Communication method and communication device

Abstract

The invention provides a communication method and a communication device, and terminal equipment can report indication information used for indicating whether a first frequency band combination supports rollback of uplink transmission channel switching capability or not while sending wireless network access capability information of the terminal equipment to network equipment. According to the indication information, the network device can quickly and effectively determine the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the backoff frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, which is beneficial for improving the efficiency of configuring and / or scheduling the terminal device by the network device, and is beneficial for reducing the complexity of the network device. When the communication method and the communication device are used for communication, the data transmission efficiency is high, and the reliability is high.

Description

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on November 2, 2023, with application number 202311455326.9 and invention name “Communication Method and Communication Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a communication method and a communication device. Background Art

[0003] In wireless communication scenarios, the number of transmission channels used by terminal devices for communication is limited. Switching transmission channels between multiple uplink frequency bands can, on the one hand, improve the transmission efficiency of terminal devices for communication data transmission, and on the other hand, it is also conducive to improving the utilization efficiency of communication resources such as frequency domain resources.

[0004] The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching is an important factor affecting the reliability of data transmission between the terminal device and the network device. When the terminal device needs to switch the uplink transmission channel between the frequency band pairs in the fallback frequency band combination, how to efficiently determine the switching time is an issue worth considering. Summary of the invention

[0005] The present application provides a communication method, in which a terminal device can send indication information to a network device for indicating whether a first frequency band combination supports the fallback of an uplink transmission channel switching capability. The indication information is helpful for the network device to determine the uplink transmission channel switching capability of a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and is helpful for aligning the understanding of the uplink transmission switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination between the terminal device and the network device to ensure the reliability of data transmission; on the other hand, it is also helpful to improve the flexibility of the terminal device implementation, that is, to allow the terminal device to support an uplink transmission channel switching capability different from that of the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination and indicate it to the network device, and it is also helpful to reduce the complexity of network device configuration and scheduling of terminal devices.

[0006] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, which is applied to a terminal device, including: receiving a capability query message; sending capability information, the capability information including first information, and the first information is used to indicate whether a first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0007] In some scenarios, whether the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability can also be understood as: whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as that of the first frequency band combination, or whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the same as that of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, or whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be determined based on the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. Among them, the second frequency band combination is the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

[0008] In some scenarios, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination can be understood as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of one or more frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination.

[0009] In a possible implementation, the capability information here may be used to indicate the wireless access capability of the terminal device. In some scenarios, the capability information may also be referred to as the capability information of the terminal device (UE Capability information) or wireless access capability information.

[0010] By reporting to the network device indication information that can be used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, the network device can determine whether the first frequency band combination and its fallback frequency band combination have different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities based on the information. Thus, different configuration schemes are executed respectively when the first frequency band combination and its fallback frequency band combination have different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities and when the first frequency band combination and its fallback frequency band combination have the same uplink transmission channel switching capabilities. This is beneficial for the network device to determine the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and is beneficial to improving the efficiency and reliability of data transmission between the terminal device and the network device.

[0011] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first information is also used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, the uplink transmission channel switching capability includes the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching, and the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

[0012] The network device can determine, based on the first information, that the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination cannot be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination. This technical solution is beneficial for the network device to determine the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, reduce the complexity of the operation of the network device, and improve the applicability of this technical solution.

[0013] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the capability information further includes the second frequency band combination and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0014] The capability information reported by the terminal device can directly indicate the second frequency band combination and its uplink transmission channel switching capability that is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of its parent frequency band combination. The network device can directly schedule and configure the terminal device according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination. The implementation of this technical solution is conducive to the network device determining the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, thereby improving the reliability and efficiency of data transmission of the terminal device.

[0015] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first information also includes index information, and the index information is used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0016] Index information is used to indicate the second frequency band combination. The data volume of the index information is small. The implementation of this technical solution is conducive to saving network signaling overhead. The index information is included in the capability information of the first frequency band combination. Therefore, the network device can determine the position of the second frequency band combination based on the capability information of the first frequency band combination. To a certain extent, it is also conducive to reducing the complexity of uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination configured by the network device.

[0017] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the capability information includes capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes the first information.

[0018] In some scenarios, the above technical solution can also be understood as: the first information can be reported in the dimension of each frequency band combination.

[0019] Including the first information in the capability information of the first frequency band combination and sending it is conducive to improving the correlation between the first information and the first frequency band combination, and the network device can obtain the first information accordingly when reading the capability information of the first frequency band combination. The network device can determine whether the capability of the first frequency band combination can be used to determine the configuration and scheduling method of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination with a small number of frequency bands based on the first frequency band combination. The implementation of this technical solution is conducive to the network device determining the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and reducing the complexity of the operation of the network device.

[0020] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, the capability information includes the capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes second information and third information, the second information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the third information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination; wherein the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0021] In a possible implementation manner, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination does not include the third information, or in other words, the third information is empty.

[0022] The present technical solution provides another possible implementation method of the first information. When the terminal device supports different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the fallback frequency band combination, the terminal device reports the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of different fallback frequency band combinations in the parent frequency band combination of the fallback frequency band combination, without the need to additionally report another fallback frequency band combination entity. On the one hand, it can save the signaling overhead of capability reporting, and on the other hand, it can reduce the complexity of network implementation. That is, when the network configures the carrier aggregation / dual connection combination, the network device does not need to traverse all the frequency band combinations reported by the terminal device to find the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and can only refer to one parent frequency band combination to configure its fallback frequency band combination, without the need to refer to the capabilities of multiple frequency band combinations for configuration.

[0023] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the first information is also used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the target switching time, the second frequency band combination is the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time is the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination or the second frequency band combination.

[0024] In a possible implementation manner, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the capability information may not include the first information, or in other words, the first information is empty.

[0025] The present technical solution provides another possible implementation method of the first information. By directly indicating the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching in the capability information, the network device can configure the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination according to the indication information, which is beneficial for the network device to determine the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and is beneficial for the terminal device to support the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination. The switching time is consistent with the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination determined by the network device, which is beneficial to avoid the switching time ambiguity problem and to improve the reliability of communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0026] In addition, also due to the indication information, the network device does not need to perform complex information traversal operations, which is helpful to reduce the complexity of network device scheduling and configuration of terminal devices.

[0027] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the number of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination.

[0028] In a possible implementation manner, the first frequency band combination includes 4 frequency bands, and the second frequency band combination includes 3 frequency bands.

[0029] For the detailed explanation and description of the beneficial effects in the following technical solutions, please refer to the relevant contents in the first aspect. For the sake of brevity, they will not be elaborated below.

[0030] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which is applied to a network device, including: sending a capability query message; receiving capability information, the capability information including first information, and the first information is used to indicate whether a first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0031] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first information is also used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, the uplink transmission channel switching capability includes the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching, and the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

[0032] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the capability information further includes the second frequency band combination and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0033] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first information also includes index information, and the index information is used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0034] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the capability information includes capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes the first information.

[0035] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, the capability information includes the capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes second information and third information, the second information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the third information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination; wherein the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0036] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the first information is also used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the target switching time, the second frequency band combination is the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time is the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination or the second frequency band combination.

[0037] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the number of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination.

[0038] According to a third aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes a transceiver unit, and the transceiver unit is used to: receive a capability query message; send capability information, the capability information includes first information, and the first information is used to indicate whether a first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0039] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first information is also used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, the uplink transmission channel switching capability includes the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching, and the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

[0040] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the capability information further includes the second frequency band combination and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0041] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first information also includes index information, and the index information is used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0042] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the capability information includes capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes the first information.

[0043] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, the capability information includes the capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes second information and third information, the second information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the third information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination; wherein the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0044] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the first information is also used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the target switching time, the second frequency band combination is the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time is the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination or the second frequency band combination.

[0045] In combination with the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the number of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination.

[0046] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes a transceiver unit, and the transceiver unit is used to: send a capability query message; receive capability information, the capability information includes first information, and the first information is used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0047] In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first information is also used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, the uplink transmission channel switching capability includes the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching, and the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

[0048] In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the capability information also includes the second frequency band combination and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0049] In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first information also includes index information, and the index information is used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0050] In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the capability information includes capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes the first information.

[0051] In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, the capability information includes the capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes second information and third information, the second information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the third information is used to indicate the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination; wherein the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0052] In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the first information is also used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the target switching time, the second frequency band combination is the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time is the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination or the second frequency band combination.

[0053] In combination with the fourth aspect, in certain implementations of the fourth aspect, the number of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination.

[0054] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, the device comprising a processor, the processor is coupled to a memory, and can be used to execute instructions in the memory to implement any of the first and second aspects above, and the method in any possible implementation of the first and second aspects. Optionally, the device also includes a memory, and the memory and the processor may be deployed separately or centrally. Optionally, the device also includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

[0055] In one implementation, the communication interface may be a transceiver, or an input / output interface.

[0056] In another implementation, the device is a terminal device or a network device, or a chip configured in the terminal device or the network device, and can also be a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the terminal device or the network device. When the device is a chip, the communication interface can be an input / output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin or a related circuit on the chip or the chip system. The processor can also be embodied as a processing circuit or a logic circuit.

[0057] Optionally, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0058] In the specific implementation process, the above-mentioned processor can be one or more chips, the input circuit can be an input pin, the output circuit can be an output pin, and the processing circuit can be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, and various logic circuits. The input signal received by the input circuit can be but not limited to being received and input by the receiver, and the signal output by the output circuit can be but not limited to being output to the transmitter and transmitted by the transmitter, and the input circuit and the output circuit can be the same circuit, which is used as an input circuit and an output circuit at different times. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation of the processor and various circuits.

[0059] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes a logic circuit and an input / output interface, wherein the logic circuit is used to couple with the input / output interface and transmit data through the input / output interface to execute any aspect of the first and second aspects above, and any possible implementation of the first and second aspects.

[0060] In one implementation, the device is a terminal device or a network device, or a chip configured in the terminal device or the network device, and may also be a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the terminal device or the network device. When the device is a chip, the communication interface may be an input / output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin or a related circuit on the chip or the chip system. The processor may also be embodied as a processing circuit or a logic circuit.

[0061] In the seventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system, comprising: a processor, the processor being used to execute the computer program or instructions in the memory, so that the chip system implements the method in the above-mentioned first and second aspects and any possible implementation manner of the first and second aspects.

[0062] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, comprising: a network device and a terminal device, wherein the network device is used to execute the method in the above-mentioned first aspect and any possible implementation of the first aspect; the terminal device is used to execute the method in the above-mentioned second aspect and any possible implementation of the second aspect.

[0063] In the ninth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions). When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer executes any one of the first and second aspects above, as well as a method in any possible implementation of the first and second aspects.

[0064] In the tenth aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instruction), which, when executed, enables a computer to execute any one of the first and second aspects described above, as well as a method in any possible implementation of the first and second aspects. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0065] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of a system architecture applicable to an embodiment of the present application.

[0066] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of the composition of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0067] Figure 3 It is a schematic diagram of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0068] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0069] Figure 5 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0070] Figure 6 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0071] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0072] Figure 8 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0073] Fig. 9 It is a schematic diagram of a CG provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0074] Fig.10 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0075] Fig.11 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0076] Fig.12 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0077] Fig.13 It is a schematic diagram of another communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0078] Fig.14 It is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0079] Fig.15 It is a schematic diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0080] Fig.16 It is a schematic diagram of a chip system provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0081] The technical solution in this application will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

[0082] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, code division multiple access (CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, fourth generation (4G) system, fifth generation (5G) system or new radio (NR), etc.

[0083] The terminal device is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can send signals to the network device or receive signals from the network device. The terminal can refer to an access terminal, a user unit, a user station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, a user agent or a user device. The user equipment can also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal in a 5G network or any form of user equipment in a future network, etc., and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0084] The network device in the embodiment of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal, and is used to access the terminal to a radio access network (RAN). The network device may also be sometimes referred to as an access network device, an access network node, or a base station. It is understandable that in systems using different wireless access technologies, the names of devices having base station functions may be different. For the convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application collectively refer to devices that provide wireless communication access functions for terminals as network devices. The network equipment may be a base transceiver station (BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system or a code division multiple access (CDMA) system, a base station (NodeB, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, a base station (gNodeB, gNB) in NR, a next generation evolved NodeB (ng-eNB) or a transmission receiving point / transmission reception point (TRP), a base station subsequently evolved by the third generation partnership project (3GPP), an access node, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node in a wireless network communication technology (WiFi) system, etc., and a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access The network device may be a wireless controller in a CRAN (Cran) scenario, or the network device may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, one or a group of antenna panels (including multiple antenna panels) of a base station in a 5G system, or a network node constituting a next generation base station node (next generation Node Base station, gNB) or a transmission point, such as a baseband unit (Baseband unit, BBU), or a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU), a centralized unit (Central unit, CU), etc., and the embodiments of the present application are not limited.

[0085] In an embodiment of the present application, a terminal or network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit (CPU), a memory management unit (MMU), and a memory (also called main memory). The operating system can be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through a process, such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer includes applications such as a browser, an address book, a word processing software, and an instant messaging software. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the specific structure of the execution subject of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, as long as it can communicate according to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application by running a program that records the code of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the execution subject of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be a terminal or a network device, or a functional module in a terminal or a network device that can call and execute a program, such as a chip or a processor.

[0086] In addition, various aspects or features of the present application may be implemented as methods, apparatus, or articles of manufacture using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. For example, computer readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, or magnetic tapes, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), cards, sticks, or key drives, etc.). In addition, the various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and / or carrying instructions and / or data.

[0087] To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, several terms involved in the present application are first briefly explained.

[0088] Frequency band, in the field of communications, refers to the frequency range of radio waves.

[0089] Carrier aggregation (CA) is a wireless communication technology used to aggregate multiple component carriers (CCs) to increase transmission bandwidth.

[0090] Dual connectivity (DC) refers to a communication technology that allows a terminal device to simultaneously use the wireless resources of at least two different base stations in a connected state, thereby improving the utilization rate of wireless resources in a wireless network system and reducing switching delays.

[0091] Band combination (BC) is usually used to indicate the capabilities of the terminal device for carrier aggregation or dual connectivity. Each band combination indicates the frequency bands contained in the band combination. Even if the terminal device only supports one band, it is reported through this structure. Each band entry in each band combination supports one or more component carriers.

[0092] Fallback band combination (fallback BC), in carrier aggregation technology, there is usually one carrier as the primary cell (PCell) and other service cells as secondary cells (SCell). The secondary cell can be activated and deactivated during use. If there is no data transmission for a period of time, the network may deactivate the secondary cell, and may consider reactivating the secondary cell when there is data to be sent later. Carrier aggregation includes aggregation of multiple carriers in a single frequency band and aggregation of multiple carriers in multiple frequency bands. The combination obtained by releasing at least one secondary cell, the uplink carrier component of the secondary cell, the secondary cell group (SCG) or the supplementary uplink (SUL) from a frequency band combination (parent band combination) is called a fallback band combination.

[0093] Uplink Tx Switching is a communication technology in multi-frequency collaboration. It switches the uplink transmitting antenna of the terminal device to achieve time-division uplink transmission of two carriers, thereby improving the uplink capacity of the network.

[0094] Figure 1 It is a schematic architecture diagram of the 5G system. Figure 1The 5G system 100 in the present invention includes a 5G core network (5G core, 5GC) and a 5G radio access network (next generation radio access network, NG RAN). Among them, the 5GC may include at least one access and mobility management function (Access and Mobility Management Function, AMF) network element / user plane function (user plane function, UPF) network element. Among them, the AMF network element mainly performs functions such as mobility management, access authentication / authorization, and can also transmit user policies between terminal devices and PCF network elements. The UPF network element can serve as an interface UPF with the data network to implement user plane data forwarding, session / flow-level based billing statistics, bandwidth limitation and other functions.

[0095] Each gNB can provide the termination point of the NR user plane and control plane protocols. Each ng-eNB can provide the termination point of the user plane and control plane protocol stack of the evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN). Each gNB is connected to each other, each gNB is connected to the ng-eNB, and each ng-eNB is connected to the ng-eNB through the Xn interface. Each gNB is connected to the 5GC through the NG interface. Specifically, each gNB is connected to the AMF through the NG-C interface, and each gNB is connected to the UPF through the NR-U interface. Similarly, each ng-eNB is connected to the 5GC through the NG interface. Specifically, each ng-eNB is connected to the AMF through the NG-C interface, and each ng-eNB is connected to the UPF through the NR-U interface.

[0096] The NG RAN includes at least one gNB and / or at least one ng-eNB. Figure 2 A schematic diagram of the composition structure of a gNB is provided as an example.

[0097] The gNB can be composed of a base station-centralized unit-control plane (CP), multiple base stations-centralized units-user plane (UP), and multiple base stations-distributed units.

[0098] The gNB-CU-CP is connected to the gNB-DU through the F1-C interface. The gNB-CU-UP is connected to the gNB-DU through the F1-U interface. The gNB-CU-UP is connected to the gNB-CU-CP through the E1 interface. One gNB-DU is connected to only one gNB-CU-CP. One gNB-CU-UP is connected to only one gNB-CU-CP.

[0099] In wireless communication systems, network devices need to know the capability information of terminal devices and perform appropriate configuration and scheduling according to the capabilities of terminal devices to ensure correct data processing. Since the capabilities of terminal devices vary and capability signaling involves many parameters, terminal devices will report capability information to the base station after establishing a connection, such as the frequency bands supported by the terminal device, the supported frequency band combinations, carrier bandwidth or modulation order, etc.

[0100] Carrier aggregation technology and / or dual connection technology can improve the utilization rate of wireless resources in wireless network systems and improve the efficiency of data transmission between terminal devices and network devices. In conventional carrier aggregation operations, concurrent transmission is allowed between multiple carriers, and terminal devices can also perform single and dual transmission when transmitting on one carrier. In order to reduce the adverse effect of the limited number of transmission channels of terminal devices on the data transmission process, terminal devices can usually switch transmission channels between multiple uplink frequency bands.

[0101] There is a certain delay in the process of uplink transmission channel switching (UL Tx switching). The terminal device can report the switching time between the frequency band pairs that support uplink transmission channel switching to the network device. In this way, the flexibility of the frequency band combination that the network device can schedule to send uplink signals can be improved. For example, when the channel quality of the carrier within a frequency band changes dynamically, the network can select a better frequency band and quickly and dynamically switch the frequency band for sending uplink signals to improve the uplink throughput.

[0102] In the capability information of the terminal device, the terminal device reports one or more band combinations it supports to the network device. For a band combination that supports uplink transmission channel switching, the uplink transmission channel switching capability supported by the band combination is also included. The uplink transmission channel switching capability includes the uplink transmission channel switching period (uplink Tx switching period) of at least one band pair in the band combination.

[0103] In addition, the concept of fallback band combination is introduced. A fallback band combination refers to a band combination obtained from another band combination (also called a parent band combination) by releasing at least one secondary cell (SCell), or uplink configuration of an SCell, or secondary cell group (SCG), or supplementary uplink (UL).

[0104] For a fallback frequency band combination, the terminal device may not report the fallback frequency band combination in the capability information, but only report its parent frequency band combination. The network device will consider that the terminal device supports any fallback frequency band combination obtained from the parent frequency band combination, that is, the terminal device should at least support the same capabilities on the same frequency band as its parent frequency band combination in the fallback frequency band combination.

