WO2020135453A1

WO2020135453A1 - Beam management method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2020135453A1
Application number: PCT/CN2019/128089
Authority: WO
Inventors: 陈庆勇; 王情
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2018-12-29
Filing date: 2019-12-24
Publication date: 2020-07-02

Abstract

A beam management method and apparatus, used for implementing beam management of high-frequency communication. The method comprises: a network device determines a narrowband region on a carrier bandwidth; the network device sends a beam management message to a terminal in the narrowband region, and receives an uplink signal from the terminal or sends downlink data to the terminal in a broadband region on the carrier bandwidth; the narrowband region and the broadband region do not overlap in frequency domain, and the narrowband region and the broadband region are located on the same time domain resource.

Description

Beam management method and device

Cross-reference of related applications

This application requires the priority of the Chinese patent application filed on December 29, 2018 in the Chinese Patent Office with the application number 201811647335.7 and the application name "a beam management method and device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application Medium; This application requires the priority of the Chinese patent application submitted to the China Patent Office on January 11, 2019, with the application number 201910026681.1 and the application name "a beam management method and device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this document Applying.

Technical field

Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communication technologies, and in particular, to a beam management method and device.

Background technique

In a new radio (NR) communication system, as shown in FIG. 1, the signal beam is mainly formed through an antenna array to realize accurate narrow beams to provide services for user data. Beamforming can obtain a longer coverage distance and reduce interference. The higher the frequency, the greater the path loss, and the high-frequency path loss is much higher than the low-frequency path loss. Since the antenna size is inversely proportional to the frequency, high frequencies are more suitable for larger antenna arrays, and the array gain is used to resist the increase in path loss. To further increase the array gain, the beam needs to be narrower so that the power is concentrated in a narrower direction to obtain higher gain. However, the narrower the beam, the greater the difficulty of aligning the transmit and receive beams, and the easier it is to lose alignment.

The beam management method adopted by the existing NR system is to send a synchronization signal broadcast channel block (synchronization/signal/PBCH block, SSB) for initial access and beam tracking. After access, the SSB and CSI reference signal (CSI reference (signal, CSI-RS) for beam management. Among them, the SSB is composed of a primary synchronization signal (primary synchronization signal, PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (secondary synchronization signal, SSS), and a physical layer broadcast channel (PBCH). The PSS and SSS carry the cell identifier (ID) together, and the PBCH carries the system message and beam ID. CSI-RS is scheduled through control signaling. The disadvantage of the existing beam management method is that, in the time slot where the SSB/CSI-RS is located, the OFDM symbol before the SSB/CSI-RS can only be used for downlink, which has a great restriction on uplink resources. When the uplink (Up link, UL) When the traffic volume is large, the beam resources cannot meet the requirements. On the other hand, when the beam transmission hops, the control signaling will also be lost, and the CSI-RS cannot be scheduled in time, so that the CSI-RS beam recovery failure rate is high, and it can only enter the link failure and re-accept the SSB for access. Alignment causes the beam alignment to take a long time and affects the communication effect.

In summary, in NR high-frequency communication, the existing beam management method needs to be further improved.

Summary of the invention

Embodiments of the present application provide a beam management method and device to further improve the beam management method of NR high-frequency communication.

The specific technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application are as follows:

In the first aspect, a beam management method is provided. The method is executed by a network device. The method can be implemented by the following steps: the network device determines a narrowband area on the carrier bandwidth; the network device sends beam management to the terminal in the narrowband area Message, and in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth, receive uplink signals from the terminal or send downlink data to the terminal; wherein the frequency domain of the narrowband area and the broadband area do not overlap, and the narrowband area and The broadband area is located on the same time domain resource. Since the beam management message occupies a narrow-band area for transmission, other areas of the carrier bandwidth can be used for both uplink and downlink. This method can make the uplink and downlink decoupled when sending the beam management message, no longer binding, and can better cope with the diversity of eMBB services. The uplink and downlink data can occupy the same time domain resource together with the beam management message, and the uplink and downlink interference becomes narrowband interference to the broadband.

In a possible design, the network device sends a beam management message to the terminal in the narrowband area. The specific implementation manner is that the network device sends the beam management to the terminal in the narrowband area on the first subarray Message; receiving, by the network device, an uplink signal from the terminal or sending downlink data to the terminal in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth includes: the network device is on the second sub-array and the carrier bandwidth In the broadband area on the Internet, receive uplink signals from the terminal or send downlink data to the terminal. This can help to achieve uplink and downlink decoupling during beam management.

In a possible design, the analog beams transmitted on the first sub-array and the second sub-array are directed independently (or in different directions). The two sub-array analog beams are directed independently.

In a possible design, the beam management message may also be a CSI-RS scheduled to a narrowband, and the narrowband size is capable of achieving the above-mentioned uplink and downlink decoupling within the capability range of the device.

