CN118119009A

CN118119009A - Frequency band switching method and device

Info

Publication number: CN118119009A
Application number: CN202211520257.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 党军涛; 易雄书
Original assignee: Shanghai Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-11-30
Filing date: 2022-11-30
Publication date: 2024-05-31
Also published as: WO2024114380A2

Abstract

A frequency band switching method and device, the method includes: and the terminal equipment reports the capability information, and the network equipment correspondingly receives the capability information. The capability information includes at least two frequency band combinations including a first frequency band combination and a second frequency band combination, the at least two frequency band combinations including a number of reception channels of at least two frequency bands, respectively. The network device sends switching information to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the switching information and switches from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information. In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can be switched between different frequency band combinations, so that not only the shared resources in the frequency band combinations can be effectively utilized, but also the communication quality of the terminal equipment can be effectively ensured.

Description

Frequency band switching method and device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for switching frequency bands.

Background

The main components of the transceiver channel of the communication device may include a baseband integrated circuit, a radio frequency front end, and an antenna. Through these components, the communication device can perform reception and transmission of signals.

At present, when the communication device supports different frequency bands to work, the antenna, the radio frequency front end, the radio frequency integrated circuit and the like are designed in a separated mode and work independently. The terminal device supports 3 frequency bands, such as f3 frequency band, f2 frequency band, and f1 frequency band, for example. For the f3 band, the terminal device may support 2T2R capability, and the radio frequency channel may be switched between 3 package antennas, thereby implementing single-panel 2T2R. For the f1 frequency band and the f2 frequency band, the components are designed separately, so that independent 4T4R capability is realized. Thus, the terminal device may receive signals in the respective frequency bands, e.g., the terminal device may receive signals in the f3 frequency band, and then switch to the f2 frequency band or the f1 frequency band, etc., if the coverage is poor in the coverage edge area of the f3 frequency band.

However, when the terminal device receives signals by the above method, the resource utilization of each frequency band has yet to be improved.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a frequency band switching method and device, which can improve the resource utilization rate.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for switching a frequency band, where the method includes: reporting capability information, wherein the capability information comprises at least two frequency band combinations, the at least two frequency band combinations comprise a first frequency band combination and a second frequency band combination, and the at least two frequency band combinations respectively comprise the number of receiving channels of the at least two frequency bands; and receiving switching information, and switching from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can switch between different frequency band combinations based on the switching information issued by the network equipment by reporting the capability information, so that resources of frequency bands in the frequency band combinations capable of being mutually switched are shared, the flexible fusion and sharing of the resources are effectively realized, the utilization rate of the resources is effectively improved, and the reliability of the communication of the terminal equipment can be effectively ensured because the terminal equipment can mutually switch the frequency band combinations.

In a possible implementation manner, in a case of reduced signal quality, the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination; or the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is larger than that of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can flexibly switch the frequency band combination, for example, under the condition of reduced signal quality, the terminal equipment is switched from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination, and the number of receiving channels of a high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than that of receiving channels of a high frequency band in the first frequency band combination, so that the terminal equipment can be effectively accessed into a low frequency band when the signal quality is reduced. The method not only can effectively utilize the frequency band resources in the frequency band combination, but also improves the signal coverage condition of the terminal equipment and ensures the communication reliability of the terminal equipment.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: releasing one or more receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment releases the radio frequency integrated circuit (radio frequency integrated circuit, RFIC) resources of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination to be used in the low frequency band. Therefore, when the terminal equipment is switched to the second frequency band combination, the RFIC resources of the high frequency band can be effectively utilized, and the utilization rate of the RFIC resources is improved.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: one or more receive channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination are converted to receive channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

In the embodiment of the application, the receiving channels between the frequency bands in the frequency band combination can be mutually converted, so that the utilization rate of the frequency band resources in the frequency band combination is effectively improved. Exemplary, resources may be shared between a frequency band combination of a frequency band less than 6GHz (sub 6G) and a frequency band less than 3GHz (sub 3G), for example, RFFE may be added to the two frequency bands, and for example, antennas (such as a common antenna design), RFIC resources, and baseband integrated circuit (base band integrated circuit, BBIC) resources may be shared between the two frequency bands, so as to implement 8R enhanced reception in the two frequency bands.

In one possible implementation, the signal quality reduction condition includes at least one of: the signal quality of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a first signal threshold value; and the load of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is greater than or equal to a first load threshold.

In a possible implementation manner, in the case of signal quality enhancement, the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is greater than the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination; or the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can flexibly switch the frequency band combination, for example, under the condition of signal quality enhancement, the terminal equipment is switched from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination, and the number of the receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is larger than that of the receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination, so that the terminal equipment can be preferentially accessed into the high frequency band when the signal quality enhancement is effectively ensured, and the load of part of the low frequency band is unloaded. The method not only can effectively utilize the frequency band resources in the frequency band combination, but also improves the signal coverage condition of the terminal equipment and ensures the communication reliability of the terminal equipment.

In one possible implementation, the signal quality enhancement condition includes at least one of: the signal quality of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is greater than or equal to a second signal threshold; and the load of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a second load threshold value.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: releasing one or more receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment releases RFIC resources and the like of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination to be used for the high frequency band. Thus, when the terminal device is switched to the second frequency band combination, the RFIC resource and the like in the low frequency band can be effectively utilized, and the utilization rate of the RFIC resource and the like can be improved.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: one or more receive channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination are converted to receive channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

In the embodiment of the application, the receiving channels between the frequency bands in the frequency band combination can be mutually converted, so that the utilization rate of the frequency band resources in the frequency band combination is effectively improved.

In one possible implementation, the handover information is carried in downlink control information (downlinkcontrolinformation, DCI) or in radio resource control (radioresourcecontrol, RRC) signaling.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for switching a frequency band, where the method includes:

Receiving capability information, wherein the capability information comprises at least two frequency band combinations, the at least two frequency band combinations comprise a first frequency band combination and a second frequency band combination, and the at least two frequency band combinations respectively comprise the number of receiving channels of at least two frequency bands; and sending switching information, wherein the switching information is used for indicating terminal equipment to switch from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination.

In one possible implementation, the network device may determine the handover information based on at least one of a loading condition of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination, a coverage range of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination, and a time slot ratio of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination.

In one possible implementation, the handover information is carried in downlink control information DCI, or in radio resource control RRC signaling.

In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect. The communication device comprises a unit with means for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

The communication means may comprise, for example, a terminal device or a chip, which may be applied to the terminal device.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communications apparatus for performing the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect. The communication device comprises a unit with means for performing the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

The communication apparatus may include a network device or a chip, which may be applied to the network device, for example.

In the third or fourth aspect, the communication apparatus may include a transceiver unit and a processing unit. Reference may also be made to the device embodiments shown below for a specific description of the transceiver unit and the processing unit.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which includes a processor configured to perform the method described in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. Or the processor is configured to execute a program stored in the memory, which when executed, performs the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

In one possible implementation, the memory is located outside the communication device.

In one possible implementation, the memory is located within the communication device.

In the embodiment of the application, the processor and the memory may also be integrated in one device, i.e. the processor and the memory may also be integrated together.

In one possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver for receiving signals or transmitting signals. Illustratively, the transceiver may be used to transmit the capability information. Illustratively, the transceiver may be configured to receive handoff information, etc.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communications device, including a processor configured to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. Or the processor is configured to execute a program stored in the memory, which when executed, performs the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In embodiments of the present application, the processor and the memory may also be integrated in one device, i.e. the processor and the memory may also be integrated together.

In one possible implementation, the communication device further includes a transceiver for receiving signals or transmitting signals. Illustratively, the transceiver may be configured to receive capability information. The transceiver may also be used for transmitting handover information, etc., for example.

In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising logic circuitry and an interface, the logic circuitry and the interface being coupled; the interface is used for outputting the capability information; inputting switching information; logic circuitry for switching from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information.

It will be appreciated that logic circuitry may be used to determine the capability information.

In a possible implementation, the logic circuit is further configured to release one or more reception channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

In a possible implementation, the logic circuit is further configured to convert one or more receive channels of a high frequency band in the first frequency band combination into a receive channel of a low frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

In a possible implementation, the logic circuit is further configured to release one or more reception channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

In a possible implementation, the logic circuit is further configured to convert one or more receive channels of a low frequency band in the first frequency band combination into a receive channel of a high frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

It will be appreciated that the specific description of the seventh aspect may also refer to the first aspect, and will not be described in detail here.

In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication device comprising logic circuitry and an interface, the logic circuitry and the interface coupled; the interface is used for inputting capability information and outputting switching information.

The logic circuit may be configured to parse the input capability information to obtain a frequency band combination supported by the terminal device. Exemplary logic circuitry may be used to determine the handoff information.

It will be appreciated that the detailed description of the eighth aspect may also refer to the second aspect, and will not be described in detail here.

In a ninth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer readable storage medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect to be performed.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer readable storage medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes the method of the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect described above to be performed.

In an eleventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising a computer program or computer code which, when run on a computer, causes the method shown in the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect to be performed.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product comprising a computer program or computer code which, when run on a computer, causes the method shown in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect described above to be performed.

In a thirteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program which, when run on a computer, performs the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

In a fourteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program which, when run on a computer, performs the method of the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect.

In a fifteenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a wireless communication method, where the wireless communication method includes a method as described in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and a method as described in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a sixteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system comprising a terminal device for performing the method according to the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and a network device for performing the method according to the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

Advantageous effects concerning the second aspect to the sixteenth aspect refer to the first aspect.

Drawings

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

fig. 2a is a schematic diagram of a transceiver channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 2b is a schematic diagram of a receiving channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2c is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a multiband cooperative networking according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 4a is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4b is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 5a is a schematic diagram of a receiving channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5b is a schematic view of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 5c is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6a is a schematic diagram of a receiving channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6b is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 6c is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7a is a schematic diagram of a receiving channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7b is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7c is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8a is a schematic diagram of a receiving channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 8b is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8c is a flowchart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a receiving channel according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 10 is a flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a timeslot proportioning provided by an embodiment of the present application;

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

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

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

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The terms first and second and the like in the description, the claims and the drawings of the present application are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular sequential order. Furthermore, the terms "comprising," "including," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. Such as a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to the list of steps or elements but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of such phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Those of skill in the art will explicitly and implicitly understand that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.

In the present application, "at least one (item)" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more, "at least two (items)" means two or three and more, "and/or" for describing an association relationship of an association object, and three kinds of relationships may exist, for example, "a and/or B" may represent: only a, only B and both a and B are present, wherein a, B may be singular or plural. "A or B" may represent: only a, only B, and three cases a and B where a and B do not conflict. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of (a) or a similar expression thereof means any combination of these items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b or c may represent: a, b, c, "a and b", "a and c", "b and c", or "a and b and c".

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) system, a narrowband internet of things (narrow band internet of things, NB-IoT) system, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a fifth generation (5 th-generation, 5G) communication system, a new wireless (newradio, NR) system and a new communication system in future communication development.

The technical solution provided by the embodiment of the application can also be applied to non-terrestrial network (non-TERRESTRIAL NETWORKS, NTN) communication (also called non-terrestrial network communication), machine type communication (MACHINE TYPE communication, MTC), long term evolution technology (long term evolution-machine, LTE-M) of inter-machine communication, device-to-device (todevice, D2D) network, machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) network, internet of things (internet of things, ioT) network, industrial internet or other networks. The IoT network may include, for example, an internet of vehicles. The communication modes in the internet of vehicles system are generally called as vehicles and anything (V2X, X may represent anything), for example, the V2X may include: vehicle-to-vehicle (vehicle to vehicle, V2V) communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure (vehicle to infrastructure, V2I) communication, vehicle-to-pedestrian communication (vehicle to pedestrian, V2P) or vehicle-to-network (vehicle to network, V2N) communication, etc. By way of example, in fig. 1 shown below, the terminal device and the terminal device may communicate via D2D technology, M2M technology, V2X technology, or the like.

