Communication method and terminal equipment

Abstract

The invention relates to a communication method and terminal equipment. The communication method comprises the following steps: the terminal equipment determines the type of a timing advance group TAG based on a first mode; and the terminal device executes a first behavior based on the type of the TAG and the timer associated with the TAG. According to the embodiment of the invention, the terminal equipment can execute the first behavior based on the type of the TAG and the timer associated with the TAG, thereby facilitating the improvement of the service continuity.

Description

Communication method and terminal device Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a communication method and terminal equipment. Background Art

[0002] User Equipment (UE) can be configured with multiple Timing Advance Groups (TAGs) in a Cell Group (CG). The UE's Timing Advance (TAG) is updated and maintained based on the TAG. Typically, each serving cell is associated with one TAG. In some scenarios, each serving cell can be associated with multiple TAGs. If a serving cell is associated with two Primary Timing Advance Groups (PTAGs), UE operations after the PTAG-associated timer expires may result in service discontinuity.

[0003] Summary of the Invention

[0004] An embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

[0005] The terminal device determines the type of the timing advance group TAG based on the first method;

[0006] The terminal device performs the first behavior based on the type of the TAG and the timer associated with the TAG.

[0007] An embodiment of the present application provides a terminal device, including:

[0008] The processing unit is configured to determine a type of a timing advance group TAG based on a first method; and execute a first behavior based on the type of the TAG and a timer associated with the TAG.

[0009] An embodiment of the present application provides a terminal device, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to call and run the computer program stored in the memory, so that the terminal device executes the above-mentioned communication method.

[0010] The embodiment of the present application provides a chip for implementing the above-mentioned communication method. Specifically, the chip includes: a processor for calling and running a computer program from a memory, so that a device equipped with the chip executes the above-mentioned communication method.

[0011] An embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program, which, when executed by a device, enables the device to execute the above-mentioned communication method.

[0012] An embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, including computer program instructions, which enable a computer to execute the above-mentioned communication method.

[0013] An embodiment of the present application provides a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the above-mentioned communication method.

[0014] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can execute the first behavior based on the type of TAG and the timer associated with the TAG, which is conducive to improving service continuity. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0016] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a differential adjustment format of TA.

[0017] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the absolute value adjustment format of TA.

[0018] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of MAC RAR.

[0019] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of an uplink and downlink scheduling scenario of mDCI-mTRP.

[0020] FIG6 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0021] FIG7 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0022] FIG8 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0023] FIG9 is a schematic block diagram of a chip according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0024] FIG10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

[0026] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) system, Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, Advanced Long Term Evolution (LTE-A) system, New Radio (NR) system, NR system evolution system, LTE on unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U) system, NR on unlicensed spectrum (NR-U) system, Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) system, Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), Wireless Fidelity (Wireless Fidelity) system. Fidelity, WiFi), fifth-generation communication (5th-Generation, 5G) system or other communication systems, etc.

[0027] Generally speaking, traditional communication systems support a limited number of connections and are easy to implement. However, with the development of communication technology, mobile communication systems will not only support traditional communications, but will also support, for example, device-to-device (D2D) communication, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, or vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, etc. The embodiments of the present application can also be applied to these communication systems.

[0028] In one embodiment, the communication system in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to a carrier aggregation (CA) scenario, a dual connectivity (DC) scenario, and a standalone (SA) networking scenario.

[0029] In one embodiment, the communication system in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to an unlicensed spectrum, wherein the unlicensed spectrum can also be considered as a shared spectrum; or, the communication system in the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to an authorized spectrum, wherein the authorized spectrum can also be considered as an unshared spectrum.

[0030] The embodiments of the present application describe various embodiments in conjunction with network devices and terminal devices, wherein the terminal device may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device, etc.

[0031] The terminal device can be a station (STAION, ST) in a WLAN, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a next-generation communication system such as an NR network, or a terminal device in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) network, etc.

[0032] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld, wearable or vehicle-mounted; it can also be deployed on the water surface (such as ships, etc.); it can also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons and satellites, etc.).

[0033] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal device in industrial control, a wireless terminal device in self-driving, a wireless terminal device in remote medical, a wireless terminal device in a smart grid, a wireless terminal device in transportation safety, a wireless terminal device in a smart city, or a wireless terminal device in a smart home, etc.

[0034] As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be called wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include those that are fully functional, large in size, and can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as those that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0035] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device may be a device for communicating with a mobile device. The network device may be an access point (AP) in WLAN, a base station (BTS) in GSM or CDMA, a base station (NodeB, NB) in WCDMA, an evolved base station (eNB or eNodeB) in LTE, or a relay station or access point, or a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, and a network device (gNB) in an NR network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network or a network device in an NTN network, etc.

[0036] As an example and not a limitation, in an embodiment of the present application, the network device may have a mobile feature, for example, the network device may be a mobile device. Alternatively, the network device may be a satellite or a balloon station. For example, the satellite may be a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite, a medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite, a geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite, a high elliptical orbit (HEO) satellite, etc. Optionally, the network device may also be a base station set up in a location such as land or water.

[0037] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device can provide services for a cell, and the terminal device communicates with the network device through the transmission resources used by the cell (for example, frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources). The cell can be a cell corresponding to the network device (for example, a base station). The cell can belong to a macro base station or a base station corresponding to a small cell. The small cells here may include: metro cells, micro cells, pico cells, femto cells, etc. These small cells have the characteristics of small coverage and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-speed data transmission services.

[0038] FIG1 exemplarily illustrates a communication system 100. The communication system includes a network device 110 and two terminal devices 120. In one embodiment, the communication system 100 may include multiple network devices 110, and each network device 110 may include a different number of terminal devices 120 within its coverage area, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0039] In one embodiment, the communication system 100 may further include other network entities such as a Mobility Management Entity (MME) and an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

[0040] Among them, the network equipment may include access network equipment and core network equipment. That is, the wireless communication system also includes multiple core networks for communicating with the access network equipment. The access network equipment can be an evolutionary base station (evolutional node B, abbreviated as eNB or e-NodeB) macro base station, micro base station (also called "small base station"), pico base station, access point (AP), transmission point (TP) or new generation base station (new generation Node B, gNodeB), etc. in a long-term evolution (LTE) system, a next-generation (mobile communication system) (next radio, NR) system or an authorized auxiliary access long-term evolution (LAA-LTE) system.

[0041] It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, a device having a communication function in a network / system may be referred to as a communication device. Taking the communication system shown in Figure 1 as an example, the communication device may include a network device and a terminal device having a communication function. The network device and the terminal device may be specific devices in the embodiments of the present application and will not be described in detail here. The communication device may also include other devices in the communication system, such as a network controller, a mobility management entity, and other network entities, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0042] It should be understood that the terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably herein. The term "and / or" is simply a description of an association between related objects, indicating that three possible relationships exist. For example, "A and / or B" can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, or B exists alone. Furthermore, the character " / " generally indicates that the related objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0043] It should be understood that the "indication" mentioned in the embodiments of this application can be a direct indication, an indirect indication, or an indication of an association. For example, "A indicates B" can mean that A directly indicates B, for example, B can be obtained through A; it can also mean that A indirectly indicates B, for example, A indicates C, and B can be obtained through C; it can also mean that there is an association between A and B.

[0044] In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the term "corresponding" may indicate a direct or indirect correspondence between the two, or an association relationship between the two, or a relationship between indication and being indicated, configuration and being configured, etc.

[0045] To facilitate understanding of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the relevant technologies of the embodiments of the present application are described below. The following relevant technologies can be arbitrarily combined with the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application as optional solutions, and they all fall within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0046] 1. Timing advance (TA)

[0047] In the current New Radio (NR) standard, a user equipment (UE) can be configured with up to four timing advance groups (TAGs) within a cell group (CG). The following example shows how to configure the radio resource control (RRC) for a TAG. Generally, a CG can include multiple serving cells, each of which is assigned a timing advance group identity (TAG-Id).

