Communication method and device

Abstract

The invention provides a communication method and device, and relates to the technical field of communication. In the method, a first communication device can determine that the form of an antenna of a device (such as an access network device) needs to be updated from a first form to a second form, determine to update an antenna needing to be turned off and / or an antenna needing to be turned on, and indicate to turn off and / or turn on a corresponding antenna, thereby realizing flexible updating of the form of the antenna of the access network device, and improving user experience. The hardware of the access network equipment does not need to be replaced, so that the process of updating the antenna form can be simplified.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology is a key breakthrough technology in wireless communications and is a vital technology for improving system capacity and uplink and downlink perceived rates of wireless communications. Under MIMO technology, multiplexing gain, diversity gain, interference cancellation gain and array gain are achieved through related technologies such as receive diversity, beamforming and space division multiplexing, ultimately doubling the system spectrum efficiency and capacity to meet the increasingly large transmission rate and communication quality requirements for wireless air interface communications. With the continuous development of MIMO technology, the number of antennas corresponding to MIMO technology is also increasing.

[0003] Currently, if the antenna of a device needs to be updated, the staff must determine the location of the device, manually remove the original antenna of the device, install a new antenna on the device, and repeatedly test the antenna of the replaced device until the replaced antenna communicates smoothly, thus completing the replacement of the device's antenna. It can be seen that the antenna update process of the device is relatively cumbersome. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for simplifying the process of updating the antenna of a device.

[0005] In the first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. The method is performed by a first communication device, which may be an access network device, a software module or a hardware module (such as a baseband unit, a baseband chip or a baseband board) in the access network device, etc. The method includes: determining that the form of the antenna needs to be updated from the first form to the second form, wherein at least one of the coverage range, direction and strength of the beam of the antenna in the first form and the antenna in the second form is different; determining the M antennas to be turned off and / or the N antennas to be turned on in the X TRPs, N and M are both positive integers, wherein the first communication device is deployed to communicate with the X transmitting and receiving points TRP, and X is an integer greater than 1; sending a first indication information to each TRP in at least one of the X TRPs, the first indication information indicating turning off the antennas belonging to the M antennas in each TRP, and / or turning on the antennas belonging to the N antennas in each TRP, wherein the second form is formed by turning off the M antennas and / or the N antennas in the first form.

[0006] It should be understood that the X TRPs may be TRPs deployed in a device corresponding to the first communication device (which may be a device where the first communication device is located, specifically, for example, an access network device), and these X TRPs may include antennas included in the access network device. It can also be further understood that the number of TRPs in the access network device that is in the on state may be at most X. TRP refers to a unit that can send and receive information, and TRP may be AAU and / or antenna array, etc., which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application. The form of the antenna refers to the form of the antenna of the access network device. The antenna in the first form may also be referred to as the antenna included in the first form, or the antenna included in the first form, or the antenna corresponding to the first form, which may be understood as the antenna of the access network device being in the first form, and the antenna in the access network device being in the on state. The number of antennas in the first form and the number of antennas in the second form may be the same or different, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. The first form may be regarded as the antenna form before the access network device is updated, and the second form may be regarded as the antenna form after the access network device is updated. In the embodiment of the present application, the antennas in the first form are distributed in L TRPs, and the antennas in the second form are distributed in K TRPs as an example, where L and K are both positive integers.

[0007] In an embodiment of the present application, when the first communication device determines that the antenna shape needs to be updated, it can instruct to shut down some antennas deployed on the access network device and / or turn on some or all antennas of the access network device, so that the antenna shape of the access network device can be updated in time. Since there is no need to manually replace the antenna of the access network device, the process of updating the antenna of the access network device is simplified and the process of updating the antenna of the access network device is reduced. In addition, the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to updating antennas of any shape in the access network device, for example, it can be applied to updating the shape of the antenna of the access network device under MIMO technology, that is, the method provided in the embodiment of the present application has good applicability.

[0008] In a possible implementation, two methods are provided for determining that the antenna form needs to be updated from the first form to the second form, specifically, the following method 1 and method 2. Method 1: The first communication device receives the second indication information from the core network, thereby determining that the antenna form needs to be updated to the second form; Method 2: The first communication device may determine that the antenna form needs to be updated from the first form to the second form based on the communication quality of the first communication device and / or the information of the user served.

[0009] In the above implementation mode, under mode 1, the first communication device can update the shape of the antenna based on the instruction of the core network, which can reduce the processing amount of the first communication device. Under mode 2, the first communication device can determine the need to update the shape of the antenna based on its own communication quality and / or information about the users it serves. This allows the updated antenna shape to relatively improve the communication quality of the first communication device and / or provide better services to users. In short, it is beneficial to improve the communication conditions of the access network equipment.

[0010] In one possible implementation, the communication quality includes communication interference of the first communication device; when the communication interference of the first communication device is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the number of antennas in the second form is greater than the number of antennas in the first form; or, when the communication interference of the first communication device is less than a second threshold, the number of antennas in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form; wherein the first threshold is greater than the second threshold.

[0011] In the above implementation, when the communication interference of the first communication device is large, the first communication device can increase the number of antennas accordingly, which is conducive to enhancing the communication of the access network device and reducing the impact of the communication interference. Alternatively, when the communication interference of the first communication device is small, the first communication device can relatively reduce the number of antennas, which can reduce the number of antennas in the open state while ensuring the communication quality of the first communication device, which is conducive to saving the energy consumption of the access network device.

[0012] In one possible implementation, the information of the served users includes the number of served users; when the number of users served by the first communication device is greater than or equal to a third threshold, the number of antennas included in the second form is greater than the number of antennas included in the first form; or, when the number of users served by the first communication device is less than a fourth threshold, the number of antennas in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form; wherein the third threshold is greater than the fourth threshold.

[0013] In the above implementation, when the number of users served by the first communication device is large, the first communication device may increase the number of antennas accordingly, so as to provide higher quality services to these users. Alternatively, when the number of users served by the first communication device is small, the first communication device may relatively reduce the number of antennas, so as to save energy consumption of the access network device while ensuring the communication quality of the first communication device.

[0014] In a possible implementation manner, the N antennas are distributed in one TRP of the X TRPs; or, the N antennas are distributed in at least two TRPs of the X TRPs.

[0015] In the above implementation, the N antennas to be turned on can be distributed on one or at least two of the X TRPs, which means that the antenna update form can flexibly turn on the antennas on one or more of the X TRPs, making the antenna update form more flexible.

[0016] In a possible implementation, the antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, the L TRPs belong to the X TRPs, and L is a positive integer; the M antennas are distributed in one TRP of the L TRPs; or, the M antennas are distributed in at least two TRPs of the L TRPs.

[0017] In the above embodiment, the M antennas that need to be turned off can be distributed on one or at least two TRPs among the L TRPs, which means that the antenna form of the update can flexibly turn off the antennas on one or more TRPs among the L TRPs, which is conducive to improving the flexibility of the antenna form of the update.

[0018] In a possible implementation, the antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, the L TRPs belong to the X TRPs, and L is a positive integer; the L TRPs are deployed at different geographical locations; or, the L TRPs are deployed at the same site.

[0019] In the above implementation, the first form can be multiple types of antenna forms, the first form is, for example, a distributed MIMO form, in which case L TRPs can be deployed in different geographical locations, or the first form is, for example, a co-site MIMO form, in which case L TRPs can be co-site deployed. Since the first form is the form of the antenna before the access network device is updated, the form of the first form is enriched in the above implementation. In addition, the above implementation can support the updating of the forms of multiple types of antennas, making the applicability of this implementation better.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, the L TRPs belong to the X TRPs, and L is a positive integer; any two of the L TRPs include the same number of antennas; or at least two of the L TRPs include different numbers of antennas.

[0021] It should be understood that, for example, when the first form is distributed MIMO or co-site MIMO, the antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, and the number of antennas included in any two TRPs among these L TRPs can be different or the same, which enriches the specific content of the first form.

[0022] In a possible implementation, the antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, and the antennas in the second form are distributed on K TRPs, the L TRPs and the K TRPs both belong to the X TRPs, and L and K are positive integers; after sending the first indication information to each TRP in at least one of the X TRPs, the method further includes one of the following: sending a weighting coefficient of the antenna in any TRP in the K TRPs; or, sending an index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs and a weighting coefficient of the antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs to the K TRPs respectively; wherein the weighting coefficient is used to constrain at least one of the coverage range, direction and strength of the antenna beam.

[0023] In the above embodiment, after the antenna shape is updated, the weighting coefficients of the antennas in the corresponding TRPs can be indicated to the K TRPs. The first communication device can indicate the weighting coefficients of the corresponding antennas to the K TRPs respectively, so that a certain TRP can directly receive the weighting coefficient of the antenna corresponding to the TRP, or the first communication device can send the weighting coefficients of the antennas in the K TRPs and the weighting coefficients of the corresponding TRPs to all the K TRPs. There is no need for the first communication device to generate corresponding information for the K TRPs respectively, which can help reduce the processing amount of the first communication device.

[0024] In one possible implementation, K first signals corresponding to the K TRPs are obtained, wherein each of the K first signals is a first reference signal or an intermediate parameter received by any one of the K TRPs, and the intermediate parameter is determined based on the first reference signal received by any one of the TRPs; based on the K first signals, weighting coefficients of the antennas in the K TRPs are determined.

[0025] It should be understood that the K first signals may all be K first reference signals. Alternatively, the K first signals may all be K intermediate parameters. Alternatively, the K first signals may partially be first reference signals corresponding to a portion of the K TRPs, or may be intermediate parameters corresponding to another portion of the K TRPs. The intermediate parameters of any of the K TRPs may be, for example, a channel matrix corresponding to the any TRP, or may be the result of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix of the any TRP.

[0026] In the above implementation, the K first signals can be implemented in a variety of ways, such as K first reference signals, or intermediate parameters corresponding to K TRPs, or first reference signals based on some TRPs in the K TRPs, and intermediate parameters corresponding to another part of the TRPs, which enrich the content of the first signal, and based on the K first signals, determine the weighting coefficients of the antennas in the K TRPs, providing a variety of ways to determine the weighting coefficients of the antennas. In addition, the first signals of the K TRPs are jointly solved, so that the weighted implementation of the antennas in the determined K TRPs can achieve the joint gain of the K TRPs.

[0027] In a possible implementation, after determining the weighting coefficients of the K TRP antennas, the method further includes: adjusting the weighting coefficient of any TRP antenna based on the expected communication quality parameters of the antenna in any TRP and the actual communication quality parameters of the antenna in any TRP.

[0028] It should be understood that the communication quality parameters expected by the antenna in any TRP may be preconfigured or predefined in the first communication device, for example, may be configured in the first communication device through a protocol, or may be received by the first communication device from the core network, without limitation. The communication quality parameters may, for example, indicate the delay and / or signal strength of any TRP.

[0029] In the above embodiment, the first communication device can adjust the value of the weighting coefficient of the antenna in any TRP based on the communication quality parameters of the antenna in any TRP, so that the adjusted weighting coefficient of the antenna can meet the communication quality parameters of the antenna.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the antennas in the second form are distributed on K TRPs, and the K TRPs all belong to the X TRPs, and K is a positive integer; the method further includes: receiving channel calibration parameters of the antennas in any TRP of the K TRPs; wherein the channel calibration parameters of any TRP include physical parameters and / or transmission parameters of the antennas in any TRP, and are used to calibrate the antennas in any TRP.

[0031] In the above implementation, the first communication device may not need to calculate the channel calibration parameters of the antenna of any TRP, thereby reducing the amount of calculation of the first communication device.

[0032] In a possible implementation, the antennas in the second form are distributed on K TRPs, and the K TRPs all belong to the X TRPs, where K is a positive integer; the method further includes: measuring a second reference signal from any TRP of the K TRPs to determine a transmission parameter of the antenna in any TRP; and sending the transmission parameter of the antenna in any TRP to the any TRP, where the transmission parameter of the antenna in any TRP is used to calibrate the antenna in any TRP.

[0033] In the above embodiment, the first communication device can measure K second reference signals corresponding to K TRPs to determine the transmission parameters of the antennas in these K TRPs, providing another way to determine the transmission parameters of the antennas in the K TRPs.

[0034] In a possible implementation, the transmission parameter of the antenna in any TRP indicates one of the following: at least one of the delay, phase or amplitude of the antenna of any TRP; or at least one of the delay difference, phase difference or amplitude difference of one antenna of any TRP relative to another antenna. In the above implementation, multiple implementation forms of the transmission parameters are provided.

[0035] In a possible implementation, the physical parameters of the antennas in any TRP include: the number of antennas in the on state; the arrangement of the antennas in the on state; or the type of the antennas in the on state. In the above implementation, the implementation form of the physical parameters is provided.

[0036] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which may be the first communication device in the first aspect above, or a software module or a hardware module (such as a baseband chip) in the first communication device, or a larger device including the first communication device. The communication device includes corresponding means (means) or modules for executing the first aspect or any possible implementation method above. For example, the communication device includes a processing module (sometimes also referred to as a processing unit), and a transceiver module (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver unit).

[0037] For example, a processing module is used to determine that the antenna form needs to be updated from a first form to a second form, and to determine M antennas that need to be turned off and / or N antennas that need to be turned on among X TRPs, where N and M are both positive integers; a transceiver module is used to send a first indication information to each TRP in at least one TRP among the X TRPs.

