RU2798373C2 - Communication method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: communications.

SUBSTANCE: invention aims at eliminating unnecessary power consumption caused by PDCCH tracking by the end device when there is no data scheduling. It is achieved in the following way: determining one or more points in time at which the first channel is sent; and sending the first channel at one or more times to at least one terminal device, wherein the first channel carries the first information, which includes one or more information blocks, each of which corresponds to one of at least one terminal device, and also corresponds to a different terminal, and includes one set of first information fields that indicates information about discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal corresponding to the information block in which the set of first information fields is located; types of sets of first information fields included in different information blocks are different; and/or the types of the sets of the first information fields included in the information blocks that correspond to the same terminal and that are in the first information carried on the first channels sent at different times are different.

EFFECT: eliminating unnecessary power consumption caused by PDCCH tracking by the end device when there is no data scheduling.

38 cl, 22 dwg, 2 tbl

Description

[0001] This application claims priority on the basis of Chinese Patent Application No. 201910028268.9 filed with the PRC Patent Office on January 11, 2019 and entitled "COMMUNICATIONS METHOD AND APPARATUS", which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

Technical field

[0002] The present invention relates to the field of communication technologies and, in particular, to a communication method and apparatus.

State of the art

[0003] Packet-based data flow is typically discontinuous. Data may be transmitted for a period of time, but no data is transmitted for a relatively long period of time. Therefore, in the New Radio (NR) standard, a network device can configure a discontinuous reception (DRX) processing procedure for a terminal (terminal) device so that the terminal device periodically enters sleep mode, stops monitoring the physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) and stop receiving the corresponding data transmission, in order to reduce power consumption and save energy.

[0004] In DRX, a network device may configure a DRX cycle for a terminal device in radio resource control (RRC) connected mode. The DRX cycle includes a DRX On Duration Timer (DRX-onDurationTimer), a DRX Inactivity Timer (DRX-InactivityTimer), a DRX Retransmission Downlink Timer (DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL), and a DRX Retransmission Uplink Timer (DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL). When any of DRX-onDurationTimer, DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL, and DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL is running, the end device is in Active Time. If the tag is in active time, the tag continuously monitors the PDCCH.

[0005] In NR, the terminal operates at a higher radio frequency and with a larger baseband. In a DRX cycle, the terminal needs to first wake up, turn on the RF and baseband circuits, obtain time-frequency synchronization, and then detect the PDCCH in the time period corresponding to the DRX-onDurationTimer. These processes consume large amounts of energy. However, data transmission is usually intermittent and infrequent in time. During the time period corresponding to the DRX-onDurationTimer, the network device may not perform data scheduling for the tag, but the tag still continuously monitors the PDCCH. Therefore, there is unnecessary power consumption.

The essence of the invention

[0006] Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for solving the problem of unnecessary power consumption caused by PDCCH tracking by a terminal when there is no data scheduling.

[0007] According to the first aspect, the present application provides a communication method. The method may be applied to a network device, a chip or chipset in a network device, or the like. The communication method includes: determining one or more times (occasions) at which the first channel is sent; and sending a first channel at these one or more times to at least one terminal device, wherein the first channel carries the first information, and the first information includes one or more information blocks (information block), where each information block corresponds to one of of this at least one terminal, each information block corresponds to a different terminal, each information block includes one set of first information fields (information field), and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal a device corresponding to the information block in which the set of first information fields is located; and if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields included in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields included in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent in at least two different points in time are different. Meanings, content, etc. the information fields included in the sets of first information fields of different types are not exactly the same.

[0008] In this embodiment of the present application, the network device sends the same first channel to a plurality of terminals to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by this plurality of terminals, so that each of the plurality of terminals can determine based on the received first channel, information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal, and the terminal goes to sleep when there is no data scheduling. In this way, unnecessary power consumption can be reduced. In addition, in this embodiment of the present application, the types of the sets of the first information fields included in different information blocks on the first channel sent by the network device may be different, and the types of the sets of the first information fields included in the same information block on the first channels sent at different times can also be different. Therefore, sets of first information fields of different types can be dynamically reused in the same information block, so that the network device can determine, based on the data scheduling status of each terminal device or the DRX timer status of each terminal device, the type of the first information field set included in the corresponding information block. With this design, flexibility and accuracy can be improved, and indication information indicating PDCCH resources required by a plurality of terminals can be reduced, thereby improving network-side resource utilization and reducing network load.

[0009] In an exemplary design, the first channel may be a group PDCCH.

[0010] In an exemplary design, the first information may be downlink control information (DCI) or may be power saving information, such as indication information telling the terminal to "wake up" or "go to sleep" .

[0011] In an exemplary design, each information block may further include a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate the type of set of first information fields. According to the above construction, after receiving the first channel, the terminal can determine the type of the first information field based on the second information field in the corresponding information block in order to more accurately obtain information about the discovery performed on the second channel.

[0012] In an exemplary design, sets of first information fields of different types may have different functions.

[0013] In an exemplary design, the number of bits in each set of first information fields may be the same, or the number of bits in each information block may be the same. In the above construction, sets of first information fields of different types can be dynamically reused.

[0014] In an exemplary design, when the set of first information fields is of type 1, the set of first information fields may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel within one or more DRX cycles after the time point in which is the first channel detected.

[0015] In an exemplary design, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 1 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following three information fields: information field 1-1, information field 1 -2 and information field 1-3. Information field 1-1 may be used to indicate terminal configuration information for the CSI message. Information field 1-2 is used to indicate the deactivated (deactive) / inactive (dormant) carrier or set of SCells to be activated by the terminal device in the active (active) state. Information field 1-3 may be used to indicate a DRX cycle (which may be 0, 1, or multiple DRX cycles) in which discovery for the PDCCH may be performed within a first channel discovery cycle, or may be used to indicate one or more slots in which discovery on the PDCCH may be performed within a first channel discovery cycle.

[0016] In an exemplary design, when the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the tag stops detecting for the second channel within a time period, or whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance .

[0017] In an exemplary design, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 2 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following four information fields: information field 2-1, information field 2-2 , information field 2-3 and information field 2-4. The 2-1 information field may indicate whether at least one timer needs to be stopped in advance. The 2-2 information field may be used to indicate the carrier or set of SCells whose state is to be switched from active to disabled/inactive by the terminal.

Information field 2-3 may be used to indicate that the terminal is not performing discovery on the PDCCH in the first time period, or may be used to indicate that the terminal is going to sleep in the first time period. The first time period may be the duration of the discovery cycle of the first channel, in other words, the duration of the time interval between adjacent times of the first channel. Information field 2-4 may be used to indicate the duration of a continuous period of time during which the terminal does not perform detection on the PDCCH, or the duration of the time spent in sleep mode (idle time or sleep duration).

[0018] In an exemplary design, the time period may be a first channel discovery cycle, or the time period may be a sleep mode residence time. The sleep time (timeout or sleep duration) may be configured by the network device for at least one end device using higher layer signaling.

[0019] In an exemplary design, at least one timer is a DRX-InactivityTimer.

[0020] In an exemplary design, at least one timer may further include at least one of DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL, and DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL.

[0021] In an exemplary design, when the first information field set is of type 3, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the time at which the first channel is discovered. , or the terminal stops the first timer in advance.

[0022] In an exemplary design, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 3 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following three information fields: information field 3-1 and information field 3 -2. For information field 3-1, refer to information field 1-1. For information field 3-2, refer to information field 1-3.

[0023] For information field 3-2, the indicated DRX includes a DRX cycle including the time of the first channel.

[0024] In an exemplary design, the first information may further include a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal corresponding to the information block included in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to the at least one end device. According to the above construction, after receiving the first channel, the terminal can locate the corresponding information block based on the third information field in the first channel, so that the terminal can relatively accurately obtain information about the detection performed on the second channel by the terminal, thereby improving the reduction efficiency. energy consumption.

