Electronic equipment, communication method and storage medium

Abstract

The invention relates to electronic equipment, a communication method and a storage medium. There is provided an electronic device for a base station in a non-terrestrial network, comprising processing circuitry configured to: determine to enable uplink coordinated multi-point transmission for a user equipment (UE) within a serving cell provided by the base station; selecting at least one coordinated cell from neighbor cells at least based on the geographical location of the UE, the coverage and movement information of the serving cell, and the coverage and movement information of the neighbor cells, and determining a coordinated time period of uplink coordinated multi-point transmission; and cooperatively receiving the uplink transmission of the UE through the serving cell and the at least one cooperative cell in the cooperative time period.

Description

Electronic device, communication method, and storage medium

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to Chinese invention patent application 202210632483.1 filed on June 6, 2022, entitled “Electronic device, communication method and storage medium,” the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to an electronic device, a communication method, and a storage medium for using uplink coordinated multi-point transmission (CoMP) in a non-terrestrial network (NTN). Background Art

[0004] In recent years, non-terrestrial communication technologies, such as those based on satellites, have received increasing attention. Non-terrestrial communications can use mobile platforms such as satellites and drones to provide services to terminals on the ground or in the air. Compared to terrestrial communications, non-terrestrial communications have their own advantages and characteristics. For example, they can support the provision of communication services to areas lacking infrastructure (such as mountains, deserts, islands, oceans, etc.) or in the event of terrestrial network interruptions (such as when cellular networks are paralyzed due to earthquakes, tsunamis, or war). In addition, non-terrestrial communications can also make up for the disadvantages of terrestrial communication networks in terms of large-scale dense deployment and high energy consumption.

[0005] The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)'s 5G New Radio (NR) technology also includes non-terrestrial networks (NTN) in its specifications. It includes a satellite component as part of the connectivity infrastructure and defines enhanced features to support NTN. 5G NTN can extend existing terrestrial networks or "fill in" their gaps via satellite links. For example, Internet of Things (IoT) applications located at the edge of coverage or in hard-to-reach locations can access 5G via satellite broadband links.

[0006] In non-terrestrial networks, terminals might be ground-based terminals installed in remote areas for video surveillance, or cameras mounted on non-communication satellites observing space. These terminals may need to transmit large amounts of uplink data to the communications system. These terminals may require upload rates ranging from several megabits to tens of megabits. To meet these requirements, possible solutions include allocating more bandwidth to terminals, using spatial multiplexing technologies such as Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), or increasing transmission power to reduce bit error rates. However, these solutions either require more resources or consume more energy.

[0007] Therefore, there is a need to improve existing non-terrestrial communication technologies to increase uplink transmission capacity of terminals.

[0008] Summary of the Invention

[0009] To address the above-mentioned problems and other issues, the present disclosure provides various aspects of uplink coordinated multi-point transmission applicable to non-terrestrial networks.

[0010] A brief overview of the present disclosure is provided below to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the present disclosure. However, it should be understood that this overview is not an exhaustive overview of the present disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or important parts of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Its purpose is simply to present certain concepts of the present disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that will be given later.

[0011] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for a base station in a non-terrestrial network is provided, comprising: a processing circuit configured to: determine whether to enable uplink multi-point coordinated transmission for a user equipment (UE) within a service cell provided by the base station; select at least one coordinated cell from the neighboring cells based at least on the geographic location of the UE, the coverage and mobility information of the service cell, and the coverage and mobility information of the neighboring cells, and determine a coordinated period for the uplink multi-point coordinated transmission; and, within the coordinated period, receive the uplink transmission of the UE in a coordinated manner through the service cell and the at least one coordinated cell.

[0012] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for a base station in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) is provided, comprising: a processing circuit configured to: receive, from another base station, selection information of a collaborative cell and information of a collaborative period regarding uplink multi-point coordinated transmission of a user equipment (UE); and, in response to the selection information, receive, during the collaborative period, the uplink transmission of the UE in collaboration with a serving cell of the UE through the collaborative cell.

[0013] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, an electronic device for a user equipment (UE) is provided, comprising: a processing circuit configured to: receive information about a scanning beam range of the UE from a serving cell; send an uplink signal using each transmit beam in the scanning beam range; receive indication information about an optimal transmit beam of the UE for uplink multi-point coordinated transmission from the serving cell, wherein the optimal transmit beam is determined based on signal quality of the uplink signal sent by the UE measured by the serving cell and at least one coordinated cell; and perform uplink transmission using the optimal transmit beam.

[0014] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication method is provided, including: determining to enable uplink multi-point coordinated transmission for a user equipment (UE) within a service cell provided by the base station; selecting at least one coordinated cell from the neighboring cells based at least on the geographic location of the UE, the coverage and mobility information of the service cell, and the coverage and mobility information of the neighboring cells, and determining a coordinated period for uplink multi-point coordinated transmission; and receiving the uplink transmission of the UE in a coordinated manner through the service cell and the at least one coordinated cell during the coordinated period.

[0015] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a communication method is provided, comprising: receiving selection information of a collaborative cell and information of a collaborative period regarding uplink multi-point collaborative transmission of a user equipment (UE) from another base station; and in response to the selection information, receiving the uplink transmission of the UE in collaboration with a service cell of the UE through the collaborative cell within the collaborative period.

[0016] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions is provided, wherein the executable instructions implement any one of the above communication methods when executed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The present disclosure may be better understood by referring to the detailed description given below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein the same or similar reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to represent the same or similar elements. All drawings, together with the following detailed description, are incorporated into and form a part of this specification and are used to further illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and to explain the principles and advantages of the present disclosure. Among them:

[0018] FIG1 is a simplified diagram illustrating the architecture of an NR communication system;

[0019] Figure 2 shows two exemplary scenarios of NTN;

[0020] FIG3 is a schematic diagram showing the change of the coverage area of ​​a satellite beam in NTN as the satellite moves;

[0021] 4A-4D illustrate an example of applying uplink CoMP in an NTN according to the present disclosure;

[0022] FIG5 shows a flowchart of uplink CoMP in NTN;

[0023] FIG6 illustrates a schematic diagram of a UE performing uplink transmission in an uplink CoMP period;

[0024] FIG7 shows a flowchart of uplink CoMP in NTN;

[0025] FIG8A shows an example of uplink CoMP based on a joint reception algorithm;

[0026] FIG8B shows an example of uplink CoMP based on a hard decision dynamic cell selection algorithm;

[0027] 9A-9D are schematic diagrams of coordinated cell selection applicable to uplink CoMP scenarios;

[0028] FIG10 shows a flowchart of determining a beam for uplink transmission when uplink CoMP is not applied;

[0029] FIG11 is a schematic diagram showing the projection of the cooperative cell and the serving cell respectively through different satellite base stations;

[0030] FIG12 shows a flowchart of determining a beam for uplink transmission when uplink CoMP is applied in an NTN;

[0031] FIG13 illustrates an example of a scanning beam range according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0032] FIG14 is a schematic diagram showing the timing advance in uplink transmission;

[0033] FIG15 shows a flowchart of adjusting the reception time of a coordinated cell according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0034] 16A and 16B illustrate an electronic device and a communication method on the control device side according to the present disclosure;

[0035] 17A and 17B illustrate an electronic device and a communication method on the control device side according to the present disclosure;

[0036] 18A and 18B illustrate an electronic device and a communication method on a user equipment side according to the present disclosure;

[0037] FIG19 illustrates a first example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure;

[0038] FIG20 illustrates a second example of a schematic configuration of a base station according to the present disclosure;

[0039] FIG21 illustrates a schematic configuration example of a smartphone according to the present disclosure;

[0040] FIG22 illustrates a schematic configuration example of a car navigation device according to the present disclosure.

[0041] The features and aspects of the present disclosure will be clearly understood by reading the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0042] Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. For the sake of clarity and conciseness, not all features of the embodiments are described in this specification. However, it should be noted that when implementing the embodiments of the present disclosure, many implementation-specific settings can be made according to specific needs to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as complying with device and service-related constraints, and these constraints may vary depending on the implementation.

[0043] In addition, it should be noted that in order to avoid obscuring the present disclosure due to unnecessary details, only the processing steps and / or equipment structures that are closely related to at least the technical solution according to the present disclosure are shown in the accompanying drawings, while other details that are not closely related to the present disclosure are omitted.

[0044] To facilitate explanation of the technical solutions of the present disclosure, various aspects of the present disclosure will be described below in the context of 5G NR. However, it should be noted that this does not limit the scope of application of the present disclosure. One or more aspects of the present disclosure may also be applied to already commonly used wireless communication systems such as 4G LTE / LTE-A, or various wireless communication systems to be developed in the future. The architectures, entities, functions, processes, etc. mentioned in the following description are not limited to those in the NR communication system, but may be found in other communication standards.

[0045] Figure 1 is a simplified diagram showing the architecture of a 5G NR communication system. As shown in Figure 1, on the network side, the radio access network (NG-RAN) nodes of the NR communication system include gNBs and ng-eNBs, where gNBs are newly defined in the 5G NR communication standard. They are connected to the 5G core network (5GC) via the NG interface and provide NR user plane and control plane protocols that terminate with terminal devices (also referred to as "user equipment", hereinafter referred to as "UE"). The ng-eNB is a node defined for compatibility with the 4G LTE communication system. It can be an upgrade of the evolved Node B (eNB) of the LTE radio access network. It connects the device to the 5G core network via the NG interface and provides the evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocols that terminate with the UE. There is an Xn interface between NG-RAN nodes (e.g., gNB, ng-eNB) to facilitate mutual communication between the nodes. hereinafter, gNBs and ng-eNBs are collectively referred to as "base stations."

[0046] However, it should be noted that the term "base station" as used in this disclosure is an example of a control device in a wireless communication system and has its full, general meaning. For example, depending on the application scenario of the technical solutions of this disclosure, a base station can be located on an aerial mobile platform such as a satellite, space station, aircraft, airship, hot air balloon, or drone; or it can be located on the ground such as a ground transceiver station or drone control tower. Furthermore, in addition to the gNB and ng-eNB of 5G NR, a base station can also include an eNB, remote radio head, wireless access point, or other communication device performing similar functions in an LTE communication system. The following sections will describe detailed application examples of base stations.

[0047] Furthermore, the term "UE" as used in this disclosure has its full, commonly used meaning and encompasses various terminal devices or in-vehicle devices that communicate with a base station. For example, depending on the application scenario of the technical solutions of this disclosure, a UE may include a mobile phone, laptop computer, tablet computer, in-vehicle communication device, video camera, satellite-based device, or other terminal devices or components thereof. The following sections describe detailed application examples of UE.

[0048] 5G NR can be deployed as a non-terrestrial network (NTN), that is, compared to traditional terrestrial networks, NTN uses typical satellites or high altitude platforms (High Altitude Platform) to lay out the network. Taking satellite communications as an example, theoretically only three geostationary orbit satellites (GEO) are needed to cover the entire world except the polar regions, and its advantages are self-evident. Currently, many satellite communication systems have been commercialized, such as Iridium, Inmarsat, Thuraya, Starlink, etc. It should be noted that although the present disclosure is mainly described using satellites as an example, the NTN according to the present disclosure is not limited to satellites.

