WO2024001833A1

WO2024001833A1 - Communication method and apparatus

Info

Publication number: WO2024001833A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/100786
Authority: WO
Inventors: 沙桐; 常俊仁; 王建林; 徐海博
Original assignee: 华为技术有限公司
Priority date: 2022-06-30
Filing date: 2023-06-16
Publication date: 2024-01-04
Also published as: CN117395793A

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal device sending a first message to a network device, wherein the first message is used for indicating the suppression of a first carrier, and the first message is also used for indicating that the first carrier is not released; and a terminal device receiving a first command from a network device, wherein the first command is used for suppressing the first carrier. When a terminal device is in a resource conflict state, a request for deactivating a carrier and not releasing the carrier can be made to a network device, such that a resource conflict is solved, and a new resource conflict problem caused by a carrier being released is not introduced.

Description

A communication method and device

Cross-references to related applications

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application submitted to the Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on June 30, 2022, with application number 202210766092.9 and the application title "A communication method and device", the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. Applying.

Technical field

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

Background technique

In communication systems such as long term evolution (LTE) systems and new radio (NR) systems, multiple carriers can be aggregated and used through carrier aggregation (CA) technology to increase bandwidth. In CA technology, the carrier corresponding to the primary cell (PCell) is called the primary carrier component (PCC); the carrier corresponding to the secondary cell (SCell) is called the secondary carrier component (SCC) ). The network device will configure a corresponding number of auxiliary carriers for the terminal device based on the capabilities reported by the terminal device.

The carrier aggregation capability of the terminal device may be lower than the carrier aggregation capability reported by the terminal device to the network device in some scenarios. For example, when the terminal device supports communication with multiple user identities in the associated communication system, the above-mentioned multiple communications The communication of the system will share the hardware capabilities of the terminal equipment. Therefore, when multiple communication systems are working at the same time, when the business of communication system B preempts the hardware resources used by communication system A for a certain carrier, it will affect the performance of communication system A on the above-mentioned carrier. Data is sent and received, causing packet loss and errors, affecting system efficiency.

Contents of the invention

This application provides a communication method and device to reduce system resource conflicts and improve resource utilization efficiency.

In a first aspect, this application provides a communication method. The execution subject of the method is a terminal device or a chip or a module in the terminal device. Here, the terminal device is used as the execution subject as an example for description. The method includes: sending a first message to a network device, the first message being used to indicate suppressing the first carrier, and the first message also being used to indicate not releasing the first carrier; receiving a first command from the network device, the first command being used to Suppress the first carrier.

According to the above method, when the terminal device is in a resource conflict state, it can be solved by requesting the network device to deactivate the carrier and not release the carrier. While resolving the resource conflict, no new resource conflicts will be introduced due to subsequent carrier release. The problem. This reduces the possibility of resource conflicts in the system and improves the utilization efficiency of system resources.

In a possible implementation, the terminal device supports communicating with a first communication system and a second communication system at the same time. The first communication system is associated with the first user identity of the terminal device, and the second communication system is associated with the second user identity of the terminal device. The user identity is associated, the terminal device is in a first state, and the first state includes that the terminal device has the ability to be used in the first communication system and cannot communicate on the first carrier.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device receives the first command and starts the first timer, and the duration of the first timer is the first duration. Through the above first timer, the carrier configuration context can be released after the timer times out to save Save storage overhead.

In a possible implementation, the first duration is configured by the network device or instructed by the terminal device to the network device, where the terminal device indicating to the network device includes the terminal device indicating to the network device through a first message.

In a possible implementation, the terminal device sends a second message to the network device within a first period of time after receiving the first command. The second message is used to instruct the suppression of the first carrier, and the second message is also used to instruct the third carrier. One carrier is not released, in which the terminal equipment is still in the first state.

In a possible implementation, after the terminal device sends the second message to the network device, the terminal device receives a second command, and the second command is used to suppress the first carrier; upon receiving the second command, the terminal device restarts the first carrier. timer.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device sends a third message to the network device, where the third message is used to indicate that the first carrier suppression is released, or the third message is used to indicate that the first message is invalid.

In a possible implementation, the terminal device supports communicating with a first communication system and a second communication system at the same time. The first communication system corresponds to the first user identity of the terminal device, and the second communication system corresponds to the second user identity of the terminal device. , the terminal device is in a second state, and the second state includes a capability of the terminal device that can be used in the first communication system to support communication on the first carrier.

In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device sending the third message to the network device includes: stopping the first timer when sending the third message to the network device or after sending the third message to the network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the first message used to instruct suppressing the first carrier further includes: the first message used to instruct suppressing a carrier in a frequency band in which the first carrier is located.

According to the above method, when the terminal device is in a resource conflict state, the resource conflict can be resolved by requesting the network device to deactivate the carrier in the frequency band where the first carrier is located and the carrier is not to be released, thus preventing the resource conflict in the frequency band where the first carrier is located. Other carriers become active causing another collision.

In a possible implementation, the terminal device sends a fourth message to the network device. The fourth message is used to indicate a request to keep the carrier aggregation CA combination unchanged and/or a request not to add activated carriers and/or not to change the activated carriers. frequency bands and/or deactivate carriers on specific frequency bands.

In the second aspect, this application provides a communication method. The execution subject of the method is a network device or a chip or a module in the network device. Here, the network device is used as the execution subject as an example for description. The method includes: the network device receives a first message from the terminal device, the first message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier, and the first message is also used to indicate not to release the first carrier; the network device sends a first command to the terminal device, One command is used to suppress the first carrier.

In a possible implementation, within a first period of time after the terminal device receives the first command, a second message is received from the terminal device, the first message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier, and the second message is also used to indicate The first carrier is not released; a second command is sent to the terminal device, and the second command is used to suppress the first carrier.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which is a terminal device or a chip in the terminal device, including: a processing unit configured to send a first message to the network device through the communication unit, where the first message is used to indicate suppression The first carrier, indicating that suppressing the first carrier includes requesting that the first carrier not be released; the processing unit is further configured to receive a first command from the network device through the communication unit, where the first command is used to suppress the first carrier.

In a fourth aspect, this application provides a communication device, which is a network device or a chip in the network device, including: a processing unit configured to receive a first message from a terminal device through the communication unit, where the first message is used to indicate Suppressing the first carrier indicates that suppressing the first carrier includes requesting that the first carrier not be released; the processing unit is further configured to send a first command to the terminal device through the communication unit, and the first command is used to suppress the first carrier.

In a fifth aspect, this application provides a communication device, including a processor and a memory; the processor is used to perform storage The computer program or instructions stored in the device enables the communication device to perform the method described in the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor and a memory; the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the memory to implement the method described in the second aspect of the communication device.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium that stores computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer implements the method described in the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium that stores computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, the computer implements the method described in the second aspect.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture suitable for this application;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of carrier aggregation provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of carrier aggregation provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a MAC CE format provided by the embodiment of the present application;

Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a carrier aggregation combination configuration provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figures 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams of resource conflicts provided by embodiments of the present application;

Figure 7 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 8A and Figure 8B are another MAC CE format schematic diagram provided by the embodiment of the present application;

Figure 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Figure 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

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

The technical solutions of the embodiments of this application can be applied to various communication systems such as the 5th generation (5G) mobile communication system and 4G mobile communication system. The 5G mobile communication system includes but is not limited to the NR system. The 4G mobile communication system includes But it is not limited to long term evolution (LTE) systems, etc., and is not limited here.

