Communication method, communication device and communication system

Abstract

The invention discloses a communication method, a communication device and a communication system, and relates to the technical field of communication. The method comprises: a network device sending a first message, correspondingly, a terminal device receiving the first message, the first message comprising information of a plurality of sub-regions in a first terrestrial network (TN) coverage area, the first TN coverage area overlapping with a coverage area of a non-terrestrial network (NTN) cell, the coverage area of the NTN cell overlapping with a plurality of TN coverage areas, the plurality of TN coverage areas comprise a first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal equipment passes through the first TN coverage area; the terminal device measures the signal quality of a cell within the coverage of a first sub-region, the first sub-region being included in the plurality of sub-regions, and the path of the terminal device in the NTN cell passing through the first sub-region. By adopting the embodiment of the invention, the power consumption of the terminal equipment can be reduced.

Description

Technical Field

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

[0002] In satellite communications, terminal devices need to frequently switch beams and cells due to the movement of satellites. The coverage area of ​​satellite cells is much larger than that of ground cells, and the coverage area of ​​satellite cells can include the coverage areas of many ground cells. Therefore, these ground cells can be used as neighboring cells of satellite cells, and terminal devices can perform cell measurements on these ground cells to facilitate cell reselection and switching.

[0003] However, the terminal device constantly measures the ground cells within the coverage of the satellite cell, which will lead to high power consumption of the terminal device. Therefore, how to reduce the power consumption of the terminal device is an urgent problem to be solved. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiments of the present application disclose a communication method, a communication device and a communication system, which can reduce the power consumption of terminal equipment.

[0005] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device. The terminal device here can refer to the terminal device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system in the terminal device that implements the method, without limitation. The method includes:

[0006] Receive a first message, the first message including information of multiple sub-areas in a first terrestrial network (TN) coverage area, the first TN coverage area overlaps with the coverage area of ​​a non-terrestrial network (NTN) cell, the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with multiple TN coverage areas, the NTN cell is a service cell for the terminal device, the multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area; measure the signal quality of a cell within the coverage range of a first sub-area, the first sub-area is included in the multiple sub-areas, and the path of the terminal device in the NTN cell passes through the first sub-area.

[0007] In an embodiment of the present application, after the terminal device obtains information on multiple sub-areas within the coverage area of ​​the first TN, it measures the signal quality of the cells within the first sub-area passed through based on its own path, that is, it only needs to measure the ground cells within the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell that are closer to the terminal device, and there is no need to measure the ground cells within the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell that are farther away from the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0008] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation, before receiving the first message, the method also includes: receiving a second message, the second message including information of the multiple TN coverage areas; and sending a third message, the third message being used to indicate the first TN coverage area.

[0009] In an embodiment of the present application, the second message may be a broadcast message. After receiving the second message, the terminal device determines the first TN coverage area based on its path, and requests information about multiple sub-areas within the first TN coverage area from the network device through a third message. In this way, the network device only needs to broadcast the information about the multiple TN coverage areas, and the terminal device can obtain information about the sub-areas of the TN coverage area through which its path passes based on interaction, without broadcasting information about the sub-areas within each TN coverage area, which can effectively reduce signaling overhead.

[0010] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: receiving first time information, where the first time information is used to indicate the time for the terminal device to measure a heterofrequency neighboring cell of a service cell of the terminal device.

[0011] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device configures the time for the terminal device to measure the hetero-frequency neighboring cell, ensuring that the terminal device can complete the measurement of the hetero-frequency neighboring cell, so as to facilitate the terminal device to perform cell switching.

[0012] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before receiving the first time information, the method further includes:

[0013] First indication information is sent, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

[0014] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can indicate whether the first sub-area includes or does not include hetero-frequency neighbor cells through the first indication information, thereby instructing the network device to configure the measurement time of the hetero-frequency neighbor cells or the measurement period of the hetero-frequency neighbor cells for the terminal device, so that the terminal device can better measure the hetero-frequency neighbor cells.

[0015] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the multiple sub-regions indicates a reference point of each sub-region in the multiple sub-regions.

[0016] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device can indicate the reference point information of each sub-area in multiple sub-areas to the terminal device, so that the terminal device can determine the sub-area through which its path passes based on the reference point of each sub-area, thereby measuring the signal quality of the cell in the corresponding sub-area.

[0017] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the multiple sub-regions further indicates at least one of the following information: a radius of each sub-region among the multiple sub-regions, and a shape of each sub-region among the multiple sub-regions.

[0018] In an embodiment of the present application, the information of the multiple sub-areas includes a reference point, a radius, and a shape of each sub-area, so that the terminal device can determine the coverage range of each sub-area based on the information of the multiple sub-areas.

[0019] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation, the information of the multiple sub-areas includes reference point information of the second sub-area and second indication information, the second indication information is used to indicate the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area and the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area, and the second sub-area and the third sub-area are different sub-areas among the multiple sub-areas.

[0020] In the embodiment of the present application, the shapes of the multiple sub-areas in the first TN coverage area may be the same, and the shapes of the multiple sub-areas may be configured by a network device or specified by a protocol. The position distance between the reference points of any two of the multiple sub-areas in the first TN coverage area is relatively close, so the reference points of the multiple sub-areas may be indicated in the form of a coordinate difference between the reference points of the multiple sub-areas and the reference points of the second sub-area, which can reduce the signaling overhead for indicating the positions of the reference points of each sub-area.

[0021] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the multiple sub-areas includes a difference between a coordinate of a reference point of any sub-area among the multiple sub-areas and a coordinate of a reference point of the first TN coverage area.

[0022] In an embodiment of the present application, the reference point information of the first TN coverage area may be included in the first message or other messages (such as the second message). The reference points of multiple sub-areas within the first TN coverage area are close to the reference point of the first TN coverage area. Therefore, the reference points of the multiple sub-areas can be indicated in the form of coordinate differences between them and the reference point of the first TN coverage area, which can reduce the signaling overhead of indicating the reference point positions of each sub-area.

[0023] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, and a square.

[0024] In combination with the first aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the level of the first TN coverage area is the first level, the level of the first sub-area is the second level, and the method further includes:

[0025] A fourth message is sent to the network device according to the path of the terminal device, and the fourth message is used to request information about a third-level coverage area, where the third-level coverage area is included in the first sub-area; measuring the signal quality of cells within the coverage area of ​​the first sub-area includes: measuring the signal quality of cells in at least one third-level coverage area in the first sub-area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the at least one third-level coverage area.

[0026] In an embodiment of the present application, the network device may divide the coverage of the NTN cell into different levels of ground coverage areas, and the ground coverage areas of different levels are in an inclusive relationship. After the terminal device obtains the information of the ground coverage area of ​​one level, it can determine whether to request the information of the ground coverage area of ​​the next level of the level based on its own needs. For example, after the terminal device obtains the information of the first sub-area (the ground coverage area of ​​the second level), it determines whether to obtain the information of the ground coverage area of ​​the third level according to its own needs, which can further reduce the energy consumption of the terminal device and meet the energy consumption requirements of the terminal device.

[0027] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by a network device. The network device here can refer to the network device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system in the network device that implements the method, without limitation. The method includes:

[0028] Generate a first message, the first message including information of multiple sub-areas in a first terrestrial network TN coverage area, the first TN coverage area overlaps with the coverage area of ​​a non-terrestrial network NTN cell, the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with multiple TN coverage areas, the multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area; send the first message.

[0029] In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before sending the first message, the method further includes:

[0030] A second message is sent, where the second message includes information about the multiple TN coverage areas; and a third message is received, where the third message is used to indicate the first TN coverage area.

[0031] In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

[0032] Send first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of the heterofrequency neighboring cell of the service cell of the terminal device.

[0033] In conjunction with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before sending the first time information, the method further includes:

[0034] First indication information is received, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

[0035] In combination with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the multiple sub-regions indicates a reference point of each sub-region in the multiple sub-regions.

[0036] In combination with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the multiple sub-regions further indicates at least one of the following information: a radius of each sub-region among the multiple sub-regions, and a shape of each sub-region among the multiple sub-regions.

[0037] In combination with the second aspect, in a possible implementation, the information of the multiple sub-areas includes reference point information of the second sub-area and second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area and the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area.

[0038] In combination with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the information of the multiple sub-areas includes a difference between coordinates of a reference point of any sub-area among the multiple sub-areas and coordinates of a reference point of the first TN coverage area.

[0039] In combination with the second aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, and a square.

[0040] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by a network device. The network device here can refer to the network device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system in the network device that implements the method, without limitation. The method includes:

[0041] Receive third indication information, the third indication information indicating the path of a terminal device in a non-terrestrial network NTN cell, the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with multiple TN coverage areas; send a fifth message, the fifth message is used to indicate a first sub-area, the path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area, the first sub-area is included in a first terrestrial network TN coverage area, the multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area.

