User equipment and method executed by the user equipment

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a method executed by a user equipment and the user equipment, comprising: receiving an RRC message including a pre-configured uplink resource configuration, the RRC message including a message related to an RRC connection configured by a base station, the user equipment determining whether the pre-configured uplink resource configuration is for an anchor carrier or a non-anchor carrier based on carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of wireless communications, and more specifically, to a user equipment and a method executed by the user equipment. Background Art

[0002] In June 2018, at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) RAN#80 plenary meeting, a new work item on NarrowBand Internet Of things (NB-IoT) Release 16 enhancement (see RP-181451: New WID on R16 enhancement for NB-IoT) and a new work item on Machine Type Communication (MTC) Release 16 enhancement (see RP-181878, revised WID for additional MTC enhancement) were approved. One of the goals of this research project is to improve the efficiency of uplink transmission to reduce the energy consumption of user equipment (UE).

[0003] In the prior art, if a UE in an idle state wants to send uplink data, there are two ways: one way is to enter the RRC connection state through the Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection establishment / recovery process, that is, to send uplink data in the RRC connection state that establishes a connection with the network side; the other way is to use the Early Data Transmission (EDT) mechanism introduced in version 15, and send a small data packet to the base station together in the third message during the random access process. For small data packets, the use of EDT obviously saves more signaling overhead and consumes less UE energy than entering the RRC connection state and then sending uplink data. The above version 16 aims to further improve the efficiency of uplink transmission and reduce UE energy consumption. In the ongoing technical discussion on improving uplink transmission efficiency to reduce UE energy consumption, one feasible method is to pre-allocate available uplink resources for users in the RRC idle state. When uplink data arrives, if the UE's uplink is still in a synchronized state (i.e., there is a valid uplink time advance (TA)), the uplink transmission can be completed through the pre-allocated uplink resources without having to perform uplink transmission through a random access process or enter a connected state for uplink transmission through an RRC connection establishment / recovery process.

[0004] In the present disclosure, the method of sending uplink data by UE in RRC idle state through preconfigured resources is called preconfigured uplink resource sending. The present disclosure mainly proposes a solution to the problem of how to implement preconfigured uplink resource sending, and more specifically, proposes a solution to the configuration and management of preconfigured uplink resources.

[0005] In addition, in the 3GPP Rel-14 standard specification, for UEs in idle mode, the use of a paging mechanism can reduce the power consumption of the UE. When the UE channel state is not good and coverage enhancement is required, PDCCH and / or PDSCH need to be sent repeatedly to correctly receive information from the base station or correctly send information to the base station. Before the UE detects a paging message, it needs to wake up from the sleep state to detect whether there is its own paging message on each PO. Most of the time, the UE will not have a paging message. In this way, when the UE is in a coverage enhancement state, it needs to repeatedly receive PDCCH or PDSCH to detect whether there is its own paging message, and most of the time there is no paging message of its own. Therefore, a large amount of UE power will be consumed. For MTC or NB-IoT users, it is extremely important to reduce the power consumption of the UE. Therefore, in the 3GPP Rel-15 standard specification, physical wake-up signaling is introduced for UEs in idle state. That is, before detecting a paging message on each PO, a physical wake-up signaling is designed. If the UE detects the physical wake-up signaling, it detects the paging message on the subsequent PO; if the UE does not detect the physical wake-up signaling, it does not detect the paging message on the subsequent PO and directly returns to the sleep state. In the aforementioned new work item of Rel-16, one of its purposes is to introduce physical wake-up signaling based on UE groups (UE-group WUS), or physical sleep-deactivation signaling, to further reduce the power loss of the UE. In the WUS based on UE groups, the UE can only perform monitoring WUS on the WUS corresponding to the group associated with itself. How to configure and use the WUS based on UE groups is a problem that needs to be solved, and a solution to this problem is proposed in the present disclosure. Summary of the invention

[0006] In order to solve at least a part of the above problems, the present invention provides a method executed by a user equipment and a user equipment, which are a method executed by a user equipment and a user equipment capable of solving the configuration and management problems of pre-configured uplink resources.

[0007] According to a first aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method executed by a user equipment is provided, comprising: receiving an RRC message including a pre-configured uplink resource configuration, the RRC message including a message related to an RRC connection configured by a base station, the user equipment determining whether the pre-configured uplink resource configuration is for an anchor carrier or a non-anchor carrier based on carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration.

[0008] According to the method of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration includes: according to the presence or absence of the carrier information; or according to the value of the carrier information; or according to the carrier index contained in the carrier information.

[0009] According to the method of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure, it also includes: saving the received pre-configured uplink resource configuration; and when the user equipment enters the RRC idle state, configuring the pre-configured uplink resources for the relevant protocol layer according to the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration.

[0010] According to the method of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure, it also includes: when the user equipment enters the RRC connected state, deleting or retaining the relevant configuration of the pre-configured uplink resource configuration.

[0011] According to the method of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the deleting the related configuration of the pre-configured uplink resource configuration includes at least one of the following operations: deleting the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration; deleting the configured pre-configured uplink resources; and stopping the timer used to determine the validity of the pre-configured uplink resources, and the retaining the related configuration of the pre-configured uplink resource configuration includes at least one of the following operations: applying the pre-configured uplink resource configuration contained in the received RRC message; and restarting the timer being executed.

[0012] According to the method of the first aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, the pre-configured uplink resource configuration contained in the RRC message received by the application includes: replacing the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration with the pre-configured uplink resource configuration contained in the received RRC message.

[0013] The method according to the first aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure also includes: the user equipment sends uplink data on the configured pre-configured uplink resources; and when the bottom layer of the user equipment does not receive any response information from the base station, sending indication information to the upper layer of the user equipment to inform the bottom layer that the response to the uplink transmission of the pre-configured resources has not been received.

[0014] According to the method of the first aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the bottom layer includes a MAC layer and / or a physical layer, and the upper layer includes an RRC layer.

[0015] The method according to the first aspect of the embodiment of the present disclosure further includes: the upper layer performs a fallback operation, that is, triggering a random access process to use EDT to send uplink data, or using a traditional RRC connection establishment / recovery process without EDT to enter an RRC connection state to send uplink data,

[0016] The fallback operation includes at least one of the following operations: starting or restarting the T300 timer; rebuilding the radio link control RLC layer corresponding to the data radio bearer DRB and / or the signaling radio bearer SRB; re-establishing the packet data convergence protocol PDCP layer corresponding to the data radio bearer DRB and / or the signaling radio bearer SRB; deleting the security key derived for performing uplink data transmission on the pre-configured uplink resources; suspending all SRBs and DRBs except SRB0; and configuring the lower layer to suspend integrity protection and encryption functions.

[0017] According to a second aspect of an embodiment of the present disclosure, a user device is provided, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions; the instructions, when executed by the processor, execute the method performed by the user device according to any one of the first aspects. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] The above and other features of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0019] Figure 1 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 1 of the present disclosure.

[0020] Figure 2 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 2 of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 3 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 3 of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 4 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 4 of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 5 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 5 of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 6 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a user equipment involved in the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] Other aspects, advantages and salient features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0026] In this disclosure, the terms "include" and "including" and their derivatives mean inclusion without limitation; the term "or" is inclusive, meaning and / or.

