A handover method and apparatus

Abstract

The application provides a switching method and device to solve the problem of how to improve the data transmission performance of a terminal device. In the application, the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is determined to be a first delay, the first delay is less than a second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by a second terminal device; or the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is determined to be one of N delays, the N delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N delays include the first delay. Therefore, the switching between bandwidth units can be performed more quickly, so that the first terminal device can perform dynamic data transmission quickly in a large system bandwidth, thereby ensuring the frequency selective scheduling gain or frequency diversity gain and / or cell load balancing.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a switching method and device. Background Art

[0002] The Fifth-Generation (5G) mobile communication technology, New Radio (NR), is a very important foundation for the next generation of cellular mobile technology. The services of 5G technology are very diverse, and can be oriented to enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services, ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) services, and massive machine-type communication (mMTC) services. Among them, mMTC services can be, for example, industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSN) services, video surveillance services, and wearables services.

[0003] At present, the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) has launched research on NR reduced capability (NR REDCAP) terminal equipment, aiming to design a terminal equipment that meets the performance requirements of the Internet of Things market and has low complexity, so as to expand the application of NR systems in the Internet of Things market. The bandwidth capability of NRREDCAP terminal equipment may be much smaller than the bandwidth capability of NR legacy terminal equipment. At present, the bandwidth capability of traditional terminal equipment is 100MHz, while the bandwidth capability of NR REDCAP terminal equipment may be only 20MHz. Under the configuration of some NR systems, the bandwidth capability of NR REDCAP terminal equipment may be further reduced, for example, to 5MHz or 10MHz. Since the bandwidth capability of NR REDCAP terminal equipment is much smaller than 100MHz, the complexity of NRREDCAP terminal equipment can be greatly reduced. In the embodiment of the present application, REDCAP UE may also be referred to as NR-Light or NR-lite UE.

[0004] Since the bandwidth capability of NR REDCAP terminal devices is far less than 100MHz, the data transmission performance of NR REDCAP terminal devices is low. Therefore, how to improve the data transmission performance of NR REDCAP terminal devices is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The present application provides a switching method and apparatus to solve the problem of how to improve the data transmission performance of a terminal device.

[0006] In the first aspect, the present application provides a switching method, the execution subject of the method can be a first terminal device, or a chip applied to the first terminal device. The following description is taken as an example of the execution subject being the first terminal device. The first terminal device receives bandwidth unit configuration information, and the bandwidth unit configuration information includes configuration information for indicating the first bandwidth unit and configuration information of the second bandwidth unit, and the first terminal device determines to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit; wherein, the switching delay of the first terminal device switching from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is a first delay, the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device; or the switching delay of the first terminal device switching from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is one of N delays, and the N delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N delays include the first delay.

[0007] In this way, the second terminal device is a traditional terminal device in the new wireless NR system, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first delay. Since the first delay is less than the delay supported by the traditional terminal device in the new wireless NR system, faster switching between bandwidth units can be achieved. Therefore, the first terminal device can quickly and dynamically transmit data within a larger system bandwidth, thereby ensuring frequency selective scheduling gain or frequency diversity gain and / or cell load balancing, thereby improving the data transmission performance of the terminal device.

[0008] In a possible design of the first aspect, the first terminal device receives downlink control information, and the downlink control information instructs the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, wherein the downlink control information includes a first information field, the first information field is less than or equal to 4 bits, and the first information field includes at least one of frequency resource location information or BWP identification information.

[0009] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, the execution subject of the method can be a network device or a chip applied in the network device. Hereinafter, the execution subject is taken as an example of the network device. The network device sends bandwidth unit configuration information to a first terminal device, the bandwidth unit configuration information includes configuration information for indicating a first bandwidth unit and configuration information for indicating a second bandwidth unit, and the network device schedules data of the first terminal device according to a switching delay, wherein the switching delay is a time delay of switching the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, the switching delay is a first time delay, the first time delay is less than a second time delay, and the second time delay is a switching delay supported by a second terminal device; or the switching delay is one of N time delays, the N time delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N time delays include the first time delay.

[0010] In a possible design of the second aspect, the network device sends downlink control information to the first terminal device, the downlink control information indicates that the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit; wherein the downlink control information includes a first information field, the first information field is less than or equal to 4 bits, and the first information field includes at least one of frequency resource location information or BWP identification information.

[0011] Through the indication of the first information field, dynamic switching of the bandwidth unit can be implemented, the first information field jointly indicates the BWP frequency resource location and the BWP ID, the physical layer signaling overhead can be saved, and the terminal detection complexity is reduced. In addition, the first information field multiplexes the BWP indication field, and the physical layer signaling overhead can be further saved.

[0012] In a possible design of the first aspect or the second aspect, the frequency resource location of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource location of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to the same partial bandwidth BWP identification, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first time delay.

[0013] Through this design, the switching delay of the bandwidth unit is reduced, and the first information field in the downlink control information can be multiplexed, so that the signaling overhead is saved.

[0014] In a possible design of the first aspect or the second party mentioned above, the frequency resource position of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource position of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the other delays among the N types of delays except the first delay.

[0015] With this design, the first terminal device can reuse the BWP indicator in the downlink control information to switch between bandwidth units. This design allows for short-latency switching while maximizing the reuse of existing bandwidth unit (e.g., BWP) configuration methods and bandwidth unit switching indication methods, saving signaling overhead.

[0016] In a possible design of the first aspect or the second party above, the first terminal device receives downlink control information, and the downlink control information instructs the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, wherein the downlink control information includes a first information field, the first information field is less than or equal to 4 bits, and the first information field includes at least one of frequency resource location information or BWP identification information.

[0017] In a possible design of the first aspect or the second party mentioned above, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first delay.

[0018] In a possible design of the first aspect or the second party above, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have no correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the other delays among the N types of delays except the first delay.

[0019] In a possible design of the above-mentioned first aspect or second party, when the identifier associated with the first bandwidth unit is the same as the identifier associated with the second bandwidth unit, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated, or when the switching delay corresponding to the first bandwidth unit is the same as the switching delay corresponding to the second bandwidth unit, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated.

[0020] In a possible design of the first aspect or the second aspect above, the first bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on the first carrier, and the second bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on the second carrier.

[0021] According to a third aspect, a communication device is provided. The beneficial effects can be found in the description of the first aspect and are not further described here. The communication device has the function of implementing the behavior in the method example of the first aspect. The function can be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software implementation. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-mentioned functions. In one possible design, the communication device includes: a transceiver module for receiving bandwidth unit configuration information, the bandwidth unit configuration information including configuration information indicating a first bandwidth unit and configuration information of a second bandwidth unit; a processing module for determining a switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, wherein the switching delay from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is a first delay, the first delay is less than a second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device; or the switching delay from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is one of N delays, the N delays being supported by the device, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N delays include the first delay. These modules can perform the corresponding functions in the method example of the first aspect. For details, please refer to the detailed description of the method example and are not further described here.

[0022] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided. The beneficial effects can be found in the description of the second aspect and are not repeated here. The communication device has the function of implementing the behavior in the method example of the second aspect. The function can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions. In one possible design, the communication device includes: a transceiver module for sending bandwidth unit configuration information to a first terminal device, the bandwidth unit configuration information including configuration information indicating the first bandwidth unit and configuration information of the second bandwidth unit; a processing module for scheduling data of the first terminal device based on a switching delay, wherein the switching delay is the delay for the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, the switching delay is a first delay, the first delay is less than a second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device; or the switching delay is one of N delays, the N delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N delays include the first delay. These modules can perform the corresponding functions in the above-mentioned second aspect method example. Please refer to the detailed description in the method example for details, which will not be repeated here.

[0023] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the first terminal device in the above-described method embodiment, or a chip disposed in the first terminal device. The communication device includes a communication interface and a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is configured to store computer programs or instructions. The processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor executes the computer program or instructions, the communication device executes the method performed by the first terminal device in the above-described method embodiment.

[0024] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the network device in the above-described method embodiment, or a chip disposed in the network device. The communication device includes a communication interface and a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is configured to store computer programs or instructions. The processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor executes the computer program or instructions, the communication device executes the method performed by the network device in the above-described method embodiment.

[0025] In a seventh aspect, a computer program product is provided, comprising: a computer program code, which, when run, enables the method performed by the first terminal device in the above aspects to be executed.

[0026] In an eighth aspect, a computer program product is provided, comprising: a computer program code, wherein when the computer program code is run, the method performed by the network device in the above aspects is executed.

[0027] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a chip system comprising a processor configured to implement the functions of the first terminal device in the methods of the aforementioned aspects. In one possible design, the chip system further comprises a memory configured to store program instructions and / or data. The chip system may be composed solely of a chip or may include a chip and other discrete components.

[0028] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a chip system comprising a processor for implementing the functions of the network device in the methods of the above aspects. In one possible design, the chip system further comprises a memory for storing program instructions and / or data. The chip system may be composed of a chip alone or may include a chip and other discrete components.

[0029] In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program. When the computer program is executed, the method performed by the first terminal device in the above aspects is implemented.

[0030] In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program. When the computer program is executed, it implements the methods performed by the network device in the above aspects. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0031] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a network architecture applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

[0032] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a switching method flow chart provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0033] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of a switching delay provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of frequency resource locations provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of a partial bandwidth configuration provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0036] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a partial bandwidth configuration provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of a partial bandwidth configuration provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of a partial bandwidth configuration provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] Figure 9 A schematic diagram of a partial bandwidth configuration provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] Figure 10 A schematic diagram of a scheduled data transmission resource provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] Figure 11 A schematic diagram of a virtual carrier provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] Figure 12 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0043] Figure 13 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0044] The embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0045] The embodiments of the present application can be applied to various mobile communication systems, such as new radio (NR) systems, long term evolution (LTE) systems, advanced long term evolution (LTE-A) systems, evolved long term evolution (eLTE) systems, and other communication systems, but are not limited to these.