[0042] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can report its path information to the network device, so that the network device can instruct the terminal device to measure the cells within the first sub-area through which its path passes according to the path information, so that the terminal device only needs to measure the ground cells within the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell that are closer to the terminal device, and there is no need to measure the ground cells within the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell that are farther away from the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0043] In combination with the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the fifth message includes information about cells within the coverage of the first sub-area.

[0044] In the embodiment of the present application, the fifth message may include information such as the identification and frequency of the cells within the coverage of the first sub-area. After receiving the fifth message, the terminal device can directly measure the cells within the coverage of the first sub-area without performing a cell search, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the terminal device and improving the efficiency of cell measurement.

[0045] In conjunction with the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

[0046] Send first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of the heterofrequency neighboring cell of the service cell of the terminal device.

[0047] In conjunction with the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before sending the first time information, the method further includes:

[0048] First indication information is received, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

[0049] In combination with the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the fifth message includes a reference point of the first sub-area.

[0050] In combination with the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the fifth message further includes at least one of the following information: a radius of the first sub-area, and a shape of the first sub-area.

[0051] In combination with the third aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, and a square.

[0052] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device. The terminal device here can refer to the terminal device itself, or to a processor, module, chip, or chip system in the terminal device that implements the method, without limitation. The method includes:

[0053] Send a third indication message, wherein the third indication message indicates a path of a terminal device in a non-terrestrial network NTN cell, and the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with multiple TN coverage areas; receive a fifth message, wherein the fifth message is used to indicate a first sub-area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area, and the first sub-area is included in a first terrestrial network TN coverage area, and the multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area.

[0054] In combination with the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the fifth message includes information about cells within the coverage of the first sub-area.

[0055] In conjunction with the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the method further includes:

[0056] Receive first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of a heterofrequency neighboring cell of a service cell of the terminal device.

[0057] In conjunction with the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, before receiving the first time information, the method further includes:

[0058] First indication information is sent, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

[0059] In combination with the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the fifth message includes a reference point of the first sub-area.

[0060] In combination with the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the fifth message further includes at least one of the following information: a radius of the first sub-area, and a shape of the first sub-area.

[0061] In combination with the fourth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, and a square.

[0062] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which is used to execute the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect. The communication device includes a unit having the function of executing the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

[0063] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, configured to execute the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect. The communication device includes a unit having the function of executing the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0064] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which is used to execute the method in the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect. The communication device includes a unit having the function of executing the method in the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect.

[0065] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device for executing the method in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect. The communication device includes a unit having the function of executing the method in the fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect.

[0066] In the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth aspects, the above-mentioned communication device and communication device may include a transceiver unit and a processing unit. For the specific description of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference may also be made to the device embodiment shown below.

[0067] In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device comprising a processor, configured to execute the method described in any one of the first to fourth aspects or any possible implementation. Alternatively, the processor is configured to execute a program stored in a memory, and when the program is executed, the method described in any one of the first to fourth aspects or any possible implementation is executed.

[0068] In a possible implementation manner, the memory is located outside the above communication device.

[0069] In a possible implementation manner, the memory is located within the above-mentioned communication device.

[0070] In the embodiment of the present application, the processor and the memory may also be integrated into one device, that is, the processor and the memory may also be integrated together.

[0071] In a possible implementation manner, the communication device further includes a transceiver, where the transceiver is used to receive a signal or send a signal.

[0072] In the tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which includes a logic circuit and an interface, wherein the logic circuit and the interface are coupled; the interface is used to input a first message; and the logic circuit is used to measure the signal quality of a cell within the coverage area of ​​a first sub-area.

[0073] It can be understood that with respect to the communication device shown in the tenth aspect, reference can also be made to the first aspect or the specific implementation shown below.

[0074] In the eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which includes a logic circuit and an interface, wherein the logic circuit and the interface are coupled; the logic circuit is used to generate a first message; and the interface is used to output the first message.

[0075] It can be understood that, with respect to the communication device shown in the eleventh aspect, reference can also be made to the second aspect or the specific implementation manner shown below.

[0076] In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which includes a logic circuit and an interface, wherein the logic circuit and the interface are coupled; the interface is used to input third indication information and output a fifth message.

[0077] It can be understood that with respect to the communication device shown in the twelfth aspect, reference can also be made to the third aspect or the specific implementation shown below.

[0078] In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which includes a logic circuit and an interface, wherein the logic circuit and the interface are coupled; the interface is used to output a third indication information and input a fifth message.

[0079] It can be understood that with respect to the communication device shown in the thirteenth aspect, reference can also be made to the fourth aspect or the specific implementation shown below.

[0080] In the fourteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer, the method shown in any aspect of the first to fourth aspects or any possible implementation is executed.

[0081] In a fifteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer, the method shown in any aspect of the first to fourth aspects or any possible implementation is executed.

[0082] In the sixteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer, the method shown in any aspect or any possible implementation of the above-mentioned first to fourth aspects is executed.

[0083] In the seventeenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device, the first communication device is used to execute the method shown in the above-mentioned first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, and the second communication device is used to execute the method shown in the above-mentioned second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0084] In the eighteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device, the first communication device is used to execute the method shown in the above-mentioned fourth aspect or any possible implementation of the fourth aspect, and the second communication device is used to execute the method shown in the above-mentioned third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0085] The following is an introduction to the drawings related to the embodiments of the present application.

[0086] Figure 1A A schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0087] Figure 1B A schematic diagram of the architecture of another communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0088] Figure 1C A schematic diagram of the architecture of another communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0089] Figure 2 It is an interactive schematic diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0090] Figure 3 is an interactive schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0091] Figure 4A This is a schematic diagram of a communication scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0092] Figure 4B This is another communication scenario schematic diagram provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0093] Figure 5 is an interactive schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0094] Figure 6 is a structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0095] Figure 7 is a structural diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0096] Figure 8 It is a structural diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0097] The terms "first" and "second" in the specification, claims and drawings of the present application are only used to distinguish different objects, rather than to limit the order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects. In the embodiment of the present application, "multiple" refers to two or more. In addition, the terms "including" and "having" and any variation thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, product or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally includes steps or units that are not listed, or optionally includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices. In addition, the character " / ", unless otherwise specified, generally indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0098] The "embodiment" mentioned in this article means that the specific features, structures or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearance of this phrase in various places in the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor is it an independent or alternative embodiment that is mutually exclusive with other embodiments. It can be explicitly and implicitly understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

[0099] The present application provides a communication method, which is applied to the field of communication technology. Optionally, it can be applied to positioning in NTN communication scenarios. In order to more clearly describe the solution of the present application, some knowledge related to NTN communication is first introduced below.

[0100] With the development of information technology, modern communication systems have put forward more urgent requirements for the efficiency, mobility and diversity of communications. At present, in some important application scenarios, such as space communications, aviation communications, maritime communications, military communications and other fields, NTN communications represented by non-ground equipment such as satellites, drones, and high-altitude platforms play an irreplaceable role.

[0101] For the sake of convenience, the following description will be given using non-ground equipment represented by satellites as an example.

[0102] Satellite communication has the characteristics of long communication distance, large coverage area, and flexible networking. It can provide communication services for both fixed terminals and various mobile terminals. Since traditional ground networks cannot provide seamless coverage for terminal devices, especially in places where base stations cannot be deployed, such as the sea, desert, and air, NTN is introduced into the fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system. It provides seamless coverage of communication for terminal devices by deploying base stations or part of the base station functions on high-altitude platforms or satellites. In addition, high-altitude platforms or satellites are less affected by natural disasters, which can improve the reliability of 5G systems. In NTN based on satellite deployment, satellites cover the ground through different beams to form satellite cells. At the same time, a terminal device can be covered by multiple satellite cells.

[0103] Satellite communication systems can be divided into the following three types according to the satellite's orbital altitude:

[0104] Geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite communication system, also known as synchronous orbit satellite system, medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite communication system and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication system.

[0105] Among them, the GEO satellite orbit altitude is 35786km. Its main advantage is that it can remain stationary relative to the ground and provide a large coverage area. The disadvantages are: 1) The GEO satellite orbit is far away from the earth, and the free space propagation loss is large, resulting in a tight communication link budget. In order to increase the transmission / reception gain, the satellite needs to be equipped with a larger diameter antenna; 2) The communication transmission delay is large, which can reach a round-trip delay of about 500ms, which cannot meet the needs of real-time services; 3) GEO orbit resources are relatively scarce, the launch cost is high, and it cannot provide coverage for the earth's polar regions.

[0106] The orbital altitude of MEO satellites is between 2000 and 35786 km. The advantage is that global coverage can be achieved with a relatively small number of satellites, but its orbital altitude is higher than that of LEO, and the transmission delay is still larger than that of LEO satellite communications. Combining the advantages and disadvantages of MEO satellite communications, MEO satellites are mainly used for positioning and navigation.

