WO2024169415A1 - Measurement method and communication apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application is applied to the technical field of communications. Provided are a measurement method and a communication apparatus. According to a first beam of a serving cell and beam information of a first neighboring cell, a terminal device can determine a first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell, so as to measure at least one beam in the first candidate beam set, wherein the total number of beams comprised in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams comprised in the first neighboring cell. The present application can reduce the overhead of a terminal device in performing beam measurement and maintenance on neighboring cells.

Description

A measurement method and a communication device

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application filed with the Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on February 14, 2023, with application number 202310151834.1 and application name "A Measurement Method and Communication Device", all contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

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

Background Art

Non-terrestrial network (NTN) communications are less affected by geographical conditions, have strong coverage, and can be widely used in various scenarios. Taking satellites as an example, when natural disasters (earthquakes, mudslides, etc.) occur and ground-based communication facilities (such as ground base stations) are easily damaged and cannot communicate normally, terminal devices can still transmit data through satellite communications. In addition, in some areas that are not conducive to the construction of ground base stations, such as oceans, deserts, and mountains, terminal devices can also obtain good communication efficiency through satellites.

Since the coverage area of an NTN cell is usually large, and the coverage area of a beam is limited, a large number of beams may need to be deployed in an NTN cell. In the scenario where there are a large number of beams in a cell, how to perform beam measurement and beam management becomes a problem worth studying.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a measurement method and device that can reduce the overhead of a terminal device performing beam measurement and maintenance on a neighboring cell.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a measurement method, wherein a terminal device determines a first candidate beam set corresponding to a first neighboring area according to a first beam of a serving cell and beam information of a first neighboring area; and measures at least one beam in the first candidate beam set. The total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area.

In the above design, the beam measurement range of the neighboring cell is narrowed in combination with the beam of the serving cell, which can reduce the measurement and maintenance overhead of the terminal equipment and thus reduce the measurement power consumption of the terminal equipment.

In one possible design, the beam information includes one or more of the following: beam identification offset information, indication information of the number of beams in the first candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. Based on such beam information, it is possible to speed up the determination of the first candidate beam set, thereby improving the efficiency of beam measurement.

In one possible design, the beam information of the first neighboring cell includes I groups of beam information, the first candidate beam set is the union of I sub-candidate beam sets, and I is a positive integer; the first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell is determined according to the first beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring cell, including: determining the i-th sub-candidate beam set in the I sub-candidate beam sets according to the first beam of the serving cell and the i-th group of beam information in the I groups of beam information; wherein i is a positive integer, 1≤i≤I. In such a design, it is supported to use one or more groups of beam information to determine the candidate beam set to be measured, which is more flexible and can achieve a diversified beam measurement range, which is helpful to adapt to different communication scenarios.

In one possible design, the i-th group of beam information includes one or more of the following: a beam identification offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, information indicating the number of beams in the i-th sub-selected beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. Based on this type of beam information, it is possible to speed up the determination of the i-th sub-candidate beam set, thereby improving the efficiency of beam measurement. Optionally, the beams included in the i-th sub-candidate beam set can be understood with reference to the following Examples 1 to 3.

Example 1: The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i . Wherein, BI is the identifier of the first beam, M _i is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, K _i is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, and N _i is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; M _i , K _i , N _i are integers; mod is a modulo operator. In this example 1, the total number of beams included in the i-th sub-candidate beam set is K _i +1, and the i-th sub-candidate beam set includes K _i +1 beams with continuous identifiers.

Example 2: The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the last beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i . Wherein, BI is the identifier of the first beam, and M _i is the beam position of the i-th candidate sub-beam set relative to the first beam. beam identification offset, K _i is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, N _i is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; M _i , K _i , N _i are integers; mod is a modulo operator. In this example 2, the total number of beams included in the i-th sub-candidate beam set is K _i +1, and the i-sub-candidate beam sets include K _i +1 beams with continuous identifications.

Example 3: The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i ; wherein BI is the identifier of the first beam, M _i is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, K _i is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, and N _i is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; M _i , K _i , and N _i are integers; and mod is a modulo operator. In this example 3, the total number of beams included in the i-th sub-candidate beam set is 2*K _i +1, and the i-th sub-candidate beam set includes 2*K _i +1 beams with consecutive identifiers.

Based on the above example, it can be known that when I is 1, the first candidate beam set includes K _i +1 or 2*K _i +1 beams with continuous identifiers. When I is greater than 1, the first candidate beam set may include beams with discontinuous identifiers. That is, the embodiment of the present application can realize the measurement of beams with continuous identifiers and/or discontinuous identifiers in the neighboring area, which is more flexible and can be adapted to various measurement requirements.

In one possible design, the first beam is a service beam of the terminal device in the service cell, or the signal quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a first signal quality threshold. Based on such a design, the first candidate beam set determined above may include a service beam or an optimal beam in the first neighboring cell, which helps the terminal device to confirm an accurate first candidate beam set, thereby improving the performance of beam measurement and maintenance of the terminal device.

In one possible design, a target beam is determined in the first candidate beam set, and the target beam is the serving beam after the terminal device is switched to the first neighboring cell, or the signal quality of the target beam is greater than or equal to a second signal quality threshold. Such a design can reduce the delay of the terminal device confirming the best beam/serving beam in the first neighboring cell, help improve the rate at which the terminal device completes switching or cell selection/reselection, reduce the interruption caused by switching or cell selection/reselection, and thus improve user experience and performance.

In one possible design, the terminal device may receive first indication information from the serving cell, where the first indication information indicates at least one set of beam information among I sets of beam information of the first neighboring cell, where I is a positive integer. In such a design, the network configures the beam measurement range of the neighboring cell to the terminal device by indicating the beam information of the first neighboring cell, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of the beam measurement range.

In one possible design, the terminal device may also determine at least one set of beam information in I sets of beam information of the first neighboring area based on the coverage information of at least one beam in the first neighboring area, where I is a positive integer. In such a design, the terminal device can quickly decide on the beam to measure and maintain by combining the coverage information of the beam in the neighboring area, and can also reduce the signaling overhead of the network sending the beam information.

In one possible design, the terminal device can measure a beam in the first candidate beam set within a measurement time window associated with the beam, wherein the measurement time windows associated with different beams in the beam set are the same or different. Corresponding to the reduction of the beam measurement range of the neighboring area, the number of measurement time windows or the number of measurement beams in the measurement time window will also be reduced. Such a design can save the time for the terminal device to perform measurements and reduce the measurement overhead and power consumption of the terminal device.

In one possible design, the service cell is a cell in a non-terrestrial network NTN, and the terminal device can receive the system information block SIB1 of the service cell and access the service cell according to the SIB1. The SIB1 includes access configuration information for the terminal device to access the service cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the service cell, effective duration information of the uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the service cell, cell scheduling information of the service cell, timing advance information of the service cell, satellite polarization information of the service cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the service cell. In such a design, sending the access configuration information of the service cell in advance through SIB1 can reduce the delay for the terminal device to obtain the aforementioned access configuration information, thereby reducing the access delay and improving the access success rate and user experience.

In the second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a measurement method, in which a terminal device determines a first candidate beam set corresponding to a first neighboring area based on a first beam of a serving cell and beam information of a first neighboring area. If the serving cell moves and the terminal device does not move out of the first area, the terminal device may measure at least one beam in the first candidate beam set; or, if the serving cell moves, the terminal device determines a second candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring area based on a second beam of the serving cell and beam information of the first neighboring area; and measures at least one beam in the second candidate beam set. The total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area, and the total number of beams included in the second candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area.

The above design can be applied to the scenario where the service cell is a ground mobile NTN cell. It matches the update of the service beam or the best beam in the service cell, and timely updates the beam set to be measured in the neighboring cell, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the beam measurement.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a measurement method, wherein a network device sends beam information of a first neighboring area, and the beam information of the first neighboring area is used to determine a first candidate beam set to be measured corresponding to the first neighboring area, and the first candidate beam set includes The total number of beams is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area.

In such a design, the network indirectly configures the beam measurement range of the neighboring cell to the terminal device by indicating the beam information of the first neighboring cell, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of the beam measurement range.

In one possible design, the beam information includes one or more of the following: beam identification offset information, indication information of the number of beams in the first candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area.

In one possible design, the beam information of the first neighboring area includes I groups of beam information, and the first candidate beam set is the union of I sub-candidate beam sets; wherein the i-th group of beam information in the I groups of beam information is used to determine the i-th sub-candidate beam set in the I sub-candidate beam sets; I is a positive integer, i is a positive integer, 1≤i≤I.

In one possible design, the i-th group of beam information includes one or more of the following: a beam identification offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. Optionally, the beams included in the i-th sub-candidate beam set can be understood with reference to the following Examples 1 to 3.

Example 1: The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i . Wherein, BI is the identifier of the first beam, M _i is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, K _i is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, and N _i is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; M _i , K _i , and N _i are integers; and mod is a modulo operator.

Example 2: The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the last beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i . Wherein, BI is the identifier of the first beam, M _i is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, K _i is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, and N _i is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; M _i , K _i , and N _i are integers; and mod is a modulo operator.

Example 3: The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod _Ni - _Ki ]mod _Ni , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod _Ni + _Ki ]mod _Ni ; wherein BI is the identifier of the first beam, _Mi is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, _Ki is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, and _Ni is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; _Mi , _Ki , _Ni are integers; and mod is a modulo operator.

In one possible design, the first beam is a service beam of the terminal device in a service cell, or the signal quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a first signal quality threshold.

In one possible design, the network device may also receive beam measurement results from at least one terminal device, and determine the beam information of the first neighboring area based on the beam measurement results of the at least one terminal device. The beam measurement result of one of the at least one terminal device indicates the measurement result of the beam in at least one neighboring area measured by the one terminal device. In such a design, the network supports combining the beam measurement results of neighboring areas by multiple terminal devices to determine the beam information of the neighboring area, which helps to improve the accuracy of the beam information and facilitates the network to update and maintain the beam information.

In one possible design, the network device may also send a system information block SIB1 of a service cell, wherein the SIB1 includes access configuration information for a terminal device to access the service cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the service cell, effective duration information of uplink synchronization assistance information of the service cell, cell scheduling information of the service cell, timing advance information of the service cell, satellite polarization information of the service cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the service cell.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an access method, wherein a terminal device receives SIB1 of a first NTN cell from a network device, and accesses the first cell according to the SIB1. The SIB1 includes access configuration information of the first NTN cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the first NTN cell, effective duration information of uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the first NTN cell, cell scheduling information of the first NTN cell, timing advance information of the first NTN cell, satellite polarization information of the first NTN cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the first NTN cell. Optionally, the first NTN cell can also be understood as a service cell to be accessed by the terminal device.

In such a design, by sending the access configuration information of the NTN cell to be accessed in advance through SIB1, the delay for the terminal device to obtain the aforementioned access configuration information can be reduced, thereby reducing the access delay and improving the access success rate and user experience.

Optionally, the access configuration information of the first NTN cell may also be replaced by the local area information of the first NTN cell, wherein the local area information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the local area, effective duration information of the uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the local area, information, cell scheduling information of this area, timing advance information of this area, satellite polarization information of this area, and satellite ephemeris information of this area. The "this area" here refers to the first NTN cell.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an access method, wherein a network device sends a SIB1 of a first NTN cell to a terminal device, wherein the SIB1 includes access configuration information of the first NTN cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the first NTN cell, effective duration information of uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the first NTN cell, cell scheduling information of the first NTN cell, timing advance information of the first NTN cell, satellite polarization information of the first NTN cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the first NTN cell. Optionally, the first NTN cell can also be understood as the NTN cell to be accessed by the terminal device, or as a service cell.

Optionally, the access configuration information of the first NTN cell may also be replaced by the local area information of the first NTN cell, and the local area information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the local area, effective duration information of uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the local area, cell scheduling information of the local area, timing advance information of the local area, satellite polarization information of the local area, and satellite ephemeris information of the local area. The "local area" here refers to the first NTN cell.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which may be a terminal device, or a device, module, or chip in a terminal device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a terminal device. In one design, the communication device may include a module that executes the method/operation/step/action described in the first aspect, and the module may be a hardware circuit, or software, or a combination of a hardware circuit and software. In one design, the communication device may include a processing module and a communication module.

A processing module is used to determine a first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring area according to the first beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring area; and measure at least one beam in the first candidate beam set. The total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area.

In one possible design, the beam information includes one or more of the following: beam identification offset information, indication information of the number of beams in the first candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area.

In one possible design, the beam information of the first neighboring cell includes I groups of beam information, and the first candidate beam set is the union of I sub-candidate beam sets, where I is a positive integer; determining the first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell according to the first beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring cell includes: determining the i-th sub-candidate beam set in the I sub-candidate beam sets according to the first beam of the serving cell and the i-th group of beam information in the I groups of beam information; wherein i is a positive integer, 1≤i≤I.

