the part or all of bits is used to indicate a multi-carrier state, where the multi-carrier state indicates whether at least part of carriers in carriers configured by the system message are activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers that can be used for a random access procedure.

Scheme II

In some alternative embodiments, the first message is a second DCI, the CRC of which is scrambled by a system information-radio network temporary identity (System Information-Radio Network Tempory Identity, SI-RNTI), i.e. the second DCI is a DCI scheduling a system message, here for example SIB1. Wherein the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the second DCI. Here, optionally, the reserved bits in the second DCI are 17 bits or 15 bits, for example: when the shared spectrum access is adopted, the reserved bit is 17 bits, otherwise, the reserved bit is 15 bits.

It should be noted that, when some or all of the reserved bits in the second DCI are used for indication (i.e., to carry the first indication information), these bits are no longer reserved bits for the new second DCI, but have new bit meanings (i.e., the meaning indicated by the first indication information). For example: for R16 and previous versions of the NR protocol, for non-shared spectrum channel access, there are 15 bits that are reserved bits, and when indicated using some or all of the 15 bits, these bits are no longer reserved bits for the new DCI, but have the new bit meaning (i.e., the meaning indicated by the first indication information).

Scheme III

In some alternative embodiments, the first message is a paging message. Wherein the first indication information is carried in a paging record in the paging message. Here, the paging message corresponds to a paging message, and the paging record corresponds to a paging record.

In some alternative embodiments, the first indication information includes an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or a carrier identification (carrier index) of an uplink and/or downlink carrier that may be used for a random access procedure.

In the embodiment of the application, after the terminal acquires the first indication information through the scheme, the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in the carriers configured by the system information or the uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used in the random access process can be determined according to the first indication confidence. Further optionally, the terminal receives a paging message; the terminal selects a first uplink carrier from activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers available for a random access process based on the first indication information, and sends uplink random access information to the network equipment based on the first uplink carrier; and/or the terminal selects a first downlink carrier from the activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or the uplink and/or downlink carriers available for the random access process based on the first indication information, and receives downlink information sent by a network side based on the first downlink carrier.

The following describes the technical scheme of the embodiment of the present application with reference to specific application examples.

Application example 1

By indicating in the paging related message the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier among the carriers configured by the system message or the uplink and/or downlink carrier available for the random access procedure.

Mode 1-1: the paging related message is DCI for scheduling paging (i.e. paging DCI), and the Reserved bit (Reserved bits) in the paging DCI (or paging PDCCH) indicates an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in a carrier configured by the system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access procedure. Here, the CRC of the paging DCI is scrambled by the P-RNTI.

As an example, when shared spectrum access is employed, the reserved bits in the paging DCI are 8 bits, otherwise, the reserved bits in the paging DCI are 6 bits. The following table 1 gives a description of the information fields of the paging DCI in the protocol.

TABLE 1

As an implementation manner, each bit in the reserved bits corresponds to one carrier, a value of 1 of the bit indicates that the corresponding carrier is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for a random access procedure, and a value of 0 of the bit indicates that the corresponding carrier is not an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for a random access procedure. In this way, the terminal may be indicated by paging DCI at the same time as the terminal is paged, which may be advantageous in that it does not occupy additional transmission resources for uplink and/or downlink carriers available when it initiates random access.

For example: the network side configures 5 carriers through the system message, so that the terminal can flexibly select to perform random access, but indicates that only 2 carriers in the 5 carriers are uplink carriers available for a random access process currently through first indication information in paging DCI. Specifically, the indication can be performed in a bit map form, each bit in the bit map corresponds to one carrier, the value of 1 of the bit indicates that the corresponding carrier is an uplink carrier available for the random access process, the base station can detect uplink random access information on the carrier, the value of 0 of the bit indicates that the corresponding carrier is not an uplink carrier available for the random access process, and the base station cannot detect the carrier. After receiving the paging message, the terminal in idle state selects an uplink carrier available for random access process to initiate random access according to the first indication information and the carrier selection strategy, thereby entering a connection state.

As another implementation, different values of the reserved bits indicate different multi-carrier states, so that more multi-carrier states can be indicated by a limited reserved bit. For example, the 6 bits can indicate 64 multi-carrier states, the base station can establish a table for some commonly used multi-carrier states, broadcast the table through a system message, and the terminal can determine the corresponding multi-carrier states according to the value of the reserved bits and the table, so as to determine which carriers are activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers available for a random access process. For example, although the system message broadcasts 5 carriers in total, it may be limited that a base station may switch off a specific carrier preferentially when sleeping, and many states to be indicated may be reduced. Such as common carriers 1,2,3,4,5, when only 4 carriers are turned on, only one possibility is available, i.e. carriers other than 5, so that the 4 possibilities of 4 on from the 5 carriers can be reduced to only one possibility. Thus by pre-configuring the status of some of the available carriers by such a base station, an indication can be made by 6 bits.