In the embodiment of this application, the terminal device may be a device with wireless transceiver function, and may also be called user equipment (UE), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, Remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device, etc. The terminal device in the embodiment of this application can be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiver functions, a virtual reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (AR) terminal, an industrial Wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, etc.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device can connect the terminal device to a radio access network (RAN), and can be a wireless access device under various standards, for example, it can be a next-generation base station in the NR system ( next generation node B (gNB), which can be an evolved node B (evolved Node B, eNB), a radio network controller (RNC) or a node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller) , BSC), base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), baseband unit (baseband unit, BBU), wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, WIFI) The access point (AP), wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, transmission point (transmission and reception point, TRP or transmission point, TP), etc. in the system can also be 5G (NR) A gNB or transmission point (TRP or TP) in the system, one or a group (including multiple antenna panels) of antenna panels of a base station in a 5G system, or it can also be a network node that constitutes a gNB or transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or DU under the centralized unit-distributed (CU-DU) architecture, etc.

The embodiments of the present application can be applied to independently deployed 5G or 4G mobile communication systems, as well as non-independently deployed 5G or 4G mobile communication systems, such as dual connectivity (DC). For example, FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a network architecture suitable for embodiments of the present application. As shown in Figure 1, the network includes 5G core network (5G core, 5GC) and next generation radio access network (NG-RAN). 5GC includes a variety of core network equipment, such as access and mobility management function (AMF) network elements and user plane function (UPF) network elements. NG-RAN includes gNB and ng-eNB, among which gNB can provide NR user plane and control plane protocol terminals to terminal equipment; ng-eNB provides evolved universal terrestrial radio access to terminal equipment. , E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminal. gNB and ng-eNB are connected to each other through the Xn interface.

The embodiments of the present application can also be applied to multi-carrier transmission scenarios, including but not limited to CA, supplementary uplink (SUL) and supplementary downlink (SDL) scenarios. For example, taking CA as an example, as shown in Figure 2, the network side can aggregate multiple component carriers (CCs) and configure them for use by terminal devices, thereby increasing bandwidth and improving data transmission rates. Figure 2 shows a 3-carrier aggregation scenario. Terminal equipment can use 3 carriers at the same time. Among the three carriers, one carrier is called the primary carrier component (PCC), and the cell corresponding to the PCC is called the primary cell (PCell). The other two carriers are called secondary carrier components (SCC), and the cell corresponding to the SCC is called a secondary cell (SCell).

Among them, traditional CA, a time division duplex (TDD) carrier (the carrier contains an uplink part and a downlink part) or a pair of frequency division duplex (FDD) carriers (a downlink carrier and an uplink part) carrier) corresponds to one cell. After the introduction of SUL, one FDD cell can correspond to one downlink carrier and two uplink carriers (normal uplink/non-supplementary uplink (NUL) carrier and SUL carrier), or one TDD cell can correspond to two carriers , a NUL carrier, and a SUL carrier.

In addition, component carrier (component carrier, CC) may also be called carrier component (carrier component, CC). For convenience of description, it is uniformly called carrier component or carrier in the embodiment of this application.

When this application is applied to the DC scenario, as shown in Figure 3, the terminal device establishes a connection with two network devices (the network device here refers to the logical network device) through the DC mode. One of the two network devices It is the master node (MN), and the other network device is the secondary node (SN). Both the MN and SN can act as CA independently. The cell where the MN forms the CA is called the master cell group (MCG), and the cell where the SN forms the CA is called the secondary cell group (SCG). If dual connectivity is not implemented, the group of cells communicating with the terminal equipment is the MCG.

The MCG includes a primary cell PCell and at least one secondary cell (SCell); the SCG includes a primary secondary cell (primary secondary cell (PSCell)) and at least one SCell. PCell under MCG and SCell under MCG are united through carrier aggregation (CA) technology. PSCell under SCG and SCell under SCG are also united through carrier aggregation technology.

In the embodiment of this application, since the terminal device accesses multiple SCells, the network device needs to manage the SCells. The management of SCell includes the configuration (addition), deletion, change, activation, deactivation, etc. of SCell.

1. SCell configuration/deletion: Radio resource control (radio resource control, After RRC) connection, the network device can determine the SCells that need to be added to the terminal device based on the business volume requirements and the capabilities of the terminal device, and configure these SCells to the terminal device through RRC reconfiguration messages. When the traffic volume is small, the network can delete SCell through RRC reconfiguration.

2. SCell activation/deactivation: Only activated SCell can send and receive data, and deactivated SCell cannot send and receive data. The network device will control the activation timing or activation conditions of SCell. Generally, it will decide whether to activate SCell based on the data service of the terminal device: when the terminal device has a large amount of data traffic waiting to be transmitted, the network device will activate SCell. The deactivation of SCell is determined by the network device on the one hand, and it can also be determined by the terminal device on the other hand. When the data traffic volume is small, the network equipment will deactivate SCell. Determination by the terminal device may mean that the terminal device sets a deactivation timer for each SCell. When each SCell is activated, the deactivation timer starts (the duration of the deactivation timer is issued when configuring the SCell). When the SCell does not monitor control or business data within the timer running time, you can go to Activate SCell to save power consumption.

Network devices dynamically control the activation and deactivation of SCell through the SCell activation/deactivation media access control (MAC) control element (CE). The format of SCell Activation/Deactivation MAC CE (SCell Activation/Deactivation MAC CE) can be shown in Figure 4. The MAC CE in Figure 4 includes 1 octet, which is composed of C-fields and R-fields. Can indicate the status of 7 SCells. In Figure 4, each Ci bit occupies 1 bit, indicating that the status of the SCell corresponding to this bit is activation/deactivation. The subscript i represents the SCell index (SCell index), and i is an integer greater than 0. For example, when Ci=0, it indicates that the status of SCell i corresponding to Ci is deactivated; when Ci=1, it indicates that the status of SCell i corresponding to Ci is activated. R is a reserved bit, set to 0. If SCell is not configured, the corresponding bit is ignored.

The purpose of introducing SCell activation/deactivation is mainly to save costs. When SCell is activated, the power of the terminal device will be consumed, and the wireless resources of SCell will also be consumed. When the data traffic volume of the terminal device is not large, the network side can control the number of activated SCells. In addition, when the network device configures SCell, it can flexibly control the activation and deactivation of SCell through low-layer signaling, adapting to changes in service status more quickly and with lower latency.

3. SCell change: Replace SCell with better signal quality for terminal equipment. When a cell with better signal quality appears (for example, when the terminal device moves to the edge of the original SCell), in order to ensure the data transmission rate of the terminal device, the terminal device can replace the SCell.

In the embodiment of this application, the network device will perform carrier aggregation (CA) based on the wireless capability of the terminal device (UE radio capability, hereinafter referred to as the capability of the terminal device). The capability of the terminal device refers to the capability reported by the terminal device to the network through UECapabilityInformation. The capabilities of the device are usually reported to the network device after the terminal device registers with the network.

