User equipment and method thereof, base station and method thereof

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a user equipment and a method thereof, a base station and a method thereof. The method performed by the user equipment includes: receiving system information or a radio resource control (RRC) message from a base station; and in a case where the system information contains indication information indicating that a UE with multiple USIM cards is supported to access, or the RRC message contains indication information reporting time information of leaving a current network, reporting the time information of leaving the current network to the base station. Thus, the reliability of communication related to the UE with multiple USIM cards can be ensured, thereby improving the communication efficiency and the communication quality of the wireless communication system.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This disclosure relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and more specifically, to user equipment and methods thereof, and base stations and methods thereof. Background Technology

[0002] In recent years, multi-USIM card devices have become increasingly popular. For example, a user might install two USIM cards in a multi-USIM card-enabled phone, one for subscribing to personal services and the other for subscribing to office services. Existing multi-USIM card-enabled devices are vendor-implemented and not yet standardized by 3GPP. This leads to different implementations from different vendors, resulting in varying UE (User Equipment) behaviors. In existing implementations, if a UE registered to two or more networks needs to receive paging from these networks, depending on the UE's transmit / receive capabilities, a possible scenario is that while the UE is receiving a paging from its current network, another network may also initiate paging, or the UE may be communicating with one network while another network initiates paging. If the UE switches between different networks, one possible consequence is that when the UE switches to another network, it can no longer receive data from its current network. This will impair network performance; for example, the network might send a paging message to the UE, but the UE misses it due to switching to another network, or the UE might switch to another network and be unable to receive scheduling from its current network. The benefit of 3GPP standardization is that it can improve network performance based on predictable UE behavior.

[0003] For the reasons mentioned above, in December 2019, at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) RAN#86 plenary meeting, vivo proposed a work project for multi-SIM devices in Rel-17 (see non-patent literature: RP-193263: New WID: Support of Multi-SIM devices in Rel-17), which was approved. One of the goals of this work project is to resolve the issue of paging conflicts when UEs associated with two networks (Network A and Network B) through different USIM cards receive paging messages from both networks, where Network A can be NR and Network B can be LTE or NR, and the UE uses a single-receive-single-transmit (Single-Rx / Single-Tx) configuration. Another goal of this work project is to define a mechanism for the UE to notify Network A when leaving Network A, where Network A is NR, Network B is LTE or NR, and the UE uses either a single-receive-single-transmit (Single-Rx / Single-Tx) or dual-receive-single-transmit (Dual-Rx / Single-Tx) configuration.

[0004] This open discussion addresses the relevant issues involved in achieving the aforementioned work objectives. Summary of the Invention

[0005] To address the aforementioned problems in the prior art, this disclosure provides a user equipment and method thereof, and a base station and method thereof, which can ensure the reliability of communication related to a UE with multiple USIM cards, thereby improving the communication efficiency and communication quality of the wireless communication system.

[0006] According to a first aspect of this disclosure, a method performed by a user equipment (UE) is provided, comprising: receiving system information or a radio resource control (RRC) message from a base station; and, if the system information includes indication information indicating support for UE access with multiple USIM cards, or the RRC message includes indication information indicating the time of departure from the current network, reporting the time of departure from the current network to the base station.

[0007] In the above method, the UE may report the time information of leaving the current network to the base station after establishing an RRC connection with the current network but before reporting the time information of leaving the current network, or when the time information of leaving the current network is different from the time information of leaving the current network reported last time.

[0008] In the above method, if the time when the UE leaves the current network overlaps with the time when the UE monitors the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the current network, the UE may report the time information of leaving the current network to the base station.

