CN118055396A

CN118055396A - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN118055396A
Application number: CN202211436758.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 黄松创; 宋维斌
Original assignee: Shanghai Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-11-16
Filing date: 2022-11-16
Publication date: 2024-05-17
Also published as: WO2024103973A1

Abstract

A communication method and a communication device are applied to the field of wireless communication. The method comprises the following steps: the network equipment sends a first signal through beams corresponding to at least two Transmission Receiving Points (TRPs) in the same cell, wherein identifiers of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different, the network equipment receives first information from the terminal equipment, the first information comprises an identifier of a target beam, the target beam comprises one of the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, the energy of the first signal received by the terminal equipment on the target beam is the largest in the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and the network equipment determines the TRP where the terminal equipment currently resides according to the identifier of the target beam and second information, wherein the second information comprises a mapping relation between the identifier of the beam and the TRP. The method can enable the network equipment to identify the TRP where the terminal equipment currently resides in the multi-TRP cell, thereby optimizing the network for providing services for the terminal equipment.

Description

Communication method and communication device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the field of wireless communication, and more particularly relates to a communication method and a communication device.

Background

Currently, a large number of multi-transmission receiving point (transmission receive point, TRP) cells are deployed in a mobile communication system due to the factors of deep coverage, interference control, low cost and the like, wherein the multi-TRP cells refer to a logic cell composed of a plurality of TRPs, and a terminal device can access the cell through any one TRP.

Currently, for a multi-TRP cell, the network device cannot identify the TRP on which the terminal device currently resides.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a communication device, which aim to optimize a network for providing services for terminal equipment by network equipment.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the network equipment sends a first signal through beams corresponding to at least two Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs), wherein identifiers of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different, the network equipment receives first information from terminal equipment, the first information comprises an identifier of a target beam, the target beam is one of the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, the energy of the first signal received by the terminal equipment on the target beam is the largest of the first signals received on the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and the network equipment determines the TRP where the terminal equipment currently resides according to the identifier of the target beam and second information, and the second information comprises a mapping relation between the identifier of the beam and the TRP.

Based on the above technical solution, when the first signal is sent through different TRPs, the identities of the beams used by the different TRPs are different, so that the network device can uniquely determine the TRP corresponding to the identity of the target beam in the second information as the TRP where the terminal device currently resides according to the identity of the target beam and the second information reported by the terminal device, thereby optimizing the network providing services for the terminal device.

As an implementation, the method further includes: the network equipment determines parameters for generating the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs according to the number of the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs and third information, wherein the third information comprises a mapping relation between the number of the beams and the parameters for generating the beams; and then, the network equipment generates the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs according to the parameters for generating the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

Based on the above technical solution, by establishing a mapping relationship between the number of the plurality of beams and the parameters of the plurality of generated beams, when the number of beams allocated by the network device to different TRPs is different, the network device determines, from the mapping relationship, the parameters of the generated beams corresponding to the number of beams according to the number of beams allocated to a certain TRP, thereby generating a corresponding number of beams for the TRP according to the parameters of the generated beams.

As an implementation, the number of beams to which the at least two TRPs each correspond is determined according to the number of TRPs within the cell and the number of beams used to transmit the first signal.

Based on the above technical solution, the network device determines the number of beams allocated to each TRP according to the number of TRPs in the cell and the number of beams used for transmitting the first signal, so that an average allocation of beams between different TRPs can be achieved.

As one implementation, the number of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs is different.

As an implementation, the first information comprises energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam.

As an implementation, the first signal comprises a synchronization signal block SSB.

As one implementation, the identification of the beam includes an index number of the beam.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, including: the method comprises the steps that a terminal device receives a first signal from a network device on beams corresponding to at least two TRPs, wherein identifiers of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different, the at least two TRPs belong to the same cell, and then the terminal device sends first information to the network device, wherein the first information comprises identifiers of target beams, the target beams are one of the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and energy of the first signal received by the terminal device on the target beams is the largest in the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

Based on the above technical solution, when the first signal is sent through different TRPs, the identities of the beams used by the different TRPs are different, so that the network device can uniquely determine the TRP corresponding to the identity of the target beam in the second information as the TRP where the terminal device currently resides according to the identity of the target beam and the second information reported by the terminal device.

In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which may be a network device or a terminal device in the above method, or a module applied in a network device or a terminal device. The communication device includes: a processor, coupled to the memory, operable to execute instructions in the memory to implement a method performed by the network device or the terminal device in any one of the above aspects and any one of its possible implementation manners. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a memory. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

When the communication means is a network device or a terminal device, the communication interface may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface.

Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In a fourth aspect, a program is provided which, when executed by a communication device, is adapted to carry out any of the methods of any of the above aspects and possible implementations thereof.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising: program code which, when run by a communication device, causes the communication device to perform any of the methods of any of the aspects and possible implementations thereof.

In a sixth aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided, the computer readable storage medium storing a program which, when executed, causes a communication device to perform any of the methods of any of the aspects and possible implementations thereof.

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

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

In an eighth aspect, a communication system is provided, which comprises the above network device and a terminal device.

Drawings

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

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an example of a connection relationship between a plurality of TRPs and RRUs in a multi-TRP cell according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of another connection relationship between a plurality of TRPs and RRUs in a multi-TRP cell according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic interaction flow chart of an example of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an example communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 6 is a schematic block diagram of another example communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme in the embodiment of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Wherein, in the description of the present application, "/" means that the related objects are in a "or" relationship, unless otherwise specified, for example, a/B may mean a or B; the "and/or" in the present application is merely an association relationship describing the association object, and indicates that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may indicate: there are three cases, a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. Also, in the description of the present application, unless otherwise indicated, "a plurality" means two or more than two. "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-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or plural. In addition, in order to facilitate the clear description of the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. are used to distinguish the same item or similar items having substantially the same function and effect. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the words "first," "second," and the like do not limit the amount and order of execution, and that the words "first," "second," and the like do not necessarily differ.

The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: new Radio (NR) in the fifth generation (5th Generation,5G) mobile communication system, future mobile communication systems, and the like.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a mobile communication system suitable for use in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system includes a radio access network 100 and a core network 200. The radio access network 100 may include at least one access network device (e.g., 110a and 110b in fig. 1, collectively 110) and may also include at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in fig. 1, collectively 120). Terminals 120a-120j are connected to access network devices 110a,110b in a wireless manner. The access network devices 110a,110b are connected to the core network 200 by wireless or wired means. The core network device in the core network and the access network device in the radio access network may be different physical devices, or may be the same physical device integrating the core network logic function and the radio access network logic function. The terminals can be connected with each other in a wireless manner. The access network device and the access network device may be connected to each other by a wired or wireless connection. Fig. 1 is only a schematic diagram, and other network devices may also be included in the communication system, including, for example, a wireless relay device and/or a wireless backhaul device (not shown in fig. 1). The communication system may support, for example, a third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) -related cellular system (e.g., a 5G communication system, a communication system in which multiple wireless technologies are integrated (e.g., a communication system in which at least two technologies in 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G are integrated), or a future-oriented evolution system (e.g., a 6G access technology)), or a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wiFi) system, or a communication system in which a3 GPP-related cellular system is integrated with other technologies, or a future communication system, etc.

The access network device in the embodiment of the present application is sometimes referred to as an access node. The access network device has a wireless transceiving function and is used for communicating with the terminal. The access network device includes, but is not limited to, a base station (base station), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB) in the above communication system, a transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5G mobile communication system, a next generation base station in a sixth generation (6th generation,6G) mobile communication system, an access network device or a module of an access network device in an open RAN (ora) system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system, and the like. The access network equipment may also be a module or unit capable of implementing the functions of the base station part. For example, the access network device may be a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), a CU-Control Plane (CP), a CU-User Plane (UP), or a Radio Unit (RU), etc., as described below. In ORAN systems, a CU may also be referred to as an O-CU, a DU may also be referred to as an open (O) -DU, a CU-CP may also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, a CU-UP may also be referred to as an O-CUP-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU. The access network device may be a macro base station (e.g., 110a in fig. 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (e.g., 110b in fig. 1), a relay node or a donor node, or a radio controller in the context of a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN). Optionally, the access network device may also be a server, a wearable device, or an in-vehicle device, etc. For example, the access network device in the vehicle extrapolating (vehicle to everything, V2X) technology may be a Road Side Unit (RSU). The multiple access network devices in the communication system may be the same type of base station or different types of base stations. The base station may communicate with the terminal or may communicate with the terminal through a relay station. A terminal may communicate with multiple base stations in different access technologies. The specific technology and specific device configuration adopted by the access network device in the embodiment of the application are not limited. In the present application, the access network device is simply referred to as a network device, and if not specifically described, in the present application, the network devices refer to the access network devices.

A terminal may also be referred to as a terminal device, user Equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. The terminal may be widely applied to various communication scenarios, for example, may be applied to device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-device (vehicle to everything, V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), internet of things (internet of things, IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autopilot, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, or smart city. The terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet personal computer, a computer with a wireless receiving and transmitting function, a wearable device, a vehicle, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a helicopter, an airplane, a ship, a robot, a mechanical arm, or intelligent household equipment and the like. The embodiment of the application does not limit the equipment form of the terminal.