In a possible design, the beam management message includes a synchronization signal and beam indication information. By sending a beam management message to the terminal in a narrow-band area on the carrier bandwidth, and carrying the synchronization signal and beam indication information in the beam management message, the beam management message can occupy less bandwidth, that is, occupy less frequency domain resources. When sending uplink and downlink data in the broadband area of the carrier bandwidth, the interference of the narrowband beam management message on the broadband becomes controllable, which optimizes the beam management method of NR high-frequency communication.

In a possible design, the beam indication information includes a beam identification ID and parity information, and the parity information is used to verify the beam ID. The use of parity information can further reduce the amount of data carried by the beam management message, as well as the MCS of the beam management message, and improve the demodulation performance.

In one possible design, the parity information occupies 1 bit.

In a possible design, the beam indication information includes a beam ID and cyclic redundancy CRC check information, and the CRC check information is used to check the beam ID. The number of bits occupied by the transmission beam indication information can be reduced, and a low MCS can be used under the condition of less resources.

In a possible design, the CRC check information occupies 4 bits.

In a possible design, the beam indication information further includes a physical layer broadcast channel PBCH period indication, and the PBCH period indication is used to indicate a period for sending the PBCH.

In a possible design, the network device periodically sends a PBCH to the terminal. The PBCH no longer carries the beam indication. The system message in the PBCH is used for initial access, and the time requirement is not as high as the beam alignment, and the PBCH transmission period is longer, thereby achieving narrowband transmission of the beam indication information.

In a possible design, the network device occupies the first M time slots to send the PBCH in a cycle. Subsequent time slots in such a cycle may only send beam management messages, and may send beam management messages in a more time-domain-intensive manner.

In a possible design, in the narrowband area, the beam indication information included in the beam management message sent every M time slots is used to indicate N beams.

In a second aspect, a beam management method is provided. The method is executed by a terminal, which can be implemented by the following steps: the terminal transmits an uplink signal to a network device in a broadband area on a carrier bandwidth, and/or the terminal broadband on a carrier bandwidth Area, receiving downlink data from the network device; wherein, the carrier bandwidth includes the broadband area and the narrowband area, and the narrowband area is used to carry beam management messages. Since the beam management message occupies a narrow-band area, other areas of the carrier bandwidth can be used for both uplink and downlink. This method can make the beam management message decoupled from the upstream data and no longer be bound, and can better cope with the diversity of eMBB services. The uplink and downlink data can occupy the same time slot as the beam management message, real-time domain resources, and the uplink and downlink interference becomes narrowband interference to the broadband.

In a possible design, the beam management message includes a synchronization signal and beam indication information. By receiving the beam management message in a narrow-band area on the carrier bandwidth and carrying the synchronization signal and beam indication information in the beam management message, the beam management message can enable the beam management The message occupies less bandwidth, that is, occupies less frequency domain resources. When uplink and downlink data is sent in the broadband area of the carrier bandwidth, the interference of the narrowband beam management message on the broadband becomes controllable, optimizing NR high-frequency communication Beam management method.

In a possible design, the terminal in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth advances the TA offset according to the timing in advance, and sends an uplink signal to the network device; wherein, the value of the TA offset is an integer number of orthogonal frequency divisions Multiplexing OFDM symbols. Through the adjustment of TA offset, the downlink discontinuity will not appear in the uplink OFDM demodulation intercept signal, further reducing interference.

In one possible design, the OFDM symbol includes a cyclic prefix.

According to a fourth aspect, a beam management device is provided, which is applied to a network device. The apparatus has a function of implementing the method of the network device in the first aspect and any possible design of the first aspect, which includes means corresponding to the steps or functions described in the above aspect. The steps or functions may be implemented by software, or by hardware (such as a circuit), or by a combination of hardware and software.

In a possible design, the above beam management device includes one or more processors and a communication unit. The one or more processors are configured to support the signal processing device to perform the functions in the above method. For example, determine the narrowband area on the carrier bandwidth. The communication unit is used to support the beam management device to communicate with other devices to implement receiving and/or sending functions. For example, in the narrowband area, a beam management message is sent to the terminal, and in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth, an uplink signal is received from the terminal or downlink data is sent to the terminal.

Optionally, the device may further include one or more memories, which are used to couple with the processor, which store necessary program instructions and/or data of the device. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor, or may be provided separately from the processor. This application is not limited.

The communication unit may be a transceiver or a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the transceiver may also be an input/output circuit or an interface.

The device may also be a communication chip. The communication unit may be an input/output circuit or an interface of a communication chip.

In another possible design, the above beam management device includes a transceiver, a processor, and a memory, and the memory is optional. The processor is used to control a transceiver or an input/output circuit to send and receive signals, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to run the computer program in the memory so that the device executes any one of the first aspect and the first aspect Possible design methods.

