RU2810994C1 - Network icon display method and terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: electronic technology.

SUBSTANCE: invention provides a method for informing a user about the status of a network in a wireless communication system. The technical result of the invention is to reduce the number of switches of the 5G network icon to match the actual network status of the terminal, thereby improving the user experience. For this purpose, a group of secondary cells of the New Radio NR SCG standard is added to the terminal after the terminal registers in the first cell for the first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard cell. The 5G network icon is displayed when the New Radio Secondary Cell Group (NR SCG) is installed after registration in the first cell, and the 5G network icon continues to be displayed after the NR SCG is removed. If the NR SCG is not installed after registration in the first cell, the 4G network icon is displayed.

EFFECT: reducing the number of switches of the 5G network icon to match the actual network status of the terminal, thereby improving the user experience.

32 cl, 22 dwg, 2 tbl

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of electronic technology and, in particular, to a network icon display method and a terminal.

BACKGROUND OF THE ART

[0002] With the development of mobile communication technologies, 5th generation (5G) mobile communication technology has become the main trend of modern mobile communications. At the initial stage of the 5G network, non-standalone (NSA) network mode is mainly used to build the network. NSA network mode uses the 4th generation mobile communications technology (4G) network and the 5G network. How to display the 5G network icon and 4G network icon on the side of a terminal such as a mobile phone is currently a pressing issue in NSA networking research.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0003] Embodiments of the present application provide a network icon display method and a terminal, so that the display of a 5G network icon can be more consistent with the actual network status of the terminal, the number of network icon switches can be reduced, and the quality of user experience can be improved.

[0004] To achieve the above objectives, embodiments of the present application use the following technical solutions.

[0005] According to one aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for displaying a network icon. The method can be applied to a terminal. A New Radio Secondary Cell Group (NR SCG) is added to a terminal after the terminal first registers with the first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell. The method includes: The terminal registers with the first cell for the second time, and the interval between the time of registration with the first cell for the second time and the time of registration with the first cell for the first time is less than or equal to a predetermined duration T. A 5G network icon is displayed on the terminal. .

[0006] In this solution, since the network environment of the first cell is stable for a short period of time and cannot easily change much, if the terminal registers with the first cell again within a predetermined duration T after the network side adds an NR SCG for the terminal, that is, the terminal establishes dual connectivity, the terminal in the first cell can still have NR base station signal coverage, have dual connectivity capability, and be able to use the 5G network. When the terminal processes the service, the terminal has the conditions to use the 5G network to process the service through dual connection, so that the terminal interface can display the 5G network icon. Unlike the CONFIG D solution, in which the user is not actually using the 5G network when the 5G network icon is displayed, in this solution, the 5G network icon can quite match the 5G network capabilities of the terminal in the first cell, so that the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately.

[0007] Optionally, if an NR SCG has not been added for a terminal in the first cell during a previous predetermined duration T, for example, the interval between the time at which the terminal registers with the first cell for the second time and the time at which the terminal registers in the first cell for the first time, exceeds a predetermined duration T, or an NR SCG has not been previously added for the terminal in the first cell, the method further includes: The terminal enters a connected state. The terminal displays the 5G network icon if NR SCG is added. The terminal continues to display the 5G network icon after removing the NR SCG. Alternatively, the terminal displays the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not added.

[0008] In this solution, if the terminal determines that the NR SCG has not been added to the first cell within the previous predetermined duration T, that is, dual connection has not been established, the terminal cannot directly display the 5G network icon. Then, after the terminal enters the connected state, the terminal determines, based on whether the NR SCG is added by the network side for the terminal, that is, whether the terminal establishes a dual connection, whether to display a 5G network icon or a 4G network icon.

[0009] In another possible implementation, after adding an NR SCG for a terminal in the first cell, the terminal stores the ID of the first cell in the white list and starts a timer corresponding to the first cell. After the timer corresponding to the first cell exceeds a predetermined duration T, the terminal removes the first cell ID from the white list.

[0010] In yet another possible embodiment, if an NR SCG has not been added for a terminal in the first cell during a previous predetermined duration T, for example, the interval between the registration time in the first cell for the second time and the registration time in the first cell for the first time times the predetermined duration T, or the NR SCG has not been previously added for the terminal in the first cell, the method further includes: The terminal enters an idle state. The terminal displays the 5G network icon if the first cell supports non-standalone (NSA) network mode. Alternatively, the terminal displays the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode.

[0011] In this solution, if the NR SCG has not been added to the terminal in the first cell within the previous predetermined duration T, that is, dual connection has not been established, the terminal cannot directly display the 5G network icon. Then, after the terminal enters the idle state, the terminal determines, based on whether the first NSA cell supports the network mode, whether to display a 5G network icon or a 4G network icon.

[0012] In addition, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for displaying a network icon. The method can be applied to a terminal. A New Radio Secondary Cell Group (NR SCG) is added to a terminal after the terminal first registers with the first cell, and the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell. The method includes: The terminal registers with the first cell a second time. The terminal displays the 5G network icon.

[0013] In this solution, after the network side adds an NR SCG for the terminal, that is, after the terminal establishes a dual connection, if the terminal registers in the first cell again, the terminal in the first cell can still have the signal coverage area of the base NR stations, have dual connectivity and be able to use the 5G network. When the terminal processes the service, the terminal has the conditions to use the 5G network to process the service through dual connection, so that the terminal interface can display the 5G network icon. In this solution, the 5G network icon can closely match the 5G network capabilities of the terminal in the first cell, so the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately.

[0014] In addition, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for displaying a network icon, including: A terminal registers in a first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell. The terminal displays the 5G network icon if NR SCG is added. The terminal continues to display the 5G network icon after removing the NR SCG. In addition, the terminal displays the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not added.

[0015] In this solution, after the terminal registers in the first cell, when the network side does not add NR SCG for the terminal, that is, the terminal does not establish dual connection, the terminal in the first cell may not have the signal coverage of the NR base station, dual connection capability and use 5G network, so the terminal displays the 4G network icon. When the network side adds NR SCG for the terminal, that is, the terminal establishes dual connection, it may indicate that the terminal has NR base station signal coverage, dual connection capability, and 5G network capability, so that the terminal can constantly display the 5G network icon. when the terminal does not leave the first cell, that is, it is permanently registered in the first cell (or attached to it).

[0016] In an exemplary embodiment, the terminal continues to display a 5G network icon after removing the NR SCG added by the network side for the terminal includes: After removing the NR SCG added by the network side for the terminal, the terminal enters the connected state or the state waiting and continues to display the 5G network icon.

[0017] More specifically, after the terminal breaks the dual connection, as long as the terminal does not leave the first cell and is still attached to the first cell, the terminal may continue to display the 5G icon regardless of whether the terminal enters the connected state or the idle state.

[0018] In addition, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for displaying a network icon, including: A terminal registers in a first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell. After the terminal initiates the first service and enters the connected state, the terminal displays the 5G network icon if the first cell supports NSA network mode; or the terminal displays the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode. Alternatively, after the terminal initiates the second service and enters the connected state, the terminal displays the 5G network icon if NR SCG is added; or the terminal displays the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not added.

[0019] For example, the first service includes an Attachment service, a tracking area update (TAU) service, an SMS service, or an MMS service.

[0020] In this solution, after the terminal initiates the connected state through the second service, if the terminal establishes a dual connection, the terminal interface displays a 5G network icon; and if the terminal interface displays the 5G network icon, it may indicate that when processing the second service, the terminal is establishing a dual connection and using the 5G network. Therefore, there is no case where the user is not actually using the 5G network when the 5G network icon is displayed, and the quality of the user experience is good. The 5G network icon may be quite consistent with the 5G network capabilities of the first cell, so the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately, which is more consistent with the actual network status of the terminal.

[0021] Optionally, after the terminal registers with the first cell, the method further includes: The terminal enters an idle state. The terminal displays the 5G network icon if the first cell supports NSA network mode. Alternatively, the terminal displays the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode.

[0022] Since the probability that the first cell supports NSA network mode is high, the probability that the terminal displays the 5G network icon in the idle state is also high. For the first service, if the 5G network icon is also displayed after dual connection is established in the connected state, and the 4G network icon is displayed when dual connection is not established, then after the first service triggers the terminal to enter the connected state, the terminal displays the 4G network icon because the dual connection is not established and the terminal goes back to the idle state after quickly completing the first service. If the terminal determines that the first cell supports NSA network mode, the terminal displays the 5G network icon again, so that the terminal frequently switches between the 5G network icon and the 4G network icon. In this solution, the case where the terminal frequently switches between the first icon and the second icon can be avoided.

[0023] In addition, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for displaying a network icon, including: A terminal registers in a first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell. The terminal enters the connected state. The terminal displays the 5G network icon if the terminal detects an NR signal. Alternatively, the terminal displays a 4G network icon if the terminal does not detect an NR signal.

[0024] Unlike the CONFIG D solution, in which the user is not actually using the 5G network when the 5G network icon is displayed, in this solution, if the terminal detects the NR signal when the terminal is processing the service in the connected state, it indicates that the area in which the terminal is located has NR signal coverage and the terminal has 5G connectivity, can use the 5G network and therefore can display the 5G network icon. In this solution, the 5G network icon can closely match the 5G network capability of the terminal in the first cell, so that the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately, which is more consistent with the actual network status of the terminal.

[0025] Optionally, after the terminal registers with the first cell, the method further includes: The terminal enters an idle state. The terminal displays the 5G network icon if the first cell supports NSA network mode. Alternatively, the terminal displays the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode.

[0026] In this solution, after the terminal registers with the first cell, if the terminal enters the idle state, the terminal can determine, based on whether the first NSA cell supports the network mode, whether to display a 5G network icon or a 4G network icon.

[0027] In addition, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal. A New Radio Secondary Cell Group (NR SCG) is added to a terminal after the terminal first registers with the first cell, and the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell. The terminal includes: a screen configured to display a network icon; one or more processors; memory; and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in memory, the one or more computer programs contain instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the terminal, causing the terminal to perform the following steps: registering with the first cell a second time, where the interval between the time registration in the first cell for the second time and the time point of registration in the first cell for the first time is less than or equal to a predetermined duration T; and display the 5G network icon.

[0028] In a possible embodiment, if the NR SCG has not been added to the first cell during the previous predetermined duration T, for example, the interval between the registration time in the first cell for the second time and the registration time in the first cell for the first time is greater than a predetermined duration T, or the NR SCG has not previously been added to the first cell, when instructions are executed by the terminal, it is further ensured that the terminal performs the following steps: entering a connected state; and displaying the 5G network icon if NR SCG is added; and displaying 5G network icon after removing NR SCG; or display the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not added.