[0049] Figure 2 illustrates two exemplary NTN scenarios. As shown in Figure 2(a), for example, in the Sony Space Entertainment Project (SSEP), cameras mounted on small satellites capture videos or images of space and Earth. These captured images are then transmitted to Earth via communications satellites, enabling ordinary viewers to observe outer space and Earth much like astronauts. As shown in Figure 2(b), surveillance equipment installed in remote areas of Earth, for example for environmental monitoring, transmits data via communications satellites to a data center located elsewhere on Earth.

[0050] While satellite communications can significantly expand the application scope of 5G NR, satellite links limit UEs' ability to transmit high-capacity data, particularly in the uplink. By allocating more bandwidth, using MIMO technology, or increasing UE transmit power, bit error rates can be reduced and transmission capacity increased. However, in NTN networks, these technologies have limitations due to factors such as UE transmit power and the long distance between UE and satellite. This is especially true for users at the edge of NTN cells. Due to factors such as weak signal strength and interference from adjacent cells, coupled with the fact that NTN satellite beam coverage can shift rapidly over the ground, UEs need to frequently switch cells, limiting the UE's uplink transmission rate. This makes it difficult to meet the high-speed transmission requirements for video and images.

[0051] In light of this, the present disclosure proposes the application of uplink coordinated multi-point (CoMP) technology in NTNs. Uplink CoMP can be used to increase uplink data transmission capacity. When the bit error rate of uplink data is reduced, the number of retransmissions is also reduced, thereby reducing the overall effective data transmission latency. The principle of uplink CoMP is that multiple adjacent base stations or cells simultaneously receive uplink transmissions from a UE. These base stations or cells then use specific algorithms to improve the decoding success rate of the received uplink data.

[0052] However, the inventors of the present disclosure have noted that applying uplink CoMP in an NTN may face some unique problems because, compared with a terrestrial network (TN), the NTN has its own characteristics:

[0053] (1) Inter-satellite connections are highly dynamic

[0054] A low-orbit satellite typically has only a few (e.g., 2 to 4) neighboring satellites, which greatly limits the number of cooperating base stations available when applying uplink CoMP. Furthermore, low-orbit or medium-orbit satellites orbit the Earth very quickly, and their neighboring satellites may change frequently, which may require frequent replacement of cooperating satellite base stations.

[0055] (2) Satellite beam moves at high speed

[0056] Satellites in low or medium orbits orbit the Earth very quickly, and the projection of satellite beams on the ground (or their coverage in space) moves very quickly. This causes highly dynamic coverage of NTN cells (or base stations) on the ground. Furthermore, because UE beam measurement is based on a traditional mode that does not utilize uplink CoMP, the UE's transmit beam direction is non-optimal when uplink CoMP is applied.

[0057] (3) Limited inter-satellite X2 transmission rate

[0058] Typically, satellites communicate using millimeter waves, with communication rates typically below 10 Gbps. This limits the data transmission rate between satellites when uplink CoMP is employed, especially when multiple UEs employ uplink CoMP under a serving base station.

[0059] Figure 3 shows how the coverage area of ​​satellite beams in an NTN changes as the satellite moves. As shown in Figure 3, assume a satellite base station orbits the Earth to the right. Three beams are projected onto the Earth's surface, forming cells: Cell-1, Cell-2, and Cell-3. As the satellite moves, the projections (coverage areas) of these beams on the Earth's surface also move to the right at a certain speed. Assuming the satellite is 600 kilometers above Earth and the diameter of the beam projection on the ground is approximately 50 kilometers, the beam's speed on the ground is approximately 8 km / s, allowing it to cover a single UE for approximately six seconds.

[0060] Generally speaking, uplink CoMP is used when the UE is at the cell edge, that is, at the intersection and overlap of several cells. As shown in Figure 3, at time T0, the UE is located at the center of cell Cell-1, and uplink CoMP is not required. However, as the beam coverage area rapidly moves, at T1, for example, a few seconds later, the UE is at the intersection and overlap of cells Cell-1 and Cell-2. At this time, uplink CoMP may be required to improve the UE's data transmission capacity. As the satellite base station continues to move to the right, the UE completely enters the coverage area of ​​cell Cell-2 and is located at the center of cell-2. At this time, uplink CoMP is no longer required. This process repeats.

[0061] As shown in Figure 3, in an NTN network, under non-staring beam coverage, UEs' demand for uplink CoMP is intermittent: they may need it for a period of time, then not for another period of time, and then again for another period of time. Furthermore, compared to TN networks, the highly dynamic satellite positions in NTNs create greater uncertainty in the selection of coordinating satellites / cells.

[0062] Based on the above discussion, the present disclosure provides an embodiment of uplink CoMP applicable to NTN. Various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below.

[0063] Uplink CoMP in NTN

[0064] Figures 4A-4D illustrate examples of applying uplink CoMP in an NTN according to the present disclosure. It should be noted that these examples are typical scenarios listed to illustrate the embodiments of the present disclosure and are not intended to limit the scope of application of the present disclosure. In Figures 4A-4D, the UE is shown as a ground terminal, but this is merely illustrative.

[0065] Figure 4A illustrates an example uplink CoMP scenario within a non-transparent satellite base station (hereinafter referred to as "Scenario A"). As used herein, "non-transparent satellite" refers to a satellite that can operate as a base station (e.g., a gNB) and can encode downlink transmissions to the UE and decode uplink transmissions from the UE. In the example shown in Figure 4A, both the UE's serving cell and the coordinating cells participating in uplink CoMP are subordinate cells of the same non-transparent NTN satellite base station (e.g., NTN-gNB-1). In this scenario, uplink CoMP does not require inter-satellite base station data transmission and synchronization.

[0066] Figure 4B shows an example uplink CoMP scenario between non-transparent satellite base stations (hereinafter referred to as "Scenario B"). In this example, the UE's serving cell and the coordinating cells participating in uplink CoMP are subordinate cells of different non-transparent NTN satellite base stations (e.g., NTN-gNB-1, NTN-gNB-2, and NTN-gNB-3). In this scenario, uplink CoMP requires data transmission and synchronization between the satellite base stations.

[0067] Figure 4C illustrates an example uplink CoMP scenario within a transparent satellite base station. As used herein, "transparent satellite" refers to a satellite that simply forwards downlink transmissions to and from the UE without encoding or decoding them. In this sense, the transparent satellite acts as a relay station between the UE and the ground base station, projecting beams from high altitude to form a cell. The example in Figure 4C can be divided into two sub-scenarios:

[0068] Scenario C1: The UE's serving cell and cooperating cell are distinct cells formed by the same transparent satellite (e.g., NTN-sat-1) projecting different beams. This satellite is connected to a ground base station. In this scenario, uplink CoMP eliminates the need for inter-base station data transmission and synchronization.

[0069] Scenario C2: The UE's serving cell and coordinated cell are subordinate cells formed by beams projected by different transparent satellites (e.g., NTN-sat-2 and NTN-sat-3), which are connected to the same ground base station. In this scenario, data transmission and synchronization between base stations are not required.

[0070] Figure 4D shows an example uplink CoMP scenario between transparent satellite base stations (hereinafter referred to as "Scenario D"). The UE's serving cell and cooperating cells are subordinate cells formed by beams projected by different transparent satellites (e.g., NTN-sat-1, NTN-sat-2, and NTN-sat-3). These transparent satellites are connected to different terrestrial base stations. The terrestrial base stations can communicate with each other via an inter-base station interface (e.g., the X2 interface). In this scenario, data transmission and synchronization between the base stations are required.

[0071] The embodiments of the present disclosure can be practiced in various scenarios. Based on the unique characteristics of NTN discussed above, the embodiments of the present disclosure can intermittently enable and disable the UE's uplink CoMP according to the UE's intermittent requirements for uplink coordinated transmission, including:

[0072] – The UE reports its geographical location (on Earth or in space) to the serving cell, and the serving cell collects information about neighboring cells;

[0073] – Determine whether uplink CoMP needs to be enabled for the UE. For example, when the UE is located at the center of an NTN network cell, the network does not use uplink CoMP. When the UE is located at the edge of several NTN network cells, the network uses uplink CoMP.

[0074] – If uplink CoMP is enabled, the serving cell selects a coordinated base station / coordinated cell and determines the start and stop time of uplink CoMP;

[0075] – The serving cell and the coordinated cell cooperate to receive the UE’s uplink transmission from the start time and stop the coordinated reception at the off time;

[0076] – Repeat the above steps until the UE completes its uplink transmission.

[0077] The following describes in detail the process of applying uplink CoMP in an NTN according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, with reference to the accompanying drawings. For ease of description, this disclosure uses the terms "cell" and "base station" interchangeably when describing network-side behaviors, such as a serving cell and a serving base station, or a coordinating cell and a coordinating base station, even though the actual execution entities of these behaviors are located in the base station.

[0078] Figure 5 is a flowchart of uplink CoMP in NTN. As a preliminary step, in S0, the UE's serving cell continuously performs neighbor discovery. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, "neighbors" may include neighbor satellites and / or neighbor cells. For example, for scenario A in Figure 4A and scenario C1 in Figure 4C, "neighbors" may include other cells formed by the same satellite that projects the serving cell by projecting beams in different directions; for scenario B in Figure 4B, "neighbors" may include other base station satellites (and their subordinate cells) adjacent to the base station satellite that projects the serving cell, such as a neighboring base station satellite that has an X2 connection with the serving base station satellite; for scenario C2 in Figure 4C, "neighbors" may include other transparent satellites (and their projected cells) associated with the ground base station to which the serving cell belongs; for scenario D in Figure 4D, "neighbors" may include other transparent satellites (and their subordinate cells) adjacent to the transparent satellite that projects the serving cell. In addition, in S0, the serving cell may also collect various neighbor information, such as but not limited to: the geographic location of the neighbor satellite, ephemeris map, cell beam direction, antenna radiation pattern, etc.

[0079] In S1, a UE with data to send can send a Scheduling Request (SR) and / or a Buffer Status Report (BSR) to the serving cell to request time-frequency resources for sending user data. In the dynamic authorization resource scheduling method, the serving cell can use the DCI containing resource allocation information to dynamically schedule the PUSCH. In the configured authorization resource scheduling method, the serving cell can pre-configure available time-frequency resources for the UE through RRC layer signaling. The UE can then directly use the pre-configured time-frequency resources for PUSCH transmission without having to request the base station to send an uplink authorization each time.

[0080] Next, in S2, the serving cell evaluates whether to enable uplink CoMP for the UE. For example, this evaluation may be based on one or more of the following: the UE's service priority, the amount of data the UE requests to transmit, the presence of neighboring cells, and so on. The evaluation may also be based on other factors to determine whether to enable uplink CoMP for the UE. If, for example, the amount of data the UE requests to upload is small, the evaluation in S2 indicates that uplink CoMP is not necessary for the UE, and the normal uplink transmission process may be followed.

