Communication method, communication device, medium and program product

Abstract

A communication method, a communication device, a computer readable storage medium, and a computer program product. In the method, a terminal device receives a trigger signal, and the trigger signal is used for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information to a network device. And in response to receiving the trigger signal, the terminal device sends auxiliary information, the auxiliary information being used for indicating at least one beam in a plurality of beams of the network device, and the terminal device being in an idle state or an inactive state. In this way, the terminal equipment completes feedback in the non-connection state, so that the auxiliary information required by the network side is sent on the premise that the additional energy consumption of the terminal equipment is reduced as much as possible. Therefore, after the network obtains the terminal coverage condition under each beam, the energy consumption can be reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of communications, and more particularly to a communication method, a communication device, a computer-readable storage medium, and a computer program product. Background Art

[0002] In the 5G and 6G era, large-scale active antenna units (AAU) are commercially used, and the number of antennas on the base station side has increased significantly. Compared with the 3G and 4G eras, the energy consumption of base stations has doubled. In addition, the 5G and 6G eras need to support higher data rates and larger traffic, so there will be more transmission bandwidth, which will also lead to an increase in energy consumption on the base station side. The use of millimeter waves and terahertz has led to denser site deployment, and adding sites means increased energy consumption.

[0003] With the development of technology, the Internet of Things has received widespread attention in the field of wireless communications. 3GPP has introduced relevant technologies for different types of IoT terminals, such as Machine Type Communication (MTC), Enhanced Machine Type Communication (eMTC), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), and Reduced Capability (RedCap). Since most current wireless devices are powered by batteries, the maintenance cost is high, and there are some problems that need to be solved in certain usage scenarios. Summary of the invention

[0004] The embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, a communication device, and a computer-readable storage medium. Thus, the terminal device completes the feedback of auxiliary information related to the terminal coverage under each beam in a non-connected state, so that the auxiliary information required by the network device is sent under the premise of minimizing the additional energy consumption of the terminal device. After the network device obtains the terminal coverage under each beam, it helps to reduce energy consumption by reasonably shutting down or adjusting the transmission power.

[0005] In a first aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided. The method comprises: a terminal device receives a trigger signal, the trigger signal is used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to a network device; in response to receiving the trigger signal, the auxiliary information is sent, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam of multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state. In this way, the terminal device can send the auxiliary information required by the network device in a non-connected state, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the terminal device.

[0006] In some embodiments, the method may further include: receiving a response signal for the auxiliary information. Thus, the terminal device may determine whether the auxiliary information is successfully received.

[0007] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via at least one of the following: a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message; or a preamble sequence. Thus, the auxiliary information may be sent to the network device via multiple ways.

[0008] In some embodiments, the assistance information may be sent via an RRC message, and the assistance information includes an index of at least one beam. Thus, a specific beam may be indicated to the network device.

[0009] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via an RRC message, and the auxiliary information further includes at least one of the following: a cause value, used to indicate that the reason for sending the RRC message is receiving a trigger signal; or an identity (ID) of the terminal device. Thus, a variety of information may be indicated to the network device.

[0010] In some embodiments, the response signal may be received via at least one of: an RRC rejection message, the RRC rejection message includes a rejection cause value, the rejection cause value indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; an RRC release message, the RRC release message includes a release cause value, the release cause value indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; or an RRC feedback message, the RRC feedback message indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information. Thus, the response signal may be received in a variety of ways.

[0011] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be transmitted via a preamble sequence, and the preamble sequence corresponds to a beam in at least one beam transmitted by the network device. Thus, the network device may determine a target beam based on the preamble sequence.

[0012] In some embodiments, the response signal may be received via a random access response (Random Access Response, RAR) message, and the RAR message includes a first field, and a first value of the first field is used to indicate a response of the auxiliary information. Thus, the terminal device may determine that the auxiliary information has been successfully received based on the RAR message.

[0013] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be carried by a paging message, and the paging message includes a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information. Thus, the terminal device may send the auxiliary information based on the paging message.

[0014] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be a low power wake-up signal (LP-WUS), and the trigger signal includes at least one of the following: a second trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information; or a paging group indication. Thus, the network device may send the trigger signal in a variety of ways.

[0015] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may include a paging group indication, and the method further includes: receiving a paging message, the paging message carrying a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information. Thus, the terminal device may send the auxiliary information based on the paging message.

[0016] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be received via at least one of the following: a paging message including an indication for triggering the very low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information; an LP-WUS, where the LP-WUS is used to trigger the very low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information; or a first very low power consumption signaling, where the first very low power consumption signaling is used to trigger the very low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information. Thus, the terminal device may send auxiliary information based on the very low power consumption communication module.

[0017] In some embodiments, the method may further include: receiving resource configuration information for the extremely low power consumption communication module, wherein the resource configuration information includes at least one of the following corresponding to the multiple beams: time domain resources or frequency domain resources. Thus, the terminal device may use the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information based on the resource configuration information.

[0018] In some embodiments, the resource configuration information may include frequency domain resources corresponding to at least one beam, and resources corresponding to different beams are multiplexed based on frequency division multiplexing. Thus, the terminal device can use the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information based on the frequency domain resources.

[0019] In some embodiments, sending the auxiliary information may include: selecting a target beam from the plurality of beams based on received signal strengths associated with the plurality of beams; determining a resource corresponding to the target beam based on resource configuration information; and sending the auxiliary information on the resource. Thus, the terminal device may send the auxiliary information using the resource corresponding to the target beam.

[0020] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may include an index of at least one beam, the received signal strength associated with the at least one beam being greater than or equal to a threshold; or the auxiliary information may include an index of a beam, the beam having the strongest received signal strength among multiple beams. Thus, the target beam may be determined in different ways.

[0021] In some embodiments, the value of the first trigger indication may indicate not to send auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicate to send auxiliary information when it is set to a second value; or the value of the second trigger indication may indicate not to send auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicate to send auxiliary information when it is set to a second value. Thus, the trigger signal may trigger the sending of auxiliary information or may not trigger the sending of auxiliary information.

[0022] In a second aspect of the present application, a communication method is provided. The method includes: sending a trigger signal, wherein the trigger signal is used to trigger a terminal device to send auxiliary information to a network device; and receiving auxiliary information, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam among multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state. In this way, the network device can receive the auxiliary information and obtain the terminal coverage under each beam.

[0023] In some embodiments, the method may further include: based on the auxiliary information, performing adjustment on one or more beams of the multiple beams, wherein the adjustment includes at least one of the following: shutting down one or more beams; or adjusting the transmission power of one or more beams. Thus, the energy consumption of the network device can be reduced.

[0024] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be sent via at least one of the following: a paging message; an LP-WUS; or a first very low power consumption signaling, the first very low power consumption signaling is used to trigger the very low power consumption communication module to send the auxiliary information. Thus, the trigger signal may be sent in a variety of ways.

[0025] In some embodiments, the method may further include: in response to the auxiliary information, sending a response signal for the auxiliary information. Thus, the network device may indicate to the terminal device whether the auxiliary information is successfully received.

[0026] In some embodiments, the assistance information may be received via at least one of: an RRC message; or a preamble sequence. Thus, the network device may receive the assistance information in a variety of ways.

[0027] In some embodiments, the assistance information may be received via an RRC message, and the assistance information includes an index of at least one beam. Thus, the network device may determine the target beam.

[0028] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be received via an RRC message, and the auxiliary information further includes at least one of the following: a cause value indicating that the reason for sending the RRC message is receiving a trigger signal; or an identifier of the terminal device. Thus, a variety of information may be indicated to the network device.

[0029] In some embodiments, the response signal may be sent via at least one of the following: an RRC rejection message, the RRC rejection message includes a rejection cause value, the rejection cause value indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; an RRC release message, the RRC release message includes a release cause value, the release cause value indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; or an RRC feedback message, the RRC feedback message indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information. Thus, the response signal may be sent in a variety of ways.

