WO2025087325A1 - Communication method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus, which can be applied to an NTN communication scenario and ensure the decoding performance of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The method comprises: a first network device sends first information to a terminal device, the first information indicating the quantity of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources respectively corresponding to at least one parameter. The first network device and the terminal device acquire a first parameter value, and determine the quantity of first frequency domain resources and/or the quantity of first time domain resources on the basis of the first parameter value. Then, the first network device sends a PDCCH on the basis of the quantity of the first frequency domain resources and/or the quantity of the first time domain resources, and the terminal device receives the PDCCH on the basis of the quantity of the first frequency domain resources and/or the quantity of the first time domain resources. When the at least one parameter is a numerical value, the at least one parameter comprises the first parameter value, or when the at least one parameter is a numerical range, the first parameter value is one parameter among the at least one parameter.

Description

Communication method and device

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on October 27, 2023, with application number 202311421445.2 and application name “Communication Method and Device”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application.

Technical Field

The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communications, and in particular, to communication methods and devices.

Background Art

At present, the original intention of the fifth generation (5G) new radio (NR) technology is to design wireless communication technology for ground cellular network scenarios, which can provide users with ultra-low latency, ultra-reliability, ultra-high speed, and excessive connections. However, cellular networks cannot achieve seamless global coverage. For example, ground base stations may not be deployed on the sea surface, polar regions, rainforests, etc., making it impossible to provide voice and data services in these areas.

Compared with terrestrial communications, non-terrestrial networks (NTN) communications have the characteristics of large coverage area and flexible networking, and can achieve seamless global network coverage. NTN can be used as a supplement to the current terrestrial network, or as an independent communication system that provides users with global high-speed network access.

The significant difference between NTN and terrestrial communications is that the distance between the base station and the terminal device is far, the signal transmission loss is greater, and the received signal-to-noise ratio is reduced. However, in the future, small-caliber and low-power antennas in NTN communications are an inevitable development trend, which will lead to a decrease in antenna gain, which will further reduce the received signal-to-noise ratio of the terminal device and affect the decoding performance.

Summary of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and device, which can ensure the decoding performance of PDCCH.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by a component of the terminal device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the terminal device, or by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the terminal device. The method includes: receiving first information from a first network device, the first information indicating the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one parameter, respectively, the frequency domain resources and time domain resources are the frequency domain resources and time domain resources occupied by the physical downlink control channel PDCCH, respectively. Obtain a first parameter value, when at least one parameter is a numerical value, the at least one parameter includes the first parameter value, or when at least one parameter is a numerical range, the first parameter value belongs to one of the at least one parameter. Determine the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. Receive PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity.

Based on this solution, the network device can configure the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to multiple parameters for the terminal device, so that the subsequent network device and the terminal device can determine the first parameter value based on the actual situation, and send or receive the PDCCH according to the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to the first parameter value. That is, the network device and the terminal device can flexibly and adaptively adjust the number of frequency domain and/or time domain resources occupied by the PDCCH according to the actual situation, thereby ensuring the decoding performance of the PDCCH. In addition, compared to always using a fixed and large number of time-frequency resources, such as occupying more than 3 OFDM symbols and more than 16 CCEs, resource waste can be avoided. Moreover, since the terminal device can know the number of frequency domain resources occupied by the PDCCH, the terminal device does not need to traverse multiple aggregation levels to determine the PDCCH resource set to be detected, thereby reducing the complexity of blind detection.

In one possible design, the amount of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources is related to a link budget between the terminal device and the first network device.

Based on this possible design, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources is related to the link budget, so that the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to the parameters can meet the link budget, thereby ensuring decoding performance.

In one possible design, the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device is related to at least one of the following: a projection area of a beam of the first network device, a coverage area of the first network device, a channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, a correspondence between parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or a channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device. The second network device is a network device that serves the terminal device before the first network device.

Based on this possible design, when the correspondence between the link budget and the configuration of the second network device and the channel state between the second network device and the terminal device are related, this information can be used as a priori information, so that the first network device can reasonably configure the PDCCH resources based on the a priori information, thereby improving the effectiveness of the PDCCH resource configuration.

In one possible design, the above parameters include at least one of the following: angle, angle range, time, time range, or quantity index.

Based on this possible design, the first network device and the terminal device can flexibly and adaptively adjust the number of frequency domain and/or time domain resources occupied by the PDCCH based on angle, time, etc., so as to ensure the decoding performance of the PDCCH. In addition, when the parameter includes time or time range, the terminal device and the first network device can obtain the time without performing additional calculations, which can reduce the implementation complexity of the terminal device and the first network device.

Furthermore, when the parameter includes a quantity index, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponds to the index, so that the network device can flexibly select the frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources to be used according to the actual situation, and indicate the corresponding index to the terminal device. Since the index does not need to be bound to the angle range or time range, the frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources used in different scenarios or situations may be different for the same angle range or time range, which improves the flexibility of PDCCH configuration.

In one possible design, the angle includes at least one of the following: an elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device, an elevation angle between the reference position and the first network device, or an angle between a position line and a reference line in a track plane of the first network device, where the position line is a line between the first network device and a center point of the track plane, and the reference line is a line between an angle reference point and a center point of the track plane.

In a possible design, the angle reference point is the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the orbital plane, or the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the ecliptic plane.

In one possible design, the above time is the service time of the first network device; the time includes absolute time or a time offset relative to a reference time, and the representation of the absolute time or the time offset includes at least one of the following: international coordinated time, frame number, subframe number, time slot number, or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM symbol number.

In one possible design, obtaining a first parameter value includes: receiving second information from a first network device, where the second information indicates the first parameter value.

In one possible design, the parameter is an angle or a range of angles; obtaining the first parameter value includes: determining the first parameter value based on the ephemeris information of the first network device.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a network device, or by a component of the network device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the network device, or by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the network device function. The method includes: sending a first message to a terminal device, the first message indicating the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one parameter, respectively, the frequency domain resources and time domain resources are the frequency domain resources and time domain resources occupied by the physical downlink control channel PDCCH, respectively. Obtain a first parameter value, when the at least one parameter is a numerical value, the at least one parameter includes the first parameter value, or when the at least one parameter is a numerical range, the first parameter value belongs to one of the at least one parameter. Determine the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. Send PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Among them, the technical effect brought about by the second aspect can refer to the technical effect brought about by the first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

In one possible design, the amount of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources is related to a link budget between the terminal device and the first network device.

In one possible design, the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device is related to at least one of the following: the projection area of the beam of the first network device, the coverage area of the first network device, the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, the correspondence between the parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device. The second network device is a network device that serves the terminal device before the first network device.

In one possible design, the method also includes: receiving third information from the second network device, the third information indicating at least one of the following: a correspondence between parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or a channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device.

In one possible design, the above parameters include at least one of the following: angle, angle range, time, time range, or quantity index.

In one possible design, the angle includes at least one of the following: an elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device, an elevation angle between the reference position and the first network device, or an angle between a position line and a reference line in a track plane of the first network device, where the position line is a line between the first network device and a center point of the track plane, and the reference line is a line between an angle reference point and a center point of the track plane.

In a possible design, the angle reference point is the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the orbital plane, or the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the ecliptic plane.

In one possible design, the above time is the service time of the first network device; the time includes absolute time or a time offset relative to a reference time, and the representation of the absolute time or the time offset includes at least one of the following: international coordinated time, frame number, subframe number, time slot number, or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM symbol number.

In one possible design, the parameter is an angle or a range of angles; obtaining the first parameter value includes: determining the first parameter value based on the ephemeris information of the first network device.

In one possible design, the method also includes: sending second information to the terminal device, where the second information indicates the first parameter value.

In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible design, the frequency domain resources are control channel elements CCE or resource blocks RB; and/or, the time domain resources are OFDM symbols.

Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design of the second aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding design in the above-mentioned first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

In a third aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing various methods. The communication device may be the terminal device in the first aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or a chip system; or, the communication device may be the network device in the second aspect, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or a chip system. The communication device includes a module, unit, or means corresponding to the implementation method, and the module, unit, or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or by executing the corresponding software implementation by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions.

In some possible designs, the communication device may include a processing module and a transceiver module. The processing module may be used to implement the processing function in any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof. The transceiver module may include a receiving module and a sending module, respectively used to implement the receiving function and the sending function in any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof.

In some possible designs, the transceiver module may be composed of a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver or a communication interface.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a processor and a memory; the memory is used to store computer instructions, and when the processor executes the instructions, the communication device executes the method described in any aspect. The communication device can be the terminal device in the first aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or a chip system; or the communication device can be the network device in the second aspect, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or a chip system.