In the UECapabilityInformation, the terminal device will report the frequency band combination list (supportedBandCombinationList) supported by the terminal device, which includes the frequency band combination (BC, BandCombination) supported by the terminal device for carrier aggregation. For each frequency band combination, information related to the frequency bands that make up the frequency band combination will be reported, including the number of the frequency band, the carrier aggregation bandwidth class (CA-bandwidthClass) of the frequency band, etc. The carrier aggregation bandwidth class of the frequency band indicates the maximum continuous bandwidth supported by this frequency band. The number of aggregated carriers, maximum aggregate bandwidth, etc.; for each frequency band combination, the feature set combination corresponding to the frequency band combination and the CA parameters of the frequency band combination are also reported. Through the frequency band combination reported by the terminal device, the network device will learn the carrier aggregation frequency band, number of carriers, bandwidth, and carrier aggregation method.

In some scenarios, the capabilities that the terminal device can support are lower than the capabilities reported by the terminal device to the network device or the capabilities of the terminal device are temporarily limited. For example, the carrier aggregation (CA) capability that the terminal device can support is lower than the CA capability reported by the terminal device to the network device. For example, if the terminal device is MUSIM (Multi-Universal Subscriber Identity Module) terminal equipment, such as a terminal equipment that supports dual subscriber identity modules (SIM), the terminal equipment supports communicating with a first communication system and a second communication system at the same time, and the first communication system is associated with the first communication system. The user identification module (corresponding to the first user identity, which may also be referred to as SIM card 1 or card 1 in this application), and the second communication system is associated with the second user identification module (corresponding to the second user identity, which may also be referred to in this application as Referred to as SIM card 2 or card 2). The above-mentioned simultaneous communication includes working on the first communication system and the second communication system at the same time, or maintaining the RRC connection on the first communication system and the second communication system at the same time, or performing data transmission on the first communication system and the second communication system at the same time. . For terminal equipment that supports dual-SIM operation, the communication systems associated with each user identification module work independently of each other, and may not be aware of each other from the perspective of network equipment. For example, the terminal device communicates with network device A as the first user, and network device A configures CA combination 1 according to the frequency band combination capability reported by the terminal device. The CA combination 1 is the terminal device as the first user (or in other words, as the first user). The CA combination used by the first user identity) to work in the first communication system; the terminal device communicates with the network device B as the second user identity (or in other words, with the second user identity), and the network device B communicates with the network device B according to the frequency band combination reported by the terminal device The capability configures CA combination 2, which is the CA combination used by the terminal device to work in the second communication system as a second user. The network device A and the network device B may be the same network device or different network devices. However, the hardware resources used by the terminal device to communicate in the first communication system and the second communication system are shared. When the terminal device communicates with both of them at the same time, the hardware resources of the terminal device occupied by the two may conflict or A collision occurs. CA combination can be understood as a combination of carriers for carrier aggregation communication, or a combination of frequency bands to which carriers for carrier aggregation communication belong. The CA combination may correspond to different SIM cards, or may correspond to a user identification, and the user identification may be associated with the SIM card. For example, CA combination 1 can be configured for SIM card 1, and CA combination 2 can be configured for SIM card 2. One possible scenario is that when the terminal device only works in the first communication system, the terminal device supports configuring and activating the first carrier, and the terminal device can send and receive data on the first carrier. When the terminal equipment works on the second communication system, when the transmission/operation of the second communication system occupies part of the terminal equipment's capabilities, the terminal equipment may not be able to receive and send signaling on the first carrier configured in the first communication system. or data. The capabilities of some of the above terminal devices may include hardware capabilities of the terminal device, such as baseband processing capabilities and/or radio frequency capabilities. The above hardware capabilities of the terminal device can also be understood as hardware resources of the terminal device, such as baseband resources and/or radio frequency resources. It can also be understood that the hardware resources occupied by the carrier activated by the network device on the first communication system and the second communication system of the terminal equipment conflict. At this time, the terminal device cannot perform normal data or signaling transmission and reception on the first carrier, and the CA capability of the terminal device on the first communication system is temporarily limited.

For another example, the terminal device may also be other devices that support communication in associated communication systems with multiple user identities, and communications in multiple communication systems share the hardware capabilities of the terminal device. For example, for a device that supports unicast communication and broadcast/multicast communication, the terminal device performs unicast communication in the first communication system, the terminal device performs broadcast/multicast communication in the second communication system, and the first communication system is associated with the terminal The first user identity of the device, and the second communication system is associated with the second user identity of the terminal device. The ability of the terminal equipment to report in the first communication system can support the configuration and activation of the first carrier when the terminal equipment only works in the first communication system, and when the transmission/work of the terminal equipment in the second communication system occupies part of the terminal equipment's capabilities , the terminal device may be unable to receive and send signaling or data on the first carrier of the first communication system, and the terminal device's CA capability on the first communication system is temporarily limited.

Further, taking a terminal device that supports dual SIM cards as an example, for network equipment, a dual SIM card terminal device will be regarded as two independent terminal devices. The two SIM cards may belong to the same operator or different operators. However, For the terminal device side, the two SIM cards actually share hardware resources. When SIM card 1 and SIM card 2 communicate at the same time, the carrier resources occupied by SIM card 1 and SIM card 2 may conflict. For example, the radio frequency resources associated with the carriers conflict. As shown in Figure 5, the radio frequency resources of the terminal device include four radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC). In the network corresponding to SIM card 1, the four configured CCs include PCC and SCC1 to SCC3; among them, PCC is associated RFIC 0, SCC1 is associated with RFIC 1, SCC2 is associated with RFIC 2, and SCC3 is associated with RFIC 3. In the network corresponding to SIM card 2, the configured CC is PCC and is associated with RFIC 1. Since RFIC 1 is associated with two CCs at the same time, but RFIC 1 can only provide services for one of the CCs at the same time, a radio frequency conflict occurs between the two CCs. When the network schedules data on the two CCs at the same time, the terminal device can only When data is received on one CC, a large number of bit errors will be generated when receiving data on the other CC, seriously affecting the user experience.

Furthermore, similar resource conflict problems will also occur in scenarios where multiple communication systems supported by a terminal share hardware resources. For example, the UE supports both enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and vehicle to everything (V2X) communications, supports simultaneous communications between eMBB and non-public network (non-public network, NPN), and supports eMBB and multicast broadcast services. (multicast broadcast service, MBS) simultaneous communication and other scenarios.

In summary, it can be seen that since multiple communication systems share the hardware resources of the terminal equipment, the capabilities of the terminal equipment may be temporarily limited, and the carriers scheduled by the network side cannot be used for data transmission. If the network does not know that the carriers supported by the terminal device have changed, it will continue to schedule data on the carriers, causing the terminal devices to be unable to correctly decode data on the above carriers, which not only wastes carrier resources but also seriously reduces user experience.

In one implementation, for a terminal device that supports dual-card operation, when the card 2 service preempts the carrier resources of card 1, the terminal device can send a carrier deactivation request message to the network device to request the deactivation of a specific carrier. Activation: When the dual-card resource conflict is resolved, the terminal device can send a carrier activation message to the network device to request activation of the above-mentioned carrier, or restore the activateable state of the above-mentioned carrier. In this implementation, if the network device releases the carrier after receiving the carrier deactivation message sent by the terminal device, the network device may reconfigure the carrier when there is a service demand. The release and reconfiguration of carriers will cause large delays. At the same time, frequent and unnecessary carrier release and reconfiguration will interrupt services and affect user experience. In addition, if the network device releases the carrier or changes the CA BC (band combination) configuration, the carrier resource allocation within the UE changes, which may cause dual-card resource conflicts to occur again.

