Cell activation method and device

Abstract

Provided are a cell activation method and device, in the method, a first message received by a terminal device is used for activating a first cell only used for uplink transmission, and thereafter, the terminal device can send a second message used for indicating the terminal device to complete activation of the first cell, the terminal device can activate the first cell only used for uplink transmission, and can communicate with the network device through the first cell. In some implementations, the terminal device can determine the time-frequency synchronization information of the first cell according to the downlink signal of the second cell, or the terminal device can determine the transmitting power of the uplink channel of the first cell according to the downlink signal of the second cell, or the terminal device can determine the transmitting power of the uplink channel of the first cell according to the downlink signal of the second cell. The terminal device can perform radio resource management of the first cell according to the downlink signal of the second cell. Therefore, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the number of downlink carriers needing to be detected by the terminal device is reduced, and the complexity and power consumption of the terminal device are further reduced.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] Wireless communication can be a transmission communication between two or more communication nodes that is not transmitted through conductors or cables or is transmitted through air interfaces. For example, the communication nodes include network devices and terminal devices. Generally, the terminal device can access the network device and receive scheduling and instruction information from the network device to achieve wireless communication.

[0003] With the continuous emergence of new services such as high-definition video, virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR), etc., the demand for wireless data traffic in wireless communication systems is growing rapidly. In order to meet the growing demand for wireless transmission, the network capacity and transmission rate of wireless communication systems can be improved by deploying large-scale antennas and transceiver modules that support high-frequency signals. Correspondingly, the power consumption of terminal devices deployed with these transceiver modules will become higher and higher.

[0004] Therefore, how to reduce the power consumption of terminal equipment is a technical problem that needs to be solved urgently. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present application provides a cell activation method and device for reducing the power consumption of terminal equipment.

[0006] The first aspect of the present application provides a cell activation method, which is executed by a terminal device (or terminal), or the method is executed by some components in the terminal device (such as a processor, a chip or a chip system, etc.), or the method can also be implemented by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the terminal device functions. In the first aspect and its possible implementation, the method is described as an example of being executed by a terminal device. In the method, the terminal device receives a first message, the first message is used to activate a first cell, and the first cell is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is a radio resource control (RRC) or a medium access control control element (MAC CE); the terminal device sends a second message, the second message is used to indicate that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a random access preamble (referred to as preamble), a sounding reference signal (SRS) or a feedback message of the first message.

[0007] Based on the above technical solution, the first message received by the terminal device is used to activate the first cell used only for uplink transmission. After that, the terminal device can send a second message used to instruct the terminal device to complete the activation of the first cell, so that the terminal device can activate the first cell used only for uplink transmission and can communicate with the network device through the first cell. Therefore, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the number of downlink carriers that the terminal device needs to detect is reduced, thereby reducing the complexity and power consumption of the terminal device.

[0008] In addition, the network device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module of the network device according to the change of the downlink traffic in the cell, and switch between the uplink transmission mode only and the uplink and downlink transmission mode, thereby reducing the power consumption of the network device.

[0009] In the present application, the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, which can be understood as the first cell being able to communicate based on an uplink carrier but not based on a downlink carrier. Accordingly, the first cell being only used for uplink transmission can be replaced with the first cell having only an uplink carrier available, the uplink carrier of the first cell being available and the downlink carrier of the first cell being unavailable, the downlink carrier of the first cell being unavailable, the carrier of the first cell being an uplink carrier, the first cell only including an uplink carrier, the carrier of the first cell including an uplink carrier and not including a downlink carrier, the uplink transmission of the first cell being activated, turned on, enabled or enabled, and the downlink transmission of the first cell being deactivated, turned off, dormant, silent, prohibited or disabled. Similarly, a cell (such as the second cell, or the third cell mentioned later, etc.) is at least used for downlink transmission, which can be understood as the cell being at least able to communicate based on a downlink carrier, and optionally, the cell can also communicate based on an uplink carrier. Correspondingly, the cell is at least used for downlink transmission can be replaced by at least one of the uplink carrier of the cell is available, the downlink carrier of the cell is available, the carrier of the cell at least includes a downlink carrier, and the downlink transmission of the cell is activated, turned on, enabled or enabled.

[0010] Optionally, the first cell used only for uplink transmission may be referred to as an uplink only (UL only) cell.

[0011] Optionally, the configuration of the first cell may include at least one of the following: an index of a serving cell (i.e., the first cell), a physical cell identifier (PCI), uplink carrier configuration information, the position of the first symbol of uplink and downlink demodulation reference signals (DMRS), a downlink (DL) configuration of a (time division duplexing, TDD) cell, an uplink (UL) configuration of a TDD cell, a frequency band associated with a downlink carrier, an absolute frequency number of a common physical resource block 0 associated with a downlink carrier, cross-carrier scheduling configuration, a timing advance group identifier (ID), indication information that a downlink carrier is unavailable, and downlink carrier indication information.

[0012] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the first cell is in an activated state, and the method also includes: the terminal device receives scheduling information of the first cell through a fifth cell; wherein the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell.

[0013] Based on the above technical solution, when the first cell is in an activated state, the terminal device can receive the scheduling information of the first cell through the fifth cell to realize cross-carrier scheduling of the first cell for uplink transmission only. Among them, the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by the first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell, that is, the cross-carrier scheduling resources of the first cell used only for uplink transmission share the self-scheduling resources of other cells, which can save the overhead of resource configuration and improve resource utilization. Optionally, the other cells include scheduling cells and cells jointly scheduled with the first cell. Optionally, the predefined resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell. Optionally, the resources carrying the scheduling information are control channel resources used for blind detection of DCI, such as CCEs corresponding to one or more control channel element (CCE) indexes.

[0014] Optionally, the first configuration information is included in the cell configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is included in the uplink carrier configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is included in the downlink carrier configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is independent of the cell configuration information of the first cell, which is not limited here.

[0015] Optionally, the first cell is associated with K cells, the K cells include at least the second cell, the K cells are all used for at least downlink transmission, and K is a positive integer; when the value of K is 1, the fifth cell is the K cells (that is, the fifth cell and the second cell are the same cell); when the value of K is greater than 1, the fifth cell is any one of the K cells.

[0016] The second aspect of the present application provides a cell activation method, which is executed by a network device, or the method is executed by some components in the network device (such as a processor, a chip or a chip system, etc.), or the method can also be implemented by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the network device functions. In the second aspect and its possible implementation, the cell activation method is described as an example in which it is executed by a first network device. In the method, the first network device determines a first message, and the first message is used to activate a first cell, and the first cell is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE; the first network device sends the first message.

[0017] Based on the above technical solution, the first message sent by the first network device is used to activate the first cell used only for uplink transmission. After the terminal device receives the first message, the terminal device can activate the first cell used only for uplink transmission and can communicate with the network device through the first cell. Therefore, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the communication mode between the terminal device and the first cell is the uplink transmission mode, and thus the terminal device does not need to configure / use the downlink carrier of the first cell, which can reduce the capability requirements of the terminal device and reduce the complexity and power consumption of the terminal device.

[0018] In addition, the network device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module of the network device according to the change of the downlink traffic in the cell, and switch between the uplink transmission mode only and the uplink and downlink transmission mode, thereby reducing the power consumption of the network device.

[0019] In a possible implementation of the second aspect, the first cell is in an activated state, and the method also includes: the first network device sends scheduling information of the first cell through a fifth cell; wherein the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell.