The access network equipment and/or terminals may be fixed or mobile. The access network devices and/or terminals may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; the device can be deployed on the water surface; but also on aerial planes, balloons and satellites. The embodiment of the application does not limit the application scene of the access network equipment and the terminal. The access network device and the terminal device may be deployed in the same scenario or in different scenarios, e.g. the access network device and the terminal device are deployed on land at the same time; or the access network equipment is deployed on land, the terminal equipment is deployed on water surface, etc., which are not exemplified one by one.

In the embodiment of the application, each element in the communication system can be regarded as a network element in the communication system. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in fig. 1 may be configured as a mobile access network device, with terminal device 120i being an access network device for those terminal devices 120j that access the radio access network 100 through 120 i; but for access network device 110a 120i is a terminal device, i.e. communication between 110a and 120i is via a wireless air interface protocol. Communication between 110a and 120i may also be via an interface protocol between the access network device and the access network device, in which case 120i is also an access network device with respect to 110 a. Thus, both the access network device and the terminal device may be collectively referred to as a communication apparatus, 110a and 110b in fig. 1 may be referred to as communication apparatuses having access network device functions, and 120a-120j in fig. 1 may be referred to as communication apparatuses having terminal device functions.

In the embodiment of the application, the communication device with the function of the access network equipment can be the access network equipment, or a module (such as a chip, a chip system, or a software module) in the access network equipment, or a control subsystem containing the function of the access network equipment. For example, the control subsystem including the access network device function may be a control center in a scenario where a terminal such as a smart grid, industrial control, intelligent transportation, or smart city is applicable.

In the embodiment of the application, the communication device with the terminal function can be a terminal, or a module (such as a chip, a chip system, a modem, or a software model) in the terminal, or a device containing the terminal function. In the embodiments of the present application, for convenience of description, a base station or BS, a terminal or UE will be described hereinafter as an example.

The communication between the access network device and the terminal device may follow a certain protocol layer structure. Illustratively, the protocol layer structure may include a control plane protocol layer structure and a user plane protocol layer structure. For example, the control plane protocol layer structure may include at least one of: a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, or a Physical (PHY) layer, etc. For example, the user plane protocol layer structure may include at least one of: a service data adaptation protocol (SERVICE DATA adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, or physical layer, etc.

The access network device may include a CU and a DU. This design may be referred to as CU and DU separation. Multiple DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU. As an example, the interface between a CU and a DU is referred to as the F1 interface. The Control Plane (CP) interface may be F1-C, and the User Plane (UP) interface may be F1-U. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific names of the interfaces. CUs and DUs may be divided according to the protocol layers of the wireless network: for example, the PDCP layer and above protocol layers (e.g., RRC layer, SDAP layer, etc.) functions are provided on the CU, and the PDCP layer and below protocol layers (e.g., RLC layer, MAC layer, PHY layer, etc.) functions are provided on the DU; for example, the functions of the PDCP layer and the above protocol layers are set in the CU, and the functions of the PDCP layer and the below protocol layers are set in the DU, without limitation.

The above-described partitioning of CU and DU processing functions by protocol layers is only an example, and may be partitioned in other ways. For example, a CU or a DU may be divided into functions having more protocol layers, and for example, a CU or a DU may be divided into partial processing functions having protocol layers. For example, a part of functions of the RLC layer and functions of protocol layers above the RLC layer are set at CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and functions of protocol layers below the RLC layer are set at DU. For another example, the functions of the CU or the DU may be divided according to a service type or other system requirements, for example, by time delay division, where a function whose processing time needs to meet the time delay requirement is set in the DU, and a function which does not need to meet the time delay requirement is set in the CU.

Alternatively, a CU may have one or more functions of the core network.

Alternatively, a Radio Unit (RU) of the DU may be set remotely. Wherein, RU has radio frequency function. Illustratively, DUs and RUs may be partitioned at the PHY layer. For example, a DU may implement higher layer functions in the PHY layer, and an RU may implement lower layer functions in the PHY layer. Wherein, when used for transmitting, the functions of the PHY layer may include at least one of: cyclic redundancy check (cyclic redundancy check, CRC) bits, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, precoding, resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, or radio frequency transmission functions are added. For receiving, the functions of the PHY layer may include at least one of: CRC check, channel decoding, de-rate matching, descrambling, demodulation, de-layer mapping, channel detection, resource de-mapping, physical antenna de-mapping, or radio frequency reception functions. Wherein, the higher layer functions in the PHY layer may include a part of functions of the PHY layer, which are closer to the MAC layer; the lower layer functions in the PHY layer may include another portion of the functions of the PHY layer, such as a portion of the functions that are closer to the radio frequency functions. For example, higher layer functions in the PHY layer may include adding CRC bits, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping, and lower layer functions in the PHY layer may include precoding, resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency transmission functions; or higher layer functions in the PHY layer may include adding CRC bits, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, and precoding, and lower layer functions in the PHY layer may include resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency transmission functions. For example, higher layer functions in the PHY layer may include CRC checking, channel decoding, de-rate matching, decoding, demodulation, and de-layer mapping, and lower layer functions in the PHY layer may include channel detection, resource de-mapping, physical antenna de-mapping, and radio frequency reception functions; or higher layer functions in the PHY layer may include CRC checking, channel decoding, de-rate matching, decoding, demodulation, de-layer mapping, and channel detection, and lower layer functions in the PHY layer may include resource de-mapping, physical antenna de-mapping, and radio frequency reception functions.