In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a processor and a communication interface; the communication interface is used to communicate with a module outside the communication device; the processor is used to execute a computer program or instruction so that the communication device executes the method described in any aspect. The communication device can be the terminal device in the first aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or a chip system; or the communication device can be the network device in the second aspect, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or a chip system.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: at least one processor; the processor is used to execute a computer program or instruction stored in a memory so that the communication device performs the method described in any aspect. The memory may be coupled to the processor, or may be independent of the processor. The communication device may be the terminal device in the first aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or a chip system; or the communication device may be the network device in the second aspect, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or a chip system.

In the seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a terminal device, or a module or unit (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) in the terminal device that corresponds one-to-one to the method/operation/step/action described in the first aspect, or a module or unit that can be used in combination with the terminal device; or, the communication device may be a network device, or a module or unit (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) in the network device that corresponds one-to-one to the method/operation/step/action described in the second aspect, or a module or unit that can be used in combination with the network device.

In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a communication device, the communication device can execute the method described in any one of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided, which, when executed on a communication device, enables the communication device to execute the method described in any one of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a tenth aspect, a communication device (for example, the communication device may be a chip or a chip system) is provided, wherein the communication device includes a processor for implementing the functions involved in any one of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In some possible designs, the communication device includes a memory for storing necessary program instructions and data.

In some possible designs, when the device is a chip system, it can be composed of a chip or include a chip and other discrete devices.

In an eleventh aspect, a communication system is provided, the communication system comprising a terminal device and a network device. The terminal device is used to execute the method described in the first aspect and any possible design thereof, and the network device is used to execute the method described in the second aspect and any possible design thereof.

It can be understood that when the communication device provided in any one of the third aspect to the tenth aspect is a chip, the sending action/function of the communication device can be understood as output information, and the receiving action/function of the communication device can be understood as input information.

Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design method in the third aspect to the tenth aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by different design methods in the first aspect or the second aspect, and will not be repeated here.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG1 is a schematic diagram of determining a candidate PDCCH set according to a control resource set and a search space provided by the present application;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a PDCCH search space blind detection set provided by the present application;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the relationship between block error rate and SNR provided by the present application;

Figures 4 to 9 are schematic diagrams of the structure of the communication system provided by the present application;

FIG10 is a flow chart of a communication method provided by the present application;

FIG11 is a schematic diagram of coverage areas of a first network device and a second network device provided by the present application;

FIG12 is a schematic diagram of an angle provided by the present application;

13-16 are schematic flow charts of the communication method provided by the present application;

FIG17 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided by the present application;

FIG18 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided by the present application;

FIG19 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "/" indicates that the objects associated with each other are in an "or" relationship, for example, A/B can represent A or B; "and/or" in this application is merely a description of the association relationship between 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, where A and B can be singular or plural.

In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "plurality" means two or more than two. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

In addition, in order to clearly describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish the same items or similar items with substantially the same functions and effects. Those skilled in the art can understand that words such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and execution order, and words such as "first" and "second" do not necessarily limit the difference.

In the embodiments of the present application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations or descriptions. Any embodiment 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 embodiments or designs. Specifically, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete way for easy understanding.

It is understood that the "embodiment" mentioned throughout the specification means that the specific features, structures or characteristics related to the embodiment are included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, the various embodiments in the entire specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, these specific features, structures or characteristics can be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner. It is understood that in various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence number of each process does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiment of the present application.

It can be understood that in the present application, "when" and "if" both mean that corresponding processing will be carried out under certain objective circumstances, and do not limit the time, nor do they require any judgment action when implementing, nor do they mean the existence of other limitations.

It can be understood that some optional features in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented independently in certain scenarios without relying on other features, such as the solution on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding effects, or may be combined with other features according to needs in certain scenarios. Accordingly, the devices provided in the embodiments of the present application may also realize these features or functions accordingly, which will not be elaborated here.

In this application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can refer to each other. In the various embodiments of this application, if there is no special description and logical conflict, the terms and/or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other, and the technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments or implementations according to their inherent logical relationships. The implementation methods of this application described below do not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of this application.

In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, a brief introduction to the related technologies of the present application is first given as follows.

1. Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) detection:

As shown in Figure 1, in the new radio (NR) system, the base station can configure the control resource set (CORESET) and search space (SS) corresponding to the bandwidth part (BWP) through radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

Usually, each BWP can be configured with up to 3 CORESETs (if CORESET0 exists, CORESET0 is also counted), and up to 10 search spaces (if SearchSpace0 exists, SearchSpace0 is also counted). Since each terminal device in each cell can be configured with up to 4 BWPs, each terminal device in each cell can be configured with up to 12 CORESETs (in CORESET ID, with a value of 0 to 11) and 40 search spaces (identified by SearchSpace ID, with a value of 0 to 39).

Among them, CORESET is used to encapsulate the frequency band occupied by PDCCH in the frequency domain and the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols occupied in the time domain. The search space is used to encapsulate the starting OFDM symbol of PDCCH and the PDCCH monitoring period and other information.

The frequency band occupied by PDCCH in the frequency domain and the number of OFDM symbols occupied in the time domain can also be understood as the frequency band and the number of OFDM symbols occupied by CORESET; the starting OFDM symbol of PDCCH can also be understood as the starting OFDM symbol of CORESET, and the monitoring period of PDCCH can be understood as the period of CORESET.

CORESET occupies the frequency domain Physical resource blocks (PRBs), the specific occupied PRBs can be configured by the high-level parameter frequencyDomainResources. It consists of 45 bits, each bit corresponds to 6 consecutive resource blocks (RBs) (or a PRB group), and the highest bit corresponds to the lowest frequency PRB group in the BWP. If a bit is set to 1, it means that the PRB group corresponding to the bit is in the CORESET, and if the bit is set to 0, it means that the PRB group corresponding to the bit is not in the CORESET.

CORESET occupies time domain consecutive OFDM symbols, The value of can be 1, 2 or 3. The starting OFDM symbol of CORESET in the time slot can be determined by the search space.

PDCCH is composed of one or more control channel elements (CCE), and the number of CCEs (i.e., the aggregation level of PDCCH) can be one of {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}. One CCE is composed of 6 resource element groups (REGs), and one REG occupies one RB in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain.

When detecting PDCCH, the terminal device does not know the aggregation level value used by the base station, so it may need to perform blind detection on the candidate PDCCH sets at each possible aggregation level. After the terminal device obtains CORESET and search space, it can determine the candidate PDCCH sets to be detected corresponding to each aggregation level according to CORESET and search space.

Exemplarily, as shown in FIG2, taking aggregation levels 4, 8 and 16 as examples, the terminal device determines the candidate PDCCH sets corresponding to different set levels according to the configuration information of CORESET and search space, and these candidate PDCCH sets constitute the PDCCH search space blind detection set. In addition, in the example shown in FIG2, the PDCCH monitoring period is 2 time slots, the period offset is 1 time slot, there are three PDCCH positions in each time slot, each PDCCH occupies 2 OFDM symbols, and the index of the starting OFDM symbol of the PDCCH is {0,4,8}.

2. Non-terrestrial networks (NTN):

At present, the fifth generation (5G) NR technology has entered the commercial deployment stage from the standardization stage. The original intention of the NR standard protocol research is to design wireless communication technology for ground cellular network scenarios, which can provide users with ultra-low latency, ultra-reliability, ultra-high speed, and ultra-connected wireless communication services. However, cellular networks cannot achieve seamless global coverage. For example, in areas without ground base stations such as sea areas, polar regions, and rainforests, voice and data services cannot be provided to these areas without cellular network coverage.

Compared with terrestrial communications, NTN communications have the characteristics of large coverage area and flexible networking, and can achieve seamless global network coverage. At present, research institutes, communication organizations, and communication companies around the world are participating in the research of NTN communication technology and standard formulation, striving to build a unified communication network for space, air, and ground communications.

In NTN communication, flying platforms (such as drones, high-altitude platforms, satellites, etc.) are used to form a network to provide data transmission, voice communication and other services for terminals. According to the height of the flying platform from the ground, NTN can include low altitude platform (LAP) subnetwork, high altitude platform (HAP) subnetwork, and satellite communication subnetwork (SATCOM subnetwork) (also known as satellite communication system).

For example, in the LAP subnetwork, base stations or base station functions are deployed on low-altitude flying platforms (such as drones) 0.1 kilometers (km) to 1 km above the ground to provide coverage for terminals; in the HAP subnetwork, base stations or base station functions are deployed on high-altitude flying platforms (such as airplanes) 8km to 50km above the ground to provide coverage for terminals; in the SATCOM subnetwork, base stations or base station functions are deployed on satellites more than 50km above the ground to provide coverage for terminals. Among them, satellite communications have significant advantages such as global coverage, long-distance transmission, flexible networking, convenient deployment, and no geographical restrictions. They have been widely used in many fields such as maritime communications, positioning and navigation, disaster relief, scientific experiments, video broadcasting, and earth observation.

