WO2023087831A1

WO2023087831A1 - Communication method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2023087831A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/115217
Authority: WO
Inventors: 高鑫; 刘梦婷; 余政; 刘道明; 王寿林
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2021-11-17
Filing date: 2022-08-26
Publication date: 2023-05-25
Also published as: CN116156522A

Abstract

The present application relates to a communication method and apparatus. A terminal device receives a downlink control channel from an access network device, the downlink control channel indicating that the type of system information is a first type or a second type; the first type of system information comprises positioning information, and the second type of system information does not comprise positioning information, the positioning information comprising information used for configuring an uplink reference signal. If the downlink control channel indicates that the type of the system information is the first type, the terminal device detects the system information. The terminal device sends an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information. By means of the solution provided in embodiments of the present application, the communication processes such as random access that the terminal device originally needs to perform before being positioned are reduced, and the process of positioning can be simplified. Moreover, because the communication processes that the terminal device needs to perform are reduced, no random access-related code needs to be placed inside the terminal device, such that the storage space of the terminal device can be reduced, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal device.

Description

A communication method and device

Cross References to Related Applications

This application claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on November 17, 2021, with application number 202111359800.9, and application title "A Communication Method and Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application middle.

technical field

The present application relates to the technical field of communication, and in particular to a communication method and device.

Background technique

In the latest 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standard, multiple positioning technologies are supported, including uplink-time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) positioning technology based on the uplink.

For the UL-TDOA positioning technology, the base station needs to measure the reference signal of the uplink, such as measuring the arrival time of the sounding reference signal (SRS) received from the user equipment (user equipment, UE), and the positioning management function ( location management function, LMF) and then locate the UE according to the measurement results of the base station. The positioning process under UL-TDOA technology generally goes through the following steps: first, the LMF requests SRS configuration information from the serving base station of the UE to be located, and the serving base station feeds back the SRS configuration information to the LMF, and sends the SRS configuration information to the UE; Then the LMF indicates the SRS configuration information to other base stations; the LMF requests measurement from each base station that has obtained the SRS configuration information, and these base stations start to receive the SRS from the UE after receiving the instruction from the LMF, and measure the arrival time of the SRS; finally, these base stations will The measurement results are reported to the LMF, and the LMF uses the received measurement results to estimate the location of the UE.

The current positioning UE needs to support both the 3GPP communication function and the positioning function, and the UE needs to establish a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) connection with the base station before it can be positioned. It can be seen that the current positioning process is not conducive to saving the power consumption of the UE.

Contents of the invention

Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and device, which are used to save power consumption of terminal equipment.

In the first aspect, a first communication method is provided, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by other devices including the functions of the terminal device, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can realize the functions of the terminal device function, the chip system or functional module is, for example, set in a terminal device. The method includes: receiving a downlink control channel from an access network device, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, the The first type of system information includes positioning information, the second type of system information does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring uplink reference signals; if the downlink control channel indicates the system information The type is the first type, detecting the system information; sending an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information.

In the embodiment of the present application, the positioning information used to configure the uplink reference signal may be included in the system information, the terminal device can obtain the positioning information by receiving the system information, and the terminal device can send the uplink to the access network device after obtaining the positioning information. Reference signal without random access, in other words, the terminal device can send an uplink reference signal to the access network device without random access, so that the network can locate the terminal device. Through the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the communication procedures such as random access that the terminal device originally needs to perform before being positioned are reduced, and the positioning process can be simplified. Moreover, since the communication process that the terminal device needs to execute is reduced, there is no need to insert random access-related codes inside the terminal device, thereby reducing the storage space of the terminal device, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal device. In addition, the system information including positioning information is the first type. For example, the first type of system information may not include the public configuration information of the cell included in the traditional system information, but only includes positioning-related information (such as positioning information ), which can reduce the capacity of the first type of system information, save transmission overhead, and also reduce the code complexity of the terminal device, thereby saving the storage space of the terminal device, and finally the terminal device can achieve positioning with lower power consumption , prolonging the service life of the terminal equipment.

In an optional implementation manner, the system information further includes information for evaluating whether the terminal device is allowed to access a cell, and/or UAC information. For example, the system information is SIB1, or it may be other system information.

In an optional implementation manner, the downlink control channel further indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, including: the downlink control channel carries downlink control information, and the downlink control information includes information used to indicate that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type; or, the scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is the first sequence, used to indicate that the type of the system information is The first type, or, the scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a second sequence, which is used to indicate that the type of the system information is the second type. The downlink control channel may indicate the type of the system information through information indicating the type of the system information, and the terminal device can specify the type of the system information according to the information indicating the type of the system information, and the indication method is relatively clear. Alternatively, the downlink control channel may also indicate the type of system information through a scrambling sequence, without additional information for indication, which is beneficial to save signaling overhead.

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: sending an identifier of the terminal device on an uplink channel configured by the system information, where the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel or an uplink shared channel. In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device does not perform random access. If the terminal device directly requests positioning or directly sends an uplink reference signal, the network may not be able to identify the identity of the terminal device. Therefore, the terminal device can send the identifier of the terminal device to the access network device, so that the network can clarify the identity of the terminal device, and thus locate the terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink channel includes the uplink control channel, and the uplink control channel is used to request positioning; or, the uplink channel includes the uplink shared channel, and the method further includes: Send request information to the access network device, where the request information is used to request positioning. If the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel, the uplink control channel can also be used to request positioning in addition to carrying the identifier of the terminal device. For example, the format of the uplink control channel is the first format, and the uplink control channel in the first format can be used to request positioning. If the access network device receives the uplink control channel in the first format, it can be determined that there is a terminal device requesting positioning, and then According to the identification of the terminal equipment carried by the uplink control channel, the identity of the terminal equipment requesting positioning can be determined. The uplink control channel is used to request positioning in addition to carrying the identity of the terminal device, so that the terminal device does not need to send additional information for requesting positioning, which can save signaling overhead. If the uplink channel includes an uplink shared channel, the terminal device may also send request information to the access network device to request positioning, so that the access network device can clarify the purpose of the terminal device sending the identifier.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink reference signal is determined according to an identifier of the terminal device. The terminal device can determine the uplink reference signal according to the identifier of the terminal device, and the terminal device also sends the identifier of the terminal device to the access network device, and the access network device can also determine the uplink reference signal according to the identifier of the terminal device, so that it can correctly Detect the uplink reference signal. In this manner, the access network device does not need to configure an uplink reference signal for the terminal device, which reduces the amount of information configured by the access network device and saves signaling overhead. Moreover, both the access network device and the terminal device can determine the uplink reference signal according to the identifier of the terminal device, so that the uplink reference signals determined by the access network device and the terminal device are consistent, and the detection success rate of the access network device is improved.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink reference signal is determined according to an identifier of the terminal device and the positioning information. The uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the terminal equipment, for example, including different situations. In one situation, the uplink reference signal can be determined solely according to the identity of the terminal equipment without referring to other information; in another situation, the uplink reference signal can be Determined according to the identity of the terminal equipment and other information, one type of other information is, for example, configuration information of an uplink reference signal. It can be seen that the way of determining the uplink reference signal is relatively flexible.

In an optional implementation manner, the positioning information includes one or more of the following: bandwidth information of the uplink reference signal, period of the uplink reference signal, number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal, Or, the comb-tooth information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain. The configuration information of the uplink reference signal can configure various parameters related to the uplink reference signal. The above are just a few examples. In addition to the above parameters, the configuration information can also configure other parameters of the uplink reference signal.

In an optional implementation manner, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is the same as the identifier of the terminal device; or, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is obtained by moduloing the identifier of the terminal device; Or, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is part of the identifier of the terminal device. The uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal equipment, for example, includes that the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal equipment. There may be many ways to determine, which are more flexible.

In an optional implementation manner, the time domain position and/or the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device. The uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the terminal equipment, for example, includes determining the time domain position and/or the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the terminal equipment. It can be understood that the determination of the uplink reference signal according to the identifier of the terminal device may include that the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device, and/or the time domain position and/or the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the terminal device's Identification is OK.

In an optional implementation manner, the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located, and the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device Yes, the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located within one system frame. The number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located can be determined according to the identifier of the terminal device, so that both the terminal device and the access network device can determine the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located according to the identifier of the terminal device, and the access network device can be in the correct time slot to detect the uplink reference signal. In addition, the time slots of the uplink reference signals are determined according to the identification of the terminal equipment, and the time slots of the uplink reference signals sent by different terminal equipment may be different, thereby reducing the interference between the uplink reference signals.

In an optional implementation manner, the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes a start symbol of the uplink reference signal, where the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is based on the number of the terminal device identified by the identifier and first information, where the first information includes the number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal and/or the number of symbols included in a time slot. The number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identifier of the terminal device and the first information, so that both the terminal device and the access network device can determine the start symbol of the uplink reference signal according to the identifier of the terminal device and the first information, and then The network access device can detect the uplink reference signal on the correct symbol. Moreover, the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal equipment, and the start symbol of the uplink reference signal sent by different terminal equipment may be different, thereby reducing the interference between the uplink reference signals.

In an optional implementation manner, the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the frequency domain starting position of the uplink reference signal, and the number of the subcarrier where the frequency domain starting position of the uplink reference signal is located is It is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device and the comb tooth information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain. The starting position of the frequency domain of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identifier of the terminal device, so that both the terminal device and the access network device can determine the starting position of the frequency domain of the uplink reference signal according to the identifier of the terminal device, and the access network device can correctly The uplink reference signal is detected at the frequency domain position of . In addition, the starting position of the frequency domain of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal equipment, and the frequency domain positions of the uplink reference signals sent by different terminal equipment may be different, thereby reducing the interference between the uplink reference signals.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink reference signal is a positioning SRS or a ranging SRS. The uplink reference signal in the embodiment of the present application may be a positioning-specific reference signal or a ranging-specific reference signal, that is, the uplink reference signal is used for positioning or ranging. Alternatively, the embodiment of the present application may not limit the use of the uplink reference signal. The uplink reference signal is, for example, an SRS, or may also be other reference signals in the uplink direction.

In an optional implementation manner, the terminal device is only used for positioning. In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be a positioning-specific terminal device, for example, the terminal device only needs positioning and has no other needs such as communication. Alternatively, the terminal device may also be a common terminal device, which is not specifically limited.

In the second aspect, a second communication method is provided, which can be performed by an access network device, or by other devices including access network device functions, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can To realize the function of the access network device, the chip system or the functional module is set in the access network device, for example. The access network device is, for example, a base station. The method includes: sending a downlink control channel, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, and the system information of the first type The information includes positioning information, the second type of system information does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; sending the system information; if the type of the system information is the The first type is to receive an uplink reference signal from a terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the system information further includes information for evaluating whether the terminal device is allowed to access a cell, and/or UAC information.

In an optional implementation manner, the downlink control channel further indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, including: the downlink control channel carries downlink control information, and the downlink control information includes information used to indicate that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type; or, the scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is the first sequence, used to indicate that the type of the system information is The first type, or, the scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a second sequence, which is used to indicate that the type of the system information is the second type.

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: sending an identifier of the terminal device on an uplink channel configured by the fifth information, where the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel or an uplink shared channel.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink channel includes the uplink control channel, and the uplink control channel is used to request positioning; or, the uplink channel includes the uplink shared channel, and the method further includes: Receive request information from the terminal device, where the request information is used to request positioning.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink reference signal is determined according to an identifier of the terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device and the positioning information.

In an optional implementation manner, the positioning information includes one or more of the following: bandwidth information of the uplink reference signal, period of the uplink reference signal, number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal, Or, the comb-tooth information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain.

In an optional implementation manner, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is the same as the identifier of the terminal device; or, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is obtained by moduloing the identifier of the terminal device; Or, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is part of the identifier of the terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the time domain position and/or the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located, and the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device Yes, the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located within one system frame.

In an optional implementation manner, the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes a start symbol of the uplink reference signal, where the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is based on the number of the terminal device identified by the identifier and first information, where the first information includes the number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal and/or the number of symbols included in a time slot.

In an optional implementation manner, the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the frequency domain starting position of the uplink reference signal, and the number of the subcarrier where the frequency domain starting position of the uplink reference signal is located is It is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device and the comb tooth information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain.