[0027] In this specification, the various embodiments described below for describing the principles of the present disclosure are merely illustrative and should not be interpreted in any way as limiting the scope of the disclosure. The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is used to help fully understand the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. The following description includes a variety of specific details to aid understanding, but these details should be considered merely exemplary. Therefore, it should be recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, for the sake of clarity and brevity, descriptions of well-known functions and structures are omitted. In addition, throughout the accompanying drawings, the same reference numerals are used for similar functions and operations.

[0028] The following uses NB-IoT in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile communication system and its subsequent evolution versions as an example application environment to specifically describe multiple implementations of the present disclosure. However, it should be noted that the present disclosure is not limited to the following implementations, but can be applied to more other wireless communication systems, such as machine type communication (MTC) systems, and can also be used in 5G next generation wireless communication systems (NewRadio, NR).

[0029] The base station in the present disclosure is an entity used to communicate with the user equipment, which can be any type of base station, which can refer to Node B or Evolved Node B (eNB) or Access Point (AP), or it can be a 5G communication system base station gNB, or micro base station, micro-micro base station, macro base station, home base station, etc.; the cell can also be a cell under any type of base station mentioned above. The user equipment can also refer to a terminal or an access terminal or a site or a mobile site, etc. The user equipment can be a cellular phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or a cordless phone or a laptop or a mobile phone or a smart phone or a handheld device or a netbook, etc.

[0030] Different embodiments may also work in combination.

[0031] The following first describes some concepts and concepts involved in the present disclosure. It should be noted that some of the names in the following description are only illustrative and not restrictive, and other names may also be used.

[0032] Anchor carrier: For the frequency division duplex system (Frequency Division Duplex, FDD), it refers to the carrier that the UE considers to transmit the physical broadcast channel (NPBCH), primary synchronization signal (NPSS) / secondary synchronization signal (NSSS), system information block (SIB-NB), etc. related to NB-IoT. For the time division duplex system (Time Division Duplex, TDD), it refers to the carrier that the UE considers to transmit the physical broadcast channel (NPBCH), primary synchronization signal (NPSS) / secondary synchronization signal (NSSS), etc. related to NB-IoT. That is, the UE receives the synchronization signal, broadcast channel and / or system information on the anchor carrier. In the present disclosure, for the convenience of description, unless otherwise specified, the uplink carrier corresponding to the anchor carrier is also referred to as the anchor carrier or uplink anchor carrier. In the FDD system, the uplink carrier corresponding to the anchor carrier is generally indicated to the user through the frequency information in the system information block 2 (such as the ul-carrierfreq information element).

[0033] Non-anchor carrier: For FDD, it refers to the carrier that the UE considers not to transmit NB-IoT-related NPBCH, NPSS, NSSS, SIB-NB and other data; for TDD, it refers to the carrier that the UE considers not to transmit NB-IoT-related NPBCH, NPSS, NSSS and other data. That is, the UE considers that the non-anchor carrier is only used to receive or send unicast transmission data such as the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) related to NB-IoT.

[0034] CarrierConfigDedicated-NB information element: This information element is used to configure a carrier in the NB-IoT system. The carrier can be an anchor carrier or a non-anchor carrier. Its configuration includes an uplink carrier configuration and a downlink carrier configuration. Among them, the downlink carrier configuration includes one or more of the frequency information of the carrier, downlink available subframe information, non-anchor carrier downlink gap information, in-band carrier information, etc. The uplink carrier configuration includes uplink carrier frequency information and / or TDD uplink and downlink alignment offset information, etc. This information element is generally included in the physicalconfigdedicated information element in the radioresourceconfigdedicated information element and is sent to the UE through UE-specific RRC information such as RRC connection reconfiguration message, wherein the radioresourceconfigdedicated information element is used to establish / modify / release radio bearers, modify wireless medium control (Medium Access Control, MAC) configuration, and modify dedicated physical layer configuration, etc. The physicalconfigdedicated information element is used to specify UE-specific physical channel configuration.

[0035] dl-configList information element: Included in the system information, used to configure non-anchor carriers for paging and random access procedures. Contains a non-anchor carrier configuration list.

[0036] ul-configList information element: included in the system information, used to configure non-anchor carriers used for the random access process, including a list of non-anchor carriers.

[0037] Early Data Transmission (EDT):

[0038] The small data transmission optimization scheme in R15 has made further optimizations for the characteristics of small data transmission from the control plane and the user plane. For uplink data transmission, the optimization content is mainly to transmit small data together with message 3 during the random access process. Because this optimization method can complete data transmission at an earlier time than the traditional data transmission method, it is called early data transmission. In this disclosure, small data (small data or small packet) can be equivalent to early data.

[0039] Enhanced coverage level: In enhanced coverage technology, the degree of enhanced coverage required is divided into multiple enhanced coverage levels. For example, in NB-IoT, three enhanced coverage levels are defined. In MTC, four enhanced coverage levels are defined. In some enhanced coverage methods, each enhanced coverage level can correspond to a different set of wireless parameter configurations, such as random access configurations (such as PRACH (Physical Random Access CHannel) resources). When initiating random access, the UE's medium access control (Medium Access Control) layer determines the UE's enhanced coverage level based on the measured RSRP and the RSRP threshold value received in the system information for determining the enhanced coverage level, and selects the corresponding random access resources (such as preamble) and parameters (such as random access response window size) according to the determined enhanced coverage level to initiate the random access process.

[0040] Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH): may refer to the PDCCH in 3GPP LTE / LTE-A (Long Term Evolution / Long Term Evolution-Advanced) or the MPDCCH (MTC PDCCH) for machine type communication or the NPDCCH for narrowband IoT communication or the NR (New Radio, also known as 5G) NR-PDCCH, etc. The physical downlink shared channel may refer to the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in 3GPP LTE / LTE-A (Long Term Evolution / Long Term Evolution-Advanced) or the NPDSCH or NR-PDSCH for narrowband IoT communication, etc.

[0041] Physical signaling / channel: may refer to physical wake-up signaling (Wake Up Signal, WUS) / channel, or physical go-to-sleep signaling (Go-To-Sleep Signal, GTS) / channel, etc. The physical wake-up signaling / channel refers to a UE in idle mode or a UE in a discontinuous reception (Discontinuous Reception, DRX) state in an RRC connected mode. Before receiving, detecting or decoding a physical downlink control channel and / or a physical downlink shared channel, it is necessary to detect or decode the physical wake-up signaling / channel. If the physical wake-up signaling is detected or decoded, the subsequent physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel is received or detected or decoded. Alternatively, the physical wake-up signaling / channel refers to a UE in idle mode or a UE in a discontinuous reception (Discontinuous Reception, DRX) state in an RRC connected mode. Before receiving, detecting or decoding a physical downlink control channel and / or a physical downlink shared channel, it is necessary to detect or decode the physical wake-up signaling / channel. If the physical wake-up signaling / channel is detected or decoded, the subsequent physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel is detected or decoded. If the physical wake-up signaling / channel is not detected or decoded, the subsequent physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel is not detected or decoded. In other words, the subsequent physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel is ignored or skipped. The physical de-sleep signaling / channel refers to a UE in idle mode or a UE in a discontinuous reception (DRX) state in RRC connection mode. Before receiving, detecting or decoding the physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel, the physical de-sleep signaling / channel needs to be detected or decoded. If the physical de-sleep signaling / channel is detected or decoded, the UE does not detect or decode the subsequent physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel, and directly enters the sleep state. Alternatively, the physical de-sleep signaling / channel refers to a UE in idle mode or a UE in a discontinuous reception (DRX) state in RRC connection mode. Before receiving, detecting or decoding a physical downlink control channel and / or a physical downlink shared channel, the physical de-sleep signaling / channel needs to be detected or decoded. If the physical de-sleep signaling / channel is detected or decoded, the subsequent physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel is not detected or decoded. If the physical wake-up signaling is not detected or decoded, the subsequent physical downlink control channel and / or physical downlink shared channel is received, detected or decoded.