[0046] In the existing NR system, the terminal device first detects the synchronization signal block (SSB) sent by the base station. The SSB includes the primary synchronization signal (PSS), the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) and the physical broadcast channel (PBCH). The PBCH carries the master information block (MIB). If the MIB further indicates the configuration information of the system information block type 1 (SIB1), or indicates the configuration information of the control resource set zero (CORESET0) of the cell, or indicates the configuration information of CORESET0 and the search space (SS) associated with CORESET0, then such SSB can be understood as a cell-defined SSB (CD-SSB). That is, the terminal device can obtain the necessary system information for accessing the cell by detecting the CD-SSB. Based on this necessary system information, the terminal device can initiate random access to the base station and establish a data transmission connection with the base station. After a data transmission channel is established between a terminal device and a base station, the terminal device can perform data transmission specific to the terminal device with the base station, including downlink data reception and / or uplink data transmission. The establishment of a data transmission channel between the terminal device and the base station can be understood as the terminal device entering a radio resource control (RRC) connected state or an RRC inactive state.

[0047] In the prior art, after a terminal device enters an RRC connected state or an RRC inactive state, regardless of the system bandwidth on the base station side, the base station can configure a frequency domain resource range that matches the bandwidth capability of the terminal device for the terminal device to ensure subsequent data transmission between the base station and the terminal. The base station configures a channel bandwidth (or carrier) for the terminal device through RRC dedicated signaling. The channel bandwidth is not greater than the bandwidth capability of the terminal device. Different terminal devices can have different channel bandwidth configurations. Different channel bandwidth configurations include: the center frequency point corresponding to the channel bandwidth and / or the frequency width of the channel bandwidth are different. Therefore, even if the bandwidth capabilities of different terminal devices are the same, the base station can configure different channel bandwidths for different terminal devices. Furthermore, the base station can complete data transmission with the terminal device by configuring a bandwidth part (BWP) within the channel bandwidth corresponding to the configured terminal device, where each BWP is composed of resource blocks (RBs) that are continuous in frequency. An RB includes 12 subcarriers. The frequency resources included in different BWPs may or may not overlap. Currently, due to complexity considerations, for a terminal device, the base station is configured with a maximum of 4 BWPs. The data transmission between the base station and the terminal device can be dynamically adjusted within the frequency resource range corresponding to the configured BWP (for example, through local BWP scheduling and cross-BWP scheduling methods). However, at any time, the terminal device can only transmit data to the base station through one activated BWP, that is, the frequency resources corresponding to each data transmission of the terminal device can only be within the frequency resource range corresponding to one BWP.

[0048] In addition, the prior art also requires that the configured BWP include SSB in order to implement SSB-based measurements, such as mobility-associated radio resource management (RRM) measurements and channel state information (CSI) measurements.

[0049] According to the existing data transmission process and requirements, for REDCAP terminal devices, the channel bandwidth configured for them is not greater than their bandwidth capability, which means that BWP can only be within the configured channel bandwidth that is not greater than the bandwidth capability of the REDCAP terminal device, and the configured channel bandwidth and BWP must include SSB.

[0050] Based on this, the channel bandwidth (or carrier) configured by the base station for the REDCAP terminal device can only be concentrated near the bandwidth including SSB, which in turn causes the frequency resource range corresponding to the data transmission between the narrowband REDCAP terminal device and the base station to be limited to the bandwidth including SSB. Here, SSB can be CD-SSB or non-CD-SSB. Furthermore, considering the application scenarios of REDCAP terminal devices, that is, large-scale REDCAP terminal devices will appear in the network including IoT services, such as sensors that perform sensing functions in the Industrial Wireless Sensor Network (IWSN), a large number of video surveillance cameras in video surveillance scenarios, and smart watches with an increasingly large application scale. This will result in the inability to achieve load balancing on the base station side, that is, the inability to offload services from a large number of REDCAP terminal devices, which in turn causes service congestion within the bandwidth capacity of the REDCAP terminal devices including SSB (for example, 20MHz), reducing the transmission performance of the REDCAP terminal devices.

[0051] Furthermore, using existing technologies, if REDCAP terminal devices are to be scheduled within a wider range of frequency resources, this requires carrier switching or channel bandwidth reconfiguration. Carrier switching or channel bandwidth reconfiguration is implemented through RRC signaling, and the configuration delay is large, on the order of hundreds of milliseconds, which affects the data transmission performance of REDCAP terminal devices. In addition, through reconfiguration, under the constraints of existing technologies, it is also necessary to consider the need to include SSB within the 20MHz bandwidth after carrier switching or within the channel bandwidth of the switched or switched REDCAP terminal device, which can be CD-SSB or non-CD-SSB, which increases network-side overhead.

[0052] Furthermore, due to the bandwidth capabilities of NR REDCAP terminals, based on existing technologies, the configured BWP is primarily distributed within the bandwidth capabilities of REDCAP terminals, impacting the frequency-selective scheduling gain and / or frequency diversity gain of REDCAP terminals. Assuming a 4-transmit 2-receive antenna configuration for downlink data transmission between the base station and REDCAP terminals, scheduling REDCAP terminals within a fixed 20MHz bandwidth within a 100MHz system bandwidth, compared to dynamically scheduling 20MHz REDCAP terminals within 100MHz, results in a loss of approximately 1.6dB in frequency-selective scheduling gain for the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH).

[0053] To this end, the embodiments of the present application provide a method for solving the problem discovered by the present invention.

[0054] To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, first Figure 1 The communication system shown in FIG. 1 is used as an example to describe in detail a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 1 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a communication system applicable to the communication method of an embodiment of the present application. Figure 1 As shown, the communication system 100 includes a network device 101 and a terminal device 102. The network device 101 may be configured with multiple antennas, and the terminal device may also be configured with multiple antennas. Optionally, the communication system may also include other terminal devices, which will not be illustrated one by one here.

[0055] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device may be a wireless access device of various standards, for example, a next generation base station (next Generation node B, gNB) in an NR system, or a network node constituting a gNB, such as a DU in a centralized-distributed (central unit-distributed, CU-DU) architecture.

[0056] In the embodiments of the present application, a terminal device is a device with wireless transceiver functions or a chip that can be set in the device. Furthermore, the embodiments of the present application can be applied to low-capability terminal devices in the NR system, hereinafter referred to as REDCAP terminal devices. The embodiments of the present application can also be applied to terminal devices in future updated systems, such as NR system release 17 (Rel-17) and later terminal devices or terminal devices in other systems.

[0057] It should be noted that the difference between the first terminal device and the second terminal device may include at least one of the following:

[0058] 1. Different bandwidth capabilities. For example, the carrier bandwidth of the first terminal device is no greater than 50 MHz, such as at least one of 50 MHz, 40 MHz, 20 MHz, 15 MHz, 10 MHz, or 5 MHz, while the carrier bandwidth of the second terminal device is greater than 50 MHz.

[0059] 2. The number of transmitting and receiving antennas is different. For example, the first terminal device can support 2 receiving and 1 transmitting (2 receiving antennas and 1 transmitting antenna), or 1 receiving and 1 transmitting (1 receiving antenna and 1 transmitting antenna). The second terminal device can support 4 receiving and 2 transmitting (4 receiving antennas and 2 transmitting antennas). It can be understood that under the condition of achieving the same data transmission rate, since the number of transmitting and receiving antennas of the first type of terminal device is less than the number of transmitting and receiving antennas of the second type of terminal device, the maximum coverage range that can be achieved by data transmission between the first type of terminal device and the base station is less than the maximum coverage range that can be achieved by data transmission between the second type of terminal device and the base station.

[0060] 3. Different maximum uplink transmit power. For example, the maximum uplink transmit power of the first terminal device can be one of 4 decibel-milliwatts (dBm) to 20 dBm. The maximum uplink transmit power of the second terminal device can be 23 dBm or 26 dBm.

[0061] 4. Different protocol versions. The first terminal device can be a terminal device in NR Release-17 (Rel-17) or a later version of NR Rel-17. The second terminal device can be, for example, a terminal device in NR Release-15 (Rel-15) or NR Release-16 (Rel-16). The second terminal device can also be referred to as an NR legacy terminal device.

[0062] 5. Different carrier aggregation capabilities. For example, the first terminal device does not support carrier aggregation, and the second terminal device can support carrier aggregation. For another example, both the first terminal device and the second terminal device can support carrier aggregation, but the first terminal device supports a maximum number of simultaneously supported carrier aggregations that is less than the maximum number of simultaneously supported carrier aggregations of the second terminal device. For example, the first terminal device can support a maximum of 2 carriers for aggregation, and the second terminal device can support a maximum of 5 carriers or 32 carriers for aggregation.

[0063] 6. Different duplex capabilities. For example, the first terminal device supports half-duplex frequency division duplexing (FDD). The second terminal device supports full-duplex FDD.

[0064] 7. Different processing time capabilities for data. For example, the first terminal device has a larger minimum time delay between receiving downlink data and sending feedback for the downlink data than the second terminal device. For another example, the first terminal device has a larger minimum time delay between sending uplink data and receiving feedback for the uplink data than the second terminal device.

[0065] 8. Different processing capabilities. For example, the first terminal device has a lower baseband processing capability than the second terminal device. The baseband processing capability can include at least one of the following: a maximum number of MIMO layers supported by the terminal device when performing data transmission, a number of HARQ processes supported by the terminal device, and a maximum transmission block size (TBS) supported by the terminal device.

[0066] 9. The transmission peak rate of uplink and / or downlink is different. The transmission peak rate refers to the maximum data transmission rate that the terminal device can reach in a unit of time (e.g., per second). The uplink peak rate supported by the first terminal device can be lower than the uplink peak rate supported by the second terminal device, and / or the downlink peak rate supported by the first terminal device can be lower than the downlink peak rate supported by the second terminal device. For example, the uplink peak rate of the first terminal device is less than or equal to 50 Mbps, and the downlink peak rate is less than or equal to 150 Mbps, the uplink peak rate of the second terminal device is greater than or equal to 50 Mbps, and the downlink peak rate is greater than or equal to 150 Mbps. For another example, the uplink peak rate or the downlink peak rate of the first terminal device is on the order of 100 Mbps, and the uplink peak rate or the downlink peak rate of the second terminal device is on the order of Gbps.

[0067] 10. The buffer size is different. The buffer can be understood as the total size of Layer 2 (L2) buffer, which is defined as the sum of the number of bytes cached by the terminal device in the radio link control (RLC) sending window and receiving and reordering window and the number of bytes cached in the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) reordering window for all radio bearers. Alternatively, the buffer can also be understood as the total number of soft channel bits that can be used by the hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process.

