Apparatus, method and apparatus for beam management

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention discloses a method and a device for beam management. A terminal device determines or obtains its capability information, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment with a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). The terminal device then sends the capability information to the network device. In this manner, a terminal device can refine its beam without scheduling an aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON", and can avoid DL scheduling disruption. Thus, the resource overhead dedicated to beam alignment may be minimized, thereby increasing the maximum achievable throughput.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of communications, and particularly to methods, devices, apparatuses, and computer-readable storage media for beam management. Background Art

[0002] Communication technologies are constantly evolving to provide efficient and reliable solutions for leveraging wireless communication networks. Currently, efforts have been made to develop fifth-generation (5G) or 5G advanced wireless systems. Recently, the introduction of common beam management and unified beam management has been under discussion.

[0003] Beam management can enable beam alignment to ensure precise alignment of the transmitter and receiver beams, thereby establishing a reliable communication link in a wireless communication system such as a 5G system. In Release 18 (Rel-18), beam alignment of a user equipment (UE) with multiple transmission and reception points (TRPs) was proposed to further improve system performance. However, when using current beam alignment solutions, due to supporting multiple TRPs, the overhead of beam alignment will increase significantly. New solutions need to be considered to save the overhead of beam alignment. Summary of the Invention

[0004] Generally, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method, apparatus, and computer-readable storage medium for beam alignment.

[0005] In a first aspect, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device includes one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the terminal device to: obtain capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and send the capability information to a network device.

[0006] In a second aspect, a network device is provided. The network device includes one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the network device to: receive capability information from the terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and send one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device using one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states respectively.

[0007] In a third aspect, a method implemented at a terminal device is provided. The method includes: obtaining capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and sending the capability information to a network device.

[0008] In a fourth aspect, a method implemented at a network device is provided. The method includes: receiving capability information from a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and sending one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states.

[0009] In a fifth aspect, an apparatus for a terminal device is provided. The apparatus includes: means for obtaining capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and means for sending the capability information to a network device.

[0010] In a sixth aspect, an apparatus for a network device is provided. The apparatus includes: means for receiving capability information from a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and means for sending one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states.

[0011] In a seventh aspect, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device may include: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to: obtain capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and send the capability information to a network device.

[0012] In an eighth aspect, a network device is provided. The network device may include: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, together with the at least one processor, cause the network device to: receive capability information from a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); and send one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more Transmission Configuration Indication (TCI) states.

[0013] In a ninth aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium is provided, the non-transitory computer-readable medium including program instructions for causing an apparatus to at least execute the method according to the third aspect or the fourth aspect.

[0014] In a tenth aspect, a computer program is provided, which includes instructions that, when executed by a device, cause the device to at least: obtain capability information of a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and send the capability information to a network device.

[0015] In an eleventh aspect, a computer program is provided, which includes instructions that, when executed by a device, cause the device to at least: receive capability information from a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and send one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states.

[0016] In a twelfth aspect, a terminal device is provided. The terminal device includes: an obtaining circuit system configured to obtain capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and a sending circuit system configured to send the capability information to a network device.

[0017] In a thirteenth aspect, a network device is provided. The network device includes: a receiving circuit system configured to receive capability information from a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and a sending circuit system configured to send one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more transmission configuration indicator (TCI) states.

[0018] It should be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of the embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Through the following description, other features of the present disclosure will become readily understood. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which:

[0020] Figure 1 An example network environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented is illustrated;

[0021] Figure 2 An example flowchart of a method implemented at a terminal device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0022] Figures 3A to 3C An example schematic diagram of beam alignment using PDCCH on a secondary link by a 4-layer terminal device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure is illustrated;

[0023] Figure 4 FIG. illustrates an example time-domain diagram of performing beam alignment using PDCCH at a 4-layer terminal device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0024] Figures 5A to 5C FIG. illustrates an example schematic diagram of performing beam alignment using PDCCH on a primary link at a 4-layer terminal device in a 2-layer single TCI use case according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0025] Figure 6 FIG. illustrates an example flowchart of a method implemented at a network device according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0026] Figure 7 FIG. illustrates an example process of a static implementation of beam alignment using PDCCH;

[0027] Figure 8 FIG. illustrates an example process of a dynamic implementation of beam alignment using PDCCH;

[0028] Figure 9 FIG. illustrates an example simplified block diagram of an apparatus suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure; and

[0029] Figure 10 FIG. illustrates an example block diagram of an example computer-readable medium according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0030] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals denote the same or similar elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0031] The principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are described for illustrative purposes only and help those skilled in the art understand and implement the present disclosure, and do not represent any limitation on the scope of the present disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various other ways than those described below.