[0042] Paging mechanism in LTE:

[0043] In the 3GPP Rel-14 standard specification, a UE in idle mode can use discontinuous reception to reduce power consumption. A paging occasion (PO) is a subframe on which there may be a PDCCH or MPDCCH or NPDCCH that is scrambled using a paging-radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI) and schedules a paging message. In the case of an MPDCCH scrambled with P-RNTI, PO refers to the starting subframe for repeated transmission of the MPDCCH. In the case of an NPDCCH scrambled with P-RNTI, PO refers to the starting subframe for repeated transmission of the NPDCCH, unless the subframe determined by the PO is not a valid NB-IoT downlink subframe. When the subframe determined by the PO is not a valid NB-IoT downlink subframe, the first valid NB-IoT downlink subframe after the PO is the starting subframe for repeated transmission of the NPDCCH.

[0044] A paging frame (PF) is a radio frame that may contain one or more POs. When DRX is used, the UE only needs to monitor one PO in each DRX cycle.

[0045] Paging Narrowband (PNB) is a narrowband on which the UE receives paging messages.

[0046] PF, PO and PNB are DRX parameters provided by system information and are determined using the following formula.

[0047] PF is given by the following formula:

[0048] SFN mod T=(T div N)*(UE_ID mod N) (1)

[0049] Using the index i_s, PO can be obtained by looking up Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 or Table 4 according to the duplex mode and system bandwidth. Among them, i_s is obtained by the following formula:

[0050] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N)mod Ns (2)

[0051] For FDD:

[0052] Table 1 (PDCCH or NPDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI, or MPDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI and the system bandwidth is greater than 3MHz)

[0053] Ns PO, i_s = 0 PO, i_s = 1 PO, i_s = 2 PO, i_s = 3 1 9 N / A N / A N / A 2 4 9 N / A N / A 4 0 4 5 9

[0054] Table 2 (MPDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI and the system bandwidth is 1.4MHz and 3MHz)

[0055] Ns PO, i_s = 0 PO, i_s = 1 PO, i_s = 2 PO, i_s = 3 1 5 N / A N / A N / A 2 5 5 N / A N / A 4 5 5 5 5

[0056] For TDD (all uplink / downlink configurations):

[0057] Table 3 (PDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI, or MPDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI and the system bandwidth is greater than 3MHz)

[0058] Ns PO, i_s = 0 PO, i_s = 1 PO, i_s = 2 PO, i_s = 3 1 0 N / A N / A N / A 2 0 5 N / A N / A 4 0 1 5 6

[0059] Table 4 (MPDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI and the system bandwidth is 1.4MHz and 3MHz)

[0060] Ns PO, i_s = 0 PO, i_s = 1 PO, i_s = 2 PO, i_s = 3 1 1 N / A N / A N / A 2 1 6 N / A N / A 4 1 1 6 6

[0061] If the detected MPDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI, the paging narrowband PNB is determined by the following formula:

[0062] PNB=floor(UE_ID / (N*Ns))mod Nn (3)

[0063] If the detected NPDCCH is scrambled by P-RNTI and the UE supports receiving paging messages on non-anchor carriers, and if paging message configuration information is provided for non-anchor carriers in the system information, the paging carrier is determined by the minimum paging carrier n that satisfies the following formula (4):

[0064]

[0065] Whenever the DRX parameters in the system information change, the system information DRX parameters stored in the UE need to be updated locally in the UE. If the UE does not have an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), for example, the UE does not have a Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) and needs to initiate an emergency call, the UE needs to use the default identifier UE_ID=0 in the above PF, i_s and PNB formulas.

[0066] The following parameters are used to calculate the paging carrier for PF, i_s, PNB, and NB-IoT:

[0067] ·T: DRX cycle of UE. Except for NB-IoT, if the upper layer configures a UE-specific extended DRX value of 512 radio frames, T=512. Otherwise, T is determined by the shortest DRX cycle of the UE-specific DRX cycle (if configured by the upper layer) and the default DRX cycle broadcast by the system information. If the upper layer does not configure a UE-specific DRX cycle, the default DRX cycle is used. UE-specific DRX cycle is not applicable to NB-IoT.

[0068] N: min(T, nB)

[0069] Ns: max(1, nB / T)

[0070] Nn: The number of paging narrowbands provided in the system information

[0071] UE_ID:

[0072] IMSI mod 1024, if using P-RNTI scrambling on PDCCH

[0073] IMSI mod 4096, if using P-RNTI scrambling on NPDCCH

[0074] IMSI mod 16384, if scrambled on MPDCCH using P-RNTI, or scrambled on NPDCCH using P-RNTI and the UE supports reception of paging messages on non-anchor carriers, and if configuration information for paging messages is provided for non-anchor carriers in the system information.

[0075] maxPagingCarriers: The number of configured paging carriers provided in the system information

[0076] Weight(i): The weight of the i-th paging carrier of NB-IoT

[0077] IMSI is a series of decimal digits (0..9). IMSI is interpreted as a decimal integer in the formula, where the first digit is the most significant digit, and so on. For example: IMSI = 12 (digit 1 = 1, digit 2 = 2), when calculated, the IMSI is interpreted as the decimal number "12", not "1*16+2=18".

[0078] In the 3GPP Rel-14 standard specification, for UEs in idle mode, the paging mechanism can reduce the power consumption of the UE. When the UE channel state is not good and coverage enhancement is required, PDCCH and / or PDSCH need to be sent repeatedly to correctly receive information from the base station or correctly send information to the base station. Before the UE detects a paging message, it needs to wake up from the sleep state to detect whether there is its own paging message on each PO. Most of the time, the UE will not have a paging message. In this way, when the UE is in a coverage enhancement state, it needs to repeatedly receive PDCCH or PDSCH to detect whether there is its own paging message, and most of the time there is no paging message of its own. Therefore, a large amount of UE power will be consumed. For MTC or NB-IoT users, it is extremely important to reduce the power consumption of the UE. Therefore, in the 3GPP Rel-15 standard specification, physical wake-up signaling is introduced for UEs in idle state. That is, before detecting a paging message on each PO, a physical wake-up signaling is designed. If the UE detects the physical wake-up signaling, it detects the paging message on the subsequent PO, that is, detects the PDCCH (or MPDCCH or NPDCCH) scrambled by the P-RNTI and receives the PDSCH (or NPDCCH) scheduled by the PDCCH (or MPDCCH or NPDCCH). If the UE does not detect the physical wake-up signaling, it does not detect the paging message on the subsequent PO and directly returns to the sleep state.

