Electronic device and method for wireless communication, and computer readable storage medium

Abstract

An electronic device and method for wireless communication, and a computer readable storage medium, the electronic device for wireless communication may include processing circuitry that may be configured to: in a case where a current serving base station of a user equipment is overloaded, receive a current service base station of the user equipment; obtaining a measurement result of a communication link between the user equipment assisted by the smart reflector and the alternative base station; and when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold value, enabling the user equipment to access the alternative base station and perform communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station under the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface.

Description

Electronic device and method for wireless communication and computer-readable storage medium

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on May 13, 2022, with application number 202210520713.5 and invention name “Electronic device and method for wireless communication and computer-readable storage medium”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and more specifically, to an electronic device and method for wireless communication and a computer-readable storage medium that are beneficial to improving user communication experience. Background Art

[0003] In the fifth generation (5G) mobile communications, many scenarios involve frequent services and large amounts of data. Although 5G's large bandwidth can increase data transmission rates, the user's current serving base station may be overloaded. For example, uplink and / or downlink resources cannot be allocated to a certain user, and uplink and / or downlink transmission with the user cannot be continued. Compared with downlink transmission, limited uplink resources further restrict uplink transmission between users and their serving base stations. For example, in some of the more popular frame structures, the proportion of uplink time slots is only 30%. This may lead to a poor uplink communication experience for users.

[0004] Therefore, it is expected to provide an enhanced technology that improves user communication experience.

[0005] Summary of the Invention

[0006] A brief overview of the present disclosure is provided below to provide a basic understanding of certain aspects of the present disclosure. However, it should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overview of the present disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or important parts of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Its purpose is simply to present certain concepts of the present disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that will be given later.

[0007] The purpose of the embodiments of the present disclosure is to provide an electronic device and method for wireless communication, as well as a computer-readable storage medium, which improves the user's communication experience by appropriately enabling a user device to access an alternative base station when the current serving base station is overloaded so that communication between the user device and the alternative base station can be carried out with the assistance of an intelligent reflecting surface.

[0008] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a base station-side electronic device for wireless communication is provided, the electronic device including a processing circuit, the processing circuit being configured to: obtain a measurement result of a communication link between a user device and an alternative base station assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface when a current serving base station of the user device is overloaded; and enable the user device to access the alternative base station and communicate between the user device and the alternative base station with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold.

[0009] According to the first aspect of the present disclosure, a method for wireless communication on the base station side is also provided, the method comprising: obtaining a measurement result of a communication link between a user equipment and an alternative base station assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface when a current serving base station of the user equipment is overloaded; and when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, enabling the user equipment to access the alternative base station and communicate between the user equipment and the alternative base station with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface.

[0010] According to the second aspect of the first embodiment of the present disclosure, a user-side electronic device for wireless communication is provided, which includes a processing circuit, which is configured to: when a current serving base station is overloaded, send an uplink signal for measuring a communication link between a user device and an alternative base station assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface; and when a measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, access the alternative base station and communicate between the user device and the alternative base station with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface.

[0011] According to the second aspect of the first embodiment of the present disclosure, a user-side method for wireless communication is also provided, the method comprising: when a current serving base station is overloaded, sending an uplink signal for measuring a communication link between a user device and an alternative base station assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface; and when a measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, accessing the alternative base station and communicating between the user device and the alternative base station with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface.

[0012] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions is further provided. When the executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor performs various functions of the above-mentioned electronic device or method for wireless communication.

[0013] According to other aspects of the present disclosure, computer program codes and computer program products for implementing the above-mentioned method according to the present disclosure are also provided.

[0014] According to at least one aspect of the present disclosure, when a current serving base station of a user equipment (UE) is overloaded, a measurement result of a communication link between the user equipment and an alternative base station assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is obtained, and when the measurement result is higher than a threshold, the user equipment is enabled to access the alternative base station and communicate with the alternative base station with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface.

[0015] Accordingly, by utilizing at least one aspect of the present disclosure, base stations that can serve user equipment (for example, but not limited to allocating transmission resources to user equipment) can be increased (for example, alternative base stations that originally cannot effectively serve UE but can effectively serve UE with the assistance of IRS), thereby improving user experience, especially the experience of uplink communications where transmission resources are extremely limited.

[0016] Other aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are given in the following description, wherein the detailed description is used to fully disclose the preferred embodiments of the embodiments of the present disclosure without imposing limitations thereon. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. In the drawings:

[0018] 1A to 1C are schematic diagrams illustrating application scenarios of using an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) to assist uplink communication of a user equipment (UE) according to the present disclosure;

[0019] 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an electronic device on the base station side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020] 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a measurement result obtaining unit in the electronic device of FIG. 2 ;

[0021] FIG4 is a schematic diagram showing some exemplary information interactions between a UE, its current serving base station BS1, and an alternative base station BS2 during dynamic handover;

[0022] FIG5 is a schematic diagram showing some exemplary information interactions among UE, BS1, BS2, and IRS in dynamic handover;

[0023] FIG6 is a schematic diagram showing some exemplary information interactions between UE, BS1, and BS2 in dynamic handover;

[0024] FIG7 is a schematic diagram showing some example information interactions between UE, BS1, BS2, IRS1, and IRS2 in dynamic handover;

[0025] FIG8 is a schematic diagram showing some exemplary information interactions between the UE and BS1 in semi-static handover;

[0026] FIG9 is a schematic diagram showing some example information interactions between the UE and BS2 in a semi-static handover;

[0027] FIG10 is a schematic diagram showing some example information interactions between UE, BS1, BS2, and IRS in semi-static handover;

[0028] FIG11 is a schematic diagram showing some example information interactions between UE, BS1, BS2, and IRS in semi-static handover;

[0029] FIG12 is a schematic diagram showing some example information interactions between UE, BS1, and BS2 in semi-static handover;

[0030] FIG13 is a schematic diagram showing some example information interactions between the UE, BS2, and IRS in post-handover measurements;

[0031] FIG14 is a schematic diagram showing some example information interactions between the UE, BS2, and IRS in post-handover measurements;

[0032] 15 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an electronic device on a user side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0033] FIG16 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method for wireless communication on a base station side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0034] 17 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process of a method for wireless communication on the user side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0035] FIG18 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied;

[0036] FIG19 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied;

[0037] FIG20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied;

[0038] FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied.

[0039] While the present disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and are described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that the description of specific embodiments herein is not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular forms disclosed, but rather, the disclosure is intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the disclosure. It should be noted that throughout the several drawings, corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] Examples of the present disclosure will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings.The following description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, application, or uses.

[0041] Example embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be exhaustive and will fully convey its scope to those skilled in the art. Numerous specific details such as examples of specific components, devices, and methods are set forth to provide a detailed understanding of the embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that specific details need not be used and that the example embodiments can be implemented in many different forms, none of which should be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. In some example embodiments, well-known processes, well-known structures, and well-known technologies are not described in detail.

[0042] The description will be in the following order:

[0043] 1. Overview

[0044] 2. Example of configuration of electronic equipment on the base station side

[0045] 2.1 Configuration Example

[0046] 2.2 Example Processing of Dynamic Switching

[0047] 2.3 Example Processing of Semi-static Switching

[0048] 2.4 Example Processing of Post-Switch Measurements

[0049] 3. Configuration Example of User-Side Electronic Devices

[0050] 4. Method Examples

[0051] 5. Application Examples

[0052] <1. Overview>

[0053] As mentioned above, in 5G communications, the current serving base station of the user equipment may be overloaded, for example, uplink and / or downlink resources cannot be allocated to a certain user equipment and thus uplink and / or downlink transmission with the user equipment cannot be continued.

[0054] In some 5G applications, such as 5G Extended Reality (XR) scenarios, uplink services are frequent and the amount of data is large. Compared with downlink transmission, limited uplink resources further limit the uplink transmission between users and their serving base stations. For example, in some of the more popular frame structures, the proportion of uplink time slots is only 30%. In addition, uplink transmission is also limited by the high path loss in the high frequency band (and the correspondingly smaller uplink coverage area of ​​the terminal). Unlike the downlink coverage area that can be expanded by increasing the transmit power of the base station, the uplink coverage area is limited by the transmit power of the user terminal. Accordingly, there may be a situation where the user equipment is in the downlink coverage area of ​​two base stations, but only one of the base stations is in the uplink coverage area of ​​the user equipment, and then the user equipment can only perform uplink transmission with the one base station.

[0055] In light of the above, the inventors have proposed an inventive concept for utilizing intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRSs) to facilitate communication between user equipment and alternative base stations. An intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is a planar array composed of a large number of passive reflective elements. By adjusting the reflection coefficients (amplitude and / or phase) of the reflective elements, the amplitude and / or phase of the incident signal on the intelligent reflecting surface can be varied, thereby achieving beamforming of the reflected signal and thereby changing the wireless channel.

[0056] Specifically, the inventors proposed the following inventive concept: when the current serving base station of the user equipment UE is overloaded, the measurement results of the communication link between the UE and an alternative base station (the alternative base station is, for example, a neighboring base station located near the UE and / or the current serving base station, and there is an IRS between the neighboring base station and the UE that can assist communication between the two) assisted by the intelligent reflecting surface IRS are obtained, and when the measurement result is higher than the threshold, the UE is enabled to access the alternative base station and communicate between the UE and the alternative base station with the assistance of the IRS.

[0057] In the context of the present disclosure, the process of enabling the UE to access the alternative base station based on the measurement results of the communication link between the UE and the alternative base station assisted by the IRS is sometimes referred to as an intelligent reflecting surface IRS-assisted handover process. Utilizing the above-mentioned IRS-assisted handover process, the reflection link between the UE and the base station (the alternative base station before the handover) can be used, thereby increasing the number of base stations that can serve the UE (for example, but not limited to, allocating transmission resources to the UE) (for example, an alternative base station that originally could not effectively serve the UE but can effectively serve the UE with the assistance of the IRS). This is particularly beneficial for expanding the uplink coverage of the UE in the case of uplink handover, thereby improving the user experience, especially the uplink communication experience with extremely limited transmission resources / coverage.

[0058] As examples, Figures 1A to 1C illustrate application scenarios of using an intelligent reflecting surface IRS to assist uplink communication of a user equipment UE according to the above inventive concept, wherein Figure 1A shows a heterogeneous network including a macro base station BS1 and a micro base station BS2, Figure 1B shows a heterogeneous network including a micro base station BS1 and a macro base station BS2, and Figure 1C shows a heterogeneous network including macro base stations BS1 and BS2, and in each example, bold double arrows are used to show the signaling interaction between the base station and the intelligent reflecting surface, and a single arrow is used to show the uplink or downlink transmission between the base station and the user equipment.

[0059] First, refer to Figures 1A and 1B. In an example of a heterogeneous network such as that shown in Figures 1A and 1B, there is a power imbalance region, illustrated by a grayscale ellipse: in this region, the signal strength received by the user equipment in the downlink direction from the macro base station (BS1 in Figure 1A or BS2 in Figure 1B) is greater than the signal strength of the micro base station (BS2 in Figure 1A or BS1 in Figure 1B), and the signal strength received by the user equipment in the uplink direction from the micro base station (BS2 in Figure 1A or BS1 in Figure 1B) is greater than the signal strength received by the macro base station (BS1 in Figure 1A or BS2 in Figure 1B).

[0060] In the example of Figure 1A, user equipment UE2, originally located outside the power imbalance area, is originally served by macro base station BS1. If macro base station BS1 is overloaded, it can be switched to micro base station BS2 with the assistance of an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS). This example shows a situation where only the uplink is switched to micro base station BS2, while the downlink remains connected to macro base station BS1. This switching increases the power imbalance area (as shown on the left side of the grayscale ellipse in Figure 1A) and expands the uplink coverage of UE2, thereby improving the user's uplink communication experience.