[0030] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be received via a preamble sequence, the preamble sequence corresponding to a beam in at least one beam transmitted by the network device. Thus, the network device may determine a target beam based on the preamble sequence.

[0031] In some embodiments, the response signal may be sent via a RAR message, and the RAR message includes a first field, and a first value of the first field is used to indicate a response of the auxiliary information. Thus, the terminal device may determine that the auxiliary information has been successfully received based on the RAR message.

[0032] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be LP-WUS, and the trigger signal includes at least one of the following: a second trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information; or a paging group indication. Thus, the network device may send the trigger signal in a variety of ways.

[0033] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may include a paging group indication, and the method further includes: sending a paging message to multiple terminal devices including the terminal device, the paging message carrying a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information. Thus, the terminal device can send the auxiliary information based on the paging message.

[0034] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be sent via a paging message, and the trigger signal includes at least one of the following: a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information; or an indication for triggering the extremely low power consumption communication module of the terminal device to send auxiliary information. Thus, the network device may send the trigger signal in a variety of ways.

[0035] In some embodiments, the method may further include: sending resource configuration information for the extremely low power consumption communication module, wherein the resource configuration information includes at least one of the following corresponding to the multiple beams: time domain resources or frequency domain resources. Thus, the terminal device may use the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information based on the resource configuration information.

[0036] In some embodiments, the resource configuration information may include frequency domain resources corresponding to at least one beam, and resources corresponding to different beams are multiplexed based on frequency division multiplexing. Thus, the terminal device can use the resources corresponding to the target beam to send auxiliary information.

[0037] In some embodiments, the value of the first trigger indication may indicate not to send auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicate to send auxiliary information when it is set to a second value; or the value of the second trigger indication may indicate not to send auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicate to send auxiliary information when it is set to a second value. Thus, the trigger signal may trigger the sending of auxiliary information or may not trigger the sending of auxiliary information.

[0038] In a third aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided. The communication device includes a processor and a memory storing instructions. When the instructions are executed by the processor, the communication device executes any method according to any aspect of the first to fourth aspects and their implementations.

[0039] In a fourth aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided. The communication device includes a component for receiving a trigger signal, the trigger signal is used to trigger a terminal device to send auxiliary information to a network device; a component for sending auxiliary information in response to receiving the trigger signal, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam of multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

[0040] In a fifth aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided. The communication device includes a component for sending a trigger signal, wherein the trigger signal is used to trigger a terminal device to send auxiliary information to a network device; and a component for receiving the auxiliary information, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam of multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

[0041] In a sixth aspect of the present application, a chip is provided, which includes a processing circuit configured to execute any method of the first aspect or the second aspect and implementations thereof.

[0042] In a seventh aspect of the present application, a computer program product is provided, which includes instructions, and when the instructions are executed by an electronic device, the electronic device executes any method of the first aspect or the second aspect and their implementations.

[0043] In an eighth aspect of the present application, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions, and when the instructions are executed by an electronic device, the electronic device executes any method of the first aspect or the second aspect and their implementations.

[0044] It should be understood that the contents described in the summary of the invention are not intended to limit the key or important features of the present application, nor are they intended to limit the scope of the present application. Other features of the present application will become easily understood through the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0045] The above and other features, advantages and aspects of the embodiments of the present application will become more apparent with reference to the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0046] In the accompanying drawings, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar elements, wherein:

[0047] Figure 1A A schematic diagram of a communication system in which embodiments of the present application may be implemented is shown.

[0048] Figure 1B A schematic diagram showing communication between a terminal having different power consumption modules and a network related to some embodiments of the present application is shown.

[0049] Figure 1C A schematic diagram of a standalone (SA) networking scenario in which the embodiments of the present application can be implemented is shown.

[0050] Figure 1D A schematic diagram showing a dual connectivity (DC) scenario in which the embodiments of the present application can be implemented is shown.

[0051] Figure 2 An interactive signaling diagram of a communication process according to some embodiments of the present application is shown.

[0052] Figure 3 A schematic diagram of communication transmission resources of an extremely low power consumption communication module according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0053] Figure 4 An example process of a communication process according to some embodiments of the present application is shown.

[0054] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of resources associated with SSB according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0055] Figure 6 A schematic flow chart of a method implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0056] Figure 7 A schematic flow chart of a method implemented at a network device according to an embodiment of the present application is shown.

[0057] Figure 8 A simplified block diagram of an example device showing a possible implementation of an embodiment of the present application.

[0058] Fig. 9 A simplified block diagram of an example device showing a possible implementation of an embodiment of the present application.

[0059] The same or similar reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to designate the same or similar components. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0060] The embodiments of the present application will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although certain embodiments of the present application are shown in the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the present application can be implemented in various forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments described herein. Instead, these embodiments are provided to provide a more thorough and complete understanding of the present application. It should be understood that the drawings and embodiments of the present application are only for exemplary purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present application.

[0061] In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the term "including" and similar terms should be understood as open inclusion, that is, "including but not limited to". The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first", "second", etc. may refer to different or identical objects. The term "and / or" means at least one of the two items associated therewith. For example, "A and / or B" means A, B, or A and B. Other explicit and implicit definitions may also be included below.

[0062] The embodiments of the present application may be implemented according to any appropriate communication protocol, including but not limited to cellular communication protocols such as third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), fifth generation (5G) and future communication protocols (e.g., sixth generation (6G)), wireless local area network communication protocols such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, and / or any other protocol currently known or developed in the future.

[0063] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application are applied to communication systems that follow any appropriate communication protocols, such as: General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Enhanced Datarate for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000), Time Division-Synchronization Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, Time Division Duplex (TDD), fifth generation (5G) system (e.g., New Radio (NR)) and future communication systems (e.g., sixth generation (6G) system), etc.

[0064] For the purpose of illustration, the embodiments of the present application are described below with the 5G communication system in 3GPP as the background. However, it should be understood that the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the communication system, but can be applied to any communication system with similar problems, such as wireless local area network (WLAN), wired communication system, or other communication systems developed in the future.

[0065] The term "terminal" or "terminal device" used in this application refers to any terminal device that can communicate with network devices or with each other by wire or wirelessly. Terminal devices may sometimes be referred to as user equipment or UE. Terminal devices may be any type of mobile terminal, fixed terminal or portable terminal. Terminal devices may be various wireless communication devices with wireless communication capabilities. With the rise of Internet of Things (IOT) technology, more and more devices that did not previously have communication capabilities, such as but not limited to household appliances, vehicles, tools and equipment, service equipment and service facilities, have begun to obtain wireless communication capabilities by configuring wireless communication units, so that they can access wireless communication networks and accept remote control. Such devices have wireless communication capabilities because they are configured with wireless communication units, and therefore also fall into the category of wireless communication devices. As an example, the terminal device may include a mobile cellular phone, a cordless phone, a mobile terminal (MT), a mobile station, a mobile device, a wireless terminal, a handheld device, a client, a subscription station, a portable subscription station, an Internet node, a communicator, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a personal communication system device, a personal navigation device, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless data card, a wireless modem (Modulator demodulator, Modem), a positioning device, a radio broadcast receiver, an e-book device, a gaming device, an IoT device, a vehicle-mounted device, an aircraft, a virtual reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (AR) device, a wearable device (for example, a smart watch, etc.), a terminal device in a 5G network or any terminal device in an evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), other devices that can be used for communication, a terminal device suitable for use in a 6G network, or any combination of the above.

[0066] The term "network node" or "network device" used in this application is an entity or node that can be used to communicate with a terminal device, for example, it can be an access network device. The access network device can be a device deployed in a wireless access network to provide wireless communication functions for mobile terminals, for example, it can be a radio access network (RAN) network device. The access network device may include various types of base stations. The base station is used to provide wireless access services for terminal devices. Specifically, each base station corresponds to a service coverage area, and the terminal device entering the area can communicate with the base station through wireless signals to receive the wireless access service provided by the base station. There may be overlaps between the service coverage areas of the base stations, and the terminal device in the overlapping area can receive wireless signals from multiple base stations, so that multiple base stations can provide services for the terminal device at the same time. Depending on the size of the service coverage area provided, the access network device may include a macro base station providing a macro cell, a micro base station for providing a micro cell, a micro base station for providing a micro cell, and a micro base station for providing a micro cell. In addition, the access network equipment may also include various forms of relay stations, access points, remote radio units (RRU), radio heads (RH), remote radio heads (RRH), etc. In systems using different wireless access technologies, the names of access network equipment may be different, such as evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, NodeB (NB) in the 3G network, gNB or NR NB in ​​the 5G network, and so on.

