WO2025185663A1 - Communication method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus. The method can be applied to non-terrestrial network (NTN) or NTN and TN converged network communications, and can reduce signaling overhead. The method comprises: a first network device acquires and sends configuration information of subregions; and a terminal device receives the configuration information of the subregions, and performs communication on the basis of the configuration information of the subregions. The configuration information of the subregions indicates an initial region and subdivision levels, the initial region, the subdivision levels and subregion determination criteria are used for determining the subregions, and the subregions are included in the initial region. The communication may comprise, for example, at least one of initial access, beam management, mobility management, or tracking area update.

Description

Communication method and device

This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on March 7, 2024, with application number 202410263802.5 and application name “Communication Method and Device,” the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into 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

Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) offer significant advantages, including global coverage, long-distance transmission, flexible networking, easy deployment, and geographic independence. They have been widely used in a variety of fields, including maritime communications, positioning and navigation, disaster relief, scientific experiments, video broadcasting, and Earth observation. NTNs can be integrated with terrestrial networks, leveraging their strengths and complementing their weaknesses to form a seamless, integrated global communications network spanning land, sea, air, space, and space, meeting the diverse needs of users everywhere.

As a key component of the NTN, the next-generation satellite network is generally showing an ultra-dense and heterogeneous trend. First, the scale of satellites has grown from 66 in the Iridium constellation to 720 in the OneWeb constellation, and ultimately to the Starlink ultra-dense low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation of over 12,000. Second, satellite networks are heterogeneous, evolving from traditional single-layer communications networks to multi-layer ones. The functionality of communication satellite networks is also becoming increasingly complex and diverse, gradually becoming compatible with and supporting functions such as navigation augmentation, Earth observation, and multi-dimensional on-orbit information processing.

However, the satellite coverage area may change over time, resulting in large signaling overhead for processes such as mobility management and beam management in the NTN.

Summary of the Invention

The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus that can reduce the signaling overhead of an NTN network or a converged network of NTN and TN.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided. The method can be performed 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 implements all or part of the terminal device's functions. The method includes receiving sub-area configuration information and communicating based on the area configuration information. The sub-area configuration information indicates an initial area and a subdivision level. The initial area, subdivision level, and sub-area determination criteria are used to determine a sub-area, and the sub-area is included in the initial area.

Based on this solution, the ground can be discretized into some initial areas first, and then the sub-areas included in the initial area can be determined based on the initial area, subdivision level and sub-area determination criteria, so that the network side and the terminal device can communicate based on the sub-area identifier. For example, the network side can indicate its coverage area or service area to the terminal device through the sub-area identifier, or configure a reference sub-area through the sub-area identifier. Compared with the network side indicating its coverage area to the terminal device in an explicit manner (such as indicating longitude and latitude, beam pointing and angle, etc.), the signaling overhead can be significantly reduced.

In addition, the solution of the present application can further subdivide the initial area based on the subdivision level, so that the network side can flexibly determine the subdivision level based on actual application, thereby flexibly determining the number and size of sub-areas, thereby improving the flexibility of communication. Furthermore, since the initial area is divided by subdivision level, and the initial area is usually fixed, it can be considered that the present application provides a unified sub-area division method (i.e., dividing the fixed initial area), so that network nodes can identify sub-areas at various subdivision levels and obtain the adjacency relationship between different sub-areas, reducing the complexity of network location management, realizing area-based service characteristic aggregation analysis, and thus improving communication performance.

In one possible design, the sub-region determination criterion includes: a projection of a reference position of the sub-region on a unit square is determined according to a subdivision level; and a reference position of the sub-region is determined according to a projection of the reference position of the sub-region on a unit square.

In one possible design, the reference position of the sub-region is determined according to the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on a unit square and the total number of initial regions.

Based on the two possible designs described above, the number and size of different sub-areas can be flexibly determined according to different subdivision levels on the basis of the initial area, thereby improving communication flexibility.

In one possible design, the projection RL( _xi , _yi ) of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square satisfies the following relationship:

Where i represents the identifier of the sub-region, L represents the subdivision level, and N _spot represents the total number of initial regions.

In one possible design, the subdivision level includes subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices. Based on this possible design, different network devices can correspond to different subdivision levels, thereby improving the flexibility of sub-area division.

In one possible design, the sub-area includes at least one of a first-class sub-area, a second-class sub-area, or a third-class sub-area, the first-class sub-area corresponds to the broadcast beam, the second-class sub-area corresponds to the service beam, and the third-class sub-area corresponds to the tracking area.

Based on this possible design, multiple sub-areas can be divided according to actual conditions. For example, in broadcast scenarios, a first sub-area corresponding to the broadcast beam can be divided; in service transmission scenarios, a second sub-area corresponding to the service beam can be divided; in tracking area-related scenarios, a third sub-area corresponding to the tracking area can be divided. Because sub-areas can be divided according to actual conditions, the number and size of each sub-area can be matched to the current situation. For example, the size of the first sub-area can be relatively large, and the size of the second sub-area can be relatively small. This improves the flexibility of sub-area division and the adaptability of sub-area division to the current situation, so that the sub-area division can improve communication performance.

In one possible design, the subdivision level includes at least one of a subdivision level corresponding to the first type of sub-region, a subdivision level corresponding to the second type of sub-region, or a subdivision level corresponding to the third type of sub-region. Based on this possible design, different types of sub-regions can correspond to different subdivision levels. That is, different types of sub-regions can be divided based on the initial region, and different subdivision levels can correspond to different sub-region sizes, thereby increasing the flexibility of sub-region division.

In one possible design, communicating based on sub-area configuration information includes: determining a sub-area identifier based on the location information of the terminal device and the sub-area configuration information, and communicating based on the sub-area identifier. The sub-area identifier includes at least one of an identifier of a first sub-area, an identifier of a second sub-area, or an identifier of a third sub-area; the first sub-area is a first-category sub-area where the terminal device is located, the second sub-area is a second-category sub-area where the terminal device is located, and the third sub-area is a third-category sub-area where the terminal device is located.

Based on this possible design, the identifier of the sub-area where the terminal device is located can be determined based on the location information of the terminal device, so that the terminal device and the RAN node can obtain relevant information of the sub-area based on the identifier of the sub-area, and thus communicate based on the relevant information of the sub-area to ensure communication performance.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a first type of sub-area, the method further includes: receiving first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area, where the first access information is used for a terminal device in the first type of sub-area to access a first network device.

In one possible design, the first access information includes at least one of the following: a random access timing RO, a random access preamble code, a timing advance TA, or a first time period, where the first time period is a time period in which the beam of the first network device serves the first type of area.

In one possible design, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, communication is performed based on the sub-area identifier, including: determining first access information corresponding to the first sub-area based on the identifier of the first sub-area; and accessing the first network device based on the first access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Based on the above possible design, since the network side can indicate the first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area, terminal devices in the first type of sub-area can access the first network device based on the first access information. Thus, the network can indicate different random access resources for different first type sub-areas, allowing terminal devices in different first type sub-areas to access the first network device using different random access resources, thereby reducing resource collisions during random access by terminal devices and improving access success rates.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a second-type sub-area, the method further includes: receiving communication resource information corresponding to the second-type sub-area, and the communication resources indicated by the communication resource information are used for information transmission by terminal devices in the second-type sub-area.

In one possible design, the communication resources include at least one of the following: frequency domain resources, polarization mode, or a second time period, where the second time period is a time period in which the beam of the first network device serves the second type of sub-area.

In one possible design, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the second sub-area, communication is performed based on the sub-area identifier, including: determining the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area based on the identifier of the second sub-area; and sending first information on the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area, where the first information indicates the identifier of the second sub-area.

Based on the above possible design, since the network can indicate the identifier of the second-type sub-area and its corresponding communication resource, the terminal device in the second-type sub-area can use the communication resource to communicate with the first network device. Therefore, the network can indicate different communication resources for different second-type sub-areas, allowing terminal devices in different second-type sub-areas to communicate with the network device using different resources, reducing resource collisions and thereby improving communication performance.

In one possible design, when the sub-areas include first-type sub-areas and/or second-type sub-areas, the method further includes: receiving first information and/or second information. The first information indicates a first sub-area set and/or a second sub-area set, the first sub-area set including first-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device, and the second sub-area set including second-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device. The second information indicates first-type sub-areas in the first sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device, and/or indicates second-type sub-areas in the second sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device.

In one possible design, the method further includes: receiving information indicating N third time periods and N first sub-region subsets, and/or indicating M fourth time periods and M second sub-region subsets. The nth first sub-region subset includes, in the first sub-region set, first-type sub-regions served by the beam of the first network device during the nth third time period, where N is a positive integer, n=1, 2, ..., N; and the mth second sub-region subset includes, in the second sub-region set, second-type sub-regions served by the beam of the first network device during the mth fourth time period, where M is a positive integer, m=1, 2, ..., M.

In one possible design, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area and/or the identifier of the second sub-area, communication is performed according to the sub-area identifier, including: communicating according to the identifier of the first sub-area during the time period when the first sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device; or communicating according to the identifier of the second sub-area during the time period when the second sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device.

Based on the above possible design, the network can indicate to the terminal device the first type of sub-area and/or the second type of sub-area of the beam service of the first network device, allowing the terminal device to communicate within the beam service time, thereby improving communication performance. In addition, the first type of sub-area and/or the second type of sub-area of the beam service of the first network device can be indicated by a sub-area identifier or bitmap. Compared to explicitly describing the geographical area of the beam service of the first network device, such as through information such as latitude and longitude, signaling overhead can be reduced.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a first-category sub-area, the method further includes: receiving information indicating at least one of the following: an identifier of a reference sub-area, a first elevation angle, and ephemeris information of a first network device or ephemeris information of a second network device. The reference sub-area is a first-category sub-area in a first cell, where the first cell is a cell managed by the first network device; and the first elevation angle is a minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first cell, or a minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area.

In one possible design, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, communication is performed based on the sub-area identifier, including: determining the reference position of the first sub-area based on the identifier of the first sub-area; determining the remaining service time of the first sub-area based on the reference position of the first sub-area, the ephemeris information of the first network device, and the minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area; and starting neighboring cell measurement before the end of the remaining service time.

Based on the above possible design, since the terminal device starts neighboring cell measurement before the remaining service time of the first sub-area ends, and whether the first sub-area is covered is determined by the movement of the network device, this design can be applicable to the scenario where cell reselection is triggered by the movement of the first network device.

In one possible design, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, communication based on the sub-area identifier includes: determining a reference position of the first sub-area based on the identifier of the first sub-area; and performing a neighbor measurement on the second network device within a first time window. The offset between the start time of the first time window and the reference time is the difference between a first delay and a second delay, where the first delay is the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the first network device, and the second delay is the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the second network device.

Based on this possible design, the terminal device performs neighboring cell measurements within the first time window, and the starting time of the first time window is related to the propagation delay between the terminal device and the network device. Due to the movement of the network device, the network device may be located in different positions at different times, so that the propagation delay between the terminal device and the network device varies with time. Therefore, this design can be applicable to the scenario where cell reselection is triggered by the movement of the first network device.

In one possible design, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, communication is performed based on the sub-area identifier, including: initiating neighboring cell measurement when at least one of the following is met: the distance between the reference position of the first sub-area and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to a third threshold; or, the difference between the identifier of the first sub-area and the identifier of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to a fourth threshold.

Based on this possible design, the conditions for triggering neighbor cell measurements are related to the location of the terminal device. When the terminal device is in different locations, the above conditions may be satisfied differently. Therefore, this solution can be applied to scenarios where the mobility of the terminal device triggers cell reselection.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a first type of sub-area, the method further includes: receiving third information, the third information indicating the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area and second access information corresponding to at least one fourth sub-area, the fourth sub-area being a first type of sub-area in the coverage area of the first network device, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is used for the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access the second network device.

In one possible design, the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area includes at least one of the following: an identifier of the second network device, an identifier of the target beam, a random access resource, or a random access preamble code; the target beam is the beam of the second network device.

Based on this possible design, the network can indicate the identifier of the fourth sub-area and its corresponding access information to the terminal device, allowing the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access other network devices based on the access information. In addition, the network can indicate different random access resources for different fourth sub-areas, allowing terminal devices in different fourth sub-areas to access other network devices using different random access resources, thereby reducing resource collisions when the terminal device performs random access, thereby improving the access success rate.

In one possible design, the identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area are located in the sub-header of the media access control MAC protocol data unit PDU; or, the identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area are located in the MAC control element CE of the MAC PDU; or, the identifier of the fourth sub-area is located in the sub-header of the MAC PDU, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is located in the MAC CE of the MAC PDU.

In one possible design, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, communication is performed based on the sub-area identifier, including: determining whether the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area; if the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area, accessing the second network device according to the second access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Based on this possible design, since the terminal device accesses the second network device when the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the identifier of the fourth sub-area indicated by the network to the terminal device can be understood as a switching command, which is used to instruct the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access other network devices, thereby realizing the switching of the terminal device.

In one possible design, the sub-area includes a first type of sub-area, the first type of sub-area is a sub-area in which the second network device is effective, and when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, communication is performed according to the sub-area identifier, including: receiving third access information corresponding to the first sub-area according to the identifier of the first sub-area, the third access information is used for the terminal device in the first sub-area to access the second network device; and accessing the second network device according to the third access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Based on this possible design, the network can indicate access information corresponding to each first-class sub-area, so that terminal devices in the first-class sub-area can access the second network device based on the access information. In addition, the network can indicate different random access resources for different first-class sub-areas, so that terminal devices in different first-class sub-areas can access the second network device using different random access resources, reducing resource collisions when terminal devices perform random access, thereby improving the access success rate.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a third-category sub-area, the method further includes: receiving fourth information, the fourth information including an identifier of the reference sub-area and a value K, or the fourth information including an identifier of the reference sub-area and an updated distance threshold, and the reference sub-area is a third-category sub-area; communicating according to the configuration information of the sub-area, including: updating the tracking area according to the fourth information and the configuration information of the sub-area.

In one possible design, when the fourth information includes the identifier and value K of the second reference sub-area, the tracking area update is performed according to the fourth information and the configuration information of the sub-area, including: determining N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas according to the configuration information of the sub-area, where N _{spot_ta} is the total number of third-category sub-areas; determining the identifier of the reference sub-area and the identifiers of the K third-category sub-areas closest to the reference sub-area among the N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas as a first tracking area code list; and initiating a tracking area update when there is no intersection between the tracking area code list of the terminal device and the first tracking area code list.

In one possible design, when the fourth information includes the identifier of the reference sub-area and the update distance threshold, the tracking area update is performed based on the fourth information and the configuration information of the sub-area, including: determining the reference position of the reference sub-area based on the configuration information of the sub-area and the identifier of the reference sub-area; and initiating the tracking area update when the distance between the terminal device and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to the update distance threshold.

Based on the above possible design, the tracking area of the terminal device can be updated in time based on the divided third-category sub-area, avoiding the paging failure of the terminal device due to the failure to update the tracking area, and improving the paging success rate of the terminal device, thereby ensuring service transmission and improving user experience.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a first network device, or by a component of the first network device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the first network device, or by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the first network device. The method includes: obtaining configuration information of the sub-area and sending the configuration information. The configuration information indicates the initial area and the subdivision level, and the initial area, the subdivision level, and the sub-area determination criteria are used to determine the sub-area, and the sub-area is included in the initial area. The technical effects brought about by the second aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by the above-mentioned first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

In one possible design, the sub-region determination criterion includes: a projection of a reference position of the sub-region on a unit square is determined according to a subdivision level; and a reference position of the sub-region is determined according to a projection of the reference position of the sub-region on a unit square.

In one possible design, the reference position of the sub-region is determined according to the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on a unit square and the total number of initial regions.

In one possible design, the projection RL( _xi , _yi ) of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square satisfies the following relationship:

Where i represents the identifier of the sub-region, L represents the subdivision level, and N _spot represents the total number of initial regions.

In one possible design, the subdivision level includes subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices respectively.

In one possible design, the sub-area includes at least one of a first-class sub-area, a second-class sub-area, or a third-class sub-area, the first-class sub-area corresponds to the broadcast beam, the second-class sub-area corresponds to the service beam, and the third-class sub-area corresponds to the tracking area.