[0032] In the following description and claims, unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure pertains.

[0033] In this disclosure, references to "an embodiment", "embodiments", "exemplary embodiments", etc., indicate that the described embodiments may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but not every embodiment must include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is within the knowledge of those skilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

[0034] It should be understood that although terms such as "first" and "second" may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiments, a first element may be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element may be termed a first element. As used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms.

[0035] The terms used herein are for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and are not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments. The singular forms "a", "an", and "the" used herein also include the plural forms unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Further understood, the terms "comprises", "comprising", "has", "having", "includes", and / or "including" when used herein specify the presence of the stated features, elements, and / or components, etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and / or combinations thereof.

[0036] As used in this application, the term "circuitry" may refer to one or more or all of the following:

[0037] (a) A pure hardware circuit implementation (such as an implementation using only analog and / or digital circuitry), and

[0038] (b) A combination of hardware circuitry and software, such as (if applicable):

[0039] (i) A combination of (one or more) analog and / or digital hardware circuitry and software / firmware, and

[0040] (ii) Any portion of (one or more) hardware processors (including (one or more) digital signal processors), software, and (one or more) memories with software that work together to cause a device (such as a mobile phone or a server) to perform various functions), and

[0041] (c) one or more hardware circuits and / or one or more processors, such as one or more microprocessors or portions of one or more microprocessors, which require software (e.g., firmware)

[0042] to operate, but the software may not be stored when not needed for operation.

[0043] The definition of the circuitry is suitable for all uses of the term in this application, including in any claims. As another example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also encompasses implementations of only hardware circuits or processors (or multiple processors) or portions of hardware circuits or processors and their accompanying software and / or firmware. For example, if applicable to a particular claim element, the term circuitry also encompasses a baseband integrated circuit or a processor integrated circuit for a mobile device, or a similar integrated circuit in a server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network devices.

[0044] As used herein, the term "communication network" refers to a network that follows any suitable communication standard, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-IoT), etc. In addition, the communication between a terminal device and a network device in a communication network can be performed according to any suitable generation of communication protocols, including but not limited to third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G), sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and / or higher generation communication protocols. Embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems. Considering the rapid development of communication, of course, there will also be future types of communication technologies and systems that can be used to embody the present disclosure. It should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to the above systems.

[0045] As used herein, the term "network device" refers to a node in a communication network through which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services from the network. Depending on the terms and technologies applied, the network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), such as Node B (NodeB or NB), evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), NR NB (also known as gNB), remote radio unit (RRU), radio header (RH), remote radio head (RRH), relay, low power node (such as femto, pico), etc.

[0046] The term "terminal device" refers to any terminal device capable of wireless communication. By way of example and not limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), subscriber station (SS), portable subscriber station, mobile station (MS), or access terminal (AT). Terminal devices may include, but are not limited to, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, IP voice (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, tablet computers, wearable terminal devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, desktop computers, image capture terminal devices (such as digital cameras), game terminal devices, music storage and playback devices, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop embedded devices (LEE), laptop mounted devices (LME), USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer premises equipment (CPE), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, watches or other wearable devices, head-mounted displays (HMDs), vehicles, drones, medical devices and applications (e.g., remote surgery), industrial devices and applications (e.g., robots and / or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and / or automated processing chain environment), consumer electronic devices, devices operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, etc. In the following description, the terms "terminal device", "communication device", "terminal", "user equipment", and "UE" may be used interchangeably.

[0047] Beam management can achieve beam alignment to ensure precise alignment of the transmitter and receiver beams, thereby establishing a reliable communication link in a wireless communication system (such as a 5G system). In Release 18 (Rel-18), it was proposed to align the user equipment (UE) beam to multiple active TCI states to further improve system performance.