[0025] In an exemplary design, the third information field may be used to indicate a tag index number corresponding to the information block included in the first information, and the location in the first information block information corresponding to each tag is determined based on the index number of each tag. According to the above construction, after receiving the first channel, the terminal can not only determine, based on the third information field in the first channel, whether the first channel includes an information block corresponding to the terminal, but also determine the location of the corresponding information block, so that the terminal can relatively accurately obtain information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device, thereby improving the efficiency of reducing power consumption.

[0026] In an exemplary design, at least one terminal is part of N terminals; and/or the number of at least one terminal device is less than or equal to the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information, and the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information is less than or equal to N, where N terminal devices perform detection on the same first channel. Typically, the network device does not need to specify the first information about all terminal devices in the cell. The number of bits carried in the first information is limited, and an excessively large number of bits carried in the first information affects the coverage characteristics of the first channel and increases the complexity of performing discovery on the first channel by the terminal. In the above scheme, the first channel is used to indicate the N portion of the terminals, so that bits of the controlled amount of the first information can be transmitted to improve the coverage characteristics of the first channel and reduce the complexity of performing discovery on the first channel by the terminal.

[0027] According to a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: receiving a first channel at one or more times from a network device, where the first channel carries first information, and the first information includes one or more information blocks, where each information block corresponds to one terminal device, each information block corresponds to a different terminal device, each information block includes one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device corresponding to the information block , in which the set of the first information fields is located; and if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields included in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields included in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent in at least two different points in time are different; and determining, based on the first information, information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal.

[0028] In this embodiment of the present application, the network device sends the same first channel to the plurality of terminals to indicate discovery information performed on the second channel by the plurality of terminals so that each of the plurality of terminals can determine based on the received of the first channel, information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal, and the terminal goes to sleep when there is no data scheduling. In this way, unnecessary power consumption can be reduced. In addition, in this embodiment of the present application, the types of the sets of the first information fields included in different information blocks on the first channel sent by the network device may be different, and the types of the sets of the first information fields included in the same information block on the first channels sent at different times can also be different. Therefore, sets of first information fields of different types can be dynamically reused in the same information block, so that the network device can determine, based on the data scheduling status of each terminal device or the DRX timer status of each terminal device, the type of the first information field set included in the corresponding information block. With this design, flexibility and accuracy can be improved, and indication information indicating PDCCH resources required by a plurality of terminals can be reduced, thereby improving resource utilization on the network side and reducing network load.

[0029] In an exemplary design, each information block may further include a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate the type of set of first information fields. According to the above construction, after receiving the first channel, the terminal can determine the type of the first information field based on the second information field in the corresponding information block in order to more accurately obtain information about the discovery performed on the second channel.

[0030] In an exemplary design, the number of bits in each set of first information fields may be the same, or the number of bits in each information block may be the same. In the above construction, sets of first information fields of different types can be dynamically reused.

[0031] In an exemplary design, when the set of first information fields is type 1, the set of first information fields may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel within one or more DRX discontinuous reception cycles after the time point at which found the first channel.

[0032] In an exemplary design, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 1 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following three information fields: information field 1-1, information field 1 -2 and information field 1-3. Information field 1-1 may be used to indicate tag configuration information to report to CSI. Information field 1-2 is used to indicate the deactivated (deactive) / inactive (dormant) carrier or set of SCells to be activated by the terminal device in the active (active) state. Information field 1-3 may be used to indicate one or more DRX cycles in which discovery for the PDCCH may be performed within a first channel discovery cycle.

[0033] In an exemplary design, when the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the tag stops detecting for the second channel within a time period, or whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance .

[0034] In an exemplary design, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 2 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following four information fields: information field 2-1, information field 2 -2, information field 2-3 and information field 2-4. The 2-1 information field may also indicate whether at least one timer needs to be stopped in advance. The 2-2 information field may be used to indicate the carrier or set of SCells whose state is to be switched from active to disabled/inactive by the terminal. Information field 2-3 may be used to indicate that the terminal is not performing discovery on the PDCCH in the first time period, or may be used to indicate that the terminal is going to sleep in the first time period. Information field 2-4 may be used to indicate the duration of a continuous period of time during which the terminal does not perform detection on the PDCCH, or the duration of the time spent in sleep mode (idle time or sleep duration).

[0035] In an exemplary design, the time period may be a first channel discovery cycle, or the time period may be a sleep mode residence time. The sleep time may be configured by the network device for at least one end device using higher layer signaling.

[0036] In an exemplary design, at least one timer may include at least one of DRX-onDurationTimer, DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL, and DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL.

[0037] In an exemplary design, when the first information field set is of type 3, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the time at which the first channel is discovered. , or the terminal stops the first timer in advance.

[0038] In an exemplary design, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 3 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following three information fields: information field 3-1 and information field 3 -2. Information field 3-1 is similar or the same as information field 1-1, and information field 3-2 is similar or the same as information field 1-3. For information field 3-2, the indicated DRX includes a DRX cycle including the time of the first channel.

[0039] In an exemplary design, the first information may further include a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal corresponding to the information block included in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to the terminal. device. According to the above construction, after receiving the first channel, the terminal can locate the corresponding information block based on the third information field in the first channel, so that the terminal can relatively accurately obtain information about the detection performed on the second channel by the terminal, thereby improving the reduction efficiency. energy consumption.

[0040] In an exemplary design, the third information field may be used to indicate a terminal index number corresponding to the information block included in the first information, and the location in the first information of the information block corresponding to each terminal is determined based on the index number of each terminal. According to the above construction, after receiving the first channel, the terminal can not only determine, based on the third information field in the first channel, whether the first channel includes an information block corresponding to the terminal, but also determine the location of the corresponding information block, so that the terminal can relatively accurately obtain information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device, thereby improving the efficiency of reducing power consumption.

[0041] According to a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device. The device may be a network device, or may be a chip or chipset in a network device, or the device may be a terminal device, or may be a chip or chipset in a terminal device. The device may include a processing unit and a transceiver unit.

[0042] In an exemplary design, when the device is a network device, the processing unit may be a processor and the transceiver unit may be a transceiver. The device may further include a storage unit, and the storage unit may be a memory. The storage unit is configured to store instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored in the storage unit, so that the network device performs the corresponding functions according to the first aspect. When the device is a chip or chipset in a network device, the processing unit may be a processor, and the transceiver unit may be an I/O interface, pin, circuit, or the like. The processing unit executes the instructions stored in the storage unit so that the device performs the corresponding function according to the first aspect. The storage unit may be a storage unit (eg, a register or cache) on a chip or chipset, or may be a storage unit (eg, read only or random access memory) outside the chip or chipset in a network device.

[0043] In an exemplary design, when the device is a terminal, the processing unit may be a processor and the transceiver unit may be a transceiver. The device may further include a storage unit, and the storage unit may be a memory. The storage unit is configured to store instructions, and the processing unit executes the instructions stored in the storage unit, so that the terminal device performs the corresponding functions according to the second aspect. When the device is a chip or chipset in a terminal device, the processing unit may be a processor, and the transceiver unit may be an input/output interface, an output, a circuit, or the like. The processing unit executes the instructions stored in the storage unit so that the device performs the corresponding function according to the second aspect. The storage unit may be a storage unit (eg, a register or cache) on a chip or chipset, or may be a storage unit (eg, ROM or random access memory) outside the chip or chipset in a terminal device.

