WO2022252985A1

WO2022252985A1 - Beam indication method and apparatus, storage medium, terminal, and network device

Info

Publication number: WO2022252985A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/093518
Authority: WO
Inventors: 雷珍珠; 周化雨
Original assignee: 展讯半导体(南京)有限公司
Priority date: 2021-05-31
Filing date: 2022-05-18
Publication date: 2022-12-08
Also published as: CN115484660A

Abstract

A beam indication method and apparatus, a storage medium, a terminal, and a network device. The method comprises: receiving a wake-up signal sent by a current cell, the wake-up signal comprising indication information indicating that one or more UEs perform beam switching; and determining, according to the indication information, whether to perform beam switching and/or a target beam after switching. According to the present solution, it is possible to prevent a UE performing frequent beam recovery processes due to beam switching, thereby reducing UE energy consumption and signaling overhead

Description

Beam indicating method and device, storage medium, terminal, network equipment

This application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application submitted to the China Patent Office on May 31, 2021, with the application number 202110603024.6, and the title of the invention is "beam indicating method and device, storage medium, terminal, network equipment", the entire content of which is incorporated by reference incorporated in this application.

technical field

The present invention relates to the communication field, in particular to a beam indicating method and device, a storage medium, a terminal, and a network device.

Background technique

In the scenario of non-terrestrial networks (NTN for short), a cell consists of multiple beams. Due to the rapid movement of satellites, user equipment (User Equipment, UE for short) needs to frequently switch beams. Especially in a discontinuous reception (DRX for short) scenario, multiple beam switching may occur in each DRX cycle. In the NTN scenario, due to the rapid movement of satellites, the UE will also switch beams during the DRX dormancy period (DRX-OFF), that is, the activation period (ON-Duration) of the next DRX cycle and the activation period of the previous DRX cycle The corresponding beams (or the index of the Synchronization Signal Block (SSB for short) or the index of the bandwidth part (BWP for short)) are different.

If the UE undergoes frequent beam switching in the DRX scenario, the UE needs to perform frequent beam recovery procedures, which will cause serious power consumption and signaling overhead to the UE.

Contents of the invention

The technical problem solved by the present invention is how to avoid the frequent beam recovery process of the UE due to beam switching in the DRX scenario, thereby saving UE energy consumption and signaling overhead.

In order to solve the above problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides a beam indication method, the method is executed by the current UE, the method includes: receiving a wake-up signal sent by the current cell, the wake-up signal includes instructing one or more UEs to perform Instruction information of beam switching; determining whether to perform beam switching and/or the target beam after switching according to the instruction information.

Optionally, the wake-up signal includes one or more bit blocks corresponding to the UE, the bit block corresponding to each UE carries the indication information of the UE, and determining whether to perform beam switching and/or according to the indication information Or the switched target beam includes: determining whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information carried in the bit block corresponding to the current UE.

Optionally, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field and a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field. If the current UE accesses the network through a satellite, the current UE's secondary cell dormancy indication bit field is used to carry the Describe the indication information of the current UE.

Optionally, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a first indication bit field, and if the current UE accesses the network through a satellite, the secondary cell of the current UE is dormant The indicated bit field and the first indicated bit field of the current UE are used to carry the indication information of the current UE.

Optionally, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a second indication bit field, and the second indication bit field of the current UE is used to carry the current UE's Instructions.

Optionally, the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of beams configured in the current cell.

Optionally, the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of candidate beams associated with the beam where the current UE is located.

Optionally, before receiving the wake-up signal sent by the current cell, the method further includes: receiving configuration information sent by the current cell, the configuration information including all or part of the beams configured in the current cell associated with each beam Information about the candidate beams; determine the target beam according to the indication information and the configuration information.

Optionally, the receiving configuration information sent by the current cell includes: receiving a system message sent by the current cell, where the system message includes the configuration information, and the configuration information includes each Information about candidate beams associated with a beam; wherein, the information about candidate beams associated with each beam configured in the current cell is determined by the network according to the beam distribution and ephemeris information in the coverage area of the current cell.

Optionally, the receiving configuration information sent by the current cell includes: receiving RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling sent by the current cell, where the RRC signaling or the MAC CE signaling includes the configuration information, The configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam in the partial beams configured in the current cell; where the information about the candidate beams associated with each beam in the partial beams configured in the current cell is determined by the network according to the current Determination of beam distribution, ephemeris information and the position of the current UE within the coverage area of the cell.

Optionally, the wake-up signal indicates that the current UE needs to monitor the PDCCH in the active period of the current DRX cycle, and the method further includes: determining a target beam as a receiving beam in the active period according to the indication information.

Optionally, the wake-up signal indicates that the current UE does not need to monitor the PDCCH during the active period of the current DRX cycle, and the method further includes: determining a target beam as a receiving beam for the wake-up signal in the next DRX cycle according to the indication information.

Optionally, the wake-up signal includes DCI format 2_6.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a beam indication method, the method comprising: generating a wake-up signal, the wake-up signal including indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching; sending the wake-up signal so that the received The UE receiving the wake-up signal determines whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information.

Optionally, the wake-up signal includes one or more bit blocks corresponding to the UE, and the indication information of the UE is carried in the bit block corresponding to each UE.