[0038] The communication device can also be used to implement any possible implementation of the first aspect above, which will not be listed one by one here.

[0039] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement a method as described in any one of the first aspect or the second aspect through a logic circuit or executing code instructions.

[0040] In the specific implementation process, the communication device may be a chip, and the processor may be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, and various logic circuits, etc. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation method of the processor.

[0041] In one implementation, the communication device may be a wireless communication device, that is, a computer device that supports wireless communication functions. Specifically, the wireless communication device may be a terminal such as a smart phone, or a wireless access network device such as a base station. The system chip may also be referred to as a system on chip (SoC), or simply as an SoC chip. The communication chip may include a baseband processing chip and a radio frequency processing chip. The baseband processing chip is sometimes also referred to as a modem or a baseband chip. The radio frequency processing chip is sometimes also referred to as a radio frequency transceiver or a radio frequency chip. In a physical implementation, some or all of the chips in the communication chip may be integrated inside the SoC chip. For example, the baseband processing chip is integrated in the SoC chip, and the radio frequency processing chip is not integrated with the SoC chip. The interface circuit may be a radio frequency processing chip in a wireless communication device, and the processor may be a baseband processing chip in a wireless communication device.

[0042] In another implementation, the communication device may be a part of a wireless communication device, such as an integrated circuit product such as a system chip or a communication chip. The interface circuit may be an input / output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin or a related circuit on the chip or the chip system. The processor may also be embodied as a processing circuit or a logic circuit.

[0043] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising: a processor and a memory; the memory is used to store one or more computer programs, and the one or more computer programs include computer execution instructions. When the communication device is running, the processor executes the one or more computer programs stored in the memory, so that the communication device performs a communication method as described in the first aspect and any possible implementation method.

[0044] Optionally, the communication device further includes other components, such as an antenna, an input / output module, an interface, etc. These components may be hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0045] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, the chip system comprising: a processor and an interface. The processor is used to call and run instructions from the interface, and when the processor executes the instructions, the communication method of any one of the above-mentioned first aspect and possible implementation methods is implemented.

[0046] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store computer programs or instructions, and when the computer-readable storage medium is executed, it implements the communication method of the above-mentioned first aspect and any possible implementation method.

[0047] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, implements the communication method of the first aspect and any of the possible implementation modes described above.

[0048] Regarding the beneficial effects of any technical solution in the second to seventh aspects mentioned above, reference can be made to the beneficial effects discussion of the corresponding technical solution in the first aspect, and the repeated parts will not be listed here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0049] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication system applicable to the embodiments of the present application;

[0051] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application;

[0052] Figure 4 A structural diagram of another communication system applicable to the embodiments of the present application;

[0053] Figure 5A A schematic diagram of the structure of an access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] Figure 5B A schematic diagram of the structure of another access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of the structure of a TRP provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0056] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of the structure of another access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of a first form and a second form provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of another first form and a second form provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] Fig.11 A schematic diagram of another first form and a second form provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0061] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of a method for determining a weighting coefficient of an antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0062] Fig.13 A schematic diagram of a method for calibrating an antenna provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0063] Fig.14 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] Fig.15 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0065] Fig.16 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0066] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the embodiments of the present application will be further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0067] In the embodiments of the present application, the number of nouns, unless otherwise specified, means "singular noun or plural noun", that is, "one or more". "At least one" means one or more, and "plural" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship. For example, A / B means: A or B. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c means: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0068] As discussed in the background art, to update the antenna of a device, the hardware of the antenna of the device needs to be manually replaced, which makes the updating process of the antenna of the device more complicated.

[0069] To this end, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, in which if the antenna form (or simply referred to as antenna form) of a device (such as an access network device) needs to be updated from one (or kind) form (such as a first form) to another form (such as a second form), then the first communication device can determine the M antennas that need to be turned off and / or the N antennas that need to be turned on, thereby instructing to turn off the N antennas and / or turn off the M antennas, so that the antenna form of the access network device is updated from the first form to the second form, thereby realizing the update of the antenna form of the access network device. In this method, the first communication device can flexibly turn on and / or turn off the antenna to realize the update of the antenna form of the access network device, without the need to replace the antenna of the device in hardware, thereby simplifying the process of updating the antenna of the device. In addition, the method can be applied to the update of various antenna forms, for example, it can be applied to the update of the antenna form under MIMO technology. In other words, the method has good universality.

[0070] The technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems (or networks), such as: the fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) or new radio (new radio, NR) system, long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD) system, wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN) system, satellite communication system, future communication system, such as the sixth generation (6th generation, 6G) mobile communication system, or a fusion system of multiple systems, etc. The technical solution provided in the present application can also be applied to device to device (D2D) communication, vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, machine to machine (M2M) communication, machine type communication (MTC), and Internet of things (IoT) communication system or other communication systems.

[0071] For example, see Figure 1 , is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to the embodiments of the present application. Figure 1As shown, the communication system includes at least one terminal device, at least one network device and a core network. Figure 1 The example in which the number of terminal devices and access network devices are both 1 is used, and the number of terminal devices and core network devices is not actually limited. Part or all of the interactive signals between any terminal device in at least one terminal device and at least one core network device. The signal may include information, signaling, or data, etc. The device may also be replaced by a network element, an entity, a network entity, a communication device, a communication module, a node, a communication node, or a communication device, etc. The embodiment of the present application is described by taking the device as an example. It can be understood that the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application can be replaced by a first network element or a first communication device, and the core network device can be replaced by a second network element or a second communication device.

[0072] The following is an introduction to possible implementation methods of terminal devices and core network devices.

[0073] 1. A 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.

[0074] The terminal device may be a device that provides voice / data, such as a handheld device or a vehicle-mounted device with a wireless connection function. At present, some examples of terminals are: mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, PDAs, mobile internet devices (MID), wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self driving, wireless terminals in remote medical surgery, wireless terminals in smart grids, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart cities, wireless terminals in smart homes, cellular phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld devices with wireless communication functions, computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, wearable devices, terminal devices in 5G networks or future evolved public land mobile communication networks (public land mobile The embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0075] As an example but not limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be referred to as 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 powerful functions achieved through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include full-featured, large-sized, and fully or partially independent of smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as devices 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 types of smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0076] In the embodiment of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the terminal device may be a terminal device, or a device capable of supporting the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the terminal device or used in combination with the terminal device. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices. In the embodiment of the present application, only the device for realizing the function of the terminal device is used as an example for explanation, and the scheme of the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

[0077] 2. The access network device may be a device for communicating with the terminal device, such as an access network device or a wireless access network device, and the access network device may be a base station. The access network device in the embodiment of the present application may be, for example, a wireless access network (RAN) device (or node) for connecting the terminal device to a wireless network. A base station may broadly cover various names as follows, or be replaced with the following names, such as: NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), next generation NodeB (gNB), relay station, access point, transmission point (TRP), transmission point (TP), master station, auxiliary station, multi-standard wireless (motor slide retainer, MSR) node, home base station, network controller, access node, wireless node, access point (AP), transmission node, transceiver node, baseband unit (BBU), remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), remote radio head (RRH), central unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), radio unit (RU), positioning node, etc. A base station may be a macro base station, a micro base station, a relay node, a donor node, or the like, or a combination thereof. The base station may also refer to a communication module, modem or chip used to be set in the aforementioned equipment or device. The base station may also be a mobile switching center and a device that performs the base station function in D2D, V2X, and M2M communications, a network side device in a 6G network, and a device that performs the base station function in future communication systems. The base station can support networks with the same or different access technologies. Optionally, the RAN node can also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or an on-board device, etc. For example, the access network device in the vehicle to everything (V2X) technology may be a road side unit (RSU). The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific equipment form adopted by the core network equipment.

[0078] In some deployments, the access network device mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a device including a CU, or a DU, or a device including a CU and a DU, or a control plane CU node (centralized unit control plane (CU control plane, CU-CP) node, centralized unit user plane (CU user plane, CU-UP) node) and a DU node. For example, the access network device may include a gNB-CU-CP, a gNB-CU-UP, and a gNB-DU.

[0079] In some deployments, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist terminal devices in achieving wireless access, and different RAN nodes implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node can be a CU, DU, CU-CP, CU-UP, or RU. The CU and DU can be set separately, or they can also be included in the same network element, such as a BBU. The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or radio frequency unit, such as an RRU, AAU, or RRH.

[0080] The RAN node may support one or more types of fronthaul interfaces, and different fronthaul interfaces correspond to DUs and RUs with different functions. If the fronthaul interface between the DU and the RU is a common public radio interface (CPRI), the DU is configured to implement one or more baseband functions, and the RU is configured to implement one or more radio frequency functions. If the fronthaul interface between the DU and the RU is another interface, relative to the CPRI, part of the downlink and / or uplink baseband functions, such as, for downlink, one or more of precoding, digital beamforming (BF), or inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) / cyclic prefix (CP) are moved from the DU to the RU for implementation, and for uplink, one or more of digital beamforming (BF), or fast Fourier transform (FFT) / cyclic prefix (CP) are moved from the DU to the RU for implementation. In a possible implementation, the interface may be an enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI). In the eCPRI architecture, the division between DU and RU is different, corresponding to different types (category, Cat) of eCPRI, such as eCPRI Cat A, B, C, D, E, F.

[0081] Taking eCPRI Cat A as an example, for downlink transmission, based on layer mapping, the DU is configured to implement layer mapping and one or more functions before it (i.e., one or more functions of coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping), while other functions after layer mapping (e.g., RE mapping, digital beamforming (BF), or one or more functions of inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) / adding cyclic prefix (CP)) are moved to the RU for implementation. For uplink transmission, based on de-RE mapping, the DU is configured to implement de-mapping and one or more functions before it (i.e., one or more functions of decoding, de-rate matching, de-scrambling, demodulation, inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT), channel equalization, and de-RE mapping), while other functions after de-mapping (e.g., one or more functions of digital BF or fast Fourier transform (FFT) / removing CP) are moved to the RU for implementation. It can be understood that for the functional description of DU and RU corresponding to various types of eCPRI, reference can be made to the eCPRI protocol and will not be repeated here.

[0082] In one possible design, the processing unit for implementing the baseband function in the BBU is called a baseband high layer (BBH) unit, and the processing unit for implementing the baseband function in the RRU / AAU / RRH is called a baseband low layer (BBL) unit.

[0083] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, CU may also be called O-CU (open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, CU-CP may also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be called O-CU-UP, and RU may also be called O-RU. Any unit in the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0084] The terminal device can access the core network through the access network equipment. The core network may include one or more core network devices (or network elements or functions).

[0085] The access network equipment and / or terminal equipment can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on the water surface; they can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons and satellites in the air. The scenarios in which the access network equipment and terminal equipment are located are not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In addition, the terminal equipment and access network equipment can be hardware devices, or they can be software functions running on dedicated hardware, software functions running on general-purpose hardware, such as virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform), or entities including dedicated or general-purpose hardware devices and software functions. The present application does not limit the specific forms of terminal equipment and access network equipment.

[0086] In the embodiments of the present application, the device for realizing the function of the access network device may be an access network device, or an access network system composed of one or more access network devices; or a device capable of supporting the access network device to realize the function, such as a chip system, a hardware circuit, a software module, or a hardware circuit plus a software module. The device may be installed in the access network device or used in combination with the access network device. In the embodiments of the present application, only the device for realizing the function of the access network device is an access network device as an example for explanation, and the scheme of the embodiments of the present application is not limited.

[0087] Figure 2 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 2 As shown, the devices in the communication system are connected via interfaces (eg, NG, Xn) or air interfaces. Figure 2 It illustrates core network equipment, access network equipment (such as RAN equipment), terminal equipment or operation, administration and maintenance (OAM), etc. Figure 2 The access network equipment involved is, for example, Figure 1 The access network equipment shown. Figure 1 The difference is, Figure 2 A structural diagram of the access network equipment is also shown.

[0088] The access network device may be a single RAN node, or may include multiple RAN nodes, for example, a CU and a DU. Optionally, the CU may be split into a CU-CP and a CU-UP. Figure 2 At least one of the access network equipment, core network equipment, CU in the access network equipment, DU in the access network equipment, CU-CP in the access network equipment or CU-UP in the access network equipment involved can be regarded as Figure 1 An example of the network equipment involved.

[0089] Figure 3 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 3 As shown, the communication system includes a RAN intelligent controller (RIC). RIC includes a near-realtime RIC (near-realtime RIC, near-RT RIC) and a non-real time RIC (non-real time RIC, Non-RT RIC). Non-real-time RIC mainly processes non-real-time information, such as data that is not sensitive to delay, and the delay of the data can be in the order of seconds. Real-time RIC mainly processes near-real-time information, such as data that is relatively sensitive to delay, and the delay of the data is in the order of tens of milliseconds. Optionally, the near-real-time RIC and the non-real-time RIC can also be set separately as a network element.

[0090] The near real-time RIC can obtain information on the network side and / or the terminal device from the access network device (eg, at least one of the CU, DU, and RU) and / or the terminal device. Figure 3 The access network equipment involved is, for example, Figure 1 The access network equipment involved.

[0091] Optionally, the near real-time RIC can process this information and send the processing results to the RAN node and / or the terminal device. Optionally, the processing results can be exchanged between the CU and the DU, and / or between the DU and the RU. For example, the near real-time RIC submits the processing results to the DU, and the DU sends it to the RU.