Specifically, as shown in Figure 6A, the CA configuration of the terminal device for SIM card 1 is band A+band B+band C, and the CA configuration for SIM card 2 is band D+band E. At this time, the SCell on the band C frequency band The services of carrier 2 and the services of SCell 3 carrier in band E are both processed by hardware resource RFIC 4, that is, resource preemption occurs. At this time, as shown in Figure 6B, after the terminal device sends a carrier deactivation request message to the network device, the network device releases the SCell 2 carrier, and the resource conflict located on the hardware resource RFIC 4 is resolved. However, the CA combination configuration of the terminal device has changed at this time. The current CA configuration of the terminal device for SIM card 1 is band A+band B, and the CA configuration for SIM card 2 is band D+band E. The CA configuration on the band B frequency band is The services of the SCell 1 carrier and the PCell carrier services in the band D frequency band are both processed by the hardware resource RFIC 2, that is, resource preemption occurs again.

To this end, this application provides a method that can solve the above problems, which will be described in detail below. In addition, in the embodiment of this application, the meaning of suppression includes but is not limited to at least one of the following: requesting the network device to suspend or stop scheduling data on the carrier or cell; suspending or stopping sending on the control channel and/or traffic channel; Deactivate a carrier or cell. In the embodiment of the present application, suppression may also be called deactivation, or may be replaced by "deactivation" or "suspend". A terminal device that supports dual SIM cards may be referred to as a "dual SIM card terminal device", a dual SIM card is referred to as a "dual SIM card", and a single SIM card is referred to as a "single SIM card". It should be understood that the embodiments of the present invention can also be applied to terminal devices that support multiple user identities. In this embodiment, one or more carriers can be understood as one or more cells, or secondary cells, or cell groups.

The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of this application are for the purpose of explaining the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application more clearly, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this application. Those of ordinary skill in the art will know that with the network With the evolution of architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

In the embodiment of this application, the interaction between a network device and a terminal device is taken as an example for explanation. The operations performed by the network device can also be performed by a chip or module inside the network device, and the operations performed by the terminal device can also be performed by a chip inside the terminal device. or module execution. Among them, the network device and the terminal device can communicate through multiple carriers, or they can communicate through one carrier; the terminal device can also communicate with multiple network devices at the same time. For example, the terminal device supports two SIM cards, and the terminal device uses these two SIM cards. Two SIM cards communicate with different network devices. The two SIM cards share hardware resources on the terminal device. The hardware resources include baseband resources and radio frequency resources. The baseband resources include processors, memory resources, etc.; the radio frequency resources include antennas, radio frequency resources, etc. Front-end modules (fromnt end modules, FEM), RFIC channels, etc.

Combined with the previous description, as shown in Figure 7, it is a schematic flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. Referring to Figure 7, the method includes:

S701: The terminal device sends a first message to the network device. The first message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier. The first message is also used to indicate not to release the first carrier.

Specifically, the first carrier may be one or more carriers.

In one implementation, the first message is used to indicate or request to deactivate the first carrier, and the first message is also used to indicate not to release the first carrier. The above-mentioned first carrier may be understood as/replaced as one or more cells or cell groups. The cell may be a secondary cell (SCell).

It should be noted that in the scenario of dual connectivity DC, the secondary cell SCell may include the SCell of the primary cell group MCG, the PSCell of the secondary cell group SCG, and the SCell of the SCG. The first message may be used to indicate or request suppression of a carrier or cell of a first cell group (CG).

Specifically, the above-mentioned first message may be a MAC layer message such as MAC CE, or may be a piece of RRC signaling, such as UE assistance information (UE assistance information, UAI). The above-mentioned first message may be sent to the network device in an RRC ResumeRequest message, an RRC ResumeComplete message, an RRC re-establishment request message, or an RRC re-establishment complete message. The advantage of using MAC CE for this signaling is that carrier deactivation instructions can be made faster and the delay is lower.

Exemplarily, the first message is a MAC CE. The MAC CE can be as shown in Figure 8A. The length of the MAC CE is 1 octet, including 8 bits. The bits can correspond to a carrier configured by the network. Or a neighborhood. For example, in the MAC CE, the first (leftmost) bit may correspond to the SCell with index 1, the second bit may correspond to the SCell with index 2, and so on in other cases. For another example, the MAC CE can be as shown in Figure 8B. The length of the MAC CE is 2 octets, including 16 bits, and the bits can correspond to a carrier or a cell. For example, in the MAC CE, the first (leftmost) bit may correspond to the SCell with index 1, the second bit may correspond to the SCell with index 2, and so on in other cases. The above are only examples. The relationship between the position and order of the bits in the MAC CE and the cells is not limited, nor is the cell index corresponding to the bits. For example, an octet MAC CE can correspond to indexes 0 to 7. community. Moreover, the length of the above-mentioned bitmap is not limited. For example, the MAC CE may also include 32 bits and may correspond to no more than 32 carriers or cells. If the cell or carrier corresponding to the index is not configured, the corresponding bit is ignored.

Optionally, the above-mentioned first message may indicate in an implicit manner that the first carrier is not to be released. Still taking the first message as an octet MAC CE as an example, in the above example, when the value of the bit is 1 (or 0), it means that the terminal device requests to suppress and not release the cell corresponding to the bit. Correspondingly, when the value of a bit is 0 (or 1), it indicates that the cell corresponding to the bit can be activated or released by the network device, or it indicates that the cell is unsuppressed. For example, as shown in Figure 8A, the bits corresponding to the SCells with indexes 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 are 1, so the MAC CE message can indicate suppression and not releasing the SCells with indexes 1, 2, 4, and 7. ,8 SCell.

Optionally, the first message may indicate in an explicit manner that the first carrier is not released, for example, by using a separate bit to indicate that the first carrier is not released. For example, assuming that the first message is 1 octet, the first 7 bits (7 counting from the left) correspond to cells with indexes 1 to 7, and a bit value of 1 indicates a request for suppression/removal. Activate the cell corresponding to the index, and the value of the 8th bit is 1 to indicate that the cell requesting the suppression is not released. For example, as shown in Figure 8A, the bits corresponding to the SCells with indexes 1, 2, 4, and 7 are 1 and the value of the eighth bit is 1, thereby indicating that the above-mentioned indexes are 1, 2, 4, The SCell of 7 is inhibited and not released. For another example, take the MAC CE whose first message is 2 octets. The bits of the first octet are used to request suppression/deactivation of up to 8 cells, and the bits of the second octet are used to request suppression/deactivation of up to 8 cells. The bits are used to request not to release the corresponding cell. As shown in Figure 8B, the bits corresponding to the SCells with indexes 1, 2, 4, and 7 are 1, which means that the SCells with indexes 1, 2, 4, and 7 are requested to be suppressed. In the second byte, the corresponding bits are the same as those with index 2. The tenth bit of the corresponding SCell is 1 and the twelfth bit of the SCell corresponding to index 4 is 1, indicating that SCells with indexes 2 and 4 are requested not to be released.