[0107] The orbital altitude of LEO satellites is between 300 and 2000 km. LEO satellites are lower than MEO and GEO orbital altitudes, and have the advantages of low data transmission delay, low transmission loss, and relatively low launch cost. In order to improve the overall signal processing capability and communication throughput of the satellite network, satellite operators compensate for the limitations of the communication capabilities of a single satellite by increasing the number of satellites. In the future NTN communication system, after the terminal device is connected to the system, the terminal device can be "visible" to multiple satellites that can communicate for a period of time. At this time, multiple satellites can provide communication services for the terminal device, which provides the basic conditions for multi-satellite collaborative transmission.

[0108] The technical solution provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, a satellite communication system, and a system integrating satellite communication and cellular network. Among them, the cellular network system may include but is not limited to: 5G system, global system of mobile communication (GSM) system, code division multiple access (CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD) system, advanced long term evolution (LTE-A) system, new radio (NR) system, NR system evolution system, LTE on unlicensed band (LTE-based access to unlicensed spectrum, LTE-U) system, NR on unlicensed band (NR-based access to unlicensed spectrum, NR-U) system, universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), global interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave The present invention relates to a mobile communication system, a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless fidelity (WiFi), a next generation communication system or other communication systems. Generally speaking, the number of connections supported by a traditional communication system is limited and easy to implement. However, with the development of communication technology, mobile communication systems will not only support traditional communications, but also support, for example, device to device (D2D) communication, machine to machine (M2M) communication, machine type communication (MTC), vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication and other communication systems that will evolve in the future. The embodiments of the present application can also be applied to these communication systems.Satellite communication systems may include various non-terrestrial network systems, such as satellites or unmanned aircraft system (UAS) platforms, etc., which perform wireless frequency transmissions, and are not listed here one by one.

[0109] Exemplarily, the following takes the NTN system as an example to provide a specific application scenario of the present solution. The NTN system may specifically be a satellite communication system or other non-terrestrial network system, and the positioning method in the present solution may be applied in the field of satellite communication.

[0110] See also Figure 1A , Figure 1B as well as Figure 1C , taking the 5G communication system as an example, Figure 1A , Figure 1B as well as Figure 1C Schematic diagram of the architecture of several communication systems provided in embodiments of the present application.

[0111] like Figure 1A , Figure 1B as well as Figure 1C As shown, one or more terminal devices (such as mobile terminals) and / or network devices (such as 5G base stations) may exist in the coverage area of ​​a cell of the satellite. The coverage area of ​​the cell may be the area covered by one or more beams of the satellite, or an area at the same level as the cell in the NR system.

[0112] exist Figure 1A In the 5G satellite communication architecture, ground terminal equipment (such as mobile terminals) access the network through the air interface, and network equipment (such as 5G base stations) can be deployed on the ground and directly connected to the 5G core network on the ground through wireless links, and connected to the ground station of satellite communication. This type of communication architecture is also called transparent satellite network architecture, and the base station is visible on the ground. At the same time, there is a wireless link between satellites to complete the signaling interaction and user data transmission between base stations.

[0113] exist Figure 1B In the satellite communication architecture, ground terminal equipment (such as mobile terminals) access the network through the air interface, and network equipment (such as 5G base stations) can be deployed on satellites and connected to the ground station and the 5G core network on the ground through wireless links. This type of communication architecture is also called a regenerative satellite network architecture, which shows that the functions of the base station or part of the base station are on the satellite. At the same time, there are wireless links between satellites to complete the signaling interaction and user data transmission between base stations.

[0114] exist Figure 1CIn this architecture, ground terminal equipment (such as mobile terminals) access the network through air interfaces, network equipment (such as 5G base stations) or some network equipment (such as 5G base stations) are deployed on satellites and connected to the ground station and the 5G core network on the ground through wireless links; some network equipment (such as 5G base stations) are deployed on the ground and directly connected to the 5G core network on the ground and the ground station of satellite communications through wireless links. In this type of communication architecture, it can be seen that the functions of the base station or some base stations are on the satellite and the ground respectively. At the same time, there are wireless links between satellites to complete the signaling interaction and user data transmission between base stations.

[0115] It is understandable that in actual deployment, the satellites in the above system can be replaced by other NTN devices such as high altitude platform station (HAPS), and this application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0116] The network elements and their interfaces in this scenario are described as follows:

[0117] Terminal device: A mobile device that supports the 5G new air interface, typically a user terminal, wearable device, etc. It can access the satellite network through the air interface and initiate calls, surf the Internet, and other services.

[0118] 5G base station: mainly provides wireless access services, dispatches wireless resources to access terminals, provides reliable wireless transmission protocols and data encryption protocols, etc.

[0119] 5G core network: including user access control, mobility management, session management, user security authentication, billing and other services. It consists of multiple functional units, which can be divided into functional entities of control plane and data plane. Among them, the access and mobility management function (AMF) is responsible for user access management, security authentication, and mobility management. The location management function (LMF) is responsible for managing and controlling the positioning service requests of the target terminal and processing positioning-related information. The user plane function (UPF) is responsible for managing the transmission of user plane data, traffic statistics and other functions.

[0120] Ground station: responsible for forwarding signaling and business data between satellite base stations and 5G core network.

[0121] 5G New Radio: The wireless link between user equipment and base stations.

[0122] Xn interface: It is the interface between 5G base stations and is mainly used for signaling interactions such as switching.

[0123] NG interface: It is the interface between the 5G base station and the 5G core network, which mainly interacts with the core network's non-access stratum (NAS) and other signaling, as well as user business data.

[0124] The technical solution provided in this application mainly involves two execution entities, namely network equipment and terminal equipment, and can be applied to communication systems such as 5G, especially in the communication process of non-terrestrial networks.

[0125] The terminal equipment involved in the embodiments of the present application includes but is not limited to being connected via a wired line, such as via a public switched telephone network (PSTN), a digital subscriber line (DSL), a digital cable, a direct cable connection; and / or another data connection network; and / or via a wireless interface, such as: for a cellular network, a wireless local area network (WLAN), a digital television network such as a digital video broadcast-handheld (DVB-H) network, a satellite network, an amplitude modulation-frequency modulation (AM-FM) broadcast transmitter; and / or a device of another terminal device that is configured to receive / send communication signals; and / or an Internet of Things (IoT) device. A terminal device that is configured to communicate via a wireless interface may be referred to as a "wireless communication terminal", "wireless terminal" or "mobile terminal". Examples of the terminal equipment include, but are not limited to, satellite or cellular telephones; personal communications system (PCS) terminals that may combine cellular radiotelephones with data processing, fax, and data communications capabilities; personal digital assistants (PDAs) that may include radiotelephones, pagers, Internet / intranet access, Web browsers, notepads, calendars, and / or global positioning system (GPS) receivers; and conventional laptop and / or palmtop receivers or other electronic devices that include radiotelephone transceivers. The terminal equipment may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device. The terminal device can also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a PDA, a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a 5G network, or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), etc.

[0126] The network equipment involved in the embodiments of the present application can provide communication coverage in a specific geographical area, and can communicate with one or more terminal devices located in the coverage area, and can also be used to communicate with one or more base stations with partial terminal functions (such as communication between a macro base station and a micro base station, such as an access point). Optionally, the network device can be a base station (base transceiver station, BTS) in a satellite, GSM system or CDMA system, an evolved base station (evolved Node B, eNB) in an LTE system, or a next generation base station node (next generation node base station, gNB) in a 5G system or NR system, as well as other satellite base stations and satellite relay nodes. In addition, the network device can also be an access point (access point, AP), a transport node (transport point, TRP), a central unit (central unit, CU) or other network entities, and can include some or all of the above network entity functions.

[0127] It is understandable that the device with communication function in the network / system in the embodiment of the present application can be referred to as a communication device. Figure 1A , Figure 1B as well as Figure 1C Taking the communication system shown as an example, the communication equipment may include network equipment and terminal equipment with communication functions. The network equipment and terminal equipment may be the specific equipment described above and will not be repeated here. The communication equipment may also include other equipment in the communication system, such as network controllers, mobile management entities and other network entities, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0128] It should also be noted that in this application, the two descriptions of "satellite" and "satellite network equipment" are equivalent. That is, the satellite mentioned in this application refers to a collection of satellites and other network equipment related to satellite communications.

[0129] It can be understood that a cell in the NTN system can be the projection area of ​​a satellite beam on the ground, or the projection area of ​​multiple satellite beams on the ground, or it can be a partial area of ​​the projection area of ​​one beam or multiple beams on the ground, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0130] It is understandable that Figure 1A , Figure 1B as well as Figure 1CTaking the communication system shown as an example, in satellite communication, the terminal equipment needs to frequently switch beams and cells due to the movement of the satellite. The coverage area of ​​the satellite cell is much larger than the coverage area of ​​the ground cell, and the coverage area of ​​the satellite cell can include the coverage areas of many ground cells. Therefore, these ground cells can be used as neighboring cells of the satellite cell, and the terminal equipment can perform cell measurements on these ground cells to facilitate cell reselection and switching. However, the terminal equipment constantly measures the ground cells within the coverage area of ​​the satellite cell, which will result in high power consumption of the terminal equipment. Therefore, how to reduce the power consumption of the terminal equipment is an urgent problem to be solved.