[0009] In the above method, the time information of the UE leaving the current network or receiving paging from other networks may include at least one of the following fields: the absenceCycle field, indicating the period during which the UE leaves the current network, or receives paging from other networks, or the period during which the UE does not monitor the PDCCH of the current network, or the period during which the UE does not expect the current network to schedule; the coAF_offset field, indicating the offset within the period, or the offset of the time of the UE leaving the current network within the period; the coAO_offset field, indicating the offset relative to the starting system frame of leaving the current network, or the offset within the frame indicated by coAF_offset; and the coAO_Duration field, indicating the duration during which the UE leaves the current network or does not expect the current network to schedule or does not monitor the PDCCH of the current network.

[0010] In the above method, if the coAF_offset field is included, the UE determines the system frame number SFN that satisfies the following formula as the starting radio frame number to leave the current network: SFN mod absenceCycle = coAF_offset; if the coAF_offset field is not included, the UE determines the SFN that satisfies the following formula as the starting radio frame number to leave the current network: SFN mod absenceCycle = 0 or SFN mod absenceCycle = coAO_offset.

[0011] According to a second aspect of this disclosure, a user equipment is provided, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions; wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, perform the methods described above.

[0012] According to a third aspect of this disclosure, a method performed by a base station is provided, comprising: generating system information, the system information including indication information indicating access by a user equipment (UE) supporting multiple USIM cards; and sending the system information to the UE, causing the UE to perform actions related to multiple USIM cards based on the system information.

[0013] In the above method, the UE may be instructed to report periodic information of leaving the current network, time information of leaving the current network, time information of receiving paging from other networks, or time information of not wanting to monitor the current network through Radio Resource Control (RRC) messages.

[0014] In the above method, when a message containing the time information of the UE leaving the current network is received, a confirmation message is sent, which contains a field for confirming whether the UE can follow the reported time information of leaving the current network.

[0015] According to a fourth aspect of this disclosure, a base station is provided, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing instructions; wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, perform the methods described above.

[0016] Invention Effects

[0017] According to the user equipment and method thereof, and the base station and method thereof disclosed herein, the reliability of communication related to a UE with multiple USIM cards can be ensured, thereby improving the communication efficiency and communication quality of the wireless communication system. Attached Figure Description

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

[0019] Figure 1A flowchart illustrating a method 100 in a user equipment (UE) based on an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0020] Figure 2 A block diagram illustrating a user equipment 20 based on an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0021] Figure 3 A flowchart illustrating method 300 in a base station based on an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0022] Figure 4 A block diagram illustrating a base station 40 based on an embodiment of the present disclosure. Detailed Implementation

[0023] The present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. It should be noted that the present disclosure should not be limited to the specific embodiments described below. Furthermore, for the sake of simplicity, detailed descriptions of well-known technologies not directly related to the present disclosure have been omitted to prevent confusion in understanding the present disclosure.

[0024] The following describes some of the terms used in this disclosure.

[0025] RRC: Radio Resource Control.

[0026] USIM: Universal Subscriber Identity Module.

[0027] PDCCH: Physical Downlink Control Channel.

[0028] Tx: transmitter, mail sender

[0029] Rx: receiver

[0030] In this disclosure, USIM and SIM are used interchangeably, as are network, base station, and RAN (both representing the same entity). User equipment (UE) can refer to a single physical device, such as a mobile phone that supports multiple USIM cards. However, from a network perspective, different USIM cards correspond to different UEs. Unless otherwise specified, this disclosure does not make this distinction. Those skilled in the art can readily determine from the context whether the UE refers to a UE supporting multiple USIM cards or whether each USIM card in a device supporting multiple USIM cards is considered a separate UE. In this disclosure, the user equipment (UE) has single-receive-single-transmit (Single-Rx / Single-Tx) or dual-receive-single-transmit (Dual-Rx / Single-Tx) capabilities.

[0031] Figure 1A flowchart of method 100 in a user equipment (UE) based on an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. In step S101, system information or an RRC message is received from a base station. In step S102, if the system information includes indication information indicating support for UE access with multiple USIM cards, or if the RRC message includes indication information indicating the time of departure from the current network, the time of departure from the current network is reported to the base station.