[0067] It should be understood that in the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application, some repetitions may not be repeated in the introduction of the following specific embodiments, but these specific embodiments should be regarded as having been referenced to each other and can be combined with each other.

[0068] In order to meet people's growing traffic demands, wireless networks have been under rapid construction. As the scale of the network becomes larger and larger, network energy consumption continues to increase, and electricity bills have greatly increased operating costs. The main reasons for the increase in energy consumption are that in the 5G and 6G eras, AAU is used on a large scale, and the number of antennas on the base station side has increased significantly. Compared with the 3G and 4G eras, the energy consumption of base stations has increased exponentially, and the 5G and 6G eras need to support higher data rates and larger traffic, so there will be more transmission bandwidth, which will also lead to an increase in energy consumption on the base station side. In addition, the use of millimeter waves and terahertz has led to a denser deployment of sites, and adding sites means increased energy consumption.

[0069] Whether it is the current wireless communication system or the next generation of wireless communication system research, network-side energy saving needs to be continuously optimized. The current 5G energy saving overall technical system includes device-level, site-level and network-level energy saving. Among them, the device level focuses on hardware energy saving solutions from the perspective of device and hardware design; the site level mainly studies software energy saving solutions from aspects such as symbol shutdown, channel shutdown, carrier shutdown and deep sleep; the network-level energy-saving terminal performs intelligent energy saving from the perspective of multi-network coordination.

[0070] On the other hand, the evolution of the NR system continues to study the reduction of energy consumption on the network side. For example, 3GPP Rel-18 has established corresponding research items (Study Item, SI) and work items (Work Item, WI) for network energy-saving features. These will support flexible antenna unit shutdown on the network side, flexible transmit power adjustment, and discontinuous transmission on the base station side. Considering the existence of existing terminals in the existing network, the mechanism to avoid access of existing terminals to cells that support new energy-saving features is also studied.

[0071] With the development of technology, the Internet of Things has received widespread attention in the field of wireless communications. 3GPP has also introduced relevant technologies for different types of IoT terminals in different versions, such as Machine Type Communication (MTC), Enhanced Machine Type Communication (eMTC), Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), and Reduced Capability (RedCap). Since most of the current wireless devices are powered by batteries, this will lead to high maintenance costs, serious environmental problems, and even safety hazards in some usage scenarios. At the same time, in order to further reduce the size, complexity and power consumption of IoT devices, the Ambient IoT (AIoT), which is based on supporting devices without batteries or with limited energy storage capacity, has become a recent research hotspot. For this type of terminal, energy is provided by collecting radio waves, light, motion, heat or any other suitable power source. AIoT can also be called zero power terminal, near zero power terminal (zero power device), passive IoT (passive IoT), ambient backscatter (Ambient Backscatter Communication, AmBC), communication based on passive reflection, etc. Compared with low-power and wide-coverage services (such as NB IoT and eMTC), AIoT has lower complexity and lower power consumption, enabling more application scenarios.

[0072] AIoT is applicable to environmental backscatter systems, which generally include three parts: environmental RF sources, backscatter devices, and readers. In environmental backscatter communication systems, backscatter devices can obtain energy from environmental RF sources and use the wireless signals broadcast by them to communicate with each other. The zero-power device receives the carrier signal sent by the reader, collects energy through the radio frequency (RF) energy collection module, and uses it to power the low-power processing module. After obtaining energy, the backscatter tag drives the corresponding circuit to adjust the incoming signal and perform backscattering.

[0073] Figure 1A FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 100A in which an embodiment of the present application can be implemented. Figure 1AAs shown, the system 100A may include a terminal device 110 and a network device 120. The terminal device 110 may have a wireless transceiver function, which can communicate with one or more network devices of one or more communication systems (such as wireless communication) and receive network services provided by the network devices, where the network devices include but are not limited to the network devices shown in the figure. The network device 120 manages the cell 101. It should be understood that the cells here include but are not limited to the cells shown in the figure.

[0074] According to different energy consumption, the communication modules on the terminal side can be divided into three categories: main radio module, low-power communication module, and ultra-low-power communication module, among which the low-power communication module corresponds to the low-power receiver module (Low Power Wake Up Receiver, LP-WUR), and the ultra-low-power module communication corresponds to the communication module based on environmental reflection, which is similar to the aforementioned AIoT, passive IoT, and near-zero power consumption terminals. The terminal device 110 can deploy at least one of the main radio module, low-power communication module, or ultra-low-power communication module. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 communicates with the network device 120 in an idle state or an inactive state or when no state change occurs, and sends the auxiliary information required by the network side to the network device 120, so that the network side can obtain the terminal coverage under each beam.

[0075] It should be understood that in Figure 1A The number of terminal devices and network devices shown in the figure is only for example. There may be more or fewer terminal devices, network devices and cells, and the present application does not impose any limitation on this.

[0076] In addition, it should be understood that the communication system 100A can be applied to various scenarios. For example, the application scenarios of the communication system 100A include but are not limited to the fourth generation system (4G), the fifth generation system (5G), the new radio (NR) communication system, the non-terrestrial network (NTN) system, and other existing communication systems or future evolved communication systems. In addition, it should also be understood that the above-mentioned communication can follow any appropriate communication technology and corresponding communication standards.

[0077] Figure 1B FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a terminal with different power consumption modules communicating with a network related to some embodiments of the present application. Figure 1BAs shown, according to the deployment of different power consumption modules in the terminal, it can be divided into four scenarios. In scenario one, only the main radio module is deployed on the terminal side, the main radio module of the terminal is always turned on, and the network side always communicates with the main radio module of the terminal. In scenario two, the main radio module and LP-WUR module are deployed on the terminal side. When there is no data transmission, the main radio module of the terminal is turned off, and LP-WUR can receive the low power wake-up signal (Low Power Wake Up Signal, LP-WUS) signal sent by the network side. In scenario three, the main radio module and the extremely low power consumption communication module are deployed on the terminal side. When there is no data transmission, the main radio module of the terminal is turned off, and the A-IoT module sends and receives low power consumption signaling / data with the network side. In scenario four, the main radio module, LP-WUR module, and extremely low power consumption communication module are deployed on the terminal side. When there is no data transmission, the main radio module of the terminal is turned off, LP-WUR can receive the downlink signal sent by the network side, and the A-IoT module sends uplink signaling / data in a low power consumption manner.

[0078] Figure 1C FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an SA scenario 100C in which an embodiment of the present application can be implemented. Figure 1C As shown, the terminal device is connected to a single base station, and the base station to which the terminal is connected and the core network to which the base station is connected are of the same standard. For example, the core network is a 5G core network, the base station corresponds to a 5G base station, and the 5G base station is directly connected to the 5G core network; or the core network is a 6G core network, the base station is a 6G base station, and the 6G base station is directly connected to the 6G core network.

[0079] Figure 1D FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a DC scenario 100D in which an embodiment of the present application can be implemented. Figure 1D As shown, the terminal device can be connected to base stations of different or same standards at the same time, which is suitable for connected UE. In one example, the core network is a 5G core network, and the terminal device can be connected to a 5G base station and a 6G base station at the same time, wherein the 5G base station serves as the primary station and the 6G base station serves as the secondary station. In another example, the core network is a 6G core network, and the terminal device can be connected to a 6G base station and a 5G base station at the same time, wherein the 6G base station serves as the primary station and the 5G base station serves as the secondary station. In yet another example, the core network is a 6G core network, and the terminal device can be connected to two 6G base stations at the same time, that is, both the primary station and the secondary station are 6G base stations. Application

[0080] Since NR supports high-frequency deployment and uses multiple antennas to enhance coverage, more antennas will cause the antenna radiation to be a very narrow beam. Considering that a single narrow beam is difficult to cover the entire cell, NR introduces the concept of beam scanning, that is, the base station can send a beam direction at a certain time, and send different beams at multiple times to cover the direction required by the entire cell.