[0068] Optionally, in the embodiments of the present application, the first terminal device can be a REDCAP terminal device in the NR system, or the first terminal device can also be referred to as a low-capability terminal device, a reduced-capability terminal device, a REDCAP UE, a Reduced Capacity UE, an mMTC UE, etc. The NR system can also include other terminal devices, such as a second terminal device, which can be a terminal device with a conventional or normal or high capability, and can also be referred to as a conventional terminal device or a Legacy UE. The second terminal device has the above-mentioned distinguishing features from the first terminal device.

[0069] Of course, the above is only an example, and there can be other differences between the REDCAP terminal device and the conventional terminal device, which will not be illustrated one by one here.

[0070] Additionally, in the embodiments of this application, the word "exemplary" is used to indicate an example, illustration, or description. Any embodiment or design described in this application as "exemplary" should not be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of the word "exemplary" is intended to present concepts in a concrete way.

[0071] The network architecture and business scenarios described in the embodiments of the present application are intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and do not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application. Ordinary technicians in this field will know that with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0072] In conjunction with the previous description, see Figure 2 , is a flowchart of a switching method provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 2 In the process shown, the first terminal device can be a REDDCAP terminal device or an NR system terminal device. The second terminal device can be a traditional terminal device in the NR system. The method includes:

[0073] Step 201: The network device sends bandwidth unit configuration information to the first terminal device.

[0074] The bandwidth unit configuration information includes configuration information for indicating a first bandwidth unit and configuration information for a second bandwidth unit.

[0075] Alternatively, it can be understood that the bandwidth unit configuration information may indicate at least two bandwidth units, where the at least two bandwidth units include a first bandwidth unit and a second bandwidth unit.

[0076] It should be noted that the bandwidth unit configuration information includes the frequency resource location information of the bandwidth unit, where the frequency resource location information includes at least one of the following: the bandwidth of the bandwidth unit, the starting frequency resource location of the bandwidth unit, and the ending frequency resource location of the bandwidth unit; the first bandwidth unit configuration information includes the frequency resource location information of the first bandwidth unit, where the frequency resource location information includes at least one of the following: the bandwidth of the first bandwidth unit, the starting frequency resource location of the first bandwidth unit, and the ending frequency resource location of the first bandwidth unit; the second bandwidth unit configuration information includes the frequency resource location information of the second bandwidth unit, where the frequency resource location information includes at least one of the following: the bandwidth of the second bandwidth unit, the starting frequency resource location of the second bandwidth unit, and the ending frequency resource location of the second bandwidth unit. The configuration information of the first bandwidth unit and the configuration information of the second bandwidth unit can be sent via one configuration information or via respective corresponding configuration information. That is, the bandwidth unit configuration information here can correspond to one configuration information or can correspond to the configuration information of the first bandwidth and the configuration information of the second bandwidth respectively. Taking the bandwidth unit configuration information carried by radio resource control (RRC) signaling as an example, the configuration information of the first bandwidth unit and the configuration information of the second bandwidth unit can be information included in an information element (IE), or can be information included in the IE corresponding to the first bandwidth unit and the IE corresponding to the second bandwidth unit respectively.

[0077] Optionally, the bandwidth unit configuration information used to indicate the configuration information of the first bandwidth unit and the configuration information of the second bandwidth unit can be sent through one or more messages or signalings, and one piece of information can be sent at a time, or multiple pieces of information can be sent separately. That is, the bandwidth unit configuration information can be sent through one configuration information, or through the configuration information corresponding to each, that is, the bandwidth unit configuration information here can correspond to one configuration information, or can correspond to the configuration information of the first bandwidth and the configuration information of the second bandwidth respectively. Taking the bandwidth unit configuration information carried by radio resource control (RRC) signaling as an example, the configuration information of the first bandwidth unit and the configuration information of the second bandwidth unit can be included in one information element (IE), or can be information included in the IE corresponding to the first bandwidth unit and the IE corresponding to the second bandwidth unit respectively.

[0078] Step 202: The first terminal device receives bandwidth unit configuration information.

[0079] Step 203: The first terminal device determines to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit.

[0080] The switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is a first delay, the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device;

[0081] Or the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is one of N types of delays, and the N types of delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N types of delays include the first delay.

[0082] Or the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is one of N types of delays, the N types of delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, the N types of delays include a first delay, the first delay is less than the second delay, the second delay is the switching delay supported by the second terminal device, or the first delay is less than one of the N types of delays except the first delay, or the first delay is less than both the second delay and one of the N types of delays except the first delay.

[0083] The other delay except the first delay is, for example, the second delay.

[0084] In an embodiment of the present application, the first terminal device may determine to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit by receiving indication information sent by the network device. The indication information may be sent via RRC signaling, media access control (MAC) signaling, or physical layer signaling. For example, the indication information may be carried in RRC reconfiguration signaling or as downlink control information (DCI).

[0085] In addition, the first terminal device can also switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit by means of a timer. For example, if the first terminal device does not detect the corresponding scheduling information within the timer preset in the first bandwidth unit (for example, the BWP inactivity timer BWP-inactivity timer), the terminal device can switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit after the timer.

[0086] Step 204: The network device schedules the data of the terminal device according to the switching delay.

[0087] Through the above method process, the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first delay, which can achieve faster bandwidth unit switching. Therefore, the first terminal device can quickly and dynamically transmit data within a larger system bandwidth, thereby ensuring frequency selective scheduling gain or frequency diversity gain and / or cell load balance.

[0088] In an embodiment of the present application, a bandwidth unit corresponds to a resource consisting of consecutive resource blocks (RBs) on a carrier, and the resource sizes corresponding to different bandwidth units may be the same or different; the subcarrier spacing (SCS) corresponding to different bandwidth units may be the same or different. The bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth unit can be represented by the SCS and the number of RBs corresponding to the bandwidth unit, or it can be directly expressed as L Hz, where L is a positive integer not less than 0. For example, if the subcarrier spacing corresponding to a bandwidth unit is 30KHz and the number of RBs is 10, it can be determined that the bandwidth size corresponding to the bandwidth unit is 3.6MHz. The terminal device can transmit data with the network device through the resources included in a bandwidth unit (for example, the bandwidth unit includes 20 RBs of RB0 to R19, and the network device schedules the terminal device to transmit DL or UL data on RB5 to RB10). Optionally, in an embodiment of the present application, the bandwidth unit may refer to a bandwidth part (BWP).

[0089] Based on the configuration information of the first bandwidth unit and the configuration information of the second bandwidth unit, the first terminal device can respectively determine the frequency resource location of the first bandwidth unit and the frequency resource location of the second bandwidth unit. Based on this, the frequency resource for data transmission between the first terminal device and the network device can be moved. That is, before the handover, the first terminal device and the network device perform data transmission within the frequency resource range included in the first bandwidth unit. After the handover, the first terminal device and the network device perform data transmission within the frequency resource range included in the second bandwidth unit.

[0090] In an embodiment of the present application, the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit may refer to the delay corresponding to the bandwidth unit switching triggered by physical layer signaling. Specifically, after receiving the physical layer signaling that triggers the bandwidth unit switching, the first terminal device may transmit data between the second bandwidth unit and the network device after the switching delay. Alternatively, the delay of the terminal device switching from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit may also be less than the switching delay, as long as it is ensured that the bandwidth unit switching can be completed outside of the switching.

[0091] like Figure 3As shown, in the embodiments of the present application, the switching delay T corresponding to the bandwidth unit switching triggered based on the physical layer signaling switchDelay The following definitions are made: assuming that the first terminal device receives the physical layer signaling triggering the bandwidth unit switching sent by the network device at downlink time unit n, the first terminal device needs to receive the PDSCH and other physical downlink channels or signals on the nearest downlink time unit after downlink time unit n by T switchDelay The following definitions are made: assuming that the first terminal device receives the physical layer signaling triggering the bandwidth unit switching sent by the network device at downlink time unit n, the first terminal device needs to receive the PDSCH and other physical downlink channels or signals on the nearest downlink time unit after downlink time unit n by T switchDelay The following definitions are made: assuming that the first terminal device receives the physical layer signaling triggering the bandwidth unit switching sent by the network device at downlink time unit n, the first terminal device needs to receive the PDSCH and other physical downlink channels or signals on the nearest downlink time unit after downlink time unit n by T Figure 3 For example, taking the time unit as a slot, the nearest downlink time unit after downlink time unit n is slot m1, or the nearest uplink time unit after downlink time unit n is slot m2. switchDelay For example, taking the time unit as a slot, the nearest downlink time unit after downlink time unit n is slot m1, or the nearest uplink time unit after downlink time unit n is slot m2. switchDelay For example, taking the time unit as a slot, the nearest downlink time unit after downlink time unit n is slot m1, or the nearest uplink time unit after downlink time unit n is slot m2.

[0092] For example, the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit can have multiple implementation manners, which are described as follows.

[0093] In a first possible implementation manner, the first terminal device can support a switching delay, i.e., a first delay.

[0094] In a first possible implementation manner, the first terminal device can support a switching delay, i.e., a first delay. For example, when the SCS can be 15 KHz, 30 KHz, 60 KHz, or 120 KHz, the first delay can correspond to at least two values used under different SCS, but not to the values used under the four different SCS, for example, the first delay is the same value when SCS=15 KHz or 30 KHz, and the first delay is another value when SCS=60 KHz or 120 KHz. That is, in the embodiments of the present application, the switching delay corresponding to different SCS can be regarded as a kind of switching delay, for example, the first delay. The first delay is smaller than the second delay, and the second delay can be the switching delay corresponding to the BWP switching of the second terminal device under the corresponding SCS.

[0095] In a second possible implementation, the N types of switching delays include at least two switching delays, and the two switching delays include a first delay. The first terminal device switches from a first bandwidth unit to a second bandwidth unit within the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have an association or correlation; or the first terminal device switches from a first bandwidth unit of a first carrier to a second bandwidth unit of a second carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have an association or correlation, and the switching delay for the first terminal device to switch is the first delay; otherwise, the switching delay for the first terminal device to switch the bandwidth unit is the other delay of the two switching delays except the first delay, where the other delay is, for example, the second delay.

[0096] In another scenario of the second possible implementation, the other delay of the two delays except the first delay may be a third delay. When a first terminal device switches from a first bandwidth unit to a second bandwidth unit within the same carrier, the switching delay for the first terminal device to switch the bandwidth unit is the first delay; when the first terminal device switches from a first bandwidth unit of a first carrier to a second bandwidth unit of a second carrier, the switching delay for the first terminal device to switch is the third delay.