[0081] Conversely, if, for example, the UE requests a large amount of data to upload, and uplink CoMP is considered necessary for the UE in S2, the serving cell sends an uplink grant to the UE in S3 and instructs the UE to report its geographic location, which can include either a location on Earth or in space. The geographic location can use any coordinate system or positioning method, as long as the UE and the serving cell can reach an agreement on it. Optionally, the serving cell can also instruct the UE to report its beam direction and antenna radiation pattern.

[0082] According to the instruction of the serving cell, in S4, the UE reports its geographical location, beam direction, antenna radiation pattern and other information.

[0083] Subsequently, in S5, the serving cell selects a coordinated cell that can be used for uplink CoMP based on the UE information, the serving cell's own information, and the collected neighbor cell information (described in detail later), and determines an uplink CoMP period.

[0084] As an example, the serving cell may determine the coverage of the serving cell based on the geographic location, beam direction, and / or antenna radiation pattern of the satellite associated with the serving cell, and determine the mobility information of the serving cell based on the geographic location and ephemeris of the satellite associated with the serving cell; similarly, the serving cell may determine the coverage of the neighboring cell based on the geographic location, beam direction, and / or antenna radiation pattern of the satellite associated with each neighboring cell, and determine the mobility information of the neighboring cell based on the geographic location and ephemeris of the satellite associated with the neighboring cell. Based on the geographic location (optionally, beam direction and antenna radiation pattern) reported by the UE, the determined coverage and mobility information of the serving cell and neighboring cell, the serving cell may select one or more coordinated cells suitable for uplink CoMP from the neighboring cells. In addition, the serving cell may also determine the uplink CoMP period, including the start time and end time of the uplink CoMP. For example, the uplink CoMP period includes the time when the UE is in the edge overlap portion of the cell.

[0085] In S6, the serving cell may notify the selected neighbor cell (hereinafter referred to as the "cooperating cell") of the selected neighbor cell and information about the uplink CoMP period. Optionally, the serving cell may also send other information to the cooperating cell to facilitate the cooperating cell's reception of the UE's uplink data transmission, such as information about the time-frequency resources allocated to the UE.

[0086] Figure 6 illustrates a UE performing uplink transmissions during an uplink CoMP period. The UE begins uplink data transmission using the time-frequency resources allocated by the serving cell. The coordinating cell begins receiving the UE's uplink transmissions from the start time of the uplink CoMP period. During the uplink CoMP period, the coordinating cell continuously receives the UE's uplink transmissions and, according to a specific algorithm (described below), collaborates with the UE's serving cell to perform coordinated reception of the UE's uplink data. Upon reaching the end time of the uplink CoMP period, the coordinating cell ceases uplink reception for the UE.

[0087] If the UE's data transmission is not yet completed, the serving cell can reselect a coordinated cell and another uplink CoMP period for it. As shown in Figure 7, in S10, the serving cell continuously performs neighbor discovery and collects various neighbor information, such as the geographic location of neighbor satellites, ephemeris maps, cell beam direction, antenna radiation pattern, etc.

[0088] In S13, the serving cell instructs the UE to update its geographic location. In response to the instruction, in S14, the UE reports its current geographic location to the serving cell.

[0089] In S15, the serving cell selects a cooperating cell that can be used for uplink CoMP based on the updated geographic location of the UE, information about the serving cell itself, and collected information about neighboring cells, and determines an uplink CoMP period. This step may be similar to S5 described above with reference to FIG5 and will not be repeated here.

[0090] In S16, the serving cell may notify the selected neighbor cell (hereinafter referred to as "cooperating cell") of the selected neighbor cell and information about the uplink CoMP period. Optionally, the serving cell may also send other necessary information required to receive the UE's uplink data transmission to the cooperating cell.

[0091] Through the process described above, the NTN can switch between using and not using uplink CoMP based on the UE location and continuously switch on demand to meet the intermittent characteristics of the UE's demand for uplink CoMP.

[0092] Here we briefly introduce the process of uplink data transmission. Uplink data transmission from the UE to the base station is completed through the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH). 5G NR generally supports two uplink transmission schemes: codebook-based transmission and non-codebook-based transmission. For codebook-based transmission, the base station provides the UE with a transmit precoding matrix indication (TPMI) in the downlink control information (DCI), which the UE can use to select the transmit precoder for the PUSCH from the codebook. For non-codebook-based transmission, the UE determines its transmit precoder for the PUSCH based on the wideband SRS resource indicator (SRI) field in the DCI.

[0093] User data from the MAC layer is processed as a transport block (TB) and needs to go through a series of uplink physical layer processing to be mapped to the physical layer transmission channel. The uplink physical layer processing generally includes: adding cyclic redundancy check (CRC) to the transport block, code block segmentation and code block CRC addition, channel coding, physical layer HARQ processing, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, transform precoding and precoding, and mapping to allocated resources and antenna ports.

[0094] Using various signal processing functions at the physical layer, the bit stream representing user data is encoded and modulated into OFDM symbols. These symbols are then transmitted by the antenna array using the allocated time-frequency resources to the corresponding satellite. The base station can then decode the user data by performing the inverse of these signal processing operations.

[0095] Various algorithms may be used for uplink CoMP between the serving cell and the cooperating cell, including but not limited to: Joint Reception (JR), Hard Decision Dynamic Cell Selection (HDDCS), Soft Information Combiantion (SIC), and the like.

[0096] Figure 8A illustrates an example of uplink CoMP based on a joint reception algorithm. As shown in Figure 8A , during the uplink CoMP period described with reference to Figures 5-7 , the serving cell and the cooperating cell collaborate to receive uplink data from the UE. The cooperating cell then transmits the received uplink data from the UE to the serving cell. The serving cell jointly decodes the UE's uplink data received by the serving cell and the UE's uplink data received by the cooperating cell to obtain the UE's uplink data.

[0097] Figure 8B illustrates an example of uplink CoMP based on a hard-decision dynamic cell selection algorithm. As shown in Figure 8B , during the uplink CoMP period described with reference to Figures 5-7 , the serving cell and the cooperating cells collaborate to receive uplink data from the UE. The serving cell performs data error checking on the received UE uplink data. If there are no reception errors, the serving cell sends a message indicating successful reception to the cooperating cell; otherwise, it sends a message indicating a reception failure. If the cooperating cell receives a message indicating a reception success, it discards the received UE uplink data. If the cooperating cell receives a message indicating a reception failure, it checks the received UE uplink data. If there are no reception errors, it sends the received UE uplink data to the serving cell; if there are errors, it sends a message indicating a reception failure to the serving base station. When all cooperating cells return a message indicating a reception failure to the serving cell, indicating that all cells participating in uplink CoMP have failed to receive data, the serving cell then sends a negative acknowledgement (NACK) regarding the PUSCH transmission to the UE. The UE will then retransmit the data until the UE data is correctly received or the maximum number of retransmissions is reached.

[0098] Selection of cooperative base stations / cells

[0099] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when uplink CoMP is applied in an NTN network, a serving cell can select a satellite, base station, or even a cell suitable for cooperation. The following describes the method for selecting a cooperative base station / cell according to the present disclosure with reference to the scenarios illustrated in Figures 4A-4D.

[0100] (1) For uplink CoMP within satellite / base station

[0101] In scenario A described in reference figure 4A and scenario C1 described in reference figure 4C, both the serving cell and the cooperating cell come from the same satellite and base station. In such a scenario, the factors for selecting a cooperating cell may include one or more of the following: 1) Proximity, for example, the cooperating cell should be a neighbor cell of the serving cell; 2) Signal quality, for example, the signal quality of the UE received by the cooperating cell should be better than a predetermined threshold Q1 for at least a predetermined time T1; 3) Possible coverage time, for example, the time that can be used as a cooperating cell is the longest among all neighbor cells.

[0102] Figure 9A is a schematic diagram of cooperating cell selection applicable to this scenario. In the example shown in Figure 9A, the neighbor cells of the serving cell of the UE include Cell-1, Cell-2, …, Cell-6 projected by the same satellite. Assume that the signal quality of the UE is detected to be better than the predetermined threshold on only cells Cell-2, Cell-3, and Cell-4 for more than T1, so these three cells may be candidates for the cooperating cell. Additionally, based on the geographical location of the UE, the coverage range of each neighbor cell (e.g., based on the beam direction and antenna radiation pattern of the neighbor cell), and the movement information (e.g., based on the satellite ephemeris), the serving cell determines the possible coverage time of the three cells for the UE. For example, in Figure 9A, cell Cell-4 is moving away from the UE, while cells Cell-2 and Cell-3 are covering or approaching the UE. Therefore, the serving cell can determine that the possible coverage time of cells Cell-2 and Cell-3 is longer than that of cell Cell-4. According to the requirements of uplink CoMP, the serving cell can finally select two cells, Cell-2 and Cell-3, with the longest possible coverage time as the cooperating cells.

[0103] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the specific steps of the cooperating cell selection method may include:

[0104] 1) The serving cell determines its neighbor cell set {nC1, nC2, nC3, ……}, 1 ≤ i ≤ N1, and any neighbor cell nCi is projected by the same satellite and belongs to the same satellite base station (scenario A) or the same terrestrial base station (scenario C1);

[0105] 2) The serving cell obtains the geographical location GL of the UE UE ;

[0106] 3) Based on GL UE , the beam direction and antenna radiation pattern of the neighbor cell nCi, the serving cell determines the candidate cooperating cell set {cC1, cC2, cC3, ……}, i ≤ N2, where N2 ≤ N1;

[0107] 4) The base station instructs the serving cell and each candidate coordinated cell to measure the UE's uplink signal quality, such as reference signal received power (RSRP). If it is detected that the signal quality (such as RSRP) received by the candidate coordinated cell from the UE is better than a predetermined threshold Q1 for at least a predetermined time T1, the cell has the potential to serve as the UE's uplink CoMP coordinated cell.

[0108] 5) The serving cell collects the signal quality measurement results of all candidate coordinated cells. For those cells where the received signal quality is better than Q1 for at least T1, the serving cell estimates their possible coverage time for the UE.

[0109] 6) Finally, the serving cell selects N F The final coordinated cells are selected, that is, those candidate coordinated cells that may have the longest coverage time.

[0110] It should be noted that the order of the above steps may be illustrative, and the order of some steps can be exchanged or performed simultaneously. For example, the serving cell may first consider the possible coverage time and then the signal quality, as long as a cooperative cell that meets the needs can be selected.

[0111] (2) For uplink CoMP between satellite base stations

[0112] In scenario B described with reference to FIG4B , the serving cell and the cooperating cell may be from different satellite base stations. In this scenario, factors for selecting a cooperating cell may include one or more of the following: 1) proximity, for example, the cooperating satellite base station should be a one-hop neighbor of the serving satellite base station; 2) connection time, for example, the cooperating satellite base station should maintain a connection with the serving satellite base station that meets quality requirements for a sufficient duration; 3) signal quality, for example, the cooperating satellite base station should be able to receive the UE's signal, and the received signal quality should meet requirements; 4) possible coverage time, for example, the time it can serve as a cooperating base station is the longest among all neighboring base stations.

