CN120835350A

CN120835350A - A communication method and related device

Info

Publication number: CN120835350A
Application number: CN202410495246.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 罗禾佳; 马江镭
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2024-04-23
Filing date: 2024-04-23
Publication date: 2025-10-24
Also published as: WO2025223273A1

Abstract

A communication method and related devices, in which the first information obtained by the first communication device can be used to indicate the association between the spatial angle interval, visibility information, and the geographical area. Thereafter, the first communication device can determine one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information. The visibility information is used to indicate the communication quality between the network device located in the spatial angle interval and the terminal device located in the geographical area. In this way, the first communication device can determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication quality for communicating with the first terminal device based on the visibility information to improve communication efficiency.

Description

Communication method and related device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communications method and a related device.

Background

The wireless communication may be a transmission communication between two or more communication nodes, which generally include a network device and a terminal device, without propagation via conductors or cables. The conventional network equipment may be equipment fixed somewhere on the ground, such as a ground base station to which a ground network (TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, TN) cell belongs.

With the development of communication technology, the network device may not be fixed somewhere on the ground, for example, the network device may be a device that moves at a high speed and to which a non-terrestrial network (non-TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, NTN) cell belongs, including but not limited to a satellite device such as a low-orbit satellite, a medium-orbit satellite, and a high-orbit satellite.

However, unlike the ground base station to which the TN cell belongs, since the satellite device to which the NTN cell belongs may have high-speed movement, the stability of signal propagation of the NTN cell signal is poor, and thus the communication efficiency is affected.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and a related device, which are used for improving communication efficiency.

The first aspect of the present application provides a communication method applied to, for example, performed by, a first communication apparatus, which may be a communication device (such as a terminal device or a network device), or the first communication apparatus may be a part of a component (such as a processor, a circuit, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) in the communication device, or the first communication apparatus may also be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the communication device. In an example of the method applied to the first communication device, the first communication device determines first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating a spatial angle interval, visibility information and an association relation between geographic areas, the visibility information is used for indicating communication quality between network equipment located in the spatial angle interval and terminal equipment located in the geographic areas, and the first communication device determines one or more network equipment which are in communication with the first terminal equipment based on the first information, wherein the first terminal equipment is located in the geographic areas.

Based on the above-described scheme, the first information obtained by the first communication apparatus may be used to indicate an association relationship between a spatial angle section, visibility information, and a geographical area, and thereafter, the first communication apparatus may determine one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information. Wherein the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between the network devices located within the spatial angle interval and the terminal devices located within the geographical area. In this way, the first communication apparatus can determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication quality with which the first terminal device communicates based on the visibility information, so as to improve communication efficiency.

Alternatively, the communication quality indicated by the visibility information may be an expected, desired, or predicted communication quality. I.e. the visibility information is used to indicate the expected, desired or predicted communication quality between network devices located within the spatial angle interval and terminal devices located within the geographical area.

The visibility information may indicate an occlusion condition of a transmission path of a signal transmitted between the network device and the terminal device, and the occlusion condition may reflect communication quality. The incidence diffusion angle of the NTN communication is smaller, so that the influence of signal shielding between network equipment corresponding to the NTN cell and terminal equipment located on the ground on the signal transmission quality is larger. For this reason, the communication apparatus may determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication quality with which the terminal device communicates based on the visibility information to improve communication efficiency, for example, may be implemented by one or more of the following examples.

For example, the terminal device may select a network device that is not blocked (or has a smaller blocking) based on the signal blocking condition, so that unnecessary handover and reselection may be reduced, so as to improve communication efficiency.

For another example, the terminal device or the network device may predict the occurrence time of signal interruption based on the signal shielding condition, and prepare/switch to the network device with higher communication quality in advance, so as to improve the communication efficiency.

For another example, the terminal device can communicate with the network device with higher communication quality at a reasonable position and/or gesture based on the signal shielding condition, so that the success rate of signal transmission can be improved, and the communication efficiency is improved.

For another example, the terminal device can select network devices which are not shielded (or are shielded less) to locate based on the signal shielding condition, so that the locating precision can be improved, and related communication services can be realized through higher locating precision, so that the communication efficiency is improved.

The first communication device may be implemented in various ways, and will be described below.

As an example, the first communication apparatus is a first terminal device, and accordingly, after the first communication apparatus determines one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information, the first communication apparatus may send an uplink signal to the one or more network devices. For example, the uplink signal may be used for access, measurement reporting, data transmission, etc.

As another example, the first communication apparatus is a first network device that is one of the one or more network devices. Accordingly, after the first communication apparatus determines one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information, the first communication apparatus may send a downlink signal to the first terminal device. For example, the downlink signal may be used for paging, measurement pilot, neighbor configuration, beam configuration, and so on.

As another example, the first communication apparatus is a second network device, the first network device being different from the one or more network devices. Accordingly, after the first communication means determines one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information, the first communication means may indicate the one or more network devices to the first terminal device, or the first communication means may indicate the first terminal device to the one or more network devices.

In the present application, the visibility information may be replaced with other terms, such as visibility information of NTN communication, blocking information of NTN communication, NTN transmission environment information, long-term link quality information, or NTN transmission path information.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the visibility information includes any one of the following:

the first indication information indicates that the transmission path of the communication signal is a visible path;

second indication information indicating that a transmission path of the communication signal is an invisible path;

The third indication information indicates that the transmission path of the communication signal is a line of sight (LOS) path;

Fourth instruction information, which instructs a transmission path of the communication signal to be a non-line of sight (NLOS) path.

Based on the scheme, the visibility information indicated by the first information can be realized in various modes, so that the flexibility of realizing the scheme is improved.

Alternatively, in general, the less the occlusion on the communication path between two communication devices, the higher the communication quality between the two communication devices can be considered, whereas the more the occlusion on the communication path between two communication devices, the lower the communication quality between the two communication devices can be considered. For this purpose, the order of the four communication qualities indicated by the four pieces of indication information from high to low may be the communication quality indicated by the first indication information (or the communication quality indicated by the third indication information), the communication quality indicated by the fourth indication information, and the communication quality indicated by the second indication information.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the spatial angle interval includes N subintervals, the geographic area includes M subareas, the visibility information is used to indicate P communication qualities, N, M, P are all positive integers, and the one or more network devices are determined based on K communication qualities in the P communication qualities. The first terminal device is located in a first sub-area of the M sub-areas, the K communication qualities are communication qualities between network devices located in K sub-areas of the N sub-areas and terminal devices located in the first sub-area, K is smaller than or equal to P and K is smaller than or equal to N.

Based on the above-described scheme, the first communication apparatus may determine K communication qualities among the P communication qualities, the K communication qualities being used to indicate communication qualities of K subintervals corresponding to the sub-region where the first terminal device is located. In this way, the first communication means is able to determine (or select) one or more network devices with which to communicate with the first terminal device based on the K communication qualities that match the geographical area in which the first terminal device is located.

In the present application, the subintervals may be replaced with other terms, such as a spatial angle subinterval, a spatial range, a spatial region, or a subspace region.

In the present application, sub-regions may be replaced with other terms such as geographical sub-regions, geographical areas, geographical ranges, or the like.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the one or more network devices are determined based on the K communication qualities, including that L communication qualities of the K communication qualities are higher than a threshold value and L is smaller than or equal to K, where the L communication qualities are used to indicate communication qualities between network devices located in L subintervals of the K subintervals and terminal devices located in the first subinterval, and the one or more network devices are located in the L subintervals.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device may determine L communication qualities above a threshold value from the K communication qualities, that is, the first communication device may determine L communication qualities with higher communication qualities based on the K communication qualities matched with the geographical area in which the first terminal device is located, so as to determine L subintervals with higher communication qualities, and determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication qualities that communicate with the first terminal device based on the L subintervals.

Optionally, the one or more network devices are determined based on the K communication qualities, including that the first communication device may select J subintervals among the K subintervals, and select T communication qualities with a communication quality above a threshold among J communication qualities corresponding to the J subintervals, where the T subintervals corresponding to the T communication qualities are used to determine the one or more network devices. In this way, the first communication apparatus may select J subintervals among the K subintervals, select T subintervals having a communication quality higher than the threshold value based on J communication qualities corresponding to the J subintervals, and determine (or select) one or more network devices having higher communication qualities for communication with the first terminal device based on the L subintervals.

It should be noted that the first communication apparatus may determine J subintervals among K subintervals in various manners.

For example, the first communication apparatus may select J subintervals by an instruction of the network device. Wherein the indication of the network device may be used to schedule the first terminal device such that the first communication apparatus is able to determine J subintervals in which the network device communicating with the first terminal device is located based on the scheduling of the network device.

As another example, the first communication apparatus may determine J subintervals for communication with the first terminal device through ephemeris information. The ephemeris information may be used to determine J subintervals in which the geographical area of the first terminal device is closer, and in general, the communication quality with the network devices in the subintervals in which the geographical area of the terminal device is closer is higher.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information includes P pieces of first sub-information, where the P pieces of first sub-information are used to indicate P pieces of communication quality, and any piece of first sub-information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device in one of N sub-intervals included in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in one of M sub-areas included in the geographic area, where N, M, P is a positive integer.

Based on the above-described scheme, the first information received by the first communication apparatus may include P pieces of first sub-information for indicating P pieces of communication quality, respectively, so that the first communication apparatus can determine the P pieces of communication quality through the first information.

Optionally, the P first sub-information may be carried in other messages/signaling/information than the first information.