In one possible design, the i-th group of beam information includes one or more of the following: a beam identification offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, information indicating the number of beams in the i-th sub-selected beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. Based on this type of beam information, it is possible to speed up the determination of the i-th sub-candidate beam set, thereby improving the efficiency of beam measurement. Optionally, the beams included in the i-th sub-candidate beam set can be understood with reference to Examples 1 to 3 described in the first aspect, and this is not elaborated in the embodiments of the present application.

In one possible design, the first beam is a serving beam of the terminal device in the serving cell, or the signal quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a first signal quality threshold.

In one possible design, a target beam is determined in the first candidate beam set, and the target beam is the serving beam after the terminal device is switched to the first neighboring cell, or the signal quality of the target beam is greater than or equal to a second signal quality threshold.

In one possible design, a communication module is used to receive first indication information from the serving cell, where the first indication information indicates at least one set of beam information among I sets of beam information of the first neighboring cell, where I is a positive integer.

In one possible design, the processing module is also used to determine at least one set of beam information in I sets of beam information of the first neighboring area based on the coverage information of at least one beam in the first neighboring area, where I is a positive integer.

In one possible design, the processing module is further used to measure the one beam within a measurement time window associated with the one beam in the first candidate beam set; wherein the measurement time windows associated with different beams in the beam set are the same or different.

Before the above design is implemented, the terminal device needs to access the service cell. In one possible design, the service cell is a cell in the non-terrestrial network NTN. The communication module is also used to receive the system information block SIB1 of the service cell; the processing module is also used to access the service cell according to the SIB1. Among them, the SIB1 includes access configuration information for the terminal device to access the service cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the service cell, effective duration information of the uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the service cell, cell scheduling information of the service cell, timing advance information of the service cell, satellite polarization information of the service cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the service cell. In such a design, the service cell is sent in advance through SIB1. The access configuration information of the service cell can reduce the delay for the terminal device to obtain the aforementioned access configuration information, thereby reducing the access delay and improving the access success rate and user experience.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which may be a terminal device, or a device, module, or chip in a terminal device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a terminal device. In one design, the communication device may include a module that executes the method/operation/step/action described in the second aspect, and the module may be a hardware circuit, or software, or a combination of a hardware circuit and software. In one design, the communication device may include a processing module and a communication module.

A processing module is used to determine a first candidate beam set corresponding to a first neighboring area according to a first beam of a serving cell and beam information of a first neighboring area. If the serving cell moves and the terminal device does not move out of the first area, the processing module is further used to measure at least one beam in the first candidate beam set; or, if the serving cell moves, the processing module is further used to determine a second candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring area according to a second beam of the serving cell and beam information of the first neighboring area; and measure at least one beam in the second candidate beam set.

The total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area, and the total number of beams included in the second candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area.

Some possible designs can be understood by referring to the description in the sixth aspect, and the embodiments of the present application will not be described in detail. For example, the communication module can be used to receive a first indication information from a serving cell, the first indication information indicating at least one set of beam information in I sets of beam information of the first neighboring area, where I is a positive integer.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which may be a network device, or a device, module, or chip in a network device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a network device. In one design, the communication device may include a module that executes the method/operation/step/action described in the third aspect, and the module may be a hardware circuit, or software, or a combination of a hardware circuit and software. In one design, the communication device may include a processing module and a communication module.

A processing module is used to determine the beam information of the first neighboring area.

A communication module is used to send beam information of a first neighboring cell, wherein the beam information of the first neighboring cell is used to determine a first candidate beam set to be measured corresponding to the first neighboring cell, and the total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring cell.

In one possible design, the communication module is further used to receive beam measurement results from at least one terminal device; the processing module is further used to determine the beam information of the first neighboring area based on the beam measurement results of the at least one terminal device. The beam measurement result of one of the at least one terminal device indicates the measurement result of the beam in at least one neighboring area measured by the one terminal device. In such a design, the network supports combining the beam measurement results of neighboring areas by multiple terminal devices to determine the beam information of the neighboring area, which helps to improve the accuracy of the beam information and facilitates the network to update and maintain the beam information.

In one possible design, the communication module is also used to send a system information block SIB1 of a service cell, wherein the SIB1 includes access configuration information for a terminal device to access the service cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the service cell, effective duration information of uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the service cell, cell scheduling information of the service cell, timing advance information of the service cell, satellite polarization information of the service cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the service cell.

For other possible designs, please refer to the description in the third aspect and will not be elaborated in detail in the embodiments of the present application.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an access method, wherein the communication device may be a terminal device, or a device, module, or chip in a terminal device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a terminal device. In one design, the communication device may include a module that corresponds to the method/operation/step/action described in the fifth aspect, and the module may be a hardware circuit, or software, or a combination of a hardware circuit and software. In one design, the communication device may include a processing module and a communication module.

The communication module is used to receive SIB1 of a first NTN cell from a network device.

A processing module is configured to access the first cell according to the SIB1. The SIB1 includes access configuration information of the first NTN cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the first NTN cell, effective duration information of uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the first NTN cell, cell scheduling information of the first NTN cell, timing advance information of the first NTN cell, satellite polarization information of the first NTN cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the first NTN cell. Optionally, the first NTN cell can also be understood as a service cell to be accessed by the terminal device.

In a tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which may be a network device, or a device, module, or chip in a network device, or a device that can be used in conjunction with a network device. In one design, the communication device may include a module that corresponds to the method/operation/step/action described in the fifth aspect, and the module may be a hardware circuit, or software, or a combination of a hardware circuit and software. In one design, the communication device may include a processing module and a communication module.

The processing module is used to determine the SIB1 of the first NTN cell.

The communication module is used to send the SIB1 of the first NTN cell to the terminal device, wherein the SIB1 includes the access configuration information of the first NTN cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: the epoch time information of the first NTN cell, the effective duration information of the uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the first NTN cell, the cell scheduling information of the first NTN cell, the timing advance information of the first NTN cell, the satellite polarization information of the first NTN cell, and the satellite ephemeris information of the first NTN cell. Optionally, the first NTN cell can also be understood as a service cell to be accessed by the terminal device.

In an eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device comprising a processor, for implementing the method described in any one of the first to fifth aspects above. The processor is coupled to a memory, the memory is used to store instructions and data, and when the processor executes the instructions stored in the memory, the method described in any one of the first to fifth aspects can be implemented. Optionally, the communication device may further include a memory; the communication device may further include a communication interface, the communication interface is used for the communication device to communicate with other devices, and illustratively, the communication interface may be a transceiver, circuit, bus, module, pin or other type of communication interface.

In the twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including a communication device as described in the sixth aspect or the seventh aspect; and a communication device as described in the eighth aspect; or, including a communication device as described in the ninth aspect; and a communication device as described in the tenth aspect.

In the thirteenth aspect, the embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects above.

In a fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enable the computer to execute the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects above.

In the fifteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed on a computer, the computer executes the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects above.

In the sixteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, which is used to read a computer program stored in a memory and execute the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects above, or the chip includes a circuit for executing the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects above.

In the seventeenth aspect, the embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, which includes a processor for supporting a device to implement the method provided in any one of the first to fifth aspects above. In one possible design, the chip system also includes a memory, which is used to store the necessary programs and data for the device. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices.

The effects of the solutions provided in any of the second to seventeenth aspects above can be referred to the corresponding description in the first aspect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a land network communication system;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of an NTN communication system architecture;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a 5G satellite communication system;

FIG4A is a schematic diagram of a transparent transmission architecture;

FIG4B is a schematic diagram of a regeneration architecture;

FIG5A is a schematic diagram of coverage of a terrestrial quasi-stationary NTN cell;

FIG5B is a schematic diagram of coverage of a ground mobile NTN cell;

FIG6A is a schematic diagram of beamforming;

FIG6B is a schematic diagram of one of the beam distribution patterns in a cell;

FIG6C is a schematic diagram of one of the beam distribution patterns in a cell;

FIG6D is a schematic diagram of a measurement time window for beam measurement;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of a measurement method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG8 is a schematic diagram of a relay coverage between cells;

FIG9 is a schematic diagram of a relay coverage between cells;

FIG10 is a schematic diagram of one of the flow charts of the measurement method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG11 is a flow chart of one of the access methods provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG12 is a schematic diagram of a system information sending method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG13 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 14 is one of the schematic diagrams of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

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

The at least one (item) involved in the embodiments of the present application as follows indicates one (item) or more (items). More than one (item) refers to two (items) or more than two (items). "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and/or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship. In addition, it should be understood that although the terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe each object in the embodiments of the present application, these objects should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish each object from each other.

The terms "including" and "having" and any variations thereof mentioned in the following description of the embodiments of the present application are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product or device comprising a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally also includes other steps or units that are not listed, or optionally also includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices. It should be noted that, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to represent examples, illustrations or explanations. Any method or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in the embodiments of the present application should not be interpreted as being more preferred or more advantageous than other methods or designs. Specifically, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present related concepts in a specific manner.

The technology provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as satellite communication systems, high altitude platform station (HAPS) communication systems, drones and other non-terrestrial network (NTN) systems; for example, integrated communication and navigation (IcaN) systems, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and ultra-dense low-orbit satellite communication systems. The communication system applied in the embodiments of the present application can be integrated with the ground communication system. For example: the ground communication system can be a fourth generation (4th generation, 4G) communication system (for example, long term evolution (LTE) system), a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, a fifth generation (5G) communication system (for example, a new radio (NR) system), and future mobile communication systems such as 6G communication systems.

A network element in a communication system may send a signal to another network element or receive a signal from another network element. The signal may include information, signaling, or data. The network element may also be replaced by an entity, a network entity, a device, a communication device, a communication module, a node, a communication node, etc. The network element is used as an example for description in the embodiment of the present application.

For example, the ground communication system may include at least one terminal device and at least one network device. The network device may send a downlink signal to the terminal device, and/or the terminal device may send an uplink signal to the network device. In addition, it is understood that if the communication system includes multiple terminal devices, multiple terminal devices may also send signals to each other, that is, both the signal sending network element and the signal receiving network element may be terminal devices.

FIG1 shows an architecture of a mobile communication system. The communication system 100 may include a network device 110 and terminal devices 101 to 106. It should be understood that the communication system 100 may include more or fewer network devices or terminal devices. The network device or terminal device may be hardware, or software divided from a functional point of view, or a combination of the above two. In addition, the terminal devices 104 to 106 may also form a communication system, for example, the terminal device 105 may send downlink data to the terminal device 104 or the terminal device 106. The network device and the terminal device may communicate through other devices or network elements. The network device 110 may send downlink data to the terminal devices 101 to 106, and may also receive uplink data sent by the terminal devices 101 to 106. Of course, the terminal devices 101 to 106 may also send uplink data to the network device 110, and may also receive downlink data sent by the network device 110.

The network device 110 is a node in a radio access network (RAN), which can also be called a base station, or a RAN node (or device). At present, some examples of access network devices 101 are: evolved node B (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), node B (NB), base station controller (BSC), base transceiver station (BTS), home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), baseband unit (BBU), access point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (WIFI) system, wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, transmission point (TP) or transmission reception point (TRP), satellite, drone, etc. The network device can also be a base station (next generation NodeB, gNB) or TRP or TP in a 5G system, or one or a group of (including multiple antenna panels) antenna panels of a base station in a 5G system. In addition, the The network device may also be a network node constituting a gNB or TP, such as a BBU, or a distributed unit (DU). Alternatively, the network device may also be a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a machine-to-machine (M2M) communication system, an Internet of Things (IoT), a vehicle network communication system, or a device that performs network-side functions in other communication systems. The network device 110 may also be a network device in a possible future communication system. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network device.

Terminal devices 101 to 106, which may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device, are devices that provide voice or data connectivity to users, and may also be IoT devices. For example, terminal devices 101 to 106 include handheld devices with wireless communication functions, vehicle-mounted devices, etc. At present, the terminal devices 101 to 106 can be: mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MID), wearable devices (such as smart watches, smart bracelets, pedometers, etc.), vehicle-mounted devices (such as cars, bicycles, electric vehicles, airplanes, ships, trains, high-speed railways, etc.), virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, industrial control (industrial control) devices, etc. Wireless terminals, smart home devices (e.g., refrigerators, televisions, air conditioners, electric meters, etc.), smart robots, workshop equipment, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, or wireless terminals in smart homes, flight equipment (e.g., smart robots, hot air balloons, drones, airplanes), etc. Terminal devices 101 to 106 may also be other devices with terminal functions, for example, terminal devices 101 to 106 may also be devices that function as terminals in D2D communications.

