Communication method and device

Abstract

The invention discloses a communication method and device. The method comprises the following steps: a first network device performs data communication with a terminal device in a first cell; when the first network device is unavailable, the second network device is triggered such that the second network device performs data communication with the terminal device in the first cell. Through the method, the transmission delay of the terminal device can be reduced, even the transmission interruption of the terminal device is avoided, and the reliability of the network is improved.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] Using the network to transmit data is one of the common data transmission methods. The reliability of the network is particularly important for data transmission. Different services may have different requirements for network reliability. For example, services involved in scenarios such as industrial production, medical treatment, rail transportation, Internet of Vehicles, or power supply systems require higher network reliability.

[0003] How to improve the reliability of the network is an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and device for improving the reliability of a network.

[0005] In order to achieve the above purpose, the embodiment of the present application adopts the following technical solution:

[0006] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a first communication method, which can be performed by a first communication device, and the first communication device can be a communication device or a communication device that can support the communication device to implement the functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The first communication device can be a network device or a unit, functional module or circuit inside the network device. For example, the first communication device can be a chip set in the network device, or the first communication device is other components for implementing the functions of the network device. The method provided in the first aspect is described below by taking the first communication device as a first network device as an example.

[0007] The communication method includes: a first network device performs data communication with a terminal device in a first cell; when the first network device is unavailable, the first network device triggers a second network device to perform data communication with the terminal device in the first cell.

[0008] The second network device can serve as a backup network device for the first network device, and accordingly, the cell established by the second network device can serve as a backup cell for the cell established by the first network device. In this method, a cell established by the first network device and a cell established by the second network device appear as one cell (i.e., the first cell) on the air interface, i.e., the cell corresponding to the first cell in the second network device is the cell corresponding to the first cell in the first network device. Assume that initially, the first network device communicates data with the terminal device in the first cell, but when the first network device is unavailable, the second network device communicates data with the terminal device in the first cell. In this method, the terminal device switches from the service of the first network device to the service of the second network device, and always remains in the first cell, so that the terminal device does not need to release the link and reselect the cell. This method can reduce the transmission delay of the terminal device, and even avoid transmission interruption of the terminal device, thereby improving the reliability of the network.

[0009] In a possible implementation, the operating frequency of the first network device is the same as the operating frequency of the second network device, or the operating frequency of the first cell in the cell corresponding to the first network device is the same as the operating frequency of the first cell in the cell corresponding to the second network device.

[0010] The cell corresponding to the first cell in the second network device is a backup cell of the cell corresponding to the first cell in the first network device. Through this solution, the cells that serve as backup for each other can be co-frequency cells, thereby saving frequency domain resource overhead.

[0011] In a possible implementation, the transmission channel in the first cell includes a first common channel corresponding to the first network device and a second common channel corresponding to the second network device, wherein the first common channel and the second common channel indicate the same one or more of the following: a cell identifier, synchronization information, broadcast information, system information, or a paging message.

[0012] Through this solution, a cell established by the first network device and a cell established by the second network device can be presented as one cell, namely, the first cell, on the air interface.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the first network device includes a first radio link control (RLC) layer, and the second network device includes a second RLC layer. Data on the second RLC layer and data on the first RLC layer are obtained according to the same packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, and the same data on the PDCP layer has the same sequence number corresponding to the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer.

[0014] The second RLC layer can be regarded as a copy of the first RLC layer. The first RLC layer can be backed up through the second RLC layer, thereby realizing backup of the transmission link.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the status of the second RLC layer is updated based on a status report received by the first RLC layer.

[0016] In this solution, the state of the second RLC layer is updated based on the state report of the first RLC layer received by the first network device. For example, the second network device can delete the data that has been successfully sent / received and cached on the second RLC layer based on the state report of the first RLC layer received by the first network device. This solution can save the cache space of the second RLC layer.

[0017] In a possible implementation, the first network device triggers the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in the first cell, including: the first network device triggers the sending of the RLC SDU stored in the second RLC layer, or the first network device triggers the second RLC layer to start sending the stored RLC SDU.

[0018] When the first network device is unavailable, by triggering the sending of the second RLC layer, the release of the air interface can be avoided, seamless switching of the transmission link can be achieved, the transmission delay can be reduced, and even transmission interruption can be avoided.

[0019] In a possible implementation, the first network device communicating data with the terminal device in the first cell includes: the first network device communicating data with the terminal device through a first beam; the second network device communicating data with the terminal device in the first cell includes: the second network device communicating data with the terminal device through a second beam; wherein the first beam and the second beam are different.

[0020] The first beam and the second beam are different including that the index of the first beam and the index of the second beam are different. If part or all of the transmission channels of a beam of a cell cannot be normally transmitted or received, it can be considered that the network device corresponding to the cell is unavailable. Accordingly, the unavailability of the first network device includes that the transmission channel of the first beam cannot be normally transmitted or received. When the terminal device communicates data with the second network device in the first cell, it actually communicates data with the second network device through a transmission channel of a beam different from the first beam (for example, the second beam). In this way, beam failure recovery can be used to enable the terminal device to obtain the second beam faster, enhance beam robustness, and reduce the decrease in transmission traffic due to beam blocking, etc.

[0021] In a possible implementation, if one or more of the following conditions are met, the first network device is unavailable:

[0022] 1) The first network device receives a beam failure recovery request from the terminal device; 2) The first network device receives a measurement report from the terminal device, wherein the measurement report indicates that the quality of the first beam is lower than a threshold or indicates that the first beam is not an optimal beam, wherein the first beam is a beam used for data communication between the first network device and the terminal device; 3) The first network device receives indication information, wherein the indication information is used to indicate that the first network device has failed / is unavailable; 4) The first network device does not receive a response signal to a detection signal within a preset time period, wherein the detection signal is used to detect whether the first network device has failed / is unavailable.

[0023] By adopting one or more of the above methods of determining that the first network device is unavailable, the accuracy of fault detection can be improved.

[0024] In the second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a second communication method, which can be performed by a first communication device and a second communication device. The first communication device and / or the second communication device can both be communication devices or communication devices that can support the communication device to implement the functions required for the method, such as a chip system. The first communication device and / or the second communication device can both be network devices or units, functional modules or circuits inside the network device. For example, the first communication device and / or the second communication device can be a chip set in the network device, or the first communication device and / or the second communication device can be other components for implementing the functions of the network device. The method provided in the second aspect is described below by taking the first communication device as a first network device and the second communication device as a second network device as an example.

[0025] The communication method includes: a first network device performs data communication with a terminal device in a first cell; when the first network device is unavailable, a second network device performs data communication with the terminal device in the first cell. When the first network device is unavailable, the second network device is triggered to perform data communication with the terminal device.

[0026] In a possible implementation, the operating frequency of the first network device is the same as the operating frequency of the second network device, or the operating frequency of the first cell corresponding to the first network device is the same as the operating frequency of the first cell corresponding to the second network device.

[0027] In a possible implementation, the transmission channel in the first cell includes a first common channel corresponding to the first network device and a second common channel corresponding to the second network device, wherein the first common channel and the second common channel indicate the same one or more of the following: a cell identifier, synchronization information, broadcast information, system information, or a paging message.

[0028] In a possible implementation, the first network device includes a first RLC layer, and the second network device includes a second RLC layer. Data on the second RLC layer and data on the first RLC layer are obtained based on the same PDCP layer, and the same data on the PDCP layer has the same sequence number corresponding to the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer. Alternatively, the second RLC layer is a copy of the first RLC layer.

[0029] In a possible implementation, the second network device updates the state of the second RLC layer according to the state report received by the first RLC layer, that is, the state of the second RLC layer is updated based on the state report received by the first RLC layer.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the second network device is triggered to communicate data with the terminal device, including: triggering the second network device to send the RLC SDU stored in the second RLC layer, or triggering the second network device to start sending the RLC SDU stored in the second RLC layer.

[0031] In a possible implementation, the first network device communicating data with the terminal device in the first cell includes: the first network device communicating data with the terminal device through a first beam; the second network device communicating data with the terminal device in the first cell includes: the second network device communicating data with the terminal device through a second beam; wherein the first beam and the second beam are different.

[0032] In a possible implementation, if one or more of the following conditions are met, the first network device is unavailable:

[0033] The first network device and / or the second network device receives a beam failure recovery request of the terminal device;

[0034] receiving a measurement report of a terminal device, the measurement report indicating that a quality of a first beam is lower than a threshold or indicating that the first beam is not an optimal beam, wherein the first beam is a beam used for data communication between the first network device and the terminal device;

[0035] receiving indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the first network device fails / is unavailable;

[0036] No response signal to the detection signal is received within a preset time period, and the detection signal is used to detect whether the first network device fails / is unavailable.

[0037] Regarding the technical effects brought about by the second aspect and its possible methods, reference may be made to the introduction to the technical effects of the first aspect and its possible methods.

[0038] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, wherein the communication device has the function of implementing the behavior in the method example of any aspect of the first aspect to the second aspect above, and the beneficial effects can be found in the description of the first aspect to the second aspect and will not be repeated here. For example, the communication device may be the first communication device in the first aspect, for example, the communication device may be a chip or a chip system in a network device. Alternatively, the communication device may be a device capable of supporting the first network device in the first aspect to implement the functions required by the method provided in the first aspect, for example, the communication device may be a first network device. For another example, the communication device may also be the second communication device in the second aspect, for example, the communication device may be a chip or a chip system in a network device. Alternatively, the communication device may be a device capable of supporting the second network device in the second aspect to implement the functions required by the method provided in the second aspect, for example, the communication device may be a second network device.