It should be understood that the P first sub-information is used to indicate P communication qualities, respectively, and it may be understood that the P first sub-information corresponds to the P communication qualities one by one, or that the P first sub-information in the P first sub-information is used to indicate the P-th communication quality in the P communication qualities, where P is 1 to P.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the first information further includes at least one of the following:

N pieces of second sub-information, the N pieces of second sub-information are used for indicating the N pieces of sub-intervals respectively;

m pieces of third sub-information, the M pieces of third sub-information are used for indicating the M sub-areas respectively;

x pieces of fourth sub-information, wherein the X pieces of fourth sub-information are respectively used for indicating the confidence degree of X pieces of first sub-information in the P pieces of first sub-information, and X is smaller than or equal to P;

Y fifth sub-information, wherein the Y fifth sub-information is used for indicating time information that Y first sub-information in the P first sub-information is effective information, and Y is smaller than or equal to P;

and Z pieces of sixth sub-information, wherein the Z pieces of sixth sub-information are respectively used for indicating difference information of communication quality indicated by the Z pieces of first sub-information in the P pieces of first sub-information and communication quality of a reference point, and Z is smaller than or equal to P.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication device can also obtain more information through at least one item, and can assist the first communication device to quickly determine one or more network devices which are in communication with the first terminal device.

Alternatively, the at least one item of information may be carried in other messages/signalling/information than the first information.

In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, the P communication qualities include a first communication quality and a second communication quality, the first communication quality is used for indicating a communication quality between a network device in a P ₁ subinterval in the N subintervals and a terminal device in a second subinterval, the second communication quality is used for indicating a communication quality between a network device in a P ₂ subinterval in the N subintervals and a terminal device in the second subinterval, P ₁ and P ₂ are all positive integers less than or equal to N, P ₁ is not equal to P ₂, the P ₁ subinterval is partitioned based on a first space partition granularity, the P ₂ subinterval is partitioned based on a second space partition granularity, the first space partition granularity is greater than the second space partition granularity, and a priority of the first communication quality is lower than a priority of the second communication quality.

Based on the above-mentioned scheme, different spatial division granularities may possibly correspond to different visibility information, and in general, finer spatial division granularities correspond to higher accuracy of the visibility information, for which reason the priority of the above-mentioned first communication quality is lower than that of the second communication quality, so that the first communication apparatus can determine one or more network devices communicating with the first terminal device based on the visibility information with higher priority (e.g. higher accuracy).

Optionally, the P ₁ th subinterval overlaps with the spatial region indicated by the P ₂ th subinterval partially or completely.

Alternatively, the first sub-region and the second sub-region may be the same sub-region or may be different sub-regions.

In one possible implementation form of the first aspect, the first communication device determines the first information includes the first communication device receiving the first information.

Based on the above scheme, the first communication apparatus may obtain the first information based on the instruction of other devices (e.g., terminal device, network device, etc.), which can reduce implementation complexity.

Alternatively, the first communication device may also obtain the first information by other means, for example, the first communication device determines the first information through information obtained by its own information acquisition module (e.g. camera, microphone, antenna, radar, sensor, etc.).

The second aspect of the present application provides a communication method applied to, for example, performed by, a second communication apparatus, which may be a communication device (such as a terminal device or a network device), or the second communication apparatus may be a part of a component (such as a processor, a circuit, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) in the communication device, or the second communication apparatus may also be a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the communication device. The method is applied to a second communication device for example, in the method, the second communication device determines first information, wherein the first information is used for indicating a space angle interval, visibility information and an association relation between geographic areas, the visibility information is used for indicating communication quality between network equipment located in the space angle interval and terminal equipment located in the geographic areas, and the second communication device sends the first information.

Based on the above-described scheme, the first information sent by the second communication apparatus to the first communication apparatus may be used to indicate an association relationship between a spatial angle section, visibility information, and a geographical area, and thereafter, the first communication apparatus may determine one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information. Wherein the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between the network devices located within the spatial angle interval and the terminal devices located within the geographical area. In this way, the first communication apparatus can determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication quality with which the first terminal device communicates based on the visibility information, so as to improve communication efficiency.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information includes P pieces of first sub-information, where the P pieces of first sub-information are used to indicate P pieces of communication quality, and any piece of first sub-information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device in one of N sub-intervals included in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device in one of M sub-areas included in the geographic area, where N, M, P is a positive integer.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the first information further includes at least one of the following:

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the P communication qualities include a first communication quality and a second communication quality, the first communication quality is used for indicating a communication quality between a network device in a P ₁ subinterval in the N subintervals and a terminal device in a second subinterval, the second communication quality is used for indicating a communication quality between a network device in a P ₂ subinterval in the N subintervals and a terminal device in the second subinterval, P ₁ and P ₂ are each positive integers less than or equal to N, P ₁ is not equal to P ₂, wherein the P ₁ subinterval is partitioned based on a first space partition granularity, the P ₂ subinterval is partitioned based on a second space partition granularity, the first space partition granularity is greater than the second space partition granularity, and a priority of the first communication quality is lower than a priority of the second communication quality.

In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the visibility information includes any one of the following:

the third indication information indicates that the transmission path of the communication signal is an LOS path;

Fourth instruction information indicating that the transmission path of the communication signal is an NLOS path.

The third aspect of the application provides a communication device, which is a first communication device, and comprises a processing unit, wherein the processing unit is used for determining first information, the first information is used for indicating a spatial angle interval, visibility information and an association relation between geographic areas, the visibility information is used for indicating communication quality between network equipment located in the spatial angle interval and terminal equipment located in the geographic areas, and the processing unit is further used for determining one or more network equipment which are in communication with the first terminal equipment based on the first information, and the first terminal equipment is located in the geographic areas.

In the third aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device may also be used to execute the steps executed in each possible implementation manner of the first aspect, and achieve corresponding technical effects, and reference may be made to the first aspect specifically, and details are not repeated herein.

The fourth aspect of the application provides a communication device, which is a second communication device, and comprises a receiving and transmitting unit and a processing unit, wherein the processing unit is used for determining first information, the first information is used for indicating a spatial angle interval, visibility information and an association relation between geographic areas, the visibility information is used for indicating communication quality between network equipment located in the spatial angle interval and terminal equipment located in the geographic areas, and the receiving and transmitting unit is used for transmitting the first information.

In the fourth aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device may also be used to execute the steps executed in each possible implementation manner of the second aspect, and achieve corresponding technical effects, and reference may be made to the second aspect specifically, and details are not repeated herein.

A fifth aspect of the application provides a communication device comprising at least one processor coupled to a memory for storing a program or instructions, the at least one processor being adapted to execute the program or instructions to cause the device to implement the method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects. Optionally, the communication device may include the memory.

A sixth aspect of the application provides a communication device comprising at least one logic circuit and an input-output interface, the logic circuit being arranged to perform the method as described in any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects.

A seventh aspect of the present application provides a communication system comprising the first communication device and the second communication device described above.

An eighth aspect of the application provides a computer readable storage medium for storing one or more computer executable instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform a method as described in any one of the possible implementations of any one of the first to second aspects above.

A ninth aspect of the application provides a computer program product (or computer program) which, when executed by the processor, performs the method of any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects.

A tenth aspect of the present application provides a chip or chip system comprising at least one processor for supporting a communication device for implementing the method according to any one of the possible implementations of the first to second aspects. For example, the chip may be a baseband (baseband) chip, a modem (modem) chip, a system on chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core, a system in package (SYSTEMIN PACKAGE, SIP) chip, or a communication module, etc.

In one possible design, the chip or chip system may further include a memory to hold the necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices. Optionally, the chip system further comprises an interface circuit providing program instructions and/or data to the at least one processor.

The technical effects of any one of the design manners of the third aspect to the tenth aspect may be referred to the technical effects of the different design manners of the first aspect to the second aspect, and are not described herein.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to the present application;

FIGS. 2 a-2 d are schematic diagrams illustrating satellite communication processes according to the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a satellite communication process in a 5G system according to the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication method according to the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an application of the communication method provided by the present application;

Fig. 6 to 9 are schematic diagrams of a communication device according to the present application.

Detailed Description

First, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained for easy understanding by those skilled in the art.

(1) The terminal device may be a wireless terminal device capable of receiving network device scheduling and indication information, the wireless terminal device may be a device providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, or a handheld device having wireless connectivity functionality, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem.

The terminal device may be various communication kits (communication kit, which may include, for example, an antenna, a power supply module, a cable, a Wi-Fi module, etc.) with wireless communication functions, a communication module with satellite communication functions, a satellite phone or a component thereof, and a very small-bore antenna terminal (VERY SMALL aperture terminal, VSAT). The terminal device may be a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone), a computer and a data card, for example, a portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted mobile device that exchanges voice and/or data with the radio access network. Such as personal communication services (personal communication service, PCS) phones, cordless phones, session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) stations, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablet computers (Pad), computers with wireless transceiver capabilities, and the like. The wireless terminal device may also be referred to as a system, subscriber unit (subscriber unit), subscriber station (subscriber station), mobile Station (MS), remote station (remote station), access Point (AP), remote terminal device (remote terminal), access terminal device (ACCESS TERMINAL), user terminal device (user terminal), user agent (user agent), subscriber station (subscriber station, SS), user terminal device (customer premises equipment, CPE), terminal (terminal), user Equipment (UE), mobile Terminal (MT), drone, etc. The terminal device may also be a wearable device as well as a next generation communication system, e.g. a terminal device in a 6G communication system or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN), etc. Of course, the terminal device in the present application may also refer to a chip, a modem, a system on a chip (SoC) or a communication platform that may include a Radio Frequency (RF) portion, etc. of the device that is mainly responsible for related communication functions.

(2) The network device may be a device in a wireless network, for example, the network device may be a RAN node (or device) that accesses the terminal device to the wireless network, which may also be referred to as a base station. Currently, some examples of RAN devices are a base station (base station), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a base station gNB (gndeb) in a 5G communication system, a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved NodeB (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wi-Fi) access point AP, etc. In addition, in one network architecture, the network device may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) node, or a Distributed Unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

Optionally, the RAN node may also be a macro base station, a micro base station or an indoor station, a relay node or a donor node, or a radio controller in the cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario. The RAN node may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or on-board device, etc. For example, the access network device in the vehicle extrapolating (vehicle to everything, V2X) technology may be a Road Side Unit (RSU).