[0032] According to the above method 100, the reliability of communication related to UEs with multiple USIM cards can be ensured, thereby improving the communication efficiency and communication quality of the wireless communication system.

[0033] Figure 2 A block diagram of a user equipment 20 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 2 As shown, the user equipment 20 includes a processor 201 and a memory 202. The processor 201 may include, for example, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, an embedded processor, etc. The memory 202 may include, for example, volatile memory (such as random access memory, RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), non-volatile memory (such as flash memory), or other memory systems. Program instructions are stored on the memory 202. When executed by the processor 201, these instructions can perform the methods described in detail in this disclosure within the user equipment.

[0034] Figure 3 A flowchart of method 300 in a base station based on an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. In step S301, system information or an RRC message is generated. The system information includes indication information indicating access by a user equipment (UE) supporting multiple USIM cards, and the RRC message includes indication information instructing the UE to report time information of leaving the current network. In step S302, the system information or the RRC message is sent to the UE, causing the UE to perform actions related to multiple USIM cards based on the system information or the RRC message.

[0035] According to the above method 300, the reliability of communication related to UEs with multiple USIM cards can be ensured, thereby improving the communication efficiency and communication quality of the wireless communication system.

[0036] Figure 4 A block diagram of a base station 40 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. Figure 4As shown, the base station 40 includes a processor 401 and a memory 402. As described above, the base station 40 in this disclosure can be any type of base station, including but not limited to: Node B, enhanced base station eNB, 5G communication system base station gNB, or micro base station, pico base station, macro base station, home base station, etc. The processor 401 may include, for example, a microprocessor, microcontroller, embedded processor, etc. The memory 402 may include, for example, volatile memory (such as random access memory RAM), hard disk drive (HDD), non-volatile memory (such as flash memory), or other memory systems. Program instructions are stored on the memory 402. When executed by the processor 401, these instructions can perform the methods described in detail in this disclosure within the base station.

[0037] The following describes an example of a base station indicating its support for UE access with multiple USIM cards.

[0038] In one embodiment, the base station indicates in its system information (or system information message) that it supports UE access with multiple USIM cards. For example, the system information includes a field indicating that the base station supports UE access with multiple USIM cards; this field may be denoted as musimSupport. Alternatively, the field indicates the number of USIM cards supported by the UE (or the maximum number of USIM cards a supported UE can support), such as 2, 3, or 4. Alternatively, the field indicates the periodic information on when the UE can report leaving the current network. Alternatively, the field indicates that the UE can report its periodic information on leaving the current network. Alternatively, the field indicates the time information when the UE does not wish to be scheduled by the current network. Alternatively, the field indicates that the UE can leave the current network or leave the current network periodically.

[0039] In one embodiment, the base station configures (or requests or indicates) the UE to report its periodic information of leaving the current network, or configures (or requests or indicates) the UE to report its time information of leaving the current network, or configures (or requests or indicates) the UE to report its time information of receiving paging from other networks, or configures (or requests or indicates) the UE to report its time information of not wanting to be monitored by the current network (or the current network's PDCCH) via RRC messages (e.g., RRC reconfiguration messages). That is, the RRC message contains a field for configuring (or requesting or indicating) the UE to report its periodic information of leaving the current network, or indicating the UE to report its time information of leaving the current network, or configuring (or requesting or indicating) the UE to report its time information of receiving paging from other networks, or configuring (or requesting or indicating) the UE to report its time information of not wanting to be scheduled by the current network, or configuring (or requesting or indicating) the UE to report its time information of not wanting to be monitored by the current network (or the current network's PDCCH). This field can be denoted as obtainPeriodicAbsence.