[0044] According to a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided that includes a processor, a communication interface, and a memory. The communication interface is configured to transfer information and/or messages and/or data between the device and another device. The memory is configured to store instructions executable by the computer. When the device is operating, the processor executes computer-executable instructions stored in the memory such that the device executes the communication method according to the first aspect or any design according to the first aspect or the second aspect or any design according to the second aspect.

[0045] According to a fifth aspect, the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium. A computer-readable storage medium stores instructions; and when the instructions are executed on the computer, the computer is enabled to execute the method in accordance with the above aspects.

[0046] According to a sixth aspect, the present application further provides a computer program product including instructions. When the computer program product is executed on the computer, the method according to the foregoing aspects is provided for the computer to execute.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0047] FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication system in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0048] FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of the duty cycle according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0049] FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of an inactivity timer according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a WUS according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of PDCCH tracking by a terminal according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of a GTS function according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram of another GTS function according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a group DCI format according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a group DCI format according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0056] FIG. 7A is a schematic block diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram of a first channel format according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] FIG. 7C is a schematic diagram of a BWP according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a first channel function according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a DRX timer status occurring when a first channel is detected, according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0061] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of another DRX timer status occurring when a first channel is detected, according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0062] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of another DRX timer status occurring when a first channel is detected, according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0063] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a first channel format according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] FIG. 13A is a schematic diagram of another first channel format according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0065] FIG. 13B is a schematic diagram of another first channel format according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0066] FIG. 13C is a schematic diagram of another first channel format according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0067] FIG. 14 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application; And

[0068] FIG. 15 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Description of Embodiments

[0069] In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the following clearly describes the technical solutions according to the embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present invention.

[0070] The communication method proposed in the present application can be applied to a communication system in which a discontinuous reception (DRX) mechanism is configured. The communication system architecture is shown in Fig. 1 and includes a network device and a terminal device. Uplink data transmission and downlink data transmission are performed between a network device and a terminal device. In a communication system, a terminal device performs uplink data transmission based on scheduling information sent by a network device. The communication system in this embodiment of the present application may be various types of communication systems, for example, may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) communication system, may be a 5th generation (5G) communication system, may be a Universal terrestrial radio access (UTRA), advanced UTRA (E-UTRAN), new radio technology (new radio, NR), GSM/EDGE radio access network-circuit switched (GERAN- CS), GSM/EDGE radio access network domain with data switching (GSM EDGE radio access packet-circuit switched, GERAN-PS), code division multiple access (CDMA) 2000-1XRTT system, multiple radio access technology system with dual connection (Multi-RAT Dual-Connectivity, MR-DC), etc., or may be a hybrid architecture of multiple communication systems, such as a hybrid architecture of LTE and 5G.

[0071] The network device may be a conventional base station (for example, NodeB or eNB), a new radio controller (NR controller), a gNodeB (gNB) in a 5G system, a centralized network element (centralized unit), a base station of a new radio, remote radio module, microbase station, relay, distributed unit, transmission reception point (TRP), transmission point (TP), or any other radio access device. This is not a limitation in this embodiment of the present application.

[0072] A terminal device is also called user equipment (user equipment, UE) and is a device, such as a portable device or a device installed in a vehicle, that has a wireless connection function that provides voice and / or data transmission to the user. The conventional terminal includes, for example, a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop, a PDA, a mobile internet device (MID), and a wearable device such as a smart watch, a smart bracelet, or a pedometer.

[0073] In a communication system, when a terminal is in radio resource control (RRC) connected mode, if there is no DRX mechanism, then the terminal continues to monitor the PDCCH subframe. However, in reality, in many services, such as web browsing, the terminal device and the network device exchange information in a specific time interval, and not all the time. If the terminal continues to monitor the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the energy of the terminal is wasted. Therefore, when efficient data transmission is guaranteed, a DRX mechanism is provided in the wireless communication system so that the terminal periodically enters the sleep mode and does not monitor the PDCCH subframe at some times. When the terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH, the terminal device wakes up. Thus, energy is saved.

[0074] In DRX, a network device may configure a DRX cycle for a terminal in RRC connected mode. The DRX cycle includes an on duration time domain as shown in FIG. 2A. During the on duration, the terminal may perform discovery on the PDCCH. The terminal device turns on the timer at the starting point of the on-duration timer. The duration of the timer is the length of the on duration. The timer may be referred to as the DRX On Duration Timer (DRX-onDurationTimer). The terminal performs discovery on the PDCCH within the time range of the DRX-onDurationTimer. If the tag does not detect a PDCCH within the DRX-onDurationTimer time range, the tag goes to sleep when the DRX-onDurationTimer expires. In other words, the terminal can turn off the receive circuitry during the remaining time period of the DRX cycle, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal. If the terminal detects a PDCCH within the DRX-onDurationTimer time range, the terminal turns on the DRX inactivity timer (DRX-InactivityTimer) in the DRX mechanism. If the end device continues to detect the PDCCH during the DRX-InactivityTimer running time period, the end device resets the DRX-InactivityTimer to start counting again. the device must still continue to perform discovery on the PDCCH until the inactivity timer expires, as shown in FIG. 2B. There are other timers in the DRX mechanism such as the DRX downlink retransmission timer and the DRX uplink retransmission timer (DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL and DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL). When any of DRX-onDurationTimer, DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL, and DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL is executed, the end device is in Active time. In the DRX mechanism, if the terminal is in active time, the terminal continuously monitors the PDCCH.

[0075] In a DRX cycle, the terminal must first wake up, turn on the RF and baseband circuits, obtain time-frequency synchronization, and then perform detection on the PDCCH in the on-duration period. These processes consume a lot of energy. However, data transmission is usually intermittent and infrequent in time. If the network device does not perform data scheduling for the terminal device during the on-duration period, unnecessary power consumption occurs for the terminal device. Therefore, to reduce power consumption, a wake-up signal (WUS) can be introduced into and combined with the DRX mechanism in the connected RRC mode. As shown in FIG. 3, for a terminal device that supports WUS, for each DRX cycle, there is a WUS time (WUS occasion), namely the subframe (subframe) or slot (slot) in which the WUS resides, before the start of the on-duration timer. The network device may send the WUS to the end device in the form of a discontinuous transmission (DTX) at the time of the WUS. More specifically, the network device determines, based on the data scheduling requirement, whether to send the WUS at the WUS time, and the terminal device must perform discovery on the WUS at the WUS time to determine whether the network device sends the WUS. When a tag is in sleep mode, the tag may be in a very low power state. For example, only some modem features are enabled, or a simple receive circuit is used to detect and demodulate the WUS. When a tag does not discover a WUS at a WUS time, or a discovered WUS indicates that there is no data scheduling for the tag in the corresponding on-duration period, the tag can directly go to sleep and does not need to perform discovery on the PDCCH in the on-duration period. . If the tag detects a WUS at the WUS time, or the detected WUS indicates that there is data scheduling for the tag in the appropriate on-duration period, the tag wakes up from sleep mode. In this case, the terminal may start the DRX-onDurationTimer based on the DRX mechanism procedure and perform discovery on the PDCCH.

[0076] Compared to WUS, a go to sleep signal (GTS) can be additionally introduced and can be combined with the DRX mechanism in the connected RRC mode. The GTS function may be similar to the WUS function in FIG. 3 and is used to indicate whether the terminal is entering sleep mode. However, the manner in which the GTS is specified and the content is the opposite of that of the WUS. If the tag detects a GTS at a GTS time, or the detected GTS indicates that there is no data scheduling for the tag in the corresponding on-duration period, the tag goes back to sleep. If the tag does not detect a GTS at the GTS time, or the detected GTS indicates that data scheduling for the tag is in progress for the appropriate on-duration period, the tag wakes up from sleep mode.

