Downlink carrier switching method, communication device and storage medium

Abstract

The invention discloses a downlink carrier switching method, a communication device and a storage medium. According to the invention, the target auxiliary cell in which downlink transmission occurs is dynamically indicated through the downlink control information, and when the auxiliary cell is switched, the terminal only needs to switch the corresponding downlink radio frequency receiver to the target auxiliary cell, and the switching time delay is short, so that when the enabled terminal dynamically uses the optimal carrier resource by using the limited capability, the dynamic rapid switching is realized, and the user experience is improved. And the switching time delay is shortened, so that the method can quickly adapt to dynamic changes of channels and loads of different carriers.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a downlink carrier switching method, a communication device, and a storage medium. Background Art

[0002] In the carrier aggregation (CA) scenario, network equipment can activate multiple service cells for a single terminal. However, due to cost constraints, the number of cells that a terminal can support simultaneously is limited. Therefore, it is necessary to enable the limited capabilities of the terminal to flexibly use the preferred carrier resources so that the carrier for data transmission by the terminal can dynamically adapt to the dynamic changes of channels and loads on different carriers. Summary of the invention

[0003] The present application provides a downlink carrier switching method, a communication device and a storage medium to achieve dynamic and rapid switching of carriers, so that the carrier for data transmission can dynamically adapt to the dynamic changes of channels and loads on different carriers.

[0004] In a first aspect, a downlink carrier switching method is provided, wherein the method is implemented by a terminal, or a circuit or a chip used for a terminal.

[0005] The method includes: receiving downlink control information on a primary cell in a first time unit, the downlink control information being used to schedule the transmission of a physical downlink shared channel on a target secondary cell; and switching from a source secondary cell to the target secondary cell to receive the physical downlink shared channel in a second time unit according to the downlink control information, wherein the second time unit is the Nth time unit after the first time unit, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

[0006] By adopting this method, the target secondary cell for downlink transmission is dynamically indicated through downlink control information. When a secondary cell switching occurs, the terminal only needs to switch the corresponding downlink RF receiver to the target secondary cell, and the switching delay is short. Therefore, when enabling the terminal to dynamically use the preferred carrier resources with limited capabilities, dynamic fast switching is achieved, the switching delay is shortened, and it is possible to quickly adapt to the dynamic changes of channels and loads of different carriers.

[0007] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: sending first information, the first information including a cell switching interval, the cell switching interval being used to indicate a time required to switch from the source secondary cell to the target secondary cell, the cell switching interval being based on hardware capabilities of the terminal.

[0008] With this implementation, the terminal can report the cell switching interval supported by itself to the network device, so that the network device can calculate the time unit of the physical downlink shared channel of the target secondary cell according to the cell switching interval.

[0009] In another possible implementation, the N is an integer greater than 0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the cell switching interval, the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; wherein the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is the time slot interval between the physical downlink control channel and the physical downlink shared channel scheduled by it.

[0010] With this implementation, the network device can schedule the downlink transmission of the secondary cell across time units. The time interval between the second time unit and the first time unit can be accurately determined, so that the carrier can be switched accurately. By setting the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell to be greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, when the terminal switches the RF receiver to receive the signal of the target secondary cell, the source cell has stopped transmitting.

[0011] In another possible implementation, the N is an integer greater than 0, the first time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; wherein the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is the time slot interval between the physical downlink control channel and the physical downlink shared channel scheduled by it.

[0012] With this implementation, the network device can schedule the downlink transmission of the secondary cell across time units. The time interval between the second time unit and the first time unit can be accurately determined, so that the carrier can be switched accurately. By setting the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell to be greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, when the terminal switches the RF receiver to receive the signal of the target secondary cell, the source cell has stopped transmitting. Among them, the downlink transmission resource indicated by the downlink control information of the source secondary cell is empty.

[0013] In another possible implementation, N=0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, the downlink control information also includes the start and length indication values ​​of the physical downlink shared channel, the start and length indication values ​​are greater than a first threshold, and the first threshold is associated with the cell switching interval.

[0014] By adopting this implementation, the network device can schedule the downlink transmission of the secondary cell in the same time unit. By setting the start and length indication values ​​to be greater than the first threshold, and the first threshold being associated with the cell switching interval, the RF receiver of the terminal has sufficient time to perform blind detection and parse downlink control information.

[0015] In yet another possible implementation, the downlink control information includes an identifier of the target secondary cell.

[0016] In another possible implementation, the number of the target secondary cells is less than or equal to the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be processed by the terminal.

[0017] In a second aspect, another downlink carrier switching method is provided, wherein the method is implemented by a network device, or a circuit or chip used for a network device.

[0018] The method includes: sending downlink control information on the primary cell in a first time unit, the downlink control information being used to schedule the transmission of a physical downlink shared channel on a target secondary cell; and sending the physical downlink shared channel on the target secondary cell in a second time unit according to the downlink control information, wherein the second time unit is the Nth time unit after the first time unit, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

[0019] By adopting this method, the target secondary cell for downlink transmission is dynamically indicated through downlink control information. When a secondary cell switching occurs, the terminal only needs to switch the corresponding downlink RF receiver to the target secondary cell, and the switching delay is short. Therefore, when enabling the terminal to dynamically use the preferred carrier resources with limited capabilities, dynamic fast switching is achieved, the switching delay is shortened, and it is possible to quickly adapt to the dynamic changes of channels and loads of different carriers.

[0020] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving first information, the first information including a cell switching interval, the cell switching interval being used to indicate a time required to switch from the source secondary cell to the target secondary cell, the cell switching interval being based on hardware capabilities of the terminal.