[0020] Based on the above technical solution, when the first cell is in an activated state, the terminal device can receive the scheduling information of the first cell through the fifth cell to realize cross-carrier scheduling of the first cell for uplink transmission only. Among them, the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by the first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell, that is, the cross-carrier scheduling resources of the first cell used only for uplink transmission share the self-scheduling resources of other cells, which can save the overhead of resource configuration and improve resource utilization. Optionally, the other cells include scheduling cells and cells jointly scheduled with the first cell. Optionally, the predefined resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell. Optionally, the resources carrying the scheduling information are control channel resources used for blind detection of DCI, such as CCEs corresponding to one or more CCE indexes.

[0021] Optionally, the first configuration information is included in the cell configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is included in the uplink carrier configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is included in the downlink carrier configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is independent of the cell configuration information of the first cell, which is not limited here.

[0022] Optionally, the first cell is associated with K cells, the K cells are all used for at least downlink transmission, and K is a positive integer; when the value of K is 1, the fifth cell is the K cells; when the value of K is greater than 1, the fifth cell is any one of the K cells.

[0023] In a possible implementation manner of the second aspect, the method further includes: the first network device receiving a second message, where the second message is used to indicate that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a feedback message of the first message.

[0024] Based on the above technical solution, the first network device can also receive a second message, so that the first network device can clarify that the terminal device has completed the activation of the first cell based on the second message, and subsequently the first network device (that is, the first network device can include the first cell) can receive uplink information from the terminal device through the first cell.

[0025] Optionally, the uplink information of the terminal device includes uplink data, uplink signaling, uplink signal, etc. For example, the uplink information of the terminal device can be carried on one or more channels of a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), and a physical random access channel (PRACH).

[0026] The third aspect of the present application provides a cell activation method, which is executed by a network device, or the method is executed by some components in the network device (such as a processor, a chip or a chip system, etc.), or the method can also be implemented by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the network device functions. In the third aspect and its possible implementation, the cell activation method is described as an example in which it is executed by a second network device. In this method, the second network device receives a second message, and the second message is used to indicate that the terminal device completes the activation of the first cell, and the second message is a random access preamble or SRS; wherein the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the first cell is associated with the second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE; the second network device receives uplink information from the terminal device.

[0027] Based on the above technical solution, the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, and the second message received by the second network device is used to instruct the terminal device to complete the activation of the first cell. Subsequently, the second network device can receive uplink information from the terminal device, that is, the second network device can communicate uplink with the terminal device through the first cell. Therefore, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the communication mode between the terminal device and the first cell is the uplink transmission mode, and thus the terminal device does not need to configure / use the downlink carrier of the first cell, which can reduce the capability requirements of the terminal device and reduce the complexity and power consumption of the terminal device.

[0028] In addition, the first cell in the second network device can enable the terminal device to communicate with the network device through the first cell without configuring / using a downlink carrier, thereby reducing the power consumption of the second network device.

[0029] In a fourth aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided, which can implement the method in any possible implementation of any aspect of the first to third aspects mentioned above. The device includes corresponding units or modules for executing the above methods. The units or modules included in the device can be implemented by software and / or hardware. For example, the device can be a terminal device or a network device, or the device can be a component in a terminal device or a network device (such as a processor, a chip or a chip system, etc.), or the device can also be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the terminal device or the network device. Among them, the device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit, and the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to execute the steps performed in each possible implementation of any aspect of the first to third aspects, and achieve the corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the above description, which will not be repeated here.

[0030] A fifth aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is used to execute programs or instructions in a memory so that the device implements the method described in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or enables the device to implement the method described in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0031] A sixth aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising at least one logic circuit and an input / output interface; the logic circuit is used to execute the method described in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or to execute the method described in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0032] A seventh aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store one or more computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor executes a method as described in any possible implementation of any one of the first to second aspects above.

[0033] An eighth aspect of the embodiments of the present application provides a computer program product. When a computer program in the computer program product is executed by a processor, the processor executes the method described in any possible implementation of any one of the first to second aspects above.

[0034] A ninth aspect of an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, which includes at least one processor for supporting a communication device to implement functions involved in any possible implementation method of any aspect of the first to second aspects above.

[0035] In a possible design, the chip system may also include a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the first communication device. The chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices. Optionally, the chip system also includes an interface circuit, which provides program instructions and / or data for the at least one processor. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0036] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a communication system provided for this application;

[0037] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a carrier aggregation communication scenario involved in this application;

[0038] Figure 3 This is another schematic diagram of the carrier aggregation communication scenario involved in this application;

[0039] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of the cell activation method provided in this application;

[0040] Figure 5 Another schematic diagram of the cell activation method provided by the present application;

[0041] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a communication device provided for this application;

[0042] Figure 7 Another schematic diagram of a communication device provided by the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0043] First, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0044] (1) Configuration and pre-configuration: In this application, configuration and pre-configuration will be used at the same time. Configuration refers to the base station or server and other network devices sending some parameter configuration information or parameter values ​​to the terminal through messages or signaling, so that the terminal can determine the communication parameters or resources during transmission based on these values ​​or information. Pre-configuration is similar to configuration. It can be a method in which a base station or server and other network devices send parameter information or values ​​to the terminal through a communication link or carrier; it can also be a definition of corresponding parameters or parameter values ​​given in the standard, or by setting the relevant parameters or values ​​in the terminal device in advance. This application does not limit this. Furthermore, these values ​​and parameters can be changed or updated.

[0045] (2) In this application, "used for indication" may include being used for direct indication and being used for indirect indication. When describing that a certain indication information is used for indicating A, it can be understood that the indication information carries A, directly indicates A, or indirectly indicates A.

[0046] In this application, the information indicated by the indication information is referred to as the information to be indicated. In the specific implementation process, there are many ways to indicate the information to be indicated. For example, it can be implemented by direct indication, such as by indicating the information to be indicated itself or the index of the information to be indicated. It can also be implemented by indirectly indicating other information, wherein there is an association between the other information and the information to be indicated. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while the other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of specific information can also be achieved with the help of the arrangement order of each information agreed in advance (for example, specified by the protocol), thereby reducing the indication overhead to a certain extent.

[0047] The information to be indicated can be sent as a whole, or divided into multiple sub-information and sent separately, and the sending period and / or sending time of these sub-information can be the same or different. The specific sending method is not limited in this application. Among them, the sending period and / or sending time of these sub-information can be pre-defined, for example, pre-defined according to the protocol, or can be configured by the transmitting device by sending configuration information to the receiving device. Among them, the configuration information can include, for example, but not limited to, one or a combination of at least two of RRC signaling, medium access control (MAC) layer signaling and physical layer signaling. Among them, MAC layer signaling, for example, includes MAC CE; physical layer signaling, for example, includes downlink control information (DCI).

[0048] (3) Reference signal (RS). In a communication system, it is necessary to estimate the uplink channel or downlink channel in order to send and receive data, obtain system synchronization, and feedback channel information. Channel estimation refers to the process of reconstructing or restoring the received signal in order to compensate for the signal distortion caused by channel fading and noise fading. It uses the reference signal known in advance by the transmitter and receiver to measure the time domain and frequency domain changes of the channel. The above-mentioned reference signals are also called reference signals. They are distributed on different resource elements (RE) in the two-dimensional space of time and frequency within the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol and have known amplitude and phase.