[0077] There is another function of the GTS that indicates whether the tag needs to go to sleep. If the terminal detects a PDCCH during the DRX-onDurationTimer running time, the terminal turns on the DRX-InactivityTimer. Given the data scheduling latency requirement, the DRX-InactivityTimer run time is typically much longer than the DRX-onDurationTimer run time. When the network device performs data scheduling for a tag, the tag turns on/resets the DRX-InactivityTimer and continues to perform discovery on the PDCCH for a very long period of time. However, the network device may not perform any data scheduling for the terminal device during this time period, as shown in FIG. 4A. In this case, there is unnecessary power consumption for the terminal device. In such a case, if the network device determines that there is no need to schedule data for the tag and no need to send a PDCCH to the tag during the remaining DRX-InactivityTimer period, the network device may send a GTS to the tag to instruct the tag to enter sleep. mode. In this case, after detecting the GTS, the tag can directly stop the DRX-InactivityTimer in advance and go to sleep immediately, as shown in FIG. 4B. Alternatively, the terminal may stop all active time DRX timers (including DRX-onDurationTimer, DRX-InactivityTimer, etc.) in advance to stop detecting the PDCCH and may go to sleep.

[0078] There is another GTS function that can indicate the sleep time (timeout or sleep duration) of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 4C, if the network device determines that there is no need to schedule data for the tag and no need to send a PDCCH to the tag for a continuous time T in the DRX-InactivityTimer, the network device may indicate the sleep time for the tag using the GTS. . After the sleep time T has elapsed, the terminal may wake up again to perform discovery on the PDCCH.

[0079] For the WUS/GTS structure, the PDCCH structure can be reused in an existing NR. In other words, WUS/GTS is designed as a downlink control channel. In addition, a new DCI format is introduced to tell a terminal to "wake up" or "go to sleep" or to tell a terminal to start/stop PDCCH discovery in order to implement WUS/GTS functions. The implementation decision introduces a new terminal-specific (UE-specific) DCI format to indicate to the terminal to "wake up" or "go to sleep". In other words, the corresponding PDCCH must be sent to each terminal for indication. However, in this solution, an appropriate PDCCH must be sent to each terminal to indicate to the terminal to "wake up" or "go to sleep". This increases resource consumption on the network side and increases network load.

[0080] On this basis, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for solving the problem of unnecessary power consumption caused by PDCCH tracking by a terminal when there is no data scheduling. In embodiments of the present application, the WUS/GTS may be designed as a downlink control channel of a group of terminal devices (PDCCH Group UE). The network device may send a common multicast PDCCH to a group of terminals. The information carried on the group PDCCH is group (Group) control information downlink (downlink control information, DCI). A group DCI may include a plurality of information blocks, each information block may correspond to one different terminal in a group of terminals, each information block includes one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields indicates discovery information performed on the PDCCH by the corresponding terminal, for example, instructs the terminal to "wake up" or "go to sleep" in order to implement the aforementioned WUS or GTS functions. The types of first information field sets included in different information blocks in a group DCI are different, the functions of different first information field set types are different, and the information fields included in different first information field set types are not completely identical, as shown in FIG. 5. The types of the sets of the first information fields included in the information blocks that correspond to the same terminal and that are included in the multicast DCI sent at different times are different, as shown in FIG. 6. The network device may determine, based on the data scheduling status or the DRX timer status of each terminal device, the type of the set of first information fields included in the information block corresponding to the terminal device. The method and device are based on the same inventive concept. Since the problem-solving principle of the method is similar to that of the apparatus, references may be made to implementations of the apparatus and the method, and no re-description is provided.

[0081] "Many", referred to in the embodiments of the present application, means two or more.

[0082] In addition, it should be understood that in the descriptions of embodiments of the present application, the words "first", "second", etc. are used merely to distinguish between descriptions and are not to be understood as an indication or meaning of relative importance, or as an indication or meaning of order.

[0083] Next, the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application will be specifically described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0084] FIG. 7A is a flow diagram of a communication method according to the present application. The communication method presented in the present application may be applied to a network device, a chip or chipset in a network device, and the like. The following is a description using an example in which the method is applied to a network device. The method includes the following steps.

[0085] S701. The network device determines one or more times at which the first channel is sent. For example, the first channel may be a multicast PDCCH.

[0086] For example, the network device may further determine one or more times at which the first signal is sent. The first signal may be a reference signal or may be a Power Saving Signal.

[0087] The point in time may be a slot at which the tag performs discovery on the first channel.

[0088] S702. The network device sends the first channel or the first signal to at least one terminal device, where n is an integer greater than 0. The first channel or the first signal carries the first information. For example, the first information may be DCI, or the first information may be power saving information, such as indication information indicating that the terminal should wake up or go to sleep.

[0089] The first information includes one or more information blocks (information block), where each information block corresponds to one of at least one terminal device, each information block corresponds to a different terminal device, each information block includes one set of first information fields (information field), and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information (which may also be called energy saving information) about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device corresponding to the information block in which the set of first information fields is located. For example, refer to FIG. 7B. The second channel may be a PDCCH or may be a PDSCH. The first information may have at least one of the following two properties.

[0090] Property 1: If one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields included in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different. For example, refer to FIG. 5.

[0091] Property 2: If one or more times are two or more times, the types of sets of first information fields included in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal and which are in the first information carried on the first channels, sent at at least two different times are different. For example, refer to FIG. 6. When the first channel is a PDCCH (eg, group PDCCH), the formats (format) of the first channels sent at different times may be the same.

[0092] It should be noted that the functions of the first information field sets of different types are different.

[0093] Typically, the DCI formats of the first and second channels are different.

[0094] As an example for description, the types of the set of first information fields may include, but are not limited to, type 1, type 2, and type 3.

[0095] If the set of first information fields is of type 1, the set of first information fields may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel within one or more Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycles after the time at which the first is detected. channel.

[0096] In particular, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 1 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following three information fields: information field 1-1, information field 1 -2 and information field 1-3.

[0097] Information field 1-1 may be a request (request) information about the state of the channel (channel state information, CSI), used to indicate some configuration information of the target device for the CSI message, namely "CSI-ReportConfigs", for example, the corresponding reference CSI signal (CSI reference signal, CSI-RS) or reference tracking signal (tracking reference signal, TRS). The 1-1 information field may be used to trigger the terminal to receive a reference signal to perform time-frequency synchronization or CSI measurement. Therefore, after receiving the 1-1 information field, the terminal may receive the appropriate CSI-RS or TRS to perform the CSI measurement or time-frequency synchronization. Upon completion of the CSI measurement, the terminal may send the CSI back to the network device. The CSI-RS/TRS may be associated with a bandwidth part (BWP) and the terminal must receive the CSI-RS/TRS over the BWP. Therefore, the information field 1-1 may further indicate the BWP to be activated by the user equipment (UE). The above indication method is an implicit indication, and the UE obtains, using the BWP associated with the CSI-RS/TRS, the BWP to be activated. If the BWP of the first channel detected by the terminal is different from the BWP specified in the 1-1 information field, the terminal may perform a BWP switch.

[0098] A network device may configure one or more downlink BWPs for a terminal device. The BWP includes physical resource blocks (PRB) consecutive in the frequency domain, and the BWP is a subset of the UE's frequency band. The minimum granularity of a BWP in the frequency domain is one PRB. The network device may configure one or more BWPs for the terminal device, and the BWPs may overlap in the frequency domain, as shown in FIG. 7C. Alternatively, the information field 1-1 may be BWP indication information directly indicating the BWP index number.

[0099] Information field 1-2 may be an indication of secondary cell (SCell) carrier activation and is used to indicate a deactivated/inactive carrier or SCell carrier set to be activated into an active state by the terminal. In a carrier aggregation (CA) situation, a network device configures a plurality of SCells for a terminal device. Carrier SCell can have three states: active (active), deactivated (deactive) and inactive (dormant). A terminal can only receive a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) on a SCell carrier in the active state. When the network device instructs the end device to "wake up", the network device needs to send data to the end device. Therefore, the network device may need to convert some deactivated/inactive SCells of the terminal device to active SCells.