[0097] In a third possible implementation, the N types of switching delays include at least three types of switching delays, and the three types of switching delays include a first delay and a third delay.

[0098] The first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit within the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have an association or correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is the first delay; the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit within the same carrier, and there is no association or correlation between the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is the other one of the three switching delays except the first delay and the third delay, where the other delay is, for example, the second delay, and the second delay corresponds to the switching delay of the bandwidth unit of the second terminal device; the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit of the first carrier to the second bandwidth unit of the second carrier, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is the third delay.

[0099] In a fourth possible implementation manner, the N types of switching delays include at least three types of switching delays, and the three types of switching delays include a first delay and a third delay.

[0100] The first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have an association or a correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is the first delay; the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have no association or correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is one of the three switching delays other than the first delay and the third delay, for example, the second delay corresponding to the second terminal device bandwidth unit switching delay.

[0101] The first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have an association or a correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is the first delay; the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have no association or correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is one of the three switching delays other than the first delay and the third delay, for example, the second delay corresponding to the second terminal device bandwidth unit switching delay.

[0102] In a fifth possible implementation, the N switching delays include at least four switching delays, and the four switching delays include the first delay, the third delay, and the fourth delay.

[0103] The first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have an association or a correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is the first delay;

[0104] The first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have no association or correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is one of the four switching delays other than the first delay, the third delay, and the fourth delay, for example, the second delay corresponding to the second terminal device bandwidth unit switching delay.

[0105] The first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have an association or a correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is the first delay; the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit in the same carrier, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have no association or correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device is one of the three switching delays other than the first delay and the third delay, for example, the second delay corresponding to the second terminal device bandwidth unit switching delay.

[0106] The first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit of the first carrier to the second bandwidth unit of the second carrier, and the first bandwidth unit has no association or correlation with the second bandwidth unit. The switching delay of the first terminal device is the fourth delay.

[0107] In this embodiment of the present application, the first delay is less than the second delay, the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device, or the first delay is less than any other delay among the N delays except the first delay. Optionally, the N delays may include the second delay, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2. Any other delay in the second to fifth possible implementations may also be the second delay. In this embodiment of the present application, the fourth delay is greater than the third delay. Optionally, the third delay may be less than the second delay and not equal to the first delay.

[0108] In one possible implementation, the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device. Furthermore, because the second delay can take multiple values, there are also multiple possibilities for the first delay to be less than the second delay. For example, the switching delay supported by the second terminal device, i.e., the second delay, can be shown in Table 1.

[0109] Table 1

[0110]

[0111] In Table 1, μ corresponds to different SCSs. Specifically, μ = 0, μ = 1, μ = 2, and μ = 3 correspond to SCSs of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, and 120 kHz, respectively. Type 1 and Type 2 are determined based on the capabilities of the second terminal device. If the second terminal device only supports Type 1, the second delay may correspond to the delay defined in the Type 1 column in Table 1. If the second terminal device only supports Type 2, the second delay may correspond to the delay defined in the Type 2 column in Table 1.

[0112] In combination with Table 1, one possible situation is that when the capability of the second terminal device supports type 1, the first delay is less than the second delay, which may mean that the first delay is less than the minimum delay among the delays defined in the type 1 column in Table 1, that is, the first delay is less than 1ms.

[0113] Another possible situation is that when the capability of the second terminal device supports type 2, the first delay is less than the second delay, which may mean that the first delay is less than the minimum delay defined in the type 2 column in Table 1, that is, the first delay is less than 3ms.

[0114] Another possible situation is that no matter which type of capability the second terminal device supports, the first delay is less than the second delay, which may mean that the first delay is less than the minimum delay in Table 1, that is, the first delay is less than 1ms.

[0115] In another possible scenario, when the capability of the second terminal device supports type 1, the first delay is less than the second delay, which may mean that the first delay is less than at least one of the delays defined in the type 1 column in Table 1. For example, the first delay is less than the second delay corresponding to SCS = 15KHz and / or 30KHz. It is not required that the first delay be less than the second delay corresponding to all SCSs. For example, when SCS = 120KHz, the first delay may be the same as the second delay.

[0116] In another possible scenario, when the capability of the second terminal device supports type 2, the first delay is less than the second delay, which may mean that the first delay is less than at least one of the delays defined in the type 2 column in Table 1. For example, the first delay is less than the second delay corresponding to SCS = 15KHz and / or 30KHz. It is not required that the first delay be less than the second delay corresponding to all SCSs. For example, when SCS = 120KHz, the first delay may be the same as the second delay.

[0117] In a second possible implementation, the first terminal device may support N types of switching delays, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N types of delays include the first delay.

[0118] In this manner, one possible scenario is that the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device, which is the same as described above.

[0119] In this way, another possible situation is that the first delay is less than one of the N delays except the first delay. In this case, each of the N switching delays corresponds to one subcarrier spacing or multiple subcarrier spacings. In the embodiment of the present application, the switching delay corresponding to multiple subcarrier spacings can also be regarded as a delay. This is because for bandwidth unit switching, the switching corresponding subcarrier spacing is determined. At this time, the first delay is less than one of the N delays except the first delay, which can include the following understanding:

[0120] (1) For each given SCS, the first delay is less than one of the N delays except the first delay. For example, when SCS = 15KHz, the first delay is less than one of the N delays except the first delay. When SCS = 30KHz, the first delay is also less than one of these delays. For example, when SCS = 15KHz, 30KHz, 60KHz, 120KHz, one of the N delays except the first delay corresponds to different values, such as X1, X2, X3, and X4, respectively. For each SCS, the first delay is less than X1, X2, X3, and X4, respectively.

[0121] (2) For at least one SCS, the first delay is less than one of the N delays except the first delay. For example, when SCS = 15KHz, 30KHz, 60KHz, 120KHz, one of the N delays except the first delay corresponds to a different value, such as X1, X2, X3, and X4, respectively. Then, the first delay can be less than only at least one of X1, X2, X3, and X4. For example, when SCS = 15KHz and 30KHz, the first delay is less than X1 and X2, respectively. For SCS = 60KHz and 120KHz, the relationship between the first delay and X3 and X4 is not limited.

[0122] In this manner, another possible scenario is that the first delay is less than the second delay and the other delays among the N switching delays other than the first delay, and the second delay is the switching delay supported by the second terminal device. In this case, the first delay is not only less than the switching delay supported by the second terminal device, but also less than one of the switching delays supported by it other than the first delay. For the first delay being less than the switching delay supported by the second terminal device, and the first delay being less than one of the switching delays supported by it other than the first delay, please refer to the above description.

[0123] It is understandable that, in a second possible implementation, the first terminal device can support at least two switching delays, where the first delay is less than another switching delay supported by the first terminal device. The second delay may or may not be included in the at least two switching delays. The inclusion of the second delay in the at least two switching delays can be understood as excluding the first delay, and the at least two switching delays also include a delay having the same value as the second delay. To simplify the description, in the embodiments of the present application, the second delay can be considered, where the second delay is the short switching delay supported by the second terminal device.

[0124] Optionally, the first terminal device may support N types of switching delays, where each of the N types of switching delays corresponds to one subcarrier spacing or multiple subcarrier spacings. In the embodiment of the present application, switching delays corresponding to multiple subcarrier spacings may also be considered as one delay. This is because, for bandwidth unit switching, the switching corresponding subcarrier spacing is determined. The N types of switching delays include at least the first delay.

[0125] In this implementation, there are multiple possibilities for the first delay to be smaller than the second delay.

[0126] In one possible scenario, the first delay corresponds to the first subcarrier spacing, and the second delay is the minimum delay corresponding to the traditional terminal device in the NR system and the first subcarrier spacing.

[0127] Optionally, for any delay other than the first delay among the N types of switching delays, it is less than or equal to the minimum delay corresponding to the subcarrier spacing corresponding to any delay in the NR system.

[0128] For example, if the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the first delay is 30 kHz, then according to Table 1, the minimum delay corresponding to 30 kHz is 2 ms, the second delay is 2 ms, and the first delay is less than 2 ms. When N = 4, the N delays can be shown in Table 2.

[0129] Table 2

[0130]

[0131] Optionally, the first delay may be the minimum delay among the N delays. In combination with the above example, the N delays may also be as shown in Table 3.

[0132] Table 3

[0133]

[0134] In Table 3, for example, only when μ is 0, the first delay among the N types of switching delays corresponding to the first terminal device is less than 1 time slot. When μ takes other values ​​(for example, 1 or 2 or 3), the corresponding switching delay among the N types of switching delays can be less than or equal to the delay defined in the type 1 column.

[0135] Alternatively, for any delay other than the first delay of the N types of switching delays, the delay is less than or equal to any delay corresponding to the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the delay in the NR system. For example, the first delay is the minimum delay among the N types of delays. In combination with the previous example, the N types of delays can also be shown in Table 4.

[0136] Table 4

[0137]

[0138] In Table 4, for example, only when μ is 0, the first delay among the N types of switching delays corresponding to the first terminal device is less than 1 time slot; when μ is 1, the corresponding switching delay among the N types of switching delays can be less than or equal to the delay defined in the type 1 column; when μ is 2 or 3, the corresponding switching delay among the N types of switching delays can be less than or equal to the delay defined in the type 2 column.

[0139] Optionally, the first terminal device may report the capabilities of the first terminal device to the network device, for example, the reported capabilities are support for type 1 or type 2.

[0140] In this case, the first delay corresponds to the first subcarrier spacing, and the second delay is the delay corresponding to the first subcarrier spacing in the NR system of the type supported by the first terminal device.

[0141] Optionally, for any delay other than the first delay among the N types of switching delays, the delay is less than or equal to the subcarrier spacing corresponding to the any delay and the delay corresponding to the type supported by the first terminal device in the NR system.

[0142] For example, a first terminal device reports to the network device that it supports type 2. The subcarrier spacing corresponding to the first delay is 30 kHz. According to Table 1, when the first terminal device supports type 2, the delay corresponding to 30 kHz is 5 ms, the second delay is 5 ms, and the first delay is less than 5 ms. When N = 4, the N delays can be shown in Table 5.