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: sending a first positioning request to a core network device, where the first positioning request includes the identifier of the terminal device, and is used for requesting to locate the terminal device . For example, the first positioning request includes the identifier of the terminal device, so that the core network device can send the identifier of the terminal device to the positioning server, so that the positioning server can send the identifier of the terminal device to multiple access network devices, so that multiple The access network devices can jointly realize the positioning of the terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: measuring the uplink reference signal to obtain a measurement result; sending the measurement result to a positioning server, and the measurement result is used to perform a measurement on the terminal device position. The access network device can receive the uplink reference signal, and measure the received uplink reference signal, and the obtained measurement result can be sent to the positioning server, so that the positioning server can determine the position of the terminal device according to the measurement result, thereby realizing the The location of the end device.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink reference signal is a positioning SRS.

In an optional implementation manner, the terminal device is only used for positioning.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the second aspect or various optional implementation manners, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the first aspect or corresponding implementation manners.

In the third aspect, a third communication method is provided, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by other devices including the functions of the terminal device, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can realize the functions of the terminal device function, the chip system or functional module is, for example, set in a terminal device. The method includes: receiving a downlink broadcast channel, where the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; receiving the downlink control channel, where the downlink control channel carries positioning information, and the positioning information includes configuration information for configuring an uplink reference signal information; sending an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information.

In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device obtains the positioning information through the downlink control channel, so that the terminal device not only does not need to perform random access, but also can realize positioning without receiving system information, which reduces the number of tasks that the terminal device originally needs to perform before being positioned. Receiving system information and communication processes such as random access can simplify the positioning process. Moreover, since the communication process that the terminal device needs to execute is reduced, there is no need to insert random access-related codes inside the terminal device, thereby reducing the storage space of the terminal device, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal device. For some scenarios, such as asset inventory, logistics tracking, electronic fence and other scenarios, there is a high demand for positioning power consumption, such as the need to maintain a service life of 6 to 18 months, and these scenarios have far less demand for communication than The need for positioning. Therefore, if the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are applied to these scenarios, since the terminal device does not need to perform communication procedures such as random access, it can help maintain a longer service life.

In an optional implementation manner, the downlink broadcast channel indicates that the type of the downlink control channel is a first type, and the downlink control information carried by the downlink control channel of the first type includes the positioning information; or, The scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a first sequence, and the first sequence is used to indicate that the downlink control information carried by the downlink control channel includes the positioning information. The downlink broadcast channel may indicate the type of the downlink control channel. For example, for the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application, if the downlink broadcast channel indicates that the type of the downlink control channel is the first type, the terminal device may detect the downlink control channel, and if the downlink The broadcast channel indicates that the type of the downlink control channel is the second type, and the terminal device does not need to detect the downlink control channel, thereby reducing power consumption of the terminal device. Alternatively, the type of the downlink control channel may also be indicated through the scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel. This way does not need to add additional indication information and can save signaling overhead.

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: sending an identifier of the terminal device on an uplink channel configured in the positioning information, where the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel or an uplink shared channel.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink channel includes the uplink control channel, and the uplink control channel is used to request positioning; or, the uplink channel includes the uplink shared channel, and the method further includes: Send request information to the access network device, where the request information is used to request positioning.

In an optional implementation manner, the uplink reference signal is determined according to an identifier of the terminal device and the positioning information.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by some optional implementations of the third aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the first aspect or corresponding implementations.

In the fourth aspect, a fourth communication method is provided, which can be performed by an access network device, or by other devices including access network device functions, or by a chip system or other functional modules, and the chip system or functional modules can To realize the function of the access network device, the chip system or the functional module is set in the access network device, for example. The access network device is, for example, a base station. The method includes: sending a downlink broadcast channel, where the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; sending the downlink control channel, where the downlink control channel carries positioning information, and the positioning information includes configuration information for configuring an uplink reference signal Information; according to the positioning information, receive an uplink reference signal from a terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the downlink broadcast channel indicates that the type of the downlink control channel is a first type, and the downlink control information carried by the downlink control channel of the first type includes the positioning information; or, The scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a first sequence, and the first sequence is used to indicate that the downlink control information carried by the downlink control channel includes the positioning information.

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving the identifier of the terminal device on an uplink channel configured by the positioning information, where the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel or an uplink shared channel.

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: sending a first positioning request to a core network device, where the first positioning request includes the identifier of the terminal device, and is used for requesting to locate the terminal device .

In an optional implementation manner, the method further includes: measuring the uplink reference signal to obtain a measurement result; sending the measurement result to a positioning server, and the measurement result is used to perform a measurement on the terminal device position.

Regarding the technical effects brought about by the fourth aspect or various optional implementation manners of the fourth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the second aspect or corresponding implementation manners.

A fifth aspect provides a communication system, the communication system includes a terminal device and an access network device, the access network device is, for example, the access network device described in the first aspect and/or the second aspect, and the terminal device is, for example, It is the terminal device described in the first aspect and/or the second aspect. For example, the access network device is configured to send a downlink control channel, the terminal device is configured to receive the downlink control channel from the access network device, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the The downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, the system information of the first type includes positioning information, the system information of the second type does not include the positioning information, and the system information of the second type does not include the positioning information. The positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; the access network device is further configured to send the system information, and the terminal device is further configured to transmit the system information if the downlink control channel indicates that the type of the system information is The first type is to detect the system information; the terminal device is further configured to send an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information, and the access network device is further configured to if the The type of the system information is the first type, and an uplink reference signal is received from the terminal device.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication system further includes the positioning server described in the first aspect and/or the second aspect.

For the methods that can be implemented by each device in the communication system, as well as the corresponding technical effects, etc., reference may be made to the introduction of the first aspect and/or the second aspect.

According to a sixth aspect, a communication system is provided. The communication system includes a terminal device and an access network device. The access network device is, for example, the access network device described in the third aspect and/or the fourth aspect. The terminal device is, for example, It is the terminal device described in the third aspect and/or the fourth aspect. For example, the access network device is configured to send a downlink broadcast channel, the terminal device is configured to receive the downlink broadcast channel, and the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; the access network device, It is also used to send the downlink control channel, and the terminal device is also used to receive the downlink control channel, the downlink control channel carries positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; the The terminal device is further configured to send an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information, and the access network device is further configured to receive an uplink reference signal from the terminal device according to the positioning information.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication system further includes the positioning server described in the third aspect and/or the fourth aspect.

For the methods that can be implemented by each device in the communication system, as well as the corresponding technical effects, etc., reference may be made to the introduction of the third aspect and/or the fourth aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the terminal device described in any one of the first aspect to the sixth aspect. The communication device has the functions of the terminal device described above. The communication device is, for example, a terminal device, or a functional module in the terminal device, such as a baseband device or a chip system. In an optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a processing unit (also called a processing module sometimes) and a transceiver unit (also called a transceiver module sometimes). The transceiver unit can realize the sending function and the receiving function. When the transceiver unit realizes the sending function, it can be called the sending unit (sometimes also called the sending module). When the transceiver unit realizes the receiving function, it can be called the receiving unit (sometimes also called receiving module). The sending unit and the receiving unit can be the same functional module, which is called the transceiver unit, and this functional module can realize the sending function and the receiving function; or, the sending unit and the receiving unit can be different functional modules, and the transceiver unit is for these A general term for functional modules.

In an optional implementation manner, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a downlink control channel from an access network device, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates the system information The type is the first type or the second type, the system information of the first type includes positioning information, the system information of the second type does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information; the processing unit is configured to detect the system information through the transceiver unit if the downlink control channel indicates that the type of the system information is the first type; the processing unit is also configured to detect the system information according to the the positioning information, and send an uplink reference signal to the access network device through the transceiver unit. Alternatively, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a downlink control channel from an access network device, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second Two types, the system information of the first type includes positioning information, the system information of the second type does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring uplink reference signals; the transceiver unit further It is configured to detect the system information if the downlink control channel indicates that the type of the system information is the first type; the transceiver unit is further configured to send the location information to the access network device Uplink reference signal.

In an optional implementation manner, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a downlink broadcast channel, and the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; the transceiver unit is also configured to receive the downlink control channel, The downlink control channel carries positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; the processing unit is configured to send an uplink signal to the access network device through the transceiver unit according to the positioning information reference signal. Alternatively, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a downlink broadcast channel, the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; the transceiver unit is also configured to receive the downlink control channel, and the downlink control channel carries positioning information The positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; the transceiving unit is further configured to send an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication device further includes a storage unit (sometimes referred to as a storage module), and the processing unit is configured to be coupled with the storage unit and execute programs or An instruction to enable the communication device to execute the function of the terminal device described in any one of the first aspect to the sixth aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the access network device described in any one of the first aspect to the sixth aspect. The communication device has the functions of the above-mentioned access network equipment. The communication device is, for example, an access network device, or a functional module in the access network device, such as a baseband device or a chip system. In an optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation manner, the communication device includes a processing unit (also called a processing module sometimes) and a transceiver unit (also called a transceiver module sometimes). For the implementation of the transceiver unit, refer to the introduction of the seventh aspect.

In an optional implementation manner, the transceiver unit is configured to send a downlink control channel, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, the system information of the first type includes positioning information, the system information of the second type does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring uplink reference signals; the sending and receiving The unit is further configured to send the system information; the processing unit is configured to receive an uplink reference signal from a terminal device through the transceiver unit if the type of the system information is the first type. Alternatively, the transceiver unit is configured to send a downlink control channel, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, the The first type of system information includes positioning information, the second type of system information does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; the transceiver unit is further configured to send the System information: the transceiving unit is further configured to receive an uplink reference signal from a terminal device if the type of the system information is the first type.

In an optional implementation manner, the transceiver unit is configured to send a downlink broadcast channel, and the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; the transceiver unit is also configured to send the downlink control channel, The downlink control channel carries positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; the processing unit is configured to receive an uplink reference signal from a terminal device through the transceiver unit according to the positioning information. Alternatively, the transceiver unit is configured to send a downlink broadcast channel, and the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; the transceiver unit is also configured to send the downlink control channel, and the downlink control channel carries positioning information , the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; the transceiving unit is further configured to receive an uplink reference signal from a terminal device according to the positioning information.

In an optional implementation manner, the communication device further includes a storage unit (sometimes referred to as a storage module), and the processing unit is configured to be coupled with the storage unit and execute programs or An instruction to enable the communication device to perform the function of the access network device described in any one of the first aspect to the sixth aspect.

In the ninth aspect, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium is used to store computer programs or instructions, and when it is executed, the method performed by the terminal device or the access network device in the above-mentioned aspects be realized.

In a tenth aspect, a computer program product containing instructions is provided, which enables the methods described in the above aspects to be implemented when it is run on a computer.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1A is a flow chart of UE performing uplink positioning;

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of determining the target to be positioned by the LMF;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture applied in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the first communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a second communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is determined by the UE in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a start symbol of an uplink reference signal determined by a UE in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the frequency domain position where the uplink reference signal is determined by the UE in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of protocol stacks of UE, base station and AMF;

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of the protocol stack after tailoring in the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a third communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a fourth communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of another device provided by the embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

In the following, some terms or concepts in the embodiments of the present application are explained, so as to facilitate the understanding of those skilled in the art.

The method and device provided by the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, the fifth generation (5th generation, 5G), new radio (new radio, NR), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE), Internet of Things (internet of things, IoT), wireless fidelity (wireless-fidelity, WiFi), 3GPP related wireless communication, or other wireless communication that may appear in the future, etc.

In the embodiment of this application, the terminal device is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can be a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device (such as a mobile phone), a wearable device, a vehicle-mounted device, or a wireless device built into the above-mentioned devices (such as , communication module, modem, or chip system, etc.). The terminal device is used to connect people, things, machines, etc., and can be widely used in various scenarios, including but not limited to the following scenarios: cellular communication, device-to-device communication (device-to-device, D2D), car-to-everything (vehicle to everything, V2X), machine-to-machine/machine-type communications (machine-to-machine/machine-type communications, M2M/MTC), Internet of things (Internet of things, IoT), virtual reality (virtual reality, VR) , augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), industrial control (industrial control), unmanned driving (self driving), telemedicine (remote medical), smart grid (smart grid), smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation , Terminal equipment for smart cities, drones, robots and other scenarios. The terminal equipment may sometimes be referred to as user equipment (user equipment, UE), terminal, access station, UE station, remote station, wireless communication device, or user device, etc. For the convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device is taken as an example for description.