The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can also be applied to a wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN) system, such as Wi-Fi and the like. The method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to the institute of electrical and electronics engineers (institute of ELECTRICAL AND electronics engineers) 802.11 series of protocols, such as 802.11a/b/g protocol, 802.11n protocol, 802.11ac protocol, 802.11ax protocol, 802.11be protocol or next generation protocol, and the like, which are not listed here. As another example, the method can also be applied to a wireless personal area network (wireless personal area network, WPAN) based on Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology, such as 802.15.4a protocol, 802.15.4z protocol, or 802.15.4ab protocol in IEEE802.15 series protocols, or future generation UWB WPAN protocol, etc., which are not listed herein. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that aspects of embodiments of the present application may be extended to other networks employing a variety of standards or protocols. Such as bluetooth (blue), high performance wireless LANs (high performance radio LAN, HIPERLAN), a wireless standard similar to the IEEE 802.11 standard and used principally in europe, and Wide Area Networks (WANs) or other now known or later developed networks. Therefore, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application can be applied to any suitable wireless network, regardless of the coverage area and the wireless access protocol used.

As a possible implementation manner, fig. 1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system may comprise at least one network device and at least one terminal device, such as terminal device 1 and terminal device 4 in fig. 1. For example, the terminal device 3 and the terminal device 4 shown in fig. 1 may communicate directly, such as may be implemented by D2D technology. For example, terminal device 1 and terminal device 4 may each communicate with a network device, such as terminal device 3 and terminal device 4 may communicate directly with a network device, or may communicate with a network device indirectly, such as via other terminal devices (not shown in fig. 1). It should be understood that fig. 1 illustrates one network device and four terminal devices, and communication links between the respective communication devices, by way of example. Alternatively, the communication system may include a plurality of network devices, and each network device may include other numbers of terminal devices, such as more or fewer terminal devices, within a coverage area of the network device, which is not limited by embodiments of the present application. The terminal device and the network device are described in detail below.

The terminal device is a device with wireless transceiving function. The terminal device may communicate with access network devices (or may also be referred to as access devices) in a radio access network (radio access network, RAN). A terminal device may also be called a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a terminal (terminal), a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a user agent, a user equipment, or the like. In one possible implementation, the terminal device may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, hand-held or vehicle-mounted; and can be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship, etc.), etc. In one possible implementation manner, the terminal device may be a handheld device, an on-vehicle device, a wearable device, a sensor, a terminal in the internet of things, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a 5G network, or a terminal device in any form in a future network, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. It can be understood that the terminal device shown in the embodiment of the present application may include not only a vehicle (such as an automobile) in the internet of vehicles, but also an in-vehicle device or an in-vehicle terminal in the internet of vehicles, and the specific form of the terminal device when applied to the internet of vehicles is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. It can be understood that the terminal device and the terminal device shown in the embodiment of the present application may also communicate through technologies such as D2D, V2X or M2M, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit a communication method between the terminal device and the terminal device.

The network device may be a device deployed in a radio access network to provide wireless communication services for terminal devices. The network device may also be referred to as an access network device, an access device, a RAN device, or the like. By way of example, the network device may be a next generation node B (next generation node B, gNB), a next generation evolved base station (next generation evolved nodeB, ng-eNB), or a network device in 6G communications, among others. The network device may be any device having wireless transceiver capabilities, including but not limited to the base stations shown above (including base stations deployed on satellites). The network device may also be a device with base station functionality in 6G. Alternatively, the network device may be an access node, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, etc. in a Wi-Fi system. Optionally, the network device may be a wireless controller in a cloud wireless access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario. Alternatively, the network device may be a wearable device or an in-vehicle device, etc. Alternatively, the network device may also be a small station, a transmission receiving node (transmission reception point, TRP) (or may also be referred to as a transmission point), or the like.

It will be appreciated that the network device may also be a base station, satellite, etc. in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN). The network device may also be a non-ground communication system, a communication device carrying a base station function in D2D, V X or M2M, etc., and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific type of the network device. In systems with different radio access technologies, the names of communication devices with network equipment functions may be different, and embodiments of the present application are not listed. Optionally, in some deployments of the network device, the network device may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), and the like. In other deployments of network devices, CUs may also be divided into CU-Control Plane (CP) and CU-User Plane (UP), etc. In yet other deployments of network devices, the network devices may also be antenna units (RUs), and the like. In still other deployments of network devices, the network devices may also be open radio access network (openradioaccessnetwork, ORAN) architectures, etc., and embodiments of the present application are not limited to specific deployment manners of the network devices. For example, when the network device is ORAN architecture, the network device shown in the embodiment of the present application may be an access network device in ORAN, or a module in the access network device, etc. In ORAN systems, a CU may also be referred to as an open (O) -CU, a DU may also be referred to as an 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-CU-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU. The deployment manners of the network devices listed here are only examples, and other deployment manners of the network devices may exist along with the evolution of standard technologies, so that the frequency band switching method shown in the embodiment of the present application can be implemented, which falls within the protection scope of the embodiment of the present application.

The network architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiments of the present application are for more clearly describing the technical solution of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application. As can be known to those skilled in the art, with the evolution of the network architecture and the appearance of new service scenarios, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

Terms related to the embodiments of the present application are described in detail below.

Baseband integrated circuit (base band integrated circuit, BBIC): is responsible for completing the signal processing related to the communication system and is used for carrying out the functions of compression/decompression, encoding/decoding, modulation/demodulation and the like of the digital signals.

A radio frequency integrated circuit: the main function is to perform up-mixing and down-mixing, which is equivalent to converting a binary-processable baseband/intermediate frequency signal into a Radio Frequency (RF) signal that can be transmitted/received on an air interface, which operation can be regarded as transmission/reception, and the main body of which can be understood as a radio frequency integrated circuit (radio frequency integrated circuit, RFIC) chip. The radio frequency integrated circuit may include multiple transceiver channels, where the 1-channel corresponds to 1-channel analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and the 1-channel corresponds to 1-channel digital-to-analog converter (DAC).

Radio frequency front end: the device is mainly used for realizing the receiving and transmitting of signals under different frequencies, and comprises a radio frequency Power Amplifier (PA), a radio frequency low noise amplifier (low noise amplifier, LNA), a radio frequency switch (switch), a filter, a duplexer and the like.

There is a transceiver channel of a terminal device, as shown in fig. 2a, the main components of the transceiver channel may include: BBIC, RFIC, radio frequency front end (radio frequency front-end, RFFE) and antenna. In general, antennas, RFICs, BBICs may be designed in a shared manner or may be designed separately, but RFFEs may not be shared. At present, terminal equipment can support different frequency bands, and for different frequency bands, the antenna, the RFFE, the RFIC and the like are designed separately and work independently.

Illustratively, as shown in fig. 2b, the terminal device supports 3 frequency bands, such as f3 frequency band, f2 frequency band, and f1 frequency band. For example, the f3 band may include a millimeter wave (mmWave) band such as n 258. For convenience of description, the millimeter wave band described in the embodiments of the present application will be described below by taking 26GHz as an example. For the millimeter wave band, the terminal device may support 2 transmit 2 receive (2T 2R) capability, corresponding to 3 encapsulated antennas (ANTENNA IN PACKAGE, AIP) (AIP). RFFE and antennas, etc. may be included in the AIP. As shown in fig. 2b, the RFIC radio frequency channel may be switched between 3 AIPs, thereby implementing AIP selection and implementing 2T2R. It is to be appreciated that one AIP encapsulated antenna panel may constitute one panel (pannel), or that multiple AIP encapsulated antenna panels may constitute one panel, as embodiments of the present application are not limited in this respect. In general, an antenna used in the millimeter wave band is an AIP, that is, an antenna used in the millimeter wave band is different from an antenna used in a band lower than the millimeter wave. For example, the f1 band may include an n41 band, the f2 band may include an n79 band, both of which are separate designs that may support 4T4R capability. It will be appreciated that for ease of description, the n41 band described in the embodiments of the present application will be described below by taking 2.6GHz as an example, and the n79 band described in the embodiments of the present application will be described by taking 4.9GHz as an example. The 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz are examples only and should not be construed as limiting embodiments of the present application. That is, those skilled in the art can adaptively learn the relationship between the frequency band number and the frequency band number of 26GHz, less than 6GHz, less than 3GHz, etc. shown below, based on the relationship between the frequency band number and the frequency band. N258, n41 and n79 are shown here as examples, and in a specific implementation, the terminal device may also support more frequency bands, such as n78, n77, n1 and n3, which are not listed.

However, the f3 band shown in fig. 2b is designed to be completely separated from the f2 band and the f1 band, and if the f3 band is to realize the receiving capability of the downlink 4R, a millimeter wave RFIC radio frequency channel needs to be added. And if the receiving capability of the f2 frequency band and the f1 frequency band downlink 8R is to be realized so as to improve the downlink coverage capability and the user experience, the antennas, RFFEs, RFICs and the like of the corresponding frequency bands need to be additionally and respectively added, and the cost and the realization difficulty are high. Under the multi-band cooperative networking, coverage ranges of different frequency bands are different. In general, the higher the frequency, the greater the path loss and the smaller the corresponding coverage. As shown in fig. 2c, under the design of separation of antennas, RFFE and RFIC in each frequency band, for the terminal device in the middle point range and outside the near point range, the millimeter wave is uncovered, and then the millimeter wave hardware resources (such as the RFIC radio frequency channel) of the terminal device are wasted. For terminal equipment beyond the mid-point range in the far-point range, the f2 frequency band is not covered, and at this time, f2 frequency band hardware resources (such as RFIC radio frequency channels and antennas) of the terminal equipment are wasted. It will be appreciated that the near, mid and far points shown in fig. 2c are relative, e.g., the coverage of the f3 band is smaller and the coverage of the f3 band is closer to the base station than the f1 band and the f2 band; for another example, the coverage area of the f2 band is in the middle position relative to the f1 band and the f3 band; as another example, the coverage of the f1 band is maximum and the coverage of the f1 band is farther from the base station than the f2 band and the f3 band.

In view of this, the embodiment of the application provides a frequency band switching method and device, which can effectively utilize resources of different frequency bands and improve the utilization rate of the resources. The method provided by the embodiment of the application can effectively realize the flexible fusion and sharing of high-frequency and low-frequency hardware resources under the condition of corresponding network (such as the network similar to the network shown in fig. 2 c) coverage, and improves downlink coverage and downlink experience of users.

Fig. 3 is a flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application. The method can be applied to a communication system as shown in fig. 1, and for convenience of description, the method will be described below by taking a terminal device and a network device as examples. The terminal device and the network device shown below should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application. The steps performed by the terminal device as shown below may also be implemented by a chip. The steps performed by the network device as shown below may also be implemented by a chip or the like, and are not listed here.

As shown in fig. 3, the method includes:

301. And the terminal equipment reports the capability information, and the network equipment correspondingly receives the capability information reported by the terminal equipment. The capability information includes at least two frequency band combinations including a first frequency band combination and a second frequency band combination, the at least two frequency band combinations including a number of reception channels of at least two frequency bands, respectively.

Any one of the at least two frequency band combinations included in the capability information may include at least two frequency bands, and the number of reception channels of the at least two frequency bands. The number of reception channels can be understood as the number of channels used when receiving a signal. For example, the number of receive channels may include 0R, 2R, 4R, 8R, and the like. The number of receiving channels shown in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as receiving capability or capability of a receiving channel, etc.