Exemplarily, the first message is an RRC message, such as UE assistance information. Optionally, the UE carries the identity of the first carrier or the identity of the first cell, such as serving cell index, in the RRC message, which is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier or the first cell. For example, the RRC message contains a first list (specifically, the first list may be an IE), and the first list contains the identity of the first carrier/first cell that the UE requests to suppress; when the RRC message When the message does not contain the identity of the first carrier/first cell or the first list is empty, it is used to indicate that the suppression of the first carrier/first cell is lifted, or to indicate that the first message is invalid. For another example, the RRC message contains a bitmap, and the bits in the bitmap correspond to a carrier/cell. For example, the first (leftmost) bit corresponds to the cell with index 1, and the second bit corresponds to The cell with index 2, and so on. When the bit value is 1, it indicates a request to suppress the carrier/cell of the corresponding index, and when the bit value is 0, it indicates that the carrier/cell of the corresponding index is unsuppressed.

Optionally, the first message may indicate in an implicit manner that the first carrier/cell is not to be released. For example, taking the first message as the RRC message as an example, for example, when the first list contained in the RRC message contains the identifier of the first carrier/cell, it is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier/cell and the The first carrier/cell is not released. When the first list is empty, it indicates that the first carrier/cell can be activated or released; for another example, the RRC message contains a bitmap, and when the bit value in the bitmap is 1, it indicates a request for suppression and The carrier/cell corresponding to the index is not released. When the bit value is 0, it indicates that the carrier/cell corresponding to the index can be activated or released.

Optionally, the first message may indicate in a display manner that the first carrier/cell is not to be released. For example, assuming that the first message is the RRC message, a separate bit may be used to indicate that the first carrier/cell is not to be released.

The first message is sent on a carrier on which the terminal device is capable of supporting communication with the first communication system. Exemplarily, the terminal device sends the first message on the PCell of the first communication system. The carrier that the terminal device can support communication in the first communication system can be understood as the current ability of the terminal device to support receiving downlink and/or sending uplink on the carrier, including downlink and/or uplink scheduling information, service data, At least one of signaling and messages, feedback, and reference signals; or, the terminal equipment can support the state of carrier activation.

It should be noted that instructing the first carrier not to release can be understood/replaced as instructing the terminal device not to delete or not release the first carrier, expecting the first carrier not to be deleted or not being released, instructing the network device not to release or not deleting the first carrier. One carrier, do not release or do not delete the first carrier. Alternatively, instructing the first carrier not to release can also be understood as instructing the network device to keep the configuration of the first carrier, or instructing the network device to keep the configuration of the first carrier without deleting or releasing it. The above indication may be understood as a request of the terminal device or a preference of the terminal device.

Optionally, when the terminal device is in a resource conflict state, the above first message is sent to the network device. The resource conflict state can be understood as being in a resource conflict state or about to enter a resource conflict state. The state of resource conflict can be understood as a state in which the capabilities of the terminal device are temporarily limited.

For example, when the terminal device is a terminal device that supports communication with a first communication system and a second communication system at the same time, the first communication system is associated with the first user identity of the terminal device, and the second communication system is associated with the third user identity of the terminal device. The two user identities are associated with each other, and the terminal equipment has the capability of being used in the first communication system and cannot communicate on the above-mentioned first carrier. At this time, it can be said that the above terminal device is in a resource conflict state. The ability of the terminal device to be used in the first communication system and being unable to communicate on the above-mentioned first carrier can be understood as the terminal device is unable to receive downlink and/or send uplink on the first carrier, including downlink and/or uplink scheduling information, At least one of service data, signaling and messages, feedback, and reference signals; or, the terminal equipment cannot support the state in which the first carrier is activated. The resource conflict state may be understood as a resource conflict between hardware resources used by the terminal in the first communication system and hardware resources used in the second communication system.

In one embodiment, whether the resource conflict state is in the resource conflict state may be a determination process, for example, determining whether the resource conflict state is in the resource conflict state based on the resource configuration information or the carrier configuration information or the scheduling information of the network device, or directly determining the direction to the resource conflict state based on the above configuration information. The network device sends the above first message.

It can be seen from this that when the terminal device is in a resource conflict state, the terminal device can include information requesting or instructing the carrier not to be released in the message requesting or instructing the carrier to be deactivated, thereby informing the network device that the above-mentioned carrier needs to be deactivated, but the carrier Resources are not released. This avoids unnecessary carrier release on the network side, which may lead to service interruption. At the same time, it also avoids the CA combination change caused by the network releasing the carrier, which again causes resource conflicts, and avoids the terminal device from frequently requesting carrier deactivation from the network device.

S702: The network device sends a first command to the terminal device, where the first command is used to suppress the first carrier.

In one implementation, the first command is used to deactivate the above-mentioned first carrier.

Specifically, the first command includes a first response message and/or first feedback (such as Radio Link Control acknowledge, RLC ACK or Hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledge, HARQ ACK).

For example, the first command may be SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE (SCell activation/deactivation MAC CE), and the logical channel identity LCID (logical channel identity) may be 57 or 58.

S703: The terminal device starts the first timer, and the duration of the first timer is the first duration.

Specifically, the terminal device may start the first timer when receiving the above-mentioned first command; or, the terminal device may start the first timer when sending the first message. Optionally, the terminal device can start the first timer when it receives the first command or sends the first message; or, the terminal device can start the first timer when it receives the first command or sends the first message. .

In an implementation manner, the first duration T of the first timer may be configured by the network device, for example, through an RRC reconfiguration message. The first duration T may also be indicated by the terminal device to the network device, such as through RRC signaling (for example, UE assistance information), or through the above-mentioned first message. In some embodiments, the above-mentioned first duration may also be predefined by the terminal device or the network device.

S704: The terminal device sends a second message to the network device. The second message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier. A message is also used to indicate that the first carrier is not released.

In one implementation, the first message is used to instruct or request to deactivate the first carrier, and the above-mentioned first message is also used to instruct the first carrier not to be released. The above-mentioned first carrier may be one or more carriers, specifically one or more secondary cells (SCell). Specifically, the above request message may carry the identity of the first carrier.

Optionally, the terminal device sends the above-mentioned second message to the network device within the first period of time after receiving the first command, that is, before the above-mentioned first timer expires or at the moment when the first timer expires, the terminal device sends the above-mentioned second message to the network device. two messages; or the terminal device sends the above-mentioned second message to the network device within the first period of time after sending the first message, that is, before the above-mentioned first timer expires or at the moment when the first timer expires, the terminal device sends the above-mentioned second message to the network device. information.

Further, after receiving the second message, the network device may send a second command to the terminal device, where the second command is used to suppress the first carrier. When receiving the above second command, the terminal device restarts the above first timer or starts a second timer, and the duration of the second timer is the second duration.

Specifically, the second command includes a second response message and/or second feedback (such as RLC ACK or HARQ ACK)

Optionally, the terminal device can restart the first timer when sending the above second message.

S705: The terminal device sends a third message to the network device. The third message is used to indicate that the first carrier suppression is released, or the third message is used to indicate that the first message is invalid.

In one implementation, the third message is used to indicate or request to resume activation of the first carrier, or to indicate that the first carrier is in a state that can be activated, or to indicate that the first message is invalid.

Specifically, the above third message may be a MAC layer message such as MAC CE, or may be a piece of RRC signaling, such as UE assistance information (UE assistance information, UAI). The third message may also be the same message as the first message. For the signaling format of the third message, refer to the description of step S701, which will not be described again here.