[0040] In this disclosure, the periodic information for leaving the current network refers to the time information when a user equipment (UE) leaves the current network, or the time information when the UE does not monitor the current network or does not expect to be scheduled by the current network, or the time information when the UE monitors other networks (or receives paging from other networks), or the time information when the UE interacts with other networks, or the time information when the UE does not expect to monitor the current network (or the current network's PDCCH), or the time information when a second UE (or a second UE accessing or camping on another network) shares a pair (or one) of Rx and / or Tx with a first UE that accesses or camps on the current network uses Rx and / or Tx, or the time information when Rx and / or Tx is occupied by a second UE (these expressions are interchangeable), including period and / or duration, etc. In other words, the UE periodically leaves or does not monitor the current network, or the UE does not expect the network to schedule the UE within the periodic information it indicates. The current network can be referred to as the first network, and the other network can be referred to as the second network. The two networks can be the same network or different networks. The first UE accesses or camps on the first network, and the second UE accesses or camps on the second network. UE accessing the network means that an RRC connection has been established between the UE and the network.

[0041] In this disclosure, UE access or camping with multiple USIM cards (or UE supporting multiple USIM cards) can also be described as supporting UE access or camping with multiple USIM cards, or supporting UE to briefly leave the current network, or supporting UE to periodically leave the current network, or supporting UE to report time information indicating that it does not expect to be scheduled by the current network. A UE with multiple USIM cards refers to a UE containing two or more USIM cards, which access, visit, register, or camp on different or the same networks respectively. For example, one USIM card subscribes to network A, and another USIM card subscribes to network B. The UE is scheduled or communicates with the network on these two networks according to its registered USIM card information or access information. The current network can refer to the network that the UE is currently monitoring, or the network that is monitoring its PDCCH, or the network that is monitoring its search space, or the network on which the UE operates. In this disclosure, monitoring PDCCH and monitoring search space can be used interchangeably. The UE supporting multiple USIM cards can also be referred to as a UE sharing a single Tx, or a UE sharing a pair of Rx and Tx. A pair of Rx and Tx includes one Rx and one Tx. In this disclosure, UE leaving the current network means that Tx and / or Rx will be used by a UE that shares the Tx and / or Rx and is connected to or resides in another network.

[0042] In this disclosure, a radio frame is simply referred to as a frame.

[0043] The following describes an example of a UE reporting the time information when it leaves the current network.

[0044] If the network indicates that it supports multi-USIM card UE access, or if the system information message received from the base station contains the field `musimSupport`, or if the UE is configured to report the time information of leaving the current network, or if the UE is configured to obtain `PeriodicAbsence`, a UE that supports multiple USIM cards, or a UE that supports reporting the time information of leaving the current network, or a UE that supports dynamic switching between different networks, can initiate the process of reporting its time information of leaving the current network. This is described in detail below.

[0045] It should be noted that, in the embodiments of this disclosure, the inclusion of the field musimSupport can refer to the value of this field being set to true, setup, 1, or other predefined values ​​indicating that the network supports access for multiple USIM card UEs.

[0046] If the network indicates that it supports multi-USIM card UE access or receives a system information message from the base station containing the field musimSupport, or if the UE is configured to report the time information of leaving the current network, or if the UE is configured to obtainPeriodicAbsence, and if the UE (or the UE supporting multiple USIM cards) has not transmitted an RRC message (denoted as UEAssistanceInformation message) to report its time information of leaving the current network since establishing an RRC connection with the current network, or if the time information of the UE leaving the current network is different from the time information of leaving the current network reported in the last (or most recent) transmitted UEAssistanceInformation message, wherein the time information of leaving the current network can be indicated by the field periodicAbsenceReport, then the transmission of a UEAssistanceInformation message to report its time information of leaving the current network will be initiated.

[0047] Optionally, the UE must also ensure that the time when it leaves the current network overlaps with the time (or period) during which the UE monitors the current network's PDCCH before it can initiate the transmission of the UEAssistanceInformation message to report the time information of its departure from the current network.