[0143] Table 5

[0144] μ NR slot length (ms) First delay (time slot) 0 1 Less than or equal to 3 1 0.5 Less than 5 2 0.25 Less than or equal to 9 3 0.125 Less than or equal to 18

[0145] In Table 5, when μ is 1, the first delay is less than 5 time slots. When μ takes other values ​​(such as 0, 2, or 3), the corresponding switching delay in the N types of switching delays can be less than or equal to the delay defined in the type 2 column.

[0146] Optionally, in an embodiment of the present application, the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit may also refer to bandwidth unit switching triggered by radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0147] Switching delay T of bandwidth unit switching triggered by RRC signaling RRCdelay The definition of can be as follows: Assuming that the downlink time unit n is the last downlink time unit including the RRC signaling that triggers the bandwidth unit switch, the first terminal device needs to RRCdelayThe first terminal device needs to receive the PDSCH and other physical downlink channels or signals on the nearest downlink time unit after the first terminal device, or the first terminal device needs to receive the PDSCH and other physical downlink channels or signals on the nearest downlink time unit after the first terminal device. RRCdelay The PUSCH and other physical uplink channels or signals are sent in the latest uplink time unit.

[0148] Among them, T RRCdelay =T RRCprocessingDelay +T BWPswitchDelayRRC Among them, T RRCprocessingDelay and T BWPswitchDelayRRC They respectively represent the delay introduced by the RRC process and the delay required for the first terminal device to perform bandwidth unit switching.

[0149] In this case, the first delay is less than the second delay, which may refer to: the switching delay T required for the first terminal device to switch the bandwidth unit RRCdelay Less than the switching delay T required for the second terminal device to switch the bandwidth unit RRCdelay , which can include at least one of the following:

[0150] (1) T corresponding to the first terminal device RRCprocessingDelay Less than the T corresponding to the second terminal device RRCprocessingDelay ;

[0151] (2) T corresponding to the first terminal device BWPswitchDelayRRC Less than the T corresponding to the second terminal device BWPswitchDelayRRC .

[0152] Furthermore, in an embodiment of the present application, the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between related bandwidth units is the first delay. Optionally, the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between unrelated bandwidth units is the second delay, or is another delay among the N types of switching delays other than the first delay, and the other delay is not less than the first delay, for example, the second delay.

[0153] Optionally, in an embodiment of the present application, the first delay, the second delay, and any one of the N switching delays can be expressed by the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, or the number of time slots, or a specific time value (e.g., 140 us, etc.), or in other forms, without specific limitation. Specifically, the first delay can correspond to different SCSs and can be the same time value, for example, a value not greater than 500 us, such as 140 us, or 200 us, or 250 us, or 400 us, etc. Specifically, when the first delay is expressed in terms of the number of OFDM symbols, when SCS = 15 kHz, the first delay is 2 OFDM symbols; when SCS = 30 kHz, the first delay is 4 OFDM symbols; when SCS = 60 kHz, the first delay is M OFDM symbols, where M is an integer not greater than 8; and when SCS = 120 kHz, the first delay is K OFDM symbols, where K is an integer not greater than 16. Alternatively, the first delays corresponding to different SCSs may correspond to different time values. For example, the first delay corresponding to SCS = 15 kHz and SCS = 30 kHz may have one time value, while the first delay corresponding to SCS = 60 kHz and SCS = 120 kHz may have another time value.

[0154] The following describes them separately in combination with different embodiments.

[0155] Example 1:

[0156] In the first embodiment, the bandwidth unit configuration information may include configuration information of at least two bandwidth units, where the at least two bandwidth units include a first bandwidth unit and a second bandwidth unit.

[0157] The configuration information of each bandwidth unit may include the frequency resource location and / or identifier of the bandwidth unit. The configuration information of each bandwidth unit may also include other content, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0158] The identifier may be a BWP identifier (BWP ID), etc. The frequency resource position may be the position of the central frequency point of the bandwidth unit, the position of the frequency corresponding to the lowest resource block of the bandwidth unit, or the position of the frequency corresponding to the highest frequency resource block of the bandwidth unit, etc. Different indexes may be used to correspond to different frequency resource positions. Alternatively, the frequency resource position may correspond to the bandwidth and frequency position of the bandwidth unit, for example, the frequency resource position may correspond to the frequency position corresponding to the lowest resource block of the bandwidth unit and the frequency position corresponding to the highest resource block; for another example, the frequency resource position may correspond to the frequency position corresponding to the lowest resource block of the bandwidth unit and the resource block size included in the bandwidth unit (the resource block size included in the bandwidth unit may be understood as the bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth unit); for another example, the frequency resource position may correspond to the frequency position corresponding to the highest resource block of the bandwidth unit and the resource block size included in the bandwidth unit (the resource block size included in the bandwidth unit may be understood as the bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth unit); for another example, the frequency resource position may correspond to the central frequency position of the bandwidth unit and the resource block size included in the bandwidth unit (the resource block size included in the bandwidth unit may be understood as the bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth unit). Among them, the frequency position corresponding to the lowest frequency resource block of the bandwidth unit can be understood as the resource block with the minimum resource block index corresponding to the bandwidth unit, and the frequency position corresponding to the highest frequency resource block of the bandwidth unit can be understood as the resource block with the maximum resource block index corresponding to the bandwidth unit.

[0159] In embodiment 1, if the frequency resource location of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource location of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to the same bandwidth unit identifier, for example, the same BWP ID, when the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, the switching delay is the first delay. In this case, it can be understood that the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated.

[0160] like Figure 4 , which is a schematic diagram of the distribution of bandwidth units with different frequency resource positions within the system bandwidth provided by an embodiment of the present application. Figure 4 Multiple frequency resource positions in the bytecode correspond to the same bandwidth unit identifier, for example, BWP ID. Specifically, frequency resource positions 1 to 4 correspond to BWP A. Frequency resources corresponding to different frequency resource positions corresponding to the same bandwidth unit identifier may or may not overlap. Figure 4 , the frequency resource corresponding to frequency resource position 3 partially overlaps with the frequency resource corresponding to frequency resource position 2 and the frequency resource corresponding to frequency resource position 4. It can be understood that in this case, no matter where the frequency resource position of the bandwidth unit is, the other configuration parameters corresponding to the bandwidth unit can remain unchanged.

[0161] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device may configure multiple bandwidth units included in one BWP through RRC signaling. Different bandwidth units have at least one different frequency parameter, and the different frequency parameters may include at least one of the following:

[0162] (1) Center frequency corresponding to bandwidth unit

[0163] (2) Frequency bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth unit;

[0164] (3) SCS corresponding to the bandwidth unit.

[0165] For example, in one way, the network device can directly add the frequency resource location information corresponding to the BWP to the BWP configuration information configured by RRC signaling, such as the following: Figure 5 As shown, the BWP configuration information configured by the network device includes four frequency resource positions, namely frequency resource position 1 to frequency resource position 4. In specific implementation, the frequency resource position (position) can be configured for the downlink BWP and the uplink BWP separately, or only for the downlink BWP, or only for the uplink BWP, or jointly for the downlink BWP and the uplink BWP, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application. Among them, configuring BWP frequency resource location information for downlink BWP and uplink BWP respectively can ensure configuration flexibility; for downlink BWP configuration only, it is based on the consideration that if the base station is configured with a certain number of receiving antennas, the receiving antenna gain brought by this certain number of receiving antennas can compensate for the loss of frequency domain selective scheduling gain of REDCAP UE due to the reduction of channel bandwidth, then the switching between uplink BWPs can adopt the switching delay in the existing technology, which can simplify the processing of uplink BWP by REDCAP terminal equipment; for the joint configuration of downlink BWP and uplink BWP, a one-to-one correspondence between the frequency resource location corresponding to the downlink BWP and the frequency resource location corresponding to the uplink BWP can be configured. In this way, when the network device indicates the frequency resource location of the downlink BWP through physical layer signaling, the first terminal device can determine the frequency resource location of the uplink BWP according to the above one-to-one correspondence.

[0166] Optionally, taking the DL BWP configuration as an example, the network device can add the position indication corresponding to the BWP ID in the BWP-Downlink IE (as follows) and further, the position indication can be included in bwp-common or bwp-dedicated. The position can be associated with at least one of the following corresponding to the position: SCS, BWP center frequency, BWP frequency resource position, wherein the BWP frequency resource position includes at least one of the following: BWP bandwidth, BWP starting frequency resource position, and BWP ending frequency resource position. The same description applies to the UL BWP different position configuration, which is not described here. The position refers to the frequency resource position.

[0167] In combination with the foregoing description, the BWP-Downlink information element can be represented as follows:

[0168]

[0169] In the embodiments of the present application, other configuration parameters of bandwidth units having different frequency resource positions but the same bandwidth identifier (the same BWP ID) can all be the same, for example, the following configuration parameters are all the same: bandwidth size; subcarrier spacing (SCS); corresponding multiple input multiple output (MIMO) data transmission layer number or antenna number; corresponding physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) configuration, or corresponding PDSCH configuration, or corresponding physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration, or corresponding physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) configuration.

[0170] The above is described taking the bandwidth unit as the BWP as an example, which is also applicable to other frequency resources.

[0171] On the other hand, if the frequency resource position of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource position of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different bandwidth unit identifiers (for example, BWPIDs), when the first terminal device switches from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, the switching delay is the second delay, or is another delay among the N types of delays except the first delay. In this case, it can be understood that the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are not correlated.

[0172] In embodiment 1, if the frequency resource location of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource location of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different bandwidth unit identifiers, for example, different BWP identifiers, the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is another delay among the N delays except the first delay, for example, the second delay. In this case, the first bandwidth unit can be understood as the first BWP, and the second bandwidth unit can be understood as the second BWP.

[0173] In embodiment one, the network device can instruct the first terminal device to switch the bandwidth unit through physical layer signaling. The physical layer signaling can be downlink control information (DCI). The DCI format corresponding to the DCI can be, for example, DCI format 0-1, DCI format 1-1, DCI format 0-2, DCI format 1-2, and other DCI formats that support bandwidth unit switching introduced in future communication systems.