Furthermore, according to the orbital altitude of the satellite, the satellite communication system can be divided into geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite communication system, medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite communication system and low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication system.

The GEO satellite communication system is also known as the synchronous orbit satellite system. The orbital altitude of the GEO satellite is 35786km, and its movement speed is the same as the rotation speed of the earth, that is, the GEO satellite can remain stationary relative to the ground. The GEO satellite communication system can provide large cell coverage, and the diameter of the cell is generally 500km. However, GEO satellite communication also has obvious disadvantages: 1) The GEO satellite orbit is far away from the earth, and the free space propagation loss is large, resulting in a tight communication link budget. In order to increase the transmit/receive gain, the satellite needs to be equipped with a larger diameter antenna; 2) The communication transmission delay is large, for example, there is a round-trip delay of about 500 milliseconds, which cannot meet the needs of real-time business; 3) GEO orbital resources are relatively tight, the launch cost is high, and it cannot provide coverage for the earth's polar regions.

The orbital altitude of MEO satellites is between 2000 and 35786 km, and global coverage can be achieved with a relatively small number of satellites. However, the orbital altitude of MEO satellites is higher than that of LEO satellites, and the transmission delay is still larger than that of LEO satellite communications. Therefore, considering the advantages and disadvantages of MEO satellite communications, MEO satellites are mainly used for positioning and navigation.

The orbital altitude of LEO satellites is between 300 and 2000 km, which is lower than that of MEO satellites. It has the advantages of small transmission delay, small transmission loss, and relatively low launch cost. Therefore, LEO satellite communications have received more and more attention in recent years.

The significant difference between NTN and terrestrial communications is that the distance between the base station and the terminal device is longer, the signal transmission loss is greater, and the received signal-to-noise ratio is reduced. However, in the future, small-caliber and low-power antennas in NTN communications are an inevitable development trend, which will lead to a decrease in antenna gain, thus further reducing the received signal-to-noise ratio of the terminal device.

For example, the decoding performance of PDCCH when the bandwidth is 50M is shown in Figure 3. As shown in Figure 3, when the block error rate (BLER) is equal to 0.01 (10 ^-2 ), the decoding threshold is -1dB, that is, the signal interference noise ratio (SINR) or signal to noise ratio (SNR) needs to be greater than -1dB for correct decoding.

Taking the terminal device using a 4096-element phased array antenna as an example, in a LEO satellite communication system with an orbital altitude of 495km, when the communication elevation angle is small (such as 30°), the link budget SINR of the terminal device as a receiver is 0.1dB, which is greater than the decoding threshold of -1dB when the BLER is 0.01, meeting the low elevation communication link SINR requirement. However, when the terminal device uses a miniaturized antenna, such as a 1024-element phased array antenna, in a LEO satellite communication system with an orbital altitude of 495km, when the communication elevation angle is 30°, the link budget SINR of the terminal device as a receiver is -5.68dB, which is less than the decoding threshold of -1dB when the BLER is 0.01, so the PDCCH decoding performance cannot be met.

In addition, based on the current CORESET and search space configuration, PDCCH occupies a maximum of 3 OFDM symbols in the time domain and a maximum of 16 CCEs in the frequency domain. Under this configuration, the PDCCH decoding performance may not meet the decoding requirements of small-aperture antennas.

That is to say, as small-aperture, low-power antennas become an inevitable development trend, the receiving signal-to-noise ratio of terminal equipment will be further reduced, and the PDCCH decoding performance may not be guaranteed.

Based on this, the present application provides a communication method, in which the terminal device and the network device can adaptively adjust the number of time-frequency resources occupied by the PDCCH based on parameters such as angle or time during communication, thereby ensuring the decoding performance of the control channel. In addition, compared with using a fixed and large number of time-frequency resources throughout the communication process, it can avoid resource waste and reduce the complexity of blind detection.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application can be used in various communication systems, and the communication system can be a third generation partnership project (3GPP) communication system, for example, a long term evolution (LTE) system, a 5G system such as a NR system, a vehicle to everything (V2X) system, or a system of LTE and 5G hybrid networking, or a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a machine-to-machine (M2M) communication system, an Internet of Things (IoT), NTN, and other next generation communication systems. The communication system can also be a non-3GPP communication system without limitation.

Among them, the above-mentioned communication system applicable to the present application is only an example, and the communication system and communication scenario applicable to the present application are not limited to this. The communication system and communication scenario provided by the present application do not impose any limitation on the scheme of the present application. They are uniformly explained here and will not be repeated below.

In a possible implementation, a communication system applicable to the solution of the present application may include at least one terminal device and at least one network device. Terminal devices may communicate with each other, terminal devices may communicate with network devices, and network devices may communicate with each other in a wired or wireless manner.

Optionally, the terminal device may be a user-side device with wireless transceiver functions, or may be a chip or chip system provided in the device. The terminal device may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), terminal, access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station (MS), remote station, remote terminal, mobile terminal (MT), user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device, etc. The terminal device may be, for example, a terminal device in IoT, V2X, D2D, M2M, 5G network, or a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN). The terminal device may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it may also be deployed on the water (such as ships, etc.); it may also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons and satellites, etc.).

Exemplarily, the terminal device may be a drone, an IoT device (e.g., a sensor, an electric meter, a water meter, etc.), a V2X device, a station (ST) in a wireless local area network (WLAN), a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device with a wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device (also referred to as a wearable smart device), a tablet computer or a computer with a wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a wireless terminal in a smart home, or a wireless terminal in an industrial control system. Wireless terminals, vehicle-mounted terminals, vehicles with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capabilities, intelligent connected vehicles, drones with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV to UAV, U2U) communication capabilities, etc. The terminal device can be mobile or fixed, and this application does not make specific restrictions on this.

Optionally, the network device may be a network-side device with wireless transceiver functions, or may be a chip or chip system or module provided in the device. The network device is located in the radio access network (RAN) of the mobile communication system and is used to provide access services for terminal devices.

As a possible implementation, the network device may be a wireless relay node or a wireless backhaul node. For example, the network device may be a layer 1 relay device for regenerating physical layer signals (i.e., processing of wireless frequency filtering, frequency conversion, and amplification) without other higher protocol layers.

As another possible implementation, the network device can implement part or all of the functions of a base station. For example, the network device can be an evolutionary Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE or an evolved LTE system (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A), such as a traditional macro base station eNB and a micro base station eNB in a heterogeneous network scenario; or it can be a next generation node B (gNodeB or gNB) in a 5G system; or it can be a transmission reception point (TRP); or it can be a base station in a future evolved PLMN; or it can be a device that implements base station functions in IoT, V2X, D2D, or M2M.

Alternatively, the network device may be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU and a DU, a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and the DU may be separately configured or may be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH).

In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, the network device may be a network device or a module of a network device in an open radio access network (open RAN, ORAN) system. In the ORAN system, CU may also be referred to as open (open, O)-CU, DU may also be referred to as O-DU, CU-CP may also be referred to as O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be referred to as O-CU-UP, and RU may also be referred to as O-RU. Any of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

Exemplarily, the base stations in the embodiments of the present application may include various forms of base stations, such as: macro base stations, micro base stations (also called small stations), relay stations, access points, etc., and the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

In a possible implementation, the network device in the embodiment of the present application can be deployed on a non-ground platform, for example, on a low-altitude platform (such as a drone), a high-altitude platform (such as an airplane), or a satellite. Therefore, the network device in the embodiment of the present application can also be referred to as a non-ground network device.

For example, taking the case where the network device is deployed on a satellite, or the network device is a satellite, the communication system may further include an NTN gateway (or a gateway station or a signal gateway station). Usually, the NTN gateway is deployed on the ground. The NTN gateway can communicate with the satellite, and the link between the satellite and the NTN gateway may be called a feeder link.

As shown in Figure 4 or Figure 5, when the satellite is used as a wireless relay node, or the satellite has a relay forwarding function, the NTN gateway has the function of a base station or part of the base station function, and the NTN gateway can be used as a base station. Alternatively, the NTN gateway can be deployed separately from the base station, that is, in addition to the NTN gateway, the communication system also includes a base station (or a ground base station, such as a gNB). In this case, the delay of the feeder link includes two parts: the delay from the satellite to the NTN gateway and the delay from the NTN gateway to the base station. Figures 4 and 5 are taken as an example of the separate deployment of the NTN gateway and the base station.

As shown in Figure 6, when the satellite can realize part or all of the functions of the base station, the satellite has data processing capabilities and can be used as a base station. At this time, the NTN gateway and the satellite can transmit the user plane data of the terminal device through the satellite radio interface (SRI).