[0049] (4) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application can be used interchangeably. "At least one" means one or more, and "plurality" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: the existence of A alone, the existence of A and B at the same time, and the existence of B alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the objects associated with each other are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, "at least one of A, B and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC or ABC. And, unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects.

[0050] (5) "Send" and "receive" in the embodiments of the present application indicate the direction of signal transmission. In the present application, when entity A sends information to entity B, it can be that A sends it directly to B, or that A sends it indirectly to B through other entities. Similarly, when entity B receives information from entity A, it can be that entity B directly receives the information sent by entity A, or that entity B indirectly receives the information sent by entity A through other entities. Entities A and B here can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules inside RAN nodes or terminals. The sending and receiving of information can be information interaction between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, information interaction between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be information interaction between two RAN nodes, for example, information interaction between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be information interaction between different modules inside a device, for example, information interaction between a terminal chip and other modules of the terminal, or information interaction between a base station chip and other modules in the base station. "Send" can also be understood as the "output" of a chip interface, and "receive" can also be understood as the "input" of a chip interface.

[0051] (6) Carrier aggregation, which can be the aggregation of two or more component carriers (CCs) to support a larger transmission bandwidth.

[0052] In order to efficiently utilize fragmented spectrum, carrier aggregation (CA) supports aggregation between different carrier components. For example, the different carrier components may include carrier components of the same or different bandwidths, or adjacent or non-adjacent carrier components in the same frequency band, or carrier components in different frequency bands.

[0053] In addition, in the CA scenario, the cell accessed by the terminal device may include PCell and SCell, wherein the PCell may be determined at the time of connection establishment, and the SCell may be added / modified / released through the RRC connection reconfiguration message after the initial security activation procedure.

[0054] A serving cell can be a cell that provides services (such as uplink and downlink transmission) to a terminal device. If the terminal device is in the RRC_CONNECTED state but CA is not configured, the terminal device can have one serving cell, namely PCell; if the terminal device is in the RRC_CONNECTED state and CA is configured, the serving cell set of the terminal device includes PCell and one or more SCells. In other words, a serving cell can refer to both PCell and SCell. A PCell or SCell is also a serving cell.

[0055] (7) PRACH uplink access: After the cell search process, the terminal device has achieved downlink synchronization with the cell and can receive downlink data. It also needs to achieve uplink synchronization before uplink transmission. Therefore, it establishes a connection with the cell and achieves uplink synchronization through the random access process.

[0056] Specifically, PRACH is used to transmit preamble, and one of the steps in the random access process is for the terminal device to send a preamble. The main function of the preamble is to tell the base station side that there is a random access request and enable the base station to estimate the transmission delay between it and the terminal device, so that the base station can calibrate the uplink timing and inform the terminal device of the calibration information through the uplink timing (timing advance command).

[0057] Generally, each cell can have 64 available preamble sequences. The terminal device will select one of the sequences or be assigned a sequence by the base station to transmit on the PRACH. These sequences can be divided into two parts, used for contention-based random access and non-contention-based random access. The preamble used for contention-based random access can be divided into group A (group A) and group B (group B) (group B may not exist). The main function is to add certain prior information so that the base station can allocate appropriate uplink resources to message 3 (Msg3). For non-contention-based random access, such as handover, the preamble used can be directly specified by the base station and is a reserved preamble other than groupA and groupB to avoid conflicts.

[0058] (8) Activation and deactivation of secondary cells. Generally, for terminal devices, except for PCell, other SCells cannot be used immediately after configuration. In order to better manage the battery consumption of terminal devices configured with CA, this can be achieved through the activation mechanism / deactivation mechanism of SCell.

[0059] Among them, PCell generally does not support activation / deactivation. In other words, the PCell of the terminal device is always in an activated state.

[0060] (9) Search space blind detection. Generally, the uplink data transmission and downlink data reception of the terminal require scheduling by the base station. The scheduling information is sent through the DCI carried by the PDCCH. The terminal does not know the exact location of the PDCCH, so the terminal performs blind detection (BD) in the search space (SS).

[0061] Among them, when the terminal determines the search space, it mainly includes: determining the CORESET, determining the search space identifier, and determining the starting CCE and ending CCE positions corresponding to the physical downlink control channel candidate (PDCCH candidates) resources. For example, the terminal may implement the following steps: first, according to the current search space and the associated CORESET configuration, determine the candidate PDCCH situation, wherein the time domain starting symbol position is determined by the current search space configuration, and the number of time domain symbols is determined by the CORESET associated with this search space. Then, according to the current search space and the associated CORESET configuration, determine the CCE index of each candidate PDCCH in the CORESET (that is, the starting position of the CCE and the number of CCEs), and the specific CCE is determined by the search space function. Finally, the terminal can identify its own DCI by attempting a blind detection of the CRC at the listening position.

[0062] See also Figure 1 , is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system 1000 used in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 1 As shown, the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (such as Figure 1 110a and 110b in the figure, collectively referred to as 110), and may also include at least one terminal (such as Figure 1 RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay equipment and / or wireless backhaul equipment ( Figure 1 (not shown in the figure). The terminal 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 by wireless means, and the RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 by wireless or wired means. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 may be independent and different physical devices, or may be the same physical device that integrates the logical functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the RAN node. Terminals and terminals and RAN nodes and RAN nodes may be connected to each other by wired or wireless means.

[0063] RAN100 may be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, and a future radio access system defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). RAN100 may also include two or more of the above-mentioned different radio access systems. RAN100 may also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0064] RAN node, also known as radio access network equipment, RAN entity or access node, is used to help terminals access the communication system wirelessly. In one application scenario, the RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next generation NodeB in the sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. RAN nodes can be macro base stations (such as Figure 1 110a), or a micro base station or an indoor station (such as Figure 1 110b) in the figure, it can also be a relay node or a donor node.

[0065] In another application scenario, the cooperation of multiple RAN nodes can be used to help the terminal achieve wireless access, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU) or a radio unit (RU). The CU here completes the functions of the radio resource control protocol and the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) of the base station, and can also complete the function of the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP); the DU completes the functions of the radio link control layer and the MAC layer of the base station, and can also complete the functions of part of the physical layer or all of the physical layer. For the specific description of the above-mentioned various protocol layers, please refer to the relevant technical specifications of 3GPP. RU can be used to implement the transceiver function of radio frequency signals. CU and DU can be two independent RAN nodes, or they can be integrated in the same RAN node, such as integrated in a baseband unit (BBU). RU can be included in a radio frequency device, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU can be further divided into two types of RAN nodes: CU-control plane and CU-user plane.

[0066] In different systems, RAN nodes may have different names. For example, in an O-RAN system, CU may be called an open CU (open CU, O-CU), DU may be called an open DU (open DU, O-DU), and RU may be called an open RU (open RU, O-RU). The RAN node in the embodiment of the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. For example, the RAN node may be a server loaded with a corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the RAN node. For the convenience of description, the following description takes a base station as an example of a RAN node.

[0067] A terminal is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can send signals to a base station or receive signals from a base station. A terminal can also be called a terminal device, user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a mobile terminal, etc. The terminal can be widely used in various scenarios, for example, device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, automatic driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. The terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a wearable device, a vehicle, an airplane, a ship, a robot, a mechanical arm, a smart home device, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal.