According to a fourth aspect, there is provided a beam management device, which is applied to a terminal, or the device is a terminal, and the device has a method for implementing the method performed by the terminal in any of the above-mentioned second aspects and any possible design of the second aspect Functions, which include means corresponding to the steps or functions described in the above aspects. The steps or functions may be implemented by software, or by hardware (such as a circuit), or by a combination of hardware and software.

In a possible design, the above beam management device includes one or more processors and a communication unit. The one or more processors are configured to support the signal processing device to perform the functions in the above method. For example, a narrow-band area on the carrier bandwidth is determined, and a beam management message is detected in the narrow-band area. The communication unit is used to support the signal processing device to communicate with other devices to implement receiving and/or sending functions. For example, receive beam management messages.

In another possible design, the above beam management device includes a transceiver, a processor, and a memory. The processor is used to control a transceiver or an input/output circuit to send and receive signals, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to run the computer program in the memory so that the device executes the second aspect or any one of the second aspect Possible design methods.

According to a fifth aspect, there is provided a system including a terminal and a network device, wherein the network device executes the method described in the first aspect or any possible design of the network device in the first aspect; or, The terminal performs the method performed by the terminal in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided for storing a computer program, the computer program including instructions for performing the methods in the above aspects.

In a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes: computer program code, which, when the computer program code runs on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method in the above aspects.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of beam forming of an NR system in the prior art;

2 is a schematic diagram of a system architecture in an embodiment of this application;

3 is a schematic flowchart of a beam management method in an embodiment of this application;

4 is a schematic diagram of an implementation of a beam management method in an embodiment of this application;

5 is a schematic diagram of a beam management method in an application scenario in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a first structural schematic diagram of a beam management device in an embodiment of this application;

7 is a second structural diagram of a beam management device in an embodiment of the present application.

detailed description

Embodiments of the present application provide a beam management method and device, which transmits a beam management message to a terminal in a narrow-band area on a carrier bandwidth, and receives an uplink signal from the terminal or sends a signal to the terminal in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth The terminal sends downlink data; wherein the narrowband area and the broadband area do not overlap in frequency domain, and the narrowband area and the broadband area are located on the same time domain resource. In this way, the beam management message occupies a smaller bandwidth, that is, occupies less frequency domain resources. When the uplink and downlink data is sent in the broadband area of the carrier bandwidth, the interference of the narrow-band beam management message on the broadband becomes controllable, thereby The decoupling of uplink and downlink when sending beam management messages is realized, and the beam management method of NR high frequency communication is optimized.

Among them, the method and the device are based on the same concept. Since the principles of the method and the device to solve the problem are similar, the implementation of the device and the method can be referred to each other, and the repetition is not repeated.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, indicating that there may be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which may indicate: A exists alone, and A and B exist simultaneously. There are three cases of B. The character "/" generally indicates that the related object is a "or" relationship. At least one involved in this application refers to one or more; multiple refers to two or more. In addition, it should be understood that in the description of this application, the words "first" and "second" are only used to distinguish the description, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance, nor as an indication. Or suggest the order.

The signal processing method provided in the embodiments of the present application may be applied to a fourth generation (4th generation, 4G) communication system, a fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) communication system, or various future communication systems.

The embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Taking the 5G NR system as an example, FIG. 2 shows a possible communication system architecture applicable to the motion status reporting method provided by the embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 2, the 5G NR system mainly beamforms the signal through the antenna array to achieve accurate narrow beams to provide services for user data. The communication system 200 includes: a network device 201 and a terminal 202.

The network device 201 is a node in a radio access network (radio access network, RAN), and may also be called a base station, and may also be called a RAN node (or device). At present, some examples of network equipment 101 are: general base station (general node B, gNB), new air interface base station (new radio node B, NR-NB), transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), evolved node B (evolved Node B, eNB), radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), Node B (Node B, NB), base station controller (base controller), BSC, base transceiver station (BTS) , A home base station (eg, home evolved NodeB, HeNB; or home Node B, HNB), baseband unit (BBU), or wireless fidelity (Wifi) access point (AP), Or 5G communication system or network side equipment in future possible communication system.

Terminal 202, also known as user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), etc., is a device that provides voice or data connectivity to users. It can be an IoT device. For example, the terminal 102 includes a handheld device having a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, and the like. At present, the terminal 202 may be: a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, a palmtop computer, a mobile internet device (mobile internet device (MID)), a wearable device (such as a smart watch, smart bracelet, pedometer, etc.) , Vehicle-mounted equipment (for example, cars, bicycles, electric cars, aircraft, ships, trains, high-speed rail, etc.), virtual reality (virtual reality, VR) equipment, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) equipment, industrial control (industrial control) Wireless terminals, smart home devices (for example, refrigerators, TVs, air conditioners, electric meters, etc.), smart robots, workshop equipment, wireless terminals in self-driving (self driving), wireless terminals in remote surgery (remote medical), Wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, or wireless terminals in smart homes, flying equipment (for example, Intelligent robots, hot air balloons, drones, airplanes, etc.