[0174] For example, the network device may send downlink control information to the first terminal device, and the downlink control information instructs the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit. When the first terminal device receives the downlink control information, it may determine that bandwidth unit switching is required. It should be noted that one implementation method for the downlink control information to instruct the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is that the downlink control information indicates the second bandwidth unit after the first terminal device switches. Optionally, the downlink control information may indicate the frequency resource position of the second bandwidth unit, or indicate the BWP ID corresponding to the second bandwidth unit, or indicate the index corresponding to the second bandwidth unit, or indicate other information associated with the second bandwidth unit, such as information associated with the frequency resource position. Optionally, the DCI also indicates the frequency domain resources occupied by the first terminal device to receive PDSCH or send PUSCH in the second bandwidth unit, and the frequency domain resources occupied by the PDSCH or PUSCH are located in the second bandwidth unit. Optionally, the DCI also includes a second information field, and the second information field indicates the frequency domain resources occupied by the PDSCH or PUSCH. Optionally, the first information field and the second information field described below are different information fields included in the DCI. Optionally, the first information domain and the second information domain may also correspond to the same information domain in the DCI, for example, the frequency domain resource indication domain included in the DCI (for example, the Frequency domain resource assignment included in the DCI) is used to jointly indicate the frequency resource allocation and the indication of switching from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, or to jointly indicate the frequency resource allocation and the second bandwidth unit after switching, for example, the first information domain and the second information domain may correspond to

[0175] The DCI may include a first information field, where the first information field corresponds to X bits, and the value of X is not limited. X is a positive integer greater than 0, and optionally, X is an integer not greater than 4. For example, when X=4, it may correspond to up to 16 states. Assuming that the value corresponding to X bits is 0, it indicates that the bandwidth unit does not switch, and it may also support switching to up to 15 different bandwidth units. In this way, while ensuring the acquisition of frequency selective scheduling gain and / or cell load balancing as much as possible, it may also save signaling overhead.

[0176] Optionally, the size of the first information field, for example, X, can be configured by RRC signaling, for example, can be configured as 1 bit, 2 bits, 3 bits, etc., so that the network device adjusts the size of the first information field, while ensuring the gain of frequency-selective scheduling and / or cell load balancing, the most appropriate first information field size design can also be ensured, which helps to reduce the DCI signaling overhead. Optionally, the X-bit value can correspond to 2^X states, and each of the 2^X states is configured by RRC signaling, that is, the indication information corresponding to each state is configured by RRC signaling.

[0177] The first information field can indicate the frequency resource position of the bandwidth unit after switching, can indicate the bandwidth unit identifier of the bandwidth unit after switching, or can jointly indicate the frequency resource position and the bandwidth unit identifier of the bandwidth unit after switching.

[0178] Specifically, in the first implementation, the first information field can directly indicate the frequency resource position and the bandwidth unit identifier of the bandwidth unit after switching. For example, the first information field can include frequency resource position information (for example, bandwidth unit position) and BWP identifier information (for example, BWP ID), the frequency resource position information is used to indicate the frequency resource position of the bandwidth unit after switching, and the BWP identifier information is used to indicate the bandwidth unit identifier of the bandwidth unit after switching. It should be noted that the frequency resource position information here corresponds to the frequency resource position information of the bandwidth unit, not the data transmission resource corresponding to the network device scheduling the terminal device to transmit the physical downlink channel and the physical uplink channel. The physical downlink channel includes a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the physical uplink channel includes a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0179] In the second implementation, the first information field can only indicate the frequency resource position of the bandwidth unit after switching, and does not indicate the bandwidth unit identifier. At this time, the first information field can include frequency resource position information, and does not include BWP identifier information.

[0180] For example, when the first information field includes frequency resource location information, assuming that the frequency resource location information includes 2 bits, it can indicate 4 types of information, which can correspond to 4 different frequency resource locations respectively. For example, 00 corresponds to frequency resource location A, 01 corresponds to frequency resource location B, 10 corresponds to frequency resource location C, and 11 corresponds to frequency resource location D. The bandwidth units corresponding to these 4 different frequency resource locations can correspond to the same BWP identifier. This can save signaling overhead and help improve the transmission performance of the physical layer channel.

[0181] In this implementation, if the network device configures a bandwidth unit corresponding to only one frequency resource position (or is understood as configuring one BWP) in addition to configuring bandwidth units corresponding to at least two frequency resource positions for the first terminal device, for the bandwidth unit configured with only one frequency resource position, the frequency resource position of the bandwidth unit can be indicated by the first information field to implement the indication of the bandwidth unit. For example, if frequency resource positions 1 to 3 correspond to bandwidth unit 1, and frequency resource position 4 corresponds to bandwidth unit 2, when the first information field indicates frequency resource position 4, it can correspond to bandwidth unit 2.

[0182] In the third implementation, if the network device configures only one frequency resource location for each bandwidth unit (which can be understood as directly configuring the BWP), the first information field may include BWP identification information but does not include frequency resource location information.

[0183] It should be noted that, optionally, the control information field used to indicate switching between bandwidth units corresponding to the same BWP ID and different frequency resource positions (for example, different frequency resource positions of BWP) and the control information field used to indicate switching between bandwidth units corresponding to different BWP IDs and different frequency resource positions (for example, different BWPs) can correspond to the same information field in DCI (for example, BWP indicator), for example, the first information field used for joint indication corresponds to BWP indicator, or, can also correspond to different information field, for example, the control information field used to indicate switching between bandwidth units corresponding to the same BWP ID and different frequency resource positions (for example, different frequency resource positions of BWP) corresponds to the frequency resource position indication field (non-frequency resource allocation field) in DCI, for example, it can be a newly added control field in DCI, or it can belong to a redundant state field, and the control information field used to indicate switching between bandwidth units corresponding to different BWP IDs and different frequency resource positions (for example, different BWPs) is the BWPindicator field.

[0184] Configuration information of the first bandwidth unit and configuration information of the second bandwidth unit (RRC signaling method, multiple bandwidth units can be configured in one BWP, and different bandwidth units have at least one different frequency parameter)

[0185] Embodiment two:

[0186] In embodiment two, the bandwidth unit configuration information sent by the network device can indicate a plurality of bandwidth units, including a first bandwidth unit and a second bandwidth unit. The first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit both correspond to an identifier, which can be a BWP group identifier.

[0187] The first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP group identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have a correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first delay.

[0188] Correspondingly, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP group identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit do not have a correlation, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is a second delay, or other delays except the first delay in the N delays.

[0189] It should be noted that one implementation of the correlation is that the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are associated with the same identifier, for example, the same set identifier (ID). Alternatively, for example, the network device can configure the BWP through RRC signaling, and at the same time, configure the set identifier corresponding to the BWP, indicating the set to which the bandwidth unit belongs. The set identifier can be configured for downlink BWP for downlink data and uplink BWP for uplink data transmission, respectively, or can be configured simultaneously. Taking DL BWP configuration as an example, the network device can add the set identifier indication corresponding to the BWP ID in the BWP-Downlink IE (as follows), and further, the set identifier indication can be included in bwp-common or bwp-dedicated. The set identifier configuration for UL BWP also has the same description, which is not repeated. The set identifier can also be replaced with other identifiers that represent the correlation, for example, the delay identifier gap1 described below. The switching between bandwidth units with the same delay identifier is the first delay.

[0190] In combination with the foregoing description, the BWP-Downlink information element can be represented as follows:

[0191]

[0192]

[0193] As shown in the following table, a specific embodiment is exemplified. Figure 6 Figure 6 ​The bandwidth unit BWP is used as an example for description. It is assumed that BWP#1 and BWP#2 belong to the same BWP set and are associated with the same identifier. BWP#3 does not belong to the BWP set corresponding to BWP#1 and BWP#2. The identifier associated with BWP#3 is different from the identifier associated with BWP#1 or BWP#2, or BWP#3 may not be associated with any identifier. In this embodiment, the network device can be configured with at least one BWP set, which includes at least two BWPs, namely BWP#1 and BWP#2. Other BWPs not included in the BWP set do not need to be divided into sets.

[0194] In conjunction with the foregoing description, in Example 2, the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between bandwidth units associated with the same identifier is the first delay, and the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between bandwidth units associated with different identifiers is another delay among the N types of switching delays except the first delay. For example, in conjunction with the above example, the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between BWP#1 and BWP#2 is the first delay, and the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between BWP#1 and BWP#3 is a delay greater than the first delay, such as the second delay, or another delay among the N types of delays except the first delay.

[0195] It should be noted that, similar to Example 1, in Example 2, the network device can instruct the first terminal device to switch the bandwidth unit through physical layer signaling. The physical layer signaling can be DCI, and the DCI format corresponding to the DCI can be, for example, DCI format 0-1, DCI format 1-1, DCI format 0-2, DCI format 1-2, and other DCI formats that support bandwidth unit switching introduced in future communication systems.

[0196] In the second embodiment, the downlink control information may include a first information field, and the first information field may indicate a bandwidth unit identifier (ie, BWP ID) of the switched bandwidth unit. For details, reference may be made to the description in the first embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

[0197] Optionally, in embodiment 2, the BWP switching domain included in the DCI can be directly reused to indicate the switching between the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit, and the terminal device can determine whether the switching delay between different bandwidth units (i.e., different BWPs) is the first delay, or other delays among N types of delays except the first delay through the BWP group identifier configured by RRC signaling.

[0198] Example 3:

[0199] In the third embodiment, the bandwidth unit configuration information sent by the network device may indicate multiple bandwidth units, where the multiple bandwidth units include a first bandwidth unit and a second bandwidth unit. Assume that the first bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on a first carrier, and the second bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on a second carrier.

[0200] When the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are associated, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are irrelevant, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are not associated.

[0201] In combination with the previous description, in Example 3, the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between bandwidth units that are associated with each other is the first delay, and the switching delay when the first terminal device switches between bandwidth units that are not associated with each other is the second delay or other delays among the N types of switching delays except the first delay.

[0202] Embodiment 3 can be applied to a second terminal device configured with an NR uplink (NR uplink, NUL) carrier and a supplementary uplink (supplement uplink, SUL) carrier. In this scenario, the first carrier is a NUL carrier and the second carrier is a SUL carrier; or the first carrier is a SUL carrier and the second carrier is a NUL carrier. The SUL carrier can be used in conjunction with the NR FDD band or the NR TDD band.

[0203] In embodiment three, some of the multiple bandwidth units indicated by the bandwidth unit configuration information sent by the network device are uplink bandwidth units in the NUL carrier, such as the first bandwidth unit, and some of the multiple bandwidth units are uplink bandwidth units in the SUL carrier, such as the second bandwidth unit.