[0068] Base stations and terminals can be fixed or movable. Base stations and terminals can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on the water surface; they can also be deployed on airplanes, balloons, and artificial satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminals.

[0069] The roles of the base station and the terminal can be relative, for example, Figure 1The helicopter or drone 120i in the figure can be configured as a mobile base station. For the terminal 120j that accesses the wireless access network 100 through 120i, the terminal 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, that is, 110a and 120i communicate through the wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate through the interface protocol between base stations. In this case, relative to 110a, 120i is also a base station. Therefore, base stations and terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices. Figure 1 110a and 110b in the figure may be referred to as communication devices having base station functions. Figure 1 120a-120j in the figure can be called communication devices with terminal functions.

[0070] Base stations and terminals, base stations and base stations, and terminals and terminals can communicate through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both; they can communicate through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), spectrum above 6 GHz, or spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0071] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station may also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem including the base station function. The control subsystem including the base station function here may be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, smart transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal, or by a device including the terminal function.

[0072] In this application, the base station sends a downlink signal or downlink information to the terminal, and the downlink information is carried on the downlink channel; the terminal sends an uplink signal or uplink information to the base station, and the uplink information is carried on the uplink channel. In order to communicate with the base station, the terminal needs to establish a wireless connection with the cell controlled by the base station. The cell with which the terminal has established a wireless connection is called the service cell of the terminal. When the terminal communicates with the service cell, it will also be interfered by signals from neighboring cells.

[0073] In wireless communication systems (such as Figure 1In the communication system shown in FIG. 1 , with the continuous emergence of new services such as high-definition video, VR / AR, etc., the demand for wireless data traffic is growing rapidly. In order to meet the growing demand for wireless transmission, the network capacity and transmission rate of the wireless communication system can be improved by deploying large-scale antennas and transceiver modules that support high-frequency signals. Accordingly, the power consumption of terminal devices and / or network devices that deploy these transceiver modules will become higher and higher.

[0074] In addition, another way to increase the network capacity and transmission rate of the wireless communication system may be to further tap the frequency resources of wireless communication. Generally speaking, from the dimension of tapping frequency resources, a larger transmission bandwidth can provide a larger network capacity and a higher transmission rate. However, limited by the spectrum bandwidth resources actually deployed and the processing power of the terminal, large-bandwidth continuous spectrum resources are very scarce, that is, the bandwidth of a single carrier is limited. To this end, carrier aggregation technology is a key technology to solve the problem of limited bandwidth of a single carrier. It aggregates two or more CCs together to serve the terminal device to support a larger transmission band.

[0075] Figure 2 This is an example of a CA implementation. Figure 2 In the CA scenario shown, one or more network devices (only one network device is shown in the figure as an example) can provide n carriers (n is an integer greater than 1), and each carrier can provide one cell. That is, there can be n carriers providing services for the terminal device, that is, the terminal device has n serving cells. Among them, the n serving cells of the terminal device include one PCell and one or more SCells.

[0076] Currently, in the implementation of CA technology, each cell used for CA contains at least one downlink carrier (ie, downlink CC). Figure 3 For example, one implementation method of a cell for CA is shown in cell 1, which includes a downlink CC but no uplink CC; another implementation method of a cell for CA is shown in cell 2, which includes a downlink CC and an uplink CC; another implementation method of a cell for CA is shown in cell 2, which includes a downlink CC, an uplink CC and another uplink CC (which can be called a supplementary uplink CC). However, in the current implementation of CA technology, any cell needs to configure / use a downlink carrier so that the terminal device can obtain the downlink synchronization and downlink channel quality information of the cell through the downlink carrier, so that the terminal device can access the cell to obtain network services. This way of configuring / using downlink carriers will inevitably increase the power consumption of terminal devices (and / or network devices where the cell is located).

[0077] In summary, in order to improve the network capacity and transmission rate of the wireless communication system, whether through the deployment of large-scale antennas and transceiver modules supporting high-frequency signals or through CA technical solutions, it will inevitably lead to an increase in the power consumption of terminal devices (and / or network devices). Therefore, how to reduce the power consumption of terminal devices is a technical problem that needs to be solved urgently.

[0078] In order to solve the above problems, the present application provides a cell activation method and device for reducing the power consumption of terminal equipment, which will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0079] See also Figure 4 , is a schematic diagram of an implementation of the cell activation method provided in this application, and the method includes the following steps.

[0080] It should be noted that Figure 4 In the example, the terminal device and the first network device are used as the execution subjects of the interaction diagram to illustrate the method, but the present application does not limit the execution subjects of the interaction diagram. Figure 4 In the corresponding implementation method, the execution subject of S401-S402 is the terminal device. The execution subject can also be a chip, chip system, or processor that supports the terminal device to implement the method, or a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the terminal device functions. Figure 4 The first network device in S401-S402 in the corresponding implementation can also be replaced by a chip, a chip system, or a processor that supports the first network device to implement the method, and can also be replaced by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the first network device. Figure 5 In the method shown, the execution subject can be a terminal device, a first network device, a second network device, etc., or it can be a chip, a chip system, or a processor that implements the method, or it can be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the terminal device functions.

[0081] S401. A first network device sends a first message, and a terminal device receives the first message accordingly. The first message is used to activate a first cell, which is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, which is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE.

[0082] It should be understood that when a terminal device is within the coverage of a network signal, the terminal device can access the network device and receive the scheduling and indication information of the network device to achieve wireless communication. Among them, the signal coverage range of the network device for sending signals or receiving signals can be called a cell, and the terminal device located within the cell range can establish a connection with the cell through a wireless channel to obtain network services. Among them, different signal coverage ranges can be called different cells. Generally, a network device can include one or more cells. The first cell and the second cell mentioned above can be located in the same network device, that is, the first cell and the second cell are deployed at the same physical site; or, the first cell and the second cell can be located in different network devices, that is, the first cell and the second cell are deployed at different physical sites.

[0083] In the present application, the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, which can be understood as the first cell being able to communicate based on an uplink carrier but not based on a downlink carrier. Accordingly, the first cell being only used for uplink transmission can be replaced with the first cell having only an uplink carrier available, the uplink carrier of the first cell being available and the downlink carrier of the first cell being unavailable, the downlink carrier of the first cell being unavailable, the carrier of the first cell being an uplink carrier, the first cell only including an uplink carrier, the carrier of the first cell including an uplink carrier and not including a downlink carrier, the uplink transmission of the first cell being activated, turned on, enabled or enabled, and the downlink transmission of the first cell being deactivated, turned off, dormant, silent, prohibited or disabled. Similarly, a cell (such as the second cell, or the third cell mentioned later, etc.) is at least used for downlink transmission, which can be understood as the cell being at least able to communicate based on a downlink carrier, and optionally, the cell can also communicate based on an uplink carrier. Correspondingly, the cell is at least used for downlink transmission can be replaced by at least one of the uplink carrier of the cell is available, the downlink carrier of the cell is available, the carrier of the cell at least includes a downlink carrier, and the downlink transmission of the cell is activated, turned on, enabled or enabled.

[0084] Optionally, the first cell used only for uplink transmission may be called a UL only cell.

[0085] Optionally, in addition to RRC information or MAC CE, the first message may also be implemented through other downlink messages / information / signaling, such as DCI.

[0086] S402. The terminal device sends a second message, and correspondingly, the first network device receives the second message, wherein the second message is used to indicate that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a preamble, an SRS, or a feedback message of the first message.