[0039] In one possible design, the communication device includes corresponding means or modules for executing the method of any aspect of the first aspect to the second aspect. For example, the communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module or processor) and / or a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module or transceiver). The transceiver unit can implement the sending function and the receiving function. When the transceiver unit implements the sending function, it can be called a sending unit (sometimes also referred to as a sending module). When the transceiver unit implements the receiving function, it can be called a receiving unit (sometimes also referred to as a receiving module). The sending unit and the receiving unit can be the same functional unit, which is called a transceiver unit, and the functional unit can implement the sending function and the receiving function; or, the sending unit and the receiving unit can be different functional units, and the transceiver unit is a general term for these functional units. These units (modules) can perform the corresponding functions in the method examples of any aspect of the first aspect to the second aspect above. Please refer to the detailed description in the method examples for details, which will not be repeated here.

[0040] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which may be the communication device in the third aspect of the above embodiment, or a chip or chip system arranged in the communication device in the third aspect. The communication device includes a communication interface and a processor, and optionally, also includes a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs or instructions or data, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor reads the computer program or instructions or data, the communication device executes the method performed by the network device in the above method embodiment. For example, the communication device may be a network device or a functional module in a network device, such as a baseband chip and a radio frequency chip.

[0041] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor and may also include a communication interface for implementing the method described in any aspect of the first aspect to the second aspect. Optionally, the chip system also includes a memory. The memory is used to store computer programs (also referred to as codes, or instructions). The processor is used to call and run the computer program from the memory so that the device equipped with the chip system executes any aspect of the first aspect to the second aspect, and any possible implementation of any aspect of the first aspect to the second aspect. The chip system can be composed of chips, and may also include chips and other discrete devices.

[0042] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which includes an input / output interface and a logic circuit. The input / output interface is used to input and / or output information. The input / output interface can be an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin or a related circuit, etc. The logic circuit is used to execute the method described in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect.

[0043] In the specific implementation process, the above-mentioned communication device can be a chip, the input circuit can be an input pin, the output circuit can be an output pin, and the logic circuit can be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, and various logic circuits. The input signal received by the input circuit can be, for example, but not limited to, received and input by a receiver, and the signal output by the output circuit can be, for example, but not limited to, output to a transmitter and transmitted by the transmitter, and the input circuit and the output circuit can be the same circuit, which is used as an input circuit and an output circuit at different times. This application does not limit the specific implementation of the input and output interface and the logic circuit.

[0044] In one implementation, when the communication device is a wireless communication device, the wireless communication device may be a network device such as a base station, the interface circuit may be a radio frequency processing chip in the wireless communication device, and the processing circuit may be a baseband processing chip in the wireless communication device.

[0045] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, the communication system comprising a first network device and a second network device for implementing the function of the first aspect; optionally, the communication system further comprises a terminal device. Alternatively, the communication system comprises a first network device and a second network device for implementing the function of the second aspect. Optionally, the communication system further comprises a terminal device.

[0046] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program. When the computer program is executed, the method in any of the first to second aspects described above is implemented.

[0047] In a ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: a computer program code, when the computer program code is executed, the method in any of the above-mentioned first to second aspects is executed.

[0048] The beneficial effects of the third to ninth aspects and their implementations can refer to the description of the beneficial effects of the first to second aspects, or the first to second aspects and their implementations. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of the transmission of data between layers sent by a network device to a terminal device;

[0050] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication network provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] Figure 3 Another schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication network provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of a terminal device accessing a cell based on different public channels of the cell provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] Figure 5 A schematic diagram showing the principle that the cells established by the first network device and the second network device provided in the embodiment of the present application appear as one cell on the air interface;

[0054] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of backing up the RLC layer of a first network device through the RLC layer of a second network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] Figure 7 A flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0056] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of a terminal device implementing cell switching by switching a common channel provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] Fig.10 Another structural schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0059] Network reliability (referred to as network reliability) is particularly important for data transmission. Network reliability can be understood as the tolerance of data transmission to network anomalies. When an anomaly occurs in the network, if the service is not interrupted, or the service can be restored quickly after an interruption, it means that the network reliability is high. At present, with the diversity and surge of services, higher requirements are placed on network reliability.

[0060] To improve network reliability, you can use disaster recovery backup. For example, you can use the following two disaster recovery backup solutions.

[0061] Solution 1, backup device and / or component in backup device: back up at least one device in the network, and / or back up one or more components included in each of the at least one device in the network. Among them, for the same device, only the device can be backed up; or, only one or more components of the device can be backed up; or, both the device and one or more components of the device can be backed up, without limitation. In addition, the backup forms of different devices can be the same or different, without limitation. It can be understood that the device that performs device backup and / or component backup can be part of the devices or all of the devices in the network, without limitation. For example, all devices in the network perform device backup and / or component backup, or some devices in the network perform device backup and / or component backup, and the remaining devices do not perform device backup or component backup. When a device fails, the backup device of the device is used to replace the device. Similarly, when a component of a device fails, the backup component of the component is used to replace the component. However, the replacement of the device / component takes a certain amount of time, which may cause business interruption during this period.

[0062] Solution 2, backup network: Backing up one network is equivalent to having two networks. All devices or components in the two networks are different, that is, each network uses its own different devices or components; or, some devices or components in the two networks are the same and some devices or components are different, for example, some devices or components in the two networks are different devices or components of the two networks, and another part of the devices in the two networks are the same devices or components shared by the two networks. One of the two networks is the backup of the other network, which can be regarded as a dual network backup. For example, the two networks are a primary network and a backup network, and the backup network is a backup of the primary network.

[0063] In solution 2, both networks are in an activated / working state. When any device in the primary network fails, the terminal device switches to the backup network. Since both networks are in an activated state, the network will not be interrupted when the primary network switches to the backup network. In order to reduce interference, the primary network and the backup network are usually heterogeneous networks. Heterogeneous networks refer to the working frequency of the primary network and the working frequency of the backup network being different, or in other words, the cells provided by the primary network and the cells provided by the backup network are cells of two different frequencies. When the terminal device switches from the primary network to the backup network, it needs to be released from the cell of the primary network and then access the backup network through cell reselection. The terminal device needs to release the cell it has accessed and then reselect to another cell through the process of detecting link loss, waiting for resynchronization, link reconstruction or re-access. This process takes a certain amount of time (for example, 3 to 10 seconds (second, s)), which may cause the terminal device's service to be interrupted for a certain period of time.

[0064] In order to ensure that the service is not interrupted, multiple terminal devices can be used to transmit the same service data, and these multiple terminal devices work in different networks. For example, terminal device A works in the first network, and terminal device B works in the second network, wherein the second network is different from the first network. Terminal device A transmits service data to the receiving end based on the first network, and terminal device B transmits service data to the receiving end based on the second network, and the service data transmitted by terminal device A and terminal device B to the receiving end are the same. The service data transmitted by terminal device A and terminal device B are respectively routed to the receiving end, that is, the receiving end can receive service data from terminal device A based on the first network, and receive service data from terminal device B based on the second network. When the first network fails, when terminal device A switches from the first network to the backup network of the first network, causing the loss of part of the service data, for the receiving end, it can also restore the complete service data based on the service data received from terminal device B and the service data received from terminal device A. However, this requires configuring additional resources for terminal device B, which will increase resource overhead. In addition, it is also necessary to deploy a router for service data to the receiving end, which will increase the complexity of device deployment.

[0065] In order to provide a more reliable network, a solution of an embodiment of the present application is provided. The embodiment of the present application also adopts dual-network backup. The difference from Solution 2 is that in the embodiment of the present application, for the terminal device, the cell of the primary network and the cell of the backup network appear as one cell on the air interface. In this way, if the primary network fails, the terminal device switches from the service of the primary network to the service of the backup network, and the switch always remains within one cell. Therefore, there is no process of releasing the cell and reselecting the cell by the terminal device, and the normal transmission of the service can be restored more quickly, and the reliability of the network can be better guaranteed.

[0066] For the convenience of description, in the dual network in the embodiment of the present application, the device that provides the service of the main network is described as the main network device, and the device that provides the service of the backup network is described as the backup network device. Among them, all the devices or components of the main network device and the backup network device are different; or, some devices or components of the main network device and the backup network device are shared identical devices or components, and the remaining devices or components are different devices or components. Among them, the network device can be used to provide network access functions for terminal devices. The network devices involved in the embodiment of the present application are mainly access network devices. Therefore, in the following text, unless otherwise specified, the "network device" refers to the radio access network (RAN) device, which can be referred to as the access network device for short.

[0067] RAN can be a cellular system related to the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), for example, a fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, or a future-oriented evolution system (for example, a sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system). For example, the 5G mobile communication system is a new radio (NR) system. RAN can also be an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN), or a virtualized radio access network (virtualized RAN, vRAN), etc. RAN can also be a communication system that integrates two or more of the above systems. RAN equipment can also be called a RAN node, a RAN entity, or an access node, etc.

[0068] In one possible scenario, a RAN node may be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), an access point (AP), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB), a next generation base station in a 6th generation (6G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, etc. A RAN node may be a macro base station, a micro base station, an indoor station, a relay node, a donor node / host node, or a wireless controller, etc. A RAN node may also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an onboard device, etc. For example, a RAN node in a vehicle to everything (V2X) technology may be a road side unit (RSU).

[0069] In another possible scenario, the RAN node may be a module or unit that completes part of the functions of the base station; or multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist the terminal device in achieving wireless access, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node may be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU) or a radio unit (RU), etc. The functions of the CU may be implemented by one entity, or may be implemented by different entities. For example, the functions of the CU may be further divided, that is, the control plane and the user plane may be separated and implemented by different entities, namely, the control plane CU entity (i.e., CU-control plane (CP) entity) and the user plane CU entity (i.e., CU-user plane (UP) entity). The CU-CP entity and the CU-UP entity may be coupled with the DU to jointly complete the functions of the RAN node.

[0070] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, CU may also be called O-CU (open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, CU-CP may also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be called O-CU-UP, and RU may also be called O-RU. For the convenience of description, CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU are described as examples in this application. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0071] The communication between the access network device and the terminal device follows a certain protocol layer structure. The protocol layer may include a control plane protocol layer and a user plane protocol layer. The control plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: a radio resource control (RRC) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a physical (PHY) layer. The user plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, or a physical layer. For a detailed description of the above-mentioned protocol layers, reference may be made to the relevant technical specifications of 3GPP or other applicable technical specifications of communication protocols.