[0081] In each beam, the primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS) and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) need to be configured so that the terminal can complete downlink synchronization and obtain cell-related information (such as System Information Block, SIB1 reception configuration). In NR, PSS, SSS and PBCH are bundled and sent down at the same time, collectively referred to as SSB (SS PBCH Block). As before, the network side will cover the entire cell by beam scanning, so N SSB beams will be required. These SSBs are also called SSB bursts or SSB burst sets. In a multi-beam scenario, SIB1 and paging messages will also be sent in each beam.

[0082] Since there are idle or inactive terminals in the network, but the network side cannot know the specific beams where they are located, blindly adjusting the SSB beam may increase the access delay of idle terminals or even cause no coverage. Therefore, it is difficult to turn off the SSB beam on the network side, so the network side always uses omnidirectional beam scanning to send SSB. However, when the network is idle, the periodic transmission of SSB and SIB1 is one of the main contributors to the energy consumption of the network side. At this time, for those terminals without beams, still sending SSB and SIB1 will cause waste of resources and increase energy consumption.

[0083] In view of the above research and analysis, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, a communication device, a computer-readable storage medium, and a computer program product. In this method, a terminal device receives a trigger signal, which is used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to a network device. In response to receiving the trigger signal, the terminal device sends auxiliary information, which is used to indicate at least one of the multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state. In this way, the terminal device completes feedback in a non-connected state, so that the auxiliary information required by the network side is sent while minimizing the additional energy consumption of the terminal device. After the network obtains the terminal coverage under each beam, it helps to reduce energy consumption.

[0084] Figure 2 The interactive signaling diagram of the communication process according to some embodiments of the present application is illustrated. For the sake of clarity of discussion without any limitation, the process 200 will be combined with Figure 1A to discuss.

[0085] In process 200, network device 120 sends 205 a trigger signal 210 to terminal device 110, and trigger signal 210 is used to trigger terminal device 110 to send auxiliary information to network device 120. The auxiliary information can be used to indicate at least one of the multiple beams of network device 120, and terminal device 110 is in an idle state or an inactive state. For example, multiple beams of the network device can cover one or more terminal devices, and the auxiliary information sent by terminal device 110 can indicate the beam with the best received signal quality, so that the network device can obtain whether there is a terminal to be accessed under the coverage of each beam. Terminal device 110 can be in a non-connected state or no state change can occur. The non-connected state can include an idle state or an inactive state.

[0086] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be sent by a paging message, and the trigger signal includes: a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device 110 to send auxiliary information, an indication for triggering the extremely low power consumption communication module of the terminal device 110 to send auxiliary information, or one or more of the above. In one example, the indication information in the paging message sent by the network device 120 may be indicated by a short message, and the first trigger indication may be location-UL-Feedback. In another example, the terminal device 110 is deployed with an extremely low power consumption communication module, and the indication information in the paging message sent by the network device 120 may also be indicated by a short message, but the information carried is different, and the purpose of the paging information is to trigger the terminal device 110 to feedback an uplink signal based on the extremely low power consumption communication module. The indication may be aIoT-UL-Feedback, and when the aIoT-UL-Feedback indication in the short message received by the terminal device 110 is set to 1, the A-IoT module of the terminal device 110 will send auxiliary information. It should be understood that the communication between the network device and the A-IoT module is bidirectional, that is, the network device and the A-IoT module can send data or signaling to each other.

[0087] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be an LP-WUS, and the trigger signal may include a second trigger indication for triggering auxiliary information of the terminal device, a paging group indication, or one or more of the above. For example, the main radio module of the terminal device 110 is turned off, and the terminal device 110 receives the LP-WUS via the LP-WUR. In one example, the LP-WUS carries a second trigger indication, indicating that after the LP-WUR receives the LP-WUS, it wakes up the main radio module and provides feedback via the main radio module.

[0088] Additionally or alternatively, when the trigger signal includes a paging group indication, the network device 120 may also send a paging message to a plurality of terminal devices including the terminal device 110, the paging message carrying a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device 110 to send auxiliary information. Correspondingly, when the trigger signal includes a paging group indication, the terminal device 110 may receive a paging message from the network device 120. For example, the terminal device 110 further receives the paging message on the main radio module. In this scenario, the sending of the paging message may refer to the aforementioned related content.

[0089] In some embodiments, the value of the first trigger indication indicates not sending auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicates sending auxiliary information when it is set to a second value. For example, when the location-UL-Feedback indication in the short message received by the terminal device 110 is set to 1, the terminal device 110 will send auxiliary information, and when it is set to 0, it indicates that the terminal device 110 is not triggered to send auxiliary information. In some embodiments, the value of the second trigger indication indicates not sending auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicates sending auxiliary information when it is set to a second value. For example, the second trigger indication carried in the LP-WUS can be indicated by 1 bit, and when it is set to 0, it indicates that uplink non-connected state feedback is not triggered; when it is set to 1, it indicates that non-connected state feedback is triggered.

[0090] Additionally, the trigger signal may be sent via a paging message, a first extremely low power consumption signaling, or one or more of the above. The paging message includes an indication for triggering the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information. The first extremely low power consumption signaling is used to trigger the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information. Optionally, the trigger signal may also be LP-WUS, which is used to trigger the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information.

[0091] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may also send resource configuration information for the extremely low power consumption communication module, wherein the resource configuration information includes time domain resources, frequency domain resources, or one or both of the above corresponding to multiple beams. Correspondingly, the terminal device 110 may also receive resource configuration information for the extremely low power consumption communication module, wherein the resource configuration information includes time domain resources, frequency domain resources, or one or both of the above corresponding to multiple beams. In some embodiments, the resource configuration information includes frequency domain resources corresponding to at least one beam, and resources corresponding to different beams are multiplexed based on frequency division multiplexing.

[0092] For example, network devices broadcast transmission resources based on extremely low power communication modules. In one example, system messages broadcast time and frequency resources for A-IoT communication. For different SSB beams, different resources can be configured by time division and frequency division. Taking frequency division as an example, different SSB beams are configured with different frequency domain communication resources, such as Figure 3 As shown, each resource unit corresponds to a transmission resource in the time domain and frequency domain. For different SSB beams, resource units staggered in the frequency domain can be configured or associated. In another example, the system message broadcasts frequency domain resources, and the time domain starting position of the resource can be related to paging, such as starting N time slots after the paging slot.

[0093] It should be understood that, as mentioned above, the A-IoT module is powered by receiving signals sent by network devices and transmits data based on reflection. For the extremely low power consumption communication in the embodiment of the present application, the frequency resources used for communication and the signal sent by the network device for power supply, or the signal sent by the network device to the A-IoT module, can be of the same frequency or of different frequencies, that is, the terminal performs frequency conversion and then reflects. Whether the frequency conversion can be predefined by the protocol or configured by signaling. For example, the network device configures the reflection frequency conversion indication, which is configured as 0 for no frequency conversion and non-0 for frequency conversion using the configured value.

[0094] Continue to refer Figure 2 , the terminal device 110 receives 215 a trigger signal 210 from the network device 120. In response to receiving the trigger signal, the terminal device 110 sends 220 auxiliary information 225 to the network device 120. In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via a radio resource control (RRC) message, a preamble sequence, or one or more of the above. Optionally, the auxiliary information may be sent via a media access control control element (MAC CE).