Optionally, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a bit field of a wake-up indication and a bit field of a secondary cell dormancy indication. When the target UE accesses the network through a satellite, the bit field of the secondary cell dormancy indication of the target UE is used for Bear the indication information of the target UE.

Optionally, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a first indication bit field, and when the target UE accesses the network through a satellite, the secondary cell of the target UE is dormant The indicated bit field and the first indicated bit field of the target UE are used to carry the indication information of the target UE.

Optionally, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wakeup indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a second indication bit field, and the second indication bit field of the target UE is used to carry the target UE's Instructions.

Optionally, the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of beams configured in the cell.

Optionally, the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the association relationship between the beam where each UE is located and other beams.

Optionally, before sending the wake-up signal, the method further includes: sending configuration information to one or more UEs, where the configuration information is used for candidate beam information associated with each beam in all or part of the beams in the cell, so that The UE receiving the wake-up signal determines the target beam according to the indication information and the configuration information.

Optionally, the method further includes: determining a candidate beam associated with each beam configured by the cell according to the beam distribution and ephemeris information in the cell coverage area; the sending configuration information to one or more UEs includes: The configuration information is sent through a system message, and the configuration information indicates candidate beam information associated with each beam configured by the cell.

Optionally, the method further includes: determining, for the target UE, candidate beams associated with each beam in all or part of the beams in the cell according to the beam distribution in the coverage area of the cell, the ephemeris information, and the location of the target UE; The sending configuration information to one or more UEs includes: sending the configuration information to the target UE through RRC signaling or MAC CE, and the configuration information indicates to the target UE that each beam in all or part of the beams in the cell Candidate beam information associated with each beam.

Optionally, the wake-up signal indicates that the target UE needs to monitor the PDCCH during the active period of the current DRX cycle, and the target UE determines the target beam as the receiving beam during the active period according to the indication information.

Optionally, the wake-up signal indicates that the target UE does not need to monitor the PDCCH during the active period of the current DRX cycle, and the target UE determines the target beam as a receiving beam for the wake-up signal in the next DRX cycle according to the indication information.

Optionally, the wake-up signal includes DCI format 2_6.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a beam indication device, the device comprising: a wake-up signal receiving module, configured to receive a wake-up signal sent by a current cell, where the wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching; A target beam determining module, configured to determine whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a beam indicating device, the device comprising: a wake-up signal generating module, configured to generate a wake-up signal, the wake-up signal including indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching; a wake-up signal sending module , configured to send the wake-up signal, so that the UE receiving the wake-up signal determines whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a storage medium on which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is run by a processor, any one of the steps of the beam indication method is executed.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a terminal, including the beam indicating device, or including a memory and a processor, the memory stores a computer program that can run on the processor, and the processor runs the The steps of any one of the beam pointing methods are executed when the computer program is used.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a network device, including the beam indicating device, or including a memory and a processor, the memory stores a computer program that can run on the processor, and the processor runs The computer program executes any one of the steps of the beam pointing method.

Compared with the prior art, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention have the following beneficial effects:

In the beam indication method provided by the embodiment of the present invention, the network adds indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching in the wake-up signal, so that the UE that needs to perform beam switching can perform beam switching according to the wake-up signal in time to avoid UE Perform frequent beam recovery process, thereby saving UE power consumption and network signaling overhead.

Further, in the NTN scenario, the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field of each UE in the wake-up signal can be used to indicate the beam (or SSB/BWP) switching of the UE, or several bits can be added to the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field of each UE The bits collectively indicate beam (or SSB/BWP) switching for that UE.

Further, in the existing wake-up signal DCI format 2_6, Y bits can be added to the bit block corresponding to each UE for beam (or SSB/BWP) switching indication.

Further, the number of bits occupied by the indication information can be determined according to the number of beams configured in the current cell, and the target beam after switching can be determined only according to the indication information, and the indication manner is more flexible. However, if the number of beams configured in the cell is large, the indication information may occupy more bits, making the signaling overhead of the wake-up signal larger.

Furthermore, the combination of the candidate beam information associated with each beam in all or part of the beams configured in the cell and the indication information can be used to indicate whether the UE performs beam switching and the target beam after switching, thereby saving the signaling overhead of the indication information .

Further, the UE may be instructed to perform beam switching and the timing of beam switching according to the wake-up indication in the wake-up signal together with the indication information. That is, when the Wake-up indication corresponding to the UE in the wake-up signal indicates that the UE needs to wake up and monitor the PDCCH during the current activation period, the UE determines the receiving beam in the current activation period according to the indication information, that is, The beam on which the PDCCH is received. When the wake-up indication corresponding to the UE in the wake-up signal is used to indicate that the UE does not need to wake up to monitor the PDCCH in the current active period, the UE determines the receiving beam corresponding to the wake-up signal of the next DRX cycle according to the indication information.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a DRX cycle in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a wake-up signal of a DRX cycle in the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of interaction between a UE and a network in an NTN scenario in the prior art;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a beam indicating method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of another beam indicating method according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a beam indicating device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of another beam pointing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed ways

Those skilled in the art should understand that packet-based data flow is usually bursty, and there is data transmission for a period of time, but there is no data transmission for a long period of time in the next period. When there is no data transmission, the power consumption can be reduced by stopping receiving the PDCCH (at this time, the PDCCH blind detection will be stopped), thereby improving the battery life. This is the origin of DRX (Discontinuous Reception, discontinuous reception).