In addition, in the case where the satellite can realize part or all of the functions of the base station, as shown in Figure 7, there is an inter-satellite link (ISL) between different satellites, and the satellites can communicate through the ISL. Alternatively, as shown in Figure 8, the satellite can have the DU processing function of the base station, or the satellite can act as a DU. In this scenario, the CU processing function of the base station can be deployed on the ground, and the CU and DU communicate using the F1 interface through the NTN gateway.

In the architectures shown in FIGS. 5 to 8 , NG refers to the interface between the base station and the core network. Uu refers to the interface between the base station and the terminal device. Xn refers to the interface between base stations. It is understandable that, with the evolution of the communication system, the interface name between the base station and the core network, the interface name between the base station and the terminal device, and the interface name between the base stations may also change, and this application does not specifically limit this.

Optionally, when the satellite acts as a wireless relay node and has a relay forwarding function, the satellite can be considered to work in transparent mode. When the satellite has data processing capability and can realize some or all functions of the base station, it can be considered that the satellite is working in regenerative mode. For a certain satellite, it can support only transparent mode or only regenerative mode, or it can support transparent mode and regenerative mode, and can switch between transparent mode and regenerative mode.

It can be understood that the satellites in the architectures described in Figures 4 to 8 above can be replaced by non-ground payloads on other flying platforms such as drones and airplanes.

In another possible implementation, as shown in FIG9 , the network device in the embodiment of the present application can be deployed on the ground and have all or part of the base station functions. The terminal device can be a user-side device that moves in the air, such as a high-altitude aircraft, an on-board handheld terminal, etc. That is, the embodiment of the present application can also be applicable to air-to-ground (ATG) communication scenarios.

It should be noted that the communication system described in the embodiment of the present application is for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application. A person of ordinary skill in the art can know that with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

The following describes the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application by taking the interaction between a terminal device and a network device as an example in combination with the communication system shown in Figures 4 to 8.

It should be noted that in the following embodiments of the present application, the message names between the devices, the names of the parameters, or the names of the information are only examples. In other embodiments, they may also be other names, and the method provided in the present application does not make any specific limitations on this.

It is understandable that in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device or the network device can perform some or all of the steps in the embodiment of the present application, and these steps or operations are only examples. The embodiment of the present application can also perform other operations or variations of various operations. In addition, each step can be performed in a different order presented in the embodiment of the present application, and it is possible not to perform all the operations in the embodiment of the present application.

As an example, the following embodiments are described by taking the above-mentioned flying platform as a satellite, that is, taking satellite communication in NTN as an example. Of course, the method can also be applied to other scenarios in NTN, such as LAP subnetwork or HAP subnetwork, without specific limitation.

In addition, the present application can also be applied to other possible communication scenarios or communication systems, such as long-distance communication scenarios involving a long distance between a terminal device and a network device, or a relatively high moving speed, and PDCCH reception can be performed using the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application.

The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is introduced below. Referring to FIG. 10, it is a flow chart of a communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application, which can be applied to the interaction between the terminal device and the network device in the communication system shown in FIG. 4 to FIG. 8. As shown in FIG. 10, the communication method may include the following steps:

S1001: A first network device sends first information to a terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information from the first network device.

The first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one parameter. The frequency domain resources are the frequency domain resources occupied by the PDCCH, and the time domain resources are the time domain resources occupied by the PDCCH. Exemplarily, the frequency domain resources may be CCE or RB. The time domain resources may be OFDM symbols.

In a possible implementation, the above parameters include at least one of an angle, an angle range, a time, a time range, or a quantity index, which will be described in detail in subsequent embodiments and will not be repeated here. Exemplarily, taking the parameter as an angle range, a time range, or a quantity index as an example, the first information may indicate the corresponding relationship shown in Tables 1 to 3 below.

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Optionally, the first information may indicate the above-mentioned corresponding relationship in a variety of ways. For example, the first information indicates the corresponding relationship in the form of a key-value pair, such as the first information includes {parameter: number of frequency domain resources, number of time domain resources}; or, the first information may include a parameter set, a number set of frequency domain resources, and a number set of time domain resources, wherein the i-th parameter in the parameter set corresponds to the i-th number of frequency domain resources in the number set of frequency domain resources and the i-th number of time domain resources in the number set of time domain resources.

In a possible implementation, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources is related to a link budget between the terminal device and the first network device. Exemplarily, the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device may be an SNR or a SINR.

Exemplarily, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources is related to the link budget, which may include: the number of frequency domain resources is positively correlated or negatively correlated with the link budget, and/or the number of time domain resources is positively correlated or negatively correlated with the link budget. For example, the number of frequency domain resources is positively correlated with the link budget, such as when the link budget is small, the corresponding number of frequency domain resources is also small; the number of time domain resources is negatively correlated with the link budget, such as when the link budget is small, the corresponding number of time domain resources is large.

Exemplarily, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to a certain parameter is related to the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device when the parameter is used (or effective). For example, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to the angle range [angle 1, angle 2) can be understood as: the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources when the angle is in the angle range [angle 1, angle 2).

In one possible implementation, the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device is related to at least one of the following: the projection area of the beam of the first network device, the coverage area of the first network device, the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, the correspondence between the above parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device.

Exemplarily, as shown in FIG11, the coverage area of the first network device includes the projection area of multiple beams of the first network device. The channel state between the terminal device and the first network device can be determined by the first network device according to the channel state information (CSI) reported by the terminal device. The second network device is a network device that serves the terminal device before the first network device, or the second network device can be considered as the source network device of the terminal device, and the first network device is the target network device of the terminal device. Due to the movement of the first network device and the second network device, the terminal device can switch from the second network device to the first network device. The second network device can cover the above coverage area before the first network device, that is, as shown in FIG11, the second network device and the first network device can successively serve/cover the same area. Exemplarily, the second network device can be an adjacent network device of the first network device, for example, the second network device and the first network device are co-orbit satellites, or the orbits of the second network device and the first network device are the same or similar.

Exemplarily, the correspondence between the parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, and the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device, can be indicated by the second network device to the first network device.

In a possible implementation, the first information may be carried in a broadcast message, such as carried in at least one broadcast message such as system information block (SIB) 1, other system information (OSI), master system information block (MIB). The first network device indicates the correspondence between the parameter and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources by broadcasting, which can avoid indicating the correspondence separately for scheduling different resources for different terminal devices, saving signaling overhead for scheduling resources and reducing scheduling complexity.

In another possible implementation, the first information may be carried in at least one of RRC signaling, downlink control information (DCI), group DCI, and media access control (MAC) control element (CE), or the first information may be carried in data, or carried in a dedicated physical downlink sharing channel (PDSCH), and sent by the first network device to the terminal device in a unicast or multicast manner. Exemplarily, the RRC signaling may include at least one of an RRC setup message, an RRC reconfiguration message, or an RRC resume message.

When the first network device indicates the above-mentioned correspondence to the terminal device through unicast or multicast, the correspondence adapted to different terminal devices/terminal device groups can be flexibly controlled. For example, the SNR change rate or law caused by the movement of the first network device can be determined according to the geographical location of the terminal device/terminal device group, so as to configure different frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources for the same parameters for terminal devices at different geographical locations, so as to optimize the PDCCH resource occupancy number corresponding to each terminal device, avoid unnecessary spectrum efficiency loss and excessive detection complexity, and improve the communication performance of the terminal device and the entire system.

S1002. The first network device obtains a first parameter value.

In a possible implementation, when at least one parameter indicated by the first information is a numerical value, for example, the parameter is an angle or a time or a quantity index, the at least one parameter includes a first parameter value. Exemplarily, taking the parameter as a quantity index as an example, if the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to quantity indexes 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively, the first parameter value is one of 0, 1, 2, or 3.

In another possible implementation manner, when at least one parameter indicated by the first information is a numerical range, for example, the parameter is an angle range or time range, the first parameter value belongs to one of the at least one parameter. Exemplarily, taking the parameter as an angle range as an example, if the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to [angle 1, angle 2), [angle 2, angle 3), [angle 3, angle 4), respectively, the first parameter value is a certain angle value, the first parameter value belongs to [angle 1, angle 2), or, the first parameter value belongs to [angle 2, angle 3), or, the first parameter value belongs to [angle 3, angle 4).

S1003: The terminal device obtains a first parameter value. The description of the first parameter value can refer to the relevant description in the above step S1002, which will not be repeated here.

As a possible implementation, the terminal device may calculate or determine the first parameter value by itself. Alternatively, the terminal device may obtain the first parameter value based on an instruction of the first network device. For example, the first network device may send second information to the terminal device, the second information indicating the first parameter value, and accordingly, the terminal device receives the second information and determines the first parameter value according to the second information.

It should be noted that there is no strict order between steps S1002 and S1003. Step S1002 may be executed first, and then step S1003; or, step S1003 may be executed first, and then step S1002; or, steps S1002 and S1003 may be executed simultaneously, and this application does not make any specific limitations on this.