[0029] In another possible embodiment, if the NR SCG has not been added to the first cell during the previous predetermined duration T, for example, the interval between the registration time in the first cell for the second time and the registration time in the first cell for the first time is longer, than a predetermined duration T, or the NR SCG has not previously been added to the first cell, when instructions are executed by the terminal, it is further ensured that the terminal performs the following steps: entering the idle state; and displaying a 5G network icon if the first cell supports non-standalone (NSA) network mode; or displaying the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode.

[0030] In addition, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal. A New Radio NR SCG standard secondary cell group is added to a terminal after the terminal first registers with the first cell, and the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard cell. The terminal includes: a screen configured to display a network icon; one or more processors; memory; and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in a memory, the one or more computer programs contain instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the terminal, causing the terminal to perform the following steps: registering with the first cell for a second time; and display the 5G network icon.

[0031] In addition, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal including: a screen configured to display a network icon; one or more processors; memory; and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in memory, the one or more computer programs contain instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the terminal, causing the terminal to perform the following steps: registering with a first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term cell development (LTE); and displaying the 5G network icon if NR SCG is added; and displaying 5G network icon after removing NR SCG; or display the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not added.

[0032] In an exemplary embodiment, displaying a 5G network icon after deleting the NR SCG includes: upon deleting the NR SCG, entering a connected state or an idle state and displaying the 5G network icon.

[0033] According to another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal including: a screen configured to display a network icon; one or more processors; memory; and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in memory, the one or more computer programs contain instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the terminal, causing the terminal to perform the following steps: registering with a first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term cell development (LTE); and after initiating the first service and entering the connected state, displaying a 5G network icon if the first cell supports NSA network mode; or displaying the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode; or after starting the second service and entering the connected state, displaying the 5G network icon if NR SCG is added; or display the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not added.

[0034] For example, the first service includes an Attachment service, a Tracking Area Update (TAU) service, an SMS service, or an MMS service.

[0035] In an exemplary embodiment, when the instructions are executed by the terminal, the terminal is further caused to perform the following steps: entering the idle state after registering with the first cell; and displaying the 5G network icon if the first cell supports NSA network mode; or displaying the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode.

[0036] According to another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal including: a screen configured to display a network icon; one or more processors; memory; and one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in memory, the one or more computer programs contain instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the terminal, causing the terminal to perform the following steps: registering with a first cell, where the first cell is a Long Term cell development (LTE); entering connected state; and display 5G network icon when NR signal is detected; or display the 4G network icon when no NR signal is detected.

[0037] In an exemplary embodiment, when the instructions are executed by the terminal, the terminal is further caused to perform the following steps: entering the idle state after registering with the first cell; and displaying the 5G network icon if the first cell supports NSA network mode; or displaying the 4G network icon if the first cell does not support NSA network mode.

[0038] According to another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides equipment for displaying icons. The equipment is included in the terminal. The equipment has functions of implementing the operation of the terminal according to a method in accordance with any of the above aspects and possible designs, so that the terminal executes a network icon display method in accordance with any of the above aspects and possible implementations. The functions may be implemented in hardware or may be implemented by corresponding software executed by the hardware. The hardware or software includes at least one module or unit corresponding to the above functions. For example, the equipment may include a recording module or unit, a display module or unit, or a processing module or unit.

[0039] According to another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal including one or more processors and memory. The memory stores the code. When the code is executed by the terminal, the terminal is caused to implement a network icon display method executed by the terminal in accordance with any of the above aspects and possible implementations.

[0040] In accordance with yet another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium including computer instructions. When computer instructions are executed on the terminal, the terminal executes a method for displaying a network icon in accordance with any of the previous aspects and possible embodiments.

[0041] In accordance with yet another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product. When the computer program product is executed on a computer, the computer is allowed to implement a network icon display method performed by a terminal in accordance with any of the above aspects and possible embodiments.

[0042] In accordance with yet another aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a system of chips. The chip system is applied to the terminal. The chip system includes one or more interface circuits and one or more processors. The interface circuit is connected to the processor via a line. The interface circuit is configured to: receive a signal from the terminal memory and send the signal to the processor, where the signal includes computer instructions stored in the memory. When the processor executes computer instructions, the terminal executes a method for displaying a network icon in accordance with any of the foregoing aspects and possible designs.

[0043] For beneficial effects corresponding to other aspects, reference should be made to the descriptions of the beneficial effects of the mentioned method. The details are not repeated here.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0044] FIG. 1A(a), FIG. 1A(b), and FIG. 1A(c) is a schematic representation of a group of NSA network architectures according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0045] FIG. 1B(a), FIG. 1B(b), and FIG. 1B(c) are a schematic diagram of another group of NSA network architectures according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0046] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication system architecture in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0047] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a hardware structure of a terminal in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0048] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a terminal software structure according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0049] FIG. 5A is a flowchart of a network icon display method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] FIG. 5B(a) and FIG. 5B(b) is a schematic diagram of a group of scenarios for establishing and tearing down a dual connection according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] FIG. 5C is a flowchart of another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] FIG. 6 is a flowchart of yet another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of yet another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] FIG. 8 is a flowchart of another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] FIG. 9 is a flowchart of another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0056] FIG. 10 is a flowchart of another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] FIG. 11 is a flowchart of yet another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] FIG. 12 is a flowchart of another method for displaying a network icon in accordance with an embodiment of the present application; And

[0059] FIG. 13(a) and FIG. 13(b) are a schematic diagram of a group of interfaces for displaying network icons on a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present application.

DESCRIPTION OF IMPLEMENTATION OPTIONS

[0060] The following describes technical solutions according to embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings in embodiments of the present application. In the descriptions of embodiments of this application, “/” means “or” unless otherwise indicated. For example, A/B can represent “A or B.” As used herein, "and/or" is simply an associative relationship to describe related objects and may indicate that three relationships may exist. For example, “A and/or B” may indicate the following three cases: Only A exists, both A and B exist, and only B exists. Moreover, in the descriptions of embodiments of this application, “multiple” means two or more.

[0061] In the following descriptions, the terms “first” and “second” are used merely for descriptive purposes, but should not be understood as indicating or implying the relative importance or implication of the number of specified technical characteristics. Therefore, the functions limited to "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more functions. In the descriptions of embodiments, “many” means two or more unless otherwise indicated.

[0062] NSA network mode can use existing 4G network facilities to deploy a 5G network. There can be many NSA network modes. For example, refer to Fig. 1A(a) to Fig. 1A(c). In NSA network mode, a 4G base station and a 5G base station (or called a new radio (NR) base station) share a 4G core network. The 4G base station is the primary base station, and the 5G base station is the secondary base station. The control plane signaling reaches the 4G core network through the 4G base station. User plane signaling can reach the 4G core network through a 4G base station or can reach the 4G core network through a 5G base station. For example, a 4G network could be a long term evolution (LTE) network, a 4G base station could be an evolved NodeB, eNB or eNodeB, a 5G base station could be a next generation NodeB (gNB) ), and the 4G core network may be an evolved packet core (EPC). The NSA network mode in FIG. 1A(a) to FIG. 1A(c) may also be referred to as EN-DC deployment mode.

[0063] For another example, refer to FIGS. 1B(a) to FIGS. 1B(c). In another NSA network mode, the 4G base station and the 5G base station share the 5G core network. The 4G base station is the primary base station, and the 5G base station is the secondary base station. The control plane signaling reaches the 5G core network through the 4G base station. User plane signaling can reach the 5G core network through a 4G base station or can reach the 5G core network through a 5G base station. For example, the 5G core network may be the Next Generation Core (NGC).

[0064] Since the NSA network includes both 4G and 5G network standards, the terminal in NSA network mode switches and displays the 4G network icon and the 5G network icon. Currently, there are many types of 5G network icon display solutions from different operators, and the 5G network icon display solutions change frequently and there is no single display solution. See Table 1. The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) has submitted four solutions, i.e., CONFIG A/B/C/D, for displaying the 5G network icon by the terminal for the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP).

Table 1 Status CONFIG A CONFIG B CONFIG C CONFIG D The terminal is in the idle state or connected to an LTE cell 4G 4G 4G 4G and LTE cell does not support NSA network mode The terminal is in the idle state or in the connected state of an LTE cell, the LTE cell supports NSA network mode, and the signal coverage of the NR base station is not detected 4G 4G 4G 5G The terminal is in the connected state of an LTE cell, the LTE cell supports NSA network mode, and the signal coverage of the NR base station is detected 4G 4G 5G 5G The terminal is in the LTE cell waiting state, the LTE cell supports NSA network mode, and the signal coverage of the NR base station is detected 4G 5G 5G 5G The terminal establishes LTE+NR dual connection in LTE cell, and LTE cell supports NSA network mode 5G 5G 5G 5G The terminal is in idle state or connected to a 5G access network and is accessing the 5G core network 5G 5G 5G 5G

[0065] In the 5G network icon display solution shown in Table 1, CONFIG B/C requires the terminal to detect in real time whether the terminal has the signal coverage of the NR base station, and therefore the power consumption of the terminal is high. Most terminal manufacturers choose the CONFIG A/D display solution.

[0066] In CONFIG A, the 5G network icon is displayed only when the terminal is attached to an LTE cell and establishes dual LTE+NR (dual connectivity), and otherwise the 5G network icon is not displayed. LTE+NR dual connectivity refers to an operation in which a terminal in a connected state communicates using radio resources provided by a master node (MN) and a secondary node (SN), and the master node and secondary node respectively use LTE radio access technologies and NR.

[0067] In the LTE+NR dual connection state, the terminal corresponds to a master cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG). The primary cell group includes an LTE cell accessed by the terminal, and the secondary cell group includes an NR cell. Since the dual LTE+NR connection may be established and interrupted frequently between the terminal and the network, the 5G network icon and 4G network icon displayed by the terminal may switch frequently, resulting in a degraded user experience.

[0068] In CONFIG D, the 5G network icon is displayed when the terminal is in an LTE cell and the LTE cell supports NSA network mode. Thus, when the user actually uses the terminal to process the service, a scenario may arise in which the terminal displays the 5G network icon but does not actually have an NR connection, that is, the user is not actually using the 5G network, which can easily be misunderstood by the user.

[0069] Embodiments of the present application provide several solutions for displaying network icons, so that the display of the 5G network icon can be more consistent with the actual network status of the terminal, the user's understanding of the 5G network icon can be improved, the number of times the network icon switches can be reduced, and the quality user experience can be enhanced.

[0070] The network icon display solutions provided in embodiments of the present application may optimize the CONFIG A solution or the CONFIG D solution so that the 5G network icon display is more consistent with the actual network status and more consistent with the user's understanding and cognitive habit.