[0072] The CU and DU can be configured according to the protocol layer functions of the wireless network they implement: for example, the CU is configured to implement the functions of the PDCP layer and the protocol layers above (such as the RRC layer and / or the SDAP layer, etc.); the DU is configured to implement the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer (such as the RLC layer, the MAC layer, and / or the PHY layer, etc.). For another example, the CU is configured to implement the functions of the protocol layers above the PDCP layer (such as the RRC layer and / or the SDAP layer), and the DU is configured to implement the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer (such as the RLC layer, the MAC layer, and / or the PHY layer, etc.).

[0073] When the CU includes a CU-CP and a CU-UP, the CU-CP is used to implement the control plane function of the CU, and the CU-UP is used to implement the user plane function of the CU. For example, when the CU is configured to implement the functions of the PDCP layer, the RRC layer, and the SDAP layer, the CU-CP is used to implement the control plane function of the RRC layer and the PDCP layer, and the CU-UP is used to implement the user plane function of the SDAP layer and the PDCP layer.

[0074] The CU and DU may be configured separately, or may be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU).

[0075] The above division of the processing functions of CU and DU according to the protocol layer is only an example, and the division can also be carried out in other ways. For example, in one design, the CU or DU can also be divided into partial processing functions of the protocol layer. In one design, some functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layer above the RLC layer are set in the CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layer below the RLC layer are set in the DU. For another example, in another design, the functions of the CU or DU can also be divided according to the service type or other system requirements, such as dividing by latency, and the functions whose processing time needs to meet the latency requirements are set in the DU, and the functions that do not need to meet the latency requirements are set in the CU.

[0076] In another possible design, the DU and RU cooperate to jointly implement the functions of the PHY layer, or it can be described as moving part of the PHY layer functions of the DU to the RU for implementation. A DU can be connected to one or more RUs. The functions of the DU and the RU can be configured in a variety of ways according to the design. For example, the DU is configured to implement the baseband function, and the RU is configured to implement the mid-radio function. For another example, the DU is configured to implement the high-level functions in the PHY layer, and the RU is configured to implement the low-level functions in the PHY layer or to implement the low-level functions and the radio frequency functions. The high-level functions in the physical layer may include part of the functions of the physical layer, which are closer to the MAC layer, and the low-level functions in the physical layer may include another part of the functions of the physical layer, which are closer to the mid-radio side. The present application does not limit the specific functions of the DU and the RU. The interface between the DU and the RU may be called a fronthaul interface.

[0077] The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit. For example, the RU may be included in a remote radio unit (RRU), a pico remote radio unit (pRRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH). The processing unit used to implement the baseband function in the BBU is called a baseband high layer (BBH) unit, and the processing unit used to implement the baseband function in the RRU / Prru / AAU / RRH is called a baseband low layer (BBL) unit.

[0078] The terminal device may also be referred to as a terminal, user equipment (UE), a mobile station, or a mobile terminal. The terminal device can be widely used in various scenarios, for example, device-to-device (D2D) communication, V2X communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, or smart city. The terminal may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a wearable device, a vehicle, a vehicle-mounted device, a drone, a helicopter, an airplane, a ship, a hot air balloon, a robot, a robotic arm, or a smart home device. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the form of the terminal device.

[0079] See also Figure 1 , which is an example diagram of the transmission of data sent by a network device to a terminal device between various layers. Figure 1 Take the following data transmission as an example: Figure 1 The downward arrow in the figure indicates data transmission, and the upward arrow indicates data reception. In the embodiment of the present application, the data transmitted by the network device to the terminal device is also referred to as downlink data.

[0080] During the transmission of downlink data (data sent from the network device to the terminal device), after the PDCP layer obtains data from the SDPA layer / RRC layer, it will transmit the data to the RLC layer and the MAC layer, and then the MAC layer will generate a transport block (TB), which will then be wirelessly transmitted through the physical layer. Data is encapsulated in each layer accordingly. The data received by a layer from the upper layer of the layer is regarded as the service data unit (SDU) of the layer. After layer encapsulation, it becomes a protocol data unit (PDU) and is then passed to the next layer. For example, the data received by the PDCP layer from the upper layer is called PDCP SDU, and the data sent by the PDCP layer to the lower layer is called PDCP PDU; the data received by the RLC layer from the upper layer is called RLC SDU, and the data sent by the RLC layer to the lower layer is called RLC PDU; the data received by the MAC layer from the upper layer is called MAC SDU, and the data sent by the MAC layer to the lower layer is called MAC PDU. MAC PDU can also be called a transport block. In the protocol, the connection between layers is mostly corresponding in the form of channels. The RLC layer and the MAC layer correspond through a logical channel (LCH), and the MAC layer and the physical layer correspond through a transport channel. Below the physical layer is the physical channel, which is used to correspond to the physical layer at the other end.

[0081] Similar to the network device, the access layer of the terminal device also has an RRC layer, an SDAP layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, and a physical layer. The terminal device may also have an application layer and a non-access layer. Among them, the application layer can be used to provide services to the application installed in the terminal device. For example, the downlink data received by the terminal device can be transmitted from the physical layer to the application layer in sequence, and then provided to the application by the application layer. For another example, the application layer can obtain the data generated by the application (such as the video recorded by the user using the application), and transmit the data to the physical layer in sequence, and send it to other communication devices. The non-access layer can be used to forward user data, such as forwarding the uplink data received from the application layer to the SDAP layer or forwarding the downlink data received from the SDAP layer to the application layer.

[0082] As mentioned above, the technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present application can be applied to NR systems, and can also be applied to next-generation mobile communication systems, such as 6G mobile communication systems or other similar communication systems, such as O-RAN, CRAN or vRAN, without specific limitation.

[0083] For example, see Figure 2, showing an architecture of a communication network provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication network includes a first network device and a second network device. The first network device and the second network device can back up each other. For example, the first network device is a primary network device, providing a primary network, and the second network device is a backup network device, providing a backup network; or, the first network device is a backup network device, providing a backup network, and the second network device is a primary network device, providing a primary network. Among them, the first network device and the second network device can be network devices supporting the same standard. For example, the first network device and the second network device are both base stations of the NR standard; or, the first network device and the second network device are both base stations of subsequent evolution standards (for example, 6G, etc.); or, the first network device and the second network device are both base stations that support both the long term evolution (LTE) standard and the NR standard.

[0084] The first network device may include one or more of a first control board, a first baseband board, and a first radio frequency unit. The first control board may be a CU or a CU-CP. Accordingly, the first baseband board may be a DU or the first baseband board may be a DU and a CU-UP. The first radio frequency unit may be an active antenna unit (AAU) or the first radio frequency unit may include a first radio frequency remote unit (RRU) and a first antenna, etc. In one design, the first network device may be a first control board, for example, the first network device is a CU or a CU-CP. In another design, the first network device may be a first baseband board, for example, the first network device is a DU or the first network device is a DU and a CU-UP. In yet another design, the first network device may also be a first control board and a first baseband board, for example, the first network device is a combination of a CU (or a CU-CP) and a DU (or a DU and a CU-UP).

[0085] Similarly, the second network device may also include one or more of a second control board, a second baseband board, and a second radio frequency unit. The second control board may be a CU or a CU-CP. The second baseband board may be a DU or the second baseband board is a DU and a CU-DP. The second radio frequency unit may also be an AAU, or the second radio frequency unit includes a second RRU and a second antenna. In a possible design, the second network device may be a second control board, for example, the second network device is a CU or a CU-CP; or, the second network device may be a second baseband board, for example, the second network device is a DU or the second network device is a DU and a CU-UP; or, the second network device is a second control board and a second baseband board, for example, the second network device is a combination of a CU (or a CU-CP) and a DU (or a DU and a CU-UP).

[0086] Among them, the first control board / the second control board is mainly responsible for processing information from the core network and terminal equipment, and is responsible for interconnection with the core network. For example, the first control board is CU or CU-CP, which can be used for cell establishment, cell management, etc. The baseband board can be a baseband chip. The first baseband board / the second baseband board is mainly responsible for baseband processing such as data encoding and modulation, and transmits the processed data to be sent to the RRU / AAU. For example, the first baseband board is DU or the first baseband board is DU and CU-UP, which can be used to transmit control channels and / or data channels.

[0087] Figure 2 For example, the first network device uses one control board and the second network device uses another control board, that is, the first control board and the second control board are independent. Figure 2 In the embodiment, the first control board and the second control board can communicate with each other. For example, the first control board and the second control board can communicate through the Xn interface. The first baseband board and the second baseband board can also communicate with each other. The interface between the first baseband board and the second baseband board can be customized or agreed upon by the protocol, without limitation. The first control board can also communicate directly with the second baseband board, or the first control board can communicate with the second baseband board through the second control board. Similarly, the second control board can communicate directly with the first baseband board, or the second control board can communicate with the first baseband board through the first control board. The first control board and the second control board can be interconnected with the same core network, or with different core networks.

[0088] It should be noted that the first control board and the second control board may also be one control board, that is, the first network device and the second network device may share one control board, such as Figure 3 shown. Figure 3 and Figure 2 The difference is that the first network device and the second network device share the first control board.

[0089] based on Figure 2 or Figure 3 , the cell established by the first network device and the cell established by the second network device can appear as the same cell on the air interface. Figure 2 and Figure 3The cell A in the figure represents the cell of the first network device, and the cell B represents the cell of the second network device. Unless otherwise specified, the second network device is assumed to be the backup network device of the first network device. Accordingly, cell A is the main cell, and cell B is the backup cell. The transmission link after the terminal device initially accesses the network is established in cell A as an example. For the terminal device, when the first network device fails / is unavailable and the second network device is available, the terminal device can switch from the service of the first network device to the service of the second network device. It can also be understood that in the initial stage, the first network device communicates data with the terminal device in cell A, but when the first network device is unavailable, the second network device communicates data with the terminal device in cell B. Since cells A and B appear as one cell on the air interface, the terminal device always remains in one cell when switching from the service of the first network device to the service of the second network device. The terminal device does not need to release the cell and reselect the cell, and can restore the normal transmission of the service more quickly, thereby better ensuring the reliability of the network.