[00100] The information field 1-3 may be used to indicate a DRX cycle in which discovery for the PDCCH may be performed in the first time period, in other words, an "on-duration" period in which discovery for the PDCCH may be performed in the first time period, or may be used to indicate one or more slots in which detection for the PDCCH may be performed in the first time period. The number of bits in the information field may be configured using higher layer signaling, and each bit may correspond to one or more slots in the corresponding time period. If the first time period is P slots and the number of bits is N, each bit may correspond to ⎣P/N⎦ or ⎡P/N⎤ slots in the time period.

[00101] Optionally, the first time period is the duration of the discovery cycle of the first channel, in other words, the duration of the time interval between adjacent times of the first channel.

[00102] For example, the first channel discovery cycle is 16 slots and the DRX cycle is 8 slots. Referring to FIG. 8, after the terminal receives the first channel, the starting locations of the two DRX cycles in the first channel discovery cycle are located in the first channel discovery cycle. The start location of the first DRX cycle is located in the first eight slots, and the start location of the second DRX cycle is located in the last eight slots. Therefore, the information field 1-3 may have a size of 2 bits. The first bit may be used to indicate whether the terminal is performing discovery on the PDCCH in the "On Duration" period in the first DRX cycle. The second bit may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs detection on the PDCCH in the "On Duration" period in the second DRX cycle. Alternatively, the information field 1-3 may be 1 bit used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery for the PDCCH in the entire discovery cycle of the first channel, in other words, whether the terminal performs discovery for the PDCCH in all "duration" periods. enable" in the detection cycle.

[00103] Optionally, if the first time period is 16 slots and the 1-3 information field is 2 bits, the first bit may indicate whether the terminal is performing discovery on the PDCCH in the first eight slots of the first time period, and the second bit may indicate whether the terminal performs PDCCH discovery in the last eight slots of the first time period.

[00104] If the first information field set is type 2, regarding the first information field set function, the GTS signal function should be referred to. In particular, the set of first information fields may be used to indicate whether the terminal stops detecting for the second channel within a period of time. The time period may be a first channel discovery cycle, or the time period may be a sleep time. The sleep time (timeout or sleep duration) can be configured by the network device for at least one end device using higher layer signaling. Alternatively, the discovery information corresponding to the first set of information fields may be used to indicate whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance. The at least one timer may include at least one of DRX-onDurationTimer, DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL, and DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL.

[00105] In a specific implementation, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 2 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following four information fields: information field 2-1, information field 2 -2, information field 2-3 and information field 2-4.

[00106] Information field 2-1 may also indicate whether to stop the corresponding timer in advance, for example, the DRX timer currently used for synchronization, or all DRX timers, including any of DRX-onDurationTimer, DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX- RetransmissionTimerDL and DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL related to active time.

[00107] The 2-2 information field may be an indication of SCell deactivation or waiting, and is used to indicate the carrier or SCel⋅1 carrier set whose state is to be switched from active to deactivated/inactive by the terminal.

[00108] Information field 2-3 may be used to indicate a period of time during which the terminal device does not perform discovery on the PDCCH in the first period of time, or may be used to indicate the period of time during which the terminal device enters a "sleep" mode in the first period of time.

[00109] Optionally, the 2-3 information field may be further used to indicate one or more slots in which discovery for the PDCCH may not be performed in the first time period, or to indicate one or more slots in which the terminal transitions to "sleep" mode in the first period of time.

[00110] The method of specifying is the same as in the descriptions of the information field 1-3, and the details are not described here again.

[00111] Optionally, the first time period may be the duration of the discovery cycle of the first channel, in other words, the duration of the time interval between adjacent times of the first channel.

[00112] The information field 2-4 may directly indicate the duration of a continuous period of time during which the terminal device does not perform detection in relation to the PDCCH, or the duration of the time spent in sleep mode (idle time or sleep duration).

[00113] When the first information field set is type 3, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the tag performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the point in time when the first channel is detected, or the tag in advance stops the first timer. The first timer may be a DRX-onDurationTimer. When the end device turns on the DRX-onDurationTimer, no other DRX timer starts timing.

[00114] In particular, the information field included in the set of first information fields corresponding to type 3 may include, but is not limited to, at least one of the following two information fields: information field 3-1 and information field 3-2. For details of information field 3-1 and information field 3-2, refer to the descriptions of information field 1-1 and information field 1-3 in the first information field set corresponding to type 1. Details are not described here again.

[00115] Optionally, in this case, the DRX indicated by the information field 3-1 includes a DRX cycle including the time of the first channel.

[00116] It should be noted that information fields included in sets of first information fields of the same type may be exactly the same. Of course, information fields included in sets of first information fields of the same type may not be exactly the same. For example, the set of first information fields of type 1, which corresponds to the first terminal device, includes information field 1-1 and information field 1-2, and the set of first information fields of type 1, which corresponds to the second terminal device, includes information field 1 -1, information field 1-2 and information field 1-3.

[00117] The information fields included in the sets of first information fields of different types are not completely identical.

[00118] In the description of the example, the number of bits in each set of first information fields may be the same, or the number of bits in each information block may be the same. The number of bits in the set of first information fields or the number of bits in the information block may be configured by the network device for at least one terminal using higher layer signaling.

[00119] In a particular implementation, the network device may further configure a first channel discovery cycle for at least one terminal using higher layer signaling. For example, the first channel discovery cycle may be, but not limited to, on a per-by-slot basis.

[00120] In an exemplary implementation, the network device may determine the first channel as follows. For any one of the at least one terminal device, the network device may determine, based on the data scheduling status of the terminal device, which is obtained when the terminal device performs discovery on the first channel, and the DRX timer status of the terminal device, the type of the set of first information fields included in corresponding information block.

[00121] In the description of the example, as shown in FIG. 9, the terminal detects the first channel before the start position of the "on duration" of the DRX cycle, ie the start position of the DRX cycle. In one case, the UE is not in DRX "active time" and the DRX timer (eg, inactivity timer) is not enabled. The network device may determine that the set of first information fields included in the information block corresponding to the terminal device is of type 1.

[00122] Further, the network device may determine the first information field, the second information field, and the third information field based on the data scheduling status obtained when the terminal performs discovery on the first channel.

[00123] If the tag detects the first channel during the time period of the first DRX timer in the DRX cycle and the first DRX timer may be DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL, or DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL, the network device may determine that the set of first information fields included into the information block corresponding to the terminal is type 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the first DRX timer may be a DRX-InactivityTimer.

[00124] In addition, the network device may determine the 2-1 information field, the 2-2 information field, the 2-3 information field, and the 2-4 information field based on the data scheduling status obtained when the terminal performs discovery on the first channel. .

[00125] As shown in FIG. 11, if the terminal detects the first channel within the DRX cycle on duration and no other DRX timer starts timing, the network device may determine that the set of first information fields included in the information block corresponding to the terminal is of type 3.

[00126] Further, the network device may determine the first information field and the third information field based on the data scheduling status obtained when the terminal performs discovery on the first channel.

[00127] In addition, each information block may further include a second information field, and the second information field may be used to indicate a type of set of first information fields.

[00128] Alternatively, the information block may not include the second information field, and the terminal may determine the type of the set of first information fields based on the status of the terminal. Below are examples.

[00129] State 1: The tag detects the first channel at the "on duration" start point in the DRX cycle, i.e. before the start point of the DRX cycle, and the UE is not in DRX "active time" as shown in FIG. 9. In this case, the terminal may determine that the set of first information fields included in the information block corresponding to the terminal on the first channel is of type 1.