[0048] Example of TAG RRC configuration:

[0049]

[0050] An example of a calculation formula for the UE timing advance is as follows: The UE timing advance is based on the first symbol of the downlink channel or the time slot where the channel is located received by the UE as a downlink reference, and advance transmission is performed based on this.

[0051] (N TA +N TA,offset )*T C

[0052] In a CG, each serving cell can be pre-configured with a timing advance offset (TA offset) n-TimingAdvanceOffset, that is, N in the formula TA,offset TA adjustment amount (N TA ) is performed based on the pre-configured offset. C is the minimum time unit in the NR system, T C =1 / (4096*480kHz). N TA The differential adjustment can be provided by the Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC CE) of the network (NW). That is, the current (new) TA adjustment is based on the previous (old) TA, adjusted forward or backward in time. The calculation formula is as follows:

[0053]

[0054] The first TA adjustment method can be a differential adjustment format based on the TA of MAC CE, as shown below. A The minimum time unit is TAG, and the granularity of the TA adjustment is TAG.

[0055] As shown in Figure 2, TAG Identity (TAG ID): This field indicates the TAG identity of the TAG. The TAG identity of the special cell (SpCell) is 0. The length of this field is 2 bits. Among them, the SpCell can include a primary cell (Pcell) and a primary secondary cell (Pscell).

[0056] Timing Advance Command: This field indicates the index value TA(0,1,2…63) used to control the amount of timing adjustment that the Media Access Control (MAC) entity has to apply (as specified in TS 38.213[6]). The length of the field is 6 bits.

[0057] The second TA adjustment method can be to adjust the absolute value of TA. That is, without considering the previous TA value, the NW directly gives an absolute value N through the Absolute MAC CE (see Figure 3) or the Random Access Response (Random Access Response, RAR) MAC payload (see Figure 4).TA Its value range is 0 to 3846, and the adjustment range of TA is N TA =T A *16*64*2 μ The acquisition of these two types of TA occurs during the random access process. The acquired TA is applicable to the TAG corresponding to the target cell of the random access, so it does not need to include the TAG-ID. For example, the Absolute MAC CE is used for the two-step random access process, and the two-step random access can only be initiated to the SpCell. Therefore, the MAC CE is applicable to the Primary Timing Advance Group (PTAG) corresponding to the MAC entity, that is, the PTAG includes the SpCell.

[0058] As shown in Figure 3, Timing Advance Command: This field indicates the index value TA used to control the amount of timing adjustment that the MAC entity has to apply in TS 38.213[6]. The size of the field is 12 bits.

[0059] R: Reserved bit, set to "0".

[0060] 2. Maintenance of UE's TA

[0061] TA validity maintenance relies on the TA timer. When the UE receives a MAC CE or RAR containing the TA command, it starts or restarts the timer. When the timer expires, the UE releases resources and clears the cache.

[0062] 3. Uplink Multiple Transmission Reception Point (TRP) Operation

[0063] 3GPP supports repetition of the uplink Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) / Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) based on multiple TRPs to enhance uplink coverage and transmission reliability. The UE needs to send PUCCH / PUSCH carrying the same content to different TRPs.

[0064] For PUSCH repetition, support is provided for repeated transmission of multiple physical uplink shared channels (multi-PUSCH) based on single downlink control information (sDCI), and a timing advance (TA) is used to sequentially send PUSCH to different TRPs. For multi-PUSCH transmission based on multiple downlink control information (mDCI), since there may not be a sufficiently ideal backhaul as a connection between multiple TRPs, the independent scheduling of UEs by multiple TRPs may cause different PUSCH / PUCCH to overlap in time. Therefore, it is also necessary to support different TA updates or indications for different TRPs.

[0065] 3GPP is currently developing a mechanism for a UE's multiple antenna panels to simultaneously transmit PUCCH / PUSCH to multiple TRPs. Even with multiple uplink transmit antenna panels and multiple TRPs, a UE can only use one TA for early transmission within a component carrier (CC). This limitation should obviously be overcome by supporting TRP-specific TA updates / indications.

[0066] In the scenario of multiple transmission reception points (mTRPs) within a cell, as shown in Figure 5, each TRP can schedule its physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) transmission using its own downlink control information (DCI). Each TRP may also (but not yet supported) schedule its own PUSCH transmission (see the arrows for PUSCH1 and PUSCH2 in Figure 5). TRP 1 and TRP 2 can use the same physical cell identifier (PCI).

[0067] In the operation of mDCI-mTRP, compared with the operation of sDCI-mTRP, the demand for DCI is greater and each TRP is scheduled independently, so the number of Control Resource Sets (CORESETs) where DCI is located is increased. CORESETs are grouped by their RRC parameter CORESET pool index (PoolIndex). For example, CORESETs with CORESETPoolIndex of "0" are grouped together, corresponding to one TRP. CORESETs with CORESETPoolIndex of "1" are grouped together, corresponding to another TRP. When the NW does not configure CORESETPoolIndex for a CORESET, its default value is "0".

[0068] For inter-cell mTRPs, TRP 1 in Figure 5 can be understood as the reference TRP, the TRP to which the UE initially accesses. The UE has already achieved uplink and downlink synchronization, and TRP 1 has a dedicated PCI#1. As for other TRPs, since the NW can select a TRP from up to seven TRPs to serve the UE, these TRPs have different PCIs than the reference TRP and often do not have pre-established uplink and downlink synchronization with the UE.

[0069] In related technologies, the UE's TA is updated and maintained based on the TAG, with each serving cell associated with a TAG. At the latest Radio Access Network 1 (RAN1) meeting, RAN1 agreed to support a TRP-based TA (per TRP TA) indication scheme. In other words, in an mTRP scenario, two TRPs in a serving cell can have different TAs, and the TAs of the two TRPs are associated with different TAGs. In other words, each serving cell can be associated with two TAGs.

[0070] The relevant TAGs can be divided into PTAG and STAG. In the Carrier Aggregation / Dual Connectivity (CA / DC) scenario, the TAG to which the Pcell / Pscell belongs is PTAG, and the TAG to which the Secondary Cell (Scell) belongs is STAG. If each service cell in the mTRP scenario is associated with two TAGs, the current PTAG / STAG may result in two PTAGs on one service cell. In related technologies, after the timer associated with the PTAG expires, the UE will release all uplink resources of the service cell and clear the corresponding Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) buffer. For the mTRP scenario, if there is another TRP that can work on the Pcell, the UE does not need to release all resources.

[0071] The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can provide a new way to determine the TAG, so that the UE can better maintain the TA, thereby ensuring the continuity of the uplink service.

[0072] FIG6 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method 600 according to an embodiment of the present application. The method can optionally be applied to the system shown in FIG1 , but is not limited thereto. The method includes at least part of the following contents.

[0073] S610. The terminal device determines the type of the timing advance group TAG based on the first method.

[0074] S620: The terminal device executes a first behavior based on the type of the TAG and the timer associated with the TAG.

[0075] In the disclosed embodiments, TAG types can include multiple types, such as PTAG or STAG. In a multi-TRP scenario, determining whether a TAG is PTAG or STAG allows for the execution of corresponding actions for different TAG types. For example, the decision to release resources can be made more flexibly, thereby ensuring service continuity.

[0076] A cell group (CG) and / or a media access control MAC entity can be associated with one or more primary timing advance groups (PTAGs), which are introduced below.

