Uplink timing advance updating method and device

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention provides a method and a device for updating uplink timing advance, which are applied to a terminal, and the method comprises the following steps: when a base station is in a communication connection state, when a downlink signal sent by the base station is received, determining the time deviation between the moment when the downlink signal is actually received and the moment when the downlink signal is expected to be received; determining a first adjustment value of the uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is in positive correlation with the time deviation; and updating the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value. The real-time performance of updating the uplink timing advance can be improved, and wireless communication resources are saved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a method and a device for updating uplink timing advance. Background Art

[0002] In order to ensure the synchronization of the receiving time at the base station side, there is an uplink timing advance communication mechanism in the wireless communication network.

[0003] During the communication process, if there is relative movement between the terminal and the base station, or the surrounding environment changes, the communication scenario (communication distance, propagation path, etc.) will change, causing dynamic changes in transmission delay. Therefore, during wireless communication, it is necessary to dynamically adjust the uplink timing advance to adapt to changes in the communication scenario and ensure that uplink communication can proceed normally.

[0004] The existing uplink timing advance adjustment solution is: closed-loop adjustment. However, in the case where the communication scenario between the terminal and the base station is constantly changing, this closed-loop adjustment solution has the problem of untimely update of the uplink timing advance. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the embodiment of the present invention is to provide a method and device for updating uplink timing advance, so as to improve the real-time performance of updating uplink timing advance and save wireless communication resources. The specific technical solution is as follows:

[0006] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for updating an uplink timing advance, which is applied to a terminal, and the method includes:

[0007] When in a communication connection state with a base station, upon receiving a downlink signal sent by the base station, determining a time deviation between a time when the downlink signal is actually received and a time when the downlink signal is expected to be received;

[0008] Determining a first adjustment value of an uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation;

[0009] Based on the first adjustment value, the current uplink timing advance is updated.

[0010] Optionally, the first adjustment value is twice the time deviation; and updating the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value includes:

[0011] An updated uplink timing advance adjustment amount is determined by summing the first adjustment value and the current uplink timing advance amount.

[0012] Optionally, the expected time for receiving the first downlink signal is determined based on the following method:

[0013] The expected time for receiving the first downlink signal is determined based on the time when the second downlink signal is actually received and the preset time difference between the second downlink signal and the first downlink signal; the second downlink signal is a downlink signal before the first downlink signal.

[0014] Optionally, when not in a communication connection state with the base station, applying an initial uplink timing advance to send a random access channel signal to the base station, so that the base station determines a second adjustment value of the uplink timing advance of the terminal based on the random access channel signal, and sends a random access response carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal;

[0015] A first uplink timing advance is determined based on the second adjustment value carried in the random access response and the initial uplink timing advance, and an uplink signal is sent to the base station using the first uplink timing advance.

[0016] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides an uplink timing advance updating device, which is applied to a terminal, including:

[0017] A first determination module is used to determine the time deviation between the actual time of receiving the downlink signal and the expected time of receiving the downlink signal when receiving a downlink signal sent by the base station when the downlink signal is in a communication connection state with the base station;

[0018] A second determination module, configured to determine a first adjustment value of an uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation;

[0019] An updating module is used to update the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value.

[0020] Optionally, the first adjustment value is twice the time deviation; and the updating module is specifically configured to:

[0021] An updated uplink timing advance adjustment amount is determined by summing the first adjustment value and the current uplink timing advance amount.

[0022] Optionally, the first determining module includes:

[0023] A determination unit is used to determine the expected time to receive the first downlink signal based on the time when the second downlink signal is actually received and the preset time difference between the second downlink signal and the first downlink signal; the second downlink signal is a downlink signal before the first downlink signal.

[0024] Optionally, also include:

[0025] a sending module, configured to, when not in a communication connection state with the base station, send a random access channel signal to the base station using an initial uplink timing advance, so that the base station determines a second adjustment value of the uplink timing advance of the terminal based on the random access channel signal, and send a random access response carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal;

[0026] The third determination module is configured to determine a first uplink timing advance based on the second adjustment value carried in the random access response and the initial uplink timing advance, and use the first uplink timing advance to send an uplink signal to the base station.