[0105] The benefits of capability fallback are that, on the one hand, it can save the signaling overhead of terminal devices reporting multiple frequency band combinations; on the other hand, from the perspective of the network side, it can reduce the complexity of network device configuration of frequency band combinations, that is, when the network device releases at least one SCell, or the uplink configuration of the SCell, or the SCG, or the SUL, there is no need to query the capability information of the terminal device to determine the capability of another frequency band combination (that is, the fallback frequency band combination), and configure the terminal device according to the capability reported by another frequency band combination, and allow the network device to determine the configuration of the fallback frequency band combination according to the capability of its parent frequency band combination. The terminal device will report the capabilities of multiple frequency band combinations respectively, and different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities can be reported in these reported multiple frequency band combinations. However, these different frequency band combinations may have fallback frequency band combinations composed of the same frequency bands. For example, the terminal device reports combination #1 {bandA+bandB+bandC+bandD}, and combination #2 {bandA+bandB+bandC+bandE}, both of which contain fallback frequency band combinations composed of the same frequency bands bandA, bandB, and bandC. When the network device configures the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching for this type of fallback frequency band combination, it can be configured according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of any parent frequency band combination. In one possible case, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching configured by the network device for this type of fallback frequency band combination (for example, called switching time A) is different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching configured by the fallback frequency band combination determined by the terminal device (for example, called switching time B). Exemplarily, the switching time A can be shorter than the switching time B. For example, the switching time A is 35us and the switching time B is 140us. This situation will cause the terminal device to be unable to send uplink data blocks on the time-frequency domain resources scheduled by the network for uplink authorization, thereby causing the network to be unable to correctly decode the uplink data sent by the terminal device.

[0106] In order to solve the problem of inconsistent understanding of switching time between the above-mentioned network equipment and terminal equipment (or the problem of ambiguity in switching time), a feasible way is that the terminal equipment can additionally report a fallback frequency band combination that can override the parent frequency band combination, and the switching time of the uplink transmission switching reported by the terminal equipment in the fallback frequency band combination covers the switching time on the same frequency band of the parent frequency band combination. However, the problem with this method is that due to the large number of frequency band combinations reported by the terminal equipment in the capability information, the network equipment needs to traverse all the frequency band combinations reported by the terminal equipment when selecting and configuring the carrier combination for communication, in order to determine whether the fallback frequency band combination of the parent frequency band combination is additionally reported in addition to the parent frequency band combination reported by the terminal equipment. When it is determined that the capability information contains the additionally reported fallback frequency band combination, the terminal equipment is configured and scheduled according to the switching time of the additionally reported fallback frequency band combination.

[0107] Another feasible way is to use the longest switching time to schedule the terminal device when there are different switching times for the same frequency band pair included in multiple frequency band combinations. However, the problem with this method is that in order to determine whether there are different switching times reported for the same frequency band pair in different frequency band combinations, the network device needs to traverse all frequency band combinations reported by the terminal device to determine whether there are inconsistent switching times for the same frequency band pair included in two or more frequency band combinations, and then determine the longest switching time among the multiple different switching times for the same frequency band pair, and use the longest switching time to configure and schedule the terminal device.

[0108] Both of the above solutions require the network device to perform relatively complex and time-consuming traversal operations, which increases the complexity of the network and reduces the efficiency of the network device in configuring wireless resources.

[0109] In order to improve the data transmission efficiency between terminal devices and network devices, improve the utilization of wireless resources, reduce network complexity, and improve the flexibility and efficiency of network devices in configuring wireless resources, the present application provides a communication method, which is now introduced as follows.

[0110] When reporting capability information, the terminal device may indicate whether one or more frequency band combinations in the capability information support fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the network device may configure and schedule the terminal device according to the indication.

[0111] In this technical solution, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability that is different from the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination, and indicate it to the network device, thereby increasing the flexibility of the terminal device. For example, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability that is weaker than the fallback frequency band combination (such as a longer switching time) in the fallback frequency band combination. For another example, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching supported on multiple parent frequency band combinations is different, and the fallback frequency band combination only supports the uplink transmission channel switching capability of one of the parent frequency band combinations.

[0112] S110, the network device sends a capability query message, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the capability query message.

[0113] In some examples, the capability query information is used to request the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the capability query information, the terminal device can report information related to its wireless access capability.

[0114] In some examples, when a terminal device establishes a relationship with a network device for the first time, the network device may send the capability query information described above to the terminal device.

[0115] In some examples, when the network device needs to re-query the capability information of the terminal device, or the terminal device sends a mobile registration update request carrying a capability update indication to the network device, the network device can send the above capability query information to the terminal device.

[0116] S120, the terminal device sends capability information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the capability information.

[0117] The capability information (UE capability information) can be used to indicate the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the capability information of the terminal device, the network device can configure and schedule the terminal device according to the wireless access capability of the terminal device. In some scenarios, the capability information can also be called the capability information of the terminal device or the wireless access capability information.

[0118] Exemplarily, the capability information may include one or more of the capabilities of the terminal device, such as the frequency bands supported by the terminal device, the frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, the carrier bandwidth, the number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) layers, or the modulation order.

[0119] In some examples, the capability information may include one or more frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, or in other words, the capability information may include information about one or more frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device. The one or more frequency band combinations may be frequency band combinations for uplink transmission channel switching. Uplink transmission channel switching may also be referred to as dynamic uplink transmission switching (dynamic UL Tx switching), uplink transmission channel switching, etc.

[0120] In some examples, the information of the frequency band combination may include one or more of the following: identifiers of one or more frequency bands included in the frequency band combination, identifiers of frequency bands included in one or more frequency band pairs for uplink transmission channel switching included in the frequency band combination (for example, a frequency band pair includes two frequency bands, and the identifiers of the frequency bands are indicated by bandIndexUL1 and bandIndexUL2, respectively), and switching time of uplink transmission channel switching supported by each frequency band pair, etc.

[0121] In some examples, multiple types of information for the same frequency band combination may be included as one information unit in the capability information.

[0122] Exemplarily, the capability information may include capability information of the first frequency band combination, capability information of the second frequency band combination, and capability information of the third frequency band combination, etc. The capability information of the frequency band combination is generally used to indicate the capability of carrier aggregation or dual connection supported by the terminal device, and may also be used to indicate the capability of non-carrier aggregation, such as the capability of a single carrier. Among them, the capability information of the first frequency band combination may include the identifier of one or more frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination, the bandwidth class (ca-bandwidthClass) of each frequency band in the one or more frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination, the power class (power class) of the first frequency band combination, the identifier of the feature set combination (feature set combination) of the first frequency band combination, one or more frequency band pairs supporting uplink transmission channel switching included in the first frequency band combination (for example, the frequency band pair includes two frequency bands, and the identifiers of the frequency bands are indicated by bandIndexUL1 and bandIndexUL2 respectively), and the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching supported by each frequency band pair, etc. Similarly, the capability information of the second frequency band combination and the capability information of the third frequency band combination may also include the above information respectively.

[0123] In some scenarios, the capability information of the above-mentioned frequency band combination may also be referred to as information of the frequency band combination, frequency band combination, etc. For the sake of convenience, it is referred to as the capability information of the frequency band combination below.

[0124] In some examples, the capability information may also include first information, which may be used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0125] In other words, the first information may be used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as or different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0126] In other words, the first information is used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be determined according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0127] In other words, the first information may be used to indicate whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the same as or different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination.

[0128] In other words, the first information is used to indicate whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be determined according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination.

[0129] In other words, the first information is used to indicate whether, for a frequency band pair consisting of the same frequency band, the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination supports the same uplink transmission channel switching time as the first frequency band combination.

[0130] In some examples, both the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination support uplink transmission channel switching. In other words, the first information may be applicable to the frequency band combination that supports uplink transmission channel switching.

[0131] Here, the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, or the first frequency band combination is a parent frequency band combination of the second frequency band combination.

[0132] The second frequency band combination obtained by releasing at least one of the following from the first frequency band combination can be called a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination: secondary cell, uplink carrier component of secondary cell, secondary cell group or secondary uplink, etc.

[0133] In some examples, the fallback band combination may refer to a band combination obtained by deleting at least one band from a parent band combination, or in other words, the number of bands in the fallback band combination is less than the number of bands in the parent band combination.

[0134] Exemplarily, the fallback frequency band combination may be a frequency band combination obtained by reducing a frequency band from a parent frequency band combination, for example, the parent frequency band combination includes 4 frequency bands, and the fallback frequency band combination includes 3 frequency bands. For another example, the parent frequency band combination includes 3 frequency bands, and the fallback frequency band combination includes 2 frequency bands.

[0135] Exemplarily, the fallback frequency band combination may be a fallback frequency band combination obtained by reducing a plurality of frequency bands from a parent frequency band combination. For example, the parent frequency band combination includes 4 frequency bands, and the fallback frequency band combination includes 2 frequency bands or 1 frequency band. For another example, the parent frequency band combination includes 3 frequency bands, and the fallback frequency band combination includes 1 frequency band.

[0136] For example, the band combination {A,B,C,D} represents a band combination including band A, band B, band C and band D. The following band combinations can be referred to as fallback band combinations of the band combination {A,B,C,D}: band combination {A,B,C}, band combination {B,C,D}, band combination {B,C} and band combination {A}, etc.

[0137] For example, the frequency band G of the frequency band combination #1{E,F,G} supports both the first component carrier and the second component carrier, and the frequency band G of the frequency band combination #2{E,F,G} only supports the first component carrier or the second component carrier, or in other words, the frequency band G of the frequency band combination #2{E,F,G} does not support the second component carrier or the first component carrier. In these cases, the frequency band combination #1{E,F,G} can also be called the parent frequency band combination of the frequency band combination #2{E,F,G}, and the frequency band combination #2{E,F,G} can also be called the fallback frequency band combination of the frequency band combination #1{E,F,G}.

[0138] In some examples, the uplink transmit channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may include one or more of the switching time of the uplink transmit channel switching of the frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmit channel switching of the frequency band combination (for example, switched UL, dual UL or Both, both means supporting both switched UL and dual UL), the frequency band identifier of the uplink transmit channel switching affecting the downlink reception, the capability of supporting uplink codebooks (for example, supporting a fully coherent codebook subset or a non-coherent codebook subset), etc.

[0139] The above-mentioned switching time may also include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor2T field), and the switching time may also include multiple of the above-mentioned three switching times.

[0140] In some examples, the above-mentioned uplink transmission channel switching may also refer to switching between a larger number of uplink transmission channels, for example, switching between 4 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels; the switching time may also indicate the switching time for switching between a larger number of uplink transmission channels, for example, the switching time for switching between 3 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels, and the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0141] In this case, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel capability of the second frequency band combination, which can be understood as: the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination is the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between the same number of transmission channels of the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination is the same, and other uplink transmission channel switching capabilities are respectively the same.

[0142] The uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the capability of the uplink transmission channel of the second frequency band combination, which can be understood as: at least one of the capabilities related to uplink transmission channel switching, such as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination and the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between the same number of transmission channels of the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination, and the switching options of the first frequency band combination and the first frequency band combination, is different.

[0143] In some examples, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination. The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between one or more frequency band pairs consisting of any two frequency bands included in the frequency band combination, and may also refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between one frequency band pair and another frequency band pair or another frequency band.

[0144] In this case, whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel capability of the second frequency band combination, or whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, can be understood as follows:

[0145] Exemplarily, the first frequency band combination includes a first frequency band pair, the second frequency band combination includes a second frequency band pair, and the first frequency band pair and the second frequency band pair consist of the same frequency band.

[0146] When the switching time (or switching capability) of the uplink transmission channel of the first frequency band pair is different from the cut-in time (or switching capability) of the uplink transmission channel of the second frequency band pair, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0147] The first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination may include one or more frequency band pairs consisting of the same frequency bands. When the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of these frequency band pairs are the same, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0148] In some examples, the capability information may also include a second frequency band combination and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0149] Exemplarily, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination may include one or more of the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, and the like.

[0150] Also exemplarily, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination may only include the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, or in other words, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination.

[0151] Similar to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the aforementioned first frequency band combination, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be understood as the switching time of one or more frequency band pairs included in the second frequency band combination.

[0152] In some examples, the aforementioned first information may also include index information, which may be used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0153] Exemplarily, a terminal device may report one or more frequency band combinations that it supports in the form of a frequency band combination set (e.g., a frequency band combination list). The frequency band combinations in the frequency band combination set may be arranged in a certain order, or in other words, each frequency band combination in the frequency band combination set has an implicitly corresponding serial number, and the above index information may refer to the serial number of each frequency band combination in the frequency band combination set.

[0154] In some examples, the aforementioned first information is also used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device, or in other words, the first information can be the aforementioned index information.

[0155] In some examples, the second frequency band combination is a plurality of frequency band combinations, and the first information may include a plurality of index information, which may be used to respectively indicate the positions of the plurality of frequency band combinations in the frequency band combination of at least one uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0156] In some examples, the first information may be included in the capability information of the first frequency band combination, or in other words, the first indication information may be reported in each frequency band combination dimension.

[0157] In some examples, the aforementioned first information may be an identification field or an identification bit, which is used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0158] Exemplarily, the first information is 1 bit, and the presence of the bit or the bit is set to {true} or the bit is set to 1, indicating that the first frequency band combination does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination cannot be determined according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination cannot be determined according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, or, for frequency band pairs consisting of the same frequency band, the frequency band pairs in the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination and the frequency band pairs in the first frequency band combination have different uplink transmission channel switching times;

[0159] This bit does not exist (default) or is set to 0, indicating that the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be determined according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be determined according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, or, for frequency band pairs composed of the same frequency band, the frequency band pairs in the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination and the frequency band pairs in the first frequency band combination have the same uplink transmission channel switching time.

[0160] By using the first information to clearly indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, it is beneficial to improve the efficiency of the network device in configuring the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and it is beneficial to reduce the probability of switching time ambiguity problems, and it is beneficial to improve the reliability of communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0161] In addition, also due to the first information, the network device does not need to perform complex information traversal operations, which is helpful to reduce the complexity of network device scheduling and configuration of terminal devices.

[0162] When the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the same fallback frequency band combination of multiple frequency band combinations are different, the use of this technical solution is beneficial to reducing decoding failures caused by inconsistent understanding of the application switching time between the terminal device and the network device.

[0163] In the case where the fallback band combination capability supported by the terminal is different from the parent band combination, this solution can effectively reduce the complexity caused by requiring the network device to blindly traverse all band combinations to determine whether the terminal device has additionally reported the fallback band combination, and then determine the configuration based on the capabilities of the reported fallback band combination. The network device can determine based on the parent band combination whether the capabilities of the parent band combination can be used to determine the configuration and scheduling method of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback band combination with a small number of bands. If the terminal device reports the first information, the network device can know that when the number of bands that need to be configured for the carrier aggregation combination is less than the band combination reported by the terminal device (or when configuring the fallback band combination), the fallback band combination should be configured with reference to other band combinations.

[0164] In addition, the network device can determine, based on the first information, that the uplink transmission channel capability of the second frequency band combination supported by the terminal device is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent frequency band combination of the second frequency band combination. In this way, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination determined by the network device is not the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. In other words, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability that is different from that of the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination, thereby increasing the flexibility of the terminal device.

[0165] In some examples, the capability information of the first frequency band combination may include the second frequency band combination and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0166] In the case where the first frequency band combination capability information includes the second frequency band combination and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination, the second frequency band combination and / or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be used to indicate that the first frequency band combination does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability. In other words, the first frequency band combination capability information includes the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination, indicating that the first frequency band combination does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0167] If the first frequency band combination capability information does not include the second frequency band combination and / or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination, or the field of the second frequency band combination and / or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination in the first frequency band combination capability information is empty, it indicates that the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0168] In some examples, the first information may include identifiers of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination, and the first information may also include a switching time for each frequency band pair included in the second frequency band combination.

[0169] Exemplarily, the frequency band identifier included in the second frequency band combination included in the first information may be a sequence number of the frequency band in a parent frequency band combination (ie, the first frequency band combination) of the second frequency band combination.

[0170] In some examples, the second frequency band combination may be multiple frequency band combinations, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination may include multiple frequency band combinations and uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the multiple frequency band combinations. In other words, the first information may include multiple fallback frequency band combinations of the same parent frequency band combination and uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the multiple fallback frequency band combinations.

[0171] In some examples, the aforementioned capability information may include capability information of multiple different parent frequency band combinations, and the capability information of these different parent frequency band combinations may include the aforementioned first information, or in other words, the capability information of these different parent frequency band combinations may include one or more fallback frequency band combinations and the uplink transmission channel switching capability corresponding to the fallback frequency band combination.

[0172] By including a frequency band combination different from its uplink transmission channel switching capability and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination in the capability information of the first frequency band combination, it is beneficial to improve the efficiency of the network device in configuring the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, to reduce the probability of switching time ambiguity problems, and to improve the reliability of communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0173] In addition, also due to the first information, the network device does not need to perform complex information traversal operations, which is helpful to reduce the complexity of network device scheduling and configuration of terminal devices.

[0174] When the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the same fallback frequency band combination of multiple frequency band combinations are different, the use of this technical solution is beneficial to reducing decoding failures caused by inconsistent understanding of the application switching time between the terminal device and the network device.

[0175] When the terminal device supports different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities in the fallback frequency band combination, the terminal device reports the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of different fallback frequency band combinations in the parent frequency band combination of the fallback frequency band combination, without the need to additionally report another fallback frequency band combination entity. On the one hand, it can save the signaling overhead of capability reporting, and on the other hand, it can reduce the complexity of network implementation. That is, when the network configures the carrier aggregation / dual connection combination, it can only refer to one parent frequency band combination to configure its fallback frequency band combination, without the need to refer to the capabilities of multiple frequency band combinations for configuration.

[0176] In addition, the network device can directly determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination included in the capability information of the first frequency band combination. The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is not the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. In other words, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability different from that of the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination, which increases the flexibility of the terminal device.

[0177] In some examples, the first information is also used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is a target switching time, and the target switching time can be the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time can also be the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the second frequency band combination.

[0178] In some examples, the first information may be included in the capability information of each parent frequency band combination, or in other words, the aforementioned first information may be reported in each frequency band combination dimension.

[0179] In some examples, the aforementioned capability information may include multiple first information, and the multiple first information may be used to indicate target switching times corresponding to multiple different frequency band combinations, respectively.

[0180] In some examples, the first information may include an identification field and an identification bit. For example, the first information may be an identification bit with a length of 1 bit.

[0181] By directly indicating the first information in the capability information of the first frequency band combination, the network device can determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination according to the indication information, which is beneficial to improving the efficiency of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination configured by the network device for the first frequency band combination, is beneficial to reducing the probability of switching time ambiguity problems, and is beneficial to improving the reliability of communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0182] In addition, also due to the indication information, the network device does not need to perform complex information traversal operations, which is helpful to reduce the complexity of network device scheduling and configuration of terminal devices.

[0183] When the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the same fallback frequency band combination of multiple frequency band combinations are different, the technical solution provided by this embodiment is helpful to reduce the decoding failure caused by the inconsistent understanding of the application switching time between the terminal device and the network device. In addition, it reduces the implementation complexity caused by the network device blindly traversing the frequency band combination to determine under what circumstances the maximum value should be taken for switching.

[0184] In addition, the network device can determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination according to the target switching time indicated by the first information. The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination determined by this method may not be the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. In other words, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability different from that of the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination, which increases the flexibility of the terminal device.