[0048] As used herein, the term "beam alignment" refers to determining the reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of all beams and selecting the beam with the highest RSRP or SINR value to receive that beam. Beam alignment can ensure precise alignment of the transmitter and receiver beams to establish a reliable communication link in a millimeter wave (mmWave) system. Generally, "beam alignment" refers to determining the beam with the highest RSRP or SINR value on the network side, and "beam refinement" refers to determining the beam with the highest RSRP or SINR value on the UE side. It should be understood that the term "beam alignment" herein refers to UE beam refinement.

[0049] In fact, the beam alignment implementation on the UE side is not part of the current 3GPP specification (Release 17) as it is an UE implementation behavior. In the 3GPP specification Release 17, the dedicated designated reference signal for UE beam alignment can include the aperiodic channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) with repeated "ON". The scheduling of this CSI-RS can be fully controlled by network devices such as gNB, and in principle, the network device must periodically send CSI-RS with repeated "ON" for all connected UEs to ensure correct aligned narrow (high gain) beams at the UE. However, the overhead of the aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON" can be quite large, so the repeated feature is not mandatory. Therefore, due to, for example, load and / or resource overhead, the network device may not allocate aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON" to the terminal device when needed.

[0050] The frequency range 2 (FR2) 4-layer connection can be configured by the network with a single transmission configuration indication (TCI) state or 2 individual TCI states (non-quasi co-located (QCL) type D), depending on the selected beam configuration at the network device. Since two different links must be monitored and maintained to ensure optimal performance, the resource overhead of UEs supporting 4-layer downlink (DL) and / or uplink (UL) may double when using 2 TCI states.

[0051] To facilitate the understanding of the present disclosure, the required resource allocation of the aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON" for 4-layer UE beam alignment will be explained below for the cases of dual TCI state and single TCI state configurations:

[0052] - Dual TCI state configuration: The network device configures two TCI states for the primary link and the secondary link, and the terminal device can be configured with single downlink information (s-DCI) or multi-DCI (m-DCI), depending on the cooperation of the transmission reception point (TRP). Each TCI state can be allocated a set of aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON", which will theoretically result in doubled resource overhead.

[0053] - Single TCI state configuration: The network device configures a single TCI state for the primary link and the secondary link.

[0054] Only the single TCI state must be allocated aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON", so it is theoretically the same as a 2-layer connection. However, the terminal device will have to maintain two aligned beams, so it will require a periodic increase of aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON", which may also result in doubled resource overhead.

[0055] The scheduling of aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON" is doubled due to 4-layer DL MIMO operation, which in turn reduces the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) scheduling opportunities, thus limiting the achievable throughput. For UE beam alignment, the gNB has to interrupt DL data scheduling, which reduces the maximum achievable throughput.

[0056] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a solution for beam management is provided, in particular beam alignment based on PDCCH. In other words, beam alignment can be performed based on PDCCH reception at the terminal device, rather than relying on aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON". In particular, in such a solution, the terminal device determines or obtains its capability information, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). Then, the terminal device sends the capability information to the network device, and then beam alignment can be performed based on the PDCCH.

[0057] Therefore, in an embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal device can refine its beam based on the PDCCH without the scheduling of aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON", and thus can avoid DL scheduling interruption. Furthermore, the resource overhead dedicated to beam alignment can be minimized, thereby increasing the maximum achievable throughput.

[0058] As used herein, terms such as "UE beam alignment" may refer to beam alignment on the terminal side, which may also be referred to as beam refinement. UE beam alignment may involve determining the reference signal received power (RSRP) or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of all beams and selecting the beam with the highest RSRP or SINR value to perform, for example, downlink reception. Generally, "beam alignment" may refer to determining the beam with the highest RSRP or SINR value on the network device side; however, in the present disclosure, we are concerned with "UE beam refinement", which represents the process of determining or selecting the beam with the highest RSRP or SINR value on the terminal device side.

[0059] As used herein, the term "TCI state" may refer to a transmission configuration indicator state that a network station can use to indicate a beam or a link to a terminal device. The TCI state can define the quasi-co-location (QCL) source and QCL type for a target reference signal, and thus indicate a transmission configuration that includes the QCL relationship between DL RSs in an RS set. In particular, the TCI state may include, for example, a TCI state ID, QCL information, etc.