Based on the description of the ground communication system architecture shown in FIG1 , an example of a non-terrestrial network (NTN) communication system can be applied to the embodiments of the present application. NTN includes nodes such as satellite networks, high-altitude platforms and drones, and has significant advantages such as global coverage, long-distance transmission, flexible networking, convenient deployment and no geographical restrictions. It has been widely used in maritime communications, positioning navigation, disaster relief, scientific experiments, video broadcasting and earth observation. Many fields. The ground 5G network and satellite network are integrated with each other, learning from each other's strengths and weaknesses, and together constitute a global seamless coverage of the sea, land, air, space and ground integrated integrated communication network to meet the various business needs of users everywhere.

In the embodiment of the present application, NTN communication takes satellite communication as an example, or the NTN communication system takes a satellite system as an example. As shown in FIG2, the NTN communication system includes a satellite 201 and a terminal device 202. The explanation of the terminal device 202 can refer to the relevant description of the terminal devices 101 to 106 mentioned above. Satellite 201 can also be called a high-altitude platform, a high-altitude aircraft, or a satellite base station. In terms of the connection between the NTN communication system and the terrestrial network communication system, the satellite 201 can be regarded as one or more network devices in the terrestrial network communication system architecture. Satellite 201 provides communication services to the terminal device 202, and satellite 201 can also be connected to the core network device. The structure and function of satellite 201 can also refer to the above description of network device 110. The communication method between satellite 201 and terminal device 202 can also refer to the description in FIG1 above. It will not be repeated here. The scheme in the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to the terrestrial communication network directly or after being slightly modified in a method that can be thought of by a person skilled in the art, and it will not be repeated here.

Some examples of satellites include: low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, with an orbital altitude of 500 kilometers (km) to 2000km; medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites, with an orbital altitude of 2000km to 20,000km; high earth orbit (HEO) satellites, with an orbital altitude greater than 20,000km and an elliptical orbit; geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites, with an orbital altitude of 35,800km; and non-geostationary earth orbit (NGEO) satellites.

Taking 5G as an example, a 5G satellite communication system architecture is shown in Figure 3. Ground terminal equipment accesses the network through the 5G new air interface, and the 5G base station is deployed on the satellite and connected to the ground core network through a wireless link. At the same time, there is a wireless link between satellites to complete the signaling interaction and user data transmission between base stations. The devices and interfaces in Figure 3 are described as follows:

5G core network: user access control, mobility management, session management, user security authentication, billing and other services. It consists of multiple functional units, which can be divided into functional entities of control plane and data plane. Access and mobility management unit (AMF) is responsible for user access management, security authentication, and mobility management. User plane unit (UPF) is responsible for managing the transmission of user plane data, traffic statistics and other functions.

Ground station: responsible for forwarding signaling and business data between satellite base stations and 5G core network.

5G New Radio: The wireless link between the terminal and the base station.

Xn interface: The interface between 5G base stations, mainly used for signaling interactions such as switching.

NG interface: The interface between the 5G base station and the 5G core network, which mainly interacts with the core network's NAS and other signaling, as well as the user's business data.

Some examples of ground station equipment are as follows: The core of the existing mobile communication architecture (such as the 3GPP access architecture of the 5G network) Equipment in the core network (CN) or equipment in the core network in the future mobile communication architecture. As a bearer network, the core network provides an interface to the data network, provides communication connection, authentication, management, policy control and data service bearing for user equipment (UE). Among them, CN may further include: access and mobility management function (AMF), session management function (SMF), authentication server function (AUSF), policy control function (PCF), user plane function (UPF) and other network elements. Among them, the AMF network element is used to manage the access and mobility of UE, and is mainly responsible for UE authentication, UE mobility management, UE paging and other functions.

According to the on-board processing capability, satellite communication systems include transparent payload and regenerative payload. Transparent payload can also be called transparent forwarding or bent pipe forwarding transmission, and regenerative payload can also be called non-transparent payload.

As shown in Figure 4A, in a transparent transmission architecture, the base station is located on the ground, the satellite is connected to the base station through a gateway on the ground, the signal between the terminal device and the base station is transmitted through the satellite, and the data processing function is still located at the base station, that is, the satellite is only responsible for signal forwarding and has no data processing capability. The link between the satellite and the terminal device is called the service link, and the link between the satellite and the base station on the ground is called the feeder link.

As shown in Figure 4B, in a regenerative architecture, the satellite has some or all of the base station functions and can perform data processing. The complete base station is located on the satellite, or the DU of the base station is located on the satellite. The link between the satellite and the terminal device is the service link.

In addition, in the NTN network, the network device can manage one or more NTN cells and communicate with the terminal device through the NTN cells. The coverage of the NTN cell in the embodiments of the present application refers to the area covered by the NTN cell on the ground, which can be referred to as the coverage area of the NTN cell. According to the mobility of the NTN cell in the ground coverage area, the NTN cell can be divided into the following three categories:

The first type is earth-fixed, where the coverage area of this type of NTN cell is fixed to a certain area on the ground, i.e., continuous fixed-point coverage. For example, the NTN cell provided by GEO satellites is of this type.

The second type is quasi-earth-fixed. The coverage area of this type of NTN cell is fixed to a certain area on the ground for a period of time, and will be replaced by another area on the ground after a period of time, that is, fixed-point coverage within a period of time. For example, LEO satellites and MEO satellites can provide this type of NTN cell. As shown in Figure 5A, cell 1 covers area 1 on the ground at time t1-t2, and then changes to cell 1 covering area 2 on the ground at t3.

The third type is earth-moving, where the coverage area of this type of NTN cell slides on the ground. For example, LEO satellites and MEO satellites can provide this type of NTN cell. As shown in FIG5B , cell 1 covers area 1 on the ground at t1, slides to cover area 2 on the ground at t2, and slides to cover area 3 on the ground at t3.

The network devices in the ground communication system and the satellites in the NTN communication system are uniformly regarded as network devices. The device for realizing the function of the network device can be a network device; it can also be a device that can support the network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, which can be installed in the network device. When describing the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application below, the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application is described by taking the device for realizing the function of the network device as a network device as an example.

In the embodiment of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal device may be a terminal device; or it may be a device capable of supporting the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system, a hardware circuit, a software module, or a hardware circuit plus a software module, which may be installed in the terminal device or used in combination with the terminal device. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices. In the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is described by taking the case where the device for realizing the function of the terminal device is a terminal device as an example.

The embodiments of the present application involve beam measurement of NTN cells. To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the technical terms in the present application are introduced below.

(1) Beam

Beamforming technology is introduced in 5G NR. The network equipment uses several beams to scan (beam sweeping) different parts of the cell in turn in time-sharing to achieve complete coverage of a cell. A beam corresponds to a unique identifier (beam index), that is, different beams have different identifiers. Different beams correspond to different transmission directions. As shown in Figure 6A, taking a cell including 8 beams as an example, at time t1, the network device sends a reference signal through direction 1 to form beam 0, or it can also be described as the network device transmitting beam 0 to direction 1 at time t1; at time t2, the network device sends a reference signal through direction 2 to form beam 1, or it can also be described as the network device transmitting beam 1 to direction 2 at time t2. By analogy, complete cell coverage can be formed based on 8 beams, that is, the aforementioned cell includes 8 beams.

Among them, the reference signal can be a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (synchronization signal/PBCH block, SSB) or a channel state information reference signal (channel state information-reference signal, CSI-RS).

(2) Beam distribution pattern of NTN cell

The beam distribution mode of an NTN cell is also called the beam deployment mode, which refers to the arrangement pattern or regularity of the beams in the NTN cell. For example, how the beams in a cell are distributed to form the coverage of the current cell, or how the beams in a cell are distributed to achieve the area covered by the cell. From the perspective of beams, the beam distribution mode of an NTN cell can indicate the coverage range of the beams in the first cell.

In the embodiment of the present application, the coverage range of a certain beam in a cell may refer to the area covered by the beam on the ground, referred to as the coverage area of the beam. It can be understood that the coverage area of all beams in a cell is included in the coverage area of the cell, and the coverage area of some (one or more) beams in a cell can also be described as a sub-area in the coverage area of the cell.

In a possible implementation, the beams in the NTN cell are arranged in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction based on the order of the size of the beam identifiers, thereby forming a coverage area of the NTN cell. FIG6B illustrates a beam distribution pattern, where the beams in cell 1 and cell 2 are arranged in a counterclockwise direction, with the beam identifiers arranged in ascending order, and form a cyclic arrangement, for example, the previous beam of beam 7 in cell 1 is beam 6, and the next beam of beam 7 is beam 0.

In another possible implementation, the beams in the NTN are arranged in a certain direction based on the order of the size of the beam identifiers, thereby forming the coverage of an NTN cell. As shown in FIG6C , a beam distribution pattern is shown, in which the beams in cell 1 are arranged along the bottom of the short side of a rectangular area in the order of the identifiers from small to large, and after each column arranges several beams on the short side and reaches the top, a new column is arranged from the bottom of the short side. The beams in cell 2 are arranged along the bottom of the short side of a rectangular area in the order of the identifiers from small to large, and after each column arranges several beams on the short side, a new column is arranged from the top of the short side, that is, the difference between the beam identifiers of two adjacent columns at the top of the short side is 1 (for example, identifier 4 and identifier 5), and the beam identifiers of three adjacent columns form a "Z" shape. The beams in cell 3 are arranged along the left end of the long side of a rectangular area in the order of the identifiers from small to large, and after each row arranges several beams on the long side and reaches the right end, a new row is arranged from the left end. Optionally, the aforementioned certain direction may be a satellite scanning direction, which may also be understood as the direction of satellite movement. In this case, the satellite scanning direction corresponding to cell 1 shown in FIG6C is from the bottom end of the short side to the top end of the short side, and the satellite scanning direction corresponding to cell 3 is from the left end of the long side to the right end of the long side.

For ground quasi-stationary or ground mobile NTN cells, some beams in different NTN cells may cover the same area on the ground in different time periods. Among them, the identifiers of the partial beams covering the same area in different NTN cells may be the same or different. In the case where the number of partial beams is multiple, the different identifiers of the partial beams can also be divided into not completely the same and completely different. Taking the aforementioned partial beam as 1 beam as an example, Figure 6B illustrates that beam 4 in cell 2 and beam 0 in cell 1 can cover the same area at different times. Taking the aforementioned partial beam including multiple beams as an example, Figure 6C illustrates that partial beams {0,1,5,6,10,11} in cell 1 and partial beams {0,1,8,9,10,11} in cell 2 can cover the same sub-area at different times, while {0,1,5,6,10,11} in cell 1 and {0,1,8,9,10,11} in cell 2 are not completely the same.

(3) Status of terminal device

The states of the terminal device are divided into RRC idle state (RRC_IDLE), RRC inactive state (RRC_INACTIVE) and RRC connected state (RRC_CONNECTED).

Among them, the RRC idle state can also be referred to as the idle state. When the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the terminal device does not retain radio resource control (RRC), context and other information. The RRC context is a parameter for establishing communication between the terminal device and the network device. The RRC context may include security context, capability information of the terminal device, etc. At the same time, the terminal device does not establish a connection with the core network device. Generally speaking, a terminal device in the RRC idle state only wakes up periodically to receive paging messages.

The RRC inactive state can also be referred to as the inactive state. When the terminal device is in the RRC inactive state, the RRC context is retained between the terminal device and the network device. At the same time, the terminal device also establishes a connection with the core network device, that is, the core network device is in the core network connected state (CN_CONNECTED). At this time, the process of switching to the connected state for data reception is relatively fast, and no additional core network signaling overhead is generated. In addition, the terminal device in the RRC inactive state will also enter the sleep state. Therefore, the RRC inactive state can meet the requirements of reducing connection delay, reducing signaling overhead and power consumption.

The RRC connection state can also be referred to as the connection state. When the terminal device is in the RRC connection state, the terminal device has established an RRC context. The parameters required to establish communication between the terminal device and the network device have been acquired by both parties. The network device allocates a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI) to the connected terminal device. At the same time, the terminal device also establishes a connection with the core network device.

(4) Beam measurement

The terminal device measures several beams (such as SSB or CSI-RS) of a cell and obtains beam-level measurement results. The beam-level measurement result can be used to derive the cell-level measurement result of the cell. For example, in the cell shown in FIG6A , the terminal device measures the quality of each beam in beams 0 to 7, and averages the quality of these eight beams to obtain a result, which can be used as the cell-level quality of the cell.

In addition, the terminal device can also determine the beam with the best signal quality or the beam with signal quality that meets the preset requirements based on the measurement results of the beams in the cell. The determined beams can also be referred to as the best beams, and the number of best beams can be one or more. The best beam can be used as the service beam of the terminal device, and the number of service beams can also be one or more. The service beam of the terminal device is used to receive downlink information (such as downlink control information, downlink data) or signals sent by the cell. It can be understood that the network device can know the best beam and/or service beam of the terminal device in the connected state. For example, the network device can determine the best beam and/or service beam of the terminal device based on the signal quality in the beam measurement results reported by the terminal device. A terminal device in an idle or inactive state can maintain the best beam and/or service beam by itself, and the network device does not perceive the best beam and/or service beam of the terminal device.