Mode 1-2: the paging related message is a paging message, and the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or the uplink and/or downlink carrier available for the random access procedure is indicated by adding information (such as carrier identification (carrier index)) of an available carrier (availableCarrier) to a paging record in the paging message.

As an example, when a terminal is paged, ID information corresponding to itself is acquired through a pagerecord in a paging record list (pagerecord list) in a paging message. As shown in table 2, carrier identification of the available carriers may be added to the pagerecord.

TABLE 2

It should be noted that, the above application example is applicable to the case where the terminal receives the page. For an idle state terminal, it is also possible to initiate random access spontaneously, in which case the base station is not aware of, so that it is not possible to indicate an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access procedure by means of a paging related message, and thus it is possible to indicate an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access procedure by means of DCI of a scheduling system message in the following application example two. In addition, considering that the repetition time interval of the system message is 20ms, the first indication information may be carried by the information related to the system message, but if the first indication information is carried in the system message, there is a problem of system message modification, so that the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or the uplink and/or downlink carrier available for the random access procedure may be indicated by DCI of the scheduling system message in the following application example two.

Application instance two

By indicating in the DCI of the scheduling system message the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier among the carriers configured by the system message or the uplink and/or downlink carrier available for the random access procedure. Here, the system message is SIB1, for example. The activated uplink and/or downlink carrier among the carriers configured by the system message or the uplink and/or downlink carrier available for the random access procedure is indicated by a Reserved bit (Reserved bits) in the DCI of the scheduling system message. Here, DCI of the scheduling system message is scrambled by the SI-RNTI.

As an example, when shared spectrum access is employed, the reserved bits in DCI of SIB1 are scheduled to be 17 bits, otherwise, the reserved bits in DCI of SIB1 are scheduled to be 15 bits. The following table 3 gives a description of the information field of DCI for scheduling SIB1 in the protocol.

TABLE 3 Table 3

As an implementation manner, each bit in the reserved bits corresponds to one carrier, a value of 1 of the bit indicates that the corresponding carrier is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for a random access procedure, and a value of 0 of the bit indicates that the corresponding carrier is not an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for a random access procedure.

As another implementation, different values of the reserved bits indicate different multi-carrier states, so that more multi-carrier states can be indicated by a limited reserved bit.

By means of the scheme, flexible available carrier indication can be achieved by means of reserved bits in DCI of the scheduling SIB 1. When the terminal needs to initiate random access, the terminal can acquire the information of the activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or the uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used in the random access process by reading the DCI (i.e. type 0-PDCCH) of the latest scheduling SIB1, and then select a proper carrier to initiate random access.

Further, optionally, for the indicated available carriers, the base station may also indicate the downlink carrier with which the uplink carrier is associated, since the base station receives signals that are much lower in power consumption than the base station transmits signals. I.e. the terminal may select a certain carrier to initiate random access, but in order to save downlink power consumption, the base station may instruct the terminal that the downlink receiving carrier is a certain specific carrier in the random access process. For example: for 2.6GHz carrier as an anchor carrier or Pcell, 1.8G FDD,1.9G FDD,2.3G TDD,4.9G TDD is broadcasted as a carrier that the terminal can select random access, and the currently available carrier is broadcasted as 1.8GHz (2.6G is always available by default) by scheduling DCI or control channel of SIB1, while indicating that for 1.8GHz carrier, its downlink transmission uses 2.6GHz carrier.

In the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, the first indication information is carried in the paging related message or in the DCI of the scheduling system message, and the activated carrier or the usable carrier in the carriers configured by the system message is indicated by the first indication information. The indication of the available carrier wave can be realized without increasing additional cost by bearing the first indication information in the paging related message or DCI of the scheduling system message, and the energy saving of the base station can be realized by dynamically indicating the available carrier wave and dynamically switching the carrier wave according to the load condition.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a carrier indicating device according to an embodiment of the present application, which is applied to a terminal, as shown in fig. 3, and the carrier indicating device includes:

a receiving unit 301, configured to receive a first message sent by a network device, where the first message includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in carriers configured by a system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that may be used in a random access procedure.

In some alternative embodiments, the first message is a first DCI, the CRC of which is scrambled by a P-RNTI.

In some optional embodiments, the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the first DCI.

In some alternative embodiments, the first message is a second DCI, the CRC of which is scrambled by the SI-RNTI.

In some alternative embodiments, the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the second DCI.

In some optional embodiments, the first indication information occupies a part or all of bits in the reserved bits, each bit in the part or all of bits corresponds to one carrier configured by the system message, and the value of the bit is used for indicating whether one carrier corresponding to the bit is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access process.

In some optional embodiments, the value of the bit is a first value, which is used to indicate that one carrier corresponding to the bit is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used in a random access procedure; the value of the bit is a second value, which is used for indicating that one carrier corresponding to the bit is not an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used in a random access process.