[0060] The QCL information may include, for example, QLC type 1 and QLC type 2 (optional). The QCL information may include one or more of, for example, a serving cell index, a bandwidth part (BWP) ID, a downlink reference signal SS / PBCH block (SSB), or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). The QCL information may also include information about an uplink reference signal (such as a sounding reference signal (SRS)). According to the information in the TCI state, the terminal device may obtain beam-related information. In multi-TRP transmission, the terminal device may be configured with multiple TCI states for parallel transmission between the TRP and the terminal device.

[0061] As used herein, the term "beam" may refer to a communication resource. Different beams may be regarded as different resources. A beam may also be represented as a spatial filter. The technique for forming a beam may be a beamforming technique or another technique. The beamforming technique may specifically be a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, or a hybrid digital / analog beamforming technique. A communication device (including a terminal device and a network device) may communicate with another communication device through one or more beams. One beam may include one or more antenna ports and is configured for a data channel, a control channel, etc. The one or more antenna ports forming one beam may also be regarded as an antenna port set. A beam may be configured with a set of resources or a set of resources for measurement, and a beam may be represented by, for example, a reference signal and / or related resources of the reference signal. A beam may also be represented by a reference cell identifier or a resource identifier.

[0062] Reference will be made below to Figures 1 - 10 describe an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure for beam alignment.

[0063] Figure 1 FIG. illustrates an exemplary network environment 100 in which the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. The environment 100 (which may be a part of a communication network) includes a terminal device and a network device.

[0064] As Figure 1As shown, the communication network 100 may include a first device 110 (hereinafter also referred to as a user equipment 110 or UE 110). The communication network 100 may also include a second device 120 (which may be referred to as a gNB 120 or a network device 120) and a third device 130. The second device 120 may manage the cell 101. The third device 130 is a special network device that provides a connection between the first device 110 and the second device 120 within the coverage area of the cell 101. The first device 110 and the second device 120 may directly transmit data and control information to each other via a link called the primary link. The first device 110 and the second device 120 may also transmit data and control information via the third device 130. The link from the network device to the terminal device is called the downlink (DL), and the link from the second device 120 to the third device 130 to the first device 110 is called the secondary link.

[0065] In some embodiments, the second device 120 may be replaced by an object capable of reflecting signals from the first device 110. For example, the object may be a building.

[0066] It should be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent any limitation. The system 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices adapted to implement the embodiments of the present disclosure. Although not shown, it should be understood that one or more terminal devices may be located in the environment 100.

[0067] Communication in the network environment 100 may be implemented according to any suitable communication protocol(s), including but not limited to the third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), fifth generation (5G), sixth generation (6G) or higher, wireless local area network communication protocols (such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, etc.), and / or any other protocol known currently or to be developed in the future. In addition, the communication may utilize any suitable wireless communication technology, including but not limited to: multiple input multiple output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), time division multiplexing (TDM), frequency division multiple access (FDM), code division multiple access (CDM), Bluetooth, ZigBee, and machine type communication (MTC), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine type communication (mMTC), ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC), and new radio unlicensed (NR-U) technology.

[0068] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device 110 obtains the capability information of the terminal device, and the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using the PDCCH. The terminal device 110 sends the obtained capability information to the network device 120. Then, the terminal device 100 may perform beam alignment / refinement based on the reception of the PDCCH.

[0069] Figure 2 FIG. 200 is an example flowchart of a method 200 implemented at a terminal device 110 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, method 200 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 110. It should be understood that method 200 may also include additional blocks not shown and / or omit some of the shown blocks, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. Figure 1 At block 210, the terminal device 110 determines or obtains its capability information, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device 110 supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

[0070] In one example, the terminal device 110 may need to report to the network device 120 in a capability report its capability of beam alignment using the PDCCH. By means of the capability report, the terminal device 110 will notify the network device 120 of its capability information, that is, it supports beam alignment using the PDCCH.

[0071] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the panel at the terminal device will be split to support two or more different independent beams. Some of these beams can be used for PDCCH reception and decoding, while others can be used for beam alignment at the terminal device. Therefore, in some scenarios, the antenna gain for PDCCH reception may be affected.

[0072] To further ensure that beam alignment using the PDCCH does not have a substantial impact on conventional PDDCH reception, operating conditions such as thresholds (e.g., CQI level and / or PH level) can be defined to ensure successful reception of the PDCCH even in the case of wide beams (with lower gain than narrow beams). The operating conditions can be reported to the network device 120. Therefore, in some embodiments, the capability information may also include one or both of a threshold level of a channel quality indicator (CQI) or a threshold level of a power headroom (PH) for triggering beam alignment using the PDCCH.