In a possible design, the subdivision level includes at least one of a subdivision level corresponding to the first type of sub-region, a subdivision level corresponding to the second type of sub-region, or a subdivision level corresponding to the third type of sub-region.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a first type of sub-area, the method further includes: sending first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area, where the first access information is used for a terminal device in the first type of sub-area to access a first network device.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a second-type sub-area, the method further includes: sending communication resource information corresponding to the second-type sub-area, and the communication resources indicated by the communication resource information are used for information transmission by terminal devices in the second-type sub-area.

In one possible design, when the sub-areas include first-type sub-areas and/or second-type sub-areas, the method further includes: sending first information and/or second information. The first information indicates a first sub-area set and/or a second sub-area set, the first sub-area set including first-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device, and the second sub-area set including second-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device. The second information indicates first-type sub-areas in the first sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device, and/or indicates second-type sub-areas in the second sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a first type of sub-area, the method further includes: sending third information, the third information indicating the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area and second access information corresponding to at least one fourth sub-area, the fourth sub-area being a first type of sub-area in the coverage area of the first network device, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is used for the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access the second network device.

In one possible design, when the sub-area includes a third-category sub-area, the method further includes: sending fourth information, the fourth information including an identifier of the reference sub-area and a value K, or the fourth information including an identifier of the reference sub-area and an updated distance threshold, and the reference sub-area is a third-category sub-area.

In a third aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing various methods. The communication device includes modules, units, or means corresponding to the methods, wherein the modules, units, or means can be implemented in hardware, software, or by hardware executing corresponding software implementations. 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 configured to implement the processing functionality of any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof. The transceiver module may include a receiving module and a transmitting module, respectively configured to implement the receiving functionality and the transmitting functionality of 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 one of the aspects.

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.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: at least one processor; the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instruction stored in a memory, so that the communication device performs the method described in any one of the aspects. The memory may be coupled to the processor, or may be independent of the processor.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided (for example, the communication device may be a chip or a chip system), which includes a processor for implementing the functions involved in either 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 one possible design, the communication device described in aspects 3 to 7 may be the terminal device in aspect 1, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or a chip system; or, the communication device may be the first network device in aspect 2, or a device included in the first network device, such as a chip or a chip system.

In an eighth 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 first network device, or a module or unit (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) in the first 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 first network device.

It can be understood that when the communication device provided in any one of the third to eighth aspects 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.

In the ninth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores a computer program or instruction. 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 tenth 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 an eleventh aspect, a communication system is provided, which may include a terminal device and a first network device. The terminal device is configured to implement the method described in the first aspect and any one of its designs, and the first network device is configured to implement the method described in the second aspect and any one of its designs.

Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design method in the third aspect to the eleventh 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 beam coverage in a non-staring mode and a staring mode in an NTN provided by the present application;

FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a projection of a beam on the ground provided by the present application;

FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a regional description method based on an H3 geographic grid provided by the present application;

FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a group handover scenario provided by the present application;

FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a cell switching process provided by the present application;

FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a beam management process provided by the present application;

Figures 7 to 11 are schematic diagrams of the structure of the communication system provided by this application;

FIG12 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between beams and areas of a network device provided by the present application;

FIG13 is a flow chart of a communication method provided by the present application;

Figures 14 and 15 are schematic diagrams of the distribution of an initial area provided by this application;

FIG16 is a schematic diagram of the distribution of sub-areas provided in this application;

FIG17 is a schematic diagram of a reference position provided by the present application;

Figures 18-20 are flowcharts of the communication method provided by this application;

FIG21 is a schematic diagram of a sub-region set provided by the present application;

FIG22 is a flow chart of the communication method provided by this application;

FIG23 is a schematic diagram of an elevation angle provided by the present application;

FIG24 is a flow chart of the communication method provided by this application;

FIG25 is a schematic diagram of a time delay provided by the present application;

FIG26 is a flow chart of the communication method provided by this application;

Figure 27 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a MAC PDU provided by this application;

Figures 28 and 29 are flowcharts of the communication method provided by this application;

FIG30 is a schematic diagram of a sub-area corresponding to a sub-area identifier included in a tracking area code list provided by the present application;

FIG31 is a flow chart of the communication method provided by the present application;

Figures 32-34 are schematic diagrams of the structure of the communication device provided in this application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "/" indicates that the objects associated before and after 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 of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist, for example, A and/or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, 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 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 plural.

In addition, to facilitate the clear description of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first" and "second" are used to distinguish between identical or similar items with substantially the same functions and effects. Those skilled in the art will understand that the words "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity or execution order, and the words "first" and "second" do not necessarily mean different.

It can be understood that in various embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial number of each process does not mean the order of execution. 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 embodiments of the present application.

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

It is understood that some optional features in the embodiments of the present application may, in certain scenarios, be implemented independently of other features, such as the solution on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding effects. They may also be combined with other features in certain scenarios as needed. Accordingly, the devices provided in the embodiments of the present application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which will not be described in detail here.

In this application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can refer to each other. In the various implementation methods in this application, unless otherwise specified and there is no logical conflict, the terms and/or descriptions between different implementation methods are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different implementation methods can be combined to form new embodiments based on their inherent logical relationships. The following description of the implementation methods of this application does 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 relevant technologies of the present application is first given as follows.

1. Non-terrestrial networks (NTN):

Compared to terrestrial communications, NTN communications offer significant advantages, including global coverage, long-distance transmission, flexible networking, easy deployment, and freedom from geographical restrictions. Consequently, they have been widely adopted in various fields. Based on the altitude of the flight platform above the ground, NTN can include a low-altitude platform (LAP) subnetwork, a high-altitude platform (HAP) subnetwork, and a satellite communications (SATCOM) subnetwork.

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.

2. Non-gazing mode (earth-moving) and gazing (earth-fixed or quasi-earth fixed) mode:

In satellite communication systems, beam operating modes can generally be divided into non-staring mode and staring mode. As shown in Figure 1 (a), in non-staring mode, the coverage area of the satellite beam moves with the satellite over a period of time (e.g., between time t0 and time t2). As shown in Figure 1 (b), in staring mode, the satellite dynamically adjusts the beam pointing over a period of time (e.g., between time t0 and time t2) so that the beam covers approximately the same area on the ground. However, in actual applications, due to issues with beam pointing accuracy and the distortion of beam projections on the ground at different incident angles, the coverage area of the beam in staring mode still experiences a certain degree of jitter over time.

For example, the embodiment of a beam in the protocol can be a spatial domain filter, or a spatial filter, or a spatial domain parameter, a spatial parameter, a spatial domain setting, a spatial setting, or quasi-colocation (QCL) information, a QCL assumption, a QCL indication, etc. The beam can be indicated by a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state (TCI-state) parameter or a spatial relation parameter. Therefore, in this application, beam can be replaced by spatial filter, spatial filter, spatial parameter, spatial parameter, spatial setting, spatial setting, QCL information, QCL assumption, QCL indication, TCI-state, spatial relation, etc. The above terms are also equivalent to each other. The beam in this application can also be replaced by other terms representing beams, and this application does not limit them.

3. NTN-related regional description:

As a first possible implementation, the antenna pattern, such as a given antenna model, can be used to calculate the corresponding contours of antenna gain or received power in different areas of the ground (which can be understood as the projection of the beam on the ground) to characterize the service area of the satellite/cell. This contour can also be understood as the beam position.

For example, Figure 2(a) shows the antenna gain pattern for a single GEO satellite 72-beam reference system. The ellipse represents the projection of the beam on the ground, or the beam position. Figure 2(b) shows the profile of the LEO satellite's beam in the latitude and longitude plane in non-staring mode.

In the first possible implementation, since the projection of the beam on the ground is understood as the beam position, the beam position can be considered statically bound to the beam. Therefore, this solution is commonly used in GEO satellite networks or satellite networks operating in non-staring mode. However, in staring mode, the inclination angle between the satellite and a certain area on the ground changes dynamically, and the beam projection also changes accordingly. This static binding of the beam position to the beam may no longer be applicable. Furthermore, since the projection of the beam on the ground is used as the beam position, parameters such as the beam reference point, the beam coverage area outline, and the satellite motion vector are usually required to determine the specific location of the beam position, resulting in significant signaling overhead.

As a second possible implementation, the Earth's surface can be divided into regular pentagonal or hexagonal grids based on the H3 geographic grid. This grid can be used to represent the service area of a satellite/cell. For example, the service area of a satellite/cell can include one or more grids. Each grid can be understood as a wave position. For example, when dividing based on the H3 geographic grid, the Earth is regarded as an icosahedron, each face of which is a spherical triangle with 12 vertices, called a spherical icosahedron. Each face of the spherical icosahedron has hexagons arranged in the same manner.

This second possible implementation supports hierarchical addressing of wave positions. For example, as shown in Figure 3, there are three types of regular hexagons: small, medium, and large. The regular hexagon with the smallest area represents the wave position, and the regular hexagons with the remaining two areas can be used for hierarchical addressing of wave positions. For ease of description, the following embodiments refer to the regular hexagons with the largest and second largest areas as the first and second regular hexagons, respectively.

Based on the example shown in Figure 3, when performing hierarchical addressing of wave positions, the index of the first regular hexagon can be understood as the first-level index of the wave position, the index of the second regular hexagon can be understood as the second-level index of the wave position, and the index of the regular hexagon with the smallest area can be understood as the third-level index of the wave position. When indexing a wave position, the first regular hexagon to which the wave position belongs can be first determined based on the first-level index, then the second regular hexagon to which the wave position in the first regular hexagon belongs can be determined based on the second-level index, and finally the wave position in the second regular hexagon can be determined based on the third-level index.

In the second possible implementation, only 16 different precisions of the beam radius are currently supported, which makes it difficult to adapt to different payload capacities (such as beam radius). For example, when the precision of the beam radius is an integer and the beam radius is not an integer, it may not be possible to accurately use the beam to represent the service area of the satellite/cell. In addition, when determining the specific geographical location of the beam based on the index value of the beam in this solution, it is usually necessary to determine it through an iterative loop, which cannot quickly calculate the exact location of the beam. Moreover, the index value of the beam is usually indicated by 64 bits, and the signaling overhead is also large.

4. Group switching and group reselection:

The movement of the satellite may cause group handover of connected terminal devices in a certain area, or group reselection of idle terminal devices in the area.

Taking group handover as an example, as shown in Figure 4, assume that a terminal cluster (denoted as UE-G1, which includes multiple user equipment (UE)) exists in region 2. At time T1, region 2 is served by one or more beams from satellite 2. At time T2, the movement of satellite 2 causes it to no longer serve region 2. Instead, one or more beams from satellite 1 take over. During this process, because the satellite covering region 2 changes, multiple UEs in UE-G1 undergo group handover, switching from satellite 2 to satellite 1.

Since the satellite moves at a relatively high speed, for example, the speed of a LEO satellite is about 7.5 km/s, the frequency of group switching is relatively high, about once every few seconds to tens of seconds.

5. Mobility Management

Mobility management mainly includes cell handover, cell reselection, registration update, and tracking area update. Taking cell handover as an example, as shown in Figure 5, the cell handover process in the terrestrial network mainly includes the following steps:

1) Cell Handover Measurement: The source base station (e.g., next-generation node B (gNodeB or gNB)) can send measurement configurations for multiple cells (including the serving cell and neighboring cells) to the terminal device. The terminal device measures the cell signal quality based on the measurement configurations. For example, the cell signal quality can be represented by reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or reference signal received quality (RSRQ).

2) Measurement Result Reporting: The terminal device reports the measurement results to the source base station. For example, the terminal device can report periodically or based on event triggering. For example, the reporting triggering event can be the signal quality of the serving cell being less than threshold 1 and/or the signal quality of the neighboring cell being greater than threshold 2.

3) Handover decision: The source base station selects a suitable neighboring cell as the target cell based on the measurement results and sends a handover request to the target base station, which carries context information related to the user handover.

4) Admission Control: After receiving the handover request, the target base station performs admission control. If the terminal device is allowed to access, it sends a handover request confirmation message to the source base station, which contains relevant information for the terminal device to access the target cell. After receiving the handover request confirmation message, the source base station sends a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message to the terminal device, which contains relevant information for accessing the target cell.

5) Handover execution: After receiving the handover-related information, the terminal device completes the access process in the target cell.

For example, the terminal device sends a random access preamble to the target cell to initiate random access in the target cell. Furthermore, the period of the random access channel (RACH) configured by the network during cell handover can be 10/20/40/80/160 milliseconds (ms).

During the cell reselection process, the base station broadcasts parameters such as the measurement configuration related to the neighboring cell. The terminal device compares the signal quality measurement value with the parameters sent by the network (such as the reselection threshold, etc.) and autonomously reselects to the target neighboring cell if the reselection conditions are met.

That is, in terrestrial networks, terminal devices perform cell handover or cell reselection based on signal quality. However, the near-far effect is not significant in NTNs, and cell handover or cell reselection based solely on signal quality is inefficient. Therefore, in group handover/group reselection scenarios triggered primarily by network mobility, NTN proposes to implement mobility management in NTN networks based on information such as time and location (such as the distance between the terminal device and the reference location (Reference Location) of the source cell and the reference location of the target cell). It is worth noting that the reference location here can also be referred to as a reference point, reference location point, location reference point, or reference point location.

However, when the mobility management solution based on location information and other information is applied to the group switching/group reselection scenario triggered by satellite mobility, it will lead to frequent configuration information updates. For example, the network needs to frequently update the reference point location information of the cell, resulting in a large signaling overhead for mobility-related configuration on the network side.

6. Beam management:

Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary beam management process in a terrestrial new radio (NR) system. First, a base station (e.g., a gNB) uses beam scanning within its cell coverage area to time-share synchronization signal block (SSB) beams in different directions. In response, a terminal device uses beam scanning to receive SSBs and measure the signal quality of each SSB beam.

Subsequently, if the terminal device is in the radio resource control (RRC) idle state, it performs random access (RA) and sends message 1 (Msg1) to the base station, which carries a random access preamble. The random access preamble carries the SSB index corresponding to the SSB beam with the best signal quality. After the base station receives the random access preamble using beam scanning, it can determine the SSB beam with the best signal quality as the downlink transmit beam. The base station can reuse this downlink transmit beam when receiving uplink signals. In addition, the beam used by the terminal device to receive downlink signals is the SSB beam with the best signal quality, and the downlink receive beam can be reused when sending uplink signals.

If the terminal device is in the RRC connected state, the terminal device sends the SSB measurement result to the base station via a measurement report. The base station determines the downlink transmit beam based on the SSB measurement result and reuses the downlink beam when receiving uplink signals. In addition, the base station can indicate the downlink transmit beam it has determined to the terminal device. The terminal device can determine the downlink receive beam that matches the downlink transmit beam based on the beam pairing result.

In addition, the base station can use a narrower channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) beam for beam management (BM) (CSI-RS for BM) for beam scanning near the downlink transmit beam (i.e., the optimal SSB beam).

Accordingly, the terminal device feeds back the CSI-RS for MB beam measurement results to the base station via a measurement report. Based on the measurement results, the base station determines a downlink transmit beam (e.g., the optimal CSI-RS for BM beam) and reuses this downlink transmit beam when receiving uplink signals. The terminal device can receive the CSI-RS for BM beam using beam scanning to determine a downlink receive beam (e.g., the optimal CSI-RS for BM beam) and reuse this downlink receive beam when sending uplink signals.

However, in NTN, the movement of the satellite causes the receiving beam on the terminal side to change frequently, which requires the network side to frequently configure the receiving waveform and transceiver time and frequency resources to the terminal, resulting in large signaling overhead.

In summary, the current NTN service area division method, mobility management in NTN, beam management and other processes all have the problem of large signaling overhead. Based on this, the present application provides a communication method, which can first discretize the ground into some initial areas, and then determine the sub-areas included in the initial area based on the initial area, subdivision level and sub-area determination criteria, so that the network side and the terminal device can communicate based on the sub-area identifier. For example, the network side can indicate its coverage area or service area to the terminal device through the sub-area identifier, or configure a reference sub-area through the sub-area identifier. Compared with the network side indicating its coverage area to the terminal device in an explicit manner (such as indicating longitude and latitude, beam pointing and angle, etc.), the signaling overhead can be significantly reduced.