In some optional embodiments, when the value of the bit is the first value, the detection of the uplink random access information by the network device is indicated on a carrier corresponding to the bit; and under the condition that the value of the bit is a second value, the network equipment does not detect the uplink random access information on one carrier corresponding to the bit.

In some alternative embodiments, the first message is a paging message.

In some alternative embodiments, the first indication information is carried in a paging record in the paging message.

In some alternative embodiments, the first indication information includes an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or a carrier identification of an uplink and/or downlink carrier that may be used for the random access procedure.

In some alternative embodiments, the apparatus further comprises: a selecting unit 302 and a transmitting unit 303; wherein the selecting unit 302 is configured to select a first uplink carrier from activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers available for a random access procedure based on the first indication information, and the transmitting unit 303 is configured to transmit uplink random access information to the network device based on the first uplink carrier; and/or the selecting unit 302 is configured to select, based on the first indication information, a first downlink carrier from activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers available for a random access procedure, and the receiving unit 301 is further configured to receive, based on the first downlink carrier, downlink information sent by a network side.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the implementation functions of the units in the carrier wave indication device shown in fig. 3 can be understood with reference to the relevant description of the foregoing method. The functions of the respective units in the carrier wave indicating device shown in fig. 3 may be implemented by a program running on a processor or by a specific logic circuit.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram ii of the structural composition of a carrier indicating device according to an embodiment of the present application, which is applied to a network device, as shown in fig. 4, where the carrier indicating device includes:

A sending unit 401, configured to send a first message, where the first message includes first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier in carriers configured by a system message or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that may be used in a random access procedure.

In some alternative embodiments, the first message is a paging message.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the implementation functions of the units in the carrier wave indication device shown in fig. 4 can be understood with reference to the relevant description of the foregoing method. The functions of the respective units in the carrier wave indicating device shown in fig. 4 may be implemented by a program running on a processor or by a specific logic circuit.

Fig. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 500 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device may be a terminal or a network device, and the communication device 500 shown in fig. 5 comprises a processor 510, and the processor 510 may call and run a computer program from a memory to implement the method in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 5, the communication device 500 may also include a memory 520. Wherein the processor 510 may call and run a computer program from the memory 520 to implement the method in an embodiment of the application.

Wherein the memory 520 may be a separate device from the processor 510 or may be integrated into the processor 510.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 5, the communication device 500 may further include a transceiver 530, and the processor 510 may control the transceiver 530 to communicate with other devices, and in particular, may send information or data to other devices, or receive information or data sent by other devices.

Wherein the transceiver 530 may include a transmitter and a receiver. The transceiver 530 may further include antennas, the number of which may be one or more.

Optionally, the communication device 500 may be specifically a network device in the embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 500 may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the communication device 500 may be a mobile terminal/terminal in the embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 500 may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip of an embodiment of the present application. The chip 600 shown in fig. 6 includes a processor 610, and the processor 610 may call and run a computer program from a memory to implement the method in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 6, the chip 600 may further include a memory 620. Wherein the processor 610 may call and run a computer program from the memory 620 to implement the method in an embodiment of the application.

The memory 620 may be a separate device from the processor 610 or may be integrated into the processor 610.

Optionally, the chip 600 may also include an input interface 630. The processor 610 may control the input interface 630 to communicate with other devices or chips, and in particular, may acquire information or data sent by the other devices or chips.

Optionally, the chip 600 may further include an output interface 640. Wherein the processor 610 may control the output interface 640 to communicate with other devices or chips, and in particular, may output information or data to other devices or chips.

Optionally, the chip may be applied to the network device in the embodiment of the present application, and the chip may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the chip may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal in the embodiment of the present application, and the chip may implement a corresponding flow implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

It should be understood that the chips referred to in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as system-on-chip chips, or the like.

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

It will be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double Data Rate SDRAM (Double Data Rate SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

It should be understood that the above memory is illustrative but not restrictive, and for example, the memory in the embodiments of the present application may be Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), direct RAM (DR RAM), and the like. That is, the memory in embodiments of the present application is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer readable storage medium for storing a computer program.

Optionally, the computer readable storage medium may be applied to a network device in the embodiment of the present application, and the computer program causes a computer to execute a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the computer readable storage medium may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal in the embodiment of the present application, and the computer program causes a computer to execute a corresponding procedure implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal in each method of the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer program product comprising computer program instructions.

Optionally, the computer program product may be applied to a network device in the embodiment of the present application, and the computer program instructions cause a computer to execute corresponding processes implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which are not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the computer program product may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal in the embodiment of the present application, and the computer program instructions cause a computer to execute corresponding processes implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal in each method of the embodiment of the present application, which are not described herein for brevity.

The embodiment of the application also provides a computer program.