[0073] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can first ensure that it can receive and decode the PDCCH before performing beam alignment using the PDCCH based on thresholds such as the CQL level and / or the PH level, so as to avoid a significant reduction in antenna gain due to beam configuration. Therefore, the terminal device 110 can enter the beam alignment operation only when the signal condition is at an acceptable level.

[0074]

[0075] ​For example, the CQI level can be directly related to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the received signal. When the terminal device is configured for PDCCH split panel operation, the SNR may need to be higher than or equal to the minimum power of the antenna gain. For example, the PH level can be directly related to the additional power amplifier (PA) power available to compensate for the reduced antenna gain in PDCCH split panel operation.

[0076] In some embodiments, the above operating conditions (such as the CQI level and / or the PH level) may alternatively be predefined by the communication protocol. Additionally, the operating conditions can be preconfigured by the network device. Further, the terminal device can also report the operating conditions to the network device, which will be further determined by the network device.

[0077] At block 220, the terminal device 110 sends the capability information 120 to the network device. In other words, through this capability information, the terminal device 110 can notify the network device 120 that it is capable of supporting beam alignment using the PDCCH. Then, the terminal device can perform beam alignment based on the PDCCH.

[0078] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may additionally or alternatively send a configuration change request for a configuration change of one or both of the downlink control information (DCI) state or the transmission configuration indication (TCI) state to the network device 120 to enable m-DCI operation. In other words, the terminal device 110 can request the network device to change the configuration for the DCI state and / or the TCI state in order to operate in the m-DCI mode. In m-DCI operation, independent m-DCIs can be used to schedule different PDSCHs transmitted from m TRPs to indicate the transmission resources for the PDSCH. In this case, the panel can be split at the terminal device to perform beam alignment using the PDCCH.

[0079] However, in some examples, if the terminal device 110 is configured with s-DCI in the m-TCI scenario, the terminal device 110 may not be able to enter the PDCCH split panel operation because the PDCCH is only transmitted for the primary link connection. In this case, the terminal device 110 can request an m-DCI configuration to enable UE beam alignment using the PDCCH.

[0080] In some embodiments, the configuration change request may require the network device 120 to configure one PDCCH per TCI state for the terminal device 110, and configure a common beam configuration for the PDCCH and the physical downlink shared channel PDSCH for each TCI state.

[0081] In one example, the terminal device 110 may request a change in the TCI configuration (usually the common TCI) to ensure that the PDCCH and PDSCH share the same gNB beam, thereby precisely refining the UE beam.

[0082] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may receive a threshold adjustment instruction from the network device 120, and the threshold adjustment instruction indicates to adjust one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH. Based on the threshold adjustment indication, the terminal device 100 may adjust one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH value to activate or deactivate beam alignment using the PDCCH.

[0083] In one example, the terminal device 110 may notify the network device 120 of the required CQI / PH threshold level to enable beam alignment. The network device 120 may configure the CQI / PH threshold level used at the terminal device 110 to enable beam alignment using the PDCCH. The network device 120 may implicitly enable or disable beam alignment using the PDCCH by configuring the CQI / PH threshold level. For example, a high CQI value may be configured so that the terminal device has no opportunity to perform beam alignment based on the PDCCH.

[0084] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may trigger beam alignment using the PDCCH based on determining one or both of the following: the current CQI level is higher than the threshold level of the CQI; or the current PH level is higher than the threshold level of the PH.

[0085] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may perform beam alignment using the PDCCH on one or both of the primary link connection or the secondary link connection. For example, UE beam alignment using the PDCCH may also be used separately for the primary link (i.e., layer 2) and layer 4 (with 1 or 2 active TCIs).

[0086] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may: for the primary link connection, receive the PDCCH message using a first set of downlink DL layers with static wide beams; then use dynamic narrow beam scanning in different angular directions to scan for a better primary link connection or secondary link connection to measure the signal quality of the PDDCH; and then perform beam alignment on one or both of the primary link or the secondary link based on the measured signal quality.