[00130] State 2: If the tag detects the first channel during the time period of the first DRX timer in the DRX cycle, and the first DRX timer may be DRX-InactivityTimer, DRX-RetransmissionTimerDL, or DRX-RetransmissionTimerUL, the tag may determine that the set of first information fields included in the information block corresponding to the terminal on the first channel is type 2. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the first DRX timer may be a DRX-InactivityTimer.

[00131] State 3: If the terminal detects the first channel within the DRX cycle on duration and another DRX timer does not start timing as shown in FIG. 11. In this case, the terminal may determine that the set of first information fields included in the information block corresponding to the terminal on the first channel is of type 3.

[00132] There may be many terminals in a cell. Typically, a network device does not need to indicate the "power saving" information of all terminal devices in a cell. For example, some terminals need to schedule a large amount of data in this case. In addition, the number of bits carried in the first information is also limited, and an excessively large number of bits affects the coverage characteristics of the first channel and increases the complexity of performing detection on the first channel by the terminal. Therefore, the number of information bit fields that can be supported by the number of source bits carried in the first information is limited (ie, the number of said terminals is limited).

[00133] Therefore, in an implementation, a network device may configure the same first channel for N terminals for discovery. The at least one terminal may be some or all of the N terminals. In addition, the number of at least one terminal may be less than or equal to the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information, and the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information may be less than or equal to N.

[00134] In a specific implementation, if the network device does not need to indicate N terminal devices to perform discovery of downlink control channel information (or power saving information), the number of information blocks carried in the first information is 0, and the number is at least one end device can also be 0.

[00135] In an exemplary implementation, a network device may send configuration information to at least one terminal device using higher layer signaling. The configuration information may indicate the location in the first information of the information block corresponding to each terminal, for example, indicate the start location of a bit in the bits of the first information of the information block corresponding to each terminal.

[00136] In another possible implementation, the first information may further include a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal corresponding to the information block included in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to at least one end device. The third information field may be located in the most significant bit of the first channel. Therefore, after the tag receives the first channel, if the third information field on the first channel indicates that the first information includes an information block corresponding to the tag, the tag can read the information block corresponding to the tag on the first channel.

[00137] The network device may configure one index number for each of the N terminal devices.

[00138] In the description of the example, the third information field may include N bits, and each bit may correspond to one of the N terminals. Therefore, the bit corresponding to the terminal can be used to indicate whether the first channel includes an information block corresponding to that terminal, and the location, in the first channel, of the information block corresponding to the terminal can be indicated using this bit. Optionally, the bits in the third information field, in descending order respectively, correspond to terminals whose index numbers are sorted in ascending (or descending) order. The network device can directly configure the correspondence between each bit in the third information field and the specified terminal device, and each terminal device can directly determine, using the value of the bit in the corresponding bit location in the third information field, whether the first information includes an information block corresponding to the terminal device. . If the first information includes an information block corresponding to the tag, the tag can determine, based on the corresponding bit location in the third information field and the location of the bit that is in the third information field and that indicates the corresponding information block, the location of the information block that corresponds to the tag. device and is in the first information. For example, the third information field includes 5 bits, which 5 bits in descending order correspond to tag 2, tag 4, tag 1, tag 5, and tag 3, and the values of the bits in the third information field are 01010. Therefore , the tag 4 determines, based on the bit value "1" of the second bit in the third information field, that the first information includes the information block corresponding to the tag 4 and the information block corresponding to the tag 4 is the first information block in descending order in the first information. Similarly, tag 5 determines, based on the bit value "1" of the fourth bit in the third information field, that the first information includes an information block corresponding to tag 5 and the information block corresponding to tag 5 is the second information block in descending order in the first information.

[00139] If the first information includes an information block corresponding to a terminal device, the corresponding bit of that terminal device in the third information field may be set to "1". If the first information does not include an information block corresponding to a terminal device, the corresponding bit of that terminal device in the third information field may be set to "0". Of course, if the first information includes an information block corresponding to a tag, the corresponding tag bit in the third information field may also be set to "0". If the first information does not include an information block corresponding to a tag, the corresponding tag bit in the third information field may be set to "1".

[00140] In particular, the third information field may be used to indicate the index number of the terminal device corresponding to the information block included in the first information, and the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to each terminal device can be determined based on the index number of each terminal device.

[00141] For example, it is assumed that the network device configures the same first channel for 20 terminals, and the index numbers of these 20 terminals are from 1 to 20 consecutively. The third information field on the first channel includes 20 bits. These 20 bits, in descending order respectively, correspond to terminals whose index numbers are sorted in ascending order. More specifically, the most significant bit corresponds to the terminal whose index number is 1, the second most significant bit corresponds to the terminal whose index number is 2, the third most significant bit corresponds to the terminal whose index number is 3, and so on. If the first channel includes information blocks corresponding to terminals whose index numbers are 2, 6 and 9, the third information field of the first channel may be "01000100100000000000". As shown in FIG. 12, the network device may sequentially include, in ascending order of index numbers, information blocks corresponding to terminal devices whose index numbers are 2, 6, and 9, in bits in descending order on the first channel.

[00142] In another exemplary description, a network device first groups N (eg, 20) UEs that perform discovery on the same first channel, and each group includes K (eg, 5) terminals. Therefore, there are P1 (for example, 4) groups in total, and N>=P1*K. If the number of terminals that can be supported by the number of bits carried in the first information is M (for example, 10), the number of UE groups that can be supported on the first channel is P2 (for example, 2), where M>=P2*K and P1>=P2. Each UE group has an index number, and the network device configures, for each terminal device, using higher layer signaling, the Group Index number of the UE group to which the terminal device belongs and the intra-group index number. An information field (for example, which is referred to as UE group index indication information) is added to the first channel to indicate p (0<=p<=P1) UE groups of the P1 UE groups. That is, the information bit field p of UE groups is present in the first channel. The method of specifying the information field is similar to that described above. The bits in descending order respectively correspond to UE groups whose index numbers are sorted in ascending order. If a bit in the information field indicates "1", the first channel includes the information bit fields of all UEs in the UE group corresponding to that bit. The network device may configure N, K, and M values for N UEs using higher layer signaling.

[00143] In particular, the network device can configure, for each UE, using higher layer signaling, a group index number for the UE group to which this UE belongs, and a UE index number in that UE group, and the third information field indicates that the first the channel includes the UE group to which the terminal corresponding to the information block belongs. The first information includes an information block of each terminal in the UE group indicated by the third information field. If the terminal device does not have a corresponding set of first information fields, but the terminal device belongs to the UE group indicated by the third information field, the number of information blocks corresponding to the terminal device may be 0.

[00144] The number of bits in the third information field may be equal to

Если номера индексов группы для четырех групп UE могут быть от 1 до 4, а индексные номера пяти оконечных устройств, включенных в каждую группу, равны от 1 до 5, соответствие между битовым значением третьего информационного поля и комбинацией групп UE может быть показано в Таблице 1.[00145] More specifically, the information field indicates a possible combination of p selected UE groups from the P1 groups of UEs, the bit value of each information field corresponds to the combination of UE groups, and the base station can configure the correspondence between the bit value of the information field and the combination of UE groups using signaling of a higher level. For example, if P1=4 and P2=2, the number of bits in the third information field may be determined to be

If the group index numbers of the four UE groups can be 1 to 4, and the index numbers of the five terminals included in each group are 1 to 5, the correspondence between the bit value of the third information field and the UE group combination can be shown in Table 1 .

[00146] It should be understood that Table 1 is merely an example for description, and the correspondence between the number of bits in the third information field, the bit value of the third information field, and the UE group combination is not specifically limited.