[0087] Optionally, when the second message is feedback of the first message, the second message may include hybrid automatic repeat request-acknowledgement (HARQ-ACK) information.

[0088] In a possible implementation, the first cell is associated with the second cell, including: the first signal of the second cell is used to determine at least one of the time-frequency synchronization of the first cell, the transmission power of the uplink channel of the first cell, and the RRM of the first cell. Specifically, for a terminal device, it is generally necessary to obtain relevant information of a cell (such as determining the time-frequency synchronization of the cell, the transmission power of the uplink channel, and the RRM, etc.) through downlink transmission (such as downlink signaling / downlink signal / downlink information, etc.). Since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the first cell cannot determine the relevant information of the first cell through the downlink transmission of the first cell. For this reason, the relevant information of the first cell can refer to the relevant information of other cells. Correspondingly, the first cell is associated with the second cell, which can be understood as the relevant information of the first cell can refer to the relevant information of the second cell, that is, the time-frequency synchronization information of the second cell can be used to determine the time-frequency synchronization of the first cell, the path loss determined by the second cell can be used to determine the transmission power of the uplink channel of the first cell, and the RRM measurement result confirmed by the second cell can be used to determine the RRM of the first cell. Specifically, the signal / information / signaling sent downlink by the second cell can be used to determine at least one of the time and frequency synchronization of the first cell, the transmission power of the uplink channel of the first cell and the RRM of the first cell, so as to realize communication between the terminal device and the first cell with only uplink transmission.

[0089] It should be noted that the first signal of the second cell is used to determine the time and frequency synchronization of the first cell, which can be replaced by: the terminal device can determine the time and frequency synchronization information of the first cell based on the time and frequency synchronization information of the second cell, such as shared time and frequency synchronization information. The first signal of the second cell is used to determine the transmission power of the uplink channel of the first cell, which can be replaced by: the terminal device can determine the transmission power of the uplink channel of the first cell based on the downlink signal of the second cell. The first signal of the second cell is used to determine the RRM of the first cell, which can be replaced by: the terminal device can determine the RRM of the uplink channel of the first cell based on the RRM of the second cell.

[0090] Optionally, the RRM of the first cell may include at least one of intra-frequency cell measurement, inter-frequency cell measurement, and inter-radio access technology (radio access technology, RAT) measurement.

[0091] Exemplarily, in the process of activating a cell by a terminal device, it may be necessary to obtain information for cell activation through the downlink reference signal of the cell, such as automatic gain control (AGC), time-frequency synchronization information, and other information; accordingly, when the first cell is associated with other cells (such as the second cell, and the third cell and the fourth cell that may appear later), the terminal device can obtain information for cell activation through other cells and activate the first cell based on the information. The following will describe the implementation process of the terminal device activating the first cell in combination with some implementation methods.

[0092] Implementation method 1: The terminal device does not expect the second cell to be in a deactivated state.

[0093] Optionally, the terminal device does not expect the second cell to be in a deactivated state, and may instead expect the terminal device to expect the second cell to be in an activated state.

[0094] In implementation mode 1, the terminal device does not expect the second cell to be in a deactivated state, that is, when the terminal device receives a first message for activating a first cell used only for uplink transmission, the terminal device expects the second cell to be in an activated state. That is, in implementation mode 1, a cell (e.g., a second cell) preconfigured or predefined to be associated with a cell (e.g., a first cell) for uplink transmission only cannot be deactivated, that is, the cell for uplink transmission only is independently activated and deactivated. In other words, the terminal device can determine the behavior of the terminal device to activate the second cell based on the first message.

[0095] Optionally, in the case where the terminal device does not expect the second cell to be in a deactivated state, the first message may include configuration information of the first cell. In other words, the first cell configuration is activated, and after the first cell configuration is completed, if the second cell is in a deactivated state, the terminal device activates the second cell, and the terminal device determines that the second cell cannot be deactivated.

[0096] Exemplarily, the cell configuration information of the first cell may include at least one of the following: an index of the serving cell (i.e., the first cell), PCI, uplink carrier configuration information, the position of the first symbol of uplink and downlink DMRS, DL configuration of the TDD cell, UL configuration of the TDD cell, frequency band associated with the downlink carrier, the absolute frequency number of the common physical resource block 0 associated with the downlink carrier, frequency band associated with the uplink carrier, the absolute frequency number of the common physical resource block 0 associated with the uplink carrier, cross-carrier scheduling configuration, timing advance group identifier, downlink carrier unavailable indication information, and downlink carrier indication information.

[0097] It is understandable that, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the configuration information of the first cell may include the relevant configuration information of one or more uplink carriers of the first cell, and may not include the relevant configuration information of the downlink carrier. For example, for the TDD frequency band, the frequency band associated with the downlink carrier and the absolute frequency point number of the public physical resource block 0 associated with the downlink carrier may not be configured, but the frequency band associated with the uplink carrier and the absolute frequency point number of the public physical resource block 0 associated with the uplink carrier need to be configured.

[0098] Optionally, when the terminal device does not expect the second cell to be in a deactivated state, the first message may include activation signaling of the first cell, such as MAC CE, DCI, etc. Correspondingly, when the first message includes MAC CE, the feedback of the first message included in the second message may be HARQ-ACK information of MAC CE.

[0099] In addition, the sign of successful cell activation is generally that the terminal device reports a valid channel state information report. Figure 4 In the implementation shown, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, this may cause the first cell to fail to send down CSI-RS, which in turn causes the terminal device to fail to obtain the channel state information report of the first cell. For this reason, in implementation method one, the flag for the terminal device to activate the first cell will become the terminal device sending the second message. In other words, during the activation process of the first cell, the start time point of activation is the moment when the terminal device receives the first message in step S401 (or the moment when the first network device sends the first message), and the end time point may be the moment when the terminal device sends the second message in step S402 (or the moment when the second network device receives the second message).

[0100] Implementation method 2: the first message is an RRC message, and when the second cell is in an activated state, the first message is used to activate the first cell.

[0101] In implementation method two, when the terminal device determines that the second cell is in an activated state, the first message received by the terminal device is used to indicate the activation of the first cell, that is, the terminal device can determine the need to activate the first cell through the activation state of the second cell and the first message.

[0102] As an implementation example, in implementation mode 2, if the second cell associated with the first cell is the PCell of the terminal device, then the activation state and deactivation state of the first cell are associated (or bound) with the PCell, that is, if the cell associated with the first cell is the PCell, then the first cell enters the activation state after configuration, and no additional activation signaling is required. In other words, the first message may include the configuration information of the first cell.

[0103] As another implementation example, in implementation mode 2, if the second cell associated with the first cell is an SCell, and the SCell is in an activated state, then the first cell enters the activation process immediately after configuration, and no additional activation signaling is required. In other words, the first message may include configuration information of the first cell.

[0104] As another implementation example, in implementation mode 2, if the second cell associated with the first cell is an SCell, and the SCell is in a deactivated state, the network device needs to instruct the associated cell to enter an activated state and activate the first cell at the same time. No independent signaling is required to activate the first cell, and the activation delay of the first cell is the same as that of the associated cell. In other words, the first message may include activation signaling of the second cell (e.g., MAC CE, DCI, etc.), and the activation signaling of the second cell is used to indicate activation of the second cell, and the activation signaling of the second cell is also used to indicate activation of the first cell.