[0204] When configuring the NUL carrier and the SUL carrier, the network device can also configure the association relationship between the uplink bandwidth unit included in the NUL and the uplink bandwidth unit included in the SUL. Figure 7 As shown, the bandwidth unit BWP is taken as an example for description. Figure 7 In the example, the NUL carrier configured by the network device for the first terminal device includes four BWPs, namely BWP#1, BWP#2, BWP#3, and BWP#4. The SUL carrier configured by the network device for the first terminal device includes four BWPs, namely BWP#5, BWP#6, BWP#7, and BWP#8. BWP#1 and BWP#6 are associated, and BWP#2 and BWP#8 are associated.

[0205] For example, in combination with the above example, the switching delay of the first terminal device when switching between BWP #1 and BWP #6 is the first delay, the switching delay of the first terminal device when switching between BWP #2 and BWP #5 can be the second delay, or one of the N delays other than the first delay.

[0206] It should be noted that, optionally, if the BWP ID corresponding to one bandwidth unit on the NUL is the same as the BWP ID corresponding to one bandwidth unit on the SUL, it can be understood that the bandwidth unit on the NUL and the bandwidth unit on the SUL have a correlation, the switching delay between the bandwidth unit on the NUL and the bandwidth unit on the SUL having the correlation is the first delay, otherwise the second delay or other delay other than the first delay among the N delays.

[0207] It should be noted that, similar to Embodiment One, in Embodiment Three, the network device can instruct the first terminal device to switch the bandwidth unit through physical layer signaling, the physical layer signaling can be DCI, and the specific description can refer to the description in Embodiment One, which will not be repeated here.

[0208] Optionally, in the embodiments of the present application, when the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit belong to different carriers, when the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to the same BWP identifier (such as BWP ID), or when the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have a correlation, the switching delay corresponding to the switching of the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit can be the first delay, or the third delay, which can be less than the second delay. The second delay can correspond to the switching delay between the bandwidth unit switching of the second terminal device under the same condition, or other values, which are not limited. The same condition here can be understood as the switching delay corresponding to the switching between the bandwidth units of different carriers of the second terminal device.

[0209] The preceding Embodiments One to Three describe how the bandwidth units having a correlation are implemented, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the above embodiments, and other implementation manners can also exist. For example, the configuration information of the first bandwidth unit and the configuration information of the second bandwidth unit only have different frequency-related parameters, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit have a correlation. The switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first delay, and the frequency-related parameters include at least one of the following:

[0210] (1) the center frequency corresponding to the bandwidth unit;

[0211] (2) the frequency bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth unit;

[0212] (3) the SCS corresponding to the bandwidth unit.

[0213] For example, when the center frequency corresponding to the first bandwidth unit is different from the center frequency corresponding to the second bandwidth unit, and other configuration parameters of the first bandwidth unit are the same as those of the second bandwidth unit, the switching delay between the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit is the first delay. Switching between bandwidth units that does not satisfy the above relationship is N delays other than the first delay, and the other delays may be, for example, the second delay.

[0214] The above are just examples, and other situations will not be elaborated on.

[0215] It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, one carrier may correspond to one cell, and different carriers may correspond to different cells. Different carriers are associated with different frequency parameters, where the carrier-associated frequency parameters may include: carrier center frequency information, or carrier frequency position information.

[0216] It should be noted that in the embodiments of the present application, data transmission includes uplink data transmission and downlink data transmission. The data transmission direction corresponding to the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit is the same. For example, the data carried by the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are both downlink data, such as the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit both correspond to downlink BWP; or the data carried by the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are both uplink data, such as the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit both correspond to uplink BWP.

[0217] In an embodiment of the present application, RRC signaling may configure multiple bandwidth units within a BWP, and different bandwidth units have at least one different frequency parameter, and the frequency parameter includes at least one of the following:

[0218] (1) The center frequency corresponding to the bandwidth unit;

[0219] (2) Frequency bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth unit;

[0220] (3) SCS corresponding to the bandwidth unit.

[0221] Furthermore, in an embodiment of the present application, among the bandwidth units configured by the network device for the first terminal device, at least one bandwidth unit includes a synchronization signal block (SSB). The SSB may refer to a cell-defined SSB (CD-SSB). The following description takes the bandwidth unit as a BWP as an example.

[0222] When the bandwidth unit is a BWP, if the network device includes an SSB in a bandwidth unit configured for the first terminal device, the number of SSBs can be one or more, for example, corresponding to different beam directions, which is not specifically limited in this application. Taking the inclusion of SSBs in a BWP as an example, in combination with the above embodiment, if a BWP corresponds to at least two frequency resource locations, then at least one of the at least two frequency resource locations includes an SSB.

[0223] When the BWP configured by the network device for the first terminal device includes a BWP with at least 2 frequency resource positions and a BWP with only 1 frequency resource position, the BWP including at least 2 frequency resource positions includes SSB, or the BWP with only 1 frequency resource position includes SSB. Figure 8 shown. Figure 8 BWP#1 includes two frequency resource positions, namely frequency resource position 1 and frequency resource position 2; BWP#2 includes one frequency resource position, namely frequency resource position 3. Figure 8 The frequency resources corresponding to frequency resource position 1 include CD-SSB as an example for explanation, and other situations may also exist.

[0224] When the BWPs configured by the network device for the first terminal device are all BWPs with one frequency resource position, at least one of the BWPs includes an SSB.

[0225] Further optionally, the frequency resource bandwidth of the BWP including the SSB, especially the CD-SSB, or the frequency resource corresponding to a frequency resource position of the BWP may be smaller than that of other BWPs that do not include the SSB or the frequency resources corresponding to other frequency resource positions of the BWP that do not include the SSB. In this way, when there is no need for data transmission, the first terminal device can reside on the BWP including the SSB or the frequency resource corresponding to a frequency resource position including the SSB. Since the bandwidth of the frequency resource corresponding to the BWP including the SSB or a frequency resource position is smaller than the bandwidth of the frequency resource corresponding to other BWPs or other frequency resource positions, the above design can reduce the power consumption of the first terminal device, and the first terminal device can also perform radio resource management (RRM) measurement or radio link monitoring (RLM) measurement based on the BWP or the SSB included in the frequency resource to ensure basic measurement of the serving cell.

[0226] In addition, in order to ensure the basic measurement of the service cell by the first terminal device, at least one of the BWPs configured by the network device for the first terminal device includes non-CD SSB. Further optionally, the BWP including non-CDSSB can be configured to have a correlation with at least one BWP, and the switching delay of the first terminal device to switch to the BWP including non-CD SSB can be the first delay. As above, here, the number of SSBs configured on the BWP or the frequency resource corresponding to the frequency resource position of the BWP can be one or more, for example, it can correspond to multiple different beam directions, and there is no specific limitation in this application.

[0227] For example, if Figure 9 As shown in FIG, it is assumed that three BWPs are configured, namely BWP#1, BWP#2, and BWP#3. The configured BWP#1 and BWP#2 belong to a BWP set, BWP#3 does not belong to the BWP set, the BWP switching delay between BWP#1 and BWP#2 is a first delay, and the BWP switching delay between BWP#1 or BWP#2 and a BWP outside the set is greater than the first delay. At this time, configuring a non-CD SSB for RRM / RLM on BWP#1 or BWP#2 can reduce the switching time required for the first terminal device to perform RRM measurement or RLM measurement in some cases, compared to configuring the non-CD SSB on other BWPs. For example, assuming that Figure 9 As shown, non-CD SSB is configured on BWP#2, and the first terminal device transmits data with the network device through BWP#1. At the time of RRM and / or RRM measurement, the first terminal device can quickly switch to BWP#2 with a first delay, and perform RRM and / or RLM measurement using the non-CD SSB configured on BWP#2. After the measurement is performed, the first terminal device can quickly switch back to BWP#1 with the first delay to transmit data with the network device. Since the first delay is small, smaller than the second delay, the interruption time of data transmission is short. Furthermore, a CD-SSB can be configured on BWP#1 or BWP#3. Figure 9 The following takes the configuration of CD-SSB on BWP#3 as an example.

[0228] On the other hand, in the frequency bandwidth corresponding to multiple correlated BWPs or different frequency resource positions of BWPs, only one BWP can be configured, or the frequency bandwidth corresponding to one frequency resource position of the BWP can include one or more SSBs. This reduces the overhead of common reference signal configuration compared to configuring SSBs in the frequency bandwidth corresponding to each BWP or each frequency resource position of the BWP.

[0229] It should be noted that, in addition to being used for RRM and / or RLM measurement, the above-mentioned reference signal may also be used for channel state information (CSI) measurement.

[0230] It should be noted that in an embodiment of the present application, the length of the first delay may be the radio frequency (RF) tuning (retuning) time or less than the RF retuning time. The RF retuning time is, for example, the time length corresponding to 2 OFDM symbols, or not more than 140 microseconds, which is specifically determined according to the capabilities of the terminal device.

[0231] In combination with the previous description, in order to ensure the data transmission performance of the first terminal device and the load balancing on the system side, the goal of the method provided in this application is to allow the frequency resources corresponding to the data transmission of the first terminal device to be adjusted within a larger frequency resource range with a smaller switching delay, and to adjust the frequency resource range used for data transmission. It can be understood that if the frequency resources used for data transmission by the first terminal device are adjusted faster, the scheduling scheme adopted for data transmission between the first terminal device and the network device, such as the modulation coding scheme (MCS), can better match the channel state, thereby obtaining frequency selection scheduling gain and / or frequency diversity gain. Optionally, the network device may notify the first terminal device of the maximum frequency hopping range of the frequency resources corresponding to data transmission supported by the first terminal device through specific signaling of the first terminal device, for example, it may notify the first terminal device of the frequency position and size of the virtual carrier or transmission band through RRC signaling. Optionally, for example, after the first terminal device initially accesses the network device, the system bandwidth on the network device side will be known through the broadcast information sent by the network device, and at the same time, its terminal type or terminal capability can be reported through capability reporting and other methods. For example, the terminal type is a REDCAP terminal, and the terminal capability is that its own transmission bandwidth is 20MHz. After knowing the capability information, the network device can notify the first terminal device of the frequency position and size of the virtual carrier or transmission bandwidth through the first terminal device specific signaling. The size of the virtual carrier or transmission band here (the size of the transmission band can be understood as the transmission bandwidth) is greater than the bandwidth capability of the first terminal device. At the same time, the actual transmission band of the first terminal device will also be configured. The bandwidth of the transmission band is not greater than the bandwidth capability of the first terminal device. For example, the actual transmission band can be configured through BWP or initial BWP. The first terminal device can adjust its RF radio frequency position according to the actual transmission band, and then complete the BWP switching by adopting the BWP switching short delay through the implementation method of this application.