[0027] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a terminal, including a processor, a communication interface, a memory, and a communication bus, wherein the processor, the communication interface, and the memory communicate with each other through the communication bus;

[0028] Memory, used to store computer programs;

[0029] The processor is used to implement any of the above-mentioned methods for updating the uplink timing advance when executing the program stored in the memory.

[0030] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the method for updating the uplink timing advance described above is implemented.

[0031] An embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute any of the above-mentioned methods for updating uplink timing advance.

[0032] Beneficial effects of the embodiments of the present invention:

[0033] The method for updating the uplink timing advance provided by an embodiment of the present invention, when a terminal and a base station are in a communication connection state, when the terminal receives a downlink signal sent by the base station, determines the time deviation between the actual moment of receiving the downlink signal and the expected moment of receiving the downlink signal, and determines a first adjustment amount based on the time deviation, and updates the current uplink timing advance amount through the first adjustment amount.

[0034] It can be seen that once the terminal detects that the downlink signal has a time deviation, that is, it indicates that the one-way transmission delay has changed, so that the terminal can directly know that the uplink timing advance needs to be adjusted, and immediately trigger the self-update of the uplink timing advance. Since in actual applications, the base station will periodically send downlink signals such as reference signals, pilot signals, and synchronization signals, and the period is extremely short, it can ensure that the terminal can obtain sufficient downlink signal samples in real time, detect the downlink time deviation in time, and quickly adjust the uplink timing advance based on this. In addition, the method for updating the uplink timing advance provided by the embodiment of the present invention adjusts the uplink timing advance as an open-loop adjustment, and there is no need for the base station to intervene in the calculation of the adjustment amount and send a timing advance adjustment command to the terminal, and the processing time for a single uplink timing advance adjustment is reduced, so it can overcome the hysteresis of the traditional closed-loop adjustment method, and the real-time performance when updating the uplink timing advance is better, so it can adapt to the dynamic changes of the communication scene in a timely manner.

[0035] In addition, the uplink timing advance is updated through open-loop adjustment, so that the terminal does not need to send an uplink Sounding signal and the base station does not need to send a timing advance adjustment command. Therefore, the update process of the uplink timing advance does not consume additional wireless communication resources and will not affect the network throughput.

[0036] Of course, it is not necessary to achieve all of the advantages described above at the same time to implement any product or method of the present invention. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other embodiments can also be obtained based on these drawings.

[0038] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the uplink and downlink timing relationship on the terminal side provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0039] Figure 2 A flow chart of a closed-loop adjustment method for uplink timing advance in the related art;

[0040] Figure 3 It is a flowchart of a method for updating uplink timing advance provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0041] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a downlink time unit provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0042] Figure 5It is a schematic diagram of the uplink and downlink timing relationship on the terminal side before and after the uplink timing advance is updated according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0043] Figure 6 It is a structural diagram of an uplink timing advance updating device provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0044] Figure 7 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of a terminal provided by an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0045] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field based on this application belong to the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0046] An important feature of uplink transmission is orthogonal multiple access of different terminals in time and frequency, that is, uplink transmissions from different terminals in the same cell do not interfere with each other.

[0047] To ensure the orthogonality of uplink transmission and avoid interference within the cell, for many terminals in the base station service network, the base station only receives the uplink signal of the terminal at the time corresponding to the expected "frame / time slot / symbol" and other time units. Therefore, the terminals in the network need to send uplink signals in advance based on the "frame / time slot / symbol" time of downlink synchronization to ensure that the time when the uplink signal arrives at the base station is aligned with the time when the base station receives the uplink signal.

[0048] From the terminal side, the essence of uplink timing advance (TA) is the difference between the time when the terminal performs uplink transmission for a certain uplink "frame / time slot / symbol" and the downlink time of the "frame / time slot / symbol" determined by the terminal through downlink synchronization. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the uplink and downlink timing relationship on the terminal side provided by an embodiment of the present invention, see Figure 1 , for example, when the uplink timing advance is applied to a subframe, at the terminal side, the uplink subframe i is T ahead of the corresponding downlink subframe i. TA .