[0092] The non-real-time RIC can obtain information on the network side and / or the terminal side from the wireless access device (e.g., at least one of the CU, DU, and RU) and / or the terminal device. Optionally, the non-real-time RIC can also process this information, and send the processing results to the RAN node and / or the terminal device. Optionally, the processing results can be exchanged between the CU and the DU, and / or between the DU and the RU. For example, the non-real-time RIC submits the processing results to the DU, and the DU sends them to the RU.

[0093] The near real-time RIC and the non-real-time RIC may also be separately set as a network element. Optionally, the near real-time RIC and the non-real-time RIC may also be part of other devices, for example, the near real-time RIC is set in the access network device (for example, in the CU, DU), and the non-real-time RIC is set in the OAM, the cloud server, the core network device or other network devices.

[0094] Figure 4 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 3 , Figure 4 The CU is separated into CU-CP and CU-UP.

[0095] Please refer to Figure 5A , is a schematic diagram of the structure of an access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 5A As shown, the access network device includes a first communication device and X TRPs (specifically, Figure 5A TRP1, TRP2 ... TRPX shown). X is an integer greater than 1. Unless otherwise specified, the apparatus involved in the embodiments of the present application may be one or more hardware devices, software modules in hardware devices, or hardware modules (such as chips) in hardware devices.

[0096] The first communication device may be, for example, at least one of a CU, a DU, a CU-CP, a CU-UP, and a RIC. Figure 2-Figure 4 Any CU or DU involved may be, for example, Figure 2-Figure 4 Any DU, CU-CP involved is, for example, Figure 4 The CU-CP and CU-UP involved are as follows: Figure 4 The CU-UP and RIC involved are, for example, Figure 4 Alternatively, the first communication device is, for example, a BBU, a baseband board (or a baseband processing board), a baseband chip or a main control chip, etc. A baseband unit may be deployed with one or more baseband boards, and a baseband processing board may be deployed with a main control chip and one or more baseband chips.

[0097] Optionally, when the first communication device is a BBU and one TRP among the X TRPs is an AAU, the first communication device communicates with the TRP through a fronthaul interface.

[0098] One TRP among X TRPs refers to a unit that can independently realize information reception and transmission. One of the TRPs can be understood as an independent transceiver unit or antenna unit in the access network device. A TRP can be, for example, a macro cell, a small cell, a micro cell, a femto cell, a remote radio head (RRH), an RRU+antenna (referring to an antenna that communicates with the RRU), a relay node, an active antenna unit (AAU) or an antenna array, etc. A TRP in an embodiment of the present application may include (or distribute, or configure) one or more antennas. An antenna may include one or more antenna elements (or simply referred to as elements).

[0099] Optionally, any two of the X TRPs include the same number of antennas. Alternatively, at least two of the X TRPs include different numbers of antennas. The different numbers of antennas included in at least two of the X TRPs include different numbers of antennas including any two of the X TRPs, or the numbers of any two of a portion of the X TRPs are the same, and the numbers of any two of the other portion of the TRPs are different.

[0100] It should be understood that the X TRPs included in the access network device can be understood as TRPs deployed in the access network device, or can be understood as X TRPs deployed and can communicate with the first communication device. However, since the antennas in the access network device can be flexibly turned off or on in the embodiment of the present application, the number of TRPs in the access network device that are in the on state can actually be arbitrary. For example, the TRP in the access network device that is in the on state can be part or all of the X TRPs, and the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit this. Among them, the TRP in the on state can be understood as the presence of at least one antenna in the on state on the TRP, or the antennas included in the TRP are not all in the off state. It should be understood that any two of the X TRPs can be provided by the same manufacturer or by different manufacturers, and the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit this. The types of antennas included in any two of the X TRPs can be the same or different. For example, the X TRPs include TRP1 and TRPX, and the antennas included in TRP1 are all AAU, and the antennas included in TRPX are all RRU+. The types of multiple antennas included in one TRP may also be the same or different. For example, XTRP includes TRP1, TRP1 includes antenna 1 and antenna 2, antenna 1 may be AAU, and antenna 2 may be RRU+.

[0101] Please refer to Figure 5B , is another structural diagram of an access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The access network device includes a BBU and an RRU / AAU. The BBU may include Figure 5A In the first communication device, RRU / AAU can be regarded as Figure 5B An example of an antenna in FIG.

[0102] The BBU can be regarded as a control network element, which can support functions above the interface based on the eCPRI protocol (for example, functions above the physical payer-high (PHY-high), specifically including the radio resource control layer (RRC), packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, radio link control (RLC), media access control address (MAC) and PHY-High layer functions). For example, the BBU can implement functions such as encoding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation and layer mapping, and can also implement functions such as decoding, descrambling, inverse Fourier transform (IDFT) and channel estimation / equalization.

[0103] The RRU / AAU may be regarded as an execution network element, which may support functions below the interface based on the CPRI protocol (eg, functions below the RF function). The RRU / AAU may include a radio unit (RU), which may include an RF and an antenna.

[0104] The RRU / AAU and BBU can communicate through an intermediate network element, which can have various low physical layer (PHY-Low) functions (such as precoding, resource element (RE) mapping, RE inverse mapping, etc.). Figure 5B Optionally, the intermediate network element may also be included in Figure 5A In the first communication device, that is, Figure 5B The BBU and the intermediate network element are both examples of the first communication device.

[0105] Specifically, the control network element can be specifically divided into a non-real-time control network element and a real-time control network element. Among them, the non-real-time control network element can be connected to at least one real-time control network element, and the real-time control network element can be connected to at least one execution network element. Optionally, an execution network element can also be connected to another execution network element. The non-real-time control network element is a network element in the base station system used for non-real-time control processing, and is used to configure commands or parameters used in the real-time control processing process for the real-time control network element and / or the execution network element. Specifically, the non-real-time control network element can be a network element that supports non-real-time wireless high-level protocol stack functions.

[0106] Exemplarily, the real-time control network element may be a distributed unit (DU), or the real-time control network element may be a real-time control unit that is independent of the DU in the traditional technology and can realize the function of the real-time control network element, or may be a network element realized by combining the DU in the traditional technology and the aforementioned real-time control unit. In addition, the real-time control network element may also be a BBU.

[0107] In addition, the execution network element is a network element that executes real-time control services in the base station system. The execution network element can receive real-time control information from the real-time control network element, and then perform corresponding real-time control service processing based on the aforementioned real-time control information. Specifically, the execution network element can be a network element that processes wireless signal (for example, intermediate frequency signal, radio frequency signal, etc.) related services. For example, RU, RRU, RRH. The execution network element can also be an antenna device connected to the network element that processes the aforementioned radio frequency related services, such as an antenna feeder device (ALD) (also known as an antenna linear device). In addition, the execution network element can also be a combination of the aforementioned radio frequency unit and the antenna device. For example, in the 5G NR system, the aforementioned execution network element can also be an AAU, that is, a processing unit integrated with the RRU (or RRH) and the antenna device.

[0108] It should be understood that the aforementioned intermediate network element can be used to connect the real-time control network element and the execution network element, and can also be used to connect a certain execution network element with another execution network element. Exemplarily, if the real-time control network element is a baseband unit and the execution network element is a wireless unit, the intermediate network element can be an intermediate unit (baseband radio middle unit, BRMU) connecting the baseband unit and the wireless unit (for example, a baseband gateway, a radio frequency hub RRU HUB and various extended network elements); if the execution network element is a wireless unit, and the antenna device is another execution network element that needs to be connected to the wireless unit, the intermediate network element can also be an intermediate unit (radio antenna middle unit, RAMU) connecting the wireless unit and the antenna device. It should be understood that when the intermediate network element is a BRMU, the intermediate network element can have some functions of the connected baseband unit (for example, DU or BBU) or wireless unit (for example, RU or RRU) to facilitate the connection of baseband units and wireless units with different performance parameters (for example, device version, device interface or protocol version, etc.) on both sides. When the intermediate network element is a RAMU, the intermediate network element can have some functions of the connected radio frequency unit (for example, RU or RRU) or antenna device (for example, ALD) to facilitate the docking of wireless units and antenna devices with different performance parameters (for example, device version, device interface or protocol version, etc.) on both sides.

[0109] Optionally, if the CU is a non-real-time control network element and the DU is a real-time control network element, the CU can be connected to at least one DU via a backplane bus or optical fiber.

[0110] Please refer to Figure 6 , which is a schematic diagram of a TRP provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 6 In this example, X TRPs include 2 TRPs (such as Figure 6 The TRP1 and TRP2 described above are exemplified. Figure 6 As shown, TRP1 includes 12 antennas, each of which includes two antenna elements. TRP2 includes 6 antennas, each of which also includes 2 antenna elements.

[0111] Please refer to Figure 7 , is a schematic diagram of the structure of an access network device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 7 As shown, the access network device includes X TRPs (specifically, Figure 7 TRP1, TRP2…TRPX) as shown in the figure. Figure 5A The difference is, Figure 7 Some of the X TRPs can also be used with other communication devices (such as Figure 7 The second communication device can communicate with the first communication device.

[0112] like Figure 7 As shown, the first communication device can communicate with X TRPs, then at least one TRP of the X TRPs (in Figure 7 The first communication device can communicate with TRPX through the second communication device.

[0113] The contents of the first communication device and TRP can be referred to in the previous text. Figure 5A The implementation of the second communication device can refer to the above Figure 5A The content of the implementation method of the first communication device discussed will not be listed here again where the parts are repeated. For example, the first communication device and the second communication device are both baseband units, baseband boards or baseband chips. For another example, the first communication device is a baseband unit and the second communication device is a baseband chip.

[0114] The following describes the method provided by the embodiment of the present application in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the accompanying drawings corresponding to the various embodiments of the present application, all steps indicated by dotted lines are optional steps. In addition, the access network devices involved in the various embodiments of the present application are, for example, Figures 1 to 5A , Figure 5B and Figure 7Any of the access network devices involved in the first communication device is, for example, Figure 5A , Figure 5B Figure 6 or Figure 7 The first communication device and the second communication device involved are, for example, Figure 7 The second communication device involved, the terminal device is for example Figures 1 to 4 For any terminal device involved, X TRPs are, for example, Figure 5A , Figure 5B or Figure 7 The X TRPs involved, the antennas are, for example, Figure 5A , Figure 5B , Figure 6 or Figure 7 It should be understood that if the technical solutions provided in the various embodiments of the present application are applied to other communication systems, the names and / or functions of the devices or equipment may be changed, and no limitation is imposed on this.

[0115] Please refer to Figure 8 , which is a schematic diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 8 The three steps S801 to S803 are illustrated and are introduced below respectively.

[0116] S801. The first communication device determines that the shape of the antenna needs to be updated from a first shape to a second shape.

[0117] The form of the antenna may also be referred to as the antenna form, which refers to the form of the antenna in the device (such as the access network device) where the first communication device is located. It should be noted that the antenna of the access network device in the embodiment of the present application can be flexibly turned off and / or turned on, which makes the number of antennas in the access network device in the turned-on state flexible. Therefore, unless otherwise specified, the antenna in the access network device in the embodiment of the present application may refer to the antenna in the access network device in the turned-on state. Correspondingly, the form of the antenna can be understood as the form presented by the antenna in the turned-on state in the access network device.

[0118] The antenna form of the access network equipment includes but is not limited to various forms such as distributed multiple input and output (division multiple) MIMO or co-site (multi-panel) MIMO. Under DMIMO, multiple TRPs of the access network equipment are distributed in different geographical locations, so that the signal coverage of the access network equipment can be expanded. Under co-site MIMO, a large number of antenna array elements of the access network equipment are decomposed into different antenna array planes, and these antenna array planes can send data through joint transmission (joint transmission, JT), so that multiple antenna array planes can be logically expanded to achieve better transmission effect.

[0119] The shape of the antenna of the access network device is related to the physical parameters of the antenna of the access network device, or it can be understood that the physical parameters of the antenna of the access network device can affect the shape of the antenna of the access network device. The physical parameters of the antenna represent the physical characteristics (or attributes) of the antenna. The physical parameters of the antenna include, for example, at least one of the number, arrangement or standard of the antennas in the access network device. The number of antennas in the access network device can be specifically understood as the number of antennas in the access network device that are in the turned-on state. The arrangement of the antenna can be regarded as the distribution method of the antenna, or it can be understood as the arrangement structure of the antenna of the access network device that is in the turned-on state. The standard of the antenna refers to the communication method corresponding to the antenna in the access network device, for example, 5G standard or 4G standard.

[0120] Since the shape of the antenna of the access network device is related to the physical parameters of the antenna of the access network device, and the physical parameters of the antenna of the access network device also affect the information of the beam corresponding to the antenna of the access network device. Therefore, if the shape of the antenna of the access network device is different, the information of the beam corresponding to the antenna of the access network device is different. The concept of beam is first introduced below.

[0121] A beam can be called a spatial domain filter, a spatial filter, a spatial domain parameter, a spatial parameter, a spatial parameter, a spatial domain setting, a spatial setting or quasi-colocation (QCL) information, etc. A beam can be regarded as a communication resource, or can be regarded as a spatial behavior of signal transmission. For example, a beam can be understood as the main lobe of the radiation pattern of an antenna array, or a beam can be understood as the distribution of signal strength formed in different transmission directions in space after the signal is transmitted by the antenna. The beam can be a wide beam, a narrow beam or other types of beams. Optionally, the first communication device can adjust the weighting coefficient of the antenna so that the beam of the access network device can point to different directions, thereby corresponding to different coverage ranges.