[0061] In the example of Figure 1B , the uplink serving base station of user equipment UE2, which is originally located in the power imbalance area, is originally the micro base station BS1, and the downlink serving base station is the macro base station BS2. If the micro base station BS1 is overloaded, it can be handed over to the macro base station BS2 with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface IRS. That is, both uplink and downlink are connected to the macro base station BS2. This handover reduces the power imbalance area (as shown on the left side of the grayscale ellipse in Figure 1B ) and expands the uplink coverage of UE2, thereby improving the user's uplink communication experience.

[0062] Next, refer to Figure 1C. In the example of Figure 1C, the serving base station of the user equipment UE is originally the macro base station BS1, and when the macro base station BS1 is overloaded, it can be switched to another macro base station BS2 with the assistance of the intelligent reflection surfaces IRS1 and IRS2. In this example, it is shown that only the uplink is switched to the macro base station BS2, and the downlink remains connected to the macro base station BS1. Such switching expands the uplink coverage of the UE, thereby improving the user's uplink communication experience. Note that in the example of Figure 1C, although IRS1 is in the coverage of BS1 and is originally controlled by BS1, BS2 can obtain relevant information of IRS1 and control IRS1 to assist the communication between BS2 and the UE by communicating with BS1 (such as device to device (D2D) communication, etc.).

[0063] Next, the base station-side and user-side apparatuses and methods according to embodiments of the present disclosure will be further described in conjunction with the example scenarios shown in Figures 1A to 1C. Note that while the above overview and the following detailed description partially use uplink handover as an example, the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to uplink handover scenarios. Those skilled in the art can perform both uplink and downlink handovers, or only downlink handovers, based on the description provided in this disclosure, and this description will not be repeated here.

[0064] <2. Configuration Example of Electronic Equipment on the Base Station Side>

[0065] (2.1 Configuration Example)

[0066] Figure 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electronic device on a base station side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The electronic device shown in Figure 2 can be used as a candidate base station in a handover process assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface (IRS).

[0067] As shown in FIG2 , the electronic device 100 may include a measurement result obtaining unit 110, a user access enabling unit 120, and an optional transceiver unit 130. The transceiver unit 130 may (e.g., under the control of the measurement result obtaining unit 110 and / or the user access enabling unit 120) send information to a device outside the electronic device 100 and / or receive information from a device outside the electronic device 100. In addition, although not shown in the figure, the electronic device 100 may further include a storage unit.

[0068] Here, each unit of the electronic device 100 may be included in a processing circuit. It should be noted that the electronic device 100 may include either one processing circuit or multiple processing circuits. Furthermore, the processing circuit may include various discrete functional units to perform various functions and / or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and units with different names may be implemented by the same physical entity.

[0069] The measurement result obtaining unit 110 can obtain the measurement result of the communication link between the user equipment and the alternative base station assisted by the smart reflecting surface when the current serving base station of the user equipment is overloaded. The above-mentioned communication link can be referred to as a communication link assisted by the smart reflecting surface when appropriate, and includes a direct link between the user equipment and the alternative base station and a reflection link between the user equipment and the alternative base station via the smart reflecting surface. As an example, the measurement result of the communication link obtained by the measurement result obtaining unit 110 can be the quality of the received signal of the reference signal transmitted via the communication link, such as the Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP).

[0070] Optionally, the measurement result obtaining unit 110 can select and / or control the smart reflecting surface for auxiliary communication and control the measurement of the above-mentioned communication link to obtain the measurement result, for example, through information interaction between the transceiver unit 130 and the user equipment, the current serving base station of the user equipment, and / or the smart reflecting surface.

[0071] 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of the measurement result obtaining unit 110 of the electronic device 100. As shown in FIG3, the measurement result obtaining unit 110 may include an optional IRS determining unit 111, an IRS controlling unit 112, and a measuring unit 113.

[0072] The IRS determination unit 111 can, for example, determine an intelligent reflecting surface that can be used for auxiliary communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station based on information related to the user equipment (such as the position or orientation of the user equipment and optionally the transmit power of the user equipment, etc.) obtained from the user equipment or its serving base station via the transceiver unit 130.

[0073] The IRS control unit 112 may, for example, generate configuration information for the smart reflecting surface and send the configuration information to the smart reflecting surface via the transceiver unit 130 to control the smart reflecting surface. The configuration information may include, but is not limited to, the reflection coefficients of the various reflective units of the smart reflecting surface, so that the smart reflecting surface changes the reflection coefficients (amplitude and / or phase) of its reflective units according to the configuration information, thereby changing the reflected beam under the control of the IRS control unit 112D.

[0074] The measurement unit 113 can, for example, control and / or perform measurements of the communication link assisted by the smart reflecting surface by means of signal or information interaction between the transceiver unit 130 and the user equipment, the current serving base station of the user equipment, and the smart reflecting surface to obtain measurement results. For example, the measurement unit 113 can generate a measurement notification and, for example, use the transceiver unit 130 to provide the measurement notification to the UE via the current serving base station, so that the UE receives a downlink signal or sends an uplink signal according to the instruction of the measurement notification, and then performs the measurement of the required communication link (for example, but not limited to, an IRS-assisted communication link). The measurement unit 113 can also control the transceiver unit 130 to receive or send other signals or information involved in the measurement of the communication link. In addition, the measurement unit 113 can also directly measure the uplink signal from the user equipment received by the transceiver unit 130 to obtain the required communication link measurement result.

[0075] The user access enabling unit 120 of the electronic device 100 can enable the user equipment to access (uplink access and / or downlink access) the alternative base station and perform (uplink and / or downlink) communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station with the assistance of the smart reflective surface when the measurement result of the communication link obtained by the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (measuring unit 113) is higher than the threshold. The threshold for the measurement result can be appropriately determined in advance or in real time based on various factors (such as the minimum, maximum, or average requirement for communication quality, the minimum value of the communication quality between the current serving base station, the real-time value of the communication quality between the current serving base station, etc.), which will not be repeated here.

[0076] As an example, the user access enabling unit 120 can, for example, through information interaction between the transceiver unit 130 and the user equipment and / or the current serving base station of the user equipment, enable the user equipment to disconnect from the current serving base station (uplink connection and / or downlink connection) and access (uplink access and / or downlink access) an alternative base station.

[0077] Optionally, the user access enabling unit 120 may include or have an IRS control unit similar to the IRS control unit 112 in the measurement result obtaining unit 110 shown in Figure 3 (or share the IRS control unit 112 with the measurement result obtaining unit 110), so as to control the IRS-assisted communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station by generating and sending the configuration information of the IRS after the user equipment accesses the alternative base station. Alternatively, after the user equipment accesses the alternative base station, the measurement result obtaining unit 110, rather than the user access enabling unit 120, may continue to control the IRS-assisted communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station via the IRS control unit 112. The present disclosure is not particularly limited in this regard, as long as the electronic device 100 can realize the control of the IRS by means of information interaction between the transceiver unit 130 and the smart reflecting surface, thereby performing communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station with the assistance of the smart reflecting surface. Further.

[0078] Preferably, after the user equipment accesses (uplink connection and / or downlink connection) the alternative base station, the user access enabling unit 120 of the electronic device 100 can, for example, control the transceiver unit 130 to communicate with the user equipment with the assistance of the IRS by using transmission resources similar to those of other user equipment within the coverage area of ​​the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station. In one example, the current serving base station of the user equipment and the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station are both base stations in the 5G network. After the user equipment accesses the alternative base station via IRS-assisted switching, the user access enabling unit 120 of the electronic device 100 can control the transceiver unit 130 to communicate with the user equipment with the assistance of the IRS by using 5G high-frequency band transmission resources, including but not limited to allocating 5G high-frequency band uplink resources to the user equipment. Compared with existing technologies that use other uplink resources (rather than 5G high-frequency band uplink resources) for uplink enhancement, such as dual connectivity, uplink supplementary link (Supplemeted Uplink, SUL) or carrier aggregation, the above-mentioned preferred processing of the user access enabling unit 120 is conducive to the application of uplink services with frequent data transmission and large data volume in 5G.

[0079] The electronic device 100 can utilize the measurement result obtaining unit 110, the user access enabling unit 120 and the optional transceiver unit 130 to implement the smart reflective surface assisted switching process through various appropriate methods or processes.

[0080] As an example, consider a situation where the current serving base station is overloaded and cannot allocate uplink resources to the user equipment. In this case, when the current serving base station receives an uplink scheduling request from the user equipment under the overload situation, the smart reflecting surface-assisted handover process can be initiated in response to a request from the current serving base station or the user equipment to the alternative base station under the above scenario.

[0081] In one example, switching can be started dynamically (dynamic switching): the electronic device 100 receives, for example, via the transceiver unit 130, relevant information of the user equipment and a measurement request for the communication link sent by the current serving base station of the user equipment to the alternative base station when receiving an uplink scheduling request of the user equipment in an overloaded situation, and controls the measurement of the communication link based on the relevant information of the user equipment according to the measurement request, for example, via the measurement result acquisition unit 110.

[0082] In another example, switching can be started in a semi-static manner (semi-static switching): the electronic device 100 receives, for example, via the transceiver unit 130, a random access request sent by the user equipment to the alternative base station when the user equipment cannot obtain uplink resources from the overloaded current serving base station, and controls the measurement of the communication link based on the received random access request, for example, via the measurement result obtaining unit 110.

[0083] Optionally, after completing the handover process assisted by the smart reflecting surface, the electronic device 100 may use the measurement result obtaining unit 110 and the transceiver unit 130, etc. (via the communication link assisted by the smart reflecting surface or, or in particular, only via the reflection link) to send a downlink reference signal such as a Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS) to the user equipment during the communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station assisted by the smart reflecting surface, and obtain the user equipment's measurement result of the downlink reference signal as the communication quality of the communication link assisted by the smart reflecting surface (post-handover measurement) to change the used smart reflecting surface when necessary. For example, when the communication quality of the communication link assisted by the IRS does not meet the requirements (e.g., is lower than a threshold), the electronic device 100 may re-determine another IRS if possible and use the re-determined IRS to assist the communication between the alternative base station that has become the serving base station and the UE.

[0084] Next, the example scenarios shown in Figures 1A to 1C will be appropriately combined to further describe the example processing of the electronic device 100 and its various units on the base station side in dynamic switching, semi-static switching and post-switching measurement, wherein the electronic device 100 can, for example, be used for the alternative base station BS2 of Figures 1A to 1C.

[0085] (2.2 Example of dynamic switching processing)

[0086] The following will appropriately combine the example scenarios of Figures 1A to 1C and refer to the example information interaction between the UE (for example, UE2 in Figure 1A or 1B, UE in Figure 1C, etc.), the UE's current serving base station BS1, the alternative base station BS2 (having the functions of electronic device 100 / implemented by electronic device 100), and the smart reflecting surface (for example, the IRS in Figure 1A or 1B, or IRS1 or IRS2 in Figure 1C) in the dynamic switching shown in Figures 4 to 7 to describe the example processing of the electronic device 100 and its various units in dynamic switching.

[0087] First, refer to Figure 4, which shows that the current serving base station, which receives an uplink scheduling request from the user equipment in an overload situation, sends a measurement request to the alternative base station, which causes the smart reflecting surface assisted switching process to be started (more specifically, the IRS assisted communication link measurement process to be started).

[0088] As shown in Figure 4, in an example of dynamic switching, when the UE's current serving base station BS1 receives an uplink scheduling request SR from UE2 under overload conditions, it sends an IRS-assisted communication link measurement request and UE-related information of the UE to the alternative base station BS2, such information as, but not limited to, the UE's position or orientation and, optionally, the UE's transmit power. Figure 4 shows an example scenario in which BS1 simultaneously sends the measurement request and UE-related information after receiving the SR. It will be understood that the above example scenario is not restrictive, and BS1 may send the above measurement request and UE-related information separately or successively after receiving the SR, and the present disclosure is not limited to this.