[0079] In order to further reduce the power consumption of UE, physical wake-up signaling (UE-groupWUS) based on UE grouping or physical sleep-down signaling can be introduced. For example, UEs corresponding to a certain PO can be divided into several groups, and one or more groups of UEs use one WUS. Considering backward compatibility, the newly introduced UE-group WUS or Rel-16 UE-group WUS should not affect the existence and performance of the existing Rel-15 WUS. That is to say, when the system supports Rel-16 UE-group WUS, it can also support Rel-15 WUS. In addition, considering that not all Rel-16 UEs support the UE-group WUS function, Rel-16 UEs need to be divided into UEs that support UE-group WUS and UEs that do not support UE-group WUS. Therefore, there are three types of UEs supporting the WUS function in the Rel-16 system: Rel-15 WUS UE or legacy WUS UE (Legacy WUS UE: LWUS UE), non-UE-group WUS UE (NGWUS UE) and UE-group WUS UE (GWUS UE). The following embodiments of the present disclosure propose a solution for how to configure the GWUS of UE grouping. Through the method, GWUS transmission based on UE grouping can be implemented, so that the UE can learn the configuration of the GWUS and can monitor its associated GWUS based on the UE grouping, thereby achieving the purpose of energy saving.

[0080] As for the aforementioned pre-configured uplink resources, there can be two ways, one is dedicated pre-configured uplink resources, that is, pre-allocating dedicated uplink resources for a UE, so that uplink data transmission will not cause collision conflicts. The other is shared pre-configured uplink resources, that is, the allocated uplink resources are shared by multiple UEs, which can be a shared resource pool. In this way, multiple UEs may use one resource to send uplink, so there is potential competition to cause conflicts and lead to transmission failure. The conclusion reached at the recent 3GPP meeting is to support the allocation of dedicated pre-configured uplink resources to UEs through RRC dedicated signaling, but whether to support shared pre-configured uplink resources has not yet been determined. Pre-configured uplink resources are uplink resources pre-allocated to UEs for use through RRC messages. The pre-configured uplink resources can be allocated in the RRC connected state for uplink data transmission when the UE is in the RRC idle state and / or for the RRC connected state, or they can be notified to the UE through system information for uplink data transmission in the RRC idle state. Although the present disclosure uses a UE in RRC idle state as a typical scenario to illustrate the following solution, unless otherwise specified, the following embodiments of the present disclosure are also applicable to UE in RRC connected state. For example, the carrier configuration implementation method in Example 1 may also be applicable to the pre-configured uplink resource configuration used for uplink data transmission by a UE in RRC connected state.

[0081] In the NB-IoT system, the system of version 13 only supports UE to reside on the anchor carrier, that is, to initiate a random access process for establishing a connection with the network side on the anchor carrier or to receive a paging message for downlink services from the anchor carrier. However, it can support UE to configure a non-anchor carrier (that is, the carrier configured by the CarrierConfigDedicated-NB information element) for the UE through RRC dedicated messages such as RRC connection reconfiguration messages after entering the connected state. In this way, the uplink and downlink services of the UE can be transferred to the configured non-anchor carrier, thereby realizing load balancing between the anchor carrier and the non-anchor carrier. In the system of version 14, the function of random access process and receiving paging on the non-anchor carrier is added. This function is realized by carrying an uplink non-anchor carrier configuration list (that is, the aforementioned ul-configList information element) and a downlink non-anchor carrier configuration list (that is, the aforementioned dl-configList information element) in the system information. The UE may select a non-anchor carrier in the uplink non-anchor carrier list for a random access process according to certain rules (see Section 5.1 of 3GPP protocol document 36.321), or may select a non-anchor carrier in the downlink non-anchor carrier list for monitoring / receiving paging according to certain rules (see Section 7 of GPP protocol document 36.304). For the pre-configured uplink resources, in order to maximize the use of NB-IoT system resources and achieve load balancing of anchor carriers and non-anchor carriers, the present disclosure proposes a solution for how to configure pre-configured uplink resources for UEs on anchor carriers and non-anchor carriers.

[0082] For the dedicated pre-configured uplink resources, the dedicated pre-configured resources may be messages related to RRC connection, such as RRC connection release message, RRC connection reconfiguration message, RRC connection establishment message, RRC connection recovery message, etc., which are configured by the base station through RRC dedicated signaling when the UE was previously in the RRC connection state. A UE in the RRC idle state can use the dedicated pre-configured uplink resources to send uplink data. However, when the UE falls back to the traditional transmission mode, such as when it needs to enter the RRC connection state to transmit downlink services due to receiving a paging message, how to handle the pre-configured uplink resources used for the idle state becomes a problem that needs to be solved. In addition, the fallback to the traditional transmission mode may also be triggered by a transmission failure on the pre-configured uplink resources. In this case, how to implement the fallback to the traditional transmission mode is also a problem of concern to the present disclosure.

[0083] In the following embodiments of the present disclosure, indication (indicate / indication) and notification (notify / notification) or inform / information (inform / information) can be interchangeable. UE can refer to NB-IoT UE, Bandwidth reduced Low complexity (BL) UE, or UE in enhanced coverage (enhanced coverage), or other UE such as 5G NR UE. In the present disclosure, PRACH, NPRACH and RACH can be replaced. The pre-configured uplink resources may also be referred to as pre-configured uplink grant (uplink grant) or pre-allocated uplink resources (preallocated uplink resource) or pre-allocated uplink grant (preallocated uplink grant), etc. Coverage Enhancement level is equivalent to Enhanced Coverage level, or may also be referred to as Repetition Level.

[0084] Example 1

[0085] Figure 1 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 1 of the present disclosure.

[0086] Next, combine Figure 1 The method executed by the user equipment in embodiment 1 of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

[0087] This embodiment proposes a configuration method for pre-configured uplink resources, which is implemented on a user equipment UE.

[0088] like Figure 1 As shown, step S101: UE receives an RRC message containing pre-configured uplink resource configuration. Preferably, the RRC message may be an RRC connection release message; alternatively, it may be an RRC connection reconfiguration message, an RRC connection reestablishment message, an RRC connection establishment message, an RRC connection recovery message, or other messages related to RRC connection. Several implementations of the carrier information of the pre-configured uplink resource configuration are given below.

[0089] In one implementation, if the pre-configured uplink resource configuration does not include carrier information, the UE uses the anchor carrier (i.e., the UE believes that the pre-configured uplink resources are for the anchor carrier); if the carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration is set to "non-anchor carrier" or "dedicated carrier", the UE uses the carrier configured by the CarrierConfigDedicated information element in the dedicated RRC message, that is, the UE believes that the configured pre-configured uplink resources are for the dedicated carrier configured by the CarrierConfigDedicated information element.

[0090] In one implementation, if the carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration is set to "0" or "TURE", the UE uses the anchor carrier (i.e., the UE believes that the pre-configured uplink resource is for the anchor carrier); if the carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration is set to "1" or "FALSE", the UE uses the carrier configured by the CarrierConfigDedicated information element in the dedicated RRC message, i.e., the UE believes that the configured pre-configured uplink resource is for the dedicated carrier configured by the CarrierConfigDedicated information element. At this time, the carrier information can indicate whether to use the anchor carrier for the pre-configured uplink resource. Conversely, if the carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration is set to "1" or "FALSE", the UE uses the anchor carrier (i.e., the UE believes that the pre-configured uplink resource is for the anchor carrier); if the carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration is set to "0" or "TURE", the UE uses the carrier configured by the CarrierConfigDedicated information element in the dedicated RRC message, i.e., the UE believes that the configured pre-configured uplink resource is for the dedicated carrier configured by the CarrierConfigDedicated information element. At this time, the carrier information can indicate whether a dedicated (non-anchor) carrier is used for the pre-configured uplink resource.