The basic mechanism of DRX is to configure a DRX cycle (cycle) for the UE in the connected (RRC_CONNECTED) state. Please refer to FIG. 1 . FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a DRX cycle in the prior art. It can be seen from FIG. 1 that in the time domain, time is divided into successive DRX cycles (Cycle). Each DRX cycle consists of an On Duration and a Dormancy period (DRX OFF): During the On Duration, the UE monitors and receives the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH for short); during the Dormancy period, the UE does not receive PDCCH to reduce power consumption).

How to configure the DRX cycle needs to consider the balance between battery saving and delay. From one aspect, a long DRX cycle is beneficial to extend the battery life of the UE; for example, during web browsing, when the user is reading a downloaded web page, it is a waste of resources for the UE used by the user to continuously receive downlink data. On the other hand, if new data needs to be transmitted (for example, a user requests another webpage or conducts a VoIP call), a short DRX cycle is beneficial to obtain a faster transmission response in this case. In order to meet the above requirements, each UE can be configured with two DRX cycles: a short DRX cycle (indicated by the parameter shortDRX-Cycle) and a long DRX cycle (indicated by longDRX-Cycle). Optionally, if the short DRX cycle is configured for the UE, the long DRX cycle may be configured as a multiple of the short DRX cycle. But at any moment, the UE can only use one of the configurations, that is, only the configuration of the short DRX cycle or the long DRX cycle. The specific configuration can be as follows: the starting subframe of the DRX cycle is indicated by the parameter drxStartOffset, the parameter longDRX-Cycle specifies how many subframes a long DRX cycle occupies (that is, the number of consecutive "subframes"), and the starting subframe of the long DRX cycle and the number of subframes are determined by the field longDRX-CycleStartOffset. The field onDurationTimer specifies the number of self-frames that need to monitor the PDCCH (that is, the number of consecutive "PDCCH subframes") counted from the start subframe of the DRX cycle.

In order to further save the power consumption of the UE in the connected mode, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3rd Generation Partnership Project, referred to as 3GPP) introduced the wake-up signal (Wake-up Signal, referred to as R16) in the protocol version 16 (Release 16, referred to as R16) WUS), that is, DCI format (format) 2_6. Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a wake-up signal of a DRX cycle in the prior art; the UE monitors the wake-up signal (WUS) before the activation period of each DRX cycle to determine whether it needs to wake up, that is, to determine that the UE Whether to monitor PDCCH during current activation. The wake-up signal is sent in a multicast manner, that is, the wake-up signal received by the UE will include multiple bit blocks corresponding to the UE, and each bit block corresponds to the energy-saving indication information of a UE, and the energy-saving indication information includes the wake-up Wake-up indication and SCell dormancy indication. Specifically, each bit block may include a 1-bit wake-up indication and X-bit secondary sleep indication, where X is a positive integer, and the value of X is determined by the number of secondary cells or the number of secondary cell groups configured by the network.

As mentioned in the background art, in an NTN scenario, a cell may consist of multiple beams. Due to the fast movement of the satellite, the UE needs to perform beam switching frequently. Especially in the DRX scenario, multiple beam switching may occur in each DRX cycle. Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of interaction between a UE and a network (represented by a data network in FIG. 1) in an NTN scenario in the prior art. In an NTN scenario, a satellite (Satellite)/unmanned aerial vehicle system platform (UAS Platform) (hereinafter referred to as satellite) forms a beam coverage area corresponding to a cell on the ground, and the cell can be composed of multiple beams. The UE within the coverage of the cell can transmit signals through the service link (Service link) and the satellite/UAV system platform, and the satellite transmits signals through the feeder link (Feeder link) and the gateway (gateway) to access the data network ( Data Network). In the NTN scenario, satellites operate on a specific orbit, and their movements are regular. The network can determine the current beam of the UE or predict the coverage area of which beam the UE will be in in the future based on the location information and ephemeris information of the UE.

In the existing protocol, there are two methods for beam management in the NTN scenario: Method 1, the network indicates whether the UE needs to perform beam switching and the post-switching The index of the beam, that is, the index of the SSB (in this case, each SSB is associated with a beam). In mode 2, different beams are associated with different BWPs, and the network indicates whether the UE needs to perform BWP switching and the index of the switched BWP through UE-specific downlink control information or high-layer signaling.

During the activation period, the UE can monitor the UE-specific (UE-Specific) PDCCH or the downlink control information (DCI) carried by the PDCCH, or the UE can receive (Media Access Control Control Element, MAC CE for short) Determine the subsequent receive beam (or index of SSB/BWP). In the NTN scenario, due to the rapid movement of satellites, the UE will also switch beams during the dormancy period (DRX-OFF), that is, the beam (or SSB) corresponding to the activation period of the next DRX cycle and the activation period of the previous DRX cycle /BWP index) is different. The current protocol specification is that the UE cannot receive and monitor the UE-specific PDCCH (or the DCI carried by the PDCCH) or receive the MAC CE during the sleep period.