[0113] Based on the above principle, the cooperative satellite base stations that maintain the same or similar moving direction as the serving satellite base station are most likely to be selected. The movement directions of these cooperative satellite base stations and the serving satellite base station can be known from the satellite's ephemeris map.

[0114] Figure 9B illustrates cooperative cell selection for this scenario. Assume that a serving satellite base station (e.g., serving gNB) is surrounded by four satellite base stations: gNB-1, gNB-2, gNB-3, and gNB-4. However, only gNB-1, gNB-2, and gNB-3 are one-hop neighbors of the serving satellite base station and have X2 interface connections. gNB-4 is not a one-hop neighbor of the serving satellite base station and has no X2 interface connection with the serving base station. Therefore, gNB-4 is eliminated from the selection process. Of the remaining three satellite base stations, gNB-1 has a different direction of motion from the serving base station's satellite, and its connection time with the serving base station's satellite may not be sufficient to meet the UE's uplink transmission needs. Therefore, it is eliminated. gNB-2 has the same direction of motion as the serving base station's satellite and can receive the terminal's signal with quality requirements, so it is selected. Assume that gNB-3, while having the same direction of motion as the serving satellite base station and maintaining a long connection with the serving satellite base station, cannot receive the UE's signal and is therefore eliminated. Therefore, gNB-2 is ultimately selected as the cooperative satellite base station.

[0115] In the example of Figure 9B , if gNB-2 has multiple subordinate cells, all of these cells can be selected as uplink CoMP cooperating cells for the UE. Preferably, the serving cell can select the most suitable uplink CoMP cooperating cell for the UE based on the UE's geographic location, the coverage of each gNB-2 cell (e.g., based on the cell's beam direction and antenna radiation pattern), and mobility information (e.g., based on satellite ephemeris).

[0116] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the specific steps of the method for selecting a cooperative satellite base station may include:

[0117] 1) The serving satellite base station performs neighbor discovery to find its one-hop neighbor satellite base station set Sn;

[0118] 2) The serving satellite base station establishes an X2 connection with the one-hop neighbor satellite base station (if there was no X2 connection before);

[0119] 3) The serving satellite base station requires the one-hop neighboring satellite base station to receive and measure the signal quality of the UE's uplink signal, such as RSRP;

[0120] 4) Each neighboring satellite base station reports the signal quality of the UE's uplink signal to the serving satellite base station;

[0121] 5) The serving satellite base station selects Nc neighboring satellite base stations with the best signal quality measurement results;

[0122] 6) Based on the ephemeris of these Nc neighboring satellite base stations, the serving satellite base station estimates the time that each neighboring satellite base station can maintain a connection with the serving base station;

[0123] 7) Based on the UE's geographic location, the beam direction of each neighboring satellite base station, and the antenna radiation pattern, the serving satellite base station estimates the possible coverage time of each neighboring satellite base station for the UE;

[0124] 8) The serving satellite base station selects Nf neighboring satellite base stations with which it can have the longest connection time and / or the longest possible coverage time as cooperative satellite base stations.

[0125] The above steps can be used to select the satellite base station level, but when the neighboring satellite base station has multiple subordinate cells, the comparison / sorting can be specific to the cell level, that is, one or more specific cells are selected as collaborative cells based at least on the measurement results of the neighboring satellite base station's cell on the UE's uplink signal, the possible coverage time for the UE, and the connection time with the serving satellite base station.

[0126] (3) Uplink CoMP for transparent satellites and ground base stations

[0127] In scenario C2 described with reference to Figures 4C and 9C , the serving cell and the coordinated cell may originate from different transparent satellites but belong to the same ground base station. In this scenario, multiple transparent satellites are connected to the same ground base station, and each transparent satellite transmits one or more coverage beams, each of which may be a cell. In this scenario, the factors for selecting a coordinated cell may be one or more of the following: 1) proximity, for example, the coordinated cell should be a neighboring cell of the serving cell; 2) signal quality, for example, the transparent satellite of the coordinated cell can receive the UE's uplink signal and meet certain quality requirements; 3) possible coverage time, the beam of the transparent satellite of the coordinated cell can cover the UE for as long as possible.

[0128] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the specific steps of the coordinated cell selection method may include:

[0129] 1) Based on the UE's geographic location and the ephemeris of the transparent satellites connected to the ground base station, the serving cell determines the set of transparent satellites that may provide cooperative cells;

[0130] 2) The serving cell requests cells that may serve as transparent satellites of the coordinated cell to receive the UE's uplink signal, and selects Nc cells with the best signal reception quality as candidate coordinated cells (transparent satellites);

[0131] 3) Based on the UE's geographic satellite, the beam direction, antenna radiation pattern, etc. of the candidate cooperating cells, the serving cell estimates the possible coverage time of each candidate cooperating cell to the UE;

[0132] 4) The serving cell finally determines Nf cells that can cover the UE the longest as coordinated cells.

[0133] (4) Uplink CoMP between transparent satellites and ground base stations

[0134] In scenario D described with reference to FIG4D and FIG9D , multiple adjacent transparent satellites are connected to different ground base stations, and each transparent satellite transmits one or more beams to form one or more cells. In this scenario, the principles for selecting a cooperative base station may include one or more of the following: 1) proximity, for example, the serving base station (ground) and the cooperative base station (ground) have an X2 interface connection; 2) signal quality, for example, the cell of the cooperative base station can receive the UE's signal, and the signal quality is better than a set threshold; 3) possible coverage time, for example, the longer the time it can serve as a cooperative base station, the better (the moving direction of the transparent satellite of the cooperative base station is as similar or similar as possible to the moving direction of the transparent satellite of the serving base station).

[0135] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a method for selecting a cooperative base station may include the following steps:

[0136] 1) The serving base station and other ground base stations exchange information about their respective transparent satellites through the X2 interface, including geographic location, beam direction of subordinate cells, antenna radiation pattern, ephemeris map, etc.

[0137] 2) The serving base station determines possible cooperative base stations based on the UE's geographic location and the exchanged information.

[0138] 3) The serving base station requests possible cooperative base stations (via corresponding transparent satellites) to receive the UE's uplink signal;

[0139] 4) The serving base station selects Nc possible cooperative base stations with the best signal quality as candidate cooperative base stations;

[0140] 5) Based on the ephemeris of the transparent satellites corresponding to the candidate cooperative base stations, the beam direction and antenna radiation pattern of the subordinate cells, the geographical location of the UE, and other information, the serving base station estimates the possible coverage time of these Nc candidate cooperative base stations for the UE;

[0141] 6) The serving base station finally determines the Nf coordinated base stations that may have the longest coverage time for the UE.

[0142] The above steps can select the ground base station level, but when the ground base station has multiple subordinate cells, the comparison / sorting can be specific to the cell level, that is, at least based on the measurement results of the ground base station's cell on the UE's uplink signal and the possible coverage time for the UE, select one or more specific cells as collaborative cells.

[0143] Optimization of UE transmit beam

[0144] To combat significant path impairments in the channel, satellites and UEs can have multiple antennas that can form narrow directivity spatial beams through beamforming to provide strong power coverage in a specific direction. Typically, satellites and UEs can determine the transmit and receive beams to use through beam scanning.

[0145] FIG10 shows a flowchart of determining the beam for uplink transmission when uplink CoMP is not applied. As shown in FIG10 , the serving cell can trigger the UE to perform beam scanning using a preconfigured reference signal resource set. Assume that the UE has a beam scanned by its n t_UL Each of the transmit beams sends n r_UL Uplink reference signals (eg, Sounding Reference Signal (SRS)). In this way, the serving cell transmits n r_UL The receiving beams receive a total of n t_UL ×n r_UL Uplink reference signal. The serving cell t_UL ×n r_UL The method measures an uplink reference signal, such as RSRP, and indicates the reference signal with the best measurement result to the UE, for example, through a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state, so that the UE can use the uplink transmit beam that sends the indicated reference signal during the beam scanning process for uplink transmission.

[0146] The UE transmit beam determined in this way may ensure the best reception of the serving cell. However, after applying uplink CoMP, it may not necessarily ensure the best reception of the coordinated cell. Figure 11 shows a schematic diagram of projecting the coordinated cell and the serving cell respectively through different satellite base stations. The UE transmit beam determined by the beam scanning between the UE and the serving base station can be well aligned with the channel direction of the serving base station, assuming that its beam direction is D1. In traditional uplink CoMP, the UE's transmission behavior is not affected, so the UE will always transmit the beam in the optimal direction D1 aligned with the serving base station for uplink data transmission. However, in uplink CoMP, there are multiple base stations or cells receiving the uplink data of the target terminal, so only aligning the beam direction D1 of the serving base station / cell may result in non-optimal reception of the coordinated base station / cell. Especially in satellite communications, due to the high-speed movement of the satellite, the beam direction of multi-point coordinated transmission will need to be dynamically adjusted.

[0147] According to embodiments of the present disclosure, during the uplink CoMP process, the UE's transmit beam direction is dynamically adjusted to achieve better joint reception and optimal transmission performance, particularly for scenario B shown in FIG4B , scenario C2 shown in FIG4C , and scenario D shown in FIG4D . FIG12 shows a flowchart for determining a beam for uplink transmission when uplink CoMP is applied in an NTN.

[0148] First, in S31, the serving cell may determine the scanning beam range of the uplink CoMP. The scanning beam range may be determined by the serving cell based on the UE's geographic location, information about the serving cell (e.g., geographic location of the satellite, beam direction, antenna radiation pattern), and information about the coordinated cell (e.g., geographic location of the satellite, beam direction, antenna radiation pattern). As an example, the scanning beam range may come from a beam codebook pre-configured for the UE, that is, a subset of the beam codebook. The beam codebook is a set of beams with different directions, which may be identified, for example, by an SRS resource set (SRSResourceSet) or a CSI-RS resource set (CSI-RSResourceSet). The scanning beam range may be determined as a set of several beams, for example, between the direction in which the UE is aimed at the satellite projecting the serving cell (e.g., determined based on the UE's geographic location and the geographic location of the satellite projecting the serving cell) and the direction in which the UE is aimed at the satellite projecting the coordinated cell (e.g., determined based on the UE's geographic location and the geographic location of the satellite projecting the coordinated cell).

[0149] In S32, the serving cell may notify the UE of the determined uplink CoMP scanning beam range. For example, this notification may be implemented via a newly defined field in the Downlink Control Information (DCI). As an example, the field in the DCI may list the beams in the scanning beam range (e.g., using SRSResourceID or CSI-RSResourceID), or describe the index range of the beams in the scanning beam range.