[0091] In another embodiment, the carrier information in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration includes a carrier index, which is used to indicate which carrier in the system information is used for pre-configured uplink resources. For the uplink carrier in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration, the carrier index value "0" corresponds to the uplink corresponding to the anchor carrier, that is, the anchor carrier is used for pre-configured uplink resources, and the carrier index value "1" corresponds to the first entry in the ul-configList information element; the carrier index value "2" corresponds to the second entry in the ul-configList information element, and so on. For the downlink carrier in the pre-configured uplink resource configuration, the carrier index value "0" corresponds to the anchor carrier, that is, the anchor carrier is used for pre-configured uplink resources, and the carrier index value "1" corresponds to the first entry in the dl-configList information element; the carrier index value "2" corresponds to the second entry in the dl-configList information element, and so on. The downlink carrier in the pre-configured uplink resource can be used for downlink scheduling of data retransmission and / or for responding to downlink reception of uplink data, etc.

[0092] Step S102: The UE saves the received pre-configured uplink resource configuration.

[0093] Step S103: When the UE enters the RRC idle state (or leaves the RRC connected state or the RRC inactive state), the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration is applied. Optionally, the pre-configured uplink resource validity timer is started. The application of the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration refers to configuring the relevant protocol layer according to the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration. The pre-configured uplink resource validity timer is used to determine whether the pre-configured uplink resource is valid. For example, when the timer is running, the saved or configured pre-configured uplink resource is considered valid; when the timer is not running or times out, the saved or configured pre-configured uplink resource is considered invalid.

[0094] For the pre-configured uplink resource validity timer, one implementation method is that the timer is a time alignment timer (Time Alignment Timer, TAT). TAT is used in the prior art to control how long the MAC entity considers that a service cell is in an uplink alignment (i.e., uplink synchronization) state. That is to say, when TAT is running, the UE MAC entity believes that the corresponding service cell is uplink aligned, and the pre-configured uplink resources are valid; when TAT is not running or times out, the UE MAC entity believes that the corresponding service cell is not uplink aligned, and the pre-configured uplink resources are invalid.

[0095] Example 2

[0096] Figure 2 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 2 of the present disclosure.

[0097] Next, combine Figure 2 The method executed by the user equipment in embodiment 2 of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

[0098] This embodiment provides a method for managing pre-configured uplink resources. In this embodiment, if the UE enters the RRC connected state, the UE considers that the pre-configured uplink resources saved for the RRC idle state are useless, and the UE can delete the pre-configured uplink resource related configuration by itself, thereby avoiding the resource management energy consumption caused by executing the pre-configured uplink resource related configuration when the UE is in the connected state.

[0099] like Figure 2 As shown, step S201: UE enters RRC connection state.

[0100] The entering into the RRC connected state may be that the UE receives an RRC message for instructing the UE to enter the connected state, preferably, an RRC connection recovery message or an RRC connection establishment message.

[0101] Step S202: The UE performs one or more of the following operations:

[0102] Operation 1: Release the (saved) pre-configured uplink resource configuration.

[0103] Operation 2: Release the (configured) pre-configured uplink resources.

[0104] Action 3: Stop the timer used to determine the validity of the pre-configured uplink resources.

[0105] The “release” may also be “deletion”.

[0106] Embodiment 3:

[0107] Figure 3 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 3 of the present disclosure.

[0108] Next, combine Figure 3 The method executed by the user equipment in embodiment 3 of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

[0109] This embodiment provides another method for managing preconfigured uplink resources. In this embodiment, if the UE enters the RRC connected state, the UE believes that the preconfigured uplink resources saved for the RRC idle state can be used after the UE enters the idle state again, so the UE will retain the configuration related to the preconfigured uplink resources, so that if the network side configures the preconfigured uplink resources for the UE when it enters the idle state again, the signaling overhead caused by reconfiguring the preconfigured uplink resources can be reduced or avoided.

[0110] like Figure 3 As shown, step S301: UE enters RRC connection state.

[0111] The entering into the RRC connected state may be that the UE receives an RRC message for instructing the UE to enter the connected state, preferably, an RRC connection recovery message or an RRC connection establishment message.

[0112] Step S302: The UE performs one or more of the following operations:

[0113] Operation 1: If the RRC message includes a pre-configured uplink resource configuration, the UE applies the received pre-configured uplink resource configuration. If the UE has previously saved a pre-configured uplink resource configuration, the application of the received pre-configured uplink resource configuration also includes the UE updating the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration, that is, replacing the saved pre-configured uplink resource configuration with the pre-configured uplink resource configuration included in the received RRC message.

[0114] Operation 2: If there is a timer for determining the validity of the pre-configured uplink resources that is running, restart the timer for determining the validity of the pre-configured uplink resources.

[0115] Example 4

[0116] Figure 4 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 4 of the present disclosure.

[0117] Next, combine Figure 4 The method executed by the user equipment in embodiment 4 of the present disclosure is described in detail.

[0118] Generally speaking, a UE configured with pre-configured uplink resources will use the corresponding pre-configured uplink resources to send uplink. However, in some cases, such as when the UE does not have a valid TA or the amount of uplink data to be sent is large, the UE will choose to fall back to the traditional uplink transmission method, that is, to send uplink data by using EDT through triggering a random access process or to enter the RRC connection state and send uplink data using a non-EDT traditional RRC connection establishment / recovery process.

[0119] This embodiment provides a method for a UE configured with pre-configured uplink resources to fall back to a traditional uplink transmission mode when the UE fails to transmit on the pre-configured uplink resources. The method is executed on a UE in an RRC idle state.

[0120] like Figure 4 As shown, step S401: the UE bottom layer performs pre-configured uplink resource transmission, that is, the UE uses the pre-configured uplink resources to send uplink data. The bottom layer refers to the MAC layer and / or the physical layer.

[0121] Before step S401, the RRC may determine to use the pre-configured uplink resources to send the uplink data, and instruct the bottom layer to use the pre-configured uplink resources to send the uplink data.

[0122] Step S402: If the bottom layer does not receive any response information from the base station, such as an indication for confirming that the uplink transmission in step S401 is successfully received or failed, the bottom layer sends an indication information to the upper layer (RRC layer) to inform the upper layer that the bottom layer has not received a response to the uplink transmission of the pre-configured resources, or to inform the upper layer that the uplink transmission of the pre-configured resources of the bottom layer has failed. The indication information can also be understood as an indication requesting the upper layer to execute a fallback to the traditional uplink transmission.

[0123] The determination that the bottom layer has not received any response from the base station may be determined based on a certain period of time, such as not receiving any response within a period of time after sending the uplink data. Or the UE has not received any response after performing a certain number of retransmissions on the uplink data. Optionally, the response may be a response indicating successful reception.

[0124] Optionally, this step also includes, the MAC layer clearing a MAC layer related cache, which may be a message 3 cache or a hybrid automatic repeat request (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest, HARQ) cache.

[0125] Step S403: After receiving the instruction in step S402 from the bottom layer, the RRC layer performs the operation of falling back to the conventional uplink transmission mode. The operation may include one or more of the following:

[0126] Operation 1: Start or restart the T300 timer.