The 5G communication system will use a higher carrier frequency (generally, greater than 6GHz) relative to long term evolution (LTE), such as 28GHz, 38GHz, or 72GHz frequency bands, etc., to achieve greater bandwidth and higher Wireless communication with transmission rate. Due to the high carrier frequency, the wireless signal it transmits experiences a more severe fading during the space propagation process, and it is difficult to detect the wireless signal even at the receiving end. To this end, beamforming (BF) technology will be used in 5G communication systems to obtain beams with good directivity to increase the power in the transmission direction and improve the signal-to-interference and noise ratio at the receiving end (signal to interference plus ratio) , SINR). In order to increase the coverage and control the antenna array cost, hybrid beamforming (HBF) technology becomes the best choice. It also includes analog beamforming (ABF) and digital beamforming (DBF). ). Among them, DBF is similar to multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) in LTE, while ABF adjusts the direction of the analog beam by changing the weight between the array elements in the antenna array. In order to further improve the communication quality, the terminal will also use beamforming technology to generate analog beams in different directions for receiving and sending data. Both the network device 201 and the terminal 202 use narrower analog beam communication, so only when the analog beams used for transmission and reception are aligned will better communication quality be obtained. Therefore, in the 3GPP RAN1 meeting, it has been determined that the 5G NR will use the beam scanning (beam sweeping) process to determine the beam pair (transmit beam and receive beam) between the network device and the terminal, as shown in FIG. 2. In addition, multiple beam pairs are monitored during communication to improve the robustness of the communication link. In addition, in order to increase cell coverage, a 5G NR cell may contain multiple TRPs, and each TRP can transmit multiple different analog beams.

Based on the description of the above system architecture, the beam management method provided in the embodiments of the present application is specifically introduced below. As shown in FIG. 3, the specific process of the beam management method provided by the embodiment of the present application is as follows.

S301. The network device sends a beam management message to the terminal in a narrow-band area on the carrier bandwidth;

Optionally, the network device first determines the narrowband area on the carrier bandwidth. The carrier bandwidth may also be referred to as the system bandwidth, or the operating bandwidth of the network device, and is used by the network device to communicate with one or more terminals under the coverage. The narrowband area is specified by the protocol or selected by the network equipment. Optionally, the protocol may specify multiple narrowband candidates, and the network device selects one of the narrowband candidates to use.

S302. The network device receives the uplink signal from the terminal or sends the downlink data to the terminal in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth.

S301 and S302 are executed on the same time domain resource, which can be considered to occur simultaneously.

Beam training is to determine the beam pair between the network device and the terminal by means of beam scanning, that is, the process of beam alignment. There are generally many beam directions of network equipment. In one beam training period, the network equipment sends beams in N directions, and the terminal scans the beams in N directions in one beam training period. Generally, the beam direction of the terminal is less than that of the network device. In a possible implementation manner, if the terminal has a beam pattern of P, the terminal may determine a beam pair in one direction in one beam training period, and determine a beam pair in P directions through P beam training periods.

The bandwidth occupied by the beam management message becomes narrower, which is narrower than the carrier bandwidth, so the beam management message of one training period can occupy more time-domain resources. Therefore, the number N of beam directions that can be indicated in one training period can be larger. A larger value of N means that the beam is narrower, and the higher the array gain can be obtained.

On the other hand, because the beam management message occupies a narrow-band area for transmission, other areas of the carrier bandwidth can be used for both uplink and downlink. When used for uplink, due to the narrow-band area occupied by the beam management message, the uplink signal is transmitted over the broadband, and the interference caused by the narrow-band to the broadband becomes controllable. Compared with the prior art, both the SSB and CSI-RS time slots need to be bundled to send downlink. If sending uplink will cause great interference, the method provided in this application can decouple the uplink and downlink when sending beam management messages. No longer binding, it can better cope with the diversity of enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services. It should be noted that the narrowband described in this application occupies few frequency domain resources relative to the carrier bandwidth, and the wideband refers to frequency domain resources of other larger areas except the narrowband area. The frequency domains of the narrowband area and the broadband area do not overlap, and the narrowband area and the broadband area are located on the same time domain resource. The broadband area can be used for uplink and downlink data transmission. That is, the terminal can send uplink data or uplink signals in the broadband area, and the network device receives uplink data or uplink signals in the broadband area. For example, the uplink data is a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). The network device can also send downlink data in the broadband area, and the terminal can receive downlink data in the broadband area. Of course, the uplink and downlink data are transmitted separately in the time domain. The uplink and downlink data can occupy the same time slot as the beam management message, and the real-time domain resources. The uplink and downlink interference becomes narrowband interference to the broadband.

In order to achieve uplink and downlink decoupling during beam management, in a possible implementation manner, in this embodiment of the present application, a beam management message is sent on a first panel by using a multi-panel method, or is sent on a second panel. Receive data, that is, the second panel is used for uplink and downlink data transmission. The first panel and the second panel are different panels, and the pointing directions of the two panel analog beams are independent.