In addition, the solution of the present application can further subdivide the initial area based on the subdivision level, so that the network side can flexibly determine the subdivision level based on actual application, thereby flexibly determining the number and size of sub-areas, thereby improving communication flexibility. Furthermore, since the initial area is divided by subdivision levels, and the initial area is usually fixed, it can be considered that the present application provides a unified sub-area division method (i.e., dividing the fixed initial area), so that network nodes can identify sub-areas at various subdivision levels, thereby improving communication performance.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be used in NTN systems. NTN systems may include, but are not limited to, satellite communication systems, high altitude platform station (HAPS) communications, drone communications, integrated communication and navigation (IcaN) systems, and global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). NTN systems can be integrated with traditional mobile communication systems. For example, the mobile communication systems may include fourth-generation (4G) communication systems (e.g., long-term evolution (LTE) systems), world-wide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication systems, fifth-generation (5G) communication systems (e.g., NR systems), device-to-device (D2D) communication systems, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication systems, Internet of Things (IoT) communication systems, Internet of Vehicles (IoV) communication systems, and future mobile communication systems.

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

As 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. The network device may include an access network device and/or a core network device. For example, terminal devices may communicate with each other, with network devices, and with each other via wired or wireless means.

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 water (such as ships, etc.); it may also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons and satellites, etc.).

Exemplarily, the terminal device can be a drone, an IoT device (e.g., a sensor, an electricity 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 wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device (also called a wearable smart device), a tablet computer or a computer with wireless transceiver capabilities, a virtual reality (VR) device, or a similar device. The present invention relates to wireless terminals for use in various fields, including virtual reality (VR) terminals, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self-driving, wireless terminals in remote medical care, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, in-vehicle terminals, vehicles with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capabilities, intelligent connected vehicles, and drones with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication capabilities. The terminal device may be mobile or fixed, and this application does not impose specific limitations on this.

Core network equipment is deployed in the core network (CN) of the mobile communications architecture. As a bearer network, the core network provides an interface to the data network, offering communication connectivity, authentication, management, policy control, and data service bearer services for terminal devices. Exemplary core network equipment includes, but is not limited to, access and mobility management function (AMF) network elements, session management function (SMF) network elements, authentication server function (AUSF) network elements, policy control function (PCF) network elements, and user plane function (UPF) network elements.

Access network equipment can be a network-side device with wireless transceiver capabilities, or it can be a chip, chip system, or module installed in the device. Access network equipment is located in the radio access network (RAN) of a mobile communication system and is used to provide access services to terminal devices. Access network equipment may include, but is not limited to, access network equipment deployed (or carried) on satellites, access network equipment deployed on aerial nodes, or access network equipment deployed on the ground.

The access network device deployed on a satellite or an aerial node can be a wireless relay node or a wireless backhaul node. For example, the access network device can serve as a layer 1 relay device to regenerate the physical layer signal (i.e., wireless frequency filtering, frequency conversion, and amplification processing) without having other higher protocol layers. Alternatively, the access network device deployed on a satellite or an aerial node can implement some or all of the functions of a base station. In this case, the access network device can also be called a satellite base station or an aerial base station, etc. Exemplarily, the satellite can be a LEO satellite, a MEO satellite, a GEO satellite, etc.; the aerial node can be an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), an aircraft, a high altitude platform (HAP), etc.

Access network equipment deployed on the ground is called a terrestrial base station. It can be an evolutionary Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in LTE or evolved LTE systems (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A), such as a traditional macro eNB or a micro eNB in heterogeneous network scenarios; or a next-generation Node B (gNodeB or gNB) in a 5G system; or a transmission reception point (TRP); or one or a group of antenna panels in a gNB; or a base station in a future evolved PLMN; or a device that implements base station functions in IoT, V2X, D2D, or M2M.

Alternatively, it can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU and DU, a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and DU can be separate or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or radio 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.

For example, in the case where the access network equipment is deployed on a satellite, or in other words, the access network equipment is a satellite, the communication system may further include an NTN gateway (or gateway station). Typically, 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 is called a feeder link.

As shown in Figure 7, when a satellite functions as a wireless relay node, or in other words, a satellite has relay and forwarding capabilities, the NTN gateway has base station functions or partial base station functions. In this case, the NTN gateway can function as a base station. Alternatively, the NTN gateway can be deployed separately from the base station. In other words, in addition to the NTN gateway, the communication system also includes ground base stations. Figure 7 illustrates the example of separate deployment of the NTN gateway and base station.

As shown in Figure 8, when a satellite can perform some or all of the functions of a base station, it has data processing capabilities and can be used as a base station. In this case, the NTN gateway and the satellite can transmit user-plane data from the terminal device via the satellite radio interface (SRI).

In addition, satellites can perform some or all of the functions of a base station. As shown in Figure 9, inter-satellite links (ISLs) exist between different satellites, allowing satellites to communicate via ISLs. Alternatively, as shown in Figure 10, a satellite can have the DU processing capabilities of a base station, or in other words, the satellite can act as a DU. In this scenario, the CU processing capabilities 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 Figures 7 to 10, 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 understood that as communication systems evolve, the names of the interfaces between the base station and the core network, between the base station and the terminal device, and between base stations may also change, and this application does not specifically limit this.

Optionally, when a satellite acts as a wireless relay node and has relay forwarding capabilities, the satellite can be considered to be operating in transparent mode. Transparent transmission can also be called bent-pipe forwarding transmission, where the signal only undergoes frequency conversion, signal amplification, and other processes on the satellite, and the satellite is transparent to the signal. When a satellite has data processing capabilities and can perform some or all of the functions of a base station, it can be considered to be operating in regenerative mode. A satellite may support only transparent mode, only regenerative mode, or both, and be able to switch between transparent mode and regenerative mode.

In some implementation scenarios, the NTN and terrestrial networks can be integrated. For example, Figure 11 illustrates a converged network architecture for the NTN and terrestrial networks, as provided in an embodiment of the present application. In the architecture shown in Figure 11, satellites 101 and 102 operate in regenerative mode, while satellite 103 operates in transparent mode. Furthermore, the architecture may include ground base stations 104 and 105, aerial base stations 106 and 107, and core network equipment.

For example, satellites, aerial base stations, and ground base stations can communicate directly or indirectly via wireless links, optical links, or other means. Satellites can provide communication, navigation, or positioning services to terminal devices using multiple beams. Satellites use multiple beams to cover their service area, and different beams can communicate using one or more of time division, frequency division, and space division. Satellites communicate wirelessly with terminal devices by broadcasting communication signals or navigation signals, and can also communicate wirelessly with ground-based devices.

It should be noted that the communication system described in the embodiment of the present application is intended to more clearly illustrate 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. Ordinary technicians in this field 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.

In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, before introducing the communication method provided by the present application, a brief introduction to the relevant terms provided by the present application is first given.

1. Region:

Unless otherwise specified, the term "region" in the following embodiments of this application refers to a geographical region. For example, a region may have at least one of the following attributes: shape, outline, size, radius, area, geographical location, etc.

"Region" can also have an altitude attribute, that is, a region can be understood as a geographical area of a given altitude or altitude range. By default, a region can refer to a geographical area with an altitude of 0 kilometers (km) above sea level or an altitude of about 0 km (such as in the range of [-2, 2] km), or a geographical area with an average altitude. In addition, it can also refer to geographical areas of other specific altitudes or specific altitude ranges, such as a geographical area with an altitude of 10 km above sea level, or a geographical area with an altitude of about 10 km (such as in the range of [7, 13] km).

In a possible implementation, the region may also be referred to as a "wavelength," a "geographical region," etc. Of course, other names are also possible, and this application does not specifically limit the name of the region.

The shapes, outlines, sizes, radii, and areas of different regions may or may not be the same. Different regions may have different geographical locations. Different regions may or may not overlap.

In one possible implementation, the region is fixed relative to the earth, or it can be understood that the region refers to a geographical area that is fixed relative to the earth. The region is fixed relative to the earth, which can be understood as: the outline, size or geographical location of the region does not change, for example, the outline, size or geographical location of the region does not change with time. Alternatively, the region is fixed relative to the earth, which can be understood as: the outline of the region and the points in the region can be described by a three-dimensional coordinate system such as earth-centered earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinates, a geodetic coordinate system, or an earth-centered inertial (ECI) coordinate system, or the coordinates of each point on the outline of the region in a three-dimensional coordinate system such as ECEF, geodetic coordinate system, or ECI coordinate system are fixed and unchanged.

In a possible embodiment, the shape of the region may be a regular hexagon, or other shapes such as a regular pentagon, a circle, an ellipse, etc. Alternatively, the shape of the region may be an irregular shape, which is not limited.

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

In a possible implementation, the earth may be divided into multiple regions, and the multiple regions may be indexed (eg, numbered).

As one possible division method, the geographic location of a region is determined by the region's identifier. That is, the geographic location of a region can be obtained based on the region's identifier, or in other words, there is a correlation between the region's identifier and the region's geographic location. For example, multiple regions can be discretized on the earth, each corresponding to an identifier, and the geographic location of the region can be obtained based on the region's identifier.

Furthermore, the geographical location of the area may be determined according to at least one of the following: the total number of areas N _spot , the radius of the area R _spot , or the radius of the earth _Re .

For example, the total number of regions can be understood as the total number of discrete regions on Earth. The N _spot regions can completely cover the Earth, e.g., any location on Earth belongs to a certain region; alternatively, the N _spot regions can cover a portion of Earth's geographic locations, e.g., the N _spot regions may not cover the South Pole and/or the North Pole, i.e., the South Pole and/or the North Pole may not contain such regions. N _spot is a positive integer, e.g., N _spot = 78702.

For example, the radii of the N _spot areas can be the same, that is, the radius of each area is R _spot . When the area is a regular hexagon, the radius of the area can be the radius of the circumcircle of the regular hexagon; when the area is a circle, the radius of the area can be the radius of the circle; when the area is an ellipse, the radius of the area can include a major radius or a minor radius. R _spot can be expressed in kilometers (km), for example, R _spot = 50 kilometers, or can be other length units such as meters (m), without limitation.

For example, in an embodiment of the present application, the radius of the earth can be a constant, such as 6378 km; or, the radius of the earth can be different for different time and space positions, for example, the radius of the earth can include the equatorial radius or the polar radius. For example, when dividing regions at the South Pole and/or the North Pole, the polar radius can be used; when dividing regions in non-polar regions, the equatorial radius can be used. Alternatively, when the earth is described by an ellipsoid (i.e., the shape of the earth is considered to be an ellipsoid), the radius of the earth may include a major axis and a minor axis, and the values of the major axis and the minor axis are different.

As a possible implementation, the total number of regions, the radius of the region, and the radius of the earth can be the same for each region, that is, the total number of regions, the radius of the region, and the radius of the earth can be considered constants. In this case, the variable affecting the geographical location of the region can be considered as the identifier of the region.

In one possible implementation, each region includes (or has) a reference location, which may be, for example, the center of the region. For example, the geographic location of a region may refer to the geographic location of the reference location in the region. In this case, the geographic location of the region is determined by the region's identifier, which can be understood as follows: the reference location in the region is determined by the region's identifier. Alternatively, the geographic location of the region may represent the outline of the region or the range of the region. In this case, the geographic location of the reference location in the region may be determined based on the region's identifier, and the range or outline of the region may be determined based on the geographic location of the reference location and the radius of the region.

As a possible implementation, the association relationship between the reference position of the region and the identifier of the region is determined based on the Fibonacci criterion, or in other words, the association relationship between the reference position of the region and the identifier of the region satisfies the Fibonacci criterion. Exemplarily, there are three implementations of this association relationship:

Method 1: The three-dimensional coordinates of the reference position of the region and the identifier of the region satisfy the following relationship (1):

Wherein, i represents the identifier of the region. _Re represents the radius of the earth. [x] represents the decimal part of x, such as x=2.3, then [x]=0.3. N _spot represents the total number of regions. RL(i) represents the three-dimensional coordinates of the reference position in the region, and the three-dimensional coordinates refer to the coordinates in the three-dimensional coordinate system. Exemplarily, the three-dimensional coordinate system can be a spherical coordinate system, such as the ECEF coordinate system. Of course, it can also be other three-dimensional coordinate systems, such as the geodetic coordinate system, the earth-centered inertial (ECI) coordinate system, etc.

As an example, the projection RL(x _i ,y _i ) of the reference position on the unit square (Unit Square) and the identifier of the region satisfy the following relationship:
RL( _xi ) = (1 - _cosθi ) / 2

Among them, θ _i and Refer to the above explanation. The unit square is the square in the Cartesian plane with vertices at (0,0), (1,0), (0,1), and (1,1). RL( _xi ) represents the projection metric of the reference position onto the unit square's x-axis, and RL( _yi ) represents the projection metric of the reference position onto the unit square's y-axis.

As another example, the Cartesian coordinates RL( _xi , _yi ) of the reference position in the Fibonacci grid and the identifier of the region satisfy the following relationship:
RL( _xi )＝i/ _Nspot

Where [x] represents the decimal part of x. It can also be expressed as frac(z) returns the fractional part of z. RL( _xi ) represents the projection metric of the region's reference position on the x-axis in a Cartesian coordinate system, and RL( _y ) represents the projection metric of the region's reference position on the y-axis in a Cartesian coordinate system. For example, the Cartesian coordinate system refers to a rectangular Cartesian coordinate system.

Method 2: The three-dimensional coordinates of the reference position of the region and the identifier of the region satisfy the following relationship (2):

The physical meaning of each parameter can be found in the relevant description in the above relationship (1), which will not be repeated here.

It can be understood that the three-dimensional coordinates of the reference positions shown in the above relationship (1) and relationship (2) can be equivalently converted into longitude and latitude positions, and this application does not limit the specific form of expression of the reference position.

Method 3: The latitude and longitude coordinates of the reference position of the region and the identifier of the region satisfy the following relationship (3):

Where RL(i) represents the latitude and longitude coordinates of the reference location, for example, lon(i) represents the longitude of the reference location, and lat(i) represents the latitude of the reference location. The units of lon(i) and lat(i) are radians (rad). N _spot represents the total number of spots.

It can be understood that the latitude and longitude coordinates of the reference position shown in the above relationship (3) can be equivalently converted into three-dimensional coordinates, and this application does not limit the specific form of expression of the reference position.

As a possible implementation, the radius of the region and the total number of regions satisfy the following relationship (4):

Where _Re represents the radius of the Earth, _Nspot represents the total number of spots, and _Rspot represents the radius of a spot. For explanations of each parameter, refer to the previous description and will not be repeated here.

In one possible implementation, the area in the embodiment of the present application may include at least one of a first type area, a second type area, or a third type area. The first type area corresponds to a broadcast beam, the second type area corresponds to a service beam, and the third type area corresponds to a tracking area (TA).

Illustratively, the first type of area may be an area that can be served or covered by a broadcast beam of an access network device, or the first type of area corresponds to the service or coverage of a broadcast beam. A broadcast beam may be used to send and/or receive broadcast information (such as system information). The broadcast beam may be, for example, an SSB beam; the broadcast beam may be a wide beam.

The second type of area may be an area that can be served or covered by a service beam of an access network device, or the second type of area corresponds to the service or coverage of a service beam. A service beam may be used to send and/or receive service data. A service beam may include a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) beam, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) beam, a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS), etc. A service beam may be a narrow beam.

The third type of area can correspond to the size information of the tracking area. For example, a third type of area can be understood as a tracking area. In this case, the size of the third type of area is the size of the tracking area.

For example, the first type of area may also be referred to as a "broadcast area," "broadcast waveband," or "broadcast geographic area," the second type of area may also be referred to as a "service area," "service waveband," or "service geographic area," and the third type of area may also be referred to as a "tracking area waveband." This application does not limit the specific names of the three types of areas.

Based on the above-mentioned area division method, on the one hand, the coordinates of the reference position in the area can be quickly and accurately determined according to the identification of the area, so that the outline, geographical location, etc. of the area can be quickly and accurately determined. On the other hand, the radius of the area can be flexibly adjusted to adapt to different load capacities, such as adapting to different beam radii. On the other hand, since the geographical location of the area can be determined by the identification of the area, information exchange can be carried out between network equipment and terminal equipment based on the identification of the area. Compared with directly exchanging information such as beam reference points and beam coverage area outlines, signaling overhead can be significantly reduced; compared with the division method based on the H3 geographic grid, since the total number of areas is relatively small, the number of bits required to indicate the area identification is also small, which can also reduce signaling overhead.