[0048] Optionally, before or after initiating the transmission of a UEAssistanceInformation message to report the time information of its departure from the current network, a first timer may be started or restarted, and the value of the first timer may be set to periodicAbsenceProhibitTimer. The value of the first timer, periodicAbsenceProhibitTimer, may be configured in advance by the base station for the UE via RRC signaling or RRC messages.

[0049] Optionally, when the time information of the UE leaving the current network is different from the time information of leaving the current network reported in the previous (or most recent) transmitted UEAssistanceInformation message, it is also necessary to ensure that the first timer is not running before starting the transmission of the UEAssistanceInformation message to report its time information of leaving the current network.

[0050] The following describes the specific contents of the periodicAbsenceReport field, which is used by a UE to report the time information of its departure from the current network to the network or base station. In this disclosure, the field may also be referred to as a parameter or information element.

[0051] In one embodiment, the time information of the UE leaving the current network or receiving a paging message from another network may include at least one of the following fields:

[0052] (1) Absence Cycle: The field is used to indicate the period during which the UE leaves the current network, receives paging from other networks, does not monitor the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) of the current network, or does not expect the current network to schedule the UE; or the number of radio frames, subframes, slots, or OFDM symbols contained in the period; the value of the field can be the number of radio frames, subframes, slots, or OFDM symbols.

[0053] (2) coAF_offset: indicates the offset within the period or the offset of the time when the UE leaves the current network within the period; the value of the field can be the number of radio frames, the number of subframes, the number of time slots, or the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

[0054] (3) coAO_offset: indicates the offset relative to the starting system frame leaving the current network, or the offset within the frame indicated by coAF_offset. The value of this field can be the number of subframes, the number of time slots, or the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols.

[0055] (4) coAO_Duration: The duration during which the UE leaves the current network or does not expect the current network to schedule or monitor the current network's PDCCH. The value of this field can be the number of radio frames, subframes, time slots, or OFDM symbols.

[0056] The UE can determine the system frame number (SFN) that meets the following conditions as the starting radio frame number for the UE to leave the current network:

[0057] SFN mod absenceCycle=coAF_offset

[0058] It should be noted that if the UE does not report coAF_offset (this corresponds to an embodiment where the reported parameters do not include coAF_offset), the UE can determine that the system frame number SFN that satisfies the following condition is the starting radio frame number for the UE to leave the current network: SFN mod absenceCycle = 0 or SFN mod absenceCycle = coAO_offset. The timing of the UE leaving the current network is repeated at the period specified by the absenceCycle field.

[0059] The UE can determine the offset relative to the starting radio frame (SFN) leaving the current network based on coAO_offset. The value can be the number of subframes, slots, or OFDM symbols.

[0060] The UE can determine the number of radio frames, subframes, time slots, or OFDM symbols that the UE leaves the current network starting from the time determined by SFN and coAO_offset, based on coAO_Duration.

[0061] It should be noted that if the UE does not report coAO_offset, then the coAO_offset in the above description can be regarded as having a value of 0.

[0062] Alternatively, if the UE's departure time information from the current network is discontinuous, a bitmap can be used to indicate the UE's departure time within the corresponding period. A value of 0 in the bitmap indicates that the UE has left the current network or does not expect the current network to schedule or monitor the current network's PDCCH; a value of 1 indicates that the UE expects the current network to schedule or monitor the current network's PDCCH. The reverse is also true. In this method, the UE also needs to report the absenceCycle and / or coAF_offset.

[0063] The network configures PDCCH-related parameters for the UE via RRC messages, which include one or more search spaces configured using the parameters searchSpaceToAddModList and SearchSpace. The following describes some of the parameters involved in the base station configuring the search space and control resource set CORESET for the UE.

[0064] The SearchSpace parameter defines how and where to search for PDCCH candidates.

[0065] The parameter `monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset` configures the slots for PDCCH monitoring by setting the periodicity and offset.