In the existing protocol, in order to solve the above problems, a solution is provided: the UE can monitor the UE-specific PDCCH (or the DCI carried by the PDCCH) or receive the MAC CE during the activation period of the previous DRX cycle, so as to determine the next A DRX cycle receives a wake-up signal (WUS) or a beam (or an index of SSB/BWP) corresponding to the activation period of the next DRX cycle. However, since the WUS may indicate that the UE does not need to wake up and monitor the PDCCH during the current active period, at this time, the UE cannot determine the receiving WUS of the next DRX cycle or the receiving beam corresponding to the active period of the next DRX cycle through the above method ( or SSB/BWP).

An embodiment of the present invention provides a beam indication manner, and the above problem is solved by introducing a beam (or SSB index, BWP index) switching indication bit field into the WUS.

Specifically, please refer to FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a beam indication method according to an embodiment of the present invention; the method is executed by the current UE, and the beam indication method may include: step S401, receiving a wake-up call sent by the current cell signal, the wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching; step S402, determine whether to perform beam switching and/or the target beam after switching according to the indication information.

Wherein, the current UE is a user equipment accessing the current cell, which may be a computer, a mobile phone, a smart watch, or other equipment. The current cell is a cell (Cell) that establishes a connection with the current UE, and the network side communicates with each UE through the network equipment in the current cell. The network equipment may include a base station (such as gNB or eNB, etc.) or an access point (Access Point, Abbreviated as AP) and so on.

The wake-up signal is a signal sent by the cell to one or more UEs before the activation period of each DRX cycle. The UE that receives the wake-up signal can determine whether it needs to wake up according to the wake-up signal, that is, determine whether the UE needs to be in the current Monitor PDCCH during activation.

Optionally, the wake-up signal includes DCI format 2_6, or, the wake-up signal may include other signals capable of implementing the above functions, such as defining a new Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling or broadcast signaling as the wake-up signal.

In the wake-up signal, indication information for instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching may be added, so that the UE receiving the wake-up signal can determine whether it needs to perform beam switching in a period of time in the future according to its corresponding indication information and The switched beam is also the target beam. Among them, the switching of the beam can also be the switching of the SSB index or the switching of the BWP index, so the switching of the beam in this application can also be called the switching of the SSB/BWP index, and the target beam can also correspond to the target SSB/BWP. Optionally, wake up The signal may indicate the index of the target beam or the index of the SSB/BWP.

According to the beam indication method described in FIG. 4 , the network adds indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching in the wake-up signal, so that the UE that needs to perform beam switching can perform beam switching according to the wake-up signal in time, so as to prevent the UE from performing beam switching. The frequent beam recovery process improves the communication quality between the UE and the network.

In one embodiment, the wake-up signal includes one or more bit blocks corresponding to the UE, and the bit block corresponding to each UE carries the indication information of the UE. In step S402, it is determined according to the indication information whether to perform The beam switching and/or the switched target beam includes: determining whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information carried in the bit block corresponding to the current UE.

Taking the existing wake-up signal DCI format 2_6 as an example, the DCI format 2_6 contains bit blocks corresponding to multiple UEs, and each bit block corresponds to energy-saving indication information of a UE, and the energy-saving indication information includes wake-up indication (Wake-up indication) and secondary cell dormancy indication (SCell dormancy indication). Specifically, each bit block may include a 1-bit wake-up indication and X-bit secondary sleep indication, where X is a positive integer, and the value of X is determined by the number of secondary cells or the number of secondary cell groups configured by the network. The indication information can be carried by using the unused bits in the bit blocks of each UE contained in the existing DCI format 2_6, or adding the bit blocks of each UE in the existing DCI format 2_6 for carrying the Indicates the bit field of the information (that is, several bits).

In one embodiment, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a bit field of a wake-up indication and a bit field of a secondary cell dormancy indication. If the current UE accesses the network through satellite, the bit field of the secondary cell dormancy indication of the current UE is used for Bear the indication information of the current UE.

In the design of the wake-up signal DCI format 2_6 in the existing terrestrial network, a maximum of 5 bits in the bit block corresponding to each UE can be used for the dormancy indication of the secondary cell. In the NTN scenario, since carrier aggregation is not supported, the secondary cell dormancy indication corresponding to each UE in DCI format 2_6 is invalid. The present invention is specific to the NTN network, so the secondary cell dormancy indication field in DCI format 2_6 can be directly used to instruct the UE to perform beam (or BWP/SSB) switching and the target beam after switching.

Specifically, when the UE accesses communication through the land network, the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field in DCI format 2_6 is used to indicate whether each secondary cell is dormant or not, that is, the UE can ignore the bit corresponding to the indication information, And by receiving DCI format 2_6, determine which small secondary cells/secondary cell groups are in the dormant state according to the value of the dormancy indication bit field of the secondary cell in the corresponding bit block. When the UE accesses communication through NTN, the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field in DCI format 2_6 is used to indicate the switching indication of the beam (SSB/BWP) and the index of the target beam (or SSB/BWP), that is, the UE can pass DC1 Format The bit field of the secondary cell dormancy indication in 2_6 determines whether the beam (or SSB/BWP) and the target beam (or SSB/BWP) need to be switched. Further, if the bits in the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field of each UE in the existing DC1 Format 2_6 are not enough to carry the indication information of the UE, several bits may be added in the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field of the UE, These added bits are the first indication bit field. Wherein, the number of bits in the first bit field is equal to the number of bits occupied by the indication information minus the number of bits occupied by the dormancy indication of the secondary cell.