2. Coverage area of access network equipment:

The coverage area of an access network device may refer to the maximum area that the access network device can cover, or in other words, the coverage area of the access network device indicates (or reflects) the maximum coverage capability of the access network device.

When the access network equipment is deployed on a satellite or aerial platform, the coverage area of the access network equipment changes with the movement of the access network equipment, that is, the coverage area of the access network equipment may be different at different times. The coverage area of the access network equipment includes at least one of the above-mentioned areas (i.e., wavebands).

Since the coverage area of the access network device changes with the movement of the access network device, and the area (wavelength) is fixed relative to the earth, the wavelength included in the coverage area of the access network device may be different at different times.

For example, taking the shape of a regular hexagon as an example, as shown in Figure 12, the elliptical solid line can represent the coverage area of the access network device. The areas represented by all regular hexagons in the elliptical solid line are the areas included in the coverage area of the access network device.

3. Service area of access network equipment:

The service area of an access network device may refer to the maximum area that a beam of the access network device can serve (or cover), or in other words, the service area of the access network device indicates (or reflects) the maximum service capability of the access network device.

The service area of the access network device is smaller than or equal to the coverage area of the access network device. For example, based on the example shown in FIG12 , the service area of the access network device may be the range indicated by the solid ellipse, in which case the service area of the access network device is equal to the coverage area of the first access network device; alternatively, the service area of the access network device may be smaller than the range indicated by the solid ellipse.

When an access network device is deployed on a satellite or aerial platform, its service area changes as the device moves. This means the service area may be different at different times. The service area of an access network device includes at least one of the aforementioned areas (i.e., wavebands).

Since the service area of the access network device changes with the movement of the access network device, and the area (wavelength) is fixed relative to the earth, the wavelengths included in the service area of the access network device may be different at different times.

In addition, at a certain moment, the beam of the access network device may actually serve (or cover) part of the service area, and at different moments, the beam of the access network device may serve (or cover) different areas in the service area. For example, as shown in (a) of Figure 12, at time T1, the beam of the access network device serves areas x1, x2, and x3 in the service area; as shown in (b) of Figure 12, at time T2, the beam of the access network device serves areas y1, y2, y3, and y4 in the service area.

4. Activation area of access network equipment:

The area currently being served (or covered) by the beam of the access network device can be called an active area or an activated area. The area currently not being served (or covered) by the beam of the access network device can be called an inactive area or an inactive area.

The following describes the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application, taking the interaction between a terminal device and a network device as an example, in conjunction with the above-mentioned communication system. It should be noted that in the following embodiments of the present application, the message names, parameter names, or information names between the terminal device and the network device are merely examples, and other names may be used in other embodiments, and the method provided in the present application does not specifically limit this.

It is understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device or network device may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application. These steps or operations are merely examples, and the embodiments of the present application may also perform other operations or variations of various operations. In addition, the various steps may be performed in a different order than those presented in the embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all of the operations in the embodiments of the present application need to be performed.

It is understandable that this application uses network devices and terminal devices as examples to illustrate the execution subjects of the interaction diagram, but this application does not limit the execution subjects of the interaction diagram. For example, the method executed by the network device in this application can also be executed by a module (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor) applied to the network device, and can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the network device; the method executed by the terminal device in this application can also be executed by a module (such as a chip, a chip system, or a processor) applied to the terminal device, and can also be implemented by a logical node, a logical module, or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the terminal device.

In addition, in this application, "sending information" can be understood as one device sending information to another device, or it can also be understood as one logic module within a device sending information to another logic module. For example, "a network device sending information" can be understood as the network device sending information to another device (such as a terminal device), or it can be understood as logic module 1 (such as a processing module) in the network device sending information to logic module 2 (such as a transceiver module) in the network device.

In this application, "receiving information" can be understood as one device receiving information from another device, or it can also be understood as a logic module within a device receiving information from another logic module. For example, "a terminal device receiving information" can be understood as the terminal device receiving information from another device (such as a network device), or it can be understood as logic module 1 (such as a processing module) in the terminal device receiving information from logic module 2 (such as a transceiver module) in the terminal device.

In this application, "sending information to... (e.g., a terminal device)" or the related diagrams in the accompanying drawings can be understood as the destination end of the information being the terminal device. This can include sending information to the terminal device directly or indirectly, for example, after the sending end sends the information, it reaches the destination end through forwarding by an intermediate device. "Receiving information from... (e.g., a network device)" or "receiving information from... (e.g., a network device)" or "receiving information sent by (e.g., a network device)", or the related diagrams in the accompanying drawings can be understood as the source end of the information being the network device, which can include receiving information directly or indirectly from the network device. The information may be processed as necessary between the source end and the destination end of the information transmission, such as format changes, encapsulation changes, etc., but the destination end can understand the valid information from the source end. Similar expressions in this application can be understood similarly and will not be repeated here.

The following describes a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. Referring to FIG13 , which is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, the communication method may include the following steps:

S1301. A first network device obtains configuration information of a sub-area.

The configuration information indicates an initial region and a subdivision level. The initial region, subdivision level, and subregion determination criteria are used to determine a subregion. A subregion is included in the initial region, that is, the subregion can be smaller than or equal to the initial region.

In one possible implementation, the initial region meets all the characteristics of the region described above. For example, the reference position of the initial region is determined by an identifier of the initial region. Furthermore, the reference position of the initial region is determined based on at least one of the following: the radius of the initial region, the radius of the Earth, or the total number of initial regions. The total number of initial regions can be understood as the total number of initial regions discretely defined on the Earth. For details on regions, refer to the above description and are not further elaborated here.

For example, Figure 14 shows the distribution of initial regions discretized using the above discretization method when the total number of initial regions is 197. Figure 15 shows the distribution of initial regions discretized using the above discretization method when the total number of initial regions is 78,702. The circles represent the reference positions of the initial regions, and the polygons centered at the reference positions represent the shapes of the initial regions.

As a possible implementation, the configuration information indicating the initial area may include: the configuration information indicating a radius R _spot of the initial area and/or a total number N _spot of the initial areas.

Exemplarily, when the total number of initial areas is known, the identification of the initial areas can be obtained, for example, the identification of the initial areas belongs to 0, 1, ..., N _spot -1 or 1, 2, ..., N _spot . Based on the identification of each initial area, the reference position of each initial area can be obtained, for example, the identification of the initial area and its reference position satisfy one of the above-mentioned relationships (1) to (3), so that the geographical locations of N _spot initial areas can be known, that is, the distribution of the initial areas can be known.

In addition, when the radius of the initial area is known, the total number of initial areas can be determined based on the relationship between the radius of the initial area and the total number of initial areas, such as the above relationship (4), and then the reference position of each initial area can be determined based on the identification of the initial area, thereby determining the distribution of the initial areas.

Exemplarily, the configuration information may include the total number of initial areas N _spot and/or the specific value of the radius R _spot of the initial area. Alternatively, the protocol may predefine multiple total numbers of initial areas, or the first network device and the terminal device may pre-negotiate multiple total numbers of initial areas. For example, the first network device may pre-configure multiple total numbers of initial areas to the terminal device through RRC signaling. In this scenario, the configuration information may include an initial area total number index, which corresponds to one of the multiple initial area total numbers. For example, the initial area total number index may be carried in a media access control (MAC) control element (CE) or downlink control information (DCI). For example, a total number of N initial areas is defined, and the configuration information may include an index n, n∈1,2,…,N, then the total number of initial areas indicated by the configuration information is the nth total number of initial areas among the N total numbers of initial areas.

In a possible implementation, the subdivision level may be 0 or a positive integer. A higher subdivision level means a greater number of sub-areas. For example, the total number of sub-areas may be 4 ^L N _spot , where L represents the subdivision level and N _spot represents the total number of initial areas.

It can be understood that when the subdivision level is 0, it may indicate that the initial area has not been subdivided, or that the sub-area is the same as the initial area.

In one possible implementation, the sub-region determination criteria include: the projection of the sub-region's reference position on a unit square is determined based on the subdivision level; and the sub-region's reference position is determined based on the projection of the sub-region's reference position on the unit square. Furthermore, the sub-region's reference position is determined based on the projection of the sub-region's reference position on the unit square and the total number of initial regions. That is, the projection of the sub-region's reference position on a unit square can be first determined based on the subdivision level, and then the sub-region's reference position is determined based on the projection of the sub-region's reference position on the unit square and the total number of initial regions.

Exemplarily, the projection RL( _xi , _yi ) of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square satisfies the following relationship:

Where i represents the identifier of the subregion, L represents the subdivision level, and N _spots represents the total number of initial regions. In addition, the projection of the reference position of each subregion on the unit square satisfies the following recursive relationship:
RL(x _i ,y _i )=F _i RL(x ₁ ,y ₁ )+F _i RL(x ₀ ,y ₀ )

Therefore, the network device or terminal device may first calculate the projections of the reference positions of sub-area 0 and sub-area 1 on the unit square, and then determine the projections of the reference positions of sub-areas 2 to 4 ^L N _spot -1 on the unit square based on the recursive relationship.

For example, after determining the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square, RL( _xi , _yi ) can be substituted into the left side of the following equations to determine _θi and
RL( _xi ) = (1 - _cosθi ) / 2

Determine θ _i and After that, θ _i and Substitute the above relationship (1), that is, substitute The reference position RL(i) of the sub-region can be obtained. Since i∈{0,…,4 ^L N _spot -1}, that is, i is related to the subdivision level, the reference position of the sub-region can also be recorded as RL(i,L).

It is understandable that when i∈{0,…,N _spot -1}, the sub-region index is the same as the initial region index, and the reference position of the sub-region corresponding to the same index is the same as the reference position of the initial region. In this case, the reference positions of sub-regions 0 to N _spot -1 can also be determined according to the above relationship 1. However, when the subdivision level is not 0, the size of the sub-region corresponding to the same index is different from the size of the initial region, and the sub-region corresponding to the index includes part of the area in the initial region corresponding to the index.

For example, taking the total number of initial areas N _spot = 64 as an example, as shown in Figure 16, (a) is a schematic diagram of the reference position of the initial area, (b) is a schematic diagram of the reference position of the sub-area when the subdivision level L = 1, and (c) is a schematic diagram of the reference position of the sub-area when the subdivision level L = 2. The black solid circle in (a) represents the reference position of the initial area, or the reference position of the sub-area when the subdivision level is 0, the black hollow circle in (b) represents the reference position of the sub-area newly added based on (a), and the gray solid circle in (c) represents the reference position of the sub-area newly added based on (b).

In one possible implementation, the initial area may include at least one of the first, second, or third categories of areas. For details, refer to the aforementioned description and are not further described here. Accordingly, the configuration information may indicate at least one of the following: the radius and/or total number of first category areas, the radius and/or total number of second category areas, or the radius and/or total number of third category areas.

For example, the radius or total number of the three types of areas may be the same, in which case the configuration information may configure one radius or total number; or the radius or total number of the three types of areas may be different from each other, in which case the configuration information may configure the radius and/or total number for each of the three types of areas respectively; or, if the radius or total number of two types of areas among the three types of areas is the same, and the radius or total number of the other type of areas is different from it, then the configuration information may configure two sets of radius or total numbers.

In one possible implementation, the sub-area may include at least one of a first-category sub-area, a second-category sub-area, or a third-category sub-area. The first-category sub-area corresponds to a broadcast beam and is a sub-area of the first-category area; the second-category sub-area corresponds to a service beam and is a sub-area of the second-category area; and the third-category sub-area corresponds to a tracking area and is a sub-area of the second-category area.

As a possible implementation, the subdivision level indicated by the configuration information may include the subdivision level corresponding to the first type of sub-area (recorded as the first subdivision level), the subdivision level corresponding to the second type of sub-area (recorded as the second subdivision level), or the third type of subdivision level (recorded as the third subdivision level).

Optionally, the first type of area, the first subdivision level, and the sub-area determination criteria are used to determine the first type of sub-area; the second type of area, the second subdivision level, and the sub-area determination criteria are used to determine the second type of sub-area; and the third type of area, the third subdivision level, and the sub-area determination criteria are used to determine the third type of sub-area. Reference is made to the aforementioned description of determining sub-areas based on the initial area, subdivision level, and sub-area determination criteria, and will not be repeated here.

As another possible implementation, the subdivision level indicated by the configuration information may include subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices. The multiple network devices may include the first network device. The multiple network devices may include different types of access network devices, such as access network devices deployed on satellites, access network devices deployed on aerial platforms, and ground base stations. Different types of access network devices may correspond to different subdivision levels.

As an example, the subdivision level corresponding to the access network device may be associated with location or angle information. The angle information may be beam angle, elevation angle of the terminal device, antenna angle, etc.

For example, the correlation between the subdivision level and the beam angle may be as shown in Table 1.

Table 1

For another example, different subdivision levels can be used near the sub-satellite point and near the satellite edge point. For example, subdivision level _Lx is used near the sub-satellite point, and subdivision level _Ly is used near the satellite edge point. Using different subdivision levels at different locations can be used to dynamically adjust the distance between reference positions. As shown in Figure 17, reference position 1 and reference positions 2-6 can be reference positions determined based on different subdivision levels. Through different subdivision levels, different cell coverage ranges at different angles (such as elevation angle or antenna angle) can be adapted to improve the efficiency of mobility management.

In one possible implementation, the configuration information may configure multiple sets of initial area information and subdivision levels. For example, the total number of initial areas, N _{spot_1} , and subdivision level, L1, the total number of initial areas, N _{spot_2} , and subdivision level, L2, and the total number of initial areas, N _{spot_3} , and subdivision level, L3, may be configured. In this case, the first network device may also indicate to the terminal device the configuration to be ultimately used.

In one possible implementation, the first network device may be an access network device or a core network device. If the first network device is an access network device, the first network device may be deployed on a satellite or an aerial platform, or the first network device may be a ground base station. If the first network device is deployed on a satellite or an aerial platform, the first network device may have some or all base station functions, or the first network device may be used for transparent forwarding.

Optionally, when the first network device is deployed on a satellite or an aerial platform and has some or all base station functions, or when the first network device is a ground base station or a core network device, the first network device obtaining the sub-area configuration information may include: the first network device determining or generating the sub-area configuration information. When the first network device is deployed on a satellite or an aerial platform and is used for transparent forwarding, the first network device obtaining the sub-area configuration information may include: the first network device receiving the sub-area configuration information from the core network device or the ground base station.

S1302: The first network device sends sub-area configuration information. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the sub-area configuration information.

In one possible implementation, when the first network device is an access network device, the first network device may send the configuration information via broadcast. In this case, the terminal device may be any terminal device that receives the configuration information. Alternatively, the first network device may send the configuration information to the terminal device via unicast, for example, by sending the configuration information to the terminal device via an RRC connection between the first network device and the terminal device.

In another possible implementation, when the first network device is a core network device, the first network device may send the sub-area configuration information to the terminal device via the access network device. For example, the first network device may send the sub-area configuration information to the access network device, and the access network device may then send the configuration information via broadcast or unicast.

In one possible implementation, after receiving the sub-area configuration information, the terminal device may determine the distribution of each sub-area based on the initial area, subdivision level, and sub-area determination criteria. For example, the terminal device may determine the reference location of each sub-area, the sub-area topology or coverage (such as the adjacency relationship between sub-areas), etc. If a third type of sub-area exists, the size of the tracking area corresponding to the third type of sub-area may also be determined.

For example, the method for determining the reference position of the sub-area can refer to the relevant description in step S1301. Once the reference position of the sub-area is determined, the adjacency relationship between the sub-areas can be determined. Once the reference position and radius of the third type of sub-area are known, the size and geographic location of the third type of sub-area can be known, and the size of the third type of sub-area can be determined as the size of the tracking area.

S1303. The terminal device communicates according to the configuration information of the sub-area.

Exemplarily, the terminal device communicates according to the configuration information of the sub-area, which can also be understood as the terminal device using the configuration information of the sub-area to assist in communication. The communication may include at least one of initial access, beam management, mobility management, or tracking area update.

In a possible implementation, as shown in FIG18 , the terminal device communicating according to the sub-area configuration information may include the following steps S1303a and S1303b:

S1303a. The terminal device determines a sub-area identifier according to the location information of the terminal device and the configuration information of the sub-area.

As a possible implementation, the location information of the terminal device may be GNSS location information of the terminal device. The sub-area identifier is an identifier of the sub-area where the terminal device is located.