Beam measurement can be used for mobility management of terminal devices. Mobility management means that when the signal quality of the serving cell of the terminal device declines to a certain extent, the terminal device can change the serving cell of the terminal device through switching, cell selection or reselection, that is, select a neighbor cell with better communication quality as a new serving cell to ensure that the communication link between the terminal device and the network will not be interrupted. It can be understood that for a terminal device in a connected state, the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell that the network device connected to the terminal device provides services for the terminal device, and the neighbor cell of the terminal device refers to the cell to which the terminal device currently has no link. The terminal device can change the serving cell of the terminal device through switching. For a terminal device in an idle or inactive state, the serving cell of the terminal device can be understood as the cell where the terminal device currently resides, which can be the cell where the terminal device initially resides based on cell selection, or the cell where the terminal device resides after cell reselection; the neighbor cell of the terminal device refers to the cell where the terminal device is not currently residing. In addition, optionally, the aforementioned neighbor cell can also be referred to as a non-serving cell.

In mobility management, the terminal device needs to implement radio resource management (RRM) measurement, that is, monitor the communication quality of the serving cell and/or neighboring cell of the terminal device. For example, the terminal device can monitor the communication quality of the serving cell based on the measurement results of the beam of the serving cell, and the terminal device can monitor the communication quality of the neighboring cell based on the measurement results of the beam of the neighboring cell. Optionally, the terminal device can decide whether to switch, select a cell or reselect a cell based on the communication quality of the serving cell and/or the neighboring cell.

According to the relationship between the frequency of the neighboring cell and the frequency of the serving cell, the aforementioned beam measurement of the neighboring cell can be divided into intra-frequency measurement and inter-frequency measurement. In addition, according to the standard of the network equipment to which the neighboring cell and the serving cell belong, the beam measurement of the neighboring cell can also be divided into: intra-RAT measurement and inter-RAT measurement. An example of an intra-system measurement is as follows: the serving cell and the neighboring cell are both cells under a 5G base station; in addition, under normal circumstances, the aforementioned intra-frequency measurement and inter-frequency measurement belong to intra-RAT measurement. An example of an inter-system measurement is as follows: the serving cell can be a cell under a 5G base station, and the neighboring cell can be a cell under a 2G, 3G, or 4G (such as LTE) base station. The method provided in the following embodiment of the present application can be applied to the scenarios of intra-frequency measurement, inter-frequency measurement, intra-system measurement, or inter-system measurement.

According to the reference signal type of the frequency point, the beam measurement of the neighboring cell can be divided into SSB-based measurement and CSI-RS-based measurement. Among them, the beam measurement of the neighboring cell by the terminal device in the connected state can be based on SSB or CSI-RS; while the beam measurement of the neighboring cell by the terminal device in the idle state/inactive state is based on SSB. Therefore, combined with the classification method of the above reference signal types, the beam measurement of the neighboring cell can be further divided into: SSB-based co-frequency measurement, SSB-based hetero-frequency measurement, CSI-RS-based co-frequency measurement, CSI-RS-based hetero-frequency measurement, and hetero-system measurement.

Among them, the same-frequency measurement and different-frequency measurement based on SSB can be understood as follows: if the center frequency of the SSB of a certain measurement frequency point is the same as the center frequency of the SSB of the serving cell, and the subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the SSB of a certain measurement frequency point is also the same as the SCS of the SSB of the serving cell, then the beam measurement of the neighboring cell at this frequency point is all the same-frequency measurement; if the center frequencies and/or SCS of the SSB of a certain measurement frequency point and the SSB of the serving cell are different, then the beam measurement of the neighboring cell at this frequency point is all the different-frequency measurement.

The co-frequency measurement and inter-frequency measurement based on CSI-RS can be understood as follows: if the center frequency of the CSI-RS at a certain measurement frequency point is the same as the center frequency of the CSI-RS of the serving cell, and the SCS and cyclic prefix (CP) type of the CSI-RS at a certain measurement frequency point and the CSI-RS of the serving cell are also the same, then the beam measurement of the neighboring cell at this frequency point is co-frequency measurement; otherwise, if at least one of the center frequencies, SCS and CP types of the aforementioned two are different, then the beam measurement of the neighboring cell at this frequency point is inter-frequency measurement.

In beam measurement, the network device can send a measurement configuration to the terminal device, which may include a measurement object, such as a reference signal (SSB/CSI-RS) at a certain frequency point, and a measurement time window configuration corresponding to the frequency point; a measurement reporting configuration, such as a reporting rule and/or reporting format of the measurement result; measurement identities, which are used by the network device to distinguish the measurement object; a measurement gap, such as within the measurement gap, the terminal device does not send or receive information, but only performs measurement on the measurement object; and a measurement quantity configuration, for example, including a measurement filter configuration.

Exemplarily, for the case where the reference signal is SSB, the measurement time window configuration may refer to the measurement time configuration (SSB measurement timing configuration, SMTC) of SSB. SMTC is a periodic measurement time window. The network device may configure the length of each measurement time window and the interval between two adjacent measurement time windows. The measurement time window may also be referred to as an STMC time window or an SMTC occasion. The terminal device measures the corresponding frequency point within one or more SMTC time windows, and does not need to measure the frequency point outside one or more SMTC time windows. Optionally, each SMTC time window is used for beam measurement of a specific beam identifier, that is, the terminal device only measures the beam corresponding to the STMC time window within an SMTC time window. As shown in Figure 6D, SMTC time window 1 is used to measure beams 0-7 corresponding to SSB, SMTC time window 2 is used to measure beams 8-15 corresponding to SSB, ..., SMTC time window x is used to measure beams k1-k8 corresponding to SSB. Among them, Figure 6D uses SSB#0 to represent the beam marked as 0 corresponding to the SSB, and uses SSB#8 to represent the beam marked as 8 corresponding to the SSB, and so on. This embodiment of the present application will not be elaborated on this.

At present, in the ground network system, the maximum number of beams corresponding to SSB in a cell is related to the frequency and SCS of SSB, as well as the standard of the cell. For example, in frequency range 1 (FR1), the maximum number of beams corresponding to SSB in a cell can be 8. For another example, in frequency range 2 (FR2), the maximum number of beams corresponding to SSB in a cell can be 64. The terminal equipment usually decides whether to perform cell switching, cell selection or reselection based on the measurement results of all beams in the neighboring cells. In the NTN system, the number of beams in an NTN cell is determined based on the coverage area requirements of the satellite and the beam capability of the satellite. For example, the coverage area of an NTN cell usually needs to reach hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, but the diameter of a beam is limited (such as a beam diameter of 50 to 60 km), so the number of beams that need to be deployed in an NTN cell far exceeds the number of beams in a ground cell. For example, the number of beams in an NTN cell may be 128, 256 or 512.

For scenarios with a large number of beams in an NTN cell, the transmission period of the beam will increase significantly. Taking SSB as an example, assuming that the number of beams corresponding to SSB in an NTN cell is 256, and 8 SSBs are sent every 20ms, a total of 32 20ms are required to send all 256 SSBs, that is, the transmission period of SSB will reach 32*20=640ms. In this case, if the beam measurement method of measuring all beams in the neighboring cell in the ground network system is used, the terminal device needs to measure more beams, and the beam measurement and maintenance overhead of the terminal device for the NTN cell will also increase accordingly. This method, on the one hand, increases the measurement power consumption of the terminal device, and on the other hand, increases the delay of the terminal device to confirm the best beam/service beam, resulting in low efficiency of the terminal device to complete switching or cell selection/reselection, and even affects the subsequent data transmission, reception, residence or access operations of the terminal device, resulting in poor user experience.

Based on the above problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a beam measurement solution for neighboring cells in NTN, which reduces the beam measurement range of neighboring cells in combination with the beam in the current service cell of the terminal device, thereby reducing the measurement and maintenance overhead of the terminal device and reducing the measurement power consumption of the terminal device.

For example, according to the correspondence between the identification of the beam in the NTN cell and the beam coverage, the following calculation formula can be designed: [(beam index+M)mod N±K]mod N, which is used to determine the range of beam measurement in the neighboring cell. Among them, beam index indicates the identification of a beam in the service cell of the terminal device, which can also be referred to as BI. M indicates the beam identification offset of the neighboring cell beam relative to the beam indicated by BI, and the value of M is an integer, such as a negative integer, 0 or a positive integer; K can be used to determine the number of beams to be measured in the neighboring cell, and K is an integer, such as a negative integer, 0 or a positive integer; N is the total number of beams included in the neighboring cell, or it can also be replaced by: N is the number of beams in the neighboring cell, and N is a positive integer. mod represents the modulo operator. The introduction of mod can ensure that the calculated beam identifier is within the range of N beam identifiers in the neighboring area, such as the value of (beam index + M) is not greater than N. Of course, in implementation, the value range of M can also be limited to ensure that the value of (beam index + M) is not greater than N, that is, (beam index + M) mod N can also be replaced and described as (beam index + M), which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In addition, (beam index + M) can also be replaced by (beam index - M). In the embodiment of the present application, (beam index + M) is used as an example for description.

Substituting a set of values of M, K, and N into the calculation formula, a set of beams to be measured can be determined, and the identifiers of the set of beams to be measured are continuous. Substituting multiple sets of values of M, K, and N into the calculation formula respectively, multiple sets of beams to be measured can be determined, and the multiple sets of beams to be measured include some beams with continuous identifiers and some beams with discontinuous identifiers.

For example, by substituting beam index and a set of values of M, N, and K into the calculation formula, the identification of the starting beam and the ending beam in a set of beams to be measured can be directly obtained. The total number of beams included in the set of beams to be measured is 2*K+1, and then all beams in the set of beams to be measured can be derived. For example, by substituting beam index as 0 and a set of values of M, N, and K as {0,2,128} into [(beam index+M)mod N±K]mod N, the identification of the starting beam in the set of beams to be measured is obtained as [(beam index+M)mod N-K]mod N=126, the identification of the ending beam is obtained as [(beam index+M)+K]mod N=2, and the number of beams is 2*K+1=5, that is, the identification of the beams in the set of beams to be measured includes {126,127,0,1,2}.

Optionally, the operator "±" before K can be expanded to three possibilities: "-", "+" and "±".

Wherein, when the operator before K is "-", beam index and a set of values of M, N, and K are substituted into the calculation formula [(beam index+M)mod N-K]mod N, the identification of the starting beam in a set of beams to be measured can be directly obtained. The number of beams in the set of beams to be measured is K+1, the identification of the beams in the set of beams to be measured is continuous, and the identification of the last beam in the set of beams to be measured is (beam index+M)mod N. For example, when beam index is 0 and a set of values of M, N, and K is {0,2,128}, the identification of the starting beam in the set of beams to be measured is [(beam index+M)-K]mod N＝126, the identification of the last beam is (beam index+M)mod N＝0, and the number of beams is K+1＝3, that is, the identification of the set of beams to be measured includes {126,127,0}.

For the case where the operator before K is "+", a set of values of beam index, M, N, and K are substituted into the calculation formula [(beam index+M)mod N-K]mod N, and the identification of the last beam in a set of beams to be measured can be directly obtained. The number of beams in the set of beams to be measured is K+1, the identification of beams in the set of beams to be measured is continuous, and the identification of the starting beam in the set of beams to be measured is (beam index+M)mod N. For example, when beam index is 0 and a set of values of M, N, and K is {0,2,128}, the identification of the starting beam in the set of beams to be measured is (beam index+M)mod N=0, the identification of the last beam is [(beam index+M)+K]mod N=2, and the number of beams is K+1=3, that is, the identification of beams in the set of beams to be measured includes {0,1,2}.

In a possible design, M, K, and N are information about the cell granularity, that is, the values of M, K, and N in the above calculation formula are related to the neighboring cells. M, K, and N corresponding to a neighboring cell include one or more groups of values, and the values of M, K, and N corresponding to different neighboring cells can be the same or different. Taking the neighboring cells including cell 2 and cell 3 as an example, the multiple groups of values of M/K/N corresponding to cell 2 include 0/2/128 and 5/4/128, and the group of values of M/K/N corresponding to cell 3 is 1/2/256.