[0071] As shown in FIG. 2, the network icon display solution provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to the communication system 10.

[0072] The communication system 10 is a network system formed by the first mobile communication network 101 and the second mobile communication network 102 through offline network operation. The first mobile network 101 and the second mobile network 102 belong to different network standards. For example, the first mobile network may be a 4G network and the second mobile network may be a 5G network. Alternatively, the first mobile network may be a 5G network and the second mobile network may be a future 6G network. Alternatively, both the first mobile communication network and the second mobile communication network are different future communication networks. The specific types of the first mobile communication network and the second mobile communication network are not limited in this embodiment of this application. When the first mobile communication network is a 4G network and the second mobile communication network is a 5G network, reference may be made to FIG. 1A(a) to FIG. 1A(c) or FIG. 1B(a) to FIG. 1B for the communication system architecture. (With).

[0073] The communication system 10 includes a first network access device 11 in a first mobile communication network 101, a second network access device 12 in a second mobile communication network 102, a terminal 13, and a core network 14. The core network 14 may include a plurality of network elements or many network devices. The terminal 13 may establish a communication connection (eg, a radio resource control (RRC) connection) with the first network access device 11 to access the first mobile communication network 101 . Alternatively, the terminal 13 may establish a mobile communication connection with each of the first network access device 11 and the second network access device 12 to establish a dual connection such that the terminal 13 accesses the first mobile communication network 101 and the second mobile communication network 102 .

[0074] The network access device in this embodiment of the present application is a device that connects a terminal to a wireless network, and may be an eNB or eNodeB in an LTE network, a gNB in a 5G network, a base station in a future enhanced public land mobile network ( public land mobile network (PLMN), broadband network gateway (BNG), aggregation switch, non-3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) access device, etc. This is not is specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application. Additionally, the base stations in this embodiment of the present application may include various forms of base stations, for example, a macro station, a micro base station (also called a small station), a relay station, an access point, and the like. This is not particularly limited in this embodiment of this application.

[0075] It should be noted that the network access devices (eg, the first network access device and the second network access device) in different mobile communication networks may be of different types. For example, when the first mobile network is a 4G network, the first network access device may be an eNB. When the second mobile network is a 5G network, the second network access device may be a gNB.

[0076] The terminal in this embodiment of the present application may be a device configured to implement a wireless communication function, for example, may be a terminal device or a chip that may be used in the terminal device. The terminal may be a user equipment (UE), an access terminal, a terminal unit, a terminal station, a mobile station, a mobile console, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a wireless communication device, a terminal agent, a terminal device, and the like. in a 4G network, in a 5G network or in a future enhanced PLMN. The access terminal may be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) telephone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL), a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a portable device with wireless communication device, computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem processor, automotive device or wearable device, virtual reality (VR) terminal, augmented reality (AR) terminal, wireless terminal in industrial control , wireless terminal in self-driving, wireless terminal in remote medical care, wireless terminal in smart grid, wireless terminal in transportation safety, wireless terminal in smart city , wireless terminal in a smart home, etc. The terminal can be mobile or stationary.

[0077] Optionally, a network access device and terminal may also be referred to as a communications device and may be a general purpose device or a specialized device. This is not particularly limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0078] In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal can display a network icon based on the network status of the mobile communication network currently being accessed, so that the display of the network icon is more consistent with the actual network status, the user's understanding of the network icon is improved , the number of network icon switches has decreased, and the quality of user interaction has improved. The network icon may be a network icon of a first mobile network or a network icon of a second mobile network. The network status may include whether the cell of the first mobile communication network accessed by the terminal supports online network operation, whether the terminal is currently in an idle or connected state, whether the terminal is establishing a dual connection, or detecting terminal signal coverage of the second mobile network.

[0079] As an example, FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of the design of a terminal 100. The terminal 100 may include a processor 110, an external memory interface 120, an internal memory 121, a universal serial bus (USB) port 130, a control module 140 charging, power management module 141, battery 142, antenna 1, antenna 2, mobile communication module 150, wireless module 160, audio module 170, speaker 170A, receiver 170V, microphone 170C, headset jack 170D, sensor module 180, button 190 , motor 191, indicator 192, camera 193, display 194, subscriber identification module (SIM) card interface 195, etc. Sensor module 180 may include pressure sensor 180A, gyroscopic sensor 180B, atmospheric pressure sensor 180C , magnetic sensor 180D, acceleration sensor 180E, distance sensor 180F, optical proximity sensor 180G, fingerprint sensor 180H, temperature sensor 180J, touch sensor 180K, ambient light sensor 180L, bone conduction sensor 180M, etc.

[0080] Internal memory 121 may be configured to store computer executable program code, where the executable program code includes instructions. The processor 110 performs various functional applications of the electronic device 100 and data processing by executing instructions stored in the internal memory 121.

[0081] The mobile communication module 150 may provide a wireless communication solution that includes 2G/3G/4G/5G or the like and which is applied to the terminal 100. The mobile communication module 150 may include at least one filter , a switch, a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier (LNA), and the like. The mobile communication unit 150 can receive an electromagnetic wave through the antenna 1, perform processing such as filtering and amplifying the received electromagnetic wave, and transmit the processed electromagnetic wave to modem processor for demodulation. The mobile communication module 150 may further amplify the signal modulated by the modem processor and convert the signal into an electromagnetic wave for radiation through antenna 1. In some embodiments, at least some of the functional modules of the mobile communication module 150 may be located in the processor 110. In some embodiments, at least some of the functional modules of the mobile communication module 150 may be located in the processor 110. In embodiments, at least some functional modules of the mobile communication module 150 may be located in the same device as at least some modules of the processor 110.

[0082] The modem processor may include a modulator and a demodulator. The modulator is configured to modulate a low frequency baseband signal to be transmitted into a mid-high frequency signal. The demodulator is configured to demodulate the received electromagnetic wave signal into a low frequency baseband signal. The demodulator then transmits the low-frequency baseband signal obtained by demodulation to the baseband processor for processing. The low frequency baseband signal is processed by the baseband processor and then transmitted to the application processor. The application processor outputs an audio signal through a terminal (which is not limited to speaker 170A, 170V receiver, etc.) or displays an image or video through display 194. In some embodiments, the modem processor may be an independent device. In some other embodiments, the modem processor may be independent of the processor 110 and located in the same device as the mobile communication module 150 or other functional module.

[0083] For example, in this embodiment of the present application, the modem processor may obtain the network status of the mobile communication network of the terminal 100 and report the network status to the controller. For example, the network status may include whether the cell of the first mobile network accessed by the terminal supports online network operation, whether the terminal is currently in an idle or connected state, whether the terminal is establishing a dual connection, or detecting whether the terminal has signal coverage of a second mobile network.

[0084] The terminal 100 implements the display function through a graphics processing unit (GPU), display 194, application processor, or the like. The GPU is an image processing microprocessor and interfaces with the display 194 and the application processor. The GPU is configured to perform mathematical and geometric calculations and render graphics. Processor 110 may include one or more GPUs that execute software instructions to create or modify display information.

[0085] The display 194 is configured to display an image, video, or the like. The display 194 includes a display panel. The display panel may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), organic light-emitting diode (OLED), active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED), flexible LED light-emitting diode (FLED), mini-LED, micro-LED, micro-OLED, quantum dot light emitting diode (QLED), etc. In some embodiments, terminal 100 may include one or N displays 194, where N is a positive integer greater than 1. For example, in this embodiment of the present application, display 194 may display a network icon, such as a 5G network icon or a 4G network icon.

[0086] The SIM card interface 195 is configured to connect to a SIM card. The SIM card may be inserted into or removed from the SIM card interface 195 to contact or be separated from the terminal 100. Terminal 100 may support one or N SIM card interfaces, where N is a positive integer greater than 1. SIM card interface 195 may support nano SIM card, micro SIM card, SIM card, etc. Multiple cards can be simultaneously inserted into the same SIM card interface 195. Multiple cards may be of the same type or of different types. Multiple cards may be of the same type or of different types. The SIM card interface 195 may also be compatible with an external memory card. The terminal 100 communicates with the network by using a SIM card to perform functions such as storing and transmitting data. In some embodiments, the terminal 100 uses an eSIM, that is, an embedded SIM card. The eSIM card may be embedded in the terminal 100 and cannot be separated from the terminal 100.

[0087] It may be understood that the structure shown in this embodiment of the present application is not a particular limitation with respect to the terminal 100. In some other embodiments of the present application, the terminal 100 may include more or less components than shown in the figure , or combine some components, or separate some components, or have a different arrangement of components. The components shown in the figure may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0088] In this embodiment of the present application, the modem processor may obtain the network status of the mobile communication network of the terminal 100 and report the received network status to the controller. The controller determines the target network icon based on the current network status of the terminal 100 by executing instructions stored in the internal memory 121 and notifies the display 194 to display the target network icon. The target network icon is a network icon of a first mobile network or a network icon of a second mobile network.

[0089] The software system of the terminal 100 may use a layered architecture, an event-driven architecture, a microkernel architecture, a microservice architecture, or a cloud architecture. In this embodiment of the present application, an Android system with a layered architecture is used as an example to describe the software structure of the terminal 100.

[0090] FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a software structure of a terminal 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. In a layered architecture, software is divided into several layers, and each layer has a clear role and task. The levels interact with each other through a software interface. In some embodiments, the Android system is divided into four layers: the application layer, the application infrastructure layer, the Android runtime, and the system library and kernel layer, from top to bottom. The application layer may include a number of application packages.

[0091] As shown in FIG. 4, application packages may include applications such as Camera, Gallery, Calendar, Phone, Map, Navigation, WLAN, Bluetooth, Music, Video, Messages, and the like.

[0092] The application infrastructure layer provides an application programming interface (API) and programming environment for an application at the application layer. The application infrastructure layer includes some predefined functions.

[0093] As shown in FIG. 4, the application infrastructure layer may include a window manager, a content provider, a browsing system, a phone manager, a resource manager, a notification manager, or a telephony service.

[0094] The Android runtime includes a core library and a virtual machine. The Android runtime is responsible for scheduling and managing the Android system.

[0095] The core library includes two parts: a function to be called in Java and a core Android library.

[0096] The application layer and the application infrastructure layer run on the virtual machine. The virtual machine executes application-layer and application-infrastructure-layer Java files as binary files. The virtual machine is configured to implement features such as object lifecycle management, stack management, thread management, security and exception management, and garbage collection.

[0097] The system library may include a variety of functional modules, for example, a surface manager, a Media Library, a 3D graphics processing library (for example, OpenGL ES) and a 2D graphics engine (for example, SGL).