S1004. The first network device determines a first frequency domain resource quantity and/or a first time domain resource quantity according to a first parameter value.

The first number of frequency domain resources is the number of frequency domain resources corresponding to the first parameter value, and the first number of time domain resources is the number of time domain resources corresponding to the first parameter value.

Exemplarily, the first network device may use the first parameter value to search for the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to the first parameter value in the corresponding relationship indicated by the first information, thereby obtaining the first frequency domain resource number and/or the first time domain resource number.

S1005: The terminal device determines the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. Please refer to the relevant description in the above step S1004, which will not be repeated here.

It should be noted that there is no strict order between step S1004 and step S1005. Step S1004 may be executed first, and then step S1005; or, step S1005 may be executed first and then step S1004; or, step S1004 and S1005 may be executed simultaneously, and this application does not make any specific limitations on this.

S1006: The first network device sends a PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives a PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity.

In a possible implementation, the first network device sends a PDCCH based on a first frequency domain resource quantity and/or a first time domain resource quantity, which may include: the first network device sends a PDCCH, the number of frequency domain resources occupied by the PDCCH is the first frequency domain resource quantity, and/or the number of time domain resources occupied by the PDCCH is the first time domain resource quantity.

In one possible implementation, the terminal device receives PDCCH based on the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity, including: the terminal device determines a set of candidate PDCCH (resources) to be detected based on the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity, and performs PDCCH blind detection in the candidate PDCCH (resource) set to receive PDCCH.

Optionally, the terminal device may determine a set of candidate PDCCH (resources) to be detected based on the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity in combination with CORESET and the search space.

Based on the above scheme, the network device can configure the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to the various parameters for the terminal device, so that the subsequent network device and the terminal device can determine the first parameter value based on the actual situation, and send or receive the PDCCH according to the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to the first parameter value. That is, the network device and the terminal device can flexibly and adaptively adjust the number of frequency domain and/or time domain resources occupied by the PDCCH according to the actual situation, thereby ensuring the decoding performance of the PDCCH. In addition, compared to always using a fixed and large number of time-frequency resources, such as occupying more than 3 OFDM symbols and more than 16 CCEs, resource waste can be avoided. Moreover, since the terminal device can know the number of frequency domain resources occupied by the PDCCH, the terminal device does not need to traverse multiple aggregation levels to determine the PDCCH resource set to be detected, thereby reducing the complexity of blind detection.

The above describes the overall process of the communication method provided in this application, and the following describes the above parameters in detail.

Case 1: The parameter includes an angle or a range of angles. For example, the angle may have at least one of the following possibilities:

a) The angle is the elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device.

Exemplarily, for a certain position on the earth, when the line of sight is above the horizontal line, the angle between the line of sight and the horizontal line in the vertical plane where the line of sight is located can be understood as the elevation angle. In this case a), the elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device can be understood as the angle between the line between the geographical location of the terminal device and the location of the first network device, and the horizon at the geographical location of the terminal device. The elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device can be used to describe the position of the first network device passing above the terminal device. For example, an elevation angle of 90° indicates that the first network device is located directly above the reference position.

As shown in (a) of FIG. 12 , the elevation angle when the terminal device is located at point P is shown; as shown in (b) of FIG. 12 , the elevation angle when the terminal device is located at point Q is shown.

b) The angle is the elevation angle between the reference position and the first network device.

The reference location is a certain geographical location. Exemplarily, the distance between the reference location and the location of the terminal device is less than or equal to a certain threshold, or the reference location can be the center location of the current coverage range of the first network device, without limitation.

The terminal device and the first network device may pre-agree on a reference location, that is, the terminal device and the first network device have the same understanding of the reference location.

Among them, the description of the elevation angle between the reference position and the first network device can refer to the relevant description of the elevation angle between the above-mentioned terminal device and the first network device, which will not be repeated here.

c) The angle is the angle between the position line of the first network device in the track plane and the reference line.

As shown in (c) in FIG. 12 , the position line is a line between the first network device (or the position of the first network device) and the center point of the track surface, and the reference line is a line between the angle reference point and the center point of the track surface.

Exemplarily, the angle reference point may be the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the orbital plane, or the angle reference point may be the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the ecliptic plane, wherein the ecliptic plane refers to the orbital plane of the earth's revolution around the sun.

Exemplarily, when the parameter includes an angle range, the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources corresponding to different angle ranges may be as shown in Table 4.

Table 4

It should be noted that the correspondence between the angle range and the number of resources shown in Table 4 is only an exemplary description, and there may be other correspondences in actual applications. For example, the number of frequency domain resources corresponding to the angle range [25°, 40°) may be greater than 1 CCE, and the number of time domain resources corresponding to the angle range [25°, 40°) may be less than 12 OFDM symbols, without limitation.

It can be understood that the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources corresponding to the angle range in the embodiment of the present application can also indicate or be equivalent to the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources corresponding to the angle. For example, the number of frequency domain resources and time domain resources corresponding to the angle range [25°, 40°) are 1 CCE and 12 OFDM symbols, respectively, and it can also indicate that when the angle is 25°, 26°, 27°, ..., 39°, 39.5°, the corresponding number of frequency domain resources and time domain resources are 1 CCE and 12 OFDM symbols, respectively.

In a possible implementation, when the parameter includes an angle or a range of angles, the present application provides a communication method, which can be understood as a specific implementation of the communication method shown in FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 13, the communication method includes the following steps:

S1301. A first network device determines a number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one angle or angle range.

Exemplarily, the first network device can determine the link budget corresponding to different angles based on at least one of the projection area of the beam of the first network device, the coverage area of the first network device, or the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, and then determine the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to each angle or angle range based on the link budget corresponding to the different angles.

S1302: The first network device sends first information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information from the first network device.

Among them, the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one angle or angle range. Please refer to the relevant instructions in the above step S1001 and will not be repeated here.

S1303: The first network device obtains a first parameter value. Exemplarily, the first parameter value may be an angle value at a current moment.

As a possible implementation, when the angle is the elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device, the first parameter value may be an angle value corresponding to the communication between the first network device and the terminal device at the current moment.

Exemplarily, the first network device may determine the elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device according to the geographical location of the terminal device and the ephemeris information of the first network device. The ephemeris information of the first network device describes an expression of the position and speed of the first network device that varies with time. Of course, the ephemeris information may also have other names, such as trajectory information, speed trajectory information, etc., which are not specifically limited in this application.

As another possible implementation, when the angle is the elevation angle between the reference position and the first network device, the first network device may determine the elevation angle between the reference position and the first network device according to the reference position and the ephemeris information of the first network device.

As another possible implementation, when the angle is the angle between the position line and the reference line in the track surface of the first network device, the position line is a line between the current position of the first network device and the center point of the track surface. The first network device can determine the angle between the position line and the reference line in the track surface according to the current position of the first network device.

Optionally, after the first network device obtains the first parameter value, it can send second information to the terminal device, where the second information indicates the first parameter value. value.

S1304: The terminal device obtains a first parameter value. The description of the first parameter value can refer to the relevant description in the above step S1303, which will not be repeated here.

As a possible implementation, the terminal device obtains the first parameter value according to the ephemeris information of the first network device. The acquisition method is similar to the acquisition method of the first network device obtaining the first parameter value, and the relevant description in the above step S1303 can be referred to, which will not be repeated here.

As another possible implementation, the terminal device may receive the second information from the first network device, and obtain the first parameter value according to an instruction of the second information.

S1305. The first network device determines a first frequency domain resource quantity and/or a first time domain resource quantity according to a first parameter value.

Exemplarily, taking the first parameter value as 30° as an example, the first network device may determine that the first frequency domain resource quantity is 1 CCE and/or the first time domain resource quantity is 12 OFDM symbols according to the corresponding relationship determined in step S1301.

S1306. The terminal device determines the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. Please refer to the relevant description in the above step S1305 and will not be repeated here.

S1307: The first network device sends the PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Please refer to the relevant description in the above step S1006, which will not be repeated here.

Based on the above situation one, the first network device and the terminal device can flexibly and adaptively adjust the number of frequency domain and/or time domain resources occupied by the PDCCH based on the angle, so as to ensure the decoding performance of the PDCCH.

Case 2: The parameters include time or time range.

The time is the service time of the first network device, such as the service time within the orbital plane of the first network device, or the time when the first network device serves the terminal device, or the time when the first network device communicates with the terminal device. Exemplarily, if the first network device communicates with the terminal device between time A and time B, then the time or time range is between time A and time B (including time A and/or time B).

Exemplarily, the time may be an absolute time or a time offset relative to a reference time. The absolute time or the time offset may be expressed in at least one of the following forms: international coordinated time, frame number, subframe number, OFDM symbol number, etc.

Exemplarily, when the parameter includes a time range, the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources corresponding to different time ranges may be as shown in Table 5.