[0095] Additionally or alternatively, the auxiliary information may be sent via an RRC message, and the auxiliary information may include an index of at least one beam. For example, the index of at least one beam may indicate the beam with the best received signal quality. In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via an RRC message, and the auxiliary information may also include a cause value or an identification ID of the terminal device, or one or more of the above. The cause value may be used to indicate that the reason for sending the RRC message is the receipt of a trigger signal. For example, after receiving a paging message, the terminal device 110 initiates a random access process and carries a cause value in the RRC message corresponding to Msg3. In one example, the RRC message is RRCSetupRequest, in which EstablishmentCause defines a new cause value, such as UL feedback, which is used to characterize that the message is mainly used for responding to the aforementioned paging message, not for establishing an RRC connection. Of course, the setting of the RRC message and the cause value is only an example, and it may also be other RRC messages, such as an RRC resume message. In another example, in addition to carrying the cause value, the RRC message may also carry at least one of the strongest SSB index and UE ID.

[0096] Additionally or alternatively, the auxiliary information may be sent via a preamble sequence, and the preamble sequence may correspond to a beam in at least one beam sent by the network device. For example, a dedicated preamble resource is broadcast in a system message, such as one or more preamble sequences, which are used to trigger the network terminal device to feedback auxiliary information. Different preamble sequences may be used for different SSB beams, so that the network device can determine whether there is a terminal under each SSB beam based on the detected preamble sequence. For multiple terminals under an SSB beam, the same preamble sequence and transmission resources may be reused.

[0097] In some embodiments, the terminal device is configured with an extremely low power consumption communication module. To send the auxiliary information, the terminal device 110 may select a target beam from the plurality of beams based on the received signal strength associated with the plurality of beams. Based on the resource configuration information, the terminal device 110 may determine a resource corresponding to the target beam, and then the terminal device 110 sends the auxiliary information on the resource.

[0098] Optionally, the auxiliary information includes an index of at least one beam, and the received signal strength associated with the at least one beam is greater than or equal to a threshold. For example, when there are multiple SSB beams, the network device can also set a signal quality threshold for triggering the sending of auxiliary information, that is, only when the terminal detects that the signal quality of the signal associated with the SSB sent by the network device is greater than the configured threshold, the terminal will trigger the sending of auxiliary information. Otherwise, even if the trigger signal is detected, the terminal will not trigger the sending of auxiliary information because its energy is lower than the threshold. Optionally, the auxiliary information includes an index of a beam, and a beam has the strongest received signal strength among multiple beams.

[0099] Continue to refer Figure 2 , the network device 120 receives 230 auxiliary information 225 from the terminal device 110. In some embodiments, based on the auxiliary information, the network device 120 may perform an adjustment on one or more beams of the plurality of beams. The adjustment may include: turning off one or more beams, adjusting the transmit power of one or more beams, or one or more of the above. For example, by turning off one or more beams, the repeated transmission of SSB, SIB1 or paging messages may be reduced, thereby reducing the time for the network device 120 to send signals, so that the network device 120 has more sleep time.

[0100] Additionally or alternatively, in response to the auxiliary information, the network device 120 sends a response signal for the auxiliary information. Correspondingly, the terminal device 110 may receive a response signal for the auxiliary information from the network device 120.

[0101] In some embodiments, when the auxiliary information is sent via an RRC message, the response signal may be received via an RRC reject message, an RRC release message, an RRC feedback message, or one or more of the above. The RRC reject message may include a rejection reason value, and the rejection reason value indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information. The RRC release message may include a release reason value, and the release reason value indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information. The RRC feedback message indicates a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information. For example, the response signal may reuse the RRC reject / RRC release message, but a reject value indication is added to the RRC message, such as adding a reject reason value and a release reason value. A new RRC message, such as RRC feedback, may also be defined as a response to the RRC message sent by the aforementioned terminal.

[0102] In some embodiments, when the auxiliary information is sent via a preamble sequence, the response signal may be received via a random access response (RAR) message, and the RAR message includes a first field, and a first value of the first field is used to indicate a response to the auxiliary information. For example, the preamble sequence may be successfully received and no retransmission is required by setting some fields in the RAR message to specific values. The UL Grant in the RAR may be set to all 0s, and / or the TA command field may be set to 0, or other possible implementations.

[0103] In general, the network device 120 can trigger the low-power module to feedback the uplink signal based on the trigger signal. On the one hand, it defines the trigger condition for sending the uplink signal, and on the other hand, it can also send the uplink signal through the low-power module, which causes low energy consumption to the terminal device 110. When the network device 120 obtains the terminal coverage under each beam, it helps to reduce the energy consumption of the network device by reasonably shutting down or adjusting the transmission power. By enabling the terminal device 110 to complete the uplink auxiliary information feedback in a non-connected state, the auxiliary information required by the network device is obtained while minimizing the additional energy consumption of the terminal device, which helps to reduce the energy consumption of the end-to-end (End to End, E2E).

[0104] Figure 4 An example process of the communication process according to some embodiments of the present application is shown, which can be considered as Figure 2 The example process 400 involves a UE 401 and a BS 402. The UE 401 may be an example of the terminal device 110, and the BS 402 may be an example of the network device 120.

[0105] At 405 , BS 402 sends a paging message to UE 401 , where the paging message includes a location feedback indication. Correspondingly, UE 401 receives the paging message from BS 402 .

[0106] At 410 , UE 401 sends an RRCSetupRequest message to BS 402 , where the RRCSetupRequest message may include an SSB beam index value and a cause value. Correspondingly, BS 402 receives the RRCSetupRequest message from UE 401 .

[0107] At 415 , BS 402 sends an RRC release message to UE 401 , where the RRC release message may carry a release cause. Correspondingly, UE 401 receives the RRC release message from BS 402 .

[0108] In order to understand this application more thoroughly and completely, refer to Figure 2When describing the first embodiment, it should be noted that each part of the content in the first embodiment can be used alone or in any combination with the content in other embodiments, and is only used for exemplary purposes and is not used to limit the scope of protection of the present application.

[0109] Embodiment 1

[0110] Embodiment 1 is mainly aimed at Figure 1B Scenario 1 in the example, that is, the network device 120 always communicates with the main radio module of the terminal device 110. The network device 120 triggers the terminal device 110 to feedback the first uplink signal (i.e. Figure 2 It should be noted that when the terminal device 110 sends the first uplink signal, it does not need to establish an RRC connection with the network side. The network side adjusts part of the SSB beam based on the received uplink signal. The adjustment here includes: turning off the SSB beam, adjusting the transmission power of the signal on the SSB beam, or stopping the transmission of the SIB1 signal on the beam, etc.

[0111] Specifically, the paging message sent by the network device 120 supports triggering the terminal device 110 to send a first uplink signal. The indication information is indicated by a short message. An exemplary indication is shown in Table 1:

[0112] Table 1 Short Message for Triggering a Terminal Device to Send a First Uplink Signal

[0113]

[0114] The location-UL-Feedback is an indication for triggering the terminal device 110 to send the first uplink signal. When the location-UL-Feedback indication in the short message received by the terminal device 110 is set to 1, the terminal device 110 will send the first uplink signal. The first uplink signal can have different forms.

[0115] In one example, the first uplink signal may be an uplink signal based on layer 1, such as a preamble sequence. In another example, the first uplink signal may be an uplink signal based on layer 3, that is, an RRC message.

[0116] For the above-mentioned different first uplink signals, when the network device 120 receives the first uplink signal, the response signal sent by the network device 120 to the terminal device 110 is also different. In one example, the network device 120 receives the first uplink signal based on L1, and sets some fields in the RAR message to specific values ​​to indicate that the preamble sequence has been successfully received and does not need to be retransmitted. For example, the UL Grant in the RAR can be set to all 0s, and / or the TA command field can be set to 0, or other possible implementation methods.

[0117] In another example, the network device receives a first uplink signal based on L3. At this time, the RRCreject / RRC release message can be reused, but a new reject value indication is added, such as adding a reject reason value and a release reason value; or a new RRC message is defined, such as RRC feedback, as a response to the RRC message sent by the aforementioned terminal.

[0118] In addition, the corresponding protocol also needs to define a new RRC process, such as: after the terminal device 110 sends an RRCSetupRequest, the network device 120 replies with an RRC release message, or other RRC message combinations mentioned above, such as possible combinations of multiple RRC messages sent by the terminal and multiple RRC messages replied by the network side.