[0122] After introducing the concept of beam, the content of beam information is introduced below. The information of the beam may indicate at least one of coverage, strength and direction. The coverage of the beam may also be referred to as the beam coverage area, or the coverage of the beam, which refers to the area covered by the signal of the beam. The coverage of the beam includes the coverage of the beam in a first direction, and / or the coverage in a second direction. The first direction is, for example, a direction along the ground, and the second direction is, for example, a direction perpendicular to the ground. The strength of the beam may refer to at least one of the maximum transmit power, average transmit power and minimum transmit power of the signal of the beam. The direction of the beam may include a first direction and / or a second direction, and the first direction and the second direction may also specifically include multiple sub-directions. For example, the first direction may include multiple sub-directions such as east, south, west or north along the ground direction.

[0123] In the embodiment of the present application, an example is given in which the antenna of the access network device needs to be updated from a first form to a second form. The first form and the second form are first introduced below.

[0124] The first form can be understood as the form of the antenna of the access network device that is currently in the on state, or can be regarded as the form of the antenna of the access network device before the update. The antennas in the first form can be distributed (or set or configured) on L TRPs, or can be regarded as the first form corresponding to L TRPs. In other words, in the first form, the access network device has only L TRPs in the on state, or L TRPs include antennas in the on state, and L is a positive integer. The L TRPs can be all or part of the X TRPs included in the access network device. In the case where the L TRPs are part of the X TRPs, it means that in the first form, the antennas in the TRPs other than the L TRPs in the X TRPs are in the off state. There is no specific limitation on the number of TRPs included in any two of the L TRPs, or the number of TRPs included in at least two of the L TRPs is different. An antenna in a certain form refers to an antenna that is in an turned-on state in an access network device in a certain form, and can also be described as an antenna included in a certain antenna or an antenna corresponding to a certain form. For example, an antenna in a first form can be described as an antenna included in the first form or an antenna corresponding to the first form; for another example, an antenna in a second form can be described as an antenna included in the second form or an antenna corresponding to the second form.

[0125] Optionally, the first form may be DMIMO. In this case, L TRPs are distributed in different geographical locations. Optionally, the first form may be specifically symmetric DMIMO (or symmetric DMIMO), in which case any two of the L TRPs include the same number of antennas. Alternatively, the first form may be specifically asymmetric DMIMO (also asymmetric DMIMO), in which case at least two of the L TRPs include a different number of antennas.

[0126] Alternatively, the first form may be co-site MIMO, in which case the L TRPs are co-sited. Optionally, the first form may be specifically symmetric co-site MIMO (or symmetric co-site MIMO), in which case any two of the L TRPs include the same number of antennas. Alternatively, the first form may be specifically asymmetric co-site MIMO (also asymmetric co-site MIMO), in which case at least two of the L TRPs include a different number of antennas.

[0127] The above is an example of the first form. In fact, the first form can be any form and is not specifically limited to this.

[0128] The second form can be understood as the form of the antenna after the access network device is updated, or can be understood as the form of the antenna expected by the access network device. The antennas in the second form can be distributed on K TRPs, or can be regarded as the second form corresponding to K TRPs, K is a positive integer. In other words, in the second form, only K TRPs of the access network device are in the on state, or L TRPs include antennas in the on state. The K TRPs can be all or part of the X TRPs included in the access network device, and there is no limitation on this. In the case where the K TRPs are part of the X TRPs, it means that in the second form, the antennas in the TRPs other than the K TRPs in the X TRPs are in the off state. Any two TRPs in the K TRPs include the same number, or at least two TRPs in the K TRPs include different numbers, and there is no specific limitation on this.

[0129] Optionally, the second form may be DMIMO, specifically, for example, symmetric DMIMO or asymmetric DMIMO. Alternatively, the first form may be co-site MIMO, specifically, for example, symmetric co-site MIMO or asymmetric co-site MIMO. Of course, the second form may also have multiple forms, and the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

[0130] The values ​​of L and K mentioned above can be arbitrary, for example, the values ​​of L and K are the same, or the value of L is smaller than the value of K, or the value of L is larger than the value of K, and there is no limitation on this.

[0131] It should be understood that the first form and the second form are two different forms, so the information of the antenna beam included in the first form is different from the information of the antenna beam included in the second form. The content of the beam information can refer to the content discussed above and is not listed here.

[0132] The information of the antenna beam included in the first form is different from the information of the antenna beam included in the second form, for example, including: the coverage range of the antenna beam included in the first form is different from that of the antenna beam included in the second form, the direction of the antenna beam included in the first form is different from that of the antenna beam included in the second form, and the coverage range of the antenna beam included in the first form is different from that of the antenna beam included in the second form. The direction of the antenna beam included in the first form is different from that of the antenna beam included in the second form, for example, the direction of the antenna beam included in the first form is a first direction, and the direction of the antenna beam included in the second form is a second direction.

[0133] In addition to the different beams of the antennas corresponding to the first form and the second form, the physical parameters of the antennas included in the first form and the antennas included in the second form may also be different. The content of the physical parameters of the antennas can refer to the previous text. The difference in physical parameters between the antennas included in the first form and the antennas included in the second form includes, for example: the number of antennas included in the first form is different from the number of antennas included in the second form, the standard of the antennas included in the first form is different from the standard of the antennas included in the second form, and the arrangement of the antennas included in the first form is different from the arrangement of the antennas included in the second form. The standard of the antennas included in the first form is different from the standard of the antennas included in the second form, which may be that the standard of at least one antenna included in the second antenna is different from the standard of the antennas included in the first antenna.

[0134] After introducing the first form and the second form, the following introduces a method for the first communication device to determine that the form of the antenna needs to be updated from the first form to the second form.

[0135] Method 1: The second communication device determines, according to an instruction from the core network, that the shape of the antenna of the access network device needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape.

[0136] For example, the core network (specifically, an access and mobility management function (AMF) in the core network or a proprietary network element in the core network) sends a second indication message to the first communication device. The second indication message may indicate that the antenna shape needs to be updated to the second shape. In this way, the first communication device receives the second indication message and can determine that the antenna shape of the access network device needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape.

[0137] The second indication information may specifically indicate the form of the updated antenna (i.e., the second form), or the second indication information may specifically indicate the form of the antenna before the update (i.e., the first form), and the form of the updated antenna (i.e., the second form). The second indication information may be carried in proprietary signaling or in existing signaling, and there is no specific restriction on this. For example, the second indication information may carry an identifier of the second form, and the first communication device may determine that the form of the antenna needs to be updated to the second form based on the identifier of the second form.

[0138] Exemplarily, the access network device may pre-store a first correspondence relationship, which may be a protocol configuration in the access network device and the core network, or may be determined by negotiation between the access network device and the core network device. The first correspondence relationship indicates the identifiers (or indexes or numbers) corresponding to each of the multiple antenna forms, and the form of the antenna corresponding to each of the multiple identifiers.

[0139] For example, please refer to Table 1 below, which is an example of a first corresponding relationship provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0140] Table 1

[0141] Antenna shape identification Antenna shape 00 First Form 01 Second Form 11 Third Form

[0142] As shown in Table 1 above, if the value of the second indication information is 01, it is equivalent to indicating that the form of the updated antenna of the access network device is the second form.

[0143] In a possible implementation, the second indication information may further indicate the physical parameters of the antenna in the second form, for example, the second form identifier in the second indication information may further indicate the physical parameters of the antenna in the second form. Alternatively, the physical parameters of the antenna in the second form may be preconfigured or predefined in the access network device, for example, preconfigured in the access network device manually or by protocol.

[0144] Method 2: The first communication device determines by itself that the shape of the antenna of the access network device needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape.

[0145] In the second method, the first communication device may adopt any of the following methods A1-A3 to determine that the form of the antenna of the access network device needs to be updated to the second form, which are introduced below.

[0146] A1. The first communication device determines that the antenna shape needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape according to the communication quality of the first communication device. The communication quality indicates the communication status of the first communication device (or access network device).

[0147] Exemplarily, if the communication quality of the access network device is poor, the first communication device may determine to increase the number of antennas of the access network device. Therefore, the first communication device may select an antenna form from multiple antenna forms, which has a greater number of antennas than the number of antennas included in the first form, for example, determining to update the first form to the second form (i.e., in this case, the second form includes more antennas than the first form).

[0148] Optionally, the access network device may select an antenna form in which the number of antennas is greater than the number of antennas included in the first form (i.e., determine the second form) based on the second corresponding relationship. The second corresponding relationship may be preconfigured or predefined in the access network device. For example, the second corresponding relationship may be manually configured in the access network device, or configured in the access network device by protocol, or received from the core network (such as AMF or proprietary network element, etc.), and the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this. Among them, the second corresponding relationship indicates the forms of multiple antennas, and the physical parameters of the antennas in each of the multiple antenna forms.

[0149] If the communication quality of the access network device is normal, the first communication device determines that the antenna shape does not need to be updated.

[0150] If the communication quality of the access network device is good, optionally, in order to save energy, the first communication device may determine to reduce the number of antennas of the access network device. The first communication device may select an antenna form with fewer antennas than the number of antennas included in the first form from the multiple antenna forms, for example, determining to update the first form to the second form (that is, in this case, the number of antennas included in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form.). Optionally, the access network device may also select an antenna form with fewer antennas than the number of antennas included in the first form based on the second corresponding relationship.

[0151] For example, communication quality may include other parameters such as communication interference. The embodiments of the present application are mainly illustrated by taking communication interference as an example. Communication interference is, for example, channel sounding reference signal (SRS) interference. The greater the communication interference, the worse the communication quality. Conversely, the smaller the communication interference, the better the communication quality.

[0152] Optionally, the access network device (specifically, the first communication device) measures a reference signal (such as SRS) from the terminal device to determine the communication interference. Of course, there are many other ways to determine the communication interference, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0153] If the communication interference is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the first communication device may determine to increase the number of antennas of the access network device. Accordingly, the first communication device may select an antenna form having more antennas than the number of antennas included in the first form from the multiple antenna forms, for example, determining to update the first form to the second form (that is, in this case, the number of antennas included in the second form is greater than the number of antennas included in the first form). The first threshold may be preconfigured or predefined in the access network device, for example, the first threshold is predefined in the access network device through a protocol, or may be determined by negotiation between the access network device and other devices (such as a terminal device or a core network).

[0154] If the communication interference is less than the first threshold and the communication interference is greater than or equal to the second threshold, it means that the communication quality of the access network device is normal, so the antenna shape may not be updated. The first threshold is greater than the second threshold. The way in which the first communication device obtains the second threshold can refer to the content of obtaining the first threshold in the previous text, which is not listed here.

[0155] If the communication interference is less than the second threshold, the first communication device may determine to reduce the number of antennas of the access network device. The first communication device may select an antenna form with fewer antennas than the number of antennas in the first form from the multiple antenna forms, for example, determining to update the first form to the second form (i.e., in this case, the number of antennas included in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form).

[0156] A2. The first communication device determines that the antenna form needs to be updated from the first form to the second form according to information of the user served by the first communication device. The user served can be replaced by a terminal device served.

[0157] For example, the information of the served user may indicate the communication quality of the served user. It should be understood that the number of users served by the access network device may be one or more. If the number of users served by the access network device is multiple, the communication quality of the served user may be the average value of the communication qualities corresponding to the multiple users, or may be the minimum value or maximum value of the communication qualities corresponding to the multiple users, etc., which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0158] Exemplarily, if the communication quality of the user being served is poor, the first communication device may determine to increase the number of antennas of the access network device. Therefore, the first communication device may select an antenna form from the multiple antenna forms, in which the number of antennas is less than the number of antennas in the first form, such as determining to update the first form to the second form (i.e., in this case, the number of antennas included in the second form is greater than the number of antennas included in the first form). Alternatively, if the communication quality of the user being served is normal, the first communication device may determine not to update the antenna form. Alternatively, if the communication quality of the user being served is good, the first communication device may determine to reduce the number of antennas of the access network device, so the first communication device may select an antenna form from the multiple antenna forms, in which the number of antennas is less than the number of antennas in the first form, such as determining to update the first form to the second form (i.e., in this case, the number of antennas included in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form).

[0159] In a possible implementation manner, the information of the service users indicates the number of service users.

[0160] If the number of users served is greater than or equal to the third threshold, the first communication device may determine to increase the number of antennas of the access network device. Therefore, the first communication device may select an antenna form with fewer antennas than the number of antennas in the first form from the multiple antenna forms, for example, determining to update the first form to the second form (that is, in this case, the number of antennas included in the second form is greater than the number of antennas included in the first form). The method for obtaining the third threshold can refer to the configuration of obtaining the first threshold in the previous text, which is not listed here.

[0161] If the number of users served is less than the third threshold and greater than or equal to the fourth threshold, the first communication device may determine not to update the antenna form. Alternatively, the information of the served users also includes the number and distribution direction of the served users. If the number of users served is less than the third threshold and greater than or equal to the fourth threshold, but the distribution direction of the served users changes, for example, from the first direction to the second direction, then the first communication device may determine to update the antenna form, for example, update the coverage direction of the antenna beam, so the first communication device may select an antenna form with a coverage direction of the beam different from the antenna included in the first form from the multiple antenna forms, that is, determine to update the first form to the second form (that is, in this case, the coverage direction of the beam of the antenna included in the first form is different from the coverage direction of the beam of the antenna included in the second form). Optionally, the number of antennas included in the first form may be the same as or different from the number of antennas included in the second form, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0162] If the number of users served is less than the fourth threshold, the first communication device may determine to reduce the number of antennas of the access network device, so the first communication device may select an antenna form with fewer antennas than the number of antennas in the first form from the multiple antenna forms, that is, determine to update the first form to the second form (that is, in this case, the number of antennas included in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form). Among them, the third threshold is greater than the fourth threshold. The method for obtaining the fourth threshold can refer to the content of the method for obtaining the first threshold in the previous text, which is not listed here.