Table 5

It should be noted that the correspondence between the time range and the number of resources shown in Table 5 is only an exemplary description, and there may be other correspondences in actual applications. For example, the number of frequency domain resources corresponding to T1≤t<T2 may be greater than 1 CCE, and the number of time domain resources corresponding to T1≤t<T2 may be less than 12 OFDM symbols, without limitation.

It can be understood that the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources corresponding to the time range in the embodiment of the present application can also indicate or be equivalent to the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources corresponding to the time. For example, the number of frequency domain resources and time domain resources corresponding to T1≤t<T2 are 1 CCE and 12 OFDM symbols, respectively, and it can also indicate that the number of frequency domain resources and time domain resources corresponding to all time points between T1 and T2 are 1 CCE and 12 OFDM symbols, respectively.

Optionally, due to the movement of the first network device, the angle values described in the above situation 1 may also be different at different times. Therefore, the time or time range in situation 2 may correspond to the angle or angle range in situation 1. For example, the time range T1≤t<T2 corresponds to the angle range 25°≤angle α<40°, such as 25° can be understood as the angle at time T1, and 40° can be understood as the angle at time T2 or near time T2. Of course, the time range may not correspond to the angle range, and this application does not make specific limitations on this.

In a possible implementation, when the parameter includes time or time range, the present application provides a communication method, which can be understood as a specific implementation of the communication method shown in FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 14, the communication method includes the following steps:

S1401. A first network device determines a number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one time or time range.

Exemplarily, the first network device can determine the link budget corresponding to different times based on at least one of the projection area of the beam of the first network device, the coverage area of the first network device, or the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, and then determine the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to each time or time range based on the link budget corresponding to the different times.

S1402: The first network device sends first information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information from the first network device.

Among them, the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one time or time range. Please refer to the relevant instructions in the above step S1001 and will not be repeated here.

S1403: The first network device obtains a first parameter value. Exemplarily, the first parameter value may be a current time. The current time is during the communication process between the first network device and the terminal device.

Optionally, after obtaining the first parameter value, the first network device may send second information to the terminal device, where the second information indicates the first parameter value.

S1404: The terminal device obtains a first parameter value. The description of the first parameter value can refer to the relevant description in the above step S1403, which will not be repeated here.

As a possible implementation, the terminal device may determine the first parameter value by itself.

As another possible implementation, the terminal device may receive the second information from the first network device, and obtain the first parameter value according to an instruction of the second information.

S1405. The first network device determines a first frequency domain resource quantity and/or a first time domain resource quantity according to a first parameter value.

Exemplarily, taking the first parameter value as time t1, which is between T1 and T2, the first network device can determine that the first frequency domain resource quantity is 1 CCE and/or the first time domain resource quantity is 12 OFDM symbols according to the corresponding relationship determined in step S1401.

S1406. The terminal device determines the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. Please refer to the relevant description in the above step S1405 and will not repeat it here.

S1407: The first network device sends the PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Please refer to the relevant description in the above step S1006, which will not be repeated here.

Based on the above situation 2, the first network device and the terminal device can flexibly and adaptively adjust the number of frequency domain and/or time domain resources occupied by the PDCCH based on time, thereby ensuring the decoding performance of the PDCCH. In addition, the terminal device and the first network device can obtain the time without performing additional calculations, which can reduce the implementation complexity of the terminal device and the first network device.

Case 3: The parameter is a quantity index.

In a possible implementation manner, the quantitative index in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as an index, a number, an index number, etc., and may be interchangeable.

Exemplarily, when the parameter includes a quantity index, the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources corresponding to different quantity indexes may be as shown in Table 6.

Table 6

It should be noted that the correspondence between the quantity index and the number of resources shown in Table 6 is only an exemplary description, and there may be other correspondences in actual applications. For example, the number of frequency domain resources corresponding to index 0 may be greater than 1 CCE, and the number of time domain resources corresponding to index 0 may be less than 12 OFDM symbols, without limitation.

Optionally, each quantity index may correspond to or indicate an angle range or a time range, for example, the correspondence of each row in Table 6 may be converted to the correspondence of the same row in Table 4 or Table 5. For example, quantity index 0 corresponds to an angle range of 25°≤angle α<40°, or a time range of T1≤t<T2; quantity index 1 corresponds to an angle range of 40°≤angle α<70°, or a time range of T2≤t<T3; quantity index 2 corresponds to an angle range of 70°≤angle α<90°, or a time range of T3≤t<T4.

Alternatively, the quantity index may not correspond to the angle range or the time range; or, the quantity index may correspond to other parameters, or may not correspond to any parameters, such as a quantity index only indicating the number of frequency domain resources and/or the number of time domain resources.

In a possible implementation, when the parameter includes a quantity index, the present application provides a communication method, which can be understood as a specific implementation of the communication method shown in FIG. 10 above. As shown in FIG. 15, the communication method includes the following steps:

S1501. A first network device determines the quantity of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one quantity index.

Exemplarily, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources respectively corresponding to the at least one quantity index may be as shown in the above Table 6. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific manner in which the first network device determines the corresponding relationship.

S1502: The first network device sends first information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first information from the first network device.

Among them, the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one quantity index. Please refer to the relevant instructions in the above step S1001 and will not be repeated here.

S1503: The first network device obtains a first parameter value. Exemplarily, the first parameter value is a quantity index.

As a possible implementation, the first network device can determine the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources based on at least one of the beam projection area, the coverage area, or the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, and then determine the quantity index corresponding to the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources based on the corresponding relationship determined in step S1501, and use the quantity index as the first parameter value.

S1504: The first network device sends second information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second information from the first network device.

The second information indicates the first parameter value. Exemplarily, the second information may be carried in MAC CE or DCI, which is not specifically limited in this application. Step S1504 may be understood as an implementation of the terminal device obtaining the first parameter value.

S1505. The first network device determines a first frequency domain resource quantity and/or a first time domain resource quantity according to a first parameter value.

Exemplarily, taking the first parameter value as quantity index 0 as an example, the first network device may determine that the first frequency domain resource quantity is 1 CCE and/or the first time domain resource quantity is 12 OFDM symbols according to the corresponding relationship determined in step S1501.

S1506. The terminal device determines the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. Please refer to the relevant description in the above step S1505 and will not repeat it here.

S1507: The first network device sends the PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. Please refer to the relevant description in the above step S1006, which will not be repeated here.

Based on the above situation three, the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponds to the index, so that the network device can flexibly select the frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources to be used according to the actual situation, and indicate the corresponding index to the terminal device. Since the index does not need to be bound to the angle range or time range, for the same angle range or time range, the frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources used in different scenarios or situations may be different, which improves the flexibility of PDCCH configuration.

In the above embodiment, the first network device determines the corresponding relationship according to its own relevant parameters (such as coverage area, channel status between the first network device and the terminal device, etc.) as an example for explanation. In addition, the first network device can also determine the corresponding relationship according to the corresponding relationship between the above parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device.

In this scenario, the present application provides a communication method, which can be understood as a specific implementation of the communication method shown in Figure 10 above. As shown in Figure 16, the communication method includes the following steps:

S1601. The second network device sends third information to the first network device. Correspondingly, the first network device receives the third information from the second network device.

The third information indicates at least one of the following: a correspondence between parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or a channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device.

Exemplarily, the second network device serves the terminal device before the first network device. The second network device can be used as a source network device for the terminal device, and the first network device can be used as a target network device for the terminal device. The relationship between the second network device and the first network device can refer to the relevant description in the above step S1001, which will not be repeated here.

S1602. The first network device determines a correspondence between a parameter and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources according to the third information.

As a possible implementation, the first network device may adjust the correspondence between the parameters configured by the second network device and the quantity of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources as a new correspondence based on the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device.

As another possible implementation, the first network device may also adjust the correspondence between the parameters configured in the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources as a new correspondence based on at least one of the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device, the projection area of the beam of the first network device, the coverage area of the first network device, or the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device.

S1603 to S1608 are the same as the above steps S1001 to S1006. Please refer to the relevant descriptions in steps S1001 to S1006, which will not be repeated here.

Based on this solution, the corresponding relationship of the second network device configuration and the channel state between the second network device and the terminal device can be used as a priori information, so that the first network device can reasonably configure the PDCCH resources based on the a priori information, thereby improving the effectiveness of the PDCCH resource configuration.

The configuration of PDCCH resources is described above. In addition, the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be appropriately modified to be applicable to the configuration of other resources. For example, it can be used for resource configuration of reference signals, such as configuring different reference signal quantities or reference signal densities for different angle ranges and/or time ranges. For angles, please refer to the relevant descriptions in the methods shown in Figures 10 and 11 above, which will not be repeated here.