In another possible scenario, a plurality of RAN nodes cooperate to assist a terminal in implementing radio access, and different RAN nodes implement part of the functions of a base station, respectively. For example, the RAN node may be a Centralized Unit (CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), a CU-Control Plane (CP), a CU-User Plane (UP), or a Radio Unit (RU), etc. The CUs and DUs may be provided separately or may be included in the same network element, e.g. in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or unit, such as in a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU), an active antenna processing unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA unit, AAU), or a remote radio head (remote radio head, RRH).

In different systems, CUs (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DUs or RUs may also have different names, but the meaning will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, in an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN) system, a CU may also be referred to as an O-CU (open CU), a DU may also be referred to as an O-DU, a CU-CP may also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, a CU-UP may also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and a RU may also be referred to as an O-RU. For convenience of description, the present application is described by taking CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of software and hardware modules.

The communication between the access network device and the terminal device follows a certain protocol layer structure. The protocol layers may include a control plane protocol layer and a user plane protocol layer. The control plane protocol layer may include at least one of a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer, a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer, a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a medium access control (MEDIA ACCESS control, MAC) layer, or a Physical (PHY) layer, etc. The user plane protocol layer may include at least one of a service data adaptation protocol (SERVICE DATA adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, a physical layer, or the like.

For the network element in ORAN system and the functional correspondence of the protocol layer that can be implemented, refer to table 1 below.

TABLE 1

ORAN network element	Protocol layer functionality of 3GPP
		O-CU-CP	RRC+PDCP-control plane (PDCP-C)
O-CU-UP	SDAP+PDCP-user plane (PDCP-U)
		O-DU	RLC+MAC+PHY-high
O-RU	PHY-low

The network device may be other means of providing wireless communication functionality for the terminal device. The embodiment of the application does not limit the specific technology and the specific equipment form adopted by the network equipment. For convenience of description, embodiments of the present application are not limited.

The network devices may also include core network devices including, for example, mobility management entities (mobility MANAGEMENT ENTITY, MME), home subscriber servers (home subscriber server, HSS), serving gateways (SERVING GATEWAY, S-GW), policy and Charging Rules Functions (PCRF), public data network gateways (public data network gateway, PDN GATEWAY, P-GW) in fourth generation (4th generation,4G) networks, access and mobility management functions (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF), user plane functions (user plane function, UPF) or session management functions (session management function, SMF) in 5G networks. In addition, the core network device may further include a 5G network and other core network devices in a next generation network of the 5G network.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device may also be a network node with artificial intelligence (ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, AI) capability, and may provide AI services for a terminal or other network devices, for example, may be an AI node, an computing node, a RAN node with AI capability, a core network element with AI capability, etc. on a network side (an access network or a core network).

In the embodiment of the present application, the means for implementing the function of the network device may be the network device, or may be a means capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, for example, a chip system, and the apparatus may be installed in the network device. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the network device is exemplified by the network device, and the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described.

(3) Configuration and pre-configuration in the present application, configuration and pre-configuration are used simultaneously. Configuration refers to that the network device sends configuration information of some parameters or values of the parameters to the terminal device through messages or signaling, so that the terminal device determines the parameters of communication or resources during transmission according to the values or information. The pre-configuration is similar to the configuration, and the pre-configuration can be parameter information or parameter values which are negotiated by the network equipment and the terminal equipment in advance, can be parameter information or parameter values which are adopted by the network equipment or the terminal equipment and specified by a standard protocol, and can also be parameter information or parameter values which are pre-stored in the network equipment or the terminal equipment. The application is not limited in this regard.

Further, these values and parameters may be changed or updated.

(4) The terms "system" and "network" in embodiments of the application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, and "a plurality" means two or more. "and/or" describes an association relationship of associated objects, and indicates that there may be three relationships, for example, a and/or B, and may indicate that a exists alone, a exists with a and B together, and B exists alone, where a and B may be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one of" or the like means any combination of these items, including any combination of single item(s) or plural items(s). For example, "at least one of A, B, and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, references to "first," "second," etc. ordinal words of embodiments of the present application are used for distinguishing between multiple objects and not for defining a sequence, timing, priority, or importance of the multiple objects.

(5) The terms "transmit" and "receive" in the embodiments of the present application refer to the direction of signal transmission. For example, "sending information to XX" may be understood as the destination of the information being XX, and may include sending directly over the air, as well as sending indirectly over the air by other units or modules. "receiving information from YY" is understood to mean that the source of the information is YY, and may include receiving directly from YY over an air interface, or may include receiving indirectly from YY over an air interface from another unit or module. "send" may also be understood as "output" of the chip interface and "receive" may also be understood as "input" of the chip interface.

In other words, the transmission and reception may be performed between devices, for example, between a network device and a terminal device, or may be performed within a device, for example, between components within a device, between modules, between chips, between software modules or between hardware modules through a bus, wiring or interface.

It will be appreciated that the information may be subjected to the necessary processing, such as encoding, modulation, etc., between the source and destination of the information transmission, but the destination may understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in the present application can be understood similarly, and will not be described again.

(6) A geographic region. In embodiments of the present application, the geographic area may be replaced with an area. Where an area is fixed relative to the earth, or understood to mean a geographic area fixed relative to the earth.

By way of example, the region may have at least one attribute of shape, contour, size, radius, area, geographic location, and the like. Furthermore, an "area" may also have a height attribute, i.e. an area may be understood as a geographical area of a given height or range of heights. For example, an area may refer to a geographic area above ground that is within 0km or within 0km plus or minus 2km of altitude, or to a geographic area of an average altitude, or may refer to a geographic area of a particular altitude, such as within 10km or within 10km plus or minus 3km of altitude.

Alternatively, the above-mentioned fixed area relative to the earth may also be referred to as a "wave position", "geographical area", etc. Of course, other names are possible, and the present application is not limited to the names of the areas fixed with respect to the earth.

In one possible implementation, the shape, contour, size, radius, area of the different regions may or may not be the same. The geographic locations of the different regions are different. There may or may not be overlap between the different regions.

In one possible implementation, the region is fixed relative to the earth, and it is understood that the contour, size, or geographic location of the region is unchanged, e.g., the contour, size, or geographic location of the region does not change over time. Or the region is fixed relative to the earth, it is understood that the region outline and the points in the region may be described by an earth fixed coordinate system, or that the coordinates of the points on the region outline in the earth fixed coordinate system are fixed.

In one possible implementation, the shape of the region may be regular hexagonal, or other shapes such as regular pentagonal, circular, elliptical, etc. Or the shape of the region may be an irregular shape without limitation.

The shape of the region may be protocol defined, or may be network device defined, for example. The shape of the region defined by different network devices may be the same or different. The same network device may also define a variety of zone shapes. Similarly, the size, radius, area of the region may be protocol defined or may be network device defined. The size, radius and area of the area defined by different network devices may be the same or different. The same network device may also define multiple zone sizes, multiple zone radii, or multiple zone areas.

In one possible implementation, the earth's surface may be divided into a plurality of regions and the plurality of regions may be indexed (e.g., numbered). The terminal device and the network device may agree on the numbering of these areas (e.g. start numbering from 1 or start numbering from 0) and the correspondence of areas to indexes. Or the protocol may define the numbering of these regions and the correspondence of regions to indexes. Based on the index of the region, information such as the geographic location of the region can be determined.

Alternatively, the divided regions may cover the earth's surface entirely, e.g., any location on the earth's surface may belong to a region, or the divided regions may cover a portion of the geographic location on the earth, e.g., the regions may not cover the earth's south and/or north poles, i.e., the regions may not be present.

Alternatively, the manner in which the plurality of regions are divided may be defined by a protocol, or may be defined by a network device. The division defined by different network devices may be the same or different. The same network device may define multiple partitioning schemes.

As a first possible division, the earth surface may be divided using longitude and latitude grids of one granularity, for example, the earth surface may be divided with longitude and latitude grids of 1 degree granularity. If only this discrete approach is used, the world may be divided into 360×360=129600 areas, and the terminal device and network device may agree on the index of 129600 areas as 0,1, 129599, or also as 1,2, 129600.

Alternatively, when the altitude attribute of the geographic area is introduced, a plurality of grids can be defined to divide the earth surface, for example, grids with altitude of 0km or altitude of 0km plus or minus 2km can be used for dividing the earth surface by longitude and latitude grids with granularity of 1 degree, so as to generate 129600 areas. The altitude 10km position or 10km plus or minus 3km range is divided by longitude and latitude grids with granularity of 1 degree, and 129600 areas are generated. When indexing these grids, the indexing range of the single-layer grids needs to be expanded, for example, the total index is 0,1,.. 129599,129600,129601,.. 259199, wherein the first 129600 serial numbers represent the grid index with the altitude of 0km, and the last 129600 serial numbers represent the grid index with the altitude of 10 km.

For example, the granularity of the longitude and latitude grid may be determined based on the type of network device. For example, in the case of a LEO satellite as the network device, a relatively small particle size may be employed for the discretization, and in the case of a GEO satellite as the network device, a relatively large particle size may be employed for the discretization.

As a second possible division manner, the earth surface may be divided using longitude and latitude grids of various granularities, for example, division is performed with longitude and latitude grids of granularity of 1 degree in a part of the earth surface or a part of administrative area, and division is performed with longitude and latitude networks of granularity of 2 degrees in another part of the earth surface or administrative area.

Or after the altitude attribute of the geographic area is introduced, the earth surface can be divided by longitude and latitude grids with granularity of 1 degree at the position with the altitude of 0, and the earth surface can be divided by longitude and latitude grids with granularity of 2 degrees at the position with the altitude of 10 km.