[0098] The kernel layer is the layer between hardware and software. The kernel layer includes at least a display driver, a camera driver, an audio driver, and a sensor driver. The hardware may include components such as the modem processor and display.

[0099] Next, the operating procedure of the software and hardware of the terminal 100 is described using examples with reference to a network icon display scenario.

[00100] The modem hardware processor may obtain the network status of the mobile communication network of the terminal 100 and report the network status to the telephony service at the application infrastructure layer. The telephony service determines, based on the network status of the terminal 100, whether the target network icon is an icon of a first mobile network or an icon of a second mobile network, and notifies the hardware display 194 to display the target network icon.

[00101] The following specifically describes, using an example, in which, in the communication system shown in FIG. 2, the first mobile communication network is a 4G network, the second mobile communication network is a 5G network, the first network access device is a 4G base station, the second network access device is a 5G NR base station, and the terminal is a mobile phone having the structure shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, the network icon display solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. The network icon displayed on the mobile phone interface may include a 5G network icon or a 4G network icon.

[00102] Solution 1:

[00103] In the technical solution according to Solution 1, after registering the mobile phone in LTE cell 1, if the terminal has previously established a dual connection in LTE cell 1, it may indicate that the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 has the signal coverage area of the NR base station ( that is, has NR signal coverage, has NR cell signal coverage, and the mobile phone can detect the NR signal), has dual connection capability, and has the ability to use 5G network, so that the mobile phone can directly display the 5G icon. If the terminal has not previously established dual connection in LTE cell 1, the terminal performs the following procedure: If the mobile phone enters the idle state (also called inactive state) and LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon. If the mobile phone enters the connected state (also called active state) and the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the mobile phone interface will display the 4G network icon; or if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon, and the mobile phone continues to display the 5G network icon after the dual connection is subsequently interrupted.

[00104] More specifically, after the terminal registers with LTE cell 1, if dual connection is established, the terminal stores the corresponding information of LTE cell 1, for example, stores one or more cell ID, cell frequency, PLMN ID, or NSA network mode support capability of LTE cell 1 .Subsequently, after re-registering in LTE cell 1, the terminal can determine based on the stored historical information that a dual connection has previously been established in the cell to directly display the 5G icon. More specifically, the terminal can directly display the 5G network icon in LTE cell 1 under the condition that the terminal has established a dual connection in LTE cell 1. In this technical solution, after the network side adds an NR SCG for the terminal, that is, after the terminal establishes a dual connection, if the terminal registers in the first cell again, the terminal in the first cell can still have the signal coverage area of the NR base station , have dual connectivity and the ability to use the 5G network. When the terminal processes the service, the terminal has the conditions to use the 5G network to process the service through dual connection, so that the terminal interface can display the 5G network icon. In this solution, the 5G network icon can closely match the 5G network capabilities of the terminal in the first cell, so the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately.

[00105] See Figure 5A. In another technical solution according to Solution 1, after registering in LTE cell 1, the mobile phone determines whether a dual connection has been established in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T. For example, the predetermined duration T may be a duration such as 3 days, 10 days or 15 days.

[00106] See Figure 5A. If the mobile phone, after registering in LTE cell 1, determines that a dual connection has been established in LTE cell 1 during the previous preset duration T, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon.

[00107] See Figure 5A. If the mobile phone, after registering in LTE cell 1, determines that dual connection has not been established in LTE cell 1 within the previous preset duration T, the mobile phone performs the following procedure: If the mobile phone enters the idle state and LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon. If the mobile phone enters the connected state and the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the 4G network icon will be displayed on the mobile phone interface; or if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon, and the mobile phone continues to display the 5G network icon after the dual connection is subsequently interrupted.

[00108] In addition, after the mobile phone registers in the LTE cell 1, if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, for a predetermined duration T after the dual connection is established, if the mobile phone registers again in the LTE cell 1 after leaving the LTE cell 1, the mobile the phone detects that a dual connection has been established in LTE cell 1 during the previous preset duration T, so that the mobile phone directly displays the 5G network icon. If the mobile phone leaves the LTE cell 1 after establishing a dual connection and registers again with the LTE cell 1 after a predetermined duration T has elapsed after establishing a dual connection, the mobile phone determines that a dual connection has not been established in the LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T, so that the mobile phone determines the network icon to be displayed based on the network status, such as whether LTE NSA cell 1 supports network operation or whether the mobile phone subsequently establishes a dual connection.

[00109] For example, the predetermined duration T is 5 days, and the mobile phone establishes a dual connection after registering in LTE cell 1 for the first time. If the time interval between the time when the mobile phone registers in the LTE 1 cell for the first time and the time when the mobile phone registers in the LTE 1 cell for the second time is less than or equal to 5 days, the mobile phone can directly display the 5G network icon after registration in cell 1 LTE for the second time. If the time interval between the time when the mobile phone registers in LTE cell 1 for the first time and the time when the mobile phone registers in LTE cell 1 for the second time exceeds 5 days, after registering in LTE cell 1 for the second time, the mobile phone determines the network icon displayed based on the network status, such as whether cell 1 LTE NSA supports the network or whether the mobile phone subsequently establishes a dual connection.

[00110] As described above, dual connectivity means that the network side (including the core network and the access network) configures a primary cell group (MCG) and a secondary cell group (SCG) for the terminal in a connected state. For example, after registering with LTE cell 1, the mobile phone can attach to LTE cell 1, and the network side can add LTE cell 1 to the core cell group. The mobile phone can enter a connected state after initiating a service request. For example, the service may be browsing the web, watching a video, listening to music, etc. The 4G base station can send NR measurement information to the mobile phone to instruct the mobile phone to detect the NR signal in the neighboring cell (or referred to as the signal in the NR cell ). The mobile phone sends an NR signal measurement report to the 4G base station based on the measurement result. The network side (e.g., 4G base station) delivers the RRC reconfiguration based on the NR measurement report and adds an NR cell with a strong NR signal to the group of serving cells; and the mobile phone performs NR random access to establish a secondary cell group (SCG). More specifically, the network side adds an NR SCG for the mobile phone. The mobile phone accesses LTE cell and NR cell, establishes dual connection with 4G base station and NR base station, and carries out uplink/downlink communication through 4G base station and NR base station.

[00111] The mobile phone may break the dual connection when a service ends, etc., or the network side may break the dual connection with the mobile phone when network resources are congested, or the like. When the dual connection is broken, the network side may remove (then is to release or eliminate) NR SCG added for mobile phone.

[00112] For example, for a schematic diagram of the scenario obtained after the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, refer to FIG. 5B(a). A schematic diagram of the scenario obtained after the dual connection is terminated by the mobile phone is shown in FIG. 5B(b).

[00113] More specifically, the mobile phone can establish a dual connection after adding the NR SCG. NR SCG needs to be added for mobile phone when mobile phone establishes dual connection. Therefore, in Solution 1 and Solution 2, the defining condition of “establishing a dual connection” can be replaced by “adding NR SCG”.

[00114] Similarly, the dual connection may be broken after deleting the NR SCG for the mobile phone. The NR SCG previously added for a mobile phone is deleted when the dual connection is broken. Therefore, in Solution 1 and Solution 2 described in the following embodiments, the determining condition of “breaking dual connection” can be replaced by “removing NR SCG”.

[00115] Thus, in Solution 1, after registering a mobile phone in LTE cell 1, if the mobile phone determines that an NR SCG has been added in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T, the mobile phone interface displays a 5G network icon.

[00116] When the mobile phone determines that the NR SCG has not been added for LTE cell 1 within the previous predetermined duration T, if the mobile phone enters the idle state and LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon ; or if the mobile phone enters the idle state and LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00117] When the mobile phone determines that the NR SCG has not been added for LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T, if the mobile phone enters the connected state and the NR SCG has not been added, the mobile phone interface displays a 4G network icon; or if the mobile phone enters the connected state and NR SCG is added, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; and the mobile phone continues to display the 5G network icon after removing the NR SCG.

[00118] The following mainly describes, from the point of view of whether the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, Solution 1 provided in this embodiment of the present application.

[00119] In some embodiments of the present application, after establishing a dual connection in LTE cell 1, the mobile phone may record corresponding information that a dual connection has been added in LTE cell 1 and start a timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 to start timing. After the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 exceeds a predetermined duration T, the mobile phone may further delete previously stored associated information that a dual connection has been added to LTE cell 1.

[00120] For example, after establishing a dual connection in LTE cell 1, the mobile phone may record the identity (ID) and indication information of LTE cell 1, where the indication information indicates that the mobile phone has established a dual connection in LTE cell 1. In addition, the mobile The phone can optionally start a timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 to start counting down the time. After the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 exceeds a predetermined duration T, the mobile phone may delete the identification and indicating information of LTE cell 1, or the mobile telephone may update the indicating information corresponding to LTE cell 1 so that dual connection is not established. In addition, after establishing a dual connection in LTE cell 1, the mobile phone may further record relevant information such as frequency information, PLMN ID, or NSA network mode support capability of LTE cell 1.

[00121] As another example, after establishing a dual connection in LTE cell 1, the mobile phone may add the ID of LTE cell 1 to the whitelist and start a corresponding timer to start timing. After the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 exceeds a predetermined duration T, the mobile phone removes the ID of LTE cell 1 from the white list. The cell corresponding to the LTE cell ID and being in the white list is the LTE cell in which the mobile phone has established a dual connection during the previous predefined duration T.

[00122] In the following embodiments, descriptions are provided using a method in which a white list is used to store the ID of a cell in which a dual connection has been established as an example. When the mobile phone registers again in LTE cell 1 after leaving LTE cell 1, if the mobile phone determines that the white list includes the ID of LTE cell 1, the mobile phone has established a dual connection in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T, so that the mobile phone can directly display the 5G network icon.

[00123] If the mobile phone has previously established dual connectivity in LTE cell 1, this may indicate that the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 has NR base station signal coverage, has dual connectivity capability, and is able to use the 5G network. Since the network environment of LTE cell 1 is stable for a short period of time and cannot easily change much, after the mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1 again within a predetermined duration T after dual connection is established, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 can still have NR base station signal coverage, have dual connectivity and be able to use the 5G network. When the mobile phone processes the service, the mobile phone has the conditions to use the 5G network to process the service through dual connection, so that the mobile phone interface can display the 5G network icon.

[00124] It can be understood that as the user's location moves, the mobile phone can establish dual connectivity across multiple LTE cells. The mobile phone can record the IDs of multiple LTE cells in which a dual connection has been established. After re-establishing a dual connection in the LTE cell in which the dual connection was established, the mobile phone can start a timer corresponding to the LTE cell to restart the timing.