[0077] In one embodiment, when a CG and / or a MAC entity is associated with a PTAG, the first method includes at least one of the following:

[0078] The TAG associated with the initially accessed cell and / or transmission reception point TRP on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG;

[0079] The TAG associated with the TRP associated with the control resource set 0 (CORESET 0) on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG;

[0080] The TAG associated with the TRP for receiving the common channel on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG;

[0081] The TAG associated with the first control resource set index on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG, and the TAG associated with the second control resource set index is the second TAG;

[0082] The TCI state of the Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) on the Pcell and / or Pscell is associated with the TRP of the beam information of the serving cell, and the TAG associated with the TRP is the first TAG;

[0083] During the SCG addition / change process, the TAG associated with the cell and / or TRP that initiates the random access process for the first time is the first TAG;

[0084] The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG;

[0085] The tag other than the first tag is the second tag.

[0086] In an embodiment of the present application, the beam information of the service cell associated with the TCI state of the TRP may include the service cell synchronization signal block (Synchronization Signal and PBCH Block, SSB) and / or the channel state information-reference signal (Channel State Information-Reference Signal, CSI-RS).

[0087] In one embodiment, when one CG and / or one MAC entity is associated with two PTAGs, the first method includes at least one of the following:

[0088] The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG;

[0089] The TAG associated with the Scell ​​is the second TAG.

[0090] In the embodiment of the present application, the first TAG may be PTAG, and the second TAG may be STAG.

[0091] In one embodiment, when a TAG includes at least one sub-TAG, the first manner includes at least one of the following:

[0092] Each PTAG and / or auxiliary timing advance group STAG includes a third TAG and a fourth TAG;

[0093] The third TAG is associated with the first TRP, and the fourth TAG is associated with the second TRP.

[0094] For example, if a PTAG is the first TAG, and the sub-TAGs of the first TAG include the third TAG and the fourth TAG, the first behavior corresponding to the third TAG can refer to the first behavior corresponding to the first TAG, i.e., PTAG, and the first behavior corresponding to the fourth TAG can refer to the first behavior corresponding to the second TAG, i.e., STAG.

[0095] For example, if a STAG is the second TAG, and the sub-TAG of the second TAG includes the third TAG and the fourth TAG, the first behavior corresponding to the third TAG can refer to the first behavior corresponding to the first TAG, i.e., PTAG, and the first behavior corresponding to the fourth TAG can refer to the first behavior corresponding to the second TAG, i.e., STAG.

[0096] In one embodiment, the identifier of the TRP includes at least one of the following:

[0097] TCI status;

[0098] Spatial relationship information;

[0099] Control resource pool index;

[0100] downlink reference signal group;

[0101] Uplink channel and / or reference signal for semi-static uplink channel;

[0102] Uplink channels and / or reference signals for semi-static reference signals;

[0103] TAG logo.

[0104] In an embodiment of the present application, the TRP identifier and the TAG identifier may be associated with each other.

[0105] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the first TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0106] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0107] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0108] Trigger the random access process to restore the timing advance TA;

[0109] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the first TAG have timed out, the corresponding action is performed.

[0110] Release the resources associated with the first TAG;

[0111] Release the resources associated with the first TRP.

[0112] In an embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the first TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell, or a Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the first TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell, or a Scell ​​associated with the first TAG. For example, if there are two TRPs that can work on a Pcell associated with the first TAG, after the TAG timers associated with these two TRPs have timed out, the UE will then perform the first behavior other than not taking any action. For another example, the first TAG may be associated with at least one Scell. If there are two TRPs that can work on a Scell ​​associated with the first TAG, after the TAG timers associated with these two TRPs have timed out, the UE will then perform the first behavior other than not taking any action.

[0113] In an embodiment of the present application, after the terminal device is inactive, the corresponding behavior performed when all TAG timers expire may be at least one behavior in the first behavior other than inactivity. For example, after all TAG timers expire, the resources of the current serving cell are released, the resources associated with the first TAG are released, etc. The resources of the serving cell may include, for example, a HARQ buffer, SRS, PUCCH, SPS, CG, etc.

[0114] For example, if the timer associated with the first TAG times out, and the first TAG is associated with a Pcell and / or a Pscell, the first behavior may include at least one of the following:

[0115] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0116] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0117] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with TRPs on the Pcell and / or Pscell expire, corresponding actions are performed.

[0118] Release the resources associated with the first TAG;

[0119] Release the resources associated with the first TRP.

[0120] For another example, if the timer associated with the first TAG times out and the first TAG is associated with a Scell, the first action may include at least one of the following:

[0121] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0122] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0123] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with TRPs on the Scell ​​expire, the corresponding action is executed.

[0124] Release the resources associated with the first TAG;

[0125] Release the resources associated with the first TRP.

[0126] In the embodiment of the present application, when the first TAG is associated with a Pcell or Pscell, the serving cell of the terminal device may be different from that when the first TAG is associated with an Scell. For example, if the first TAG is associated with a Pcell or Pscell, because the Pcell or Pscell is the primary serving cell, the terminal device can release resources of all serving cells when all TAG timers expire. For another example, if the first TAG is associated with an Scell, the invalidation of the TA in one Scell ​​does not affect the normal transmission of other Pcells or Scells. Therefore, when all TAG timers expire, the terminal device can release resources of the current serving cell.

[0127] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the second TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0128] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0129] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0130] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0131] No action is taken. When all TAG timers of the cell associated with the second TAG expire, corresponding actions are performed.

[0132] Release the resources associated with the second TAG;

[0133] Release the resources associated with the second TRP.

[0134] In the embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the second TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell or a Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the second TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell or a Scell ​​associated with the second TAG.

[0135] For example, if the timer associated with the second TAG times out, and the second TAG is associated with a Pcell and / or a Pscell, the first behavior may include at least one of the following:

[0136] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0137] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0138] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with TRPs on the Pcell and / or Pscell expire, corresponding actions are performed.

[0139] Release the resources associated with the first TAG;

[0140] Release the resources associated with the first TRP.

[0141] For another example, if the timer associated with the second TAG times out, and the second TAG is associated with a Scell, the first behavior may include at least one of the following:

[0142] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0143] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0144] No action is taken. If all TAG timers associated with the Scell ​​expire, the corresponding action is performed.

[0145] Release the resources associated with the second TAG;

[0146] Release the resources associated with the second TRP.

[0147] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the third TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0148] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0149] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0150] Trigger the random access process to restore the timing advance TA;

[0151] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the third TAG have timed out, corresponding actions are performed.

[0152] Release the resources associated with the third TAG;

[0153] Release the resources associated with the third TRP.

[0154] In this embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the third TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell, or an Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the third TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell, or an Scell ​​associated with the third TAG. The third TAG is similar to the first TAG. For specific examples, refer to the description of the first TAG.

[0155] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the fourth TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0156] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0157] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0158] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0159] No action is taken, and corresponding actions are performed when all TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the fourth TAG have timed out; wherein the cell associated with the fourth TAG may be at least one of a Pcell, a Pscell, and a Scell;

[0160] Release the resources associated with the fourth TAG;

[0161] Release the resources associated with the fourth TRP.

[0162] In this embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the fourth TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell, or an Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the fourth TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell, or an Scell ​​associated with the fourth TAG. The fourth TAG is similar to the second TAG. For specific examples, see the description of the second TAG.

[0163] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the TAG times out, the first behavior further includes: sending a TA recovery request. In this embodiment of the present application, the TAG that sends the TA recovery request based on the timer timeout can be any one of the first TAG, the second TAG, the third TAG, and the fourth TAG mentioned above.

[0164] In one embodiment, the manner of sending the TA recovery request includes at least one of the following:

[0165] MAC CE;

[0166] Uplink Scheduling Request (SR);

[0167] Random access process.

[0168] For example, the TA recovery request may be carried in a MAC CE.

[0169] In one embodiment, the MAC CE carries at least one of the following:

[0170] TAG logo;

[0171] TRP logo;

[0172] Serving cell identifier;

[0173] Downlink DL timing information of TRP measured by the terminal device;

[0174] Layer 1 Reference Signal Receiving Power (L1-RSRP) measurement results.