Optionally, when the terminal device is no longer in a resource conflict state, the above third message may be used to instruct the terminal device to resolve the resource conflict. For example, when the terminal device is a terminal device that supports communication with a first communication system and a second communication system at the same time, the first communication system is associated with the first user identity of the terminal device, and the second communication system is associated with the third user identity of the terminal device. The two user identities are associated, and the terminal device can be used in the first communication system to support communication on the first carrier. At this time, it can be said that the terminal device is no longer in a resource conflict state. The ability of the terminal device to be used in the first communication system to support communication on the above-mentioned first carrier can be understood as the terminal device supports receiving downlink and/or sending uplink on the first carrier, including downlink and/or uplink scheduling information, At least one of service data, signaling and messages, feedback, and reference signals; or, the terminal equipment supports a state in which the first carrier is activated. The no longer being in a resource conflict state may be understood as a resource conflict between the hardware resources used by the terminal in the first communication system and the hardware resources used in the second communication system.

In an implementation manner, when the terminal device sends the third message or after sending the third message, the first timer is terminated.

It should be noted that steps S703, S704 and S705 are optional steps, and the order of S704 and S705 can be exchanged with each other. Steps S704 and S705 may both be executed, or only one of the steps may be executed.

Further, if steps S704 and/or S705 are not executed, the first timer times out when reaching the first duration. After timeout, the above-mentioned first timer stops.

In some embodiments, the above-mentioned first timer times out, which means that the first message is invalid, that is, the network device stops/releases its preference for suppressing the first carrier and not releasing the first carrier, or the terminal device thinks The carrier may be activated (by a network device) or released (by a network device). In other words, the timeout of the timer can implicitly express the meaning of the third message. It can be understood that when the first timer times out, the terminal device may consider that the resource conflict state has been resolved. In this case, the setting of the first timer can save the signaling overhead of the third message. For example, if the resource conflict of the terminal device is resolved before the first timer times out, the terminal device can wait for the first timer to be released, thereby eliminating the need to send the third message.

In some embodiments, the expiration of the above-mentioned first timer represents that the terminal equipment's preference (preference) for not releasing the first carrier is stopped/released, or the UE/network believes that the carrier can be released (by the network). That is, the terminal equipment believes that the above-mentioned first carrier can be released. In this case, releasing the carrier can reduce the storage overhead of the network device and/or the terminal device in storing the carrier configuration context.

In an implementation manner, the first timer may be maintained per carrier (per carrier). For example, per-carrier maintenance can be understood as the first timer is associated with a carrier, or the starting, stopping, timeout, and restart behaviors of the first timer are all associated with the state changes of the carrier (such as activation/deactivation/release, etc. ). For example, when the terminal device requests to deactivate carrier A and carrier B and the network device deactivates the carrier A and carrier B, the timer A and timer B corresponding to carrier A and carrier B are started; when the terminal device indicates that carrier A The state is restored to the point where it can be activated. When the state of carrier B remains unchanged, timer A corresponding to carrier A stops, and timer B corresponding to carrier B continues to run; when the terminal device requests carrier B to be deactivated again, timer B restarts. . After the timer corresponding to the carrier times out, the UE considers that the carrier can be released.

Through the method described in Figure 7 above, when the terminal device is in a resource conflict state, it can be solved by requesting the network device to deactivate the carrier and not release the carrier. While resolving the resource conflict, no subsequent problems caused by the release of the carrier will be introduced. New resource conflict issues.

Another embodiment for solving the resource conflict problem is introduced in detail below.

As mentioned above, when the CA combination of the network configuration changes, the hardware resources inside the terminal device will be reallocated. For example, the RFIC channel corresponding to the carrier is changed, which may cause resource conflicts. Therefore, the above problem can be solved by including one or more of the following in the fourth information sent by the terminal device to the network:

1. Keep the current CA combination unchanged;

2. Do not change the band of the activated SCell;

3. Do not increase activated SCell;

4. Suppress specific bands.

In this application, keeping the current CA band combination unchanged can also be understood/replaced as not changing the CA combination, not changing the CA frequency band combination, not changing the combination of the frequency bands where the carrier aggregation carriers are located; not changing the current The CA combination can also be understood as requesting the network to maintain the configuration of the current CA combination. Taking the terminal device as a terminal device that supports dual-SIM operation as an example, the above request information is explained in detail through two situations.

Case 1:

When no resource conflict occurs in the terminal device, that is, no dual-card resource conflict occurs, the terminal device can send fourth information to the network device. The request information includes one or more of the following:

1. Keep the current CA combination unchanged;

Specifically, keeping the current CA combination unchanged can be understood as not reconfiguring the carrier aggregation frequency band combination when the terminal device is camping on the current primary cell (PCell), for example, not changing the configured secondary cell; or not reconfiguring the carrier aggregation frequency band combination. Configure a secondary cell; or, do not configure other cells/carriers other than the currently configured cell/carrier; or do not delete the currently configured secondary cell.

2. Do not change the band of the activated SCell;

Specifically, not changing the band of the activated SCell can be understood as not changing the band in which the activated SCell is located, or keeping the activated/activated SCell configuration unchanged, for example, before the terminal device sends the fourth message. The CA of card 1 is bandA PCell+bandB SCell 1 (activated state)+bandC SCell2 (deactivated state/inactive state). The band where the activated SCell is located changes from the above CA to band A PCell+bandB SCell 1( Deactivated state/inactive state) + bandC SCell2 (activated state), that is, the number of activated SCells has not changed, but the band where the activated SCell is located has changed.

3. Do not add activated SCell.

Specifically, not increasing the number of activated SCells can be understood as not increasing the number of activated SCells. For example, increasing the number of activated SCells to SCell 1 (number is 1) to the number of activated SCells to SCell 1 and SCell 2 (number is 2).

For example, when card 2 is in the RRC connected state for data transmission, or in the RRC non-connected state (including RRC inactive state and RRC idle state), when card 1 enters the RRC connected state and uses carrier aggregation for data transmission, In order to prevent resource conflicts from occurring, the terminal device may send the above-mentioned fourth message to the network device corresponding to card 1.

In another example, card 1 is in the RRC connection state and uses carrier aggregation to transmit data. When card 2 enters the RRC connection state, or when card 2 starts data transmission, or when card 2 starts to use carrier aggregation, When performing data transmission, or when card 2 activates at least one auxiliary carrier, or when card 2 establishes a dual connection (such as establishing an SCG), in order to prevent resource conflicts from occurring, the UE sends a message to the network device corresponding to card 1. The fourth message mentioned above.

Case 2:

When a resource conflict occurs in the terminal device, the terminal device can request the network device corresponding to card 1 or card 2 to suppress the carrier (the method described in Figure 7), and the terminal device can send the fourth information to the network device. The fourth information Include one or more of the following:

1. Keep the current CA combination unchanged;

Specifically, keeping the current CA combination unchanged can be understood as not reconfiguring the frequency band combination of carrier aggregation when the terminal equipment is camping on the current primary cell (PCell), for example, not reconfiguring the frequency band of the secondary cell (SCell). (such as changing from band A+band B to band A+band C); or, in addition to configuring the current secondary cell (secondary carrier), do not configure other secondary cells (secondary carriers); or do not delete the currently configured secondary cell. .