[0089] Optionally, after the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 receives the measurement request (and UE-related information) via the transceiver unit 130, for example, if there are idle uplink resources, the electronic device 100 may send a confirmation message to the transmitting BS1 via the transceiver unit 130. BS1, having received the message, may send an SR transmission stop notification to the UE, causing the UE to stop sending SRs. Alternatively, one or more of the above optional processes may be omitted.

[0090] For example, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can, after receiving a measurement request and related information from the UE's current serving base station, use the measurement result obtaining unit 110 and the access enabling unit 120 to start and control the example measurement process of the IRS-assisted communication link as shown in Figure 5.

[0091] As shown in FIG5 , during the measurement process, first, optionally, electronic device 100 for candidate base station BS2, for example, via measurement result obtaining unit 110 (IRS determining unit 111), determines, based on previously obtained UE-related information (such as the UE's location or orientation and, optionally, the UE's transmit power), a smart reflecting surface or multiple cascaded smart reflecting surfaces between user equipment (UE) and candidate base station BS2 to assist in communication. Preferably, this determination can be made based on, for example, the distance between the candidate base station and the user equipment, the distance between the user equipment and the smart reflecting surface, and / or the user equipment's transmit power. For example, one or more smart reflecting surfaces that are relatively close to the UE and within the UE's uplink coverage area can be determined. For example, when the UE is relatively close to the candidate base station, one cascaded smart reflecting surface can be determined, and when the UE is relatively far from the candidate base station, two or more cascaded smart reflecting surfaces can be determined. In this example, the UE is relatively close to the candidate base station, and one smart reflecting surface (IRS) (such as the IRS shown in FIG1A or FIG1B ) has been determined.

[0092] In addition, the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 can generate IRS configuration information, for example, via the measurement result acquisition unit 110 (IRS control unit 112), and send the configuration information to the IRS, for example, via the transceiver unit 130, so that the IRS changes the reflection coefficient (amplitude and / or phase) of its reflection unit according to the configuration information, thereby changing the reflected beam to achieve control of the IRS. As an example, the electronic device 100 can generate the configuration information (IRS configuration information) of the smart reflecting surface based on the positional relationship between the smart reflecting surface and the position or orientation of the UE (which can be determined based on previously obtained UE-related information) and / or the positional relationship between the smart reflecting surface and the candidate base station, and then control the first beam of the smart reflecting surface to align with the user equipment and / or the second beam of the smart reflecting surface to align with the candidate base station, so as to establish a reflection link between the user equipment and the candidate base station via the smart reflecting surface. In this example, only one smart reflecting surface is used, and its first beam is controlled to align with the user equipment and its second beam is controlled to align with the candidate base station.

[0093] Optionally, in the case where the intelligent reflecting surface IRS is controlled not only by BS2 but also by the current serving base station BS1, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can generate an IRS usage notification, for example, via the measurement result acquisition unit 110 (IRS control unit 112), and send the usage notification to BS1, for example, via the transceiver unit, to inform it of its control over the IRS and enable BS1 to stop controlling the IRS.

[0094] Preferably, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can also generate a measurement notification, for example, using the measurement result acquisition unit 110 (measurement unit 113) and provide the measurement notification to the UE via the current serving base station BS1, for example, using the transceiver unit 130, so that the UE sends an uplink reference signal according to the indication of the measurement notification and performs IRS-assisted communication link measurement, wherein the uplink reference signal can be transmitted via the IRS reflection link established between the UE and the alternative base station BS2 according to the IRS configuration information and the optional direct link.

[0095] As an example, the measurement notification sent by the electronic device 100 to the current serving base station BS1 via D2D communication may, for example, indicate the time-frequency resources for the UE to send an uplink reference signal, and may be processed and forwarded by the current serving base station BS1 and sent to the UE in the form of, for example, uplink reference signal configuration information. As an example, the uplink reference signal sent by the UE may be a periodic sounding reference signal (SRS).

[0096] Optionally, the measurement notification sent by the electronic device 100 may further indicate beam information for the UE to send an uplink reference signal. In this example, for example, a wide beam such as an omnidirectional beam (or at least a beam covering both the IRS and the candidate base station BS2) is indicated, so that the uplink reference signal sent by the UE can be transmitted via both the direct link and the reflection link between the UE and the candidate base station BS2. In other words, in this example, the UE can send an uplink reference signal, such as an SRS, via both the direct link between the UE and the candidate base station BS2 and the IRS reflection link established according to the IRS configuration information, according to the instruction of the received measurement notification.

[0097] The electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can, for example, measure the uplink reference signal sent by the user equipment UE and received through the communication link including the reflection link and the direct link between the user equipment UE and the alternative base station BS2 via the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (measuring unit 113), and can obtain the measurement result of the communication link based on the measurement result of the uplink reference signal.

[0098] In addition, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can also provide the measurement result of the communication link to the current serving base station BS1 of the user equipment UE through the processing of the user access enabling unit 120, for example, via the transceiver unit 130, so that the current serving base station BS1 instructs the user equipment UE to disconnect from the current serving base station to access the alternative base station BS2 when the measurement result is higher than the threshold. As shown in Figure 6, when the measurement result provided by the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 to the former serving base station BS1 is higher than the threshold, the current serving base station BS1 can instruct the UE to disconnect (uplink and / or downlink) from it through RRC reconfiguration and perform a random access process with the alternative base station BS2. As an example, the UE's switching can be, for example, limited to uplink switching (uplink access to BS2), and in the case of uplink and downlink decoupling, the downlink maintains access to BS1. Alternatively, the UE can switch to BS2 both uplink and downlink.

[0099] In the example measurement process of FIG. 5 , the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 first sends configuration information to the IRS and then sends a measurement notification to the UE. Furthermore, the UE transmits an uplink reference signal via both a direct link and a reflected link according to the received measurement notification for measurement by the electronic device 100. It will be appreciated that the above example is not restrictive, and the electronic device 100 may exchange the order of sending the configuration information to the IRS and the measurement notification to the UE, or even send both simultaneously, or modify the content of the measurement notification (e.g., instead of indicating a wide beam to the UE, indicating a narrow beam, such as a directional beam for the IRS). As long as the UE can transmit an uplink reference signal for measurement by the electronic device 100 according to the received measurement notification via the IRS reflected link (and optional direct link) established between the UE and BS2 according to the configuration information, the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0100] In addition, in the example measurement process of Figure 5 above, it is shown that the alternative base station determines one IRS for auxiliary communication, but the alternative base station may determine multiple IRSs for auxiliary communication, for example, when the distance from the UE is far and / or the UE transmission power is low, as shown in Figure 7.

[0101] FIG7 illustrates another example measurement process for an IRS-assisted communication link that can be controlled by the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2, wherein the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 determines two cascaded smart reflective surfaces, IRS1 and IRS2, for assisted communication, with IRS1 being close to the user equipment UE and IRS2 being close to the candidate base station BS2. At this point, as shown in FIG7 , the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 needs to send configuration information to each of the two IRSs to implement the following control: the first beam of IRS1 close to the UE is aligned with the UE, the second beam of IRS2 close to BS2 is aligned with BS2, and the two smart reflective surfaces IRS1 and IRS2 each have other beams (third and fourth beams) aligned with each other to implement a cascaded smart reflective surface-assisted reflection link.

[0102] Alternatively, the current serving base station BS1 and the candidate base station BS2 in the example of FIG7 may be two macro base stations in a homogeneous network, as shown in the example of FIG1C . In this case, as shown in FIG7 , the two base stations may exchange IRS information of smart reflective surfaces within their coverage areas (e.g., BS1 provides IRS1-related information to BS2, and BS2 sends an IRS usage notification to BS1), so that the candidate base station BS2 can utilize the IRS1 originally controlled by the current serving base station BS1.

[0103] Except for the above-mentioned difference that two cascaded smart reflecting surfaces IRS1 and IRS2 are used for auxiliary communication instead of a single smart reflecting surface (and optionally BS2 exchanges IRS information with BS1 instead of BS2 sending an IRS usage notification to BS1), the example measurement process of Figure 7 is basically the same as the example measurement process of Figure 5 and will not be repeated here.

[0104] (2.3 Example Processing of Semi-Static Switching)

[0105] The following will appropriately combine the example scenarios of Figures 1A to 1B and refer to the example information interaction between the UE (such as UE2 in Figure 1A or 1B), the UE's current serving base station BS1, the alternative base station BS2 (having the functions of the electronic device 100 / implemented by the electronic device 100), and the smart reflecting surface (such as the IRS in Figure 1A or 1B) in the semi-static switching shown in Figures 8 to 12 to describe the example processing of the electronic device 100 and its various units in the semi-static switching.

[0106] First, refer to Figures 8 and 9, which show that a user equipment that sends an uplink scheduling request to an overloaded current serving base station initiates a random access request to an alternative base station because it cannot obtain the corresponding uplink transmission resource permission, resulting in the initiation of a smart reflecting surface assisted switching process (more specifically, the initiation of an IRS assisted communication link measurement process).

[0107] As shown in Figure 8, in a semi-static handover example, the UE continuously sends periodic scheduling requests (SRs) to its current serving base station, BS1, and monitors the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) to obtain uplink transmission resource grants from BS1. Upon receiving an uplink scheduling request (SR) from UE2, the currently serving base station, BS1, which is overloaded, waits and temporarily takes no action.

[0108] At the same time, as shown in FIG9 , an electronic device 100 near the UE, for example, for the alternative base station BS2, without using a smart reflective surface, periodically performs beam scanning (sending SSBs in sequence with multiple downlink beams) of a downlink reference signal, such as a synchronization signal block (SSB), which facilitates the user equipment to search for a cell or access the base station, for example, via the transceiver unit 130. For example, when the number of SRs sent by the UE reaches, for example, a preset maximum value (or after a predetermined period of time, etc.) and has not yet obtained an uplink transmission resource grant from BS1, the UE performs SSB beam scanning for the alternative base station BS2 using a receiving beam (for example, a wide beam such as an omnidirectional beam) to receive and determine the uplink beam corresponding to one of the downlink beams (for example, the downlink beam with the highest RSRP of its received signal). As an example, different transmission times of the SSB can correspond to different downlink beams and can also be pre-associated with different preambles used as random access requests. In this case, the process of determining the uplink beam on the UE side also determines, for example, the preamble used as a random access request. Then, the UE may send a random access request (eg, a preamble) to BS2 using the determined uplink beam.

[0109] The electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 can, for example, use the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (measuring unit 113) to measure the random access request received from the UE via the transceiver unit 130. In this example, the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 finds that the measurement result is less than a threshold. The threshold can be preset or variable, and a measurement result less than the threshold indicates that the candidate base station cannot provide effective service to the user equipment.

[0110] In this case, the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 determines that IRS assistance is required to implement handover, and can, for example, use the measurement result obtaining unit 110 to start and control the example measurement process of the IRS-assisted communication link as shown in Figure 10.

[0111] Since the uplink beam in which the UE sends the random access request actually carries the position or orientation information of the UE, the electronic device 100 on the base station side can, for example, based on beam symmetry (and / or based on the association between the preamble of the random access request and the downlink beam that sends the SSB), understand which downlink beam the UE is located in that sends the SSB, that is, obtain the position or orientation information of the UE. Accordingly, although not shown, optionally, before the example measurement process of Figure 10, the electronic device 100 can, for example, determine an intelligent reflection surface between the user equipment UE and the alternative base station BS2 based on the position or orientation information of the UE via the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (IRS determination unit 111) to assist in communication. Preferably, the above determination can be made based on the distance between the intelligent reflection surface and the user equipment. For example, a smart reflection surface closest to the UE can be determined, such as the IRS shown in Figure 1A or Figure 1B.