In another possible design, M, K, and N are information about the cell-combined beam granularity, that is, one or more sets of values of M, K, and N in the above calculation formula are associated with neighboring cells and beam index. Among the multiple sets of values of M, K, and N corresponding to a neighboring cell, at least one set of values of the multiple sets of values of M, K, and N associated with each beam in the serving cell. The values of M, K, and N corresponding to different beams in the serving cell associated with the same neighboring cell may be the same or different. For example, taking the serving cell as cell 1 and the neighboring cells including cells 2 and 3 as an example, a set of values of M, K, and N corresponding to beam 0 in cell 1 associated with cell 2 is 0/2/128, and a set of values of M, K, and N corresponding to beam 0 in cell 1 associated with cell 3 is 1/2/1256; a set of values of M, K, and N corresponding to beam 1 in cell 1 associated with cell 2 is 1/4/128, and a set of values of M, K, and N corresponding to beam 1 in cell 1 associated with cell 3 is 0/2/1256. For another example, multiple sets of values of M, K, and N corresponding to beam 0 in cell 1 associated with cell 2 include 0/2/128 and 5/4/128.

The following is an example of an application scenario of the above calculation formula.

Scenario 1: The network device can instruct the terminal device to measure some beams in the neighboring area based on the above calculation formula. For example, the network device can instruct the terminal device to take one or more sets of values of M, K, and N for some beams that the terminal device is expected to measure. The terminal device can determine the beam measurement range in the neighboring area by taking one or more sets of values of M, K, and N.

Exemplarily, if the network device expects the identifiers of some beams measured by the terminal device to be continuous, the network device indicates a set of values of M, K, and N. If the network device expects the identifiers of some beams measured by the terminal device to be non-continuous, the network device indicates multiple sets of values of M, K, and N.

Scenario 2: The beam distribution pattern information of the neighboring cell is configured for the terminal device in a predefined manner or indicated by the network device. The beam distribution pattern information may indicate one or more of the following: the coverage of at least one beam in the neighboring cell, the total number of beams in the neighboring cell, the coverage of the neighboring cell, and the arrangement information of the beams in the neighboring cell (e.g., clockwise, counterclockwise, satellite scanning, etc.). The terminal device may determine one or more sets of values of M, K, and N based on the beam distribution pattern information, that is, the terminal device may determine the beam measurement range of the neighboring cell by itself.

Exemplarily, if the terminal device wishes to measure a portion of beams with continuous identifiers in a neighboring area, the terminal device can determine a set of values for M, K, and N; or, if the terminal device wishes to measure a portion of beams with discontinuous identifiers in a neighboring area, the terminal device can determine multiple sets of values for M, K, and N.

In addition, the terminal device can also determine the specific values of M, K, and N based on the coverage range of at least one beam in the neighboring area.

Scenario three, Scenario one and Scenario two can be used together, such as the terminal device can obtain one or more groups of values of M, K, and N indicated by the network device, and additionally determine one or more groups of values of M, K, and N based on the beam distribution pattern information of the neighboring area.

Scenario 4: For any set of values of M, K, and N, the network device can determine the partial beams that the terminal device is expected to measure, and configure the values of part of the information in M, K, and N to the terminal device. The terminal device can determine the values of the remaining information in M, K, and N that is not indicated by the network device based on the beam distribution pattern information of the neighboring area.

Optionally, after obtaining one or more groups of values of partial information in M, K, and N indicated by the network device, the terminal device may additionally determine one or more groups of values of partial information in M, K, and N according to the beam distribution pattern information of the neighboring area.

Based on the design of the above calculation formula, the beam measurement range of the terminal device to the neighboring area can be shortened, the beam measurement overhead can be reduced, and Reduce the signaling overhead for network devices to indicate the beam measurement range.

For ease of implementation, the following is a detailed description using the example of a terminal device measuring a portion of the beams in the first neighboring area. It is understandable that the number of neighboring areas of the terminal device may be one or more. When the number of neighboring areas of the terminal device is multiple, the beam information of any one of the multiple neighboring areas can be understood with reference to the beam information of the first neighboring area. The first neighboring area is used as an example for description in the embodiments of the present application.

FIG7 shows a measurement method, which mainly includes the following process.

S701, the terminal device obtains beam information of the first neighboring cell.

Among them, the beam information of the first neighboring area is used to determine the first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring area, and the first candidate beam set includes the beams to be measured in the first neighboring area, and the total number of beams in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams in the first neighboring area. Optionally, the beam information of the first neighboring area can also be described as the beam coverage information of the first neighboring area. Corresponding to the design of the aforementioned calculation formula, it can be understood that: the beam information of the first neighboring area may include one or more of the following: beam identification offset information (M), indication information of the number of beams in the first candidate beam set (K), and the number of beams in the first neighboring area (N). Among them, the number of beams in the first candidate beam set refers to the total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area refers to the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area.

In an optional implementation, the terminal device may receive beam information of the first neighboring cell from the serving cell. For example, the network device sends the beam information of the first neighboring cell to the terminal device through the serving cell.

For a terminal device in a connected state, the network device can send beam information of the first neighboring cell to the terminal device through dedicated signaling (such as RRC signaling). For example, when the beam information of the first neighboring cell is information of cell granularity, the beam information of the first neighboring cell sent by the network device may include one or more groups of beam information corresponding to the first neighboring cell. For another example, when the beam information of the first neighboring cell is information of cell-combined beam granularity, the beam information of the first neighboring cell sent by the network device may include one or more groups of beam information associated with at least one beam in the service cell of the terminal device. Among them, at least one beam may include only the best beam or service beam of the terminal device; or, at least one beam includes all beams in the service cell.

For a terminal device in an idle or inactive state, the network device can send the beam information of the first neighboring cell to the terminal device via broadcast signaling. For example, when the beam information of the first neighboring cell is information of cell granularity, the network device can send the same broadcast signaling in the direction corresponding to each beam in the service cell, and the same broadcast signaling includes one or more groups of beam information corresponding to the first neighboring cell. For another example, when the beam information of the first neighboring cell is information of cell-combined beam granularity, the network device can send one or more groups of beam information corresponding to the first neighboring cell associated with a beam in the direction corresponding to the beam in the service cell, and the beam information transmitted in the directions corresponding to different beams may be the same or different.

Optionally, the network device may determine the beam information of the first neighboring cell according to the beam distribution pattern in the cell deployed by the operator.

Or optionally, the network device may determine the correspondence between the beam coverage ranges in multiple cells based on the beam measurement results of multiple cells reported historically by at least one terminal device. Then the network device determines the beam information of the first neighboring cell based on the correspondence between the beam coverage ranges in the cells. Among them, at least one terminal device may be a quasi-stationary UE, and the quasi-stationary UE meets one or more of the following: the size of the activity range within a certain time period is not greater than the set area size threshold; the moving speed is not greater than the set speed threshold; the moving distance within a certain time period is not greater than the set distance threshold. At least one terminal device may include the terminal device described in S701, or may not include the terminal device described in S701. Multiple cells may include the service cell and the first neighboring cell of the terminal device described in S701. In this way, the workload of manual or operational deployment planning can be reduced, and it is also convenient to update the beam information in a timely manner. For example, the network can determine the latest beam coverage relationship between multiple cells at any time based on the beam measurement results reported by the UE, so as to provide accurate beam information to the UE.

As shown in FIG8 , taking the example of a quasi-stationary UE whose activity range is within sub-area 1 for a certain period of time (such as t1 to t3), the network device can determine the beam used to cover sub-area 1 in each cell according to the beam measurement results reported by the UE in cells 1, 2, and 3, and then obtain the corresponding relationship between the beam coverage ranges of each cell. For example, at time t1, the beam measurement result reported by the UE in cell 1 indicates that the signal quality of beam 0 in cell 1 is the best. At time t2, the beam measurement result reported by the UE in cell 2 indicates that the signal quality of beam 0 in cell 2 is the best, and the signal quality of {beam 6, beam 7, beam 1, beam 2} in cell 2 is higher than the set signal quality threshold. At time t3, the beam measurement result reported by the UE in cell 3 indicates that the signal quality of beam 4 in cell 3 is the best, and the signal quality of {beam 2, beam 3, beam 5, beam 6} in cell 3 is higher than the set signal quality threshold. When cell 1 is the serving cell of the terminal device, and cells 2 and 3 are the neighboring cells of the terminal device, the network device can determine that the beams to be measured in cell 2 associated with beam 0 in cell 1 include {beam 6, beam 7, beam 0, beam 1, beam 2}, and then the network device can configure the beam information of cell 2 associated with beam 0 in cell 1 to the terminal device, for example, M/K/N is 0/2/8. Similarly, the network device can determine that the beams to be measured in cell 2 associated with beam 0 in cell 1 include {beam 6, beam 7, beam 0, beam 1, beam 2}. The beams to be measured in cell 3 associated with beam 0 in area 1 include {beam 2, beam 3, beam 4, beam 5, beam 6}, and then the network device can configure the beam information of cell 3 associated with beam 0 in cell 1 to the terminal device, for example, M/K/N is 4/2/8.

In another optional implementation, the terminal device may determine the beam information of the first neighboring cell according to the beam distribution pattern information of the first neighboring cell. For example, referring to the description in the aforementioned scenario 2, this embodiment of the present application will not be described in detail.

In addition, the terminal device can combine the above two implementation methods to obtain the beam information of the first neighboring cell. The following is an example in which the beam information of the first neighboring cell includes a group of beam information.

In one possible combination: for the beam identification offset information (M) in a set of beam information, M may be indicated by the network device to the terminal device; or, when the network device does not indicate M to the terminal device, the terminal device may consider M to be 0; or, when the network device does not indicate M to the terminal device, the terminal device may determine that M is a first default value, which may be predefined or pre-negotiated between the network device and the terminal device; or, when the network device does not indicate M to the terminal device, the terminal device determines the value of M based on the beam distribution pattern information of the first neighboring area. For the indication information (K) of the number of beams included in a set of beam information, K may be indicated by the network device to the terminal device; or, when the network device does not indicate K to the terminal device, the terminal device may consider K to be 0; or, when the network device does not indicate K to the terminal device, the terminal device may determine K to be a second default value, which may be predefined or pre-negotiated between the network device and the terminal device; or, when the network device does not indicate K to the terminal device, the terminal device determines the value of K based on the beam distribution pattern information of the first neighboring area; or, when the network device does not indicate K to the terminal device, the terminal device may also determine the value of K based on its own beam measurement and maintenance capabilities (for example, the number of beams supported for measurement and maintenance), communication quality and other factors. For the number of beams (N) in the first neighboring area included in a set of beam information, N may be indicated by the network device to the terminal device; or, when the network device does not indicate N to the terminal device, the terminal device may consider that the number of beams in the first neighboring area is the same as the number of beams in the service cell, or the terminal device may determine that the number of beams in the first neighboring area is a predefined default value; or, when the network device does not indicate N to the terminal device, the terminal device determines the value of N based on the beam distribution pattern information of the first neighboring area.

In another possible combination, when the beam information of the first beam includes multiple groups of beam information, the network device can indicate some groups of beam information among the multiple groups of beam information, and the terminal device determines at least one group of beam information not indicated by the network device among the aforementioned multiple groups of beam information based on the beam distribution pattern information of the first neighboring area.

S702, the terminal device determines a first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell based on the first beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring cell.

Optionally, the first beam is a service beam of the terminal device in the service cell. It is understood that when the number of service beams of the terminal device is multiple, the first beam may be one of the multiple service beams of the terminal device. Alternatively, the signal quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to the first signal quality threshold, and the first beam may also be referred to as the best beam of the terminal device in the service cell. It is understood that when the number of best beams of the terminal device is multiple, the first beam may be one of the multiple best beams of the terminal device.

The beam information of the first neighboring cell includes I groups of beam information, and the first candidate beam set is the union of I groups of sub-candidate beam sets. The terminal device can determine the i-th sub-candidate beam set in the I groups of sub-candidate beam sets based on the i-th group of beam information in the I groups of beam information. Wherein, I is a positive integer, and i takes a positive integer from 1 to I, that is, 1≤i≤I. It can be understood that, when I is equal to 1, the first candidate beam set is the union of 1 group of sub-candidate beam sets, and it can also be replaced by describing that the first candidate beam set is the 1 group of sub-candidate beam sets; or when I is equal to 1, it can also be considered that the concept of sub-candidate beam sets does not exist, the beam information of the first neighboring cell includes 1 group of beam information, and the terminal device can determine the first candidate beam set based on the first beam and the 1 group of beam information.

Corresponding to the design of the above calculation formula and the description in S701, it can be understood that: the I group of beam information is information of cell granularity, and there is an association relationship between the I group of beam information and the first neighboring area, that is, the I group of beam information is included in the beam information of the first neighboring area; or, the I group of beam information is information of cell combined beam granularity, and there is an association relationship between the I group of beam information and the first neighboring area and the first beam, that is, the I group of beam information is the beam information in the beam information of the first neighboring area that has an association relationship with the first beam. The terminal device can receive first information from the serving cell, and the first information indicates at least one group of beam information in the I group of beam information; the terminal device can also determine at least one group of beam information in the I group of beam information according to the beam distribution pattern information of the first neighboring area (for example, the coverage range of at least one beam in the first neighboring area).