[0131] In view of this, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method that can reduce the power consumption of a terminal device. The method can be applied to Figure 1A , Figure 1B as well as Figure 1C The communication system shown, or the method is applied to a first communication device and a second communication device, the first communication device may be the terminal device described above, and the second communication device may be the network device described above.

[0132] It can be understood that the interaction diagram in this application uses the network device and the terminal device as the execution subject of the interaction diagram as an example to illustrate the method, but this application does not limit the execution subject of the interaction diagram. For example, the network device in the interaction diagram can also be a chip, a chip system, or a processor that supports the network device to implement the method, or a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the network device functions; the terminal device in the interaction diagram can also be a chip, a chip system, or a processor that supports the terminal to implement the method.

[0133] In the embodiments of the present application, "sending information to...(terminal)" can be understood as the destination end of the information being the terminal, and can include directly or indirectly sending information to the terminal. "Receiving information from...(terminal)" can be understood as the source end of the information being the terminal, and can include directly or indirectly receiving information from the terminal. The information may be processed as necessary between the source end and the destination end of the information transmission. For example, at the source end of the information transmission, one or more of the following processes, including encoding, modulation, power matching, and resource mapping, can be performed on the information. For another example, at the destination end of receiving the information, one or more of the following processes, including resource de-mapping, demodulation, and decoding, can be performed on the information. Similar expressions in the present application can be understood similarly and will not be repeated here.

[0134] See also Figure 2 , Figure 2 The following is an interactive diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 2 As shown, the method includes but is not limited to the following steps.

[0135] 201, a network device sends a first message, and correspondingly, a terminal device receives the first message. The first message includes information of multiple sub-areas in a first TN coverage area, and the first TN coverage area overlaps with a coverage area of ​​an NTN cell.

[0136] Exemplarily, the NTN cell is a service cell of the terminal device, that is, the NTN cell provides services for the terminal device. The coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with a plurality of TN coverage areas, and the plurality of TN coverage areas include a first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area. Any TN coverage area in the plurality of TN coverage areas may be fully or partially included in the NTN coverage area. For example, the first TN coverage area may be included in the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell, or a part of the first TN coverage area may be included in the coverage area of ​​the NTN. Exemplarily, the reference points corresponding to any two TN coverage areas in the plurality of TN coverage areas are different, and the coverage ranges of any two TN coverage areas in the plurality of TN coverage areas are different. For example, the coverage ranges of any two TN coverage areas in the plurality of TN coverage areas do not overlap, or the coverage ranges of any two TN coverage areas in the plurality of TN coverage areas may overlap. For example, the area of ​​the overlapping part of any two TN coverage areas in the plurality of TN coverage areas is less than a first threshold. The first threshold may be determined by the area of ​​the TN coverage area. For example, an area of ​​a portion of the first TN coverage area that overlaps with a second TN coverage area is less than 10% of an area of ​​the first TN coverage area, and the second TN coverage area is included in the plurality of TN coverage areas.

[0137] The first TN coverage area may include multiple ground cells. The first TN coverage area may include multiple sub-areas, or the first TN coverage area overlaps with the coverage of the multiple sub-areas. Any sub-area of ​​the multiple sub-areas includes at least one ground cell. Exemplarily, the information of the multiple sub-areas may include the location information of the multiple sub-areas, for example, the information of the multiple sub-areas indicates the reference point of each sub-area in the multiple sub-areas. Including reference point information and radius information corresponding to multiple sub-areas respectively. The reference point corresponding to the sub-area can be understood as the center point or vertex of the sub-area. For example, in the case where the shape of the first sub-area of ​​the multiple sub-areas includes a triangle or a rectangle, the reference point may be the vertex or center point of the first sub-area. In the case where the shape of the first sub-area includes a circle or an ellipse, the reference point of the first sub-area may be the center point of the first sub-area, that is, the coverage of the first sub-area includes a circular area with the reference point corresponding to the first sub-area as the center.

[0138] Exemplarily, the reference points of any two of the multiple sub-areas are different, and the coverage of any two of the multiple sub-areas is different. For example, the coverage of any two of the multiple sub-areas does not overlap, or the coverage of any two of the multiple sub-areas may overlap. Exemplarily, the area of ​​the overlapping portion of the coverage of any two of the multiple sub-areas is less than a second threshold. The second threshold may be determined by the area of ​​the sub-areas. For example, the area of ​​the portion of the first sub-area that overlaps with the second sub-area is less than 10% of the area of ​​the first sub-area.

[0139] Exemplarily, the information of the plurality of sub-regions indicates a reference point of each of the plurality of sub-regions. For example, the information of the plurality of sub-regions includes position information (e.g., coordinates) of a reference point of each of the plurality of sub-regions. The information of the plurality of sub-regions may also indicate at least one of the following information: a radius of each of the plurality of sub-regions, and a shape of each of the plurality of sub-regions.

[0140] Exemplarily, the shapes of the multiple sub-areas may include any one of a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, and a square, and the shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: a circle, an ellipse, a triangle, and a square. It is understood that the above shapes of the multiple sub-areas are only examples, and the shapes of the multiple sub-areas may also be other shape rules specified in the protocol, and the above circles, ellipses, triangles, squares, etc. should not be understood as limitations on the shapes of the multiple sub-areas.

[0141] Exemplarily, the information of the multiple sub-regions includes the position parameters of each sub-region in the multiple sub-regions, and the position parameters corresponding to sub-regions of different shapes may be different, that is, the position parameters of any sub-region are determined by its shape. The terminal device can interpret the position parameters corresponding to the sub-regions according to the shapes of the sub-regions. For example, when the shape of the first sub-region is an ellipse, the position parameters of the first sub-region may include the midpoint, the major semi-axis, and the minor semi-axis of the ellipse corresponding to the first sub-region. For another example, when the shape of the first sub-region is a triangle, the position parameters of the first sub-region may include the coordinates of the three vertices of the triangle, or the position parameters of the first sub-region include the center point of the triangle and the distance between each vertex and the center point.

[0142] In a possible implementation, the shapes of the multiple sub-areas within the first TN coverage area may be the same, and the shapes of the multiple sub-areas may be configured by a network device or specified by a protocol. Exemplarily, the radii of the multiple sub-areas may also be the same, and the radii corresponding to the multiple sub-areas may be configured by a network device or specified by a protocol. In this implementation, the network device does not need to indicate the shape or radius of each of the multiple sub-areas separately, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

[0143] As an example, the information of the multiple sub-areas includes the reference point information of the second sub-area and the second indication information, and the second indication information is used to indicate the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area and the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area, and the second sub-area and the third sub-area are different sub-areas in the multiple sub-areas. For example, the coordinates of the reference points of the second sub-area and the third sub-area include coordinates on the three coordinate axes of X, Y, and Z, and the second indication information can indicate the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area and the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area on the three coordinate axes of X, Y, and Z. For example, the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area are (x1, y1, z1), and the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area are (x1+1, y1+2, z1+1), and the second indication information indicates that the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area and the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area is (1, 2, 1). Exemplarily, the second indication information can also indicate the difference between the radius of the third sub-area and the second sub-area. For example, the radius of the second sub-area is 10, and the radius of the third sub-area is 12, and the second indication information indicates that the difference between the radius of the third sub-area and the second sub-area is 2. In this example, the reference points of two sub-areas among the multiple sub-areas in the first TN coverage area are located close to each other, so the reference points of the multiple sub-areas can be indicated by the coordinate difference between them and the reference point of the second sub-area, that is, the coordinates of the reference points of each sub-area in the multiple sub-areas can be indicated in the form of difference, which can reduce the signaling overhead of indicating the position of the reference points of each sub-area.

[0144] As another example, the information of multiple sub-areas includes the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of any sub-area in the multiple sub-areas and the coordinates of the reference point of the first TN coverage area. Exemplarily, the first message may include the coordinates of the reference point of the first TN coverage area, or the terminal device may obtain the coordinates of the reference point of the first TN coverage area based on the broadcast message of the network device. In this example, the reference points of multiple sub-areas in the first TN coverage area are close to the reference point of the first TN coverage area, so the reference points of the multiple sub-areas can be indicated in the form of the coordinate difference between them and the reference point of the first TN coverage area, which can reduce the signaling overhead of indicating the reference point positions of each sub-area.

[0145] 202. The terminal device measures the signal quality of a cell within the coverage of a first sub-area. The first sub-area is included in a plurality of sub-areas, and a path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area.