[0049] The base station can control the time for signals from different terminals to reach the base station by appropriately controlling the uplink timing advance of each terminal. For terminals farther away from the base station, due to the larger transmission delay, they need to send uplink data earlier than terminals closer to the base station.

[0050] In actual applications, as the communication scenario changes, the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station may continue to change.

[0051] For example, if there is relative movement between the terminal and the base station, the communication distance between the terminal and the base station will change. Or, if the surrounding environment changes, the signal propagation path between the terminal and the base station will change, causing dynamic changes in the transmission delay. Therefore, during wireless communication, it is necessary to dynamically adjust the uplink timing advance to adapt to changes in communication scenarios and ensure that uplink communication can proceed normally.

[0052] In the related art, for a terminal in a connected state, a closed-loop adjustment mechanism is used to update the uplink timing advance. Figure 2 This is a flow chart of a closed-loop adjustment method for uplink timing advance in the related art, see Figure 2 The closed-loop adjustment method in the related art specifically implements the update of the uplink TA through the following steps:

[0053] S201, terminal based on TA n Transmit uplink signal.

[0054] Among them, TA n It is the uplink timing advance before updating. The uplink signal includes but is not limited to: service signal, reference signal, sounding (detection) signal, etc.

[0055] S202: The base station receives an uplink signal and measures an uplink timing deviation.

[0056] S203: The base station sends a timing advance adjustment command to the terminal.

[0057] The base station determines the uplink timing deviation of the terminal by measuring the uplink transmission of the terminal, and sends a timing advance adjustment command to the terminal based on the estimation. The timing advance adjustment command includes the adjustment amount of the uplink timing advance estimated by the base station for the terminal.

[0058] S204, the terminal adjusts the uplink timing advance.

[0059] Specifically, during the communication process, the terminal side will adjust the most recent uplink timing advance, i.e., TA n After receiving the timing advance adjustment command sent by the base station, the latest uplink timing advance is calculated according to the adjustment amount in the timing advance adjustment command, and the uplink timing advance is updated. The updated uplink timing advance can be specifically expressed as TA n+1 =TA n +TA Adjustment , where TA n+1 That is, the updated uplink timing advance, TA Adjustment That is, the adjustment amount.

[0060] S205, terminal based on TA n+1 Transmit uplink signal.

[0061] After the terminal updates the uplink timing advance, it can use the updated uplink timing advance to perform subsequent uplink data transmission.

[0062] Based on the above, it can be seen that the above closed-loop adjustment method has the following disadvantages:

[0063] First, the adjustment of the uplink timing advance is not timely.

[0064] If the uplink signal of the terminal is relatively sparse, for example, the uplink service is relatively sparse, the uplink sounding period is long, or the uplink sounding is not configured, the base station cannot receive the uplink signal and perform uplink timing deviation measurement, and cannot instruct the terminal to adjust the uplink timing advance, resulting in the adjustment frequency of the uplink timing advance being too low, which cannot adapt to the dynamic changes of the communication scenario.

[0065] In addition, it takes a period of time (round-trip transmission delay and base station processing delay) from the time the terminal transmits the uplink signal to the time the terminal receives the timing advance adjustment command, resulting in a lag in the adjustment of the uplink timing advance. If the terminal is far away from the base station (for example, satellite communication), the adjustment lag is more obvious.

[0066] Second, it consumes wireless air interface resources and affects network performance.

[0067] During the closed-loop adjustment process, the uplink Sounding signal sent by the terminal will occupy uplink wireless air interface resources, affecting the uplink throughput; the timing advance adjustment command sent by the base station to the terminal will consume downlink wireless air interface resources, affecting the downlink throughput.

[0068] In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for updating uplink timing advance. Figure 3 is a flow chart of a method for updating uplink timing advance provided by an embodiment of the present invention, see Figure 3 , the method specifically comprises the following steps:

[0069] S301, when in a communication connection state with a base station, when receiving a downlink signal sent by the base station, determining a time deviation between a time when the downlink signal is actually received and a time when the downlink signal is expected to be received.

[0070] In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal and the base station are in a communication connection state, which can be specifically understood as the terminal and the base station have completed random access. When the terminal is in a connection state, it will receive a downlink signal sent by the base station in real time. The embodiment of the present invention does not limit the scope of the downlink signal. As an example, the downlink signal may include: a service signal, a pilot signal, a reference signal, a synchronization signal, etc.