The i-th group of beam information in the above-mentioned I groups of beam information may include one or more of the following: the beam identification offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam (for example, denoted as _Mi ), the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-selected beam set (for example, denoted as _Ki ), and the number of beams in the first neighboring area (for example, denoted as _Ni ). The relationship between _Ki and the number of beams in the i-th sub-selected beam set satisfies _Ki +1 or _2Ki +1; in addition, optionally, the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-selected beam set may also be the number of beams in the i-th sub-selected beam set. This application is not limited to this. The following is an example of the beam identification in the i-th sub-candidate beam set.

Example 1: The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i . The number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set is K _i +1, and the identifiers of all beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set are continuous. As shown in FIG8 , cell 1 is the serving cell, and cell 2 is the first neighboring cell. Assume that the first beam is the service beam of the terminal device, the first beam is beam 0 in cell 1, I=1, and the terminal device obtains a set of beam information of M ₁ =0, K ₁ =2, and N ₁ =8. The starting beam in a sub-candidate beam set, that is, the first candidate beam set, is beam 0 in the first neighboring cell, and the ending beam is beam 2 in the first neighboring cell. The number of beams in the first candidate beam set is K+1=3, and the first candidate beam set is {beam 0, beam 1, beam 2}.

Example 2, the identifier of the starting beam of the ith sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the last beam of the ith sub-candidate beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i . The number of beams in the ith sub-candidate beam set is K _i +1, and the identifiers of all beams in the ith sub-candidate beam set are continuous. As shown in Figure 6C, cell 1 is the service cell, and cell 2 is the first neighboring cell. Assume that the first beam is the service beam of the terminal device, the first beam is beam 6 in cell 1 (service cell), I=2, and the terminal device obtains 2 sets of beam information. The first group of beam information is M ₁ =2, K ₁ =2, N ₁ =128, the starting beam in the first sub-candidate beam set is beam 6 in the first neighboring area, the ending beam is beam 8 in the first neighboring area, the number of beams in the first sub-candidate beam set is K ₁ +1=3, then the first sub-candidate beam set is {beam 6, beam 7, beam 8}. The second group of beam information is M ₂ =5, K ₂ =3, N ₂ =128, the starting beam in the second sub-candidate beam set is beam 8 in the first neighboring area, the ending beam is beam 11 in the first neighboring area, the number of beams in the second sub-candidate beam set is K ₁ +1=4, then the second sub-candidate beam set is {beam 8, beam 9, beam 10, beam 11}. The first candidate beam set is a union of the first sub-candidate beam set and the second sub-candidate beam set, and the first candidate beam set is {beam 6, beam 7, beam 8, beam 9, beam 10, beam 11}.

Example 3, the identifier of the starting beam of the ith sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the ith sub-candidate beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i . The number of beams in the ith sub-candidate beam set is 2*K _i +1, and the identifiers of all beams in the ith sub-candidate beam set are continuous. As shown in Figure 6C, cell 1 is the service cell, and cell 2 is the first neighboring cell. Assume that the first beam is the service beam of the terminal device, the first beam is beam 6 in cell 1 (service cell), I=2, and the terminal device obtains 2 sets of beam information. The first group of beam information is M ₁ =2, K ₁ =1, N ₁ =128, the starting beam in the first sub-candidate beam set is beam 7 in the first neighboring area, the ending beam is beam 9 in the first neighboring area, the number of beams in the first sub-candidate beam set is 2*K ₁ +1=3, then the first sub-candidate beam set is {beam 7, beam 8, beam 9}. The second group of beam information is M ₂ =-5, K ₂ =1, N ₂ =128, the starting beam in the second sub-candidate beam set is beam 0 in the first neighboring area, the ending beam is beam 2 in the first neighboring area, the number of beams in the second sub-candidate beam set is 2*K ₁ +1=3, then the second sub-candidate beam set is {beam 0, beam 1, beam 2}. The first candidate beam set is a union of the first sub-candidate beam set and the second sub-candidate beam set, and the first candidate beam set is {beam 0, beam 1, beam 2, beam 7, beam 8, beam 9}.

Optionally, (BI+M _i ) mod N _i described in the above example can also be understood as a reference beam in the first neighboring area. When the first beam is the service beam or the best beam of the terminal device in the service cell, the reference beam and the first beam can cover the same area of the ground in time-sharing. For example, the terminal device is located in the first area, and the coverage of the first beam includes the first area. When the terminal device is switched to the first neighboring area through switching or cell reselection, the coverage of the reference beam includes the first area. The reference beam can also be understood as a candidate service beam or a candidate best beam after the terminal device is switched to the first neighboring area. Including the reference beam in the first candidate beam set measured by the terminal device helps the terminal device to quickly determine the service beam or the best beam in the first neighboring area, which can improve the efficiency and accuracy of the terminal device in switching or cell reselection, thereby improving communication performance and user experience.

S703: The terminal device measures the beams in the first candidate beam set.

Optionally, the terminal device can measure a beam within a measurement time window associated with a beam in the first candidate beam set; wherein the measurement time windows associated with different beams in the first candidate beam set are the same or different. As shown in Figure 6D, the terminal device can measure the corresponding SSB beam within the SMTC time window. It can be understood that since the total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring area, measuring the first candidate beam set can reduce the number of SMTC time windows or reduce the number of measured beams within the SMTC time window compared to measuring all beams in the first neighboring area, thereby saving the time for the terminal device to perform measurements and reducing the measurement overhead and power consumption of the terminal device.

Exemplarily, assuming that the first candidate beam set determined by the terminal device is {beam 3, beam 4, beam 5}, the terminal device can perform measurements only in SMTC time window 1, such as measuring SSB#3, SSB#4, and SSB#5. For another example, assuming that the first candidate beam set determined by the terminal device is {beam 6, beam 7, beam 8, beam 9}, the UE can perform measurements in SMTC time window 1 and SMTC time window 2, such as measuring SSB#6, SSB#7, SSB#8, and SSB#9.

Optionally, for a terminal device in a connected state, the terminal device may further perform the following step S704:

S704: The terminal device sends the beam measurement result corresponding to the first candidate beam set to the network device.

Optionally, the beam measurement result corresponding to the first candidate beam set may include measurement results of all or part of the beams in the first candidate beam set. For example, the terminal may only send measurement results of beams in the first candidate beam set whose quality is higher than a certain threshold.

It can be understood that S704 is an optional step, which is indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 7 .

Optionally, the network device may update the correspondence between the coverage of the beam in the service cell and the coverage of the beam in at least one neighboring cell based on the beam measurement results corresponding to the first candidate beam set of at least one neighboring cell, thereby updating the beam information of the first neighboring cell.

Optionally, the terminal device may further perform the following step S705:

S705: The terminal device determines a target beam in the first candidate beam set.

Optionally, the terminal device may determine the target beam based on the measurement results of each beam in the first candidate beam set. The target beam is the service beam after the terminal device is switched to the first neighboring cell; alternatively, the signal quality of the target beam is greater than or equal to the second signal quality threshold, and the target beam may also be referred to as the best beam in the first neighboring cell. "Replacement" may refer to switching, cell selection, or cell reselection. Optionally, the number of target beams may be one or more. The second signal quality threshold may be the same as or different from the aforementioned first signal quality threshold, and this is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

In a possible implementation, the service cell and neighboring cell (such as the first neighboring cell) described above are terrestrial quasi-stationary NTN cells, and the terminal device is continuously in the first area for a certain period of time, for example, the terminal device is not active or the range of activity is not greater than the aforementioned first area. In the case where the first beam is the service beam/optimal beam of the terminal device in the service cell, when the terminal device is changed to the first neighboring cell, the first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell may include a beam that replaces the aforementioned first beam and covers the first area.

As shown in FIG8 , it is assumed that the terminal device is located in sub-area 1 in geographic area 1 for a certain period of time (such as including t1 to t3). At time t1, cell 1 covers geographic area 1, the service cell of the terminal device is cell 1, and the neighboring cells include cells 2 and 3. Based on the service beam/best beam in cell 1, the terminal device determines that the first candidate beam set corresponding to cell 2 is {beam 6, beam 7, beam 0, beam 1, beam 2}, and the first candidate beam set corresponding to cell 3 is {beam 3, beam 4, beam 5}. At time t2, cell 2 covers geographic area 1. When the terminal device reselects to cell 2, it preferentially determines the service beam or best beam in cell 2 from the first candidate beam set corresponding to cell 2 {beam 6, beam 7, beam 0, beam 1, beam 2}. At time t3, cell 3 covers geographic area 1. When the UE reselects cell 3, it preferentially determines the service beam or the best beam in cell 3 from the first candidate beam set {beam 3, beam 4, beam 5} corresponding to cell 3.

In addition, in the case where the number of neighboring cells of the terminal device is multiple, such as in the above example, relative to the service cell of the terminal device being cell 1, the neighboring cells may include cell 2 and cell 3, and the terminal device may determine the first candidate beam set corresponding to each neighboring cell (such as cell 2, cell 3) in the multiple neighboring cells based on the first beam in the service cell. It is understandable that when the terminal device is changed from cell 1 to cell 2, cell 2 becomes the new service cell of the terminal device, and cell 3 is still the neighboring cell of the terminal device. In this case, the terminal device may perform measurements according to the first candidate beam set of cell 3 determined when it is in cell 1; alternatively, the terminal device may also gather the beams in cell 2 to redetermine the first candidate beam set of cell 3, and then measure the beams in the redetermined first candidate beam set of cell 3. The embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

In another possible implementation, the service cell and neighboring cell (such as the first neighboring cell) described above are ground mobile NTN cells, and the terminal device is continuously in the first area for a certain period of time, for example, the terminal device is not active or the range of activity is not greater than the aforementioned first area. In the case where the first beam is the service beam/optimal beam of the terminal device in the service cell, when the terminal device is changed to the first neighboring cell, the first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell may include a beam that replaces the aforementioned first beam and covers the first area for the first time.

As shown in Figure 9, it is assumed that the terminal device is located in sub-area 1 in geographic area 1 for a certain period of time (such as including t1 to t3). At time t1, cell 1 covers geographic area 1, the service cell of the terminal device is cell 1, and the neighboring cells include cell 2, cell 3, and cell 4. Taking the first beam (such as the service beam or the best beam) in cell 1 as beam 0 as an example, the terminal device can determine that the first candidate beam set corresponding to cell 2 is {beam 7, beam 0, beam 1}, and the first candidate beam sets corresponding to cells 3 and 4 are both {beam 3, beam 4, beam 5}.

Since the coverage of cell 1 slides on the ground, even if the UE is always located in sub-area 1, the service beam or the best beam of the terminal device in cell 1 will gradually change from beam 0 to beam 5 and then to beam 3.

When the coverage of cell 2 slides to the range of geographic area 1, if the UE determines to reselect to cell 2, the UE can preferentially determine the service beam or the best beam used for the first time in cell 2 from the first candidate beam set {beam 7, beam 0, beam 1} corresponding to cell 2. Similar to the situation in cell 1 above, as the coverage of cell 2 slides, the service beam or the best beam of the subsequent terminal device in cell 2 Will likely change.

Similarly, when the coverage of cell 3 or cell 4 slides to within the range of geographic area 1, if the UE determines to reselect to cell 3 or cell 4, the UE may preferentially determine the service beam or the best beam used for the first time in cell 3 or cell 4 from the first candidate beam set {beam 3, beam 4, beam 5} corresponding to cell 3 or cell 4. Similar to the situation in cell 1 above, as the coverage of cell 3 or cell 4 slides, the service beam or the best beam of the subsequent terminal device in cell 3 or cell 4 may change.

The above method provided in the embodiment of the present application, combined with the beam information of the serving cell and the first neighboring cell, can accurately determine the beam to be measured in the first neighboring cell, avoid the terminal device from measuring irrelevant beams, reduce the beam measurement and maintenance overhead of the terminal device, and reduce the measurement power consumption of the terminal device; and the terminal device can more accurately and quickly determine the serving beam or the best beam in the first neighboring cell based on the first candidate beam set, which helps the terminal device to complete the switching or cell selection/reselection faster to perform subsequent data transmission, residence or access operations. Such a design can reduce the interruption caused by switching or cell selection/reselection, thereby improving user experience and performance.

Considering that the coverage of a ground mobile NTN cell slides on the ground, even if the terminal device remains stationary, the service beam or the best beam of the terminal device in the service cell may change within a certain period of time. Based on this, an embodiment of the present application also provides a measurement method, which can be applied to the scenario where the service cell and/or the neighboring cell is an NTN cell, as shown in FIG10 , and the method mainly includes the following process.

S1001, the terminal device obtains beam information of the first neighboring cell.

This step can be understood with reference to the description in S701, and will not be elaborated in this embodiment of the present application.

S1002, the terminal device determines a first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell based on the first beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring cell.

Optionally, the first beam is a serving beam or an optimal beam of the terminal device. This step can be understood with reference to the description in S702, and this embodiment of the present application will not be described in detail.