[0150] Figure 13 shows an example of a scanning beam range according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Assuming that a beam set {D0, D1, D2, ...} is pre-configured for the UE, these beams can be indexed in the order shown in Figure 13. Then, through the newly added bits or reserved bits in the DCI, the serving cell can inform the UE of the scanning beam range for uplink CoMP. The number of bits required may depend on the number of beams in the pre-configured beam set. For example, for beams D0 to D8 in Figure 13, a minimum of 4 bits can be used. If uplink CoMP is not applied, these bits are all 0, such as "0000". Otherwise, a bit value that is not all 0 is used to indicate the range of beam scanning for uplink CoMP by the UE. For example, "0110" can be used to indicate the use of beams D0 to D6 as the scanning beam range. At this time, the UE interprets "0110" as the index of the end beam D6 of the scanning beam range (i.e., 0110=6), and the default starting beam of the scanning beam range is D0. It should be noted that the notification method for scanning the beam range may not be limited to this, and may not even be limited to using DCI, for example, MAC CE may also be used.

[0151] In S33, the serving cell (e.g., via DCI) triggers the UE to perform uplink CoMP beam scanning. In response to this trigger, in S34, the UE may perform beam scanning with the serving cell and the cooperating cell. Specifically, the UE may transmit a reference signal, such as an SRS, using each beam within the scanned beam range. Both the serving cell and the cooperating cell receive and measure the reference signal transmitted by the UE. The cooperating cell feeds back the measurement results to the serving cell. Based on its own measurement results and the measurement results of the cooperating cell, the serving cell may determine the optimal UE transmit beam for joint reception by the serving cell and the cooperating cell.

[0152] In S35, the serving cell indicates the optimal transmit beam to the UE, for example, by indicating the TCI status associated with the transmit beam. Subsequently, during the uplink CoMP period, the UE can use the optimal transmit beam notified by the serving cell to transmit uplink data. The serving cell and cooperating cells can then use the receive beam corresponding to the UE's optimal transmit beam in S34 for reception. This achieves beam optimization in uplink CoMP.

[0153] Considering that the positions of satellites in NTN are highly dynamic, the serving cell may repeat the process in FIG12 at regular intervals or when the signal quality of the UE drops below a certain threshold to re-optimize the beam suitable for uplink CoMP.

[0154] As described above, UEs in NTN networks have intermittent requirements for uplink CoMP. For a period of time after implementing uplink CoMP, a UE may be located at the center of a cell and no longer require uplink CoMP. In this case, uplink CoMP is disabled, and only the serving cell receives the UE's uplink signal. However, if the UE continues to use beams optimized for uplink CoMP, optimal reception may not be achieved. Therefore, according to the present disclosure, after uplink CoMP is disabled, the UE and the serving cell can perform the process shown in Figure 10, allowing the UE to use beams optimized for non-CoMP scenarios for uplink transmission.

[0155] Uplink CoMP reception time adjustment

[0156] In the uplink CoMP of NTN, the distances from the UE to different satellites may vary greatly, so the time advance (TA) from the UE to different satellites (transparent or non-transparent) may be different.

[0157] Time advance is used for UE uplink transmission, which means that the system frame of UE sending uplink data should be a certain time ahead of the corresponding downlink frame. Figure 14 shows a schematic diagram of time advance. As shown in the figure, the downlink frame sent by the base station is at T P1 After being received by UE, T P1 Corresponding to the propagation time of electromagnetic waves between the base station and the UE. In order to align the uplink frame sent by the UE with the downlink frame at the base station, the UE can advance the sending time of the uplink frame by 2T P1 Different UEs usually have different timing advances. For example, as shown in Figure 14, the timing advance of another UE may be 2T P2 The specific timing advance is calculated by the base station based on the random access preamble sent by the UE, and then notified to the UE through a timing advance command (TAC).

[0158] However, in uplink CoMP, a UE is unaware of the existence of other cooperating satellites when transmitting data to the serving base station. In this case, the UE only uses the TA appropriate for the serving base station for uplink data transmission and cannot transmit uplink data using the TA appropriate for each cooperating satellite. This may result in time misalignment at some or all cooperating base stations.

[0159] To this end, embodiments of the present disclosure can adjust the reception time (RT) of each coordinated base station / cell. Figure 15 shows a flow chart of adjusting the reception time of a coordinated cell according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0160] As shown in Figure 15, first, the UE can send a preamble to the serving cell and each coordinated cell. Based on the received preamble, the serving cell and the coordinated cell measure the time advance between them and the UE respectively. Assuming that the measured result is TA c-i , i = 1, 2, ... K (K is the number of coordinated cells). For example, in Figure 15, the coordinated cell 1 measures TA c-1 , the service cell 1 measures TA s , cooperative cell 2 measures TA c-2 .

[0161] The serving cell can advance the measurement time by TA s Sent to each coordinated cell. Each coordinated cell infers the UE uplink transmission to its own reception delay DE c-i =TA s -TA c-i , i=1, 2,…K.

[0162] Finally, in uplink CoMP, when each coordinated cell receives uplink data from the UE, it delays (or advances) its own receiving window by the absolute value abs(DE c-i ). When DE c-i When it is positive, the absolute value of the delay of the coordinated cell abs(DE c-i ), when DE c-i When negative, the absolute value abs(DE c-i ). In other words, in the uplink CoMP process described with reference to FIG5 and FIG7, the uplink CoMP period notified by the serving cell to the cooperating cell may be based on the local clock of the serving cell, and the cooperating cell may calculate the reception delay DE according to the above calculation. c-i to adjust the start and end time of collaborative reception.

[0163] Electronic device and communication method

[0164] Next, electronic devices and communication methods to which embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied are described.

[0165] 16A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 100 according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 100 may be a component of a serving base station (eg, a satellite base station or a terrestrial base station) serving as a UE in an NTN.

[0166] As shown in FIG16A , electronic device 100 includes processing circuitry 101. Processing circuitry 101 includes at least an enabling unit 102, a determining unit 103, and a receiving unit 104. Processing circuitry 101 may be configured to execute the communication method shown in FIG16B . Processing circuitry 101 may refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that performs functions in a UE.

[0167] The enabling unit 102 of the processing circuit 101 is configured to enable uplink CoMP for UEs within a serving cell provided by a base station, ie, execute step S101 in FIG16B .

[0168] In response to enabling uplink CoMP for the UE by the enabling unit 102, the determining unit 103 is configured to select at least one cooperating cell from the neighboring cells based at least on the UE's geographic location, the coverage and mobility information of the serving cell, and the coverage and mobility information of the neighboring cells, and determine an uplink CoMP coordination period, i.e., executing step S202 in FIG16B . The UE's geographic location may be reported by the UE, the coverage of the serving cell and neighboring cells may be based on the cell beam direction and antenna radiation pattern, and the mobility information may be based on the ephemeris of the associated satellites.

[0169] Preferably, when selecting a collaborative cell, the determination unit 103 may consider one or more factors including the signal quality measurement result of the cell's uplink signal to the UE, the possible coverage time of the cell to the UE, and the connection time between the satellite where the serving cell is located and the satellite base station where the collaborative cell is located.

[0170] The receiving unit 104 is configured to receive uplink transmission of the UE in coordination with the serving cell and at least one coordinated cell during the coordination period, ie, to execute step S103 in FIG16B .

[0171] Preferably, the processing circuit 101 may further include a unit (not shown) for optimizing the uplink CoMP beam. The unit is configured to determine the scanning beam range of the UE, indicate the determined scanning beam range to the UE, obtain the signal quality of the uplink signal sent by the UE through each transmit beam in the scanning beam range by the serving cell and the cooperating cell, and determine the transmit beam used by the UE for uplink CoMP based on the measurement results.

[0172] The electronic device 100 may further include a communication unit 105. The communication unit 105 may be configured to communicate with a UE, other satellites, or base stations under the control of the processing circuit 101. In one example, the communication unit 105 may be implemented as a transceiver, including communication components such as an antenna array and / or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 105 is depicted with a dashed line because it may also be located outside the electronic device 100.

[0173] The electronic device 100 may further include a memory 106. The memory 106 may store various data and instructions, such as programs and data used for the operation of the electronic device 100, various data generated by the processing circuit 101, various control signals or service data sent or received by the communication unit 105, etc. The memory 106 is drawn with a dotted line because it may be located within the processing circuit 101 or outside the electronic device 100.

[0174] 17A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 200 according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 200 may be a component of a cooperative base station (eg, a satellite base station or a terrestrial base station) serving as a UE in an NTN.

[0175] As shown in FIG17A , electronic device 200 includes processing circuitry 201. Processing circuitry 201 includes at least an information receiving unit 202 and a cooperation receiving unit 203. Processing circuitry 201 can be configured to execute the communication method shown in FIG17B . Processing circuitry 201 can refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that performs functions in a base station device.

[0176] The information receiving unit 202 may be configured to receive, from another base station, selection information regarding a coordinated cell for uplink CoMP of the UE and information regarding a coordinated period, i.e., to execute step S201 in FIG17B . The other base station is a serving base station for which uplink CoMP is enabled. The selection information received by the information receiving unit 202 indicates that the cell of the current base station is selected as a coordinated cell for uplink CoMP, and the coordinated period indicates the period during which the serving cell and the coordinated cell jointly perform uplink coordinated multi-point transmission, which may be represented by a start time and an end time.

[0177] The coordinated receiving unit 203 may be configured to, in response to the selection information, receive the UE's uplink transmission in coordination with the serving cell of the UE during the coordinated period, i.e., execute step S202 in FIG17B . Preferably, the coordinated receiving unit 203 may delay or advance its receiving window according to a reception delay determined based on a time advance between the serving cell, the coordinated cell, and the UE.

[0178] The electronic device 200 may further include a communication unit 205. The communication unit 205 may be configured to communicate with a UE, other base stations, or a satellite under the control of the processing circuit 201. In one example, the communication unit 205 may be implemented as a transmitter or a transceiver, including communication components such as an antenna array and / or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 205 is depicted with a dashed line because it may also be located outside the electronic device 200.

[0179] The electronic device 200 may further include a memory 206. The memory 206 may store various data and instructions, programs and data for the operation of the electronic device 200, various data generated by the processing circuit 201, data to be transmitted by the communication unit 205, etc. The memory 206 is drawn with a dotted line because it may also be located within the processing circuit 201 or outside the electronic device 200.

[0180] 18A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 300 according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 300 may be a component of a UE in an NTN.

[0181] As shown in FIG18A , electronic device 300 includes processing circuitry 301. Processing circuitry 301 includes at least a receiving unit 302 and a transmitting unit 303. Processing circuitry 301 can be configured to execute the communication method shown in FIG18B . Processing circuitry 301 can refer to various implementations of digital circuitry, analog circuitry, or mixed-signal (a combination of analog and digital signals) circuitry that performs functions in a base station device.

[0182] The receiving unit 302 may be configured to receive indication information about the scanning beam range of the UE from the serving cell, that is, to execute step S301 in Figure 18B . The scanning beam range may be a subset of the beam set preconfigured for the UE.