[0021] In another possible implementation, the N is an integer greater than 0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the cell switching interval, the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; wherein the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is the time slot interval between the physical downlink control channel and the physical downlink shared channel scheduled by it.

[0022] In another possible implementation, the N is an integer greater than 0, the first time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; wherein the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is the time slot interval between the physical downlink control channel and the physical downlink shared channel scheduled by it.

[0023] In another possible implementation, N=0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, the downlink control information also includes the start and length indication values ​​of the physical downlink shared channel, the start and length indication values ​​are greater than a first threshold, and the first threshold is associated with the cell switching interval.

[0024] In yet another possible implementation, the downlink control information includes an identifier of the target secondary cell.

[0025] In another possible implementation, the number of the target secondary cells is less than or equal to the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be processed by the terminal.

[0026] The method of the first aspect described above may be executed by a terminal, or by a module (such as a processor, chip, or chip system, etc.) applied to the terminal, or by a logical node, logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the terminal functions.

[0027] The method of the second aspect mentioned above can be executed by a network device, or by a module applied to the network device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system, etc.), or by a logical node, logical module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the network device.

[0028] In a third aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the downlink carrier switching method in the first aspect or any one of the implementations of the first aspect. The device may be a terminal, or a module (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system) applied to a terminal, or a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the terminal functions.

[0029] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing the downlink carrier switching method in the second aspect or any one of the implementations of the second aspect. The device may be a network device, or a module (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system) applied to a network device, or a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the functions of a network device.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the communication device in the third to fourth aspects includes a module for respectively executing the method in any aspect or any implementation of the first to second aspects.

[0031] In another possible implementation, the communication device in the third aspect to the fourth aspect includes a processor coupled to a memory; the processor is configured to implement the device to perform the corresponding functions in the above-mentioned downlink carrier switching method. The memory is used to couple with the processor, which stores the necessary programs (instructions) and / or data for the device. Optionally, the communication device may also include a communication interface for implementing communication between the device and other network elements. Optionally, the memory may be located inside the communication device or outside the communication device.

[0032] In another possible implementation, the communication device in the third to fourth aspects includes a processor and a transceiver, the processor is coupled to the transceiver, and the processor is used to execute a computer program or instruction to control the transceiver to receive and send information; when the processor executes the computer program or instruction, the processor is also used to implement the above method through a logic circuit or execute code instructions. The transceiver may be a transceiver, a transceiver circuit or an input-output interface, which is used to receive signals from other communication devices other than the communication device and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices other than the communication device. When the communication device is a chip, the transceiver is a transceiver circuit or an input-output interface.

[0033] When the communication device in the third to fourth aspects is a chip, the sending unit may be an output unit, such as an output circuit or a communication interface; the receiving unit may be an input unit, such as an input circuit or a communication interface. When the communication device is a terminal, the sending unit may be a transmitter or a transmitter; the receiving unit may be a receiver or a receiver.

[0034] In a fifth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed, the methods described in the above aspects are implemented.

[0035] According to a sixth aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided. When the instructions are executed on a communication device, the communication device executes the methods described in the above aspects.

[0036] In a seventh aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes the communication device described in the third aspect and the communication device described in the fourth aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system 1000 applied in an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of carrier aggregation;

[0039] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of cell switching based on layer 1 and layer 2 mobility technology;

[0040] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of uplink carrier switching technology;

[0041] Figure 5 It is a flowchart of a downlink carrier switching method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0042] Figure 6 A schematic diagram of a PCell scheduling SCell across time units as an example of an embodiment of the present application;

[0043] Figure 7 A schematic diagram of data scheduling for an example of an embodiment of the present application;

[0044] Figure 8 A schematic diagram of another example of a PCell scheduling an SCell across time units according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0045] Fig. 9 A schematic diagram of a PCell scheduling an SCell in the same time unit as an example of an embodiment of the present application;

[0046] Fig.10 A schematic diagram of another data scheduling example of an embodiment of the present application;

[0047] Fig.11 A schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0048] Fig.12 A schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0049] The solution provided in this application is further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0050] The downlink carrier switching method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to wireless communication systems such as 5G, 6G, satellite communication, etc. The communication system 1000 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100, wherein the RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (such as Figure 1 110a and 110b in the figure, collectively referred to as 110), and may also include at least one terminal (such as Figure 1 RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay equipment and / or wireless backhaul equipment ( Figure 1 The terminal 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 in a wireless manner. Terminals and terminals and RAN nodes and RAN nodes can be connected to each other by wired or wireless means. The communication system 1000 may also include a core network 200. The RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 may be independent and different physical devices, or may be the same physical device that integrates the logical functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the RAN node. The communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300.

[0051] RAN100 may be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, and a future radio access system defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). RAN100 may also include two or more of the above-mentioned different radio access systems. RAN100 may also be an open RAN (O-RAN). RAN nodes, also known as radio access network equipment, RAN entities, or access nodes, are used to help terminals access the communication system wirelessly. In an application scenario, a RAN node may be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next generation base station in a sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. A RAN node may be a macro base station (such as a Figure 1 110a), or a micro base station or an indoor station (such as Figure 1 110b) in the figure, it can also be a relay node or a donor node.

[0052] In another application scenario, the cooperation of multiple RAN nodes can be used to help the terminal achieve wireless access, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU) or a radio unit (RU). The CU here completes the functions of the radio resource control protocol and the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) of the base station, and can also complete the function of the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP); the DU completes the functions of the radio link control layer and the medium access control (MAC) layer of the base station, and can also complete the functions of part of the physical layer or all of the physical layer. For the specific description of the above-mentioned various protocol layers, please refer to the relevant technical specifications of 3GPP. RU can be used to implement the transceiver function of radio frequency signals. CU and DU can be two independent RAN nodes, or they can be integrated in the same RAN node, such as integrated in a baseband unit (BBU). RU can be included in a radio frequency device, such as a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU can be further divided into two types of RAN nodes: CU-control plane and CU-user plane.