[0146] Exemplarily, the coverage of the first sub-area includes a plurality of ground cells. When the terminal device passes through or is about to pass through the first sub-area, it can measure the signal quality of the ground cells within the coverage of the first sub-area to facilitate cell reselection.

[0147] It is understandable that the path of the terminal device may also pass through two or more sub-areas among the multiple sub-areas within the coverage of the first TN, and the terminal device may measure the ground cells within the coverage of the corresponding sub-area when passing through or about to pass through the corresponding sub-area.

[0148] It is understandable that in the embodiment of the present application, the path of the terminal device includes the path predicted by the terminal device, that is, the path that the terminal device may pass through in the future. The path of the terminal device passing through the first TN coverage area (or the first sub-area) can be understood as the terminal device is about to pass through the first TN coverage area (or the first sub-area), or the terminal device is passing through the first TN coverage area (or the first sub-area).

[0149] In the embodiment of the present application, after the terminal device obtains information of multiple sub-areas within the coverage range of the first TN, it measures the signal quality of the cells within the first sub-area passed through based on its own path, that is, it only needs to measure the ground cells within the coverage range of the NTN cell that are closer to the terminal device, and does not need to measure the ground cells within the coverage range of the NTN cell that are farther away from the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device. In particular, when the coverage range of the NTN cell is large (such as a suburban scene), the power consumption of the terminal device can be more effectively reduced.

[0150] In one possible implementation, the level of the above-mentioned first TN coverage area is the first level, and the level of the first sub-area is the second level. The terminal device can send a fourth message to the network device according to its path, and the fourth message is used to request information about the third-level coverage area. The third-level coverage area is included in the first sub-area. The terminal device measures the signal quality of the cell in at least one third-level coverage area in the first sub-area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the at least one third-level coverage area.

[0151] In this implementation, the network device can divide the coverage of the NTN cell into different levels of ground coverage areas, and the ground coverage areas of different levels are in an inclusive relationship. For example, the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell includes a first-level ground coverage area (such as the first TN coverage area), the first-level ground coverage area includes a second-level ground coverage area (such as the first sub-area), and the second-level ground coverage area includes a third-level ground coverage area. After the terminal device obtains the information of a level of ground coverage area, it can determine whether to request the information of the next level of ground coverage area of ​​the level based on its own needs. For example, after the terminal device obtains the information of the first sub-area (the second-level ground coverage area), it determines whether to obtain the information of the third-level ground coverage area based on its own needs.

[0152] Exemplarily, the number of levels of ground coverage areas within the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell may be specified by a protocol or determined by a network device. For example, a protocol may specify that the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell may be divided into at most three different levels of ground coverage areas.

[0153] As an example, the terminal device can determine whether to request the information of the third-level coverage area based on the certainty of its path. For example, the certainty of the path of the terminal device can be determined by the number of alternative paths or the destination of the terminal device, that is, the terminal device can determine whether to request the information of the third-level coverage area based on the number of alternative paths or destinations. The number of alternative paths can be the number of paths in the direction of travel of the terminal device, or the number of paths between the terminal device and the destination. For example, when the number of alternative paths is less than or equal to the third threshold, it means that the certainty of the terminal device is large, and the terminal device sends a fourth message to the network device to request the information of the third-level coverage area, so as to further reduce the number of ground cells that the terminal device needs to measure and reduce the energy consumption of the terminal device. When the number of alternative paths is greater than the third threshold, it means that the certainty of the path of the terminal device is small, and the terminal device does not send the fourth message to the network device, but measures the ground cells in the first sub-area to facilitate cell switching.

[0154] As another example, the terminal device may determine whether to request the information of the third-level coverage area based on its energy consumption requirements and the coverage area of ​​the first sub-area. For example, when the highest energy consumption of the cell measurement performed by the terminal device is less than the fourth threshold value, and the coverage area of ​​the first sub-area is greater than the fifth threshold value, the terminal device sends a fourth message to request the information of the third-level coverage area. After the terminal device obtains the information of the third-level coverage area, it measures the signal quality of the ground cells within the third-level coverage area, thereby further reducing the number of ground cells that the terminal device needs to measure to meet the energy consumption requirements of the terminal device.

[0155] See also Figure 3 , Figure 3 The following is an interactive diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 3 As shown, the method includes but is not limited to the following steps.

[0156] 301, the network device sends a second message, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second message. The second message includes information of multiple TN coverage areas.

[0157] Exemplarily, the network device may broadcast the second message, which includes information of multiple TN coverage areas within the coverage range of the NTN cell. For example, the second message may include a TN coverage area list, which includes the identification and location information of the multiple TN coverage areas. The location information of the TN coverage area may include a reference point and a radius. Each TN coverage area in the multiple TN coverage areas includes the coverage area of ​​at least two network devices.

[0158] 302, the terminal device sends a third message, and correspondingly, the network device receives the third message. The third message is used to indicate the first TN coverage area.

[0159] Exemplarily, after receiving the second message, the terminal device may determine the first TN coverage area through which the path of the terminal device passes from multiple TN coverage areas based on its path information, and indicate the first TN coverage area through a third message to request information of multiple sub-areas within the first TN coverage area. For example, the third message may include identification information of the first TN coverage area.

[0160] 303, the network device sends a first message, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first message. The first message includes information about multiple sub-areas in the first TN coverage area.

[0161] Exemplarily, after receiving the third message, the network device may divide the first TN coverage area into multiple sub-areas based on the ground cells included in the first TN coverage area, and send information of the multiple sub-areas to the terminal device through the first message. Any of the multiple sub-areas includes at least one ground cell.

[0162] It is understandable that information about the first message and multiple sub-areas can be referred to Figure 2 The relevant descriptions in step 201 will not be described in detail here.

[0163] In one possible implementation, Figure 3 The method shown also includes step 304 and step 305 .

[0164] 304, the terminal device sends first indication information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the first indication information. The first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include a hetero-frequency neighbor cell.

[0165] Exemplarily, the frequency of the hetero-frequency neighboring cell is not in the same frequency band as the frequency of the service cell (i.e., the NTN cell) of the terminal device. After the terminal device determines the first sub-area based on its path, it determines whether the first sub-area includes a hetero-frequency neighboring cell. In the case where the first sub-area includes a hetero-frequency neighboring cell, the first indication information indicates that the first sub-area includes a hetero-frequency neighboring cell; in the case where the first sub-area does not include a hetero-frequency neighboring cell, the first indication information indicates that the first sub-area does not include a hetero-frequency neighboring cell.

[0166] Optionally, the first indication information may also be used to indicate whether the network device configures or does not configure the measurement time of the hetero-frequency neighboring cell. For example, when the first sub-area does not include the hetero-frequency neighboring cell, the first indication information indicates that the network device does not need to configure the measurement time of the hetero-frequency neighboring cell. For another example, when the first sub-area includes the hetero-frequency neighboring cell, the first indication information indicates that the network device configures the measurement time of the hetero-frequency neighboring cell.

[0167] Optionally, the first indication information can be used to indicate whether the network device configures a longer hetero-frequency neighbor cell measurement period for the terminal device to perform hetero-frequency neighbor cell measurement. For example, when hetero-frequency neighbor cells are included in the first sub-area, the first indication information indicates that the network device configures a longer hetero-frequency neighbor small measurement period for the terminal device. For another example, when hetero-frequency neighbor cells are not included in the first sub-area, the first indication information indicates that the network device does not configure a longer hetero-frequency neighbor small measurement period for the terminal device.

[0168] In one possible implementation, the terminal device may send the first indication information when the first sub-area includes hetero-frequency neighbor cells, and the first indication information indicates that the first sub-area includes hetero-frequency neighbor cells, so as to request the network device to measure the time of the hetero-frequency neighbor cells.

[0169] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can indicate whether the first sub-area includes or does not include hetero-frequency neighbor cells through the first indication information, thereby instructing the network device to configure the measurement time of the hetero-frequency neighbor cells or the measurement period of the hetero-frequency neighbor cells for the terminal device, so that the terminal device can better measure the hetero-frequency neighbor cells.

[0170] 305. The network device sends first time information, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of the hetero-frequency neighboring cell of its service cell.

[0171] Exemplarily, the first time information (or referred to as the hetero-frequency measurement interval) may include the time when the terminal device measures the hetero-frequency neighboring cell or the period when the terminal device measures the hetero-frequency neighboring cell. After receiving the first time information, the terminal device measures the hetero-frequency neighboring cell based on the first time information.

[0172] Exemplarily, when the first sub-area includes a hetero-frequency neighboring cell, the network device sends the first time information so that the terminal device can measure the hetero-frequency neighboring cell based on the first time information. For example, when the first indication information indicates that the first sub-area includes a hetero-frequency neighboring cell, the network device sends the first time information. When the first sub-area does not include a hetero-frequency neighboring cell, the network device does not send the first time information.