[00125] Thus, each time after accessing one LTE cell, the mobile phone can first determine whether a dual connection has been established in that LTE cell and whether the corresponding timer has expired. If dual connection has been established in the LTE cell and the corresponding timer has not expired, the 5G network icon is directly displayed on the mobile phone. If the LTE cell has not been dual connected or the corresponding timer has expired, the network icon will be displayed on the mobile phone depending on the network status.

[00126] For example, regarding the white list stored on the mobile phone, please refer to Table 2. As shown in Table 2, the cells in which the mobile phone has established a dual connection during the previous predetermined duration T include an LTE cell a, LTE cell b, LTE cell c, etc. In some embodiments, the dual-connected cell information stored in the mobile phone may further include the frequency, PLMN ID, remaining effective duration, network mode NSA support capability, and the like of the cell. The remaining effective duration is the difference between T and t', and t' is the time interval between the time the mobile phone last established a dual connection in the LTE cell and the current time.

table 2 Cell ID Whitelist Frequency PLMN ID Remaining effective duration NSA Capability Flag cell LTE a 2110 MHz 46007 10 days 5 hours 1 (NSA network mode support) cell LTE b 3510 MHz 46003 5 days 1 (NSA network mode support) cell LTE c 1930 MHz 46011 3 days 16 hours 1 (NSA network mode support) ... ... ... ... ...

[00127] For example, FIG. 6 shows a procedure for displaying a network icon corresponding to Solution 1. The procedure may include the following steps. 601: The mobile phone is registered in LTE cell 1.

[00128] During cell registration or cell reselection (e.g., when the mobile phone is turned on, exits airplane mode, inserts a card, disconnects from the network, or changes location) upon power-on initialization, the mobile phone may register to LTE cell 1 through the join process ( Attachment). During the joining process, because the mobile phone is not registered in the network cell, the network icon may not be displayed temporarily or the default network icon may be displayed.

[00129] 602: The mobile phone determines whether a dual connection has been established in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T. The mobile phone then performs step 603 or step 604.

[00130] After registering with LTE cell 1, the mobile phone can determine whether a dual connection has been established in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T.

[00131] It should be noted that if the mobile phone is turned on for the first time or the mobile phone has never established a dual connection before, the above white list may not be stored on the mobile phone or the above white list may be empty. In this case, the mobile phone can determine that there is no LTE cell in which a dual connection has been established during the previous predetermined duration T.

[00132] 603: If the mobile phone has established a dual connection in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon.

[00133] If the white list includes LTE cell 1, it may indicate that the mobile phone has established a dual connection in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T, and the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 does not exceed the predetermined duration T. Specifically, the mobile phone registers again with the LTE cell 1 for a predetermined duration T after a dual connection is established in the LTE cell 1.

[00134] If the mobile phone has previously established dual connection in LTE cell 1, it may indicate that when the mobile phone is attached to LTE cell 1, is close to LTE cell 1, the mobile phone has NR base station signal coverage, has dual capability connections and the ability to use the 5G network. Since the network environment of LTE cell 1 is stable for a short period of time and cannot easily change much, after the mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1 again within a predetermined duration T after dual connection is established, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 can -still have NR base station signal coverage, be dual connected and be able to use the 5G network. When the mobile phone processes the service, the mobile phone has the conditions to use the 5G network to process the service through dual connection, so that the mobile phone interface can display the 5G network icon.

[00135] If the mobile phone has not previously accessed LTE cell 1 or the mobile phone has not registered with LTE cell 1 again within a predetermined duration T after previously establishing a dual connection in the LTE cell, the mobile phone may perform the following procedure.

[00136] 604: The mobile phone determines whether to enter the idle state or the connected state. The mobile phone then performs step 605 or step 608.

[00137] If the white list is empty or the white list does not include LTE cell 1, it may indicate that the mobile phone has not established a dual connection in LTE cell 1 during the previous preset duration T. In this case, the mobile phone does not display the 5G network icon directly as in step 603, and determines whether the mobile phone is currently in the idle state or the connected state, so that the mobile phone displays the network icon according to different display rules corresponding to the idle state and the connected state.

[00138] 605: If the mobile phone enters the idle state, the mobile phone determines whether LTE NSA cell 1 supports network mode.

[00139] If the mobile phone is in the idle state, the mobile phone displays a 4G network icon or a 5G network icon depending on whether cell 1 LTE NSA supports network mode.

[00140] 606: If LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon. If the mobile phone detects that LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone can display the 5G network icon. For example, a 4G base station may use a predefined field in a system information block (SIB) sent during the join process to indicate whether cell 1 supports LTE REL-15. If the SIB includes a preset field, and the preset field indicates that LTE cell 1 supports REL-15, the mobile phone determines that LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode.

[00141] If LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, LTE cell 1 may have NR base station signal coverage, and the mobile phone may have dual connection conditions and be able to use the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon may be displayed.

[00142] 607: If the LTE cell does not support NSA network mode, the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00143] If the LTE cell does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone can only use the 4G network, but cannot use the 5G network, so the 4G network icon may be displayed.

[00144] After step 606 or step 607, if the mobile phone enters a connected state, the mobile phone may execute step 608.

[00145] 608: If the mobile phone enters a connected state, the mobile phone determines whether to establish a dual connection. The mobile phone then performs step 609 or step 611.

[00146] For example, a service such as browsing a web page or watching a video may trigger the mobile phone to enter a connected state in LTE cell 1.

[00147] 609: If dual connection is not established, the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00148] If the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the mobile phone uses the 4G network and does not use the 5G network when processing the service in the connected state, so the mobile phone interface may display the 4G network icon.

[00149] Subsequently, after the mobile phone leaves the connected state and enters the idle state, the mobile phone may execute step 605 again.

[00150] 610: If the mobile phone leaves LTE cell 1 and its service is transferred to LTE cell 2, the mobile phone displays a network icon based on the network status in LTE cell 2.

[00151] When a mobile phone leaves LTE cell 1 and its service is transferred to LTE cell 2, the mobile phone can register with LTE cell 2 through a tracking area update (TAU) process to transfer its service to LTE cell 2. During the TAU process, the mobile phone's service has not been handed over to LTE cell 2, it is still in LTE cell 1 and may be in idle state or connected state. In this case, the mobile phone may display a network icon based on the network status in LTE cell 1, step 604 and the following procedure.

[00152] After registering in LTE cell 2, similar to the process in which the mobile phone is involved in LTE cell 1, after handing over the mobile phone to LTE cell 2, the mobile phone can display a network icon depending on the network status in LTE cell 2 in the above-described the procedure shown in steps 602-612. The details are not repeated here.

[00153] Subsequently, if the mobile phone returns back to LTE cell 1, the mobile phone executes step 602 and the following procedure.

[00154] 611: If the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon.

[00155] For the process of establishing dual connection by the mobile phone, please refer to the above related descriptions. The details are not repeated here. If NR SCG is added on the network side of the mobile phone and the mobile phone establishes dual connection, the mobile phone can access the NR cell, have the signal coverage of the NR base station, and use the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon can be displayed.

[00156] It should be noted that after the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, if LTE cell 1 is not stored in the white list, LTE cell 1 can be stored in the white list, and a timer is started to start timing. When the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 exceeds a predetermined duration T, the mobile phone may remove LTE cell 1 from the white list. For example, the predetermined duration T is 3 days, and LTE cell 1 may be removed from the white list after the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 starts timing from 0 and the timing reaches 3 days.

[00157] After the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, if LTE cell 1 is stored in the white list, the mobile phone can update the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 so that the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 starts timing again. For example, if the predetermined duration T is 3 days, the mobile phone can ensure that the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 starts timing again from 0.

[00158] 612: After the dual connection is terminated, the mobile phone continues to display the 5G network icon.

[00159] When the service requested by the mobile phone is terminated or the network resources are congested, the network side may remove the NR SCG to break the dual connection with the mobile phone. After the dual connection is broken, the mobile phone can be attached to LTE cell 1 and can be in idle state or connected state in LTE cell 1.

[00160] After the dual connection is broken, because the mobile phone has just established a dual connection, it may indicate that the mobile phone has NR base station signal coverage, has dual connection capability, and can use the 5G network, so that the mobile phone can continue to display 5G network icon.

[00161] 613: After the mobile phone leaves LTE cell 1 and its service is transferred to LTE cell 2, a network icon is displayed on the mobile phone depending on the network status in LTE cell 2.

[00162] Similar to the process in which the mobile phone is involved in LTE cell 1, after the mobile phone is handed over to LTE cell 2, the mobile phone can display a network icon based on the network status in LTE cell 2 according to the previous procedure shown in steps 602-612. The details are not repeated here.

[00163] 614: The mobile phone registers again with LTE cell 1 and executes step 602. Specifically, after the mobile phone registers again with LTE cell 1, if the white list includes LTE cell 1, this may indicate that the mobile phone registers again in LTE cell 1 for a predetermined duration T after establishing a dual connection in LTE cell 1. Since the network environment of LTE cell 1 is stable for a predetermined duration T and cannot easily change much, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 can still have NR base station signal coverage, have dual connectivity and be able to use the 5G network. When the mobile phone processes the service, the mobile phone has the conditions to use the 5G network to process the service through dual connection, so that the mobile phone can continue to display the 5G network icon.

[00164] After the mobile phone registers again with LTE cell 1, if the white list does not include LTE cell 1, it may indicate that the duration between the time at which the mobile phone registers again with LTE cell 1 and the time at which the mobile phone establishes a dual connection in LTE cell 1 is greater than the preset duration T. If the duration between the time when the mobile phone registers again in LTE cell 1 and the time at which the mobile phone establishes a dual connection in LTE cell 1 exceeds the predetermined duration T, this may indicate that the network environment of LTE cell 1 may have changed when the mobile phone moves out of LTE cell 1 for a long period of time. In this case, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 may no longer have NR base station signal coverage, no longer have dual connectivity, and no longer be able to use the 5G network. Therefore, the mobile phone does not display the 5G network icon directly, but overrides the displayed network icon based on the network status, such as whether cell 1 LTE NSA supports network mode.

[00165] There can be many reasons for a change in the network environment. For example, an operator may cancel an NR cell or an NR base station configured at the location of the current LTE cell 1. Therefore, LTE cell 1 no longer has signal coverage from the NR base station. For example, at the initial stage of network construction, the layout of the NR base station may not be mature enough, the operator may change or adjust the layout of the NR base station, and the operator may cancel the NR SCG configured for the current LTE cell 1. Therefore, LTE cell 1 no longer has signal coverage from the NR base station. Alternatively, the NR base station previously connected to the mobile phone may have failed. Therefore, LTE cell 1 no longer has signal coverage from the NR base station.