[0183] The transmitting unit 303 may be configured to transmit an uplink signal using each transmit beam in the scanning beam range, that is, to execute step S302 in Figure 18B . The uplink signal includes an uplink reference signal, such as an SRS.

[0184] The receiving unit 302 may also be configured to receive, from the serving cell, indication information regarding the optimal transmit beam for uplink CoMP by the UE, i.e., execute step S303 in FIG18B . The optimal transmit beam may be determined based on signal quality measurements of uplink signals transmitted by the UE by the serving cell and at least one cooperating cell. For example, the indication information regarding the optimal transmit beam for the UE may be included in the TCI status.

[0185] The transmitting unit 303 may also be configured to use the best transmit beam for uplink transmission, that is, to execute step S304 in Figure 18B . The uplink data sent through the best transmit beam can be optimally jointly received by the serving cell and the cooperating cell.

[0186] Electronic device 300 may further include a communication unit 305. Communication unit 305 may be configured to communicate with a base station or satellite under the control of processing circuit 201. In one example, communication unit 305 may be implemented as a transmitter or transceiver, including communication components such as an antenna array and / or a radio frequency link. Communication unit 305 is depicted with a dashed line because it may also be located outside electronic device 300.

[0187] The electronic device 300 may further include a memory 306. The memory 306 may store various data and instructions, programs and data for the operation of the electronic device 300, various data generated by the processing circuit 301, data to be transmitted by the communication unit 305, etc. The memory 306 is drawn with a dotted line because it may also be located within the processing circuit 301 or outside the electronic device 300.

[0188] Various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail above, but it should be noted that the above description of the structure, arrangement, type, quantity, etc. of the antenna array shown, ports, reference signals, communication equipment, communication methods, etc. is not intended to limit the aspects of the present disclosure to these specific examples.

[0189] It should be understood that the various units of the electronic devices 100, 200, and 300 described in the above embodiments are merely logical modules divided according to the specific functions they implement, and are not intended to limit specific implementation methods. In actual implementation, the above units can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

[0190] It should be understood that the processing circuits 101, 201, and 301 described in the above embodiments may include, for example, circuits such as integrated circuits (ICs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), portions or circuits of a separate processor core, the entire processor core, a separate processor, a programmable hardware device such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), and / or a system including multiple processors. The memories 106, 206, and 306 may be volatile memory and / or non-volatile memory. For example, the memories 106, 206, and 306 may include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), read-only memory (ROM), and flash memory.

[0191] It should be understood that the various units of the electronic devices 100, 200, and 300 described in the above embodiments are merely logical modules divided according to the specific functions they implement, and are not intended to limit specific implementation methods. In actual implementation, the above units can be implemented as independent physical entities, or can also be implemented by a single entity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integrated circuit, etc.).

[0192] [Exemplary Implementation of the Present Disclosure]

[0193] According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, various implementations of the concepts of the present disclosure can be conceived, including but not limited to the following exemplary embodiments (EE):

[0194] EE1. An electronic device for a base station in a non-terrestrial network, comprising:

[0195] The processing circuit is configured to:

[0196] Determining to enable uplink coordinated multi-point transmission for a user equipment (UE) within a serving cell provided by the base station;

[0197] Selecting at least one coordinated cell from the neighboring cells based at least on the geographic location of the UE, the coverage and mobility information of the serving cell, and the coverage and mobility information of the neighboring cells, and determining a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission; and

[0198] During the cooperation period, uplink transmission of the UE is received in cooperation with the serving cell and the at least one cooperation cell.

[0199] EE2. The electronic device as described in EE1, wherein the base station further provides the at least one coordinated cell.

[0200] EE3. The electronic device according to EE1, wherein the at least one coordinated cell is provided by a base station different from the base station, and

[0201] The processing circuit is further configured to notify the corresponding base station of the selection information about each coordinated cell and the information about the coordinated period.

[0202] EE4. The electronic device according to EE2 or EE3, wherein selecting the at least one coordinated cell includes:

[0203] Obtaining a measurement result of the signal quality of the uplink signal of the UE by each neighboring cell;

[0204] Evaluate the possible coverage time of each neighbor cell for the UE; and

[0205] The at least one cooperating cell is selected based on at least a signal quality measurement result and a possible coverage time of each neighbor cell.

[0206] EE5. The electronic device according to EE3, wherein selecting the at least one coordinated cell includes:

[0207] Instructing each neighboring cell to measure the signal quality of the uplink signal of the UE and obtain corresponding measurement results;

[0208] Evaluate the possible coverage time of each neighbor cell for the UE;

[0209] evaluating the connection time between the base station and the base station of each neighboring cell; and

[0210] The at least one cooperating cell is selected based on at least a signal quality measurement result, a possible coverage time, and a connection time of each neighbor cell.

[0211] EE6. The electronic device according to EE1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0212] determining a scanning beam range of the UE;

[0213] indicating the scanning beam range to the UE;

[0214] Acquire the serving cell and the at least one coordinated cell to measure the signal quality of the uplink signal sent by the UE through each transmit beam in the scanning beam range;

[0215] Based on the measurement result, a transmit beam for the UE to use for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission is determined.

[0216] EE7. The electronic device according to EE6, wherein indicating the scanning beam range to the UE comprises:

[0217] A subset of a preconfigured transmit beam set is indicated to the UE as the scanning beam range through downlink control information (DCI).

[0218] EE8. The electronic device according to EE2, wherein the serving cell and the at least one cooperative cell are provided via different satellites, and

[0219] Wherein, the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0220] enabling the serving cell and the at least one coordinated cell to measure a timing advance (TA) of the UE;

[0221] Calculating the reception delay of each coordinated cell relative to the serving cell based on the measurement result of the TA; and

[0222] The uplink transmission of the UE is received through the at least one coordinated cell based on the corresponding reception delay.

[0223] EE9. The electronic device according to EE3, wherein the serving cell and the at least one cooperative cell are provided via different satellites, and

[0224] Wherein, the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0225] enabling the serving cell to measure a timing advance (TA) of the UE; and

[0226] The measurement result of the TA is sent to base stations corresponding to the at least one coordinated cell.

[0227] EE10. The electronic device as described in EE1, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to, in response to determining that uplink coordinated multi-point transmission is enabled for the UE, instruct the UE to report its current geographic location, beam direction and antenna radiation pattern.

[0228] EE11. The electronic device as described in EE1, wherein the coverage and mobility information of the serving cell or the neighboring cell are based on the geographical location, ephemeris map, beam direction and antenna radiation pattern of the serving cell or the neighboring cell.

[0229] EE12. An electronic device for a base station in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), comprising:

[0230] The processing circuit is configured to:

[0231] receiving, from another base station, selection information of a coordinated cell and information of a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission of a user equipment (UE); and

[0232] In response to the selection information, during the cooperation period, uplink transmission of the UE is received by the cooperation cell in cooperation with the serving cell of the UE.

[0233] EE13. The electronic device according to EE12, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to send to the other base station the geographical location of its satellite, ephemeris map, beam direction of the cell, and antenna radiation pattern.

[0234] EE14. The electronic device according to EE12, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0235] Measuring the signal quality of the uplink signal of the UE through its cell; and

[0236] The signal quality measurement result is sent to the other base station so that the other base station can select the coordinated cell.

[0237] EE15. The electronic device according to EE12, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0238] measuring, by the coordinated cell, a signal quality of an uplink signal transmitted by the UE using each transmit beam within a scanning beam range; and

[0239] The signal quality measurement result is sent to the other base station so that the other base station can determine the transmit beam of the UE for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission.

[0240] EE16. The electronic device according to EE12, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to:

[0241] measuring a timing advance (TA) of the UE through the coordinated cell;

[0242] Acquire, from the other base station, the TA of the UE measured by the serving cell;

[0243] Calculating a reception delay of the coordinated cell relative to a serving cell based on a measurement result of the TA of the UE; and

[0244] The uplink transmission of the UE is received by the coordinated cell based on the determined reception delay.

[0245] EE17. An electronic device for a user equipment (UE), comprising:

[0246] The processing circuit is configured to:

[0247] receiving information about a scanning beam range of the UE from a serving cell;

[0248] Using each transmit beam in the scanning beam range to send an uplink signal;

[0249] Receiving, from a serving cell, indication information regarding an optimal transmit beam for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission by the UE, wherein the optimal transmit beam is determined based on signal quality of an uplink signal sent by the UE measured by the serving cell and at least one coordinated cell; and

[0250] The optimal transmit beam is used for uplink transmission.

[0251] EE18. A communication method, comprising:

[0252] Determining to enable uplink coordinated multi-point transmission for a user equipment (UE) within a serving cell provided by the base station;

[0253] Selecting at least one coordinated cell from the neighboring cells based at least on the geographic location of the UE, the coverage and mobility information of the serving cell, and the coverage and mobility information of the neighboring cells, and determining a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission; and

[0254] During the cooperation period, the uplink transmission of the UE is received by the serving cell in cooperation with the at least one cooperation cell.

[0255] EE19. A communication method, comprising:

[0256] receiving, from another base station, selection information of a coordinated cell and information of a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission of a user equipment (UE); and

[0257] In response to the selection information, during the cooperation period, uplink transmission of the UE is received by the cooperation cell in cooperation with the serving cell of the UE.

[0258] EE20. A computer-readable storage medium storing executable instructions, wherein the executable instructions, when executed, implement the communication method according to any one of EE18 to EE19.

[0259] [Application Examples of the Present Disclosure]

[0260] The techniques described in this disclosure can be applied to a variety of products.

[0261] For example, the electronic devices 100 and 200 according to the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented as various base stations or installed in base stations, and the electronic device 300 may be implemented as a UE or installed in a UE.

[0262] The communication method according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented by various base stations or user equipment; the methods and operations according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be embodied as computer-executable instructions, stored in a non-temporary computer-readable storage medium, and can be executed by various base stations or user equipment to implement one or more functions described above.

[0263] The technology according to the embodiments of the present disclosure can be made into various computer program products, which can be used in various base stations or user equipments to implement one or more functions described above.

[0264] The base station referred to in this disclosure can be implemented as any type of base station, preferably, such as the macro gNB and ng-eNB defined in the 3GPP 5G NR standard. A gNB can be a gNB that covers cells smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico gNB, micro gNB, and home (femto) gNB. Alternatively, a base station can be implemented as any other type of base station, such as a NodeB, eNodeB, and base transceiver station (BTS). A base station may also include: a main body configured to control wireless communications, and one or more remote radio heads (RRHs), wireless relay stations, etc., located at a location separate from the main body. The base station can be implemented as a base station located on a high-altitude platform such as a satellite or drone.

[0265] The user equipment can be implemented as a mobile terminal (such as a smart phone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portable game terminal, a portable / dongle-type mobile router, and a digital camera device) or a vehicle-mounted terminal (such as a car navigation device). The user equipment can also be implemented as a terminal that performs machine-to-machine (M2M) communication (also known as a machine-type communication (MTC) terminal). The user equipment can be implemented as a high-altitude platform such as a satellite or a drone. In addition, the user equipment can be a wireless communication module (such as an integrated circuit module including a single chip) installed on each of the above-mentioned terminals.