[0185] The above S110 and S120 provide a solution to the problem caused by inconsistent understanding of application switching time between the terminal device and the network device, that is, the terminal device sends a first message to the network device to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0186] In a possible implementation, the network device may also send indication information to the terminal device when configuring the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination for the terminal device. For example, the indication information may be called target indication information, and the target indication information may be used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is determined according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. Here, the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

[0187] Exemplarily, the target indication information indicates the identifiers of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination. In a possible implementation, the frequency band list for uplink transmission channel switching is indicated in the configuration information of uplink transmission channel switching (for example, indicated by uplinkTxSwitchingMoreBands), and the frequency band list includes the identifiers of all frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination. Exemplarily, the identifiers of the above frequency bands are indicated by the FreqBandIndicatorNR field. For example, the network device configures the carrier aggregation or dual connection combination for communication for the terminal device as {A, B, C}, that is, the service cell configured by the network device is located on the carrier of frequency bands A, B, and C. However, in the configuration information of uplink transmission channel switching, the target indication information indicates that the frequency bands for uplink transmission channel switching include A, B, C, and E. However, in communication, the network device will not schedule the uplink transmission channel switching in band E, that is, the actual communication does not occur on the carrier of band E. By indicating A, B, C, E in the configuration information of the uplink transmission channel switching, the terminal device can know that the network device schedules the uplink transmission channel switching on the combination {A, B, C} according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the {A, B, C, E} frequency band combination. In this way, the switching time ambiguity problem can be effectively avoided.

[0188] Exemplarily, the target indication information may include the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the multiple frequency band pairs included in the second frequency band combination and the first frequency band combination. After receiving the target indication information, the terminal device can determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination determined by the network device according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0189] For example, when the network device configures the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A, B, C} for the terminal device, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A, B, C} is determined according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A, B, C, E}. The above-mentioned target indication information sent by the network device to the terminal device may include: the uplink transmission channel switching time of multiple frequency band pairs (for example, (A, B), (A, C), (B, C)) included in the frequency band combination {A, B, C}.

[0190] After receiving the target indication information, the terminal device can perform corresponding operations by combining the target indication information with the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pair supported by itself. The terminal device switches the uplink transmission channel according to the configuration sent by the network device.

[0191] The network device indicates to the terminal device the configuration method of the uplink transmission channel switching of the determined fallback frequency band combination (that is, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is determined according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination). The terminal device can perform corresponding operations according to the different indication information. This technical solution is also helpful in reducing decoding failures caused by inconsistent understanding of the application switching time between the terminal device and the network device.

[0192] Figure 4 It is another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The capability information of the first frequency band combination reported by the terminal device may include information that can be used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability. This information is helpful for the network device to more efficiently determine the scheduling and / or configuration method of the terminal device.

[0193] S201, a network device sends a first capability query message, and correspondingly, a terminal device receives the first capability query message.

[0194] The first capability query information is used to request the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the first capability query information, the terminal device may report information related to its wireless access capability.

[0195] In some examples, when a terminal device establishes a relationship with a network device for the first time, the network device may send first capability query information to the terminal device.

[0196] In some examples, when the network device needs to re-query the capability information of the terminal device, or the terminal device sends a mobile registration update request carrying a capability update indication to the network device, the network device may send first capability query information to the terminal device.

[0197] S202, the terminal device sends first capability information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the first capability information.

[0198] The first capability information can be used to indicate the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the first capability information, the network device can configure and schedule the terminal device according to the wireless access capability of the terminal device. In some scenarios, the first capability information can also be called the first capability information of the terminal device or the first wireless access capability information.

[0199] Exemplarily, the first capability information may include one or more capabilities of the terminal device, such as frequency bands supported by the terminal device, frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, carrier bandwidth, number of multiple-input and multiple-output layers, or modulation orders.

[0200] In some examples, the first capability information may include information about one or more frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device. For example, information about frequency band combination #1, information about frequency band combination #2, and information about frequency band combination #3, etc. These frequency band combinations may include different numbers of frequency bands, for example, frequency band combination #1 and frequency band combination #2 may include 4 frequency bands, and frequency band combination #3 may include 3 frequency bands or 2 frequency bands, etc.

[0201] The one or more frequency band combinations may be frequency band combinations for uplink transmission channel switching. Uplink transmission channel switching may also be referred to as dynamic uplink transmission switching (dynamic UL Tx switching), uplink transmission channel switching, etc.

[0202] Exemplarily, the aforementioned frequency band combination information may include: one or more of: frequency band pair identifiers of one or more frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination, switching time of uplink transmission channel switching of one or more frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination, etc.

[0203] In some examples, the information of the above-mentioned frequency band combination can be included in the first capability information as an information unit.

[0204] Exemplarily, various information of frequency band combination #1 may be included in the capability information of frequency band combination #1. The capability information of the frequency band combination is generally used to indicate the capability of carrier aggregation or dual connectivity supported by the terminal device, and may also be used to indicate non-carrier aggregation capability, such as single carrier capability. In other words, the aforementioned first capability information may include the capability information of frequency band combination #1, and the capability information of frequency band combination #1 may include one or more of the following:

[0205] The identifiers of one or more frequency bands included in frequency band combination #1, the bandwidth class (ca-bandwidthClass) of each frequency band in the one or more frequency bands included in frequency band combination #1, the power class (power class) of frequency band combination #1, the identifier of the feature set combination (feature set combination) of frequency band combination #1, one or more frequency band pairs supporting uplink transmission channel switching included in frequency band combination #1 (for example, the frequency band pair includes two frequency bands, and the identifiers of the frequency bands are indicated by bandIndexUL1 and bandIndexUL2 respectively), or the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching supported by each frequency band pair, etc.

[0206] In the case where the first capability information includes multiple frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, the first capability information may include capability information of multiple frequency band pairs.

[0207] Exemplarily, the first capability information may include capability information of frequency band combination #1, capability information of frequency band combination #2, and capability information of frequency band combination #3, etc. The capability information of frequency band combination #2 and the capability information of frequency band combination #3 may also include information content similar to the information content included in the capability information of frequency band combination #1 mentioned above.

[0208] In some scenarios, the capability information of the above-mentioned frequency band combination may also be referred to as the information of the frequency band combination, the frequency band combination, etc. For example, the capability information of the frequency band combination #1 may also be referred to as the information of the frequency band combination #1 or the frequency band combination #1, etc. For the sake of convenience, it is referred to as the capability information of the frequency band combination below.

[0209] In some examples, the first capability information may include first indication information, and the first indication information may be used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as or different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0210] In other words, the first indication information may be used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0211] In other words, the first indication information is used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be determined according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0212] In other words, the first indication information may be used to indicate whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the same as or different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination.

[0213] In other words, the first indication information is used to indicate whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be determined according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination.

[0214] In other words, the first information is used to indicate whether, for a frequency band pair consisting of the same frequency band, the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination supports the same uplink transmission channel switching time as the first frequency band combination.

[0215] In some examples, both the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination support uplink transmission channel switching. In other words, the first indication information may be applicable to the frequency band combination that supports uplink transmission channel switching.

[0216] Here, the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, or in other words, the first frequency band combination is a parent frequency band combination of the second frequency band combination.

[0217] The second frequency band combination obtained after releasing at least one of the following from the first frequency band combination can be called a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination: secondary cell, uplink carrier component of the secondary cell, secondary cell group or secondary uplink, etc.

[0218] In some examples, the fallback band combination may refer to a band combination obtained after deleting at least one band from the parent band combination, or in other words, the number of bands in the fallback band combination is less than the number of bands in the parent band combination. For example, the parent band combination includes 4 bands, and the fallback band combination includes 3 bands.

[0219] For the relevant description of the fallback frequency band combination or the parent frequency band combination, please refer to the relevant description of S120 in the previous text, which will not be repeated here for the sake of brevity. It should be noted that the technical solution provided in this embodiment is applicable but not limited to the case where the parent frequency band combination includes 4 frequency bands and the fallback frequency band combination includes 2 or 3 frequency bands.

[0220] In some examples, the first indication information can also be used to indicate that there is at least one fallback frequency band combination among all fallback frequency band combinations of the first frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent frequency band combination.

[0221] Exemplarily, for a first frequency band combination comprising four frequency bands, which includes four different fallback frequency band combinations, the above-mentioned first indication information can be used to indicate that there is at least one fallback frequency band combination among the four different fallback frequency band combinations, and its uplink transmission channel switching capability is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0222] In some examples, the first indication information can be used to indicate that the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of all fallback frequency band combinations of the first frequency band combination are different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination. In other words, the first indication information can be used to indicate that the first frequency band combination does not include a fallback frequency band combination whose uplink transmission channel switching capability is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0223] For example, for a first frequency band combination including four frequency bands, which includes four different fallback frequency band combinations, the above-mentioned first indication information can indicate that the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of these four different fallback frequency band combinations are not the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination.

[0224] In some examples, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may include one or more of the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the frequency band identification affecting the downlink reception by the uplink transmission channel switching, or the ability to support the uplink codebook, etc.

[0225] Exemplarily, the switching options for uplink transmission channel switching may be switched UL, dual UL or Both, wherein both indicates that both switched UL and dual UL are supported.

[0226] Exemplarily, the capability of supporting an uplink codebook may be supporting a fully coherent codebook subset or a non-coherent codebook subset.

[0227] The switching time may include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor2T field), and the switching time may also include multiple of the above three switching times.

[0228] In some examples, the above-mentioned uplink transmission channel switching may also refer to switching between other larger numbers of uplink transmission channels, for example, switching between 4 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels; the switching time may also indicate the switching time for switching between other larger numbers of uplink transmission channels, for example, the switching time for switching between 3 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels, and the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0229] For the above-mentioned uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination, including one or more of the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the frequency band identification affecting the downlink reception or the ability to support the uplink codebook by the uplink transmission channel switching, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel capability of the second frequency band combination, which can be understood as: the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination is the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between the same number of transmission channels of the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination is the same, and other uplink transmission channel switching capabilities are respectively the same.

[0230] The uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the capability of the uplink transmission channel of the second frequency band combination, which can be understood as: at least one of the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination is different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between the same number of transmission channels of the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination, the switching options of the first frequency band combination and the first frequency band combination, and other capabilities related to the uplink transmission channel switching is different.

[0231] In some examples, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination. The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between one or more frequency band pairs consisting of any two frequency bands included in the frequency band combination, and may also refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between one frequency band pair and another frequency band pair or another frequency band.

[0232] In this case, whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the capability of the uplink transmission channel of the second frequency band combination, or whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination can be understood as follows.

[0233] Table 1 exemplarily provides two frequency band combinations, wherein the frequency band combination {A, B, C, D} indicates that the frequency band combination includes frequency band A, frequency band B, frequency band C and frequency band D. Similarly, the frequency band combination {A, B, C} indicates that the frequency band combination includes frequency band A, frequency band B and frequency band C.

[0234] Table 1

[0235]

[0236] If the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of any of the frequency band pairs (A,B), (A,C) and (B,C) is different from the results determined according to the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D} and the frequency band combination {A,B,C}, then the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D} is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C}.

[0237] If the switching times of the uplink transmission channel switching of the three frequency band pairs (A,B), (A,C) and (B,C) are the same as the results determined according to the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D} and the frequency band combination {A,B,C}, then the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D} is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C}.

[0238] In some examples, the first capability information may also include a second frequency band combination and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0239] Exemplarily, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination may include one or more of the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, and the like.

[0240] Also exemplarily, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination may only include the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination, or in other words, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination.

[0241] Similar to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the aforementioned first frequency band combination, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be understood as the switching time of one or more frequency band pairs included in the second frequency band combination.

[0242] For example, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A, B, C} can be understood as the switching time between the frequency band pairs (A, B), the switching time between the frequency band pairs (A, C), and the switching time between the frequency band pairs (B, C).

[0243] In some examples, the first indication information may be included in the capability information of each parent frequency band combination, or in other words, the first indication information may be reported in each frequency band combination dimension.

[0244] In some examples, the first indication information may be an identification field or an identification bit, which is used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability. The length of the identification field or the identification bit may be 1 bit or 2 bits, etc., which is not limited in this application.

[0245] Exemplarily, when the identification field or identification bit is included in the capability information of the first frequency band combination reported by the terminal device, the first frequency band combination and its fallback frequency band combination have different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities; or, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination cannot be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination cannot be determined based on the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, or, for frequency band pairs composed of the same frequency band, the frequency band pairs in the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination and the frequency band pairs in the first frequency band combination have different uplink transmission channel switching times.

[0246] In the case where the identification field or identification bit is not included in the capability information of the first frequency band combination reported by the terminal device (or is default or 0), or in the case where the identification field or identification bit in the first frequency band combination reported by the terminal device is empty, the first frequency band combination and its fallback frequency band combination have the same uplink transmission channel switching capability. Alternatively, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be determined based on the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, or, for frequency band pairs consisting of the same frequency band, the frequency band pairs in the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination and the frequency band pairs in the first frequency band combination have the same uplink transmission channel switching time.

[0247] Exemplarily, when the value of the identification field or identification bit in the capability information of the first frequency band combination reported by the terminal device is "true", the first frequency band combination and its fallback frequency band combination have different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities; or, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination cannot be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination cannot be determined based on the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, or, for frequency band pairs composed of the same frequency band, the frequency band pairs in the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination and the frequency band pairs in the first frequency band combination have different uplink transmission channel switching times.

[0248] When the value of the identification field or identification bit in the capability information of the first frequency band combination reported by the terminal device is "false", the first frequency band combination and its fallback frequency band combination have the same uplink transmission channel switching capability. Alternatively, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, or the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination can be determined based on the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, or, for a frequency band pair consisting of the same frequency band, the frequency band pair in the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination and the frequency band pair in the first frequency band combination have the same uplink transmission channel switching time.

[0249] In some examples, the aforementioned first indication information can also be used to indicate that the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination needs to be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination reported additionally.

[0250] In some examples, the aforementioned first indication information may also include index information, which may be used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0251] Exemplarily, a terminal device may report one or more frequency band combinations that it supports in the form of a frequency band combination set. The frequency band combinations in the frequency band combination set may be arranged in a certain order, or in other words, each frequency band combination in the frequency band combination set has an implicitly corresponding serial number, and the above index information may refer to the serial number of each frequency band combination in the frequency band combination set.

[0252] Exemplarily, the terminal device may report a first frequency band combination list consisting of frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, and the aforementioned index information may be used to indicate the positions of different frequency band combinations in the first frequency band combination list. For example, the index information of the first-ranked frequency band combination in the first frequency band combination list is 1, the index information of the second-ranked frequency band combination in the first frequency band combination list is 2, and so on.

[0253] Exemplarily, the terminal device may report a second frequency band combination list consisting of frequency band combinations supporting uplink transmission channel switching in the frequency band combinations it supports, and the aforementioned index information may be used to indicate the positions of different frequency band combinations in the second frequency band combination list. For example, the index information of the first-ranked frequency band combination in the second frequency band combination list is 1, the index information of the second-ranked frequency band combination in the second frequency band combination list is 2, and so on.

[0254] In some examples, there are multiple second frequency band combinations, or in other words, the aforementioned second frequency band combination is a plurality of frequency band combinations. In this case, the first indication information may include a plurality of index information, and the plurality of index information may be used to respectively indicate the positions of the plurality of frequency band combinations in the frequency band combination of at least one uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

[0255] For example, for the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,C} and the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,D} is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination {B,C,D} is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent frequency band combination. The index information of the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,C} in the frequency band combination list is 3, the index information of the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,D} in the frequency band combination list is 8, and the index information of the fallback frequency band combination {B,C,D} in the frequency band combination list is 12. The first indication information reported by the terminal device may include index information 3 and index information 8, but does not include index information 12.

[0256] In some examples, the aforementioned first indication information is also used to indicate the position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device, or in other words, the first indication information can be the aforementioned index information.

[0257] In some examples, the aforementioned first capability information may also include a band combination entity (BC entry) of the fallback band combination, or in other words, the terminal device may report a fallback band combination that is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent band combination when reporting capability information to the network device.

[0258] For example, Table 2 shows the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of two parent frequency band combinations reported by the terminal device. The two parent frequency band combinations can be respectively recorded as the parent frequency band combination {A, B, C, D} and the parent frequency band combination {A, B, C, E}, and both of these parent frequency band combinations contain 4 frequency bands.

[0259] Table 2

[0260]

[0261] The parent band combination {A,B,C,D} and the parent band combination {A,B,C,E} both contain the same band combination {A,B,C}. As the fallback band combination of the parent band combination {A,B,C,D}, the uplink transmission channel switching switching times of the three band pairs (band pairs (A,B), (A,C) and (B,C)) contained in the band combination {A,B,C} are 35us, 140us and 140us respectively. As the fallback band combination of the parent band combination {A,B,C,D}, the uplink transmission channel switching switching times of the same three band pairs contained in the band combination {A,B,C} are 140us, 35us and 140us respectively.

[0262] In the frequency band combination {A, B, C}, it is assumed that the switching time supported by the terminal device is 35us for the frequency band pair (A, B), 140us for the frequency band pair (A, C), and 140us for the frequency band pair (B, C). In this case, in the first capability information, the capability information of the frequency band combination {A, B, C, D} may not include the aforementioned first indication information, and the capability information of the frequency band combination {A, B, C, E} may include the aforementioned first indication information, and the first indication information may be used to indicate that the frequency band combination {A, B, C, E} does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability, or in other words, the first indication information may be used to indicate that the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A, B, C, E} is different from that of the frequency band combination {A, B, C}, or in other words, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A, B, C} cannot be determined based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A, B, C, E}.

[0263] As described above, in this case, the first capability information may also include the frequency band combination {A, B, C} and the capability information of the frequency band combination {A, B, C}, which may be used by the network device to determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A, B, C}.

[0264] After receiving the first capability information reported by the terminal device, if the network device needs to configure the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, since the capability information of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D} does not contain the first indication information, the network device can directly configure the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the capability information of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, that is, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of multiple frequency band pairs in the frequency band combination {A,B,C} configured by the network device is the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the corresponding frequency band pairs in the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}.

[0265] If the network device needs to configure the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,E}, since the capability information of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,E} includes the first indication information, the network device can determine the uplink transmission channel switching switching time of multiple frequency band pairs in the frequency band combination {A,B,C} according to the first indication information, which needs to be determined according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} reported additionally. In this case, the network device can determine the position of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} and its uplink transmission channel switching capability according to the first indication information or the index information included in the capability information of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,E}.

[0266] The capability information of the first frequency band combination includes first indication information, and the first indication information is used to clearly indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability. This is beneficial to improving the efficiency of the network device in configuring the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and is beneficial to ensuring that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination supported by the terminal device is consistent with the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination determined by the network device, which is beneficial to reducing the probability of switching time ambiguity and improving the reliability of communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0267] In addition, also due to the first indication information, the network device does not need to perform complex information traversal operations, which is helpful to reduce the complexity of network device scheduling and configuration of terminal devices.

[0268] When the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the same fallback frequency band combination of multiple frequency band combinations are different, the technical solution provided by this embodiment is beneficial to reducing decoding failures caused by inconsistent understanding of the application switching time by the terminal device and the network device.

[0269] In the case where the fallback band combination capability supported by the terminal is different from the parent band combination, this solution can effectively reduce the complexity caused by requiring the network device to blindly traverse all band combinations to determine whether the terminal device has additionally reported the fallback band combination, and then determine the configuration based on the reported fallback band combination capability. The network device can determine based on the parent band combination whether the capability of the parent band combination can be used to determine the configuration and scheduling method of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback band combination with a small number of bands. If the terminal device reports the first indication information, the network device can know that when the number of bands that need to be configured for the carrier aggregation combination is less than the band combination reported by the terminal device (or when configuring the fallback band combination), the fallback band combination should be configured with reference to other band combinations.

[0270] In addition, the network device can determine, based on the first information, that the uplink transmission channel capability of the second frequency band combination supported by the terminal device is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent frequency band combination of the second frequency band combination. In this way, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination determined by the network device is not the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. In other words, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability that is different from that of the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination, thereby increasing the flexibility of the terminal device.

[0271] Figure 5 This is another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The capability information of the first frequency band combination reported by the terminal device may include the second frequency band combination and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0272] S301, a network device sends a second capability query message, and correspondingly, a terminal device receives the second capability query message.