[0175] In an embodiment of the present application, for the first TAG or the third TAG, the MAC CE carries the downlink DL timing information of the first TRP measured by the terminal device. For the second TAG or the fourth TAG, the MAC CE carries the downlink DL timing information of the second TRP measured by the terminal device, or the downlink timing difference between the first TRP and the second TRP.

[0176] In one embodiment, the resources used by the MAC CE include at least one of the following: resources dynamically scheduled by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); CG resources; and resources indicated in a random access response (RAR).

[0177] In one embodiment, the SR is configured for each TRP and / or each TAG. For example, the SR can be configured for each TRP. Different TRPs correspond to different SRs. A TA recovery request can be reported via the SR. If the TA timer of a TAG expires, the UE triggers the reporting of the SR corresponding to the TAG.

[0178] In one embodiment, the TAG and / or the SR of the TRP are associated with the physical uplink control channel PUCCH resources of the TRP.

[0179] In one embodiment, the TAG and / or the SR of the TRP is associated with the PUCCH resources of another TRP on the serving cell.

[0180] In one embodiment, the random access procedure is initiated based on a TAG in which the TA is invalid and a random access (RA) resource associated with the TAG and / or the TRP.

[0181] In one embodiment, when the TA associated with at least one of the first TRP, the first TAG, or the third TAG is invalid, the TA is recovered through a random access process triggered by the terminal device. In an embodiment of the present application, the first TRP is associated with the first TAG or the third TAG, and the second TRP is associated with the second TAG or the fourth TAG. The first TRP may be the primary TRP, and the second TRP may be the secondary TRP. For example, the first TRP may be used to receive common channels and monitor CORESET 0. The first TRP may also be the TRP accessed during initial access by the UE, the TRP that initiates the random access process for the first time, etc. The second TRP may be used to receive and / or send UE-specific channels.

[0182] In one embodiment, for a terminal device configured with multiple transmission reception points (mTRP), the random access resource configuration method includes at least one of the following:

[0183] Method 1: For all or part of the ROs in the random access opportunity (RACH Occasion, RO) set, the preamble codes associated with each RO are divided into a first preamble code set and a second preamble code set. The first preamble code set is associated with the first TAG, and the first preamble code set is used by the terminal device to select the preamble code in the first preamble code set to initiate a random access process to the TRP associated with the first TAG when the TA of the first TAG is invalid. The second preamble code set is associated with the second TAG, and the second preamble code set is used by the terminal device to select the preamble code in the second preamble code set to initiate a random access process to the TRP associated with the second TAG when the TA of the second TAG is invalid.

[0184] Method 2: Each TRP is configured with a different RO resource set. The first RO set is used for the terminal device to initiate a random access process to the TRP associated with the first TAG. The second RO set is used for the terminal device to initiate a random access process to the TRP associated with the second TAG.

[0185] Method 3: Each TRP is configured with a different SSB and / or CSI-RS set. The RO and preamble resources associated with the first SSB and / or the first CSI-RS are used by the terminal device to initiate a random access process to the TRP associated with the first TAG. The RO and preamble resources associated with the second SSB and / or the second CSI-RS are used by the terminal device to initiate a random access process to the TRP associated with the second TAG.

[0186] Mode 4: Each TRP is configured with different random access related configurations, which include RACH common configuration, RACH exclusive configuration and RACH general configuration.

[0187] In one embodiment, the triggering manner for the terminal device to initiate a random access process to the TRP includes:

[0188] The terminal device initiates a contention-based random access procedure to the associated TRP based on the random access resources associated with the TRP;

[0189] The terminal device receives indication information from the network side, which instructs the terminal device to initiate non-competition-based random access resources to the target TRP.

[0190] For example, if it is for the first TAG or the third TAG, the terminal device initiates a contention-based random access process to the associated TRP based on the random access resources associated with the first TRP. If it is for the second TAG or the fourth TAG, the terminal device initiates a contention-based random access process to the associated TRP based on the random access resources associated with the second TRP.

[0191] In the embodiment of the present application, the target TRP may be the first TRP or the second TRP.

[0192] In one implementation, the indication information is carried by DCI or MAC CE.

[0193] In one embodiment, the indication information includes at least one of the following:

[0194] Control resource collection pool index (CORESETPoolIndex);

[0195] TCI state (TCI-state);

[0196] Spatial relation information;

[0197] TAG ID;

[0198] PCI;

[0199] Synchronous resource block index (SSB index);

[0200] Preamble index;

[0201] PRACH mask index (PRACH mask index).

[0202] Among them, the control resource set pool index, TCI status, spatial relationship information, TAG identifier and PCI can be called target TRP information.

[0203] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can execute the first behavior based on the type of TAG and the timer associated with the TAG, which is beneficial to improving the continuity of services such as uplink services.

[0204] In a specific application scenario, for example, an example of a TAG determination method in an mTRP multi-TA scenario is as follows, which can be applied to both inter-cell mTRP scenarios and intra-cell mTRP scenarios.

[0205] Option 1: Single PTAG (one CG / MAC entity is associated with only one PTAG). Specifically, the manner / condition for the UE to determine whether the TAG is a PTAG (first TAG) or a STAG (second TAG) includes at least one of the following:

[0206] a. The TAG associated with the cell / TRP initially accessed on the Pcell / Pscell is the first TAG;

[0207] b. The TAG associated (also referred to as the corresponding) with CORESET0 on the Pcell / Pscell is the first TAG;

[0208] c. The TRP for receiving the common channel on the Pcell / Pscell is the first TAG;

[0209] d. On the Pcell / Pscell, CORESETPoolIndex 0 corresponds to the first TAG, and CORESETPoolIndex 1 corresponds to the second TAG, or vice versa. CORESETPoolIndex 1 may correspond to the first TAG, and CORESETPoolIndex 0 may correspond to the second TAG.

[0210] e. The TCI state is associated with the serving cell synchronization signal block / channel state information-reference signal (Synchronization Signal and PBCH Block / Channel State Information-Reference Signal, SSB / CSI-RS). The TAG associated with the TRP is the first TAG.

[0211] f. In the process of adding / changing the secondary cell group (SCG), the TAG associated with the cell / TRP that initiates the random access process for the first time is the first TAG;

[0212] g. Except for the first tag associated with Pcell / Pscell, the rest are all second tags.

[0213] Option 2: Dual PTAG (one CG / MAC entity is associated with two PTAGs):

[0214] a. The TAG associated with the Pcell / Pscell is the first TAG;

[0215] b. Other tags associated with the Scell ​​are second tags.

[0216] Option 3: Sub-TAG. For example, each TAG (PTAG or STAG) further includes at least one sub-TAG:

[0217] a. Distinguish the third and fourth TAGs under each PTAG / STAG;

[0218] b. The third TAG is associated with the first TRP, and the fourth TAG is associated with the second TRP.

[0219] According to Option 1, Option 2, or Option 3, the TRP may be identified and / or distinguished by at least one of the following:

[0220] a. Different TCI status / spatial relation information, such as TCI status list and spatial relation list.

[0221] b. Different CORESETPoolIndex.

[0222] c. Different downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) groups. For a UL transmission, the UE adopts the TAG associated with the DL RS group to which the PL RS of the UL transmission belongs.

[0223] d. Different uplink channels (UL channels), multiple RSs directly for semi-static UL channels, multiple RSs, or dynamic resources. Examples of multiple RSs include: Primary CSI PUCCH (PCSI PUCCH), Primary SRS (PSSRS), and CG PUSCH.

[0224] e.TAG identifier: The TAG identifier and TRP identifier are associated.