[0119] In order to understand this application more thoroughly and completely, refer to Figure 2 When describing the second embodiment, it should be noted that each part of the content in the second embodiment can be used alone or in any combination with the content in other embodiments, and is only used for exemplary purposes and is not used to limit the scope of protection of the present application.

[0120] Embodiment 2

[0121] Embodiment 2 is mainly aimed at Figure 1B In scenario 2, the main radio module of the idle terminal device 110 is turned off, LP-WUS is received via LP-WUR, and the network device 120 sends a downlink signal via LP-WUS (i.e. Figure 2 The network device 120 sends a LP-WUS signal to trigger the terminal device 110 to send a first uplink signal, and the terminal device 110 also feeds back the first uplink signal in a non-connected state. The network device 120 adjusts part of the SSB based on the received first uplink signal. The network device 120 sends an LP-WUS signal to trigger the terminal device 110 to send an auxiliary uplink signal, which can be implemented in the following different ways.

[0122] In one example, the LP-WUS carries the first uplink signal trigger indication information, such as indicated by 1 bit, which is set to 0 to indicate that uplink non-connected state feedback is not triggered; and is set to 1 to indicate that non-connected state feedback is triggered. In another example, the LP-WUS carries multiple paging group indications.

[0123] Correspondingly, when the LP-WUS signal carries the first uplink signal trigger indication information, indicating non-connected state feedback, the main radio module of the terminal device 110 is awakened and feedback is provided through the main radio module. The main radio module can provide feedback based on the L1 or L3 uplink signal.

[0124] When the LP-WUS signal carries the paging group indication, the main radio module further receives the paging message. In this scenario, the sending of the paging message can refer to the solution in the first embodiment, that is, the trigger indication of the first uplink signal is carried by the short message in the paging.

[0125] After receiving the first uplink signal, the network device 120 may reply via a RAR message or an RRC message as a response to the first uplink signal. In addition, activation signaling for LP WUR may be sent in a group manner to trigger the UE under coverage to reactivate the low-power module and enter a listening mode based on LP-WUS. The low-power communication module may not need to be reactivated, for example, it is always communicating. At this time, the activation signaling is used to instruct the terminal device to enter a mode based on LP-WUS listening. Taking into account that multiple terminal devices may be awakened at the same time when the first uplink signal is sent, these multiple terminal devices are simultaneously allowed to enter a listening mode based on a low-power module through group activation.

[0126] In order to understand this application more thoroughly and completely, refer to Figure 2 When describing the third embodiment, it should be noted that each part of the content in the third embodiment can be used alone or in any combination with the content in other embodiments. It is only used for exemplary purposes and is not used to limit the scope of protection of this application.

[0127] Embodiment 3

[0128] Embodiment 3 is mainly aimed at Figure 1B In scenarios 3 and 4, the terminal device 110 is deployed with an A-IoT module. With the help of the A-IoT module, the terminal device 110 feeds back a first uplink signal, and the network device 120 adjusts part of the beams based on the received first uplink signal.

[0129] In scenarios 3 and 4, the network device broadcasts transmission resources based on ultra-low power module communication. In one example, the system message broadcasts the time-frequency resources used for A-IoT communication. In another example, the system message broadcasts frequency domain resources, and the time domain starting position of the resources can be related to paging, such as starting N time slots after the paging time slot.

[0130] When certain conditions are met, the network device will send a trigger signal to trigger the terminal to send uplink feedback, i.e., the first uplink signal, on the corresponding resources through the A-IoT module. The trigger signal can be a signaling, LP-WUS signal, or paging message suitable for A-IoT communication.

[0131] Taking the paging message as an example, the indication information is carried by a short message, but the information carried is different, as shown in Table 2. The purpose of the paging message is to trigger the terminal to feedback an uplink signal based on the A-IoT module.

[0132] Table 2 is used to trigger the short message (Short Message) of sending the first uplink signal based on the A-IoT module

[0133]

[0134] After the terminal device 110 detects the trigger signal, it feeds back a first uplink signal on the resource through the A-IoT module, wherein the first uplink signal can carry a terminal identifier. For example, when the signal is sent, the terminal identifier can be carried by switching the signal on or off in the time domain.

[0135] Figure 5 A schematic diagram of resources associated with SSB according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. Figure 5 The figure shows the downlink signal (i.e. Figure 2 In addition, the network device configures the A-IoT module to be a co-frequency reflector. The resources associated with different SSBs are frequency-division multiplexed. The terminal device 110 determines the feedback resource based on the strongest SSB signal detected by it, and accordingly performs uplink signal feedback through the A-IoT module. Figure 5 As shown, there are terminals under SSB 0 and SSB 3, and signal feedback is performed through the A-IoT module, so that the network device 120 is informed that there are no users under SSB1 and SSB2, and beam adjustment is performed on SSB1 and SSB2 accordingly.

[0136] Optionally, if the terminal device 110 supports energy storage, the terminal device 110 can also directly transmit data on the above resources. That is, the network device 120 is configured with A-IoT transmission resources, and after the terminal device 110 receives the trigger signal from the network device 120, it accordingly feeds back the first uplink signal on the A-IoT transmission resources configured by the network device 120.

[0137] Additionally, when there are multiple SSB beams, the network device 120 may also set a signal quality threshold for triggering the transmission of the first uplink signal. That is, only when the terminal device 110 detects that the signal quality of the signal associated with the SSB transmitted by the network device 120 is greater than the configured threshold, the terminal device 110 will trigger the transmission of the first uplink signal. Otherwise, even if a downlink signal is detected, the terminal device 110 will not trigger the transmission of the first uplink signal because its energy is lower than the threshold.

[0138] It should be understood that, considering that there will be terminals with various capabilities in the network, one or more of the above-mentioned embodiments one, two, and three may exist at the same time. In the above embodiment, the network side sends a trigger signal for the terminal to feedback the first uplink signal, and the terminal is always in a non-connected state. The trigger signal is carried by a short message, LP-WUS or low-power signaling in a paging message. The first uplink signal is carried by an RRC message, and the RRC message carries a dedicated cause value to characterize that the purpose is not to establish a connection. In addition, RRC request and response messages are also established for non-connection. The first uplink signal can be implicitly carried by a dedicated preamble. Based on the trigger signal, the uplink transmission of the terminal on extremely low power transmission resources can be triggered. The extremely low power transmission resources associated with different SSB beams are multiplexed by frequency division multiplexing. Optionally, the LP WUS activation signaling is also sent in groups.

[0139] Figure 6 FIG. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a method 600 implemented at a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. For the sake of clarity of discussion and without any limitation, the process 600 will be combined with Figure 1A In one possible implementation, the method 600 may be implemented by the terminal device 110 in the communication system 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 600 may also be implemented by other communication devices independent of the communication system 100A. As an example, the method 600 will be described below by taking the implementation by the terminal device 110 in the communication system 100A as an example.

[0140] In block 610, the terminal device 110 receives a trigger signal, the trigger signal being used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to the network device. In block 620, the first network device 110 sends auxiliary information in response to receiving the trigger signal, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam of a plurality of beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

[0141] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may receive a response signal for the auxiliary information. In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via at least one of the following: an RRC message; or a preamble sequence. In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via an RRC message, and the auxiliary information may include an index of at least one beam. In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via an RRC message, and the auxiliary information may also include at least one of the following: a cause value indicating that the reason for sending the RRC message is receiving a trigger signal; or an identification ID of the terminal device.

[0142] In some embodiments, the response signal may be received via at least one of: an RRC reject message, the RRC reject message including a reject reason value, the reject reason value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; an RRC release message, the RRC release message including a release reason value, the release reason value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; or an RRC feedback message, the RRC feedback message indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information.

[0143] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via a preamble sequence, and the preamble sequence corresponds to a beam in at least one beam sent by the network device. In some embodiments, the response signal may be received via a RAR message, and the RAR message includes a first field, and a first value of the first field may be used to indicate a response to the auxiliary information.