[0066] The parameter `monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot` specifies the first symbol(s) for PDCCH monitoring within the slots configured for PDCCH monitoring (see `monitoringSlotPeriodicityAndOffset` and `duration` for details). The leftmost bit of the bit string configured by `monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot` represents the first OFDM in a slot, the second most significant bit represents the second OFDM symbol in a slot, and so on. Bits set to 1 identify the first OFDM symbol(s) of the control resource set within a slot. In this disclosure, the leftmost bit is also referred to as the most significant bit.

[0067] The parameter searchSpaceId is the identifier of the search space.

[0068] The parameter duration controls the contiguous time duration of the CORESET in terms of the number of symbols.

[0069] In one embodiment, the UE indicates the time information of leaving the current network as the identifier of the search space (or the identifier of the search space leaving the current network), denoted as absenceSearchSpaceId. This indicates that the UE does not monitor PDCCH from the current network in the search space indicated by absenceSearchSpaceId. It should be noted that the UE can also indicate multiple search spaces as the time information of leaving the current network, reported through the parameter absenceSearchSpaceIdList, where each element is absenceSearchSpaceId.

[0070] In one embodiment, the UE indicates the time information for leaving the current network as absenceSearchSpaceId and a bitmap (denoted as absenceSymbolsWithinSlot) or an index number (which may contain multiple index numbers, i.e., an index number list). It should be noted that the UE's indication of leaving the current network can be a set (denoted as absencePeriodList), where each element of the set is absenceSearchSpaceId and a bitmap (denoted as absenceSymbolsWithinSlot) or an index number (which may contain multiple index numbers). If the UE's indication of leaving the current network includes an index number, it indicates that the UE will not monitor the current network's PDCCH, does not expect the current network to schedule the UE, or is not the UE's CORESET, or the UE does not consider this to be the control resource set or the first OFDM symbol of the control resource set within the corresponding time slot for the duration starting from the OFDM symbol corresponding to the bit of the index number.

[0071] Preferably, the bitmap length is the same as the correspondence between monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot and OFDM symbols corresponding to the search space indicated by absenceSearchSpaceId. The bitmap length can be 14. Bits with values ​​of 0 (or 1) in the bitmap indicate that the UE will continue for a duration starting from the OFDM symbol corresponding to the bit with a value of 0. During this period, the UE will leave the current network, not monitor the current network's PDCCH, not expect the current network to schedule the UE, or the UE believes that this is not the control resource set in the corresponding time slot, or the first OFDM symbol of the control resource set, or not the UE's CORESET.

[0072] Alternatively, the bits in the bitmap absenceSymbolsWithinSlot correspond one-to-one with the bits set to 1 in the monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot corresponding to the search space indicated by absenceSearchSpaceId. The leftmost bit of the bitmap corresponds to the leftmost bit set to 1 in monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot, the second bit from the left corresponds to the second bit set to 1 in monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot, and so on. A bit set to 1 (or 0) indicates that the UE will leave the current network, not monitor the current network's PDCCH, not expect the current network to schedule the UE, or is not the UE's CORESET, or the UE believes that this is not the control resource set or the first OFDM symbol of the control resource set within the corresponding time slot for a duration starting from the OFDM symbol corresponding to this bit. A bit set to 0 (or 1) indicates that the UE will monitor the current network's PDCCH or expect the current network to schedule the UE, or the UE's CORESET, or the UE considers this to be the control resource set or the first OFDM symbol of the control resource set within the corresponding time slot for the duration starting from the OFDM symbol corresponding to this bit.