[0225] Furthermore, the UE maintains a TA timer for the TAG. If the TA timer expires, the UE's actions include but are not limited to at least one of the following:

[0226] a. If the TA timer associated with the first TAG times out:

[0227] i. If the first TAG is associated with Pcell / Pscell:

[0228] (1) Release all resources associated with the serving cell; or,

[0229] (2) Trigger RACH to recover TA; or,

[0230] (3) No action is taken. Wait until all timers associated with the Pcell / Pscell, such as two TAG timers, expire before executing the corresponding action.

[0231] ii. If the first TAG is associated with a Scell:

[0232] (1) Release the resources associated with the current serving cell; or,

[0233] (2) No action is taken and all timers associated with the Scell ​​expire before executing the corresponding action; or

[0234] (3) Release the resources associated with the first TAG / TRP.

[0235] b. If the TA timer of the second tag times out:

[0236] i. If the second TAG is associated with Pcell / Pscell:

[0237] (1) Release all resources associated with the serving cell; or,

[0238] (2) Triggering the Random Access Channel (RACH) to recover TA; or,

[0239] (3) No action is taken, and the corresponding action is performed after all timers associated with the Pcell / Pscell have timed out; or

[0240] (4) Release the resources associated with the second TAG / second TRP.

[0241] ii. If the second TAG is associated with the Scell:

[0242] (1) Release the resources associated with the current serving cell; or,

[0243] (2) No action is taken and all timers associated with the Scell ​​expire before executing the corresponding action; or

[0244] (3) Release the resources associated with the second TAG / second TRP; or

[0245] (4) Optionally, the UE sends a TA recovery request after the TA timer associated with the second TAG expires, thereby recovering the TA and ensuring synchronization with the network side.

[0246] For the timeout behavior of the UE based on the timer associated with the third TAG, please refer to the relevant description of the first TAG. For the timeout behavior of the UE based on the timer associated with the fourth TAG, please refer to the relevant description of the second TAG.

[0247] Furthermore, the specific manner of sending the TA recovery request may include at least one of the following:

[0248] (4-1) MAC CE based: The TA recovery request can be sent via MAC CE, which carries the TAG / TRP ID and, optionally, the DL timing information of the TRP measured by the UE. The resources that can be used by the MAC CE include PDCCH dynamically scheduled resources, CG resources, or resources indicated in the RAR.

[0249] (4-2) SR: The TA recovery request can also be reported via SR. If the TA timer for the TAG expires, the UE triggers an SR report. The SR is configured per TRP or per TAG. Optionally, the SR for the TAG / TRP can be associated with the PUCCH resources of another TRP on the serving cell, or the PUCCH resources of the TRP.

[0250] (4-3) Initiate a random access procedure: For example, a random access procedure is initiated based on a TAG with an invalid TA and the random access resources associated with the TAG / TRP. Optionally, the network can configure only the random access resources associated with the first TRP. In other words, only the TA associated with the first TRP / TAG can be recovered through the RACH procedure triggered by the UE itself if it is invalid. Other TRP / TAGs can only be recovered through a random access procedure triggered by the network, or through methods such as MAC CE or SR.

[0251] (5) For a UE configured with mTRP, the RACH resource configuration method further includes at least one of the following:

[0252] (5-1) For all or part of the random access opportunity (RO) in the RO set, the preamble associated with each RO is further divided into preamble set #1 and preamble set #2. Preamble set #1 is associated with the first TAG. When the TA of the first TAG is invalid, the UE selects the preamble in preamble set #1 to initiate a random access procedure to the TRP corresponding to the first TAG. Preamble set #2 is associated with the second TAG. If the TA of the second TAG is invalid, the UE selects the preamble in preamble set #2 to initiate a random access procedure to the TRP corresponding to the second TAG.

[0253] (5-2) The network configures different RO resource sets for each TRP. For example, the first RO set and the second RO set. The first RO set is used by the UE to initiate a random access procedure to the TRP corresponding to the first TAG. The second RO set is used by the UE to initiate a random access procedure to the TRP corresponding to the second TAG.

[0254] (5-3) The network configures different SSB / CSI-RS sets for each TRP. For example, the first SSB / CSI-RS set and the second SSB / CSI-RS set. The RO and preamble (preamble resources) associated with the first SSB / CSI-RS set are used by the UE to initiate a random access process to the TRP corresponding to the first TAG. The RO and preamble resources associated with the second SSB / CSI-RS set are used by the UE to initiate a random access process to the TRP corresponding to the second TAG.

[0255] (5-4) The network configures different random access related configurations for each TRP, including at least one of RACH-common configuration (ConfigCommon), RACH-dedicated configuration (ConfigDedicated) and RACH-generic configuration (ConfigGeneric).

[0256] (6) The triggering method for the UE to initiate random access to the TRP includes at least one of the following:

[0257] (6-1) The UE initiates a contention-based random access procedure to the corresponding TRP based on the random access resources associated with the TRP;

[0258] (6-2) The UE receives indication information from the network side, which indicates that the UE initiates non-contention-based random access resources to the target TRP. The indication information is carried by the DCI or MAC CE, and the indication information includes at least one of the following: target TRP information, SSB index, preamble index, and RO mask. For example, the target TRP information may include at least one of: control resource set pool index (CORESETPoolIndex), TCI state (TCI-state), spatial relation information, TAG ID, and PCI.

[0259] Example 1: There is only one PTAG in a CG

[0260] For a service cell, if the service cell is a Pcell or a Pscell, and the service cell is associated with two tags, then the tag corresponding to the first TRP is PTAG, and the tag corresponding to the second TRP is STAG; if the service cell is an Scell, then at least one tag associated with the cell is STAG.

[0261] The association of two TAGs with a serving cell indicates that the serving cell is configured with an mTRP, where different TRPs can be in the same cell (intra-cell mTRP) or different cells (inter-cell mTRP). The TAG is associated with a TRP in the serving cell, where the representation of the TRP includes but is not limited to different reference signal sets (such as TCI state, spatial relation, SSB, CSI-RS, SRS resource, Primary Link (PL) RS, etc.), or different control resource set pool indexes (core set pool index), or different uplink resources (such as DG, CG, PUCCH, etc.).

[0262] The UE maintains the TA timer for each TRP / TAG, including when the UE receives the TA information of the TRP / TAG (TA command MAC CE or RAR or Absolute TAC MAC CE), the UE starts / restarts the TA timer. During the timer running period, the UE considers the TA of the TRP / TAG to be valid; if the TA timer times out, the UE executes the timeout behavior and / or reports to the network side.

[0263] Case 1: If the TRP / TAG is a tag on a Pcell or Pscell, the UE performs the first action. For details, see the following options:

[0264] Option 1: If the TA timer of another TRP / TAG associated with the serving cell is still running, the UE does not perform any operation. In other words, the UE performs the first action only when the TA timers of both TRP / TAGs associated with the serving cell have expired.

[0265] Option 2: The UE performs the first action based only on whether the TAG associated with the current TA timer is the first TAG.

[0266] Exemplarily, the first behavior may include at least one of the following:

[0267] Release all Serving Cell-associated resources;

[0268] Trigger RACH to recover TA;

[0269] No action is taken. Wait until both TAG timers associated with the Pcell expire before executing the corresponding action (other first actions except no action).

[0270] Release the resources associated with the first TAG / TRP.

[0271] Example 1-1:

[0272] If the timer of the second TAG on the PCell times out and the timer of the first TAG is still running, the UE can transmit to the network side based on the first TRP. Optionally, the UE can trigger a random access procedure to recover the TA of the second TAG.

[0273] Example 1-2:

[0274] If the timer of the first TAG on the PCell times out, the UE considers that all TA timers have timed out and releases related resources on all serving cells, which may include at least one of the following:

[0275] 1. Flush all HARQ buffers for all Serving Cells;

[0276] 2. If configured, notify RRC to release PUCCH for all Serving Cells (notify RRC to release PUCCH for all Serving Cells, if configured);

[0277] 3. If configured, notify RRC to release SRS for all Serving Cells (notify RRC to release SRS for all Serving Cells, if configured);

[0278] 4. Clear any configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants;

[0279] 5. Clear any PUSCH resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting;

[0280] 6. Consider all running timeAlignmentTimers as expired;

[0281] 7. Maintain N of all tags TA (maintain N TA (defined in TS 38.211[8]) of all TAGs).