[0053] In different systems, RAN nodes may have different names. For example, in an O-RAN system, CU may be called an open CU (open CU, O-CU), DU may be called an open DU (open DU, O-DU), and RU may be called an open RU (open RU, O-RU). The RAN node in the embodiment of the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. For example, the RAN node may be a server loaded with a corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the RAN node. For the convenience of description, the following description takes a base station as an example of a RAN node.

[0054] A terminal is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can send signals to a base station or receive signals from a base station. A terminal can also be called a terminal device, user equipment (UE), a mobile station, a mobile terminal, etc. The terminal can be widely used in various scenarios, for example, device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, automatic driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. The terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a computer with wireless transceiver function, a wearable device, a vehicle, an airplane, a ship, a robot, a mechanical arm, a smart home device, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal.

[0055] Base stations and terminals can be fixed or movable. Base stations and terminals can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on the water surface; they can also be deployed on airplanes, balloons, and artificial satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminals.

[0056] The roles of the base station and the terminal can be relative, for example, Figure 1 The helicopter or drone 120i in the figure can be configured as a mobile base station. For the terminal 120j that accesses the wireless access network 100 through 120i, the terminal 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, that is, 110a and 120i communicate through the wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate through the interface protocol between base stations. In this case, relative to 110a, 120i is also a base station. Therefore, base stations and terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices. Figure 1 110a and 110b in the figure may be referred to as communication devices having base station functions. Figure 1 120a-120j in the figure can be called communication devices with terminal functions.

[0057] In the embodiment of the present application, the base station is also referred to as a network device, and the device for implementing the function of the network device may be a network device; or it may be a device capable of supporting the network device to implement the function, such as a chip system, a hardware circuit, a software module, or a hardware circuit plus a software module. The device may be installed in the network device or used in combination with the network device. In the embodiment of the present application, only the device for implementing the function of the network device is used as a network device as an example for illustration, and the solution of the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

[0058] It can be understood that the present application can be applied between network devices and terminals.

[0059] The communication between the network device and the terminal follows a certain protocol layer structure. The protocol layer structure may include a control plane protocol layer structure and a user plane protocol layer structure. For example, the control plane protocol layer structure may include the functions of the protocol layers such as the radio resource control (RRC) layer, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, the radio link control (RLC) layer, the medium access control (MAC) layer and the physical layer. For example, the user plane protocol layer structure may include the functions of the protocol layers such as the PDCP layer, the RLC layer, the MAC layer and the physical layer. In a possible implementation, the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer may also be included above the PDCP layer.

[0060] Optionally, the protocol layer structure between the network device and the terminal may also include an artificial intelligence (AI) layer for transmitting data related to AI functions.

[0061] Taking data transmission between network devices and terminals as an example, data transmission needs to pass through the user plane protocol layer, such as the SDAP layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer. Among them, the SDAP layer, PDCP layer, RLC layer, MAC layer, and physical layer can also be collectively referred to as the access layer. According to the transmission direction of the data, it is divided into sending or receiving, and each of the above layers is divided into a sending part and a receiving part. Taking downlink data transmission as an example, after the PDCP layer obtains data from the upper layer, it transmits the data to the RLC layer and the MAC layer, and then the MAC layer generates a transmission block, and then transmits it wirelessly through the physical layer. The data is encapsulated accordingly in each layer. For example, the data received by a layer from the upper layer of the layer is regarded as the service data unit (SDU) of the layer, which becomes a protocol data unit (PDU) after being encapsulated by the layer, and then passed to the next layer.

[0062] Exemplarily, the terminal may also have an application layer and a non-access layer. The application layer may be used to provide services to applications installed in the terminal. For example, downlink data received by the terminal may be sequentially transmitted from the physical layer to the application layer, and then provided to the application by the application layer; for another example, the application layer may obtain data generated by the application, and sequentially transmit the data to the physical layer and send it to other communication devices. The non-access layer may be used to forward user data, such as forwarding uplink data received from the application layer to the SDAP layer, or forwarding downlink data received from the SDAP layer to the application layer.

[0063] It should be understood that Figure 1 The number and type of each device in the communication system shown are for illustration only, and the present application is not limited thereto. In actual applications, the communication system may also include more terminals, more network devices, and other network elements, such as core network devices, and / or network elements for implementing artificial intelligence functions.

[0064] It is understandable that all or part of the functions implemented by one or more of the terminals, network devices, core network devices, or network elements used to implement artificial intelligence functions can be virtualized, that is, implemented by one or more of the proprietary processors or general-purpose processors and the corresponding software modules. Among them, since the terminals and network devices involve interfaces for air interface transmission, the transceiver functions of the interfaces can be implemented by hardware. Core network devices, such as operation administration and maintenance (OAM) network elements, can be virtualized. Optionally, one or more functions of the virtualized terminals, network devices, core network devices, or network elements used to implement artificial intelligence functions can be implemented by cloud devices, such as cloud devices in over the top (OTT) systems.

[0065] First, the concept of carrier aggregation involved in the embodiments of the present application is introduced:

[0066] Carrier aggregation technology is a key technology to solve the problem of limited bandwidth of a single carrier. It aggregates two or more carrier units together to serve the terminal to support a larger transmission bandwidth. Figure 2 The schematic diagram of carrier aggregation shown in FIG. 1 is to serve a terminal by aggregating a primary component carrier (PCC), a secondary component carrier (SCC) 1 and an SCC2 together.