2. Do not change the band of the activated SCell;

Specifically, not changing the band of the activated SCell can be understood as not changing the band in which the activated SCell is located, or keeping the activated/active SCell configuration unchanged. For example, the CA before the terminal device sends the request message is bandA. PCell+bandB SCell 1 (activated state) + bandC SCell 2 (deactivated state/inactive state), the band where the activated SCell is located changes from the above CA to band A PCell+bandB SCell 1 (deactivated state/inactive state) state) + bandC SCell2 (activated state), that is, the number of activated SCells has not changed, but the band in which the activated SCell is located has changed.

3. Do not increase activated SCell;

4. Suppress the SCell of the first band.

Specifically, the fourth message sent by the terminal device can be understood as a request by the UE to suppress the first SCell and the SCell located in the same band as the first SCell, or as an instruction to simultaneously suppress other cells on the band in which the SCell is located. The above request not to activate other SCells in the same band can be indicated implicitly through the terminal device requesting SCell deactivation message, or through 1-bit display indication. The above message requesting SCell deactivation may be the first message in the method of FIG. 7 .

One implementation method is that the terminal device sends a fourth message to the network to request to suppress the carrier on the first band.

The above message can be MAC CE, or RRC signaling such as UE assistance information. Optionally, the band identification requested to be suppressed is indicated in the fourth message.

Specifically, the fourth information may be an RRC message such as UE assistance information. Illustratively, the fourth information is 1 bit and is used to indicate that the request is to request one or more of not changing the current CA combination, not changing the band of the activated SCell, not adding the activated SCell, and deactivating a specific band. It can be understood that one or more items here may be indicated separately or jointly. Optionally, the fourth information may also be indicated through the first message (such as case 2). That is, the first message is also used to indicate not to change the current CA combination, not to change the band of the activated SCell, not to add the activated SCell and to suppress the SCell of the first band.

Illustratively, the above-mentioned fourth message is UE assistance information. The UE assistance information includes the first band identifier that the UE requests to suppress, such as FreqBandIndicatorNR.

Optionally, the above suppressing the first band includes suppressing the SCell of the first band and not releasing the SCell. When the dual-SIM conflict is resolved, the terminal device can send a recovery message to the network to indicate that the carrier on the first band can be activated.

For example, the current CA combination for terminal device card 1 is bandA PCell+bandB SCell 1 (active state)+bandC SCell2 (active state)+bandC SCell3 (deactivated or inactive state). When a dual-card resource conflict occurs , the terminal device requests to activate SCell2 and instructs not to increase the number of activated SCells. It can also be understood that the terminal device does not expect to activate other SCells. Or, the terminal device instructs not to activate other SCells in the same band as SCell2, that is, not to activate SCell3.

In case 2, the above-mentioned fourth message is sent through the first message in the method of FIG. 7 . The above-mentioned fourth message may be indicated through RRC signaling, such as terminal equipment auxiliary information; or indicated through MAC layer signaling, such as MAC CE indication.

Optionally, a time information may be indicated in the above request message to indicate or request that the network does not change the configured CA combination within the above time length, and/or the activated SCell does not change, and/or the activated SCell does not increase. .

It can be seen that by requesting that the CA combination in the fourth message does not change, it is prevented that the hardware resource allocation of the terminal device changes due to changes in the CA configuration, causing hardware resource conflicts (including baseband processing resources and radio frequency resources) between the dual cards. The terminal device requests that the CA configuration does not change when no resource conflict occurs, which can avoid resource conflicts; the terminal device requests that the CA configuration does not change when a resource conflict occurs and requests carrier deactivation, which can prevent resource conflicts from occurring again due to changes in the CA configuration. Frequently request carrier deactivation from the network, because frequent requests are not conducive to network scheduling and wireless resource allocation decisions, and will also increase signaling overhead.

At the same time, the number of SCells requested by the terminal device to be activated does not increase, and the band where the activated SCells are located does not change, which can prevent resource conflicts between the added SCells or the activated SCells on another band and the carrier scheduled on another card. When the terminal device requests the deactivation of a specific SCell, it requests not to activate other SCells on the same band because the carriers of the same band can correspond to the same RFIC channel, and the carriers on the band may conflict with the same RFIC channel.

In the above-mentioned embodiments provided by the present application, the methods provided by the embodiments of the present application are introduced from the perspective of interaction between various devices. In order to implement each function in the method provided by the above embodiments of the present application, the network device or terminal device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module to implement the above functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module. . Whether one of the above functions is performed as a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution.

The division of modules in the embodiments of this application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. In addition, each functional module in various embodiments of the present application can be integrated into a processor, or can exist physically alone, or two or more modules can be integrated into one module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software function modules.

Same as the above concept, as shown in Figure 9, the embodiment of the present application also provides a device 1000 for realizing the functions of the network device or terminal device in the above method. The communication device 1000 may be the terminal device in Figure 1 or Figure 2 or Figure 3, and is used to implement the method for the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The communication device may also be a gNB or ng-eNB in Figure 1, or a network device in Figure 2 or 3, used to implement the method corresponding to the network device in the above method embodiment. For specific functions, please refer to the description in the above method embodiment.

Specifically, the device 1000 may include: a processing unit 1001 and a communication unit 1002. The communication unit may also be called a transceiver unit and may include a sending unit and/or a receiving unit, respectively configured to perform the steps of sending and receiving by the network device or terminal device in the above method embodiment.

Hereinafter, the communication device provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 9 to 10 . It should be understood that the description of the device embodiments corresponds to the description of the method embodiments. Therefore, for content that is not described in detail, please refer to the above method embodiments. For the sake of brevity, they will not be described again here.

A communication unit may also be called a transceiver, a transceiver, a transceiver device, etc. The processing unit can also be called a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, etc. Optionally, the device used to implement the receiving function in the communication unit 1002 can be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device used to implement the sending function in the communication unit 1002 can be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the communication unit 1002 includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. The communication unit may sometimes be called a transceiver, transceiver, or transceiver circuit. The receiving unit may also be called a receiver, receiver, or receiving circuit. The sending unit may sometimes be called a transmitter, transmitter or transmitting circuit.

In some possible implementations, the behaviors and functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment can be implemented through the communication device 1000, for example, the method performed by the terminal device in the embodiment of FIG. 7 is implemented. For example, the communication device 1000 may be a terminal device, a component (such as a chip or a circuit) used in the terminal device, or a chip or chipset in the terminal device, or a part of the chip used to perform related method functions. The communication unit 1002 can be used to perform receiving or sending operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in Figure 7 , and the processing unit 1001 can be used to perform other than sending and receiving operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in Figure 7 Operations other than operations.

In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to send a first message to the network device through the communication unit, the first message is used to indicate suppressing one or more first carriers, and the instruction is to suppress one or more first carriers. The first carrier includes requesting that the one or more first carriers are not released; the processing unit is configured to receive a first command from the network device through the communication unit, and the first command is used to suppress the The first carrier of one or more carriers.

In some possible implementations, the behaviors and functions of the network device in the above method embodiment can be implemented through the communication device 1000, for example, the method performed by the network device in the embodiment of FIG. 7 is implemented. For example, the communication device 1000 may be a network device, a component (such as a chip or a circuit) used in the network device, or a chip or chipset in the network device, or a part of the chip used to perform related method functions. The communication unit 1002 can be used to perform receiving or sending operations performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in Figure 7, and the processing unit 1001 can be used to perform other than sending and receiving operations performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in Figure 7. Operations other than operations.