[0087] For example, the terminal device 110 may achieve UE receiver (Rx) beam alignment on the primary link and / or the secondary link by using the following:

[0088] · The first group of UE Rx DL layers is used to receive and decode PDCCHs with wide UE beams (i.e., a single active element of a 1×N array) for the primary link connection, and

[0089] · The second group of UE Rx DL layers is used to simultaneously scan for better primary link connections or secondary link connections, or changes in the primary link with narrow beams (i.e.,

[0090] N-1 active elements of a 1×N array) by measuring and storing the RSRP levels of PDCCHs for different steered narrow beams.

[0091] For ease of illustration, Figures 3A to 3C The figure illustrates a schematic diagram of beam alignment using PDCCH for a secondary link by a 4-layer terminal device according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure. Beam alignment is achieved using a single split panel configuration assigned with a single TCI state.

[0092] Figure 3A The figure illustrates a terminal device 110 with the best primary link connected and beam-aligned to a network device 120. The communication environment supports a secondary link arriving at the terminal device 110 from different angular directions. However, the terminal device 110 may not be aware of the existence of this second link unless the network device 120 is scheduling sufficient aperiodic CSI-RSs with repeated "ON" for the terminal device 110 to scan the entire angular space of the panel (i.e., all supported narrow beams). This will increase the number of aperiodic CSI-RSs with repeated "ON" assigned, and thus also increase the resource overhead. However, the secondary beam can be detected based on the beam alignment using PDCCH proposed herein, which will be described in detail below.

[0093] Figure 3B The figure illustrates that the terminal device 110 is configured to use a single-element (wide) beam for the first group of DL layers to receive and decode PDCCH messages. The terminal device 110 can configure a second group of DL layers for the remaining elements of the panel, which have narrow beams in preselected angular directions. The terminal device 110 can continue to use a static single-element wide beam to receive and decode PDCCH while performing narrow beam detection or scanning in different angular directions.

[0094] In this way, it can enable the terminal device 110 to gradually monitor the entire angular space of the panel to locate and maintain possible alternative links for 4-layer operation and maintain its primary link. Based on the monitoring, it can detect the secondary link and align the primary link.

[0095] The main advantage of the proposed method is that beam alignment can be achieved without using non-periodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON". Therefore, the resource overhead dedicated to beam alignment can be reduced or even minimized, thereby increasing the maximum achievable throughput by increasing the PDSCH scheduling opportunities.

[0096] Figure 3C Illustrated is the result of the proposed beam alignment operation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown, the terminal device 110 can find the secondary link and simultaneously align perfectly with the primary link and the secondary link using the split panel configuration.

[0097] In addition, Figure 4 Illustrated is a time-domain example of a 4-layer terminal device performing beam alignment using PDCCH. The terminal device 110 can include a terminal device with 4 receive layers. In Figure 4 , the 4-layer terminal device is configured with two TCI states in the m-DCI operation, and CORESET#1 and CORESET#2 (i.e., PDCCH) each occupy one symbol per slot, for example. Therefore, one alternative narrow beam can be measured per symbol used for PDCCH. Thus, the terminal device 110 can measure two narrow beams per slot to find the best steering. As Figure 4 shown, the beam direction for receiving the PDSCH beam can be adjusted according to the monitoring of the link to enable better PDSCH reception.

[0098] It should be understood that the process of beam alignment using PDCCH is not only applicable to the 4-layer DL MIMO use case, but is also beneficial in the 2-layer single TCI use case to enable the UE to refine its beam without the need for CSI-RS repeated "ON". Next, reference will be made to Figures 5A to 5C , which illustrates an example schematic diagram of performing beam alignment using PDCCH on the primary link at a 4-layer terminal device in a 2-layer single TCI use case according to some other embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0099] Figure 5AIllustrated is a terminal device 110 that is connected using an optimal primary link and has its beam aligned to a network device 120, and the environment only supports this primary link. When the terminal device 110 rotates, the terminal device 110 will need to realign its beam to obtain optimal performance. However, without the beam alignment using PDCCH proposed herein, the terminal device 110 will have to rely on the network device 120 to schedule sufficient aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON" at the correct time so that the terminal device 110 can scan the entire angular space of the panel (all supported narrow beams). This will increase the number of aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON" allocated, and thus also increase the overhead. In particular, since the network device 120 will not know that the terminal device 110 is rotating and may not be allocated aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON" at an appropriate interval / timing.