Optionally, the functionality of the CU may be further divided, with the control plane and the user plane being separated and implemented by different entities. The separated entities are a control plane CU entity (i.e., CU-CP entity) and a user plane CU entity (i.e., CU-UP entity), respectively. The CU-CP entity and the CU-UP entity may be connected to DUs, respectively. In the embodiment of the present application, an entity may be understood as a module or a unit, and its existing form may be a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module, which is not limited.

Alternatively, any of the above-mentioned CUs, CU-CPs, CU-UPs, DUs, and RUs may be software modules, hardware structures, or software module plus hardware structures, without limitation. Wherein, the existence forms of different entities can be the same or different. For example, CU-CP, CU-UP and DU are software modules, RU is a hardware structure. For simplicity of description, all possible combinations are not listed here one by one. These modules and methods of performing the same are also within the scope of embodiments of the present application. For example, when the method of the embodiment of the present application is performed by an access network device, the method may be specifically performed by at least one of a CU, a CU-CP, a CU-UP, a DU, or an RU.

Currently, due to factors such as deep coverage, interference control, and low cost, a network device may configure a plurality of TRPs as one logical cell, i.e., a multi-TRP cell, to which a terminal device may access through any one of the TRPs.

Wherein, the plurality of TRP may be understood as a plurality of antennas available for the network device, for example, the network device includes a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU), and a plurality of channels of the RRU are externally connected to the plurality of antennas, each antenna corresponds to one TRP, as shown in fig. 2; for another example, the network device includes a plurality of RRUs, each RRU is externally connected to an antenna, and each antenna corresponds to one TRP, as shown in fig. 3.

Currently, for a multi-TRP cell, in order to specifically optimize a network serving a terminal device, for example, to evaluate weak coverage performance of a TRP where the terminal device resides and to optimize an antenna corresponding to the TRP, it is necessary for the network device to determine the TRP where the terminal device currently resides.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, where when a network device sends a first signal through different TRPs, identifiers of beams used by the different TRPs are different, so that the network device may uniquely determine, according to an identifier of a target beam and second information reported by a terminal device, a TRP corresponding to the identifier of the target beam in the second information as a TRP where the terminal device currently resides, thereby optimizing a network that provides services for the terminal device.

An exemplary communication method provided by the present application is described below, and an exemplary interaction flow diagram of the method is shown in fig. 4.

Step 403, the network device transmits the first signal through beams corresponding to at least two TRPs in the same cell, wherein the identities of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first signal from the network device on beams corresponding to at least two TRPs within the same cell.

When the network device transmits the first signal through the TRP, different TRP is allocated with different beams, for example, the network device is assumed to include three TRPs in a multi-TRP cell configured by the network device, the network device can transmit the first signal to the terminal device through the 3 TRPs, for convenience of description, the three TRPs are respectively marked as TRP1, TRP2 and TRP3, the network device is assumed to be allocated with 2 beams, the two beams are respectively identified as an identification 1 and an identification 2, the TRP2 is allocated with 1 beam, the identification of the beam is identified as an identification 3, the TRP3 is allocated with 3 beams, the three beams are respectively identified as an identification 4, an identification 5 and an identification 6, then the network device can sequentially transmit the first signal on each TRP, for example, the network device can transmit the first signal through the beam corresponding to the identification 1 allocated to the TRP1 and the beam corresponding to the identification 2, then the network device can transmit the first signal through the beam corresponding to the identification 3 allocated to the TRP2, the beam corresponding to the identification 3 is allocated with the identification 1, the beam corresponding to the identification 2, the three beams are allocated with the identification 2, the identification 3 is allocated with 1, the identification 3 is allocated with the identification beam corresponding to the TRP3, the identification 4 is allocated to the first signal corresponding to the TRP corresponding to the identification 4.

In step 404, the terminal device sends first information to the network device, where the first information includes an identification of a target beam, where the target beam includes one of the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam is the largest of the first signals received on the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs. Accordingly, the network device receives the first information from the terminal device.