[0144] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be carried by a paging message, and the paging message includes a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information. In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be an LP-WUS, and the trigger signal may include at least one of the following: a second trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information; or a paging group indication.

[0145] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may include a paging group indication, and the method may further include: receiving a paging message, the paging message carrying a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information.

[0146] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be received by at least one of: a paging message, including an indication for triggering the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information; LP-WUS, LP-WUS is used to trigger the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information; or a first extremely low power consumption signaling, the first extremely low power consumption signaling is used to trigger the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information.

[0147] In some embodiments, the method may further include: receiving resource configuration information for the extremely low power consumption communication module, wherein the resource configuration information includes at least one of the following corresponding to the multiple beams: time domain resources or frequency domain resources.

[0148] In some embodiments, the resource configuration information may include frequency domain resources corresponding to at least one beam, and resources corresponding to different beams are multiplexed based on frequency division multiplexing.

[0149] In some embodiments, sending the auxiliary information may include: selecting a target beam from the plurality of beams based on received signal strengths associated with the plurality of beams; determining a resource corresponding to the target beam based on resource configuration information; and sending the auxiliary information on the resource.

[0150] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may include an index of at least one beam, the received signal strength associated with the at least one beam being greater than or equal to a threshold; or the auxiliary information includes an index of a beam, the beam having the strongest received signal strength among multiple beams.

[0151] In some embodiments, the value of the first trigger indication may indicate not sending auxiliary information when set to a first value, and indicate sending auxiliary information when set to a second value; or the value of the second trigger indication may indicate not sending auxiliary information when set to a first value, and indicate sending auxiliary information when set to a second value.

[0152] Figure 7 FIG. 7 is a schematic flow chart of a method 700 implemented at a network device according to an embodiment of the present application. For the sake of clarity of discussion and without any limitation, the process 700 will be combined with Figure 1A In one possible implementation, the method 700 may be implemented by the network device 120 in the communication system 100A. In other possible implementations, the method 700 may also be implemented by other communication devices independent of the communication system 100A. As an example, the method 700 will be described below by taking the implementation by the network device 120 in the communication system 100A as an example.

[0153] In block 710, the network device 120 sends a trigger signal, wherein the trigger signal is used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to the network device. In block 720, the network device 120 receives the auxiliary information, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam of multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

[0154] In some embodiments, the method may further include: performing adjustment on one or more beams of the multiple beams based on the auxiliary information, wherein the adjustment includes at least one of the following: shutting down one or more beams; or adjusting the transmission power of one or more beams.

[0155] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be sent via at least one of: a paging message; a low power wake-up signal LP-WUS; or a first extremely low power consumption signaling, the first extremely low power consumption signaling being used to trigger the extremely low power consumption communication module to send auxiliary information.

[0156] In some embodiments, the method may further include: in response to the auxiliary information, sending a response signal for the auxiliary information.

[0157] In some embodiments, the assistance information may be received via at least one of: a radio resource control (RRC) message; or a preamble sequence. In some embodiments, the assistance information is received via an RRC message, and the assistance information includes an index of at least one beam.

[0158] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be sent via an RRC message, and the auxiliary information further includes at least one of the following: a cause value, used to indicate that the reason for sending the RRC message is receiving a trigger signal; or an identification ID of the terminal device.

[0159] In some embodiments, the response signal may be sent via at least one of: an RRC rejection message, the RRC rejection message including a rejection reason value, the rejection reason value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; an RRC release message, the RRC release message including a release reason value, the release reason value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; or an RRC feedback message, the RRC feedback message indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information.

[0160] In some embodiments, the auxiliary information may be received via a preamble sequence corresponding to a beam in at least one beam transmitted by the network device. In some embodiments, the response signal is transmitted via a random access response (RAR) message, and the RAR message includes a first field, and a first value of the first field may be used to indicate a response to the auxiliary information.

[0161] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may be a LP-WUS, and the trigger signal may include at least one of the following: a second trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information; or a paging group indication.

[0162] In some embodiments, the trigger signal may include a paging group indication, and the method may further include: sending a paging message to a plurality of terminal devices including the terminal device, the paging message carrying a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information.

[0163] In some embodiments, the trigger signal can be sent via a paging message, and the trigger signal can include at least one of the following: a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send auxiliary information; or an indication for triggering the extremely low power consumption communication module of the terminal device to send auxiliary information.

[0164] In some embodiments, the method may further include: sending resource configuration information for the extremely low power consumption communication module, wherein the resource configuration information includes at least one of the following corresponding to the multiple beams: time domain resources or frequency domain resources.

[0165] In some embodiments, the resource configuration information may include frequency domain resources corresponding to at least one beam, and resources corresponding to different beams are multiplexed based on frequency division multiplexing.

[0166] In some embodiments, the value of the first trigger indication may indicate not sending auxiliary information when set to a first value, and indicate sending auxiliary information when set to a second value; or the value of the second trigger indication may indicate not sending auxiliary information when set to a first value, and indicate sending auxiliary information when set to a second value.

[0167] Figure 8 The following is a schematic diagram of the structure of possible communication devices provided in the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can implement the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be as follows: Figure 1A The terminal device 110 and the network device 120 shown may also be modules (such as chips) applied to the terminal device 110 and the network device 120.

[0168] like Figure 8 As shown, the communication device 800 includes a processing unit 810, a receiving unit 820, and a sending unit 830. It should be understood that the receiving unit 820 and the sending unit 830 can be integrated into the same unit, that is, the receiving unit 820 can be the sending unit 830, and the sending unit 830 can be the receiving unit 820. The communication device can be used to implement the above Figure 2 , Figure 6 to Figure 7The function of the network device in any of the method embodiments shown in . In some embodiments, the processing unit may be a processor, the sending unit may be a sender, and the receiving unit may be a receiver.

[0169] like Fig. 9 As shown, the communication device 900 includes a processor 910 and an interface circuit 920. The processor 910 and the interface circuit 920 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the interface circuit 920 can be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 900 may also include a memory 930 for storing instructions executed by the processor 910 or storing input data required by the processor 910 to execute instructions or storing data generated after the processor 910 executes instructions.

[0170] When the communication device 900 is used to implement the method in the above method embodiment, the processor 910 is used to execute the functions of the above processing unit 910, and the interface circuit 920 is used to execute the functions of the above receiving unit 920 and the sending unit 930.

[0171] When the above communication device is a chip applied to the terminal device 110 or the network device 120, the device chip implements the functions of the terminal device 110 or the network device 120 in the above method embodiment. The device chip receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal device 110 or the network device 120, and the information may be sent by other terminal devices 110 or network devices 120; or, the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device 120 or the terminal device 110, and the information is sent to other terminal devices 110 or network devices 120.

[0172] It is understandable that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0173] The present application embodiment provides a communication system. The communication system may include the above Figure 8The communication device involved in the embodiment shown is a terminal device 110 or a network device 120. Optionally, the terminal device 110 or the network device 120 in the communication system may execute Figure 2 , Figure 6 to Figure 7 The communication method shown in any one of the items.

[0174] The present application also provides a circuit that can be coupled to a memory and can be used to execute the process related to the terminal device 110 or the network device 120 in any of the above method embodiments. The chip system may include the chip and other components such as a memory or a transceiver.

[0175] It should be understood that the processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a 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, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may also be any conventional processor, etc.

[0176] It should also be understood that the memory mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both volatile and non-volatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus random access memory (Direct Rambus RAM, DR RAM).

[0177] It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component, the memory (storage module) is integrated in the processor.

[0178] It should be noted that the memory described herein is intended to include, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0179] It should be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0180] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the modules and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments applied for herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software 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 be beyond the scope of this application.

[0181] Those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices and modules described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0182] In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed communication methods and devices can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the module is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple modules or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0183] The modules described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as modules may or may not be physical modules, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

[0184] In addition, each functional module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing module, or each module may exist physically separately, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module.