[0071] In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal determines the time difference between the time when the downlink signal is actually received and the time when the downlink signal is expected to be received. For the convenience of description, the two times are referred to as the actual receiving time and the expected receiving time, respectively. The expected receiving time is the theoretical time when the terminal estimates that the downlink signal should be received.

[0072] It should be understood that the receiving time corresponding to the downlink signal can be specifically understood as the time when the initial boundary of the time unit for carrying the downlink signal reaches the terminal. In the embodiment of the present invention, the time unit can specifically refer to a frame, a subframe, a time slot or a symbol.

[0073] Specifically, when the terminal completes initial synchronization with the base station, the terminal can predict the reception time of the downlink signal to be received, obtain the expected reception time of the downlink signal, and then combine the arrival time of the initial boundary of the time unit actually detected for the downlink signal, that is, the actual reception time, to obtain the time deviation between the actual reception time and the expected reception time. For how the terminal specifically predicts the expected reception time of the downlink signal, reference can be made to the contents of the relevant technology.

[0074] S302, determining a first adjustment value of an uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation.

[0075] As mentioned above, the mechanism of uplink timing advance is to ensure that the uplink signals sent by each terminal are aligned when they arrive at the base station when the transmission delay between each terminal and the base station is different in the cell. Therefore, the specific value of the uplink timing advance is related to the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station.

[0076] Changes in the communication scenario will cause dynamic changes in the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station. Therefore, in the communication process, the uplink timing advance of the terminal is updated. Based on the change in the transmission delay during this process, the uplink timing advance is corrected accordingly, so that when the terminal transmits uplink data based on the updated uplink timing advance, the change in the transmission delay can be compensated based on this.

[0077] In the embodiment of the present application, if the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station has not changed, the time when the terminal expects to receive the downlink signal should be consistent with the time when the downlink signal is actually received. Therefore, the time deviation determined in step S301 is specifically the change in the downlink transmission delay between the base station and the terminal. In actual application scenarios, it can be considered that the downlink transmission delay is similar to the uplink transmission delay. Therefore, in the embodiment of the present invention, the time deviation between the time when the terminal actually receives the downlink signal and the time when the terminal expects to receive the downlink signal can be understood as the change in the one-way transmission delay between the terminal and the base station.

[0078] Therefore, the adjustment value of the uplink timing advance can be determined specifically according to the time deviation, and the adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation.

[0079] Specifically, if the time deviation is larger, it indicates that the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station increases more, so a larger adjustment value should also be determined to update the uplink timing advance to ensure that the time when the uplink signal sent by the terminal arrives at the base station meets the requirements. As an example, the adjustment value can be a multiple of the time deviation, or a certain offset can be considered in the calculation process in combination with actual needs, and the adjustment value is determined on this basis in combination with the time deviation.

[0080] S303: Update the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value.

[0081] The current uplink timing advance is updated based on the first adjustment value, and the updated uplink timing advance is used for subsequent uplink data transmission, so that when the communication scenario changes, the base station can receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal in its corresponding "frame, time slot, symbol". Among them, the current uplink timing advance can be understood as the uplink timing advance used by the terminal when it last transmitted the uplink signal.

[0082] How to update the uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value may refer to the content in the existing protocol. In this process, if the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station increases, the first adjustment value is a positive value, and the uplink timing advance may be increased based on the first adjustment value; if the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station decreases, the first adjustment value is a negative value, and the uplink timing advance may be reduced based on the first adjustment value, thereby ensuring that the time when the uplink signal sent by the terminal arrives at the base station meets the requirements.

[0083] The method for updating the uplink timing advance provided by an embodiment of the present invention, when a terminal and a base station are in a communication connection state, when the terminal receives a downlink signal sent by the base station, determines the time deviation between the actual moment of receiving the downlink signal and the expected moment of receiving the downlink signal, and determines a first adjustment amount based on the time deviation, and updates the current uplink timing advance amount through the first adjustment amount.