Optionally, the capability information reported by the terminal device may not include the corresponding relationship between the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination, but the two communication parties autonomously determine that the corresponding frequency band combination is used in the corresponding scenario, or the terminal device may autonomously determine the frequency band combination that needs to be switched based on the switching information sent by the network device. The method can effectively reduce the signaling overhead of the capability information. Optionally, the capability information reported by the terminal device may include a correspondence between the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination, so that both communication parties can clearly know the corresponding frequency band combination to which the terminal device is switched, and the communication efficiency of both communication parties when switching the frequency band combinations is improved. Optionally, the capability information may include a correspondence between at least two frequency bands in the frequency band combination (e.g., a correspondence between a high frequency band and a low frequency band in the first frequency band combination, and a correspondence between a high frequency band and a low frequency band in the second frequency band combination), and based on the correspondence, the communication parties may explicitly learn which frequency bands belong to the same frequency band combination. Alternatively, the capability information may not include the correspondence between at least two frequency bands in the frequency band combination, but the two communication parties use the corresponding frequency bands based on the communication capability and different scenarios. It will be appreciated that in the case where at least one of the band combination or the frequency band is autonomously determined by both communication parties, the band combination determined by both communication parties and the frequency band in the band combination need to be kept identical. For example, if the terminal device supports signal reception in the millimeter wave band, the band combination determined by the terminal device and the network device may include the millimeter wave band. The embodiment of the application is not limited as to how to ensure the consistency of the frequency band combinations determined by the two communication parties. The frequency band combination will be exemplarily described below.

As an example, the number of reception channels of two frequency bands may be included in the frequency band combination. Illustratively, the low frequency band and the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination are respectively the same, but the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination is different from the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination, and the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is different from the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination. It will be appreciated that the low frequency band and the high frequency band shown in the embodiments of the present application are relatively speaking, that is, two frequency bands in a frequency band combination have high and low scores. Illustratively, the band combination may include at least one of: a combination of low band 0R, high band 4R; a combination of low band 4R and high band 2R; a combination of low band 0R, high band 8R; a combination of low band 4R and high band 4R; combinations of low band 8R and high band 0R, etc., are not listed here.

For example, one of the first band combination and the second band combination may include a low band 0R, a millimeter wave 4R, and the other band combination includes a millimeter wave 2R, a low band 4R. It is understood that the low frequency band may include a frequency band less than 26GHz, such as 4.9GHz or 2.6GHz, and the like. As another example, one of the first band combination and the second band combination may include 4.9ghz 8r, 2.6ghz 0r, and the other band combination may include 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4r. As another example, one of the first band combination and the second band combination may include 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4r, and the other band combination may include 4.9ghz 0r, 2.6ghz 8r. As another example, one of the first band combination and the second band combination may include 4.9ghz 8r, 2.6ghz 0r, and the other band combination may include 4.9ghz 0r, 2.6ghz 8r. It will be appreciated that the specifics of the first band combination and the second band combination may be determined from different scenarios, and that reference may be made to the descriptions of signal quality reduction and signal quality enhancement shown below for descriptions of scenarios.

Scene 1, wherein under the condition that the signal quality of the terminal equipment is weakened, the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than that of the receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination; or the number of the receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is larger than the number of the receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination. Illustratively, the first band combination may include a combination of low band 0R, millimeter wave 4R, and the second band combination includes a combination of millimeter wave 2R, low band 4R. It is understood that the low frequency band may include a frequency band less than 26GHz, such as 4.9GHz or 2.6GHz, and the like. As another example, the first band combination may include a combination of 4.9ghz 8r, 2.6ghz 0r, and the second band combination may include a combination of 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4 r. As another example, the first band combination may include a combination of 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4r, and the second band combination may include a combination of 4.9ghz 0r, 2.6ghz 8 r. As another example, the first band combination may include a combination of 4.9ghz 8r, 2.6ghz 0r, and the second band combination may include a combination of 4.9ghz 0r, 2.6ghz 8 r. In a specific implementation, the frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device may be more, and the embodiments of the present application are not listed one by one.

The above-mentioned case of signal quality degradation may be understood as a case of signal quality degradation occurring when the terminal device is in a coverage area of a high frequency band, or a case of signal quality degradation caused by the terminal device being in an edge area of the high frequency band, where the terminal device needs to switch to a coverage area of a low frequency band, or a case of signal quality degradation caused by the terminal device moving from a coverage area close to the network device to a coverage area far from the network device. Exemplary conditions of reduced signal quality include at least one of: the signal quality of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a first signal threshold value; the load of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is larger than or equal to a first load threshold value; the load of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a third load threshold value; the distance between the terminal equipment and the network equipment corresponding to the high frequency band is greater than or equal to a distance threshold value. I.e. by the above listed cases, a situation may occur in which the signal quality of the terminal device is reduced. The specific values of the above-listed thresholds are not limited by the embodiments of the present application.

Scene 2, wherein under the condition of signal quality enhancement, the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is larger than that of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination; or the number of the receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than the number of the receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination. For example, the second frequency band combination may include a combination of low frequency band 0R and millimeter wave 4R, and the first frequency band combination includes a combination of millimeter wave 2R and low frequency band 4R. As another example, the second band combination may comprise a combination of 4.9ghz 8r, 2.6ghz 0r, and the first band combination may comprise a combination of 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4 r. As another example, the second band combination may comprise a combination of 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4r, and the first band combination may comprise a combination of 4.9ghz0r, 2.6ghz 8 r. As another example, the second frequency band combination may comprise a combination of 4.9ghz 8r, 2.6ghz 0r, and the first frequency band combination may comprise a combination of 4.9ghz0r, 2.6ghz 8 r. In a specific implementation, the frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device may be more, and the embodiments of the present application are not listed one by one.

The above-described case of signal quality enhancement may be understood as a case of signal quality enhancement of a high frequency band occurring when the terminal device is in a coverage area of a low frequency band, or a case of gradually increasing a coverage area of a high frequency band although the terminal device is still in a coverage area of a low frequency band, or a case of signal quality enhancement occurring when the terminal device moves from a coverage area far from the network device to a coverage area near to the network device. Exemplary conditions for signal quality enhancement include at least one of: the signal quality of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is greater than or equal to a second signal threshold; the load of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a second load threshold value; the load of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination is larger than or equal to a fourth load threshold value; the distance between the terminal equipment and the network equipment corresponding to the high frequency band is smaller than or equal to a distance threshold value. I.e. by the above listed cases, the terminal device may be caused to have an enhanced signal quality. The specific values of the above-listed thresholds are not limited by the embodiments of the present application.

As another example, the number of receive channels for more than two frequency bands may be included in the frequency band combination. Exemplary frequency bands, such as in a band combination, may include millimeter wave bands, 4.9GHz, 2.6GHz. The description of the band combinations may be referred to adaptively as the description of the first band combination and the second band combination above. It will be appreciated that in the case where three or more frequency bands are included in a frequency band combination, the switching between these frequency bands may refer to the description provided in the embodiment of the present application regarding the inclusion of two frequency bands in the frequency band combination. In other words, when the frequency band combination includes three frequency bands, the three frequency bands may include a high frequency band, a medium frequency band, and a low frequency band, the switching between the high frequency band and the medium frequency band may be equivalent to the switching between the high frequency band and the low frequency band when the frequency band combination includes two frequency bands, and the switching between the medium frequency band and the low frequency band may be equivalent to the switching between the high frequency band and the low frequency band when the frequency band combination includes two frequency bands. Therefore, no matter how many frequency bands are included in one frequency band combination, the switching between frequency band combinations is similar, and the embodiments of the present application will not be described in detail.

302. The network device sends switching information to the terminal device, and the terminal device receives the switching information.

For example, the network device may send a handover message indicating that the terminal device is handed over from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination in case that a decrease in signal quality of the terminal device is detected. For a description of the signal quality reduction reference may be made to the description of scenario 1 above. For example, the network device may send a handover information indicating that the terminal device is handed over from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination in case that the signal quality enhancement of the terminal device is detected. For a description of signal quality enhancement reference may be made to the description of scenario 2 above.

For example, the handover information may be carried in DCI. Therefore, the frequency band combination can be dynamically switched, and the purpose of dynamically switching the receiving channels is realized, so that the scheme of flexibly configuring the downlink receiving channels from the millimeter wave 2R to the millimeter wave 4R is realized without increasing the cost or with low cost (such as not increasing at least one of a millimeter wave antenna, an RFFE and an RFIC, or sharing the RFIC and/or the antenna in a low frequency band), and the scheme of flexibly configuring the downlink receiving channels from the millimeter wave 2R to the millimeter wave 4R is realized in a lower frequency band than that of the downlink receiving channels from the millimeter wave 4R to the 8R in a frequency band of 6 GHz. The switching of the frequency band combination is realized through DCI, and the timeliness of the DCI is higher, so that the efficiency of switching the frequency band combination by the terminal equipment is higher.

For example, the handover information may be carried in RRC signaling. Therefore, the switching frequency band combination can be realized semi-statically, and the purpose of switching the semi-statically receiving channels is realized, so that the scheme of flexibly configuring the downlink receiving channels from the millimeter wave 2R to the millimeter wave 4R is realized without increasing the cost or with low cost, and the scheme of flexibly configuring the downlink receiving channels from the frequency band less than the frequency band of 6GHz is realized from the 4R to the 8R. The switching of the frequency band combination is realized through the RRC signaling, and the RRC signaling is safer and more reliable, so that the reliability of the switching of the frequency band combination of the terminal equipment is higher.

It can be appreciated that, in general, the co-antenna design may be determined according to whether the antennas between different frequency bands can support the multi-frequency point sharing, for example, the 2.6GHz band and the 4.9GHz band may be co-antenna designs, and the millimeter wave band and the low frequency band may not be co-antenna designs.

303. The terminal device switches from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information.

It will be appreciated that both the network device and the terminal device may (or may be understood to) be aware of the change in signal quality, whether the signal quality is reduced or enhanced. For example, for the terminal device, it may determine the change in signal quality based on at least one of: reference signal received power (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVING power, RSRP) measured by the terminal device, reference signal received quality (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVING quality, RSRQ) measured by the terminal device, and distance between the terminal device and the network device measured by the terminal device. For another example, for a network device, it may determine a change in signal quality based on at least one of: the network device receives RSRP from the terminal device, RSRQ from the terminal device, distance between the terminal device and the network device, and distance between the terminal device and the network device, which are measured by the network device. It will be appreciated that the above list of terminal devices and network devices learning about signal quality variations is only an example and should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application. It will be appreciated that, in addition to the information listed above that may affect the signal quality, the load experienced by a frequency band may also reflect changes in signal quality. Generally, the network device may learn the load condition of a certain frequency band, so the network device may learn the change condition of the signal quality based on the load condition.

As an example, since both the terminal device and the network device can learn about the variation of the signal quality, the handover information can be understood as information for activating the terminal device to perform the frequency band combination handover. The terminal device is in a first frequency band combination, and after receiving the switching information, the terminal device can switch from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the corresponding relation between the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination. Specifically, if the terminal device is in the first frequency band combination, the terminal device may also perform the switching of the frequency band combination based on the switching information and the signal quality variation condition thereof. For example, if the signal quality of the terminal device gradually decreases, the description of the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination may refer to scenario 1 above. For another example, the signal quality of the terminal device gradually increases, and the description of the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination may refer to scenario 2 above.

As another example, the handover information may include information of the second frequency band combination. Thus, after receiving the switching information, the terminal device can switch to the second frequency band combination based on the second frequency band combination indicated in the switching information.