[0282] Example 1-3: Based on Example 1-1, if the timer of the first TAG is still running, the UE may choose to only release the relevant resources on the second TRP associated with the second TAG.

[0283] Case 2: If the TRP / TAG is a TAG on the Scell, the UE performs at least one of the following actions:

[0284] 1. Release the resources associated with the current serving cell (i.e., the Scell); or,

[0285] 2. No action; or

[0286] 3. Release the resources associated with the corresponding TAG / TRP on the serving cell.

[0287] Example 2: One CG / MAC entity is associated with two PTAGs

[0288] For a serving cell, if the serving cell is a Pcell or a Pscell and the serving cell is associated with two tags, then both tags are PTAGs. If the serving cell is an Scell, then at least one tag associated with the cell is a STAG.

[0289] For example, the actions after the TA timer expires may include:

[0290] When a timeAlignmentTimer expires:

[0291] a. If the timeAlignmentTimer is associated with the PTAG:

[0292] i. Clear all HARQ buffers for all serving cells (flush all HARQ buffers for all Serving Cells);

[0293] ii. If configured, notify RRC to release PUCCH for all Serving Cells (notify RRC to release PUCCH for all Serving Cells, if configured);

[0294] iii. If configured, notify RRC to release SRS for all serving cells (notify RRC to release SRS for all Serving Cells, if configured);

[0295] iv. Clear any configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants (clear any configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants;);

[0296] v. Clear any PUSCH resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting;

[0297] vi. Consider all running timeAlignmentTimers as expired;

[0298] vii. Maintain N of all tags TA (maintain N TA (defined in TS 38.211[8])of all TAGs.).

[0299] b. Otherwise, if the timeAlignmentTimer is associated with a STAG, then for all Serving Cells belonging to this TAG: perform at least one of the following actions:

[0300] i. Clear all HARQ buffers (flush all HARQ buffers;);

[0301] ii. If configured, notify RRC to release PUCCH (notify RRC to release PUCCH, if configured);

[0302] iii. If configured, notify RRC to release SRS (notify RRC to release SRS, if configured);

[0303] iv. Clear any configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants (clear any configured downlink assignments and configured uplink grants;);

[0304] v. Clear any PUSCH resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting;

[0305] vi. Maintain N of all TAGs TA (maintain N TA (defined in TS 38.211[8])of this TAG.).

[0306] Optionally, the UE may determine the timeout behavior based on whether there are other TRP / TAG-associated TA timers running on the TAG-associated cell.

[0307] For example, if the timer of the first PTAG on the Pcell expires and the timer of the second PTAG is still running, the UE can transmit to the network side based on the first TRP associated with the first PTAG. Optionally, the UE can trigger a random access procedure to recover the TA of the first TAG.

[0308] If the TA timer is associated with a STAG, the UE behavior can be similar to Example 1:

[0309] 1. Release the resources associated with the cell; or,

[0310] 2. No action; or

[0311] 3. Release the resources associated with the corresponding TAG / TRP on the Serving Cell.

[0312] Example 3: One tag includes two sub-tags

[0313] For each serving cell, the UE considers the tag associated with the Pcell / Pscell as PTAG and the tag associated with the Scell ​​as STAG. Furthermore, each PTAG / STAG further distinguishes a third tag and a fourth tag, where the third tag is associated with the first TRP and the fourth tag is associated with the second TRP.

[0314] The TA timer is maintained on a per-sub-TAG basis. For details about the timer expiration behavior, refer to Example 1 or Example 2.

[0315] In the embodiment of the present application, a TAG determination method can be provided, so that the UE can clearly understand the TAG maintenance method and the corresponding TA timer expiration behavior in the mTRP scenario, thereby facilitating the continuity of uplink services.

[0316] FIG7 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device 700 according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device 700 may include:

[0317] The processing unit 710 is configured to determine a type of the tag based on a first method; and execute a first behavior based on the type of the tag and a timer associated with the tag.

[0318] In one embodiment, when a CG and / or a MAC entity is associated with a PTAG, the first method includes at least one of the following:

[0319] The TAG associated with the cell initially accessed and / or TRP is the first TAG;

[0320] The TAG associated with the TRP associated with control resource set 0 is the first TAG;

[0321] The TAG associated with the TRP receiving the common channel is the first TAG;

[0322] The TAG associated with the first control resource set index is the first TAG, and the TAG associated with the second control resource set index is the second TAG;

[0323] The TCI state is associated with the TRP of the serving cell's beam information, and the TAG associated with it is the first TAG;

[0324] During the SCG addition and / or change process, the TAG associated with the cell and / or TRP that initiates the random access process for the first time is the first TAG;

[0325] The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG;

[0326] The tag other than the first tag is the second tag.

[0327] In one embodiment, when one CG and / or one MAC entity is associated with two PTAGs, the first method includes at least one of the following:

[0328] The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG;

[0329] The TAG associated with the Scell ​​is the second TAG.

[0330] In one embodiment, when a TAG includes at least one sub-TAG, the first manner includes at least one of the following:

[0331] Each PTAG and / or STAG includes a first TAG and a second TAG;

[0332] The first TAG is associated with the first TRP, and the second TAG is associated with the second TRP.

[0333] In one embodiment, the identifier of the TRP includes at least one of the following:

[0334] TCI status;

[0335] Spatial relationship information;

[0336] Control resource pool index;

[0337] downlink reference signal group;

[0338] Uplink channel and / or reference signal for semi-static uplink channel;

[0339] Uplink channels and / or reference signals for semi-static reference signals;

[0340] TAG logo.

[0341] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the first TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0342] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0343] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0344] Trigger the random access process to restore the timing advance TA;

[0345] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the first TAG have timed out, the corresponding action is performed.

[0346] Release the resources associated with the first TAG;

[0347] Release the resources associated with the first TRP.

[0348] In the embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the first TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell or a Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the first TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell or a Scell ​​associated with the first TAG.

[0349] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the second TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0350] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0351] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0352] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0353] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the second TAG have timed out, the corresponding action is performed.

[0354] Release the resources associated with the second TAG;

[0355] Release the resources associated with the second TRP.

[0356] In the embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the second TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell or a Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the second TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell or a Scell ​​associated with the second TAG.

[0357] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the third TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0358] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0359] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0360] Trigger the random access process to restore the timing advance TA;

[0361] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the third TAG expire, the corresponding action is performed.

[0362] Release the resources associated with the third TAG;

[0363] Release the resources associated with the third TRP.

[0364] In the embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the third TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell or a Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the third TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell or a Scell ​​associated with the third TAG.

[0365] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the fourth TAG times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following:

[0366] Release the resources associated with the current serving cell;

[0367] Release all resources associated with the serving cell;

[0368] Trigger the random access process to restore TA;

[0369] No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the fourth TAG expire, the corresponding action is performed.

[0370] Release the resources associated with the fourth TAG;

[0371] Release the resources associated with the fourth TRP.

[0372] In the embodiment of the present application, the cell associated with the fourth TAG may be a Pcell, a Pscell or a Scell. All TAG timers associated with the cell associated with the fourth TAG may include TAG timers associated with all TRPs on a Pcell, a Psell or a Scell ​​associated with the fourth TAG.

[0373] In one embodiment, when the timer associated with the TAG times out, the first behavior further includes: sending a TA recovery request.

[0374] In one embodiment, the manner of sending the TA recovery request includes at least one of the following:

[0375] MAC CE;

[0376] SR;

[0377] Random access process.