[0163] A3. The first communication device determines that the antenna configuration needs to be updated from the first configuration to the second configuration according to the communication quality of the first communication device and the information of the served user. The following is an example in which the communication quality includes communication interference and the information of the served user indicates the number of served users.

[0164] If the communication interference is greater than or equal to the first threshold and / or the number of users served is greater than or equal to the third threshold, the first communication device may determine to increase the number of antennas of the access network device. Therefore, the first communication device may select an antenna form from the multiple antenna forms, in which the number of antennas is greater than the number of antennas in the first form, that is, determine to update the first form to the second form.

[0165] If the communication interference is greater than or equal to the second threshold and less than the first threshold, and the number of served users is greater than or equal to the third threshold and less than the fourth threshold, it is determined not to update the antenna configuration.

[0166] If the communication interference is less than the second threshold and the number of users served is less than the fourth threshold, the first communication device may determine to reduce the number of antennas of the access network device. Therefore, the first communication device may select an antenna form from the multiple antenna forms, in which the number of antennas is less than the number of antennas in the first form, that is, determine to update the first form to the second form.

[0167] Of course, the above is an example of how the first communication device determines that the antenna shape needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape. In fact, there are many other ways for the first communication device to determine that the antenna shape needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape, and the embodiments of the present application do not make specific limitations on this.

[0168] S802. The first communication device determines M antennas that need to be turned off and / or N antennas that need to be turned on in X TRPs.

[0169] In a possible implementation, when the second indication information also indicates the physical parameters of the antennas included in the second form, the first communication device may determine the antennas that need to be turned on and / or off when the first form is updated to the second form based on the physical parameters of the antennas included in the second form indicated by the second indication information. It should be understood that since the contents of the first form and the second form are uncertain, the first communication device may need to turn on some of the antennas in the X TRPs when determining to update to the second form, or may need to turn off some of the antennas in the X TRPs, or may need to both turn on some of the antennas in the X TRPs and turn off some of the antennas in the X TRPs.

[0170] In another possible implementation, the first communication device may determine the physical parameters of the antenna included in the second form based on the second corresponding relationship, thereby determining the antenna that needs to be turned on and / or off when the first form is updated to the second form. The content of the second corresponding relationship can refer to the content of the second corresponding relationship in S801 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0171] In the embodiment of the present application, after M antennas in X TRPs are turned off, and / or after N antennas in X TRPs are turned on, the form of the antenna of the access network device can be updated to the second form (it can also be described as K TRPs (or the second form) is obtained by turning off M antennas and / or turning on N antennas in X TRPs on the basis of the first form). In this example, the first communication device can determine that the antennas required to be turned on for updating to the second form are N antennas, and / or the antennas required to be turned off are M antennas. Wherein, N and M are both positive integers. The values ​​of N and M can be arbitrary, for example, the values ​​of N and M are the same, the value of N is less than the value of M, or the value of N is greater than the value of M.

[0172] In the case where the first communication device determines to turn on N antennas, the N antennas may be distributed on one TRP among the X TRPs included in the access network device, and the one TRP may be one TRP among the L TRPs, or a TRP other than the L TRPs among the X TRPs. Alternatively, the N antennas may be distributed on at least two TRPs among the X TRPs included in the access network device, and the at least two TRPs may both belong to the L TRPs, or some TRPs of the at least two TRPs belong to the L TRPs, and another part of the TRPs belong to a TRP other than the L TRPs among the X TRPs, or some TRPs of the at least two TRPs both belong to a TRP other than the L TRPs among the X TRPs.

[0173] When the first communication device determines to turn off M antennas, these M antennas may be distributed on one TRP among L TRPs, or distributed on at least one TRP among the L TRPs. This embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit this.

[0174] For example, see Fig. 9 , which is a schematic diagram of a first form and a second form provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig. 9 (1) can be considered as an example of the first form. Fig. 9 (2) and (3) can be considered as two examples of the second form. Fig. 9 In the figure, an access network device includes X TRPs including TRP1 and TRP2, TRP1 includes antennas 1 to 8, and TRP2 includes antennas 9 to 16 as an example.

[0175] like Fig. 9 As shown in (1), in the first form, the L TRPs include TRP1 and TRP2, and all antennas included in TRP1 and TRP2 are in the on state.

[0176] like Fig. 9 As shown in (2), in the second state, the K TRPs include TRP1 and TRP2, antennas 5 to 8 in TRP1 are turned on, and antennas 13 to 16 in TRP2 are turned on. In this case, the M antennas include antennas 1 to 4 in TRP1, and antennas 13 to 16 in TRP2.

[0177] Or, if Fig. 9 As shown in (3), in the second state, the K TRPs include TRP1, and antennas 1 to 8 in TRP1 are in an on state. In this case, the M antennas include antennas 9 to 16 in TRP2.

[0178] For example, see Fig.10 , which is a schematic diagram of a first form and a second form provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.10 (1) can be considered as an example of the first form. Fig.10 (2) can be considered an example of the second form. Fig.10 In the figure, an access network device includes X TRPs including TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4, TRP1 includes antenna 1 to antenna 8, TRP2 includes antenna 9 to antenna 16, TRP3 includes antenna 17 to antenna 24, and TRP4 includes antenna 25 to antenna 32 as an example.

[0179] like Fig.10As shown in (1), in the first form, the L TRPs include TRP1 and TRP2, and antennas 5 to 8 in TRP1 are in the on state, and antennas 13 to 16 in TRP2 are in the on state. In the first form, all antennas in TRP3 and TRP4 are in the off state.

[0180] like Fig.10 As shown in (2), in the second form, the K TRPs include TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4, and the antennas included in TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4 are all in the on state. In this case, the N antennas include antennas 1 to 4 in TRP1, antennas 9 to 12 in TRP2, antennas 17 to 24 in TRP3, and antennas 25 to 32 in TRP4.

[0181] For example, see Fig.11 , which is a schematic diagram of a first form and a second form provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.11 (1) can be considered as an example of the first form. Fig.11 (2) can be considered an example of the second form. Fig.11 In the figure, an access network device includes X TRPs including TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4, TRP1 includes antenna 1 to antenna 8, TRP2 includes antenna 9 to antenna 16, TRP3 includes antenna 17 to antenna 24, and TRP4 includes antenna 25 to antenna 32 as an example.

[0182] like Fig.11 As shown in (1), in the first state, the L TRPs include TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4, and antennas 5 to 8 in TRP1 are in an on state, antennas 13 to 16 in TRP2 are in an on state, all antennas included in TRP3 are in an on state, and all antennas included in TRP4 are in an on state. Fig.11 As shown in (2), in the second form, the K TRPs include TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4, antennas 1 to 4 included in TRP1 are in an on state, antennas 13 to 16 included in TRP2 are in an on state, antennas 17 to 20 included in TRP3 are in an on state, and antennas 29 to 32 included in TRP4 are in an on state. In this case, the N antennas include antennas 1 to 4 included in TRP1. The M antennas include antennas 5 to 8 in TRP1, antennas 21 to 24 in TRP3, and antennas 25 to 28 in TRP4.

[0183] S803: The first communication device instructs to turn off the M antennas and / or turn on the N antennas. Alternatively, it can be described as the first communication device controlling to turn off the M antennas and / or turn on the N antennas.

[0184] Exemplarily, the first communication device may send first indication information to each TRP in at least one TRP among the X TRPs. The first indication information indicates turning off the antennas belonging to the M antennas in the TRP and / or turning on the antennas belonging to the N antennas in the TRP.

[0185] For ease of distinction, at least one of the X TRPs here will be referred to as P TRPs below, where P is a positive integer. The P TRPs may be some or all of the X TRPs, for example, the P TRPs include TRPs distributed with M antennas and / or N antennas. The first communication device may directly send the first indication information to the P TRPs respectively, or may send the first indication information to the P TRPs respectively through the second communication device, or may directly send the first indication information to some of the P TRPs, and send the first indication information to another part of the P TRPs through the second communication device, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0186] Among them, when the first communication device determines to turn off M antennas and / or turn on N antennas with different contents, the content of the first indication information and the content of P TRPs are also different, which are respectively illustrated below.

[0187] B1, the first communication device determines that M antennas need to be turned off.

[0188] Since in the first form, the L TRPs include antennas in an on state, the M antennas are distributed on the L TRPs. Accordingly, the P TRPs may be some or all of the L TRPs. For example, the P TRPs are TRPs that include at least one of the M antennas in the L TRPs.

[0189] For example, the first indication information may indicate turning off the antennas belonging to the M antennas in each of the P TRPs, for example, the first indication information indicates the identification of the antennas belonging to the M antennas in each TRP. Specifically, for example, the P TRPs include a first TRP, and the first indication information may indicate the identification of the antennas belonging to the M antennas in the first TRP.

[0190] The first communication device and the X TRPs may both be pre-configured or pre-defined with the identifier of each antenna in the X TRPs, for example, the first communication device and the X TRPs are configured with the identifier of each antenna in the X TRPs through a protocol or manually, or the first communication device and the X TRPs negotiate to configure the identifier of each antenna in the X TRPs. In this way, after receiving the first indication information, the P TRPs may directly turn off the antennas belonging to the M antennas.

[0191] Optionally, in addition to instructing to shut down the antennas belonging to the M antennas in each of the P TRPs, the first indication information may also indicate the antennas among the M antennas except the antennas belonging to each of the TRPs, that is, the first indication information may specifically instruct to shut down the M antennas. For example, the first indication information carries the identifiers of the M antennas. In this way, after each of the P TRPs receives the first indication information, it can be determined to shut down the antennas among the M antennas belonging to the TRP.

[0192] For example, in the first form Fig. 9 The first form shown in (1) and the second form as Fig. 9 Take the second form shown in (2) as an example. The first communication device can send the first indication information to TRP1 and TRP2 respectively, and the first indication information corresponding to TRP1 indicates to turn off antenna 1 to antenna 4. After TRP1 receives the first indication information corresponding to TRP1, it can directly turn off antenna 1 to antenna 4. The first indication information corresponding to TRP2 indicates to turn off antenna 9 to antenna 12. After TRP2 receives the first indication information corresponding to TRP2, it can directly turn off antenna 9 to antenna 12.

[0193] Alternatively, the first communication device may send a first indication message to both TRP1 and TRP2, where the first indication message indicates to shut down M antennas (i.e., antenna 1 to antenna 4, and antenna 9 to antenna 12). After receiving the first indication message, TRP1 determines that TRP1 includes antenna 1 to antenna 4, and accordingly shuts down antenna 1 to antenna 4. After receiving the first indication message, TRP2 determines that TRP2 includes antenna 9 to antenna 12, and accordingly shuts down antenna 9 to antenna 12.

[0194] B2: The first communication device determines that N antennas need to be turned on.

[0195] Since any TRP among the X TRPs may include an antenna in the off state, in this case, the P TRPs may be some or all of the X TRPs. For example, the P TRPs may be some or all of the L TRPs, or may be TRPs other than the L TRPs among the X TRPs, or some of the P TRPs belong to the L TRPs, and the other part of the P TRPs belong to TRPs other than the L TRPs among the X TRPs.

[0196] For example, the first indication information may indicate turning on an antenna belonging to N antennas in each of P TRPs. For example, the first indication information indicates an identification of an antenna belonging to N antennas in each TRP. For example, P TRPs include a first TRP, and the first indication information may indicate an identification of an antenna belonging to N antennas in the first TRP.

[0197] Optionally, in addition to indicating that the antennas belonging to the N antennas in each TRP of the P TRPs are turned on, the first indication information may also indicate that other antennas other than the N antennas are turned on. That is, the first indication information may specifically indicate that the N antennas are turned on. For example, the first indication information carries the identifiers of the N antennas. For example, the P TRPs include the first TRP, and the first indication information may indicate the identifiers of the antennas belonging to the N antennas in the first TRP.

[0198] For example, in the first form Fig.10 The first form shown in (1) and the second form as Fig.10 Take the second form shown in (2) as an example. The first communication device can send the first indication information to TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4 respectively. The first indication information corresponding to TRP1 indicates to turn on antenna 1 to antenna 4. After TRP1 receives the first indication information, it can turn on antenna 1 to antenna 4. The first indication information corresponding to TRP2 indicates to turn on antenna 9 to antenna 12. After TRP1 receives the first indication information, it can turn on antenna 9 to antenna 12. Similarly, the first indication information corresponding to TRP3 indicates to turn on antenna 17 to antenna 24. After TRP3 receives the first indication information, it can turn on antenna 17 to antenna 24. The first indication information corresponding to TRP4 indicates to turn on antenna 25 to antenna 32. After TRP4 receives the first indication information, it can turn on antenna 25 to antenna 32.