As a possible implementation, after receiving the configuration information of the sub-area, the terminal device can determine the identifier of each sub-area based on the configuration information of the sub-area, for example, the identifier of the sub-area belongs to 0, 1, ..., 4 ^L N _spot -1. Based on the identifier of each sub-area, the reference position of each sub-area can be obtained, for example, the identifier of the sub-area and its reference position satisfy one of the above-mentioned relationships (1) to (3). Then, based on the location information of the terminal device, the distance between the terminal device and the reference position of each sub-area is obtained, and then the sub-area to which the reference position closest to the terminal device belongs is determined as the sub-area where the terminal device is located. In the case where the distance between the reference positions of multiple sub-areas and the terminal device is the same and closest, the terminal device can determine that the above-mentioned sub-area identifier includes the identifiers of the multiple sub-areas.

As a possible implementation, when the initial area includes a first-category area, a second-category area, or a third-category area, the sub-area identifier may include at least one of an identifier of the first sub-area, an identifier of the second sub-area, or an identifier of the third sub-area. The first sub-area is the first-category sub-area where the terminal device is located, the second sub-area is the second-category sub-area where the terminal device is located, and the third sub-area is the third-category sub-area where the terminal device is located. Exemplarily, the terminal device may determine the identifiers and reference locations of various sub-areas based on the configuration information, and then determine the first-category sub-area, the second-category sub-area, or the third-category sub-area where the terminal device is located based on the location information of the terminal device.

As another possible implementation, when the subdivision level includes subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices, the sub-area identifier may include the sub-area where the terminal device is located in the multiple sub-areas corresponding to each network device. For example, when the subdivision level includes at least one of the subdivision levels corresponding to the first network device, the second network device, or the third network device, the sub-area identifier includes at least one of the identifier of the fourth sub-area, the identifier of the fifth sub-area, or the identifier of the sixth sub-area. The fourth sub-area is the fourth type of sub-area where the terminal device is located, the fifth sub-area is the fifth type of sub-area where the terminal device is located, and the sixth sub-area is the sixth type of sub-area where the terminal device is located.

The fourth type of sub-area is determined based on the initial area, the subdivision level corresponding to the first network device, and the sub-area determination criteria; the fifth type of sub-area is determined based on the initial area, the subdivision level corresponding to the second network device, and the sub-area determination criteria; and the sixth type of sub-area is determined based on the initial area, the subdivision level corresponding to the third network device, and the sub-area determination criteria. The first network device, the second network device, or the third network device can be of different types. For example, the three network devices may be an access network device deployed on a satellite, an access network device deployed on an aerial platform, and a ground base station.

S1303b: The terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier. Exemplarily, the communication may include one or more of initial access, beam management, and mobility management.

As a possible implementation, if the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area and the identifier of the second sub-area, then when the terminal device is in an RRC non-connected state (such as an RRC idle state or an RRC deactivated state), the terminal device communicates according to the identifier of the first sub-area; when the terminal device is in an RRC connected state, the terminal device communicates according to the identifier of the second sub-area.

As a possible implementation, the terminal device communicating may include: the terminal device accessing the network device (such as initiating random access), or information and/or data transmission between the terminal device and the network device. Exemplarily, when the terminal device is in an RRC non-connected state, the terminal device accesses the network device; when the terminal device is in an RRC connected state, information and/or data transmission is performed between the terminal device and the network device.

In another possible implementation, as shown in FIG18 , the terminal device communicating according to the sub-area configuration information may include the following step S1303c:

S1303c: The terminal device updates the tracking area according to the configuration information of the sub-area. The specific implementation of step S1303c will be described in detail in subsequent embodiments and will not be repeated here.

Based on the above scheme, the ground can be discretized into some initial areas first, and then the sub-areas included in the initial area can be determined based on the initial area, the subdivision level and the sub-area determination criteria, so that the network side and the terminal device can communicate based on the sub-area identifier. For example, the network side can indicate its coverage area or service area to the terminal device through the sub-area identifier, or configure a reference sub-area through the sub-area identifier. Compared with the network side indicating its coverage area to the terminal device in an explicit manner (such as indicating longitude and latitude, beam pointing and angle, etc.), the signaling overhead can be significantly reduced.

In addition, the solution of the present application can further subdivide the initial area based on the subdivision level, so that the network side can flexibly determine the subdivision level based on actual application, thereby flexibly determining the number and size of sub-areas, thereby improving the flexibility of communication. Furthermore, since the initial area is divided by subdivision level, and the initial area is usually fixed, it can be considered that the present application provides a unified sub-area division method (i.e., dividing the fixed initial area), so that network nodes can identify sub-areas at various subdivision levels and obtain the adjacency relationship between different sub-areas, reducing the complexity of network location management, realizing area-based service characteristic aggregation analysis, and thus improving communication performance.

The above describes the overall process of the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The implementation of the above steps S1303b and S1303c is described in detail below. For example, step S1303b can be implemented in the following eight ways:

Mode 1: When the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, as shown in FIG19 , the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

S130311. The terminal device determines first access information corresponding to the first sub-area according to the identifier of the first sub-area.

In a possible implementation, the first network device also sends first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area. The first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area can be carried in the same message as the configuration information of the sub-area. In this case, the first access information can be included in the configuration information of the sub-area or not; or, the first access information and the configuration information of the sub-area can be in different messages. Exemplarily, the first network device sends the first access information corresponding to each first type of sub-area within the coverage area or service area of the first network device, or the first network device sends the first access information corresponding to each activated first type of sub-area of the first network device.

The first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area is used for a terminal device in the first type of sub-area to access the first network device. Exemplarily, the first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area includes at least one of the following: a random access occasion (RACH occasion, RO), a random access preamble, a timing advance (TA), or a first time period.

Exemplarily, the RO indicates time domain and/or frequency domain resources occupied by a random access channel (RACH). The first time period is a time period during which a beam of the first network device serves the first type of sub-area, or the first time period is a time period during which access to the first network device is allowed, or the first time period is a time period during which the RO, random access preamble, and TA are valid.

Optionally, the first access information corresponding to different first-type sub-areas in the coverage area or service area of the first network device may be the same or different; the access information corresponding to different activated first-type sub-areas of the first network device may be the same or different. This application does not make specific limitations on this.

Based on the above implementation, after receiving the first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area, the terminal device can search according to the identifier of the first sub-area. The first access information corresponding to the identifier of the first sub-area is the first access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

S130312. The terminal device accesses the first network device according to the first access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

In one possible implementation, accessing the first network device may include: initiating random access to the first network device, or initiating random access to access the first network device. Exemplarily, the terminal device may send a random access preamble to the first network device on the RO indicated by the first access information corresponding to the first sub-area within the first time period.

Based on the above-described first approach, since the first network device can indicate the first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area, terminal devices in the first type of sub-area can access the first network device based on the first access information. Thus, the first network device can indicate different random access resources for different first type sub-areas, allowing terminal devices in different first type sub-areas to access the first network device using different random access resources, thereby reducing resource collisions when terminal devices perform random access, thereby improving the access success rate.

In one possible implementation, if the subdivision level configured in the sub-area configuration information includes subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices, the first network device may also send access information corresponding to each network device. For example, based on the example in step S1303a above, the first network device may send at least one of the following: access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area of the first network device, access information corresponding to the fifth sub-area of the second network device, or access information corresponding to the sixth sub-area of the third network device. After the terminal device accesses the access information corresponding to each network device, it may access a network device based on the access information corresponding to that network device.

Mode 2: When the sub-area includes the second type of sub-area and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the second sub-area, as shown in FIG20 , the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

S130321. The terminal device determines the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area according to the identifier of the second sub-area.

In one possible implementation, the first network device also sends communication resource information corresponding to the second-type sub-area. The communication resource information corresponding to the second-type sub-area can be carried in the same message as the sub-area configuration information, or can be carried in different messages. Exemplarily, the first network device sends the communication resource information corresponding to each second-type sub-area within the coverage area or service area of the first network device, or the communication resource information corresponding to each activated second-type sub-area of the first network device.

The communication resources indicated by the communication resource information corresponding to the second type of sub-area are used for information transmission by terminal devices in the second type of sub-area. Exemplarily, the communication resources corresponding to the second type of sub-area include at least one of the following: frequency domain resources, polarization mode, or second time period.

Exemplarily, the second time period is the time period in which the beam of the first network device serves the second type of sub-area, or the second time period is the available time period of the frequency domain resource, or the second time period is the effective time period of the frequency domain resource.

Optionally, the communication resource information corresponding to the second type of sub-area can also be understood as the bandwidth part (BWP) information corresponding to the second type of sub-area. In this case, the frequency domain resource can be understood as the frequency of the BWP, such as the center frequency of the BWP.

Optionally, the communication resources corresponding to different second-type sub-areas in the coverage area or service area of the first network device may be the same or different; the communication resources corresponding to different activated second-type sub-areas of the first network device may be the same or different. This application does not impose any specific limitation on this.

Based on the above implementation, after receiving the communication resource information of the second type of sub-area, the terminal device can search according to the identifier of the second sub-area. The communication resource corresponding to the identifier of the second sub-area is the communication resource corresponding to the second sub-area.

S130322: The terminal device sends information A on the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area. Correspondingly, the first network device receives information A on the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area. Information A indicates an identifier of the second sub-area.

Exemplarily, the first terminal device may send information A to the first network device on the frequency domain resources corresponding to the second sub-area within the second time period.

Exemplarily, information A may include an identifier of the second sub-area. Alternatively, information A may include a bitmap, wherein the bits in the bitmap correspond one-to-one to the identifier of the second type of sub-area within the coverage area or service area of the first network device. The terminal device may set the bit in the bitmap corresponding to the identifier of the second sub-area to a preset value (e.g., "1" or "0"). That is, the identifier corresponding to the bit in the bitmap set to the preset value is the identifier of the second sub-area.

In a possible implementation, after receiving the information A and learning the identifier of the second sub-area, the first network device may perform location identification of the terminal device according to the identifier of the second sub-area.

For example, it is assumed that the terminal device has sent the location of the terminal device (referred to as location 1) to the first network device before step S130322. After the first network device learns the identifier of the second sub-area, it can determine the reference location of the second sub-area based on one or more of the above relationships (1) to (3), and then determine the range of the second sub-area in combination with the radius of the second sub-area. If location 1 is within the second sub-area, or the distance between location 1 and the reference location of the second sub-area is less than or equal to a preset threshold, the first network device considers location 1 to be true.

In another possible implementation, after receiving information A and learning the identifier of the second sub-area, the first network device can determine the reference location of the second sub-area (denoted as location 2) based on the identifier of the second sub-area. Furthermore, combining the radius of the first sub-area and the total number of first sub-areas, the first sub-area in which location 2 is located is determined, and the first sub-area in which location 2 is located is determined as the first sub-area (i.e., the first sub-area) in which the terminal device is located. That is, the first network device can determine the first sub-area in which the terminal device is located based on the identifier of the second sub-area.

In another possible implementation, after receiving information A and learning the identifier of the second sub-area, the first network device may perform measurement configuration for the terminal device in the second sub-area. For example, neighboring cell set 1 may be configured for the terminal device in the second sub-area so that the terminal device in the second sub-area can measure neighboring cells in neighboring cell set 1.

Optionally, the first network device may configure different neighboring cell sets for different second-type sub-areas, for example, configuring neighboring cell set 1 for terminal devices in second-type sub-area 1, and configuring neighboring cell set 2 for terminal devices in second-type sub-area 2. Based on this implementation, compared to configuring a larger neighboring cell set for all terminal devices, such as configuring neighboring cell set 1 + neighboring cell set 2, it is possible to avoid unnecessary measurements by the terminal device, reduce the measurement complexity of the terminal device, and reduce the power consumption of the terminal device.

In another possible implementation, after receiving the information A and learning the identifier of the second sub-area, the first network device may perform beam management according to the identifier of the second sub-area.

For example, the first network device can determine the first type of sub-area in which the terminal device is located based on the identifier of the second sub-area, that is, determine that the terminal device is in the first sub-area. Subsequently, the second sub-area beam and the first sub-area beam can be configured for the terminal device to satisfy the QCL relationship, allowing the terminal device to dynamically and autonomously adjust the beam based on the second sub-area beam or the first sub-area beam. Compared to traditional beam matching solutions based solely on signal quality, this can improve the speed and flexibility of beam matching.

Based on the second approach described above, since the first network device can indicate the identifier of the second-type sub-area and its corresponding communication resource, terminal devices in the second-type sub-area can use this communication resource to communicate with the first network device. Consequently, the first network device can indicate different communication resources for different second-type sub-areas, allowing terminal devices in different second-type sub-areas to communicate with the first network device using different resources, reducing resource collisions and thereby improving communication performance.

In one possible implementation, if the subdivision levels configured in the sub-area configuration information include subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices, in step S1303b above, the terminal device may indicate the identifiers of the sub-areas corresponding to the respective network devices in which it is located. For example, based on the example in step 1303a, the terminal device may indicate one or more of the identifiers of the fourth sub-area, the fifth sub-area, or the sixth sub-area.

It is understandable that the above-mentioned method 1 and method 2 can be executed separately or in combination. For example, after the terminal device accesses the first network device according to the identifier of the first sub-area, it can send the first information to the first network device.

Mode 3: When the sub-area includes the first sub-area and/or the second sub-area, and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area and/or the identifier of the second sub-area, the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

The terminal device communicates according to the identifier of the first sub-area during the time period when the first sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device, and/or the terminal device communicates according to the identifier of the second sub-area during the time period when the second sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device.

In one possible implementation, the first network device may indicate to the terminal device the time period during which the first sub-area and/or the second sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device, so that the terminal device communicates according to the identifier of the first sub-area and/or the identifier of the second sub-area during the time period. Exemplarily, the first network device may provide the indication in the following ways:

Mode 1: The first network device sends information B and/or information C to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives information B and/or information C from the first network device. For example, information B may also be referred to as first information, and information C may also be referred to as second information.

The first information indicates a first sub-area set and/or a second sub-area set. The first sub-area set includes a first type of sub-area within the coverage area or service area of the first network device. The second sub-area set includes a second type of sub-area within the coverage area or service area of the first network device. It is understood that the first sub-area set includes the first sub-area, and the second sub-area set includes the second sub-area.

Exemplarily, information B may be implemented in the following two forms:

In form A, information B includes an identifier of each first-category sub-region in the first sub-region set, and/or an identifier of each second-category sub-region in the second sub-region set.

For example, taking the example that the coverage area or service area of the first network device includes first-type sub-areas identified from 1 to 100 and second-type sub-areas identified from 1 to 150, information B may include identifiers {1, 2,…, 100} and/or identifiers {1, 2,…, 150}.

In form B, information B includes an identifier of a first reference area and a first threshold value, and/or information B includes an identifier of a second reference area and/or a second threshold value.

As a first possible implementation, a distance between a reference position of each first-category sub-region in the first sub-region set and a reference position of the first reference region is less than or equal to a first threshold value. A distance between a reference position of each second-category sub-region in the second sub-region set and a reference position of the second reference region is less than or equal to a second threshold value.

Optionally, after receiving information B, the terminal device may determine the reference position of the first reference area based on the identifier of the first reference area (such as 50). Thereafter, the terminal device may traverse the first-category sub-area identifiers, calculate the reference position corresponding to each identifier, and determine the identifier whose distance between the corresponding reference position and the reference position of the first reference area is less than or equal to the first threshold value as the identifier of the first-category sub-area in the first sub-area set. The implementation of the terminal device determining the second sub-area set is similar to the implementation of determining the first sub-area set and is not further described.

In one possible implementation scenario, this first possible implementation can also be modified as follows: information B includes the identifier of the first reference area and the number N of first-category sub-areas in the first area set. In this case, the first-category sub-areas in the first sub-area set include the first reference area and the N-1 first-category sub-areas closest to the first reference area. For example, as shown in Figure 21, taking the total number of first-category sub-areas equal to 197, the first-category sub-areas in the first sub-area set can be the first-category sub-areas within the solid ellipse. The method for indicating the second sub-area set is similar and will not be repeated here.

As a second possible implementation, a difference between the identifier of each first-category sub-region in the first sub-region set and the identifier of the first reference region is less than or equal to a first threshold value. A difference between the identifier of each second-category sub-region in the second sub-region set and the identifier of the second reference region is less than or equal to a second threshold value.