As a third possible way of dividing, the earth's surface may be divided in administrative areas. For example, a rural administrative area is taken as an area.

As a fourth possible division, for GEO satellites, a projection of one beam of the GEO satellite on the ground may be taken as one area. Since GEO satellites are stationary relative to the earth, the projection of the GEO satellite's beam onto the ground may be considered fixed relative to the earth.

In practical applications, the earth surface may be divided in a plurality of division modes, for example, division is performed on a part of the earth surface or a part of administrative areas by longitude and latitude grids with granularity of 1, and division is performed on another part of the earth surface or administrative areas by administrative areas.

In one possible implementation, where the earth's surface is divided into multiple regions, the same surface area may be divided into regions of different levels. For example, for a certain surface range, the area division of the first level may be performed by a longitude and latitude grid with granularity of 10 degrees, the area division of the second level may be performed by a longitude and latitude network with granularity of 6 degrees, and the area division of the third level may be performed by a longitude and latitude grid with granularity of 1 degrees. At this time, in the surface range, the number of areas of the first level is greater than the number of areas of the second level, and the number of areas of the second level is greater than the number of areas of the third level. In addition, in this scenario, the regions of each hierarchy may be numbered separately.

(7) In the embodiment of the application, the indication can comprise direct indication and indirect indication, and can also comprise explicit indication and implicit indication. The information indicated by a certain information (the indication information described below) is called to-be-indicated information, and in a specific implementation process, there are various ways of indicating the to-be-indicated information, for example, but not limited to, the to-be-indicated information may be directly indicated, such as the to-be-indicated information itself or an index of the to-be-indicated information, etc. The information to be indicated can also be indicated indirectly by indicating other information, wherein the other information and the information to be indicated have an association relation, only one part of the information to be indicated can be indicated, and the other part of the information to be indicated is known or agreed in advance, for example, the indication of specific information can be realized by means of the arrangement sequence of various information agreed in advance (such as predefined by a protocol), so that the indication cost is reduced to a certain extent. The application is not limited to the specific manner of indication. It will be appreciated that for the sender of the indication information, the indication information may be used to indicate the information to be indicated, and for the receiver of the indication information, the indication information may be used to determine the information to be indicated.

In the present application, the same or similar parts between the embodiments may be referred to each other unless specifically stated otherwise. In the various embodiments of the application and the various methods/designs/implementations of the various embodiments, the terms and/or descriptions between the various embodiments and the various methods/designs/implementations of the various embodiments are consistent and can be mutually referenced, and the technical features of the various embodiments and the various methods/designs/implementations of the various embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments, methods, or implementations in accordance with their inherent logical relationships, if not specifically stated and logically conflicting. The embodiments of the present application described below do not limit the scope of the present application.

The application can be applied to a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a New Radio (NR) system, a new radio Internet of vehicles (NR VEHICLE to everything, NR V2X) system, a system of LTE and 5G mixed networking, a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) communication system, an Internet of things (Internet of Things, ioT) or an unmanned aerial vehicle communication system, a communication system supporting various radio technologies such as LTE technology and NR technology, or a non-terrestrial communication system such as a satellite communication system, an aerial communication platform, and the like. Alternatively, the communication system may be applied to a narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) system, or other communication systems, where the communication system includes a network device and a terminal device, the network device is used as a configuration information sending entity, and the terminal device is used as a configuration information receiving entity. Specifically, in the communication system, a presentity sends configuration information to another entity and sends data to the other entity or receives data sent by the other entity, and the other entity receives the configuration information and sends data to the configuration information sending entity or receives the data sent by the configuration information sending entity according to the configuration information. The application is applicable to terminal equipment in a connected state or an active state (active), and also to terminal equipment in a non-connected state (inactive) or an idle state (idle).

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic architecture of a communication system 1000 according to an embodiment of the application is shown. As shown in fig. 1, the communication system comprises a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) 100 and a core network 200, and optionally the communication system 1000 may further comprise the internet 300. The RAN100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in fig. 1, collectively 110) and may also include at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in fig. 1, collectively 120). RAN100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and/or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in fig. 1). Terminal 120 is connected to RAN node 110 by wireless means, and RAN node 110 is connected to core network 200 by wireless or wired means. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN100 may be separate physical devices, or may be the same physical device integrating the logic functions of the core network device and the logic functions of the RAN node. The terminals and the RAN nodes may be connected to each other by a wired or wireless manner.

It should be noted that the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application is applicable to a ground communication system. Or, the technical scheme of the embodiment of the application is applicable to a communication system integrating ground communication and satellite communication, and the communication system can also be called as a non-ground network (TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, NTN) communication system. By way of example, the RAN100 in fig. 1 may include a terrestrial base station, where the terrestrial base station may include a TN cell (i.e., signals of the TN cell may be transmitted and received by the terrestrial base station), and the RAN100 in fig. 1 may also include a non-terrestrial base station, which is exemplified by a satellite, which may include an NTN cell (i.e., signals of the NTN cell may be transmitted and received by the satellite). The terrestrial communication system may be, for example, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), a 5G communication system, a New Radio (NR) system, or a communication system developed in the next step of the 5G communication system, which is not limited herein.

Compared with the traditional mobile communication system, the satellite communication system has the advantages of wider coverage range, irrelevant communication cost to transmission distance, capability of overcoming natural geographic barriers such as ocean, desert, mountain and the like. To overcome the deficiencies of conventional communication networks, satellite communication may be an effective complement to conventional networks. It is generally believed that non-terrestrial network communications have different channel characteristics, such as large transmission delay, large doppler frequency offset, than terrestrial network communications. Illustratively, the round trip delay of GEO satellite communications is 238-270 milliseconds (ms). The round trip delay of LEO satellite communication is 8 ms-20 ms. Satellite communication systems can be classified into three types, a high orbit (geostationary earth orbit, GEO) satellite communication system, also called a geosynchronous orbit satellite system, a medium orbit (medium earth orbit, MEO) satellite communication system, and a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communication system, according to the orbit heights.

Among them, GEO satellites, also commonly referred to as stationary orbit satellites, may have an orbit height of 35786 kilometers (km), which has the major advantage of being stationary relative to the ground and providing a large coverage area. However, the GEO satellite orbit satellite has the defects that the distance from the earth is too large, an antenna with a larger caliber is needed, the transmission delay is larger, the real-time service requirement cannot be met within about 0.5 seconds, meanwhile, the orbit resource is relatively tense, the emission cost is high, and the coverage cannot be provided for two-pole areas. The MEO satellite has the orbit height of 2000-35786 km, can realize global coverage by having relatively less satellite number, but has higher transmission delay compared with LEO satellite, and is mainly used for positioning navigation. In addition, the orbit height is 300-2000 km, which is called low orbit satellite (LEO), and the LEO satellite is lower than MEO and GEO orbit height, the data propagation delay is small, the power loss is smaller, and the transmitting cost is relatively lower. LEO satellite communication networks have therefore made great progress in recent years and have received attention.

In one possible implementation, the satellite devices may be classified into a transmission (transmission) mode and a regeneration (regeneration) mode according to an operation mode.

These two modes will be exemplified by the implementations shown in fig. 2a, 2b, 2c and 2 d.

In the implementation of the transparent mode shown in fig. 2a, the satellite and the gateway station (i.e. NTN GATEWAY in fig. 2 a) act as a relay, i.e. the remote radio unit (Remote Radio Unit) shown in fig. 2a, and communication needs to be implemented between the terminal device and the gNB through the relay procedure. In other words, in the transparent mode, the satellite has a relay forwarding function.

Illustratively, in the implementation of the transparent mode shown in fig. 2b, when the satellite (including GEO satellite, MEO satellite, LEO satellite, etc.) operates in the transparent mode, the satellite has a relay forwarding function. The gateway station (or gateway station) has a function of a base station or a part of a base station function, and can be regarded as a base station at this time. Or the base station may be deployed separately from the gateway station, the delay of the feeder link may include both satellite-to-gateway station and gateway-to-gNB delays.

Alternatively, the transparent transmission mode may take a case that the gateway station and the gNB are together or are close to each other as an example, and for a case that the gateway station is far away from the gNB, the delay of the feeder link may be added by the delay from the satellite to the gateway station and the delay from the gateway station to the gNB.

In the implementation of the regeneration mode shown in fig. 2c, the satellite and the gateway station (i.e. NTN GATEWAY in fig. 2 c) act as a gNB and can communicate with the terminal device. In other words, in the reproduction mode, the satellite has the function of a base station or a part of the functions of a base station, and can be regarded as a base station at this time.

Illustratively, in the implementation of the regeneration mode shown in fig. 2d, when the satellite (including GEO satellite, MEO satellite, LEO satellite, etc.) is operating in the regeneration mode, the satellite has the function of a base station or part of the function of a base station, in contrast to the implementation shown in fig. 2b, where the satellite may be considered a base station (i.e., an over-the-air base station).

Alternatively, in fig. 2b and/or 2d, the satellite may be implemented in other ways, such as a drone or an overhead platform in the figures.

It should be noted that, the NTN and the base stations of the ground network may be interconnected by a common core network. The higher timeliness of assistance and interconnection can also be achieved through interfaces defined between base stations, in NR, the interfaces between base stations are called Xn interfaces, and the interfaces between base stations and the core network are called NG interfaces. The NTN node and the ground node in the converged network can realize intercommunication and cooperation by the interfaces.

In addition, a satellite as a network device may transmit ephemeris (ephemeris) information so that a receiver of the ephemeris information (e.g., a terminal device or its base station or other satellite, etc.) can determine information about the orbit of the satellite based on the ephemeris information. As one implementation example, the ephemeris information may include one or more of the information in table 2 below. Or the terminal device may learn one or more items of information in table 2 in a preconfigured manner.