[0090] In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solution provided by the embodiment of the present application, it is first introduced how to make the cell A established by the first network device and the cell B established by the second network device appear as one cell on the air interface. For the convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application refers to the cell A and cell B presented as one cell on the air interface as the first cell. It can be understood that the first cell corresponds to the cell A of the first network device or the coverage of the corresponding cell A; the first cell corresponds to the cell B of the second network device or the coverage of the corresponding cell B. Among them, cell A and cell B can both be physical cells. For example, cell A is the first physical cell, and cell B is the second physical cell. In this case, compared with cell A or cell B, the first cell can be regarded as a logical cell. Alternatively, cell A and cell B can also be logical cells. For example, cell A is the first logical cell, cell B is the second logical cell, and the first cell can also be regarded as a logical cell. It can be understood that the first network device can establish one or more cells, and cell A belongs to these one or more cells. Similarly, the second network device can also establish one or more cells, and cell B belongs to these one or more cells.

[0091] In an embodiment of the present application, cell A and cell B meet the following conditions, and the terminal device can determine that cell A and cell B are both first cells on the air interface: 1) cell A and cell B are co-frequency cells; 2) the cell identifier of cell A and the cell identifier of cell B are the same. Among them, the cell identifier can be a physical cell identifier (physical cell identifier, PCI). The cell identifier of cell A and the cell identifier of cell B are the cell identifiers of the first cell. It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the conditions that cell A and cell B need to meet to appear as one cell on the air interface. For example, there may be more conditions, or the above conditions can be replaced, as long as cell A and cell B appear as one cell on the air interface.

[0092] Cell A and cell B are co-frequency cells, which means that: the operating frequency of cell A is the same as or close to the operating frequency of cell B (for example, the difference between the two does not exceed the first threshold), and / or the frequency band of cell A on the frequency band (that is, the system bandwidth of cell A) is the same as or close to the frequency band of cell B on the frequency band (that is, the system bandwidth of cell B) (for example, the difference between the two does not exceed the second threshold). The operating frequency of cell A is the same as or close to the operating frequency of cell B, which can be replaced by the operating frequency of the first network device and the second network device being the same or close.

[0093] In one possible implementation, cell A and cell B are cells with the same frequency and coverage. Cell A and cell B are cells with the same coverage, which means that the coverage ranges of cell A and cell B in space or on the ground are the same or the coverage ranges are close to overlapping, so that when the terminal device searches for nearby cells, if it can search for cell A, there is a greater probability that it can also search for cell B. In another possible implementation, cell A and cell B are cells with the same frequency but different coverage. The coverage of cell A and cell B partially overlaps. For example, when there are no other cells near cell A and cell B, the coverage range of cell A may partially overlap with the coverage range of cell B. This situation can also make it possible for the terminal device to search for nearby cells if it can search for cell A, and there is a greater probability that it can also search for cell B.

[0094] In a possible implementation, the first network device may establish cell A according to the configuration information of cell B established by the second network device, or the second network device may establish cell B according to the configuration information of cell A established by the first network device, so that cell A and cell B appear as the first cell on the air interface. The embodiment of the present application does not limit how the first network device and the second network device interact to obtain information about the cells established by each other, as long as the first network device and the second network device can know the information about the cells established by each other. For example, taking the first network device preferentially establishing cell A as an example, for Figure 2In the architecture shown, the first control board establishes cell A. The first control board knows the configuration information of cell A, and the first control board can send the configuration information of cell A to the second control board. The second control board can establish the cell according to the configuration information of cell A. In addition, the first control board also sends the configuration information of cell A to the first baseband board, so that the first baseband board transmits the data channel and / or control channel according to the configuration information of cell A. Similarly, the second control board receives the configuration information of cell A from the first control board, and can send the configuration information of cell A to the second baseband board, so that the second baseband board transmits the data channel and / or control channel according to the configuration information of cell A. Alternatively, the first control board can send the configuration information of cell A to the second control board and the second baseband board respectively. For Figure 3 In the architecture shown, the first control board can respectively establish cell A and cell B according to the configuration information of the cells, and send the configuration information of cell A to the first baseband board and the second baseband board.

[0095] The configuration information of the cell includes the configuration information of the common channel of the cell. After the first network device establishes cell A, it will send the common channel of cell A. Similarly, after the second network device establishes cell B, it will send the common channel of cell B. For the convenience of description, the embodiment of the present application refers to the common channel of cell A as the first common channel, or the common channel corresponding to the first network device as the first common channel; the common channel of cell B is referred to as the second common channel, or the common channel corresponding to the second network device is referred to as the second common channel. The contents indicated by the first common channel and the second common channel are the same or partially the same, or the values ​​of the parameters carried by the first common channel and the second common channel are the same or the values ​​of some parameters are the same, so that cell B and cell A appear as the first cell on the air interface. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first common channel and the second common channel, and determines that cell A and cell B are the first cell according to the contents indicated by the first common channel and the second common channel respectively. For example, if the terminal device receives the first common channel, it is considered that the first common channel is the common channel of the first cell; and / or, if the terminal device receives the second common channel, it is considered that the second common channel is also the common channel of the first cell.

[0096] In the embodiment of the present application, the first common channel and the second common channel indicate / include the same one or more of the following: cell identification, synchronization information, broadcast information, system information or paging message.

[0097] For example, the first public channel and the second public channel are physical broadcast channels (PBCH). The first public channel and the second public channel carry master information blocks (MIB), respectively, and the information indicated by the MIB is broadcast information. Among them, the values ​​of the parameters indicated by the MIB of the first public channel and the MIB of the second public channel are the same, or the values ​​of some of the indicated parameters are the same. For example, the system frame number indicated by the MIB of the first public channel is the same as the system frame number indicated by the MIB of the second public channel; for another example, the public search space indicated by the MIB of the first public channel is the same as the public search space indicated by the MIB of the second public channel.

[0098] For another example, the first common channel and the second common channel may be channels carrying system information, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). The system information includes remaining minimum system information (RMSI), such as system information block (SIB) 1. Optionally, the system information may also include other system information (OSI), such as other SIBs. For example, the first common channel is a first PDSCH carrying first system information, and the second common channel is a second PDSCH carrying second system information. The values ​​of the parameters indicated by the first system information and the second system information are the same, or the values ​​of some of the indicated parameters are the same. For example, the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH respectively carry the same minimum system information (MSI) of the first cell. For another example, the first PDSCH and the second PDSCH each carry the same SIB1 included in the RMSI of the cell indicating the same MSI.

[0099] For another example, the first common channel and the second common channel are synchronization signals (synchronization signal, SS) or synchronization signals and PBCH blocks (synchronization signal and PBCH block, SSB). In one possible implementation, the synchronization signal includes a primary synchronization signal (primary synchronization signal, PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (secondary synchronization signal, SSS). The information indicated by the synchronization signal / SSB is synchronization information. For example, the first common channel is a first synchronization signal, the second common channel is a second synchronization signal, the values ​​of the parameters indicated by the first synchronization signal and the second synchronization signal are the same, or the values ​​of some of the parameters indicated are the same. Take the first common channel and the second common channel as an example. The first common channel is also called the first SSB, and the second common channel is also called the second SSB. SSB carries PCI or indicates PCI, and the PCI of cell A indicated by the first SSB is the same as the PCI of cell B indicated by the second SSB. In this case, the terminal device can obtain the PCI carried by the first SSB and the second SSB respectively by detecting the first SSB and the second SSB, and then considers that the first SSB and the second SSB belong to the same cell, that is, the first SSB and the second SSB are considered to be SSBs of the same cell. That is, the terminal device on the air interface will consider that cell A and cell B are the same cell. This method can be understood as that the terminal device can determine whether different SSBs are SSBs of the same cell based on the PCI carried by the SSB.

[0100] In a possible implementation, the transmission of SSB may be periodic, and the beam scanning within the coverage range is performed within the period so that all terminal devices within the cell can receive the SSB. Multiple SSBs are sent within a period to complete a beam scan so that the synchronization signal covers the service range of the entire cell. The set of all SSBs within a period is called a synchronization signal burst set (SS burst set), and different SSBs in a synchronization burst set have different indexes. The time-frequency positions of SSBs with different indexes are different, for example, the time domain positions and / or the same frequency domain positions of SSBs with different indexes are different. The index of the SSB can be carried in the PBCH of the SSB, that is, the SSB will carry the index of the SSB. The terminal device can select a beam corresponding to an SSB by detecting the SSB, and use the beam to interact with the network device for information. For example, the terminal device can select the SSB with the strongest received signal or select the SSB whose received signal meets the requirements (for example, the strength of the received signal exceeds the third threshold). The SSB received by the terminal device will carry the index of the SSB. The terminal device interacts with the network device through the beam corresponding to the index of the SSB. In the embodiment of the present application, the mapping of the first SSB and the second SSB in the time-frequency resources meets the constraints of the SSB of a cell in the 3GPP standard. For example, the coverage range of the beam corresponding to the first SSB and the coverage range of the beam corresponding to the second SSB are the same or nearly overlapped.

[0101] Optionally, the first common channel and the second common channel may operate in a time division and / or frequency division manner to reduce or even avoid resource conflicts. When the first common channel is a first SSB and the second common channel is a second SSB, the first common channel and the second common channel may be distinguished by SSBindex.