[0273] In some examples, the second capability query information is used to request the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the second capability query information, the terminal device can report information related to its wireless access capability.

[0274] In some examples, when the terminal device establishes a relationship with the network device for the first time, the network device may send second capability query information to the terminal device.

[0275] In some examples, when the network device needs to re-query the capability information of the terminal device, or the terminal device sends a mobile registration update request carrying a capability update indication to the network device, the network device may send second capability query information to the terminal device.

[0276] S302, the terminal device sends second capability information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the second capability information.

[0277] The second capability information can be used to indicate the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the second capability information, the network device can configure and schedule the terminal device according to the wireless access capability of the terminal device. In some scenarios, the second capability information can also be called the second capability information of the terminal device or the second wireless access capability information.

[0278] Exemplarily, the second capability information may include one or more of the capabilities of the terminal device, such as the frequency bands supported by the terminal device, the frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, the carrier bandwidth, the number of multiple-input and multiple-output layers, or the modulation order.

[0279] In some examples, the second capability information may include information about one or more frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, for example, information about frequency band combination #1, information about frequency band combination #2, and information about frequency band combination #3, etc. These frequency band combinations may include different numbers of frequency bands, for example, frequency band combination #1 and frequency band combination #2 may include 4 frequency bands, frequency band combination #3 may include 3 frequency bands or 2 frequency bands, etc.

[0280] The one or more frequency band combinations may be frequency band combinations for uplink transmission channel switching. Uplink transmission channel switching may also be referred to as dynamic uplink transmission switching (dynamic UL Tx switching), uplink transmission channel switching, etc.

[0281] Exemplarily, the aforementioned information of the frequency band combination may include: one or more of: frequency band pair identifiers of one or more frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination, switching time of uplink transmission channel switching of one or more frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination, etc.

[0282] In some examples, the information of the above-mentioned frequency band combination can be included in the second capability information as an information unit.

[0283] Exemplarily, various information of frequency band combination #1 may be included in the capability information of frequency band combination #1. The capability information of the frequency band combination is generally used to indicate the capability of carrier aggregation or dual connectivity supported by the terminal device, and may also be used to indicate the capability of non-carrier aggregation, such as the capability of a single carrier. In other words, the aforementioned first capability information may include the capability information of frequency band combination #1. The capability information of frequency band combination #1 may include one or more of the following:

[0284] The identifiers of one or more frequency bands included in frequency band combination #1, the bandwidth class (ca-bandwidthClass) of each frequency band in the one or more frequency bands included in frequency band combination #1, the power class (power class) of frequency band combination #1, the identifier of the feature set combination (feature set combination) of frequency band combination #1, one or more frequency band pairs supporting uplink transmission channel switching included in frequency band combination #1 (for example, the frequency band pair includes two frequency bands, and the identifiers of the frequency bands are indicated by bandIndexUL1 and bandIndexUL2 respectively), or the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching supported by each frequency band pair, etc.

[0285] In the case where the first capability information includes multiple frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, the first capability information may include capability information of multiple frequency band pairs.

[0286] Exemplarily, the first capability information may include capability information of frequency band combination #1, capability information of frequency band combination #2, and capability information of frequency band combination #3, etc. The capability information of frequency band combination #2 and the capability information of frequency band combination #3 may also include information content similar to the information content included in the capability information of frequency band combination #1 mentioned above.

[0287] In some scenarios, the capability information of the above-mentioned frequency band combination may also be referred to as the information of the frequency band combination, the frequency band combination, etc. For example, the capability information of the frequency band combination #1 may also be referred to as the information of the frequency band combination #1 or the frequency band combination #1, etc. For the sake of convenience, it is referred to as the capability information of the frequency band combination below.

[0288] In some examples, the capability information of the first frequency band combination may include the second frequency band combination and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination, the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0289] In some scenarios, the above technical solution can also be understood as that the second capability information includes the capability information of the first frequency band combination, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination may include second indication information, and the second indication information can be used to indicate the second frequency band combination and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

[0290] For example, in the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pair (A,B), the frequency band pair (A,C), and the frequency band pair (B,C) supported by the terminal device is 35us, 140us, and 140us, respectively. In the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,C}, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pair (A,B), the frequency band pair (A,C), and the frequency band pair (B,C) supported by the terminal device is 140us, 35us, and 140us, respectively.

[0291] In this case, the second indication information may include the capability of uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A, B, C}. Specifically, the second indication information may include the frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination {A, B, C} and the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching corresponding to the frequency band pairs.

[0292] In some examples, the second indication information may include identifiers of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination, and the second indication information may also include a switching time for each frequency band pair included in the second frequency band combination.

[0293] Exemplarily, the frequency band identifier included in the frequency band combination included in the second indication information may be a sequence number of the frequency band in a parent frequency band combination (ie, the first frequency band combination) of the second frequency band combination.

[0294] For example, the serial numbers of frequency band A, frequency band B, frequency band C and frequency band D in the frequency band combination {A, B, C, D} may be 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A, B, C} is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A, B, C, D}. In this case, the second indication information may include serial numbers 1, 2 and 3 to indicate the frequency bands included in the frequency band combination {A, B, C}.

[0295] Exemplarily, if a frequency band combination includes a maximum of 32 frequency bands, the frequency band identifier may be represented by a 5-bit binary number.

[0296] In the above example, the second indication information may also include the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pair (A, B), the frequency band pair (A, C) and the frequency band pair (B, C) included in the frequency band combination {A, B, C}.

[0297] In some examples, when the first capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the first capability of the first frequency band combination and only the capability of uplink transmission channel switching is different, the second capability information may include second indication information.

[0298] Here, the first capability may include one or more of a feature set combination, a carrier aggregation capability, and the like.

[0299] In the case where the first frequency band combination capability information includes the second frequency band combination and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination, the second frequency band combination and / or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination can be used to indicate that the first frequency band combination does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability. In other words, the first frequency band combination capability information includes the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination, indicating that the first frequency band combination does not support the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0300] If the first frequency band combination capability information does not include the second frequency band combination and / or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination, or the field of the second frequency band combination and / or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination in the first frequency band combination capability information is empty, it indicates that the first frequency band combination supports the fallback of the uplink transmission channel switching capability.

[0301] In some examples, both the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination support uplink transmission channel switching. In other words, the second indication information may be applicable to the frequency band combination that supports uplink transmission channel switching.

[0302] In the above, the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, or in other words, the first frequency band combination is a parent frequency band combination of the second frequency band combination.

[0303] The second frequency band combination obtained after releasing at least one of the following from the first frequency band combination can be called a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination: secondary cell, uplink carrier component of the secondary cell, secondary cell group or secondary uplink, etc.

[0304] In some examples, the fallback band combination may refer to a band combination obtained after deleting at least one band from the parent band combination, or in other words, the number of bands in the fallback band combination is less than the number of bands in the parent band combination. For example, the parent band combination includes 4 bands, and the fallback band combination includes 3 bands.

[0305] For the relevant description of the fallback frequency band combination or the parent frequency band combination, please refer to the relevant description of S120 in the previous text, which will not be repeated here for the sake of brevity. It should be noted that the technical solution provided in this embodiment is applicable but not limited to the case where the parent frequency band combination includes four frequency bands and the fallback frequency band combination includes two or three frequency bands.

[0306] In some examples, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may include one or more of the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the frequency band identification affecting the downlink reception by the uplink transmission channel switching, or the ability to support the uplink codebook, etc.

[0307] Exemplarily, the switching options for uplink transmission channel switching may be switched UL, dual UL or Both, wherein both indicates that both switched UL and dual UL are supported.

[0308] Exemplarily, the capability of supporting an uplink codebook may be supporting a full coherent codebook subset or a non-coherent codebook subset.

[0309] The switching time may include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor2T field), and the switching time may also include multiple of the above three switching times.

[0310] In some examples, the above-mentioned uplink transmission channel switching may also refer to switching between other larger numbers of uplink transmission channels, for example, switching between 4 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels; the switching time may also indicate the switching time for switching between other larger numbers of uplink transmission channels, for example, the switching time for switching between 3 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels, and the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0311] For the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the above-mentioned frequency band combination, including the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the frequency band identification affecting the downlink reception by the uplink transmission channel switching, or the ability to support the uplink codebook, etc., the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is the same as or different from the ability of the uplink transmission channel of the second frequency band combination. For the understanding, refer to the relevant description in S202 above, and for the sake of brevity, it is not repeated here.

[0312] In some examples, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination. The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between one or more frequency band pairs consisting of any two frequency bands included in the frequency band combination, and may also refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching between one frequency band pair and another frequency band pair or another frequency band.

[0313] In this case, whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel capability of the second frequency band combination, or whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, can be understood according to the relevant description in S202. For the sake of brevity, it is not described here.

[0314] In some examples, the capability information of the first frequency band combination may include multiple frequency band combinations and uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the multiple frequency band combinations.

[0315] In some examples, the aforementioned second capability information may include capability information of multiple different frequency band combinations, and the capability information of these different frequency band combinations may include the aforementioned second indication information, or in other words, the capability information of these different frequency band combinations may include one or more frequency band combinations and the uplink transmission channel switching capability corresponding to the frequency band combination. The multiple second indication information may be used to respectively indicate the fallback of multiple parent frequency band combinations that do not support the uplink transmission channel switching capability, and the multiple second indication information may also be used to indicate the fallback frequency band combinations with different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of each parent frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination.

[0316] For example, for the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,C} and the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,D} is different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent frequency band combination, and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination {B,C,D} is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the parent frequency band combination.

[0317] In this case, the capability information of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D} may include: the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} and the frequency band combination {A,B,C}, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,D} and the frequency band combination {A,B,D}, but does not include the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {B,C,D} or the frequency band combination {B,C,D}.

[0318] When the network device configures the carrier aggregation combination as the frequency band combination {A,B,C} or the frequency band combination {A,B,D}, if the network device configures and schedules the terminal device according to the capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, for the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} or the frequency band combination {A,B,D}, the network device can configure and schedule the terminal device for uplink transmission channel switching communication based on the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C} or the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {B,C,D} in the capability information of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}.

[0319] When the network device configures the carrier aggregation combination as the frequency band combination {B,C,D}, if the network device configures and schedules the terminal device according to the capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, for the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {B,C,D}, since the capability information of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D} reported by the terminal device does not include the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {B,C,D} or the frequency band combination {B,C,D}, the network device can directly configure the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {B,C,D} according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}. In other words, the network device can determine that the uplink transmission channel switching time of the frequency band combination {B,C,D} is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching time of its parent frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}.

[0320] By including the second indication information and / or a frequency band combination different from its uplink transmission channel switching capability and the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination in the capability information of the first frequency band combination, it is beneficial to improve the efficiency of uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination configured by the network device, and it is beneficial to ensure that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination supported by the terminal device is consistent with the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination determined by the network device, which is beneficial to reduce the probability of switching time ambiguity problem and improve the reliability of communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0321] In addition, also due to the second indication information, the network device does not need to perform complex information traversal operations, which is helpful to reduce the complexity of network device scheduling and configuration of terminal devices.

[0322] When the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the same fallback frequency band combination of multiple frequency band combinations are different, the technical solution provided by this embodiment is beneficial to reducing decoding failures caused by inconsistent understanding of the application switching time by the terminal device and the network device.

[0323] When the terminal device supports different uplink transmission channel switching capabilities in the fallback frequency band combination, the terminal device reports the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of different fallback frequency band combinations in the parent frequency band combination of the fallback frequency band combination, without the need to additionally report another fallback frequency band combination entity. On the one hand, it can save the signaling overhead of capability reporting, and on the other hand, it can reduce the complexity of network implementation. That is, when the network configures the carrier aggregation / dual connection combination, it can only refer to one parent frequency band combination to configure its fallback frequency band combination, without the need to refer to the capabilities of multiple frequency band combinations for configuration.

[0324] In addition, the network device can directly determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination according to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination included in the capability information of the first frequency band combination. The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is not the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. In other words, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability different from that of the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination, which increases the flexibility of the terminal device.

[0325] Figure 6 It is another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The capability information reported by the terminal device may include indication information indicating the target switching time. According to the indication information, the network device can determine the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination. The existence of the indication information is conducive to reducing the complexity of the network device configuring the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination.

[0326] S401, the network device sends a third capability query message, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third capability query message.

[0327] The third capability query information is used to request the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the third capability query information, the terminal device may report information related to its wireless access capability.

[0328] In some examples, when the terminal device establishes a relationship with the network device for the first time, the network device may send third capability query information to the terminal device.

[0329] In some examples, when the network device needs to re-query the capability information of the terminal device, or the terminal device sends a mobile registration update request carrying a capability update indication to the network device, the network device may send third capability query information to the terminal device.

[0330] S402, the terminal device sends third capability information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the third capability information.

[0331] The third capability information can be used to indicate the wireless access capability of the terminal device. After receiving the third capability information, the network device can configure and schedule the terminal device according to the wireless access capability of the terminal device. In some scenarios, the third capability information can also be called the third capability information of the terminal device or the third wireless access capability information.

[0332] Exemplarily, the third capability information may include one or more of the capabilities of the terminal device, such as the frequency bands supported by the terminal device, the frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, the carrier bandwidth, the number of multiple-input and multiple-output layers, or the modulation order.

[0333] In some examples, the third capability information may include information about one or more frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device. For example, information about frequency band combination #1, information about frequency band combination #2, and information about frequency band combination #3, etc. These frequency band combinations may include different numbers of frequency bands, for example, frequency band combination #1 and frequency band combination #2 may include 4 frequency bands, and frequency band combination #3 may include 3 frequency bands or 2 frequency bands, etc.

[0334] The one or more frequency band combinations may be frequency band combinations for uplink transmission channel switching. Uplink transmission channel switching may also be referred to as dynamic uplink transmission switching (dynamic UL Tx switching), uplink transmission channel switching, etc.

[0335] Exemplarily, the aforementioned frequency band combination information may include: one or more of: frequency band pair identifiers of one or more frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination, switching time of uplink transmission channel switching of one or more frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination, etc.

[0336] In some examples, multiple types of information of the same frequency band combination can be included in the third capability information as one information unit.

[0337] Exemplarily, various information of frequency band combination #1 may be included in the capability information of frequency band combination #1. The capability information of the frequency band combination is generally used to indicate the capability of carrier aggregation or dual connectivity supported by the terminal device, and may also be used to indicate the capability of non-carrier aggregation, such as the capability of a single carrier. In other words, the aforementioned third capability information may include the capability information of frequency band combination #1. The capability information of frequency band combination #1 may include one or more of the following:

[0338] The identifiers of one or more frequency bands included in frequency band combination #1, the bandwidth class (ca-bandwidthClass) of each frequency band in the one or more frequency bands included in frequency band combination #1, the power class (power class) of frequency band combination #1, the identifier of the feature set combination (feature set combination) of frequency band combination #1, one or more frequency band pairs supporting uplink transmission channel switching included in frequency band combination #1 (for example, the frequency band pair includes two frequency bands, and the identifiers of the frequency bands are indicated by bandIndexUL1 and bandIndexUL2 respectively), or the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching supported by each frequency band pair, etc.

[0339] In the case where the third capability information includes multiple frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, the third capability information may include capability information of the multiple frequency band combinations.

[0340] Exemplarily, the third capability information may include capability information of band combination #1, capability information of band combination #2, and capability information of band combination #3, etc. The capability information of band combination #2 and the capability information of band combination #3 may also include information content similar to the information content included in the capability information of band combination #1 mentioned above.

[0341] In some scenarios, the capability information of the above-mentioned frequency band combination may also be referred to as the information of the frequency band combination, the frequency band combination, etc. For example, the capability information of the frequency band combination #1 may also be referred to as the information of the frequency band combination #1 or the frequency band combination #1, etc. For the sake of convenience, it is referred to as the capability information of the frequency band combination below.

[0342] In some examples, the third capability information may also include third indication information, which is used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is a target switching time. The target switching time may be the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time may also be the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the second frequency band combination.

[0343] Exemplarily, the target switching time may be the longest switching time of uplink transmission channels in all frequency band pairs included in the second frequency band combination.

[0344] For example, for the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pairs (A,B), (A,C) and (B,C) in the frequency band combination reported by the terminal device is 35us, 140us and 140us respectively. For the fallback frequency band combination {A,B,C} of the frequency band combination {A,B,C,D}, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pairs (A,B), (A,C) and (B,C) supported by the terminal device is 140us, 35us and 140us respectively.

[0345] In this case, the target switching time may be the longest switching time for uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pairs (A, B), (A, C) and (B, C) included in the frequency band combination {A, B, C}, that is, 140 us.

[0346] After receiving the above indication information, the network device can determine that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination {A, B, C} is the longest switching time among the switching times of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pair (A, B), the frequency band pair (A, C) and the frequency band pair (B, C), that is, 140us. When the network device configures the frequency band combination of carrier aggregation or the frequency band combination of dual connection as the frequency band combination {A, B, C}, it can be determined that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of multiple frequency band combinations in the frequency band combination is 140us.

[0347] Exemplarily, the target switching time may be the longest switching time of uplink transmission channels among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination.

[0348] For example, for the frequency band combination {A, B, C, D}, the terminal device can report the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of multiple frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination. For example, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pairs (A, B), (A, C), (B, C), (A, D), (B, C) and (B, D) are 35us, 140us, 140us, 210us, 140us and 140us respectively.

[0349] In this case, the target switching time may be the longest switching time of uplink transmission channel switching of multiple frequency band pairs included in the frequency band combination {A, B, C, D}, that is, 210 us.

[0350] When the terminal device sends the third indication information, the network device can determine, based on the third indication information, that in all fallback frequency band combinations of the frequency band combination {A, B, C, D}, for example, the frequency band combination {A, B, C}, the frequency band combination {A, B, D} and the frequency band combination {B, C, D}, etc., the switching time for the uplink transmission channel switching of each frequency band pair supported by the terminal device is 210us, that is, the maximum value of the aforementioned 35us, 140us, 140us, 210us, 140us and 140us.

[0351] In some examples, both the first frequency band combination and the second frequency band combination support uplink transmission channel switching. In other words, the first indication information may be applicable to the frequency band combination that supports uplink transmission channel switching.

[0352] In the above, the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, or in other words, the first frequency band combination is a parent frequency band combination of the second frequency band combination.

[0353] The second frequency band combination obtained by releasing at least one of the following from the first frequency band combination can be called a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination: secondary cell, uplink carrier component of secondary cell, secondary cell group or secondary uplink, etc.

[0354] In some examples, the fallback band combination may refer to a band combination obtained after deleting at least one band from the parent band combination, or in other words, the number of bands in the fallback band combination is less than the number of bands in the parent band combination. For example, the parent band combination includes 4 bands, and the fallback band combination includes 3 bands.

[0355] For the relevant description of the fallback frequency band combination or the parent frequency band combination, please refer to the relevant description of S120 in the previous text, which will not be repeated here for the sake of brevity. It should be noted that the technical solution provided in this embodiment is applicable but not limited to the case where the parent frequency band combination includes 4 frequency bands and the fallback frequency band combination includes 2 or 3 frequency bands.

[0356] In some examples, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may include one or more of the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the frequency band identification affecting the downlink reception by the uplink transmission channel switching, or the ability to support the uplink codebook, etc.

[0357] Exemplarily, the switching options for uplink transmission channel switching may be switched UL, dual UL or Both, wherein both indicates that both switched UL and dual UL are supported.

[0358] Exemplarily, the capability of supporting an uplink codebook may be supporting a full coherent codebook subset or a non-coherent codebook subset.

[0359] The switching time may include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between one uplink transmission channel (1Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor1T field), the switching time may also include the switching time for switching between two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) and two uplink transmission channels (2Tx) (for example, indicated by the switchingPeriodFor2T field), and the switching time may also include multiple of the above three switching times.