[0127] Operation 2: Reestablish the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer corresponding to the Data Radio Bearer (DRB) and / or the Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB).

[0128] Operation 3: Re-establish the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer corresponding to the Data Radio Bearer (DRB) and / or the Signaling Radio Bearer (SRB).

[0129] Action 4: Delete the security key derived for uplink data transmission on the preconfigured uplink resources.

[0130] Operation 5: Suspend all SRBs and DRBs, excluding SRB0.

[0131] Action 6: Configure the lower layer to suspend integrity protection and encryption functions.

[0132] Example 5

[0133] Figure 5 It is a flowchart schematically showing the method executed by the user equipment of embodiment 5 of the present disclosure.

[0134] Next, combine Figure 5 The method executed by the user equipment in embodiment 5 of the present disclosure will be described in detail.

[0135] For the use of pre-configured uplink resources, there is an implementation method that when there is uplink data to be transmitted (such as based on a request from the NAS layer), the RRC layer determines whether to use the pre-configured uplink resource transmission method or the traditional uplink data transmission method. In some cases, the judgment of whether the pre-configured uplink resources are valid is made by the RRC layer, such as based on whether the serving cell has changed, and in some other cases, it is made by the MAC layer, such as based on whether the TAT has timed out as described above. At this time, the interaction information between the MAC layer and the RRC layer is required to complete the entire determination of whether to use the pre-configured uplink resource transmission method. This embodiment provides a solution for the information interaction between layers.

[0136] like Figure 5 As shown, step S501: the UE MAC entity determines that the pre-configured uplink resource is invalid. The determination may be based on the pre-configured uplink resource validity timer or TAT, or based on a transmission failure on the pre-configured resource, or based on downlink channel quality such as RSRP exceeding a configured threshold value.

[0137] Step S502: When the UE MAC entity determines that the pre-configured uplink resources are invalid, the UE MAC layer sends a pre-configured uplink resource invalid indication to the UE RRC layer, that is, indicates to the RRC layer that the pre-configured uplink resources are invalid. Optionally, the indication may also indicate a specific invalid reason, such as a pre-configured uplink resource validity timer timeout or TAT timeout.

[0138] Step S503: The RRC layer, having received the indication from the MAC layer, may release the pre-configured uplink resource configuration.

[0139] Step S503 is optional, that is, the RRC layer may also choose not to release the pre-configured uplink resource configuration after receiving the indication, but directly fall back to the traditional uplink data transmission mode. In this implementation, when the RRC determines whether to use the pre-configured uplink resource transmission mode, it needs to determine whether the pre-configured uplink resource (configuration) is valid, that is, the pre-configured uplink resource transmission mode can be used only when there are valid pre-configured uplink resources.

[0140] Thus, according to the above-mentioned various embodiments, the present disclosure provides a method executed by a user equipment that can solve the configuration and management problems of pre-configured uplink resources.

[0141] Modifications

[0142] Next, use Figure 6 A user equipment as a variation example that can execute the method executed by the user equipment described in detail above in the present disclosure is described.

[0143] Figure 6 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a user equipment involved in the present disclosure.

[0144] like Figure 6 As shown, the user equipment UE80 includes a processor 801 and a memory 802. The processor 801 may include, for example, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, an embedded processor, etc. The memory 802 may include, for example, a volatile memory (such as a random access memory RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), a non-volatile memory (such as a flash memory), or other memories, etc. The memory 802 stores program instructions. When the instructions are executed by the processor 801, the above method performed by the user equipment described in detail in the present invention may be executed.

[0145] Example 6

[0146] This embodiment provides a configuration method of a UE-based physical wake-up signal, which can be implemented on a UE or a base station or a system including a UE and a base station. Through this method, the UE and the base station can complete the reception or transmission of the WUS based on the configured packet-based WUS, thereby saving UE energy consumption and using the least WUS resources to achieve the purpose of saving UE energy consumption.

[0147] The method includes: dividing the GWUS UEs corresponding to a certain PO into several UE groups, and allocating a WUS to each group or multiple groups of UEs. For example, the UE-group WUS UEs supporting a certain PO are divided into 4 groups: G1, G2, G3 and G4. If a GWUS is allocated to each group of UEs, 4 WUSs are required: GWUS1, GWUS2, GWUS3 and GWUS4, corresponding to G1, G2, G3 and G4 respectively. Alternatively, 4 groups of UEs can be combined, with a total of 15 combinations: G1, G2, G3, G4, G1+G2, G1+G3, G1+G4, G2+G3, G2+G4, G3+G4, G1+G2+G3, G1+G2+G4, G1+G3+G4, G2+G3+G4, G1+G2+G3+G4. A GWUS can be allocated to each combination, and 15 GWUSs are required. Alternatively, some combinations can be selected, and a GWUS can be allocated to each selected combination. For example, there are 11 combinations of G1, G2, G3, G4, G1+G2, G1+G3, G1+G4, G2+G3, G2+G4, G3+G4, G1+G2+G3+G4, and 11 GWUS are allocated to each of these 11 combinations: GWUS1, GWUS2, ..., GWUS10, GWUS11. When the UE of G1 has a paging message, the base station sends GWUS1; when the UEs of G1 and G2 have a paging message at the same time, the base station sends GWUS5; when the UEs of G1, G2, G3, and G4 have a paging message at the same time, the base station sends GWUS11. Alternatively, a GWUS is allocated to each of G1, G2, G3, and G4, and a GWUS (also called a common CWUS) is allocated to G1+G2+G3+G4 alone. In this way, 5 GWUS are required. Alternatively, the common WUS (CWUS) may be configured through system information or UE-specific RRC signaling or MAC signaling or physical layer signaling, and the CWUS may be configured as an LWUS or a newly defined WUS.

[0148] A UE that does not support UE-group WUS in Rel-16 can be configured as a LWUS UE, or the WUS configured for a UE that does not support UE-group WUS in Rel-16 is LWUS, that is, a UE that does not support UE-group WUS in Rel-16 works using LWUS. Alternatively, a newly defined WUS can be configured for a UE that does not support UE-group WUS in Rel-16.

[0149] Alternatively, for UEs that support UE-group WUS in Rel-16, one or more groups of UEs among several groups may be configured to use LWUS UEs, or the WUS configured for one or more groups of UEs among several groups that support UE-group WUS in Rel-16 may be LWUS, that is, one or more groups of UEs among several groups that support UE-group WUS in Rel-16 may work using LWUS.

[0150] The multiplexing between the LWUS and the GWUS and between the GWUS and the GWUS may be time division multiplexing (TDM), frequency division multiplexing (FDM), code division multiplexing (CDM), FDM+TDM, FDM+CDM, TDM+CDM or FDM+TDM+CDM. The multiplexing method between the LWUS and the GWUS may be different from the multiplexing method between the GWUS and the GWUS. For example, TDM is used between the LWUS and the GWUS, while CDM is used between the GWUS and the GWUS. Alternatively, FDM is used between the LWUS and the GWUS, while CDM or FDM+CDM is used between the GWUS and the GWUS. Alternatively, the multiplexing method between the LWUS and the GWUS and the multiplexing method between the GWUS and the GWUS adopt the same multiplexing method, for example, both adopt CDM or one of the above possible multiplexing methods.