[0266] First application example of base station

[0267] FIG19 is a block diagram illustrating a first example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the techniques of this disclosure may be applied. In FIG19 , the base station may be implemented as gNB 1400. gNB 1400 includes multiple antennas 1410 and base station device 1420. Base station device 1420 and each antenna 1410 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. In one implementation, gNB 1400 (or base station device 1420) herein may correspond to electronic devices 100 and 200 described above.

[0268] Antenna 1410 includes multiple antenna elements. Antenna 1410 can be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and used by base station device 1420 to transmit and receive wireless signals. For example, multiple antennas 1410 can be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1400.

[0269] The base station device 1420 includes a controller 1421 , a memory 1422 , a network interface 1423 , and a wireless communication interface 1425 .

[0270] The controller 1421 may be, for example, a CPU or DSP, and operates various higher-layer functions of the base station device 1420. For example, the controller 1421 may include the processing circuits 101 and 201 described above, execute the communication methods described in Figures 16B and 17B, or control various components of the electronic devices 100 and 200. For example, the controller 1421 generates data packets based on data in the signal processed by the wireless communication interface 1425 and transmits the generated packets via the network interface 1423. The controller 1421 may bundle data from multiple baseband processors to generate bundled packets and transmit the generated bundled packets. The controller 1421 may have logic functions for performing control such as radio resource control, radio bearer control, mobility management, admission control, and scheduling. This control may be performed in conjunction with nearby gNBs or core network nodes. The memory 1422 includes RAM and ROM and stores programs executed by the controller 1421 and various types of control data (such as terminal lists, transmission power data, and scheduling data).

[0271] The network interface 1423 is a communication interface for connecting the base station device 1420 to the core network 1424 (e.g., a 5G core network). The controller 1421 can communicate with the core network node or another gNB via the network interface 1423. In this case, the gNB 1400 and the core network node or other gNB can be connected to each other via logical interfaces (such as NG interfaces and Xn interfaces). The network interface 1423 can also be a wired communication interface or a wireless communication interface for wireless backhaul lines. If the network interface 1423 is a wireless communication interface, the network interface 1423 can use a higher frequency band for wireless communication than the frequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1425.

[0272] The wireless communication interface 1425 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 5G NR) and provides wireless connectivity to terminals located in the cell of the gNB 1400 via the antenna 1410. The wireless communication interface 1425 may typically include, for example, a baseband (BB) processor 1426 and RF circuitry 1427. The BB processor 1426 can perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and various types of signal processing at various layers (e.g., the physical layer, MAC layer, RLC layer, PDCP layer, and SDAP layer). In place of the controller 1421, the BB processor 1426 may perform some or all of the aforementioned logical functions. The BB processor 1426 may be a memory that stores communication control programs, or a module including a processor configured to execute programs and associated circuitry. Program updates can modify the functionality of the BB processor 1426. This module may be a card or blade inserted into a slot in the base station device 1420. Alternatively, it may be a chip mounted on the card or blade. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1427 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1410. Although FIG19 shows an example in which one RF circuit 1427 is connected to one antenna 1410, the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1427 may be connected to multiple antennas 1410 at the same time.

[0273] As shown in Figure 19 , the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple BB processors 1426. For example, multiple BB processors 1426 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1400. As shown in Figure 19 , the wireless communication interface 1425 may include multiple RF circuits 1427. For example, multiple RF circuits 1427 may be compatible with multiple antenna elements. While Figure 19 illustrates an example in which the wireless communication interface 1425 includes multiple BB processors 1426 and multiple RF circuits 1427, the wireless communication interface 1425 may also include a single BB processor 1426 or a single RF circuit 1427.

[0274] In the gNB 1400 shown in FIG19 , one or more units included in the processing circuit 101 described with reference to FIG16A and the processing circuit 201 described with reference to FIG17A may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1425. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the controller 1421. For example, the gNB 1400 may include a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1426) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1425 and / or a module including the controller 1421, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program that allows the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, the program that allows the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1400, and the wireless communication interface 1425 (e.g., the BB processor 1426) and / or the controller 1421 may execute the program. As described above, gNB 1400, base station device 1420, or a module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0275] Second application example of base station

[0276] FIG20 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematic configuration of a base station to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. In FIG20 , the base station is shown as a gNB 1530. The gNB 1530 includes multiple antennas 1540, a base station device 1550, and an RRH 1560. The RRH 1560 and each antenna 1540 can be connected to each other via an RF cable. The base station device 1550 and the RRH 1560 can be connected to each other via a high-speed line such as an optical fiber cable. In one implementation, the gNB 1530 (or base station device 1550) herein may correspond to the electronic devices 100 and 200 described above.

[0277] Antenna 1540 includes multiple antenna elements. Antenna 1540 can be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used by base station device 1550 to transmit and receive wireless signals. For example, multiple antennas 1540 can be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by gNB 1530.

[0278] Base station device 1550 includes a controller 1551, a memory 1552, a network interface 1553, a wireless communication interface 1555, and a connection interface 1557. Controller 1551, memory 1552, and network interface 1553 are the same as controller 1421, memory 1422, and network interface 1423 described with reference to FIG.

[0279] The wireless communication interface 1555 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 5G NR) and provides wireless communication to terminals located in the sector corresponding to the RRH 1560 via the RRH 1560 and the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1555 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1556. The BB processor 1556 is identical to the BB processor 1426 described with reference to FIG. 19 , except that the BB processor 1556 is connected to the RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560 via the connection interface 1557. As shown in FIG. 20 , the wireless communication interface 1555 may include multiple BB processors 1556. For example, multiple BB processors 1556 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used by the gNB 1530. Although FIG. 20 illustrates an example in which the wireless communication interface 1555 includes multiple BB processors 1556, the wireless communication interface 1555 may also include a single BB processor 1556.

[0280] The connection interface 1557 is an interface for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560. The connection interface 1557 may also be a communication module for connecting the base station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH 1560 for communication in the high-speed line.

[0281] The RRH 1560 includes a connection interface 1561 and a wireless communication interface 1563 .

[0282] The connection interface 1561 is an interface for connecting the RRH 1560 (wireless communication interface 1563) to the base station device 1550. The connection interface 1561 may also be a communication module for communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

[0283] The wireless communication interface 1563 transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1563 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 1564. The RF circuit 1564 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna 1540. Although FIG. 20 illustrates an example in which one RF circuit 1564 is connected to one antenna 1540, the present disclosure is not limited to this illustration, and one RF circuit 1564 may be connected to multiple antennas 1540 simultaneously.

[0284] As shown in FIG20 , the wireless communication interface 1563 may include multiple RF circuits 1564. For example, multiple RF circuits 1564 may support multiple antenna elements. Although FIG20 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1563 includes multiple RF circuits 1564, the wireless communication interface 1563 may also include a single RF circuit 1564.

[0285] In the gNB 1500 shown in FIG. 20 , one or more units included in the processing circuit 101 described with reference to FIG. 16A and the processing circuit 201 described with reference to FIG. 17A may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1525. Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the controller 1521. For example, the gNB 1500 may include a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1526) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1525 and / or a module including the controller 1521, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program that allows the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, the program that allows the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1500, and the wireless communication interface 1525 (e.g., the BB processor 1526) and / or the controller 1521 may execute the program. As described above, gNB 1500, base station device 1520, or a module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0286] First application example of user equipment

[0287] 21 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of a smartphone 1600 to which the technology of the present disclosure may be applied. In one example, the smartphone 1600 may be implemented as the electronic device 300 described in the present disclosure.

[0288] The smart phone 1600 includes a processor 1601, a memory 1602, a storage device 1603, an external connection interface 1604, a camera 1606, a sensor 1607, a microphone 1608, an input device 1609, a display device 1610, a speaker 1611, a wireless communication interface 1612, one or more antenna switches 1615, one or more antennas 1616, a bus 1617, a battery 1618 and an auxiliary controller 1619.

[0289] The processor 1601 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on a chip (SoC), and controls the functions of the application layer and other layers of the smartphone 1600. The processor 1601 may include or function as the processing circuit 301 described with reference to FIG18A. The memory 1602 includes RAM and ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1601 to implement the communication method described with reference to FIG18B. The storage device 1603 may include a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface 1604 is an interface for connecting an external device (such as a memory card and a universal serial bus (USB) device) to the smartphone 1600.

[0290] The camera 1606 includes an image sensor (such as a charge coupled device (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)) and generates a captured image. The sensor 1607 may include a group of sensors such as a measurement sensor, a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1608 converts the sound input to the smartphone 1600 into an audio signal. The input device 1609 includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1610, and receives an operation or information input from the user. The display device 1610 includes a screen (such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display) and displays the output image of the smartphone 1600. The speaker 1611 converts the audio signal output from the smartphone 1600 into sound.

[0291] The wireless communication interface 1612 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR, etc.) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1612 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614. The BB processor 1613 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1614 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1616. The wireless communication interface 1612 may be a chip module on which the BB processor 1613 and the RF circuit 1614 are integrated. As shown in FIG. 21 , the wireless communication interface 1612 may include multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits 1614. Although FIG. 21 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1612 includes multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits 1614, the wireless communication interface 1612 may also include a single BB processor 1613 or a single RF circuit 1614.

[0292] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1612 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as a short-range wireless communication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wireless local area network (LAN) scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 1612 may include a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614 for each wireless communication scheme.

[0293] Each of the antenna switches 1615 switches the connection destination of the antenna 1616 between a plurality of circuits (eg, circuits for different wireless communication schemes) included in the wireless communication interface 1612 .

[0294] The antenna 1616 includes a plurality of antenna elements. The antenna 1616 may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used for the wireless communication interface 1612 to transmit and receive wireless signals. The smartphone 1600 may include one or more antenna panels (not shown).

[0295] In addition, the smartphone 1600 may include an antenna 1616 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1615 may be omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 1600.

[0296] The bus 1617 connects the processor 1601, the memory 1602, the storage device 1603, the external connection interface 1604, the camera 1606, the sensor 1607, the microphone 1608, the input device 1609, the display device 1610, the speaker 1611, the wireless communication interface 1612, and the auxiliary controller 1619. The battery 1618 supplies power to the various blocks of the smartphone 1600 shown in FIG. 21 via feeders, which are partially shown as dashed lines in the figure. The auxiliary controller 1619 operates the minimum necessary functions of the smartphone 1600, for example, in sleep mode.