[0067] In carrier aggregation, there may be multiple cells providing services for a single UE, that is, a UE may have multiple serving cells, including a primary cell (PCell) and one or more secondary cells (SCell).

[0068] PCell is the cell where the UE establishes an initial connection, or the cell where the RRC connection is reestablished, or the primary cell designated during the handover process. PCell is responsible for RRC communication with the UE. The carrier unit corresponding to PCell is called the primary carrier, where the downlink carrier of PCell is called the downlink primary carrier (DL PCC) and the uplink carrier of PCell is called the uplink primary carrier (UL PCC).

[0069] SCell is added by UE during RRC reconfiguration to provide additional radio resources. There is no RRC communication between SCell and UE. The carrier unit corresponding to SCell is called secondary carrier, where the downlink carrier of SCell is called downlink secondary carrier (DL SCC) and the uplink carrier of SCell is called uplink secondary carrier (UL SCC).

[0070] A service cell may include only one downlink carrier, one downlink carrier and one uplink carrier, or one downlink carrier and two uplink carriers. Therefore, a service cell may correspond to a downlink carrier one-to-one, so the concepts of carrier (all downlink carriers unless otherwise specified) and cell in this application may be interchangeable.

[0071] Currently, the carrier resources on the network side are mostly 4 CCs to 5 CCs, and more frequency bands are expected to be available in the future. For example, there are currently 5 CCs, including 2 CCs for 2.6G, 2 CCs for 4.9G, and 1 CC for 700M. In the future, with the opening of 1 CC for 1.8G, 1 CC for F band, 1 CC for A band, and several CCs for U6G, more carrier resources are expected to be available.

[0072] However, due to cost constraints, the terminal is limited to the number of cells that can be scheduled simultaneously (or the number of physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) that the terminal's baseband can process at most is limited), which results in a limit on the number of carriers that can be supported simultaneously. Specifically, each PDSCH requires an independent baseband processing unit, such as FFT, post-FFT data buffering, etc. The more cells that can be scheduled simultaneously (or the more PDSCHs that can be processed simultaneously), the greater the cost of baseband implementation. Most current terminals only have CA capabilities for 2 CCs, or even do not support CA.

[0073] In summary, the number of cells configured in the current network is much larger than the number of cells that can be scheduled simultaneously by a terminal. In order to maximize the user experience, it is necessary to enable the limited capabilities of terminals to flexibly use the preferred carrier resources.

[0074] One technology for scheduling cells is LTM technology. In this technology, the network side configures multiple service cells for the terminal. The number of configured service cells is greater than the number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled at the same time. Only the activated service cells are counted into the consumption of terminal capacity. Figure 3The cell switching diagram based on LTM technology is shown in the figure. The network side configures 4 serving cells, CC1 to CC4, for the terminal, while the number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled at the same time is 2. When the network side uses LTM technology to use layer 2 signaling to indicate the cell switching, the CC corresponding to the PCell will switch. Figure 3 In the process, the CC corresponding to PCell switches from CC1 to CC3. When the CC corresponding to PCell switches, the CC corresponding to SCell may or may not change. Figure 3 In the example, the CC corresponding to the SCell is switched from CC2 to CC4. Layer 2 signaling is used to indicate the switching of the cell, and the switching time is about 10ms, wherein the layer 2 signaling includes a medium access control-control element (MAC CE) activation signal, which takes about 5ms; ASN.1 decoding time and layer 2 / layer 3 reconfiguration (L2 / 3re-cfg.) time, which takes about 1 to 6ms; and baseband adjustment time (BB retuning) and radio frequency adjustment time (RF retuning), which take about 1 to 2ms. However, as can be seen from the above, for the LTM technology, when performing cell switching, PCell switching must be performed, and the scenario of only SCell switching is not supported.

[0075] Another technology for indicating cell switching can support switching of SCell only, which is performed through layer 3 (L3) signaling process, including radio resource control reconfiguration signaling (RRC re-configuration signaling), secondary cell activation (SCell activation) and radio resource control completion signaling (RRC complete signaling), with a delay of about 50ms, which is relatively large.

[0076] Another technology is the uplink transmission switching (UL Tx switching) technology. Figure 4 In the uplink carrier switching technology diagram shown in FIG. 1 , the network side configures and activates multiple uplink service cells for the terminal, and the number of activated uplink service cells is greater than or equal to the number of the terminal's transmit antennas. This technology schedules the switching of the terminal's transmit antennas on different cells through layer 1 signaling, thereby enabling the dynamic switching of the terminal's limited transmit antennas between multiple cells, with an interruption time of about several hundred microseconds. However, this technology is essentially intended to solve the problem of the limited number of uplink transmit antennas of the terminal, and does not yet support cell switching when the number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled simultaneously is limited during downlink transmission.

[0077] It can be seen that the above technologies are unable to fully and dynamically utilize downlink spectrum resources, and thus cannot enable limited terminal capabilities to flexibly use preferred carrier resources.

[0078] To this end, the present application provides a downlink carrier switching solution, which dynamically indicates the target secondary cell where downlink transmission occurs through downlink control information. When the secondary cell switching occurs, the terminal only needs to switch the corresponding downlink RF receiver to the target secondary cell, and the switching delay is short. Therefore, when enabling the terminal to dynamically use the preferred carrier resources with limited capabilities, dynamic fast switching is achieved, the switching delay is shortened, and it is possible to quickly adapt to the dynamic changes of channels and loads of different carriers.

[0079] The downlink carrier switching method provided in an embodiment of the present application is described in detail below.