[0112] When the IRS to be used for auxiliary communication is determined, as shown in Figure 10, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can first, for example, without using a smart reflecting surface, use the transceiver unit 130 to sequentially send a first downlink reference signal (first SSB) with multiple first beams (multiple downlink beams) to perform a first SSB scan. The UE receives the first SSB beam scan using a receiving beam such as an omnidirectional beam, and determines an uplink beam corresponding to one of the multiple first beams (e.g., the first beam whose received signal has the highest RSRP), and optionally determines a preamble code used as a random access request at the same time. The UE can then use the determined uplink beam to send a first random access request (e.g., a first preamble code) to the alternative base station BS2.

[0113] Accordingly, the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 may, for example, use the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (measuring unit 113) to measure the random access request from the UE received via the transceiver unit 130 and transmitted only via the direct link between the UE and the candidate base station BS2.

[0114] In addition, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can realize the second SSB scanning by sending a second downlink reference signal (second SSB) to the smart reflecting surface and controlling the smart reflecting surface to sequentially reflect the second SSB with multiple second beams (multiple reflected beams). More specifically, as shown in Figure 9, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 generates the configuration information of the IRS via the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (IRS control unit 112), etc. and sends the configuration information to the IRS via the transceiver unit 130, for example, to realize the control of the IRS, and at the same time, for example, sends the SSB to the IRS via the transceiver unit 130, so that the IRS changes the reflection coefficient (amplitude and / or phase) of its reflecting unit according to the configuration information and then changes the reflected beam to realize the sequential reflection of the SSB with multiple second beams, so that from the UE side it seems that the base station has performed the second SSB beam scanning at the position of the IRS. Needless to say, the configuration information sent to the IRS (together with the above configuration information or sent separately at another appropriate time) can also control the IRS to use another beam to align with the candidate base station to establish a reflection link between the user equipment and the candidate base station via the IRS.

[0115] Similar to the first SSB beam scan, the UE receives a receive beam, such as an omnidirectional beam, for the second SSB beam scan and determines an uplink beam corresponding to one of the multiple second beams (e.g., the second beam whose received signal has the highest RSRP). Optionally, the UE also determines a preamble, such as a random access request. The UE can then use the determined uplink beam to send a second random access request (e.g., a second preamble) to the IRS. The second random access request sent using the directional beam is received by the candidate base station BS2 via a reflection link through the IRS.

[0116] Accordingly, the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 may measure, for example, the second random access request from the UE received via the transceiver unit 130 and received only through the reflection link via the IRS, using the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (measuring unit 113 ).

[0117] In the example of Figure 10, the first SSB and the second SSB sent successively by the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 may be different from or the same as each other. In one example, the first SSB and the second SSB are different from each other, and the UE side may regard the first SSB beam scan and the second SSB beam scan as SSB beam scans of two alternative base stations and perform corresponding processing respectively. In another example, the first SSB and the second SSB are the same as each other. At this time, in order to make the UE side aware that it needs to perform corresponding processing for the first SSB beam scan and the second SSB beam scan respectively, preferably, as shown by the dotted line before each beam scan in the example measurement process of Figure 10, the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can also generate the first and second measurement notifications, for example, by using the measurement result acquisition unit 110 (measurement unit 113) and provide the measurement notification to the UE via the current serving base station BS1, for example, by using the transceiver unit 130, so that the UE receives the SSB according to the instruction of the measurement notification. As an example, each measurement notification sent by the electronic device 100 can, for example, use minimal information to indicate that the UE network side will perform a corresponding SSB beam scan (a first SSB beam scan performed via a direct link and a second SSB beam scan performed using IRS), which helps the UE to determine the uplink beam corresponding to one of the downlink beams for each of the two beam scans, and to send a corresponding random access request using the uplink beam.

[0118] As described above, in the example measurement process shown in FIG10 , the electronic device 100 serving as the alternative base station BS2 may not provide the user equipment with a measurement notification or may provide a measurement notification containing only minimum information indicating that SSB beam scanning is to be performed, and the user equipment may use an omnidirectional beam as a receiving beam for the SSB beam scanning. In an alternative example, the electronic device 100 serving as the alternative base station BS2 may provide the user equipment with a measurement notification including information about the SSB, which is beneficial for the user equipment to determine a receiving beam suitable for receiving the SSB, so that the user equipment may use a corresponding narrow beam (rather than an omnidirectional beam) as a receiving beam for the SSB beam scanning, thereby improving the effect of the SSB beam scanning, such as but not limited to improving efficiency, accelerating processing speed, etc.

[0119] As an alternative example, FIG11 shows another example measurement process for an IRS-assisted communication link that can be controlled by the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2, which differs from the example of FIG10 in that the first measurement notification provided by the alternative base station to the user equipment via the current serving base station of the user equipment includes first information about the first downlink reference signal, and the first information includes relevant information of the alternative base station, and the second measurement notification provided by the alternative base station to the user equipment via the current serving base station of the user equipment includes second information about the second downlink reference signal, and the second information includes relevant information of the smart reflecting surface. The above-mentioned relevant information facilitates the user equipment (by itself or under the instruction of the serving base station) to determine a receiving beam suitable for receiving the downlink reference signal SSB, so that the user equipment can use a corresponding narrow beam, such as that shown in FIG11 (rather than the omnidirectional beam shown in FIG10 ) as the receiving beam for SSB beam scanning, thereby improving the effect of SSB beam scanning.

[0120] As an example, in the first and second measurement notifications sent by the electronic device 100 of the alternative base station BS2 in Figure 11, the information about the alternative base station or smart reflecting surface included in the information about the SSB can be, for example, the location information of the alternative base station or smart reflecting surface. Optionally, the current serving base station BS1 that receives the first and second measurement notifications including the above-mentioned location information can, for example, determine, based on this information, a receive beam suitable for receiving the first or second beam (of the alternative base station or smart reflecting surface) from the corresponding location, and accordingly provide the user equipment UE with the first and second measurement notifications in an appropriate form, where the appropriate form includes a beam indication for the determined receive beam. Alternatively, if the user equipment itself is capable of determining an appropriate receive beam based on the location of the network-side device, the current serving base station that receives the first and second measurement notifications including the above-mentioned location information can send them to the user equipment as is, and the user equipment itself can determine, based on this information, a receive beam suitable for receiving the first or second beam (of the alternative base station or smart reflecting surface) from the corresponding location.

[0121] Except for the measurement notification provided by the alternative base station to the user equipment via the current serving base station of the user equipment and the above-mentioned difference in the receiving beam of the user equipment, the example measurement process of Figure 11 is basically the same as the example measurement process of Figure 10 and will not be repeated here.

[0122] Note that although not shown in Figures 10 and 11, the electronic device 100 for the candidate base station BS2 can obtain the measurement result of the IRS-assisted communication link by measuring the received first random access request and the second random access request, for example, using the measurement result obtaining unit 110 (measuring unit 113). As an example, the sum of the measurement results of the two random access requests (e.g., the sum of the two RSRPs) can be used as the measurement result of the entire communication link.

[0123] Thereafter, as shown in FIG12 , the electronic device 100 for the alternative base station BS2 can, through the processing of the user access enabling unit 120, control the transceiver unit 130 to send a random access response to the UE when the measurement result of the communication link (the measurement result of the first and second random access requests) is higher than the threshold, to indicate that the UE can disconnect from the current serving base station BS1 and can access the alternative base station BS2. Optionally, the handover can also be completed between BS2 and the UE by exchanging messages for conflict resolution (uplink "Message 3" (Massage 3) and subsequent downlink "Message 4" (Massage 4)). Optionally, BS2 can then send a handover completion notification to BS1 to inform the UE that it has switched to BS2. As an example, the UE's handover to BS2 can be limited to uplink switching, for example, and the downlink remains connected to BS1. Alternatively, the UE can switch to BS2 both in the uplink and downlink.

[0124] (2.4 Example Processing of Measurements After Switching)

[0125] The following will appropriately combine the example scenarios of Figures 1A and 1B, and refer to the example information interaction between the user equipment UE (such as UE2 in Figure 1A or 1B), the base station BS2 that has become the serving base station of the UE (having the functions of the electronic device 100 / implemented by the electronic device 100), and the intelligent reflecting surface (such as the IRS in Figure 1A or 1B) in the post-switching measurement shown in Figures 13 and 14 to describe the example processing of the electronic device 100 and its various units in the post-switching measurement.

[0126] More specifically, Figures 13 and 14 illustrate how, after the UE has been handed over to BS2 and during IRS-assisted communication between the UE and BS2, the electronic device 100 for base station BS2 (e.g., using measurement result acquisition unit 110 and transceiver unit 130, etc.) transmits a downlink reference signal, such as a CSI-RS, to the UE (via the entire IRS-assisted communication link or, specifically, only via the reflection link) and obtains the UE's measurement result of the downlink reference signal as the communication quality of the corresponding communication link (the entire communication link or the reflection link). In the example of Figure 13, the downlink reference signal is transmitted to the UE via the entire communication link assisted by the smart reflecting surface IRS; in the example of Figure 14, the downlink reference signal is transmitted to the UE only via the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface IRS.

[0127] First, reference is made to Figure 13. As shown in Figure 13, the electronic device 100 for base station BS2 can generate IRS configuration information based on the real-time location of user equipment UE (e.g., via the IRS control unit 112 of the measurement result obtaining unit 110) and send the configuration information to the IRS, e.g., via the transceiver unit 130, to achieve real-time control of the IRS, thereby ensuring that the first beam of the IRS is controlled to be aligned with the UE and the second beam of the IRS is aligned with BS2, so as to maintain the reflection link between the UE and BS2 via the IRS in an optimal state.

[0128] In addition, the electronic device 100 for the base station BS2 may send information about a downlink reference signal such as a CSI-RS to the UE (eg, via the measuring unit 113 of the measurement result obtaining unit 110 ), so that the UE may receive and measure the downlink reference signal based on the information.

[0129] As an example, the information about the downlink reference signal such as CSI-RS sent to the UE may include but is not limited to configuration information indicating the time-frequency resources for sending the downlink reference signal. Optionally, the information about the downlink reference signal may also include beam information, which is information related to the transmit beam and / or receive beam of the downlink reference signal, and can, for example, enable the UE to receive the downlink reference signal using the corresponding receive beam by indicating the transmit beam and / or receive beam of the downlink reference signal. In the example of Figure 13, the beam information, for example, indicates that the transmit beam and / or receive beam of the downlink reference signal is a wide beam, such as an omnidirectional beam or a beam that at least covers both the IRS and the UE. That is, in the example of Figure 13, the downlink reference signal is transmitted to the UE via both a direct link and a reflection link.

[0130] Accordingly, the UE receives and measures downlink reference signals, such as CSI-RS, based on the information about the downlink reference signals received from BS2. For example, the UE receives and measures downlink reference signals, such as CSI-RS, using the wide beam indicated by the beam information in the information, and obtains measurement results (e.g., RSRP). The UE then sends the measurement results to BS2.

[0131] In this way, the electronic device 100 for the base station BS2 can obtain the communication quality of the IRS-assisted communication link, and can re-determine other smart reflection surfaces for assisting the communication between BS2 and the UE when the communication quality fails to meet the requirements.

[0132] For example, the electronic device 100 may control the alternative smart reflecting surface IRS_backup (e.g., another smart reflecting surface between BS2 and the UE determined by the IRS determination unit 112) in a manner similar to the control of the IRS shown in FIG13 , and measure the communication quality of the communication link between BS2 and the UE assisted by IRS_backup through a measurement process similar to the measurement process shown in FIG13 . If the communication quality is higher than the previously measured communication quality when assisted by the IRS, the electronic device 100 may replace the used smart reflecting surface with IRS_backup.