[0100] Figure 5B Illustrated is that the terminal device 110 has rotated and the terminal device 110 needs to realign its beam. The terminal device 110 is configured to receive and decode PDCCH messages using a single-element (panel) beam for a first set of DL layers.

[0101] In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may configure a second set of DL layers for the remaining elements of the panel, and this DL layer has narrow beams in a preselected angular direction. The terminal device 110 can continue to use a static single-element wide beam to receive and decode PDCCH while configuring dynamic narrow beams in different angular directions. This can enable the terminal device 110 to gradually monitor the entire angular space of the panel to locate and maintain its primary link. This can be achieved without using aperiodic CSI-RS with repeated "ON".

[0102] Figure 5C Illustrated is the terminal device 110 after the beam alignment operation, where the terminal device is fully aligned with the primary link using the entire panel. Thus, the terminal device 110 can split the panel to support two different independent beams, with each beam supporting 2 DL layers. Additionally, another optimal implementation can be a fixed wireless access (FWA), customer premise equipment (CPE), or network control repeater (NCR) that has 2 parallel panels adjacent to each other to cover the same angular space.

[0103] In some embodiments, beam alignment using the PDCCH can be enabled / disabled by activation / deactivation indications. For example, the terminal device 110 may receive an activation indication for activating beam alignment using the PDCCH and activate the beam alignment operation in response to receiving the activation indication. Additionally or alternatively, the terminal device 110 may receive a deactivation indication for deactivating beam alignment using the PDCCH and deactivate the beam alignment operation accordingly.

[0104] Figure 6 The example flowchart of the method implemented at the network device 120 according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of the terminal device 120. It should be understood that the method 600 may also include additional blocks not shown and / or omit some of the shown blocks, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard. Figure 1 At block 610, the network device 120 receives capability information from the terminal device 110. The capability information indicates that the terminal device 110 supports beam alignment using the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

[0105] In some embodiments, the capability information may further include one or both of a threshold level of a channel quality indicator (CQI) or a threshold level of a power headroom (PH) for triggering beam alignment using the PDCCH. For example, the terminal device 110 may notify the network device 120 of the used threshold levels of CQI and PH. The network device 120 may use this information to ensure a common TCI configuration under certain channel conditions.

[0106] At block 620, the network device 120 transmits one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device 110 using one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states, respectively.

[0107] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may receive a configuration change request for a configuration change of one or both of the downlink control information (DCI) state or the TCI state from the terminal device 110 to enable m-DCI operation.

[0108] In some embodiments, the configuration change request may require the network device 120 to configure one PDCCH per TCI state for the terminal device 110 and configure a common beam configuration for the PDCCH and the physical downlink shared channel PDSCH for each TCI state.

[0109] In some embodiments, the configuration change request may require the network device 120 to configure one PDCCH per TCI state for the terminal device 110 and configure a common beam configuration for the PDCCH and the physical downlink shared channel PDSCH for each TCI state.

[0110] In some embodiments, network device 120 may send a threshold adjustment instruction to terminal device 110. The threshold adjustment instruction instructs the terminal device to adjust one or both of the threshold level of CQI or the threshold level of PH.

[0111] In some embodiments, network device 120 may send an activation indication for activating beam alignment using PDCCH. In some embodiments, network device 120 may send a deactivation indication for deactivating beam alignment using PDCCH.

[0112] Above, reference Figure 6 Briefly described the operations of network device 120. However, it should be understood that the operations at network device 120 may correspond to the operations at terminal device 110, so the detailed operations will not be elaborated herein in detail, and more details can be referred to Figure 1 To FIG. 5.

[0113] Figure 7 Illustrated an example process of a static implementation of beam alignment using PDCCH. For the purpose of discussion, process 700 will be referred to Figure 1 Describe process 700. Process 700 may involve terminal device 110 and network device 120 as Figure 1 Shown. It should be understood that although process 700 is described in the communication environment 100 of Figure 1 , this process can also be applied to other communication scenarios with similar problems.

[0114] In process 700, terminal device 110 may send its UE capability report 702 to network device 120 at 705. With its UE capability report 702, terminal device 110 may notify network device 120 of the capability information. The capability information may indicate that the terminal device is capable of supporting beam alignment using PDCCH. In addition, the capability information may also include the selected threshold levels of CQI and PH for enabling beam alignment.