Optionally, the indication information of the bit field of the wake-up indication (Wake-up indication) in DCI format 2_6 may not be changed.

In this embodiment, in the subsequent description, in the NTN scenario, the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field or the secondary cell dormancy indication bit field and the first indication bit field of each UE in DCI format 2_6 may be called a beam (or SSB/BWP ) to switch the indication bit field.

In this embodiment, the SCell dormancy indication bit field of each UE in the NTN wake-up signal may be used or several bits may be added in the SCell dormancy indication bit field to carry the beam switching indication information of each UE.

In one embodiment, the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a second indication bit field, and the second indication bit field of the current UE is used to carry the current Indication information of the UE.

For the existing wake-up signal DCI format 2_6, Y bits are added to the bit block corresponding to each UE for beam (or SSB/BWP) switching instructions, where Y is a positive integer, and the Y bit is the second The indication bit field, or may also be referred to as the beam (or SSB/BWP) switching indication bit field.

It should be noted that if new RRC signaling or broadcast signaling is defined as a wake-up signal, the structure of the wake-up signal can refer to the modification method of DCI format 2_6. For example, in the wake-up signal of broadcast signaling, define a or Bit blocks corresponding to multiple UEs carry indication information of each UE. In the wake-up signal of the RRC signaling, several bits are defined to carry the indication information of the UE receiving the RRC signaling.

In an embodiment, the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of beams configured in the current cell.

The number of bits occupied by the indication information is represented by Y, and the value of Y may be determined according to the number of beams (or the number of SSBs/BWPs) configured in the cell. The network can determine the value of Y according to the number of beams (or SSB/BWP) configured in the current cell, and the UE side can also determine the value of Y according to the number of beams (or SSB/BWP) configured in the current cell. For example, the number of beams (or SSB/BWP) configured in the current cell is N, where N is a positive integer, then Y=N. Each bit of the indication information corresponds to a beam (or SSB/BWP), and when the value of a bit is set to 1 (or 0), it indicates that the target beam (or SSB/BWP) after switching is the beam corresponding to the bit. For another example, the value of Y can be expressed by the following formula:

Among them, Y is the number of bits occupied by the indication information, N is the number of beams configured in the current cell, log ₂ () means to find the logarithm of the value in the brackets with the base 2,

is the round up symbol. Specifically, assuming that the cell is configured with 3 beams, the value of Y is:

Further, the indication method of the two bits may be: "00" indicates that the beam does not need to be switched, "01" indicates the switching instruction beam 1 (denoted as beam1), and "10" indicates switching to beam 2 (denoted as beam2), "11" indicates switching to beam 3 (referred to as beam3). Assuming that the cell is configured with 8 beams, the value of Y is:

Further, the indication method of the 4 bits can be as follows: "0000" indicates that there is no need to switch beams, "0001" indicates switching to beam 1 (denoted as beam1), and "0010" indicates switching to beam 2 (denoted as beam2) , "0011" indicates switching to beam 3 (denoted as beam3), ..., and so on.

It should be noted that any method for determining the number of bits occupied by the indication information according to the number of beams configured in the current cell belongs to the protection scope of the present invention, including but not limited to the above examples.

The indication method of this embodiment can determine the target beam after switching only according to the indication information, and the indication mode is more flexible. However, if the number of beams configured in the cell is large, the indication information may occupy more bits, so that the signal of the wake-up signal Make the cost larger.

In an embodiment, the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of candidate beams associated with the beam where the current UE is located.

Generally speaking, when each UE performs beam switching, the beams before and after the switching are adjacent beams or beams with relatively close distances to each other. An association relationship between different beams may be established according to an adjacent relationship or a distance relationship between beams. Other beams that are associated with the beam where the current UE is located may be selected as target beams after switching, and other beams that are associated with the beam where the current UE is located are recorded as candidate beams. Optionally, the indication information may indicate one of the candidate beams as the target beam, and the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of candidate beams. For example, the value of Y can be expressed by the following formula:

Among them, Y is the number of bits occupied by the indication information, M is the number of candidate beams, log2() means to find the logarithm of the value in the brackets with the base 2,

is the round up sign. Specifically, it is assumed that the number of beams configured in the current cell is 8 (denoted as beam 1 to beam 3), and there are 3 candidate beams associated with the beam where the current UE is located, and the 3 candidate beams are respectively beam 1, beam 2 and beam 3. Beam 3, the value of Y is:

Further, the indication mode of the two bits may be: "00" indicates that beam switching is not required, "01" indicates switching to beam 1, "10" indicates switching to beam 2, and "11" indicates switching to beam 3. It should be noted that the corresponding relationship between each bit of the indication information and the candidate beams may also adopt other corresponding manners, which will not be repeated here. . Optionally, each beam is represented by an index (such as an identification number) corresponding to the beam, and an association relationship between different beams is represented by an association relationship of indexes of different beams.

Optionally, please refer to FIG. 4 again, before step S401 receiving the wake-up signal sent by the current cell, the method further includes: receiving configuration information sent by the current cell, the configuration information including all or Information about candidate beams associated with each beam in the partial beams; determining the target beam according to the indication information and the configuration information.