[0133] Next, refer to Figure 14. The difference between the example of post-switching measurement shown in Figure 14 and Figure 13 is that the beam information in the information about the downlink reference signal such as CSI-RS sent by the electronic device 100 for the base station BS2 to the UE indicates that the transmit beam and / or receive beam of the downlink reference signal is a narrow beam such as a directional beam pointing to the IRS, rather than a wide beam such as an omnidirectional beam or a beam covering both the IRS and the UE. In the example of Figure 14, the downlink reference signal is transmitted to the UE only via a reflection link. Accordingly, the UE receives and measures the downlink reference signal such as the CSI-RS according to the narrow beam indicated by the above beam information. Apart from this, the example measurement process of Figure 14 is basically the same as the example measurement process of Figure 13 and will not be repeated here.

[0134] Note that although different post-switching measurement examples are shown in FIG13 and FIG14 , the two can be used in combination where appropriate. For example, after measuring the communication quality of the current IRS-assisted communication link using the method of FIG13 , the communication quality of the alternative IRS_backup-assisted communication link can be measured using a method similar to the method of FIG14 , and vice versa, which will not be further described here.

[0135] The above describes the electronic device 100 on the base station side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, which enables the addition of base stations (e.g., alternative base stations that originally could not effectively serve the UE but can effectively serve the UE with the assistance of the IRS) that can serve the UE (e.g., but not limited to, allocating transmission resources to the UE) by appropriately establishing, measuring, controlling, and / or using a reflection link between the UE and the alternative base station via the IRS. This is particularly helpful in expanding the uplink coverage of the UE in the case of uplink handover, thereby improving the user experience, especially the uplink communication experience with extremely limited transmission resources / coverage.

[0136] In the above description of the electronic device 100 on the base station side according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, in addition to the electronic device 100 on the base station side, a user equipment UE (such as UE2 shown in Figure 1A or Figure 1B, UE shown in Figure 1C; UE in the examples described with reference to Figures 4 to 14) is also described in which the current serving base station is overloaded and regards the electronic device 100 as an alternative base station that may serve it. In other words, according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, the inventors have proposed an electronic device on the user side in addition to the electronic device on the base station side. The following description of the electronic device on the user side according to the embodiment of the present disclosure will be based on the description of the electronic device on the base station side according to the embodiment of the present disclosure, and unnecessary details will be omitted.

[0137] <3. Configuration Example of User-Side Electronic Device>

[0138] Figure 15 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an electronic device on the user side according to an embodiment. The electronic device can be used as the user equipment described in the configuration example section on the base station side, for example, where the current serving base station is overloaded.

[0139] As shown in FIG15 , the electronic device 200 may include a transceiver unit 210 and a control unit 220. The transceiver unit 210, for example, transmits information to a device outside the electronic device 200 and / or receives information from a device outside the electronic device 200 under the control of the control unit 220. In addition, although not shown in the figure, the electronic device 200 may further include a storage unit.

[0140] Here, each unit of the electronic device 200 may be included in a processing circuit. It should be noted that the electronic device 200 may include either one processing circuit or multiple processing circuits. Furthermore, the processing circuit may include various discrete functional units to perform various functions and / or operations. It should be noted that these functional units may be physical entities or logical entities, and units with different names may be implemented by the same physical entity.

[0141] Under the control of the control unit 220, the transceiver unit 210 can send an uplink signal for measuring the communication link between the user equipment and the alternative base station assisted by the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) when the current serving base station is overloaded. The above-mentioned communication link can be simply referred to as a communication link assisted by the intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) when appropriate, and includes a direct link between the user equipment and the alternative base station and a reflection link between the user equipment and the alternative base station via the intelligent reflecting surface. In addition, when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, the control unit 220 can, for example, control the transceiver unit 210 to control access to the alternative base station through interaction with the alternative base station and conduct communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface.

[0142] The electronic device 200 can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 through various appropriate methods or processing, such as but not limited to information and / or signal interaction with the alternative base station, the current serving base station and / or intelligent reflection, to implement the above-mentioned process of sending uplink signals for measuring the IRS-assisted communication link and switching to the alternative base station depending on the measurement results (IRS-assisted switching process).

[0143] As an example, consider a situation where the current serving base station is overloaded and cannot allocate uplink resources to the user equipment. In this case, when the electronic device 200 as the user equipment sends an uplink scheduling request to the overloaded current serving base station, the current serving base station that receives the scheduling request may request an alternative base station, or the electronic device 200 as the user equipment may initiate a random access request to the alternative base station due to the user equipment being unable to obtain an uplink resource grant from the current serving base station.

[0144] In one example, switching can be started dynamically (dynamic switching): when the current serving base station receives an uplink scheduling request from the electronic device 200 as a user equipment under overload conditions, it sends relevant information of the user equipment and a measurement request for the communication link between the IRS-assisted user equipment and the alternative base station to the alternative base station, so that the alternative base station controls the measurement of the communication link based on the relevant information of the user equipment according to the measurement request.

[0145] In this case, the electronic device 200 serving as a user device can utilize the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to send an uplink reference signal to the alternative base station through a communication link including a direct link between the user device and the alternative base station and a reflection link via the smart reflection surface, so that the alternative base station can obtain the measurement result of the communication link based on the measurement result of the received uplink reference signal.

[0146] As an example, the example information interaction process previously described with reference to FIG4 can be used to initiate an IRS-assisted handover process by a current serving base station that receives an uplink scheduling request from a user equipment for an alternative base station under an overload condition. More specifically, this can lead to the initiation of an IRS-assisted measurement process of a communication link between the user equipment and the alternative base station, such as that described with reference to FIG5 or FIG7. The electronic device 200 as the user equipment can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to implement all functions or processes of the UE in the example described with reference to FIG4, which will not be repeated here.

[0147] In addition, after starting the IRS-assisted measurement process of the communication link between the user equipment and the alternative base station, as an example, the electronic device 200 as a user equipment can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to implement all the functions or processing of the UE in the example measurement process described with reference to Figure 5 or Figure 7, which will not be repeated here.

[0148] In addition, after completing the measurement process of the communication link between the IRS-assisted user equipment and the alternative base station, the electronic device 200 can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220, and disconnect from the current serving base station (uplink connection and / or downlink connection) according to the RRC reconfiguration indication sent by the current serving base station when the measurement result is higher than the threshold, and access (uplink access and / or downlink access) the alternative base station. As an example, the switching of the electronic device 200 can be limited to uplink switching (uplink access to the alternative base station), and in the case of uplink and downlink decoupling, the downlink remains connected to the current serving base station. Alternatively, the electronic device 200 can switch to the alternative base station for both uplink and downlink. Thereafter, the electronic device 200 can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to communicate between the user equipment and the alternative base station that has become its serving base station with the assistance of the smart reflecting surface.

[0149] In another example, switching can be started in a semi-static manner (semi-static switching): the electronic device serving as a user device uses the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220, and when it is unable to obtain uplink resources from the overloaded current serving base station, it sends a random access request to the alternative base station, so that the alternative base station controls the measurement of the communication link based on the received random access request.

[0150] As an example, the example information interaction process previously described with reference to Figures 8 and 9 can be used by an electronic device as a user equipment to control the transceiver unit 220 using the control unit 210. After sending an uplink scheduling request to an overloaded current serving base station, a random access request is initiated to an alternative base station due to failure to obtain a corresponding uplink transmission resource grant, resulting in the initiation of an IRS-assisted handover process. More specifically, when the direct link between the user equipment and the alternative base station cannot meet the requirements, an IRS-assisted measurement process of the communication link between the user equipment and the alternative base station, such as shown in Figure 10 or Figure 11, is initiated. The electronic device 200 as a user equipment can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to implement all functions or processing of the UE in the examples described with reference to Figures 8 and 9, which will not be repeated here.

[0151] In addition, for example, after the example process described with reference to Figures 8 and 9, since the direct link between the user equipment and the alternative base station cannot meet the requirements, and the IRS-assisted measurement process of the communication link between the user equipment and the alternative base station is started, the electronic device 200 as the user equipment can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to implement all the functions or processing of the UE in the example measurement process described with reference to Figures 10 or 11. Here, only a brief description will be given without omitting the details.

[0152] In summary, the electronic device 200, acting as a user equipment, can control the transceiver unit 220 using the control unit 210 to receive a first downlink reference signal, such as a first SSB, transmitted sequentially by the candidate base station using multiple first beams (first SSB beam scanning), without using a smart reflecting surface. The device 200 can also control the transceiver unit 220 using the control unit 210 to receive a second downlink reference signal, such as a second SSB, from the candidate base station, which is reflected sequentially by the smart reflecting surface using multiple second beams (second SSB beam scanning), and, for example, determine an uplink beam corresponding to one of the multiple first beams (e.g., the first beam whose received signal has the highest RSRP), and transmit a second random access request to the smart reflecting surface using the uplink beam for the smart reflecting surface to reflect to the candidate base station. Such a second random access request will be transmitted to the alternative base station only through the reflected link via the IRS.

[0153] Accordingly, the candidate base station may measure the first random access request transmitted only via the direct link and the second random access request transmitted only via the reflected link of the IRS to obtain the measurement result of the IRS-assisted communication link. As an example, the candidate base station uses the sum of the measurement results of the two random access requests (e.g., the sum of the two RSRPs) as the measurement result of the entire communication link.

[0154] During the above measurement process, the first SSB and the second SSB sent successively by the candidate base station may be different from or the same as each other. In one example, the first SSB and the second SSB are different from each other, and the electronic device 200 as the user equipment may regard the first SSB beam scan and the second SSB beam scan as SSB beam scans of two candidate base stations and perform corresponding processing respectively.

[0155] In another example, the first SSB and the second SSB are the same as each other. At this time, optionally, the electronic device 200 as a user equipment can also obtain corresponding measurement notifications from the alternative base station via the current serving base station before each beam scan, so as to receive the SSB according to the indication of the measurement notification. Each measurement notification can, for example, use minimal information to indicate that the network side will perform a corresponding SSB beam scan (a first SSB beam scan performed via a direct link and a second SSB beam scan performed using an IRS), which helps the electronic device 200 as a user equipment to determine the uplink beam corresponding to one of the (downlink) beams (one of the first beam or the second beam) for the two beam scans, and send a corresponding random access request using the uplink beam.

[0156] In the above example, the electronic device 200 as a user equipment may not obtain a measurement notification from the alternative base station or obtain a measurement notification containing only minimum information indicating that SSB beam scanning is to be performed, and may use an omnidirectional beam as a receiving beam for SSB beam scanning.

[0157] In an alternative example, the measurement notification provided by the alternative base station and obtained by the electronic device 200 as a user equipment via the current serving base station before each beam scan may contain more information (for example, but not limited to the first information about the first downlink reference signal and the second information about the second downlink reference signal described below). This information may help the user equipment determine a receiving beam suitable for receiving a downlink reference signal such as SSB, so that the user equipment can use a corresponding narrow beam (rather than an omnidirectional beam) as a receiving beam for SSB beam scanning.

[0158] More specifically, the electronic device 200 serving as a user device can utilize the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220, obtain first information about the first downlink reference signal provided by the alternative base station via the current serving base station, and obtain second information about the second downlink reference signal provided by the alternative base station via the current serving base station, and the second information includes relevant information about the smart reflecting surface.

[0159] As an example, when the electronic device 200 as a user equipment is itself capable of determining a suitable receiving beam based on the location of the network-side device, the relevant information of the alternative base station or the smart reflecting surface received by the electronic device 200 via its current serving base station may be, for example, the location information of the alternative base station or the smart reflecting surface. Alternatively, when the electronic device 200 does not have the above-mentioned capability, the relevant information of the alternative base station or the smart reflecting surface received by the electronic device 200 via its current serving base station may be information that has been converted into an appropriate form by the current serving base station, such as, but not limited to, a beam indication of a receiving beam (suitable for receiving the first or second beam of the alternative base station or the smart reflecting surface).