[00166] In this solution, when the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface, the mobile phone is in the idle state, and the LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode. Alternatively, when the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface, the mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1 again for a predetermined duration T after dual connection is established in LTE cell 1. In this case, the mobile phone can have NR base station signal coverage, establish dual connectivity, be able to use the 5G network, and process the service through the 5G network. Unlike CONFIG D solution, where there may be a scenario where there is no NR connection, where the user is actually using the mobile phone to process the service, meaning the user is not actually using the 5G network, in Solution 1 the quality of the user experience is good. Therefore, in Solution 1, the 5G network icon can closely match the 5G network capability of the mobile phone in LTE cell 1, so that the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately, the display of the 5G network icon is more consistent with the actual network status of the terminal, and the user's understanding of the 5G network icon can be improved . Solution 1 can be used as a CONFIG D optimization solution and can be called a D++ solution.

[00167] In some cases, a user may frequently move around multiple LTE cells. A plurality of LTE cells in which a user frequently moves is usually fixed, and this plurality of LTE cells is usually stored in a white list. When the mobile phone is frequently handed over between these different LTE cells, since these LTE cells are whitelisted, the mobile phone may display the 5G network icon in each of the different LTE cells, and the frequent switching of the network icon that is caused by the inter-cell handover does not is happening.

[00168] Another embodiment of the present application further provides another solution for displaying network icons. This solution is similar to Solution 1, the difference being that after being attached to LTE cell 1, the mobile phone determines whether the dual connection in LTE cell 1 was broken during the previous preset duration T.

[00169] See FIG. 5C. This solution may include: After registering with LTE cell 1, the mobile phone determines whether the dual connection in LTE cell 1 was dropped during the previous predetermined duration T. For example, the predetermined duration T may be of such duration as 3 days, 10 days or 15 days. If the mobile phone, after registering with LTE cell 1, determines that the dual connection in LTE cell 1 has been interrupted within the previous preset duration T, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon. If the mobile phone determines after registering in LTE cell 1 that the dual connection has not been terminated in LTE cell 1 during the previous predetermined duration T, the mobile phone performs the following procedure: If the mobile phone enters the idle state (also called idle state), and Cell 1 LTE supports NSA network mode, mobile phone interface displays 5G network icon; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon. If the mobile phone enters the connected state (also called active state) and the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the mobile phone interface will display the 4G network icon; or if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon, and the mobile phone continues to display the 5G network icon after the dual connection is subsequently interrupted.

[00170] In addition, after the mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1, if the mobile phone breaks the dual connection, within a predetermined duration T after the dual connection is broken, if the mobile phone registers again with LTE cell 1 after leaving cell 1 LTE, the mobile phone determines that the dual connection in LTE cell 1 was interrupted during the previous preset duration T, so that the mobile phone still displays the 5G network icon. If the mobile phone leaves the LTE cell 1 after the dual connection is broken and registers again in the LTE cell 1 after a predetermined duration T has elapsed after the dual connection is broken, the mobile phone determines that the dual connection was not broken in the LTE cell 1 during the previous preset duration T, so that the mobile phone displays a network icon in the idle state depending on whether LTE NSA cell 1 supports network mode, and displays a network icon in the connected state depending on whether dual connection is established.

[00171] Thus, when the mobile phone registers again to LTE cell 1 after leaving LTE cell 1, if the mobile phone determines that the white list includes LTE cell 1, the mobile phone can determine that the timer corresponding to LTE cell 1 is has not exceeded the preset duration T, so the 5G network icon can be displayed directly. If the mobile phone has previously broken the dual connection in LTE cell 1, this may indicate that the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 has NR base station signal coverage (that is, has NR signal coverage, has NR cell signal coverage, and can detect the NR signal ), has dual connectivity and can use the 5G network. Since the network environment of LTE cell 1 is stable for a short period of time and cannot easily change much, after the mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1 again within a predetermined duration T after the dual connection is broken, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 can -still have NR base station signal coverage, be dual connected and be able to use the 5G network. When the mobile phone processes the service, the mobile phone has the conditions to use the 5G network to process the service through dual connection, so that the mobile phone interface can display the 5G network icon.

[00172] Solution 2:

[00173] In Solution 2, the mobile phone can display a 4G network icon after registering with LTE cell 1. Subsequently, the mobile phone interface displays a 5G network icon if the NR SCG is added to the mobile phone; and the mobile phone interface continues to display the 5G network icon after removing the NR SCG for the mobile phone.

[00174] Specifically, after registering the mobile phone in LTE cell 1, if the NR SCG is added to the mobile phone, the mobile phone interface displays a 5G network icon; and the mobile phone continues to display the 5G network icon after removing the NR SCG for the mobile phone. After the mobile phone registers in LTE cell 1, if NR SCG is not added for the mobile phone, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00175] In terms of whether the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, Solution 2 may include: After the mobile phone registers in LTE cell 1, if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone constantly displays the 5G network icon when the mobile phone does not leaves cell 1 LTE; or if the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the 4G network icon will be displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00176] More specifically, refer to FIG. 7. The mobile phone may enter the idle state or connected state after registering with LTE cell 1. If the mobile phone enters the standby state, the 4G icon will be displayed on the mobile phone interface. If the mobile phone does not establish dual connection after entering the connected state, the 4G network icon will be displayed on the mobile phone interface; or if the mobile phone establishes dual connection after entering the connected state, the mobile phone may continuously display the 5G network icon when the mobile phone is permanently attached to LTE cell 1 and does not leave it.

[00177] When the mobile phone is in LTE cell 1, if the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 may not have NR base station signal coverage, dual connection capability, and 5G network capability. If the mobile phone has established dual connection, it may indicate that the mobile phone in the LTE 1 cell has NR base station signal coverage, dual connection capability, and the ability to use 5G network, so when the mobile phone does not leave the LTE 1 cell, the mobile phone can Always display the 5G network icon regardless of whether the dual connection is disconnected.

[00178] When the mobile phone leaves LTE cell 1 and enters LTE cell 2, the mobile phone can determine based on the processing procedure of Decision 2 and the network status in LTE cell 2 whether to display a 4G network icon or a 5G network icon.

[00179] After the mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1 again, since the network environment of LTE cell 1 may have changed during the period of time during which the mobile phone moves out of LTE cell 1, LTE cell 1 may no longer have the signal coverage of the base NR stations, dual connectivity and 5G capabilities. Thus, the mobile phone may no longer display the 5G network icon after re-registration in LTE cell 1, but determine, again based on the processing procedure according to Solution 2 and the network status of the mobile phone in LTE cell 1, whether to display the 4G network icon or the 5G networks.

[00180] Thus, when the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface, it may indicate that the mobile phone has established a dual connection in the current LTE cell and has not left the current LTE cell after establishing a dual connection. In this case, the mobile phone has the signal coverage of the NR base station, has the ability to establish dual connections and is able to use the 5G network. So, unlike CONFIG A's solution, in which the 5G network icon and 4G network icon often switch depending on whether the dual connection is established or lost, Solution 2 has a good user experience. Solution 2 can be used as a CONFIG A optimization solution and can be called Solution A+.

[00181] For example, FIG. 8 shows a procedure for displaying a network icon corresponding to Solution 2. The procedure may include the following steps.

[00182] 801: The mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1.

[00183] The mobile phone can register to LTE cell 1 after powering on, exiting airplane mode, inserting a card, or disconnecting from the network. Alternatively, mobile phone service may be transferred from another LTE cell to LTE cell 1 after a location change to register with LTE cell 1.

[00184] 802: The mobile phone determines whether to enter the idle state or the connected state. The mobile phone then performs step 803 or step 804.

[00185] 803: If the mobile phone enters standby mode, the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00186] Subsequently, if the mobile phone enters a connected state, the mobile phone executes step 804.

[00187] 804: If the mobile phone enters a connected state, the mobile phone determines whether to establish a dual connection. The mobile phone then performs step 805 or step 806.

[00188] 805: If the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00189] If the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the mobile phone uses the 4G network and does not use the 5G network when processing the service in the connected state, so the mobile phone interface may display the 4G network icon.

[00190] Subsequently, after the mobile phone leaves the connected state and enters the idle state, the mobile phone executes step 803 to display a 4G network icon.

[00191] 806: If the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00192] If the network side adds an NR SCG for the mobile phone and the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone accesses the NR cell, has the signal coverage of the NR base station, and can use the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon can be displayed.

[00193] 807: If the mobile phone breaks the dual connection and is still attached to LTE cell 1, the 5G network icon is constantly displayed on the mobile phone.

[00194] If the mobile phone has established dual connection, it may indicate that the mobile phone has NR base station signal coverage, dual connection capability, and 5G network capability, so that when the mobile phone does not go beyond the LTE cell 1, the mobile The phone can constantly display the 5G network icon no matter whether the dual connection is broken or whether the mobile phone is in the standby state or connected state.

[00195] After the mobile phone leaves LTE cell 1 and is handed over to LTE cell 2, the mobile phone may display a network icon based on the network status in LTE cell 2. Similar to the process in which the mobile phone is involved in LTE cell 1, the mobile phone can display a network icon based on the network status in LTE cell 2 and the processing procedure according to Solution 2. The details are not repeated here. After re-registering to LTE cell 1, the mobile phone again executes steps 801-807.

[00196] After the mobile phone registers in LTE cell 1 again, due to the fact that the network environment may have changed, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 may no longer have NR base station signal coverage, dual connectivity capability, and network usage capability. 5G. Thus, the mobile phone can again perform step 802 and the following procedure without continuously displaying the 5G network icon.

[00197] After the mobile phone moves beyond LTE cell 1, due to the fact that the network environment of LTE cell 1 may have changed, the mobile phone in LTE cell 1 may no longer have NR base station signal coverage, dual connectivity and possibilities of using the 5G network. Therefore, after re-registering to cell 1 LTE, the mobile phone no longer constantly displays the 5G network icon, but overrides the displayed network icon based on the current network status.

[00198] Thus, when the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface, it may indicate that the mobile phone has established a dual connection in the current LTE cell and has not left the current LTE cell after establishing a dual connection. In this case, the mobile phone has the signal coverage of the NR base station, has the ability to establish dual connections and is able to use the 5G network. So, unlike CONFIG A's solution, in which the 5G network icon and 4G network icon often switch depending on whether the dual connection is established or lost, Solution 2 has a good user experience.