[0084] It can be seen that once the terminal detects that the downlink signal has a time deviation, that is, it indicates that the one-way transmission delay has changed, so that the terminal can directly know that the uplink timing advance needs to be adjusted, and immediately trigger the self-update of the uplink timing advance. Since in actual applications, the base station will periodically send downlink signals such as reference signals, pilot signals, and synchronization signals, and the period is extremely short, it can ensure that the terminal can obtain sufficient downlink signal samples in real time, detect the downlink time deviation in time, and quickly adjust the uplink timing advance based on this. In addition, the method for updating the uplink timing advance provided by the embodiment of the present invention adjusts the uplink timing advance as an open-loop adjustment, and there is no need for the base station to intervene in the calculation of the adjustment amount and send a timing advance adjustment command to the terminal, and the processing time for a single uplink timing advance adjustment is reduced, so it can overcome the hysteresis of the traditional closed-loop adjustment method, and the real-time performance when updating the uplink timing advance is better, so it can adapt to the dynamic changes of the communication scene in a timely manner.

[0085] In addition, the uplink timing advance is updated through open-loop adjustment, so that the terminal does not need to send an uplink Sounding signal and the base station does not need to send a timing advance adjustment command. Therefore, the update process of the uplink timing advance does not consume additional wireless communication resources and will not affect the network throughput.

[0086] In one embodiment of the present invention, the time at which the first downlink signal is expected to be received is determined based on the following method:

[0087] The expected time for receiving the first downlink signal is determined based on the time when the second downlink signal is actually received and the preset time difference between the second downlink signal and the first downlink signal; the second downlink signal is a downlink signal before the first downlink signal.

[0088] In practical applications, the communication system usually specifies the specific time length of each time unit, the offset between time units and other related information. In other words, it can be considered that the system specifies the time difference between time units corresponding to different downlink signals. Therefore, after receiving the reference signal, the terminal can determine the preset time difference between the reference signal and a subsequent downlink signal on this basis, so as to obtain the expected reception time of the downlink signal.

[0089] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a downlink time unit provided in an embodiment of the present invention, see Figure 4 , the terminal receives the reference signal in downlink time unit i, and the reception time of the reference signal is t i , and it is necessary to predict the expected arrival time of the downlink signal carried in the downlink time unit j. If the preset time difference between the downlink time unit i and the downlink time unit j is Δt, then the expected reception time of the downlink signal is specifically t j =ti +Δt.

[0090] Therefore, the preset time difference can also be understood as the theoretical time difference between a downlink signal received by the terminal and a subsequent downlink signal according to system regulations. In other words, when the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station does not change, when the terminal receives the first downlink signal, the terminal should receive another downlink signal after the preset time difference, otherwise, it indicates that the transmission delay between the terminal and the base station has changed.

[0091] In an embodiment of the present invention, for a first downlink signal, based on the actual moment of receiving the second downlink signal and a preset time difference between the second downlink signal and the first downlink signal, the expected moment of receiving the first downlink signal is determined, so that when the time deviation between the actual receiving moment and the expected receiving moment of the downlink signal is determined on this basis, the time deviation can accurately characterize the change in the one-way transmission delay between the terminal and the base station.

[0092] In one embodiment of the present invention, the first adjustment value is twice the time deviation; and the updating of the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value includes:

[0093] The updated uplink timing advance adjustment amount is determined by summing the first adjustment value and the current uplink timing advance amount.

[0094] In other words, the terminal updates the current uplink timing advance based on the following formula:

[0095] TA n+1 =TA n +2*DL-Timing-Variation

[0096] DL-Timing-Variation represents the time deviation determined in the aforementioned step S301, TA n Indicates the current uplink timing advance, TA n+1 Indicates the updated uplink timing advance.

[0097] In the previous article Figure 1When explaining, it is mentioned that, for the terminal side, the essence of the uplink timing advance is the time offset between the start time of the received downlink time unit and the time of the corresponding uplink time unit. Therefore, in addition to compensating for the delay existing when transmitting the uplink signal, the uplink timing itself takes the start time of the downlink time unit as a reference. When both the downlink transmission delay and the uplink transmission delay themselves change, the specific first adjustment value should actually comprehensively consider the delay changes corresponding to the uplink time unit and the downlink time unit respectively. Therefore, in order to ensure the uplink synchronization effect, the first adjustment value can be specifically determined as the change in the round-trip transmission delay, that is, twice the time deviation.