[0160] In addition, after completing the measurement process of the communication link between the IRS-assisted user equipment and the alternative base station, the electronic device 200 as the user equipment can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to receive the random access response sent by the alternative base station to the user equipment when it determines that the measurement result of the communication link is higher than the threshold based on the measurement results of the received first random access request and the second random access request. The electronic device 200 as the user equipment can access (uplink access and / or downlink access) the alternative base station according to the random access response. The electronic device 200 can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to implement all the functions or processing of the UE in the example process described with reference to Figure 12, which will not be repeated here. As an example, the switching of the electronic device 200 can be limited to uplink switching (uplink access to the alternative base station), and in the case of uplink and downlink decoupling, the downlink maintains access to the current serving base station. Alternatively, the electronic device 200 can switch to the alternative base station for both uplink and downlink.

[0161] Thereafter, the electronic device 200 may utilize the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to perform communication between the user equipment and the candidate base station that has become its serving base station with the assistance of the smart reflective surface.

[0162] In this case, the electronic device 200 serving as a user device can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to measure the downlink reference signal sent by the base station to the user device during the communication between the user device and the base station (i.e., the alternative base station that has become its serving base station) assisted by the smart reflecting surface, and report the measurement result of the downlink reference signal to the base station as the communication quality of the communication link (measured after switching) so that the base station can change the smart reflecting surface used when necessary.

[0163] More specifically, the electronic device 200 as a user equipment can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to implement all the functions or processing of the UE in the example process of post-switching measurement described with reference to Figure 13 or Figure 14. Only a brief description will be given here without omitting the details.

[0164] In summary, the electronic device 200 serving as a user device can use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to measure the downlink reference signal such as CSI-RS sent by the base station to the user device through the entire IRS-assisted communication link or, in particular, only through the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface during the communication between the user device and the base station (i.e., an alternative base station that has become its serving base station) assisted by the smart reflecting surface, and report the measurement result of the downlink reference signal to the base station as the communication quality of the corresponding communication link, i.e., as the communication quality of the entire IRS-assisted communication link or as the communication quality of the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface.

[0165] Optionally, the electronic device 200 as a user equipment may use the control unit 210 to control the transceiver unit 220 to receive information about a downlink reference signal such as a CSI-RS from a candidate base station, and may receive and measure the downlink reference signal based on the information. As an example, the information about a downlink reference signal such as a CSI-RS received from the candidate base station may include, but is not limited to, configuration information indicating time-frequency resources for transmitting the downlink reference signal.

[0166] Preferably, the information about the downlink reference signal received from the alternative base station may include beam information, which is information related to the transmit beam and / or receive beam of the downlink reference signal. The electronic device 200 as a user equipment can receive the downlink reference signal using the corresponding receive beam according to the indication of the beam information. In the example where the base station sends the downlink reference signal to the user equipment through the entire communication link assisted by the IRS, the beam information, for example, indicates that the transmit beam and / or receive beam of the downlink reference signal is a wide beam, such as an omnidirectional beam or a beam that at least covers both the IRS and the UE. In the example where the base station sends the downlink reference signal to the user equipment only through a reflection link via a smart reflecting surface, the beam information, for example, indicates that the transmit beam and / or receive beam of the downlink reference signal is a narrow beam, such as a directional beam pointing to the IRS.

[0167] The above describes the user-side electronic device 200 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Through its interaction with the serving base station, the alternative base station and / or the smart reflecting surface, the reflection link between the UE and the alternative base station via the IRS can be appropriately established, measured, controlled and / or used through the alternative base station, thereby increasing the number of base stations that can serve the UE (for example, but not limited to allocating transmission resources to the UE) (for example, an alternative base station that originally could not effectively serve the UE but can effectively serve the UE with the assistance of the IRS). This is particularly beneficial for expanding the uplink coverage of the UE in the case of uplink switching, thereby improving the user experience, especially the uplink communication experience with extremely limited transmission resources / coverage.

[0168] <4. Method Example>

[0169] Corresponding to the above-mentioned device embodiments, the present disclosure provides the following method embodiments.

[0170] (Method Example on Base Station Side)

[0171] FIG16 is a flowchart showing a procedure example of the method for wireless communication on the base station side according to the first embodiment.

[0172] As shown in FIG16 , in step S11 , when the current serving base station of the user equipment UE is overloaded, a measurement result of a communication link between the user equipment UE and an alternative base station assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface IRS is obtained.

[0173] Next, in step S12, when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than the threshold, the user equipment UE is enabled to access the candidate base station and communicate with the candidate base station with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface IRS.

[0174] Although not shown in the figure, the example process of FIG. 16 may be started or performed via dynamic switching or semi-static switching.

[0175] In a first example, the example process of FIG. 16 may be initiated or performed via dynamic switching.

[0176] For example, although not shown in the figure, before step S11 and / or in step S11, relevant information about the user equipment and a measurement request for the communication link sent by the current serving base station of the user equipment to the candidate base station when receiving an uplink scheduling request from the user equipment in an overloaded situation may be received. Then, in step S11, measurement of the communication link may be controlled based on the relevant information according to the measurement request to obtain the measurement result.

[0177] Optionally, step S11 may further include the following processing: based on the relevant information, determining a smart reflective surface or multiple smart reflective surfaces that can be cascaded between the user equipment and the candidate base station to assist in communication.

[0178] Optionally, step S11 may further include the following processing: controlling the first beam of the smart reflecting surface to align with the user equipment and / or the second beam of the smart reflecting surface to align with the candidate base station, so as to establish a reflection link between the user equipment and the candidate base station via the smart reflecting surface.

[0179] Optionally, in step S11, the following processing may also be included: measuring the uplink reference signal sent by the user equipment and received through the communication link including the reflection link and the direct link between the user equipment and the alternative base station; and obtaining the measurement result of the communication link based on the measurement result of the uplink reference signal.

[0180] In addition, optionally, step S12 may also include the following processing: providing the measurement result of the communication link to the current serving base station of the user equipment, so that when the measurement result is higher than a threshold, the current serving base station instructs the user equipment to disconnect from the current serving base station to access the alternative base station.

[0181] In a second example, the example flow of FIG. 16 may be initiated or performed via a semi-static handover.

[0182] For example, although not shown in the figure, before step S11 and / or in step S11, a random access request sent by the user equipment to the alternative base station when the user equipment cannot obtain uplink resources from the overloaded current serving base station can be received. Then, in step S11, the measurement of the communication link can be controlled based on the received random access request.

[0183] Optionally, in step S11, the following processing may be further included: without using an intelligent reflecting surface, sending a first downlink reference signal in sequence with multiple first beams, and receiving a first random access request sent by a user equipment to an alternative base station with a beam corresponding to one of the multiple first beams; and sending a second downlink reference signal to the intelligent reflecting surface and controlling the intelligent reflecting surface to reflect the second downlink reference signal in sequence with multiple second beams, and receiving a second random access request reflected by the intelligent reflecting surface and sent by the user equipment to the intelligent reflecting surface with a beam corresponding to one of the multiple second beams.

[0184] Optionally, in step S11, the following processing may also be included: providing first information about a first downlink reference signal to the user equipment via the current serving base station of the user equipment, the first information including relevant information of the alternative base station; and providing second information about a second downlink reference signal to the user equipment via the current serving base station of the user equipment, the second information including relevant information of the smart reflecting surface.

[0185] Optionally, step S11 may further include the following process: measuring the received first random access request and the second random access request to obtain a measurement result of the communication link. Furthermore, step S12 may further include the following process: sending a random access response to the user equipment when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold.

[0186] In addition, although not shown in the figure, an additional post-switching measurement process may be included after the example flow of FIG. 16 .

[0187] Optionally, the following post-switching measurement processing may be included: during the communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station assisted by the smart reflector, a downlink reference signal is sent to the user equipment, and a measurement result of the downlink reference signal by the user equipment is obtained as the communication quality of the communication link.

[0188] In addition, optionally, the following post-switching measurement processing may be included: during the communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station assisted by the smart reflecting surface, a downlink reference signal is sent to the user equipment only through the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface, and the user equipment's measurement result of the downlink reference signal is obtained as the communication quality of the reflection link.

[0189] In the above-mentioned post-switching measurement process, optionally, information about a downlink reference signal is sent to the user equipment, where the information at least includes information related to a transmit beam and / or a receive beam of the downlink reference signal.

[0190] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subject executing the above method may be an electronic device on the base station side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, so all the embodiments of the electronic device on the base station side in the foregoing text are applicable here and will not be repeated here.

[0191] (User-side method embodiment)

[0192] FIG17 is a flowchart illustrating a process example of a method for wireless communication on the user side according to an embodiment.

[0193] As shown in FIG. 17 , in step S21 , when the current serving base station is overloaded, an uplink signal is sent for measuring a communication link between a user equipment UE and an alternative base station assisted by an intelligent reflecting surface IRS.

[0194] Next, in step S22, when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than the threshold, the candidate base station is accessed and communication between the user equipment UE and the candidate base station is performed with the assistance of the intelligent reflecting surface IRS.

[0195] Although not shown in the figure, the example process of FIG. 17 may be started or performed via dynamic switching or semi-static switching.

[0196] In a first example, the example process of FIG. 17 may be initiated or performed via dynamic switching.

[0197] For example, although not shown in the figure, before step S21 and / or in step S21, an uplink scheduling request can be sent to the overloaded current serving base station, causing the current serving base station to send relevant information of the user equipment and a measurement request for the communication link to the alternative base station, so that the alternative base station can start or control the measurement of the communication link based on the measurement request.

[0198] Optionally, in step S21, the following processing may also be included: sending an uplink reference signal to the alternative base station through the communication link including a direct link between the user equipment and the alternative base station and a reflection link via the smart reflection surface, so that the alternative base station obtains the measurement result of the communication link based on the measurement result of the received uplink reference signal.

[0199] Optionally, in step S22, the following processing may also be included: according to the indication sent by the current serving base station when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, disconnecting from the current serving base station and accessing the alternative base station.

[0200] In a second example, the example flow of FIG. 17 may be initiated or performed via semi-static switching.

[0201] For example, although not shown in the figure, before step S21 and / or in step S21, when uplink resources cannot be obtained from the overloaded current serving base station, a random access request can be sent to the alternative base station, so that the alternative base station can start or control the measurement of the communication link based on the received random access request.

[0202] Optionally, in step S21, the following processing may be further included: without using an intelligent reflecting surface, receiving a first downlink reference signal sent by the alternative base station in sequence with multiple first beams, and sending a first random access request to the alternative base station with a beam corresponding to one of the multiple first beams; and receiving a second downlink reference signal from the alternative base station reflected by the intelligent reflecting surface in sequence with multiple second beams, and sending a second random access request to the intelligent reflecting surface with a beam corresponding to one of the multiple second beams for the intelligent reflecting surface to reflect to the alternative base station.

[0203] Optionally, in step S21, the following processing may also be included: obtaining first information about the first downlink reference signal provided by the alternative base station via the current serving base station, the first information including relevant information of the alternative base station; and obtaining second information about the second downlink reference signal provided by the alternative base station via the current serving base station, the second information including relevant information of the smart reflecting surface.

[0204] In addition, optionally, step S22 may also include the following processing: receiving a random access response sent by the candidate base station to the user equipment when it determines that the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold based on the measurement results of the received first random access request and the second random access request.

[0205] In addition, although not shown in the figure, an additional post-switching measurement process may be included after the example flow of FIG. 17 .

[0206] Optionally, the following post-switching measurement processing may be included: during the communication between the intelligent reflecting surface assisted user equipment and the alternative base station, the downlink reference signal sent by the alternative base station to the user equipment is measured, and the measurement result of the downlink reference signal is reported to the alternative base station as the communication quality of the communication link.