[0102] In one possible implementation, the frequency domain position of the SSB of cell A is the same as the frequency domain position of the SSB of cell B, or the operating frequency of cell A is the same as the operating frequency of cell B, that is, cell A and cell B are co-frequency cells. In this case, the SSB of cell A and the SSB of cell B can operate in a time-division manner. For the terminal device, cell A and cell B are co-frequency cells, and the PCI of cell A is the same as the PCI of cell B. Therefore, the terminal device considers cell A and cell B to be the first cell on the air interface. Figure 2 or Figure 3 As shown, the coverage area of ​​cell A and cell B is the same, and they are combined into a logical cell at the air interface. From the perspective of the first cell, the radio frequency unit and baseband of the first cell are composed of multiple sets of hardware distribution, which has better robustness.

[0103] It is understandable that a cell has multiple sets of public channels, and a terminal device can use any set of public channels in the cell to access the cell or switch to the cell. For the first cell, the public channels of the first cell include the first public channel and the second public channel. The first public channel corresponds to the first network device, and the second public channel corresponds to the second network device. After the first network device establishes cell A, it broadcasts the first public channel; after the second network device establishes cell B, it broadcasts the second public channel. Figure 4 As shown, the terminal device receives the first common channel and can access the first cell according to the information indicated by the first common channel. For example, the terminal device initiates an access request on the physical random access channel (PRACH) to access the first cell according to the configuration of the PRACH indicated by the first common channel. The terminal device receives the second common channel and can also access the first cell according to the information indicated by the second common channel. For example, the terminal device initiates an access request on the PRACH to access the first cell according to the configuration of the PRACH indicated by the second common channel. Figure 4 The thin line in Figure 4 The terminal device accesses cell A according to the information indicated by the first public channel, and the bold line indicates that the terminal device accesses cell B according to the second public channel. Cell A and cell B are actually the first cell, so the terminal device can access the first cell based on the information indicated by the first public channel, and can also access the first cell based on the information indicated by the second public channel. That is, the first public channel and the second public channel of the first cell are online at the same time.

[0104] The terminal device communicates with the network device using the service beam of the cell (i.e., the service cell) where it resides. The service beam is the beam currently used by the terminal device. The service beam is usually the optimal beam, for example, the service beam is the beam with the strongest signal or the received signal meets the required beam. The first network device communicates data with the terminal device in cell A, which can be understood as the first network device communicating with the terminal device in cell A through the service beam of cell A. Similarly, the second network device communicates data with the terminal device in cell B, which can be understood as the second network device communicating with the terminal device in cell B through the service beam of cell B. Here, "data communication" includes uplink transmission and / or downlink transmission. Uplink transmission includes transmission of the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); downlink transmission includes transmission of the physical uplink control channel (PDCCH) and the transmission of the PDSCH. The data in "data communication" includes service data and / or reference signals. The reference signal includes, but is not limited to, a sounding reference signal (SRS) and / or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

[0105] In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, in order to ensure that the service of the terminal device is not interrupted, the first network device and the second network device can also coordinate the cell resources configured by each of them and the relevant terminal device information. For example, the first network device and the second network device each configure a data channel for transmitting service data for the terminal device. The information of the data channels respectively configured by the first network device and the second network device is the same. When the first network device fails, the normal transmission of data can be restored through the second network device.

[0106] For example, see Figure 5 , is a schematic diagram of the principle of providing the same cell for the first network device and the second network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 5 Take the public channel including SSB as an example, Figure 5 The uplink data channel refers to the data channel from the terminal device to the network device, and the downlink data channel refers to the data channel from the network device to the terminal device. Figure 5In the example, the contents of SSB1 sent by the first network device and SSB2 sent by the second network device are the same, for example, the PCI of cell A indicated by the first common channel is the same as the PCI of cell B indicated by the second common channel. The first common channel corresponds to cell A, and the optimal beam of cell A is beam 1; the second common channel corresponds to cell B, and the optimal beam of cell B is beam 2. The configuration of the uplink data channel on the first network device is the same as the configuration of the uplink data channel of the second network device, and the configuration of the downlink data channel on the first network device is the same as the configuration of the downlink data channel of the second network device.

[0107] The terminal device receives SSB1, which indicates the resources of PRACH. The terminal device determines the resources of PRACH according to the SSB1, and then initiates an access request on PRACH, and then accesses the first cell. Similarly, the terminal device receives SSB2, and SSB2 indicates the resources of PRACH. The terminal device determines the resources of PRACH according to the SSB2, and then initiates an access request on PRACH, and then accesses the first cell. After the terminal device accesses the first cell, an RRC connection can be established, that is, a transmission link of the terminal device is established. For the convenience of description, the link between the terminal device in the first cell and the first network device is called the first link, and the link between the terminal device in the first cell and the second network device is called the second link. When the second network device is a backup network device for the first network device, the second link is a backup link for the first link accordingly. The first link and the second link can be established at the same time, or the establishment of the second link is later than the establishment of the first link. Take the default initial establishment of the RRC connection of the terminal device in the first cell corresponding to the first network device (i.e., cell A) as an example. When the terminal device accesses the first cell from the first network device, the first network device establishes the first link in cell A. The first network device also establishes a backup link for the first link. For example, while the first network device establishes the first link, in the first cell, it establishes a second link in the cell corresponding to the second network device (i.e., cell B); or subsequently, the first network device establishes a second link in the cell corresponding to the second network device (i.e., cell B). For another example, when a terminal device accesses the first cell from the second network device, the second network device sends an indication message to the first network device, and the indication message instructs the terminal device to access the first cell from the second network device, or the indication message instructs the first network device to establish a first link in the cell corresponding to the first network device (i.e., cell A). The first network device receives the indication message and establishes the first link in cell A. The first network device also establishes a backup link for the first link, for example, while the first network device establishes the first link, it establishes a second link in the cell corresponding to the second network device (i.e., cell B); or subsequently, the first network device establishes a second link in the cell corresponding to the second network device (i.e., cell B).

[0108] Initially, the terminal device can communicate with the first network device in cell A according to the uplink data channel or downlink data channel configured by the first network device. When the terminal device determines that the first network device or cell A is faulty, the terminal device can switch from the service of the first network device to the service of the second network device, and communicate with the second network device in cell B. For the terminal device, cell B and cell A are one cell, so the switching of the terminal device from the service of the first network device to the service of the second network device is actually a beam switching behavior within the cell. The terminal device does not need to release the cell and reselect the cell, so that the normal transmission of service data can be continued faster, fully ensuring the reliability of the network.

[0109] From the perspective of the network side, the terminal device switches from the service of the first network device to the service of the second network device. In fact, the transmission of the terminal device switches from the first link to the second link. Taking downlink transmission as an example, the data to be sent to the terminal device first reaches the SDPA layer of the network device, is processed by the PDCP layer, and is transmitted to the RLC layer. After being processed by the MAC layer and the PHY layer, it is transmitted to the terminal device through the air interface. For the convenience of description, the following takes the data sent by the network device to the terminal device as the first data as an example.

[0110] In one possible implementation, the first data in the embodiment of the present application refers to the data generated by the source coding of the application layer, also referred to as application data or payload. The first data will be processed / encapsulated by each protocol layer during the transmission process. For example, after a certain layer receives the SDU from the upper layer, it adds the header of the protocol stack of the current layer to the SDU, generates the PDU after encapsulation, and then sends the PDU to the next layer. In an embodiment of the present application, the first data carried by a certain protocol layer is actually the SDU or PDU including the first data carried by the protocol layer. In one possible implementation, the first data carried by different protocol layers are different. For example, a certain protocol layer performs at least one of the following processing on the SDU received from the upper layer to obtain the PDU of the layer: segmentation, assembly, or header encapsulation. In another possible implementation, the first data carried by different protocol layers are the same. Optionally, when a certain layer is transparently transmitting the SDU received by it, the SDU and PDU of the layer are the same. For the convenience of description, in the embodiment of the present application, the PDU generated after the first data is encapsulated by each protocol layer is also referred to as the first data, or the PDU obtained by each protocol layer according to the first data is also referred to as the first data. For example, the first data on the PDCP layer is called PDCP SDU or PDCP PDU. The first data on the RLC layer is called RLC SDU or RLC PDU. The first data on the MAC layer is called MAC SDU or MAC PDU. The first data on the PHY layer is called PHY SDU or PHY PDU.

[0111] In order to reduce the transmission delay of the terminal device and make the transmission as uninterrupted as possible, the data to be transmitted can be backed up. For example, the data of the original link is backed up to the backup link. When the original link for transmitting the data fails, the data continues to be sent through the backup link. For example, data can be backed up at the RLC layer. Taking the first network device as the main network device and the second network device as the backup network device as an example, the data of the RLC layer of the first network device can be backed up to the RLC layer of the second network device. For the convenience of description, the RLC layer of the first network device is called the first RLC layer, and the RLC layer of the second network device is called the second RLC layer. Correspondingly. The PDCP layer of the first network device is called the first PDCP layer, and the PDCP layer of the second network device is called the second PDCP layer. The second RLC layer is a backup of the first RLC layer or the second RLC layer is a copy of the first RLC layer.

[0112] like Figure 6 As shown, after the first data arrives at the first PDCP layer from the core network, the first SDAP layer or the first RRC layer, the first PDCP layer sends the first data to the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer respectively. The first data on the first RLC layer and the first data on the second RLC layer are both sent by the first PDCP layer, that is, the first data on the first RLC layer and the first data on the second RLC layer are obtained according to one PDCP layer, and the sources of the two are the same. The scheme can also be described as: the first network device includes a first RLC layer, the second network device includes a second RLC layer, and the data of the first RLC layer and the data of the second RLC layer come from the same PDCP layer. For the same data on the first PDCP layer, the sequence numbers (SN) corresponding to the data on the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer are the same. Through this method, when the RLC packet is subsequently performed, the SN of the RLC PDU of the first link can be aligned with the SN of the RLC PDU on the second link, so that the data of the first RLC layer and the data of the second RLC layer can be used for common packetization. In one possible implementation, when the first network device is available, data is transmitted only on the first link. Each time the first network device sends an RLC SDU, it synchronizes the SN number of the RLC SDU to the RLC layer of the second link to maintain SN synchronization on the RLC layer.