[0199] Alternatively, the first communication device may send first indication information to TRP1, TRP2, TRP3, and TRP4, respectively, and the first indication information indicates to turn on N antennas (i.e., antenna 1 to antenna 4, antenna 9 to antenna 12, antenna 17 to antenna 24, and antenna 25 to antenna 32). After TRP1 receives the first indication information, it determines that TRP1 includes antenna 1 to antenna 4, and antenna 1 to antenna 4 may be turned on accordingly. After TRP2 receives the first indication information, it determines that TRP2 includes antenna 9 to antenna 12, and antenna 9 to antenna 12 may be turned on accordingly. After TRP3 receives the first indication information, it determines that TRP3 includes antenna 17 to antenna 24, and antenna 17 to antenna 24 may be turned on accordingly. After TRP4 receives the first indication information, it determines that TRP3 includes antenna 25 to antenna 32, and antenna 25 to antenna 32 may be turned on accordingly.

[0200] B3: The first communication device determines to turn off M antennas and turn on N antennas.

[0201] Since any of the X TRPs may include an antenna in the turned-off state, in this case, the P TRPs may be some or all of the X TRPs.

[0202] For example, the first indication information may indicate turning on the antennas belonging to the N antennas in each of the P TRPs, and / or turning off the antennas belonging to the M antennas in each TRP. In this way, after each of the P TRPs receives the first indication information, it can be determined to turn off the antennas belonging to the M antennas in the TRP, and / or turn on the antennas belonging to the N antennas.

[0203] Alternatively, the first indication information may directly indicate to turn off the M antennas and the N antennas. For example, the first indication information carries the identifiers of the M antennas and the identifiers of the N antennas. In this way, after any TRP in the P TRPs receives the first indication information, it can determine the antennas in the M antennas and the antennas in the N antennas in the TRP, thereby turning off the antennas in the M antennas and turning on the antennas in the N antennas.

[0204] For example, in the first form Fig.11 The first form shown in (1) and the second form as Fig.11 Take the second form shown in (2) as an example. The first communication device can send first indication information to TRP1, TRP3 and TRP4 respectively. The first indication information corresponding to TRP1 indicates turning on antennas 1 to 4, and turning off antennas 5 to 8. After TRP1 receives the first indication information, it can turn on antennas 1 to 4, and turn off antennas 5 to 8. The first indication information corresponding to TRP3 can indicate turning off antennas 21 to 24. The first indication information corresponding to TRP4 indicates turning off antennas 25 to 28.

[0205] Alternatively, the first communication device may send a first indication message to TRP1, TRP2, TRP3 and TRP4 respectively, wherein the first indication message indicates turning on N antennas (i.e., antenna 1 to antenna 4) and turning off M antennas (i.e., antenna 5 to antenna 8, antenna 21 to antenna 24, and antenna 25 to antenna 28).

[0206] On the basis of the first form, after turning off M antennas and / or turning on N antennas, the form of the antennas of the access network device is updated from the first form to the second form. Since the second form includes K TRPs, after updating to the second form, the TRPs in the access network device that are turned on include K TRPs.

[0207] In the embodiment of the present application, the first communication device can instruct to turn off and / or turn on the corresponding antenna when determining that the first form is updated to the second form. In this way, there is no need to update or replace the antenna hardware, which is conducive to simplifying the process of updating the antenna form. In addition, the first form and the second form in the embodiment of the present application can have multiple possibilities, so that the method provided in the embodiment of the present application has good universality.

[0208] After the antenna of the access network device is updated to the second form, in a possible implementation, the first communication device may also determine the weighting coefficient of the antenna in the second form, so that the antennas in the K TRPs can perform beamforming based on the corresponding weighting coefficients. Fig.12 A method for determining the weighting coefficient of an antenna is described below. Fig.12 The figure takes K TRPs including TRP1 and TRPK as an example for illustration. Fig.12 The steps S1201 to S1202 are illustrated and are introduced below respectively.

[0209] S1201, TRP1 and TRPK receive a first reference signal respectively. The first reference signal is, for example, SRS.

[0210] exist Fig.12 In the figure, S1201 includes S1201a and S1201b. S1201a is for TRP1 to receive reference signal s1. S1201b is for TRPK to receive reference signal sK. The reference signal s1 and the reference signal sK can be regarded as examples of the first reference signal. Exemplarily, TRP1 can receive reference signal s1 from the terminal device, and TRPK can receive reference signal sK from the terminal device.

[0211] S1202: TRP1 sends a reference signal s1 to the first communication device. Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the reference signal s1 from TRP1. In this case, the reference signal s1 can be regarded as an example of the first signal.

[0212] S1203, TRP2 sends a reference signal sK to the second communication device. Correspondingly, the second communication device receives the reference signal sK from TRP1.

[0213] The execution order of S1202 and S1203 can be arbitrary, for example, executing S1202 and S1203 at the same time; or, executing S1202 first, and then executing S1203; or, executing S1203 first, and then executing S1202. The embodiments of the present application do not make specific limitations on this.

[0214] S1204. The second communication device determines an intermediate parameter corresponding to TRPK.

[0215] The second communication device may determine an intermediate parameter corresponding to TRPK based on the reference signal sK. The intermediate parameter is used to assist in determining the weighting coefficients of the antennas in the K TRPs. The intermediate parameter may be a channel matrix corresponding to TRPK, or may be a result of singular value decomposition (SVD) of the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK.

[0216] Optionally, a method for calculating a channel matrix may refer to the following formula (1).

[0217] H = YX -1 (1)

[0218] Wherein, H represents a channel matrix, for example, a channel matrix corresponding to TRPK, X represents a reference signal received by the receiving end, for example, a reference signal sK, and X -1 represents the inverse matrix of the reference signal received by the receiving end, and Y represents the signal of the reference signal before it is processed by the channel, for example, the reference signal corresponding to the reference signal sK sent by the terminal device.

[0219] Optionally, a result of SVD decomposition of a channel matrix may refer to the following formula (2).

[0220] H=UΛV T (2)

[0221] Among them, UΛV T It can represent the result of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix, for example, it can be the result of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK.

[0222] S1205. The second communication device sends the intermediate parameters corresponding to TRPK to the first communication device. Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the intermediate parameters corresponding to TRPK sent by the second communication device. In this case, the intermediate parameters corresponding to TRPK can be regarded as an example of the first signal.

[0223] S1206. The first communication device determines weighting coefficients of antennas in TRP1 and TRPK according to the intermediate parameters corresponding to TRPK and the reference signal s1.

[0224] Among them, when the intermediate parameters corresponding to TRPK are different, the way in which the first communication device determines the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRP1 and TRPK is also different, which is introduced below using C1 and C2 as examples.

[0225] The intermediate parameters corresponding to C1 and TRPK are the channel matrices corresponding to TRPK.

[0226] Under C1, the first communication device determines the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1 based on the reference signal s1. The first communication device may combine the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1 and the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK to obtain a first channel matrix. The first channel matrix may include elements of the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1. For example, one form of the first channel matrix is: H1 represents the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1, and HK represents the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK. The first communication device performs SVD decomposition on the first channel matrix. The formula of SVD decomposition can refer to the content of the above formula (2), so as to obtain the weighting coefficients corresponding to each antenna in TRP1 and TRPK. Optionally, the weighting coefficients corresponding to each antenna in TRP1 and TRPK can be, for example, the matrix V in formula (2).

[0227] The intermediate parameters corresponding to C2 and TRPK are the results of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK.

[0228] Under C2, the first communication device may determine the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1 based on the reference signal s2. The first communication device may perform SVD decomposition on the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1 to obtain the result of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1. The first communication device may perform a joint solution based on the result of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix corresponding to TRP1 and the result of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK, so as to determine the weighting coefficients corresponding to each antenna in TRP1 and TRPK. Alternatively, the first communication device may inversely solve the result of SVD decomposition of the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK, determine the channel matrix corresponding to TRPK, and jointly perform SVD decomposition on the channel matrices of TRP1 and TRPK, so as to obtain the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRP1 and the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRPK.

[0229] In one possible implementation, the first communication device may preconfigure or predefine the communication quality parameters expected for the antenna in each TRP of at least one TRP of K TRPs, and the communication quality parameters expected for the antenna in each TRP of at least one TRP may be used to constrain (or adjust) the weighting coefficient of the antenna in each TRP of at least one TRP. The at least one TRP here may be part or all of the TRPs of the K TRPs. The communication quality parameters of the antenna in each TRP of at least one TRP may indicate the communication quality expected for the antenna in the TRP, for example, may indicate the expected delay or expected signal strength of the antenna in the TRP (specifically, such as reference signal received power (RSRP)), etc.

[0230] The following takes the expected communication quality parameters of an antenna (such as antenna 1) in a TRP in at least one TRP as an example to illustrate an example of how to adjust the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 based on the expected communication quality parameters of antenna 1.

[0231] In this case, since the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 determined by the first communication device based on S1206 has not yet been verified by communication, in an embodiment of the present application, the first communication device may adjust the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 based on the expected communication quality parameters of antenna 1 and the actual communication quality parameters of antenna 1, thereby improving the communication quality of antenna 1.

[0232] The first communication device may measure the third reference signal received by antenna 1 from the terminal device to determine the actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1. Alternatively, the actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1 may also be received by the first communication device from the second communication device, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0233] Exemplarily, if the first communication device determines that the actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1 does not meet the communication quality parameter expected for antenna 1, the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 may be adjusted until the actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1 meets the communication quality parameter expected for antenna 1. The actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1 meets the communication quality parameter expected for antenna 1, including that the difference between the actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1 and the communication quality parameter expected for antenna 1 is within a first value range. The first value range may be preconfigured or predefined in the first communication device, or may be received from a core network or a terminal device, and this embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0234] Among them, the specific contents of the communication quality parameters expected by antenna 1 are different, so the contents of adjusting the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 are also different, which are introduced below respectively.

[0235] G1, the expected communication quality parameter of antenna 1 includes the expected delay of antenna 1. Correspondingly, the actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1 also includes the actual delay of antenna 1.

[0236] If the difference between the actual delay of antenna 1 and the expected delay is greater than the maximum value of the first value range, it means that the actual delay of antenna 1 is large, so the first communication device can increase the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 to improve the communication quality of antenna 1. For example, the first communication device can increase the first adjustment amount based on the weighting coefficient of antenna 1. The first adjustment amount can be preconfigured or predefined in the first communication device, or determined by negotiation between the first communication device and the terminal device, or determined by negotiation between the first communication device and the core network, or received by the first communication device from the core network or the terminal device.

[0237] If the difference between the actual delay of antenna 1 and the expected delay is less than the minimum value of the first value range, it means that the actual delay of antenna 1 is small, so the first communication device can reduce the weighting coefficient of antenna 1. For example, the first communication device can reduce the second adjustment amount based on the weighting coefficient of antenna 1. The way in which the first communication device obtains the second adjustment amount can refer to the content of the first communication device obtaining the first adjustment amount in the above text.

[0238] If the difference between the actual delay of antenna 1 and the expected delay is within the first value range, the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 does not need to be adjusted.

[0239] G2. The expected communication quality parameter of antenna 1 includes the expected signal strength of antenna 1. Correspondingly, the actual communication quality parameter of antenna 1 also includes the actual signal strength of antenna 1.

[0240] If the difference between the actual signal strength of antenna 1 and the expected signal strength is greater than the maximum value of the second value range, it means that the actual signal strength of antenna 1 is greater, so the first communication device can reduce the weighting coefficient of antenna 1. The method of reducing the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 can refer to the content of reducing the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 in G1 above.

[0241] If the difference between the actual signal strength of antenna 1 and the expected signal strength is less than the minimum value of the second value range, the first communication device can increase the weighting coefficient of antenna 1. The method of increasing the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 can refer to the content of increasing the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 in G1 above.

[0242] If the difference between the actual signal strength of antenna 1 and the expected signal strength is within the second value range, the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 does not need to be adjusted.

[0243] G3. The expected communication quality parameters of antenna 1 include the expected delay of antenna 1 and the expected signal strength of antenna 1. Correspondingly, the actual communication quality parameters of antenna 1 also include the actual delay and actual signal strength of antenna 1.

[0244] In this case, if the difference between the actual delay and the expected delay of antenna 1 is greater than the maximum value of the first value range, and the difference between the actual signal strength and the expected signal strength of antenna 1 is less than the minimum value of the second value range, the first communication device can increase the weighting coefficient of antenna 1.

[0245] If the difference between the actual delay and the expected delay of antenna 1 is less than the minimum value of the first value range, and the difference between the actual signal strength and the expected signal strength of antenna 1 is greater than the maximum value of the second value range, the first communication device can reduce the weighting coefficient of antenna 1.

[0246] In other situations of G3 , the first communications device may not need to adjust the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 .

[0247] Of course, the above is introduced based on the communication quality parameters of antenna 1 to constrain the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 as an example. The method of constraining the weighting coefficients of other antennas can also refer to the above-mentioned process of constraining the weighting coefficient of antenna 1 based on the communication quality parameters of antenna 1, which will not be listed here.

[0248] The above S1203-S1206 is a method for determining the weighting coefficients corresponding to each antenna in TRP1 and TRPK provided in an embodiment of the present application. To simplify the description, it is referred to as method one below. In method one, the first communication device can obtain the intermediate parameters of TRPK from the second communication device, thereby relatively reducing the amount of calculation of the first communication device.

[0249] S1207: TRPK sends a reference signal sK to the first communication device. Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the reference signal sK from TRPK. In this case, the reference signal sK can be regarded as an example of the first signal.