[0080] like Figure 5 FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a downlink carrier switching method provided in an embodiment of the present application. Exemplarily, the method may include the following steps:

[0081] S501. A network device sends downlink control information (DCI) to a terminal in a primary cell in a first time unit. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the DCI in the primary cell in the first time unit.

[0082] In carrier aggregation, the network equipment can configure one or more serving cells for a single terminal, that is, a terminal can have multiple serving cells, including one PCell and one or more SCells. Among them, PCell is also called a special cell (SpCell). The number of cells configured by the network equipment is much larger than the number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled at the same time, or the number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled at the same time is much smaller than the number of cells configured by the network equipment, that is, the terminal cannot be scheduled at the same time in all the cells configured by the network equipment. The number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled at the same time can also be called the maximum number of PDSCHs that the terminal can handle. Among them, the serving cell represents the wireless coverage range that works on a specific carrier to serve the terminal.

[0083] The network device can instruct the terminal to switch carriers according to the channel, load, etc. of the carrier. In this embodiment, the network device does not switch the PCell, but indicates the switching of the SCell on the PCell. Therefore, it can also be called the PCell indicating the switching of the SCell. Exemplarily, the network device sends a DCI to the terminal on the PCell in the first time unit. The DCI is used to schedule the transmission of the PDSCH on the target secondary cell, that is, to instruct the terminal to switch from the source SCell to the target SCell and receive the PDSCH on the target SCell. Among them, the source SCell can also be called the SCell before the switch; the target SCell can also be called the SCell after the switch.

[0084] Furthermore, the DCI may include an identifier of the target SCell. Each SCell has a unique identifier.

[0085] S502. The network device sends a PDSCH to the terminal in the target secondary cell at a second time unit according to the DCI. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the PDSCH in the target secondary cell at a second time unit according to the DCI.

[0086] After receiving the above DCI, the terminal receives the PDSCH on the target SCell in the second time unit according to the instruction of the DCI.

[0087] The second time unit is the Nth time unit after the first time unit, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

[0088] Depending on the scheduling scenario, there are several switching methods:

[0089] One implementation is that the PCell schedules the downlink transmission of the SCell across time units, wherein the PCell is scheduled in the first time unit, and the scheduling target SCell transmits the PDSCH in the second time unit, and the cross-time unit scheduling means that the time interval N between the second time unit and the first time unit is an integer greater than 0. The time unit can be any one of a subframe, a time slot, a micro time slot, a symbol, etc., and the following description will be based on the time unit being a time slot.

[0090] like Figure 6 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a PCell scheduling SCell across time units in an example of an embodiment of the present application. In this implementation, the PCell can schedule downlink transmission of its own cell as well as the downlink transmission of the SCell. Figure 6 In the example, the network device configures PCell and SCell1 to SCell3 for the terminal. The number of service cells scheduled by PCell at the same time does not exceed the maximum number of PDSCHs that the terminal can process. Figure 6In the example, the number of cells that can be scheduled simultaneously by the terminal is 2. In particular, in one or more time slots before the carrier switching occurs, the PCell will not only schedule the transmission of the SCell in the current time slot (i.e., the SCell before switching or the source SCell in this embodiment), but also schedule the transmission of the SCell after switching across time slots (i.e., the target SCell in this embodiment). The PCell can schedule the downlink transmission on the SCell by sending DCI signaling. When the terminal receives the DCI for cross-time slot scheduling sent by the network device, it will switch the RF receiver (Rx) to the carrier indicated by the cross-time slot scheduling DCI after the corresponding time slot, and demodulate the downlink data on the corresponding time-frequency resources indicated by the cross-time slot scheduling DCI.

[0091] Since it takes time for the terminal to switch the downlink (DL) Rx, this time is called the cell switching gap (switching gap, referred to as Gap), and the switching gap is used to indicate the time required to switch from the source secondary cell to the target secondary cell. From the perspective of frame timing, in this implementation, the switching gap occurs on the carrier (SCell2) after switching, that is, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval. Exemplarily, the terminal can report the above-mentioned cell switching interval supported by itself to the network device, such as 210us. For example, the terminal sends a first message to the network device, wherein the first message includes the cell switching interval. The cell switching interval is based on the hardware capabilities of the terminal.

[0092] When PCell schedules SCell across time slots, the network equipment and terminal calculate the number of cross-time slots N through the switching gap, that is, determine the time slot where the PDSCH of the carrier after switching is located. Among them, N is associated with at least one of the following: the cell switching interval, the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell.

[0093] In one example, the time slot K of the PDSCH of the carrier after switching is S Satisfies the following formula 1:

[0094]

[0095] Where n is the timeslot index where the DCI is located; μPDSCH is the numerology index of the carrier / bandwidth part (BWP) where the PDSCH is located; μPDCCH is the numerology index of the carrier / BWP where the PDCCH is located; The time slot index n of DCI is converted into the corresponding time slot index under PDSCH numerology; T swichinhGap is the cell switching interval mentioned above; K0 is the time slot interval between PDCCH and the PDSCH it schedules. Figure 7 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of data scheduling of an example of an embodiment of the present application. When K0=0, it means that PDCCH schedules PDSCH in the same time slot; when K0=1, it means that PDCCH schedules PDSCH in the next time slot.

[0096] Among them, K0 of the target SCell (SCell2) is greater than or equal to K0 of the source SCell (SCell 1), so as to ensure that when Rx is switched off, the source SCell (SCell1) has stopped transmission.

[0097] Another implementation is that the PCell schedules the downlink transmission of the SCell across time units, wherein the PCell is scheduled in the first time unit, and the scheduling target SCell transmits the PDSCH in the second time unit, and the cross-time unit scheduling means that the time interval N between the second time unit and the first time unit is an integer greater than 0. The time unit may be any one of a subframe, a time slot, a micro time slot, a symbol, etc., and the following description will be based on the time unit being a time slot.