[0360] In some examples, the above-mentioned uplink transmission channel switching may also refer to switching between other larger numbers of uplink transmission channels, for example, switching between 4 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels; the switching time may also indicate the switching time for switching between other larger numbers of uplink transmission channels, for example, the switching time for switching between 3 uplink transmission channels and another 4 uplink transmission channels, and the present application does not impose any restrictions on this.

[0361] For the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the above-mentioned frequency band combination, including the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the switching options of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination, the frequency band identification affecting the downlink reception by the uplink transmission channel switching, or the ability to support the uplink codebook, etc., the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is the same as or different from the ability of the uplink transmission channel of the second frequency band combination. For the understanding, refer to the relevant description in S202 above, and for the sake of brevity, it is not repeated here.

[0362] In some examples, the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the frequency band combination may refer to the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band combination.

[0363] In this case, whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from the uplink transmission channel capability of the second frequency band combination, or whether the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is different from the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination, can be understood according to the relevant description in S202. For the sake of brevity, it is not described here.

[0364] In some examples, the third indication information may be included in the capability information of each parent frequency band combination, or in other words, the third indication information may be reported in each frequency band combination dimension.

[0365] In some examples, the aforementioned third capability information may include multiple third indication information, and the multiple third indication information may be used to respectively indicate target switching times corresponding to multiple different frequency band combinations.

[0366] Exemplarily, the third capability information includes capability information of frequency band combination #1, capability information of frequency band combination #2, and capability information of frequency band combination #3, wherein both frequency band combination #1 and frequency band combination #2 do not support fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, and frequency band combination #3 supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability. In this case, the third capability information may also include indication information #1 and indication information #2, wherein indication information #1 may be used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel of the fallback frequency band combination of frequency band combination #1 is the first target switching time, and indication information #2 may be used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel of the fallback frequency band combination of frequency band combination #2 is the second target switching time. The determination of the first target switching time and the second target switching time is similar to the determination method of the target switching time in the previous text. For details, please refer to the previous text. For the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0367] Regarding the switching time of the uplink transmission channel of the fallback frequency band combination of frequency band combination #3, since the third capability information does not include the indication information corresponding to frequency band combination #3, the network device can determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel of its fallback frequency band combination according to the uplink transmission channel switching capability of frequency band combination #3.

[0368] In some examples, the third indication information may include an identification field and an identification bit. For example, the third indication information may be an identification bit with a length of 1 bit.

[0369] By directly indicating the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching in the capability information, the network device can configure the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination according to the indication information, which is beneficial to improving the efficiency of the network device in configuring the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and is beneficial to ensuring that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination supported by the terminal device is consistent with the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination determined by the network device, which is beneficial to reducing the probability of switching time ambiguity and improving the reliability of communication between the network device and the terminal device.

[0370] In addition, also due to the indication information, the network device does not need to perform complex information traversal operations, which is helpful to reduce the complexity of network device scheduling and configuration of terminal devices.

[0371] When the uplink transmission channel switching capabilities of the same fallback frequency band combination of multiple frequency band combinations are different, the technical solution provided by this embodiment is helpful to reduce the decoding failure caused by the inconsistent understanding of the application switching time between the terminal device and the network device. In addition, it reduces the implementation complexity caused by the network device blindly traversing the frequency band combination to determine under what circumstances the maximum value should be taken for switching.

[0372] In addition, the network device can determine the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination according to the target switching time indicated by the third indication information. The switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination determined by this method may not be the same as the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the first frequency band combination. In other words, the terminal device can support an uplink transmission channel switching capability different from that of the parent frequency band combination on the fallback frequency band combination, which increases the flexibility of the terminal device.

[0373] The following are some descriptions of the relevant processes for RRC (Radio Resource Control) reconfiguration and RRC reconstruction:

[0374] RRC reconfiguration:

[0375] The purpose of RRC reconfiguration is to modify the RRC connection. For example, establish / modify / release a radio bearer (RB), or establish / modify / release a backhaul (BH) RLC channel, or establish / modify / release a Uu relay RLC channel, or establish / modify / release a PC5 relay RLC channel, or set / modify / release measurements, or add / modify / release a secondary cell (SCell) and a cell group, or add / modify / release a conditional handover configuration, etc.

[0376] In the RRC reconfiguration process, after the network device sends an RRC reconfiguration (RRCReconfiguration) message to the terminal, if the configuration is successful, the terminal replies with an RRC reconfiguration complete (RRCReconfigurationComplete) message. Alternatively, if the configuration fails, the terminal triggers the RRC reconstruction process (triggered when the prerequisites for the RRC reconstruction process are met).

[0377] Wherein, configuration success can be understood as: the terminal accepts or supports the configuration of the network device. Configuration failure can be understood as: the terminal does not accept or does not support the configuration of the network device.

[0378] RRC reconfiguration is divided into RRC reconfiguration based on incremental configuration and RRC reconfiguration based on full configuration. Among them, RRC reconfiguration based on incremental configuration means that the configuration currently sent is added, deleted, and modified based on the current RRC configuration of the terminal to obtain a new configuration. The RRC reconfiguration based on incremental configuration only needs to carry the different parts relative to the current terminal RRC configuration. When the terminal receives the incremental RRC reconfiguration, it applies the configuration in the incremental RRC reconfiguration based on the current RRC configuration. RRC reconfiguration based on full configuration (the term Full configuration) means that the RRC reconfiguration carries the configuration that is configured based on the default RRC configuration. When the terminal receives the RRC reconfiguration with full configuration, it will clear the current RRC configuration, apply the default RRC configuration, and apply the configuration in the full RRC reconfiguration based on the default RRC configuration.

[0379] RRC re-establishment:

[0380] Usually, when the RRC layer of the terminal is in the RRC connected state (RRC_CONNECTED), the NAS layer is in the configuration management (CM) connected state (CM-CONNECTED), the access stratum (AS) of the terminal is securely activated, and the signaling radio bearer (SRB) 2 and the data radio bearer (DRB) are configured, if an RRC reconfiguration failure or a radio link failure occurs, the terminal can trigger the RRC reconstruction process. Figure 7 This is a cross-site RRC reestablishment process. Exemplarily, the RRC reestablishment process may include the following steps:

[0381] S701, the terminal sends an RRC reestablishment request (RRCReestablishmentReqterminalst) message to the target network device. Correspondingly, the target network device receives the RRC reestablishment request message from the terminal.

[0382] Before step S701, the terminal may perform cell selection, and after selecting the target cell, execute step S701. The target network device is a network device to which the target cell belongs, or in other words, the target network device is used to manage the target cell.

[0383] Optionally, the target network device and the source network device may be the same or different. The source network device may be understood as the last serving gNB, or may be understood as the last serving gNB before the terminal selects the target cell.

[0384] Optionally, the RRC reestablishment request message may include the terminal identifier and the reason for requesting RRC reestablishment. The terminal identifier is used by the target network device to find the context of the terminal. The reason for requesting RRC reestablishment is used to indicate the type of abnormality that occurred in the terminal, such as reconfiguration failure, handover failure, other failures, etc.

[0385] S702: The target network device sends a Retrieve Terminal Context Req Terminal st message to the source network device. Correspondingly, the source network device receives the Retrieve Terminal Context Req Terminal st message from the target network device. The Retrieve Terminal Context Req Terminal st is used to request the context of the terminal.

[0386] S703: The source network device sends a Retrieve Terminal Context Response message to the target network device. Correspondingly, the target network device receives the Retrieve Terminal Context Response message from the source network device. The Retrieve Terminal Context Response message includes the context of the terminal.

[0387] S704: The target network device sends an RRC Reestablishment message to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC Reestablishment message from the target network device.

[0388] Among them, the RRC re-establishment message is a response message of the RRC re-establishment request message, which can be understood as a reply of the target network device to the RRC re-establishment request of the terminal.

[0389] Optionally, the RRC re-establishment message may include a next hop chaining count (nextHopChainingCount) for the terminal to update AS security parameters.

[0390] S704a, the terminal sends an RRC Reestablishment Complete message to the target network device. Correspondingly, the target network device receives the RRC Reestablishment Complete message from the terminal.

[0391] S705: The target network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC reconfiguration message from the target network device.

[0392] Exemplarily, the RRC reconfiguration message is used to perform configuration based on the previously established RRC connection between the terminal and the source network device. In other words, this RRC reconfiguration inherits the RRC connection configuration before the reestablishment.

[0393] S705a: The terminal sends an RRC reconfiguration completion message to the target network device. Correspondingly, the target network device receives the RRC reconfiguration completion message from the terminal.

[0394] It should be noted that Figure 7 This is only an exemplary description of the RRC reestablishment process. For a detailed description of the process, please refer to the relevant description in the protocol, which will not be repeated here. In addition, the above process can be understood as a process in the scenario of successful RRC reestablishment.

[0395] The problems with the current process are as follows:

[0396] After the network device sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal, the terminal needs to send an RRC reconfiguration completion message to the network device after applying the reconfiguration message. If a wireless link failure occurs between the terminal and the network device after receiving the RRC reconfiguration message, the RRC reconfiguration completion message sent by the terminal may be sent to the network device or may not be sent to the network device. If the network device receives the RRC reconfiguration completion message, the network device can know that the terminal has applied the configuration in the RRC reconfiguration message. After the terminal triggers RRC reconstruction, the network device can use the configuration corresponding to the RRC reconfiguration message as a baseline and send a new RRC reconfiguration message to update the RRC configuration of the terminal. If the network device does not receive the RRC reconfiguration completion message, the network device cannot confirm whether the terminal applies the configuration in the RRC reconfiguration message. After the terminal triggers RRC reconstruction, the network device can only fall back to the RRC configuration before the RRC reconfiguration message is sent as a baseline and send a new incremental RRC reconfiguration message to update the RRC configuration of the terminal. At this time, since the terminal has already applied the configuration in the RRC reconfiguration message, when a new incremental RRC reconfiguration message is received after RRC reconstruction, the configuration in the RRC reconfiguration message will be used as the configuration baseline to apply the configuration in the new RRC reconfiguration message to update the RRC configuration, which will cause the RRC configuration between the terminal and the base station to be misaligned.

[0397] To solve the above problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which is now introduced as follows.

[0398] S801: A terminal sends a first message to a first network device. Correspondingly, the first network device receives the first message from the terminal.

[0399] The first message is used to request to reestablish the RRC connection. Exemplarily, the first message may be an RRC Reestablishment Request message. The first message carries the terminal identifier of the terminal. The implementation of the RRC Reestablishment Request message may refer to Figure 7 The relevant instructions in the process shown will not be repeated here.

[0400] Prior to this, the terminal detected a radio link failure, thereby triggering the terminal to select a cell and send a first message. Before the terminal detected the radio link failure, the terminal received a first RRC reconfiguration message and configured the RRC parameters of the terminal according to the reconfiguration message. The time between the terminal receiving the first RRC reconfiguration message and the terminal sending the first message or detecting the radio link failure is less than a first time length.

[0401] S802: The first network device and the second network device send a context request message, requesting the second network device to send the terminal context to the first network device.

[0402] After receiving the RRC reestablishment request message, the first network device determines that the terminal belongs to the second network device according to the terminal identifier of the terminal, and then sends a context request message to the second network device, requesting the second network device to send the terminal context to the first network device.

[0403] S803. The second network device receives the context request message sent by the first network device, and sends a third message to the first network device, so that the first network device sends a full RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal according to the third message.

[0404] The second network device receives the context request message, and determines whether the first condition is met according to the context request message, wherein the first condition is: the second network device has previously sent an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal, and has not received a confirmation message for the reconfiguration message. The confirmation message may be an RRC reconfiguration completion message or a layer 2 confirmation message for the RLC (radio link control) PDU (protocol data unit) where the RRC reconfiguration message is located. If the first condition is met, the second network device sends a third message to the first network device so that the first network device sends a full RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal according to the third message. Specifically, if the second network device has previously sent an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal, and has not received a confirmation message for the reconfiguration message, then there may be a possibility that the RRC configuration of the terminal and the RRC configuration of the network device for the terminal are not aligned. Therefore, it is necessary to notify the first network device to use full RRC reconfiguration to avoid communication failures caused by misalignment of the RRC configuration after the incremental RRC reconfiguration. Because the full RRC reconfiguration is based on the default configuration and does not depend on the RRC configuration information currently used by the terminal, the problem of RRC configuration misalignment after incremental RRC reconfiguration can be avoided.

[0405] The third message includes the first indication information. Specifically, the third message is a context request confirmation message or a context request failure message, and the first indication information may be an indication that the terminal once had an unconfirmed RRC reconfiguration message, or an indication that the RRC configuration of the terminal and the RRC configuration of the network device may have a risk of misalignment, or an indication that the RRC configuration of the terminal is unavailable, or an indication that the context of the terminal exists.

[0406] S804. The first network device receives the third message, and sends a full RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal according to the third message.

[0407] The first network device sends a full RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal according to receiving the third message. Specifically, before or at the same time as sending the full RRC reconfiguration message, the first network device sends an RRC reestablishment message to the terminal.

[0408] The first network device sends a full RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal according to the third message, specifically including: the third message includes first indication information, and the first network device sends a full RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal according to the first indication information. Specifically, the third message is a context request confirmation message or a context request failure message, and the first indication information can be an indication that the terminal has an unconfirmed RRC reconfiguration message, or an indication that the RRC configuration of the terminal and the RRC configuration of the network device may be at risk of misalignment, or an indication that the RRC configuration of the terminal is unavailable, or an indication that the context of the terminal exists.

[0409] The full RRC reconfiguration message specifically refers to an RRC reconfiguration message including a full configuration indication.

[0410] After receiving the full reconfiguration message, the terminal device deletes the stored RRC configuration, applies the default configuration, and then updates the RRC configuration parameters based on the full reconfiguration message.

[0411] Based on this solution, the first network device can determine that a full RRC reconfiguration message needs to be used after RRC reconstruction, thereby avoiding the problem of context misalignment between the terminal and the network caused by using incremental RRC reconfiguration, thereby avoiding the risk of potential communication failure.

[0412] The following is some introduction about CG resources:

[0413] (1) SDT small data transmission

[0414] In order to solve the problem of excessive overhead caused by the terminal device transmitting / receiving very small data in the RRC_CONNECTED state, the terminal device can transmit / receive small data without entering the RRC_CONNECTED state. This data transmission mechanism is small data transmission (SDT). For example, the terminal device can communicate with the network device in the inactive state or the idle state.

[0415] For example, in an embodiment of the present application, data that is smaller than a preset value may be referred to as small data. For example, the preset value may be set as needed, such as 500 bytes, 300 bytes, etc. The network device and the terminal device may determine whether the data is small data based on the data tag or data type. Specifically, the network device and the terminal device may negotiate the data tag or data type according to the size of the data. For example, the data tag may include big data or small data; for another example, data whose data type is a heartbeat packet, an instant message, or periodic data is small data, and data whose data type is a file, video, or audio is big data.

[0416] (2) Introduction to time units in NR:

[0417] In a communication system, time domain resources include: hyper frames, radio frames (also called system frames, or frames for short), subframes, time slots, and symbols (for example, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols).

[0418] Among them, the duration of a frame is 10ms, and each frame can have a system frame number (system frame number, SFN) (also referred to as the index of the frame). Exemplarily, the range of SFN is 0 to 1023. For example, the period of the frame is 1024×10ms=10240ms. In the 5GNR system, a group of frames with SFN of 0 to 1023 is called a superframe (e.g., hypersystem frame, or, hyper frame), that is, a superframe is equal to 1024 frames, which is equal to 10240ms. For example, each superframe can have a superframe number (hyper system frame number, H-SFN, or, hyper frame number, HFN). For example, the network device can include H-SFN information in the system information (e.g., SIB1). For example, the H-SFN information contained in the system information can occupy 10 bits. For example, the range of H-SFN can be 0 to 1023. For example, the period of a superframe (or, superframe period) is 1024 superframes = 1024×1024×10ms. For example, the terminal device obtains the H-SFN information contained in the system information, and the terminal device can determine the H-SFN of the superframe receiving the system information. For example, when the SFN flips, the H-SFN changes. For example, the H-SFN of the next superframe = (H-SFN of the previous superframe + 1) mod 1024. For example, if the H-SFN of the previous superframe is not equal to 1023 or is less than 1023, the H-SFN of the next superframe = H-SFN of the previous superframe + 1. For example, if the H-SFN of the previous superframe is equal to 1023, the H-SFN of the next superframe = 0. For example, SFN flipping can be understood as: SFN changes from 1023 to 0. For example, 1024 superframes can be called a superframe period or a superframe period.

[0419] In addition, a frame contains 10 subframes, and the duration of each subframe is 1ms. A subframe can contain one or more time slots. It should be noted that when the sub-carrier space (SCS) is different, the number of time slots contained in each frame is different, the number of time slots contained in each subframe is different, and the duration of each time slot is also different. The details are shown in Table 3.

[0420] in, is the number of symbols contained in a time slot, is the number of time slots contained in a frame, is the number of time slots contained in a subframe, Δf = 2 u ·15 represents the subcarrier spacing, in kHz. Optionally, μ represents the index corresponding to the subcarrier spacing, which is used to indicate a subcarrier spacing.

[0421] Table 3

[0422]

[0423]

[0424] (3) Configured grant (CG)

[0425] For example, uplink resources may include dynamic grant (DG) and CG.

[0426] For example, DG is a resource that a network device dynamically schedules to a terminal device through downlink control information (DCI). In the uplink, a network device can dynamically allocate resources to a terminal device on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) (e.g., through a cell-radio network temporary identity (C-RNTI) or a configured scheduling-radio network temporary identity (CS-RNTI)). For example, when its downlink reception is enabled (e.g., when DRX is configured, this behavior is controlled by DRX), the terminal device monitors PDCCH to find possible uplink resources for uplink transmission.

[0427] For example, a CG is a resource that a network device configures for a terminal device. For example, a CG may include type 1 CG and / or type 2 CG.

[0428] For example, for type 1CG, the network device can directly provide the configured uplink authorization (for example, which can be a periodic resource) to the terminal device through RRC signaling.

[0429] For example, for type 1CG, the network device can indicate any one or more of the following CG-related items to the terminal device through RRC signaling: time reference frame (timeReferenceSFN), time domain offset (timeDomainOffset), periodicity (periodicity), time domain resource allocation (timeDomainAllocation). For example, timeDomainAllocation can indicate any one or more of the starting symbol S, length L, and PUSCH mapping type (PUSCH mapping type). For example, S is the starting symbol. For example, L is the number of symbols occupied by an uplink resource.

[0430] For example, for type 2CG, the network device can configure the CG period for the terminal device through RRC signaling, and then activate the configured uplink authorization through the CS-RNTI encrypted PDCCH.

[0431] For example, the network device may indicate the periodicity of the CG to the terminal device via RRC signaling.

[0432] For example, the network device activates the type 2 CG through DCI, and the terminal device can determine the SFN start time 、slot start time and symbol start time , as well as S and L. For example, SFN start time 、slot start time and symbol start time They are respectively the SFN, slot and symbol of the first transmission opportunity of the PUSCH where the configured uplink grant is initialized or reinitialized (or, the starting SFN, starting slot and starting symbol).

[0433] Optionally, CG resources are periodic and suitable for periodic services. In this way, network devices do not need to schedule uplink resources for terminal devices through DCI every time. For a description of CG, see Fig. 9 .

[0434] For example, CG may include / be replaced by: CG-SDT (Configured Grant-based SDT).

[0435] (4) CG Occasion

[0436] For example, the CG opportunity may be a resource unit. For example, a resource unit may include resources represented in the time domain and the frequency domain.

[0437] For example, the CG opportunity may be a PUSCH resource. For example, the CG opportunity may be a configured uplink grant.