[0207] In addition, optionally, the following post-switching measurement processing may be included: during the communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station assisted by the smart reflecting surface, the downlink reference signal sent by the alternative base station to the user equipment only through the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface is measured, and the measurement result of the downlink reference signal is reported to the alternative base station as the communication quality of the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface.

[0208] In the above-mentioned post-switching measurement process, optionally, information about a downlink reference signal is received from the candidate base station, where the information at least includes information related to a transmit beam and / or a receive beam of the downlink reference signal.

[0209] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the subject executing the above method may be an electronic device on the user side according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, so all the embodiments of the electronic device on the user side in the foregoing text are applicable here and will not be repeated here.

[0210] <5. Application Examples>

[0211] The technology of the present disclosure can be applied to various products.

[0212] For example, the electronic device 100 can be implemented on the base station side. When the electronic device is implemented on the base station side, the electronic device can be implemented as any type of base station device, such as a macro eNB and a small eNB, and can also be implemented as any type of gNB (a base station in a 5G system). A small eNB can be an eNB that covers a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico eNB, a micro eNB, and a home (femto) eNB. Alternatively, the base station device can be implemented as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB and a base transceiver station (BTS). The base station may include: a main body (also referred to as a base station device) configured to control wireless communications; and one or more remote radio heads (RRHs) arranged in a place different from the main body.

[0213] The electronic device 100 on the base station side can also be implemented as any type of TRP. The TRP can have both sending and receiving functions, for example, it can receive information from user equipment and base station equipment, and can also send information to user equipment and base station equipment. In a typical example, the TRP can provide services to user equipment and be controlled by the base station equipment. Furthermore, the TRP can have a structure similar to that of the base station equipment, or it can only have the structures of the base station equipment related to sending and receiving information.

[0214] In addition, the electronic device 200 can be implemented on the terminal side. When the electronic device is implemented on the terminal side, for example, as a terminal device, the electronic device can be various user devices, which can be implemented as mobile terminals (such as smart phones, tablet personal computers (PCs), notebook PCs, portable game terminals, portable / dongle-type mobile routers, and digital camera devices) or vehicle-mounted terminals (such as car navigation devices). The user device can also be implemented as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also known as a machine type communication (MTC) terminal). In addition, the user device can be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) installed on each user device in the above-mentioned user devices.

[0215] [Application examples for base stations]

[0216] (First application example)

[0217] 18 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The eNB 1800 includes one or more antennas 1810 and a base station device 1820. The base station device 1820 and each antenna 1810 can be connected to each other via an RF cable.

[0218] Each of the antennas 1810 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna) and is used for base station device 1820 to transmit and receive wireless signals. As shown in FIG18 , eNB 1800 may include multiple antennas 1810. For example, multiple antennas 1810 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by eNB 1800. Although FIG18 shows an example in which eNB 1800 includes multiple antennas 1810, eNB 1800 may also include a single antenna 1810.

[0219] The base station device 1820 includes a controller 1821 , a memory 1822 , a network interface 1823 , and a wireless communication interface 1825 .

[0220] The controller 1821 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operates various functions of the higher layers of the base station device 1820. For example, the controller 1821 generates data packets based on the data in the signal processed by the wireless communication interface 1825, and transmits the generated packets via the network interface 1823. The controller 1821 may bundle data from multiple baseband processors to generate bundled packets, and transmit the generated bundled packets. The controller 1821 may have logic functions for performing the following controls: the control may be radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control, and scheduling. The control may be performed in conjunction with a nearby eNB or core network node. The memory 1822 includes RAM and ROM, and stores programs executed by the controller 1821 and various types of control data (such as a terminal list, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

[0221] The network interface 1823 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1820 to the core network 1824. The controller 1821 can communicate with the core network node or another eNB via the network interface 1823. In this case, the eNB 1800 and the core network node or other eNB can be connected to each other through a logical interface (such as an S1 interface and an X2 interface). The network interface 1823 can also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for a wireless backhaul line. If the network interface 1823 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1823 can use a higher frequency band for wireless communication than the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1825.

[0222] The wireless communication interface 1825 supports any cellular communication scheme, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced, and provides wireless connectivity to terminals located in the cell of the eNB 1800 via the antenna 1810. The wireless communication interface 1825 may typically include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1826 and RF circuitry 1827. The BB processor 1826 can perform various signal processing functions, such as encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and performs various types of signal processing for layers such as Layer 1 (L1), Medium Access Control (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP). In place of the controller 1821, the BB processor 1826 may perform some or all of the aforementioned logical functions. The BB processor 1826 may be a memory that stores communication control programs, or a module including a processor configured to execute programs and associated circuitry. Program updates can modify the functionality of the BB processor 1826. This module may be a card or blade inserted into a slot in the base station device 1820. Alternatively, the module may be a chip mounted on the card or blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1827 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via the antenna 1810 .

[0223] As shown in FIG18 , the wireless communication interface 1825 may include multiple BB processors 1826. For example, multiple BB processors 1826 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1800. As shown in FIG18 , the wireless communication interface 1825 may include multiple RF circuits 1827. For example, multiple RF circuits 1827 may be compatible with multiple antenna elements. Although FIG18 illustrates an example in which the wireless communication interface 1825 includes multiple BB processors 1826 and multiple RF circuits 1827, the wireless communication interface 1825 may also include a single BB processor 1826 or a single RF circuit 1827.

[0224] In the eNB 1800 shown in FIG18 , the functions of the measurement result obtaining unit 110 and the user access enabling unit 220 in the electronic device 100 described previously with reference to FIG2 can be implemented by the controller 1821 (and optionally, some modules in the wireless communication interface 1825 ). For example, the controller 1821 can implement the functions of the corresponding units, or at least some of the functions, by executing instructions stored in the memory 1822 . For example, the transceiver units 130 in the electronic device 100 can each be implemented by, for example, the wireless communication interface 1825 (e.g., under the control of the controller 1821 ). In addition, a storage unit (not shown) in the electronic device 100 can be implemented by the memory 1822 .

[0225] (Second application example)

[0226] FIG19 is a block diagram illustrating a second example of a schematic configuration of an eNB to which the techniques of this disclosure may be applied. An eNB 1930 includes one or more antennas 1940, a base station 1950, and an RRH 1960. The RRH 1960 and each antenna 1940 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station 1950 and the RRH 1960 may be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable.

[0227] Each of the antennas 1940 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for RRH 1960 to transmit and receive wireless signals. As shown in FIG19 , eNB 1930 may include multiple antennas 1940. For example, multiple antennas 1940 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by eNB 1930. Although FIG19 shows an example in which eNB 1930 includes multiple antennas 1940, eNB 1930 may also include a single antenna 1940.

[0228] Base station device 1950 includes a controller 1951, a memory 1952, a network interface 1953, a wireless communication interface 1955, and a connection interface 1957. Controller 1951, memory 1952, and network interface 1953 are the same as controller 1821, memory 1822, and network interface 1823 described with reference to FIG.

[0229] The wireless communication interface 1955 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and provides wireless communication to terminals located in the sector corresponding to the RRH 1960 via the RRH 1960 and the antenna 1940. The wireless communication interface 1955 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1956. The BB processor 1956 is identical to the BB processor 1826 described with reference to FIG. 18 , except that the BB processor 1956 is connected to the RF circuit 1964 of the RRH 1960 via a connection interface 1957. As shown in FIG. 19 , the wireless communication interface 1955 may include multiple BB processors 1956. For example, the multiple BB processors 1956 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the eNB 1930. Although FIG. 19 illustrates an example in which the wireless communication interface 1955 includes multiple BB processors 1956, the wireless communication interface 1955 may also include a single BB processor 1956.

[0230] The connection interface 1957 is an interface for connecting the base station device 1950 (wireless communication interface 1955) to the RRH 1960. The connection interface 1957 may also be a communication module for connecting the base station device 1950 (wireless communication interface 1955) to the RRH 1960 for communication in the high-speed line.

[0231] The RRH 1960 includes a connection interface 1961 and a wireless communication interface 1963 .

[0232] The connection interface 1961 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1960 (wireless communication interface 1963) to the base station device 1950. The connection interface 1961 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0233] The wireless communication interface 1963 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1940. The wireless communication interface 1963 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 1964. The RF circuit 1964 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1940. As shown in FIG19 , the wireless communication interface 1963 may include multiple RF circuits 1964. For example, the multiple RF circuits 1964 may support multiple antenna elements. Although FIG19 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1963 includes multiple RF circuits 1964, the wireless communication interface 1963 may also include a single RF circuit 1964.

[0234] In the eNB 1930 shown in FIG19 , the functions of the measurement result obtaining unit 110 and the user access enabling unit 220 in the electronic device 100 described previously with reference to FIG2 can be implemented by the controller 1951 (and optionally, portions of the wireless communication interface 1955 and the wireless communication interface 1963). For example, the controller 1951 can implement the functions of the corresponding units, or at least portions of the functions, by executing instructions stored in the memory 1952. The transceiver unit 130 in the electronic device 100 can be implemented, for example, by the wireless communication interface 1955, the wireless communication interface 1963, etc. (e.g., under the control of the controller 1951). In addition, a storage unit (not shown) in the electronic device 100 can be implemented by the memory 1952.

[0235] [Application examples on user devices]

[0236] (First application example)

[0237] 20 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 2000 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The smartphone 2000 includes a processor 2001, a memory 2002, a storage device 2003, an external connection interface 2004, a camera 2006, a sensor 2007, a microphone 2008, an input device 2009, a display device 2010, a speaker 2011, a wireless communication interface 2012, one or more antenna switches 2015, one or more antennas 2016, a bus 2017, a battery 2018, and an auxiliary controller 2019.

[0238] The processor 2001 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip (SoC), and controls the functions of the application layer and other layers of the smartphone 2000. The memory 2002 includes RAM and ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2001. The storage device 2003 may include storage media such as semiconductor memories and hard disks. The external connection interface 2004 is an interface for connecting external devices (such as memory cards and universal serial bus (USB) devices) to the smartphone 2000.

[0239] The camera 2006 includes an image sensor (such as a charge coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)) and generates a captured image. The sensor 2007 may include a group of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 2008 converts the sound input to the smart phone 2000 into an audio signal. The input device 2009 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2010, and receives an operation or information input from the user. The display device 2010 includes a screen (such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display) and displays the output image of the smart phone 2000. The speaker 2011 converts the audio signal output from the smart phone 2000 into sound.

[0240] The wireless communication interface 2012 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2012 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 2013 and an RF circuit 2014. The BB processor 2013 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 2014 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 2016. The wireless communication interface 2012 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 2013 and the RF circuit 2014 are integrated. As shown in FIG20 , the wireless communication interface 2012 may include multiple BB processors 2013 and multiple RF circuits 2014. Although FIG20 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2012 includes multiple BB processors 2013 and multiple RF circuits 2014, the wireless communication interface 2012 may also include a single BB processor 2013 or a single RF circuit 2014.

[0241] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 2012 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless local area network (LAN) scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 2012 can include a BB processor 2013 and an RF circuit 2014 for each wireless communication scheme.

[0242] Each of the antenna switches 2015 switches the connection destination of the antenna 916 between a plurality of circuits (eg, circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 2012 .

[0243] Each of the antennas 2016 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving wireless signals via the wireless communication interface 2012. As shown in FIG20 , the smartphone 2000 may include multiple antennas 2016. Although FIG20 shows an example in which the smartphone 2000 includes multiple antennas 2016, the smartphone 2000 may also include a single antenna 2016.

[0244] In addition, the smartphone 2000 may include an antenna 2016 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 2015 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 2000.