[0105] Optionally, in implementation mode 2, when the network device instructs the terminal to deactivate the associated cell, it also implicitly indicates the deactivation of the first cell. That is, the activation status binding of the first cell and the second cell is predefined, and when the network side device instructs the second cell to activate, it also implicitly indicates the activation of the first cell, and when the network side instructs the second cell to deactivate, it also implicitly indicates the deactivation of the first cell, and the activation and deactivation delay of the first cell is the same as that of the second cell.

[0106] Implementation method three: the first cell is also associated with a third cell, and the third cell is at least used for downlink transmission; when at least one of the second cell and the third cell is in an activated state, the first message is used to activate the first cell.

[0107] In implementation mode 3, in addition to being associated with the second cell, the first cell may also be associated with one or more other cells, the one or more cells including the third cell, that is, the first cell is associated with a cell group. Thus, when the terminal device determines that the second cell or at least one of the second cells is in an activated state, the first message received by the terminal device is used to indicate activation of the first cell, that is, the terminal device may determine that the first cell needs to be activated through the activation state of the associated one or more cells and the first message.

[0108] Optionally, in implementation mode 2 and implementation mode 3, the terminal device may determine that the first cell needs to be activated after receiving the first message. In other words, the network device configures the first message to indicate activation of the first cell. Thus, the first message may be implemented in a variety of ways. For example, the first message may include activation signaling of the first cell, such as MACCE, DCI, etc.; for another example, the first message may include RRC configuration information of the first cell, so that the first cell enters the activation state after configuration, without the need for additional activation signaling, which can reduce overhead.

[0109] Exemplarily, in implementation mode three, the first cell may be associated with a cell set (the cell set includes at least two cells containing downlink carriers), and when the first cell is activated, the activation state of the first cell is determined according to the activation state of the associated cell set. For example, the first cell may be activated (or the first cell may not be deactivated) when at least one cell (such as the second cell or the third cell) in the associated cell set remains activated, which may be preconfigured or predefined. Accordingly, when all cells in the cell set are in a deactivated state, the first cell is deactivated.

[0110] Optionally, in implementation mode three, the terminal device may obtain the first cell activation related information (such as AGC, time-frequency synchronization information, etc.) according to the priority of the cell in the associated cell set. The priority may be pre-configured or configured by the network device, for example, the size of the priority is positively correlated (or negatively correlated) with the size of the cell index of the cell in the associated cell set, which is not limited here.

[0111] It should be noted that the difference between implementation method three and implementation method two is that implementation method two is associated with the second cell, and implementation method three is associated with two or more cells (including the second cell and the third cell). The network device can indicate in the first message that an activated cell in the cell group is used as a reference cell in the activation process of the first cell. The terminal device obtains the AGC and time-frequency synchronization information required in the activation process according to the downlink signal in the indicated cell, such as SSB and CSI-RS.

[0112] Alternatively, in implementation method 3, the network device does not carry the reference cell indication information in the activation command, and indicates implicitly through preconfigured or predefined rules, such as the terminal device can determine the reference cell according to the difference between the cell frequency bands, and the smaller the frequency band difference, the higher the priority. The difference between the frequency bands can be the difference between the midpoint frequencies of the two cells, or the difference between the absolute frequency point numbers, etc., which is not limited here.

[0113] Implementation method four: the second cell is in a deactivated state, the first message includes first indication information, the first indication information indicates a fourth cell, and the fourth cell is in an activated state.

[0114] In implementation method four, when the first cell is associated with the second cell, the first message may include first indication information indicating a fourth cell that is in an activated state, so that when the second cell associated with the first cell is in a deactivated state, the network device can indicate, through dynamic indication, that the activation state of the first cell is determined by the activation state of other cells.

[0115] Optionally, the fourth cell may be a cell used only for uplink transmission, or a cell used at least for downlink transmission, or a cell used for both uplink transmission and downlink transmission, which is not limited here.

[0116] Optionally, when the first indication information indicates the fourth cell, the first message may include activation signaling of the first cell, such as RRC, MAC CE, DCI, etc.

[0117] Exemplarily, in implementation method four, the network device sends a first message to indicate the reference cell during the activation of the first cell, and the terminal device implements cell activation based on the information in the indicated cell, such as obtaining the AGC and time-frequency synchronization information required during the activation process through the fourth cell downlink signal, such as SSB, CSI-RS.

[0118] Specifically, in step S402, the first network device can receive a second message, so that the first network device can clarify that the terminal device has completed the activation of the first cell based on the second message, and subsequently the first network device (that is, the first network device can include the first cell) can receive uplink information from the terminal device through the first cell.

[0119] Optionally, the uplink information of the terminal device includes uplink data, uplink signaling, uplink signal, etc. For example, the uplink information of the terminal device may be carried on one or more channels of PUCCH, PUSCH, and PRACH.

[0120] Exemplarily, the terminal device may send at least one of the following uplink information: information carried on an uplink shared channel (UL-SCH), information carried on a RACH, information carried on a PUCCH, SRS, and the like.

[0121] Optionally, at least one uplink information sent by the terminal device may be sent via an uplink bandwidth part (BWP), wherein the uplink BWP may be configured to the terminal device via an RRC message, and the uplink BWP may be a continuous physical resource block in the frequency domain.

[0122] Optionally, in order to achieve better energy-saving effect for terminal devices, an energy-saving BWP (the bandwidth of the energy-saving BWP is smaller than the bandwidth of the uplink BWP) and a timer corresponding to the uplink BWP can be configured or pre-configured for a cell with only uplink transmission (e.g., the first cell). If there is no data communication between the network device and the terminal device within the timer, the terminal device switches from the currently activated uplink BWP to the energy-saving BWP, where the energy-saving BWP can also be configured to the terminal through an RRC message.

[0123] Optionally, the energy-saving BWP may be referred to as an uplink default BWP.

[0124] In one possible implementation, Figure 4 In the technical solution shown, the first cell is in an activated state (for example, after the terminal device sends the second message in step S402, the terminal device considers that the first cell is in an activated state), and the method also includes: the terminal device receives scheduling information of the first cell through the fifth cell; wherein, the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell.

[0125] Specifically, when the first cell is in an activated state, the terminal device can receive the scheduling information of the first cell through the fifth cell to realize cross-carrier scheduling of the first cell for uplink transmission only. Among them, the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by the first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell, that is, the cross-carrier scheduling resources of the first cell used only for uplink transmission share the self-scheduling resources of other cells, which can save the overhead of resource configuration and improve resource utilization. Optionally, the other cells include scheduling cells and cells jointly scheduled with the first cell. Optionally, the predefined resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell. Optionally, the resources carrying the scheduling information are control channel resources used for blind detection of DCI, such as CCEs corresponding to one or more CCE indexes.

[0126] Optionally, the first configuration information is included in the cell configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is included in the uplink carrier configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is included in the downlink carrier configuration information of the first cell, or the first configuration information is independent of the cell configuration information of the first cell, which is not limited here.