[0098] The following is an explanation with specific examples. Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the uplink and downlink timing relationship on the terminal side before and after the uplink timing advance is updated according to an embodiment of the present invention, see Figure 5 , the uplink timing advance used by the terminal for uplink time unit j is specifically TA n , T.A. n That is, the current uplink timing advance, or the uplink timing advance before the update. After the terminal receives the downlink signal in downlink time unit j, if it determines that the time deviation between the actual reception time and the expected reception time of the downlink signal is DL-Timing-Variation, then based on this, the uplink timing advance is updated to TA n+1 =TA n +2*DL-Timing-Variation, so that the uplink timing advance used by the subsequent uplink time unit k compared with the downlink time unit k is specifically TA n+1 .

[0099] In an embodiment of the present invention, a change in the round-trip transmission delay is determined based on a time deviation between a time when the terminal actually receives a downlink signal and a time when the terminal expects to receive the downlink signal, that is, a change in the one-way transmission delay, and the change in the round-trip transmission delay is used as a first adjustment amount to update the current uplink timing advance. When the terminal transmits subsequent uplink signals based on the updated uplink timing advance, it can ensure that when the communication scenario changes, the base station receives the uplink signal in its corresponding "frame, time slot, symbol".

[0100] In one embodiment of the present invention, the method for updating the uplink timing advance further includes:

[0101] When not in a communication connection state with the base station, applying the initial uplink timing advance to send a random access channel signal to the base station, so that the base station determines a second adjustment value of the uplink timing advance of the terminal based on the random access channel signal, and sends a random access response carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal;

[0102] A first uplink timing advance is determined based on the second adjustment value carried in the random access response and the initial uplink timing advance, and an uplink signal is sent to the base station using the first uplink timing advance.

[0103] Based on the description in the foregoing embodiments of the present invention, it can be seen that the uplink timing advance is adjusted based on the time deviation between the actual reception time and the expected reception time of the downlink signal by the terminal, specifically to compensate for the change in the transmission delay during the communication process, so as to ensure that the adjustment of the uplink timing advance in this process can enable the base station to receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal in its corresponding "frame, time slot, symbol", and it is necessary to ensure that before the uplink timing advance is open-loop adjusted based on the above steps S301 and S303, the uplink timing advance adopted by the terminal is able to ensure the initial uplink synchronization between the terminal and the base station.

[0104] Therefore, for a terminal that has not accessed the network, it is necessary to correct the initial uplink timing advance during the random access phase of the terminal.

[0105] In this scenario, the terminal in the idle state triggers random access and sends a PRACH (Physical Random Access Channel) signal using the initial uplink timing advance, where the specific initial TA can refer to the provisions in the relevant protocol. After the terminal sends the PRACH signal, the base station detects the PRACH and measures the uplink timing deviation, calculates the second adjustment value, and then sends a random access response (RAR, Random Access Response) carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal, instructing the terminal to correct the uplink timing advance.

[0106] After receiving the RAR, the terminal corrects the initial uplink timing advance according to the second adjustment value indicated by the RAR, and uses the corrected uplink timing advance, that is, the first uplink timing advance, to perform subsequent uplink communications.

[0107] In an embodiment of the present invention, for a terminal in a non-connected state, during the random access phase of the terminal, the base station detects the PRACH signal sent by the terminal and calculates the second adjustment value, and sends a RAR carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal to instruct the terminal to correct the initial uplink timing advance, thereby ensuring the initial uplink synchronization between the base station and the terminal. Therefore, when the terminal completes random access and is in a connected state, when the terminal performs self-update of the uplink timing advance based on the time offset of the received downlink signal, it can be ensured that when the updated uplink timing advance is used for subsequent uplink signal transmission, the base station receives the uplink signal sent by the terminal in its corresponding "frame, time slot, symbol".