[0378] In one embodiment, the MAC CE carries at least one of the following:

[0379] TAG logo;

[0380] TRP logo;

[0381] Serving cell identifier;

[0382] DL timing information of TRP measured by the terminal device;

[0383] L1-RSRP measurement results.

[0384] In one embodiment, the resources used by the MAC CE include at least one of the following: resources dynamically scheduled by PDCCH; CG resources; and resources indicated in RAR.

[0385] In one embodiment, the SR is configured for each TRP and / or each TAG.

[0386] In one embodiment, the TAG and / or the SR of the TRP are associated with the PUCCH resources of the TRP; or

[0387] The TAG and / or the SR of the TRP are associated with the PUCCH resources of another TRP on the serving cell.

[0388] In one embodiment, the random access process is initiated based on a TAG in which the TA is invalid and random access resources associated with the TAG and / or the TRP.

[0389] In one embodiment, when a TA associated with at least one of the first TRP, the first TAG, or the third TAG is invalid, the TA is recovered through a random access process triggered by the terminal device.

[0390] In one embodiment, the triggering manner for the terminal device to initiate a random access process to the TRP includes:

[0391] The terminal device initiates a contention-based random access procedure to the associated TRP based on the random access resources associated with the TRP;

[0392] The terminal device receives indication information from the network side, which instructs the terminal device to initiate non-competition-based random access resources to the target TRP.

[0393] In one implementation, the indication information is carried by DCI or a media access control element MAC CE.

[0394] In one embodiment, the indication information includes at least one of the following:

[0395] Control resource collection pool index;

[0396] TCI status;

[0397] Spatial relationship information;

[0398] TAG logo;

[0399] PCI;

[0400] Synchronous resource block SSB index;

[0401] Preamble index;

[0402] Physical random access channel mask index (PRACH mask index).

[0403] The terminal device 700 of the embodiment of the present application can implement the corresponding functions of the terminal device in the embodiment of the aforementioned method 600. The processes, functions, implementation methods and beneficial effects corresponding to the various modules (sub-modules, units or components, etc.) in the terminal device 700 can be found in the corresponding descriptions in the above-mentioned method embodiments, and will not be repeated here. It should be noted that the functions described by the various modules (sub-modules, units or components, etc.) in the terminal device 700 of the embodiment of the application can be implemented by different modules (sub-modules, units or components, etc.) or by the same module (sub-module, unit or component, etc.).

[0404] Figure 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 800 includes a processor 810, which can call and run a computer program from a memory to enable the communication device 800 to implement the method in the embodiment of the present application.

[0405] In one embodiment, the communication device 800 may further include a memory 820. The processor 810 may call and execute a computer program from the memory 820 to enable the communication device 800 to implement the method in the embodiment of the present application.

[0406] The memory 820 may be a separate device independent of the processor 810 , or may be integrated into the processor 810 .

[0407] In one embodiment, the communication device 800 may further include a transceiver 830 , and the processor 810 may control the transceiver 830 to communicate with other devices. Specifically, the transceiver 830 may send information or data to other devices, or receive information or data sent by other devices.

[0408] The transceiver 830 may include a transmitter and a receiver. The transceiver 830 may further include an antenna, and the number of antennas may be one or more.

[0409] In one embodiment, the communication device 800 may be a network device of an embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 800 may implement the corresponding processes implemented by the network device in each method of the embodiment of the present application. For the sake of brevity, they will not be repeated here.

[0410] In one embodiment, the communication device 800 may be a terminal device of an embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 800 may implement the corresponding processes implemented by the terminal device in each method of the embodiment of the present application. For the sake of brevity, they will not be repeated here.

[0411] 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a chip 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. The chip 900 includes a processor 910, which can call and execute a computer program from a memory to implement the method according to the embodiment of the present application.

[0412] In one embodiment, the chip 900 may further include a memory 920. The processor 910 may call and execute a computer program from the memory 920 to implement the method executed by the terminal device or the network device in the embodiment of the present application.

[0413] The memory 920 may be a separate device independent of the processor 910 , or may be integrated into the processor 910 .

[0414] In one embodiment, the chip 900 may further include an input interface 930. The processor 910 may control the input interface 930 to communicate with other devices or chips, and specifically, may obtain information or data sent by other devices or chips.

[0415] In one embodiment, the chip 900 may further include an output interface 940. The processor 910 may control the output interface 940 to communicate with other devices or chips, and specifically, may output information or data to other devices or chips.

[0416] In one embodiment, the chip can be applied to the network device in the embodiments of the present application, and the chip can implement the corresponding processes implemented by the network device in each method of the embodiments of the present application. For the sake of brevity, they will not be repeated here.

[0417] In one embodiment, the chip can be applied to the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application, and the chip can implement the corresponding processes implemented by the terminal device in each method of the embodiments of the present application. For the sake of brevity, they will not be repeated here.

[0418] The chips used in the network device and the terminal device may be the same chip or different chips.

[0419] It should be understood that the chip mentioned in the embodiments of the present application can also be called a system-level chip, a system chip, a chip system or a system-on-chip chip, etc.

[0420] The processor mentioned above may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. The general-purpose processor mentioned above may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc.

[0421] The memory mentioned above may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memories. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (RAM).

[0422] It should be understood that the above-mentioned memories are exemplary but not restrictive. For example, the memories in the embodiments of the present application may also be static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct RAM RAM (DR RAM), etc. In other words, the memories in the embodiments of the present application are intended to include, but are not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memories.

[0423] FIG10 is a schematic block diagram of a communication system 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication system 1000 includes a terminal device 1010 and a network device 1020 .

[0424] The terminal device 1010 is used to determine the type of the TAG based on the first method; and perform a first behavior based on the type of the TAG and the timer associated with the TAG.

[0425] The network device 1020 interacts with the terminal device and can send indication information to the terminal device.

[0426] The terminal device 1010 can be used to implement the corresponding functions implemented by the terminal device in the above method, and the network device 1020 can be used to implement the corresponding functions implemented by the network device or the network side in the above method. For the sake of brevity, they are not described here in detail.

[0427] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When software is used for implementation, 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 instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function in accordance with the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer instructions can 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 instructions can be transmitted from a website, computer, server or data center by wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode to another website, computer, server or data center. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrations. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state disk (SSD)).

[0428] It should be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0429] Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0430] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any modifications or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in the present application should be included within the scope of protection of the present application. Therefore, the scope of protection of the present application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising: The terminal device determines the type of the timing advance group TAG based on the first method; The terminal device performs a first action based on the type of the TAG and the timer associated with the TAG.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein When a cell group CG and / or a media access control MAC entity is associated with a primary timing advance group PTAG, the first manner includes at least one of the following: The TAG associated with the initially accessed cell and / or the transmission reception point TRP on the primary cell Pcell and / or the primary and secondary cell Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the TRP associated with the control resource set 0 on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the TRP for receiving the common channel on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the first control resource set index on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG, and the TAG associated with the second control resource set index is the second TAG; The TAG associated with the TRP of the transmission configuration indication TCI state associated with the beam information of the serving cell on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; In the process of adding and / or changing the secondary cell group SCG, the TAG associated with the cell and / or TRP that initiates the random access process for the first time is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG other than the first TAG is the second TAG.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: When one CG and / or one MAC entity is associated with two PTAGs, the first method includes at least one of the following: The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the secondary cell Scell ​​is the second TAG.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein When a TAG includes at least one sub-TAG, the first manner includes at least one of the following: Each PTAG and / or auxiliary timing advance group STAG includes a third TAG and a fourth TAG; The third TAG is associated with the first TRP, and the fourth TAG is associated with the second TRP.