[0098] like Figure 8 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of another example of a PCell scheduling SCell across time units in an embodiment of the present application. Similar to the above implementation, in this implementation, the PCell can schedule downlink transmission of its own cell as well as the downlink transmission of the SCell. Figure 8 In the example, the network device configures PCell and SCell1 to SCell3 for the terminal. The number of service cells scheduled by PCell at the same time does not exceed the maximum number of PDSCHs that the terminal can process. Figure 8 The number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled simultaneously is 2. In particular, in one or more time slots before the carrier switching occurs, the PCell will not only schedule the transmission of the SCell in the current time slot (i.e., the SCell before switching or the source SCell in this embodiment), but also schedule the transmission of the SCell after switching across time slots (i.e., the target SCell in this embodiment). The PCell can schedule the downlink transmission on the SCell by sending DCI signaling. When the terminal receives the DCI for cross-time slot scheduling sent by the network device, it will switch Rx to the carrier indicated by the cross-time slot scheduling DCI after the corresponding time slot, and demodulate the downlink data on the corresponding time-frequency resources indicated by the cross-time slot scheduling DCI.

[0099] Since it takes time for the terminal to switch DLRx, this time is called switching gap, and the switching gap is used to indicate the time required to switch from the source secondary cell to the target secondary cell. From the perspective of frame timing, different from the above implementation, in this implementation, the switching gap occurs on the carrier (SCell1) before the switch, that is, the first time unit includes the switching gap. At this time, the PDSCH resources indicated by the DCI of the carrier (SCell1) before the scheduling switch are empty. Exemplarily, the terminal can report the above-mentioned cell switching interval supported by itself to the network device, such as 210us. For example, the terminal sends a first message to the network device, wherein the first message includes a cell switching interval. The cell switching interval is based on the hardware capabilities of the terminal.

[0100] When the PCell schedules the SCell across time slots, the network equipment and the terminal calculate the number of cross-time slots N through the switching gap, that is, determine the time slot where the PDSCH of the carrier after switching is located. Among them, N is associated with at least one of the following: the index of the time slot where the DCI is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the PDSCH is located, the numerology number of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the PDCCH carrying the DCI is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell.

[0101] In one example, the time slot K of the PDSCH of the carrier after switching is S Satisfies the following formula 2:

[0102]

[0103] Where n is the timeslot index where the DCI is located; μPDSCH is the numerology index of the carrier / BWP where the PDSCH is located; μPDCCH is the numerology index of the carrier / BWP where the PDCCH is located; The time slot index n of DCI is converted into the corresponding time slot index under PDSCH numerology; K0 is the time slot interval between PDCCH and the PDSCH it schedules.

[0104] Among them, K0 of the target SCell (SCell2) is greater than or equal to K0 of the source SCell (SCell 1), so as to ensure that when Rx is switched off, the source SCell (SCell1) has stopped transmission.

[0105] Another implementation is that PCell schedules downlink transmission of SCell in the same time unit, wherein PCell is scheduled in the first time unit, and the scheduling target SCell transmits PDSCH in the second time unit, and the time interval N between the second time unit and the first time unit is 0, that is, the first time unit = the second time unit.

[0106] like Fig. 9 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a PCell scheduling an SCell in the same time unit according to an embodiment of the present application. In this implementation, the PCell can schedule the downlink transmission of its own cell as well as the downlink transmission of the SCell. Figure 8 In the example, the network device configures PCell and SCell1 to SCell3 for the terminal. The number of service cells scheduled by PCell at the same time does not exceed the maximum number of PDSCHs that the terminal can process. Figure 6 In the example, the number of cells that the terminal can be scheduled simultaneously is 2. In particular, the DCI schedules the downlink transmission on the target SCell within the time unit, and the DCI also includes the start and length indicator value (SLIV) of the PDSCH. Fig.10 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of another data scheduling example of an embodiment of the present application, SLIV refers to the start and length indication value, and the terminal can calculate the index value S of the starting OFDM symbol of PDSCH in the time slot and the time domain length L of PDSCH according to the SLIV value. Among them, in this implementation, the SLIV is greater than the first threshold value, so that the Rx of the terminal has sufficient time to perform blind detection and parse DCI. Among them, the first threshold value is associated with the cell switching interval. The meaning of the cell switching interval can refer to the description above.

[0107] The downlink carrier switching method provided in the embodiment of the present application is adopted, and the SCell where PDSCH transmission occurs is dynamically indicated by DCI signaling. When SCell switching occurs, the terminal only needs to switch the corresponding DLRx to the target SCell, and the switching gap can be at the level of hundreds of microseconds, so that dynamic and fast switching can be achieved, which is more adaptable to the dynamic changes of each carrier channel and load, and improves user experience. Compared with the prior art, layer 1 DCI signaling is used to indicate the SCell, and the terminal dynamically switches the carrier where the DLRx is located according to the indication, thereby realizing dynamic switching of the SCell.

[0108] It is understandable that the present application uses network devices and terminals as examples of the execution subjects of the interactive illustration, but the present application does not limit the execution subjects of the interactive illustration. For example, the network device in the method provided by the present application may also be a chip, a chip system, or a processor applied to the network device, or a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the network device; the terminal in the method provided by the present application may also be a chip, a chip system, or a processor applied to the terminal, or a logical node, a logical module, or software that can implement all or part of the terminal functions.