[00147] The remaining bits of the first channel correspond to the information bit fields of all UEs in the UE group indicated by the information field, and the groups of UEs whose Group Index are in ascending order correspond to the bits that are in descending order. For each UE in each UE group, the information bit fields of the UEs whose intra-group index numbers are in ascending order correspond to the bits that are in descending order. An example is used for description below. It is assumed that P1=4, the group index numbers are 1 to 4, K=5, and the intra-group index numbers are 1 to 5. If the group index number of UE 0 is 1, the intra-group index number of UE 0 is 1, the group index number UE 1 is 4, the intra-group index number of UE 1 is 2, and the UE groups indicated by the third information field are groups 1 and 4, the information block locations of these two UEs in the first channel are shown in FIG. 13A.

[00148] If the network device sends the first channel to groups of UEs whose group index numbers are 1 and 3, the network device may set the third information field of the first channel to "0101". It is assumed that the first channel includes an information block corresponding to a terminal device whose index number is 2 in UE group 1 and an information block corresponding to a terminal device whose index number is 5 in UE group 3. As for the first channel, refer to FIG. 13V.

[00149] In addition, Table 1 can also be used in the case where grouping is not performed. More specifically, the network device preconfigures the index numbers N of the UEs and the correspondence between the bit value of the third information field and the combination of terminal devices (eg, the combination of index numbers of terminal devices). Therefore, after receiving the first channel, the tag determines, based on the bit value in the third information field, the tag corresponding to the information block included in the first information, so as to obtain the corresponding information block at the corresponding location, in the first information, of the tag. For example, the correspondence between the bit value of the third information field and the combination of terminals can be shown in Table 2. It should be understood that Table 2 is merely an example for description, and the correspondence between the number of bits in the third information field, the bit value of the third information field, and the combination of terminals devices are not specifically limited.

[00150] An example is used for description below. Terminal devices indicated by the third information field are terminal devices with index numbers 1, 3 and 4. In this case, regarding the location, on the first channel, information blocks of terminal devices, whose index numbers are 1, 3 and 4, one should refer to Fig. . 13C. The order of the information blocks may be ordered in descending order in the first information based on the indicated index numbers, which are arranged in ascending order.

[00151] S703. Based on the first channel, each terminal determines information about the discovery performed by the terminal on the second channel.

[00152] This has been described above with reference to the specific structure of the first channel.

[00153] Based on the same inventive concept as the method embodiments, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device specifically configured to implement the methods described in the embodiments of FIGS. 5 - Fig. 13C. The device may be a communications device, or may be a chip in a communications device, a chipset in a communications device, or a portion of a chip in a communications device that is configured to perform a corresponding method function. The structure of the communication device can be shown in FIG. 14 and includes a transceiver unit 1401 and a processing unit 1402.

[00154] In an implementation, the communication device may be a network device, and the processing unit 1402 is configured to determine one or more times at which the first channel is sent. The transceiver unit 1401 is configured to send to at least one terminal a first channel at one or more times determined by the processing unit 1402, where the first channel carries the first information, and the first information includes one or more information blocks, where each information block corresponds to one of said at least one terminal device, each information block corresponds to a different terminal device, each information block includes one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device, corresponding to the information block in which the set of the first information fields is located; And

if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields included in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields included in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent in at least two different points in time are different.

[00155] For example, each information block may further include a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate the type of the set of first information fields.

[00156] The number of bits in each set of first information fields may be the same, or the number of bits in each information block may be the same.

[00157] In the description of the example, when the first information field set is of type 1, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel within one or more discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles after the time in which the first channel is found.

[00158] In another exemplary description, when the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the tag stops detecting for the second channel within a period of time, or whether the tag stops at least one timer. in advance.

[00159] In yet another description of an example, when the first information field set is of type 3, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the time at which the detected the first channel, or the terminal stops the first timer in advance.

[00160] The first information may further include a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the tag corresponding to the information block included in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to at least one terminal device.

[00161] In particular, the third information field can be used to indicate the index number of the terminal device corresponding to the information block included in the first information, and the location in the first information of the information block corresponding to each terminal device is determined based on the index number of each terminal device.

[00162] At least one terminal may be part of N terminals; and/or the number of at least one terminal may be less than or equal to the number of information blocks that may be carried in the first information, and the number of information blocks that may be carried in the first information may be less than or equal to N, where N are terminal devices perform discovery on the same first channel.

[00163] In another implementation, the communication device may be a terminal device. The transceiver unit 1401 is configured to receive the first channel at one or more times from the network device, where the first channel carries the first information, and the first information includes one or more information blocks, where each information block corresponds to one terminal device, each information block corresponds to to a different terminal device, each information block includes one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device corresponding to the information block in which the set of first information fields is located; and if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields included in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields included in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent to at least two different points in time are different. The processing unit 1402 is configured to determine, based on the first information received by the transceiver unit 1401, information about the detection performed by the processing unit with respect to the second channel.

[00164] Each information block may further include a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate the type of the set of first information fields.

[00165] For example, the number of bits in each set of first information fields may be the same, or the number of bits in each information block may be the same.

[00166] When the first information field set is of type 1, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel within one or more discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles after the time at which the first is detected. channel.

[00167] When the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the tag stops acquiring for the second channel within a time period, or whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance.

[00168] When the first information field set is of type 3, the first information field set may be used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the point in time at which the first channel is detected, or the terminal stops the first timer in advance.

[00169] The first information may further include a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal device corresponding to the information block included in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to the terminal device.

[00170] In particular, the third information field can be used to indicate the index number of the terminal device corresponding to the information block included in the first information, and the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to each terminal device is determined based on the index number of each terminal device. .

[00171] The division into modules in the embodiments of the present application is an example, is only a logical functional division, and may be another division in the actual implementation. In addition, functional modules in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processor or may exist separately physically, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module. An integrated module may be implemented in hardware or may be implemented in a software function module.

[00172] When the integrated module can be implemented in hardware, the communication device can be shown in FIG. 15, and the processing unit 1402 may be a processor 1502. The processor 1502 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a digital processing unit, or the like. Send block 1401 may be a communication interface 1501 . Communication interface 1501 may be a transceiver, may be an interface circuit such as a transceiver circuit, may be a transceiver chip, or the like. The communications device further includes a memory 1503 configured to store a program to be executed by the processor 1502. The memory 1503 may be non-volatile memory such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (solid-state drive). SSD), or it can be volatile memory, such as random-access memory (RAM). Memory 1503 is any other medium that can be adapted to carry or store expected program code in the form of an instruction or data structure and that can be accessed by, but not limited to, a computer.

[00173] The processor 1502 is configured to execute the program code stored in the memory 1503, and in particular is configured to perform the action of the processing unit 1402. The details are no longer described in this application.

[00174] In this embodiment of the present application, there is no restriction on the specific communication medium between the communication interface 1501, the processor 1502, and the memory 1503. In this embodiment of the present application, the memory 1503, the processor 1502, and the communication interface 1501 are connected via the bus 1504 in FIG. 15 which tire is represented by the bold line in FIG. 15. The connection method between other components is schematically described and is not limited in this document. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of presentation, only one thick line is used to represent the tire in FIG. 15, but this does not mean that there is only one tire or only one type of tire.

[00175] One skilled in the art would understand that embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Therefore, the present application may take the form of hardware-only embodiments, software-only embodiments, or combination of software and hardware embodiments. Moreover, the present application may take the form of a computer program product that is embodied in one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk memory, CD-ROM, optical memory, and the like) that include computer program code.