[0173] In one possible implementation, when the terminal device does not pass through multiple TN coverage areas that overlap with the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell, the terminal device can indicate to the network device through the first indication information that it does not need to configure the measurement time of the heterofrequency neighboring cell or configure a longer heterofrequency neighboring cell measurement period. In this case, the terminal device does not need to switch from the NTN cell to the terrestrial cell, so the terminal device does not need to measure the signal quality of the terrestrial cell, and the terminal device can indicate to the network device that it does not need to configure the measurement time of the heterofrequency neighboring cell or configure a longer heterofrequency neighboring cell measurement period. For example, Figure 4A As shown, the coverage of the NTN cell overlaps with TN coverage area 1, TN coverage area 2, and TN coverage area 3, and the path of the terminal device does not pass through TN coverage area 1, TN coverage area 2 or TN coverage area 3. The terminal device can instruct the network device through the first indication information that there is no need to configure the measurement time of the inter-frequency neighboring cells or configure a longer inter-frequency neighboring cell measurement period.

[0174] 306. The terminal device measures the signal quality of cells within the coverage of a first sub-area. The first sub-area is included in a plurality of sub-areas, and a path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area.

[0175] It is understood that the specific implementation of step 306 can be referred to Figure 2 The specific implementation method of step 202 will not be described in detail here.

[0176] In an embodiment of the present application, the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with multiple TN coverage areas, and the network device can broadcast the information of the multiple TN coverage areas. The terminal device determines the first TN coverage area through which its path passes based on the information of the multiple TN coverage areas, and sends the information of the first TN coverage area to the network device to request the information of multiple sub-areas within the first TN coverage area. In this implementation, the network device only needs to broadcast the information of the multiple TN coverage areas, and the terminal device can obtain the information of the sub-areas of the TN coverage area through which its path passes based on interaction, without broadcasting the information of the sub-areas within each TN coverage area, which can effectively reduce the signaling overhead. In addition, the terminal device only needs to measure the signal quality of the cell in the first sub-area, without measuring all ground cells within the coverage range of the NTN cell, which can reduce the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0177] For example, if Figure 4B As shown, the coverage of the NTN cell overlaps with TN coverage area 1, TN coverage area 2, and TN coverage area 3, and the second message that the network device can broadcast includes information of the TN coverage area 1, TN coverage area 2, and TN coverage area 3. The path of the terminal device passes through TN coverage area 3, and the terminal device reports the identifier of the TN coverage area 3 through the third message. The network device then divides the first TN coverage area into three sub-areas according to the coverage of the ground cells in the TN coverage area, namely, sub-area 1, sub-area 2, and sub-area 3. The terminal device determines that it will pass through sub-area 1 and sub-area 2 according to its path, and measures the signal quality of the ground cells in sub-area 1 and sub-area 2, without measuring the signal quality of the cells within the coverage of TN coverage area 1, TN coverage area 2, and sub-area 3 within TN coverage area 3, thereby effectively reducing the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0178] In one possible implementation, the level of the above-mentioned first TN coverage area is the first level, and the level of the first sub-area is the second level. The terminal device can send a fourth message to the network device according to its path or energy consumption requirements. The fourth message is used to request information about the third-level coverage area. The third-level coverage area is included in the first sub-area. The terminal device measures the signal quality of the cell in at least one third-level coverage area in the first sub-area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the at least one third-level coverage area, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the terminal device.

[0179] See also Figure 5 , Figure 5 The following is an interactive diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 5 As shown, the method includes but is not limited to the following steps.

[0180] 501, the terminal device sends third indication information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the third indication information, the third indication information indicating the path of the terminal device, the terminal device is served by the NTN cell, and the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with multiple TN coverage areas.

[0181] Exemplarily, the first indication information may also indicate at least one of the location, destination, and number of alternative paths of the terminal device.

[0182] 502, the network device sends the fifth message, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the fifth message, the fifth message is used to indicate the first sub-area, the path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area, the first sub-area is included in the first TN coverage area, the above-mentioned multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area.

[0183] Exemplarily, the fifth message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the signal quality of the cell in the first sub-area. After receiving the third indication information, the network device can determine the first TN coverage area through which the path of the terminal device passes, and divide the first TN coverage area into multiple sub-areas based on the ground cells contained in the first TN coverage area. Any sub-area of ​​the multiple sub-areas includes at least one ground cell. The network device then determines the first sub-area through which the path of the terminal device passes, and sends the information of the first sub-area to the terminal device through the fifth message.

[0184] Exemplarily, the shape of the first sub-region includes any one of the following: circle, ellipse, triangle, square.

[0185] Exemplarily, the fifth message may include a reference point of the first sub-area.

[0186] Exemplarily, the fifth message further includes at least one of the following information: the radius of the first sub-area, the shape of the first sub-area. The terminal device can determine the coverage of the first sub-area based on the fifth message, thereby measuring the signal quality of the cell within the coverage of the first sub-area.

[0187] Exemplarily, the fifth message may include information about cells within the coverage of the first sub-area. For example, the fifth message may include information such as identification and frequency of cells within the coverage of the first sub-area. After receiving the fifth message, the terminal device may directly measure cells within the coverage of the first sub-area without performing a cell search, thereby reducing energy consumption of the terminal device and improving efficiency of cell measurement.

[0188] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can report its path information to the network device, so that the network device can instruct the terminal device to measure the cells within the first sub-area through which its path passes according to the path information, so that the terminal device only needs to measure the ground cells within the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell that are closer to the terminal device, and there is no need to measure the ground cells within the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell that are farther away from the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0189] In a possible implementation, when the path of the terminal device does not pass through any TN coverage area in the NTN cell, the network device may instruct the terminal device not to perform cell measurement.

[0190] In one possible implementation, Figure 5 The method shown also includes step 503 and step 504 .

[0191] 503. The terminal device sends first indication information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the first indication information, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the hetero-frequency neighboring cell.

[0192] 504, the network device sends the first time information, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of the inter-frequency neighboring cell of the service cell of the terminal device.

[0193] It is understood that the specific implementation of step 503 and step 504 can be referred to Figure 3 The specific implementation of step 304 and step 305 will not be described in detail here.

[0194] In one possible implementation, Figure 5 The method shown also includes step 505 .

[0195] 505. The terminal device measures the signal quality of cells within the coverage area of ​​the first sub-area.

[0196] It is understandable that the specific implementation of step 505 can be referred to Figure 2 The specific implementation method of step 202 will not be described in detail here.

[0197] In one possible implementation, the level of the above-mentioned first TN coverage area is the first level, and the level of the first sub-area is the second level. The terminal device can send a fourth message to the network device according to its path or energy consumption requirements. The fourth message is used to request information about the third-level coverage area. The third-level coverage area is included in the first sub-area. The terminal device measures the signal quality of the cell in at least one third-level coverage area in the first sub-area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the at least one third-level coverage area, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the terminal device.

[0198] The device provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced below.

[0199] The present application divides the functional modules of the communication device according to the above method embodiment. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. Figures 6 to 8 The communication device according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail.

[0200] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application, such as Figure 6 As shown, the communication device includes a processing unit 601 and a transceiver unit 602. The transceiver unit 602 can implement corresponding communication functions, and the processing unit 601 is used for data processing. For example, the transceiver unit 602 can also be called a communication interface or a communication unit.

[0201] In some embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the actions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments. In this case, the communication device can be a terminal device or a component that can be configured in the terminal device (such as a chip or system, etc.), and the transceiver unit 602 is used to execute the transceiver-related operations of the terminal device in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 601 is used to execute the processing-related operations of the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

[0202] Exemplarily, the transceiver unit 602 is used to receive a first message; the processing unit 601 is used to measure the signal quality of a cell within the coverage area of ​​the first sub-area.

[0203] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to receive a second message and send a third message.

[0204] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further used to receive first time information.

[0205] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further used to send first indication information.

[0206] It can be understood that specific descriptions of the first message, the second message, the third message, the first time information, the first indication information, the first sub-area, etc. can be referred to the method embodiment shown above and will not be described in detail here.

[0207] In other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the actions performed by the network device in the above method embodiments. In this case, the communication device can be a network device or a component that can be configured in the network device, such as a chip or a system, etc.), the transceiver unit 602 is used to execute the transceiver related operations of the network device in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 601 is used to execute the network device processing related operations in the above method embodiments.

[0208] Exemplarily, the processing unit 601 is used to generate a first message; the transceiver unit 602 is used to send the first message.

[0209] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further configured to send a second message and receive a third message.

[0210] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is also used to send the first time information.

[0211] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further used to receive first indication information.

[0212] It can be understood that specific descriptions of the first message, the second message, the third message, the first time information, the first indication information, the first sub-area, etc. can be referred to the method embodiment shown above and will not be described in detail here.