TABLE 2

In practical application, the last parameter near-earth time t _p in table 2 may be replaced by a true near-point angle, which has the same effect as shown in table 3.

TABLE 3 Table 3

It should be noted that the present application may be applied to a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a New Radio (NR) system, or a communication system that evolves after 5G (e.g., 6G,7G, etc.).

Taking 5G as an example, a 5G satellite communication system architecture is shown in fig. 3. The ground terminal equipment is connected with the network through a 5G new air interface, and the 5G base station is deployed on a satellite and is connected with a core network on the ground through a wireless link. Meanwhile, a wireless link exists between satellites, so that signaling interaction and user data transmission between base stations are completed. The description of the devices and interfaces in fig. 3 is as follows:

And 5G core network, user access control, mobility management, session management, user safety authentication, charging and other services. It is composed of several functional units, and can be divided into control plane and data plane functional entities. An access and mobility management unit (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF) is responsible for user access management, security authentication, and mobility management. The user plane unit (user plane function, UPF) is responsible for managing the functions of user plane data transmission, traffic statistics, etc. Session management functions (session management function, SMF) are mainly used for session management in mobile networks, such as session establishment, modification, release.

And the ground station is responsible for forwarding signaling and service data between the satellite base station and the 5G core network.

And 5G, new air interface, namely a wireless link between the terminal and the base station.

Xn interface is an interface between 5G base station and base station, and is mainly used for signaling interaction such as switching.

NG interface, interface between 5G base station and 5G core network, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling of main interactive core network, etc., and service data of user.

In addition, the network device in the terrestrial network communication system and the satellite in the NTN communication system can be regarded as a unified network device. The means for implementing the functions of the network device may be the network device, or may be a means capable of supporting the network device to implement the functions, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the network device. In the following, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is described by taking a satellite as an example as a device for implementing the function of the network device. It will be appreciated that when the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applied to a terrestrial network communication system, actions performed by the satellite may be performed by applying to a base station or a network device.

In the embodiment of the application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal equipment can be the terminal equipment, or can be a device which can support the terminal equipment to realize the function, such as a chip system, and can be installed in the terminal equipment. In the embodiment of the application, the chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the device for implementing the function of the terminal device is a terminal or UE, which is taken as an example to describe the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application.

The satellites may be stationary satellites, non-stationary satellites, low-orbit satellites, medium-orbit satellites, high-orbit satellites, and the like, and the present application is not particularly limited thereto.

The foregoing describes various scenarios of wireless communications to which the present application relates, and it should be understood that the foregoing is merely illustrative of scenarios in which the present application may be applied, and that the present application may also be applied in other application scenarios, without limitation. The wireless communication process to which the present application relates will be described below.

In the communication system shown in fig. 1/fig. 2 a/fig. 2 b/fig. 2 c/fig. 2 d/fig. 3, the communication resources may be configured by signals (e.g., the signals carry configuration information/configuration signaling, etc.) that may be transmitted by the network device. Wherein the communication resources may include communication resources of the network device and communication resources of a neighboring network device, if any, such that a receiver of the signal is able to determine the corresponding communication resources based on the signal. For example, in the case where the receiving side of the signal is a terminal device, the terminal device can obtain a network service based on the communication resource.

In order to solve the above problems, the present application provides a communication method and related apparatus, and the detailed description will be given below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 4, a schematic diagram of an implementation of a communication method according to the present application is provided, and the method includes the following steps.

It should be noted that, in the following, the method is illustrated in fig. 4 by taking the first communication device and the second communication device as the execution bodies of the interaction indication, but the present application is not limited to the execution bodies of the interaction indication. For example, the communication apparatus may be a communication device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device), or a chip in a communication device, a baseband (baseband) chip, a modem (modem) chip, a system on chip (SoC) chip containing a modem core, a system in package (SYSTEMIN PACKAGE, SIP) chip, a communication module, a chip system, a processor, a logic module, or software, etc. The first communication device may be a terminal device and the second communication device may be a network device.

S401, the second communication device sends first information, and accordingly, the first communication device receives the first information. The first information is used for indicating the association relation among the space angle interval, the visibility information and the geographic area, and the visibility information is used for indicating the communication quality between the network equipment located in the space angle interval and the terminal equipment located in the geographic area.

It should be noted that step S401 is an optional step. I.e. the first communication device may also obtain the first information in other ways, e.g. the first communication device determines the first information from information obtained by its own information acquisition module, e.g. camera, microphone, antenna, radar, sensor, etc.

S402, the first communication device determines one or more network devices which are communicated with first terminal equipment based on the first information, wherein the first terminal equipment is located in the geographic area.

Alternatively, the second communication device may be a ground base station, a repeater, a gateway station (or gateway station), a satellite base station (e.g., LEO satellite, MEO satellite, GEO satellite, etc.), a drone, or a network device such as an aerial platform. In the case that the network device is ORAN network element in the ORAN architecture shown in table 1, the network device may include an O-CU, an O-DU, and an O-RU, and in the step S401, the first information may be generated by the O-CU and/or the O-DU and sent through the O-RU.

For ease of understanding, the process by which the first communication apparatus determines one or more network devices at step S502 will be exemplarily described below.

In a possible implementation manner, the first information received by the first communication device in step S501 is used to indicate a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and an association relationship between geographical areas, where the spatial angle interval includes N subintervals, the geographical areas include M subareas, the visibility information is used to indicate P communication qualities, and N, M, P are all positive integers. Also, for the first communication apparatus, the first communication apparatus may determine one or more network devices according to the following procedure.

Step a. The first communication device may determine the communication quality (i.e. the K communication qualities described below) of one or more sub-intervals corresponding to the location of the first communication device in the following manner.

The first terminal device is located in a first sub-area of the M sub-areas, K communication qualities of the P communication qualities are communication qualities between network devices located in K sub-areas of the N sub-areas and terminal devices located in the first sub-area, K is smaller than or equal to P and K is smaller than or equal to N, and the one or more network devices are determined based on the K communication qualities. In other words, the first communication apparatus may determine K communication qualities indicating communication qualities of K subintervals corresponding to the sub-region where the first terminal device is located, among the P communication qualities. In this way, the first communication means is able to determine (or select) one or more network devices with which to communicate with the first terminal device based on the K communication qualities that match the geographical area in which the first terminal device is located.

In the present application, sub-regions may be replaced with other terms such as geographical sub-regions, geographical areas, geographical ranges, or the like. Or the sub-region may be implemented by means of wave positions, region indexes, region numbers, etc. in the introduction of the preceding terms.

And B, the first communication device determines part or all of the communication quality of the one or more subintervals determined in the step A, and determines one or more network devices based on the part or all of the communication quality.

As shown in step a, the one or more network devices are determined based on the K communication qualities. The method comprises the steps of determining the communication quality of a network device in a first sub-zone, determining the communication quality of the network device in a second sub-zone, wherein the communication quality of L of the K communication qualities is higher than a threshold value, L is smaller than or equal to K, the L communication qualities are used for indicating the communication quality between the network device in the L sub-zones in the K sub-zones and the terminal device in the first sub-zone, and one or more network devices are located in the L sub-zones. In other words, the first communication apparatus may determine L communication qualities above the threshold among the K communication qualities, that is, the first communication apparatus may determine L communication qualities with higher communication qualities based on the K communication qualities matched with the geographical area in which the first terminal device is located, to determine L subintervals with higher communication qualities, and determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication qualities that communicate with the first terminal device based on the L subintervals.

Alternatively, the first communication device may determine one or more subintervals (i.e., the aforementioned K subintervals) corresponding to the location of the first communication device in step a. Accordingly, in step B, the first communication apparatus may determine a part or all of the subintervals based on the determined one or more subintervals, and determine one or more network devices based on the part or all of the subintervals. Specifically, the first communication device may select J subintervals among the K subintervals, and select T communication qualities with a communication quality higher than a threshold among J communication qualities corresponding to the J subintervals, where the T subintervals corresponding to the T communication qualities are used to determine the one or more network devices. In this way, the first communication apparatus may select J subintervals among the K subintervals, select T subintervals having a communication quality higher than the threshold value based on J communication qualities corresponding to the J subintervals, and determine (or select) one or more network devices having higher communication qualities for communication with the first terminal device based on the L subintervals.

It will be appreciated that the first communication means may be implemented in a number of ways, each of which will be described below.

As an example, the first communication apparatus is a first terminal device, and accordingly, after determining one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information in step S402, the first communication apparatus may transmit an uplink signal to the one or more network devices. For example, the uplink signal may be used for access, measurement reporting, data transmission, etc.

As another example, the first communication apparatus is a first network device that is one of the one or more network devices. Accordingly, the first communication apparatus may transmit a downlink signal to the first terminal device after determining one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information in step S402. For example, the downlink signal may be used for paging, measurement pilot, neighbor configuration, beam configuration, and so on.

As another example, the first communication apparatus is a second network device, the first network device being different from the one or more network devices. Accordingly, after the first communication apparatus determines one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information in step S402, the first communication apparatus may indicate the one or more network devices to the first terminal device, or the first communication apparatus may indicate the first terminal device to the one or more network devices.

Based on the scheme shown in fig. 4, the first information obtained by the first communication apparatus in step S401 may be used to indicate an association relationship between a spatial angle section, visibility information, and a geographical area, and thereafter, in step S402, the first communication apparatus may determine one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device based on the first information. Wherein the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between the network devices located within the spatial angle interval and the terminal devices located within the geographical area. In this way, the first communication apparatus can determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication quality with which the first terminal device communicates based on the visibility information, so as to improve communication efficiency.

The visibility information may indicate a blocking condition of a transmission path of a signal transmitted between the network device and the terminal device. The incidence diffusion angle of the NTN communication is smaller, so that the influence of signal shielding between network equipment corresponding to the NTN cell and terminal equipment located on the ground on the signal transmission quality is larger. For this reason, the communication apparatus may determine (or select) one or more network devices with higher communication quality with which the terminal device communicates based on the visibility information to improve communication efficiency, for example, may be implemented by one or more of the following examples.