The network devices in this embodiment of the present application may include, for example, access network devices and/or core network devices. The access network device is a device with a wireless transceiver function, and is used for communicating with the terminal device. The access network equipment includes but is not limited to a base station (BTS, Node B, eNodeB/eNB, or gNodeB/gNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP ) Subsequent evolved base stations, access nodes in wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) systems, wireless relay nodes, wireless backhaul nodes, etc. The base station may be: a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a small station, a relay station, and the like. Multiple base stations can support networks of the same access technology or networks of different access technologies. A base station may contain one or more co-sited or non-co-sited transmission and reception points. The access network device may also be a wireless controller, a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU), and/or a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU) in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario. The access network device may also be a server or the like. For example, a network device in a vehicle to everything (V2X) technology may be a road side unit (RSU). In the following, the base station is used as an example for the access network device to be described. The base station can communicate with the terminal equipment, and can also communicate with the terminal equipment through the relay station. A terminal device can communicate with multiple base stations in different access technologies. The core network equipment is used to implement functions such as mobility management, data processing, session management, policy and charging. The names of devices implementing core network functions in systems with different access technologies may be different, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Taking the 5G system as an example, the core network equipment includes: access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF), session management function (session management function, SMF), policy control function (policy control function, PCF) Or user plane function (user plane function, UPF), etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device for realizing the function of the network device may be a network device, or a device capable of supporting the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, and the device may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is described by taking the network device as an example for realizing the function of the network device.

In the embodiments of the present application, for the number of nouns, unless otherwise specified, it means "singular noun or plural noun", that is, "one or more". "At least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the contextual objects are an "or" relationship. For example, A/B means: A or B. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one item (piece) of a, b, or c means: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, c Can be single or multiple.

The ordinal numerals such as "first" and "second" mentioned in this embodiment of the application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the size, content, order, timing, priority, or importance of multiple objects. For example, the first sequence and the second sequence can be the same sequence or different sequences, and this name does not indicate the size, content, sending order, priority or importance of the two sequences, etc. s difference. In addition, the numbering of the steps in the various embodiments introduced in this application is only for distinguishing different steps, and is not used to limit the order of the steps. For example, S301 may occur before S302, or may occur after S302, or may occur simultaneously with S302.

The following briefly introduces the technical features involved in the embodiments of the present application.

According to the current protocol process, under the UL-TDOA technology, UE needs to access the network first to perform positioning, that is, the UE needs to perform cell search and random access first, establish an RRC connection with the base station, and then initiate a positioning request. After initiating a positioning request, the UE can obtain information required for positioning from the base station, such as SRS configuration information, and then the UE sends a positioning reference signal to the base station, and the network can position the UE. Refer to FIG. 1A , which is a flow chart of performing uplink positioning for a UE, which is based on UL-TDOA technology.

S101. The serving base station of the UE sends a synchronization signal and a physical broadcast channel block (synchronization signal and PBCH block, SSB). Correspondingly, the UE receives the SSB from the serving base station.

The SSB can carry a master information block (master information block, MIB), so that the UE can obtain the MIB, and the MIB can carry configuration information of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

S102. The serving base station sends a PDCCH. Correspondingly, the UE receives the PDCCH from the serving base station.

The UE can detect the PDCCH according to the configuration information of the PDCCH, and the PDCCH can schedule a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the PDSCH can carry a system information block 1 (system information block, SIB1).

S103. The serving base station sends the PDSCH. Correspondingly, the UE receives the PDSCH from the serving base station.

The UE can receive the PDSCH according to the scheduling of the PDCCH, so as to obtain the SIB1 carried by the PDSCH. The SIB1 may configure random access resources required by the UE to initiate random access, for example, a random access preamble (preamble) is configured. After receiving SIB1, UE can initiate random access. S101-S103 can be regarded as a cell search process, and the following S104-S107 is a random access process of the UE.

S104. The UE sends a physical random access channel (physical random access channel, PRACH) to the serving base station. Correspondingly, the serving base station receives the PRACH from the UE.

For example, according to the configuration of SIB1, the UE sends a preamble to the serving base station through the PRACH, and the serving base station receives the preamble from the UE. The preamble may also be called the first message (Msg1) in the random access process.

S105. The serving base station sends a random access response (random access response, RAR) to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives the RAR from the serving base station. The RAR can also be called the second message (Msg2) in the random access procedure.

S106. The UE sends an RRC setup request (RRC setup request) message to the serving base station. Correspondingly, the serving base station receives the RRC establishment request message from the UE. The RRC establishment request message may also be referred to as the third message (Msg3) in the random access procedure.

S107. The serving base station sends an RRC setup response (RRC setup response) message to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives an RRC establishment response message from the serving base station. The RRC setup response message may also be referred to as the fourth message (Msg4) in the random access procedure.

So far, the random access process of the UE is completed, and if the random access is successful, the UE establishes an RRC connection with the base station. Next, the positioning process of the UE is started, that is, the following S108-S117 are the positioning process.

S108. The UE sends a message for requesting positioning to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives a message for requesting positioning from the UE.

S109. The AMF sends a message for requesting positioning to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives a message for requesting positioning from the AMF.

S110. The LMF sends a location information request message to the serving base station. Correspondingly, the serving base station receives a location information request message from the LMF. The location information request message is used to request to obtain SRS configuration information.

S111. The serving base station sends a positioning information response to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives a positioning information response from the serving base station. The positioning information response may carry SRS configuration information.

After receiving the SRS configuration information, the LMF may send the SRS configuration information to multiple base stations, and the multiple base stations jointly locate the UE.

S112. The serving base station sends the SRS configuration information to the UE. Correspondingly, the UE receives SRS configuration information from the serving base station.

S113. The LMF sends measurement requests to multiple base stations. For example, the multiple base stations include the serving base station, and correspondingly, the serving base station receives the measurement request from the LMF.

S114. The UE sends the SRS. Correspondingly, the serving base station receives the SRS from the UE.

Since the LMF sends the SRS configuration information to multiple base stations, these multiple base stations can also receive the SRS from the UE in addition to the serving base station.

S115. The serving base station sends the measurement result to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the measurement result from the serving base station.

The serving base station measures the SRS from the UE, for example, the measurement result includes the arrival time of the SRS, and the serving base station may send the measurement result to the LMF.

Because the LMF sends the SRS configuration information to multiple base stations, in addition to the serving base station, these multiple base stations can also receive SRS from the UE, and these multiple base stations can also measure the SRS, and send their respective measurement results to the LMF , then the LMF can obtain multiple measurement results.

S116. The LMF estimates the location of the UE. After the LMF has received measurement results from multiple base stations, the LMF can estimate the location of the UE according to the multiple measurement results.

The following briefly introduces how the measurement results of LMF based on UL-TDOA technology calculate the position of the target to be located. A base station receives the measurement results. The three base stations include, for example, the serving base station of the target to be positioned, and the positions of the three base stations are known. Define the coordinates of the i-th base station among the three base stations as (x _i , y _i ), i=1, 2, 3, and define the coordinates of the target to be positioned as (x _UE , y _UE ). For example, taking the first base station (i.e., i=1) among the three base stations as a reference base station, assuming that the arrival time of the SRS measured by the other two base stations is t _i , then any one of the other two base stations measures The time difference between the SRS arrival time measured by the reference base station and the SRS arrival time measured by the reference base station is Δt _i1 . According to the definition of the hyperbola (the distance from two fixed points is constant), the target to be positioned is located on the hyperbola with the two base stations as the focus, then the following equations can be listed:

In formula 1 and formula 2, c represents the speed of light, and there are only two unknowns (x _UE and y _UE ) in these two formulas, then these two unknowns can be solved by combining formula 1 and formula 2, so that the position to be positioned can be obtained The location coordinates of the UE. It should be noted that due to the existence of measurement errors, the above equations generally do not have a closed-form solution. In engineering, classic optimization algorithms such as least squares algorithm or particle swarm filter algorithm are used to estimate the optimal solution of the above equations.

Refer to FIG. 1B , which is a schematic diagram of determining a target to be positioned for the LMF. For example, if there are 3 base stations participating in positioning, a hyperbola can be determined based on any two base stations, and a total of 3 hyperbolas can be determined, and the intersection point of these 3 hyperbolas is the location of the UE to be positioned.

According to the above introduction, at present, UE needs to establish an RRC connection with the base station before it can be positioned. That is, if a UE wants to support UL-TDOA positioning technology, it needs to complete basic communication procedures such as cell search and random access before obtaining SRS. configuration information. For the UE, if it needs to support both the 3GPP communication function and the positioning function, a large number of codes need to be built into the UE to support it, and when the amount of codes increases, a larger storage space needs to be set in the UE for storage. , and the larger the storage space, the higher the power consumption of the UE. It can be seen that the current positioning process is not conducive to saving the power consumption of the UE.

In view of this, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are provided. In the embodiment of the present application, the positioning information used to configure the uplink reference signal may be included in the system information, the UE can obtain the positioning information by receiving the system information, and the UE can send the uplink reference signal to the access network device after obtaining the positioning information , without completing random access, or in other words, the UE can send an uplink reference signal to the access network device without performing random access, so that the network can locate the UE. Through the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the communication procedures such as random access that the UE originally needs to perform before being positioned are reduced, and the positioning process can be simplified. Moreover, since the communication process that the UE needs to execute is reduced, there is no need to insert random access-related codes inside the UE, thereby reducing the storage space of the UE, thereby saving the power consumption of the UE. In addition, the system information including positioning information is the first type. For example, the first type of system information may not include the public configuration information of the cell included in the traditional system information, but only includes positioning-related information (such as positioning information ), which can reduce the capacity of the first type of system information, save transmission overhead, and also reduce the code complexity of the UE, thereby saving the storage space of the UE. Finally, the UE can achieve positioning with lower power consumption, extending the UE lifetime.

Please refer to FIG. 2 , which is a schematic diagram of a network architecture applied in the embodiment of the present application. Figure 2 includes core network equipment, access network equipment and UE. The access network device and the core network device can jointly realize the positioning of the UE. The core network equipment includes, for example, a location server and an AMF. Among them, in different communication systems (such as 4G system or 5G system), the location server may be different, for example, the location server includes LMF, enhanced serving mobile location center (enhanced serving mobile location center, E-SMLC) or secure user plane location platform (SUPL location platform, SLP). In Fig. 2, taking the location server including LMF as an example, both E-SMLC and SLP are indicated by dotted lines to show several options parallel to LMF. The location server (such as E-SMLC, SLP or LMF) can be used to obtain measurement results from one or more positioning units (such as access network equipment), and may also obtain other location-related information, and can provide positioning units Assistance data to help determine the location of the target device. The access network devices in Fig. 2 include, for example, access network device 1, access network device 2, and so on. The UE is connected to the access network device through the Uu interface, the access network device and the AMF are connected through the next generation (NG)-C interface, the access network devices are connected through the Xn interface, and the LMF and AMF They are connected through NLs interface.

In Fig. 2, the LMF is a device or component deployed in the core network to provide the positioning function for the UE. The access network device in FIG. 2 is, for example, a base station. Wherein, the access network device corresponds to different devices in different systems, for example, in the 4G system, it may correspond to eNB, and in the 5G system, it may correspond to the access network device in 5G, such as gNB. Of course, the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to future mobile communication systems, so the access network equipment in FIG. 2 can also correspond to network equipment in future mobile communication systems. The embodiment of the present application takes the access network device as a base station as an example. In fact, referring to the foregoing introduction, the access network device may also be a device such as an RSU. Access network device 1 and access network device 2 in FIG. 2 may be of the same type, for example, both are eNBs; or, access network device 1 and access network device 2 in FIG. 2 may also be of different types For example, the access network device 1 is an eNB, and the access network device 2 is a gNB.

The following describes the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that, in the drawings corresponding to the various embodiments of the present application, all steps indicated by dotted lines are optional steps. In various embodiments of the present application, terms such as "uplink reference signal", "uplink positioning reference signal" and "positioning reference signal" represent the same feature, that is, they represent the uplink reference signal used for positioning, which will not be described in the following Then make a clear distinction. If the uplink reference signal is an SRS, terms such as "SRS signal", "positioning SRS signal", and "SRS" also represent the same feature, that is, they represent SRS for positioning.

Various embodiments of the present application relate to devices such as UE, access network equipment, core network equipment, and positioning server. The positioning server can also be called a positioning device, a location server, a positioning service center, or a positioning processing center. In short, the positioning server can determine the position of the UE according to the measurement results of the access network equipment, and there is no restriction on its name. In the following introduction process, the provided method is applied to the network architecture shown in FIG. 2 as an example. The UE described in the following embodiments is, for example, the UE in the network architecture shown in FIG. 2 , and the access network device described in the following embodiments is, for example, the access network device 1 in the network architecture shown in FIG. 2 Or the access network device 2, the core network device described in the various embodiments below is, for example, the AMF in the network architecture shown in Figure 2, and the positioning server described in the various embodiments below is, for example, the network architecture shown in Figure 2 LMF, E-SMLC or SLP in. In order to simplify the description, in each embodiment of the present application, it is assumed that the core network device is the AMF and the location server is the LMF as an example.