In the embodiment of the application, resources between a high frequency band and a low frequency band in one frequency band combination can be shared, such as shared RFIC resources, BBIC resources, antenna resources and the like. Fig. 4a is a flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4a, for scenario 1 shown above, the method shown in fig. 3 further comprises step 304. As an example, the frequency band switching method provided by the embodiment of the present application may include step 301, step 302, step 3041 and step 303. As another example, the frequency band switching method provided by the embodiment of the present application may include step 301, step 302, step 3042, and step 303. It will be appreciated that the numbers of the steps shown in the embodiments of the present application are used to indicate different steps and not the order of the steps.

3041. The terminal device releases one or more receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

For example, the terminal device may release the RFIC resource of the high band in the first band combination for use by the low band. Therefore, when the terminal equipment is switched to the second frequency band combination, the RFIC resources of the high frequency band can be effectively utilized, and the utilization rate of the RFIC resources is improved. For example, the terminal device may release the antenna resources and RFIC resources of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination for use in the low frequency band. Therefore, when the terminal equipment is switched to the second frequency band combination, the antenna resources and the RFIC resources of the high frequency band can be effectively utilized, and the utilization rate of the resources can be improved.

3042. The terminal device converts one or more receive channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination into a receive channel of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

For example, the receiving channels between the high frequency band and the low frequency band may be converted to each other, e.g. the terminal device may convert one or more receiving channels of the high frequency band to receiving channels of the low frequency band. Therefore, the purpose of sharing the receiving channel between the high frequency band and the low frequency band is effectively achieved, and the resource utilization rate is improved.

Fig. 4b is a flowchart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4b, for scenario 2 shown above, the method shown in fig. 3 further comprises step 305. As an example, the frequency band switching method provided by the embodiment of the present application may include step 301, step 302, step 3051, and step 303. As another example, the frequency band switching method provided by the embodiment of the present application may include step 301, step 302, step 3052, and step 303. It will be appreciated that the numbers of the steps shown in the embodiments of the present application are used to indicate different steps and not the order of the steps.

3051. The terminal device releases one or more receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

3052. The terminal device converts one or more receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination into receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

It will be appreciated that the description of steps 3051 and 3052 may refer to fig. 4a, and will not be described in detail here.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal equipment can switch between different frequency band combinations based on the switching information issued by the network equipment by reporting the capability information, so that resources of frequency bands in the frequency band combinations capable of being mutually switched are shared, the flexible fusion and sharing of the resources are effectively realized, the utilization rate of the resources is effectively improved, and the reliability of the communication of the terminal equipment can be effectively ensured because the terminal equipment can mutually switch the frequency band combinations. Optionally, the terminal device can flexibly switch the frequency band combination, so that not only can the frequency band resources in the frequency band combination be effectively utilized, but also the signal coverage condition of the terminal device is improved, and the communication reliability of the terminal device is ensured. Optionally, the RFIC resource and the BBIC resource can be shared between the frequency band combination formed by the millimeter wave frequency band and the non-millimeter wave frequency band (such as 4.9GHz, 2.6GHz, etc.), so that millimeter wave 4R reception or non-millimeter wave 8R reception can be realized without increasing cost or with low cost (such as antenna, RFIC, etc. without increasing millimeter wave), and downlink coverage and user experience are effectively improved (refer to example one below). Optionally, a frequency band combination of a frequency band less than 6GHz (sub 6G) and a frequency band less than 3GHz (sub 3G) may be shared, for example, RFFE may be added to the two frequency bands, and antennas (such as a common antenna design), RFIC resources and BBIC resources may be shared between the two frequency bands, so as to implement 8R reception of the two frequency bands (refer to examples two to four below).

As can be seen from the methods shown in fig. 3, fig. 4a and fig. 4b, after the terminal device reports the capability information, the terminal device can switch between different frequency band combinations based on the switching information issued by the network device based on the strength of the signal quality. The method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 3, 4a or 4 b. The example one shown below is a band switching method illustrated by taking a band combination including millimeter waves as an example, and examples two to four are band switching methods illustrated by taking a band combination not including millimeter waves as an example.

The methods provided by the embodiments of the present application are described below by taking millimeter waves, 4.9GHz and 2.6GHz, respectively.

Example one

The high frequency band in the frequency band combination in the embodiment of the application can comprise a millimeter wave frequency band or a frequency band greater than 6GHz, the low frequency band can comprise a frequency band less than 6GHz, the low frequency band can comprise an n79, namely a 4.9HGz frequency band, an n78, namely a 3.5GHz frequency band, and the low frequency band is less than a 3G frequency band. The less than 3GHz frequency band may include the n41, 2.6GHz frequency band. For convenience of description, the method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described below by taking a combination of frequency bands including a combination of millimeter wave 4R and low frequency band 0R, and a combination of millimeter wave 2R and low frequency band 4R as an example.

Compared to the transceiving channel shown in fig. 2b, the embodiment of the present application uses the high frequency band of the multi-panel for the antenna design of the terminal device, as shown in fig. 5a, the high frequency band and the low frequency band may share the RFIC resource, that is, the common RFIC design between the high frequency band and the low frequency band. By way of example, the Sub3GHz band, the Sub6GHz band and the like can release the RFIC channel resources thereof for the high frequency band to use under the corresponding conditions, and the deficiency of the RFIC channel resources of the high frequency band is made up, so that the cost can not be increased. The cost is not increased, and the antenna in the millimeter wave band, the RFFE in the millimeter wave band, the RFIC in the millimeter wave band and the like are not required to be newly added. Because the millimeter wave has 3 AIPs corresponding to the receiving channels shown in fig. 5a, and the AIPs include corresponding antennas, RFFE, etc., the receiving of the downlink 4 channels of the millimeter wave can be realized without increasing the cost, and the downlink coverage and the user experience of the millimeter wave can be improved.

Fig. 5b is a schematic view of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application, and fig. 5c is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5c, the method comprises:

501. The terminal equipment is accessed to the low frequency band.

Generally, coverage of low frequency bands such as Sub3GHz band or Sub6GHz band is wider, so that the terminal device can cover the network when accessing to the low frequency band. Or the low frequency band may be understood as a underlay overlay network. The number of reception channels of the low frequency band may be 4R, for example.

It will be appreciated that the access of the terminal device to the low frequency band shown in step 501 is only exemplary, and the terminal device may also access to the high frequency band, for example, the number of receiving channels of the high frequency band may be 2R. Step 501 may be understood that the terminal device needs to access the network in order to report capability information to the network device.

502. And the terminal equipment reports the capability information, and the network equipment correspondingly receives the capability information.

That is, the terminal device may report the processing capability of the receiving channel under the combination of its own downlink different frequency bands, for example, support the combination of the low frequency band 4R and the high frequency band 2R, and the combination of the high frequency band 4R and the low frequency band 0R.

503. Under the condition that the load is high (such as the load is larger than a certain threshold value) at the low-frequency network equipment side, the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment to start the pilot frequency measurement.

Generally, when the network device instructs the terminal device to start the inter-frequency measurement, the terminal device needs to be accessed to other frequency bands to realize the inter-frequency measurement. As in step 501, the terminal device has been connected to the low frequency band, so that the terminal device can be connected to the high frequency band 2R, as shown in fig. 5b, and the frequency band combination currently connected to the terminal device is as follows: low band 4r+high band 2R. It can be understood that when the terminal device performs inter-frequency measurement, it may perform signal quality measurement through millimeter waves, and perform downlink data transmission through a low frequency band. For descriptions of inter-frequency measurements, reference may be made to related standards or protocols, and embodiments of the present application will not be described in detail.

It will be appreciated that after the network device instructs the terminal device to initiate the inter-frequency measurements, the terminal device may periodically report RSRP, as will be applicable for this description.

504. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the high frequency band.

By way of example, the measurement results may include RSRP of a high frequency band, etc., which are not listed. It will be appreciated that the terminal device may periodically report the measurement results after the network device indicates that the terminal device is measuring different frequencies.

505. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result of the high frequency band is larger than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment receives the DCI correspondingly.

For example, the network device may determine, in the baseband processing unit (building base band unit, BBU), whether to switch the frequency band combination, and in the case that the frequency band combination needs to be switched, may instruct, by DCI, the terminal device to switch the downlink reception channel and the frequency point combination with different capabilities. It is understood that the DCI shown in the embodiments of the present application is only an example, and the DCI may be replaced with RRC signaling. The DCI may include handover information, and the description of the handover information, the DCI, and the RRC signaling may be referred to above.

506. The terminal device switches to the high band 4r+low band 0R based on the DCI.

For example, in the area where the millimeter wave coverage exists in the near point, if RSRP is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold in the measurement result of the high frequency band, the network device may instruct the terminal device to switch to access to the millimeter wave frequency band, so as to fully utilize the large bandwidth capability of the millimeter wave frequency band. If the network device can instruct the terminal device to release the RFIC resource used in the low frequency band for the high frequency band through the DCI, the millimeter wave frequency band of the terminal device is switched from the 2R receiving channel number to the 4R receiving channel number, so that the downlink coverage and the data stream number of the user are further improved, and the user experience is improved. That is, since the millimeter wave has large bandwidth and excellent near-point coverage, the terminal device can release the RFIC resource of the low frequency band to the millimeter wave frequency band for use, so as to improve the capability of the millimeter wave downlink receiving channel and fully exert the capability of the millimeter wave large bandwidth. As shown in fig. 5b, the terminal device may switch to a high frequency band, such as high frequency band 4r+low frequency band 0R.

The terminal equipment is switched from the low frequency band to the high frequency band, so that the scheduling users of the near points in the low frequency band are released, and therefore, the network equipment of the low frequency band can mainly schedule the terminal equipment of the coverage area of the far point without the millimeter wave frequency band in service, and therefore, the user scheduling blockage caused by high load caused by a large number of users under the site of the low frequency band can be effectively relieved.

It will be appreciated that in a particular implementation, the following may also occur: the load of the low frequency band is larger, and the result RSRP of the terminal equipment for pilot frequency measurement is smaller than the RSRP threshold value. In this case, networking, adjustment of networking, and the like may be performed again.

507. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result of the high frequency band is smaller than the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment to start the pilot frequency measurement.

For example, in the case where the terminal device moves from the coverage of millimeter waves to the coverage of low frequency band (which may also be understood as the coverage of high frequency band is deteriorated as shown in fig. 5 b), that is, from the near point to the middle and far point shown in fig. 5b, it may occur that the RSRP of the high frequency band is smaller than the RSRP threshold value. In this case, the terminal device may start the different frequency measurement, for example, access to a low frequency band, perform signal quality measurement through the low frequency band, and perform downlink data transmission through millimeter waves. For example, the terminal device may release a part of the RFIC channel of the millimeter wave for use in the low frequency band, so as to measure RSRP through the low frequency band, as shown in fig. 5b, where the band combination accessed by the terminal device includes: low band 4r+high band 2R. Optionally, the terminal device may automatically switch to the mmwave 2r+low-band 4R when receiving RRC signaling that the network device instructs to start the inter-frequency measurement. Optionally, when receiving the RRC signaling that the network device instructs the network device to start the different frequency measurement, the network device may further instruct the terminal device to release part of RFIC resources in the millimeter wave band to use in the low frequency band through DCI, and switch the downlink of the terminal device to the millimeter wave 2r+low frequency band 4R. The DCI shown here serves to indicate that the access of the terminal device to the low frequency band for signal quality measurement has been facilitated for inter-frequency measurement. The same applies to the steps described above after the terminal device starts the inter-frequency measurement.