In a possible implementation, the processing unit is configured to receive a first message from the terminal device through the communication unit, the first message is used to indicate suppressing one or more first carriers, and the instruction is to suppress one or more first carriers. The first carrier of the plurality of carriers includes requesting that the first carrier of the one or more carriers is not released; the processing unit is configured to pass the communication The signaling unit sends a first command to the terminal device, where the first command is used to suppress the one or more first carriers.

The above are just examples. The processing unit 1001 and the communication unit 1002 can also perform other functions. For a more detailed description, please refer to the relevant description in the method embodiment shown in Figure 7, which will not be described again here.

Figure 10 shows a device 1100 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The device shown in Figure 10 can be a hardware circuit implementation of the device shown in Figure 9. The communication device can be adapted to the flow chart shown above to perform the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiment. For ease of explanation, FIG. 10 shows only the main components of the communication device.

As shown in FIG. 10 , the communication device 1100 includes a processor 1110 and an interface circuit 1120 . The processor 1110 and the interface circuit 1120 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 1120 may be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1100 may also include a memory 1130 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1110 or input data required for the processor 1110 to run the instructions or data generated after the processor 1110 executes the instructions.

When the communication device 1100 is used to implement the method shown in Figure 7, the processor 1110 is used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned processing unit 1001, and the interface circuit 1120 is used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned communication unit 1002.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which is composed of at least one terminal device and at least one network device. The terminal device can be the communication device 1000 shown in Figure 9. The terminal device can execute the terminal device in the above method embodiment. Method executed; the network device may be the communication device 1100 shown in Figure 10, and the network device may execute the method executed by the network device in the above method embodiment.

When the above communication device is a chip applied to a terminal device, the terminal device chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The terminal equipment chip receives information from other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal equipment, and the information is sent by the network equipment to the terminal equipment; or, the terminal equipment chip sends information to other modules (such as radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal equipment. Antenna) sends information, which is sent by the terminal device to the network device.

When the above communication device is a chip applied to a network device, the network device chip implements the functions of the network device in the above method embodiment. The network device chip receives information from other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal device to the network device; or, the network device chip sends information to other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna). Antenna) sends information, which is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

It can be understood that the processor in the embodiment of the present application can be a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), or other general-purpose processor, digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), or application specific integrated circuit. (Application Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. A general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

In the embodiments of the present application, the memory may be random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), programmable read-only memory (Programmable ROM, PROM), erasable memory Programmable read-only memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), register, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage media well known in the art . An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and storage media may be located in an ASIC. Additionally, the ASIC can be located in network equipment or terminal equipment. Of course, the processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in network equipment or terminal equipment.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that embodiments of the present application may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Taste. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment that combines software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, optical storage, etc.) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to the present application. It will be understood that each process and/or block in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of processes and/or blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, such that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce a use A device for realizing the functions specified in one process or multiple processes of the flowchart and/or one block or multiple blocks of the block diagram.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that causes a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including the instruction means, the instructions The device implements the functions specified in a process or processes of the flowchart and/or a block or blocks of the block diagram.

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

Claims

A communication method, characterized in that the method is applicable to a communication device, and the communication device is a terminal device or a chip in the terminal device. The method includes:

Send a first message to the network device, the first message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier, and the first message is also used to indicate that the first carrier is not released;

A first command is received from the network device, the first command being used to suppress the first carrier.
The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal device supports simultaneous communication with a first communication system and a second communication system, and the first communication system is associated with a first user identity of the terminal device. , the second communication system is associated with the second user identity of the terminal device, the terminal device is in a first state, the first state includes where the ability of the terminal device to be used in the first communication system cannot be used. communicate on the first carrier.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, the method further includes:

After receiving the first command, a first timer is started, and the duration of the first timer is the first duration.
The method according to claim 3, characterized in that the first duration is configured by the network device or indicated by the terminal device to the network device, wherein the indication by the terminal device to the network device includes the terminal device Indicate to the network device through the first message.
The method of claim 3, further comprising:

Within a first period of time after receiving the first command, send a second message to the network device, the second message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier, and the second message is also used to indicate that the first carrier is suppressed. The first carrier is not released, and the terminal device is in the first state.
The method according to claim 5, characterized in that, after sending the second message to the network device, the method further includes:

Receive a second command, the second command being used to suppress the first carrier;

Upon receiving the second command, restart the first timer.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

Send a third message to the network device, where the third message is used to indicate that the first carrier suppression is released, or the third message is used to indicate that the first message is invalid.
The method of claim 7, wherein the terminal device supports communicating with a first communication system and a second communication system at the same time, and the first communication system corresponds to the first user identity of the terminal device, so The second communication system corresponds to the second user identity of the terminal device, the terminal device is in a second state, and the second state includes the ability of the terminal device to be used in the first communication system to support the first carrier. communicate on.
The method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that sending the third message to the network device includes:

When sending the third message to the network device or after sending the third message to the network device, the first timer is stopped.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the first message used to indicate suppressing the first carrier further includes:

The first message is used to indicate suppressing the carrier in the frequency band where the first carrier is located.
The method according to any one of claims 1-10, characterized in that the method further includes:

A fourth message is sent to the network device, where the fourth message is used to indicate a request to keep the carrier aggregation CA combination unchanged and/or a request not to add an activated carrier.
A communication method, characterized in that the method is applicable to a communication device, and the communication device is a network device or a chip in the network device. The method includes:

Receive a first message from the terminal device, the first message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier, and the first message is also used to indicate that the first carrier is not released;

Send a first command to the terminal device, where the first command is used to suppress the first carrier.
The method of claim 12, further comprising:

Within a first period of time after the terminal device receives the first command, receive a second message from the terminal device, the first message is used to indicate suppressing the first carrier, and the second message is also used to Instructing the first carrier not to release;

Send a second command to the terminal device, where the second command is used to suppress the first carrier.
A communication device, characterized in that the communication device is a terminal device or a chip in the terminal device, including:

A processing unit configured to send a first message to the network device through the communication unit, the first message being used to instruct the suppression of the first carrier, and the instruction to suppress the first carrier includes requesting that the first carrier not be released;

The processing unit is further configured to receive a first command from the network device through a communication unit, where the first command is used to suppress the first carrier.
A communication device, characterized in that the communication device is a network device or a chip in the network device, including:

A processing unit configured to receive a first message from the terminal device through the communication unit, the first message being used to instruct the suppression of the first carrier, and the instruction to suppress the first carrier includes requesting that the first carrier not be released;

The processing unit is further configured to send a first command to the terminal device through the communication unit, where the first command is used to suppress the first carrier.
A communication device, characterized by including a processor and a memory;

The processor is configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the memory, so that the communication device implements the method described in any one of claims 1 to 11.
A communication device, characterized by including a processor and a memory;

The processor is configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the memory, so that the communication device implements the method of claim 12 or 13.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that computer programs or instructions are stored therein. When the computer programs or instructions are run on a computer, the computer implements the method described in any one of claims 1 to 11. method.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized by storing a computer program or instructions, which when the computer program or instructions are run on a computer, causes the computer to implement the method as claimed in claim 12 or 13.