The embodiment of the present application provides a first communication method, please refer to FIG. 3 , which is a flow chart of the method.

S301. The access network device sends a downlink control channel. Correspondingly, the UE receives the downlink control channel from the access network device.

The downlink control channel can be used to schedule system information, and it can be understood that the downlink control channel can schedule a PDSCH, and the PDSCH can carry system information. The downlink control channel is, for example, PDCCH. The PDCCH carries downlink control information (DCI), and the PDCCH schedules the PDSCH. Specifically, the DCI schedules the PDSCH.

The PDCCH may indicate the type of the scheduled system information, for example, indicate that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, for example, all types except the first type belong to the second type. The first type of system information includes, for example, positioning information, while the second type of system information does not include positioning information. The positioning information can be used for positioning, for example, the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal, and the uplink reference signal can be used for positioning. Optionally, the first type is, for example, a positioning-specific type, and the second type is, for example, a non-positioning-specific type.

The PDCCH indicates the type of system information, and there may be different indication manners. For example, an indication manner is that the DCI carried by the PDCCH may include indication information, and the indication information may indicate that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type. Optionally, reserved (reserved) bits in the DCI may be used to carry indication information, thereby indicating the type of system information. For example, there is still a reserved space of 15 bits to 17 bits in the DCI scrambled by the system information radio network temporary identity (SI-RNTI) at present, and the indication information can occupy one or more of them. bits. For example, the indication information occupies 1 bit. If the value of this bit is "1", it means that the type of system information is the first type; if the value of this bit is "0", it means that the type of system information is the second type. . The UE can determine the type of system information according to the indication information included in the DCI.

For another example, another indication manner may be indicated by using a scrambling sequence. For example, if the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH (or DCI) is the first sequence, it indicates that the type of system information is the first type; if the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH (or DCI) is the second sequence, it indicates that the system The type of information is the second type. The first sequence is, for example, a newly defined scrambling sequence, for example called positioning (POS)-SI-RNTI, and the second sequence is, for example, SI-RNTI. The UE can determine the type of system information according to the scrambling sequence used to scramble the PDCCH.

S302. The access network device sends system information. Correspondingly, if the type of the system information indicated by the downlink control channel is the first type, the UE detects the system information.

After sending the PDCCH, the access network device will send the PDSCH. If the type of system information indicated by the PDCCH is the first type, the UE may detect the PDSCH according to the scheduling of the PDCCH, and the PDSCH may carry the system information. At this time, the PDSCH carries the system information of the first type. However, if the type of system information indicated by the PDCCH is the second type, the UE does not need to detect the PDSCH, thereby saving power consumption of the UE. The above-mentioned UEs are, for example, UEs that need positioning, or UEs that need positioning and have high requirements for power consumption and/or delay, or UEs that need positioning and do not have high requirements for communication; UEs, such as UEs that do not require positioning, or UEs that require positioning but do not require high power consumption and/or delay, or UEs that require communication, the response mode of such UEs is opposite to that of the above-mentioned UEs, For example, if the PDCCH indicates that the type of system information is the first type, such UEs do not need to detect the PDSCH, and if the PDCCH indicates that the type of system information is the second type, then such UEs can detect the PDSCH according to the scheduling of the PDCCH to receive the second Two types of system information, so as to further perform processes such as random access. The embodiment of the present application mainly introduces the content related to the first type of system information.

The first type of system information may include positioning information, and the positioning information may include information for configuring uplink reference signals, for example, the information for configuring uplink reference signals is referred to as first configuration information. For example, the positioning information only includes the first configuration information, and at this time the positioning information and the first configuration information may be the same concept; or, the positioning information includes other information for realizing the positioning function in addition to the first configuration information. The first configuration information includes, for example, one or more of the following items: bandwidth information of the uplink reference signal, period of the uplink reference signal, number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal in the time domain, comb teeth of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain ( comb) type, the frequency-domain start position information of the uplink reference signal, the number of the time slot (slot) where the uplink reference signal is located, or the time-domain start position information of the uplink reference signal. Alternatively, the first configuration information may also include other information for configuring the uplink reference signal. The positioning information is, for example, included in an information element (information element, IE) of the system information. For example, the positioning information is included in the existing IE in the system information, or an IE may be newly added in the system information to bear the positioning information.

Optionally, the first type of system information may also include channel configuration information, and the channel configuration information may be used to configure an uplink channel. For example, the channel configuration information may be included in the positioning information, for example, the channel configuration information is included in the first configuration information, or the channel configuration information is included in the positioning information but not included in the first configuration information; Included in the positioning information, but included in the first type of system information, that is, the first type of system information also includes channel configuration information in addition to the positioning information. The uplink channel includes, for example, an uplink control channel and/or an uplink shared channel. If the channel configuration information is not included in the positioning information, the channel configuration information and the positioning information may be included in one IE in the system information, or may be included in different IEs in the system information.

Optionally, the first type of system information may include other information in addition to positioning information (or, in addition to positioning information and channel configuration information). For example, the first type of system information also includes cell selection information, and/or, includes unified access control (unifiied access control, UAC) information. Among them, the cell selection information can be used to configure parameters for judging whether a certain cell is suitable for cell selection (for example, the cell selection information includes the minimum signal quality level required to access the cell), and the cell includes, for example, a system that transmits the first type The cell of the information; the UAC information includes, for example, UAC barring information (uac-BarringInfo), which is used to restrict network access. For example, the system information is SIB1, or it may be other system information except SIB1 and MIB.

Taking the system information as SIB1 as an example, the positioning information is included in the existing common uplink bandwidth (BWP-UplinkCommon) of SIB1, or the positioning information can also be included in other existing IEs in SIB1, or it can also be included in SIB1 A new IE is added to carry location information.

S303. The UE sends an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information. Correspondingly, if the access network device indicates that the type of system information is the first type, the access network device receives the uplink reference signal from the UE.

After the UE has obtained the positioning information through the first type of system information, the UE can send an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information, and the uplink reference signal can be used for positioning, for example, for positioning the UE. After receiving the uplink reference signal, the access network device can measure the uplink reference signal and send the measurement result to the LMF, so that the LMF can locate the UE according to the measurement result. That is to say, the UE obtains the positioning information through the first type of system information, so that the UE can achieve positioning without performing random access, which reduces the communication procedures such as random access that the UE originally needs to perform before being positioned, and can simplify positioning process. Moreover, since the communication process that the terminal device needs to execute is reduced, there is no need to implant codes that have nothing to do with the positioning function (such as codes related to random access, etc.) inside the terminal device, thereby reducing the storage space of the terminal device and saving Power consumption of end equipment. In addition, for some scenarios, such as asset inventory, logistics tracking, electronic fence and other scenarios, there is a high demand for positioning power consumption, for example, the service life of 6 to 18 months needs to be maintained, and these scenarios require far more communication. Far less than the need for positioning. Therefore, if the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are applied to these scenarios, since the UE does not need to perform communication procedures such as random access, it can help maintain a longer service life. In addition, the system information including positioning information is of the first type. The first type of system information is, for example, positioning-specific system information. For example, the first type of system information may not include public configuration information of cells included in traditional system information. and other content, but only includes positioning-related information (such as positioning information), which can reduce the capacity of the first type of system information, save transmission overhead, and also reduce the code complexity of the terminal device, thereby saving the storage of the terminal device Space, the final terminal equipment can achieve positioning with low power consumption, prolonging the service life of the terminal equipment.

In order to better understand the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, the second communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced below, which can be regarded as an optional implementation manner of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 . Please refer to FIG. 4 , which is a flowchart of the method.

S401. The access network device sends a physical broadcast channel (physical broadcast channel, PBCH). Correspondingly, the UE receives the PBCH from the access network device. The access network equipment, for example, transmits the PBCH in a certain cell, so there may be multiple UEs in the cell that can receive the PBCH, and the embodiments of the present application take the UE as an example. The access network device is, for example, a serving base station of the UE. For example, the access network device sends the SSB, and the SSB is carried on the PBCH.

The PBCH can carry the MIB, and the MIB can include some public configuration information of the current cell, for example, the MIB can configure a system frame number (system frame number, SFN), and can also include PDCCH configuration information, etc. In addition, the UE can obtain downlink time synchronization with the current cell by receiving the PBCH.

S402. The access network device sends a downlink control channel. Correspondingly, the UE receives the downlink control channel from the access network device. The downlink control channel is, for example, PDCCH. Alternatively, the access network device sends downlink control information (DCI) through the PDCCH, and correspondingly, the UE receives the DCI from the access network device through the PDCCH.

The MIB includes configuration information of the PDCCH. The configuration information of the PDCCH includes, for example, time domain information and/or frequency domain information of the PDCCH. The UE can detect the PDCCH according to the configuration information of the PDCCH. The PDCCH can be used to schedule system information, and it can be understood that the PDCCH can schedule a PDSCH, and the PDSCH can carry system information. In other words, the PDCCH carries DCI, the DCI can schedule the PDSCH, and the PDSCH can carry system information.

The PDCCH may indicate the type of the scheduled system information, for example, indicate that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, and all types except the first type belong to the second type.

Alternatively, the UE may not detect the PDCCH according to the MIB, but detects the PDCCH in other ways, so S401 is an optional step.

S402 may be the same step as S301 shown in FIG. 3 , so for more content about S402, refer to S301.

S403. The access network device sends system information. Correspondingly, if the type of system information indicated by the PDCCH is the first type, the UE detects the system information.

S403 may be the same step as S302 shown in FIG. 3 , so for more content about S403 , refer to S302 .

S404. The UE sends the identifier of the UE to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the identifier of the UE from the UE.

In the embodiment of the present application, the UE does not perform random access. If the UE directly requests positioning or directly sends an uplink reference signal, the network may not be able to identify the identity of the UE. Therefore, the UE can send the identity of the UE to the access network device, so that the network can clarify the identity of the UE, so as to locate the UE. The identifier of the UE is, for example, an identity number (ID) of the UE, and the UE ID is, for example, a serial number, which is used to uniquely identify the UE. The UE ID can be configured when the UE leaves the factory and fixed inside the UE's chip, or it can also be a number assigned to the UE by other devices, such as the number assigned to the UE by access network equipment or core network equipment. In summary, an identity of a UE is associated with the UE.

The UE can send the UE's identity to the access network device on the uplink channel configured by the first type of system information. The uplink channel includes, for example, the uplink control channel and/or the uplink shared channel. The following example introduces the UE sending the UE through different uplink channels. way of identification.

As an optional implementation manner, the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel. Optionally, the uplink control channel can also be used to request positioning, that is to say, the uplink control channel can also be used to request positioning in addition to carrying the identity of the UE. Then, after receiving the uplink control channel, the access network device can make it clear that the UE wants to request positioning. The uplink control channel is, for example, a physical uplink control channel (physical uplink control channel, PUCCH), or may also be another type of uplink control channel, and the embodiment of the present application uses PUCCH as an example. Taking the first type of system information as SIB1 as an example, SIB1 can be configured with a common PUCCH (pucch-ConfigCommon), and the common PUCCH can be used as the uplink control channel, and the UE can use the common PUCCH configured by SIB1 without being scheduled. PUCCH sends information to access network equipment. In this embodiment of the present application, the UE may use the public PUCCH configured by SIB1 to send the identity of the UE to the access network device.

At the time of initial access, only two formats of PUCCH format (format) 0 and PUCCH format 1 are currently supported, that is to say, the format of the public PUCCH configured by SIB1 is generally PUCCH format 0 or PUCCH format 1. However, the PUCCHs of these two formats can only carry 2 bits of information at most, and if such PUCCHs are used to carry the UE's identity, there may be insufficient carrying space. Optionally, this embodiment proposes that SIB1 can be configured with a PUCCH in a first format, such as PUCCH format 2, PUCCH format 3 or PUCCH format 4, or the first format can also be a newly defined PUCCH, For example, it is called PUCCH format 5, or it can have other names. For example, SIB1 can only configure PUCCH in the first format, without configuring traditional PUCCH format 0 or PUCCH format 1, or, in addition to configuring PUCCH in the first format, SIB1 can also configure traditional PUCCH format0 or PUCCH format 1, It's just that the UE in this embodiment of the application may not use traditional PUCCH format 0 or PUCCH format 1. When the UE sends the UE's identity to the access network device, it can send it through the PUCCH of the first format configured by SIB1. The PUCCH of the first format can carry more information bits, so it can be used to carry the UE's identity. In addition, it may be that only the UE that needs positioning will send the UE identity to the access network device through the PUCCH configured by SIB1, while for ordinary UEs (such as UEs that do not need positioning, or that require positioning but require positioning delay or power consumption, etc.) For UEs with low requirements), random access may still be performed according to the normal process. Therefore, the PUCCH in the first format can also implement a function, that is, the PUCCH in the first format can be used to request positioning, and the access network device According to the PUCCH in the first format, it is clear that there is a UE requesting positioning, and then according to the identity of the UE, the identity of the UE requesting positioning can be determined.