It may be appreciated that, in step 505, the network device issues DCI as illustrated in that the RSRP of the high frequency band is equal to the RSRP threshold, and if the RSRP of the high frequency band is equal to the RSRP threshold, the network device may not issue DCI. Similarly, step 507 is illustrated by the network device indicating that the RSRP of the high frequency band is smaller than the RSRP threshold, and if the RSRP of the high frequency band is equal to the RSRP threshold, the network device may also indicate that the terminal device starts the inter-frequency measurement. That is, the embodiment of the present application is not limited with respect to the relevant steps when the RSRP of a certain frequency band is equal to the RSRP threshold value. For this explanation, the following applies equally.

508. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the low frequency band.

509. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result of the low frequency band is larger than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment receives the DCI correspondingly.

Illustratively, the DCI includes handover information, which may be used to instruct a terminal device to switch to the low frequency band 4r+high frequency band 0R. The description of the handover information may refer to fig. 3, 4a or 4b, and will not be described in detail here. That is, in the case where the terminal device moves to the mid-far point, since the millimeter wave band is not covered, the RFIC resource released to the millimeter wave can be retracted, and the access to the low band can be selected.

That is, after the terminal device switches to the high frequency band 2r+low frequency band 4R, if the RSRP in the low frequency band measurement result reported by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network device may instruct the terminal device to switch to the low frequency band 4R (switch to the low frequency band, the low frequency band 4R as shown in fig. 5 b), so as to effectively avoid gradual degradation of coverage of the millimeter wave frequency band, even if the terminal device drops when there is no coverage.

510. The terminal equipment is switched to a high frequency band 0R+a low frequency band 4R.

It may be understood that the RSRP threshold value for measuring the high frequency band and the RSRP threshold value for measuring the low frequency band shown in the embodiments of the present application may be all different, and specific values of the RSRP threshold values may refer to relevant standards and the like, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

It will be appreciated that, as shown in fig. 5b and 5c, in the case where the signal quality is reduced, the terminal device may switch from the millimeter wave 4R to the combination of the millimeter wave 2r+ low frequency band 4R. Correspondingly, in the case of signal quality enhancement, the terminal device may switch to millimeter wave 4R. Fig. 5b and 5c show only exemplary cases where the terminal device moves from a near point to a far point, and reference may be made to fig. 5b and 5c adaptively for cases where the terminal device moves from a far point to a near point, which will not be described in detail herein.

In the embodiment of the application, through the design of the high-low frequency band co-RFIC radio frequency channel (or called high-low frequency band RFIC design), the downlink 4R enhancement receiving of the high frequency band (such as mmWave frequency band) of the terminal equipment can be realized at low cost, and the downlink coverage and the user experience are improved. Under the scene of multi-band joint networking, flexible fusion sharing of resources can be realized. In an exemplary multi-band joint networking scenario, the embodiment of the application can realize semi-static or dynamic switching of the downlink receiving channel capacity of the terminal equipment between different frequency bands based on coverage, load and the like.

The first example shown above is an example in which the band combination includes millimeter waves, and the second to fourth examples shown below are methods provided in the embodiments of the present application in which the band combination does not include millimeter waves. Examples two through four shown below are illustrated with the frequency bands in the band combination being less than 6GHz band, for which a single-panel omni-directional antenna (by way of example only) may be employed for antenna designs. The frequency band combinations in example two below include a combination of 4.9ghz8r, 2.6ghz 0r, and a combination of 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4 r. The frequency band combinations in example three below include combinations of 4.9GHz0R, 2.6GHz 8R, and combinations of 4.9GHz 4R, 2.6GHz 4R. The frequency band combinations in example four shown below include combinations of 4.9ghz0r, 2.6ghz 8r, and combinations of 4.9ghz8r, 2.6ghz 0 r. Or the frequency band combinations in example four shown below may include combinations of 4.9ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4r, 4.9ghz0r, 2.6ghz 8r, and 4.9ghz8r, 2.6ghz 0 r. It is understood that the 4.9GHz0R shown in the examples of the present application may be understood as 4.9GHz no-load, and the 2.6GHz 0R may be understood as 2.6GHz no-load.

Example two

As shown in fig. 6a, to implement downlink 8R reception in the 4.9GHz band, the terminal device may satisfy at least one of the following: 4.9GHz frequency band and 2.6GHz frequency band co-RFIC design; the 4.9GHz can have a separate 4R antenna, and the 2.6GHz 4R antenna and the 4.9GHz 4R antenna can be designed to be common in antenna (such as a double resonance point antenna); the RFFE corresponding to 4.9GHz 4R is newly added. It is understood that the 2.6GHz band is understood to be a low frequency band relative to the 4.9GHz band in the band combination; the 4.9GHz band is understood to be a high frequency band with respect to the 2.6GHz band. As shown in fig. 6a, 4.9GHz and 2.6GHz may share BBIC resources, RFIC resources, and a 2.6GHz 4R antenna and 4.9GHz 4R antenna co-antenna design, so that the 2.6GHz band may release (may also be understood as being switched by a switch as shown in fig. 6 a) RFIC channel resources for the 4.9GHz band under corresponding conditions, and the 4.9GHz band may implement the downlink 8R receiving capability through the shared antenna (4.9GHz 4R&2.6GHz 4R as shown in fig. 6 a) and the 4.9GHz 4R antenna itself.

Fig. 6b is a schematic view of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application, and fig. 6c is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 6c, the method includes:

601. the terminal device accesses a 2.6GHz band, such as 2.6GHz 4r reception.

It will be appreciated that the relevant description of step 601 may be referred to with respect to step 501 described above.

602. And the terminal equipment reports the capability information, and the network equipment correspondingly receives the capability information. The capability information may include: 2.6GHz 4R, 4.9GHz 8R, 2.6GHz 0R.

603. When the 2.6GHz network equipment side is high in load (for example, the load is larger than a certain threshold value), the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment to start the pilot frequency measurement.

In general, the low-band pilot frequency measurement requires a Gap (Gap), i.e. the data transmission of the original band is suspended during the pilot frequency measurement. As shown in fig. 6b, in case the terminal device performs inter-frequency measurement, the terminal device may switch to 4.9ghz 4r reception. It will be appreciated that 4.9GHz in fig. 6b is exemplified by 4.9G and 2.6GHz is exemplified by 2.6G for simplicity.

604. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the 4.9GHz frequency band.

605. In the area covered by 4.9GHz near the point, if the RSRP of the measurement result of the 4.9GHz frequency band is larger than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the UE is instructed to add 4.9GHz frequency band auxiliary carrier waves to the UE through RRC signaling.

It is understood that step 605 may also be understood as: the network device sends an RRC signaling to the terminal device based on the RSRP reported by the terminal device, and the RRC signaling can be used for indicating the terminal device to add the 4.9GHz frequency band. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the RRC signaling.

It is understood that the RRC signaling shown here is only an example, as RRC signaling may also be replaced by DCI.

606. The terminal device switches to 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R.

As shown in fig. 6b, after the terminal device adds the 4.9GHz band, the terminal device receives 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R, which increases the downlink receiving bandwidth of the terminal side and relieves the high load of the terminal side.

607. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result in the 4.9GHz frequency band is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment correspondingly receives the DCI.

It is understood that the RSRP threshold value in step 607 may be the same as or different from the RSRP threshold value in step 605, e.g., the RSRP threshold value in step 607 may be greater than the RSRP threshold value in step 605.

608. The terminal device switches to 4.9g8r+2.6g0r based on DCI.

For example, the DCI may include handover information, which may be used to instruct the terminal device to handover to 4.9GHz 8R+2.6GHz 0R. Illustratively, the DCI may include information for: for instructing the terminal device to continue to release (relative to step 606) RFIC resources for use in the 2.6GHz low frequency band for use in the 4.9GHz frequency band; the enabling terminal device receives the information switched to 4.9g 8r reception by 2.6G 4R+4.9GHz 4R. Therefore, the terminal equipment can further load and unload the 2.6GHz to 4.9GHz, so that the downlink coverage and the data stream number of the 4.9GHz user are improved, and the user experience is improved.

It can be understood that, because the 2.6GHz low-frequency base station releases the scheduled user of the near point, the low-frequency 2.6GHz base station can mainly schedule the terminal with the far point without the coverage area of 4.9GHz in the service, thereby alleviating the high load caused by a large number of users at the 2.6GHz low-frequency station, and the user scheduling congestion is caused.

609. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result in the 4.9GHz frequency band is smaller than the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment to start the pilot frequency measurement.

For example, when the near point 4.9GHz 8r receiving terminal moves to the middle-far point, if the RSRP of the 4.9GHz band measurement result reported by the terminal device is smaller than the RSRP threshold value, the network device may instruct the terminal device to start the pilot frequency measurement.

It is understood that when the terminal device switches from 4.9GHz 8R+2.6GHz 0R to 2.6ghz 4r, 2.6ghz 4r is used for measurement of signal quality. Alternatively, in the case where the network device instructs the terminal device to initiate the inter-frequency measurement, the terminal device may switch to 2.6GHz 4r automatically, e.g. release part of the RFIC resources of 4.9GHz for 2.6GHz use. Optionally, in the case that the network device instructs the terminal device to start the inter-frequency measurement, the network device may further instruct the terminal device to release a portion of RFIC resources of 4.9GHz for use in the low frequency band of 2.6GHz through DCI, and switch the downlink of the terminal device to 2.6GHz of 4r.

The explanation of the inter-frequency measurement may refer to fig. 5c or to step 603.

610. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the 2.6GHz frequency band.

611. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result in the 2.6GHz frequency band is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment correspondingly receives the DCI.

The DCI may include handover information, for example, the DCI may be used to instruct a terminal device to perform handover of a frequency band combination. For another example, DCI may be used to instruct a terminal device to release RFIC resources in the 4.9GHz band for use in the 2.6GHz low band, so that the downlink of the terminal device may be switched to 2.6GHz 4r reception. The terminal device switches to 2.6ghz 4r in step 609 for signal quality measurement, and the switched 2.6ghz 4r indicated in step 611 is for downlink signal reception.

612. The terminal device switches to 2.6ghz 4r based on the DCI.

It can be understood that if the RSRP of the 2.6GHz band reported by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold, the network device may instruct the terminal device to switch to access to the 2.6GHz band for receiving the 4R, so as to avoid gradual degradation of the coverage of 4.9GHz, and even drop the call of the terminal when there is no coverage.

It will be appreciated that in case of reduced signal quality, as shown in fig. 6b and 6c, the terminal device may switch from 4.9GHz8R+2.6GHz 0R to 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R in combination. Correspondingly, in case of signal quality enhancement, the terminal device may switch to 4.9GHz8R+2.6GHz 0R. Fig. 6b and 6c show only exemplary cases where the terminal device moves from a near point to a far point, and reference may be made to fig. 6b and 6c adaptively for cases where the terminal device moves from a far point to a near point, which will not be described in detail herein. It will be appreciated that reference is made to the above where not described in detail in fig. 6 c.

Example three

As shown in fig. 7a, to implement downlink 8R reception in the 2.6GHz band, the terminal device may satisfy at least one of the following: 4.9GHz frequency band and 2.6GHz frequency band co-RFIC design; the 2.6GHz is provided with an independent 4R antenna, and the 4.9GHz 4R antenna and the 2.6GHz 4R antenna are designed into a common antenna (such as a double resonance point antenna); RFFE corresponding to 2.6ghz 4r is newly added. As shown in fig. 7a, 4.9GHz and 2.6GHz may share BBIC resources, RFIC resources, and a 2.6GHz 4R antenna and 4.9GHz 4R antenna co-antenna design, so that the 4.9GHz band may release (may also be understood as being switched by a switch as shown in fig. 7 a) RFIC channel resources for use in the 2.6GHz band under corresponding conditions, and the 2.6GHz band may implement the downlink 8R receiving capability through the shared antenna (4.9GHz 4R&2.6GHz 4R as shown in fig. 7 a) and the 2.6GHz 4R antenna itself.