[0108] Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the present invention further provides an uplink timing advance updating device, which is applied to a terminal, see Figure 6 , the device comprises:

[0109] The first determination module 601 is used to determine the time deviation between the actual time of receiving the downlink signal and the expected time of receiving the downlink signal when receiving the downlink signal sent by the base station when the downlink signal is in a communication connection state with the base station;

[0110] A second determination module 602 is used to determine a first adjustment value of the uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation;

[0111] The updating module 603 is configured to update the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value.

[0112] The uplink timing advance updating device provided by the embodiment of the present invention, when the terminal and the base station are in a communication connection state, when the terminal receives a downlink signal sent by the base station, determines the time deviation between the actual moment of receiving the downlink signal and the expected moment of receiving the downlink signal, and determines a first adjustment amount based on the time deviation, and updates the current uplink timing advance amount by the first adjustment amount.

[0113] It can be seen that once the terminal detects that the downlink signal has a time deviation, that is, it indicates that the one-way transmission delay has changed, so that the terminal can directly know that the uplink timing advance needs to be adjusted, and immediately trigger the self-update of the uplink timing advance. Since in actual applications, the base station will periodically send downlink signals such as reference signals, pilot signals, and synchronization signals, and the period is extremely short, it can ensure that the terminal can obtain sufficient downlink signal samples in real time, detect the downlink time deviation in time, and quickly adjust the uplink timing advance based on this. In addition, the method for updating the uplink timing advance provided by the embodiment of the present invention adjusts the uplink timing advance as an open-loop adjustment, and there is no need for the base station to intervene in the calculation of the adjustment amount and send a timing advance adjustment command to the terminal, and the processing time for a single uplink timing advance adjustment is reduced, so it can overcome the hysteresis of the traditional closed-loop adjustment method, and the real-time performance when updating the uplink timing advance is better, so it can adapt to the dynamic changes of the communication scene in a timely manner.

[0114] In addition, the uplink timing advance is updated through open-loop adjustment, so that the terminal does not need to send an uplink Sounding signal and the base station does not need to send a timing advance adjustment command. Therefore, the update process of the uplink timing advance does not consume additional wireless communication resources and will not affect the network throughput.

[0115] In one embodiment of the present invention, the first adjustment value is twice the time deviation; the base update module 603 is specifically used for:

[0116] The updated uplink timing advance adjustment amount is determined by summing the first adjustment value and the current uplink timing advance amount.

[0117] In one embodiment of the present invention, the first determining module 601 includes:

[0118] The determination unit is used to determine the expected time of receiving the first downlink signal based on the time of actually receiving the second downlink signal and the preset time difference between the second downlink signal and the first downlink signal; the second downlink signal is a downlink signal before the first downlink signal.

[0119] In one embodiment of the present invention, the device further comprises:

[0120] A sending module, configured to, when not in a communication connection state with the base station, send a random access channel signal to the base station using an initial uplink timing advance, so that the base station determines a second adjustment value of the uplink timing advance of the terminal based on the random access channel signal, and sends a random access response carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal;

[0121] The third determination module is used to determine the first uplink timing advance based on the second adjustment value carried in the random access response and the initial uplink timing advance, and use the first uplink timing advance to send an uplink signal to the base station.

[0122] The embodiment of the present invention further provides a terminal, such as Figure 7 As shown, it includes a processor 701, a communication interface 702, a memory 703 and a communication bus 704, wherein the processor 701, the communication interface 702, and the memory 703 communicate with each other through the communication bus 704.

[0123] Memory 703, used for storing computer programs;

[0124] The processor 701 is used to execute the program stored in the memory 703 to implement the following steps:

[0125] When in a communication connection state with a base station, upon receiving a downlink signal sent by the base station, determining a time deviation between a time when the downlink signal is actually received and a time when the downlink signal is expected to be received;

[0126] Determining a first adjustment value of the uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation;

[0127] Based on the first adjustment value, the current uplink timing advance is updated.

[0128] The communication bus mentioned in the above terminal can be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, etc. The communication bus can be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used in the figure, but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

[0129] The communication interface is used for communication between the above electronic device and other devices.

[0130] The memory may include a random access memory (RAM) or a non-volatile memory (NVM), such as at least one disk memory. Optionally, the memory may also be at least one storage device located away from the aforementioned processor.