[0113] Assume that the function of the first PDCP layer is implemented by the first control board, the function of the first RLC layer is implemented by the first baseband board, and the function of the second RLC is implemented by the second baseband board. Figure 2In the structure shown, the first control board can send the first data on the first PDCP layer to the second PDCP layer of the second control board, and the second PDCP layer forwards it to the second RLC layer of the second baseband board; or the first control board can directly send the first data on the first PDCP layer to the second RLC layer of the second baseband board. Figure 3 In the structure shown, the first control board can send the first data on the first PDCP layer to the first RLC layer of the first baseband board and the second RLC layer of the second baseband board respectively.

[0114] When the first link is not faulty, the first data is sent sequentially through the first RLC layer, the MAC layer and PHY layer of the first network device, and the air interface, and the second RLC layer does not send data to the MAC layer and the air interface. When the first link fails, the second RLC layer is triggered to send data. The first data on the second RLC layer is sent sequentially through the MAC layer, PHY layer, and air interface of the second network device. Here, "trigger" can be understood as enabling, starting, activating, or indicating.

[0115] It is understandable that by analyzing the SN of the RLC SDU received from the transmitting end, the receiving end can determine which PDUs or segments of the RLC SDU are lost. Based on this, the receiving end can send a status PDU to the transmitting end, and the status PDU is used to indicate which PDUs the receiving end has successfully received and which PDU segments have not been successfully received. The so-called status PDU can also be called a status report. The status report includes the response status of each PDU in at least one PDU, for example, a positive response or confirmation (ACK) or a negative response or non-confirmation (NACK). If a PDU loses some segments of the PDU, the lost part will be required to be retransmitted.

[0116] In the embodiment of the present application, after receiving the status report, the first RLC layer may send it to the second RLC layer so that the second RLC layer updates the cache according to the status report. That is, the status of the second RLC layer is updated based on the status report received by the first RLC layer. For example, for a successfully sent PDU, the second RLC layer may delete it to leave more cache space as much as possible, and the second RLC layer may also obtain the latest data sending window.

[0117] If the function of the first RLC layer is implemented by the first baseband board, the function of the second RLC layer is implemented by the second baseband board. Figure 2In the structure shown, the status report received on the first RLC layer can be sent by the first baseband board to the first control board, and then by the first control board to the second baseband board; or, the status report received on the first RLC layer can be sent by the first baseband board to the first control board, and then by the first control board to the second control board, and then by the second control board to the second baseband board; or, the status report received on the first RLC layer can be sent by the first baseband to the second baseband board. Figure 3 In the structure shown, the status report on the first RLC layer can be sent from the first baseband board to the first control board, and then from the first control board to the second baseband board, or from the first baseband board to the second baseband board.

[0118] It should be noted that, for the first network device and the second network device, in addition to the RLC layer, the MAC layer and the PHY layer may also have a small amount of states and measurements that need to be synchronized with the terminal device to ensure that when a failure of the first link occurs, the second link can take effect immediately.

[0119] As described above, how to improve the reliability of the network under the network architecture provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced. Figure 1-Figure 6 The content shown and the other content mentioned above, Figure 7 The flowchart of the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is exemplified. Figure 7 The communication method 700 provided involves interaction between three communication devices, which are, for example, a first communication device, a second communication device, and a third communication device. For example, the first communication device is a first network device, the second communication device is a second network device, and the third communication device is a terminal device. The steps performed by the network device can be implemented by the RAN device itself, or by a component in the RAN device (such as a control board (chip), a baseband chip, or other processing units or processors). For example, the first network device can be Figure 2 or Figure 3 The first network device in the Figure 2 or Figure 3 The second network device may be a chip (system) in the first network device, for example, a first control board and / or a first baseband board. Figure 2 or Figure 3 The second network device in the Figure 2 or Figure 3The chip (system) in the second network device in the terminal device, for example, the second control board and / or the second baseband board. The first network device and the second network device may be network devices of the same standard. For details, please refer to the above-mentioned related content and will not be repeated here. The steps performed by the terminal device may be implemented by the terminal device itself or by a component in the terminal device (such as a chip, a processing unit, or a processor module). The terminal device may be such as Figure 2 or Figure 3 The terminal device shown, or it can be Figure 2 or Figure 3 The chip (system) in the terminal device.

[0120] See also Figure 7 , is a flow chart of a communication method 700 provided in an embodiment of the present application, Figure 7 The method is introduced from the perspective of the interaction between the first network device, the second network device and the terminal device. The communication method 700 takes the first network device as the main network device and the second network device as the backup network device of the first network device as an example. In the embodiment of the present application, "when...", "if" and "if" all refer to the device making corresponding processing under certain objective circumstances, which is not a time limit, and does not require the device to have a judgment action when it is implemented, nor does it mean that there are other limitations. "If" and "if" are interchangeable. If there is no special explanation, "when..." and "in the case of..." are interchangeable.

[0121] like Figure 7 As shown, the process of the communication method 700 includes the following steps.

[0122] S701. A first network device performs data communication with a terminal device in a first cell.

[0123] The first cell is a cell established by the first network device, for example, the first cell may be a cell A established by the first network device. The first cell may also be a cell established by the second network device. For example, the cell is a cell B established by the second network device. In order to improve the reliability of the network, the cell established by the first network device (such as the aforementioned cell A) and the cell established by the second network device (such as the aforementioned cell B) are presented as the first cell on the air interface.

[0124] Taking the terminal device currently accessing cell A as an example, for example, the first network device can send the first common channel of cell A (i.e., the first cell), the terminal device receives the first common channel, and accesses the first cell according to the information indicated by the first common channel. The terminal device accesses the first cell and can communicate data with the first network device in the first cell. Correspondingly, the first network device can communicate data with the terminal device in the first cell. The terminal device communicates data with the first network device in the first cell, which can be understood as the terminal device communicating data with the first network device through the beam of the first cell (e.g., called the first beam). Here, "data communication" includes uplink transmission and / or downlink transmission. Uplink transmission includes transmission of PUCCH and transmission of PUSCH; downlink transmission includes transmission of PDCCH and transmission of PDSCH. The data in "data communication" includes service data and / or reference signals. Reference signals include but are not limited to SRS and / or CSI-RS.

[0125] S702: When the first network device is unavailable, trigger the second network device to perform data communication with the terminal device in the first cell.

[0126] When the first network device is unavailable, the second network device may be triggered to communicate data with the terminal device in the first cell (i.e., cell B). Triggering the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in the first cell includes: triggering the sending of the RLC SDU of the second RLC layer, or triggering the second RLC layer to start sending the RLC SDU. The second network device communicates data with the terminal device in the first cell, which can be understood as the second network device communicating data with the terminal device through the beam of the first cell (for example, called the second beam). Since the cell A established by the first network device and the cell B established by the second network device appear as the first cell on the air interface, the switching of the terminal device from cell A to cell B is actually a switch within the cell, thereby reducing the transmission delay of the terminal device and even avoiding transmission interruption of the terminal device.

[0127] The unavailability of the first network device includes: failure of the first network device, failure / unavailability of cell A established by the first network device, and failure / unavailability of the working frequency of cell A established by the first network device. The failure of the first network device includes failure of one or more components included in the first network device. In an embodiment of the present application, whether the first network device is available can be determined by the first network device, the terminal device, or the second network device. The second network device can be triggered by the first network device, the terminal device, or the second network device itself to communicate with the terminal device in the first cell. Depending on the execution subject of determining whether the first network device is available, the execution subject that triggers the second network device to communicate with the terminal device in the first cell is also different. As an example, several ways to determine whether the first network device is available are listed below, and embodiments of the present invention include but are not limited to the following situations. The embodiments of the present application can use one of the following, or can use multiple combinations of the following.

[0128] A) It is possible to regularly / periodically detect whether the communication with the first network device is interrupted, that is, regularly / periodically detect whether the first network device is unavailable / failed.

[0129] Mode A is also called heartbeat detection. Heartbeat detection refers to the detection device periodically sending a detection signal to the first network device. If the first network device is available, a response signal to the detection signal will be sent to the detection device within a preset time period; on the contrary, if the first network device is unavailable, a response signal to the detection signal cannot be sent to the detection device within a preset time period. This scheme can be described as: if the detection device does not receive a response signal to the detection signal within a preset time period, it can be considered that the first network device is unavailable, wherein the detection signal is used to detect whether the first network device is unavailable / failed.

[0130] The detection device may be a terminal device, a second network device, or a component included in the first network device, or the detection device may also be other possible devices (e.g., a device for managing the first network device). Depending on the detection device, the execution subject that triggers the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in the first cell is also different, which is described below in different cases.

[0131] 1) The detection device is a terminal device. The terminal device determines that the first network device is unavailable according to mode A, and then the terminal device can trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in the first cell. For example, the terminal device can send a trigger instruction to the second network device to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B. The second network device receives the trigger instruction and starts to send the data stored in the second RLC layer.

[0132] 2) The detection device is a component included in the first network device. When a component included in the first network device determines that the first network device is unavailable according to method A, and the component can communicate with the second network device, then the component can send a trigger instruction to the second network device to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B. The detection device is the first control board of the first network device. If the antenna of the first network device fails, the first network device can send a trigger instruction to the second network device through the first control board to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B.

[0133] 3) The detection device is a device that manages the first network device.

[0134] The detection device may also manage the second network device. When the detection device determines that the first network device is unavailable, it may send a trigger instruction to the second network device to trigger the second network device to perform data communication with the terminal device in cell B.

[0135] 4) The detection device is a second network device. The second network device determines that the first network device is unavailable according to mode A, and then the second network device itself triggers the transmission of the second RLC layer to trigger the second network device to perform data communication with the terminal device in cell B.

[0136] B) The detection device indicates that the first network device is unavailable / failed.

[0137] In approach B, the detection device determines that the first network device is unavailable, and may indicate to the first network device or the second network device that the first network device is unavailable.