Fig. 7b is a schematic view of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application, and fig. 7c is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 7c, the method comprises:

701. The terminal device accesses a 2.6GHz band, such as 2.6GHz 4r reception.

The description of step 701 may refer adaptively to step 501.

702. And the terminal equipment reports the capability information, and the network equipment correspondingly receives the capability information. The capability information may include: 2.6GHz 4R, 4.9GHz 4R, 2.6GHz 8R, 4.9GHz 0R.

703. When the 2.6GHz network equipment side is high in load (for example, the load is larger than a certain threshold value), the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment to start the pilot frequency measurement.

It will be appreciated that the description of step 703 may refer to step 603 and will not be described in detail herein.

704. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the 4.9GHz frequency band.

705. In the area covered by 4.9GHz near the point, if the RSRP of the measurement result of the 4.9GHz frequency band is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the UE is instructed to add 4.9GHz frequency band auxiliary carrier (such as CA technology) to the UE through RRC signaling.

It will be appreciated that the description of step 705 may refer to step 605 and will not be described in detail herein.

706. The terminal device switches to 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R.

As shown in fig. 7b, after the terminal device adds the 4.9GHz band, the terminal device receives 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R, which increases the downlink receiving bandwidth of the terminal side and relieves the high load of the terminal side.

707. And if the RSRP of the measurement result in the 4.9GHz frequency band is smaller than the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment receives the DCI correspondingly.

For example, when the 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R receiving terminal at the near point moves to the middle-far point, if the RSRP of the 4.9GHz band measurement result reported by the terminal device is smaller than the RSRP threshold, the network device may instruct the terminal device to perform the switching of the band combination, for example, send DCI to the terminal device.

For example, the network device may indicate to delete the secondary carrier with the 4.9GHz band with poor signal quality through DCI. Or the network device can instruct the terminal device to release the 4.9 GHz-band RFIC resource to the 2.6GHz low-frequency band for use through DCI, so that the terminal device is switched from 2.6GHz 4R to 2.6GHz 8R for receiving in the downlink, and the middle-far point coverage and the user downlink experience are further improved.

708. The terminal device switches to 4.9GHz 0R+2.6GHz 8R based on the DCI.

It will be understood that, as shown in fig. 7b and fig. 7c, in the case of reduced signal quality, the terminal device may switch to the 2.6GHz8R+4.9GHz 0R combination, that is, the high-band 4.9GHz reception channel number is smaller than the high-band 4.9GHz reception channel number in the 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R combination, and the low-band 2.6GHz reception channel number is larger than the low-band 2.6GHz reception channel number in the 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R combination. Correspondingly, in case of signal quality enhancement, the terminal device may switch to 4.9GHz 4R+2.6GHz 4R. Fig. 7b and 7c show only exemplary cases where the terminal device moves from a near point to a far point, and reference may be made to fig. 6b and 6c adaptively for cases where the terminal device moves from a far point to a near point, which will not be described in detail herein. It will be appreciated that reference is made to the above where not described in detail in fig. 7 c.

Example four

As shown in fig. 8a, to implement downlink 8R reception in the 2.6GHz band and downlink 8R reception in the 4.9GHz band, the terminal device may satisfy at least one of the following: 4.9GHz frequency band and 2.6GHz frequency band co-RFIC design; the 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz have independent 4R antennas, and the 2.6GHz 4R antenna and 4.9GHz4R antenna are co-antenna designed (designed as dual-resonant point antennas) (as shown in the dashed line position in FIG. 8 b); RFFE corresponding to 2.6GHz and RFFE corresponding to 4.9GHz4r are newly added (as indicated by the dashed line in fig. 8 b). As shown in fig. 8a, the 4.9GHz and 2.6GHz may share BBIC resources, RFIC resources, and the 2.6GHz 4R antenna and 4.9GHz4R antenna co-antenna design, whereby the 4.9GHz band may be released (also understood as being switched by a switch as shown in fig. 8 a) for 2.6GHz band use by RFIC channel resources under corresponding conditions, and the 2.6GHz band may realize the receiving capability of the downlink 8R by a shared antenna (4.9GHz 4R&2.6GHz 4R as shown in fig. 8 a) and an antenna of the 2.6GHz 4R itself, and the 2.6GHz band may be released (also understood as being switched by a switch as shown in fig. 8 a) for 4.9GHz band use by a shared antenna (4.9GHz 4R&2.6GHz 4R as shown in fig. 8 a) and the receiving capability of the downlink 8R by an antenna of the 4.9GHz4R itself.

Fig. 8b is a schematic view of a scenario of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application, and fig. 8c is a schematic flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 8c, the method includes:

801. The terminal device accesses a 2.6GHz band, such as 2.6GHz 4r reception.

802. And the terminal equipment reports the capability information, and the network equipment correspondingly receives the capability information. The capability information may be a processing capability of a receiving channel under a combination of different downlink frequency bands of the terminal device, for example, a combination 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R, a combination 2.6GHz 8R+4.9GHz 0R, a combination 4.9GHz8R+2.6GHz 0R, and so on.

803. When the 2.6GHz network equipment side is high in load (for example, the load is larger than a certain threshold value), the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment to start the pilot frequency measurement.

Reference may be made to step 603 or step 703 for a description of step 803, which will not be described in detail herein.

804. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the 4.9GHz frequency band.

805. In the area covered by 4.9GHz near the point, if the RSRP of the measurement result of the 4.9GHz frequency band is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the UE is instructed to add 4.9GHz frequency band auxiliary carrier (such as CA technology) to the UE through RRC signaling.

Reference may be made to the description of step 605 or step 705 for the description of step 805, which will not be described in detail herein.

806. The terminal device switches to 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R.

807. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result in the 4.9GHz frequency band is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment correspondingly receives the DCI.

Reference may be made to step 607 for a description of step 807, which is not described in detail herein. The RSRP threshold value as in step 807 may be different from the RSRP threshold value in step 805.

808. The terminal device switches to 4.9g8r+2.6g0r based on DCI.

After the terminal device is switched to 2.6GHz 4R+4.9GHz 4R, the network device may instruct the terminal device to continuously release the RFIC resource used in the 2.6GHz low frequency band for the 4.9GHz frequency band through DCI, so that the terminal device is switched from 2.6G 4R+4.9GHz 4R to 4.9g 8r reception, and further load of the 2.6GHz frequency band is unloaded to the 4.9GHz frequency band, and meanwhile, downlink coverage and data flow of the 4.9GHz frequency band user are improved, and user experience is improved.

It can be understood that, because the 2.6GHz low-frequency base station releases the scheduled user of the near point, the low-frequency base station can mainly schedule the terminal with the far point without the coverage area of 4.9GHz in the service, thereby alleviating the user scheduling blocking caused by high load caused by a large number of users at the 2.6GHz low-frequency station.

809. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result in the 4.9GHz frequency band is smaller than the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment to start the pilot frequency measurement.

Reference may be made to step 609 for a description of step 809, which is not described in detail herein. Illustratively, the terminal device may switch from 4.9GHz 8R+2.6GHz 0R to 2.6ghz4r, where 2.6ghz4r is used for signal quality measurements. That is, the terminal device may release a portion of RFIC resources in the 4.9GHz band for use in the 2.6GHz band. If the signal quality at 2.6GHz is greater than the RSRP threshold, an inter-frequency handover to 2.6GHz can be initiated (step 811 as shown below), after which 2.6GHz4R is used for downstream data reception. Alternatively, in the case where the network device instructs the terminal device to initiate the inter-frequency measurement, the terminal device may switch to 2.6GHz4r automatically, e.g. release part of the RFIC resources of 4.9GHz for 2.6GHz use. Optionally, in the case that the network device instructs the terminal device to start the inter-frequency measurement, the network device may further instruct the terminal device to release a portion of RFIC resources of 4.9GHz for use in the low frequency band of 2.6GHz through DCI, and switch the downlink of the terminal device to 2.6GHz of 4r.

810. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement result of the 2.6GHz frequency band.

811. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result in the 2.6GHz frequency band is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment correspondingly receives the DCI.

If the RSRP of the 2.6GHz low frequency band measurement result reported by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold, the network device instructs the terminal device to switch to 2.6GHz low frequency band 4R reception (to avoid gradual degradation of 4.9GHz coverage, and even the terminal drops call when no coverage exists).

812. The terminal device switches to 2.6ghz 4r based on the DCI.

813. And under the condition that the RSRP of the measurement result in the 2.6GHz frequency band is greater than or equal to the RSRP threshold value, the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, and the terminal equipment correspondingly receives the DCI.

814. The terminal device switches to 2.6GHz 8R based on the DCI.

The network device instructs the terminal device to continuously release RFIC resources used in the 4.9GHz frequency band to the 2.6GHz low frequency band through DCI, so that the 2.6GHz frequency band of the terminal side is switched from 4R reception to 8R reception, the downlink coverage of the user is further improved, and the downlink experience of the user is improved.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a receiving channel according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal device may implement at least one of the following: downlink 8R reception in the 2.6GHz band, downlink 8R reception in the 4.9GHz band, and downlink 4R reception in the millimeter wave band. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal device may satisfy at least one of: 4.9GHz frequency band and 2.6GHz frequency band co-RFIC design; the 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz have independent 4R antennas, and the 2.6GHz 4R antenna and 4.9GHz4R antenna are designed as a dual resonance point antenna (as shown by the dotted line position in FIG. 9); newly adding RFFE corresponding to 2.6GHz and RFFE corresponding to 4.9GHz4R (shown as a dotted line position in FIG. 9); the millimeter wave band corresponds to at least 3 AIPs. It will be appreciated that the description with respect to fig. 9 may refer to the relevant descriptions of fig. 5a, 6a, 7a and 8a, and will not be described in detail here.

It can be understood that, based on the examples two to four shown above, the embodiment of the present application further provides a dynamic switching of the number of downlink receiving channels in a CA or DC scenario based on different frequency bands and different time slot matching scenarios.

Generally, based on a multi-band downlink carrier aggregation (carrier aggregation, CA) technology or a dual-connection (dual connectivity, DC) technology, the terminal device can simultaneously utilize more frequency bands and larger bandwidths to transmit and/or receive data, so that the downlink user experience is effectively improved. Therefore, the embodiment of the application is based on the second to fourth examples, combines the time slot proportion difference between different frequency bands, effectively realizes the resource sharing of the terminal equipment in the DC or CA scene, flexibly enhances the 8R reception, and further improves the user experience. Fig. 10 is a flow chart of a frequency band switching method according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 10, where the method includes:

1001. And the terminal equipment reports the capability information, and the network equipment correspondingly receives the capability information. The capability information includes at least two frequency band combinations including the number of reception channels of at least two frequency bands, respectively.

1002. The method comprises the steps of receiving downlink signals based on a first frequency band in a frequency band combination in a first time unit, and transmitting uplink signals by a second frequency band in the frequency band combination in the first time unit, wherein the number of receiving channels of the first frequency band is larger than 4.

Alternatively, the terminal device may perform the above step 1002 based on the handover information. For the description of the handover information, reference may be made to the above. The method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be combined with the above fig. 3, fig. 4a, fig. 4b, and examples one to four, and will not be described in detail here.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first frequency band may be any frequency band in a frequency band combination, and the second frequency band may be other frequency bands except the first frequency band in the frequency band combination. For example, in the case where two frequency bands are included in the frequency band combination, the first frequency band may be a high frequency band in the frequency band combination, and the second frequency band may be a low frequency band in the frequency band combination; or the first frequency band may be a low frequency band in a frequency band combination, and the second frequency band may be a high frequency band in the frequency band combination.