After the terminal equipment receives the first signals from the network equipment on the beams corresponding to at least two TRPs in the same cell, the first signal with the largest energy can be determined from the received first signals, the beam corresponding to the first signal with the largest energy is determined as the target beam, and after the target beam is determined, the terminal equipment can report the identification of the target beam to the network equipment through the first information.

For example, the network device sends the first signal sequentially through TRP1, TRP2, TRP3, and the terminal device may determine the TRP where the terminal device currently resides from TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 according to the received first signal from TRP1, TRP2, TRP 3.

Assuming that the total number of beams allocated by the network device to TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 is 6, in this case, after the terminal device receives the first signals from the network device from the 6 beams, the terminal device may measure the received first signals, so as to determine the first signal with the largest energy, for example, the terminal device may measure any one of the following parameters of the first signal:

Reference signal received power (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVED power, RSRP), signal to interference plus noise ratio (signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR), reference signal received quality (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVED quality, RSRQ), and strength indication (RECEIVED SIGNAL STRENGTH indicator, RSSI) of the received signal.

Assuming that the terminal device determines that the most energetic first signal from among the plurality of first signals received on the 6 beams is received from the beam corresponding to the identification 5, the terminal device may determine the beam corresponding to the identification 5 as the target beam.

Step 405, the network device determines, according to the identification of the target beam and the second information, a TRP where the terminal device currently resides, where the second information includes a mapping relationship between the identification of a plurality of beams and the plurality of TRPs, the plurality of TRPs includes at least two TRPs, and the plurality of beams includes beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

After the network device obtains the identifier of the target beam, the TRP corresponding to the identifier of the target beam in the plurality of TRPs can be determined as the TRP where the terminal device currently resides according to the identifier of the target beam, the mapping relationship between the identifiers of the plurality of beams and the plurality of TRPs.

The second information may be information stored in the network device in advance, or may be acquired by the network device, for example, may be acquired by the network device from the core network.

Based on the above technical solution, when the network device sends the first signal through different TRPs, the identifiers of the beams used by the different TRPs are different, so that the network device can uniquely determine the TRP corresponding to the identifier of the target beam in the second information as the TRP where the terminal device currently resides according to the identifier of the target beam and the second information reported by the terminal device, thereby optimizing the network providing services for the terminal device.

Illustratively, as an implementation, the method 400 may further include, prior to step 403, the steps of:

In step 401, the network device determines parameters for generating beams corresponding to at least two TRPs according to the number of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs and third information, where the third information includes a mapping relationship between the number of beams and the parameters for generating beams, and the number of beams includes the number of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

In step 402, the network device generates beams corresponding to at least two TRPs according to parameters for generating beams corresponding to at least two TRPs.

After determining the number of beams allocated to each TRP, the network device may determine, according to a mapping relationship between the number of beams corresponding to at least two TRPs, the number of multiple beams, and parameters of multiple generated beams, a parameter of a generated beam corresponding to the number of beams corresponding to the TRP from among the parameters of multiple generated beams as a parameter of a beam corresponding to the TRP, and then generate at least two beams corresponding to the TRP according to the determined parameter of the generated beam.

For example, the network device may transmit the first signal through TRP1, TRP2, TRP3, assume that the network device determines that TRP1 is allocated with 2 beams, determines that TRP2 is allocated with 1 beam, and determines that TRP3 is allocated with 3 beams, in which case the network device may use a parameter of a generated beam corresponding to the number of beams of 2 in the mapping relationship as a parameter of a beam corresponding to TRP1, generate 2 beams based on the parameter, use the 2 beams as a beam allocated to TRP1, and the network device may use a parameter of a generated beam corresponding to the number of beams of 1 in the mapping relationship as a parameter of a beam corresponding to TRP2, generate 1 beam based on the parameter, use the 1 beam as a beam allocated to TRP2, and in addition, the network device may use a parameter of a generated beam corresponding to the number of beams of 3 in the mapping relationship as a parameter of a beam corresponding to TRP3, generate 3 beams based on the parameter, and use the 3 beams as a beam allocated to TRP 3.

For example, the network device may determine the number of beams allocated for each TRP within the multi TRP cell by:

In mode 1, a network device determines the number of beams allocated to each TRP in a multi TRP cell based on the number of TRPs in the multi TRP cell and the number of beams used to transmit a first signal.

For example, the TRP cell comprises 3 TRPs, i.e. TRP1, TRP2, TRP3, the number of beams for transmitting the first signal is 6, in which case the network device may determine the number of beams allocated for TRP1, TRP2, TRP3, respectively, based on the following relation:

B_TRPi＝floor(MN)(1)

where B _TRPi represents the number of beams allocated for TRPi, i traverses from 1 to N, N represents the number of TRPs within the multi-TRP cell, M represents the number of beams used to transmit the first signal, and function floor () represents the rounding down.