As another optional implementation manner, the uplink channel includes an uplink shared channel. In this case, optionally, the UE may also send request information to the access network device, which is used to request positioning. After receiving the request information, the access network device can clearly confirm that there is a UE requesting positioning, and access The network device can then determine the identity of the UE requesting positioning according to the identity of the UE. For example, the UE may first send request information to the access network device, and then send the UE identifier to the access network device through the uplink shared channel; or, the UE may first send the UE identifier to the access network device through the uplink shared channel, Then send the request information to the access network device; or, the request information and the UE identifier can also be sent together, for example, both the request information and the UE identifier can be carried on the uplink shared channel and sent to the access network device together. The uplink shared channel is, for example, a physical uplink shared channel (physical uplink share channel, PUSCH). Taking the first type of system information as SIB1 as an example, SIB1 can be configured with a common PUSCH, which can be used as the uplink shared channel. At present, after successful random access, the UE can use the public PUSCH configured by SIB1 to report to the access network. The device sends data. In the embodiment of the present application, the UE may send the UE identifier to the access network device by using the public PUSCH configured by SIB1 without random access.

Optionally, the request information is, for example, a preamble. In the embodiment of the present application, although the UE does not need to perform random access, it can still provide a preamble, such as a preamble for positioning. Before sending the identity of the UE, the UE may first send the preamble to the access network device, and the access network device may confirm that there is a UE requesting positioning after receiving the preamble. Then the UE sends the identity of the UE to the access network device through the public PUSCH, and the access network device can specify the identity of the UE requesting positioning. For example, SIB1 includes information A common configuration (msgA-ConfigCommon-r16) of version 16, and this IE can be configured with a common PUSCH and a preamble. In this embodiment of the present application, the msgA-ConfigCommon-r16 is configured with a preamble for positioning, so that The UE may send the preamble configured by msgA-ConfigCommon-r16 to the access network device, and may send the identity of the UE to the access network device on the common PUSCH configured by msgA-ConfigCommon-r16.

Although this optional solution uses a preamble, it only borrows the preamble to request positioning instead of performing a random access procedure. Therefore, although the UE sends the preamble to the access network device, the access network device receives the preamble It may not be necessary to send a response to the UE. In addition, the access network device does not need to send a response to the UE after receiving the identifier of the UE. Therefore, compared with the existing random access procedure, the solution of the embodiment of the present application reduces the signaling interaction process, which is beneficial to save the power consumption of the UE.

It is also possible that the UE directly sends the uplink reference signal to the access network device without sending the identity of the UE, so S404 is an optional step.

S405. The UE sends an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the uplink reference signal from the UE.

The UE obtains the corresponding information of the uplink reference signal through the positioning information, for example, obtains information such as the bandwidth of the uplink reference signal, and then the UE may send the uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the obtained information.

Optionally, the uplink reference signal may be determined according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the UE may determine the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the identity of the UE may be used to determine the uplink reference signal.

In the embodiment of the present application, there may be multiple UEs requesting positioning, and all these UEs will send uplink reference signals to the access network device. For example, UEs send uplink reference signals in the form of sequences. Since these UEs do not perform random access, the access network equipment cannot send unicast messages to these UEs, that is, they cannot configure sequence identifiers of uplink reference signals for these UEs (for example, SRS sequence ID), then when these UEs send the sequence of the uplink reference signal to the access network equipment, it is likely that the sequence sent is the same, which will cause interference between UEs, and the access network equipment cannot identify all the uplink reference signal sequences. Which UE does the received uplink reference signal come from, so that the network cannot locate the UE. Therefore, an optional implementation manner in which the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the UE is that the sequence identity of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the UE can determine the sequence of the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE logo.

The uplink reference signal is an SRS as an example. At present, SRS sequences are composed of ZC sequences. Different SRS sequences are mainly realized by configuring different sequence initialization IDs, that is, different sequence IDs correspond to different SRS sequences. Therefore, as long as the SRS sequence IDs are different, the corresponding SRS The sequence is different. Then, since the identities of different UEs are different, the sequence identities of the uplink reference signals determined by different UEs are different, and the sequences determined by different UEs are different, which can reduce the interference between UEs. The UE also sends the UE identifier to the access network device, and the access network device can also determine the sequence identifier of the UE's uplink reference signal, so that the access network device can identify the relationship between the uplink reference signal and the UE, The uplink reference signal can be detected correctly, and the UE can also be positioned correctly.

There may be multiple ways to determine the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal according to the identifier of the UE. For example, in one manner, the identifier of the UE is the same as the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal. In this case, the UE may directly use the UE identifier as the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal. For example, refer to Table 1, which is an example in which the identifier of the UE is the same as the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal. In Table 1, the decimal system is taken as an example.

Table 1

UE的标识(十进制)UE ID (decimal)	上行参考信号的序列标识(十进制)Sequence ID of the uplink reference signal (decimal)
10011001	10011001
10021002	10021002

For another example, another way is that the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is a part of the identity of the UE, for example, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is the high K bits of the UE identity, or the low K bits of the UE identity, or is the middle K bits of the identity of the UE, etc., and K is a positive integer. In this case, the UE intercepts the identity of the UE to obtain the sequence identity of the uplink reference signal. As for which part to intercept, that is, the value of K and the position of the K bit in the identity of the UE, it can be determined by The configuration of the access network equipment is either pre-configured in the UE, or predefined through a protocol. For example, referring to Table 2, it is an example that the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is a part of the identifier of the UE. In Table 2, the decimal system is taken as an example.

Table 2

UE的标识(十进制)UE ID (decimal)	上行参考信号的序列标识(十进制)Sequence ID of the uplink reference signal (decimal)
10011001	11
10021002	22

In Table 2, take the last bit of the UE ID as the sequence ID of the uplink reference signal as an example.

For another example, please refer to Table 3, which is another example in which the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is a part of the identifier of the UE. In Table 3, binary is taken as an example.

table 3

In Table 3, take the lower 4 bits of the UE ID as the sequence ID of the uplink reference signal as an example. For example, the ID of the UE is "10100101", and the lower 4 bits of the ID are taken to be "0101", then "0101" can be used as the sequence ID of the uplink reference signal. If you convert "0101" to decimal, it will be "9".

For another example, in yet another manner, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is obtained by moduloing the identifier of the UE. For example, the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal may satisfy the following relationship:

Sequence ID of uplink reference signal = X mod(Y) (Formula 3)

Wherein, X represents the identity of the UE, or represents a part of the identity of the UE (for example, a part intercepted from the identity of the UE according to the above method), Y represents the first modulo coefficient, and mod represents a modulo operation. Y may be pre-configured in the UE, or configured by the access network device, or predefined by a protocol. For example, referring to Table 4, it is an example that the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is obtained modulo the identifier of the UE. In Table 4, decimal is taken as an example.

Table 4

It can be seen from Table 4 that when Y is different, even if the UE IDs are the same, the obtained sequence IDs of the uplink reference signals may be different.

The UE may use any of the above methods to determine the sequence identity of the uplink reference signal. For the access network equipment, because the identity of the UE is received, and the identity of the UE can be used to determine the uplink reference signal, the access network equipment can use the same method as The UE determines the sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal in the same manner. The method adopted by the UE and the access network device is, for example, pre-configured in the UE and the access network device, or is predefined by the protocol, or is configured by the access network device, so that the UE can send an uplink reference signal to the access network device, and then The network access device can also correctly detect the uplink reference signal from the UE.

Optionally, another optional implementation manner in which the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the UE is that the time domain position and/or the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the UE can also be determined according to The identity of the UE determines the time domain position and/or the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal. It can be understood that the sequence identity of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identity of the UE, and/or the time domain position and/or frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identity of the UE.

For example, the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located, and the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located can be determined according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the UE can determine the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located according to the identity of the UE. An optional determination method is that the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is determined according to the identity of the UE and the number of time slots included in a subframe (subframe), or it can be understood as the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located It is determined according to the identifier of the UE, and the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located in a system frame (system frame). Wherein, the system frame may also be referred to as a radio frame (radio frame) or the like. For example, the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located satisfies the following relationship:

The number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located = X mod Z (Formula 4)

Wherein, X represents the identity of the UE, Z represents a modulus coefficient, and Z is, for example, the number of time slots included in one system frame. For example, if Z=10, refer to FIG. 5 for an example of the time slots where the uplink reference signals are determined by different UEs. FIG. 5 takes four UEs as an example. The identities of these four UEs are 1001, 1002, 1003 and 1004 respectively. Period=10 in FIG. 5 indicates the length of one system frame. It can be seen from FIG. 5 that the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is determined by the UE identified as 1001 is 1, the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is determined by the UE identified as 1002 is 2, and the number of the time slot is 1003 The number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is determined by the UE is 3, and the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is determined by the UE identified as 1004 is 4.

For another example, the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the time domain start position of the uplink reference signal, and the time domain start position of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the UE can determine the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE The starting position of the time domain. Optionally, the start position of the time domain of the uplink reference signal may be determined according to the identity of the UE. Specifically, the start position of the time domain of the uplink reference signal may be determined according to the identity of the UE and configuration information of the uplink reference signal. The time-domain start position of the uplink reference signal is, for example, the start symbol (symbol) of the uplink reference signal. An optional determination method is that the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the UE and the first information, The first information includes the number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal and/or the number of symbols included in one time slot. Taking the first information including the number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal and the number of symbols included in a time slot as an example, for example, the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal satisfies the following relationship:

The number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal = X×M mod N (Formula 5)

Wherein, X represents the identity of the UE, M represents the number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal, and N is the number of symbols included in one time slot. Wherein, M is configured by, for example, the configuration information of the uplink reference signal. The number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is, for example, the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal in one time slot. For example, M=4, N=14, then the numbers of the start symbols of the uplink reference signals determined by different UEs can refer to FIG. 6 . Figure 6 takes three UEs as an example, the identifiers of these three UEs are 1001, 1002, and 1003 respectively, wherein the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal determined by the UE with the identifier 1001 is 0, and the uplink reference signal occupies 4 symbols; the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal determined by the UE identified as 1002 is 4, and the uplink reference signal occupies 4 symbols; the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal determined by the UE identified as 1003 is 8, The uplink reference signal occupies 4 symbols.

For another example, the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal, and the frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal can be determined according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the UE can determine the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE The frequency domain starting position of . Optionally, the UE determines the frequency-domain start position of the uplink reference signal according to the UE identifier, which may specifically include that the UE determines the frequency-domain start position of the uplink reference signal according to the UE identifier and configuration information of the uplink reference signal. An optional determination method is that the offset of the subcarrier (or the number of the subcarrier) where the frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the UE and the comb information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain. For example, the offset of the subcarrier where the frequency domain starting position of the uplink reference signal is located satisfies the following relationship:

The number of the subcarrier where the frequency domain starting position of the uplink reference signal is located = X mod Q (Formula 6)

Wherein, X represents the identity of the UE, and Q represents the comb information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain, for example, Q is configured through the configuration information of the uplink reference signal. For example, if Q=4, M=4, and N=14, the positions of the uplink reference signals determined by different UEs in the frequency domain may refer to FIG. 7 . Figure 7 takes three UEs as an example. The identifiers of these three UEs are 1001, 1002, and 1003 respectively. Among them, the box with a horizontal line indicates the frequency domain position of the UE with the identifier of 1001, and the box with "/" Indicates the frequency domain position where the UE identified as 1002 is located, and the box drawn with "\" indicates the frequency domain position where the UE identified as 1003 is located.

Alternatively, the UE may not directly determine the time domain position and/or frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal according to the UE identity, but determine the time domain information and/or frequency domain information of the uplink reference signal, and then further determine the time domain information and/or frequency domain information according to the uplink reference signal The time domain information determines the time domain position of the uplink reference signal, and determines the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal according to the frequency domain information of the uplink reference signal. For example, the time domain information of the uplink reference signal includes the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located, and/or includes the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal; initial location information. That is to say, the UE can directly determine the time-domain position and/or frequency-domain position of the uplink reference signal according to the UE identity (or, according to the UE identity and the configuration information of the uplink reference signal), without first determining the position of the uplink reference signal. The time domain information and/or frequency domain information further determine the resource location; or, the UE may first determine the time domain information and/or The frequency domain information further determines the resource location according to the time domain information and/or frequency domain information of the uplink reference signal.