Exemplarily, the number of reference signals or the reference signal density can be expressed in the form of N/M, where N/M means that N frequency domain resource units in every M frequency domain resource units (such as RBs) are used to carry reference signals, that is, as reference signal resources.

As a possible implementation, when the angle is small, the channel quality may be poor, so a higher density or a larger number of reference signals may be configured to improve communication performance; when the angle is large, the channel quality may be good, so a lower density or a smaller number of reference signals may be configured to save resource overhead. Exemplarily, the corresponding relationship between the angle range and the reference signal density may be shown in Table 7.

Table 7

As another possible implementation, different reference signal densities may be configured according to channel conditions corresponding to different times. For example, the corresponding relationship between the time range and the reference signal density may be as shown in Table 8.

Table 8

Based on this solution, different reference signal densities can be flexibly configured according to the angle or time during the communication process, thereby improving the flexibility of reference signal configuration. Compared with always using a fixed and large reference signal density, resource waste can be avoided.

In a possible implementation, the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be appropriately modified to be applicable to the communication system shown in Figure 9. For example, the ephemeris information of the first network device can be replaced by the flight trajectory of the terminal device, the orbital plane of the first network device can be replaced by the flight plane of the terminal device, and the projection area of the beam of the first network device and the coverage range of the first network device can be understood as the projection area or coverage range in the air, etc.

It is understandable that in the above embodiments, the methods and/or steps implemented by the terminal device may also be implemented by components (such as processors, chips, chip systems, circuits, logic modules, or software) that can be used in the terminal device; the methods and/or steps implemented by the network device may also be implemented by components (such as processors, chips, chip systems, circuits, logic modules, or software) that can be used in the network device. Among them, the chip system may be composed of chips, or the chip system may include chips and other discrete devices.

It is understandable that, in order to realize the above functions, the communication device includes hardware structures and/or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

The embodiment of the present application can divide the functional modules of the communication device according to the above method embodiment. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

Communication Device Figure 17 shows a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device 170. The communication device 170 includes a processing module 1701 and a transceiver module 1702. The communication device 170 can be used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned terminal device or network device.

In some embodiments, the communication device 170 may further include a storage module (not shown in FIG. 17 ) for storing program instructions and data.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 1702 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit for implementing a sending and/or receiving function. The transceiver module 1702 may be composed of a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver or a communication interface.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 1702 may include a receiving module and a sending module, which are respectively used to perform the receiving and sending steps performed by the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiment, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein; the processing module 1701 may be used to perform the processing steps (such as determination, etc.) performed by the terminal device or the network device in the above method embodiment, and/or Other processes used to support the techniques described herein.

When the communication device 170 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device:

The transceiver module 1702 is used to receive first information from a first network device, where the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one parameter, respectively, and the frequency domain resources and time domain resources are the frequency domain resources and time domain resources occupied by the physical downlink control channel PDCCH, respectively. The processing module 1701 is used to obtain a first parameter value, where when at least one parameter is a numerical value, the at least one parameter includes the first parameter value, or when at least one parameter is a numerical range, the first parameter value belongs to one of the at least one parameter. The processing module 1701 is also used to determine the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. The processing module 1701 is also used to receive the PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity.

Optionally, the processing module 1701 is used to obtain the first parameter value, including: the processing module 1701 is used to receive second information from the first network device through the transceiver module 1702, and the second information indicates the first parameter value.

Optionally, when the parameter is an angle or a range of angles, the processing module 1701 is used to obtain a first parameter value, including: the processing module 1701 is used to determine the first parameter value according to the ephemeris information of the first network device.

When the communication device 170 is used to implement the function of the network device:

The transceiver module 1702 is used to send a first information to a terminal device, where the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one parameter, respectively, and the frequency domain resources and time domain resources are the frequency domain resources and time domain resources occupied by the physical downlink control channel PDCCH, respectively. The processing module 1701 is used to obtain a first parameter value, where when the at least one parameter is a numerical value, the at least one parameter includes the first parameter value, or when the at least one parameter is a numerical range, the first parameter value belongs to one of the at least one parameter. The processing module 1701 is also used to determine the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value. The processing module 1701 is also used to send a PDCCH according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity.

Optionally, the transceiver module 1702 is further configured to receive third information from a second network device, where the third information indicates at least one of the following: a correspondence between a parameter configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or a channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during a period in which the second network device serves the terminal device. The second network device is a network device that serves the terminal device before the first network device.

Optionally, the transceiver module 1702 is further used to send second information to the terminal device, where the second information indicates the first parameter value.

Among them, all relevant contents of each step involved in the above method embodiment can be referred to the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and will not be repeated here.

In the present application, the communication device 170 may be presented in the form of dividing various functional modules in an integrated manner. The "module" here may refer to a specific application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a circuit, a processor and a memory that executes one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and/or other devices that can provide the above functions.

In some embodiments, when the communication device 170 in Figure 17 is a chip or a chip system, the function/implementation process of the transceiver module 1702 can be implemented through the input and output interface (or communication interface) of the chip or the chip system, and the function/implementation process of the processing module 1701 can be implemented through the processor (or processing circuit) of the chip or the chip system.

Since the communication device 170 provided in this embodiment can execute the above method, the technical effects that can be obtained can refer to the above method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

As a possible product form, the terminal device or network device described in the embodiments of the present application can also be implemented using the following: one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), programmable logic devices (PLD), controllers, state machines, gate logic, discrete hardware components, any other suitable circuits, or any combination of circuits that can perform the various functions described throughout the present application.

As another possible product form, the terminal device or network device described in the embodiment of the present application can be implemented by a general bus architecture. For ease of explanation, refer to Figure 18, which is a structural diagram of a communication device 1800 provided in an embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 1800 includes a processor 1801 and a transceiver 1802. The communication device 1800 can be a terminal device, or a chip or chip system therein; or, the communication device 1800 can be a network device, or a chip or module therein. Figure 18 only shows the main components of the communication device 1800. In addition to the processor 1801 and the transceiver 1802, the communication device may further include a memory 1803, and an input and output device (not shown in the figure).

Optionally, the processor 1801 is mainly used to process the communication protocol and communication data, and to control the entire communication device, execute the software program, and process the data of the software program, so as to implement the method provided in the above method embodiment. The memory 1803 is mainly used to store software programs and data. The transceiver 1802 may include a radio frequency circuit and an antenna. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used to receive data input by users and output data to users.

Optionally, the processor 1801, the transceiver 1802, and the memory 1803 may be connected via a communication bus.

When the communication device is turned on, the processor 1801 can read the software program in the memory 1803, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor 1801 performs baseband processing on the data to be sent, and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then sends the radio frequency signal outward in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the communication device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 1801. The processor 1801 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

In another implementation, the RF circuit and antenna may be arranged independently of the processor performing baseband processing. For example, in a distributed scenario, the RF circuit and antenna may be arranged remotely from the communication device.

In some embodiments, in terms of hardware implementation, those skilled in the art may conceive that the communication device 170 may take the form of a communication device 1800 as shown in FIG. 18 .

As an example, the function/implementation process of the processing module 1701 in FIG17 can be implemented by the processor 1801 in the communication device 1800 shown in FIG18 calling the computer execution instructions stored in the memory 1803. The function/implementation process of the transceiver module 1702 in FIG17 can be implemented by the transceiver 1802 in the communication device 1800 shown in FIG18.

As another possible product form, the terminal device or network device in the present application may adopt the composition structure shown in Figure 19, or include the components shown in Figure 19. Figure 19 is a schematic diagram of the composition of a communication device 1900 provided by the present application, and the communication device 1900 may be a terminal device or a chip or system on chip in the terminal device; or, it may be a network device or a module or chip or system on chip in the network device.

As shown in FIG. 19 , the communication device 1900 includes at least one processor 1901 and at least one communication interface (FIG. 19 is merely an example of a communication interface 1904 and a processor 1901). Optionally, the communication device 1900 may also include a communication bus 1902 and a memory 1903.

Processor 1901 may be a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a network processor (NP), a digital signal processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a PLD, or any combination thereof. Processor 1901 may also be other devices with processing functions, such as circuits, devices, or software modules, without limitation.

The communication bus 1902 is used to connect different components in the communication device 1900 so that the different components can communicate. The communication bus 1902 can be a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus or an extended industry standard architecture (EISA) bus. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used in FIG. 19, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

The communication interface 1904 is used to communicate with other devices or communication networks. Exemplarily, the communication interface 1904 can be a module, a circuit, a transceiver, or any device capable of implementing communication. Optionally, the communication interface 1904 can also be an input/output interface located in the processor 1901 to implement signal input and signal output of the processor.

The memory 1903 may be a device with a storage function, used to store instructions and/or data, wherein the instructions may be computer programs.

Exemplarily, memory 1903 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and/or instructions, or a random access memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and/or instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compressed optical disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, etc., without limitation.