In one possible implementation, the visibility information includes any of the following:

Therefore, the visibility information indicated by the first information can be realized in various modes, so that the flexibility of scheme realization is improved.

Note that the LOS path and NLOS path may be identified in one or more of the following ways.

Mode one, signal strength.

The signal transmitting side transmits a communication signal based on a certain transmitting power, and the corresponding signal receiving intensity of the communication signal received by the signal receiving side after the communication signal is transmitted through the LOS path is larger than the corresponding signal receiving intensity of the communication signal received by the signal receiving side after the communication signal is transmitted through the NLOS path. In other words, the first communication device may determine that the transmission path of the reference signal is an LOS path or an NLOS path based on the signal reception strength of the received reference signal.

For example, in the case where the signal reception strength of a certain reference signal is greater than a certain threshold value, the first communication apparatus may determine that the reference signal is transmitted through the LOS path.

As another example, the first communication device may determine that a certain reference signal is transmitted over the NLOS path in case the signal reception strength of the reference signal is less than a certain threshold.

Alternatively, the threshold may be configured by the network device, may be preconfigured, or may be an expected value determined based on the signal reception strength of the reference point.

And a second mode, signal transmission distance.

The transmission distance of the communication signal transmitted by the signal transmitter through the LOS path is generally less than or equal to the transmission distance of the communication signal through the NLOS path. In other words, the first communication device may determine that the transmission path of the reference signal is an LOS path or an NLOS path based on the signal attenuation information of the received reference signal.

Alternatively, the terminal device may determine the signal attenuation information through a variety of parameters, such as one or more of signal transmission parameters configured by the network device, ephemeris information of the satellite base station, atmospheric transmission compensation information, reference point information.

Mode three, offset information of a signal, for example, a timing offset rate of the signal, a frequency drift rate of the signal, and the like.

Wherein the signal sender sends a communication signal based on a certain transmission power, and the signal drift generated by the transmission of the communication signal through the LOS path is generally less than or equal to the signal drift generated by the transmission of the communication signal through the NLOS path. In other words, the first communication apparatus may determine that the transmission path of the reference signal is an LOS path or an NLOS path based on the signal drift information corresponding to the received reference signal.

Alternatively, the terminal device may determine the signal drift information by a variety of parameters, such as one or more of signal transmission parameters configured by the network device, ephemeris information of the satellite base station, atmospheric transmission compensation information, reference point information.

As described above, the first information received by the first communication apparatus in step S501 may be used to indicate the association relationship between the spatial angle section, the visibility information, and the geographical area. The first information may specifically include a plurality of information to indicate the association relationship, which will be described below with reference to some implementation examples.

In one possible implementation manner, the first information includes P pieces of first sub-information, where the P pieces of first sub-information are respectively used to indicate P pieces of communication quality, and in the P pieces of first sub-information, any one piece of sub-information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device in one of N sub-intervals included in the angle interval of space and a terminal device located in one of M sub-areas included in the geographic area, and N, M, P is a positive integer. Specifically, the first information received by the first communication apparatus may include P pieces of first sub information for indicating P pieces of communication quality, respectively, so that the first communication apparatus can determine P pieces of communication quality through the first information.

Optionally, the first information further includes at least one of the following information a to information E.

And the information A.N pieces of second sub-information are respectively used for indicating the N pieces of sub-intervals.

Information B.M pieces of third sub-information, where the M pieces of third sub-information are used to indicate the M sub-areas, respectively.

And the information C.X pieces of fourth sub-information are respectively used for indicating the confidence degree of X pieces of first sub-information in the P pieces of first sub-information, and X is smaller than or equal to P.

And the information D.Y pieces of fifth sub-information are respectively used for indicating time information that Y pieces of first sub-information in the P pieces of first sub-information are effective information, and Y is smaller than or equal to P.

And the information E.Z is sixth sub-information, and the Z sixth sub-information is used for indicating difference information of communication quality indicated by the Z first sub-information in the P first sub-information and communication quality of a reference point respectively, wherein Z is smaller than or equal to P.

In particular, the first communication device may further obtain more information through at least one of the above items, and may assist the first communication device in rapidly determining one or more network devices that communicate with the first terminal device.

Alternatively, at least one of the above information a to information E may be carried in other messages/signaling/information than the first information.

Or at least one of the above information a to information E may be preconfigured.

For example, in the case where the first information does not carry the information a, the spatial region corresponding to the P pieces of first sub information included in the first information may be preconfigured, for example, the spatial region is a spatial region in which the satellite base station that transmits the first information is located.

For another example, in the case where the first information does not carry the information B, the geographical area corresponding to the P pieces of first sub-information included in the first information may be preconfigured, for example, the spatial area is a spatial area where the terminal device that receives the first information is located.

For another example, if the first information does not carry the information C, the P pieces of first sub-information included in the first information may implicitly indicate the confidence degrees of the respective pieces of first sub-information in a manner of sequencing.

For another example, in the case where the first information does not carry the information D, the starting time when P pieces of first sub-information included in the first information are valid information may be the time when the terminal device receives the first information, and the duration when the P pieces of first sub-information are valid information may be preconfigured.

In another example, in a case where the first information does not carry the information E, the difference between the communication quality indicated by the P pieces of first sub information included in the first information and the communication quality of the preconfigured reference point is lower than the threshold value.

The first information may indicate the association relationship among the spatial angle section, the visibility information, and the geographic area in various manners such as a table, a formula, and meaning of different fields, and the association relationship is described below by taking the first information as an example in which the first information indicates the association relationship in a table form.

As an example, the first information indicates association relations among the spatial angle section, the visibility information, and the geographical area by way of an example shown in table 4. In table 4, the first column of information is the preamble information a, the second column of information is the preamble "P first sub-information", and the third column of information is the information C.

TABLE 4 Table 4

In table 4, the first column corresponds to a "spatial angle interval", the second column corresponds to "visibility information", and the third column corresponds to "geographic area". The information in the different columns in the same row indicates that there is an association relationship between the information in the different columns, and the visibility information in the second column is described by taking whether it is visible or not as an example (for example, a value of "1" indicates that it is visible and a value of "0" indicates that it is not visible). For example, the first line information indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial area #1" and the terminal device located in the "geographical area #1" is "visible (takes a value of 1)", which indicates that the communication quality is high. As another example, the second row of information indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial area #2" and the terminal device located in the "geographical area #1" is "invisible (takes a value of 0)", and the communication quality indicated by the visibility information is low.

Alternatively, the description of the spatial angle intervals in table 4 may be discretized into different intervals, as shown in table 5.

TABLE 5

In Table 5, azimuth and zenith angles may be determined by an east-north-sky (east north up, ENU) coordinate system, which may also be referred to as a station-center coordinate system.

In an ENU coordinate system, taking the earth as an ellipsoid as an example, a position where a terminal device is located may be taken as a station center (i.e., a coordinate system origin O), a z axis coincides with a normal line of the ellipsoid and is positive (i.e., an upward direction), y coincides with a short half axis of the ellipsoid (i.e., a north (north) direction), and an x axis coincides with a long half axis of the earth ellipsoid (i.e., an east (east) direction) to form a rectangular coordinate system. Accordingly, for a connection line between a terminal device located on the ground and a satellite base station located in the air, the zenith angle may be the angle between the connection line and the z-axis, and the azimuth angle may be the angle between the projection of the connection line on the ground and the x-axis (or the y-axis).

Alternatively, the space angle section may be configured by other information in addition to the azimuth angle and zenith angle shown in table 5. For example, the coordinate parameters of the spatial region are arranged by arranging the geodetic earth-fixed coordinate system with the geodetic earth as the center of a circle. For another example, the azimuth angle, zenith angle, index, mark and the like corresponding to the coordinate parameters are configured. As another example, after a certain geographical area is configured (e.g., the geographical area may be configured by means of a wave position, an area index, an area number, etc. in the foregoing description of the term), a spatial range located at a certain height above the geographical area is configured as a spatial area represented by a spatial angle interval.

Alternatively, the description of the geographic region in table 4 may be discrete into different intervals, as shown in table 6.

TABLE 6

Alternatively, the geographical area may be configured by other information in addition to the longitude zone, latitude zone, altitude zone shown in table 6. For example, in the case of a circular geographic area, the length value may be configured as the diameter or radius of the circle by using the coordinates of the configured reference point as the center of the circle, and in the case of a rectangular geographic area, the coordinates of the four vertices of the configured rectangle may be used. For another example, the geographical area may be a regular pattern, such as a hexagon, a pentagon, an ellipse, or an irregular pattern, and coordinates of an outline of the regular or irregular pattern may be configured. As another example, the geographic region may be configured by way of a wave position, region index, region number, etc. as described in the foregoing terminology.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, taking a device located in a certain geographic area as a UE, 6 scenes shown in fig. 5 respectively indicate visibility descriptions corresponding to different heights located in the same circular area. Generally, the higher the altitude at which the UE is located, the less the obstruction between the UE and the satellite base station, and for this reason, the more the sky range is visible to the UE with higher altitude under the same longitude and latitude coordinates, so the "altitude interval" shown in table 6 may also be described in the form of "> x (x is a real number) m".

As another example, the visibility information in table 4 is implemented in other forms, for example, in table 7 below, the visibility information is described by taking "whether it is LOS" as an example (for example, a value of "1" indicates LOS and a value of "0" indicates NLOS).

TABLE 7

For example, the first line information in table 7 indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial zone #1" and the terminal device located in the "geographical zone #1" is "LOS (value of 1)", which indicates a higher communication quality. As another example, the second row information indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial area #2" and the terminal device located in the "geographical area #1" is "NLOS (value of 0)", and the communication quality indicated by the visibility information is low.