[0232] It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the data transmission between the network device and the first terminal device is performed within the actual transmission frequency band (i.e., the actual transmission bandwidth unit) configured by the network device for the first terminal device or the transmission frequency band after frequency hopping, rather than starting at any position within the frequency resource range of the configured virtual carrier or transmission frequency band. For example, Figure 10 As shown, two solutions are compared. Solution 1: First determine the actual transmission bandwidth unit where the data transmission resources are located. The bandwidth unit is a grouped resource, and resource scheduling is implemented within the grouped resources (for example, resource scheduling within the bandwidth unit is implemented).

[0233] Solution 2: Directly indicate the scheduled data transmission resources within the virtual carrier.

[0234] Combine Figure 10 As shown in Table 6 below, Table 6 compares the physical layer resource indication overhead (measured in the number of bits) corresponding to data transmission scheduling in the actual transmission band or the transmission band after frequency hopping (taking BWP as an example, the third column of the table) and in the virtual carrier or transmission band (taking 100 MHz as an example, the fourth column of the table) when the data resource allocation mode is resource allocation type 0 (RA type 0) and resource allocation type 1 (RA type 1).

[0235] Table 6

[0236]

[0237] Based on Table 6, it can be concluded that data transmission in the actual transmission frequency band or the transmission frequency band after frequency hopping has less bit overhead.

[0238] Through the embodiments of the present application, the first terminal device can achieve bandwidth unit switching with shorter latency, and further, can achieve bandwidth unit switching with shorter latency within a frequency range that is greater than the bandwidth capability of the first terminal device. For example, the bandwidth capability of the first terminal device is 20MHz or other values ​​not greater than 50MHz. Through the embodiments of the present application, the first terminal device can achieve dynamic bandwidth unit switching within a larger frequency range, such as a 100MHz frequency resource range. The 100MHz frequency resource range can be considered a virtual carrier because its carrier bandwidth exceeds the bandwidth capability of the first terminal device. For example, taking the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit as BWP, and the bandwidth unit identifier as the BWP identifier as an example, as shown Figure 11As shown, BWP1 includes 4 frequency resource positions, each of which can be considered as a sub-BWP, represented as BWP1-1 to BWP1-4. When the first terminal device switches between BWP1-1 to BWP1-4, the switching delay is the first delay, for example, the first delay is 140μs (assuming that only the RF retuning time is considered). Any sub-BWP in BWP1-1 to BWP1-4 is independently configured with the BWP 2 parameters. When the first terminal device switches from any sub-BWP in BWP1-1 to BWP1-4 to BWP2, the switching delay is greater than the first delay, which can be the switching delay in the existing NR system, that is, 1ms~2.5ms (corresponding to the case of switching delay type1). In this way, different BWPs correspond to the same BWP ID, so it can also be understood as realizing layered BWP transmission in the virtual carrier.

[0239] In the embodiments provided in the present application, the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application are described from the perspective of the interaction between the first terminal device and the network device. In order to implement the various functions in the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application, the network device and the terminal device may include a hardware structure and / or a software module to implement the above functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module. Whether a function of the above functions is executed in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0240] Figure 12 and Figure 13 Schematic diagram of the structure of possible communication devices provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can realize the functions of the first terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be as follows Figure 1 The terminal device 102 shown may also be Figure 1 The network device 101 shown may also be a module (such as a chip) applied to a terminal device or a network device.

[0241] like Figure 12 As shown, the communication device 1200 includes a transceiver module 1201 and a processing module 1202. The communication device 1200 can be used to implement the above Figure 2 The functions of the first terminal device or network device in the method embodiment are shown.

[0242] When the communication device 1200 is used to implement Figure 2The function of the first terminal device in the method embodiment is: a transceiver module 1201, which is used to receive bandwidth unit configuration information, and the bandwidth unit configuration information includes configuration information for indicating the first bandwidth unit and configuration information of the second bandwidth unit. A processing module 1202 is used to determine to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit. The switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is a first delay, the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is a switching delay supported by the second terminal device; or the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is one of N delays, and the N delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N delays include the first delay.

[0243] When the communication device 1200 is used to implement Figure 2 The functions of the network device in the embodiment of the method are: a transceiver module 1201, which is used to send bandwidth unit configuration information to the first terminal device, and the bandwidth unit configuration information includes configuration information for indicating the first bandwidth unit and configuration information of the second bandwidth unit; a processing module 1202, which is used to schedule data of the first terminal device according to the switching delay. The switching delay is the delay for the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, the switching delay is the first delay, the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is the switching delay supported by the second terminal device; or the switching delay is one of N delays, the N delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N delays include the first delay.

[0244] For a more detailed description of the above-mentioned transceiver module 1201 and the processing module 1202, please refer to the relevant description in the above-mentioned method embodiment, which will not be described again here.

[0245] like Figure 13 As shown, communication device 1300 includes a processor 1310 and an interface circuit 1320. Processor 1310 and interface circuit 1320 are coupled to each other. It will be appreciated that interface circuit 1320 may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, communication device 1300 may further include a memory 1330 for storing instructions executed by processor 1310, input data required by processor 1310 to execute instructions, or data generated after processor 1310 executes instructions.

[0246] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the method in the above method embodiment, the processor 1310 is used to execute the functions of the above processing module 1202 , and the interface circuit 1320 is used to execute the functions of the above transceiver module 1201 .

[0247] When the communication device is a chip used in a terminal device, the terminal device chip implements the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiments. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules in the terminal device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna), and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal device; or the terminal device chip sends information to other modules in the terminal device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal device to the network device.

[0248] When the communication device is a chip used in a network device, the network device chip implements the network device functions of the above method embodiments. The network device chip receives information from other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal device to the network device; or the network device chip sends information to other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or antenna), and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal device.

[0249] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0250] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by hardware or by a processor executing software instructions. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, which can be stored in random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), registers, hard disks, mobile hard disks, CD-ROMs, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. Of course, the storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in an access network device or a terminal device. Of course, the processor and storage medium can also exist as discrete components in the access network device or the terminal device.

[0251] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instruction is loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is executed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer program or instruction may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted via the computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a tape; it may also be an optical medium, such as a DVD; it may also be a semiconductor medium, such as a solid state disk (SSD).

[0252] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or there is a logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced by each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

[0253] In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: 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 text description of this application, the character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formulas of this application, the character " / " indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in a "division" relationship.

[0254] It is understood that the various numbers used in the embodiments of this application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The order of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not necessarily imply a specific order of execution; the order of execution of the processes should be determined by their functions and inherent logic.

[0255] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present application can adopt the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment in combination with software and hardware. Moreover, the present application can adopt the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to magnetic disk storage, optical storage, etc.) that contain computer-usable program code.

[0256] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory produce an article of manufacture comprising an instruction device, which implements the process Figure 1 a process or multiple processes and / or boxes Figure 1 The function specified in one or more boxes.

[0257] Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A switching method, characterized in that: The method comprises: The first terminal device receives bandwidth unit configuration information, where the bandwidth unit configuration information includes configuration information indicating the first bandwidth unit and configuration information of the second bandwidth unit; The first terminal device determines to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit; Among them, the switching delay of the first terminal device switching from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first delay, the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is the switching delay supported by the second terminal device; or the switching delay of the first terminal device switching from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is one of N types of delays, the N types of delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N types of delays include the first delay; the frequency resource position of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource position of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to the same partial bandwidth BWP identifier.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The second terminal device is a traditional terminal device in the new wireless NR system.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The frequency resource position of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource position of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers. The switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the other delays among the N types of delays except the first delay.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The method further comprises, The first terminal device receives downlink control information, where the downlink control information instructs the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit; The downlink control information includes a first information field, the first information field is less than or equal to 4 bits, and the first information field includes at least one of frequency resource location information or BWP identification information.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated, and a switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the first delay.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are not correlated, and the switching delay of the first terminal device from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit is the other delays among the N delays except the first delay.

7. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that When the identifier associated with the first bandwidth unit is the same as the identifier associated with the second bandwidth unit, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated.

8. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The first bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on a first carrier, and the second bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on a second carrier.

9. A switching method, characterized in that: include: The network device sends bandwidth unit configuration information to the first terminal device, where the bandwidth unit configuration information includes configuration information indicating the first bandwidth unit and configuration information of the second bandwidth unit; The network device schedules data of the first terminal device according to the switching delay; Among them, the switching delay is the delay for the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit, the switching delay is the first delay, the first delay is less than the second delay, and the second delay is the switching delay supported by the second terminal device; or the switching delay is one of N types of delays, the N types of delays are switching delays supported by the first terminal device, N is an integer greater than or equal to 2, and the N types of delays include the first delay; the frequency resource position of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource position of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to the same partial bandwidth BWP identifier.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The second terminal device is a traditional terminal device in the new wireless NR system.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that The frequency resource position of the first bandwidth unit is different from the frequency resource position of the second bandwidth unit, and the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, and the switching delay is other delays among the N delays except the first delay.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The method further comprises: The network device sends downlink control information to the first terminal device, where the downlink control information instructs the first terminal device to switch from the first bandwidth unit to the second bandwidth unit; The downlink control information includes a first information field, the first information field is less than or equal to 4 bits, and the first information field includes at least one of frequency resource location information or BWP identification information.

13. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that The first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated, and the switching delay is the first delay.

14. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that The first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit correspond to different BWP identifiers, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are not correlated, and the switching delay is other delays among the N delays except the first delay.

15. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that When the identifier associated with the first bandwidth unit is the same as the identifier associated with the second bandwidth unit, the first bandwidth unit and the second bandwidth unit are correlated.

16. The method according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that The first bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on a first carrier, and the second bandwidth unit is a bandwidth unit located on a second carrier.

17. A communication device, characterized in that: Comprising means for performing the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 16.

18. A communication device, characterized in that: It includes a processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1 to 16 through logic circuits or executing code instructions.

19. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16 is implemented.

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