The first time unit may be in units of time slots, or in units of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbols, etc., which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application. When the time slot is taken as a unit, the first time unit can be understood as a time slot corresponding to the time slot when the first frequency band is in the downlink receiving time slot and the second frequency band is in the uplink transmitting time slot. The number of reception channels of the first frequency band in the first time unit is greater than 4. As a general rule, the number of receiving channels in the frequency band less than 6GHz or the frequency band less than 3GHz is at most 4, however, according to the embodiment of the present application, the number of receiving channels in the frequency band less than 6GHz or the frequency band less than 3GHz may be more than 4, such as 8, as shown in fig. 6a, 7a, 8a and 9.

The receiving channel shown in fig. 6a, the receiving channel shown in fig. 7a, and the receiving channel shown in fig. 8a are taken as examples. As shown in fig. 11, DC or CA is exemplified at 2.6GHz and 4.9 GHz. Fig. 11 (a) can be understood as a design of separating the 2.6GHz band from the 4.9GHz band in the terminal device, as described in connection with fig. 2 b. Fig. 11 (b) can be understood as a 4.9GHz band and 2.6GHz band co-RFIC and co-antenna design, and a new RFFE corresponding to 4.9GHz 4r, as described in connection with fig. 6 a. As shown in (b) of fig. 11, the network device may instruct the terminal device to release RFIC resources (or RFIC channel resources, etc.) in the 2.6GHz band (handover information as shown above), thereby implementing 4.9GHz 8r reception. Fig. 11 (c) can be understood as a 4.9GHz band and 2.6GHz band co-RFIC and co-antenna design, and a new RFFE corresponding to 2.6GHz 4r, as described in connection with fig. 7 a. As shown in (c) of fig. 11, the network device may instruct the terminal device to release RFIC resources in the 4.9GHz band, thereby implementing 2.6GHz 8r reception. Fig. 11 (d) can be understood as a 4.9GHz band and 2.6GHz band co-RFIC and co-antenna design, with an RFFE corresponding to the new 4.9GHz 4r and an RFFE corresponding to the new 2.6GHz 4r added, as described in association with fig. 8 a. As shown in (d) of fig. 11, in the coverage of the 4.9GHz band, the network device may instruct the terminal device to release the RFIC resource (or RFIC channel resource, etc.) of the 2.6GHz band (handover information as shown above), thereby implementing 4.9GHz 8r reception. Terminal equipment in the coverage area of the 4.9GHz frequency band and the coverage area of the 2.6GHz frequency band can instruct network equipment to release RFIC resources of the 4.9GHz frequency band, thereby realizing 2.6GHz 8R reception.

Illustratively, D in fig. 11 represents a downlink slot, U represents an uplink slot, and S represents a flexible slot. It will be appreciated that fig. 11 shows only 10 slots by way of example, and the number of slots shown in fig. 11 should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application. Illustratively, the slot ratio of the 4.9GHz band is DDSUUUDDDD (downlink to uplink 7:3 ratio), and the slot ratio of the 2.6GHz band is DDDDDDDSUU (downlink to uplink 8:2 ratio). When the 4.9GHz and 2.6GHz cross time slots (for example, one frequency band is a D time slot and the other frequency band is a U time slot), the following scheme can be realized by effectively utilizing hardware resources of the terminal equipment: the terminal equipment releases the downlink RFIC channel resource of the frequency band where the U time slot is located, and the downlink RFIC channel resource is used for the frequency band where the D time slot is located, so that the downlink reception of the frequency band where the D time slot is located can be switched from 4R to 8R enhanced downlink reception.

Taking the example four shown above as an example, in the case where the terminal device and the network device are in a DC or CA scenario, the terminal device may perform downlink data reception based on two frequency bands of 2.6GHz and 4.9 GHz.

As shown in (D) of fig. 11, the first 3D slots, 2.6GHz and 4.9GHz terminal devices each allocate a 4R receive channel. The 4 th to 6 th time slots, 4.9GHz is in the U time slot, and the terminal equipment is not used at the moment of the downlink RFIC resource of the frequency band, so that the network equipment can instruct the terminal equipment to release the resource through DCI, and the resource is used for 2.6GHz in the D time slot, so that the 2.6GHz8R enhanced reception of the terminal side is enabled. The 7 th time slot, the 4.9GHz and the 2.6GHz are D time slots at the moment, the 8 th time slot, the 4.9GHz is D time slot, and the 2.6GHz is S time slot, so that the network equipment can release 2.6GHz downlink RFIC part resources to 4.9GHz downlink 4R for receiving and using through DCI indication terminal equipment in the 7 th to 8 th time slots, and 4.9GHz and 2.6GHz 4R receiving are realized. The 9 th to 10 th time slots, 2.6GHz is in the U time slot, the downlink RFIC resource of the frequency band is not used at the moment by the terminal equipment, the network equipment can instruct the terminal equipment to release the resource to the 4.9GHz frequency band in the D time slot for use through DCI, and the 4.9GHz frequency band 8R enhanced reception is enabled.

It will be appreciated that the description of examples two and three shown above may refer to the relevant description of (d) in fig. 11, and that embodiments of the present application will not be described in detail.

It can be understood that in the scenario of multi-band joint networking, the network device may determine whether to need the terminal device to switch the band combination based on at least one of coverage conditions of each band, load conditions of each band, and different time slot matching relationships of the multi-band on the network device side. Therefore, when the switching of the frequency band combination is needed, the network equipment can instruct the terminal equipment to switch the frequency band combination through DCI or RRC signaling.

In the embodiment of the application, the low-frequency band downlink 8R enhanced reception at the terminal side is realized at low cost through the low-frequency band co-RFIC radio frequency channel and the co-antenna design, and the problems of downlink coverage, user experience and the like are improved. Under the scene of multi-band joint networking, flexible fusion sharing of resources can be realized. By means of the design of the high-low frequency co-RFIC, the design of the low-frequency co-antenna and the RFIC, the downlink 4R enhanced reception of a high-frequency band (such as an mmWave frequency band) at the side of the terminal equipment is realized at low cost, and the downlink 8R enhanced reception of a low-frequency band (such as a Sub6G, sub G frequency band) is realized. Meanwhile, under the multi-frequency band combined networking scene, the capability of a downlink receiving channel of the terminal equipment is switched between different frequency points and channel combinations based on the coverage of the frequency band, the load of the frequency band and the time slot ratio among different frequency bands; and on the premise of realizing flexible fusion and sharing of resources with low cost, the perception rate of the downlink user is improved.

The following describes a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

According to the method embodiment of the application, the communication device is divided into the functional modules, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, and two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, the division of the modules in the present application is illustrative, and is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in practice. The communication device according to the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 12 to 14.

Fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 12, the communication device includes a processing unit 1201 and a transceiver unit 1202. The transceiver unit 1202 may implement a corresponding communication function, and the processing unit 1201 is configured to perform data processing. Such as transceiver unit 1202 may also be referred to as a communication interface or communication unit, etc.

In some embodiments of the present application, the communication apparatus may be used to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment, where the communication apparatus may be the terminal device or a component (such as a chip or a system) that may be configured in the terminal device, the transceiver unit 1202 is configured to perform the operations related to the transceiver of the terminal device in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 1201 is configured to perform the operations related to the processing of the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The communication means may be adapted to perform the steps or functions etc. performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

A processing unit 1201, configured to report capability information through the transceiver unit 1202;

A transceiver 1202 for receiving switching information;

A processing unit 1201 is configured to switch from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information.

It may be understood that the processing unit 1201 is configured to report the capability information through the transceiver unit 1202 may be understood as: a processing unit 1201, which may be used to determine capability information, and a transceiving unit 1202, which may transmit the capability information; or the processing unit 1201, for determining the capability information, and then outputting the capability information (e.g., to other devices, so that the transceiver may transmit the capability information) through the transceiving unit 1202.

In a possible implementation, the processing unit 1201 is further configured to release one or more receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination. In a possible implementation, the processing unit 1201 is further configured to convert one or more receiving channels of a high frequency band in the first frequency band combination into receiving channels of a low frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

The specific description of the processing unit 1201 illustrated here may be referred to the relevant description above regarding signal quality reduction, and will not be described in detail here.

In a possible implementation, the processing unit 1201 is further configured to release one or more receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination. In a possible implementation, the processing unit 1201 is further configured to convert one or more receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination into receiving channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

The specific description of the processing unit 1201 illustrated here may be referred to the relevant description above regarding signal quality enhancement, and will not be described in detail here.

Optionally, the communication device may further include a storage unit, where the storage unit may be used to store instructions and/or data, and the processing unit 1201 may read the instructions and/or data in the storage unit, so that the communication device implements the foregoing method embodiments. For example, a storage unit may be used for the storage capability information.

Multiplexing fig. 12, in other embodiments of the present application, the communication apparatus may be configured to perform actions performed by the network device in the above method embodiment, where the communication apparatus may be a network device or a component configurable in a network device, the transceiver unit 1202 is configured to perform operations related to transceiver of the network device in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 1201 is configured to perform operations related to processing of the network device in the above method embodiment. The communication means may be adapted to perform the steps or functions etc. performed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

A transceiver unit 1202 for receiving capability information; and sending switching information.

The processing unit 1201 is configured to parse the received capability information, thereby obtaining a frequency band combination supported by the terminal device. The processing unit 1201 is further configured to determine the handover information based on at least one of a loading condition, a coverage area, and a timeslot ratio of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination.

It is to be understood that the specific descriptions of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiments of the present application are merely examples, and reference may be made to the above-described method embodiments (e.g. fig. 3 to 11) for specific functions or steps performed by the transceiver unit and the processing unit, and they will not be described in detail herein.

It will be appreciated that the description of the capability information, the handover information, the first frequency band combination, the second frequency band combination, the signal quality enhancement, the signal quality reduction, etc. may refer to the above method embodiments, and will not be described in detail here.

Having described the communication device according to the embodiments of the present application, possible product configurations of the communication device are described below. It should be understood that any form of product having the functions of the communication device described in fig. 12 falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

In a possible implementation, in the communications apparatus shown in fig. 12, the processing unit 1201 may be one or more processors, the transceiver unit 1202 may be a transceiver, or the transceiver unit 1202 may also be a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, where the transmitting unit may be a transmitter and the receiving unit may be a receiver, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are integrated into one device, for example, a transceiver. In the embodiment of the present application, the processor and the transceiver may be coupled, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to the connection manner of the processor and the transceiver. In performing the above method, the process of transmitting information in the above method may be understood as a process of outputting the above information by a processor. When outputting the information, the processor outputs the information to the transceiver for transmission by the transceiver. This information, after being output by the processor, may also require additional processing before reaching the transceiver. Similarly, the process of receiving information in the above method may be understood as a process in which a processor receives input of the above information. When the processor receives the input information, the transceiver receives the information and inputs it to the processor. Further, after the transceiver receives the information, the information may need to be further processed before being input to the processor.

As shown in fig. 13, the communication device 130 includes one or more processors 1320 and a transceiver 1310.

Illustratively, when the communications apparatus is configured to perform the steps or methods or functions performed by the terminal device described above, the processor 1320 is configured to report the capability information via the transceiver 1310; a transceiver 1310 for receiving handover information; a processor 1320 is configured to switch from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information.

It is appreciated that the processor 1320, for reporting capability information via the transceiver 1310, may be understood as: processor 1320, may be used to determine capability information, and transceiver 1310, may transmit the capability information.