In an optional implementation manner, the beam management message includes a synchronization signal and beam indication information. Compared with the SSB carrying the synchronization signal and the PBCH in the conventional technology, the PBCH includes the system message and the beam ID, and the system information is not included in the beam management message in this application. Since the system message is mainly used for initial access, and the time requirement is not urgent, in this application, the PBCH, that is, the system message, is independently sent out and sent in a longer period than beam training. In another optional implementation manner, the beam management message may also be a CSI-RS scheduled to a narrowband, and the narrowband size is capable of achieving the above-described uplink and downlink decoupling within the capabilities of the device.

In order to further reduce the bandwidth occupied by the beam management message, optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the beam indication information includes the beam ID and parity information, and the parity information is used to verify the beam ID and is used for receiving The end verifies whether the received beam ID is detected for errors. In practical applications, the parity information only occupies 1 bit. The use of parity information can further reduce the amount of data carried by the beam management message, as well as the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) of the beam management message and improve the demodulation performance.

In another possible design, a cyclic redundancy check (cyclic redundancy check, CRC) can also be used to verify the beam ID, that is, the beam indication information includes the beam ID and the CRC check information, and the CRC check information Up to 4bit. Regardless of whether parity check or CRC check is used, compared with the tens of bits used in the prior art to send PBCH, it can greatly reduce the information bits occupied by the beam management message, and can also be used in the case of less resources Lower MCS.

Because the beam management message occupies narrow-band transmission, in this application, the beam management message can be sent in a more time-domain dense manner. Due to the decoupling of uplink and downlink, the beam management message can be implemented without scheduling. The network device sends the beam management message in the narrow band area according to the determined narrow band area. Compared with the prior art, the CSI-RS is scheduled through control signaling for beam training after access. This application does not need to rely on control signaling for high-frequency beam management, and the scheduling of beam management messages is scheduling-free. Beam management messages are sent in a narrow time domain on a narrow band, which can quickly and timely deal with beam hopping and alignment loss under different conditions, and also avoid the loss of control of the beam management caused by the loss of the control channel. Beam tracking, beam recovery, and link failure processes can be unified into a beam tracking process.

As described above, in this embodiment of the present application, the PBCH is independently removed from the beam management message, and the PBCH no longer carries the beam indicator. The system messages in the PBCH are used for initial access, so time requirements are not high, and the PBCH transmission cycle is long. Assuming that the transmission period of the _PBCH is represented by T _PBCH , multiple beam training periods may be transmitted in one T _PBCH . The PBCH can be sent on the first M time slots in a T _PBCH . The first M time slots may correspond to one beam training period, and beams in N directions are sent, that is, the beam indication information included in the beam management message sent every M time slots in the narrowband area is used to indicate N beams. Optionally, the beam indication information carries a PBCH period indication, and the PBCH period indication is used to indicate a period T _PBCH for sending the _PBCH .

S303. The terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth.

Optionally, the terminal must first determine the narrowband area on the carrier bandwidth.

S304. The terminal receives downlink data from the network device in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth.

Optionally, the terminal may also detect the beam management message in a narrow-band area on the carrier bandwidth.

For the terminal side, similarly, the narrowband area on the carrier bandwidth can be specified according to the protocol. The terminal detects the beam management message sent by the network device in the narrowband area. In a T _PBCH , the _PBCH is detected on the first M time slots for initial access, and the beam management message is detected on the first M time slots. And on the subsequent time-domain resources, continue to detect beam management messages with high time-domain density, and there is no need to detect PBCH. In a possible implementation, if the terminal has a beam pattern of P, the terminal may determine a beam pair in one direction in a beam training period (M time slots), and determine a beam pair in P directions through P beam training periods . T on _{the PBCH} next previous M time slots, and can detect PBCH, and tested for P beam directions on a T determined according to the following _PBCH a T _PBCH PBCH detected, in order to improve the accuracy of beam direction.

The broadband area of the terminal on the carrier bandwidth can send uplink signals or uplink data to the network device, such as PUSCH. Optionally, downlink data can also be received from the network device in the broadband area. Multiple terminals located in the same cell as the terminal can use the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth to receive and/or send data. In practical applications, the terminal does not require the ability to send and receive beams at the same time. In general, some terminals in the same cell may detect beam management messages to perform beam alignment, and some terminals may be performing services for data transmission.

In a possible design scheme, due to the delay of the network device switching from uplink to downlink, the terminal will further send in advance on the basis of timing advance (TA), that is, send the uplink data according to TA offset. In the prior art, a 7us TA offset is formed according to 5us switching delay + 2us margin. In this application, the margin can be adjusted so that the value of TA offset is an integer multiple of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbols. Among them, the OFDM symbol contains a cyclic prefix (cyclic prefix, CP). For example, TA offset is adjusted from 13792Tc to 13152Tc.