Alternatively, the UE may not determine the time-domain position and/or the frequency-domain position of the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE, but determine the time-domain resource and/or the frequency-domain resource of the uplink reference signal. Determining the resource is equivalent to determining the location of the resource.

For the access network device, because the UE ID is received, and the UE ID can be used to determine the uplink reference signal, the access network device can determine the time domain position and frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal in the same way as the UE (Or, determine the time domain information and frequency domain information of the uplink reference signal in the same way as the UE, and further determine the resource location according to the time domain information and/or frequency domain information of the uplink reference signal; or, use the same method as the UE Determining time-domain resources and frequency-domain resources of the uplink reference signal).

Wherein, if the time domain position (or time domain information, or time domain resource) of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the UE, the positioning information may not include the time domain information of the uplink reference signal; if the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal (or, frequency domain information, or, frequency domain resources) is determined according to the identity of the UE, and the positioning information may not include the frequency domain information of the uplink reference signal. For example, if the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is determined according to the identity of the UE, the positioning information may not include the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located; or, the positioning information includes the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located, then the UE and the access The network device no longer determines the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located according to the identity of the UE. For another example, if the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the UE, the positioning information may not include the time domain start position information of the uplink reference signal; or, the positioning information includes the time domain start position information of the uplink reference signal, then the UE and the access network device no longer determine the start symbol of the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE. For another example, if the starting position in the frequency domain of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the UE, the positioning information may not include the starting position information in the frequency domain of the uplink reference signal; or, the positioning information includes information about the starting position in the frequency domain of the uplink reference signal, Then the UE and the access network device no longer determine the frequency-domain starting position of the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE.

S405 may be the same step as S303 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 .

S406. The access network device sends a first positioning request to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the first positioning request from the access network device.

The first positioning request may request to locate the UE, for example, the first positioning request includes the identifier of the UE.

Optionally, after receiving the first location request, the AMF may authenticate the UE. For example, if the UE has registered with the core network, the AMF can determine the registration information of the UE according to the identity of the UE, so as to authenticate the UE according to the registration information of the UE to determine whether the UE is legal. And if the UE is not registered with the core network (for example, as will be introduced later, the protocol stack of the UE may have been tailored without retaining the non-access stratum (NAS), the UE may not be able to register with the core network. network), the information of one or more UEs allowed to be located may be pre-stored in the AMF, for example, the identities of these UEs are pre-stored, and the AMF can determine whether the UE identities have been pre-stored, and if the UE identities have been pre-stored , it is determined that the UE is legal, otherwise it is determined that the UE is not legal.

If the AMF has authenticated the UE, then if the AMF determines that the UE is legal, the subsequent steps may be performed; if the AMF determines that the UE is not legal, the subsequent steps may not be performed, for example, the AMF may not request the LMF for positioning, Optionally, the AMF may send a location rejection message to the access network device, thereby ending the location procedure.

S407. The AMF sends a second positioning request to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the second positioning request from the AMF. For example, the second positioning request includes the identifier of the UE.

It should be noted that the UE ID included in the second positioning request in S407 may be the same as or different from the UE ID in the preceding steps. In order to distinguish, the identity of the UE involved in S401-S406 is called the first identity, and the identity of the UE sent by the AMF to the LMF in S407 is called the second identity. Both the first identity and the second identity are the identity of the UE, but they may be the same or different. For example, the AMF can directly send the first identifier to the LMF, then the first identifier is the same as the second identifier; or, the AMF can also process the first identifier to obtain the second identifier, and then send the second identifier to the LMF, then The first identification is different from the second identification. For example, one processing method of the AMF for the first identification is that the AMF determines the sequence identification of the uplink reference signal according to the first identification (refer to the above for the determination method), then the sequence identification of the uplink reference signal can be used as the second identification; another example, another One processing method is that the AMF determines the number of the symbol where the time domain start position of the uplink reference signal is located according to the first identifier (refer to the above for the determination method), then the number of the symbol where the time domain start position of the uplink reference signal is located can be As the second identifier; for another example, the AMF determines the number of the subcarrier where the frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal is located according to the first identifier (refer to the above for the determination method), then the subcarrier where the frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal is located The serial number of the carrier can be used as the second identifier. In the above several manners, although the second identity is actually used to identify the uplink reference signal, since the uplink reference signal is also determined according to the identity of the UE, it can also be used to identify the UE according to the above second identity.

S408. The LMF sends a first request message to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the first request message from the LMF. The first request message is used to request to obtain information for configuring the uplink reference signal.

S409. The access network device sends a location response message to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives a location response message from the access network device. The first response message may include information for configuring the uplink reference signal, for example, the first response message includes positioning information or first configuration information.

S410. The LMF sends measurement requests to multiple access network devices. Correspondingly, multiple access network devices receive measurement requests from the LMF. For example, multiple access network devices include the access network device, and S410 takes the access network device receiving a measurement request from the LMF as an example.

Which access network devices are included in the multiple access network devices can be determined by the LMF, for example, the LMF can select multiple access network devices with better channel quality, or select multiple access network devices with lighter loads, etc.

The measurement request may include positioning information, or include first configuration information. Optionally, the measurement request may further include a third identifier, for example, the third identifier is obtained by the LMF according to the second identifier. For example, the third identifier is the same as the second identifier, or the third identifier is different from the second identifier. For example, if the AMF directly sends the first identifier to the LMF, then the first identifier is the second identifier, or the first identifier is the same as the second identifier. The LMF may directly send the second identifier to multiple access network devices, then the second identifier is the third identifier, or the second identifier is the same as the third identifier; or, the LMF may also send the second identifier (the second identifier and the third identifier The first identifier is the same or different) to obtain the third identifier, and then send the third identifier to the access network device, then the second identifier is different from the third identifier. For the manner in which the LMF processes the second identifier, reference may be made to the manner in which the AMF processes the first identifier introduced in S407.

The reason why the measurement request includes the third identifier is to enable multiple access network devices to determine the uplink reference signal sent by the UE according to the third identifier, so as to be able to detect the uplink reference signal from the UE. Regarding the process for the access network device to determine the uplink reference signal according to the third identifier, reference may be made to the above process for the UE to determine the uplink reference signal according to the UE identifier (first identifier).

S411. The access network device sends the measurement result to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the measurement result from the access network device.

After each access network device among the plurality of access network devices receives the uplink reference signal from the UE, it can measure the uplink reference signal to obtain a measurement result. Wherein, the measurement result obtained by the access network device includes, for example, information such as relative time of arrival (relative time of arrival, RTOA) and/or angle of arrival (angle of arrival, AOA). Multiple access network devices can send the obtained measurement results to the LMF. FIG. 4 takes the UE's serving base station (that is, the access network device) sending the measurement results to the LMF as an example.

S412. The LMF determines the location of the UE according to the measurement result.

For example, the LMF has received multiple measurement results from multiple access network devices, and the LMF can determine the location of the UE according to the multiple measurement results. Regarding the manner in which the LMF determines the location of the UE, reference may be made to the introduction of S116 in the process shown in FIG. 1A .

Wherein, S406-S412 are optional steps. For example, after the access network device receives the uplink reference signal from the UE, the network may also use other methods to locate the UE.

The UE described in the embodiment of the present application is, for example, a UE dedicated to positioning, or in other words, the UE is only used for positioning. That is, the UE may only need to implement positioning-related functions, and does not need to implement other functions, thereby enabling the UE to implement positioning with lower power consumption. For example, the functions that can be implemented by the UE in the embodiment of the present application include one or more of the following: cell search (for example, including receiving broadcast channels and/or receiving downlink control channels, etc.), sending positioning reference signals (for example, as described in the embodiments of the present application) uplink reference signal), send an uplink control channel, or send an uplink shared channel. The UE may not have a NAS layer, and may not have functions such as sending an RRC establishment request.

Optionally, the current protocol stack of the UE can be tailored. For example, communication-related functions can be deleted on the UE side, and only positioning-related functions can be reserved. In this way, the tailored UE is a positioning-specific UE in this embodiment of the application. Refer to FIG. 8 , which is a schematic diagram of the protocol stack before pruning. In Figure 8, both UE and AMF include the NAS layer. In addition, both the UE and the base station include the RRC layer, packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, media Access control (media access control, MAC) layer and physical (PHY) layer. Refer to FIG. 9 again, which is a schematic diagram of the protocol stack after pruning. In Figure 9, the NAS layer is represented by a dotted line, indicating that the NAS layer has been cut off. In addition, in FIG. 9, although the RRC layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and PHY layer are still reserved on the UE side, the boxes used to represent these layers in FIG. 9 are narrower than those in FIG. Indicates that some or all functions related to communication in these layers are cut off, and functions related to positioning are retained. In Figure 9, the base station side still includes the RRC layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and PHY layer, that is, the protocol stack on the base station side may not be tailored, but these protocol stacks of the base station are used to serve the services shown in Figure 9. The functions of the UE may be reduced, and the hatched part indicates that the protocol stack on the base station side serves the functions of the UE.

Alternatively, the UE described in this embodiment of the present application may also be an ordinary UE, not a UE dedicated to positioning, for example, there is no need to tailor the protocol stack of the UE. That is to say, the solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various types of UEs.

In the embodiment of the present application, the positioning information used to configure the uplink reference signal may be included in the system information, the UE can obtain the positioning information by receiving the system information, and the UE can send the uplink reference signal to the access network device after obtaining the positioning information , without completing random access, or in other words, the UE can send an uplink reference signal to the access network device without performing random access, so that the network can locate the UE. Through the solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, the communication procedures such as random access that the UE originally needs to perform before being positioned are reduced, and the positioning process can be simplified. Moreover, since the communication process that the UE needs to execute is reduced, there is no need to insert random access-related codes inside the UE, thereby reducing the storage space of the UE, thereby saving the power consumption of the UE. In addition, the system information including positioning information is the first type. For example, the first type of system information may not include the public configuration information of the cell included in the traditional system information, but only includes positioning-related information (such as positioning information ), which can reduce the capacity of the first type of system information, save transmission overhead, and also reduce the code complexity of the UE, thereby saving the storage space of the UE. Finally, the UE can achieve positioning with lower power consumption, extending the UE lifetime.

In order to solve the same technical problem, the embodiment of the present application provides a third communication method, through which the steps in the positioning process can be further saved, and the power consumption of the UE can be saved. Please refer to FIG. 10 , which is a flowchart of the method.

S1001. The access network device sends a downlink broadcast channel. Correspondingly, the UE receives the downlink broadcast channel from the access network device.

The downlink broadcast channel may include configuration information of the downlink control channel. For example, the downlink broadcast channel is a physical broadcast channel (physical broadcast channel, PBCH), and the access network equipment, for example, transmits the PBCH in a certain cell, so there may be multiple UEs in the cell that can receive the PBCH. Take UE as an example. The access network device is, for example, a serving base station of the UE. For example, what the access network device sends is the SSB, and the SSB includes the PBCH.

The PBCH can carry the MIB, and the MIB can include some public configuration information of the current cell, for example, the MIB can configure a system frame number (system frame number, SFN), and can also include configuration information of a downlink control channel, such as a PDCCH. In addition, the UE can obtain downlink time synchronization with the current cell by receiving the PBCH.

S1002. The access network device sends a downlink control channel. Correspondingly, the UE receives the downlink control channel from the access network device. The downlink control channel is, for example, PDCCH.

The MIB includes configuration information of the PDCCH. The configuration information of the PDCCH includes, for example, time domain information and/or frequency domain information of the PDCCH. The UE can detect the PDCCH according to the configuration information of the PDCCH. The PDCCH can schedule the PDSCH, or in other words, the DCI carried by the PDCCH can schedule the PDSCH.

The PDCCH may also carry positioning information, for example, the positioning information may be included in the DCI, for example, the positioning information may be carried through a reserved space in the DCI. The positioning information may include information for configuring an uplink reference signal, and the information for configuring an uplink reference signal is called first configuration information, for example. For example, the positioning information only includes the first configuration information, and at this time the positioning information and the first configuration information may be the same concept; or, the positioning information includes other information for realizing the positioning function in addition to the first configuration information. For the introduction of positioning information, refer to S302 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 . That is to say, in the embodiment of the present application, the positioning information is carried by the PDCCH, and the UE can obtain the positioning information without receiving system information. Or for UEs with low communication requirements, even the system information does not need to be received, and the uplink reference signal can be sent to the access network device according to the positioning information, so as to perform the positioning process, further reducing the need to perform in the positioning process steps, saving signaling overhead and reducing UE power consumption.