According to relation (1), the network device may determine to allocate two beams for each of TRP1, TRP2, TRP 3.

In mode 2, the network device determines the number of beams allocated to TRP _num -1 in the multi-TRP cell based on the number of TRPs in the multi-TRP cell and the number of beams allocated to TRP _num -1, and determines the number of beams allocated to one TRP other than TRP _num -1 in the multi-TRP cell based on the number of beams used to transmit the first signal and the number of beams allocated to TRP _num -1.

For example, the TRP cell includes 3 TRPs, that is, TRP1, TRP2, TRP3, the number of beams for transmitting the first signal is 8, in which case the network device may determine the number of beams allocated to 2 TRPs out of TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 based on the relation (1), respectively, and then determine the number of beams allocated to one TRP out of TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 other than the above two TRPs based on the number of beams for transmitting the first signal and the number of beams allocated to 2 TRPs out of TRP1, TRP2, TRP 3.

For example, the network device determines the number of beams allocated for TRP1, TRP2 according to the relation (1), respectively, in which case the network device may determine 2 beams allocated for TRP1, TRP2 each according to the relation (1), after which, when determining the number of beams allocated for TRP3, the network device may determine the number of beams allocated for TRP3 according to the following relation:

Where B _TRPN represents the number of beams allocated for TRPN, N represents the number of TRPs within the multi-TRP cell, M represents the number of beams used to transmit the first signal, and B _TRPi represents the number of beams allocated for TRPi.

According to relation (2), the network device may determine to allocate 4 beams for TRP 3.

Illustratively, as an implementation manner, the first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam satisfies a condition that the terminal device currently resides under the TRP corresponding to the target beam, including: the energy of the first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam is the largest of the first signals received on the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

For example, the network device sequentially transmits the first signals through TRP1, TRP2, TRP3, and assuming that the total number of beams allocated to TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 by the network device is 6, in this case, the terminal device may determine a first signal from a certain beam (i.e., a target beam) from a plurality of first signals received by the terminal device on the 6 beams, where the first signal is the most energy of the plurality of first signals received by the terminal device on the 6 beams, and then the terminal device may report the identity of the target beam to the network device.

For example, as an implementation manner, the first information reported by the terminal device to the network device may further include energy of the first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam.

After determining the target beam, the terminal device may report, through the first information, not only the target identifier, but also the energy of the first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam.

It should be noted that the terminal device may also report, to the network device, the energy of the first signal received on the beam other than the target beam and the identification of the other beam, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

Illustratively, as one implementation, the first signal may include a synchronization signal block (SYNC SIGNAL block, SSB).

Illustratively, as one implementation, the identification of the beam may include an index number of the beam.

It should be noted that, the energy of the first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam is the maximum of the first signals received on the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, which is only an example of the condition that the terminal device currently resides under the TRP corresponding to the target beam, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

It will be appreciated that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the terminal includes corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the elements and method 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 scenario and design constraints imposed on the solution.

Fig. 5 and fig. 6 are schematic structural diagrams of a possible communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. These communication devices may be used to implement the functions of the network device or the terminal device in the above method embodiments, so that the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments may also be implemented. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device may be the terminal device 130 or the terminal device 140 shown in fig. 1, or may be the radio access network device 120 shown in fig. 1, or may be a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal device or the network device.

As shown in fig. 5, the communication device 500 includes a transceiver unit 510 and a processing unit 520. The communication device 500 is configured to implement the functions of the network device or the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4.

When the communication apparatus 500 is used to implement the functionality of the network device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4: the transceiver unit 510 is configured to transmit a first signal through beams corresponding to at least two transmission and reception points TRP, where the at least two TRPs belong to the same cell, and identifiers of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different. The transceiver unit 510 is further configured to receive first information from a terminal device, where the first information includes an identification of a target beam, where the target beam is one of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam is the largest among the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs. The processing unit 520 determines the TRP where the terminal device currently resides according to the identification of the target beam and second information, where the second information includes a mapping relationship between the identification of the beam and the TRP.

When the communication device 500 is used to implement the functionality of the terminal equipment in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4: the transceiver unit 510 is configured to receive a first signal from a network device on beams corresponding to at least two TRPs, where the at least two TRPs belong to the same cell, and the identities of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different. The transceiver unit 510 is further configured to send first information to the network device, where the first information includes an identification of a target beam, where the target beam includes one of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam is largest in the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

The more detailed description about the transceiver unit 510 and the processing unit 520 can be directly obtained by referring to the related description in the method embodiment shown in fig. 4, which is not repeated herein.