Through the adjustment of TA offset, the downlink discontinuity will not appear in the uplink OFDM demodulation intercept signal, further reducing interference.

The beam management method provided by the present application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with specific application scenarios.

As shown in FIG. 4, a schematic diagram of implementation of the beam management method provided by the present application is shown. Beam management messages and uplink and downlink data are transmitted on different panels, for example, beam management messages are transmitted on panel n, and uplink and downlink data are transmitted on panel k, including downlink (DL) data and uplink ( up link, UL) data. When panel k and panel n are quasi-collocation, the simulation beam direction on panel k can be determined according to the simulation beam direction determined on panel n. On panel n, beam management messages in multiple directions are sent on a narrowband, and the beam management message includes a synchronization signal (SS) and a beam identifier (beam identifier). SS carries the cell ID. The beam management message is represented by a synchronization signal and a beam identifier (SS and beam identifier, SSBI). The network device sends SSBI without scheduling on panel n, the terminal determines the beam direction through SSBI, and can improve the measurement accuracy of the beam direction through the _PBCH sent by the next PBCH period T _PBCH . Since the transmission and PBCH SSBI M slots on the front of a T _PBCH. PBCH is sent periodically. On the same time domain resource, SSBI is sent on narrowband and panel n, and on the same time domain resource, on broadband and panel k, you can choose to send a downlink signal or receive an uplink signal. The uplink and downlink interference is Narrowband interferes with broadband. The uplink and downlink decoupling is achieved when the beam management message is sent, and the scheduling is simple, the beam pilot does not occupy data resources, and the data uplink and downlink scheduling is decoupled from the beam scheduling. Beam management messages are encrypted in the time domain, dispatch-free, and improve the robustness and effectiveness of beam scanning.

As shown in FIG. 5, taking the 400 MHz bandwidth as an example, the transmission period of _PBCH T _PBCH = 20 ms. The subcarrier spacing (SCS) is 480 KHz, one subframe is 1 ms, one subframe is divided into 32 slots, and half a subframe is 16 slots. Six beam management messages (SSBI) are placed in each time slot. The beam management message includes the SS and the beam indicator, which is the beam ID described above. Then, every 16 time slots can indicate 96 SSBIs, that is, 96 beams. Half a subframe can complete a circle of beam training, that is, the beam training period is half a subframe. Since the beam management message does not include the system message, it occupies a small number of bits. For example, the 96 beam only occupies 7 bits.

In one cycle T _PBCH , multiple beam training cycles can be completed, for example, 20 ms includes 40 0.5 ms, and a maximum of 40 beam training cycles can be completed. Of course, in practical applications, the beam training period may not be set so full, and some time slots may be reserved for other functions in the time domain, such as the random access channel (random access channel (RACH) or data scheduling shown in FIG. 5 .

In the first 0.5ms of a period T _PBCH , including slot0 ~ slot15, it can be used to send PBCH on the broadband for the initial access of the terminal. In the subsequent time slot of the period, the PBCH is no longer sent, only in the narrowband Send SSBI on. When SSBI is sent on a narrowband, uplink and downlink data can be sent over the same time slot, including only uplink data, only downlink data, or uplink and downlink data. For example, in slot 31 shown in FIG. 5, SSBI is transmitted in a narrow band, downlink data is transmitted in the first half of the broadband, and uplink data is transmitted in the second half of the broadband.

5, on the next T _PBCH after the T _PBCH, will be the same as or similar to the T _PBCH transmission mode. For example, in the first 0.5ms, PBCH is sent on the broadband. When sending the PBCH, the terminal can re-measure the beam direction determined by the last T _PBCH to improve the accuracy.

In the above example scenario, the overhead of PBCH+SSBI is less than 10% and does not change with the number of users. If the terminal has 16 beams, and each beam training period determines a beam pair direction, then 16 beams use 16 beam training periods, and only 0.5*16=8ms. Beam tracking, beam recovery, and link failure processes can be unified into a beam tracking process. The traversing beam is robust, and SSBI does not rely on control signaling scheduling. The introduction of uplink and downlink decoupling avoids that a large number of time slot resources can only be used as downlink resources.

Of course, the actual application can also set beam training periods of different lengths. For example, one subframe can also be set, then one subframe can complete 96*2=192 SSBIs, that is, indicate 192 beams.

Based on the same concept of the above method embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, an embodiment of the present application further provides a beam management device 600, which is used to perform the operations performed by the network device in the above beam management method, or to perform the above The operation performed by the terminal in the beam management method. The beam management device 600 includes a sending unit 601 and a receiving unit 602. Wherein, when the beam management apparatus 600 is used to perform the operations performed by the network device in the above beam management method:

The sending unit 601 is used to send a beam management message to the terminal in the narrowband area.