[00199] In some cases, as the user's location moves, mobile phone service may be frequently transferred between different LTE cells. For example, a user is often assigned to LTE cell 1 and is often handed over to LTE cell 2 for a period of time (eg, a mobile phone passes through a location where LTE cell 2 is located). The mobile phone may not establish a dual connection after its service is temporarily transferred to the LTE 2 cell, so the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone. If the mobile phone has established a dual connection in LTE cell 1 and continues to display the 5G network icon after it is handed over to LTE cell 2 and re-registered to LTE cell 1 when the mobile phone is handed back and forth between LTE cell 1 and LTE cell 2, The mobile phone frequently switches between the 5G network icon and the 4G network icon. Consequently, the quality of user experience leaves much to be desired. In Solution 2, the mobile phone no longer displays the 5G network icon after leaving LTE cell 1 and re-registering to LTE cell 1. Therefore, frequent network icon switching caused by inter-cell handover is unlikely.

[00200] Solution 3:

[00201] Solution 3 includes: The mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1. After the mobile phone initiates the first service and the mobile phone enters the connected state, if LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon ; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon. After the mobile phone initiates the second service and the mobile phone enters the connected state, if NR SCG is added to the mobile phone, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; or if NR SCG is not added for the mobile phone, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon. After the mobile phone enters the idle state, if cell 1 LTE supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; or if cell 1 LTE does not support non-standalone (NSA) network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00202] See FIG. 9. In terms of whether the mobile phone establishes dual connection, Solution 2 may include: The mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1. After the mobile phone initiates the first service and the mobile phone enters the connected state, if LTE cell 1 supports NSA , the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon. After the mobile phone initiates the second service and the mobile phone enters the connected state, if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; or if the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the 4G network icon will be displayed on the mobile phone interface. After the mobile phone enters the standby state, if the LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the 5G network icon will be displayed on the mobile phone interface; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00203] The first service can typically cause the mobile phone to enter a connected state for a short period of time, for example, a join service, a TAU service, an SMS service, or an MMS service. The second service can typically cause the mobile phone to enter a connected state for a long period of time and is a service with a long period of time, for example it may include a data service, for example an Internet access service such as browsing a web page, watching a video or listening to music or calling VoLTE service.

[00204] In Solution 3 for the second service, after entering the connected state, if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone can process the second service using the high-performance communication capabilities of the 5G network, and the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon; or if the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the mobile phone processes the second service through the 4G network, and the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00205] In the current NSA network mode, since the probability that the LTE cell supports the NSA network mode is high, the probability that the mobile phone displays the 5G network icon in the idle state is also high. For the first service, if the 5G network icon is also displayed after dual connection is established in the connected state, and the 4G network icon is displayed when the dual connection is not established, after the first service triggers the mobile phone to enter the connected state, the mobile phone displays the 4G network icon, because the dual connection is not established and the mobile phone goes into standby state again after the first service is completed quickly. If the mobile phone detects that LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone displays the 5G network icon again to frequently switch between the 5G network icon and the 4G network icon.

[00206] In Solution 3, similar to the idle state, for the connected state initiated through the first service, the mobile phone also displays a network icon depending on whether the NSA supports the network mode. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will frequently switch between the 4G network icon and the 5G network icon. For example, after the first service triggers the mobile phone to enter the connected state, if the mobile phone detects that LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, a 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone. After the first service is completed quickly, the mobile phone enters the idle state. If the mobile phone detects that LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone continues to display the 5G network icon. Therefore, in Solution 3, the mobile phone does not frequently switch between the 5G network icon and the 4G network icon due to the former service, which ensures a good user experience.

[00207] In addition, in Solution 3, after the mobile phone initiates the connected state through the second service, if the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone interface displays a 5G network icon; and if the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface, it may indicate that when processing the second service, the mobile phone is establishing a dual connection and using the 5G network. Unlike CONFIG D solution, where there may be a scenario where there is no NR connection when the user is actually using the mobile phone to process the service, meaning the user is not actually using the 5G network, in Solution 3 the quality of the user experience is good. Therefore, the 5G network icon can closely match the 5G network capability of the mobile phone in LTE cell 1, so that the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately, the display of the 5G network icon is more consistent with the actual network status of the terminal, and the user's understanding of the 5G network icon can be improved. Solution 3 can be used as a solution to optimize CONFIG D and CONFIG A, and can be called a D+A solution.

[00208] For example, FIG. 10 shows a procedure for displaying a network icon corresponding to Solution 3. The procedure may include the following steps. 1001: The mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1. The mobile phone can register with LTE cell 1 after turning on the power, exiting airplane mode, inserting a card, or disconnecting from the network. Alternatively, mobile phone service may be transferred from another LTE cell to LTE cell 1 to register with LTE cell 1.

[00209] 1002: The mobile phone determines whether to enter the idle state or the connected state. The mobile phone then performs step 1003 or step 1006.

[00210] 1003: If the mobile phone enters the idle state, the mobile phone determines whether LTE NSA cell 1 supports network mode.

[00211] 1004: If LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon.

[00212] If LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, LTE cell 1 may have NR base station signal coverage, and the mobile phone may have dual connection conditions and be able to use the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon may be displayed.

[00213] 1005: If the LTE cell does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00214] If the LTE cell does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone can only use the 4G network, but cannot use the 5G network, so the 4G network icon may be displayed.

[00215] After step 1004 or step 1005, if the mobile phone enters the connected state, the mobile phone executes step 1006.

[00216] 1006: If the mobile phone enters the connected state, the mobile phone determines whether the service that triggers the mobile phone to enter the connected state is a second service or a first service.

[00217] When the first service causes the mobile phone to enter a connected state, the mobile phone executes steps 1003-1005. Specifically, when the first service triggers the mobile phone to enter the connected state, if LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays a 5G network icon; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00218] Thus, similar to the idle state, for the connected state initiated through the first service, the mobile phone also displays a network icon depending on whether the NSA supports the network mode. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will frequently switch between the 4G network icon and the 5G network icon.

[00219] 1007: When the second service causes the mobile phone to enter a connected state, the mobile phone determines whether to establish a dual connection. The mobile phone then performs step 1008 or step 1009.

[00220] 1008: If the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface.

[00221] If the mobile phone does not establish dual connection, the mobile phone uses the 4G network and does not use the 5G network when processing the service in the connected state, so the mobile phone interface may display the 4G network icon.

[00222] After the mobile phone leaves the connected state and enters the idle state, the mobile phone executes step 1003 again.

[00223] 1009: If the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon.

[00224] If the network side adds an NR SCG for the mobile phone and the mobile phone establishes a dual connection, the mobile phone accesses the NR cell, has the signal coverage of the NR base station, and can use the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon can be displayed.

[00225] Subsequently, after the dual connection is terminated, the mobile phone may remain in a connected state or may enter a standby state. In this case, the mobile phone displays the network icon again based on step 1002 and the following procedure.

[00226] Thus, similar to the idle state, for the connected state initiated through the first service, the mobile phone also displays a network icon depending on whether the NSA supports the network mode. Therefore, it is unlikely that you will frequently switch between the 4G network icon and the 5G network icon. Therefore, in Solution 3, the mobile phone does not frequently switch between the 5G network icon and the 4G network icon due to the former service, which ensures a good user experience.

[00227] Solution 4:

[00228] See FIG. 11. Solution 4 includes: The mobile phone registers with LTE cell 1. After entering the connected state, the mobile phone detects the NR signal. If the mobile phone detects the NR signal, the mobile phone interface will display the 5G network icon. If the mobile phone does not detect the NR signal, the mobile phone interface will display the 4G network icon. After the mobile phone enters the standby state, if the LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the 5G network icon will be displayed on the mobile phone interface; or if LTE cell 1 does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00229] In Solution 4, the mobile phone may enter a connected state when processing a service (eg, a data service such as browsing a web page, watching a video, or listening to music). When the mobile phone processes the service in the connected state, if the mobile phone detects the NR signal, it indicates that the network in which the mobile phone is located has NR signal coverage, and the mobile phone has 5G communication capability and can use the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon is displayed.

[00230] More specifically, when the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon, if the mobile phone is currently in the idle state, it may indicate that LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, and the mobile phone may have a basic signal coverage area NR stations, can establish dual connectivity and can use the 5G network in NSA. When the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface, if the mobile phone is currently in a connected state when processing the service, it may indicate that the mobile phone detects NR signal, the network where the mobile phone is located has NR signal coverage, and the mobile phone can establish dual connectivity and be able to use the 5G network. So, unlike CONFIG D solution, where there might be a scenario where there is no NR connection when the user is actually using the mobile phone to process the service, meaning the user is not actually using the 5G network, in Solution 4 the quality of the user experience is good. In Solution 4, the 5G network icon can closely match the 5G network capability of the mobile phone in LTE cell 1, so the 5G network icon is displayed more accurately, the 5G network icon display is more consistent with the actual network status of the terminal, and the user's understanding of the 5G network icon can be improved. Solution 4 can be used as a CONFIG D optimization solution and can be called a D+ solution.

[00231] For example, FIG. 12 shows a network icon display procedure according to Solution 4. The procedure may include the following steps. 1201: The mobile phone is registered in LTE cell 1.

[00232] The mobile phone can register to LTE cell 1 after powering on, exiting airplane mode, inserting a card, or disconnecting from the network. Alternatively, mobile phone service may be transferred from another LTE cell to LTE cell 1 to register with LTE cell 1.

[00233] 1202: The mobile phone determines whether to enter the idle state or the connected state. The mobile phone then performs step 1203 or step 1206.

[00234] 1203: If the mobile phone enters the idle state, the mobile phone determines whether LTE NSA cell 1 supports network mode.

[00235] 1204: If LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 5G network icon.

[00236] If LTE cell 1 supports NSA network mode, LTE cell 1 may have NR base station signal coverage, and the mobile phone may have dual connection conditions and be able to use the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon may be displayed.

[00237] 1205: If the LTE cell does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone interface displays the 4G network icon.

[00238] If the LTE cell does not support NSA network mode, the mobile phone can only use the 4G network, but cannot use the 5G network, so the 4G network icon may be displayed.

[00239] After step 1204 or step 1205, if the mobile phone enters the connected state, the mobile phone executes step 1206. 1206: If the mobile phone enters the connected state, the mobile phone detects the NR signal. If the mobile phone enters the connected state, the mobile phone can automatically detect the NR signal to determine whether there is signal coverage of the NR base station.

[00240] 1207: If the mobile phone does not detect the NR signal, the 4G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone.

[00241] If the mobile phone does not detect the NR signal, the mobile phone determines that the mobile phone currently does not have NR base station signal coverage, cannot access the NR cell, cannot establish a dual connection, is not able to use 5G networks, so the 4G network icon is displayed.

[00242] 1208: If the mobile phone detects an NR signal, the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone.

[00243] If the mobile phone detects the NR signal, it determines that the mobile phone has the signal coverage area of the NR base station, can access the NR cell, has dual connectivity capability, and is capable of using the 5G network, so that the 5G network icon can be displayed.