[0138] For example, the detection device is a first network device. The first network device determines that the first network device is unavailable and can send indication information to the second network device, where the indication information can indicate that the first network device is unavailable. The second network device receives the indication information and determines that the first network device is unavailable. In this case, the second network device itself triggers the sending of the second RLC layer to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B.

[0139] For another example, the detection device is a terminal device. The terminal device determines that the first network device is unavailable and can send indication information to the second network device, where the indication information can indicate that the first network device is unavailable. The second network device receives the indication information and determines that the first network device is unavailable. In this case, the second network device itself triggers the sending of the second RLC layer to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B.

[0140] For another example, the detection device is a terminal device. The terminal device determines that the first network device is unavailable and can send indication information to the first network device, where the indication information can indicate that the first network device is unavailable. The first network device receives the indication information, determines that the first network device is unavailable, and can trigger the second RLC layer of the second network device to send, so as to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B.

[0141] C) determining that the first network device is unavailable / failed based on a beam failure recovery (BFR) request.

[0142] If the strength of the received signal of the service beam of a cell becomes weak or does not meet the requirements, it can be considered that the beam fails / beam is faulty. Beam failure means that during the communication process between the transmitter and the receiver, the beam that the transmitter or the receiver has selected may no longer be applicable. For example, the link quality corresponding to the beam is poor. In a possible implementation, when the beam fails, it can be considered that the cell fails. For example, if the strength of the received signal of the service beam of cell A established by the first network device becomes weak or does not meet the requirements, the first network device can be considered unavailable.

[0143] When a beam fails, the transmitter or receiver may request BFR so that the beams finally selected by the transmitter and receiver are aligned to ensure communication quality. Therefore, the reusable beam failure recovery request indicates that the first network device is unavailable.

[0144] Specifically to the embodiments of the present application, during the process of establishing an RRC connection between a first network device and a terminal device, the first network device may configure BFR-related information elements for the terminal device to set a detection channel for beam failure in the SSB of the first network device (for example, the first common channel), and set a detection channel for beam recovery in the SSB of the second network device (for example, the second common channel).

[0145] The first network device communicates with the terminal device through the first beam in the first cell. When the terminal device senses that the strength of part of the signal on the first common channel of the first beam is weakened or even disappears, it can be determined that the beam has failed, that is, the first network device is determined to be unavailable. Alternatively, the terminal device determines through measurement that it is impossible to send information to the first network device through the first beam, then determines that the beam has failed. In this case, the terminal device can send a beam failure recovery request in the first cell. Since the first network device has failed, the second network device receives the beam failure recovery request, and it can be considered that the first network device is unavailable. Then the second network device itself triggers the sending of the second RLC layer to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B.

[0146] The second network device determines that the first network device is unavailable, and upon request of the terminal device, the second beam can be restored to communicate with the terminal device in the first cell through the second beam. For example, in the embodiment of the present application, the second public channel remains online, so that if the first network device fails, the terminal device can access cell B according to the second public channel. Figure 8 It can be understood that the second beam is a beam different from the first beam, that is, the index of the second beam is different from the index of the first beam; however, the coverage of the second beam is the same as that of the first beam.

[0147] D) Determining that the first network device is unavailable / failed based on the measurement report of the terminal device.

[0148] Usually, the terminal device performs cell measurement. For example, the terminal device may measure the signal sent in cell A. For example, the terminal device measures SSB and SRS of the first common channel. When SSB is interrupted or the optimal beam changes, the first network device may be considered unavailable. When the strength and quality of SRS are poor, the first network device may also be considered unavailable.

[0149] Therefore, in an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may send a measurement report obtained by the measurement to the first network device or the second network device. The first network device and the second network device may determine whether the first network device is available based on the received measurement report, then the first network device may send a trigger command to the second network device to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B; or, the second network device itself may trigger the sending of the second RLC layer to trigger the second network device to communicate data with the terminal device in cell B. The measurement report may include the quality of the first beam, such as signal strength. Among them, the signal strength of the first beam includes the reference signal receiving power (RSRP) of the transmission channel of the first beam. If the quality of the first beam (such as signal strength) is lower than a certain threshold, it can be considered that the first network device is faulty or unavailable. The measurement report may also include an indication of whether the first beam is the optimal beam. If the first beam is not the optimal beam, it can be considered that the first network device is faulty or unavailable.

[0150] It should be noted that the content included in the measurement report in D) is only an example, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific content included in the measurement report, as long as the device receiving the measurement report can determine that the first network device is unavailable.

[0151] Multiple of the above A)-D) can be used in combination to timely determine that the first network device is unavailable / failed, and to improve the accuracy of determining that the first network device is unavailable. For example, A) and C) can be used at the same time. The configurable heartbeat detection period is 200ms to minimize false alarms. The identification time of beam failure can be configured according to the processing capability of the terminal device, for example, 20ms×2. The terminal device accesses a new beam according to the candidate beam set configured in the BFR, and selects the beam of the backup device covered by the same original beam as expected (for example, about 20ms) to request access recovery. Therefore, beam failure recovery will be triggered first, reducing the fault detection time of the first network device, thereby triggering the terminal device to switch to the backup link more quickly.

[0152] In the above A)-D), unavailable and failure may have the same or different meanings. The failure of the first network device may cause the first network device to be unavailable; the unavailability of the first network device may be caused by the failure of the first network device, or other situations that lead to unavailability, such as the degradation of the link performance between the terminal device and the first network device.

[0153] S703: The second network device performs data communication with the terminal device in the first cell.

[0154] The second network device performs data communication with the terminal device in the first cell, which can also be understood as the second network device performs data communication with the terminal device through the service beam (eg, called the second beam) of cell B. It can be understood that the second beam is different from the first beam.

[0155] In the embodiment of the present application, the first network device and the second network device can back up each other. The cell established by the first network device and the cell established by the second network device appear as one cell on the air interface. When the first network device is unavailable, the terminal device switches from the service of the first network device to the service of the second network device, which is actually a service switch within one cell. Therefore, the terminal device does not need to release the cell and reselect the cell, and can restore the normal transmission of the service more quickly, better ensuring the reliability of the network.

[0156] Fig. 9 Schematic block diagram of a communication device 900 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 900 may be a network device (eg, a first network device or a second network device) or a terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, the communication device 900 may be Figure 2 or Figure 3The communication device 900 is a chip (system) in a network device (such as the first network device or the second network device) or a terminal device. Alternatively, the communication device 900 is a software module in a network device (such as the first network device or the second network device) or a terminal device. For example, the communication device 900 may be Figure 2 or Figure 3 The first control board in the first network device in the Figure 2 or Figure 3 The communication device 900 may correspond to the functions or steps implemented by the terminal device or the first network device or the first network device in the above-mentioned various method embodiments. The communication device 900 may include a processing module 910 and a transceiver module 920. Optionally, a storage unit may be included, which may be used to store instructions (codes or programs) and / or data. The processing module 910 and the transceiver module 920 may be coupled to the storage unit. For example, the processing module 910 may read the instructions (codes or programs) and / or data in the storage unit to implement the corresponding method. The above-mentioned units may be independently arranged or partially or fully integrated.

[0157] In one possible implementation, the processing module 910 may be a processor or a controller, such as a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processing (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. It may implement or execute various exemplary logic blocks, modules and circuits described in conjunction with the disclosure of the present application. The processor may also be a combination that implements a computing function, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, and the like. The transceiver module 920 is a transceiver, an interface circuit, a bus, a pin or other possible communication interface for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented in the form of a chip, the transceiver module 920 is an interface circuit for the chip to receive signals from other chips or devices, or an interface circuit for the chip to send signals to other chips or devices.

[0158] The communication device 900 may further include a storage unit, which may be, for example, a memory. The processing module 910 may execute computer-executable instructions stored in the storage unit. When the communication device 900 is a chip used in a network device or a chip in a terminal device, the storage unit may be a storage unit in the chip, such as a register, a cache, etc. For example, the storage unit may also be a storage unit located outside the chip in the network device / terminal device, such as a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM), etc.

[0159] In some possible implementations, the communication device 900 can implement the behaviors and functions of the first network device in the above method embodiment, for example, Figure 7 The communication device 900 may be a first network device, or a component (such as a chip or circuit) used in the first network device, or a chip or a chipset in the first network device or a part of the chip used to perform the function of the related method, or a device capable of implementing Figure 7 The software module of the method executed by the first network device in the embodiment is not limited. For example, the transceiver module 920 can be used to execute Figure 7 S701 in the illustrated embodiment, and / or other processes for supporting the technology described herein; the processing module 910 is used to execute other processes of the technology described herein.

[0160] In some embodiments, the transceiver module 920 is used to perform data communication with the terminal device in the first cell through the communication device 900. The processing module 910 is used to trigger the second network device to perform data communication with the terminal device in the first cell when the first network device is unavailable.

[0161] As an optional implementation manner, the operating frequency of the communication device 900 is the same as the operating frequency of the second network device.

[0162] As an optional implementation, the transmission channel in the first cell includes a first common channel corresponding to the communication device 900 and a second common channel corresponding to the second network device. The first common channel and the second common channel indicate the same one or more of the following: a cell identifier, synchronization information, broadcast information, system information, or a paging message.

[0163] As an optional implementation, the communication device 900 includes a first RLC layer, and the second network device includes a second RLC layer. The data on the second RLC layer and the data on the first RLC layer are obtained based on the same PDCP layer, and the same data on the PDCP layer has the same sequence number corresponding to the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer.

[0164] As an optional implementation manner, the status of the second RLC layer is updated based on the status report received by the first RLC layer.

[0165] As an optional implementation manner, the processing module 910 is specifically used to trigger the sending of the RLC SDU stored in the second RLC layer, or to trigger the second RLC layer to start sending the stored RLC SDU.

[0166] As an optional implementation method, the communication device 900 communicates data with the terminal device in the first cell, including: the transceiver module 920 communicates data with the terminal device through the first beam; the second network device communicates data with the terminal device in the first cell, including: the second network device communicates data with the terminal device through the second beam; wherein the first beam and the second beam are different.