As another example, the information C described above may also be included in table 4, as the last column in table 8 below.

TABLE 8

For example, the first row of information in table 8 indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial area #1" and the terminal device located in the "geographical area #1" is "visible (value 1)", and that the confidence of the visibility information is 1, which indicates that the confidence of the visibility information is high. As another example, the third row of information in table 8 indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial area #3" and the terminal device located in the "geographical area #1" is "visible (value 1)", and the confidence level of the visibility information is 0, which indicates that the confidence level of the visibility information is low.

As another example, the information D described above may also be included in table 4, as the last column in table 9 below.

TABLE 9

For example, the first row of information of table 9 indicates that the duration for which the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial zone #1" and the terminal device located in the "geographical zone #1" is maintained valid is "1 day", indicating that the visibility information will fail after 1 day. As another example, the fourth row of information in table 9 indicates that the duration for which the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial zone #1" and the terminal device located in the "geographical zone #2" is maintained valid is "1 year", indicating that the visibility information will fail after 1 year.

As another example, the information D described above may also be included in table 4, as the last two columns in table 10 below.

Table 10

For example, the third row of information in table 10 indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial region #3" and the terminal device located in the "geographical region #1" is "NLOS (value of 2)", and that the extra loss of the terminal device compared with the terminal device located at the reference point is 10dB in the process of communicating with the frequency domain resource corresponding to [1ghz to 3ghz ].

As another example, the fourth row of information in table 10 indicates that the visibility information between the network device located in the "spatial region #4" and the terminal device located in the "geographical region #2" is "NLOS (value 2)", and that the extra loss of the terminal device compared with the terminal device located at the reference point is 20dB in the course of communication of the frequency domain resources corresponding to 6GHz and above.

In one possible implementation, the P communication qualities include a first communication quality for indicating a communication quality between a network device within a P ₁ subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located within a second subzone, and a second communication quality for indicating a communication quality between a network device within a P ₂ subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located within the second subzone, both P ₁ and P ₂ being positive integers less than or equal to N, P ₁ not being equal to P ₂, wherein the P ₁ subinterval is partitioned based on a first spatial partition granularity, the P ₂ subinterval is partitioned based on a second spatial partition granularity, the first spatial partition granularity being greater than the second spatial partition granularity, the first communication quality being lower than the second communication quality. In particular, different spatial division granularities may correspond to different visibility information, and in general, finer spatial division granularities correspond to higher accuracy of the visibility information, for which reason the priority of the above-mentioned first communication quality is lower than the priority of the second communication quality, so that the first communication apparatus is able to determine one or more network devices communicating with the first terminal device based on the higher priority (e.g. higher accuracy) visibility information.

Alternatively, in the information C described above, the X fourth sub-information may respectively indicate the confidence levels of the X first sub-information in the P first sub-information, where the confidence levels indicated by the fourth sub-information may be determined by one or more factors. For example, the one or more factors may include the granularity of spatial partitioning (e.g., where priority is high, a confidence may be considered high), the one or more factors may include the confidence of the core network device or server configuration, and the one or more factors may include the number of terminal devices reporting the same visibility information, for example.

Referring to fig. 6, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device 600, where the communication device 600 may implement the functions of the second communication device or the first communication device in the above method embodiment, so that the beneficial effects of the above method embodiment may also be implemented. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device 600 may be a first communication device (or a second communication device), or may be an integrated circuit or an element, such as a chip, inside the first communication device (or the second communication device).

It should be noted that the transceiver 602 may include a transmitting unit and a receiving unit, which are used to perform transmission and reception, respectively.

In a possible implementation manner, when the apparatus 600 is a method for executing the first communication apparatus in the foregoing embodiment, the apparatus 600 includes at least a processing unit 601, the processing unit 601 is configured to determine first information, where the first information is used to indicate a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and an association relationship between a geographic area, the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device located in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in the geographic area, and the processing unit 601 is further configured to determine, based on the first information, one or more network devices that are in communication with the first terminal device, where the first terminal device is located in the geographic area.

In a possible implementation manner, when the apparatus 600 is configured to perform the method performed by the second communication apparatus in the foregoing embodiment, the apparatus 600 includes a processing unit 601 and a transceiver unit 602, where the processing unit 601 is configured to determine first information, where the first information is used to indicate a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and an association relationship between a geographic area, the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device located in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in the geographic area, and the transceiver unit 602 is configured to send the first information.

It should be noted that, for details of the information execution process of the unit of the communication device 600, reference may be made to the description of the foregoing embodiment of the method of the present application, and the details are not repeated here.

Referring to fig. 7, for another schematic structural diagram of a communication device 700 according to the present application, the communication device 700 includes a logic circuit 701 and an input-output interface 702. Wherein the communication device 700 may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

The transceiver 602 shown in fig. 6 may be a communication interface, which may be the input/output interface 702 in fig. 7, and the input/output interface 702 may include an input interface and an output interface. Or the communication interface may be a transceiver circuit that may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

Optionally, the logic circuit 701 determines first information, where the first information is used to indicate a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and an association relationship between geographic areas, the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device located in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in the geographic area, and the logic circuit 701 is further used to determine one or more network devices that communicate with a first terminal device, where the first terminal device is located in the geographic area, based on the first information.

Optionally, the logic circuit 701 is configured to determine first information, where the first information is used to indicate a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and an association relationship between geographical areas, the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device located in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in the geographical areas, and the input/output interface 702 is used to send the first information.

The logic circuit 701 and the input/output interface 702 may also execute other steps executed by the first communication device or the second communication device in any embodiment and achieve corresponding beneficial effects, which are not described herein.

In one possible implementation, the processing unit 601 shown in fig. 6 may be the logic circuit 701 in fig. 7.

Alternatively, the logic 701 may be a processing device, and the functions of the processing device may be implemented in part or in whole in software. Wherein the functions of the processing device may be partially or entirely implemented by software.

Optionally, the processing means may comprise a memory for storing a computer program and a processor for reading and executing the computer program stored in the memory for performing the corresponding processes and/or steps in any of the method embodiments.

Alternatively, the processing means may comprise only a processor. The memory for storing the computer program is located outside the processing means and the processor is connected to the memory via circuitry/electrical wiring for reading and executing the computer program stored in the memory. Wherein the memory and the processor may be integrated or may be physically independent of each other.

Alternatively, the processing means may be one or more chips, or one or more integrated circuits. For example, the processing device may be one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated chips (ASICs), system-on-chips (socs), central processors (central processor unit, CPUs), network processors (network processor, NP), digital signal processing circuits (DIGITAL SIGNAL processors, DSPs), microcontrollers (micro controller unit, MCUs), programmable controllers (programmable logic device, PLDs) or other integrated chips, or any combination of the above chips or processors, or the like.

Referring to fig. 8, a communication apparatus 800 according to the foregoing embodiment provided as an embodiment of the present application, where the communication apparatus 800 may specifically be a communication apparatus as a terminal device in the foregoing embodiment, and the communication apparatus illustrated in fig. 8 is implemented by a terminal device (or a component in the terminal device).

Wherein, a possible logical structure diagram of the communication device 800, the communication device 800 may include, but is not limited to, at least one processor 801 and a communication port 802.

The transceiver 602 shown in fig. 6 may be a communication interface, which may be the communication port 802 in fig. 8, and the communication port 802 may include an input interface and an output interface. Or the communication port 802 may also be a transceiver circuit that may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

Further optionally, the apparatus may further comprise at least one of a memory 803, a bus 804, and in an embodiment of the application, the at least one processor 801 is configured to control the actions of the communication apparatus 800.

Further, the processor 801 may be a central processing unit, a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various exemplary logic blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with this disclosure. The processor may also be a combination that performs the function of a computation, e.g., a combination comprising one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, and so forth. It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

It should be noted that, the communication apparatus 800 shown in fig. 8 may be specifically used to implement the steps implemented by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, and implement the technical effects corresponding to the terminal device, and the specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus shown in fig. 8 may refer to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiment, which are not repeated herein.

Referring to fig. 9, a schematic structural diagram of a communication apparatus 900 according to the foregoing embodiment provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the communication apparatus 900 may specifically be a communication apparatus as a network device in the foregoing embodiment, and the communication apparatus illustrated in fig. 9 is implemented by a network device (or a component in the network device), where the structure of the communication apparatus may refer to the structure shown in fig. 9.

The communication device 900 includes at least one processor 911 and at least one network interface 914. Further optionally, the communication device further comprises at least one memory 912, at least one transceiver 913, and one or more antennas 915. The processor 911, memory 912, transceiver 913, and network interface 914 are coupled, for example, by a bus, and in embodiments of the present application, the coupling may include various interfaces, transmission lines, buses, etc., which are not limited in this embodiment. An antenna 915 is coupled to the transceiver 913. The network interface 914 is used to enable the communication device to communicate with other communication devices via a communication link. For example, the network interface 914 may comprise a network interface between the communication device and the core network equipment, such as an S1 interface, and the network interface may comprise a network interface between the communication device and other communication devices (e.g., other network equipment or core network equipment), such as an X2 or Xn interface.

The transceiver 602 shown in fig. 6 may be a communication interface, which may be the network interface 914 in fig. 9, and the network interface 914 may include an input interface and an output interface. Or the network interface 914 may be a transceiver circuit that may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

The processor 911 is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, and controlling the whole communication device, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs, for example for supporting the communication device to perform the actions described in the embodiments. The communication device may include a baseband processor, which is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, and a central processor, which is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal device, executing the software program, and processing the data of the software program. The processor 911 in fig. 9 may integrate the functions of a baseband processor and a central processor, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processor may also be separate processors, interconnected by bus technology, etc. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, and that the terminal device may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and that the various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in a memory in the form of a software program, which is executed by the processor to realize the baseband processing function.