As shown in Figure 9, the service cell of the terminal device is cell 1, and the neighboring cells of the terminal device include cell 2, cell 3, and cell 4. Taking the first beam as beam 0 in cell 1 as an example, the terminal device can determine that the first candidate beam set corresponding to cell 2 is {beam 7, beam 0, beam 1}, and the first candidate beam sets corresponding to cells 3 and 4 are {beam 3, beam 4, beam 5}. Assume that the coverage of cell 1 slides on the ground, so that the service beam or the best beam of the terminal device is changed from beam 0 to beam 5, and then to beam 3.

In one possible design, the terminal device may update the first candidate beam set corresponding to the neighboring cells (e.g., cell 2, cell 3, and cell 4) according to the replaced service beam or the best beam, and obtain the second candidate beam set corresponding to the neighboring cells. After executing S1002, the terminal device further executes steps S1003 and S1004. Optionally, the terminal device may also execute S1005 after executing S1004. Such a design matches the update of the service beam or the best beam in the serving cell, and timely updates the beam set to be measured in the neighboring cell, which can ensure the accuracy of the beam measurement.

In another possible design, if the terminal device remains stationary or moves in the first area, for example, the coverage of cell 1 is recorded as area 1, and the terminal device is always located in sub-area 1 in area 1. Then the terminal device may not need to update the first candidate beam set corresponding to the neighboring cells (cell 2, cell 3, cell 4). After executing S1002, the terminal device further executes step S1006. Optionally, the terminal device may also execute S1007 after executing S1006. Such a design can reduce unnecessary beam set determination operations and measurement overheads of the terminal device.

S1003, the terminal device determines a second candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell based on the second beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring cell.

Among them, the second beam refers to the replaced service beam or the best beam in the service cell. When the beam information of the first neighboring cell is information of cell granularity, the beam information of the first neighboring cell described in S1003 and S1001 can be the same. When the beam information of the first neighboring cell is information of cell combined beam granularity, the beam information of the first neighboring cell described in S1001 refers to the beam information of the first neighboring cell associated with the first beam; the beam information of the first neighboring cell described in S1002 refers to the beam information of the first neighboring cell associated with the second beam.

Exemplarily, taking the case where the second beam is beam 5 in cell 1, the terminal device can determine that the second candidate beam set corresponding to cell 2 is {beam 2, beam 5, beam 6}, and the second candidate beam sets corresponding to cell 3 and cell 4 are both {beam 1, beam 2, beam 6}.

S1004: The terminal device measures the beam in the second candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell.

S1005: The terminal device determines a target beam in the second candidate beam set.

For example, corresponding to the description in S1003, the terminal device can determine the serving beam or the best beam after the terminal device is switched to cell 2 from {beam 2, beam 5, beam 6} in cell 2. The terminal device can determine the serving beam or the best beam after the terminal device is switched to cell 2 from {beam 1, beam 2, beam 6} in cell 3 or cell 4. 6} Determine the service beam or optimal beam after the terminal device changes to cell 3 or cell 4.

S1006: The terminal device measures the beam in the first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell.

S1007: The terminal device determines a target beam in the first candidate beam set.

For example, corresponding to the description in S1002, the terminal device can determine the service beam or the best beam after the terminal device is switched to cell 2 at {beam 7, beam 0, beam 1} in cell 2. The terminal device can determine the service beam or the best beam after the terminal device is switched to cell 3 or cell 4 at {beam 3, beam 4, beam 5} in cell 3 or cell 4.

In addition, the present application also provides a method for accessing an NTN cell. For example, the access method can be applied to the scenario in which the aforementioned terminal device accesses a serving cell in the above embodiment, or can also be applied to the scenario in which other terminal devices access an NTN.

For ease of understanding, the system information (SI) involved in the access method is first introduced in detail. SI is a message sent by a network device, which contains the information required for the initialization of the terminal device and some related information for implementing other functions or features. SI is divided into minimum system information (MSI) and other system information (OSI).

Among them, MSI consists of master information block (MIB) and system information block 1 (SIB1). SIB1 can also be called remaining minimum system information (RMSI). The terminal device will periodically broadcast MIB on the broadcast channel (BCH). The terminal device will periodically broadcast SIB1 on the downlink shared channel (DL-SCH), or send SIB1 to the terminal device in the connected state through dedicated signaling.

OSI is composed of other SIBs, such as SIB2 to SIB21, etc. The network device will broadcast other SIBs on DL-SCH periodically; or the network device will broadcast other SIBs on DL-SCH on demand, for example, when a terminal device in an idle or inactive state requests a certain other SIB, the network will broadcast the other SIB, otherwise the other SIB will not be sent; or the network device will send other SIBs to the terminal device in the connected state through dedicated signaling.

In addition, the network device will send the scheduling information of the system information in SIB1. The scheduling information is used by the terminal device to determine the sending time of other SIBs except SIB1, that is, after receiving SIB1, the terminal device can obtain other SIBs according to the scheduling information of the system information. The specific mechanism is as follows: one or more other SIBs can form a system information message (SI message), and the sending periods of other SIBs contained in an SI message are the same, which is the sending period of the SI message. The sending periods of different SI messages can be the same or different. In general, the basic process for a terminal device in an idle or inactive state to obtain system information is: the terminal device first obtains the MIB, obtains SIB1 according to the scheduling information in the MIB, and then obtains other SIBs according to the scheduling information in SIB1.

FIG11 illustrates a method for accessing an NTN cell. The method mainly includes the following steps.

S1101, the network device sends the SSB and MIB of the first NTN cell.

Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the SSB and MIB of the first NTN cell sent by the network device, wherein the first NTN cell can also be understood as a service cell to be accessed by the terminal device.

Optionally, the terminal device may first measure the beam corresponding to the SSB based on the STMC time window according to the measurement method in the above embodiment to determine the service beam or the best beam in the first NTN cell; then, the terminal device receives the MIB through the service beam or the best beam in the first NTN cell.

S1102, the network device sends SIB1 of the first NTN cell.

Accordingly, the terminal device can receive SIB1 according to the scheduling information included in the MIB. The SIB1 may include the local area information of the first NTN cell. It can be understood that SIB1 in the embodiment of the present application refers to the name of the message including the local area information of the first NTN cell to be accessed, and SIB1 can also be replaced with other names, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

The local area information of the first NTN cell is used for the terminal device to access the first NTN cell, and can also be called the access configuration information for the terminal device to access the first NTN cell. The local area information of the first NTN cell or the access configuration information may include one or more of the following:

(1) The epoch time information of this zone (epochTime);

(2) Validity duration information of the uplink synchronization auxiliary information of this area (ntn-UlSyncValidityDuration);

(3) cell scheduling information of the area, for example, including a cell-specific scheduling offset (cellSpecificKoffset), which is a scheduling offset (kmac) used in a scenario where uplink and downlink frame timings are not aligned on the network device side;

(4) Timing advance information of the zone, for example, including one or more of the following: common timing advance (ta-Common), drift rate of common timing advance (ta-CommonDrift), fluctuation of drift rate of common timing advance (ta-CommonDriftVariant), Timing advance report control instruction (ta-Report);

(5) Satellite polarization information in this area, such as downlink polarization information (ntn-PolarizationDL) and uplink polarization information (ntn-PolarizationUL).

(6) Satellite ephemeris information (ephemerisInfo) of this area, such as the satellite's position and velocity information, or the satellite's orbital parameter information, etc.

It can be understood that the local area in the above (1) to (6) refers to the first NTN cell to be accessed by the terminal device, that is, the first NTN cell described in S1102.

Optionally, the network device can repeatedly send SIB1. For example, as shown in Figure 12, taking the SCS as 30kHz, a system frame (SFN) containing 20 time slots, and the duration of each time slot being 0.5ms as an example, it is illustrated that: the network device sends 8 SSBs, namely SSB0 to SSB7, in the 1st to 4th time slots of the frame SFN#0 with the system frame number being 0. The network device sends SIB1 in the directions corresponding to SSB0 to SSB3 in the 17th to 20th time slots of SFN#0; the network device sends SIB1 in the directions corresponding to SSB4 to SSB7 in the 1st to 4th time slots of SFN#1; and the network device repeatedly sends SIB1 in the directions corresponding to SSB0 to SSB7 in the 5th to 12th time slots. Through such a design, the coverage performance of SIB1 can be improved. On the one hand, it ensures that the terminal device receives SIB1 normally, and then ensures that the terminal device performs other operations normally in the cell, such as paging monitoring, access, etc. On the other hand, after the quality of the communication link is improved, the RRC message of SIB1 will have a larger margin and can contain more information, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the network device may also send SIB1 in "segments", or it may be understood that the number of SIB1s sent by the network device described in S1102 is one or more. The meaning of "segmented" sending may be understood with reference to the following content: dividing a SIB1 message into multiple SIB1 messages, or dividing the content of SIB1 into multiple parts. For example, the content of SIB1 is divided into SIB1-1 (or simply called SIB1) and SIB1-2 (or called SIB1bis, etc.), and SIB1-1 may be sent first, and then SIB1-2 may be sent.

Optionally, the access method may further include the following step S1103. S1103 is an optional step and is indicated by a dotted line in FIG11 .

S1103, the network device sends SIB19 of the first NTN cell.

The SIB19 of the first NTN cell includes information irrelevant to accessing the first NTN cell (ie, the serving cell), for example, the SIB19 includes neighboring cell information and/or measurement-related parameters for cell reselection.

Exemplarily, the neighboring cell information may include one or more of the following: neighboring cell frequency information (carrierFreq), such as the frequency number of the neighboring cell frequency, which may be an absolute radio frequency channel number (ARFCN); neighboring cell identification information, such as the physical cell identity (PCI) of the neighboring cell; epoch time information (epochTime) of the neighboring cell; valid duration information of the uplink synchronization auxiliary information of the neighboring cell (ntn-UlSyncValidityDuration); scheduling information of the neighboring cell, such as the specific scheduling offset (c ellSpecificKoffset); timing advance information of neighboring cells, such as common timing advance (ta-Common), drift rate of common timing advance (ta-CommonDrift), fluctuation of drift rate of common timing advance (ta-CommonDriftVariant), timing advance report control indication (ta-Report); satellite polarization information of neighboring cells, such as downlink polarization information (ntn-PolarizationDL) and uplink polarization information (ntn-PolarizationUL); satellite ephemeris information of neighboring cells (ephemerisInfo), such as satellite position and velocity information, or satellite orbital parameter information, etc.

The measurement-related parameters for cell reselection may include one or more of the following: service stop time information (t-Service) of the serving cell, such as the time when the serving cell stops serving the current area; reference point information (referenceLocation) within the serving cell, which is used for measurement of cell reselection based on position control terminal equipment; distance threshold (distanceThresh), which is used for measurement of cell reselection based on position control terminal equipment.

Optionally, the location where the network device sends SIB19 may be other than SSB and SIB1. For example, in the example of FIG12 , the network device may send SIB19 in the directions corresponding to SSB0 to SSB7 in the 13th to 20th time slots of SFN#1. In addition, the network device may also send SIB19 at any location in the 5th to 16th time slots of SFN#0.

Optionally, the network device may send SIB19 via a separate SI message, that is, an SI message contains only one OSI, SIB19; or, SIB19 may also form an SI message with other SIBs, for example, an SI message contains SIB19 and SIB2.

In addition, optionally, when the capacity of SIB1 described in S1102 allows, SIB1 or a "segment" of SIB1 may also include the neighboring cell information described in S1103 and/or the measurement-related parameters for cell reselection. Exemplarily, SIB1 (or a "segment" of SIB1 (e.g., SIB1-2)) may include the information of the current area and the neighboring cell information of neighboring cells 1/2; SIB19 includes the neighboring cell information of neighboring cells 3/4/5/6.

S1104, the terminal device initiates random access to the first NTN cell.

For example, the terminal device may initiate random access to the first NTN cell using access-related information based on the received MIB and SIB1.

Among them, the access-related information may include one or more of the following: the local area information or access configuration information of the NTN cell described in S1102; random access configuration parameters, such as random access preamble configuration, random access time and frequency resource configuration, etc.; system parameters of the first NTN cell, such as system frame number, subcarrier spacing, downlink channel and/or uplink channel configuration, etc.

It is also understandable that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the execution order of the aforementioned S1103 and S1104. For example, S1103 can be executed before S1104 or after S1104.