[0167] As an optional implementation manner, the first network device is unavailable if one or more of the following is satisfied:

[0168] 1) The transceiver module 920 receives a beam failure recovery request from the terminal device; 2) The transceiver module 920 receives a measurement report from the terminal device, wherein the measurement report indicates that the quality of the first beam is lower than a threshold or indicates that the first beam is not an optimal beam, wherein the first beam is a beam used for data communication between the transceiver module 920 and the terminal device; 3) The transceiver module 920 receives indication information, which is used to indicate that the first network device is unavailable / faulty; 4) The transceiver module 920 does not receive a response signal to a detection signal within a preset time period, and the detection signal is used to detect whether the first network device is unavailable / faulty.

[0169] When the communication device 900 is a chip-type device or circuit, the transceiver module may be an input / output circuit and / or a communication interface; the processing module may be an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit.

[0170] Fig.10 1 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1000 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1000 may be a network device (eg, a first network device or a second network device) or a terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiment. For example, the communication device 1000 may be Figure 2 or Figure 3Or the communication device 1000 is a chip (system) in a network device (such as the first network device or the second network device) or a terminal device. For example, the communication device 1000 may be Figure 2 or Figure 3 The first control board in the first network device in the Figure 2 or Figure 3 The second control board in the second network device in the embodiment of the present application can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices. The specific functions can refer to the description in the above method embodiment.

[0171] The communication device 1000 includes one or more processors 1001, which are used to implement or support the communication device 1000 to implement the functions of the terminal device or network device in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application. Please refer to the detailed description in the method example for details, which will not be repeated here. The processor 1001 may also be referred to as a processing unit or a processing module, which may implement certain control functions. The processor 1001 may be a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor, etc. For example, it includes: a baseband processor, a central processing unit, an application processor, a modem processor, a graphics processor, an image signal processor, a digital signal processor, a video codec processor, a controller, a memory, and / or a neural network processor, etc. The baseband processor may be used to process communication protocols and communication data. The central processing unit may be used to control the communication device 1000 (e.g., a first network device or a second network device or a terminal device), execute software programs and / or process data. Different processors may be independent devices, or they may be integrated in one or more processors, for example, integrated in one or more application-specific integrated circuits.

[0172] In one design, the processor 1001 may include a program 1003 (sometimes also referred to as code or instruction), and the program 1003 may be executed on the processor 1001 to enable the communication device 1000 to perform the method described in the following embodiments. In another possible design, the communication device 1000 includes a circuit ( Fig.10 (not shown), the circuit is used to implement the functions of the first network device or the second network device or the terminal device in the above embodiments.

[0173] In one design, the communication device 1000 may include one or more memories 1002 on which a program 1004 (sometimes also referred to as code or instruction) is stored. The program 1004 may be executed on the processor 1001 so that the communication device 1000 performs the method described in the above method embodiment, for example Figure 7 The process shown.

[0174] In one design, the processor 1001 and / or the memory 1002 may include an artificial intelligence (AI) module 1007 and an AI module 1008, and the AI ​​module is used to implement AI-related functions. The AI ​​module may be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, the AI ​​module may include a RAN intelligent controller (RIC) module. For example, the AI ​​module may be a near real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC.

[0175] In a possible design, data may also be stored in the processor 1001 and / or the memory 1002. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or integrated together.

[0176] In a possible design, the communication device 1000 may also include a transceiver 1005 and / or an antenna 1006. The processor 1001 may also be sometimes referred to as a processing unit, which controls the communication device 1000. The transceiver 1005 may also be sometimes referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., which is used to implement the transceiver function of the communication device through the antenna 1006.

[0177] In a possible design, the communication device 1000 may also include one or more of the following components: a wireless communication module, an audio module, an external memory interface, an internal memory, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a power management module, an antenna, a speaker, a microphone, an input / output module, a sensor module, a motor, a camera, or a display screen, etc. It is understood that in some embodiments, the communication device 1000 may include more or fewer components, or some components may be integrated, or some components may be separated. These components may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0178] The communication device in the above embodiment may be a terminal device (or network device), or a circuit, or a chip applied to a terminal device (or network device) or other combined devices, components, etc. having the above terminal device (or network device). When the communication device is a terminal device (or network device), the transceiver module may be a transceiver, which may include an antenna and a radio frequency circuit, etc., and the processing module may be a processor, such as a CPU. When the communication device is a component having the functions of the above terminal device (or network device), the transceiver module may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module may be a processor. When the communication device is a chip system, the communication device may be an FPGA, a dedicated ASIC, a system on chip (SoC), a CPU, a network processor (NP), a DSP, a microcontroller unit (MCU), a programmable logic device (PLD) or other integrated chips. The processing module may be a processor of a chip system. The transceiver module or the communication interface may be an input / output interface or an interface circuit of a chip system. For example, the interface circuit may be a code / data read / write interface circuit. The interface circuit can be used to receive code instructions (the code instructions are stored in the memory, can be read directly from the memory, or can be read from the memory through other devices) and transmit them to the processor; the processor can be used to run the code instructions to execute the method in the above method embodiment. For another example, the interface circuit can also be a signal transmission interface circuit between the communication processor and the transceiver.

[0179] The embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system. Specifically, the communication system includes at least one terminal device and may also include at least two access network devices. Exemplarily, the communication system includes a method for implementing the above Figure 7 Terminal device with related functions and device for realizing the above Figure 7 A first network device with related functions, and a method for implementing the above Figure 7 Alternatively, the communication system includes at least one terminal device and at least two network devices. Exemplarily, the communication system includes a Figure 7 Terminal device and terminal equipment for implementing the above-mentioned terminal device related functions Figure 7 A network device having a first network device-related function, and a network device for implementing the above Figure 7 For details, please refer to the relevant description in the above method embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

[0180] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium including instructions, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to execute Figure 7 A method performed by a terminal device, a first network device, or a second network device.

[0181] The present application also provides a computer program product, including instructions, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to execute Figure 7 A method performed by a terminal device, a first network device, or a second network device.

[0182] The embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor and may also include a memory, for implementing the functions of the terminal device or the first network device or the second network device in the aforementioned method. The chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0183] In order to achieve the above Figure 9-10 In order to realize the functions of the communication device, the embodiment of the present application further provides a chip, including a processor, for supporting the communication device to realize the functions involved in the terminal device or the first network device or the second network device in the above method embodiment. In one possible design, the chip is connected to a memory or the chip includes a memory, and the memory is used to store the computer programs or instructions and data necessary for the communication device.

[0184] It should be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0185] In the embodiments of the present application, the number of nouns, unless otherwise specified, means "singular noun or plural noun", that is, "one or more". "Multiple" means two or more. In view of this, in the embodiments of the present application, "multiple" can also be understood as "at least two". "At least one" can be one or more, for example, at least one is one, two or more. For example, including at least one means including one, two or more, and there is no limit on which ones are included. For example, including at least one of A, B and C, then A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, or A and B and C can be included. Similarly, the understanding of descriptions such as "at least one" is also similar. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, "at least one of A, B and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC or ABC. "And / or" describes the relationship between the associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / ", unless otherwise specified, generally means that the associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0186] Unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority or importance of the multiple objects, and the description of "first" and "second" does not necessarily limit the objects to be different. For example, the first network device and the second network device represent two network devices, and do not limit the priority or importance of the two network devices.

[0187] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0188] Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0189] In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0190] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0191] If the functions are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the part of the technical solution of the present application that contributes essentially or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as USB flash drives, mobile hard disks, read-only memories (ROM), RAM, magnetic disks or optical disks.

[0192] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the present application without departing from the scope of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: include: communicating data with the terminal device in the first cell through the first network device; When the first network device is unavailable, the second network device is triggered to perform data communication with the terminal device in the first cell.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that An operating frequency point of the first network device is the same as an operating frequency point of the second network device.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that The transmission channel in the first cell includes a first common channel corresponding to the first network device and a second common channel corresponding to the second network device; wherein the first common channel and the second common channel indicate the same one or more of the following: cell identification, synchronization information, broadcast information, system information or paging message.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: The first network device includes a first radio link control RLC layer, and the second network device includes a second RLC layer, wherein the data on the second RLC layer and the data on the first RLC layer are obtained based on the same PDCP layer, and the same data on the PDCP layer has the same corresponding sequence number in the first RLC layer and the second RLC layer.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The status of the second RLC layer is updated based on a status report received by the first RLC layer.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that Triggering the second network device to perform data communication with the terminal device in the first cell, including: Triggering the sending of the RLC SDU stored in the second RLC layer.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: Communicating data with a terminal device in a first cell through a first network device includes: communicating data with the terminal device through a first beam; communicating data with a terminal device in the first cell through a second network device includes: communicating data with the terminal device through a second beam; wherein the first beam and the second beam are different.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that: If one or more of the following conditions are met, the first network device is unavailable: receiving a beam failure recovery request from the terminal device; receiving a measurement report of the terminal device, the measurement report indicating that the quality of the first beam is lower than a threshold or indicating that the first beam is not an optimal beam, wherein the first beam is a beam used for data communication between the first network device and the terminal device; receiving indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the first network device is unavailable; No response signal to the detection signal is received within a preset time period, and the detection signal is used to detect whether the first network device is unavailable.

9. A communication method, characterized in that: include: The first network device performs data communication with the terminal device in the first cell; When the first network device is unavailable, a second network device performs data communication with the terminal device in the first cell, wherein when the first network device is unavailable, the second network device is triggered to perform data communication with the terminal device.

10. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises means for implementing the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8.

11. A communication device, characterized in that: The device comprises at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is coupled to a memory, and the at least one processor is configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

12. A communication system, characterized in that: The method comprises a first network device and a second network device, wherein the first network device is used to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8; or the first network device and the second network device are used to implement the method according to claim 9.

13. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions, and when the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

14. A computer program product, characterized in that The method comprises instructions, which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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