[0109] In the present application, when entity A sends information to entity B, it can be that A sends it directly to B, or that A sends it to B indirectly through other entities. Similarly, when entity B receives information from entity A, it can be that entity B directly receives the information sent by entity A, or that entity B indirectly receives the information sent by entity A through other entities. Entities A and B here can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules inside the RAN nodes or terminals. The sending and receiving of information can be information interaction between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, information interaction between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be information interaction between two RAN nodes, for example, information interaction between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be information interaction between different modules inside a device, for example, information interaction between a terminal chip and other modules of the terminal, or information interaction between a base station chip and other modules in the base station.

[0110] It can be understood that in the above embodiments, the methods and / or steps implemented by the network device can also be implemented by components (such as chips or circuits) that can be used for the network device; the methods and / or steps implemented by the terminal can also be implemented by components (such as chips or circuits) that can be used for the terminal.

[0111] The above mainly introduces the scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application from the perspective of interaction between various network elements. Accordingly, the embodiment of the present application also provides a communication device, which is used to implement the above various methods. The communication device can be a network device in the above method embodiment, or a component that can be used for a network device; or, the communication device can be a terminal in the above method embodiment, or a component that can be used for a terminal. It can be understood that in order to implement the above functions, the communication device includes a hardware structure and / or software module corresponding to each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in this article, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to exceed the scope of the present application.

[0112] The embodiment of the present application can divide 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 unit. The above integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation.

[0113] Based on the same concept of the above-mentioned downlink carrier switching method, the present application also provides the following communication device:

[0114] like Fig.11 , which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application, the communication device 1100 includes a transceiver unit 1101 and a processing unit 1102; wherein:

[0115] When the communication device is used to implement the function of the terminal in the above method embodiment, the transceiver unit 1101 can be used to execute Figure 5 The operations of the terminal in steps S501 and S502 in the illustrated embodiment.

[0116] When the communication device is used to implement the function of the network device in the above method embodiment, the transceiver unit 1101 can be used to execute Figure 5 The operations of the network device in steps S501 and S502 in the illustrated embodiment.

[0117] For the specific implementation of the above-mentioned transceiver unit 1101 and the processing unit 1102, reference may be made to the description in the above-mentioned method embodiment.

[0118] like Fig.12 As shown, it is a schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application, and the communication device 1200 includes a processor 1201. Optionally, the communication device 1200 may also include an interface circuit 1202 (indicated by a dotted line in the figure), and the processor 1201 and the interface circuit 1202 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 1202 can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1200 may also include a memory 1203 (indicated by a dotted line in the figure), and the memory 1203 is used to store instructions executed by the processor 1201, or to store input data required for the processor 1201 to run instructions, or to store data generated after the processor 1201 runs instructions. Among them, the processor 1201 is used to implement the above Fig.11 The functions of the processing unit 1102 in the embodiment shown; and the interface circuit 1202 are used to implement the above Fig.11 The functions of the transceiver unit 1101 in the illustrated embodiment.

[0119] When the above communication device is a chip applied to a network device, the chip implements the function of the network device in the above method embodiment. The chip receives information from other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the network device; or the chip sends information to other modules in the network device (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal.

[0120] When the above communication device is a chip applied to a terminal, the chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above method embodiment. The chip receives information from other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the network device to the terminal; or the chip sends information to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the network device.

[0121] In addition, it should be noted that the aforementioned transceiver unit and / or processing unit can be implemented through a virtual module, for example, the processing unit can be implemented through a software function unit or a virtual device, and the transceiver unit can be implemented through a software function or a virtual device. Alternatively, the processing unit or the transceiver unit can also be implemented through a physical device, for example, if the device is implemented using a chip / chip circuit, the transceiver unit can be an input-output circuit and / or a communication interface, performing input operations (corresponding to the aforementioned receiving operations) and output operations (corresponding to the aforementioned sending operations); the processing unit is an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit.

[0122] The division of modules in this application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. In addition, each functional module in each example of this application may be integrated into one processor, or may exist physically separately, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module. The above-mentioned integrated modules may be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules.

[0123] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0124] An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer program or instruction is executed, the method in the above embodiment is implemented.

[0125] The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product including instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method in the above embodiments.

[0126] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, including the above-mentioned communication device.

[0127] The embodiment of the present application also provides a circuit, which is coupled to a memory and is used to execute the method shown in the above embodiment. The circuit may include a chip circuit.

[0128] When the above-mentioned communication device is a module applied to a base station, the base station module implements the functions of the base station in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The base station module receives information from other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station; or, the base station module sends information to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the base station to the terminal. The base station module here can be a baseband chip of a base station, or a CU, DU or other module, or a device under an open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture, such as an open CU, an open DU and other devices.

[0129] It should be noted that the above units or one or more of the units can be implemented by software, hardware or a combination of the two. When any of the above units or units is implemented by software, the software exists in the form of computer program instructions and is stored in a memory, and a processor can be used to execute the program instructions and implement the above method flow.

[0130] In this 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, or a discrete hardware component, and may implement or execute the methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in this application. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor, etc. The steps of the method disclosed in this 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.

[0131] When the above units or units are implemented in hardware, the hardware can be any one or any combination of a CPU, a microprocessor, a digital signal processing (DSP) chip, a microcontroller unit (MCU), an artificial intelligence processor, an ASIC, a SoC, an FPGA, a PLD, a dedicated digital circuit, a hardware accelerator or a non-integrated discrete device, which can run the necessary software or not rely on the software to execute the above method flow.

[0132] Optionally, the embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, including: at least one processor and an interface, the at least one processor is coupled to a memory via the interface, and when the at least one processor runs a computer program or instruction in the memory, the chip system executes a method in any of the above method embodiments. Optionally, the chip system may be composed of a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices, which is not specifically limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0133] The memory in the present application may also be a circuit or any other device capable of implementing a storage function, for storing program instructions and / or data. The memory is any other medium that can be used to carry or store the desired program code in the form of an instruction or data structure and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. For example, the memory may be a non-volatile memory, such as a digital versatile disc (DVD), a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD), etc., or a volatile memory (volatile memory), such as a random-access memory (RAM).