Optionally, the computer program may be applied to a network device in the embodiment of the present application, and when the computer program runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute a corresponding flow implemented by the network device in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

Optionally, the computer program may be applied to a mobile terminal/terminal in the embodiment of the present application, and when the computer program runs on a computer, the computer is caused to execute a corresponding flow implemented by the mobile terminal/terminal in each method in the embodiment of the present application, which is not described herein for brevity.

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

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

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

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

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments 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 functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of carrier indication, the method comprising:

2. The method of claim 1, wherein for an activated uplink carrier indicated by the first indication information or an uplink carrier available for a random access procedure, the first indication information is further used to indicate a downlink carrier with which the uplink carrier is associated.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the first message is a first downlink control information, DCI, the cyclic redundancy check, CRC, of the first DCI being scrambled by a paging-radio network temporary identity, P-RNTI.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the first DCI.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message is a second DCI, and wherein a CRC of the second DCI is scrambled by a system information-radio network temporary identity, SI-RNTI.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the second DCI.

7. The method according to claim 4 or 6, wherein the first indication information occupies a part or all of bits in the reserved bits, each bit in the part or all of bits corresponds to one carrier configured by the system message, and the value of the bit is used to indicate whether one carrier corresponding to the bit is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier that can be used for a random access procedure.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

the value of the bit is a first value, and the first value is used for indicating that one carrier corresponding to the bit is an activated uplink carrier and/or a downlink carrier or an uplink carrier and/or a downlink carrier which can be used in a random access process;

The value of the bit is a second value, which is used for indicating that one carrier corresponding to the bit is not an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier which can be used in a random access process.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of determining the position of the first electrode is performed,

under the condition that the value of the bit is a first value, the network equipment detects uplink random access information on one carrier corresponding to the bit;

and under the condition that the value of the bit is a second value, the network equipment does not detect the uplink random access information on one carrier corresponding to the bit.

10. The method according to claim 4 or 6, wherein the first indication information occupies part or all of the reserved bits, and each value of the part or all of the bits is used to indicate a multi-carrier status, where the multi-carrier status indicates whether at least part of the carriers configured by the system message are activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers that can be used for a random access procedure.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first message is a paging message.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first indication information is carried in a paging record in the paging message.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the first indication information comprises a carrier identification of an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access procedure.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, 11 to 13, further comprising:

the terminal receives paging information;

the terminal selects a first uplink carrier from activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers available for a random access process based on the first indication information, and sends uplink random access information to the network equipment based on the first uplink carrier; and/or the number of the groups of groups,

and the terminal selects a first downlink carrier from the activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or the uplink and/or downlink carriers available for a random access process based on the first indication information, and receives downlink information sent by a network side based on the first downlink carrier.

15. A method of carrier indication, the method comprising:

16. The method of claim 15, wherein for an activated uplink carrier indicated by the first indication information or an uplink carrier available for a random access procedure, the first indication information is further used to indicate a downlink carrier with which the uplink carrier is associated.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first message is a first DCI, a CRC of the first DCI being scrambled by a P-RNTI.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the first DCI.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the first message is a second DCI, a CRC of the second DCI being scrambled by an SI-RNTI.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the first indication information is carried in reserved bits in the second DCI.

21. The method according to claim 18 or 20, wherein the first indication information occupies a part or all of bits in the reserved bits, each bit in the part or all of bits corresponds to one carrier configured by the system message, and the bit value is used for indicating whether the one carrier corresponding to the bit is an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access procedure.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the step of determining the position of the probe is performed,

24. The method according to claim 18 or 20, wherein the first indication information occupies part or all of the reserved bits, and each value of the part or all of the bits is used to indicate a multi-carrier status, where the multi-carrier status indicates whether at least part of the carriers configured by the system message are activated uplink and/or downlink carriers or uplink and/or downlink carriers that can be used for a random access procedure.

25. The method of claim 15, wherein the first message is a paging message.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the first indication information is carried in a paging record in the paging message.

27. The method according to claim 25, wherein the first indication information comprises a carrier identification of an activated uplink and/or downlink carrier or an uplink and/or downlink carrier available for a random access procedure.

28. A carrier indicating device, applied to a terminal, comprising:

29. A carrier wave indicating device, characterized by being applied to a network apparatus, the device comprising:

30. A terminal, comprising: a processor and a memory for storing a computer program, the processor being for invoking and running the computer program stored in the memory, performing the method of any of claims 1 to 14.

31. A network device, comprising: a processor and a memory for storing a computer program, the processor being for invoking and running the computer program stored in the memory, performing the method of any of claims 15 to 27.

32. A chip, comprising: a processor for calling and running a computer program from a memory, causing a device on which the chip is mounted to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 14 or the method of any one of claims 15 to 27.

33. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 14 or the method of any one of claims 15 to 27.