It is understandable that the first threshold value in the second possible implementation is different from that in the first possible implementation. For example, the first threshold value in the first possible implementation is 200 km, while the first threshold value in the second possible implementation is 50. Similarly, the second threshold value in the two implementations may be different.

Optionally, after receiving information B, the terminal device may traverse the first-category sub-area identifiers, calculate the difference between each identifier and the identifier of the first reference area, and determine the identifier whose difference with the identifier of the first reference area is less than or equal to the first threshold as the identifier of the first-category sub-area in the first sub-area set. The implementation of the terminal device determining the second sub-area set is similar to the implementation of determining the first sub-area set and is not further described.

For example, in the two possible implementations described above, the terminal device can traverse area identifiers from 0 to 4 ^L N _spot -1. Alternatively, the terminal device can traverse identifiers within a certain range, such as the range [aC, a+C]. Here, a represents the identifier of the reference area, and 2C can represent the maximum number of areas in the area set.

The information C indicates the first-type sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the first sub-area set, and/or indicates the second-type sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the second sub-area set. For example, the first-type sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the first sub-area set are first-type sub-areas 30 to first-type sub-areas 50, and/or the second-type sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the second sub-area set are second-type sub-areas 25 to second-type sub-areas 35.

Exemplarily, the information C may include a first bitmap and/or a second bitmap. The first bitmap includes N bits, and the N bits correspond one-to-one to the N first-class sub-areas in the first sub-area set, where N is the total number of first-class sub-areas in the first sub-area set. When a bit in the first bitmap is set to a preset value (such as "1" or "0"), it indicates that the first-class sub-area corresponding to the bit is served by the beam of the first network device. The second bitmap corresponds to the second sub-area set. The implementation of the second bitmap can refer to the relevant description of the first bitmap and will not be repeated here.

If information C indicates that the first sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device, the terminal device communicates based on the identifier of the first sub-area. If information C indicates that the second sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device, the terminal device communicates based on the identifier of the second sub-area. When the sub-area served by the beam of the first network device changes, the first network device can send updated information C, which indicates the sub-area most recently served by the beam of the first network device. The terminal device can determine whether to continue communicating based on the identifier of the first sub-area and/or the identifier of the second sub-area based on the updated information C.

Mode 2: The first network device sends information D to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the information D from the first network device.

The information D includes the identifier of the first type of sub-area served by the beam of the first network device and/or the identifier of the second type of sub-area served by the beam of the first network device.

Optionally, in the above-mentioned method 1 and method 2, the first network device may indicate an identifier of a first-type sub-area currently served by the beam of the first network device, and/or an identifier of a second-type sub-area currently served by the beam of the first network device. The start time of the time period in which the beam of the first network device serves the first-type sub-area and/or the second-type sub-area may be the current time, and the end time may be the time when the next updated information C or information D is received.

The updated information C or information D indicates the latest identifier of the first type of sub-area and/or the identifier of the second type of sub-area served by the beam of the first network device.

Mode 3: The first network device sends information E to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the information E from the first network device.

The information E indicates N third time periods and N first sub-region subsets, and/or indicates M fourth time periods and M second sub-region subsets.

The nth first sub-area subset includes the first type of sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the nth third time period in the first sub-area set, where N is a positive integer, n=1, 2, …, N. That is, the first network device indicates to the terminal device the time period in which the beam of the first network device serves each first type of sub-area.

The mth second sub-area subset includes the second type sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the mth fourth time period in the second sub-area set, where M is a positive integer, m=1, 2, …, M. That is, the first network device indicates to the terminal device the time period in which the beam of the first network device serves each second type sub-area.

Mode 4: The first network device sends the entry elevation angle and the exit elevation angle to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the entry elevation angle and the exit elevation angle from the first network device.

The entry elevation angle can be used to determine whether the beam of the first network device starts serving the first sub-area or the second sub-area, and the exit elevation angle can be used to determine whether the beam of the first network device ends serving the first sub-area or the second sub-area.

For example, the terminal device may determine the first sub-area and/or the second sub-area currently served by the beam of the first network device based on the entry elevation angle and the exit elevation angle. If the first sub-area served by the beam of the first network device includes the first sub-area, the terminal device currently communicates based on the identifier of the first sub-area; if the second sub-area served by the beam of the first network device includes the second sub-area, the terminal device currently communicates based on the identifier of the second sub-area.

In this method three, the specific implementation of the terminal device communicating according to the identifier of the first sub-area and/or the identifier of the second sub-area can refer to the relevant descriptions in the above methods one to two, and will not be repeated here.

Based on the third method described above, the first network device can indicate to the terminal device the first type of sub-area and/or the second type of sub-area of the beam service of the first network device, allowing the terminal device to communicate within the beam service time, thereby improving communication performance. In addition, the first type of sub-area and/or the second type of sub-area of the beam service of the first network device can be indicated by a sub-area identifier or bitmap, which can reduce signaling overhead compared to explicitly describing the geographical area of the beam service of the first network device, such as through information such as latitude and longitude.

Mode 4: When the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, as shown in FIG22 , the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

S130341. The terminal device determines a reference position of the first sub-area according to the identifier of the first sub-area. The determination method can refer to the relevant description in the above step S1301 and will not be repeated here.

S130342. The terminal device determines the remaining service time of the first sub-area based on the reference position of the first sub-area, the ephemeris information of the first network device, and the first elevation angle.

As a possible implementation, the first elevation angle is the minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area. When the elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area is greater than or equal to the first elevation angle, the first sub-area is covered by the first network device. Exemplarily, the elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area can be the elevation angle at a reference position of the first sub-area.

For example, 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. The elevation angle at the reference position can be understood as the angle between the line between the reference position and the position of the first network device and the horizon at the reference position. The position of the first network device passing above the reference position can be described by the elevation angle at the reference position. For example, the elevation angle at the reference position is 90°, indicating that the first network device is located directly above the reference position. As shown in (a) of Figure 23, the elevation angle when the reference position is at point P is shown; as shown in (b) of Figure 23, the elevation angle when the reference position is at point Q is shown.

As a possible implementation, the ephemeris information of the first network device describes an expression of the position and velocity of the first network device over time. Of course, the ephemeris information can also have other names, such as trajectory information, velocity trajectory information, etc., which are not specifically limited in this application.

Exemplarily, the reference position of the first sub-area, the ephemeris information of the first network device, the first elevation angle γ ₀ , and the remaining service time T _c of the first sub-area may satisfy the following relationship:
T _c =1/w×arccos(cos(γ ₀ )/cos(γ _m ))

Wherein, w is the angular velocity of the first network device in a three-dimensional coordinate system (such as the Earth-centered inertial coordinate system ECI), and _γm can be calculated based on the reference position of the first sub-area and the ephemeris information of the first network device.

S130343. The terminal device starts neighboring cell measurement before the remaining service time of the first sub-area ends.

For example, if the starting time of the remaining service time of the first sub-area is t1 and the ending time is t2, then the terminal device starts the neighboring cell measurement before time t2.

As a possible implementation, starting neighbor cell measurement can also be understood as performing neighbor cell measurement. The neighbor cell measurement result can be used by the terminal device for cell reselection.

Mode 5: When the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, as shown in FIG24 , the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

S130351. The terminal device determines a reference position of the first sub-area according to the identifier of the first sub-area. The determination method can refer to the relevant description in the above step S1301 and will not be repeated here.

S130352. The terminal device performs neighboring area measurement on the second network device within the first time window.

The offset between the start time of the first time window and the reference time is the difference between the first delay and the second delay. For example, as shown in FIG25 , the first delay is the propagation delay between the reference location in the first sub-area and the first network device; the second delay is the propagation delay between the reference location in the first sub-area and the second network device.

For example, the position of the first network device can be determined based on the ephemeris information of the first network device, and then the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the first network device can be determined. Similarly, the position of the second network device can be determined based on the ephemeris information of the second network device, and then the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the second network device can be determined.

Illustratively, the propagation delay between the reference location in the first sub-area and the first network device is equal to the distance between the reference location in the first sub-area and the first network device divided by the speed of light. The propagation delay between the reference location in the first sub-area and the second network device is equal to the distance between the reference location in the first sub-area and the second network device divided by the speed of light.

Exemplarily, the reference time and offset may be universal time coordinated (UTC), or the units of the reference time and offset may be a system frame number, a subframe number, a time slot number, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol, etc. The reference time may be determined by the terminal device itself or configured by the first network device, without limitation.

For example, the offset between the start time of the first time window and the reference time may also be referred to as a synchronization signal block (SSB) measurement timing configuration (SMTC) offset. The end time of the first time window may be determined based on the SMTC period and duration configured on the network side.

In a possible implementation, the above-mentioned method 4 and method 5 can be combined. For example, the terminal device can perform neighboring area measurement on the second network device within the first time window before the remaining service time of the first sub-area ends.

In one possible implementation, the first elevation angle, the ephemeris information of the first network device, or the ephemeris information of the second network device may be indicated by the first network device to the terminal device. For example, the first network device further sends information F indicating at least one of the first elevation angle, the ephemeris information of the first network device, or the ephemeris information of the second network device.

In addition, the first network device may also indicate the identifier of the reference sub-area. The reference area is a first-class sub-area in the first cell, or a first-class sub-area in the coverage area or service area of the first cell. Exemplarily, the reference area may be the first-class sub-area where the cell center of the first cell is located. The first cell is a cell managed by the first network device. In this scenario, the first elevation angle may be the minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first cell. The elevation angle at the reference position of each first-class sub-area of the first cell is greater than or equal to the first elevation angle. In the case where the first network device indicates the identifier of the reference sub-area, the above-mentioned step S1303a may not be executed, and in the above-mentioned step S1303b, the terminal device communicates according to the identifier of the reference sub-area. Exemplarily, the implementation of the terminal device communicating according to the identifier of the reference sub-area is similar to the implementation of the terminal device communicating according to the identifier of the first sub-area. The first sub-area in the above-mentioned method four or method five may be replaced with the reference sub-area for understanding, and will not be repeated here.

In one possible implementation, in the above-mentioned method four, since the terminal device starts the neighboring cell measurement before the remaining service time in the first sub-area ends, and whether the first sub-area is covered is determined by the movement of the network device, method four can be applicable to the scenario where the cell reselection is triggered by the movement of the first network device.

In addition, in the above-mentioned method five, the terminal device performs neighboring cell measurements within the first time window, and the starting time of the first time window is related to the propagation delay between the terminal device and the network device. Due to the movement of the network device, the network device may be located at different positions at different times, so that the propagation delay between the terminal device and the network device changes with time. Therefore, method five can also be applied to the scenario where the cell reselection is triggered by the movement of the first network device.

Mode 6: When the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

When the distance between the reference position of the first sub-area and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to the third threshold, or the difference between the identifier of the first sub-area and the identifier of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to the fourth threshold, the neighboring cell measurement is started.

Exemplarily, the reference sub-area may be configured by the first network device. The third threshold and the fourth threshold may be configured by the first network device, or may be defined by a protocol, which is not specifically limited in this application.

Mode 7: When the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, as shown in FIG26 , the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

S130371. The terminal device determines whether the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area.

The fourth sub-area is a first type of sub-area in the coverage area or service area of the first network device, or in other words, the fourth sub-area is a first type of sub-area that can be covered by the first network device or can be served by the beam of the first network device.

It is understood that the at least one fourth sub-area refers to part or all of the coverage area or service area of the first network device. For example, if the coverage area of the first network device includes first-category sub-areas 1 to 100, the at least one fourth sub-area may be first-category sub-areas 20 to 30, or first-category sub-areas 25 to 40, etc., without limitation.

In a possible implementation, step 130371 may also be understood as: the terminal device determines whether at least one fourth sub-area includes the first sub-area.

In one possible implementation, before step S130371, the first network device sends information G to the terminal device, indicating the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to at least one fourth sub-area. The second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is used by the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access the second network device. Information G may also be referred to as third information.

Exemplarily, the second access information includes at least one of the following: an identifier of the second network device, an identifier of the target beam, a random access resource, or a random access preamble. The target beam is the beam of the second network device. The random access resource may include an RO. The random access preamble may be a dedicated preamble used during cell handover.

As a possible implementation, the identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area can be carried in a media access control (MAC) protocol data unit (PDU). For example, FIG27 shows a possible MAC PDU frame structure.

As shown in Figure 27 , a MAC PDU includes at least one MAC sub-PDU (MAC subPDU). A MAC subPDU is divided into a MAC subPDU containing a MAC control element (CE), a MAC subPDU containing a MAC service data unit (SDU), and an optional MAC subPDU containing padding. A MAC subPDU containing a MAC CE includes a subheader and a MAC CE. A MAC subPDU containing a MAC PDU includes a subheader and a MAC SDU.

Illustratively, the identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area may be located in a sub-header of a MAC PDU, such as a sub-header of a MAC subPDU that includes the MAC PDU.

Alternatively, the identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area are located in the MAC CE of the MAC PDU;

Alternatively, the identifier of the fourth sub-area is located in the sub-header of the MAC PDU, such as in the sub-header of the MAC subPDU containing the MAC PDU; the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is located in the MAC CE of the MAC PDU.

Optionally, the identifiers of different fourth sub-areas and their corresponding second access information can be located in different MAC PDUs, or they can be located in the same MAC PDU, without restriction.

In one possible implementation, in addition to the identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area, the first network device further indicates the identifier of the terminal device or the identifier of the terminal device group. After the terminal device in the fourth sub-area receives the instruction from the first network device, if the identifier of the terminal device indicated by the first network device includes the terminal device's own identifier or the identifier of the terminal device group to which the terminal device belongs, the terminal device accesses the other network device according to the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area.

Alternatively, the first network device may indicate different second access information to different terminal devices or terminal device groups in the same fourth sub-area, such as indicating different random access resources, different target network devices, etc.

In one possible implementation, since the terminal device in the fourth sub-area will access other network devices, the identifier of the fourth sub-area, the identifier of the terminal device, or the identifier of the terminal device group indicated by the first network device to the terminal device can be understood as a switching command, used to instruct the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access other network devices.

S130372: If the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the terminal device accesses the second network device according to the second access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Exemplarily, if the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area, it means that the first network device instructs the terminal device in the first sub-area to access other network devices or perform cell switching, so that the terminal device can access the second network device according to the access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

As a possible implementation, if the first network device also indicates the identifier of the terminal device or the identifier of the terminal device group, then when the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the terminal device also needs to determine whether the identifier of the terminal device indicated by the first network device includes its own identifier, or determine whether the identifier of the terminal device group indicated by the first network device includes the identifier of the terminal device group to which it belongs. If so, access the second network device according to the second access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Exemplarily, according to the second access information corresponding to the first sub-area, accessing the second network device may include: sending a random access preamble code to the second network device using a transmitting beam corresponding to the target beam on the random access resource indicated by the second access information.

Based on this seventh approach, the first network device can indicate the identifier of the fourth sub-area and its corresponding access information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device in the fourth sub-area can access other network devices based on the access information. In addition, the first network device can indicate different random access resources for different fourth sub-areas, so that terminal devices in different fourth sub-areas can access other network devices using different random access resources, thereby reducing resource collisions when the terminal device performs random access, thereby improving the access success rate.

In the above-mentioned methods 1 to 7, the above-mentioned initial area can be understood as the initial area in which the first network device is effective or used. In this case, the first sub-area, the second sub-area, or the third sub-area is the area in which the terminal device is located within the coverage area or service area of the first network device. In addition, the above-mentioned initial area can also be the initial area in which the second network device is effective or used. In this case, the first sub-area, the second sub-area, or the third sub-area is the area in which the terminal device is located within the coverage area or service area of the second network device. In this scenario, the terminal device can communicate using the following method 8.

Mode 8: When the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, as shown in FIG28 , the terminal device communicates according to the sub-area identifier, including:

S130381. The terminal device receives third access information corresponding to the first sub-area according to the identifier of the first sub-area.

The first sub-area is a first-type sub-area within the coverage area or service area of the second network device where the terminal device is located. The third access information corresponding to the first sub-area is used for the terminal device in the first sub-area to access the second network device. The third access information corresponding to the first sub-area is sent by the second network device. Exemplarily, the third access information includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a target beam, a random access resource, or a random access preamble. The target beam is the beam of the second network device.