[0250] S1208. The first communication device determines weighting coefficients of antennas in TRP1 and TRPK according to the reference signal s1 and the reference signal sK.

[0251] Exemplarily, the first communication device may determine the channel matrix of TRP1 and TRPK jointly by combining the reference signal s1 and the reference signal sK. The method of determining the channel matrix of TRP1 and TRPK jointly may refer to the content of the above formula (1). The first communication device may perform SVD decomposition on the channel matrix of TRP1 and TRPK jointly, thereby determining the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRP1 and TRPK.

[0252] The above S1207-S1208 is another method for determining the weighting coefficients corresponding to each antenna in TRP1 and TRPK provided in an embodiment of the present application. To simplify the description, it is referred to as Method 2 below.

[0253] In the actual communication process, the first communication device may adopt the above-mentioned method 1 or method 2 to determine the weighting coefficients corresponding to each antenna in TRP1 and TRPK. In other words, S1203-S1206 and S1207-S1208 are replaceable steps, and the first communication device may either execute S1203-S1206 or S1207-S1208. Fig.12 S1203 - S1206 and S1207 - S1208 are indicated by dotted lines.

[0254] S1209: The first communication device sends the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRP1 to TRP1. Correspondingly, TRP1 receives the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRP1 from the first communication device.

[0255] S1210: The first communication device sends the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRPK to TRPK. Correspondingly, TRPK receives the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRPK from the first communication device.

[0256] Exemplarily, the first communication device may directly send the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRPK to TRPK, or the first communication device may send the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRPK to TRPK via the second communication device.

[0257] S1211, the first communication device sends an index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs and a weighting coefficient of an antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs to TRP1. Correspondingly, TRP1 receives a weighting coefficient of an antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs and an index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs from the first communication device.

[0258] In the embodiment of the present application, K TRPs including KRP1 and KRPK are taken as an example. Therefore, the index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs and the weighting coefficient of the antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs may include the index of KRP1, the weighting coefficient of the antenna in TRP1, and the index of TRPK, and the weighting coefficient of the antenna in TRPK.

[0259] In this case, the first communication device may preconfigure or predefine indexes of K TRPs, and any TRP among the K TRPs may pre-store the index corresponding to the any TRP.

[0260] S1212, the first communication device sends the index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs and the weighting coefficient of the antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs to TRPK. Correspondingly, TRPK receives the weighting coefficient of the antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs and the index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs from the first communication device.

[0261] Exemplarily, the first communication device may directly send the index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs and the weighting coefficient of the antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs to TRPK. Alternatively, the first communication device may send the index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs and the weighting coefficient of the antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs to TRPK through the second communication device.

[0262] It should be noted that S1209-S1210 and S1211-S1212 are two methods of indicating the weighting coefficients of the antennas in the TRP provided in the embodiment of the present application. In the actual implementation process, the first communication device either executes S1209-S1210 or executes S1211-S1212, and the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit this. In other words, S1209-S1210 and S1211-S1212 are replaceable steps. Fig.12 It is indicated by a dotted line.

[0263] After the antenna of the access network device is updated to the second form, in a possible implementation manner, the K TRPs further calibrate the channels of the antennas in the K TRPs. Fig.13 A schematic diagram of a method for calibrating an antenna is shown in the figure. Fig.13 The figure takes K TRPs including TRP1 and TRPK as an example for illustration. Fig.13 Steps S1301 to S1312 are illustrated and are introduced below respectively.

[0264] S1301, TRP1 and TRPK receive a second reference signal respectively. The second reference signal is, for example, SRS.

[0265] exist Fig.13 In the figure, S1301 includes S1301a and S1301b. S1301a is for TRP1 to receive reference signal s1'. S1301b is for TRPK to receive reference signal sK'. The reference signal s1' and the reference signal sK' can be regarded as examples of the second reference signal. Exemplarily, TRP1 can receive reference signal s1' from the terminal device, and TRPK can receive reference signal sK' from the terminal device.

[0266] The second reference signal and the first reference signal may be the same or different. Fig.12 The reference signal s1 discussed is the same as the reference signal sK' and Fig.12 The reference signal sK discussed is the same; alternatively, the reference signal s1' is the same as Fig.12 The reference signals s1 discussed are different, as well as the reference signals sK' and Fig.12 The reference signals sK discussed are different.

[0267] S1302: TRP1 sends a reference signal s1' to the first communication device. Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the reference signal s1' from TRP1.

[0268] S1303: TRPK sends a reference signal sK' to the first communication device. Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the reference signal sK' from TRPK.

[0269] S1304: The first communication device determines a first channel calibration parameter set and a second channel calibration parameter set.

[0270] The first channel calibration parameter set includes the channel calibration parameters of the antennas in TRP1, or can be specifically described as the channel calibration parameters of each antenna in the turned-on state in TRP1. The second channel calibration parameter set includes the channel calibration parameters of the antennas in TRPK, or can be specifically described as the channel calibration parameters of each antenna in the turned-on state in TRPK.

[0271] The first channel calibration parameter set includes the physical parameters and / or transmission parameters of the antenna in TRP1. The second channel calibration parameter set includes the physical parameters and / or transmission parameters of the antenna in TRPK. The following takes the physical parameters and transmission parameters of an antenna in TRP1 as an example to introduce the contents of the physical parameters and transmission parameters.

[0272] The physical parameters of the antenna are used to describe the physical properties of the antenna, for example, including the number of the antennas and / or the type of the antenna. The transmission parameters of the antenna are used to describe the transmission characteristics of the antenna, for example, including at least one of the delay, phase or amplitude associated with the antenna.

[0273] The delay associated with the antenna may be the delay of the antenna, i.e., the absolute value of the delay of the antenna, or the delay difference between the antenna and another antenna in TRP1 (i.e., the relative delay). The phase associated with the antenna may be the phase of the antenna, i.e., the absolute value of the phase of the antenna, or the phase difference between the antenna and another antenna in TRP1 (i.e., the relative phase). The amplitude associated with the antenna may be the amplitude of the antenna, i.e., the absolute value of the amplitude of the antenna, or the amplitude difference between the antenna and another antenna in TRP1 (i.e., the relative phase).

[0274] The first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set are introduced above, and the manner in which the first communication device determines the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set is introduced below. Among them, if the contents of the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set are different, then the manner in which the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set are determined is also different.

[0275] D1, the first channel calibration parameter set includes the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1, and the second channel calibration parameter set includes the physical parameters of the antenna in TRPK.

[0276] In this case, the first communication device can determine the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 and the physical parameters of the antenna in TRPK based on the first indication information. Alternatively, the first communication device can also pre-configure or pre-define the physical parameters of the antenna in the second form, and the first communication device can directly determine the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 and the physical parameters of the antenna in TRPK.

[0277] In this case, it is not necessary to receive the reference signal s1' and the reference signal sK'. That is, in this case, S1301 and S1302 are optional steps. Fig.13 Indicated by dotted line.

[0278] D2. The first channel calibration parameter set includes the transmission parameters of the antennas in TRP1, and the second channel calibration parameter set includes the transmission parameters of the antennas in TRPK.

[0279] For example, the first communications device may measure the reference signal s1 ′ to obtain the transmission parameters of the antennas in TRP1 .

[0280] Exemplarily, when the transmission parameters of an antenna include a delay associated with the antenna, the first communication device may determine the delay of the antenna based on the first moment when the terminal device sends a reference signal corresponding to the reference signal s1' and the second moment when the antenna actually receives the reference signal s1' in TRP1, and the delay of the antenna is the difference between the second moment and the first moment. The first communication device may determine the delay of the antenna as the delay associated with the antenna. Alternatively, by analogy, the first communication device may determine the delay of another antenna in TRP1, and determine the delay difference between the antenna and another antenna in TRP1 as the delay associated with the antenna.

[0281] In the case where the transmission parameters of the antenna include a phase associated with the antenna, the first communication device may determine the phase of the antenna based on the first phase of the reference signal corresponding to the reference signal s1' sent by the terminal device and the second phase of the reference signal s1' actually received by the antenna in TRP1, and the phase of the antenna is the difference between the first phase and the second phase. The first communication device may determine the phase of the antenna as the phase associated with the antenna. Alternatively, by analogy, the first communication device may determine the phase of another antenna in TRP1, and determine the phase difference between the antenna and the other antenna in TRP1 as the phase associated with the antenna.

[0282] In the case where the transmission parameters of the antenna include an amplitude associated with the antenna, the first communication device may determine the amplitude associated with the antenna with reference to the content of determining the phase associated with the antenna in the foregoing text, which is not listed here.

[0283] The first communication device may measure the reference signal sK' to obtain the transmission parameters of the antenna in TRPK. The manner in which the first communication device obtains the transmission parameters of the antenna in TRPK may refer to the content of the transmission parameters of the antenna in TRP1 above, which will not be listed here.

[0284] D3. The first channel calibration parameter set includes the physical parameters and transmission parameters of the antenna in TRP1, and the second channel calibration parameter set includes the physical parameters and transmission parameters of the antenna in TRPK.

[0285] In this case, the way in which the first communication device determines the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 and the physical parameters of the antenna in TRPK can refer to the content discussed in D1 above, and will not be repeated here. The way in which the first communication device determines the transmission parameters of the antenna in TRP1 and the transmission parameters of the antenna in TRPK can refer to the content discussed in D2 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0286] S1305: The first communication device sends a first channel calibration parameter set to TRP1. Correspondingly, TRP1 receives the first channel calibration parameter set from the first communication device.

[0287] After receiving the first channel calibration parameter set, TRP1 can perform channel calibration on each antenna in TRP1 based on the first channel calibration parameter set. If the content of the first channel calibration parameter set is different, the content of the channel calibration of the antenna is also different, which is introduced below.

[0288] E1. The first channel calibration parameters include the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1.

[0289] TRP1 verifies whether the actual physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 conform to the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 based on the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1. If the actual physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 conform to the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1, no operation is required. If the actual physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 do not conform to the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1, TRP1 may turn on and / or turn off the antenna in TRP1 so that the actual physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1 conform to the physical parameters of the antenna in TRP1.

[0290] E2. The first channel calibration parameters include the transmission parameters of the antenna in TRP1.

[0291] The method for calibrating the channel of each antenna in TRP1 is the same, and the following is introduced by taking the calibration of the channel of the first antenna in TRP1 as an example.

[0292] E2-1. The transmission parameters of the first antenna include a time delay associated with the first antenna.

[0293] E2-1-1. The transmission parameters of the first antenna include a delay associated with the first antenna, and the delay associated with the first antenna is the delay of the first antenna.

[0294] In the embodiment of the present application, the delay of the first antenna is taken as the first delay, and the expected delay between the access network device and the terminal device is taken as the first expected delay. The first expected delay may be predefined or preconfigured in the access network device, or may be determined by negotiation between the access network device and the terminal device.

[0295] If the first delay is greater than the first expected delay, the first antenna may send information in advance by the first delay value when sending information to the terminal device, and may delay receiving information by the first delay difference when receiving information from the terminal device, wherein the first delay difference is the difference between the first delay and the first expected delay.

[0296] Alternatively, if the first delay is equal to the first expected delay, then when the first antenna sends information to the terminal device, it is not necessary to adjust the time when the first antenna sends the information; when receiving information from the terminal device, it is also not necessary to adjust the time when receiving the information from the terminal device.

[0297] Alternatively, if the first delay is less than the first expected delay, the first antenna may delay sending information by the first delay value when sending information to the terminal device; and may receive information in advance by the first delay difference when receiving information from the terminal device.

[0298] E2-1-2. The transmission parameters of the first antenna include a delay associated with the first antenna, and the delay associated with the first antenna is a delay difference between the first antenna and another antenna.

[0299] In the embodiment of the present application, the delay difference between the first antenna and the other antenna is used as the second delay.

[0300] If the first delay is greater than 0, then when sending information to the terminal device, the first antenna may send the information in advance by the second delay relative to the other antenna; when receiving information from the terminal device, the first antenna may receive the information with a delay of the second delay relative to the other antenna.

[0301] Alternatively, if the first delay is equal to 0, then when sending information to the terminal device, the first antenna and the another antenna can send the information simultaneously; when receiving information from the terminal device, the first antenna and the another antenna can also receive the information simultaneously.

[0302] Alternatively, if the first delay is less than 0, then when sending information to the terminal device, the first antenna may delay sending the information by the second delay relative to the other antenna; when receiving information from the terminal device, the first antenna may receive the information in advance by the second delay relative to the other antenna.

[0303] E2-2. The transmission parameters of the first antenna include a phase associated with the first antenna.

[0304] In this case, the contents of calibrating the phase of the first antenna may refer to the contents of calibrating the delay of the first antenna in the above E2-1, and will not be listed here.

[0305] E2-3. The transmission parameter of the first antenna includes an amplitude associated with the first antenna.

[0306] In this case, the contents of calibrating the amplitude of the first antenna can refer to the contents of calibrating the delay of the first antenna in the previous E2-1, and are not listed here.

[0307] S1306: The first communication device sends a second channel calibration parameter set to TRPK. Correspondingly, TRPK receives the second channel calibration parameter set from the second communication device.

[0308] After TRPK receives the second channel calibration parameter set, it can perform channel calibration on each antenna in TRPK based on the second channel calibration parameter set. The method of performing channel calibration on each antenna in TRPK can refer to the content of performing channel calibration on each antenna in TRP1 above, which will not be listed here.