[0134] At least one (item) involved in this application indicates one (item) or more (items). More than one (item) refers to two (items) or more than two (items). "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship. In addition, it should be understood that although the terms first, second, etc. may be used to describe each object in this application, these objects should not be limited to these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish each object from each other.

[0135] The terms "including" and "having" mentioned above and any variations 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 may optionally include other steps or units that are not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units that are inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices. It should be noted that in this application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations or explanations. Any method or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in this application should not be interpreted as being more preferred or more advantageous than other methods or designs. Specifically, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present related concepts in a concrete way.

[0136] A network element in a communication system can send a signal to another network element or receive a signal from another network element. The signal may include information, signaling, or data, etc. The network element may also be replaced by an entity, a network entity, a device, a terminal, a communication module, a node, a communication node, etc. The network element is used as an example for description in this application. For example, a communication system may include at least one terminal and at least one network device. The network device may send a downlink signal to the terminal, and / or the terminal may send an uplink signal to the network device. In addition, it can be understood that if a plurality of terminals are included in the communication system, the plurality of terminals may also send signals to each other, that is, the signal sending network element and the signal receiving network element may both be terminals.

[0137] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loading and executing computer program instructions on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website site, computer, server or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (digital subscriber line, DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode to another website site, computer, server or data center.

[0138] Although the present application is described herein in conjunction with various embodiments, in the process of implementing the claimed application, those skilled in the art may understand and implement other variations of the disclosed embodiments by viewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "one" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit may implement several functions listed in a claim. Certain measures are recorded in different dependent claims, but this does not mean that these measures cannot be combined to produce good results.

[0139] It is understood that the various numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the sequence number of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

[0140] In the above embodiments, the description of each embodiment has its own emphasis. For parts that are not described in detail in a certain embodiment, reference can be made to the relevant descriptions of other embodiments.

[0141] The components in the device of the embodiment of the present application can be merged, divided and deleted according to actual needs. Those skilled in the art can combine or combine the different embodiments and features of the different embodiments described in this specification.

[0142] In the present application, under the premise of no logical contradiction, the examples may reference each other, for example, the methods and / or terms between method embodiments may reference each other, for example, the functions and / or terms between device embodiments may reference each other, for example, the functions and / or terms between device examples and method examples may reference each other.

Claims

1. A downlink carrier switching method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Receiving downlink control information on a primary cell in a first time unit, where the downlink control information is used to schedule transmission of a physical downlink shared channel on a target secondary cell; According to the downlink control information, the source secondary cell switches to the target secondary cell to receive the physical downlink shared channel in a second time unit, wherein the second time unit is the Nth time unit after the first time unit, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further comprises: First information is sent, where the first information includes a cell switching interval, where the cell switching interval is used to indicate a time required for switching from the source secondary cell to the target secondary cell, and the cell switching interval is based on a hardware capability of the terminal.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The N is an integer greater than 0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the cell switching interval, the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; The K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is a time slot interval between a physical downlink control channel and a physical downlink shared channel scheduled by the channel.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The N is an integer greater than 0, the first time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; The K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is a time slot interval between a physical downlink control channel and a physical downlink shared channel scheduled by the channel.

5. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The N=0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, the downlink control information also includes the start and length indication values ​​of the physical downlink shared channel, the start and length indication values ​​are greater than a first threshold, and the first threshold is associated with the cell switching interval.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The downlink control information includes an identifier of the target secondary cell.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that The number of the target secondary cells is less than or equal to the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be processed by the terminal.

8. A downlink carrier switching method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Sending downlink control information on a primary cell in a first time unit, where the downlink control information is used to schedule transmission of a physical downlink shared channel on a target secondary cell; The physical downlink shared channel is sent in the target secondary cell in a second time unit according to the downlink control information, wherein the second time unit is the Nth time unit after the first time unit, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 0.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The method further comprises: First information is received, where the first information includes a cell switching interval, where the cell switching interval is used to indicate a time required for switching from the source secondary cell to the target secondary cell, and the cell switching interval is based on a hardware capability of a terminal.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The N is an integer greater than 0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the cell switching interval, the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; The K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is a time slot interval between a physical downlink control channel and a physical downlink shared channel scheduled by the channel.

11. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The N is an integer greater than 0, the first time unit includes the cell switching interval, and the N is associated with at least one of the following: the index of the time slot where the downlink control information is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink shared channel is located, the number of the numerology of the carrier or part of the bandwidth where the physical downlink control channel carrying the downlink control information is located, and the K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell; The K0 corresponding to the target secondary cell is greater than the K0 corresponding to the source secondary cell, wherein the K0 is a time slot interval between a physical downlink control channel and a physical downlink shared channel scheduled by the channel.

12. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The N=0, the second time unit includes the cell switching interval, the downlink control information also includes the start and length indication values ​​of the physical downlink shared channel, the start and length indication values ​​are greater than a first threshold, and the first threshold is associated with the cell switching interval.

13. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 12, characterized in that The downlink control information includes an identifier of the target secondary cell.

14. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 13, characterized in that The number of the target secondary cells is less than or equal to the maximum number of physical downlink shared channels that can be processed by the terminal.

15. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a unit for implementing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, or comprises a unit for implementing the method according to any one of claims 8 to 14.

16. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices and transmit them to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices, and the processor is used to implement the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7 or to implement the method as claimed in any one of claims 8 to 14 through a logic circuit or by executing code instructions.

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

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