[0438] For example, a CG opportunity may be a PUSCH resource. For example, a CG opportunity may be a configured uplink grant.

[0439] For example, the CG opportunity may be used for the terminal device to send uplink information. For example, the uplink information may include uplink data and / or uplink signaling. For example, the uplink signaling may include at least one of the following: signaling of the physical layer, control information of the medium access control (MAC) layer (e.g., MAC CE), control information of the RLC layer (e.g., control PDU), control information of the PDCP layer (e.g., control PDU), control information of the SDAP layer (e.g., controlPDU), signaling of the RRC layer, and signaling of the NAS layer.

[0440] (5) Calculation formula of CG occasion:

[0441] For example, for Type 1CG, the Nth CG opportunity is located at (or appears at) symbol (or, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula:

[0442] [(SFN×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=(timeReferenceSFN×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+timeDomainOffset×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+S+N×periodicity)modulo(1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (1-1)

[0443] For example, N≥0.

[0444] For example, numberOfSlotsPerFrame indicates the number of time slots contained in a frame.

[0445] For example, numberOfSymbolsPerSlot indicates the number of symbols contained in a time slot.

[0446] For example, slot number in the frame indicates an index of a time slot, or an index of a time slot in a frame (or a frame corresponding to a SFN).

[0447] For example, in an embodiment of the present application, the index may include / be replaced by: number, or, number.

[0448] For example, symbol number in the slot represents the index of a symbol or the index of a symbol in a time slot (or, the time slot corresponding to slot number in the frame).

[0449] For example, when the sub-carrier space (SCS) is different, the value range of slot number in the frame is also different. For example, when numberOfSymbolsPerSlot is different, the value range of symbol number in the slot is also different. For details, see Table 4. For example, symbol 10 may correspond to symbol A, symbol 11 may correspond to symbol B, symbol 12 may correspond to symbol C, and symbol 13 may correspond to symbol D.

[0450] Table 4

[0451]

[0452] For example, timeReferenceSFN indicates a SFN used to determine the offset of a resource in the time domain. For example, timeReferenceSFN may be 0 or 512.

[0453] For example, timeDomainOffset indicates the offset of the resource in the time domain relative to SFN=timeReferenceSFN. For example, the unit of timeDomainOffset is slot.

[0454] For example, S represents the index of the starting symbol.

[0455] For example, periodicity represents the period of CG. For example, the unit of periodicity is symbol.

[0456] For example, for Type 2CG, the Nth CG opportunity is located at (or appears at) symbol (or, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula:

[0457] [(SFN×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=[(SFN start time ×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+slot start time ×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+symbol start time )+N×periodicity]modulo(1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (1-2)

[0458] For example, N≥0.

[0459] For example, numberOfSlotsPerFrame indicates the number of time slots contained in a frame.

[0460] For example, numberOfSymbolsPerSlot indicates the number of symbols contained in a time slot.

[0461] For example, slot number in the frame indicates an index of a time slot, or an index of a time slot in a frame (or a frame corresponding to a SFN).

[0462] For example, symbol number in the slot represents the index of a symbol or the index of a symbol in a time slot (or, the time slot corresponding to slot number in the frame).

[0463] For example, SFN start time Indicates the starting SFN, or the SFN of the first transmission opportunity of the PUSCH where the configured uplink grant is initialized or reinitialized (or the starting SFN).

[0464] For example, slot start timeIndicates the starting slot, or the slot and symbol (or the starting slot) of the first transmission opportunity of the PUSCH where the configured uplink grant is initialized or reinitialized.

[0465] For example, symbol start time Indicates the starting symbol, or the symbol of the first transmission opportunity (or the starting symbol) of the PUSCH for which the configured uplink grant is initialized or reinitialized.

[0466] For example, periodicity represents the period of CG. For example, the unit of periodicity is symbol.

[0467] It should be noted that the above formula calculation can be performed by the network device, or by the terminal device, or by both the network device and the terminal device. Exemplarily, the position of the CG opportunity (or, CG occasion) can be calculated by the MAC entity of the network device, or by the MAC entity of the terminal device. It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0468] For example, the period of CG supported by different subcarrier spacings SCS may be different. For example, Table 5 shows the CG periods corresponding to 5 subcarrier spacings.

[0469] Table 5 CG periods corresponding to different subcarrier spacings

[0470] Subcarrier spacing (KHz) CG cycle (symbol) 15 2, 7, or (1-640)*14 30 2, 7, or (1-1280)*14 60 (regular CP length) 2, 7, or (1-2560)*14 60 (extended CP length) 2, 6, or (1 to 2560)*12 120 2, 7, or (1-5120)*14

[0471] For example, the S and L configured by the network device will ensure that a PUSCH resource does not cross a time slot. For example, the sum of S and L will not exceed 14 or 12.

[0472] Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of a CG provided in an embodiment of the present application. For example, a CG may be as follows Fig. 9 (a), a CG cycle contains a CG opportunity. For example, a block is a CG opportunity. For example, a CG may be as follows Fig. 9 (b) A CG cycle contains multiple CG opportunities.

[0473] For example, if the CG period can be divided by a superframe period (or, if a superframe period can divide the CG period), for example, the CG period in Table 5, the CG occasion (or, the first CG occasion in each CG period) calculated using formula (1-1) or (1-2) will be periodic. However, if the CG period cannot be divided by a superframe period (or, if a superframe period cannot divide the CG period), for example, the CG period may be any of the following: 61440ms (or 6 superframes), 122880ms (or 12 superframes), 307200ms (or 30 superframes), 604160ms (or 59 superframes), 1208320ms (or 118 superframes), 1802240ms (or 176 superframes), 3604480ms (or 352 superframes); the CG occasion (or, the first CG occasion in each CG period) calculated using formula (1-1) or (1-2) will no longer be periodic (or, the CG occasion calculated using formula (1-1) or (1-2) In the case of a cross-superframe period, the CG occasion (or the first CG occasion in each CG cycle) will no longer be periodic), which may cause the CG resources to not match the service, may increase the transmission delay of the service, and may also increase the power consumption of the terminal device, which is not conducive to user experience. In the case that the CG cycle cannot be divided by a superframe period, how to determine the CG occasion so that the CG resources can be matched with the service, or the calculated CG occasion (or the first CG occasion in each CG cycle) can be periodic.

[0474] It should be noted that, in the present application, H-SFN may also include / be replaced by HFN.

[0475] In the present application, "indication" may include: direct indication, or indirect indication, or explicit indication, or implicit indication.

[0476] In the present application, "include" may include: direct inclusion, or, indirect inclusion, or, explicit inclusion, or, implicit inclusion.

[0477] It should be noted that different embodiments or some steps (for example, any one or more steps) in different embodiments in the present application can be combined with each other to form new embodiments. It should be noted that some steps or any one or more steps in different embodiments may include optional steps in a certain embodiment, mandatory steps in a certain embodiment, or optional steps and mandatory steps in a certain embodiment, and the present application does not limit this.

[0478] It should be noted that, unless otherwise specified or there is no logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other.

[0479] It should be noted that the sequence of the steps in the embodiments of the present application is not limited by the present application.

[0480] It should be noted that the order of judging different conditions in the embodiments of the present application is not limited by the present application.

[0481] It should be noted that the words “after” and “when” in this application do not strictly limit the time point.

[0482] It should be noted that the nouns, terms, etc. involved in this application are merely examples and may also be other names, which are not limited in this application.

[0483] The following describes in detail a communication method 1000 provided by the present application in conjunction with a specific embodiment. Fig.10 As shown, Fig.10 A schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, the method includes at least the following steps.

[0484] S1010, the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG.

[0485] For example, the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG may include / be replaced by: the terminal device receives the configuration information of the first CG.

[0486] For example, obtaining can be understood as / replaced by: determining or receiving or decoding or parsing out.

[0487] For example, accordingly, the network device sends the configuration information of the first CG to the terminal device.

[0488] For example, the configuration information of the first CG may include information of the period of the first CG.

[0489] Optionally, the period of the first CG or the first CG is associated with an extended period or an extended period related to SDT.

[0490] Optionally, the period of the first CG may not be divisible by the superframe period or a superframe period.

[0491] For example, the first CG may include / be replaced by: first CG-SDT.

[0492] For example, the superframe period or one superframe period is equal to the first coefficient superframes, or the first coefficient×10240ms. For example, the first coefficient is the number of superframes included in the superframe period or one superframe period. For example, the first coefficient can be 1024 or other values ​​without limitation.

[0493] For example, the period of the first CG includes / is any one or more of the following: 61440ms (or 6 super frames), 122880ms (or 12 super frames), 307200ms (or 30 super frames), 604160ms (or 59 super frames), 1208320ms (or 118 super frames), 1802240ms (or 176 super frames), or 3604480ms (or 352 super frames).

[0494] Optionally, the first CG is associated with the SDT service.

[0495] Optionally, the configuration information of the first CG may include other information in addition to the period information of the first CG.

[0496] Optionally, for different CG types, such as Type1 CG or Type2 CG, the configuration information of the first CG can be different or the same without restriction.

[0497] For example, the configuration information of the first CG of Type 1CG may include, but is not limited to, any one or more of time reference frame (timeReferenceSFN), time domain offset (timeDomainOffset), period (periodicity), time domain resource allocation (timeDomainAllocation), starting symbol S, and length L. For example, timeDomainAllocation may indicate any one or more of starting symbol S, length L, and PUSCH mapping type. For example, S is the starting symbol. For example, L is the number of symbols occupied by an uplink resource.

[0498] For example, the configuration information of the first CG of Type 2CG may include but is not limited to SFN start time 、slot start time 、symbol start time , periodicity, or length L.

[0499] For example, the relevant description of the configuration information of the first CG can be referred to the above, and for the sake of simplicity, it will not be repeated here. In addition, the configuration information of the first CG may also be different from that described above, and it should be understood that this application does not limit this.

[0500] S1020, the terminal device determines the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN, the information of the first SFN and the information of the period of the first CG. Or, the terminal device determines the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first offset, the information of the first SFN and the information of the period of the first CG.

[0501] Optionally, S1030, the network device determines the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN, the information of the first SFN, and the information of the period of the first CG. Or, the network device determines the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first offset, the information of the first SFN, and the information of the period of the first CG.

[0502] For example, the first value is associated with a superframe period or one superframe period.

[0503] For example, the first value=first coefficient×second coefficient×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot.

[0504] For example, the first value may include / is / is replaced by: first coefficient×second coefficient×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot.

[0505] For example, the first value is a superframe period or the number of symbols contained in a superframe period.

[0506] For example, the first coefficient is 1024 or the number of superframes included in one superframe period.

[0507] For example, the second coefficient is 1024 or the number of frames included in one superframe.

[0508] For example, numberOfSlotsPerFrame is the number of time slots contained in a frame.

[0509] For example, numberOfSymbolsPerSlot is the number of symbols contained in a time slot.

[0510] For example, the first offset is associated with a superframe of H-SFN=0 and / or a first SFN.

[0511] For example, the first offset may be: an offset relative to a frame with SFN=first SFN, or an offset relative to a boundary / position of a frame with SFN=first SFN, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to SFN=first SFN, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to a frame with SFN=first SFN (or a boundary / position of a frame), or an offset relative to a frame with SFN=first SFN in a superframe with H-SFN=0, or an offset relative to a boundary / position of a frame with SFN=first SFN in a superframe with H-SFN=0, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to SFN=first SFN in a superframe with H-SFN=0, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to SFN=first SFN in a superframe with H-SFN=0, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to a frame with SFN=first SFN in a superframe with H-SFN=0 (or a boundary / position of a frame).

[0512] For example, the offset may include / be replaced by: a time domain offset.

[0513] For example, the boundary / position of the frame may include / be replaced by: the first symbol / subframe / time slot in the frame, or, the boundary / position of the first symbol / subframe / time slot in the frame, or, the first symbol in the first time slot / subframe in the frame, or, the boundary of the first symbol in the first time slot / subframe in the frame.

[0514] For example, a boundary can include / replace: start boundary.

[0515] For example, the position may include / be replaced by: the start position, or, the time domain position, or, the time domain start position.

[0516] Optionally, the value range of the first H-SFN is 0 to 1023. Optionally, the value of the first H-SFN is one of 0 to 1023. For example, the first H-SFN is a reference H-SFN. Optionally, the first H-SFN is 0 or 512.

[0517] Optionally, the first SFN is 0 or 512. For example, the first SFN is a reference SFN or a timeReferenceSFN.

[0518] Optional, determine, may include / replace with: determine in order.

[0519] For example, in order, can include / replace with: in sequence.

[0520] For example, in order can be understood as in the order of increasing N.

[0521] Optionally, the information of the first CG opportunity includes one or more of the following information of the first CG opportunity: superframe, frame, time slot, symbol, subframe.

[0522] Optionally, in one possible implementation, the information of the first CG opportunity includes information of the superframe, frame, time slot and symbol of the first CG opportunity.

[0523] For example, the information of the superframe, frame, time slot and symbol of the first CG opportunity may include / be replaced by: the information of the superframe, frame, time slot and symbol in which the first CG opportunity is located, or the information of the starting superframe, starting frame, starting time slot and starting symbol of the first CG opportunity, or the information of the superframe, frame, time slot and symbol at the starting position of the first CG opportunity, or the information of the superframe, frame, time slot and symbol at which the starting position of the first CG opportunity is located.

[0524] Optionally, in a first possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG may also include: information of the first H-SFN and information of the first SFN.

[0525] Optionally, for the first possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG does not include: information on the first offset.

[0526] Optionally, for the first possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG may also include: information of the second offset.

[0527] Optionally, the second offset is associated with the first SFN.

[0528] For example, the second offset may be: an offset relative to a frame where SFN=the first SFN, or an offset relative to a boundary / position of a frame where SFN=the first SFN.

[0529] Optionally, the second offset is associated with the first H-SFN and / or the first SFN.

[0530] For example, the second offset may be: an offset relative to a frame of SFN=first SFN in a superframe of H-SFN=first H-SFN, or an offset relative to a boundary / position of a frame of SFN=first SFN in a superframe of H-SFN=first H-SFN, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to SFN=first SFN in a superframe of H-SFN=first H-SFN, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to a frame of SFN=first SFN in a superframe of H-SFN=first H-SFN (or a boundary / position of a frame), or an offset relative to a frame of SFN=first SFN, or an offset relative to a boundary / position of a frame of SFN=first SFN, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to SFN=first SFN, or an offset relative to a frame of SFN=first SFN.

[0531] Optionally, in a second possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG may also include: information on the first offset and information on the first SFN.

[0532] Optionally, for the second possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG does not include: information of the first H-SFN.

[0533] Optionally, in a third possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG may further include: information of the first SFN. And the terminal device determines the information of the first H-SFN based on the information of the first SFN and / or the first time information.

[0534] For example, the first time information includes information about the time when the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG.

[0535] Optionally, for the third possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG does not include: information on the first offset and information on the first H-SFN.

[0536] Optionally, for the third possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG may also include: information of the second offset.

[0537] For example, the terminal device determines the information of the first H-SFN according to the information of the first SFN and / or the first time information, which may include any one or more of the following:

[0538] If the information of the first SFN indicates 512, and the time when the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG is in the first half of a superframe (for example, the second superframe), the terminal device determines that the first H-SFN is H-SFN1;

[0539] If the terminal device acquires the configuration information of the first CG within the second half of a superframe (for example, the second superframe), the terminal device determines that the first H-SFN is H-SFN2; or,

[0540] If the information of the first SFN indicates 0, the terminal device determines that the first H-SFN is H-SFN2.

[0541] For example, H-SFN1 is the H-SFN of the superframe (e.g., the first superframe) before the superframe (e.g., the second superframe) in which the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG, or the H-SFN of the superframe (e.g., the first superframe) in which the network device sends the configuration information of the first CG.

[0542] For example, H-SFN2 is the H-SFN of the superframe (e.g., the second superframe) in which the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG, or the H-SFN of the superframe (e.g., the first superframe) in which the network device sends the configuration information of the first CG.

[0543] Optionally, the first CG opportunity may be / include: the Nth CG opportunity, or the N+1th CG opportunity, or the CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle, or the CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle, or the first CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle, or the first CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle.

[0544] For example, N≥0, or N≥1, or N>1. For example, N is an integer.

[0545] Optionally, the first CG opportunity may be / include: the Kth CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle, or the Kth CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle.

[0546] For example, K ≥ 1. For example, K is an integer.

[0547] Optionally, information determining the first CG timing based on the first value may include: information determining the first CG timing based on modulo (mod) the first value.

[0548] Optionally, determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, information of the first H-SFN, information of the first SFN and information of the period of the first CG may include: determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, information of the first H-SFN, information of the first SFN, information of the period of the first CG and information of the second offset.

[0549] For example, if the first CG is Type1 CG, the first CG opportunity or the Nth CG opportunity or the N+1th CG opportunity, the CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle) or the CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle) is located at (or, appears in) the symbol (or, H-SFN, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula (2-1).

[0550] [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=((timeReferenceH-SFN×1024+timeReferenceSFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+timeDomainOffset×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+S+N×periodicity)modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (2-1)

[0551] For example, H-SFN is the superframe number of the superframe in which the first CG opportunity is located.

[0552] For example, "which" can be included / replaced with: "of".

[0553] For example, SFN is the frame number of the frame in which the first CG opportunity is located.

[0554] For example, slot number in the frame is the index of the time slot, or the index of the time slot in a frame (or, the frame corresponding to the SFN), or the index of the time slot of the first CG opportunity, or the index of the time slot where the first CG opportunity is located in a frame (for example, the frame indicated by the SFN).

[0555] For example, symbol number in the slot is the index of the symbol, or the index of the symbol in a time slot (or the time slot corresponding to slot number in the frame), or the index of the symbol of the first CG opportunity, or the index of the symbol where the first CG opportunity is located in a time slot (for example, the frame indicated by slot number in the frame).

[0556] For example, timeReferenceH-SFN is the first H-SFN.

[0557] For example, timeReferenceSFN is the first SFN.

[0558] For example, timeDomainOffset is the second offset. For example, timeDomainOffset in formula (2-1) is the second offset. For example, the unit of timeDomainOffset is time slot. It should be noted that if the unit of the second offset information included in the configuration information of the first CG is not time slot, the second offset information needs to be converted into time slot for use in the formula calculation.

[0559] For example, S is the index of the starting symbol.

[0560] For example, periodicity is the period of the first CG. For example, the unit of periodicity is symbol. It should be noted that if the unit of the information of the period of the first CG included in the configuration information of the first CG is not a symbol, the information of the period of the first CG needs to be converted into symbols for use in formula calculation.

[0561] For example, if the first CG is Type2 CG, the first CG opportunity or the Nth CG opportunity or the N+1th CG opportunity, the CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle) or the CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle) is located at (or, appears in) the symbol (or, H-SFN, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula (2-2).

[0562] [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=[((timeReferenceH-SFN×1024+SFN start time )×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+slot start time ×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+symbol start time )+N×periodicity]modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (2-2)

[0563] For example, SFN start timeIndicates the starting SFN.

[0564] For example, slot start time Indicates the starting slot.

[0565] For example, symbol start time Indicates the starting symbol.

[0566] For example, if the first CG is Type1 CG, the first CG opportunity or the Nth CG opportunity or the N+1th CG opportunity, the CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle) or the CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle) is located at (or, appears in) the symbol (or, H-SFN, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula (3-1).

[0567] [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=(timeReferenceSFN×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+timeDomainOffset×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+S+N×periodicity)

[0568] modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (3-1)

[0569] For example, timeDomainOffset is the first offset. For example, timeDomainOffset in formula (2-1) is the first offset. For example, the unit of timeDomainOffset is time slot. It should be noted that if the unit of the first offset information included in the configuration information of the first CG is not time slot, the first offset information needs to be converted into time slot for use in the formula calculation.