Further, the information of the candidate beams associated with each beam may be an index set or list of candidate beams associated with the beam.

Optionally, the current cell can send the information of the candidate beams associated with each beam in all the beams configured in the cell to the UE through configuration information. The target beam is determined as one of the candidate beams associated with the beam where the UE is before handover, so that the UE determines the target beam according to the indication information and the configuration information. At this time, the configuration information may be sent through broadcast signaling, for example, the current cell sends to each UE in the cell through a system message (such as SIB1, etc.).

Optionally, the receiving configuration information sent by the current cell includes: receiving RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling sent by the current cell, where the RRC signaling or the MAC CE signaling includes the configuration information, The configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam in the partial beams configured in the current cell; where the information about the candidate beams associated with each beam in the partial beams configured in the current cell is covered by the network according to the current cell Beam distribution in the area, ephemeris information and the location of the current UE are determined.

Optionally, the current cell may only configure the information of the candidate beams associated with the beams that the UE can use for the UE, instead of sending all the information of the candidate beams associated with all the beams configured in this cell to the UE. At this time, the configuration information received by different UEs may be different, and the configuration information may be carried by RC signaling or MAC CE. Further, the network may configure the UE with indexes of each beam it needs through system information.

At this time, the network can determine the value of Y according to the number of beam indexes in the index list of candidate beams associated with the current beam index of the UE, that is, determine that the UE carries The number of bits of the indication information. On the UE side, the UE determines the value of Y according to the same method, so as to decode the indication information carried in the wake-up signal. Wherein, the current beam of the UE refers to the beam corresponding to the UE receiving the wake-up signal.

In a specific embodiment, it is assumed that there are 4 beams in the current cell: represented by beam1, beam2, beam3, and beam4 respectively, and the association relationship between the 4 beams is as follows: the beam associated with beam1: beam2, beam3; the beam associated with beam2 : beam3, beam4; beams associated with beam3: beam1, beam2; beams associated with beam4: beam1, beam3. The network configures the above-mentioned association relationship list between beams to the UE through the system information, and the UE determines that the number of bits of the indication information in the corresponding bit block in DCI Format 2_6 is 2 bits through the number of beams associated with each beam. Assuming that the UE has received DCI format 2_6 within the coverage of beam1, the meaning of the bit field value of the indication information in the corresponding bit block of the UE can be as follows: 00 indicates that beam switching is not performed, 01 indicates switching to beam2, and 10 indicates switching to beam3 .

By combining the association relationship between the beams and the indication information to indicate whether the UE performs beam switching and the target beam after switching, the signaling overhead of the indication information can be saved.

In one embodiment, the wake-up signal indicates that the current UE needs to monitor the PDCCH during the active period of the current DRX cycle, and the method further includes: determining the target beam as the receiving beam during the active period according to the indication information .

Wherein, the current activation period is the activation period (on duration) of the current DRX cycle. The UE determines whether it needs to switch beams by receiving the wake-up signal. Specifically, when the wake-up indication corresponding to the UE in the wake-up signal indicates that the UE needs to wake up to monitor the PDCCH in the current activation period, then the UE determines the receiving beam in the current activation period, that is, the beam for receiving the PDCCH according to the indication information.

When the wake-up indication corresponding to the UE in the wake-up signal indicates that the UE does not need to wake up to monitor the PDCCH during the current activation period, the UE determines the receiving beam corresponding to the wake-up signal of the next DRX cycle according to the indication information.

In this embodiment, the UE may be instructed to perform beam switching and the timing of beam switching according to the wake-up indication and the indication information in the wake-up signal.

Please refer to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of another beam indication method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The method is executed by a network device (such as a base station or an AP, etc.) of the current cell, and includes: step S501, generating a wake-up signal, The wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching; step S502, sending the wake-up signal, so that the UE receiving the wake-up signal determines whether to perform beam switching and/or according to the indication information Switched target beam.

Optionally, the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of candidate beams associated with the beam where each UE is located.

Optionally, before sending the wake-up signal, the method further includes: sending configuration information to one or more UEs, where the configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam in all or part of the configured beams, so that The UE receiving the wake-up signal determines the target beam according to the indication information and the configuration information.

Optionally, the method further includes: according to the beam distribution and ephemeris information in the coverage area of the cell, determining the information of the candidate beams associated with each beam configured by the cell; sending the configuration information to one or more UEs, The method includes: sending the configuration information through a system message, where the configuration information includes the information of the candidate beam associated with the cell.

Optionally, the method further includes: according to the beam distribution, ephemeris information and the position of the target UE in the coverage area of the cell, determining information about candidate beams associated with each beam in the configured partial beams; Sending configuration information to multiple UEs includes: sending the configuration information to the target UE through RRC signaling or MAC CE, where the configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam in the partial beams configured in the current cell.

Optionally, the wake-up signal includes DCI format 2_6.

The beam indication method described in FIG. 5 is executed corresponding to each step in the method in FIG. 4 . For more details about the working principle and working mode of the method described in FIG. 5 , you can refer to the method in FIG. 4 about the current cell or network or network equipment. The related descriptions will not be repeated here.

Referring to FIG. 6, the embodiment of the present invention also provides a beam indicating device 60, including: a wake-up signal receiving module 601, configured to receive a wake-up signal sent by the current cell, the wake-up signal includes instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching the indication information; the target beam determining module 602, configured to determine whether to perform beam switching and/or the target beam after switching according to the indication information.