It should be noted that the memory 1903 may exist independently of the processor 1901 or may be integrated with the processor 1901. The memory 1903 may be located inside the communication device 1900 or outside the communication device 1900, without limitation. The processor 1901 may be used to execute instructions stored in the memory 1903 to implement the methods provided in the following embodiments of the present application.

As an optional implementation, the communication device 1900 may further include an output device 1905 and an input device 1906. The output device 1905 communicates with the processor 1901 and may display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 1905 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display device, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device, or a projector. The input device 1906 communicates with the processor 1901 and may receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 1906 may be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, or a sensor device.

In some embodiments, in terms of hardware implementation, those skilled in the art may conceive that the communication device 170 shown in FIG. 17 may take the form of the communication device 1900 shown in FIG. 19 .

As an example, the function/implementation process of the processing module 1701 in FIG. 17 can be implemented by the processor 1901 in the communication device 1900 shown in FIG. 19 calling the computer execution instructions stored in the memory 1903. The process can be implemented through the communication interface 1904 in the communication device 1900 shown in Figure 19.

It should be noted that the structure shown in FIG. 19 does not constitute a specific limitation on the terminal device or network device. For example, in other embodiments of the present application, the terminal device or network device may include more or fewer components than shown in the figure, or combine certain components, or split certain components, or arrange the components differently. The components shown in the figure may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

In some embodiments, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device, which includes a processor for implementing a method in any of the above method embodiments.

As a possible implementation, the communication device further includes a memory. The memory is used to store necessary computer programs and data. The computer program may include instructions, and the processor may call the instructions in the computer program stored in the memory to instruct the communication device to execute the method in any of the above method embodiments. Of course, the memory may not be in the communication device.

As another possible implementation, the communication device also includes an interface circuit, which is a code/data read/write interface circuit, which is used to receive computer execution instructions (computer execution instructions are stored in a memory, may be read directly from the memory, or may pass through other devices) and transmit them to the processor.

As another possible implementation manner, the communication device further includes a communication interface, and the communication interface is used to communicate with a module outside the communication device.

It can be understood that the communication device can be a chip or a chip system. When the communication device is a chip system, it can be composed of chips, or it can include chips and other discrete devices. The embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium on which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed by a computer, the functions of any of the above method embodiments are implemented.

The present application also provides a computer program product, which implements the functions of any of the above method embodiments when executed by a computer.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, for the sake of convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above may refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

It is understood that the systems, devices and methods described in the present application can also be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, i.e., they may be located in one place, or they may be distributed over multiple network units. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, 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 described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website site, 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.) mode to another website site, computer, server or data center. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or may contain one or more servers, data centers and other data storage devices that can be integrated with the medium. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid state drive (SSD)), etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the computer may include the aforementioned device.

Although the present application is described herein in conjunction with various embodiments, in the process of implementing the claimed application, those skilled in the art may understand and implement other variations of the disclosed embodiments by viewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "one" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit may implement several functions listed in a claim. Certain measures are recorded in different dependent claims, but this does not mean that these measures cannot be combined to produce good results.

Although the present application has been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be apparent that the present application may be modified without departing from the scope of the present application. Various modifications and combinations may be made thereto. Accordingly, this specification and the drawings are merely exemplary illustrations of the present application as defined by the appended claims, and are deemed to have covered any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the present application. Obviously, a person skilled in the art may make various modifications and variations to the present application without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (26)

A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: Receiving first information from a first network device, the first information indicating the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources respectively corresponding to at least one parameter, the frequency domain resources and the time domain resources are respectively frequency domain resources and time domain resources occupied by a physical downlink control channel PDCCH; acquiring a first parameter value; when the at least one parameter is a numerical value, the at least one parameter includes the first parameter value, or when the at least one parameter is a numerical range, the first parameter value belongs to one of the at least one parameter; Determine a first frequency domain resource quantity and/or a first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value; The PDCCH is received according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the amount of the frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources is related to the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device. The method according to claim 2 is characterized in that the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device is related to at least one of the following: the projection area of the beam of the first network device, the coverage area of the first network device, the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, the correspondence between the parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device, and the second network device is a network device that serves the terminal device before the first network device. The method according to any one of claims 1-3 is characterized in that the parameter includes at least one of the following: angle, angle range, time, time range, or quantity index. The method according to claim 4 is characterized in that the angle includes at least one of the following: an elevation angle between a terminal device and the first network device, an elevation angle between a reference position and the first network device, or an angle between a position line in a track plane of the first network device and a reference line, wherein the position line is a line between the first network device and a center point of the track plane, and the reference line is a line between an angle reference point and the center point of the track plane. The method according to claim 5 is characterized in that the angle reference point is the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the orbital plane, or the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the ecliptic plane. The method according to any one of claims 4-6 is characterized in that the time is the service time of the first network device; the time includes absolute time or a time offset relative to a reference time, and the representation of the absolute time or the time offset includes at least one of the following: international coordinated time, frame number, subframe number, time slot number, or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM symbol number. The method according to any one of claims 1-7 is characterized in that obtaining the first parameter value comprises: receiving second information from the first network device, wherein the second information indicates the first parameter value. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 7, characterized in that the parameter is an angle or a range of angles; and obtaining the first parameter value comprises: The first parameter value is determined according to the ephemeris information of the first network device. The method according to any one of claims 1-9 is characterized in that the frequency domain resources are control channel elements CCE or resource blocks RB; and/or the time domain resources are OFDM symbols. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: Sending first information to a terminal device, where the first information indicates the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources corresponding to at least one parameter, where the frequency domain resources and the time domain resources are frequency domain resources and time domain resources occupied by a physical downlink control channel PDCCH, respectively; Obtaining a first parameter value; when the at least one parameter is a numerical value, the at least one parameter includes the first parameter value, or when the at least one parameter is a numerical range, the first parameter value belongs to one of the at least one parameter; Determine a first frequency domain resource quantity and/or a first time domain resource quantity according to the first parameter value; The PDCCH is sent according to the first frequency domain resource quantity and/or the first time domain resource quantity. The method according to claim 11 is characterized in that the amount of the frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources is related to the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device. The method according to claim 12 is characterized in that the link budget between the terminal device and the first network device is related to at least one of the following: the projection area of the beam of the first network device, the coverage area of the first network device, the channel state between the terminal device and the first network device, the correspondence between the parameters configured by the second network device and the number of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device, and the second network device is a network device that serves the terminal device before the first network device. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that the method further comprises: receiving third information from the second network device, the third information indicating at least one of the following: The correspondence between the parameters configured by the second network device and the quantity of frequency domain resources and/or time domain resources, or the channel quality between the second network device and the terminal device during the period when the second network device serves the terminal device. The method according to any one of claims 11-14 is characterized in that the parameter includes at least one of the following: angle, angle range, time, time range, or quantity index. The method according to claim 15 is characterized in that the angle includes at least one of the following: an elevation angle between the terminal device and the first network device, an elevation angle between a reference position and the first network device, or an angle between a position line in the orbital plane of the first network device and a reference line, wherein the position line is a line between the first network device and a center point of the orbital plane, and the reference line is a line between an angle reference point and the center point of the orbital plane. The method according to claim 16 is characterized in that the angle reference point is the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the orbital plane, or the intersection of the ascending orbit of the first network device and the ecliptic plane. The method according to any one of claims 15-17 is characterized in that the time is the service time of the first network device; the time includes absolute time or a time offset relative to a reference time, and the representation of the absolute time or the time offset includes at least one of the following: international coordinated time, frame number, subframe number, time slot number, or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol number. The method according to any one of claims 15-18 is characterized in that the parameter is an angle or a range of angles; and obtaining the first parameter value comprises: determining the first parameter value according to the ephemeris information of the first network device. The method according to any one of claims 11-19 is characterized in that the method further comprises: sending second information to the terminal device, wherein the second information indicates the first parameter value. The method according to any one of claims 11-20 is characterized in that the frequency domain resources are control channel elements CCE or resource blocks RB; and/or the time domain resources are OFDM symbols. A communication system, characterized in that the communication system comprises a terminal device and a first network device; The terminal device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-10, and the first network device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 11-21. A communication device, characterized in that the communication device includes a module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 1-10, or includes a module for executing the method as described in any one of claims 11-21. A communication device, characterized in that the communication device includes a processor; the processor is used to run a computer program or instruction to enable the communication device to execute the method as described in any one of claims 1-10, or to enable the communication device to execute the method as described in any one of claims 11-21. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions or programs, and when the computer instructions or programs are run on a computer, the method described in any one of claims 1 to 10 is executed, or the method described in any one of claims 11 to 21 is executed. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product includes computer instructions; when part or all of the computer instructions are run on a computer, the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 10 is executed, or the method as described in any one of claims 11 to 21 is executed.