[0151] The base station may configure the multiplexing mode between the LWUS and the GWUS according to its operating environment (e.g., the number of UEs served, etc.). Alternatively, the base station may configure the multiplexing mode between the LWUS and the GWUS and / or the multiplexing mode between the GWUS and the GWUS separately or in the same manner according to the number of UE groups supported or other possible parameters.

[0152] FDM multiplexes based on one or more physical resource blocks (PRBs). Alternatively, FDM multiplexes based on one or more subcarriers.

[0153] TDM is multiplexing based on one or more Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols. Alternatively, TDM is multiplexing based on one or more subframes. Alternatively, TDM is multiplexing based on one or more radio frames. Alternatively, TDM is multiplexing based on one or more Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycles. Alternatively, TDM is multiplexing based on one or more Enhanced Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) cycles.

[0154] CDM is based on multiplexing of different basic sequences. Alternatively, CDM is based on multiplexing of different cover codes (Cover Code) on the same basic sequence. The cover code can be a frequency domain cover code or a time domain cover code. For example, there are 12 subcarriers in a PRB, and 12 orthogonal cover codes can be generated; alternatively, the cover code is generated based on OFDM symbols in the time domain. There are two transmission modes when using CDM: transmitting only one code (basic sequence or cover code) at a certain time, and transmitting multiple codes (basic sequence or cover code) at a certain time.

[0155] In one implementation, the UE determines which group it belongs to based on its UE identifier. The UE and the base station need to know the configuration information of multiple UE groups and the GWUS based on the UE group before they can monitor / send the GWUS associated with the corresponding group based on the UE group. The following provides the association methods between multiple combinations of UE groups and multiple GWUS, but it is worth noting that the association methods between the UE knowing the multiple combinations of UE groups and multiple GWUS described in the present disclosure are not limited to the following two implementation methods.

[0156] In one implementation, the configuration information of the GWUS includes a GWUS list, and each item in the list corresponds to a GWUS, that is, it includes the resource configuration of a GWUS. The resource configuration can be time domain resources, frequency domain resources, code domain resources and / or spatial domain resources. In addition, the GWUS configuration information also includes UE group number information and / or a bit map. The UE group number information is used to indicate the number of UE groups; the bit map is used to indicate whether each combination of multiple combinations based on UE groups is associated with a GWUS in the GWUS list. When the number of UE groups is N, the length of the bit map is bits. The maximum possible number of combinations between groups of N UE groups is also (i.e., G1, G2..., GN, G1+G2, G1+G3,..., G1+GN, G2+(53, G2+G4,..., G2+GN, G3+G4,...G3+GN,..., GM+G(M+1),..., GM+GN, G(N-1)+GN, G1+G2+G3, G1+G2+G4,..., G1+G2+GN, G1+G3+G4, G1+G2+...+GN), so that each bit in the bitmap corresponds to a combination of groups of UE grouping or the GWUS corresponding to the combination. For a certain bit, if the value of the bit is set to 1, the bit corresponds to The GWUS associated with the combination of UE groups is included in the GWUS list. If the value of the bit is set to 0, the GWUS associated with the combination of UE groups corresponding to the bit is not included in the GWUS list, that is, the GWUS associated with the combination of UE groups is not configured. For example, the number of UE groups is 4 groups G1~G4, then there are at most 15 combinations of each group, namely G1, G2, G3, G4, G1+G2, G1+G3, G1+G4, G2+G3, G2+G4, G3+G4, G1+G2+G3, G1+G2+G4, G1+G3+G4, G2+G3+G4, G1+G2+G3+G4. At this time, the length of the bitmap is 15, Each bit corresponds to one of the above 15 combinations, for example, bit 1 corresponds to G1, bit 2 corresponds to G2, bit 3 corresponds to G3, bit 4 corresponds to G4, bit 5 corresponds to G1+G2, and so on, bit 15 corresponds to G1+G2+G3+G4. The one-to-one correspondence between the order of the bits in the bitmap and the various combinations of UE groups needs to be specified in advance or configured in the signaling (for example, when the number of groups is 1, the GWUS list only contains one GWUS1 configuration; when the number of groups is 2, the order in which the bits in the bitmap correspond to the group combinations is from bit 1 to bit 3, and the corresponding group combinations are G1, G2, G1+G2; when the number of groups is 3, the bitmap The order in which each bit corresponds to the group combination is from bit 1 to bit 7, and the corresponding group combinations are G1, G2, G3, G1+G2, G1+G3, G2+G3, G1+G2+G3; when the number of groups is 4, as described in the previous example, it is not repeated here). However, the network side does not necessarily configure an associated GWUS for all 15 combinations. In this example, the network side configures an associated GWUS for 11 of the 15 combinations, and the corresponding GWUS configurations are included in the GWUS list in the GWUS configuration, that is, the GWUS list contains 11 items GWUS1 to GWUS11. At this time, which of the 15 combinations are configured with an associated GWUS is indicated by the bit value in the bitmap.If the value of the bit map is 111111111100001, it means that the GWUS corresponding to 11 combinations of G1, G2, G3, G4, G1+G2, G1+G3, G1+G4, G2+G3, G2+G4, G3+G4, and G1+G2+G3+G4 are configured, while the GWUS is not configured for the four combinations of G1+G2+G3, G1+G2+G4, G1+G3+G4, and G2+G3+G4. The number of items with bits set to 1 in the bitmap is consistent with the number of GWUS items in the GWUS list, and the order of items with bits set to 1 in the bitmap is consistent with the order of GWUS items in the GWUS list, that is, the first low-order (or high-order or leftmost or rightmost) bit with a value of 1 in the bitmap corresponds to the first item in the GWUS list, and the second low-order (or high-order or leftmost or rightmost) bit with a value of 1 in the bitmap corresponds to the second item in the GWUS list, and so on. In the above manner, the correspondence between the configured multiple GWUS and each combination of UE groups can be obtained through the bitmap and the correspondence between the bitmap and each combination of UE groups. In the above example, GWUS1~11 correspond to 11 combinations of G1, G2, G3, G4, G1+G2, G1+G3, G1+G4, G2+G3, G2+G4, G3+G4, G1+G2+G3+G4, respectively.

[0157] In another implementation, in addition to the number information of the GWUS column and / or UE group contained in the GWUS configuration, each GWUS includes a group (combination) information, and the group (combination) information is used to indicate the association relationship between the UE group or the combination of UE groups corresponding to the GWUS. The association relationship between multiple GWUS and multiple UE groups or the combination of UE groups is configured in this display manner. Taking the above example, the GWUS configuration list in the GWUS configuration information contains 11 GWUS items, corresponding to 11 GWUSs, namely GWUS1 to GWUS11. The configuration of each GWUS contains its associated group (combination) information, such as the group (combination) information contained in the configuration information of GWUS1 is indicated as G1, the group (combination) information contained in the configuration information of GWUS2 is indicated as G2, the group (combination) information contained in the configuration information of GWUS3 is indicated as G3, the group (combination) information contained in the configuration information of GWUS4 is indicated as G4, and the group (combination) information contained in the configuration information of GWUS5 is indicated as G1+G2, and so on. In one implementation, the grouping (combination) information is a bitmap, the length of the bitmap is the length of the number of groups, and the order of the bits of the bitmap from low to high (or from high to low or from left to right or from right to left) is consistent with the order of the group numbers of the UE grouping combination from small to large (or from small to large). For example, for GWUS5 (i.e., the fifth item in the GWUS list), its grouping (combination) information indication is 1100, and for GWUS6 (i.e., the sixth item in the GWUS list), its grouping (combination) information indication is 1010.