[0127] It should be noted that in the CA scenario, the cell scheduling of an SCell supports two scheduling modes: self-scheduling and cross-carrier scheduling. The control information of self-scheduling is sent on the downlink carrier of the SCell, and the control information of cross-carrier scheduling is sent on the downlink carrier of other cells outside the SCell. The terminal device obtains the control information through the search space blind detection method described above to schedule the SCell. Figure 4 In the technical solution shown, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the first cell may not have a downlink carrier. Accordingly, the scheduling of the first cell needs to be implemented by cross-carrier scheduling. In the above implementation, the implementation of cross-carrier scheduling of the scheduling of the first cell through the downlink carrier of the fifth cell is taken as an example. The cross-carrier scheduling characteristics include cross-carrier scheduling with the same subcarrier spacing and cross-carrier scheduling with different subcarrier spacings. The terminal that supports only uplink transmission must support the cross-carrier scheduling characteristics, even if the terminal device does not report the ability to support cross-carrier scheduling. Optionally, it is predefined that the terminal that supports only uplink transmission must support the cross-carrier scheduling characteristics with the same subcarrier spacing or it is predefined that the terminal that supports only uplink transmission must support the cross-carrier scheduling with the same subcarrier spacing and cross-carrier scheduling with different subcarrier spacings. Optionally, it is predefined that the terminal that supports only uplink transmission must report the capabilities related to cross-carrier scheduling at the same time.

[0128] In the above implementation, the first cell is associated with K (K is greater than or equal to 1) cells, the K cells include at least the second cell, and the fifth cell is one of the K cells. Among them, when the value of K is 1, the K cells only include the fifth cell (that is, the fifth cell and the second cell are the same cell). At this time, the first cell can only be cross-carrier scheduled by the fifth cell. When the value of K is greater than 1, the fifth cell is any one of the K cells, and the scope of cross-carrier scheduling of the first cell is not limited. Any cell in the K cells can be configured to cross-carrier schedule the first cell. Optionally, any service cell of the terminal device can be configured to cross-carrier schedule the first cell, which is decoupled from the cell associated with the first cell.

[0129] As an implementation example, the first cell is configured for cross-carrier scheduling, such as when the fifth cell schedules the first cell across carriers. The terminal device needs to determine the position of the search space for scheduling the first cell on the search space of the fifth cell, and the determination of the position requires the search space-related configuration on the first cell, such as the search space ID, the aggregation level of the blind detection, and the number of blind detections. Generally, the search space-related configuration of a cell is in the downlink BWP configuration, and in the above technical solution, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the first cell may not have a downlink BWP configuration. For this reason, the search space-related configuration for cross-carrier scheduling can be configured in the configuration information of the first cell. Alternatively, the self-scheduling of the first cell and the fifth cell shares the search space, that is, the search space-related configuration for cross-carrier scheduling is the same as the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell. Alternatively, the configuration information of the pre-configured or pre-defined first cell carries the search space-related configuration information in the first cell.

[0130] based on Figure 4 In the technical solution shown, the first message received by the terminal device in step S401 is used to activate the first cell used only for uplink transmission. Thereafter, the terminal device may send a second message in step S402 to instruct the terminal device to complete the activation of the first cell, so that the terminal device can activate the first cell used only for uplink transmission and communicate with the network device through the first cell. Figure 3 In the implementation example shown, the cell has a strong binding relationship with the downlink carrier. This restriction is suitable for downlink services with large data volumes. For uplink services with large data volumes or for service scenarios that require secondary cells to improve coverage, this restriction will increase the capabilities and complexity of the terminal device, that is, the terminal device needs to support additional downlink capabilities while obtaining the required uplink resources. Figure 3 In the technical solution shown, for the terminal device, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the communication mode between the terminal device and the first cell is the uplink transmission mode, so that the terminal device does not need to configure / use the downlink carrier of the first cell, which can reduce the capability requirements of the terminal device and reduce the complexity and power consumption of the terminal device.

[0131] In addition, the network device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module of the network device according to the change of the downlink traffic in the cell, and switch between the uplink transmission mode only and the uplink and downlink transmission mode, thereby reducing the power consumption of the network device.

[0132] exist Figure 4In the technical solution shown, the first network device may include one or more cells, that is, the signal transmission and reception of the one or more cells are performed by the first network device. The one or more cells may include the cell used to send the first message in step S401 and the first cell, so that the first network device can receive the second message from the terminal device in step S402, for example, the second message may include the random access preamble and / or SRS sent by the terminal device to the first cell; for example, the second message may include a feedback message of the first message sent by the terminal device to the cell that sent the first message in step S401.

[0133] In a possible implementation, the first network device may not include the first cell. For example, the first cell is located in other network devices (for example, the second network device). In this case, the second message sent by the terminal device in the above step S402 may no longer be received by the first network device. Figure 5 The implementation process shown is used to describe this situation.

[0134] S501. A first network device sends a first message, and a terminal device receives the first message accordingly. The first message is used to activate a first cell, which is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, which is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE.

[0135] It should be noted that the implementation process of step S501 can refer to the implementation process of the aforementioned step S401 and achieve the corresponding technical effect, which will not be repeated here.

[0136] S502. The terminal device sends a second message, and correspondingly, the first network device receives the second message, wherein the second message is used to indicate that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a preamble or an SRS.

[0137] It should be noted that after step S502, the second network device may receive uplink information from the terminal device. The uplink information of the terminal device includes uplink data, uplink signaling, uplink signals, etc. For example, the uplink information of the terminal device may be carried on one or more channels of PUCCH, PUSCH, and PRACH.

[0138] based on Figure 5In the technical solution shown, the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, and the second message received by the second network device in step S502 is used to instruct the terminal device to complete the activation of the first cell. Subsequently, the second network device can receive uplink information from the terminal device, that is, the second network device can communicate uplink with the terminal device through the first cell. Therefore, since the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the communication mode between the terminal device and the first cell is the uplink transmission mode, so that the terminal device does not need to configure / use the downlink carrier of the first cell, which can reduce the capability requirements of the terminal device and reduce the complexity and power consumption of the terminal device. In addition, the second network device can dynamically shut down the downlink transmission module of the network device according to the change of the downlink traffic volume in the cell, and switch between the uplink transmission only mode and the uplink and downlink transmission mode, thereby reducing the power consumption of the network device.

[0139] See also Figure 6 , the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device 600, which can implement the functions of the communication device in the above method embodiment (the communication device is a terminal device or a first network device or a second network device), and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiment. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device 600 can be a communication device, or it can be an integrated circuit or component inside the communication device, such as a chip. The following embodiments are described by taking the communication device 600 as a communication device as an example.

[0140] In a possible implementation, when the device 600 is used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the device 600 includes a processing unit 601 and a transceiver unit 602; the transceiver unit 602 is used to receive a first message, the first message is used to activate a first cell, and the first cell is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE; the processing unit 601 is used to determine a second message, and the second message is used to indicate that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a random access preamble, a sounding reference signal SRS, or a feedback message of the first message; the transceiver unit 602 is also used to send the second message.

[0141] In one possible implementation, when the device 600 is used to execute the method executed by the first network device in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the device 600 includes a processing unit 601 and a transceiver unit 602; the processing unit 601 is used to determine a first message, the first message is used to activate a first cell, and the first cell is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE; the transceiver unit 602 is used to send the first message.

[0142] In one possible implementation, when the device 600 is used to execute the method executed by the second network device in any of the aforementioned embodiments, the device 600 includes a processing unit 601 and a transceiver unit 602; the transceiver unit 602 is used to receive a second message; the processing unit 601 is used to determine that the terminal device completes the activation of the first cell based on the second message, and the second message is a random access preamble or a sounding reference signal SRS; wherein the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the first cell is associated with the second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission; the transceiver unit 602 is also used to receive uplink information from the terminal device.