[0213] In some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the actions performed by the network device in the above method embodiments. In this case, the communication device can be a network device or a component that can be configured in the network device, such as a chip or a system, etc.), the transceiver unit 602 is used to execute the transceiver related operations of the network device in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 601 is used to execute the network device processing related operations in the above method embodiments.

[0214] Exemplarily, the transceiver unit 602 is configured to receive third indication information and send a fifth message.

[0215] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is also used to send the first time information.

[0216] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further used to receive first indication information.

[0217] It can be understood that specific descriptions of the third indication information, the fifth message, the first time information, the first indication information, the first sub-area, etc. can be referred to the method embodiment shown above and will not be described in detail here.

[0218] In some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the actions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments. In this case, the communication device can be a terminal device or a component that can be configured in the terminal device (such as a chip or a system, etc.), and the transceiver unit 602 is used to execute the transceiver related operations of the terminal device in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 601 is used to execute the terminal device processing related operations in the above method embodiments.

[0219] Exemplarily, the transceiver unit 602 is configured to send third indication information and receive a fifth message.

[0220] Optionally, the processing unit 601 is configured to measure signal quality of cells within the coverage of the first sub-area.

[0221] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further used to receive first time information.

[0222] Optionally, the transceiver unit 602 is further used to send first indication information.

[0223] It can be understood that specific descriptions of the third indication information, the fifth message, the first time information, the first indication information, the first sub-area, etc. can be referred to the method embodiment shown above and will not be described in detail here.

[0224] Optionally, the above-mentioned communication device may further include a storage unit, which may be used to store instructions and / or data, and the processing unit 601 may read the instructions and / or data in the storage unit so that the communication device implements the above-mentioned method embodiment.

[0225] It can be understood that the specific description of the transceiver unit and the processing unit shown in the embodiment of the present application is only an example. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver unit and the processing unit, reference can be made to the above-mentioned method embodiment, which will not be described in detail here.

[0226] The above describes the communication device of the embodiment of the present application, and the following describes possible product forms of the communication device. Figure 6 Any form of product with the functions of the communication device described above falls within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application. It should also be understood that the following description is only an example and does not limit the product form of the communication device of the embodiments of the present application to this.

[0227] In one possible implementation, Figure 6 In the communication device shown, the processing unit 601 may be one or more processors, the transceiver unit 602 may be a transceiver, or the transceiver unit 602 may also be a sending unit and a receiving unit, the sending unit may be a transmitter, the receiving unit may be a receiver, and the sending unit and the receiving unit are integrated into one device, such as a transceiver. In the embodiment of the present application, the processor and the transceiver may be coupled, etc., and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the connection mode of the processor and the transceiver. In the process of executing the above method, the process of sending information in the above method can be understood as the process of outputting the above information by the processor. When outputting the above information, the processor outputs the above information to the transceiver so that it is transmitted by the transceiver. After the above information is output by the processor, it may also need to be processed in other ways before it reaches the transceiver. Similarly, the process of receiving information in the above method can be understood as the process of the processor receiving the input information. When the processor receives the input information, the transceiver receives the above information and inputs it into the processor. Furthermore, after the transceiver receives the above information, the above information may need to be processed in other ways before it is received by the processor.

[0228] like Figure 7 As shown, the communication device 70 includes one or more processors 720 and a transceiver 710 .

[0229] In some embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

[0230] Exemplarily, the transceiver 710 is configured to receive a first message; and the processor 720 is configured to measure signal quality of cells within the coverage of the first sub-area.

[0231] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is further configured to receive a second message and send a third message.

[0232] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is also used to receive the first time information.

[0233] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is also used to send the first indication information.

[0234] In other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

[0235] Exemplarily, the processor 720 is used to generate a first message; and the transceiver 710 is used to send the first message.

[0236] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is further configured to send a second message and receive a third message.

[0237] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is also used to send the first time information.

[0238] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is further used to receive first indication information.

[0239] In some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

[0240] Exemplarily, the transceiver 710 is configured to receive third indication information and send a fifth message.

[0241] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is also used to send the first time information.

[0242] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is further used to receive first indication information.

[0243] In some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

[0244] Exemplarily, the transceiver 710 is configured to send the third indication information and receive the fifth message.

[0245] Optionally, the processor 720 is configured to measure signal quality of cells within the coverage of the first sub-area.

[0246] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is also used to receive the first time information.

[0247] Optionally, the transceiver 710 is also used to send the first indication information.

[0248] It can be understood that the specific description of the transceiver and the processor shown in the embodiments of the present application is only an example. For the specific functions or execution steps of the transceiver and the processor, reference can be made to the above-mentioned method embodiments, which will not be described in detail here.

[0249] In the above embodiments, the description of the first message, the second message, the third message, the fifth message, the first time information, the first indication information, the first sub-area, etc. can also be referred to the introduction in the above method embodiments, and will not be described in detail here.

[0250] exist Figure 7 In various implementations of the communication device shown, the transceiver may include a receiver and a transmitter, wherein the receiver is used to perform a receiving function (or operation) and the transmitter is used to perform a transmitting function (or operation). The transceiver is used to communicate with other devices / devices through a transmission medium.

[0251] Optionally, the communication device 70 may also include one or more memories 730 for storing program instructions and / or data, etc. The memory 730 is coupled to the processor 720. The coupling in the embodiment of the present application is an indirect coupling or communication connection between devices, units or modules, which may be electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules. The processor 720 may operate in conjunction with the memory 730. The processor 720 may execute program instructions stored in the memory 730. Optionally, at least one of the one or more memories may be included in the processor.

[0252] The specific connection medium between the transceiver 710, the processor 720 and the memory 730 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Figure 7 The memory 730, the processor 720 and the transceiver 710 are connected via a bus 740. Figure 7 The connections between the other components are shown in bold lines, which are only for illustration and are not intended to be limiting. The bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, Figure 7 Only one thick line is used in the diagram, but this does not mean that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0253] In the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, a discrete hardware component, etc., and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be directly embodied as being executed by a hardware processor, or may be executed by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor, etc.

[0254] In the embodiment of the present application, the memory may include, but is not limited to, non-volatile memory such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), a random access memory (RAM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a read-only memory (ROM) or a portable read-only memory (CD-ROM), etc. The memory is any storage medium that can be used to carry or store program codes in the form of instructions or data structures and can be read and / or written by a computer (such as a communication device shown in the present application), but is not limited thereto. The memory in the embodiment of the present application can also be a circuit or any other device that can realize a storage function, for storing program instructions and / or data.

[0255] Exemplarily, the processor 720 is mainly used to process the communication protocol and communication data, and to control the entire communication device, execute the software program, and process the data of the software program. The memory 730 is mainly used to store the software program and data. The transceiver 710 may include a control circuit and an antenna. The control circuit is mainly used to convert the baseband signal and the radio frequency signal and to process the radio frequency signal. The antenna is mainly used to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. The input and output devices, such as a touch screen, a display screen, a keyboard, etc., are mainly used to receive data input by the user and output data to the user.

[0256] When the communication device is turned on, the processor 720 can read the software program in the memory 730, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor 720 performs baseband processing on the data to be sent, and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then sends the radio frequency signal outward in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the communication device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 720. The processor 720 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0257] In another implementation, the RF circuit and antenna may be arranged independently of the processor performing baseband processing. For example, in a distributed scenario, the RF circuit and antenna may be arranged remotely from the communication device.

[0258] It is understandable that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application may also have Figure 7 The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of components and the like. The methods executed by the processor and the transceiver shown above are only examples, and the specific steps executed by the processor and the transceiver can refer to the methods described above.

[0259] In another possible implementation, Figure 6 In the communication device shown, the processing unit 601 may be one or more logic circuits, and the transceiver unit 602 may be an input / output interface, or a communication interface, or an interface circuit, or an interface, etc. Alternatively, the transceiver unit 602 may be a sending unit and a receiving unit, the sending unit may be an output interface, the receiving unit may be an input interface, and the sending unit and the receiving unit may be integrated into one unit, such as an input / output interface. Figure 8 As shown, Figure 8 The communication device shown includes a logic circuit 801 and an interface 802. That is, the processing unit 601 can be implemented by the logic circuit 801, and the transceiver unit 602 can be implemented by the interface 802. The logic circuit 801 can be a chip, a processing circuit, an integrated circuit or a system on chip (SoC) chip, etc., and the interface 802 can be a communication interface, an input / output interface, a pin, etc. For example, Figure 8 The above communication device is used as an example of a chip, and the chip includes a logic circuit 801 and an interface 802 .

[0260] In the embodiment of the present application, the logic circuit and the interface may also be coupled to each other. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific connection method between the logic circuit and the interface.

[0261] In some embodiments of the present application, the communication device may be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment. Exemplarily, the interface 802 is used to input the first message; the logic circuit 801 is used to measure the signal quality of the cell within the coverage of the first sub-area. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to input the second message and output the third message. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to receive the first time information. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to output the first indication information.