[0073] In one embodiment, the UE indicates the time information for leaving the current network using the parameter `absenceSearchSpaceId` and / or the parameter `index` and / or the parameter `absenceOffset` and / or the parameter `absenceDuration`. The parameter `absenceOffset` refers to the offset relative to the OFDM symbol corresponding to the current index number. The parameter `absenceDuration` refers to the number of OFDM symbols during which the UE will remain away from the current network. The UE will leave the current network starting from the OFDM symbol indicated by `absenceOffset` and continuing for the OFDM time defined by the parameter `absenceDuration`. If the time information indicating the UE's departure from the current network does not include `absenceDuration`, the UE will leave the current network starting from the OFDM symbol indicated by `absenceOffset` and continuing for the time from the end of the search space specified by `absenceSearchSpaceId` (determined by the OFDM symbol corresponding to the current index number and `duration`). It should be noted that the time a UE leaves the current network can be in multiple segments, each indicated by the parameter absenceSearchSpaceId and / or parameter index number and / or parameter absenceOffset and / or parameter absenceDuration. In this case, the parameter absencePariodicList can be used, where the element absencePariodic in the parameter indicates the parameter index number and / or absenceDuration and / or absenceOffset.

[0074] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the index number is the bit number corresponding to a value of 1 in the monitoringSymbolsWithinSlot corresponding to the search space indicated by absenceSearchSpaceId. The leftmost bit with a value of 1 is numbered 0 (or 1), and the leftmost bit with a value of 1 is numbered 1 (or 2). This number is used as the index number. The maximum value of the index number can be 13 (or 14).

[0075] It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the search space indicated by the absenceSearchSpaceId reported by the UE is one of the search spaces configured by the network for the UE. In this embodiment, duration corresponds to the duration of the CORSET corresponding to the search space indicated by absenceSearchSpaceId.

[0076] In one embodiment, the time information of the UE leaving the current network, the time information of receiving a paging message from another network, or the UEAssistanceInformation message contains a periodicAbsenceReportList, which is used to report multiple time information of the UE leaving the current network. The elements therein are periodicAbsenceReports defined in the foregoing embodiments, which are used to indicate each time information of the UE leaving the current network.

[0077] The UE can also report its departure time information via RRC message before leaving the current network. The RRC message includes a start time field and a duration field for the UE to leave the current network. Within the indicated time period (i.e., from the time indicated by the start time field to the time indicated by the duration field (i.e., the start time field plus the time indicated by the duration field), the UE may not monitor the PDCCH of the current network or may not expect the network to schedule the UE within the indicated time period.

[0078] When a base station receives a UEAssistanceInformation message containing information about the time the UE reported its departure from the current network, it can send a confirmation message. This confirmation message may include a field to confirm whether the UE can comply with the reported departure time information; this field can be denoted as periodicAbsenceConfirm. If the field's value is true, setup, 1, or another value indicating that the UE can comply with the reported departure time information, the UE will comply with the reported departure time information after receiving this message or field. If the field's value is false, 0, or another value indicating that the UE cannot comply with the reported departure time information, the UE will not comply with the reported departure time information, or its behavior will be non-standardized and determined by the implementation. Conversely, the opposite is also true.

[0079] Alternatively, the confirmation message can be a positive confirmation message or a negative confirmation message, and the corresponding UE behavior is similar to the different values ​​of periodicAbsenceConfirm received by the UR. The UE behavior corresponding to a positive confirmation message is the same as when the periodicAbsenceConfirm field is true, setup, 1, or another value indicating that the UE can follow the reported time information of its departure from the current network. The UE behavior corresponding to a negative confirmation message is the same as when the periodicAbsenceConfirm field is false, 0, or another value indicating that the UE cannot follow the reported time information of its departure from the current network. Alternatively, the confirmation message may contain the time information that the base station expects the UE not to monitor the PDCCH of the current network. Specifically, fields similar to periodicAbsenceReport or periodicAbsenceReportList can be used to configure the time information for the UE not to monitor the PDCCH of the current network. The difference is that periodicAbsenceReport is the time information of the UE reporting its departure from the current network, while this is the time information that the base station expects the UE to leave the current network. Further details are omitted here.