The beam indicating device 60 may be built in or externally coupled to the UE. For more details about the working principle and working mode of the beam indicating device 60 , refer to the relevant description of the method in FIG. 4 , which will not be repeated here.

In a specific implementation, the above-mentioned beam pointing device 60 may correspond to a chip with a beam pointing function in user equipment, or a chip with a data processing function, such as a System-On-a-Chip (SOC), baseband A chip, etc.; or corresponding to a chip module including a chip with a beam pointing function in the UE; or corresponding to a chip module with a chip with a data processing function, or corresponding to the UE.

Referring to FIG. 7 , the embodiment of the present invention also provides a beam indicating device 70, including: a wake-up signal generating module 701, configured to generate a wake-up signal, and the wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching; The wake-up signal sending module 702 is configured to send the wake-up signal, so that the UE receiving the wake-up signal determines whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information.

The beam pointing device 70 may be built in or externally coupled to the network device. For more information on the working principle and working mode of the beam pointing device 70, refer to the relevant description of the method in FIG. 5 , and details will not be repeated here.

In a specific implementation, the above-mentioned beam indicating device 70 may correspond to a chip having a beam indicating function in a network device, or to a chip having a data processing function, such as a system-on-a-chip (System-On-a-Chip, SOC), baseband Chips, etc.; or corresponding to a chip module including a chip with a beam pointing function in a network device; or corresponding to a chip module with a chip with a data processing function, or corresponding to a network device.

An embodiment of the present invention also provides a storage medium on which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is run by a processor, the steps of the method described in any one of FIG. 4 or FIG. 5 are executed. The storage medium may be a computer-readable storage medium, for example, may include a non-volatile memory (non-volatile) or a non-transitory (non-transitory) memory, and may also include an optical disk, a mechanical hard disk, a solid-state hard disk, and the like.

The embodiment of the present invention also provides a terminal. The terminal may include the beam indicating device 60 described in FIG. 6 , or the terminal may include a memory and a processor, the memory stores a computer program that can run on the processor, and the processor runs the When the computer program is described, the steps of the beam indicating method described in the item of FIG. 4 are executed.

The embodiment of the present invention also provides a network device, the network device includes the beam indicating device 70 shown in Fig. 7, or the network device includes a memory and a processor, and the memory stores the A running computer program, the processor executes the steps of the beam indicating method in FIG. 5 when running the computer program.

Specifically, in the embodiment of the present invention, the processor may be a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, referred to as CPU), and the processor may also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processor, referred to as DSP) ), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC for short), off-the-shelf programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA for short) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or the processor may be any conventional processor, or the like.

It should also be understood that the memory in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory can be read-only memory (read-only memory, referred to as ROM), programmable read-only memory (programmable ROM, referred to as PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (erasable PROM, referred to as EPROM) , Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (electrically EPROM, referred to as EEPROM) or flash memory. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, many forms of random access memory (RAM) are available, such as static random access memory (static RAM (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic random access memory (synchronous DRAM, referred to as SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double data rate SDRAM, referred to as DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (enhanced SDRAM, referred to as ESDRAM), Synchronously connect dynamic random access memory (synchlink DRAM, referred to as SLDRAM) and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, referred to as DR RAM).

It should be understood that the term "and/or" in this article is only an association relationship describing associated objects, which means that there may be three relationships, for example, A and/or B may mean: A exists alone, and A and B exist at the same time , there are three cases of B alone. In addition, the character "/" in this article indicates that the contextual objects are an "or" relationship.

"Multiple" appearing in the embodiments of the present application means two or more.

The first, second, etc. descriptions that appear in the embodiments of this application are only for illustration and to distinguish the description objects. Any limitations of the examples.

The "connection" in the embodiment of the present application refers to various connection methods such as direct connection or indirect connection to realize communication between devices, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Although the present invention is disclosed above, the present invention is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, so the protection scope of the present invention should be based on the scope defined in the claims.

Claims

A beam indication method, characterized in that the method is performed by a current UE, and the method includes:

receiving a wake-up signal sent by the current cell, where the wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching;

Whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam is determined according to the indication information.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the wake-up signal includes one or more bit blocks corresponding to the UE, and the bit block corresponding to each UE carries the indication information of the UE, and the Indication information to determine whether to perform beam switching and/or the target beam after switching, including:

Whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam is determined according to the indication information carried in the bit block corresponding to the current UE.
The method according to claim 2, wherein the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a bit field of a wake-up indication and a bit field of a secondary cell dormancy indication, and if the current UE accesses the network through a satellite, the secondary cell of the current UE The bit field of the dormancy indication is used to carry the indication information of the current UE.
The method according to claim 2, wherein the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a first indication bit field, and if the current UE accesses the network through a satellite, Then the bit field of the secondary cell dormancy indication of the current UE and the first indication bit field of the current UE are used to carry the indication information of the current UE.
The method according to claim 2, wherein the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wakeup indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a second indication bit field, and the second indication bit field of the current UE The field is used to bear the indication information of the current UE.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of beams configured in the current cell.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of candidate beams associated with the beam where the current UE is located.
The method according to claim 7, wherein before receiving the wake-up signal sent by the current cell, the method further comprises:

receiving configuration information sent by the current cell, where the configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam in all or part of the beams configured in the current cell;