[0245] The bus 2017 connects the processor 2001, the memory 2002, the storage device 2003, the external connection interface 2004, the camera 2006, the sensor 2007, the microphone 2008, the input device 2009, the display 2010, the speaker 2011, the wireless communication interface 2012, and the auxiliary controller 2019. The battery 2018 supplies power to the various blocks of the smartphone 2000 shown in FIG20 via feeders, which are partially shown as dotted lines in the figure. The auxiliary controller 2019 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 2000, for example, in sleep mode.

[0246] In the smartphone 2000 shown in FIG20 , the functions of the control unit 220 of the electronic device 200 described above with reference to FIG15 can be implemented by the processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019. For example, the processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019 can implement the functions of the control unit by executing instructions stored in the memory 2002 or the storage device 2003. The transceiver unit 210 in the electronic device 200 can be implemented by the wireless communication interface 2012 (e.g., under the control of the processor 2001 or the auxiliary controller 2019). In addition, the storage unit (not shown) in the electronic device 200 can be implemented by the memory 2002 or the storage device 2003.

[0247] (Second application example)

[0248] 21 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 2120 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation device 2120 includes a processor 2121, a memory 2122, a global positioning system (GPS) module 2124, a sensor 2125, a data interface 2126, a content player 2127, a storage medium interface 2128, an input device 2129, a display device 2130, a speaker 2131, a wireless communication interface 2133, one or more antenna switches 2136, one or more antennas 2137, and a battery 2138.

[0249] The processor 2121 may be, for example, a CPU or an SoC, and controls a navigation function and other functions of the car navigation device 2120. The memory 2122 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 2121.

[0250] The GPS module 2124 uses GPS signals received from GPS satellites to measure the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the car navigation device 2120. The sensor 2125 may include a group of sensors such as a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 2126 is connected to, for example, the vehicle network 2141 via a terminal not shown, and acquires data generated by the vehicle (such as vehicle speed data).

[0251] The content player 2127 reproduces content stored in a storage medium (such as a CD or DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 2128. The input device 2129 includes, for example, a touch sensor, button, or switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 2130, and receives an operation or information input from the user. The display device 2130 includes a screen such as an LCD or OLED display and displays an image of a navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 2131 outputs the sound of the navigation function or the reproduced content.

[0252] The wireless communication interface 2133 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as LTE and LTE-Advanced) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 2133 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 2134 and an RF circuit 2135. The BB processor 2134 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 2135 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 2137. The wireless communication interface 2133 may also be a chip module on which the BB processor 2134 and the RF circuit 2135 are integrated. As shown in Figure 21, the wireless communication interface 2133 may include multiple BB processors 2134 and multiple RF circuits 2135. Although Figure 21 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 2133 includes multiple BB processors 2134 and multiple RF circuits 2135, the wireless communication interface 2133 may also include a single BB processor 2134 or a single RF circuit 2135.

[0253] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 2133 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless LAN scheme. In this case, for each wireless communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 2133 can include a BB processor 2134 and an RF circuit 2135.

[0254] Each of the antenna switches 2136 switches the connection destination of the antenna 2137 between a plurality of circuits included in the wireless communication interface 2133 , such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes.

[0255] Each of the antennas 2137 includes a single or multiple antenna elements (such as multiple antenna elements included in a MIMO antenna) and is used for transmitting and receiving wireless signals via the wireless communication interface 2133. As shown in FIG21, the car navigation device 2120 may include multiple antennas 2137. Although FIG21 shows an example in which the car navigation device 2120 includes multiple antennas 2137, the car navigation device 2120 may also include a single antenna 2137.

[0256] Furthermore, the car navigation device 2120 may include an antenna 2137 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 2136 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 2120.

[0257] The battery 2138 supplies power to the respective blocks of the car navigation device 2120 shown in Fig. 21 via a feeder line, which is partially shown as a dotted line in the figure. The battery 2138 accumulates the power supplied from the vehicle.

[0258] In the car navigation device 2120 shown in FIG21 , the functions of the control unit 220 in the electronic device 200 described above with reference to FIG15 can be implemented by the processor 2121. For example, the processor 2121 can implement the functions of the control unit by executing instructions stored in the memory 2122. The transceiver unit 210 in the electronic device 200 can be implemented by, for example, a wireless communication interface 2133 (e.g., under the control of the processor 2121). In addition, a storage unit (not shown) in the electronic device 200 can be implemented by the memory 2122.

[0259] The technology of the present disclosure can also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 2140 including a car navigation device 2120, an in-vehicle network 2141, and one or more blocks of a vehicle module 2142. The vehicle module 2142 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the in-vehicle network 2141.

[0260] The preferred embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present disclosure is of course not limited to the above examples. Those skilled in the art may obtain various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications will naturally fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0261] For example, the units shown in dotted boxes in the functional block diagrams shown in the accompanying drawings all indicate that the functional units are optional in the corresponding device, and the various optional functional units can be combined in an appropriate manner to achieve the required functions.

[0262] For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0263] In this specification, the steps described in the flowchart include not only processing executed in time series in the order described, but also processing executed in parallel or individually rather than necessarily in time series. In addition, even in the steps processed in time series, it goes without saying that the order can be changed as appropriate.

[0264] Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the embodiments described above are merely illustrative of the present disclosure and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications and variations can be made to the above embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is solely defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. An electronic device for wireless communication, comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: When a current serving base station of the user equipment is overloaded, obtaining a measurement result of a communication link between the user equipment and an alternative base station assisted by a smart reflecting surface; as well as When the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, the user equipment is enabled to access the candidate base station and communicate with the candidate base station with the assistance of the smart reflective surface.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: receiving, when a current serving base station of the user equipment receives an uplink scheduling request from the user equipment in an overloaded state, relevant information of the user equipment and a measurement request for the communication link sent to the candidate base station; as well as According to the measurement request, the measurement of the communication link is controlled based on the relevant information.

3. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: Based on the relevant information, a smart reflecting surface or multiple smart reflecting surfaces that can be cascaded are determined between the user equipment and the candidate base station to assist communication.

4. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: The first beam of the smart reflecting surface is controlled to be directed toward the user equipment and / or the second beam of the smart reflecting surface is controlled to be directed toward the candidate base station, so as to establish a reflection link between the user equipment and the candidate base station via the smart reflecting surface.

5. The electronic device according to claim 4, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: measuring an uplink reference signal sent by the user equipment and received through the communication link including the reflection link and the direct link between the user equipment and the candidate base station; A measurement result of the communication link is obtained based on the measurement result of the uplink reference signal.

6. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: The measurement result of the communication link is provided to the current serving base station of the user equipment, so that the current serving base station instructs the user equipment to disconnect from the current serving base station and access the alternative base station when the measurement result is higher than a threshold.

7. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: receiving a random access request sent by a user equipment to a candidate base station when the user equipment cannot obtain uplink resources from an overloaded current serving base station; and Based on the received random access request, measurement of the communication link is controlled.

8. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: Without using a smart reflecting surface, sequentially send a first downlink reference signal using multiple first beams, and receive a first random access request sent by a user equipment to a candidate base station using a beam corresponding to one of the multiple first beams; as well as A second downlink reference signal is sent to the smart reflecting surface and the smart reflecting surface is controlled to sequentially reflect the second downlink reference signal with multiple second beams, and a second random access request reflected by the smart reflecting surface and sent by the user equipment to the smart reflecting surface with a beam corresponding to one of the multiple second beams is received.

9. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: Providing, via a current serving base station of the user equipment, first information about a first downlink reference signal to the user equipment, where the first information includes relevant information about the candidate base station; as well as Second information about a second downlink reference signal is provided to the user equipment via a current serving base station of the user equipment, where the second information includes relevant information about the smart reflecting surface.

10. The electronic device according to claim 8, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: measuring the received first random access request and the second random access request to obtain a measurement result of the communication link; and When the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, a random access response is sent to the user equipment.

11. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: During the communication between the user equipment and the candidate base station assisted by the smart reflective surface, a downlink reference signal is sent to the user equipment, and a measurement result of the downlink reference signal by the user equipment is obtained as the communication quality of the communication link.

12. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: During the communication between the user equipment and the candidate base station assisted by the smart reflecting surface, a downlink reference signal is sent to the user equipment only through the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface, and a measurement result of the user equipment on the downlink reference signal is obtained as the communication quality of the reflection link.

13. The electronic device according to claim 11 or 12, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: Information about a downlink reference signal is sent to a user equipment, where the information includes at least information about a transmit beam and / or a receive beam of the downlink reference signal.

14. An electronic device for wireless communication, comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: In the case where the current serving base station is overloaded, an uplink signal is sent for measurement of a communication link between a user equipment and an alternative base station assisted by a smart reflective surface; as well as When the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, the candidate base station is accessed and communication between the user equipment and the candidate base station is performed with the assistance of the smart reflective surface.

15. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: An uplink reference signal is sent to the candidate base station via the communication link including a direct link between the user equipment and the candidate base station and a reflection link via the smart reflection surface, so that the candidate base station obtains a measurement result of the communication link based on the measurement result of the received uplink reference signal.

16. The electronic device according to claim 15, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: According to the indication sent by the current serving base station when the measurement result of the communication link is higher than the threshold, the connection with the current serving base station is disconnected and the alternative base station is accessed.

17. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: When uplink resources cannot be obtained from the overloaded current serving base station, a random access request is sent to the alternative base station.

18. The electronic device according to claim 17, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: Without using a smart reflecting surface, receiving first downlink reference signals sent sequentially by the candidate base station using multiple first beams, and sending a first random access request to the candidate base station using a beam corresponding to one of the multiple first beams; as well as The smart reflecting surface receives a second downlink reference signal from the candidate base station reflected by the smart reflecting surface in sequence with multiple second beams, and sends a second random access request to the smart reflecting surface in a beam corresponding to one of the multiple second beams for the smart reflecting surface to reflect to the candidate base station.

19. The electronic device according to claim 18, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: Obtaining, via the current serving base station, first information about a first downlink reference signal provided by the candidate base station, where the first information includes relevant information of the candidate base station; as well as Second information about a second downlink reference signal provided by the candidate base station is obtained via the current serving base station, where the second information includes relevant information of the smart reflecting surface.

20. The electronic device according to claim 18, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to receive a random access response sent by the candidate base station to the user equipment when the candidate base station determines that the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold based on the measurement results of the received first random access request and the second random access request.

21. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: During the communication between the user equipment and the candidate base station assisted by the smart reflector, a downlink reference signal sent by the candidate base station to the user equipment is measured, and the measurement result of the downlink reference signal is reported to the candidate base station as the communication quality of the communication link.

22. The electronic device according to claim 14, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: During the communication between the user equipment and the alternative base station assisted by the smart reflecting surface, the downlink reference signal sent by the alternative base station to the user equipment only through the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface is measured, and the measurement result of the downlink reference signal is reported to the alternative base station as the communication quality of the reflection link via the smart reflecting surface.

23. The electronic device according to claim 21 or 22, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: Information about a downlink reference signal is received from a candidate base station, where the information includes at least information about a transmit beam and / or a receive beam of the downlink reference signal.

24. A method for wireless communication, comprising: When a current serving base station of the user equipment is overloaded, obtaining a measurement result of a communication link between the user equipment and an alternative base station assisted by a smart reflecting surface; as well as When the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, the user equipment is enabled to access the candidate base station and communicate with the candidate base station with the assistance of the smart reflective surface.

25. A method for wireless communication, comprising: In the case where the current serving base station is overloaded, an uplink signal is sent for measurement of a communication link between a user equipment and an alternative base station assisted by a smart reflective surface; as well as When the measurement result of the communication link is higher than a threshold, the candidate base station is accessed and communication between the user equipment and the candidate base station is performed with the assistance of the smart reflective surface. 26 . A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, which, when executed, perform the method for wireless communication according to claim 24 or 25 .

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