5. The method according to claim 2 or 4, wherein: The identifier of the TRP includes at least one of the following: TCI status; Spatial relationship information; Control resource pool index; downlink reference signal group; Uplink channel and / or reference signal for semi-static uplink channel; Uplink channels and / or reference signals for semi-static reference signals; TAG logo.

6. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein When a timer associated with the first tag or the third tag times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following: Release the resources associated with the current serving cell; Release all resources associated with the serving cell; Trigger the random access process to restore the timing advance TA; No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cells associated with the first TAG or the third TAG have timed out, the corresponding action is performed. Release the resources associated with the first tag or the third tag; Release the resources associated with the first TRP or the third TAG.

7. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein When the timer associated with the second tag or the fourth tag times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following: Release the resources associated with the current serving cell; Release all resources associated with the serving cell; Trigger the random access process to restore TA; No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cells associated with the second or fourth TAG expire, corresponding actions are performed. Release the resources associated with the second or fourth tag; Release the resources associated with the second TRP or the fourth TAG.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein When the timer associated with the TAG times out, the first behavior further includes: sending a TA recovery request.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein The manner of sending the TA recovery request includes at least one of the following: MAC CE; Uplink scheduling request SR; Random access process.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein: The MAC CE carries at least one of the following: TAG logo; TRP logo; Serving cell identifier; Downlink DL timing information of TRP measured by the terminal device; Layer 1 reference signal received power L1-RSRP measurement result.

11. The method according to claim 9 or 10, wherein: The resources used by the MAC CE include at least one of the following: resources dynamically scheduled by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); CG resources; and resources indicated in a random access response (RAR).

12. The method according to any one of claims 9 to 11, wherein The SR is configured for each TRP and / or each TAG.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The TAG and / or the SR of the TRP are associated with the physical uplink control channel PUCCH resources of the TRP; or The TAG and / or the SR of the TRP are associated with the PUCCH resources of another TRP on the serving cell.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, wherein: The random access process is initiated based on the TAG in which the TA is invalid and the random access resources associated with the TAG and / or the TRP.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein In the case where the TA associated with at least one of the first TRP, the first TAG or the third TAG is invalid, the TA is restored through a random access procedure triggered by the terminal device.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, wherein The triggering method of the terminal device initiating a random access process to the TRP includes: The terminal device initiates a contention-based random access process to the associated TRP based on the random access resources associated with the TRP; The terminal device receives indication information from the network side, and the indication information instructs the terminal device to initiate non-competition-based random access resources to the target TRP.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein: The indication information is carried by DCI or Media Access Control Element MAC CE.

18. The method according to claim 16 or 17, wherein The indication information includes at least one of the following target TRP information: Control resource collection pool index; TCI status; Spatial relationship information; TAG logo; Physical cell identifier PCI; Synchronous resource block SSB index; Preamble index; Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) mask index.

19. A terminal device comprising: a processing unit, configured to determine a type of a timing advance group TAG based on a first method; A first action is performed based on the type of the TAG and a timer associated with the TAG.

20. The terminal device according to claim 19, wherein: When a cell group CG and / or a media access control MAC entity is associated with a primary timing advance group PTAG, the first manner includes at least one of the following: The TAG associated with the initially accessed cell and / or transmission reception point TRP on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the TRP associated with the control resource set 0 on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the TRP for receiving the common channel on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the first control resource set index on the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG, and the TAG associated with the second control resource set index is the second TAG; The TAG associated with the TRP whose TCI status on the Pcell and / or Pscell is associated with the beam information of the serving cell is the first TAG; During the SCG addition and / or change process, the TAG associated with the cell and / or TRP that initiates the random access process for the first time is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG other than the first TAG is the second TAG.

21. The terminal device according to claim 19 or 20, wherein: When one CG and / or one MAC entity is associated with two PTAGs, the first method includes at least one of the following: The TAG associated with the Pcell and / or Pscell is the first TAG; The TAG associated with the Scell ​​is the second TAG.

22. The terminal device according to any one of claims 19 to 21, wherein: When a TAG includes at least one sub-TAG, the first manner includes at least one of the following: Each PTAG and / or auxiliary timing advance group STAG includes a third TAG and a fourth TAG; The third TAG is associated with the first TRP, and the fourth TAG is associated with the second TRP.

23. The terminal device according to claim 20 or 22, wherein: The identifier of the TRP includes at least one of the following: TCI status; Spatial relationship information; Control resource pool index; downlink reference signal group; Uplink channel and / or reference signal for semi-static uplink channel; Uplink channels and / or reference signals for semi-static reference signals; TAG logo.

24. The terminal device according to any one of claims 20 to 23, wherein: When a timer associated with the first tag or the third tag times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following: Release the resources associated with the current serving cell; Release all resources associated with the serving cell; Trigger the random access process to restore the timing advance TA; No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cells associated with the first TAG or the third TAG have timed out, the corresponding action is performed. Release the resources associated with the first tag or the third tag; Release the resources associated with the first TRP or the third TAG.

25. The terminal device according to any one of claims 20 to 24, wherein: When the timer associated with the second tag or the fourth tag times out, the first behavior includes at least one of the following: Release the resources associated with the current serving cell; Release all resources associated with the serving cell; Trigger the random access process to restore TA; No action is taken. When all TAG timers associated with the cells associated with the second or fourth TAG expire, corresponding actions are performed. Release the resources associated with the second or fourth tag; Release the resources associated with the second TRP or the fourth TAG.

26. The terminal device according to any one of claims 19 to 25, wherein: When the timer associated with the TAG times out, the first behavior further includes: sending a TA recovery request.

27. The terminal device according to claim 26, wherein: The manner of sending the TA recovery request includes at least one of the following: MAC CE; SR; Random access process.

28. The terminal device according to claim 27, wherein: The MAC CE carries at least one of the following: TAG logo; TRP logo; Serving cell identifier; DL timing information of TRP measured by the terminal device; L1-RSRP measurement results.

29. The terminal device according to claim 27 or 28, wherein: The resources used by the MAC CE include at least one of the following: resources dynamically scheduled by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); CG resources; and resources indicated in a random access response (RAR).

30. The terminal device according to any one of claims 27 to 29, wherein: The SR is configured for each TRP and / or each TAG.

31. The terminal device according to claim 30, wherein: The TAG and / or the SR of the TRP are associated with the physical uplink control channel PUCCH resources of the TRP; or The TAG and / or the SR of the TRP are associated with the PUCCH resources of another TRP on the serving cell.

32. The terminal device according to claim 30 or 31, wherein: The random access process is initiated based on the TAG in which the TA is invalid and the random access resources associated with the TAG and / or the TRP.

33. The terminal device according to claim 32, wherein: In the case where the TA associated with at least one of the first TRP, the first TAG or the third TAG is invalid, the TA is restored through a random access procedure triggered by the terminal device.

34. The terminal device according to any one of claims 19 to 33, wherein: The triggering method of the terminal device initiating a random access process to the TRP includes: The terminal device initiates a contention-based random access process to the associated TRP based on the random access resources associated with the TRP; The terminal device receives indication information from the network side, and the indication information instructs the terminal device to initiate non-competition-based random access resources to the target TRP.

35. The terminal device according to claim 34, wherein: The indication information is carried by DCI or MAC CE.

36. The terminal device according to claim 34 or 35, wherein: The indication information includes at least one of the following target TRP information: Control resource collection pool index; TCI status; Spatial relationship information; TAG logo; PCI; Synchronous resource block SSB index; Preamble index; PRACH mask index.

37. A terminal device comprising: A processor and a memory, the memory being used to store a computer program, the processor being used to call and run the computer program stored in the memory, so that the terminal device executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

38. A chip comprising: A processor, configured to call and run a computer program from a memory, so that a device equipped with the chip executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

39. A computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program, which, when executed by a device, causes the device to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

40. A computer program product comprising computer program instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 18.

41. A computer program causing a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 18.

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