As a possible implementation, the second network device may carry the second information via a PDCCH. Further, the PDCCH may be scrambled using the identifier of the first sub-region. Therefore, the terminal device receiving the third access information corresponding to the first sub-region based on the identifier of the first sub-region may include: the terminal device parsing the PDCCH based on the identifier of the first sub-region, thereby obtaining the third access information carried in the PDCCH.

Optionally, the second network device may send access information corresponding to different sub-areas via different PDCCHs. Furthermore, different PDCCHs may be scrambled using the identifiers of the corresponding sub-areas. For example, if PDCCH#1 carries the third access information corresponding to first-category sub-area 1, and PDCCH#2 carries the third access information corresponding to first-category sub-area 2, then PDCCH#1 is scrambled using the identifier of first-category sub-area 1, and PDCCH#2 is scrambled using the identifier of first-category sub-area 2. The access information corresponding to different sub-areas may be different.

S130382. The terminal device accesses the second network device according to the third access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Exemplarily, the terminal device accessing the second network device according to the third access information corresponding to the first sub-area may include: sending a random access preamble code to the second network device using the transmitting beam corresponding to the target beam on the random access resource indicated by the third access information.

For example, it can be considered that the solution corresponding to the above-mentioned method eight is applicable to the following scenario: the terminal device first accesses the first network device and maintains the RRC connection state on the first network device. Subsequently, the first network device indicates to the terminal device the initial area in which the second network device takes effect, and the terminal device determines the sub-area (i.e., the first sub-area) in which the terminal device is located in the coverage area or service area of the second network device based on its own location information. Then, based on the identifier of the first sub-area, the third access information corresponding to the first sub-area from the second network device is received, and the second network device is accessed based on the third access information. That is, it can be considered that the terminal device switches from the first network device to the second network device.

Based on this eighth approach, the second network device can indicate the access information corresponding to each first-class sub-area, so that terminal devices in the first-class sub-area can access the second network device based on the access information. In addition, the second network device can indicate different random access resources for different first-class sub-areas, so that terminal devices in different first-class sub-areas can access the second network device using different random access resources, thereby reducing resource collisions when terminal devices perform random access, thereby improving the access success rate.

Step S1303b is described above. Furthermore, if the sub-area includes a third-type sub-area, step S1303c may include: the terminal device performing a tracking area update based on the information H and the sub-area configuration information. For example, information G may also be referred to as fourth information. Information G may be sent by the first network device to the terminal device, i.e., the terminal device also receives information G from the first network device.

In a possible implementation, the information G includes an identifier of a reference sub-region and a value K. The reference sub-region is a third-category sub-region, and K is a positive integer.

As a possible implementation, when the information G includes the identifier of the reference sub-area and the value K, as shown in FIG29 , the terminal device performs a tracking area update according to the information G and the configuration information of the sub-area, including:

S2901. The terminal device determines N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas according to configuration information of the sub-areas.

Wherein, N _{spot_ta} is the total number of the third type sub-areas. Exemplarily, the terminal device can determine the identifiers and reference positions of N _{spot_ta} third type sub-areas according to the configuration information of the sub-areas. The determination method can refer to the above related description and will not be repeated here.

S2902. The terminal device determines a first tracking area code list.

Exemplarily, the terminal device may determine the identifier of the reference sub-area and the identifiers of the K or K-1 third-category sub-areas closest to the reference sub-area among the N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas as the first tracking area code list. When the identifiers of the K third-category sub-areas closest to the reference sub-area are taken, the first tracking area code list includes K+1 identifiers; when the identifiers of the K-1 third-category sub-areas closest to the reference sub-area are taken, the first tracking area code list includes K identifiers.

As a possible implementation, a third-category sub-area can be understood as a tracking area. Therefore, the identifier of the third-category sub-area can be understood as a tracking area code (TAC).

As a possible implementation, the terminal device can determine the reference positions of N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas, thereby determining the distance between the reference positions of N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas and the reference position of the reference sub-area, and then determining the K third-category sub-areas closest to the reference sub-area.

As a possible implementation, the third type of sub-area corresponding to the identifier in the first tracking area code list is the third type of sub-area in the coverage area or service area of the first network device.

For example, if the initial area includes a third-category area, the radius of the third-category area is 1000 km, or the number of third-category areas is 197, and the subdivision level is 0, the number of third-category sub-areas is also 197. The distribution of the third-category sub-areas can be shown in FIG30. If the identifier of the reference sub-area included in the information G is 32, and K is 3 or 4, that is, the information G includes {32, 3} or {32, 4}, then as shown in FIG30, the first tracking area code list includes third-category sub-areas 32, 40, 45, and 53. If the tracking area code list corresponding to the second network device includes third-category sub-areas 28, 33, and 41, the network side can configure the second tracking area code list corresponding to the second network device through the information element {28, 2} or {28, 3}.

S2903: Initiate a tracking area update when there is no intersection between the tracking area code list of the terminal device and the first tracking area code list.

As a possible implementation, the tracking area code list of the terminal device is configured by the first network device. The tracking area code list of the terminal device includes an identifier of at least one third-category sub-area. The tracking area code list of the terminal device may indicate the paging range of the terminal device. For example, when the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the network needs to page the terminal device within the sub-area indicated by the tracking area code list of the terminal device. Exemplarily, based on the example shown in Figure 30, the identifiers of the third-category sub-areas included in the tracking area code list of the terminal device may be 25, 30, 33, 38, and 46. The first network device may indicate the tracking area code list of the terminal device through the information element {25,4} or {25,5}.

As a possible implementation, the fact that there is no intersection between the tracking area code list of the terminal device and the first tracking area code list can be understood as: the first tracking area code list does not include any identifier in the tracking area code list of the terminal device, or any identifier in the tracking area code list of the terminal device does not belong to the first tracking area code list.

In another possible implementation, information G may include a first tracking area code list. For example, based on the example shown in FIG30 , information G may include 32, 40, 45, and 53. In this case, step S2902 may not be performed. Upon receiving information G, the terminal device directly executes step S2903.

In another possible implementation, the information G includes an identifier of a reference sub-region and an updated distance threshold. The reference sub-region is a third-category sub-region. The updated distance threshold may also have other names, which are not limited.

As a possible implementation, when information G includes the identifier of the reference sub-area and the update distance threshold, as shown in FIG31 , the terminal device performs a tracking area update based on information G and the configuration information of the sub-area, including:

S3101: The terminal device determines the reference position of the reference sub-area according to the configuration information of the sub-area and the identifier of the reference sub-area. The determination method can refer to the relevant description in the above step S1301 and will not be repeated here.

S3102: When the distance between the terminal device and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to the update distance threshold, a tracking area update is initiated.

In one possible implementation, the size and number of tracking areas may vary at different times and/or geographic locations. When the third type of subarea is used as the tracking area and the subdivision level is 0, the size and number of the initial area may vary at different times and/or geographic locations.

For example, in a first time period or a first geographical area, a tracking area with a larger radius and a smaller total number can be configured, such as a tracking area radius of 1000 km and a total number of 197 tracking areas. Alternatively, in a second time period or a second geographical area, a tracking area with a smaller radius and a larger total number can be configured, such as a tracking area radius of 200 km and a total number of 4919 tracking areas.

Based on this solution, when the tracking area radius is large, the frequency of tracking area updates can be reduced, which is suitable for scenarios with light traffic load. When the tracking area radius is small, the scope of tracking area updates can be reduced, which is suitable for scenarios with heavy traffic load.

It is understood that in each of the above embodiments, the methods and/or steps implemented by the terminal device may also be implemented by components applicable to the terminal device (e.g., processor, chip, chip system, circuit, logic module, or software); the methods and/or steps implemented by the network device may also be implemented by components applicable to the network device (e.g., processor, chip, chip system, circuit, logic module, or software). The chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete components.

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. It should be easily appreciated by those skilled in the art 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 modules 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 functional division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods.

Communication Device Figure 32 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 320. The communication device 320 includes a processing module 3201 and a transceiver module 3202. The communication device 320 can be used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned terminal device or network device.

In some embodiments, the communication device 320 may further include a storage module (not shown in FIG. 32 ) for storing program instructions and data.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 3202, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is configured to implement a transmitting and/or receiving function. The transceiver module 3202 may be composed of a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 3202 may include a receiving module and a sending module, which are respectively used to execute the receiving and sending steps performed by the terminal device or network device in the above-mentioned method embodiments, and/or used to support other processes of the technology described herein; the processing module 3201 may be used to execute the processing steps (such as determination, etc.) performed by the terminal device or network device in the above-mentioned method embodiments, and/or used to support other processes of the technology described herein.

Exemplarily, when the communication device 320 is used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned terminal device:

The transceiver module 3202 is configured to receive sub-region configuration information; the processing module 3201 is configured to communicate based on the region configuration information. The sub-region configuration information indicates an initial region and a subdivision level. The initial region, subdivision level, and sub-region determination criteria are used to determine a sub-region, and the sub-region is included in the initial region.

Optionally, the processing module 3201 is configured to determine a sub-area identifier based on the location information of the terminal device and the sub-area configuration information, and the transceiver module 3202 is configured to communicate based on the sub-area identifier. The sub-area identifier includes at least one of a first sub-area identifier, a second sub-area identifier, or a third sub-area identifier; the first sub-area is a first-category sub-area where the terminal device is located, the second sub-area is a second-category sub-area where the terminal device is located, and the third sub-area is a third-category sub-area where the terminal device is located.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a first type of sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is further used to receive first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area, and the first access information is used for a terminal device in the first type of sub-area to access the first network device.

Optionally, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the processing module 3201 is used to determine the first access information corresponding to the first sub-area based on the identifier of the first sub-area; the transceiver module 3202 is used to access the first network device based on the first access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a second-type sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is further used to receive communication resource information corresponding to the second-type sub-area, and the communication resources indicated by the communication resource information are used for terminal devices in the second-type sub-area to transmit information.

Optionally, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the second sub-area, the processing module 3201 is further used to determine the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area based on the identifier of the second sub-area; the transceiver module 3202 is further used to send the first information on the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area, where the first information indicates the identifier of the second sub-area.

Optionally, when the sub-areas include first-type sub-areas and/or second-type sub-areas, the transceiver module 3202 is further configured to receive first information and/or second information. The first information indicates a first sub-area set and/or a second sub-area set, wherein the first sub-area set includes first-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device, and the second sub-area set includes second-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device. The second information indicates first-type sub-areas in the first sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device, and/or indicates second-type sub-areas in the second sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device.

Optionally, the transceiver module 3202 is further configured to receive information indicating N third time periods and N first sub-region subsets, and/or indicating M fourth time periods and M second sub-region subsets. The nth first sub-region subset includes, in the first sub-region set, the first type of sub-region served by the beam of the first network device during the nth third time period, where N is a positive integer, n=1, 2, ..., N; and the mth second sub-region subset includes, in the second sub-region set, the second type of sub-region served by the beam of the first network device during the mth fourth time period, where M is a positive integer, m=1, 2, ..., M.

Optionally, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area and/or the identifier of the second sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is used to communicate according to the identifier of the first sub-area during the time period when the first sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device; or, the transceiver module 3202 is used to communicate according to the identifier of the second sub-area during the time period when the second sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a first-category sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is further configured to receive information indicating at least one of the following: an identifier of a reference sub-area, a first elevation angle, and ephemeris information of the first network device or ephemeris information of the second network device. The reference sub-area is a first-category sub-area in a first cell, where the first cell is a cell managed by the first network device; and the first elevation angle is a minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first cell, or a minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area.

Optionally, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the processing module 3201 is used to determine the reference position of the first sub-area based on the identifier of the first sub-area; the processing module 3201 is also used to determine the remaining service time of the first sub-area based on the reference position of the first sub-area, the ephemeris information of the first network device and the minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area; the processing module 3201 is also used to start neighboring cell measurement before the remaining service time ends.

Optionally, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the processing module 3201 is configured to determine the reference position of the first sub-area based on the identifier of the first sub-area; the processing module 3201 is further configured to perform a neighboring cell measurement on the second network device within a first time window. The offset between the start time of the first time window and the reference time is the difference between a first delay and a second delay, where the first delay is the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the first network device, and the second delay is the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the second network device.

Optionally, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the processing module 3201 is used to start the neighboring cell measurement when at least one of the following is met: the distance between the reference position of the first sub-area and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to a third threshold; or the difference between the identifier of the first sub-area and the identifier of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to a fourth threshold.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a first-type sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is also used to receive third information, where the third information indicates the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area and second access information corresponding to at least one fourth sub-area, respectively. The fourth sub-area is a first-type sub-area in the coverage area of the first network device, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is used for the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access the second network device.

Optionally, when the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the processing module 3201 is used to determine whether the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area; if the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is used to access the second network device according to the second access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Optionally, the sub-area includes a first-type sub-area, and the first-type sub-area is a sub-area in which the second network device is effective. When the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is also used to receive the third access information corresponding to the first sub-area based on the identifier of the first sub-area, and the third access information is used for the terminal device in the first sub-area to access the second network device; and access the second network device based on the third access information corresponding to the first sub-area.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a third-category sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is further used to receive fourth information, where the fourth information includes an identifier and a value K of the reference sub-area, or the fourth information includes an identifier and an updated distance threshold of the reference sub-area, and the reference sub-area is a third-category sub-area; communicating according to the configuration information of the sub-area, including: updating the tracking area according to the fourth information and the configuration information of the sub-area.

Optionally, when the fourth information includes the identifier of the second reference sub-area and the numerical value K, the processing module 3201 is used to determine N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas based on the configuration information of the sub-area, where N _{spot_ta} is the total number of third-category sub-areas; the processing module 3201 is also used to determine the identifier of the reference sub-area and the identifiers of the K third-category sub-areas closest to the reference sub-area among the N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas as a first tracking area code list; the processing module 3201 is also used to initiate a tracking area update when there is no intersection between the tracking area code list of the terminal device and the first tracking area code list.

Optionally, when the fourth information includes the identifier of the reference sub-area and the update distance threshold, the processing module 3201 is used to determine the reference position of the reference sub-area based on the configuration information of the sub-area and the identifier of the reference sub-area; the processing module 3201 is also used to initiate a tracking area update when the distance between the terminal device and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to the update distance threshold.

When the communication device 320 is used to implement the functions of the above network device:

The processing module 3201 is configured to obtain sub-area configuration information, and the transceiver module 3202 is configured to send the configuration information. The configuration information indicates an initial area and a subdivision level. The initial area, subdivision level, and sub-area determination criteria are used to determine a sub-area, and the sub-area is included in the initial area.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a first type of sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is further used to send first access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area, and the first access information is used for the terminal device in the first type of sub-area to access the first network device.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a second-type sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is further used to send communication resource information corresponding to the second-type sub-area, and the communication resources indicated by the communication resource information are used for information transmission by terminal devices in the second-type sub-area.

Optionally, when the sub-areas include first-type sub-areas and/or second-type sub-areas, the transceiver module 3202 is further configured to send first information and/or second information. The first information indicates a first sub-area set and/or a second sub-area set, wherein the first sub-area set includes first-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device, and the second sub-area set includes second-type sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device. The second information indicates first-type sub-areas in the first sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device, and/or indicates second-type sub-areas in the second sub-area set that are served by the beam of the first network device.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a first-type sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is also used to send a third information, where the third information indicates the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to at least one fourth sub-area, respectively. The fourth sub-area is a first-type sub-area in the coverage area of the first network device, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is used for the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access the second network device.

Optionally, when the sub-area includes a third-category sub-area, the transceiver module 3202 is further used to send fourth information, where the fourth information includes an identifier and a value K of the reference sub-area, or the fourth information includes an identifier and an updated distance threshold of the reference sub-area, and the reference sub-area is a third-category sub-area.

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 320 may be presented in the form of various functional modules divided in an integrated manner. The "module" here may refer to a specific application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a circuit, a processor and 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 320 in Figure 32 is a chip or a chip system, the function/implementation process of the transceiver module 3202 can be implemented through the input and output interface (or communication interface) of the chip or chip system, and the function/implementation process of the processing module 3201 can be implemented through the processor (or processing circuit) of the chip or chip system.

Since the communication device 320 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 (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), 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 this 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 33, which is a structural diagram of a communication device 3300 provided in an embodiment of the present application, wherein the communication device 3300 includes a processor 3301 and a transceiver 3302. The communication device 3300 can be a terminal device, or a chip or chip system therein; or, the communication device 3300 can be a network device, or a chip or chip system therein. Figure 33 only shows the main components of the communication device 3300. In addition to the processor 3301 and the transceiver 3302, the communication device may further include a memory 3303, and an input and output device (not shown in the figure).