[0185] If the function is implemented in the form of a software function module 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 can be essentially or the part that makes the contribution or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several 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 of each embodiment of the present application. The aforementioned computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limited to: computer readable media may include random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), universal serial bus flash disk (Universal Serial Bus Flash Disk), mobile hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer.

[0186] As used herein, the term "including" and similar terms should be understood as open inclusion, i.e., "including but not limited to". The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first", "second", etc. can refer to different or identical objects, and are only used to distinguish the objects referred to, without implying a specific spatial order, temporal order, order of importance, etc. of the objects referred to. In some embodiments, values, processes, selected items, determined items, equipment, devices, means, components, assemblies, etc. are referred to as "best", "lowest", "highest", "minimum", "maximum", etc. It should be understood that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection can be made among many available functional options, and such selections do not need to be better, lower, higher, smaller, larger or otherwise preferred than other options in other aspects or all aspects. As used herein, the term "determine" can cover a variety of actions. For example, "determine" can include calculation, calculation, processing, export, investigation, search (e.g., search in a table, database or another data structure), ascertainment, etc. Additionally, "determining" may include receiving (eg, receiving information), accessing (eg, accessing data in a memory), etc. Furthermore, "determining" may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, etc.

[0187] The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto. Any technician familiar with the technical field can easily think of changes or replacements within the technical scope disclosed in the embodiments of the present application, which should be included in the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method, the method being applicable to a terminal device, comprising: receiving a trigger signal, wherein the trigger signal is used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to the network device; In response to receiving the trigger signal, the auxiliary information is sent, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam among multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: A response signal to the auxiliary information is received.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the auxiliary information is sent via at least one of the following: Radio Resource Control (RRC) message; or Preamble sequence.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the auxiliary information is sent via the RRC message, and the auxiliary information includes an index of the at least one beam.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the auxiliary information is sent via the RRC message, and the auxiliary information further includes at least one of the following: a cause value, used to indicate that the reason for sending the RRC message is receiving the trigger signal; or The identification ID of the terminal device.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the response signal is received via at least one of: an RRC reject message, the RRC reject message comprising a reject cause value, the reject cause value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; An RRC release message, the RRC release message comprising a release cause value, the release cause value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; or An RRC feedback message indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information. 7 . The method according to claim 3 , wherein the auxiliary information is transmitted via the preamble sequence, and the preamble sequence corresponds to a beam in at least one beam transmitted by the network device. 8 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the response signal is received via a random access response (RAR) message, and the RAR message includes a first field, and a first value of the first field is used to indicate a response to the auxiliary information.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the trigger signal is carried by a paging message, and the paging message includes a first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the trigger signal is a low power wake-up signal LP-WUS, and the trigger signal comprises at least one of the following: A second trigger indication used to trigger the terminal device to send the auxiliary information; or Paging group indication.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the trigger signal comprises the paging group indication, the method further comprising: A paging message is received, where the paging message carries the first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the trigger signal is received via at least one of: A paging message, including an instruction for triggering the very low power consumption communication module to send the auxiliary information; LP-WUS, where the LP-WUS is used to trigger the very low power consumption communication module to send the auxiliary information; or The first extremely low power consumption signaling is used to trigger the extremely low power consumption communication module to send the auxiliary information.

13. The method according to claim 12, further comprising: Resource configuration information for the very low power consumption communication module is received, wherein the resource configuration information includes at least one of the following corresponding to the multiple beams: time domain resources or frequency domain resources.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the resource configuration information includes the frequency domain resources corresponding to the at least one beam, and the resources corresponding to different beams are multiplexed based on frequency division multiplexing.

15. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, wherein sending the auxiliary information comprises: selecting a target beam from the plurality of beams based on received signal strengths associated with the plurality of beams; Determining a resource corresponding to the target beam based on the resource configuration information; as well as The auxiliary information is sent on the resource.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 15, wherein: The assistance information includes an index of the at least one beam, and a received signal strength associated with the at least one beam is greater than or equal to a threshold; or The auxiliary information includes an index of a beam having the strongest received signal strength among the multiple beams.

17. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 16, wherein: The value of the first trigger indication indicates not to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicates to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a second value; or The value of the second trigger indication indicates not to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicates to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a second value.

18. A method, the method being applicable to a network device, comprising: Sending a trigger signal, wherein the trigger signal is used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to the network device; as well as The auxiliary information is received, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam among multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising: Based on the auxiliary information, performing adjustment of one or more beams of the plurality of beams, wherein the adjustment comprises at least one of the following: Turn off one or more beams; or Adjust the transmit power of one or more beams.

20. The method according to claim 18 or 19, wherein the trigger signal is sent via at least one of the following: Paging messages; Low power wake-up signal LP-WUS; or The first extremely low power consumption signaling is used to trigger the extremely low power consumption communication module to send the auxiliary information.

21. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 20, further comprising: In response to the auxiliary information, a response signal for the auxiliary information is sent.

22. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the auxiliary information is received via at least one of the following: Radio Resource Control (RRC) message; or Preamble sequence.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the assistance information is received via the RRC message, and the assistance information comprises an index of the at least one beam.

24. The method according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the assistance information is received via the RRC message, and the assistance information further includes at least one of the following: a cause value, used to indicate that the reason for sending the RRC message is receiving the trigger signal; or The identification ID of the terminal device.

25. The method according to claim 23 or 24, wherein the response signal is sent via at least one of: an RRC reject message, the RRC reject message comprising a reject cause value, the reject cause value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; An RRC release message, the RRC release message comprising a release cause value, the release cause value indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information; or An RRC feedback message indicating a response to the RRC message including the auxiliary information.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the assistance information is received via the preamble sequence, the preamble sequence corresponding to a beam in at least one beam transmitted by the network device. 27 . The method according to claim 26 , wherein the response signal is sent via a random access response (RAR) message, and the RAR message includes a first field, and a first value of the first field is used to indicate a response to the auxiliary information.

28. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 27, wherein the trigger signal is the LP-WUS, and the trigger signal comprises at least one of the following: A second trigger indication used to trigger the terminal device to send the auxiliary information; or Paging group indication.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein the trigger signal comprises the paging group indication, the method further comprising: A paging message is sent to multiple terminal devices including the terminal device, where the paging message carries the first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information.

30. The method according to any one of claims 18 to 27, wherein the trigger signal is sent via the paging message, and the trigger signal comprises at least one of the following: A first trigger indication for triggering the terminal device to send the auxiliary information; or An indication for triggering the extremely low power consumption communication module of the terminal device to send the auxiliary information.

31. The method of claim 18, further comprising: Resource configuration information for the extremely low power consumption communication module is sent, wherein the resource configuration information includes at least one of the following corresponding to the multiple beams: time domain resources or frequency domain resources.

32. The method according to claim 31, wherein the resource configuration information includes the frequency domain resources corresponding to the at least one beam, and the resources corresponding to different beams are multiplexed based on frequency division multiplexing.

33. A method according to any one of claims 18 to 32, wherein: The value of the first trigger indication indicates not to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicates to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a second value; or The value of the second trigger indication indicates not to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a first value, and indicates to send the auxiliary information when it is set to a second value.

34. A communication device, comprising: A processor, and a memory storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by the processor, the communication device executes: receiving a trigger signal, wherein the trigger signal is used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to the network device; In response to receiving the trigger signal, the auxiliary information is sent, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam among multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

35. A communication device, comprising: A processor, and a memory storing instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by the processor, the communication device executes: Sending a trigger signal, wherein the trigger signal is used to trigger the terminal device to send auxiliary information to the network device; as well as The auxiliary information is received, wherein the auxiliary information is used to indicate at least one beam among multiple beams of the network device, and the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

36. A chip comprising a processing circuit configured to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 17 or any one of claims 18 to 33.

37. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions, which, when executed by a communication device, cause the communication device to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 17 or any one of claims 18 to 33.

38. A computer program product comprising instructions, the instructions being run on a communication device to cause the communication device to perform a method according to any one of claims 1 to 17 or any one of claims 18 to 33.

Images