[0309] S1307: TRP1 sends a reference signal s1' to the second communication device. Correspondingly, the second communication device receives the reference signal s1' from TRP1.

[0310] S1308: TRPK sends a reference signal sK' to the second communication device. Correspondingly, the second communication device receives the reference signal sK' from TRPK.

[0311] S1309: The second communication device determines a first channel calibration parameter set and a second channel calibration parameter set.

[0312] The contents of the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set can refer to the contents of the first channel calibration parameter set and the contents of the second channel calibration parameter set in the foregoing text, respectively. The manner in which the second communication device determines the first channel calibration parameter set can refer to the contents of the first communication device determining the first channel calibration parameter set in the foregoing text, and the manner in which the second communication device determines the second channel calibration parameter set can refer to the contents of the first communication device determining the second channel calibration parameter set in the foregoing text.

[0313] S1310: The second communication device sends a first channel calibration parameter set to TRP1. Correspondingly, TRP1 receives the first channel calibration parameter set from the second communication device.

[0314] After receiving the second channel calibration parameter set, TRP1 can perform channel calibration on each antenna in TRP1 based on the first channel calibration parameter set. The method of performing channel calibration on each antenna in TRP1 can refer to the content of performing channel calibration on each antenna in TRP1 in the previous text, which will not be listed here.

[0315] S1311: The second communication device sends a second channel calibration parameter set to TRPK. Correspondingly, TRPK receives the second channel calibration parameter set from the second communication device.

[0316] After TRPK receives the second channel calibration parameter set, it can perform channel calibration on each antenna in TRPK based on the second channel calibration parameter set. The method of performing channel calibration on each antenna in TRPK can refer to the content of performing channel calibration on each antenna in TRPK in the previous text, which will not be listed here.

[0317] S1312: The second communication device sends a first channel calibration parameter set and a second channel calibration parameter set to the first communication device. Correspondingly, the first communication device receives the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set from the second communication device.

[0318] Optionally, the second communication device may cache the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set.

[0319] It should be understood that the above S1302 to S1306 are a method for calibrating the channel of the antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, hereinafter referred to as the first implementation method. S1307 to S1312 are another method for calibrating the channel of the antenna provided in the embodiment of the present application, hereinafter referred to as the second implementation method. In the actual implementation process, either S1302 to S1306 or S1307 to S1312 is executed, that is, S1302 to S1306 and S1307 to S1312 are replaceable steps. Fig.13 Indicated by dotted line.

[0320] It is understandable that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the first communication device includes hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and method steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0321] Fig.14 The present invention provides a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device in an embodiment of the present invention. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the first communication device or the second communication device in the above method embodiment, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiment. In the embodiment of the present invention, the communication device can be the above Figure 5A , Figure 5B or Figure 6 or Figure 7 The first communication device involved in may also be as follows Figure 7 The second communication device in.

[0322] like Fig.14 As shown, the communication device 1400 includes a processing module 1410 and a transceiver module 1420. The communication device 1400 is used to implement the function of the first communication device in any of the method embodiments shown above.

[0323] For example, the communication device 1400 is used to implement Figure 8 The functions of the first communication device in the method embodiment are shown.

[0324] Exemplarily, the processing module 1410 is used to execute steps S801 and S802, and the transceiver module 1420 is used to execute step S803.

[0325] Optionally, the communication device 1400 may also be used to implement the above Fig.12 Possible implementations are shown.

[0326] Exemplarily, the processing module 1410 is used for steps S1206 and S1208, and the transceiver module 1420 is used to receive the reference signals s1 and sK, and the intermediate parameters corresponding to TRPK, and can also be used to send the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRP1, and the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRPK, etc. Among them, the reference signals s1 and sK, the intermediate parameters corresponding to TRPK, the weighting coefficients of the antennas, and the weighting coefficients of the antennas in TRPK, etc. can refer to the above Fig.12 The content of the discussion will not be repeated here.

[0327] Optionally, the communication device 1400 may also be used to implement the above Fig.13 Possible implementations are shown.

[0328] Exemplarily, the processing module 1410 is used for step S1304, and the transceiver module 1420 is used for receiving reference signals s1' and sK', as well as the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set, and can also be used for sending the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set, etc. Among them, the reference signals s1' and sK', the first channel calibration parameter set and the second channel calibration parameter set, etc. can refer to the above Fig.13 The content of the discussion will not be repeated here.

[0329] For more detailed description of the processing module 1410 and the transceiver module 1420, please refer to Figure 8 , Fig.12 and Fig.13 The relevant description in the method embodiment shown is directly obtained and will not be repeated here.

[0330] Please refer to Fig.15 , is a schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.15 As shown, the communication device 1500 includes a processor 1510 and an interface circuit 1520. The processor 1510 and the interface circuit 1520 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the interface circuit 1520 can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1500 may also include a memory 1530 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1510 or storing input data required by the processor 1510 to execute instructions or storing data generated after the processor 1510 executes instructions.

[0331] When the communication device 1500 is used to implement Figure 8 When the method is shown, the processor 1510 is used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned processing module 1410, and the interface circuit 1520 is used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned transceiver module 1420.

[0332] When the above-mentioned communication device is a module applied to a base station, the base station module implements the function of the base station in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The base station module receives information from other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station; or, the base station module sends information to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the base station to the terminal. The base station module here can be a baseband chip of the base station, or it can be a DU or other modules. The DU here can be an open non-central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processors, DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (application-specific integrated circuits, ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate arrays, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. And, the memory involved in each embodiment of the present application may include a volatile memory (volatile memory), such as a random access memory (random access memory, RAM). The memory may also include non-volatile memory, such as read-only memory (ROM), flash memory, hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD).

[0333] The present application embodiment provides another example of a communication device, the communication device includes at least one processor and at least one memory, the at least one processor and the at least one memory are coupled, the at least one memory is used to store instructions, when the instructions are executed by the at least one processor, the communication device executes the method in the above embodiment. Take the communication device including a processor and a memory as an example, Fig.16 As shown, the communication device 1600 includes a processor 1610 and a memory 1620. The processor 1610 and the memory 1620 are coupled, and the memory 1620 stores instructions. When the instructions stored in the memory 1620 are executed by the processor 1610, the communication device 1600 executes the method executed by the network device in the above embodiment.

[0334] The method steps in each embodiment of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions that can be executed by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, register, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also be present in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

[0335] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instruction is loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is executed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user device or other programmable device. The computer program or instruction may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer program or instruction may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape; it may also be an optical medium, for example, a digital video disc; it may also be a semiconductor medium, for example, a solid-state hard disk. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

[0336] The present application provides a chip system, which includes: a processor and an interface. The processor is used to call and run instructions from the interface. When the processor executes the instructions, any of the above methods is implemented, such as the above method. Figure 8 , Fig.12 or Fig.13 The method of any one of the above.

[0337] The present application embodiment provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program or instruction. When the computer-readable storage medium is executed, any of the above methods is implemented, such as the above method. Figure 8 , Fig.12 or Fig.13 The method of any one of the above.

[0338] The present application embodiment provides a computer program product including instructions, which, when executed on a computer, implements any of the methods described above, such as the method described above. Figure 8 , Fig.12 or Fig.13 The method of any one of the above.

[0339] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or provided for in any logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between the different embodiments are consistent and may be referenced to each other, and the technical features in the different embodiments may be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

[0340] It is understood that the various numerical numbers involved in the various embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the sequence number of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a first communication device, the first communication device is deployed to communicate with X transmission and reception points TRP, X is an integer greater than 1; the method includes: Determining that the form of the antenna needs to be updated from a first form to a second form, wherein at least one of coverage, direction, and strength of a beam of the antenna in the first form is different from that of the antenna in the second form; Determine M antennas to be turned off and / or N antennas to be turned on in the X TRPs, where both N and M are positive integers; Sending first indication information to each TRP of at least one TRP among the X TRPs, wherein the first indication information indicates turning off the antennas belonging to the M antennas in each TRP and / or turning on the antennas belonging to the N antennas in each TRP, wherein the second form is formed by turning off the M antennas and / or the N antennas in the first form.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Determining that the antenna shape needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape includes: receiving second indication information from the core network, wherein the second indication information indicates that the antenna shape needs to be updated to the second shape; or, According to the communication quality of the first communication device and / or information of the served user, it is determined that the antenna shape needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The communication quality includes communication interference of the first communication device; When the communication interference of the first communication device is greater than or equal to a first threshold, the number of antennas in the second state is greater than the number of antennas in the first state; or, When the communication interference of the first communication device is less than a second threshold, the number of antennas in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form; The first threshold is greater than the second threshold.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: Information about users of the service including the number of users of the service; When the number of users served by the first communication device is greater than or equal to a third threshold, the number of antennas included in the second form is greater than the number of antennas included in the first form; or, When the number of users served by the first communication device is less than a fourth threshold, the number of antennas in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form; Wherein, the third threshold is greater than the fourth threshold.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The N antennas are distributed in one TRP of the X TRPs; or, The N antennas are distributed in at least two TRPs among the X TRPs.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, the L TRPs belong to the X TRPs, and L is a positive integer; The M antennas are distributed in one TRP of the L TRPs; or, The M antennas are distributed in at least two TRPs of the L TRPs.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that: The antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, the L TRPs belong to the X TRPs, and L is a positive integer; The L TRPs are deployed in different geographical locations; or, The L TRPs are deployed at the same site.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that: The antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, the L TRPs belong to the X TRPs, and L is a positive integer; Any two TRPs in the L TRPs include the same number of antennas; or, At least two TRPs among the L TRPs include different numbers of antennas.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that: The antennas in the first form are distributed on L TRPs, and the antennas in the second form are distributed on K TRPs, the L TRPs and the K TRPs both belong to the X TRPs, and L and K are positive integers; After sending the first indication information to each TRP of at least one TRP of the X TRPs, the method further includes one of the following: Sending weighting coefficients for antennas in each TRP to each of the K TRPs; or, Sending to the K TRPs respectively an index corresponding to each TRP in the K TRPs and a weighting coefficient of an antenna in each TRP in the K TRPs; The weighting coefficient is used to constrain at least one of the coverage, direction and strength of the antenna beam.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that Acquire K first signals corresponding to the K TRPs, wherein each of the K first signals is a first reference signal or an intermediate parameter received by any TRP of the K TRPs, and the intermediate parameter is determined based on the first reference signal received by any TRP; Based on the K first signals, weighting coefficients of the antennas in the K TRPs are determined.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that Based on the first signal, after determining the weighting coefficients of the K TRP antennas, the method further includes: Based on the expected communication quality parameters of the antenna in any TRP and the actual communication quality parameters of the antenna in any TRP, adjust the weighting coefficient of any TRP antenna.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that: The antennas in the second form are distributed on K TRPs, the K TRPs all belong to the X TRPs, and K is a positive integer; the method further includes: Receiving channel calibration parameters of antennas in any TRP of the K TRPs; Among them, the channel calibration parameters of any TRP include physical parameters and / or transmission parameters of the antenna in any TRP, and are used to calibrate the antenna in any TRP.

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, characterized in that: The antennas in the second form are distributed on K TRPs, the K TRPs all belong to the X TRPs, and K is a positive integer; the method further includes: Measuring a second reference signal from any TRP of the K TRPs to determine a transmission parameter of an antenna in the any TRP; The transmission parameters of the antennas in any TRP are sent to any TRP, and the transmission parameters of the antennas in any TRP are used to calibrate the antennas in any TRP.

14. The method according to claim 12 or 13, characterized in that The transmission parameter of the antenna in any TRP indicates one of the following: At least one of the delay, phase or amplitude of the antenna of any of the TRPs; or, At least one of the delay difference, phase difference or amplitude difference of one antenna of any TRP relative to another antenna.

15. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The physical parameters of the antenna in any TRP include: The number of antennas that are turned on; the arrangement of antennas in the switched-on state; or, The type of antenna that is turned on.

16. A communication device, characterized in that: The device is deployed to communicate with X transmission and reception points TRP, where X is an integer greater than 1; the device includes: A processing module, configured to determine that the form of the antenna needs to be updated from a first form to a second form, wherein at least one of coverage, direction, and strength of a beam of the antenna in the first form is different from that of the antenna in the second form; A processing module, used to determine M antennas to be turned off and / or N antennas to be turned on in the X TRPs, where N and M are both positive integers; A transceiver module is used to send a first indication information to each TRP in at least one TRP of the X TRPs, wherein the first indication information indicates turning off the antenna belonging to the M antennas in each TRP and / or turning on the antenna belonging to the N antennas in each TRP, wherein the second form is formed by turning off the M antennas and / or the N antennas in the first form.

17. The device according to claim 16, characterized in that The processing module is specifically used for: receiving second indication information from the core network, wherein the second indication information indicates that the antenna shape needs to be updated to the second shape; or, According to the communication quality of the communication device and / or information of the served user, it is determined that the antenna shape needs to be updated from the first shape to the second shape.

18. The device according to claim 16, characterized in that The communication quality includes communication interference of the communication device; When the communication interference of the communication device is greater than or equal to the first threshold, the number of antennas in the second state is greater than the number of antennas in the first state; or, When the communication interference of the communication device is less than a second threshold, the number of antennas in the second form is less than the number of antennas included in the first form; The first threshold is greater than the second threshold.

19. A communication device, characterized in that: It includes a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1-15 through a logic circuit or executing code instructions.

20. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The storage medium stores a computer program or instruction, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by the communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 15 is implemented.

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