[00176] The present application has been described with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams of a method, apparatus (system), and computer program product in accordance with embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that computer program instructions may be used to implement each process and/or each block in flowcharts and/or block diagrams, as well as process and/or block combinations in flowcharts and/or block diagrams. Computer program instructions may be provided to a general purpose computer, a specialized computer, an embedded processor, or the processor of any other programmable data processing device to create a machine, so that the instructions executable by the computer or the processor of any other programmable data processing device create a device to implement a specific function in one or multiple processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the flowcharts.

[00177] Computer program instructions may be stored in computer readable memory, which may cause the computer or other programmable processing device to operate in a certain way, such that the instructions stored in computer readable memory generate an artifact that includes the instruction engine. The instruction engine implements a particular function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the flowcharts.

[00178] Computer program instructions may be loaded into a computer or other programmable processing device such that a series of operations and steps are performed on the computer or other programmable device, thereby generating computer processing. Therefore, instructions executable on a computer or other programmable device provide a step for implementing a particular function in one or more processes in a flowchart and/or in one or more blocks in a flowchart.

[00179] It is understood that various modifications and changes can be made to the embodiments of the present application by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. The present application is intended to cover these modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application, provided that they fall within the scope of protection defined by the following claims and equivalent technologies.

Claims (49)

1. Method of communication, comprising stages, which are: determine one or more points in time at which the first channel is sent; And sending the first channel at one or more time points to at least one terminal device, wherein the first channel carries the first information, and the first information contains one or more information blocks, each information block corresponding to one of at least one terminal device, each the information block corresponds to a different terminal device, each information block contains one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device corresponding to the information block in which the set of first information fields is located; And if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields contained in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields contained in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal device and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent to at least two different points in time are different. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein each information block further comprises a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate a type of set of first information fields. 3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the number of bits in each set of first information fields is the same, or the number of bits in each information block is the same. 4. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, wherein when the first information field set is of type 1, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel within one or more Discontinuous Receive (DRX) cycles after the time in which the first channel is found. 5. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, wherein when the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the tag stops detecting for the second channel within a period of time, or whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance. 6. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, wherein when the first information field set is of type 3, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the point in time at which the first channel is detected, or whether the terminal stops the first timer in advance. 7. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-6, wherein the first information further comprises a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal corresponding to the information block contained in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to at least one terminal device. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the third information field is used to indicate the index number of the terminal device corresponding to the information block contained in the first information, and the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to each terminal device is determined based on the index number each end device. 9. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-8, wherein at least one terminal is part of N terminals; and/or the number of at least one terminal device is less than or equal to the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information, and the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information is less than or equal to N, while N terminal devices perform detection for the same first channel. 10. A communication method, comprising the steps of: receive a first channel at one or more times from a network device, wherein the first channel carries the first information, and the first information contains one or more information blocks, each information block corresponds to one terminal device, each information block corresponds to a different terminal device, each information block the block contains one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal corresponding to the information block in which the set of first information fields is located; And if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields contained in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields contained in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal device and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent to at least two different points in time are different; And determining, based on the first information, information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein each information block further comprises a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate a type of set of first information fields. 12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the number of bits in each set of first information fields is the same, or the number of bits in each information block is the same. 13. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 10-12, wherein when the first information field set is of type 1, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel within one or more discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles after the time point in which is the first channel detected. 14. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 10-12, wherein when the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the tag stops detecting for the second channel within a period of time, or whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance. 15. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 10-12, wherein when the first information field set is of type 3, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the time at which the first channel is detected, or whether the terminal stops the first timer in advance. 16. The method according to any one of paragraphs. 10-15, wherein the first information further comprises a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal device corresponding to the information block contained in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to the terminal device. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the third information field is used to indicate the index number of the terminal device corresponding to the information block contained in the first information, and the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to each terminal device is determined based on the index number each end device. 18. Communication device, containing: a processing unit configured to determine one or more times at which the first channel is sent; And transceiver unit configured to send to at least one terminal device the first channel at one or more times determined by the processing unit, the first channel carries the first information, and the first information contains one or more information blocks, each information block corresponds to one of at least one terminal device, each information block corresponds to a different terminal device, each information block contains one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device corresponding to the information block , in which the set of the first information fields is located; And if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields contained in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields contained in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal device and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent to at least two different points in time are different. 19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein each information block further comprises a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate the type of set of first information fields. 20. The device according to claim 18 or 19, wherein the number of bits in each set of first information fields is the same or the number of bits in each information block is the same. 21. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 18-20, wherein when the first information field set is type 1, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs acquisition on the second channel within one or more discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles after the time point in which is the first channel detected. 22. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 18-20, wherein when the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the tag stops detecting for the second channel within a period of time or whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance. 23. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 18-20, wherein when the first information field set is type 3, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs detection on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the time at which the first channel is detected, or whether the terminal stops the first timer in advance. 24. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 18-23, wherein the first information further comprises a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal corresponding to the information block contained in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to at least one terminal device. 25. The device according to claim 24, wherein the third information field is used to indicate the index number of the terminal device corresponding to the information block contained in the first information, and the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to each terminal device is determined based on the index number each end device. 26. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 18-25, wherein at least one terminal is part of N terminals; and/or the number of at least one terminal device is less than or equal to the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information, and the number of information blocks that can be carried in the first information is less than or equal to N, while N terminal devices perform detection for the same first channel. 27. Communication device, containing: a transceiver unit configured to receive a first channel at one or more times from a network device, wherein the first channel carries the first information, and the first information contains one or more information blocks, each information block corresponds to one terminal device, each information block corresponds to to a different terminal device, each information block contains one set of first information fields, and the set of first information fields is used to indicate information about the discovery performed on the second channel by the terminal device corresponding to the information block in which the set of first information fields is located; And if said one or more information blocks are two or more information blocks, the types of sets of first information fields contained in at least two information blocks in the same first information are different; and/or if said one or more points in time are two or more points in time, the types of sets of first information fields contained in information blocks that correspond to the same terminal device and which are in the first information carried on the first channels sent to at least two different points in time are different; And a processing unit configured to determine, based on the first information received by the transceiver unit, detection information performed by the processing unit with respect to the second channel. 28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein each information block further comprises a second information field, and the second information field is used to indicate the type of set of first information fields. 29. The device according to claim 27 or 28, wherein the number of bits in each set of first information fields is the same, or the number of bits in each information block is the same. 30. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 27-29, wherein when the first information field set is of type 1, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs acquisition on the second channel within one or more discontinuous reception (DRX) cycles after the time point in which is the first channel detected. 31. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 27-29, wherein when the first information field set is type 2, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the tag stops detecting for the second channel within a period of time or whether the tag stops at least one timer in advance. 32. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 27-29, wherein when the first information field set is of type 3, the first information field set is used to indicate whether the terminal performs discovery on the second channel in the DRX cycle including the time at which the first channel is detected, or whether the terminal stops the first timer in advance. 33. The device according to any one of paragraphs. 27-32, wherein the first information further comprises a third information field, and the third information field is used to indicate the terminal device corresponding to the information block contained in the first information and/or the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to the terminal device. 34. The device according to claim 33, wherein the third information field is used to indicate the index number of the terminal device corresponding to the information block contained in the first information, and the location, in the first information, of the information block corresponding to each terminal device is determined based on the index number each end device. 35. A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed by a computer, instruct the computer to perform the method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-9. 36. A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed by a computer, instruct the computer to perform the method according to any one of paragraphs. 10-17. 37. A communication device comprising a processor and a storage medium storing instructions for execution by the processor, so that when the instructions are executed, the processor is configured to cause the device to perform the method according to any one of paragraphs. 1-9. 38. A communication device comprising a processor and a storage medium storing instructions for execution by the processor, so that when the instructions are executed, the processor is configured to cause the device to perform the method according to any one of paragraphs. 10-17.

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