In one possible implementation, the processor 1320 is further configured to release one or more receive channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination. In one possible implementation, the processor 1320 is further configured to convert one or more receive channels of a high frequency band in the first frequency band combination to a receive channel of a low frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

The specific description of processor 1320 shown here may be referred to above in relation to signal quality degradation and will not be described in detail here.

In one possible implementation, the processor 1320 is further configured to release one or more receive channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination. In one possible implementation, the processor 1320 is further configured to convert one or more receive channels of a low frequency band in the first frequency band combination to a receive channel of a high frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

The specific description of processor 1320 shown here may be referred to above in relation to signal quality enhancement and will not be described in detail here.

Illustratively, when the communications apparatus is configured to perform the steps or methods or functions performed by the network device described above, the transceiver 1310 is configured to receive capability information; and sending switching information.

The processor 1320 is configured to parse the received capability information to obtain a combination of frequency bands supported by the terminal device. The processor 1320 is further configured to determine handover information based on at least one of loading, coverage, and timeslot proportioning of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination.

It will be appreciated that the specific description of the processor and transceiver may also refer to the description of the processing unit and transceiver unit shown in fig. 12, and will not be repeated here. The description of the capability information, the handover information, the first frequency band combination, the second frequency band combination, the signal quality enhancement, the signal quality reduction, etc. may refer to the above method embodiments, and will not be described in detail herein.

In various implementations of the communication device shown in fig. 13, the transceiver may include a receiver to perform the functions (or operations) of receiving and a transmitter to perform the functions (or operations) of transmitting. And transceivers are used to communicate with other devices/means via transmission media.

Optionally, the communications device 130 may also include one or more memories 1330 for storing program instructions and/or data, etc. A memory 1330 is coupled to processor 1320. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units, or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical, or other forms for information interaction between the devices, units, or modules. Processor 1320 may operate in conjunction with memory 1330. Processor 1320 may execute program instructions stored in memory 1330. In the alternative, at least one of the one or more memories may be included in the processor. Optionally, one or more memories may be used to store at least one of the second base matrix, the first base matrix, or the check matrix in the embodiments of the present application.

The specific connection medium between the transceiver 1310, the processor 1320, and the memory 1330 is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. The embodiment of the present application is shown in fig. 13 with the memory 1330, the processor 1320, and the transceiver 1310 connected by a bus 1340, which is shown in bold lines in fig. 13, and the connection between other components is merely illustrative, and not limiting. The buses may be classified as address buses, data buses, control buses, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in fig. 13, but not only one bus or one type of bus.

In the embodiment of the present application, the processor may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, a discrete hardware component, or the like, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiment of the present application. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or 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 a hardware processor for execution, or in a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor for execution, etc.

In an embodiment of the present application, the Memory may include, but is not limited to, nonvolatile Memory such as a hard disk (HARD DISK DRIVE, HDD) or Solid State Disk (SSD), random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), erasable programmable Read-Only Memory (Erasable Programmable ROM, EPROM), read-Only Memory (ROM), or portable Read-Only Memory (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory, CD-ROM), etc. The memory is any storage medium that can be used to carry or store program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be read and/or written by a computer (e.g., a communication device, etc., as illustrated by the present application), but is not limited thereto. The memory in embodiments of the present application may also be circuitry or any other device capable of performing memory functions for storing program instructions and/or data.

The processor 1320 is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the whole communication device, executing software programs, and processing data of the software programs. The memory 1330 is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The transceiver 1310 may include a control circuit and an antenna, the control circuit being mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

When the communication device is powered on, the processor 1320 may read the software program in the memory 1330, interpret and execute instructions of the software program, and process data of the software program. When data needs to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor 1320 performs baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits the radio frequency signal to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the communication device, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 1320, and the processor 1320 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

In another implementation, the radio frequency circuitry and antenna may be provided separately from the processor performing the baseband processing, e.g., in a distributed scenario, the radio frequency circuitry and antenna may be in a remote arrangement from the communication device.

It will be appreciated that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application may also have more components than those shown in fig. 13, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto. The methods performed by the processors and transceivers shown above are merely examples, and reference is made to the methods described above for specific steps performed by the processors and transceivers.

Exemplary, embodiments of the present application also provide a network device that may include an active antenna unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, AAU) and a baseband processing unit (building base band unit, BBU). The BBU may be a component of a distributed base station, and mainly performs baseband processing (such as channel coding, channel demodulation, modulation and demodulation, etc.) of signals, and provides functions of transmission management and interface, radio resource management, clock signal supply, etc.

In another possible implementation, in the communications apparatus shown in fig. 12, the processing unit 1201 may be one or more logic circuits, and the transceiver unit 1202 may be an input-output interface, which is also referred to as a communications interface, or an interface circuit, or an interface, or the like. Alternatively, the transceiver unit 1202 may be a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, where the transmitting unit may be an output interface and the receiving unit may be an input interface, and the transmitting unit and the receiving unit are integrated into one unit, for example, an input/output interface. As shown in fig. 14, the communication apparatus shown in fig. 14 includes a logic circuit 1401 and an interface 1402. That is, the processing unit 1201 may be implemented by the logic circuit 1401, and the transceiver unit 1202 may be implemented by the interface 1402. The logic 1401 may be a chip, a processing circuit, an integrated circuit, or a system on chip (SoC) chip, and the interface 1402 may be a communication interface, an input/output interface, a pin, or the like. Fig. 14 exemplifies the communication device described above as a chip, which includes a logic circuit 1401 and an interface 1402.

In the embodiment of the application, the logic circuit and the interface can be coupled with each other. The embodiment of the present application is not limited to the specific connection manner of the logic circuit and the interface.

Illustratively, when the communications apparatus is configured to perform a method or function or step performed by the terminal device described above, the logic 1401 is configured to report capability information via the interface 1402; an interface 1402 for inputting switching information; a logic circuit 1401 for switching from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information.

It can be appreciated that the logic 1401 for reporting capability information via the interface 1402 can be understood as: logic 1401 is configured to determine the capability information and then output the capability information via interface 1402 (e.g., to other devices to facilitate the transceiver to transmit the capability information).

In one possible implementation, the logic 1401 is further configured to release one or more receive channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination. In one possible implementation, the logic 1401 is further configured to convert one or more receive channels in a high frequency band in the first frequency band combination into a receive channel in a low frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

The logic 1401 is shown here for a detailed description with reference to the relevant description of signal quality degradation above, and will not be described in detail here.

In one possible implementation, the logic 1401 is further configured to release one or more receive channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination. In one possible implementation, the logic 1401 is further configured to convert one or more receive channels of a low frequency band in the first frequency band combination into a receive channel of a high frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

The logic 1401 is shown here for a detailed description with reference to the relevant description of signal quality enhancement above, and will not be described in detail here.

Illustratively, when the communications apparatus is configured to perform a method or function or step performed by the network device described above, an interface 1402 is configured to input capability information; and outputting switching information.

The logic circuit 1401 is exemplary configured to parse the input capability information, thereby obtaining a frequency band combination supported by the terminal device. The logic 1401 is further configured to determine handover information based on at least one of a loading condition, a coverage area, and a timeslot ratio of the frequency band in the frequency band combination.

It may be understood that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application may implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in a hardware manner, or may implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in a software manner, which is not limited to this embodiment of the present application.

Reference may also be made to the above embodiments for a specific implementation of the embodiments shown in fig. 14, which are not described in detail herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a wireless communication system, which comprises a terminal device and a network device, wherein the terminal device and the network device can be used for executing the method in any of the previous embodiments. Or the terminal device and the network device may refer to the communication apparatus shown in fig. 12 to 14.

Furthermore, the present application provides a computer program for implementing the operations and/or processes performed by the terminal device in the method provided by the present application.

The present application also provides a computer program for implementing the operations and/or processes performed by the network device in the method provided by the present application.

The present application also provides a computer readable storage medium having computer code stored therein, which when run on a computer causes the computer to perform the operations and/or processes performed by the terminal device in the method provided by the present application.

The present application also provides a computer readable storage medium having computer code stored therein which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the operations and/or processes performed by the network device in the method provided by the present application.

The application also provides a computer program product comprising computer code or a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes operations and/or processes performed by a terminal device in a method provided by the application to be performed.

The application also provides a computer program product comprising computer code or a computer program which, when run on a computer, causes operations and/or processes performed by a network device in a method provided by the application to be performed.

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. In addition, 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 elements, or may be an electrical, mechanical, or other form of connection.

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 can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the technical effects of the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application.

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 integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

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

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 for switching frequency bands, the method comprising:

reporting capability information, wherein the capability information comprises at least two frequency band combinations, the at least two frequency band combinations comprise a first frequency band combination and a second frequency band combination, and the at least two frequency band combinations respectively comprise the number of receiving channels of the at least two frequency bands;

And receiving switching information, and switching from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination based on the switching information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination in the event of reduced signal quality; or the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is larger than that of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

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

releasing one or more receiving channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

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

One or more receive channels of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination are converted to receive channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

5. The method according to any of claims 2-4, wherein the reduced signal quality condition comprises at least one of:

The signal quality of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a first signal threshold value;

And the load of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is greater than or equal to a first load threshold.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is greater than the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination with enhanced signal quality; or the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the signal quality enhancement condition comprises at least one of:

the signal quality of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is greater than or equal to a second signal threshold;

and the load of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a second load threshold value.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Releasing one or more receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

9. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:

One or more receive channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination are converted to receive channels of the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination.

10. The method according to any of claims 1-9, wherein the handover information is carried in downlink control information, DCI, or in radio resource control, RRC, signaling.

11. A method for switching frequency bands, the method comprising:

receiving capability information, wherein the capability information comprises at least two frequency band combinations, the at least two frequency band combinations comprise a first frequency band combination and a second frequency band combination, and the at least two frequency band combinations respectively comprise the number of receiving channels of at least two frequency bands;

and sending switching information, wherein the switching information is used for indicating terminal equipment to switch from the first frequency band combination to the second frequency band combination.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination in the event of reduced signal quality; or the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is larger than that of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the condition of reduced signal quality comprises at least one of:

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the second frequency band combination is greater than the number of receive channels for the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination with enhanced signal quality; or the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the second frequency band combination is smaller than the number of receiving channels of the low frequency band in the first frequency band combination.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the signal quality enhancement condition comprises at least one of:

the signal quality of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is greater than or equal to a second signal threshold;

and the load of the high frequency band in the first frequency band combination is smaller than or equal to a second load threshold value.

16. The method according to any of claims 11-15, wherein the handover information is carried in downlink control information, DCI, or in radio resource control, RRC, signalling.

17. A communication device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 1-10.

18. A communication device comprising means for performing the method of any of claims 11-16.

19. A communication device comprising a processor and a memory;

The processor is used for storing a computer program;

the processor is configured to execute the computer program to cause the method of any one of claims 1-10 to be performed or to cause the method of any one of claims 11-16 to be performed.

20. A communication device comprising logic circuitry and an interface, the logic circuitry and the interface coupled;

The interface is used for inputting data to be processed, the logic circuit processes the data to be processed according to the method of any one of claims 1-16 to obtain processed data, and the interface is used for outputting the processed data.

21. A computer readable storage medium for storing instructions which, when executed, perform the method of any one of claims 1-16.

22. A computer program product, characterized in that the instructions, when run on a computer, cause the method of any one of claims 1-16 to be performed.

23. A communication system, characterized in that the communication system comprises a terminal device for performing the method according to any of claims 1-10 and a network device for performing the method according to any of claims 11-16.

24. A method of switching frequency bands, comprising a method according to any of claims 1-10 and a method according to any of claims 11-16.