[0131] The above-mentioned processor can be a general-purpose processor, including a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), etc.; it can also be a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components.

[0132] In another embodiment of the present invention, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program is stored. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of any of the above-mentioned methods for updating uplink timing advance are implemented.

[0133] In another embodiment of the present invention, a computer program product including instructions is provided. When the computer program product is executed on a computer, the computer executes any uplink timing advance updating method in the above embodiments.

[0134] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present invention 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 device. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from a website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated. The available medium can be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid-state hard disk Solid State Disk (SSD)), etc.

[0135] It should be noted that, in this article, relational terms such as first and second, etc. are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "comprise" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device. In the absence of further restrictions, the elements defined by the sentence "comprise a ..." do not exclude the existence of other identical elements in the process, method, article or device including the elements.

[0136] Each embodiment in this specification is described in a related manner, and the same or similar parts between the embodiments can be referred to each other, and each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments. In particular, for the embodiments of the device, terminal, and computer-readable storage medium for updating the uplink timing advance, since they are basically similar to the method embodiments, the description is relatively simple, and the relevant parts can be referred to the partial description of the method embodiments.

[0137] The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the protection scope of the present invention. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention are included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for updating uplink timing advance, characterized in that: Applied to a terminal, the method comprises: When in a communication connection state with a base station, upon receiving a downlink signal sent by the base station, determining a time deviation between a time when the downlink signal is actually received and a time when the downlink signal is expected to be received; Determining a first adjustment value of an uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation; Based on the first adjustment value, the current uplink timing advance is updated.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first adjustment value is twice the time deviation; and the updating of the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value includes: An updated uplink timing advance adjustment amount is determined by summing the first adjustment value and the current uplink timing advance amount.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The expected time to receive the first downlink signal is determined based on the following method: The expected time for receiving the first downlink signal is determined based on the time when the second downlink signal is actually received and the preset time difference between the second downlink signal and the first downlink signal; the second downlink signal is a downlink signal before the first downlink signal.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that Also includes: When not in a communication connection state with the base station, applying an initial uplink timing advance to send a random access channel signal to the base station, so that the base station determines a second adjustment value of the uplink timing advance of the terminal based on the random access channel signal, and sends a random access response carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal; A first uplink timing advance is determined based on the second adjustment value carried in the random access response and the initial uplink timing advance, and an uplink signal is sent to the base station using the first uplink timing advance.

5. An uplink timing advance updating device, characterized in that: Applied to terminals, including: A first determination module is used to determine the time deviation between the actual time of receiving the downlink signal and the expected time of receiving the downlink signal when receiving a downlink signal sent by the base station when the downlink signal is in a communication connection state with the base station; A second determination module, configured to determine a first adjustment value of an uplink timing advance based on the time deviation; the first adjustment value is positively correlated with the time deviation; An updating module is used to update the current uplink timing advance based on the first adjustment value.

6. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that The first adjustment value is twice the time deviation; and the updating module is specifically used for: An updated uplink timing advance adjustment amount is determined by summing the first adjustment value and the current uplink timing advance amount.

7. The device according to claim 5, characterized in that The first determining module includes: A determination unit is used to determine the expected time to receive the first downlink signal based on the time when the second downlink signal is actually received and the preset time difference between the second downlink signal and the first downlink signal; the second downlink signal is a downlink signal before the first downlink signal.

8. The device according to any one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that: Also includes: a sending module, configured to, when not in a communication connection state with the base station, send a random access channel signal to the base station using an initial uplink timing advance, so that the base station determines a second adjustment value of the uplink timing advance of the terminal based on the random access channel signal, and send a random access response carrying the second adjustment value to the terminal; The third determination module is configured to determine a first uplink timing advance based on the second adjustment value carried in the random access response and the initial uplink timing advance, and use the first uplink timing advance to send an uplink signal to the base station.

9. A terminal, characterized in that: It includes a processor, a communication interface, a memory and a communication bus, wherein the processor, the communication interface and the memory communicate with each other through the communication bus; Memory, used to store computer programs; A processor, for implementing the method steps described in any one of claims 1 to 4 when executing a program stored in a memory.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the method steps described in any one of claims 1 to 4 are implemented.

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