Optionally, the processor 3301 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, as well as control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process software program data. The memory 3303 is primarily used to store software programs and data. The transceiver 3302 may include a radio frequency circuit and an antenna. The radio frequency circuit is primarily used to convert baseband signals into radio frequency signals and process radio frequency signals. The antenna is primarily used to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as a touch screen, display, and keyboard, are primarily used to receive user input and output data to the user.

Optionally, the processor 3301 , the transceiver 3302 , and the memory 3303 may be connected via a communication bus.

When the communication device is powered on, the processor 3301 can read the software program in the memory 3303, 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 3301 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 transmits the radio frequency signal to the outside 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 3301. The processor 3301 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

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

In some embodiments, in terms of hardware implementation, those skilled in the art may conceive that the above-mentioned communication device 320 may take the form of the communication device 3300 shown in FIG. 33 .

As an example, the functions/implementation process of the processing module 3201 in FIG32 can be implemented by the processor 3301 in the communication device 3300 shown in FIG33 calling the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 3303. The functions/implementation process of the transceiver module 3202 in FIG32 can be implemented by the transceiver 3302 in the communication device 3300 shown in FIG33.

As another possible product form, the terminal device or network device in this application may adopt the structure shown in Figure 34, or include the components shown in Figure 34. Figure 34 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device 3400 provided in this application. The communication device 3400 may be a network device or a module, chip, or system-on-chip in a network device; or the communication device 3400 may be a terminal device or a module, chip, or system-on-chip in a terminal device.

As shown in FIG34 , the communication device 3400 includes at least one processor 3401 and at least one communication interface ( FIG34 is merely an example of one communication interface 3404 and one processor 3401). Optionally, the communication device 3400 may further include a communication bus 3402 and a memory 3403.

Processor 3401 can 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 programmable logic device (PLD), or any combination thereof. Processor 3401 can also be other devices with processing capabilities, such as circuits, devices, or software modules, without limitation.

Communication bus 3402 is used to connect the various components in communication device 3400, enabling communication between them. Communication bus 3402 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus. This bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and so on. For ease of illustration, FIG34 shows a single thick line, but this does not imply that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

Communication interface 3404 is used to communicate with other devices or communication networks. Exemplarily, communication interface 3404 can be a module, circuit, transceiver, or any other device capable of communication. Optionally, communication interface 3404 can also be an input/output interface within processor 3401, used to implement signal input and output to the processor.

The memory 3403 may be a device with a storage function, used to store instructions and/or data, wherein the instructions may be computer programs.

Exemplarily, the memory 3403 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 3403 can exist independently of the processor 3401 or can be integrated with the processor 3401. The memory 3403 can be located within the communication device 3400 or outside the communication device 3400, without limitation. The processor 3401 can be used to execute instructions stored in the memory 3403 to implement the methods provided in the following embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the processor 3401 and/or the memory 3403 may include an artificial intelligence (AI) module, which is used to implement AI-related functions. The AI module can be implemented through software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, the AI module may include a radio network intelligent controller (RAN intelligent controller, RIC) module. For example, the AI module may be a near real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC.

As an optional implementation, the communication device 3400 may further include an output device 3405 and an input device 3406. The output device 3405 communicates with the processor 3401 and can display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 3405 can 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 3406 communicates with the processor 3401 and can receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 3406 can 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 320 shown in FIG. 32 may take the form of the communication device 3400 shown in FIG. 34 .

As an example, the functions/implementation process of the processing module 3201 in FIG32 can be implemented by the processor 3401 in the communication device 3400 shown in FIG34 calling the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 3403. The functions/implementation process of the transceiver module 3202 in FIG32 can be implemented by the communication interface 3404 in the communication device 3400 shown in FIG34.

It should be noted that the structure shown in FIG34 does not constitute a specific limitation on the network device. For example, in other embodiments of the present application, the network device may include more or fewer components than shown in the figure, or combine or split some 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 the 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 invoke the instructions in the computer program stored in the memory to instruct the communication device to execute any of the above-described method embodiments. Of course, the memory may not be located 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, and the interface circuit 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, the communication device further includes a communication interface, where 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 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 having a computer program or instruction stored thereon, which implements the functions of any of the above method embodiments when executed by a computer.

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 above-described systems, devices, and units 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 this application may also be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some interface, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, and may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, i.e., they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Components shown as units may or may not be physical units. Some or all of these units may be selected to achieve the objectives of this embodiment as needed.

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 can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server or data center to another website, computer, server or data center by wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that can be integrated with one or more media. 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)). 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 can understand and implement other changes to the disclosed embodiments by reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "a" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit can implement several functions listed in the claims. 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 with reference to specific features and embodiments thereof, it is apparent that various modifications and combinations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Accordingly, this specification and the drawings are merely illustrative of the present application as defined by the appended claims and are deemed to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the present application. Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various modifications and variations to the present application without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents.

Claims (43)

A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: receiving configuration information of a sub-region, the configuration information indicating an initial region and a subdivision level, the initial region, the subdivision level, and a sub-region determination criterion being used to determine the sub-region, the sub-region being included in the initial region; Communication is performed according to the configuration information of the zone. The method according to claim 1 is characterized in that the sub-region determination criteria include: the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square is determined according to the subdivision level; the reference position of the sub-region is determined according to the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the reference position of the sub-region is determined based on the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square and the total number of the initial regions. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that the projection RL( _xi , _yi ) of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square satisfies the following relationship:
Wherein, i represents the identifier of the sub-region, L represents the subdivision level, and N _spot represents the total number of the initial regions. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the subdivision level includes subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices respectively. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is characterized in that the sub-area includes at least one of a first type of sub-area, a second type of sub-area or a third type of sub-area, the first type of sub-area corresponds to a broadcast beam, the second type of sub-area corresponds to a service beam, and the third type of sub-area corresponds to a tracking area. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that the subdivision level includes at least one of the subdivision level corresponding to the first type of sub-area, the subdivision level corresponding to the second type of sub-area, or the subdivision level corresponding to the third type of sub-area. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein communicating according to the configuration information of the sub-area comprises: determining a sub-area identifier based on the location information of the terminal device and the configuration information of the sub-area, the sub-area identifier including at least one of an identifier of a first sub-area, an identifier of a second sub-area, or an identifier of a third sub-area; the first sub-area being the first type of sub-area where the terminal device is located, the second sub-area being the second type of sub-area where the terminal device is located, and the third sub-area being the third type of sub-area where the terminal device is located; Communication is performed according to the sub-area identifier. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the sub-region includes the first type of sub-region, and the method further comprises: First access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area is received, where the first access information is used for a terminal device in the first type of sub-area to access a first network device. The method according to claim 9 is characterized in that the first access information includes at least one of the following: a random access timing RO, a random access preamble code, a timing advance TA or a first time period, the first time period is the time period in which the beam of the first network device serves the first type of area, and the first type of sub-area is a sub-area of the first type of area. The method according to claim 8, wherein, when the sub-region identifier includes an identifier of the first sub-region, communicating according to the sub-region identifier comprises: determining, according to the identifier of the first sub-area, first access information corresponding to the first sub-area; Access the first network device according to the first access information corresponding to the first sub-area. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the sub-region includes the second type of sub-region, and the method further comprises: Communication resource information corresponding to the second type of sub-area is received, where the communication resources indicated by the communication resource information are used for information transmission by terminal devices in the second type of sub-area. The method according to claim 12 is characterized in that the communication resources include at least one of the following: frequency domain resources, polarization mode or a second time period, and the second time period is a time period in which the beam of the first network device serves the second type of sub-area. The method according to claim 8, wherein, when the sub-region identifier includes a second sub-region identifier, communicating according to the sub-region identifier comprises: determining, according to the identifier of the second sub-area, a communication resource corresponding to the second sub-area; Information indicating an identifier of the second sub-area is sent on the communication resources corresponding to the second sub-area. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and/or the second type of sub-area; the method further comprises: receiving first information and/or second information, where the first information indicates a first sub-area set and/or a second sub-area set, the first sub-area set including the first type of sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device, and the second sub-area set including the second type of sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device; The second information indicates the first type of sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the first sub-area set, and/or indicates the second type of sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the second sub-area set. The method according to claim 8, wherein the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and/or the second type of sub-area; the method further comprises: Receive information indicating N third time periods and N first sub-region subsets, and/or indicating M fourth time periods and M second sub-region subsets; wherein the nth first sub-region subset includes the first type of sub-region served by the beam of the first network device in the first sub-region set during the nth third time period, where N is a positive integer, n=1, 2, ..., N; and the mth second sub-region subset includes the second type of sub-region served by the beam of the first network device in the second sub-region set during the mth fourth time period, where M is a positive integer, m=1, 2, ..., M. The method according to claim 16, wherein communicating according to the sub-area identifier comprises: During a time period in which the first sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device, communicating according to the identifier of the first sub-area; or During a time period in which the second sub-area is served by the beam of the first network device, communication is performed according to the identifier of the second sub-area. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 17, wherein, when the sub-region includes a first-type sub-region, the method further comprises: receiving information indicating at least one of the following: an identifier of a reference sub-area, a first elevation angle, ephemeris information of a first network device, or ephemeris information of a second network device; The reference sub-area is a first-type sub-area in a first cell, and the first cell is a cell managed by the first network device; the first elevation angle is the minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first cell, or the minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area. The method according to claim 8, wherein the sub-area identifier includes an identifier of the first sub-area; and communicating according to the sub-area identifier comprises: determining a reference position of the first sub-area according to the identifier of the first sub-area; determining a remaining service time for the first sub-area based on a reference position of the first sub-area, ephemeris information of the first network device, and a minimum elevation angle corresponding to the first sub-area; Before the remaining service time ends, neighbor cell measurement is started. The method according to claim 8, wherein the sub-area identifier includes an identifier of the first sub-area; and communicating according to the sub-area identifier comprises: determining a reference position of the first sub-region according to the identifier of the first sub-region; Performing a neighboring cell measurement on the second network device within the first time window; The offset between the starting time and the reference time of the first time window is the difference between the first delay and the second delay, the first delay is the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the first network device, and the second delay is the propagation delay between the reference position of the first sub-area and the second network device. The method according to claim 8, wherein the sub-area identifier includes an identifier of the first sub-area; and communicating according to the sub-area identifier comprises: When the first condition is met, start neighboring cell measurement; The first condition includes at least one of the following: the distance between the reference position of the first sub-area and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to a third threshold; or the difference between the identifier of the first sub-area and the identifier of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to a fourth threshold. The method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein the sub-region includes the first type of sub-region; the method further comprises: Receive third information, the third information indicating the identifier of at least one fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the at least one fourth sub-area, the fourth sub-area being the first type of sub-area in the coverage area of the first network device, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is used for the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access the second network device. The method according to claim 22 is characterized in that the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a second network device, an identifier of a target beam, a random access resource or a random access preamble code; wherein the target beam is a beam of the second network device. The method according to claim 22 or 23, characterized in that the identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area are located in a subheader of a media access control MAC protocol data unit PDU; or The identifier of the fourth sub-area and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area are located in the MAC control element CE of the MAC PDU; or, The identifier of the fourth sub-area is located in the sub-header of the MAC PDU, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is located in the MAC CE of the MAC PDU. The method according to claim 8, wherein the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area, the first type of sub-area is a sub-area in which the second network device is effective; the sub-area identifier includes the identifier of the first sub-area; and communicating according to the sub-area identifier comprises: receiving, according to the identifier of the first sub-area, third access information corresponding to the first sub-area, where the third access information is used for a terminal device in the first sub-area to access the second network device; Access the second network device according to the third access information corresponding to the first sub-area. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the sub-area includes the third type of sub-area; the method further comprises: receiving fourth information, the fourth information including an identifier of a reference sub-region and a value K, or the fourth information including an identifier of a reference sub-region and an updated distance threshold, the reference sub-region being the third type of sub-region; Communicating according to the configuration information of the sub-area includes: performing tracking area update according to the fourth information and the configuration information of the sub-area. The method according to claim 26, wherein, when the fourth information includes an identifier of a reference sub-area and a value K, performing a tracking area update according to the fourth information and the configuration information of the sub-area comprises: Determine N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas according to the configuration information of the sub-areas, where N _{spot_ta} is the total number of the third-category sub-areas; Determine the identifier of the reference sub-area and the identifiers of the K third-category sub-areas closest to the reference sub-area among the N _{spot_ta} third-category sub-areas as a first tracking area code list; When there is no intersection between the tracking area code list of the terminal device and the first tracking area code list, a tracking area update is initiated. The method according to claim 26, wherein, when the fourth information includes an identifier of a reference sub-area and an update distance threshold, performing a tracking area update based on the fourth information and configuration information of the sub-area comprises: Determine a reference position of the reference sub-region according to the configuration information of the sub-region and the identifier of the reference sub-region; When the distance between the terminal device and the reference position of the reference sub-area is greater than or equal to the update distance threshold, a tracking area update is initiated. A communication method, characterized in that the method comprises: Acquire configuration information of a sub-region, the configuration information indicating an initial region and a subdivision level, the initial region, the subdivision level, and a sub-region determination criterion being used to determine the sub-region, the sub-region being included in the initial region; The configuration information is sent. The method according to claim 29 is characterized in that the sub-region determination criteria include: the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square is determined according to the subdivision level; the reference position of the sub-region is determined according to the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square. The method according to claim 30 is characterized in that the reference position of the sub-region is determined based on the projection of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square and the total number of the initial regions. The method according to claim 30 or 31, characterized in that the projection RL( _xi , _yi ) of the reference position of the sub-region on the unit square satisfies the following relationship:
Wherein, i represents the identifier of the sub-region, L represents the subdivision level, and N _spot represents the total number of the initial regions. The method according to any one of claims 29 to 32 is characterized in that the subdivision level includes subdivision levels corresponding to multiple network devices respectively. The method according to any one of claims 29-33 is characterized in that the sub-area includes at least one of a first type of sub-area, a second type of sub-area or a third type of sub-area, the first type of sub-area corresponds to a broadcast beam, the second type of sub-area corresponds to a service beam, and the third type of sub-area corresponds to a tracking area. The method according to claim 34 is characterized in that the subdivision level includes at least one of the subdivision level corresponding to the first type of sub-area, the subdivision level corresponding to the second type of sub-area, or the subdivision level corresponding to the third type of sub-area. The method according to claim 34 or 35, wherein the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area, and the method further comprises: First access information corresponding to the first type of sub-area is sent, where the first access information is used for a terminal device in the first type of sub-area to access a first network device. The method according to claim 34 or 35, wherein the sub-area includes the second type of sub-area, and the method further comprises: The communication resource information corresponding to the second type of sub-area is sent, and the communication resources indicated by the communication resource information are used for information transmission by terminal devices in the second type of sub-area. The method according to claim 34 or 35, wherein the sub-area includes the first type of sub-area and/or the second type of sub-area; the method further comprises: Sending first information and/or second information, where the first information indicates a first sub-area set and/or a second sub-area set, the first sub-area set including the first type of sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device, and the second sub-area set including the second type of sub-areas in the sub-areas covered by the first network device; The second information indicates the first type of sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the first sub-area set, and/or indicates the second type of sub-areas served by the beam of the first network device in the second sub-area set. The method according to claim 34 or 35, wherein the sub-region includes the first type of sub-region; the method further comprises: Send third information, wherein the third information indicates an identifier of at least one fourth sub-area and second access information corresponding to the at least one fourth sub-area, the fourth sub-area being the first type of sub-area in the coverage area of the first network device, and the second access information corresponding to the fourth sub-area is used for the terminal device in the fourth sub-area to access the second network device. The method according to claim 34 or 35, wherein the sub-area includes the third type of sub-area; the method further comprises: Send fourth information, where the fourth information includes an identifier of a reference sub-area and a value K, or the fourth information includes an identifier of a reference sub-area and an updated distance threshold, where the reference sub-area is the third type of sub-area. 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 perform the method described in any one of claims 1-28, or to enable the communication device to perform the method described in any one of claims 29-40. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions or programs, which, when the computer instructions or programs are run on a computer, cause the method according to any one of claims 1 to 28 to be executed, or cause the method according to any one of claims 29 to 40 to be 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 according to any one of claims 1 to 28 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 29 to 40 is executed.