The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The memory 912 may be separate and coupled to the processor 911. Alternatively, the memory 912 may be integrated with the processor 911, for example, within a single chip. The memory 912 is capable of storing program codes for implementing the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 911, and various types of computer program codes executed may be regarded as drivers of the processor 911.

Fig. 9 shows only one memory and one processor. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and multiple memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc. The memory may be a memory element on the same chip as the processor, i.e., an on-chip memory element, or a separate memory element, as embodiments of the present application are not limited in this respect.

A transceiver 913 may be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency signals between the communication device and the terminal, and the transceiver 913 may be coupled to the antenna 915. The transceiver 913 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, the one or more antennas 915 may receive radio frequency signals, and the receiver Rx of the transceiver 913 is configured to receive the radio frequency signals from the antennas, convert the radio frequency signals into digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals, and provide the digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals to the processor 911, so that the processor 911 performs further processing, such as demodulation processing and decoding processing, on the digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals. The transmitter Tx in the transceiver 913 is also operative to receive and convert modulated digital baseband signals or digital intermediate frequency signals from the processor 911 to radio frequency signals, and to transmit the radio frequency signals via the one or more antennas 915. In particular, the receiver Rx may selectively perform one or more steps of down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion on the radio frequency signal to obtain a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal, where the order of the down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion is adjustable. The transmitter Tx may selectively perform one or more stages of up-mixing processing and digital-to-analog conversion processing on the modulated digital baseband signal or the digital intermediate frequency signal to obtain a radio frequency signal, and the sequence of the up-mixing processing and the digital-to-analog conversion processing may be adjustable. The digital baseband signal and the digital intermediate frequency signal may be collectively referred to as a digital signal.

The transceiver 913 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver device, or the like. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiver unit may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiver unit may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiver unit includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit, where the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, an input port, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

It should be noted that, the communication apparatus 900 shown in fig. 9 may be specifically used to implement steps implemented by the network device in the foregoing method embodiment and implement technical effects corresponding to the network device, and the specific implementation manner of the communication apparatus 900 shown in fig. 9 may refer to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiment, which are not repeated herein.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer-readable storage medium storing one or more computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a processor, perform a method as described in a possible implementation of the first communication device or the second communication device in the previous embodiments.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product (or computer program) which, when executed by the processor, performs a method as described above as a possible implementation of the first communication device or the second communication device.

The embodiment of the application also provides a chip system which comprises at least one processor and is used for supporting the communication device to realize the functions involved in the possible realization mode of the communication device. Optionally, the chip system further comprises an interface circuit providing program instructions and/or data to the at least one processor. In one possible design, the system-on-chip may further include a memory to hold the necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices, where the communication device may specifically be the first communication device or the second communication device in the foregoing method embodiment.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system, and the network system architecture comprises the first communication device and the second communication device in any embodiment.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices or units, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment. In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units. The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or contributing part or all or part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. The storage medium includes a U disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (RAM, random Access Memory), a magnetic disk, an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising:

Determining first information, where the first information is used to indicate an association relationship between a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and a geographical area; the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device located within the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located within the geographical area;

One or more network devices communicating with a first terminal device are determined based on the first information, where the first terminal device is located within the geographical area.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the spatial angle interval includes N subintervals, the geographic area includes M subareas, the visibility information is used to indicate P communication qualities, N, M, and P are all positive integers; and the one or more network devices are determined based on K communication qualities among the P communication qualities;

The first terminal device is located in the first sub-area among the M sub-areas, the K communication qualities are the communication qualities between the network devices located in the K sub-intervals among the N sub-intervals and the terminal device located in the first sub-area, K is less than or equal to P and K is less than or equal to N.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the one or more network devices are determined based on the K communication qualities, comprising:

L of the K communication qualities are higher than a threshold, and L is less than or equal to K; wherein the L communication qualities are used to indicate the communication quality between a network device located in L subintervals of the K subintervals and a terminal device located in the first sub-area, and the one or more network devices are located in the L subintervals.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3 is characterized in that the first information includes P first sub-information, and the P first sub-information is used to indicate P communication qualities respectively; among the P first sub-information, any sub-information is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in one of the N sub-intervals included in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in one of the M sub-areas included in the geographical area, and N, M, and P are all positive integers.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the first information further includes at least one of the following:

N pieces of second sub-information, where the N pieces of second sub-information are respectively used to indicate the N sub-intervals;

M pieces of third sub-information, where the M pieces of third sub-information are respectively used to indicate the M sub-regions;

X pieces of fourth sub-information, each of the X pieces of fourth sub-information being used to indicate confidence levels of X pieces of first sub-information among the P pieces of first sub-information, where X is less than or equal to P;

Y pieces of fifth sub-information, each of the Y pieces of fifth sub-information being used to indicate a time when Y pieces of first sub-information among the P pieces of first sub-information are valid information, where Y is less than or equal to P;

Z sixth sub-information, wherein the Z sixth sub-information is respectively used to indicate difference information between the communication quality indicated by the Z first sub-information among the P first sub-information and the communication quality of the reference point, where Z is less than or equal to P.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the P communication qualities include a first communication quality and a second communication quality, the first communication quality is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in a _P1th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in a second subinterval, and the second communication quality is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in a _P2th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in the second subinterval, _P1 and _P2 are both positive integers less than or equal to N, and _P1 is not equal to _P2 ;

Among them, the _P1th sub-interval is divided based on the first spatial division granularity, the _P2th sub-interval is divided based on the second spatial division granularity, the first spatial division granularity is larger than the second spatial division granularity, and the priority of the first communication quality is lower than the priority of the second communication quality.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the visibility information includes any one of the following:

First indication information, indicating that the transmission path of the communication signal is a visible path;

Second indication information, indicating that the transmission path of the communication signal is an invisible path;

The third indication information indicates that the transmission path of the communication signal is a line-of-sight (LOS) path;

The fourth indication information indicates that the transmission path of the communication signal is a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) path.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein determining the first information comprises:

The first information is received.

9. A communication method, comprising:

Determining first information; wherein the first information is used to indicate an association relationship between a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and a geographical area; the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device located within the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located within the geographical area;

The first information is sent.

10. The method according to claim 9 is characterized in that the first information includes P first sub-information, and the P first sub-information is used to indicate P communication qualities respectively; among the P first sub-information, any sub-information is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in one of the N sub-intervals included in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in one of the M sub-areas included in the geographical area, and N, M, and P are all positive integers.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the first information further includes at least one of the following:

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that the P communication qualities include a first communication quality and a second communication quality, the first communication quality is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in a _P1th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in a second subinterval, and the second communication quality is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in a _P2th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in the second subinterval, _P1 and _P2 are both positive integers less than or equal to N, and _P1 is not equal to _P2 ;

13. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein the visibility information comprises any one of the following:

14. A communication device, comprising a processing unit;

The processing unit is configured to determine first information, the first information being configured to indicate an association between a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and a geographical area; the visibility information being configured to indicate a communication quality between a network device located within the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located within the geographical area;

The processing unit is further configured to determine, based on the first information, one or more network devices communicating with a first terminal device, where the first terminal device is located within the geographical area.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the spatial angle interval includes N subintervals, the geographical area includes M subareas, the visibility information is used to indicate P communication qualities, N, M, and P are all positive integers; and the one or more network devices are determined based on K communication qualities among the P communication qualities;

16. The apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the one or more network devices are determined based on the K communication qualities, comprising:

17. The device according to any one of claims 14 to 16 is characterized in that the first information includes P first sub-information, and the P first sub-information is used to indicate P communication qualities respectively; among the P first sub-information, any sub-information is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in one of the N sub-intervals included in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in one of the M sub-areas included in the geographical area, and N, M, and P are all positive integers.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the first information further includes at least one of the following:

19. The apparatus according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the P communication qualities include a first communication quality and a second communication quality, the first communication quality being used to indicate the communication quality between a network device within a _P1th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in a second subinterval, and the second communication quality being used to indicate the communication quality between a network device within a _P2th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in the second subinterval, _P1 and _P2 being positive integers less than or equal to N, and _P1 not equal to _P2 ;

20. The apparatus according to any one of claims 14 to 19, wherein the visibility information comprises any one of the following:

21. The device according to any one of claims 14 to 20, further comprising a transceiver unit; wherein the processing unit determines the first information, comprising:

The processing unit receives the first information through the transceiver unit.

22. A communication device, comprising a processing unit and a transceiver unit;

The processing unit is used to determine first information; wherein the first information is used to indicate an association relationship between a spatial angle interval, visibility information, and a geographical area; the visibility information is used to indicate a communication quality between a network device located within the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located within the geographical area;

The transceiver unit is used to send the first information.

23. The device according to claim 22 is characterized in that the first information includes P first sub-information, and the P first sub-information is used to indicate P communication qualities respectively; among the P first sub-information, any sub-information is used to indicate the communication quality between a network device in one of the N sub-intervals included in the spatial angle interval and a terminal device located in one of the M sub-areas included in the geographical area, and N, M, and P are all positive integers.

24. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein the first information further comprises at least one of the following:

25. The apparatus according to claim 23 or 24, wherein the P communication qualities include a first communication quality and a second communication quality, the first communication quality being used to indicate the communication quality between a network device within a _P1th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in a second subinterval, and the second communication quality being used to indicate the communication quality between a network device within a _P2th subinterval of the N subintervals and a terminal device located in the second subinterval, _P1 and _P2 being positive integers less than or equal to N, and _P1 not equal to _P2 ;

26. The apparatus according to any one of claims 22 to 25, wherein the visibility information comprises any one of the following:

27. A communication device, comprising at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

28. The communication device according to claim 27, wherein the communication device is a chip or a chip system.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program or instruction is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13 is implemented.

30. A computer program product, comprising a computer program or instructions, which implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13 when the computer program or instructions are executed by a computer.