Fig. 6 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a communication device 600. The apparatus 600 is configured to implement functions of a network element according to an embodiment of the present application, where the network element may be, for example, a base station, a terminal, a DU, a CU-CP, a CU-UP, or a RU. The apparatus 600 may be, but is not limited to, the network element, or an apparatus that can be installed in the network element, or an apparatus that can be used in cooperation with the network element, for example, the apparatus may be a chip or a chip system. The apparatus 600 includes an interface circuit 620 and a processor 610.

Optionally, the processor 610 is configured to execute the program 640. The processor 610 may store the program 640 or retrieve the program 640 from other devices or other apparatuses (e.g., from the memory 630 or from a third party website download, etc.).

Optionally, the apparatus 600 comprises a memory 630. Memory 630 is used to store program 650. The program 650 may be stored in advance or loaded later.

Optionally, the memory 630 may also be used to store the necessary data. These components work together to provide the various functions described in the embodiments of the present application.

The processor 610 may include one or more processors as a combination of computing devices. The processor 610 may include one or more of the following, respectively: microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), digital Signal Processing Devices (DSPDs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), programmable Logic Devices (PLDs), gate logic, transistor logic, discrete hardware circuits, processing circuits or other suitable hardware, firmware, and/or combinations of hardware and software configured to perform the various functions described in the embodiments of the application.

The processor 610 may be a general purpose processor or a special purpose processor. For example, the processor 610 may be a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor may be used to process communication protocols and communication data. The central processor may be used to execute software programs and process data in the software programs.

Interface circuitry 620 may include any suitable hardware or software for enabling communications with one or more computer devices (e.g., network elements of embodiments of the present application). For example, in some embodiments, interface circuit 620 may include terminals and/or pins for coupling wires of a wired connection or coupling a wireless transceiver of a wireless connection. In some embodiments, interface circuit 620 may include a transmitter, a receiver, a transceiver, and/or an antenna. The interface may be configured to enable communication between computer devices (e.g., network elements of embodiments of the present application) using any available protocol (e.g., 3GPP standard protocol).

The program in the embodiment of the present application refers to software in a broad sense. The software may be program code, a program, a subroutine, an instruction set, a code segment, a software module, an application, a software application, or the like. The program may be run on a processor and/or computer to perform the various functions and/or processes described in embodiments of the present application.

The memory 630 may store necessary data required when the processor 610 executes software. Memory 630 may be implemented using any suitable storage technology. For example, memory 630 may be any available storage media that can be accessed by a processor and/or computer. Non-limiting examples of storage media are: random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (ELECTRICALLY ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ-only memory, EEPROM), compact disk read-only memory (compact disc read-only memory, CD-ROM), removable media, optical disk storage, magnetic storage devices, flash memory, registers, status memory, remote mounted memory, local or remote memory components, or any other medium that can carry or store software, data, or information and that can be accessed by a processor/computer.

The memory 630 and the processor 610 may be provided separately or may be integrated together. Processor 610 may read information from memory 630, store information, and/or write information in memory. The memory 630 may be integrated in the processor 610. The processor 610 and the memory 630 may be provided in an integrated circuit, such as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). The integrated circuit may be provided in a network element or other network node of an embodiment of the application.

When the communication device 600 is used to implement the method shown in fig. 4, the processor 610 is configured to perform the functions of the processing unit 520, and the interface circuit 620 is configured to perform the functions of the transceiver unit 510.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the network equipment, the network equipment chip realizes the functions of the network equipment in the embodiment of the method. The network device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and the information is sent to the network device by the terminal device; or the network device chip sends information to other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the network device, which is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the terminal equipment, the terminal equipment chip realizes the functions of the terminal equipment in the embodiment of the method. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device, and the information is sent to the terminal device by the network device; or the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal device, which is sent by the terminal device to the network device.

The method steps of the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in hardware or in software instructions executable by a processor. The software instructions may be comprised of corresponding software modules that may be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read only memory, programmable read only memory, erasable programmable read only memory, electrically erasable programmable read only memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. The storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may reside in a terminal. The processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a terminal.

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described by embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device, or other programmable apparatus. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer program or instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium, e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, tape; but also optical media such as digital video discs; but also semiconductor media such as solid state disks. The computer readable storage medium may be volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage medium.

In various embodiments of the application, where no special description or logic conflict exists, terms and/or descriptions between the various embodiments are consistent and may reference each other, and features of the various embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments based on their inherent logic.

In embodiments of the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or", describes an association relationship of an association object, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate: a alone, a and B together, and B alone, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. In the text description of the embodiments of the present application, the character "/", generally indicates that the associated objects are an "or" relationship; in the formulas of the embodiments of the present application, the character "/" indicates that the front and rear associated objects are a "division" relationship. "including at least one of A, B and C" may mean: comprises A; comprises B; comprising C; comprises A and B; comprises A and C; comprises B and C; including A, B and C.