Optionally, the PDCCH may also carry scheduling information, and the scheduling information may be used to schedule (or configure) uplink channels. For example, the scheduling information may be included in the positioning information, for example, the scheduling information is included in the first configuration information, or the scheduling information is included in the positioning information but not included in the first configuration information; for another example, the scheduling information is not included in the positioning information , but included in the DCI, that is, the DCI also includes scheduling information in addition to positioning information. The uplink channel includes, for example, an uplink control channel and/or an uplink shared channel.

The PDCCH in the embodiment of the present application may carry positioning information, and this type of PDCCH may be regarded as a first-type PDCCH, for example, the first-type PDCCH is a positioning-specific PDCCH. In addition, the access network device may also send the second type of PDCCH, for example, the second type of PDCCH is a common PDCCH, and the second type of PDCCH may not carry positioning information. Therefore, for the UE, the type of the PDCCH can be identified, so as to receive the required PDCCH. To enable the UE to identify the PDCCH, the access network device can make a corresponding instruction.

As an optional indication manner, the indication can be performed through the PBCH. For example, the PBCH may indicate that the type of the PDCCH is the first type or the second type. There are still unused reserved bits in the current MIB, so it may be considered to use the reserved bits to indicate the type of the PDCCH. For example, the type of PDCCH is indicated by a reserved bit in the MIB. If the value of this bit is "0", it indicates that the type of PDCCH is the second type; if the value of this bit is "1", it indicates the type of PDCCH for the first type. After receiving the MIB, the UE can determine the type of PDCCH to be sent by the access network device according to the indication of the MIB. For the UE in the embodiment of this application (for example, the UE that needs to be positioned, or has high requirements for delay and/or power consumption For UEs, or UEs with low communication requirements, etc.), if the MIB indicates that the PDCCH type is the first type, the UE can detect the PDCCH, and if the MIB indicates that the PDCCH type is the second type, the UE does not need to detect the PDCCH , thereby saving the power consumption of the UE. For ordinary UEs (such as UEs that do not need positioning, or UEs that require positioning but do not require high power consumption and/or delay, or UEs that have certain requirements for communication, etc.), if the MIB indicates that the PDCCH type is the second Type 2, the UE can detect the PDCCH, and if the MIB indicates that the type of the PDCCH is the first type, the UE does not need to detect the PDCCH, thereby saving the power consumption of these UEs.

As another optional implementation manner, the indication may be performed through the PDCCH. For example, if the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH (or DCI) is the first sequence, it indicates that the type of the PDCCH is the first type, or indicates that the PDCCH carries positioning information; if the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH (or DCI) If it is the second sequence, it indicates that the type of the PDCCH is the second type, or indicates that the PDCCH does not carry positioning information. The first sequence is, for example, a newly defined scrambling sequence, for example called positioning (POS)-SI-RNTI, and the second sequence is, for example, SI-RNTI. After receiving the PDCCH, the UE can determine whether the PDCCH is the PDCCH required by the UE according to the scrambling sequence used to scramble the PDCCH (or DCI). For example, for a UE in this embodiment of the present application (such as a UE that needs positioning, or a UE that requires high delay and/or power consumption, or a UE that does not require high communication, etc.), if the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH If it is the first sequence, the UE can further process the PDCCH (or DCI), such as decoding and other processing, and if the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH is the second sequence, the UE does not need to perform further processing on the PDCCH, for example, the UE can The PDCCH is discarded, thereby reducing the processing steps of the UE and saving the power consumption of the UE. For ordinary UEs (such as UEs that do not need positioning, or UEs that require positioning but do not require high power consumption and/or delay, or UEs that have certain requirements for communication, etc.), if the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH is the first If the scrambling sequence of the PDCCH is the second sequence, the UE does not need to perform further processing on the PDCCH, for example, the UE can discard the PDCCH, thereby reducing the processing steps of the UE and saving the power consumption of the UE.

Alternatively, in addition to the above methods, the access network device may also indicate whether the PDCCH carries positioning information in other ways, and the UE may also identify the PDCCH in other ways accordingly, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

S1003. The UE sends an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information. Correspondingly, the access network device may also receive the uplink reference signal from the UE according to the positioning information.

After the UE has obtained the positioning information through the PDCCH, the UE can send an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information, and the uplink reference signal can be used for positioning, for example, for positioning the UE. After receiving the uplink reference signal, the access network device can measure the uplink reference signal and send the measurement result to the LMF, so that the LMF can locate the UE according to the measurement result. That is to say, the UE obtains positioning information through the PDCCH, so that the UE not only does not need to perform random access, but also can achieve positioning without receiving system information such as SIB, which reduces the need for the UE to receive system information such as SIB before being positioned. And random access and other communication processes can simplify the positioning process. Moreover, since the communication process that the terminal device needs to execute is reduced, there is no need to insert random access-related codes inside the terminal device, thereby reducing the storage space of the terminal device, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal device. In addition, for some scenarios, such as asset inventory, logistics tracking, electronic fence and other scenarios, there is a high demand for positioning power consumption, for example, the service life of 6 to 18 months needs to be maintained, and these scenarios require far more communication. Far less than the need for positioning. Therefore, if the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are applied to these scenarios, since the UE does not need to perform communication procedures such as random access, it can help maintain a longer service life.

In order to better understand the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, the fourth communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced below, which can be regarded as an optional implementation manner of the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 . Please refer to FIG. 11 , which is a flowchart of the method.

S1101. The access network device sends the PBCH. Correspondingly, the UE receives the PBCH from the access network device.

S1101 may be the same step as S1001 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 , and for more details, refer to the introduction of S1001 .

S1102. The access network device sends a downlink control channel. Correspondingly, the UE receives the downlink control channel from the access network device. The downlink control channel is, for example, PDCCH.

S1102 may be the same step as S1002 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 , and for more details, refer to the introduction of S1002.

S1103. The UE sends the identifier of the UE to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the identifier of the UE from the UE.

For example, the PDCCH carries scheduling information, and the UE may send the identifier of the UE to the access network device on the uplink channel scheduled (or configured) by the scheduling information. The uplink channel includes, for example, an uplink control channel and/or an uplink shared channel. For content such as the manner in which the UE sends the UE's identity to the access network device through the uplink channel, reference may be made to S404 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 .

It is also possible that the UE directly sends the uplink reference signal to the access network device without sending the identity of the UE, so S1103 is an optional step.

S1104. The UE sends an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information. Correspondingly, the access network device may also receive the uplink reference signal from the UE according to the positioning information.

Optionally, the uplink reference signal may be determined according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the UE may determine the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE, or in other words, the identity of the UE may be used to determine the uplink reference signal. Regarding the manner of determining the uplink reference signal according to the identity of the UE, for example, the sequence identity of the uplink reference signal may be determined according to the identity of the UE, and/or the time domain position and/or frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal may be determined according to the identity of the UE, For content and so on, refer to S405 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 .

S1104 may be the same step as S1003 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 .

S1105. The access network device sends a first positioning request to the AMF. Correspondingly, the AMF receives the first positioning request from the access network device. The first positioning request may request to locate the UE, for example, the first positioning request includes the identifier of the UE.

For more details about S1105, refer to S406 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 .

S1106. The AMF sends a second positioning request to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the second positioning request from the AMF. For example, the second positioning request includes the identifier of the UE.

It should be noted that the identifier of the UE included in the second positioning request in S1106 may be the same as or different from the identifier of the UE in the preceding steps. In order to distinguish, the UE identity involved in S1101-S1105 is called the first identity, and the UE identity sent by the AMF to the LMF in S1106 is called the second identity. For this part of the content and more content of S1106, refer to S407 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 .

S1107. The LMF sends a first request message to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the first request message from the LMF. The first request message is used to request to obtain information for configuring the uplink reference signal.

S1108. The access network device sends a location response message to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives a location response message from the access network device. The first response message may include information for configuring the uplink reference signal, for example, the first response message includes positioning information or first configuration information.

S1109. The LMF sends measurement requests to multiple access network devices. Correspondingly, multiple access network devices receive measurement requests from the LMF. For example, multiple access network devices include the access network device, and S1109 takes the access network device receiving a measurement request from the LMF as an example.

For more details about S1109, refer to S410 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 .

S1110. The access network device sends the measurement result to the LMF. Correspondingly, the LMF receives the measurement result from the access network device.

For more details about S1110, refer to S411 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 .

S1111. The LMF determines the location of the UE according to the measurement result.

Wherein, S1105-S1111 are all optional steps. For example, after the access network device receives the uplink reference signal from the UE, the network may also use other methods to locate the UE.

In the embodiment of the present application, the UE obtains the positioning information through the PDCCH, so that the UE not only does not need to perform random access, but also can realize positioning without receiving system information such as SIB, which reduces the need for the UE to perform before being positioned. Communication processes such as system information and random access can simplify the positioning process. Moreover, since the communication process that the terminal device needs to execute is reduced, there is no need to insert random access-related codes inside the terminal device, thereby reducing the storage space of the terminal device, thereby saving the power consumption of the terminal device. For some scenarios, such as asset inventory, logistics tracking, electronic fence and other scenarios, there is a high demand for positioning power consumption, such as the need to maintain a service life of 6 to 18 months, and these scenarios have far less demand for communication than The need for positioning. Therefore, if the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are applied to these scenarios, since the UE does not need to perform communication procedures such as random access, it can help maintain a longer service life.

In addition, if the UE sends the UE identity to the access network equipment on the uplink control channel, since the UE does not need to send or receive the control channel, it only needs to support the control channel. Channel coding (such as polar code (polar)) is enough, without supporting shared channel coding (such as low density parity check code (low density parity check Code, LDPC)), which makes UE only need to implement very few protocol functions It will be able to work, which will further simplify the code implementation of the UE, which also means that the storage space will be further reduced, and finally enable the UE to achieve lower power consumption and longer service life.

FIG. 12 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1200 may be the terminal device or the circuit system of the terminal device described in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 , the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 or the embodiment shown in FIG. 11 , for implementing the method corresponding to the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment. Alternatively, the communication device 1200 may be the access network device or the access network device described in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 , the embodiment shown in FIG. 10 or the embodiment shown in FIG. The circuit system of the network access device is used to implement the method corresponding to the access network device in the foregoing method embodiments. For specific functions, refer to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments. Wherein, for example, a circuit system is a chip system.

The communication device 1200 includes at least one processor 1201 . The processor 1201 can be used for internal processing of the device to realize certain control processing functions. Optionally, processor 1201 includes instructions. Optionally, processor 1201 may store data. Alternatively, different processors may be separate devices, may be located in different physical locations, and may be located on different integrated circuits. Alternatively, different processors may be integrated within one or more processors, eg, on one or more integrated circuits.

Optionally, the communication device 1200 includes one or more memories 1203 for storing instructions. Optionally, data may also be stored in the memory 1203 . The processor and memory can be set separately or integrated together.

Optionally, the communication device 1200 includes a communication line 1202 and at least one communication interface 1204 . Wherein, since the memory 1203, the communication line 1202 and the communication interface 1204 are all optional, they are all indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 12 .

Optionally, the communication device 1200 may further include a transceiver and/or an antenna. Among other things, a transceiver may be used to send information to or receive information from other devices. The transceiver may be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, an input-output interface, etc., and is used to realize the transceiver function of the communication device 1200 through an antenna. Optionally, the transceiver includes a transmitter (transmitter) and a receiver (receiver). Exemplarily, the transmitter can be used to generate a radio frequency (radio frequency) signal from a baseband signal, and the receiver can be used to convert the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal.

The processor 1201 may include a general-purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a microprocessor, a specific application integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the program execution of the application program. circuit.

Communication line 1202 may include a pathway for communicating information between the above-described components.

Communication interface 1204, using any device such as a transceiver for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, radio access network (radio access network, RAN), wireless local area networks (wireless local area networks, WLAN), Wired access network, etc.

The memory 1203 may be a read-only memory (read-only memory, ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memory (random access memory, RAM) or other types that can store information and instructions It can also be an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be programmed by a computer Any other medium accessed, but not limited to. The memory 1203 may exist independently, and is connected to the processor 1201 through the communication line 1202 . Alternatively, the memory 1203 may also be integrated with the processor 1201 .

Wherein, the memory 1203 is used to store computer-executed instructions for implementing the solution of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 1201 . The processor 1201 is configured to execute computer-executed instructions stored in the memory 1203, so as to implement the communication methods provided in the above-mentioned embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the computer-executed instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application program codes, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 1201 may include one or more CPUs, for example, CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 12 .