Determine the target beam according to the indication information and the configuration information.
The method according to claim 8, wherein the receiving configuration information sent by the current cell comprises:

Receive a system message sent by the current cell, where the system message includes the configuration information, and the configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam configured in the current cell;

Wherein, information about candidate beams associated with each beam configured in the current cell is determined by the network according to beam distribution and ephemeris information in the coverage area of the current cell.
The method according to claim 8, wherein the receiving configuration information sent by the current cell comprises:

Receive the RRC signaling or MAC CE sent by the current cell, the RRC signaling or the MAC CE signaling includes the configuration information, and the configuration information includes the information associated with each beam in the partial beams configured by the current cell Candidate beam information;

Wherein, the information of the candidate beams associated with each of the partial beams configured in the current cell is determined by the network according to the beam distribution in the coverage area of the current cell, ephemeris information and the location of the current UE.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the wake-up signal indicates that the current UE needs to monitor the PDCCH during the activation period of the current DRX cycle, and the method further comprises:

Determine the target beam as the receiving beam in the activation period according to the indication information.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the wake-up signal indicates that the current UE does not need to monitor the PDCCH during the activation period of the current DRX cycle, and the method further comprises:

The target beam is determined according to the indication information as the receiving beam of the wake-up signal in the next DRX cycle.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the wake-up signal comprises DCI format 2_6.
A beam indication method, characterized in that the method comprises:

generating a wake-up signal, where the wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching;

Sending the wake-up signal, so that the UE receiving the wake-up signal determines whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information.
The method according to claim 14, wherein the wake-up signal includes one or more bit blocks corresponding to the UE, and the indication information of the UE is carried in the bit block corresponding to each UE.
The method according to claim 15, wherein the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a bit field of a wake-up indication and a bit field of a secondary cell dormancy indication, and when the target UE accesses the network through a satellite, the target UE's The bit field of the secondary cell dormancy indication is used to carry the indication information of the target UE.
The method according to claim 15, wherein the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field and a first indication bit field, when the target UE accesses the network through a satellite The bit field of the secondary cell dormancy indication of the target UE and the first indication bit field of the target UE are used to carry indication information of the target UE.
The method according to claim 15, wherein the bit block corresponding to each UE includes a wake-up indication bit field, a secondary cell dormancy indication bit field, and a second indication bit field, and the second indication bit field of the target UE The field is used to bear the indication information of the target UE.
The method according to any one of claims 14 to 18, wherein the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of beams configured in the cell.
The method according to any one of claims 14 to 18, wherein the number of bits occupied by the indication information is determined according to the number of candidate beams associated with the beam where each UE is located.
The method according to claim 20, wherein before sending the wake-up signal, the method further comprises:

Send configuration information to one or more UEs, where the configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam in all or part of the configured beams, so that the UE receiving the wake-up signal The configuration information is used to determine the target beam.
The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

According to the beam distribution and ephemeris information in the coverage area of the cell, determine the information of the candidate beam associated with each beam configured by the cell;

The sending configuration information to one or more UEs includes:

The configuration information is sent through a system message, where the configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam configured by the cell.
The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

According to the beam distribution in the cell coverage area, the ephemeris information and the position of the target UE, determine the information of the candidate beams associated with each beam in the configured partial beams;

The sending configuration information to one or more UEs includes:

Send the configuration information to the target UE through RRC signaling or MAC CE, where the configuration information includes information about candidate beams associated with each beam in the partial beams configured in the current cell.
The method according to claim 14, wherein the wake-up signal indicates that the target UE needs to monitor the PDCCH during the active period of the current DRX cycle, and the target UE determines the target beam as the active period within the active period according to the indication information. the receiving beam.
The method according to claim 14, wherein the wake-up signal indicates that the target UE does not need to monitor the PDCCH during the active period of the current DRX cycle, and the target UE determines the target beam as the next DRX cycle according to the indication information The receive beam of the inner wake-up signal.
The method according to claim 14, wherein the wake-up signal comprises DCI format 2_6.
A beam pointing device, characterized in that the device comprises:

A wake-up signal receiving module, configured to receive a wake-up signal sent by the current cell, where the wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching;

A target beam determining module, configured to determine whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information.
A beam pointing device, characterized in that the device comprises:

A wake-up signal generating module, configured to generate a wake-up signal, where the wake-up signal includes indication information instructing one or more UEs to perform beam switching;

A wake-up signal sending module, configured to send the wake-up signal, so that the UE receiving the wake-up signal determines whether to perform beam switching and/or the switched target beam according to the indication information.
A storage medium on which a computer program is stored, wherein the computer program executes the steps of any one of claims 1 to 13 or any one of claims 14 to 26 when the computer program is run by a processor.
A terminal, comprising the device according to claim 27, or comprising a memory and a processor, the memory stores a computer program that can run on the processor, wherein the processor runs the When the computer program is described, the steps of the method described in any one of claims 1 to 13 are executed.
A network device, comprising the apparatus according to claim 28, or comprising a memory and a processor, the memory stores a computer program that can run on the processor, wherein the processor runs The computer program executes the steps of the method according to any one of claims 14 to 26.