[0570] For example, if the first CG is Type2 CG, the first CG opportunity or the Nth CG opportunity or the N+1th CG opportunity, the CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle) or the CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle) is located at (or, appears in) the symbol (or, H-SFN, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula (3-2).

[0571] [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=[(SFN start time ×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+slot start time ×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+symbol start time )+N×periodicity]modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (3-2)

[0572] Optionally, the present application may also include that if the period of the first CG or the first CG is associated with an extended period or an extended period related to SDT, the terminal device and / or the network device executes steps 1020 and / or 1030 or determines the information of the first CG timing according to steps 1020 and / or 1030.

[0573] Optionally, the present application may also include, if the period of the first CG or the first CG is not associated with the extended period or the extended period related to SDT, the terminal device and / or the network device determines the information of the first CG timing according to the prior art (or Formula 1-1 or Formula 1-1).

[0574] It should be noted that, in the present application, H-SFN can be replaced by the first parameter. For example, the first parameter is a parameter related to the superframe. For example, the first parameter can be a first counter. For example, the range of the first parameter can be 0 to (first coefficient - 1), or other ranges. The first parameter may not be H-SFN. For example, when SFN flips, the first parameter changes. For example, the first parameter of the next superframe = the first parameter of the previous superframe + 1. For example, the first parameter of the next superframe = (the first parameter of the previous superframe + 1) mod the first coefficient. For example, if the first parameter of the previous superframe is not equal to (first coefficient - 1) or less than (first coefficient - 1), the first parameter of the next superframe = the first parameter of the previous superframe + 1. For example, if the first parameter of the previous superframe is equal to (first coefficient - 1), the first parameter of the next superframe = 0. For example, SFN flipping can be understood as: SFN changes from 1023 to 0. For example, H-SFN1 can be L+0 or L. For example, H-SFN2 can be L+1. For example, L may be configured by the network device to the terminal device, or may be preconfigured, or may be predefined by a protocol, and this application does not limit this.

[0575] According to the technical solution provided in the present application, when the CG cycle cannot be divided by a superframe cycle (or, a superframe cycle cannot divide the CG cycle), the calculated CG occasion (or, the first CG occasion in each CG cycle) will be periodic (also periodic in the case of crossing superframe cycles), so that the CG resources can be matched with the service, which is beneficial to reducing the transmission delay of the service, reducing the power consumption of the terminal equipment, and improving the user experience.

[0576] Another communication method 1100 provided by the present application is described in detail below in conjunction with a specific embodiment. Fig.11 As shown, Fig.11 A schematic flowchart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application, the method includes at least the following steps.

[0577] S1110, the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG.

[0578] It should be noted that Fig.11 The contents of the embodiments shown can be referred to Fig.10 The contents in the embodiments are not repeated here.

[0579] S1120, the terminal device determines the information of the first CG timing based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN and the information of the period of the first CG.

[0580] Optionally, S1130, the network device determines the information of the first CG timing based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN and the information of the period of the first CG.

[0581] Optionally, in a possible implementation, the configuration information of the first CG may further include: information of the first SFN. And the terminal device determines the information of the first H-SFN based on the information of the first SFN and / or the first time information.

[0582] Optionally, the configuration information of the first CG does not include: information of the first H-SFN.

[0583] Optionally, the configuration information of the first CG may also include: information of a third offset.

[0584] Optionally, the third offset is associated with the first H-SFN.

[0585] For example, the third offset may be: an offset relative to a superframe where H-SFN=the first H-SFN, or an offset relative to a boundary / position of a superframe where H-SFN=the first H-SFN, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to H-SFN=0, or an offset of resources in the time domain relative to a superframe (or a boundary / position of a superframe) where H-SFN=0.

[0586] Optionally, information determining the first CG timing based on the first value may include: information determining the first CG timing based on modulo (mod) the first value.

[0587] Optionally, determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN and the information of the period of the first CG may include: determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN, the information of the period of the first CG and the information of the third offset.

[0588] For example, if the first CG is Type1 CG, the first CG opportunity or the Nth CG opportunity or the N+1th CG opportunity, the CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle) or the CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle) is located at (or, appears in) the symbol (or, H-SFN, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula (4-1).

[0589] [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=(timeReferenceH-SFN×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+timeDomainOffset×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+S+N×periodicity)modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (4-1)

[0590] For example, timeDomainOffset is the third offset. For example, timeDomainOffset in formula (4-1) is the third offset. For example, the unit of timeDomainOffset is time slot. It should be noted that if the unit of the third offset information included in the configuration information of the first CG is not time slot, the third offset information needs to be converted into time slot for use in the formula calculation.

[0591] For example, if the first CG is Type2 CG, the first CG opportunity or the Nth CG opportunity or the N+1th CG opportunity, the CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the Nth CG cycle) or the CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle (or, the first CG opportunity in the N+1th CG cycle) is located at (or, appears in) the symbol (or, H-SFN, SFN, slot, symbol) calculated according to the following formula (4-2).

[0592] [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slot number in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=[((timeReferenceH-SFN×1024+SFN start time )×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+slot start time×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+symbol start time )+N×periodicity]modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), formula (4-2)

[0593] Optionally, the present application may also include that if the period of the first CG or the first CG is associated with an extended period or an extended period related to SDT, the terminal device and / or the network device executes steps 1120 and / or 1130 or determines information about the timing of the first CG based on steps 1120 and / or 1130.

[0594] Optionally, the present application may also include, if the period of the first CG or the first CG is not associated with the extended period or the extended period related to SDT, the terminal device and / or the network device determines the information of the first CG timing according to the prior art (or Formula 1-1 or Formula 1-1).

[0595] It should be noted that, in the present application, H-SFN can be replaced by the first parameter.

[0596] According to the technical solution provided in the present application, when the CG cycle cannot be divided by a superframe cycle (or, a superframe cycle cannot divide the CG cycle), the calculated CG occasion (or, the first CG occasion in each CG cycle) will be periodic (also periodic in the case of crossing superframe cycles), so that the CG resources can be matched with the service, which is beneficial to reducing the transmission delay of the service, reducing the power consumption of the terminal equipment, and improving the user experience.

[0597] In order to improve the data transmission efficiency between terminal devices and network devices, improve the utilization of wireless resources, reduce network complexity, and improve the flexibility and efficiency of network devices in configuring wireless resources, the present application provides another communication method, which is introduced as follows.

[0598] The terminal device may send the fourth information to the network device so that the network device may determine whether the terminal device supports an uplink transmission channel switching capability different from that reported in the UE capability information. The network device may determine to configure a shorter uplink transmission channel switching time for the terminal device based on the fourth information. The implementation of this technical solution is conducive to ensuring that the understanding of the switching time between the terminal device and the network device is aligned, thereby facilitating the avoidance of bit errors or packet loss caused by misaligned understanding. In addition, the fourth information may include multiple groups of switching times for the same frequency band pair, and the network device may determine the switching time used for configuring and scheduling the uplink transmission switching based on one of them, thereby facilitating the flexibility of the network device.

[0599] S1201: The network device obtains fourth capability information.

[0600] The fourth capability information may be used to indicate the wireless access capability of the terminal device, and the fourth capability information may include the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of at least one set of frequency band pairs in the fourth frequency band combination supported by the terminal device. In some scenarios, the fourth capability information may also be referred to as the fourth capability information of the terminal device or the fourth wireless access capability information, etc.

[0601] Exemplarily, the fourth capability information may also include one or more of the capabilities of the terminal device, such as the frequency bands supported by the terminal device, the frequency band combinations supported by the terminal device, the carrier bandwidth, the number of multiple-input and multiple-output layers, or the modulation order.

[0602] In some examples, the network device may receive the fourth capability information from the terminal device. In some examples, the network device may obtain the fourth capability information from the core network device.

[0603] In some examples, the fourth capability information may be one or more of the first capability information, the second capability information, or the third capability information in the aforementioned embodiments.

[0604] It is understandable that the fourth capability information may include the sixth frequency band combination supported by the terminal device, and the fourth frequency band combination may be a fallback frequency band combination of the sixth frequency band combination. The fourth frequency band combination may be reported in the fourth capability information, or may not be displayed and reported in the fourth capability information, that is, the fourth capability information may not include the fourth frequency band combination, but only include the sixth frequency band combination. The network device may determine the capability of the fourth frequency band combination based on the sixth frequency band combination.

[0605] Exemplarily, the fourth capability information includes the sixth frequency band combination {A, B, C, D}, but does not include the fourth frequency band combination {A, B, C}. The following Table 6 exemplarily provides the fallback frequency band combination of the sixth frequency band combination - the switching time of uplink transmission switching of multiple frequency band pairs in the fourth frequency band combination.

[0606] Exemplarily, the fourth capability information may also include a fourth frequency band combination {A, B, C}.

[0607] Table 6

[0608]

[0609] S1202, the network device sends first configuration information, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first configuration information.

[0610] The first configuration information may be used to configure uplink transmission channel switching of at least one frequency band pair in the fourth frequency band combination. For ease of explanation, the at least one frequency band pair is referred to as a first frequency band pair set hereinafter. It should be understood that the first frequency band pair set may include one or more frequency band pairs. In some scenarios, uplink transmission channel switching may also be referred to as uplink transmission switching.

[0611] Exemplarily, the fourth frequency band combination may include multiple frequency bands, and the first configuration information may be used to configure uplink transmission channel switching of one or more frequency band pairs consisting of the multiple frequency bands.

[0612] The fourth frequency band combination mentioned above may be replaced by a fourth frequency band set, which is used to indicate uplink frequency bands related to uplink transmission channel switching.

[0613] For example, the fourth frequency band combination may be a frequency band combination {A, B, C}, or in other words, the fourth frequency band set related to the uplink transmission channel switching includes frequency band A, frequency band B, and frequency band C. The first configuration information may be used to configure uplink transmission switching of multiple frequency band pairs consisting of the above three frequency bands, for example, uplink transmission switching of frequency band A and frequency band B, uplink transmission switching of frequency band A and frequency band C, or uplink transmission switching of frequency band B and frequency band C. One or more of the above.

[0614] In some examples, the first configuration information may also be used to indicate a switching time for uplink transmission switching of one or more frequency band pairs included in the fourth frequency band combination.

[0615] For example, the first configuration information may be used to indicate the uplink transmission switching time of one or more frequency band pairs among the frequency band pairs (A, B), the frequency band pairs (A, C), or the frequency band pairs (B, C) as shown in Table 6.

[0616] In some examples, the first configuration information may be determined according to the fourth capability information obtained in S1201. In other words, the network device may indicate the switching time of uplink switching of one or more frequency band pairs in the fourth frequency band combination according to the aforementioned fourth capability information.

[0617] In some examples, the first configuration information may be included in an RRC reconfiguration message (RRCReconfiguration), and / or, the first configuration information may be included in an RRC recovery message (RRCResume).

[0618] S1203, the terminal device sends the fourth information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the fourth information.

[0619] In response to the first configuration information in S1202, the terminal device may send the fourth information to the network device, or in other words, the terminal device may send the fourth information to the network device according to the first configuration information.

[0620] In some examples, the fourth information is used to indicate the switching time of the uplink transmission switching of the third frequency band pair in the fourth frequency band combination supported by the terminal device, the third frequency band pair is included in the aforementioned first frequency band pair set, and the number of the third frequency band pairs can be multiple. In other words, the third frequency band pair is one or more of the one or more frequency band pairs included in the aforementioned first frequency band pair set.

[0621] In the case that there are multiple third frequency band pairs, the fourth information may be used to indicate the switching time of uplink transmission switching of the multiple frequency band pairs respectively.

[0622] In some examples, the switching time for uplink transmission switching of the third frequency band pair indicated in the fourth information may be less than (shorter than) the switching time for uplink transmission switching of the corresponding frequency band pair included in the aforementioned fourth capability information.

[0623] In this case, the terminal device can select the shorter switching time indicated in the fourth information as the switching time for the uplink transmission channel switching and use it to send uplink data. In this way, S1204 may not be executed, or the network device may not send the second configuration information to the terminal device.

[0624] Since the fourth information indicates that the terminal device can support stronger uplink transmission switching capability on the third frequency band pair, when the terminal device uses this capability to send uplink data, no bit errors or packet losses will occur due to the misalignment of the terminal device and the network device in their understanding of the switching time.

[0625] For example, compared with Table 6 in S1201, the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the frequency band pair (A, B), the frequency band pair (A, C) and the frequency band pair (B, C) indicated in the fourth information can be as shown in Table 7.

[0626] Table 7

[0627]

[0628] By comparing Table 6 and Table 7, it can be seen that the switching time of the uplink transmission switching of the frequency band pair (A, B) indicated in the fourth information is less than the switching time of the uplink transmission switching of the frequency band pair (A, B) included in the fourth capability information.

[0629] In some examples, the fourth information may be used to indicate multiple sets of switching times for the same frequency band pair.

[0630] For example, the terminal device supports multiple groups of switching times for frequency band pairs (A, B), frequency band pairs (A, C) and frequency band pairs (B, C). In this case, the fourth information can be used to indicate the switching time for the uplink transmission channel switching of multiple groups of frequency band pairs (A, B), frequency band pairs (A, C) and frequency band pairs (B, C) as shown in Table 8.

[0631] Table 8

[0632]

[0633] The network device can determine the switching time used for configuring and scheduling uplink transmission switching according to one of the multiple switching times of the same frequency band pair contained in the fourth information, thereby facilitating improving the flexibility of the network device.

[0634] Taking the two groups of uplink transmission channel switching switching times in Table 8 as an example, the network device can configure and schedule the terminal device according to the first group of switching times or the second group of switching times.

[0635] In some examples, when the terminal device supports multiple sets of switching times, the network device can determine the switching time of the frequency band pair according to the frequency band priority in the fourth frequency band combination.

[0636] For example, the network device may determine a shorter switching time for a frequency band pair with a higher priority. The priorities of different frequency bands in the frequency band combination may be determined according to the order of the different frequency bands in the frequency band combination. For example, frequency bands with higher priorities are ordered first, and frequency bands with lower priorities are ordered later. In other words, the frequency band with the highest priority in the frequency band combination is ordered first.

[0637] For example, the aforementioned first configuration information can indicate the frequency bands included in the fourth frequency band combination. The multiple frequency bands in the fourth frequency band combination are arranged in descending order of priority. The frequency band ranked in the first position has the highest priority, the frequency band ranked in the second position has the second highest priority, and so on.

[0638] Taking the frequency band combination {A, B, C} as an example, in this frequency band combination, frequency band A has the highest priority, frequency band B has the second highest priority, and frequency band C has the lowest priority. Referring to Table 8, the switching time of the frequency band pair (A, B) in the first group of switching times is shorter than the switching time of the frequency band pair (A, B) in the second group of switching times. The fourth information can be used to indicate the first group of switching times in Table 8.

[0639] Configuring and scheduling the switching time used for uplink transmission switching according to the priorities of different frequency bands in the frequency band combination is conducive to improving the utilization efficiency of communication resources, reducing the switching time of frequency band pairs with higher priorities, and thus improving system performance.

[0640] In some examples, when the terminal device supports multiple sets of switching times, the terminal device can select the switching time of the frequency band pair to be reported according to the priority of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination. For example, the terminal device can report a set of switching times with shorter switching times for frequency band pairs with higher priorities.

[0641] In other words, when the terminal device supports multiple groups of switching times, the fourth information can be used to indicate one group of switching times among multiple groups of switching times for the same frequency band pair, and the group of switching times can be determined according to the priority of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination.

[0642] The fourth information includes the switching time selected by the terminal device, which is beneficial to improving the efficiency of network device scheduling and terminal device configuration.

[0643] In some examples, the fourth information may be included in one or more of the following messages: an RRC reconfiguration complete message (RRCReconfigurationComplete), an RRC recovery complete message (RRCResumeComplete), or terminal equipment assistance information (UE assistance information).

[0644] S1204, the network device sends second configuration information, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second configuration information.

[0645] Optionally, the network device may send second configuration information to the terminal device, where the second configuration information may be used to configure uplink transmission switching of at least one frequency band pair in the fourth frequency band combination.

[0646] In some examples, after receiving the fourth information in S1203, the network device determines to schedule the terminal device according to the switching time indicated in the fourth capability information obtained in S1201, and the network device may not send the second configuration information to the terminal device. In other words, if the network device determines not to update the configuration of the uplink transmission channel switching according to the fourth information, the network device may not send the second configuration information to the terminal device.

[0647] In some examples, after receiving the fourth information in S1203, the network device may schedule the terminal device according to the switching time indicated in the fourth information, and the network device may send the second configuration information to the terminal device.

[0648] In some examples, the second configuration information may be determined based on the fourth information received in S1203.

[0649] The network device can instruct the terminal device on the switching time of the frequency band pair configured by the network device based on the fourth information sent by the terminal device, which is conducive to ensuring that the terminal device and the network device have an aligned understanding of the switching time, thereby helping to avoid bit errors or packet losses caused by misaligned understanding.

[0650] Exemplarily, when the fourth information indicates that the terminal device supports multiple groups of switching times, the network device can determine the switching time of the configured frequency band pair according to one of the multiple groups of switching times. The network configured switching time can be understood as the switching time applied when the network device schedules the uplink transmission channel switching between frequency band pairs.

[0651] One possible implementation manner is that the network device may determine the configured switching time according to the priority of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination.

[0652] Exemplarily, the network device may determine a shorter switching time for a frequency band pair with a higher priority. The priorities of different frequency bands in the frequency band combination may be determined according to the order of the different frequency bands in the frequency band combination. For details, please refer to the relevant content in S1203, which will not be repeated here for the sake of brevity.

[0653] In some examples, information about the switching time of the frequency band pairs used by the network device may be included in the second configuration information and sent to the terminal device.

[0654] The second configuration information may indicate the switching time of at least one frequency band pair selected by the network device. For example, the second configuration information may indicate that the switching time of the frequency band pair (A, B) is 35 μs, and the switching time of the frequency band pair (A, C) is 140 μs.

[0655] In some examples, the second configuration information can be used to indicate a set of switching times selected by the network device.

[0656] Taking the first group switching time and the second component switching time in Table 8 as an example, the second configuration information may include an identifier of the first group switching time or an identifier of the second group switching time. For example, the identifier of the first group switching time is 1, and the identifier of the second group switching time is 2, and the second configuration information may include the identifier 1 or the identifier 2 to indicate the first group switching time or the second group switching time.

[0657] Explicitly indicating the switching time of the network device application through the second configuration information is helpful to ensure that the terminal device and the network device have an aligned understanding of the switching time, thereby helping to avoid bit errors or packet losses caused by misaligned understanding.

[0658] In some examples, the second configuration information may not include information related to the switching time of the frequency band pair applied by the network device. In this case, after receiving the second configuration information, the terminal device may apply the switching time of the frequency band pair according to the priority of the frequency band in the frequency band combination. For example, the terminal device may give priority to a set of switching times with a shorter switching time for a frequency band pair with a higher priority.

[0659] In some examples, the second configuration information may be included in an RRC reconfiguration message and / or an RRC recovery message.

[0660] By receiving the second configuration information, the terminal device can determine whether the network device is using the switching time indicated in the fourth capability information or the switching time indicated in the fourth information, which is conducive to the terminal device to better determine the allocation of hardware resources according to the switching time configured by the network device, and is conducive to ensuring that the terminal device and the network device have an aligned understanding of the switching time, thereby helping to avoid bit errors or packet loss caused by misaligned understanding.

[0661] In one possible implementation, when the uplink transmission switching capability of the fallback frequency band combination supported by the terminal device is stronger than the uplink transmission switching capability of the same frequency band pair in its parent frequency band combination, this scheme can be used to indicate to the network device in the fourth information the stronger uplink transmission capability in the fallback frequency band combination, i.e., the shorter uplink transmission switching time.