[0080] Computer-executable instructions or programs running on a device according to this disclosure may be programs that enable a computer to perform the functions of embodiments of this disclosure by controlling a central processing unit (CPU). The program or information processed by the program may be temporarily stored in volatile memory (such as random access memory, RAM), hard disk drive (HDD), non-volatile memory (such as flash memory), or other memory systems.

[0081] Computer-executable instructions or programs for implementing the functions of the embodiments of this disclosure can be recorded on a computer-readable storage medium. The corresponding functions can be implemented by causing a computer system to read and execute the programs recorded on the recording medium. The term "computer system" herein can refer to a computer system embedded in the device, and may include an operating system or hardware (such as peripheral devices). "Computer-readable storage medium" can be a semiconductor recording medium, an optical recording medium, a magnetic recording medium, a short-time dynamic program storage medium, or any other computer-readable recording medium.

[0082] Various features or functional modules of the devices used in the above embodiments can be implemented or executed by circuits (e.g., monolithic or multi-chip integrated circuits). Circuits designed to perform the functions described in this specification may include general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of the above devices. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or any existing processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The circuits described above may be digital circuits or analog circuits. In cases where advancements in semiconductor technology have led to new integrated circuit technologies that replace existing integrated circuits, one or more embodiments of this disclosure may also be implemented using these new integrated circuit technologies.

[0083] Furthermore, this disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described above. Although various examples of the embodiments have been described, this disclosure is not limited thereto. Fixed or non-mobile electronic devices installed indoors or outdoors can be used as terminal devices or communication devices, such as AV equipment, kitchen equipment, cleaning equipment, air conditioners, office equipment, vending machines, and other household appliances.

[0084] As described above, embodiments of this disclosure have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the specific structure is not limited to the above embodiments, and this disclosure also includes any design modifications that do not depart from the spirit of this disclosure. Furthermore, various modifications can be made to this disclosure within the scope of the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining the technical means disclosed in different embodiments are also included within the technical scope of this disclosure. In addition, components with the same effects described in the above embodiments can be substituted for each other.

Claims

1. A user equipment (UE), comprising: The processor is configured as follows: Receive RRC messages from the first network. If the RRC message contains an indication that the UE should report first-time information for monitoring the second network, a UEAssistanceInformation message is sent to the first network to report the first-time information for monitoring the second network. Receive a message from the first network that includes one or more second time information for monitoring the second network.

2. The UE according to claim 1, wherein, If the first time information differs from the time information indicated in the most recently transmitted UEAssistanceInformation message and the first timer is not running, the processor is further configured to: Send the UEAssistanceInformation message to the first network to report the first time information, and Start or restart the first timer, and set the timer value of the first timer to the value configured by the first network.

3. The UE according to claim 1 or 2, wherein, The first time information is either periodic or aperiodic, and When the first time information is periodic, the reported time information includes the length of the duration, the repetition period, and the offset of the number of subframes relative to the time information. If the first time information is non-periodic, the reported time information includes the length of the duration and the start time.

4. A base station, comprising The processor is configured as follows: Sending an RRC message to the User Equipment (UE), and If the RRC message contains indication information for instructing the UE to report first-time information for monitoring the second network, a UEAssistanceInformation message is received from the UE to report the first-time information for monitoring the second network, wherein... The second network is different from the first network corresponding to the base station, and Send a message to the UE that includes one or more second time information for monitoring the second network.

5. The base station according to claim 4, wherein, The first time information is either periodic or aperiodic, and When the first time information is periodic, the reported time information includes the length of the duration, the repetition period, and the offset of the number of subframes relative to the time information. If the first time information is non-periodic, the reported time information includes the length of the duration and the start time.

6. A communication method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising: Receive RRC messages from the first network. If the RRC message contains an indication that the UE should report first-time information for monitoring the second network, a UEAssistanceInformation message is sent to the first network to report the first-time information for monitoring the second network. Receive a message from the first network that includes one or more second time information for monitoring the second network.

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