In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the communication device 1200 may include multiple processors, for example, the processor 1201 and the processor 1208 in FIG. 12 . Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. A processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and/or processing cores for processing data (eg, computer program instructions).

When the apparatus shown in FIG. 12 is a chip, such as a chip of an access network device, or a chip of a UPF, or a chip of an SMF, or a chip of a terminal device, the chip includes a processor 1201 (may also include a processor 1208 ), communication line 1202, memory 1203 and communication interface 1204. Specifically, the communication interface 1204 may be an input interface, a pin, or a circuit. The memory 1203 may be a register, a cache, and the like. The processor 1201 and the processor 1208 may be a general-purpose CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling program execution of the communication method of any of the above-mentioned embodiments.

In a first implementation manner, the communication apparatus 1200 may be used to implement the method corresponding to the terminal device in the above embodiment of the application, and for specific functions, refer to the description in the above embodiment.

Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 1200 includes a processor 1201, and the processor 1201 is configured to execute a computer program or an instruction, so that the method corresponding to the terminal device in the above application embodiment is executed. For example, the method corresponding to the terminal device in the above-mentioned application embodiment includes: receiving a downlink control channel from the access network device, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates the information of the system information The type is the first type or the second type, the system information of the first type includes positioning information, the system information of the second type does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring uplink reference signals ; if the downlink control channel indicates that the type of the system information is the first type, detecting the system information; sending an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information.

For another example, the method corresponding to the terminal device in the above-mentioned application embodiment includes: receiving a downlink broadcast channel, the downlink broadcast channel including configuration information of a downlink control channel; receiving the downlink control channel, the downlink control channel carrying positioning information , the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; and sending an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information.

In the second implementation manner, the communication apparatus 1200 may be used to implement the method corresponding to the access network device in the above-mentioned application embodiment, and for specific functions, refer to the description in the above-mentioned embodiment.

Exemplarily, the communication apparatus 1200 includes a processor 1201, and the processor 1201 is configured to execute a computer program or an instruction, so that the method corresponding to the access network device in the above application embodiment is executed. For example, the method corresponding to the access network device in the above-mentioned application embodiment includes: sending a downlink control channel, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first One type or the second type, the system information of the first type includes positioning information, the system information of the second type does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring uplink reference signals; sending the The system information; if the type of the system information is the first type, receive an uplink reference signal from the terminal device.

For another example, the method corresponding to the access network device in the above-mentioned application embodiment includes: sending a downlink broadcast channel, where the downlink broadcast channel includes configuration information of a downlink control channel; sending the downlink control channel, where the downlink control channel carries Positioning information, where the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal; according to the positioning information, an uplink reference signal is received from a terminal device.

The embodiment of the present application may divide the device into functional modules according to the above method example, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software function modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, and is only a logical function division, and there may be other division methods in actual implementation. For example, in the case of dividing each functional module corresponding to each function, FIG. 13 shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus. The apparatus 1300 may be the access network device or terminal device involved in the above method embodiments, or an access network device A chip in a network access device or a chip in a terminal device. The apparatus 1300 includes a sending unit 1301 , a processing unit 1302 and a receiving unit 1303 .

It should be understood that the apparatus 1300 may be used to implement the steps performed by the access network device or the terminal device in the method of the embodiment of the present application, and related features may refer to the above embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

Optionally, the functions/implementation process of the sending unit 1301, the receiving unit 1303, and the processing unit 1302 in FIG. 13 may be implemented by the processor 1201 in FIG. 12 invoking computer-executed instructions stored in the memory 1203. Alternatively, the function/implementation process of the processing unit 1302 in FIG. 13 can be realized by calling the computer execution instructions stored in the memory 1203 by the processor 1201 in FIG. The process may be implemented through communication interface 1204 in FIG. 12 .

Optionally, when the device 1300 is a chip or a circuit, the functions/implementation process of the sending unit 1301 and the receiving unit 1303 may also be implemented through pins or circuits.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores computer programs or instructions, and when the computer programs or instructions are executed, the above method embodiments performed by the access network device or the terminal device can be implemented. method of execution. In this way, the functions described in the above embodiments can be realized in the form of software function units and sold or used as independent products. Based on such an understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be embodied in the form of a software product in essence or the part that contributes to it or the part of the technical solution. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions for So that a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) executes all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk and other various media that can store program codes.

The present application also provides a computer program product, the computer program product including: computer program code, when the computer program code is run on the computer, the computer is made to execute any of the preceding method embodiments by the terminal device or the access network device The method executed.

The present application also provides a system, which includes a terminal device and an access network device, or, includes a terminal device, an access network device and a positioning server.

An embodiment of the present application further provides a processing apparatus, including a processor and an interface; the processor is configured to execute the method performed by the terminal device or the access network device involved in any one of the above method embodiments.

In the above embodiments, all or part of them may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on the computer, the processes or functions according to the embodiments of the present application will be generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website, computer, server or data center Transmission to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired (eg, coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (eg, infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer, or a data storage device such as a server or a data center integrated with one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape), an optical medium (such as a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (such as a solid state disk (solid state disk, SSD)), etc.

The various illustrative logic units and circuits described in the embodiments of the present application can be programmed through general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processors, DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuits, ASICs), field programmable A field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to implement or operate the described functions. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, and optionally, the general-purpose processor may also be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller or state machine. A processor may also be implemented by a combination of computing devices, such as a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors combined with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration to accomplish.

The steps of the method or algorithm described in the embodiments of the present application may be directly embedded in hardware, a software unit executed by a processor, or a combination of both. The software unit may be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM or any other form in the art in the storage medium. Exemplarily, the storage medium can be connected to the processor, so that the processor can read information from the storage medium, and can write information to the storage medium. Optionally, the storage medium can also be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be set in the ASIC, and the ASIC can be set in the terminal device. Optionally, the processor and the storage medium may also be disposed in different components in the terminal device.

These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device, causing a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, thereby The instructions provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flow chart or blocks of the flowchart and/or the block or blocks of the block diagrams.

Although the embodiments of the present application have been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it is obvious that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Correspondingly, the embodiments of the present application and the drawings are only exemplary descriptions of the embodiments of the present application defined by the appended claims, and are deemed to have covered any and all modifications, changes, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the embodiments of the present application things. Apparently, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present application without departing from the scope of the embodiments of the present application. In this way, if the modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the embodiments of the present application and their equivalent technologies, the embodiments of the present application are also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

A communication method, characterized in that, comprising:

Receive a downlink control channel from an access network device, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, and the type of the first type is The system information includes positioning information, the second type of system information does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal;

If the downlink control channel indicates that the type of the system information is the first type, detecting the system information;

Send an uplink reference signal to the access network device according to the positioning information.
The method according to claim 1, wherein the system information further includes information for evaluating whether the terminal device is allowed to access a cell, and/or unified access control (UAC) information.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the downlink control channel further indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, including:

The downlink control channel carries downlink control information, and the downlink control information includes information indicating that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type; or,

The scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a first sequence, which is used to indicate that the type of the system information is the first type, or, the scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a second sequence, which is used to indicate the type of the system information The type of the system information is the second type.
The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises:

The identifier of the terminal device is sent on the uplink channel configured by the system information, where the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel or an uplink shared channel.
The method according to claim 4, characterized in that,

The uplink channel includes the uplink control channel, and the uplink control channel is used to request positioning; or,

The uplink channel includes the uplink shared channel, and the method further includes: sending request information to the access network device, where the request information is used to request positioning.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the terminal equipment.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the terminal equipment and the positioning information.
The method according to claim 7, wherein the positioning information includes one or more of the following:

bandwidth information of the uplink reference signal;

the period of the uplink reference signal;

The number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal; or,

Comb tooth information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain.
The method according to any one of claims 6-8, characterized in that,

The sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is the same as the identifier of the terminal device; or,

The sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is obtained by moduloing the identifier of the terminal device; or,

The sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is part of the identifier of the terminal device.
The method according to any one of claims 6-9, characterized in that the time-domain position and/or frequency-domain position of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device.
The method according to claim 10, wherein the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located, and the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is based on the The number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located in one system frame.
The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes a start symbol of the uplink reference signal, wherein the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is based on Determined by the identifier of the terminal device and first information, where the first information includes the number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal and/or the number of symbols included in a time slot.
The method according to any one of claims 10-12, wherein the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal includes a frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal, and the frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal is The number of the subcarrier where the position is located is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device and the comb information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain.
The method according to any one of claims 1-13, wherein the uplink reference signal is a positioning SRS.
The method according to any one of claims 1-14, characterized in that the terminal device is only used for positioning.
A communication method, characterized in that, comprising:

Sending a downlink control channel, the downlink control channel is used to schedule system information, and the downlink control channel also indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, and the first type of system information includes positioning information , the second type of system information does not include the positioning information, and the positioning information includes information for configuring an uplink reference signal;

send said system information;

If the type of the system information is the first type, receive an uplink reference signal from the terminal device.
The method according to claim 16, wherein the system information further includes information for evaluating whether the terminal device is allowed to access a cell, and/or unified access control (UAC) information.
The method according to claim 16 or 17, wherein the downlink control channel further indicates that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type, including:

The downlink control channel carries downlink control information, and the downlink control information includes information indicating that the type of the system information is the first type or the second type; or,

The scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a first sequence, which is used to indicate that the type of the system information is the first type, or, the scrambling sequence of the downlink control channel is a second sequence, which is used to indicate the type of the system information The type of the system information is the second type.
The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

The identifier of the terminal device is sent on the uplink channel configured by the fifth information, where the uplink channel includes an uplink control channel or an uplink shared channel.
The method of claim 19, wherein,

The uplink channel includes the uplink control channel, and the uplink control channel is used to request positioning; or,

The uplink channel includes the uplink shared channel, and the method further includes: receiving request information from the terminal device, where the request information is used to request positioning.
The method according to any one of claims 16-20, wherein the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the terminal equipment.
The method according to any one of claims 16-21, wherein the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identity of the terminal device and the positioning information.
The method according to claim 22, wherein the positioning information includes one or more of the following:

bandwidth information of the uplink reference signal;

the period of the uplink reference signal;

The number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal; or,

Comb tooth information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain.
The method according to any one of claims 21-23, characterized in that,

The sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is the same as the identifier of the terminal device; or,

The sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is obtained by moduloing the identifier of the terminal device; or,

The sequence identifier of the uplink reference signal is part of the identifier of the terminal device.
The method according to any one of claims 21-24, characterized in that the time-domain position and/or frequency-domain position of the uplink reference signal is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device.
The method according to claim 25, wherein the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located, and the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is based on the number of the terminal device The number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located is the number of the time slot where the uplink reference signal is located in one system frame.
The method according to claim 25 or 26, wherein the time domain position of the uplink reference signal includes the start symbol of the uplink reference signal, wherein the number of the start symbol of the uplink reference signal is based on Determined by the identifier of the terminal device and first information, where the first information includes the number of symbols occupied by the uplink reference signal and/or the number of symbols included in a time slot.
The method according to any one of claims 25 to 27, wherein the frequency domain position of the uplink reference signal includes a frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal, and the frequency domain start position of the uplink reference signal is The number of the subcarrier where the position is located is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device and the comb information of the uplink reference signal in the frequency domain.
The method according to any one of claims 16-28, characterized in that the method further comprises:

Sending a first positioning request to the core network device, where the first positioning request includes the identifier of the terminal device, and is used to request positioning of the terminal device.
The method according to any one of claims 16-29, characterized in that the method further comprises:

measuring the uplink reference signal to obtain a measurement result;

Send the measurement result to a positioning server, where the measurement result is used for positioning the terminal device.
The method according to any one of claims 16-30, wherein the uplink reference signal is a positioning SRS.
The method according to any one of claims 16-31, wherein the terminal device is only used for positioning.
A communication device, characterized in that it includes a processor and a memory; wherein the memory is used to store one or more computer programs, and the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions, when the communication device is running , the processor executes the one or more computer programs stored in the memory, so that the communication device executes the method according to any one of claims 1-15, or makes the communication device execute the method described in A method as claimed in any one of claims 16-32.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program runs on a computer, the computer executes any one of claims 1-15. The method described in claim 1, or causing the computer to execute the method described in any one of claims 16-32.
A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product includes a computer program, and when the computer program is run on a computer, the computer is made to perform the method according to any one of claims 1-15, Or make the computer execute the method according to any one of claims 16-32.