[0262] In some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the network device in the above method embodiment. Exemplarily, the logic circuit 801 is used to generate a first message; the interface 802 is used to output the first message. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to output the second message and input the third message. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to output the first time information. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to input the first indication information.

[0263] In some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the network device in the above method embodiment. Exemplarily, the interface 802 is used to input the third indication information and output the fifth message. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to output the first time information. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to input the first indication information.

[0264] In some other embodiments of the present application, the communication device may be used to execute the steps or functions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment. Exemplarily, the interface 802 is used to output the third indication information and input the fifth message. Optionally, the logic circuit 801 is used to measure the signal quality of the cell within the coverage of the first sub-area. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to input the first time information. Optionally, the interface 802 is also used to output the first indication information.

[0265] It can be understood that the specific description of the logic circuit and interface shown in the embodiments of the present application is only an example. For the specific functions or execution steps of the logic circuit and interface, etc., reference can be made to the above-mentioned method embodiments and will not be described in detail here.

[0266] In the above embodiments, the description of the first message, the second message, the third message, the fifth message, the first time information, the first indication information, the first sub-area, etc. can also be referred to the introduction in the above method embodiments, and will not be described in detail here.

[0267] It can be understood that the communication device shown in the embodiment of the present application can implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in the form of hardware, or can implement the method provided in the embodiment of the present application in the form of software, etc., and the embodiment of the present application is not limited to this.

[0268] The embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which includes a first communication device and a second communication device, and the first communication device and the second communication device are used to execute the method in any of the above embodiments. For example, the first communication device is used to execute the steps or functions executed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment, and the second communication device is used to execute the steps or functions executed by the network device in the above method embodiment.

[0269] In addition, the present application also provides a computer program, which is used to implement the operations and / or processing performed by the terminal device in the method provided by the present application.

[0270] The present application also provides a computer program, which is used to implement the operations and / or processing performed by the network device in the method provided by the present application.

[0271] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer codes are stored. When the computer codes are executed on a computer, the computer executes the operations and / or processes performed by the terminal device in the method provided in the present application.

[0272] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which computer codes are stored. When the computer codes are executed on a computer, the computer executes the operations and / or processes performed by the network device in the method provided in the present application.

[0273] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer code or a computer program. When the computer code or the computer program runs on a computer, the operations and / or processing performed by the terminal device in the method provided by the present application are executed.

[0274] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes a computer code or a computer program. When the computer code or the computer program runs on a computer, the operations and / or processing performed by the network device in the method provided by the present application are executed.

[0275] In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, or it can be an electrical, mechanical or other form of connection.

[0276] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the technical effects of the solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application.

[0277] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated unit may be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional units.

[0278] If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or partly contributed to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a readable storage medium, including a number of instructions for a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned readable storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), disk or optical disk and other media that can store program code.

[0279] The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art who is familiar with the present technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application, which should be included in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, applied to a terminal device, characterized in that: include: receiving a first message, the first message including information of a plurality of sub-areas in a first terrestrial network TN coverage area, the first TN coverage area overlapping with a coverage area of ​​a non-terrestrial network NTN cell, the NTN cell being a service cell of the terminal device, the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlapping with a plurality of TN coverage areas, the plurality of TN coverage areas including the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passing through the first TN coverage area; The signal quality of a cell within the coverage of a first sub-area is measured, where the first sub-area is included in the multiple sub-areas and a path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Before receiving the first message, the method further includes: receiving a second message, wherein the second message includes information of the plurality of TN coverage areas; A third message is sent, where the third message is used to indicate the first TN coverage area.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Receive first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of a heterofrequency neighboring cell of a service cell of the terminal device.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that Before receiving the first time information, the method further includes: First indication information is sent, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The information of the plurality of sub-regions indicates a reference point of each of the plurality of sub-regions.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The information of the plurality of sub-regions further indicates at least one of the following information: a radius of each of the plurality of sub-regions, and a shape of each of the plurality of sub-regions.

7. The method according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that: The information of the multiple sub-areas includes reference point information of the second sub-area and second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used to indicate the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area and the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area, and the second sub-area and the third sub-area are different sub-areas among the multiple sub-areas.

8. The method according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that: The information of the plurality of sub-areas includes a difference between a coordinate of a reference point of any sub-area among the plurality of sub-areas and a coordinate of a reference point of the first TN coverage area.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that: The shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: circle, ellipse, triangle, square.

10. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to network equipment, including: receiving third indication information, wherein the third indication information indicates a path of a terminal device in a non-terrestrial network NTN cell, wherein a coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with a plurality of TN coverage areas; A fifth message is sent, wherein the fifth message is used to indicate a first sub-area, a path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area, the first sub-area is included in a first ground network TN coverage area, the multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The fifth message includes information of cells within the coverage of the first sub-area.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Send first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of the heterofrequency neighboring cell of the service cell of the terminal device.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that Before sending the first time information, the method further includes: First indication information is received, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

14. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 13, characterized in that: The fifth message includes a reference point of the first sub-area.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The fifth message further includes at least one of the following information: a radius of the first sub-area, and a shape of the first sub-area.

16. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 15, characterized in that: The shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: circle, ellipse, triangle, square.

17. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to network equipment, including: Generate a first message, the first message including information of multiple sub-areas in a first terrestrial network TN coverage area, the first TN coverage area overlaps with a coverage area of ​​a non-terrestrial network NTN cell, the NTN cell is a service cell of a terminal device, the coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with multiple TN coverage areas, the multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and a path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area; The first message is sent.

18. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that Before sending the first message, the method further includes: Sending a second message, wherein the second message includes information about the multiple TN coverage areas; A third message is received, where the third message is used to indicate the first TN coverage area.

19. The method according to claim 17 or 18, characterized in that The method further comprises: Send first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of the heterofrequency neighboring cell of the service cell of the terminal device.

20. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that Before sending the first time information, the method further includes: First indication information is received, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

21. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 20, characterized in that: The information of the plurality of sub-regions indicates a reference point of each of the plurality of sub-regions.

22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that The information of the plurality of sub-regions further indicates at least one of the following information: a radius of each of the plurality of sub-regions, and a shape of each of the plurality of sub-regions.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The information of the multiple sub-areas includes reference point information of the second sub-area and second indication information, wherein the second indication information is used to indicate the difference between the coordinates of the reference point of the third sub-area and the coordinates of the reference point of the second sub-area, and the second sub-area and the third sub-area are different sub-areas among the multiple sub-areas.

24. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The information of the plurality of sub-areas includes a difference between a coordinate of a reference point of any sub-area among the plurality of sub-areas and a coordinate of a reference point of the first TN coverage area.

25. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 24, characterized in that: The shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: circle, ellipse, triangle, square.

26. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to terminal equipment, including: Sending third indication information, wherein the third indication information indicates a path of a terminal device in a non-terrestrial network NTN cell, wherein a coverage area of ​​the NTN cell overlaps with a plurality of TN coverage areas; Receive a fifth message, wherein the fifth message is used to indicate a first sub-area, a path of the terminal device passes through the first sub-area, the first sub-area is included in a first ground network TN coverage area, the multiple TN coverage areas include the first TN coverage area, and the path of the terminal device passes through the first TN coverage area.

27. The method according to claim 26, characterized in that The fifth message includes information about cells within the coverage of the first sub-area.

28. The method according to claim 26 or 27, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive first time information, where the first time information is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the time of a heterofrequency neighboring cell of a service cell of the terminal device.

29. The method according to claim 28, characterized in that Before receiving the first time information, the method further includes: First indication information is sent, where the first indication information indicates whether the first sub-area includes or does not include the inter-frequency neighbor cell.

30. The method according to any one of claims 26 to 29, characterized in that: The fifth message includes a reference point of the first sub-area.

31. The method according to claim 30, characterized in that The fifth message further includes at least one of the following information: a radius of the first sub-area, and a shape of the first sub-area.

32. The method according to any one of claims 26 to 31, characterized in that: The shape of the first sub-area includes any one of the following: circle, ellipse, triangle, square.

33. A communication device, characterized in that: Comprising units for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 32.

34. A communication device, characterized in that: including a processor and a memory; The memory is used to store instructions; The processor is configured to execute the instructions so that the method according to any one of claims 1 to 32 is performed.

35. A communication device, characterized in that: comprising a logic circuit and an interface, wherein the logic circuit and the interface are coupled; The interface is used to input and / or output code instructions, and the logic circuit is used to execute the code instructions so that the method described in any one of claims 1-32 is executed.

36. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program. When the computer program is executed, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 32 is executed.

37. A computer program, characterized in that When the computer program is executed, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 32 is performed.

38. A communication system, characterized in that: The communication system comprises a terminal device and a network device, wherein the terminal device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, and the network device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 17 to 25.

39. A communication system, characterized in that: The communication system comprises a terminal device and a network device, wherein the network device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 10 to 16, and the terminal device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 26 to 32.

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