[0158] After knowing the correspondence or association between the combinations of GWUS and UE groups in the above GWUS list, the UE monitors the GWUS associated or corresponding to the group based on its own group, without having to monitor the GWUS that is not associated with the UE's own group, so as to achieve the purpose of UE power saving. Taking the above example, the number of UE groups is 4, and the UE determines that its group is group 2, i.e., G2, through information such as UE identification and formulas, and when GWUS1 to 11 corresponding to 11 combinations G1, G2, G3, G4, G1+G2, G1+G3, G1+G4, G2+G3, G2+G4, G3+G4, G1+G2+G3+G4 are configured on the network side, the UE monitors the GWUS corresponding to its own group 2, i.e., G2, i.e., GWUS2\GWUS5\GWUS8\GWUS9\GWUS11, and does not or does not need to monitor GWUS1\GWUS3\GWUS4\GWUS6\GWUS7\GWUS10.

[0159] In yet another implementation manner, the GWUS associated with the UE is configured through dedicated signaling, that is, the UE needs to monitor all GWUS configured through dedicated signaling.

[0160] In another implementation, the GWUS associated with the UE is configured through dedicated signaling. In this way, the network side sends all the GWUS used by the cell through system information, that is, included in a GWUS list. In the GWUS configured by the dedicated signaling of the UE, a bit map is included, and the length of the bit map is consistent with the number of GWUS (or the number of items in the GWUS list). Each bit in the bit map corresponds to a GWUS. If the corresponding bit in the bit map is set to 1, the UE monitors the GWUS corresponding to the bit. If the corresponding bit in the bit map is set to 0, the UE does not or does not need to monitor the GWUS corresponding to the bit. The arrangement order of the bits in the bit map is the same as the order of the corresponding GWUS in the GWUS list.

[0161] In another implementation, the GWUS configuration information includes the GWUS corresponding to each UE group. The arrangement order of the GWUS in the GWUS configuration list corresponds to the group number of the UE group from small to large (or from large to small) one-to-one. If the number of UE groups is N groups, the first item in the GWUS list corresponds to group 1 of the UE group, i.e., G1, the second item in the GWUS list corresponds to group 2 of the UE group, i.e., G2, and so on. The Nth item in the GWUS list corresponds to group N of the UE group, i.e., GN.

[0162] The configuration described above may be implemented through system information or UE-specific RRC signaling or MAC signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0163] The method of the present invention and the equipment involved have been described above in conjunction with the preferred embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the method shown above is merely exemplary, and the embodiments described above can be combined with each other without contradiction. The method of the present invention is not limited to the steps and sequence shown above. The user equipment shown above may include more modules, for example, modules that can be developed or developed in the future and can be used for base stations, MMEs, or UEs, etc. The various identifiers shown above are merely exemplary and not restrictive, and the present disclosure is not limited to specific information elements that serve as examples of these identifiers. Those skilled in the art may make many changes and modifications based on the teachings of the illustrated embodiments.

[0164] It should be understood that the above embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, the various components inside the base station and user equipment in the above embodiments can be implemented by a variety of devices, including but not limited to: analog circuit devices, digital circuit devices, digital signal processing (DSP) circuits, programmable processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (CPLDs), and the like.

[0165] In this application, "base station" may refer to a mobile communication data and control exchange center with a large transmission power and a wide coverage area, including functions such as resource allocation scheduling, data reception and transmission, etc. "User equipment" may refer to a user's mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone, a notebook, etc., which can communicate wirelessly with a base station or a micro base station.

[0166] The program running on the device according to the present disclosure may be a program that enables a computer to implement the functions of the embodiments of the present disclosure by controlling a central processing unit (CPU). The program or information processed by the program may be temporarily stored in a volatile memory (such as a random access memory RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), a non-volatile memory (such as a flash memory), or other memory systems.

[0167] The program for realizing the functions of each embodiment of the present disclosure can be recorded on a computer-readable recording medium. The corresponding functions can be realized by making a computer system read the program recorded on the recording medium and executing these programs. The so-called "computer system" herein can be a computer system embedded in the device, and can include an operating system or hardware (such as a peripheral device). "Computer-readable recording medium" can be a semiconductor recording medium, an optical recording medium, a magnetic recording medium, a recording medium of a short-term dynamic storage program, or any other recording medium readable by a computer.

[0168] The various features or functional modules of the devices used in the above embodiments can be implemented or executed by circuits (e.g., monolithic or multi-chip integrated circuits). Circuits designed to perform the functions described in this specification may include general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of the above devices. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or any existing processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The above circuits may be digital circuits or analog circuits. In the case where new integrated circuit technologies have emerged to replace existing integrated circuits due to advances in semiconductor technology, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented using these new integrated circuit technologies.

[0169] In addition, the present disclosure is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments. Although various examples of the embodiments have been described, the present disclosure is not limited thereto. Fixed or non-mobile electronic devices installed indoors or outdoors can be used as terminal devices or communication devices, such as AV equipment, kitchen equipment, cleaning equipment, air conditioners, office equipment, vending machines, and other household appliances.

[0170] As mentioned above, the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the specific structure is not limited to the above embodiments, and the present disclosure also includes any design changes that do not deviate from the main purpose of the present disclosure. In addition, various changes can be made to the present disclosure within the scope of the claims, and the embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in different embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the components with the same effect described in the above embodiments can be replaced by each other.

Claims

1. A user equipment UE, comprising: processor; as well as A memory, wherein the memory stores instructions for causing the processor to perform the following operations: Enable the radio resource control RRC layer to determine to use the pre-configured uplink resources to send uplink data in the RRC idle state without performing a random access procedure; Enable a media access control (MAC) layer to send the uplink data to a base station using the pre-configured uplink resources; and In response to determining that no response to the transmission of the uplink data is received from the base station within a period of time, the MAC layer determines and indicates to the RRC layer that the transmission of the uplink data on the pre-configured uplink resources has failed, wherein: When the UE receives an RRC connection release message including the configuration of the pre-configured uplink resource, starting a pre-configured uplink resource validity timer, and When (i) the pre-configured uplink resource validity timer runs and (ii) a reference signal received power RSRP does not exceed a configured threshold value, the uplink data is sent in the RRC idle state without performing the random access procedure.

2. A control method in a user equipment UE, comprising: Enable the radio resource control RRC layer to determine to use the pre-configured uplink resources to send uplink data in the RRC idle state without performing a random access procedure; Enable a media access control (MAC) layer to send the uplink data to a base station using the pre-configured uplink resources; as well as In response to determining that no response to the transmission of the uplink data is received from the base station within a period of time, the MAC layer determines and indicates to the RRC layer that the transmission of the uplink data on the pre-configured uplink resources has failed, wherein: When the UE receives an RRC connection release message including the configuration of the pre-configured uplink resource, starting a pre-configured uplink resource validity timer, and When (i) the pre-configured uplink resource validity timer runs and (ii) a reference signal received power RSRP does not exceed a configured threshold value, the uplink data is sent in the RRC idle state without performing the random access procedure.

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