The access method provided in the embodiment of the present application includes the local area information of the NTN cell to be accessed in SIB1 and indicates it to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can obtain all the parameters required for accessing the NTN cell in advance, without the need to obtain SIB19 based on the scheduling of SIB1, and reduce the delay of the terminal device to obtain the NTN cell access-related parameters, thereby reducing the access delay and improving the access success rate and user experience. Secondly, the method of putting the information related to NTN access into SIB1 only requires the enhancement of the RRC message encoding and decoding of SIB1 and SIB19 to achieve, the sending and receiving of system information still reuses the existing process, does not involve other changes, the implementation method is simple, and the impact on the terminal device and network equipment is small, which is conducive to implementation. In addition, after the local area information related to NTN access is moved out of SIB19, SIB19 will have a larger margin. For example, when the total size of the RRC message of SIB19 is limited, after a part of the information is moved out, SIB19 can put more neighboring area information, or put more other information, etc., which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

It is to be understood that, in the above embodiments, the terminal device and/or the network device may perform some or all of the steps in each embodiment. These steps or operations are merely examples, and the embodiments of the present application may also perform other operations or variations of various operations. In addition, each step may be performed in a different order as presented in each embodiment, and it is possible that all operations in the embodiments of the present application are not to be performed. Moreover, the size of the sequence number of each step does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Based on the same concept, referring to FIG. 13 , an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device 1300, which includes a processing module 1301 and a communication module 1302. The communication device 1300 may be a terminal device, or a communication device applied to a terminal device or used in combination with a terminal device, and capable of implementing a method executed on the terminal device side; or, the communication device 1300 may be a network device, or a communication device applied to a network device or used in combination with a network device, and capable of implementing a method executed on the network device side.

The communication module may also be referred to as a transceiver module, a transceiver, a transceiver, or a transceiver device, etc. The processing module may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing unit, or a processing device, etc. Optionally, the communication module is used to perform the sending operation and the receiving operation on the terminal device side or the network device side in the above method, and the device used to implement the receiving function in the communication module may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device used to implement the sending function in the communication module may be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the communication module includes a receiving unit and a sending unit.

When the communication device 1300 is applied to a terminal device, the processing module 1301 can be used to implement the processing function of the terminal device in the examples described in FIG. 7, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11, and the communication module 1302 can be used to implement the transceiver function of the terminal device in the examples described in FIG. 7, FIG. 10 or FIG. 11. Alternatively, the communication device can also be understood by referring to the description and possible designs in the sixth aspect, the seventh aspect, and the ninth aspect of the invention.

When the communication device 1300 is applied to a network device, the processing module 1301 can be used to implement the processing function of the network device in the examples described in Figure 7, Figure 10 or Figure 11, and the communication module 1302 can be used to implement the transceiver function of the network device in the examples described in Figure 7, Figure 10 or Figure 11. Alternatively, the communication device can also be understood by referring to the description and possible designs in the eighth and tenth aspects of the invention.

In addition, it should be noted that the aforementioned communication module and/or processing module can be implemented through a virtual module, for example, the processing module can be implemented through a software function unit or a virtual device, and the communication module can be implemented through a software function or a virtual device. Alternatively, the processing module or the communication module can also be implemented through a physical device, for example, if the device is implemented using a chip/chip circuit, the communication module can be an input-output circuit and/or a communication interface, performing input operations (corresponding to the aforementioned receiving operations) and output operations (corresponding to the aforementioned sending operations); the processing module is an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit.

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

Based on the same technical concept, the embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device 1400. For example, the communication device 1400 can be a chip or a chip system. Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices.

The communication device 1400 may be used to implement the functions of any network element in the communication system described in the above examples. The communication device 1400 may include at least one processor 1410. Optionally, the processor 1410 is coupled to a memory, which may be located within the device, or the memory may be integrated with the processor, or the memory may be located outside the device. For example, the communication device 1400 may also include at least one processor 1410. A memory 1420. The memory 1420 stores necessary computer programs, computer programs or instructions and/or data for implementing any of the above examples; the processor 1410 may execute the computer program stored in the memory 1420 to complete the method in any of the above examples.

The communication device 1400 may also include a communication interface 1430, and the communication device 1400 may exchange information with other devices through the communication interface 1430. Exemplarily, the communication interface 1430 may be a transceiver, a circuit, a bus, a module, a pin, or other types of communication interfaces. When the communication device 1400 is a chip-type device or circuit, the communication interface 1430 in the communication device 1400 may also be an input-output circuit, which may input information (or receive information) and output information (or send information), and the processor may be an integrated processor or a microprocessor or an integrated circuit or a logic circuit, and the processor may determine the output information based on the input information.

The coupling in the embodiment of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules. The processor 1410 may cooperate with the memory 1420 and the communication interface 1430. The specific connection medium between the above-mentioned processor 1410, the memory 1420 and the communication interface 1430 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, referring to FIG. 14 , the processor 1410, the memory 1420, and the communication interface 1430 are interconnected via a bus 1440. The bus 1440 may be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of representation, FIG. 14 is represented by only one thick line, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as being executed by a hardware processor, or may be executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

In the embodiments of the present application, the memory may be a non-volatile memory, such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), etc., or a volatile memory (volatile memory), such as a random-access memory (RAM). The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory in the embodiments of the present application may also be a circuit or any other device that can realize a storage function, for storing program instructions and/or data.

In a possible implementation, the communication device 1400 can be applied to a network device. Specifically, the communication device 1400 can be a network device, or a device that can support a network device and implement the functions of the network device in any of the above-mentioned examples. The memory 1420 stores a computer program (or instruction) and/or data that implements the functions of the network device in any of the above-mentioned examples. The processor 1410 can execute the computer program stored in the memory 1420 to complete the method executed by the network device in any of the above-mentioned examples. Applied to a network device, the communication interface in the communication device 1400 can be used to interact with a terminal device, send information to a terminal device, or receive information from a terminal device.

In another possible implementation, the communication device 1400 can be applied to a terminal device. Specifically, the communication device 1400 can be a terminal device, or a device that can support a terminal device and implement the functions of the terminal device in any of the above-mentioned examples. The memory 1420 stores a computer program (or instruction) and/or data that implements the functions of the terminal device in any of the above-mentioned examples. The processor 1410 can execute the computer program stored in the memory 1420 to complete the method executed by the terminal device in any of the above-mentioned examples. Applied to a terminal device, the communication interface in the communication device 1400 can be used to interact with a network device, send information to the network device, or receive information from the network device.

Since the communication device 1400 provided in this example can be applied to a network device to complete the method executed by the above network device, or applied to a terminal device to complete the method executed by the terminal device, the technical effects that can be obtained can refer to the above method examples and will not be repeated here.

Based on the above examples, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including a network device and a terminal device, wherein the network device and the terminal device can implement the method provided in the examples shown in Figure 7, Figure 10 or Figure 11.

The technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function according to the embodiments of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a terminal device or other programmable device. Computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, computer instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server or data center to another website, computer, server or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated. The available medium can be It is a magnetic medium (for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (for example, a digital video disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium.

In the embodiments of the present application, under the premise of no logical contradiction, the examples may reference each other, for example, the methods and/or terms between method embodiments may reference each other, for example, the functions and/or terms between device embodiments may reference each other, for example, the functions and/or terms between device examples and method examples may reference each other.

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present application without departing from the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the embodiments of the present application and their equivalents, the embodiments of the present application are also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (27)

A measurement method, characterized by comprising: Determine, according to the first beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring cell, a first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell, where the total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring cell; Measuring at least one beam in the first candidate beam set. The method as claimed in claim 1 is characterized in that the beam information includes one or more of the following: beam identification offset information, indication information of the number of beams in the first candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the beam information of the first neighboring area includes I groups of beam information, the first candidate beam set is the union of I sub-candidate beam sets, and I is a positive integer; The determining, according to the first beam of the serving cell and the beam information of the first neighboring cell, a first candidate beam set corresponding to the first neighboring cell includes: According to the first beam of the serving cell and the i-th group of beam information in the I groups of beam information, the i-th sub-candidate beam set in the I sub-candidate beam sets is determined; wherein i is a positive integer, 1≤i≤I. The method as claimed in claim 3 is characterized in that the i-th group of beam information includes one or more of the following: a beam identification offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-selected beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the identifier of the starting beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i ; Among them, BI is the identifier of the first beam, _Mi is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, _Ki is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, _Ni is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; _Mi , _Ki , _Ni are integers; mod is the modulo operator. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that the identifier of the starting beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the last beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i ; Among them, BI is the identifier of the first beam, _Mi is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, _Ki is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, _Ni is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; _Mi , _Ki , _Ni are integers; mod is the modulo operator. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i ; Among them, BI is the identifier of the first beam, _Mi is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, _Ki is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, _Ni is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; _Mi , _Ki , _Ni are integers; mod is the modulo operator. The method as described in any one of claims 1-7 is characterized in that the first beam is a service beam of the terminal device in the service cell, or the signal quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a first signal quality threshold. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising: A target beam is determined in the first candidate beam set, where the target beam is the serving beam of the terminal device after the terminal device is switched to the first neighboring cell, or a signal quality of the target beam is greater than or equal to a second signal quality threshold. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising: Receive first indication information from the serving cell, where the first indication information indicates at least one set of beam information among I sets of beam information of the first neighboring cell, where I is a positive integer. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, further comprising: At least one group of beam information among I groups of beam information of the first neighboring area is determined according to the coverage information of at least one beam in the first neighboring area, where I is a positive integer. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the measuring of the first candidate beam set terminal beam comprises: Within a measurement time window associated with a beam in the first candidate beam set, measuring the beam; wherein the measurement time windows associated with different beams in the beam set are the same or different. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that the serving cell is a cell in a non-terrestrial network NTN, further comprising: Receive the system information block SIB1 of the service cell, where the SIB1 includes access configuration information for a terminal device to access the service cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the service cell, effective duration information of uplink synchronization assistance information of the service cell, cell scheduling information of the service cell, timing advance information of the service cell, satellite polarization information of the service cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the service cell. A measurement method, characterized by comprising: Send beam information of a first neighboring cell, where the beam information of the first neighboring cell is used to determine a first candidate beam set to be measured corresponding to the first neighboring cell, and the total number of beams included in the first candidate beam set is less than the total number of beams included in the first neighboring cell. The method as claimed in claim 14 is characterized in that the beam information includes one or more of the following: beam identification offset information, indication information of the number of beams in the first candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. The method as claimed in claim 14 or 15 is characterized in that the beam information of the first neighboring area includes I groups of beam information, and the first candidate beam set is the union of I sub-candidate beam sets; wherein the i-th group of beam information in the I groups of beam information is used to determine the i-th sub-candidate beam set in the I sub-candidate beam sets; I is a positive integer, i is a positive integer, 1≤i≤I. The method as claimed in claim 16 is characterized in that the i-th group of beam information includes one or more of the following: a beam identification offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, and the number of beams in the first neighboring area. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that the identifier of the starting beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i ; Among them, BI is the identifier of the first beam, _Mi is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, _Ki is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, _Ni is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; _Mi , _Ki , _Ni are integers; mod is the modulo operator. The method of claim 17, wherein the identifier of the starting beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the last beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is (BI+M _i )mod N _i ; Among them, BI is the identifier of the first beam, _Mi is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, _Ki is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, _Ni is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; _Mi , _Ki , _Ni are integers; mod is the modulo operator. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that The identifier of the starting beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i -K _i ]mod N _i , and the identifier of the ending beam of the i-th candidate sub-beam set is [(BI+M _i )mod N _i +K _i ]mod N _i ; Among them, BI is the identifier of the first beam, _Mi is the beam identifier offset of the i-th sub-candidate beam set relative to the first beam, _Ki is the indication information of the number of beams in the i-th sub-candidate beam set, _Ni is the total number of beams in the first neighboring area; _Mi , _Ki , _Ni are integers; mod is the modulo operator. The method as described in any one of claims 14-20 is characterized in that the first beam is a service beam of the terminal device in a service cell, or the signal quality of the first beam is greater than or equal to a first signal quality threshold. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 21, further comprising: Receiving a beam measurement result from at least one terminal device, where the beam measurement result of one terminal device among the at least one terminal device indicates a measurement result of the beam in at least one neighboring area measured by the one terminal device; Determine the beam information of the first neighboring area based on the beam measurement result of the at least one terminal device. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 22, further comprising: A system information block SIB1 of a serving cell is sent, wherein the SIB1 includes access configuration information for a terminal device to access the serving cell, and the access configuration information includes one or more of the following: epoch time information of the serving cell, effective duration information of uplink synchronization assistance information of the serving cell, cell scheduling information of the serving cell, timing advance information of the serving cell, satellite polarization information of the serving cell, and satellite ephemeris information of the serving cell. A communication device, characterized in that it is used to implement the method described in any one of claims 1 to 13, or used to implement the method described in any one of claims 14 to 23. A communication device, comprising: A processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, and the processor is used to call computer program instructions stored in the memory to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or to execute the method according to any one of claims 14 to 23. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that instructions are stored on the computer-readable storage medium, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or executes the method according to any one of claims 14 to 23. A computer program product, characterized in that it comprises instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enable the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or execute the method according to any one of claims 14 to 23.