The receiving unit 602 is used to receive the uplink signal from the terminal in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth;

The sending unit 601 is also used to send downlink data to the terminal in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth;

The frequency domains of the narrowband area and the broadband area do not overlap, and the narrowband area and the broadband area are located on the same time domain resource.

Optionally, the beam management message includes synchronization signals and beam indication information.

Optionally, the sending unit 601 is configured to send a beam management message to the terminal in the narrowband area on the first subarray;

Optionally, the receiving unit 602 is used to receive uplink signals from the terminal on the second sub-array in the broadband area of the carrier bandwidth; the sending unit 601 is also used on the second sub-array in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth To send downlink data to the terminal.

Optionally, the analog beams sent on the first panel and the second panel are directed independently (or in different directions).

The units of the beam management apparatus 600 are also used to perform other operations performed by the network device in the foregoing method embodiments, and the repetition is not repeated here.

When the beam management apparatus 600 is used to perform the operations performed by the terminal in the above beam management method:

The sending unit 601 is used to send an uplink signal to a network device in a broadband area on a carrier bandwidth, and/or the receiving unit 602 is used to receive downlink data from the network device in a broadband area on a carrier bandwidth.

Wherein, the carrier bandwidth includes the wideband area and the narrowband area, the narrowband area is used to carry a beam management message, and the beam management message includes a synchronization signal and beam indication information.

The receiving unit 602 is also used to detect a beam management message in a narrowband area. The beam management message includes a synchronization signal and beam indication information.

Optionally, the sending unit 601 is used to advance the TA offset according to the timing in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth to send the uplink signal to the network device; where the value of the TA offset is an integer number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM symbols.

Optionally, the OFDM symbol includes a cyclic prefix.

Each unit of the beam management apparatus 600 is also used to perform other operations performed by the terminal in the foregoing method embodiments, and the repetition is not repeated.

Based on the same concept as the above beam management method, as shown in FIG. 7, an embodiment of the present application further provides a beam management apparatus 700, which is used to perform the operation performed by the network device in the above method embodiment, or to Perform the operations performed by the terminal in the above method embodiments. The beam management device 700 includes a transceiver 701, a processor 702, and a memory 703. The memory 703 is optional. The memory 703 is used to store programs executed by the processor 702. When the beam management apparatus 700 is used to implement the operation performed by the network device in the above method embodiment, the processor 702 is used to call a group of programs. When the program is executed, the processor 702 calls the transceiver 701 to execute the above method embodiment Operations performed by network devices. When the beam management device 700 is used to implement the operation performed by the terminal in the above method embodiment, the processor 702 is used to call a group of programs, and when the program is executed, the processor 702 calls the transceiver 701 to execute the above method embodiment The operation performed by the terminal. The function module sending unit 601 and the receiving unit 602 in FIG. 6 may be implemented by the transceiver 601.

The processor 702 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), or a combination of CPU and NP.

The processor 702 may further include a hardware chip. The hardware chip may be an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), or a combination thereof. The above PLD may be a complex programmable logic device (complex programmable logic device, CPLD), a field programmable logic gate array (field-programmable gate array, FPGA), a general array logic (generic array logic, GAL), or any combination thereof.

The memory 703 may include volatile memory (volatile memory), such as random-access memory (RAM); the memory 703 may also include non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as flash memory (flash) memory), hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD); memory 703 may also include a combination of the aforementioned types of memory.

In the beam management method provided by the above embodiments of the present application, part or all of the operations and functions performed by the described network device and terminal may be implemented by a chip or an integrated circuit.

In order to realize the functions of the device described in FIG. 6 or FIG. 7, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, including a processor, for supporting the beam management device 600 and the beam management device 700 to implement the method provided in the above embodiment The functions involved in the terminal and network equipment. In a possible design, the chip is connected to a memory or the chip includes a memory, which is used to store necessary program instructions and data of the device.

An embodiment of the present application provides a computer storage medium that stores a computer program, and the computer program includes instructions for executing the beam management method provided by the foregoing embodiment.

An embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product containing instructions, which, when it runs on a computer, causes the computer to execute the beam method provided by the foregoing embodiment.

Those skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present application may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Moreover, the present application may take the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer usable program code.

This application is described with reference to flowcharts and/or block diagrams of methods, devices (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It should be understood that each flow and/or block in the flowchart and/or block diagram and a combination of the flow and/or block in the flowchart and/or block diagram may be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to the processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, embedded processing machine, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine that enables the generation of instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device A device for realizing the functions specified in one block or multiple blocks of one flow or multiple flows of a flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks of a block diagram.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable memory that can guide a computer or other programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory produce an article of manufacture including an instruction device, the instructions The device implements the functions specified in one block or multiple blocks of the flowchart one flow or multiple flows and/or block diagrams.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device, so that a series of operating steps are performed on the computer or other programmable device to produce computer-implemented processing, which is executed on the computer or other programmable device The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one block or multiple blocks of the flowchart one flow or multiple flows and/or block diagrams.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present application have been described, those skilled in the art can make additional changes and modifications to these embodiments once they learn the basic inventive concept. Therefore, the appended claims are intended to be interpreted as including the preferred embodiments and all changes and modifications falling within the scope of the present application.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to the embodiments of the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. In this way, if these modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalent technologies, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A beam management method, which includes:

The network device sends a beam management message to the terminal in the narrowband area on the carrier bandwidth; and

Receiving broadband signals from the terminal or sending downlink data to the terminal in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth;

Wherein, the narrowband area and the broadband area do not overlap in frequency domain, and the narrowband area and the broadband area are located on the same time domain resource.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the network device sending a beam management message to the terminal in the narrowband area includes: the network device is in the narrowband area on the first subarray to the terminal Send beam management messages;

In the broadband area of the carrier bandwidth of the network device, receiving an uplink signal from the terminal or sending downlink data to the terminal includes: the network device is on the second sub-array and the carrier bandwidth In the broadband area, receive uplink signals from the terminal or send downlink data to the terminal.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 2, wherein the beam management information includes synchronization signals and beam indication information.
The method according to claim 3, wherein the beam indication information includes a beam identification ID and parity information, and the parity information is used to verify the beam ID.
The method of claim 4, wherein the parity information occupies 1 bit.
The method according to claim 3, wherein the beam indication information includes a beam ID and cyclic redundancy CRC check information, and the CRC check information is used to check the beam ID.
The method according to claim 6, wherein the CRC check information occupies 4 bits.
The method according to claim 3, wherein the beam indication information further includes a physical layer broadcast channel PBCH period indication, and the PBCH period indication is used to indicate a period for sending the PBCH.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the method further comprises:

The network device periodically sends a PBCH to the terminal.
The method according to claim 9, wherein the network device periodically sends the PBCH to the terminal includes:

The network device occupies the first M time slots in a cycle to send the PBCH.
The method according to claim 10, characterized in that, in the narrowband area, the beam indication information included in the beam management message sent every M time slots is used to indicate N beams.
A beam management method, which includes:

The terminal sends an upstream signal to the network device in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth, and/or,

The terminal receives downlink data from the network device in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth;

Wherein, the carrier bandwidth includes the wideband area and the narrowband area, and the narrowband area is used to carry beam management messages.
The method according to claim 12, wherein the terminal sending the uplink signal to the network device in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth includes:

The terminal in the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth advances the TA offset according to the timing in advance, and sends an uplink signal to the network device; wherein, the value of the TA offset is an integer number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM symbols.
The method of claim 13, wherein the OFDM symbol includes a cyclic prefix.
A beam management device is characterized by comprising:

A sending unit, configured to send a beam management message to the terminal in a narrow-band area on the carrier bandwidth;

A receiving unit, configured to receive uplink signals from the terminal in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth; the sending unit is further configured to send downlink data to the terminal in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth;

Wherein, the narrowband area and the broadband area do not overlap in frequency domain, and the narrowband area and the broadband area are located on the same time domain resource.
The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the communication unit is configured to send a beam management message to the terminal in the narrowband area on the first subarray;

On the second subarray, in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth, receive an uplink signal from the terminal or send downlink data to the terminal.
The apparatus according to any one of claims 15 to 16, wherein the beam management message includes a synchronization signal and beam indication information.
The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the beam indication information includes a beam identification ID and parity information, and the parity information is used to verify the beam ID.
A beam management device is characterized by comprising:

A sending unit, used to send an upstream signal to a network device in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth, and/or,

A receiving unit, configured to receive downlink data from the network device in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth;

Wherein, the carrier bandwidth includes the wideband area and the narrowband area, the narrowband area is used to carry a beam management message, and the beam management message includes a synchronization signal and beam indication information.
The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the communication unit is further configured to:

In the broadband area on the carrier bandwidth, the TA offset is advanced in advance according to the timing to send an uplink signal to the network device; wherein, the value of the TA offset is an integer number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexed OFDM symbols.
The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the OFDM symbol includes a cyclic prefix.
A beam management device, comprising a transceiver and a processor, the processor is used to execute a group of programs, and when the program is executed, the processor is used to execute any one of claims 1 to 11 The method described;

The transceiver is used to communicate with the terminal, including sending a beam management message to the terminal in the narrowband area, and receiving an uplink signal from the terminal or sending downlink data to the terminal in a broadband area on the carrier bandwidth ;

Wherein, the narrowband area and the broadband area do not overlap in frequency domain, and the narrowband area and the broadband area are located on the same time domain resource.
The device of claim 22, wherein the beam management device is a chip or an integrated circuit.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that computer-readable instructions are stored in the computer storage medium, and when the computer reads and executes the computer-readable instructions, the computer is allowed to execute any one of claims 1 to 14. Item.
A computer program product, characterized in that, when the computer reads and executes the computer program product, the computer is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.