It will be appreciated that the various numerical numbers referred to in the embodiments of the present application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The sequence number of each process does not mean the sequence of the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined according to the function and the internal logic.

Claims

1. A communication method applied to a network device, comprising:

transmitting a first signal through beams corresponding to at least two Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs), wherein the identifiers of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different, and the at least two TRPs belong to the same cell;

Receiving first information from a terminal device, wherein the first information comprises an identification of a target beam, the target beam is one of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam is the largest in the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs;

And determining the TRP where the terminal equipment currently resides according to the identification of the target beam and second information, wherein the second information comprises the mapping relation between the identification of the beam and the TRP.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

Determining parameters for generating the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs according to the number of the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs and third information, wherein the third information comprises a mapping relation between the number of the beams and the parameters for generating the beams;

and generating the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs according to the parameters for generating the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the number of beams to which each of the at least two TRPs corresponds is determined based on the number of TRPs within the cell and the number of beams used to transmit the first signal.

4. A method according to any of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the number of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs is different.

5. The method according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first information comprises energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam.

6. The method according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the first signal comprises a synchronization signal block SSB.

7. The method according to any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the identification of the beam comprises an index number of the beam.

8. A method of communication, comprising:

Receiving a first signal from a network device on beams corresponding to at least two TRPs, wherein the identities of at least one beam respectively corresponding to different TRPs are different, and the at least two TRPs belong to the same cell;

And sending first information to the network equipment, wherein the first information comprises identification of a target beam, the target beam is one of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and the energy of a first signal received by a terminal on the target beam is the largest in the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of beams to which each of the at least two TRPs corresponds is determined based on the number of TRPs within the cell and the number of beams used to transmit the first signal.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that the number of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs is different.

11. The method according to any of claims 8 to 10, wherein the first information comprises energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam.

12. The method according to any of claims 8 to 11, wherein the first signal comprises a synchronization signal block SSB.

13. The method according to any one of claim 8 to 12, it is characterized in that the method comprises the steps of, the identification of the beam includes an index number of the beam.

14. A communication device, comprising:

A transceiver unit, configured to transmit a first signal through beams corresponding to at least two TRPs, where identifiers of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different, and the at least two TRPs belong to a same cell;

The transceiver unit is further configured to receive first information from a terminal device, where the first information includes an identifier of a target beam, the target beam is one of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam is the largest among the beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs;

And the processing unit is used for determining the TRP where the terminal equipment currently resides according to the identification of the target beam and second information, wherein the second information comprises the mapping relation between the identification of the beam and the TRP.

15. The communication device of claim 14, wherein the processing unit is further configured to:

16. The communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein the number of beams to which each of the at least two TRPs corresponds is determined based on the number of TRPs within the cell and the number of beams used to transmit the first signal.

17. A communication device according to any of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that the number of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs is different.

18. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 14 to 17, wherein the first information comprises energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam.

19. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 14 to 18, wherein the first signal comprises a synchronization signal block SSB.

20. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 14 to 19, wherein the identification of the beam comprises an index number of the beam.

21. A communication device, comprising:

A transceiver unit, configured to receive a first signal from a network device on beams corresponding to at least two TRPs, where identifiers of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs are different, and the at least two TRPs belong to a same cell;

The transceiver unit is further configured to send first information to the network device, where the first information includes an identifier of a target beam, where the target beam is one of beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs, and energy of a first signal received by the terminal on the target beam is the largest among beams corresponding to the at least two TRPs.

22. The communications apparatus of claim 21, wherein the number of beams to which each of the at least two TRPs corresponds is determined based on the number of TRPs within the cell and the number of beams used to transmit the first signal.

23. A communication device according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that the number of at least one beam corresponding to different TRPs is different.

24. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 21 to 23, wherein the first information comprises energy of a first signal received by the terminal device on the target beam.

25. The communication apparatus according to any of claims 21 to 24, wherein the first signal comprises a synchronization signal block SSB.

26. A communication device according to any of claims 21 to 25, wherein the identification of the beam comprises an index number of the beam.

27. A communication device comprising a processor and interface circuitry for receiving signals from other communication devices and transmitting to the processor or sending signals from the processor to other communication devices, the processor being configured to implement the method of any one of claims 1 to 7 or to implement the method of any one of claims 8 to 13 by logic circuitry or execution of code instructions.

28. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the storage medium has stored therein a computer program or instructions which, when executed by a communication device, implements the method of any of claims 1 to 7 or implements the method of any of claims 8 to 13.