[0662] In a possible implementation, when the uplink transmission switching capability of the fallback band combination supported by the terminal device is weaker than the uplink transmission switching capability of the same band pair in its parent band combination, that is, when the fallback band combination has a longer switching time for the same band pair, a weaker capability (longer switching time) can be reported for the parent band combination in the fourth capability information. When the network device configures the parent band combination, this solution indicates to the network device in the fourth information that the parent band combination has a stronger uplink transmission capability, that is, a shorter uplink transmission switching time. In this way, it can be ensured that the rules of capability fallback in the prior art are followed, the protocol impact is small, and the complexity of network implementation is reduced. This embodiment can also avoid the problem of switching time ambiguity. When the terminal device has different switching times for the same fallback band combination ABC in band combination ABCD and band combination ABCE (for example, the switching times of the three band pairs in ABC are 35us, 140us, 140us and 140us, 35us, 140us respectively), the terminal device can report in the capability information that ABC in ABCD and ABCE has the same weaker switching time (for example, the switching time of the three band pairs in ABC is reported to be 140us). When the network device is configured with a combination of ABC, if the terminal device supports a shorter switching time (for example, 35us, 140us, 140us and / or 140us, 35us, 140us), it can be reported to the network device through the fourth information. On the one hand, the network device can accurately know the stronger capability supported by the terminal device, and on the other hand, it can avoid transmission errors caused by the misalignment of the switching time between the terminal device and the network device.

[0663] Fig.13As shown, another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application is shown. The terminal device can send fifth information to the network device so that the network device can determine whether the terminal device supports an uplink transmission channel switching capability different from the uplink transmission channel switching capability already configured by the network device. The network device can determine to configure a stronger uplink transmission channel switching capability for the terminal device based on the fifth information. The implementation of this technical solution is conducive to ensuring that the understanding of the switching time between the terminal device and the network device is aligned, thereby facilitating the avoidance of bit errors or packet loss caused by misaligned understanding. In addition, the fifth information can include multiple groups of switching times for the same frequency band pair, and the network device can determine the switching time used for configuring and scheduling uplink transmission switching based on one of them, thereby facilitating the flexibility of the network device.

[0664] S1310, the network device sends third configuration information, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third configuration information.

[0665] The third configuration information may be used to configure uplink transmission channel switching of at least one frequency band pair in a fifth frequency band combination. The fifth frequency band combination may be a frequency band combination supported by the terminal device.

[0666] For ease of explanation, at least one frequency band pair in the fifth frequency band combination is referred to as a second frequency band pair set hereinafter. It should be understood that the second frequency band pair set may include one or more frequency band pairs.

[0667] Exemplarily, the fifth frequency band combination may include multiple frequency bands, and the third configuration information may be used to configure uplink transmission channel switching of one or more frequency band pairs consisting of the multiple frequency bands.

[0668] In some examples, the third configuration information may also be used to indicate a switching time for uplink transmission switching of one or more frequency band pairs included in the fifth frequency band combination.

[0669] In some examples, the third configuration information may be determined by the capability information of the terminal device. The capability information of the terminal device may indicate the wireless access capability of the terminal device, and the capability information of the terminal device may include the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of at least one set of frequency band pairs in the aforementioned fifth frequency band combination supported by the terminal device. In other words, the network device may indicate the switching time of the uplink switching of one or more frequency band pairs in the fifth frequency band combination according to the capability information of the aforementioned terminal device.

[0670] In some examples, the capability information of the terminal device can be determined based on one or more of the first capability information, the second capability information, or the third capability information in the aforementioned embodiments.

[0671] In some examples, the third configuration information may be included in an RRC reconfiguration message and / or an RRC recovery message.

[0672] S1320, the terminal device sends the fifth information, and correspondingly, the network device receives the fifth information.

[0673] In response to the third configuration information, the terminal device may send the fifth information to the network device, or in other words, the terminal device may send the fifth information to the network device according to the third configuration information.

[0674] In some examples, the fifth information is used to indicate the switching time of the uplink transmission switching of the fourth frequency band pair in the fifth frequency band combination supported by the terminal device, the fourth frequency band pair is included in the aforementioned second frequency band pair set, and the number of the fourth frequency band pairs can be multiple. In other words, the fourth frequency band pair is one or more of the one or more frequency band pairs included in the aforementioned second frequency band pair set.

[0675] In the case that there are multiple fourth frequency band pairs, the fifth information may be used to respectively indicate the switching time of uplink transmission switching of the multiple frequency band pairs.

[0676] In some examples, the switching time for uplink transmission switching of the fourth frequency band pair indicated in the fifth information may be less than (shorter than) the switching time for uplink transmission switching of the corresponding frequency band pair included in the aforementioned terminal device capability information.

[0677] In this case, the terminal device can select the shorter switching time indicated in the fifth information as the switching time for switching the uplink transmission channel, and use it to send uplink data.

[0678] In some examples, the fifth information may be used to indicate multiple sets of switching times for the same frequency band pair.

[0679] The network device can determine the switching time used for configuring and scheduling uplink transmission switching according to one of the multiple switching times of the same frequency band pair contained in the fifth information, thereby facilitating improving the flexibility of the network device.

[0680] In some examples, when the terminal device supports multiple sets of switching times, the network device can determine the switching time of the frequency band pair according to the frequency band priority in the fifth frequency band combination.

[0681] Exemplarily, the network device may determine a shorter switching time for a frequency band pair with a higher priority. The priorities of different frequency bands in the frequency band combination may be determined according to the order of the different frequency bands in the frequency band combination. For example, frequency bands with higher priorities are ordered first, and frequency bands with lower priorities are ordered last. In other words, the frequency band with the highest priority in the frequency band combination is ordered first, and the frequency band with the lowest priority is ordered last.

[0682] For example, the aforementioned third configuration information can indicate the frequency bands included in the fifth frequency band combination. The multiple frequency bands in the fifth frequency band combination are arranged in descending order of priority. The frequency band ranked in the first position has the highest priority, the frequency band ranked in the second position has the second highest priority, and so on.

[0683] Configuring and scheduling the switching time used for uplink transmission switching according to the priorities of different frequency bands in the frequency band combination is conducive to improving the utilization efficiency of communication resources, reducing the switching time of frequency band pairs with higher priorities, and thus improving system performance.

[0684] In some examples, the fourth information may be included in one or more of the following messages: an RRC reconfiguration complete message, an RRC recovery complete message, or terminal device assistance information.

[0685] In some examples, the network device may send fourth configuration information to the terminal device, where the fourth configuration information may be used to configure uplink transmission switching of at least one frequency band pair in a fourth frequency band combination.

[0686] In some examples, the fourth configuration information can be determined based on the aforementioned fifth information.

[0687] In some examples, the fourth configuration information may be used to indicate a set of switching times selected by the network device, and this set of switching times may determine the switching time of the application according to the priority of the frequency bands in the frequency band combination.

[0688] Above, combined Figures 3 to 13 The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail. Fig.14 and Fig.16 The device provided in the embodiments of the present application is described in detail.

[0689] Fig.14 This is a schematic block diagram of an example of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. Fig.14 As shown, the communication device 1400 includes a transceiver unit 1410 and a processing unit 1420. The transceiver unit 1410 can implement corresponding communication functions, and the processing unit 1420 is used to perform data processing so that the communication device implements the above method embodiment. The transceiver unit 1410 can also be called a communication interface or a communication unit.

[0690] Optionally, the communication device 1400 may further include a storage unit, which may be used to store instructions and / or data, and the processing unit 1420 may read the instructions and / or data in the storage unit so that the communication device implements the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0691] The communication device 1400 can be used to execute the actions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment. In this case, the communication device 1400 can be a terminal device, or a component that can be configured in the terminal device. The transceiver unit 1410 is used to execute the transceiver-related operations on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment. The storage unit is used to execute the data or instruction storage-related operations on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment. The processing unit 1420 is used to execute the processing-related operations on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment.

[0692] Alternatively, the communication device 1400 can be used to execute the actions performed by the network device in the above method embodiment. In this case, the communication device 1400 can be a network device, or a component that can be configured on a network device. The transceiver unit 1410 is used to execute the transceiver-related operations on the network device side in the above method embodiment. The storage unit is used to execute the data or instruction storage-related operations on the network device side in the above method embodiment. The processing unit 1420 is used to execute the processing-related operations on the network device side in the above method embodiment.

[0693] It should be understood that the specific process of each unit executing the above corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiment, and for the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0694] The processing unit 1420 in the above embodiment can be implemented by at least one processor or processor-related circuit. The transceiver unit 1410 can be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit. The transceiver unit 1410 can also be called a communication unit or a communication interface. The storage unit can be implemented by at least one memory.

[0695] Fig.15 A schematic block diagram of another example of a communication device 1500 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in the figure, the device 1500 includes: at least one processor 1510 and a transceiver 1520. The processor 1510 is coupled to the memory and is used to execute instructions stored in the memory to send signals and / or receive signals. Optionally, the device 1500 also includes a memory 1530 for storing instructions. Optionally, the device 1500 also includes a transceiver 1520, and the processor 1510 controls the transceiver 1520 to send signals and / or receive signals.

[0696] It should be understood that the processor 1510 and the memory 1530 may be combined into one processing device, and the processor 1510 is used to execute the program code stored in the memory 1530 to implement the above functions. In specific implementation, the memory 1530 may also be integrated into the processor 1510 or independent of the processor 1510.

[0697] It should also be understood that the transceiver 1520 may include a transceiver (or receiver) and a transmitter (or transmitter). The transceiver may further include an antenna, and the number of antennas may be one or more. The transceiver 1520 may also be a communication interface or an interface circuit.

[0698] For example, the transceiver 1520 in the device 1500 may correspond to the transceiver unit in the above embodiment, and the processor 1510 in the device 1500 may correspond to the processing unit in the above embodiment. It should be understood that the specific process of each transceiver processor executing the above corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiment, and for the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0699] Fig.16 The schematic block diagram of a chip system 1600 provided in an embodiment of the present application is as follows. The chip system 1600 (or also referred to as a processing system) includes a logic circuit 1610 and an input / output interface 1620 .

[0700] Among them, the logic circuit 1610 can be a processing circuit in the chip system 1600. The logic circuit 1610 can be coupled to the storage unit and call the instructions in the storage unit so that the chip system 1600 can implement the methods and functions of each embodiment of the present application. The input / output interface 1620 can be an input / output circuit in the chip system 1600, outputting information processed by the chip system 1600, or inputting data or signaling information to be processed into the chip system 1600 for processing.

[0701] As a solution, the chip system 1600 is used to implement the operations performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

[0702] For example, the logic circuit 1610 is used to implement the processing-related operations performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment; the input / output interface 1620 is used to implement the sending and / or receiving-related operations performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

[0703] As another solution, the chip system 1600 is used to implement the operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

[0704] For example, the logic circuit 1610 is used to implement the processing-related operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiment; the input / output interface 1620 is used to implement the sending and / or receiving-related operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiment.

[0705] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium on which computer instructions for implementing the methods executed by a communication device (such as a terminal device or a network device) in the above-mentioned method embodiments are stored.

[0706] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product, comprising instructions, which, when executed by a computer, implement the methods performed by a communication device (such as a terminal device or a network device) in the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0707] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which includes the terminal device and the network device in the above embodiments.

[0708] 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 units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0709] In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the above units is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0710] The units described above as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed on multiple network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to implement the solution provided by this application.

[0711] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0712] Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed 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.

[0713] When software is used for implementation, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loading and executing computer program instructions on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network or other programmable devices. For example, the computer can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc. The computer instruction can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from a computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instruction can be transmitted from a website site, a computer, a server or a data center by wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode to another website site, computer, server or data center.

[0714] If the functions are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be essentially or partly embodied in the form of a software product that contributes to the prior art. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes 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 methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage media include: various media that can store program codes, such as USB flash drives, mobile hard disks, read-only memories (ROM), random access memories (RAM), magnetic disks or optical disks.

[0715] The above is only a specific implementation of the present application, but the protection scope of the present application is not limited thereto. Any person skilled in the art who is familiar with the present technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the present application, which should be included in the protection scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be based on the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, using a terminal device, characterized in that: include: Receive capability query message; Send capability information, where the capability information includes first information, where the first information is used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability.

2. The communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first information is also used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, the uplink transmission channel switching capability includes the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching, and the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

3. The communication method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The capability information also includes the second frequency band combination and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

4. The communication method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that: The first information also includes index information, where the index information is used to indicate a position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

5. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The capability information includes capability information of a first frequency band combination, where the capability information of the first frequency band combination is used to indicate an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes the first information.

6. The communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, The capability information includes capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes second information and third information, the second information is used to indicate an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the third information is used to indicate an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination; The second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

7. The communication method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, The first information is also used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the target switching time, the second frequency band combination is the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time is the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination or the second frequency band combination.

8. The communication method according to any one of claims 2 to 7, characterized in that: The number of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination.

9. A communication method, applied to a network device, characterized in that: include: Send capability query message; Capability information is received, where the capability information includes first information, where the first information is used to indicate whether the first frequency band combination supports fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability.

10. The communication method according to claim 9, characterized in that: The first information is also used to indicate whether the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination is the same as the uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, the uplink transmission channel switching capability includes the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching, and the second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination.

11. The communication method according to claim 10, characterized in that: The capability information also includes the second frequency band combination and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

12. The communication method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that: The first information also includes index information, where the index information is used to indicate a position of the second frequency band combination in at least one frequency band combination for uplink transmission channel switching supported by the terminal device.

13. The communication method according to any one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that: The capability information includes capability information of a first frequency band combination, where the capability information of the first frequency band combination is used to indicate an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes the first information.

14. The communication method according to claim 9, characterized in that: The first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, The capability information includes capability information of the first frequency band combination, the capability information of the first frequency band combination includes second information and third information, the second information is used to indicate an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination, and the third information is used to indicate an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination; The second frequency band combination is a fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the first frequency band combination is different from an uplink transmission channel switching capability of the second frequency band combination.

15. The communication method according to claim 9, characterized in that: The first information indicates that the first frequency band combination does not support fallback of uplink transmission channel switching capability, The first information is also used to indicate that the switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching of the second frequency band combination is the target switching time, the second frequency band combination is the fallback frequency band combination of the first frequency band combination, and the target switching time is the longest switching time of the uplink transmission channel switching among all frequency band pairs included in the first frequency band combination or the second frequency band combination.

16. The communication method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, characterized in that: The number of frequency bands included in the second frequency band combination is less than the number of frequency bands included in the first frequency band combination.

17. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Obtain configuration information of a first configuration authorization CG, where the configuration information of the first CG includes information about a period of the first CG; Determine the information of the first CG timing based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN, the information of the first SFN and the information of the period of the first CG; or, Determine the information of the first CG timing based on the first value, the information of the first offset, the information of the first SFN, and the information of the period of the first CG; The first value is associated with a superframe period, and the first offset is associated with a superframe with H-SFN=0 and the first SFN.

18. A communication method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Sending configuration information of a first configuration authorization CG, where the configuration information of the first CG includes information about the period of the first CG; Determine the information of the first CG timing based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN, the information of the first SFN and the information of the period of the first CG; or, Determine the information of the first CG timing based on the first value, the information of the first offset, the information of the first SFN, and the information of the period of the first CG; The first value is associated with a superframe period, and the first offset is associated with a superframe with H-SFN=0 and the first SFN.

19. The communication method according to claim 17 or 18, characterized in that: The first value is associated with a superframe period, including: The first value = first coefficient × second coefficient × numberOfSlotsPerFrame × numberOfSymbolsPerSlot; or, The first value is the number of symbols contained in a superframe period; Among them, the first coefficient is 1024 or the number of superframes included in a superframe period, the second coefficient is 1024 or the number of frames included in a superframe, the numberOfSlotsPerFrame is the number of time slots included in a frame, and the numberOfSymbolsPerSlot is the number of symbols included in a time slot.

20. The communication method according to any one of claims 17 to 19, characterized in that: The one superframe period includes 1024 superframes.

21. The communication method according to any one of claims 17 to 20, characterized in that: The first offset is associated with a superframe with H-SFN=0, including: The first offset is: an offset relative to a frame in which SFN=the first SFN in a superframe in which H-SFN=0.

22. The communication method according to any one of claims 17 to 21, characterized in that: The configuration information of the first CG further includes: information of the first H-SFN and information of the first SFN; or, The configuration information of the first CG further includes: information of the first offset and information of the first SFN; or, The configuration information of the first CG further includes: information of the first SFN, and the terminal device determines the information of the first H-SFN based on the information of the first SFN and / or the first time information; Among them, the first time information includes information about the time when the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG.

23. The communication method according to any one of claims 17 to 22, characterized in that: The terminal device determines the information of the first H-SFN based on the information of the first SFN, including any one or more of the following: If the information of the first SFN indicates 512, and the time when the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG is in the first half of a superframe, the terminal device determines that the first H-SFN is H-SFN1; or, If the terminal device acquires the configuration information of the first CG in the second half of a superframe, the terminal device determines that the first H-SFN is H-SFN2; or, If the information of the first SFN indicates 0, the terminal device determines that the first H-SFN is H-SFN2; Among them, H-SFN1 is the H-SFN of the superframe before the superframe in which the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG; H-SFN2 is the H-SFN of the superframe in which the terminal device obtains the configuration information of the first CG.

24. The communication method according to any one of claims 17 to 23, characterized in that: The determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first H-SFN, the information of the first SFN and the information of the period of the first CG includes: determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the following formula: [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slotnumber in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=((timeReferenceH-SFN×1024+timeReferenceSFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+timeDomainOffset×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+S+N×periodicity) modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot), Among them, the H-SFN is the super frame number of the super frame where the first CG opportunity is located, the SFN is the frame number of the frame where the first CG opportunity is located, the slot number in the frame is the index of the time slot where the first CG opportunity is located in a frame, the symbol number in the slot is the index of the symbol where the first CG opportunity is located in a time slot, the timeReferenceH-SFN is the first H-SFN, the timeReferenceSFN is the first SFN, timeDomainOffset is the offset relative to the frame where SFN = the timeReferenceSFN, S is the index of the starting symbol, periodicity is the period of the first CG, and N≥0.

25. The communication method according to any one of claims 17 to 24, characterized in that: The determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the first value, the information of the first offset, the information of the first SFN and the information of the period of the first CG includes: determining the information of the first CG opportunity based on the following formula: [((H-SFN×1024+SFN)×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+(slotnumber in the frame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot)+symbol number in the slot]=(timeReferenceSFN×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+timeDomainOffset×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot+S+N×periodicity) modulo(1024×1024×numberOfSlotsPerFrame×numberOfSymbolsPerSlot); Among them, the H-SFN is the super frame number of the super frame where the first CG opportunity is located, the SFN is the frame number of the frame where the first CG opportunity is located, the slot number in the frame is the index of the time slot where the first CG opportunity is located in a frame, the symbol number in the slot is the index of the symbol where the first CG opportunity is located in a time slot, the timeReferenceSFN is the first SFN, timeDomainOffset is the first offset, S is the index of the starting symbol, periodicity is the period of the first CG, and N≥0.

26. The communication method according to any one of claims 17 to 25, characterized in that: The information of the first CG opportunity includes one or more of the following information: superframe, frame, time slot, symbol, and subframe.

27. A communication device, characterized in that: The apparatus comprises a unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 , or a unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 9 to 16 .

28. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A processor, wherein the processor is coupled to a memory, wherein the memory stores instructions, and when the instructions are executed by the processor, the device executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, or executes the method according to any one of claims 9 to 16.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program is executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, or to execute the method according to any one of claims 9 to 16.

30. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises a computer program code, and when the computer program code is executed by a communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 8 is implemented, or the method according to any one of claims 9 to 16 is executed.

Images