[0143] It should be noted that the information execution process and other contents of the units of the above-mentioned communication device 600 can be specifically referred to the description in the method embodiment shown in the above-mentioned application, and will not be repeated here.

[0144] See also Figure 7 , is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device 700 provided in the present application, wherein the communication device 700 includes a logic circuit 701 and an input / output interface 702. The communication device 700 may be a chip or an integrated circuit. Figure 6 The transceiver unit 602 shown may be a communication interface, which may be Figure 7 The input / output interface 702 in the communication interface may include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication interface may also be a transceiver circuit, which may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0145] Optionally, the input-output interface 702 is used to receive a first message, where the first message is used to activate a first cell, and the first cell is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE; the logic circuit 701 is used to determine a second message, where the second message is used to indicate that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a random access preamble, a sounding reference signal SRS, or a feedback message of the first message; the input-output interface 702 is also used to send the second message.

[0146] Optionally, the logic circuit 701 is used to determine a first message, which is used to activate a first cell, and the first cell is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is an RRC message or a MAC CE; the input and output interface 702 is used to send the first message.

[0147] Optionally, the input-output interface 702 is used to receive a second message; the logic circuit 701 is used to determine that the terminal device completes the activation of the first cell based on the second message, and the second message is a random access preamble or a sounding reference signal SRS; wherein the first cell is only used for uplink transmission, the first cell is associated with the second cell, and the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission; the input-output interface 702 is also used to receive uplink information from the terminal device.

[0148] Among them, the logic circuit 701 and the input and output interface 702 can also execute other steps executed by the terminal device or the network device in any embodiment and achieve corresponding beneficial effects, which will not be repeated here.

[0149] In one possible implementation, Figure 6 The processing unit 601 shown can be Figure 7 The logic circuit 701 in.

[0150] Optionally, the logic circuit 701 may be a processing device, and the functions of the processing device may be partially or completely implemented by software. The functions of the processing device may be partially or completely implemented by software.

[0151] Optionally, the processing device may include a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the memory to perform corresponding processing and / or steps in any one of the method embodiments.

[0152] Alternatively, the processing device may include only a processor. A memory for storing a computer program is located outside the processing device, and the processor is connected to the memory via a circuit / wire to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory. The memory and the processor may be integrated together, or may be physically independent of each other.

[0153] Optionally, the processing device may be one or more chips, or one or more processors.

[0154] It is understandable that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), network processors (NP), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), programmable logic devices (PLD), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0155] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store one or more computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor executes the method described in the possible implementation methods of the terminal device or network device in the above embodiments.

[0156] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product (or computer program). When the computer program product is executed by the processor, the processor executes the method of the possible implementation mode of the above-mentioned terminal device or network device.

[0157] The embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system, which includes at least one processor for supporting a communication device to implement the functions involved in the possible implementation methods of the above-mentioned communication device. Optionally, the chip system also includes an interface circuit, which provides program instructions and / or data for the at least one processor. In one possible design, the chip system may also include a memory, which is used to store the necessary program instructions and data for the communication device. The chip system can be composed of chips, or it can include chips and other discrete devices, wherein the communication device can specifically be a terminal device or a network device in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0158] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which includes the terminal device and the first network device in any of the above embodiments, or the communication system includes the terminal device and the second network device in any of the above embodiments, or the communication system includes the terminal device and the first network device and the second network device in any of the above embodiments.

[0159] In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0160] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0161] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0162] When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The terminal chip receives information from the base station, which can be understood as the information is first received by other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the terminal chip by these modules. The terminal chip sends information to the base station, which can be understood as the information is first sent to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the base station by these modules.

[0163] When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a base station, the base station chip implements the function of the base station in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The base station chip receives information from the terminal, which can be understood as the information is first received by other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the base station chip by these modules. The base station chip sends information to the terminal, which can be understood as the information is sent to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and then sent to the terminal by these modules.

[0164] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions that can be executed by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, register, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also be present in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

[0165] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instruction is loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is executed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device or other programmable device. The computer program or instruction may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer program or instruction may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape; it may also be an optical medium, for example, a digital video disc; it may also be a semiconductor medium, for example, a solid-state hard disk. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

[0166] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or provided for in any logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between the different embodiments are consistent and may be referenced to each other, and the technical features in the different embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

[0167] It is understood that the various numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the sequence number of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

Claims

1. A cell activation method, characterized in that: Executed by a terminal or a module applied to a terminal, including: receiving a first message, where the first message is used to activate a first cell, where the first cell is used only for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, where the second cell is used at least for downlink transmission, and the first message is a radio resource control RRC message or a medium access control control element MAC CE; A second message is sent, where the second message indicates that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a random access preamble, a sounding reference signal SRS, or a feedback message of the first message.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The associating the first cell with the second cell includes: The first signal of the second cell is used to determine at least one of the time and frequency synchronization of the first cell, the transmission power of the uplink channel of the first cell, and the radio resource management RRM of the first cell.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The terminal does not expect the second cell to be in a deactivated state.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The first message is an RRC message, and when the second cell is in an activated state, the first message is used to activate the first cell.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The first cell is also associated with a third cell, and the third cell is at least used for downlink transmission; When at least one of the second cell and the third cell is in an activated state, the first message is used to activate the first cell.

6. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The second cell is in a deactivated state, the first message includes first indication information, the first indication information indicates a fourth cell, and the fourth cell is in an activated state.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: The first cell is in an activated state, and the method further includes: The scheduling information of the first cell is received through the fifth cell; wherein the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell.

8. A cell activation method, characterized in that: Executed by a network device or a module applied to a network device, including: Sending a first message, where the first message is used to activate a first cell, where the first cell is only used for uplink transmission; the first cell is associated with a second cell, where the second cell is at least used for downlink transmission, and the first message is a radio resource control RRC message or a medium access control control element MAC CE; A second message is received, where the second message indicates that the first cell has been activated, and the second message is a random access preamble, a sounding reference signal SRS, or a feedback message of the first message.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The associating the first cell with the second cell includes: The first signal of the second cell is used to determine at least one of the time and frequency synchronization of the first cell, the transmission power of the uplink channel of the first cell, and the radio resource management RRM of the first cell.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that: The terminal does not expect the second cell to be in a deactivated state.

11. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that: The first message is an RRC message, and when the second cell is in an activated state, the first message is used to activate the first cell.

12. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that: The first cell is also associated with a third cell, and the third cell is at least used for downlink transmission; When at least one of the second cell and the third cell is in an activated state, the first message is used to activate the first cell.

13. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that: The second cell is in a deactivated state, the first message includes first indication information, the first indication information indicates a fourth cell, and the fourth cell is in an activated state.

14. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 13, characterized in that The first cell is in an activated state, and the method further includes: The scheduling information of the first cell is sent through the fifth cell; wherein the resources carrying the scheduling information of the first cell are determined by first configuration information, and the resources indicated by the first configuration information are the same as the resources indicated by the search space configuration information corresponding to the self-scheduling of the fifth cell.

15. A communication device, characterized in that: Comprising means for performing the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14.

16. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises at least one processor coupled to a memory; the at least one processor is configured to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

17. A readable storage medium, characterized in that: The storage medium stores a computer program or an instruction. When the computer program or the instruction is executed by the communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14 is implemented.

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