[0297] In the smartphone 1600 shown in FIG21 , one or more components included in the processing circuit may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1612, such as the receiving unit 302 or the transmitting unit 303 of the processing circuit 301 described with reference to FIG18A . Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the processor 1601 or the auxiliary controller 1619. As an example, the smartphone 1600 includes a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1613) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1612, and / or a module including the processor 1601 and / or the auxiliary controller 1619, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the smartphone 1600, and the wireless communication interface 1612 (e.g., the BB processor 1613), the processor 1601, and / or the auxiliary controller 1619 may execute the program. As described above, the smartphone 1600 or module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0298] Second application example of user equipment

[0299] Figure 22 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a car navigation device 1720 to which the technology of the present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation device 1720 can be implemented as the electronic device 300 described with reference to Figure 18A. The car navigation device 1720 includes a processor 1721, a memory 1722, a global positioning system (GPS) module 1724, a sensor 1725, a data interface 1726, a content player 1727, a storage medium interface 1728, an input device 1729, a display device 1730, a speaker 1731, a wireless communication interface 1733, one or more antenna switches 1736, one or more antennas 1737, and a battery 1738. In one example, the car navigation device 1720 can be implemented as a UE described in the present disclosure.

[0300] The processor 1721 may be, for example, a CPU or an SoC, and controls a navigation function and other functions of the car navigation device 1720. The memory 1722 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor 1721.

[0301] The GPS module 1724 uses GPS signals received from GPS satellites to measure the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of the car navigation device 1720. The sensor 1725 may include a group of sensors such as a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressure sensor. The data interface 1726 is connected to, for example, the vehicle network 1741 via a terminal not shown, and obtains data generated by the vehicle (such as vehicle speed data).

[0302] The content player 1727 reproduces content stored in a storage medium (such as a CD or DVD) inserted into the storage medium interface 1728. The input device 1729 includes, for example, a touch sensor, button, or switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the display device 1730, and receives operations or information input from the user. The display device 1730 includes a screen such as an LCD or OLED display and displays images of the navigation function or reproduced content. The speaker 1731 outputs sounds of the navigation function or reproduced content.

[0303] The wireless communication interface 1733 supports any cellular communication scheme (such as 4G LTE or 5G NR) and performs wireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1733 may generally include, for example, a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735. The BB processor 1734 may perform, for example, encoding / decoding, modulation / demodulation, and multiplexing / demultiplexing, and perform various types of signal processing for wireless communication. Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1735 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals via an antenna 1737. The wireless communication interface 1733 may also be a chip module on which the BB processor 1734 and the RF circuit 1735 are integrated. As shown in Figure 22, the wireless communication interface 1733 may include multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735. Although Figure 22 shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1733 includes multiple BB processors 1734 and multiple RF circuits 1735, the wireless communication interface 1733 may also include a single BB processor 1734 or a single RF circuit 1735.

[0304] In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can support other types of wireless communication schemes, such as short-range wireless communication schemes, near field communication schemes, and wireless LAN schemes. In this case, for each wireless communication scheme, the wireless communication interface 1733 can include a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735.

[0305] Each of the antenna switches 1736 switches a connection destination of the antenna 1737 between a plurality of circuits included in the wireless communication interface 1733 , such as circuits for different wireless communication schemes.

[0306] The antenna 1737 includes a plurality of antenna elements and may be arranged in an antenna array matrix, for example, and is used by the wireless communication interface 1733 to transmit and receive wireless signals.

[0307] In addition, the car navigation device 1720 may include an antenna 1737 for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1736 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device 1720.

[0308] The battery 1738 supplies power to the respective blocks of the car navigation device 1720 shown in Fig. 22 via a feeder line, which is partially shown as a dotted line in the figure. The battery 1738 accumulates the power supplied from the vehicle.

[0309] In the car navigation device 1720 shown in FIG22 , one or more components included in the processing circuit may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1733, such as the receiving unit 302 or the transmitting unit 303 of the processing circuit 301 described with reference to FIG18A . Alternatively, at least a portion of these components may be implemented in the processor 1721. As an example, the car navigation device 1720 includes a portion (e.g., the BB processor 1734) or the entirety of the wireless communication interface 1733, and / or includes a module of the processor 1721, and one or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a program that allows the processor to function as one or more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor to perform the operations of one or more components) and may execute the program. As another example, a program for allowing the processor to function as one or more components may be installed in the car navigation device 1720, and the wireless communication interface 1733 (e.g., the BB processor 1734) and / or the processor 1721 may execute the program. As described above, the car navigation device 1720 or module may be provided as a device including one or more components, and a program for allowing a processor to function as one or more components may be provided. In addition, a readable medium having the program recorded therein may be provided.

[0310] The technology of the present disclosure can also be implemented as an in-vehicle system (or vehicle) 1740 including a car navigation device 1720, an in-vehicle network 1741, and one or more blocks of a vehicle module 1742. The vehicle module 1742 generates vehicle data (such as vehicle speed, engine speed, and fault information) and outputs the generated data to the in-vehicle network 1741.

[0311] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present disclosure is certainly not limited to the above examples. Those skilled in the art may obtain various changes and modifications within the scope of the appended claims, and it should be understood that these changes and modifications will naturally fall within the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0312] For example, a plurality of functions included in one unit in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices. Alternatively, a plurality of functions implemented by a plurality of units in the above embodiments may be implemented by separate devices, respectively. In addition, one of the above functions may be implemented by a plurality of units. Needless to say, such a configuration is included in the technical scope of the present disclosure.

[0313] In this specification, the steps described in the flowchart include not only processing executed in time series in the order described, but also processing executed in parallel or individually rather than necessarily in time series. In addition, even in the steps processed in time series, it goes without saying that the order can be changed as appropriate.

[0314] Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and transformations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variations thereof in the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions, such that a process, method, article, or device comprising a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article, or device. In the absence of further restrictions, an element defined by the statement "comprising a ..." does not exclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or device comprising the element.

Claims

1. An electronic device for a base station in a non-terrestrial network, comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: Determining to enable uplink coordinated multi-point transmission for a user equipment (UE) within a serving cell provided by the base station; Selecting at least one coordinated cell from the neighboring cells based at least on the geographic location of the UE, the coverage and mobility information of the serving cell, and the coverage and mobility information of the neighboring cells, and determining a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission; as well as During the cooperation period, uplink transmission of the UE is received in cooperation with the serving cell and the at least one cooperation cell.

2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The base station also provides the at least one coordinated cell.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The at least one coordinated cell is provided by a base station different from the base station, and The processing circuit is further configured to notify the corresponding base station of the selection information about each coordinated cell and the information about the coordinated period.

4. The electronic device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein: Selecting the at least one coordinated cell includes: Obtaining a measurement result of the signal quality of the uplink signal of the UE by each neighboring cell; Evaluate the possible coverage time of each neighbor cell for the UE; and The at least one cooperating cell is selected based on at least a signal quality measurement result and a possible coverage time of each neighbor cell.

5. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein: Selecting the at least one coordinated cell includes: Instructing each neighboring cell to measure the signal quality of the uplink signal of the UE and obtain corresponding measurement results; Evaluate the possible coverage time of each neighbor cell for the UE; evaluating the connection time between the base station and the base station of each neighboring cell; and The at least one cooperating cell is selected based on at least a signal quality measurement result, a possible coverage time, and a connection time of each neighbor cell.

6. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: determining a scanning beam range of the UE; indicating the scanning beam range to the UE; Acquire the serving cell and the at least one coordinated cell to measure the signal quality of the uplink signal sent by the UE through each transmit beam in the scanning beam range; Based on the signal quality measurement result, a transmit beam for the UE to use for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission is determined.

7. The electronic device according to claim 6, wherein: Indicating the scanning beam range to the UE includes: A subset of a preconfigured transmit beam set is indicated to the UE as the scanning beam range through downlink control information (DCI).

8. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein: The serving cell and the at least one cooperating cell are provided via different satellites, and Wherein, the processing circuit is further configured to: enabling the serving cell and the at least one coordinated cell to measure a timing advance (TA) of the UE; Calculating the reception delay of each coordinated cell relative to the serving cell based on the measurement result of the TA; and The uplink transmission of the UE is received through the at least one coordinated cell based on the corresponding reception delay.

9. The electronic device according to claim 3, wherein: The serving cell and the at least one cooperating cell are provided via different satellites, and Wherein, the processing circuit is further configured to: enabling the serving cell to measure a timing advance (TA) of the UE; and The measurement result of the TA is sent to base stations corresponding to the at least one coordinated cell.

10. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to, in response to determining that uplink coordinated multi-point transmission is enabled for the UE, instruct the UE to report its current geographic location, beam direction, and antenna radiation pattern.

11. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein The coverage and mobility information of the serving cell or neighboring cells is based on the geographical location, ephemeris map, beam direction and antenna radiation pattern of the serving cell or neighboring cells.

12. An electronic device for a base station in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: receiving, from another base station, selection information of a coordinated cell and information of a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission of a user equipment (UE); as well as In response to the selection information, during the cooperation period, uplink transmission of the UE is received by the cooperation cell in cooperation with the serving cell of the UE.

13. The electronic device according to claim 12, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to send to the other base station the geographical location of its satellite, ephemeris map, beam direction of the cell and antenna radiation pattern.

14. The electronic device according to claim 12, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: Measuring the signal quality of the uplink signal of the UE through its cell; and The signal quality measurement result is sent to the other base station so that the other base station can select the coordinated cell.

15. The electronic device according to claim 12, wherein The processing circuit is further configured to: measuring, by the coordinated cell, a signal quality of an uplink signal transmitted by the UE using each transmit beam within a scanning beam range; and The signal quality measurement result is sent to the other base station so that the other base station can determine the transmit beam of the UE for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission.

16. The electronic device according to claim 12, wherein: The processing circuit is further configured to: measuring a timing advance (TA) of the UE through the coordinated cell; Acquire, from the other base station, the TA of the UE measured by the serving cell; Calculating a reception delay of the coordinated cell relative to a serving cell based on a measurement result of the TA of the UE; as well as The uplink transmission of the UE is received by the coordinated cell based on the determined reception delay.

17. An electronic device for a user equipment (UE), comprising: The processing circuit is configured to: receiving information about a scanning beam range of the UE from a serving cell; Using each transmit beam in the scanning beam range to send an uplink signal; Receiving, from a serving cell, indication information about an optimal transmit beam for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission by the UE, wherein the optimal transmit beam is determined based on signal quality of an uplink signal sent by the UE measured by the serving cell and at least one coordinated cell; as well as The optimal transmit beam is used for uplink transmission.

18. A communication method, comprising: Determining to enable uplink coordinated multi-point transmission for a user equipment (UE) within a serving cell provided by the base station; Selecting at least one coordinated cell from the neighboring cells based at least on the geographic location of the UE, the coverage and mobility information of the serving cell, and the coverage and mobility information of the neighboring cells, and determining a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission; as well as During the cooperation period, the uplink transmission of the UE is received by the serving cell in cooperation with the at least one cooperation cell.

19. A communication method comprising: receiving, from another base station, selection information of a coordinated cell and information of a coordinated period for uplink coordinated multi-point transmission of a user equipment (UE); as well as In response to the selection information, during the cooperation period, uplink transmission of the UE is received by the cooperation cell in cooperation with the serving cell of the UE.

20. A computer-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions, which, when executed, implement the communication method according to any one of claims 18 to 19.

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