[00244] After the mobile phone leaves the connected state and enters the idle state, the mobile phone may again perform step 1203 and the following procedure.

[00245] In this solution, when the 5G network icon is displayed on the mobile phone interface, if the mobile phone is currently in a connected state when processing the service, it may indicate that the mobile phone detects the NR signal, has signal coverage of the NR base. station, can access the NR cell, has the ability to establish dual connectivity and has the ability to use the 5G network. So, unlike CONFIG D solution, where there might be a scenario where there is no NR connection when the user is actually using the mobile phone to process the service, meaning the user is not actually using the 5G network, in Solution 4 the quality of the user experience is good.

[00246] Moreover, in the embodiments of the present application, for example, for a schematic diagram of the display of a 5G network icon on a mobile phone interface, refer to FIG. 13(a), and a diagram of the display of a 4G network icon on a mobile phone interface is shown in FIG. 13(b).

[00247] It should be noted that the network icon display method provided in the embodiments of the present application is described above using an example in which the terminal is a mobile phone. When the terminal is another device, the network icon can still be displayed using the method described in the previous embodiment. The details are not repeated here.

[00248] It can be understood that in order to implement the above functions, the terminal includes corresponding hardware and/or software modules to perform the functions. The algorithm steps in the examples described with reference to the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented according to the present application in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether functions are performed by hardware or by hardware controlled by computer software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technology. Various methods may be used by one skilled in the art to implement the described functions for each specific application with reference to the embodiments, but implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[00249] In embodiments, the terminal may be divided into functional modules based on the above example methods, for example, each functional module may be obtained by dividing for each corresponding function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be implemented in hardware.

[00250] An embodiment of the present application further provides a terminal including one or more processors and one or more storage devices. One or more storage devices are coupled to one or more processors. One or more storage devices are configured to store computer program code. Computer program code includes computer instructions. When one or more processors execute computer instructions, the terminal executes the above-described respective method steps for implementing the network icon display method according to the above embodiments.

[00251] An embodiment of this application further provides a computer-readable storage medium. A computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions. When the computer instructions are in the terminal, the terminal is caused to perform the above-described respective method steps for implementing the network icon display method according to the above embodiments.

[00252] An embodiment of this application further provides a computer program product. When a computer program product is launched on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the above-described relevant steps to implement the network icon display method performed by the terminal according to the above embodiments.

[00253] In addition, an embodiment of the present application further provides equipment. The equipment may be, but is not limited to, a chip, component, or module, and the equipment may include a processor and memory that are coupled to each other. The memory is configured to store computer-executable instructions, and when the equipment is operated, the processor can execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the chip implements the network icon display method performed by the terminal according to the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[00254] The terminal, computer-readable storage medium, computer program product, and chip provided in the embodiments are configured to perform the corresponding method provided above. Therefore, the beneficial effects that can be achieved by the terminal, the computer-readable storage medium, the computer program product and the chip are among the beneficial effects of the corresponding method presented above. The details are not repeated here.

[00255] Another embodiment of the present application provides a communication system. For communication system architecture, please refer to FIG. 2. The communication system may include a terminal and a network access device, and may be used to implement a method for displaying a network icon.

[00256] Based on the descriptions of the above implementations, one skilled in the art can understand that, for the purpose of convenient and concise description, only the division into the above-mentioned functional modules is used as an example for the description. In actual application, the above functions can be distributed into different function modules based on requirements, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different function modules to perform all or some of the functions described above.

[00257] It should be understood that in several embodiments presented in this application, the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above embodiments of the device are merely examples. For example, the division into modules or blocks is simply a logical division of functions and may be a different division in the actual implementation. For example, many blocks or components may be combined or integrated into another device, or some functions may be ignored or not implemented. In addition, the mutual connections or direct connections or communication connections displayed or discussed may be implemented through some interfaces. Indirect connections or communication connections between devices or units can be implemented in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[00258] Blocks described as individual parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts depicted as blocks may be one or more physical blocks and may be located in one location or may be distributed in a variety of different positions. Some or all of the blocks may be selected based on the actual requirement to achieve the objectives of the solutions of the embodiments.

[00259] In addition, the functional blocks in embodiments of the present application may be integrated into a single processing block, or each of the blocks may physically exist on its own, or two or more blocks may be combined into a single block. The integrated block can be implemented as a hardware or software function block.

[00260] When an integrated module is implemented as a software function module and sold or used as an independent product, the integrated module may be stored on a readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions according to the embodiments of the present application, essentially, or a part contributing to the known technology, or all or some of the technical solutions can be implemented in the form of a software product. The software product is stored on a storage medium and includes a series of instructions for causing a device (which may be a microcontroller, chip, etc.) or processor to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. A storage medium includes any medium on which program code can be stored, such as a USB flash drive, a removable hard drive, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk or optical disc.

[00261] The above contents are merely a specific implementation of the present application, but are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present application. Any change or substitution readily apparent to one skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this application shall fall within the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present application must correspond to the scope of protection defined by the claims.

Claims (51)

1. A method for informing a user about the status of a network in a wireless communication system, implemented by a terminal, the method comprising the steps of: registered in a first cell, wherein the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell; displaying a 5G network icon if a New Radio Standard Secondary Cell Group (NR SCG) is installed after registration in the first cell, and the 5G network icon continues to be displayed after removing the NR SCG; or display the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not installed after registration in the first cell. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said continuation of display of the 5G network icon after removal of the NR SCG comprises the step of: display the 5G network icon when the terminal is in the connected state after removing the NR SCG; or display the 5G network icon when the terminal is in idle state after removing the NR SCG. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein said continued display of the 5G network icon after the NR SCG is deleted, displaying a 5G network icon when the terminal is attached to the first cell after the NR SCG is deleted. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, further comprising the step of leaving the flight mode before registering in the first cell. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising the step of setting the NR SCG by the terminal when the terminal is in a connected state after registering with the first cell. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein said registration in the first cell is registration in the first cell for the first time, the method further comprising the steps of: are registered in the first cell for the second time; display the 5G network icon if the NR SCG is set after registering in the first cell for the second time; And display the 4G network icon if NR SCG is not installed after registering in the first cell for the second time. 7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising the step of receiving a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message to establish an NR SCG after registration in the first cell. 8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein when said 4G network icon is displayed if the NR SCG is not set after registration in the first cell, the 4G network icon is displayed when the predetermined field in the first cell is not received by the terminal and the NR SCG is not installed after registration in the first cell. 9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, in which the mentioned 5G network icon display if the New Radio Standard Secondary Cell Group (NR SCG) is established after registration in the first cell contains that the terminal is in a connected state, and the mentioned 4G network icon display if NR SCG is not set after registration in the first cell indicates that the terminal is in a connected state. 10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising the step of displaying a 5G network icon when a predetermined field in the first cell is received by the terminal. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein said display of a 5G network icon when a predetermined field in the first cell is received by the terminal includes that the terminal is in an idle state. 12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, wherein said predetermined field is carried in a system information block (SIB). 13. A method for informing a user about the status of a network in a wireless communication system, implemented by a terminal, the method comprising the steps of: registered in the first cell for the first time, wherein the terminal is attached to the first cell for the first time, and the first cell is a Long Term Evolution (LTE) cell; displaying a 5G network icon after the terminal establishes a dual connection in the first cell, wherein the establishment of the dual connection includes the terminal establishing a New Radio Standard Secondary Cell Group (NR SCG); And display the 5G network icon after the terminal switches to the second cell and attaches to the first cell for the second time, while dual connection has not yet been established by the terminal in the first cell when the 5G network icon is displayed. 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising storing first information related to the first cell after the terminal establishes a dual connection in the first cell. 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first information comprises at least one of a cell identifier (ID) of the first cell, a cell frequency of the first cell, a public land mobile network (PLMN) identifier of the first cell, or a non-standalone (NSA) support capability. network mode of the first cell. 16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, wherein when said 5G network icon is displayed after the terminal switches to the second cell and attaches to the first cell for the second time, the 5G network icon is displayed according to the first information after the terminal switches to the second cell and attaches to the first cell a second time. 17. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 16, further comprising establishing a dual connection after the 5G network icon is displayed after the terminal switches to the second cell and is attached to the first cell a second time. 18. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 17, wherein when said 5G network icon is displayed after the terminal switches to the second cell and is attached to the first cell for the second time, the 5G network icon is displayed after the terminal switches to a second cell and attached to the first cell a second time, wherein the interval between the registration time in the first cell for the second time and the registration time in the first cell for the first time is less than or equal to a predetermined duration T. 19. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 18, further comprising the step of displaying a 4G network icon if dual connection is not established in the first cell after registering in the first cell for the first time. 20. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 19, wherein the second cell is an LTE cell. 21. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 20, wherein when dual connection is established, dual connection is established by the terminal when the terminal is in a connected state after registering with the first cell. 22. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 21, wherein the NR SCG is set by the terminal through performing random access. 23. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 22, wherein the 4G network icon or the 5G network icon is displayed on the status bar of the terminal. 24. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 23, wherein when said 5G network icon is displayed after the terminal establishes dual connection in the first cell, the 5G network icon is displayed when the predetermined field in the first cell is not received by the terminal and dual connection is established. 25. The method according to any one of claims 19 to 24, wherein when said 4G network icon is displayed, if dual connection is not established in the first cell after registering in the first cell for the first time, the 4G network icon is displayed when the terminal does not receive a predetermined field in first cell and dual connection is not established. 26. The method according to any one of claims 19-25, in which said display of a 5G network icon after the terminal has established a dual connection in the first cell contains that the terminal is in a connected state, and the said 4G network icon display if dual connection is not established in the first cell after registering in the first cell for the first time indicates that the terminal is in a connected state. 27. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 26, further comprising the step of displaying a 5G network icon when a predetermined field in the first cell is received by the terminal. 28. The method of claim 27, wherein said display of a 5G network icon when a predetermined field in the first cell is received by the terminal comprises that the terminal is in an idle state. 29. The method according to any one of claims 24 to 28, wherein said predetermined field is carried in a system information block (SIB). 30. The method according to any one of claims 13 to 29, further comprising the step of continuing to display the 5G network icon when the terminal does not leave the first cell after removing the NR SCG. 31. Terminal containing: a screen configured to display a network icon; one or more processors; memory; And one or more computer programs, wherein the one or more computer programs are stored in memory, wherein the one or more computer programs contain instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the terminal, causing the terminal to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-12 or 13-30. 32. A computer-readable storage medium containing computer instructions, wherein when the computer instructions are executed on a computer, causing the computer to execute the method of any one of claims 1-12 or 13-30.