[0115] After receiving UE capability report 702 at 710, network device 120 and terminal device 110 may establish a radio resource control (RRC) connection (at 715 and 720). Then, network device 120 may send CSI-RS 706 to terminal device 110 at 725 for channel measurement. After receiving CSI-RS 706 at 730, terminal device 110 may derive CQI, PH, and TCI state configurations at 735. Terminal device 110 may determine at 740 whether it can enable beam alignment using PDCCH.

[0116] Based on determining at 740 that it can enable beam alignment for using PDCCH, the terminal device 110 can configure the (multiple) active panels for PDCCH beam alignment at 745. The network device 120 sends one or more PDCCHs to the terminal device 110 in s-DCI or m-DCI mode at 708. After receiving the one or more PDCCHs at 708 from the network device 120 at 755, the terminal device 110 can perform PDCCH beam alignment on the (multiple) active panels at 760. Then, the terminal device 110 can reconfigure the (multiple) active panels for PDSCH reception at 765. The network device 120 sends PDSCH 712 at 770, and then the terminal device 110 can receive PDSCH 712 at 780 using an aligned narrow beam independent of the number of configured DL layers.

[0117] Figure 8 An example process of a dynamic implementation of beam alignment using PDCCH is illustrated. For the purpose of discussion, process 800 will be referred to Figure 1 to describe. Process 800 may involve the terminal device 110 and the network device 120 as Figure 1 shown. It should be understood that although process 800 is described in the Figure 1 communication environment 100, the process can equally apply to other communication scenarios with similar problems.

[0118] In process 800, the terminal device 110 can send its UE capability report 802 to the network device 120 at 805. The UE capability report 802 may include information that the UE supports beam alignment for using PDCCH. After receiving the UE capability report 802 at 810, the network device 120 and the terminal device 110 can establish an RRC connection 804 (at 815, at 820). Then, the network device 120 can send CSI-RS 806 to the terminal device 110 at 825 for channel measurement. After receiving CSI-RS 806 at 830, the terminal device 110 can obtain CQI, PH, and TCI state configurations at 835. The terminal device 110 can determine at 840 whether it can enable beam alignment for using PDCCH.

[0119] Based on determining at 840 that it cannot enable beam alignment using the PDCCH, for example due to the fact that it is in the s-DCI mode. Then, the terminal device 110 may send a DCI status and / or TCI status configuration change request 808 at 845 to ensure one PDCCH per TCI status, and each TCI status has a common configuration, which results in m-DCI operation. After receiving the request 808 from the terminal device 110 at 850, the network device 120 may send an instruction 812 to the terminal device 110 at 855. The instruction 812 may instruct the terminal device 110 to adjust the threshold levels of the CQI and PH used to configure the condition under which the UE can use PDCCH symbols to refine its beam. The instruction 812 may be used in cases where the network device 120 chooses to ignore the DCI status and / or TCI status configuration change request 808 in an attempt to enable the terminal device 110 to utilize beam alignment using the PDCCH by reducing the threshold levels, even if the network device 120 does not change the DCI status and / or TCI status.

[0120] The terminal device 110 may configure the (multiple) active panels for PDCCH beam alignment at 865. The network device 120 sends one or more PDCCHs 814 in the s-DCI or m-DCI mode at 870. After receiving one or more PDCCHs 814 from the network device 120 at 875, the terminal device 110 may perform PDCCH beam alignment on the (multiple) active panels at 880. Then, the terminal device 110 may reconfigure the (multiple) active panels for PDSCH reception at 885. The network device 120 sends the PDSCH 816 at 890, and then the terminal device 110 may receive the PDSCH 816 using the aligned narrow beam at 896 according to the number of configured DL layers.

[0121] It should be understood that processes 700 and 800 are illustrated for illustrative purposes only and the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

[0122] In some example embodiments, an apparatus (e.g., the first device 110) capable of performing any operation of method 200 may include components for performing the corresponding steps of method 200. The components may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the components may be implemented in circuitry or software modules.

[0123] In some example embodiments, the apparatus includes components for obtaining capability information of a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using the physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and components for sending the capability information to a network device.

[0124] In some example embodiments, the capability information may further include one or both of a threshold level of a channel quality indicator (CQI) for triggering beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a threshold level of a power headroom (PH).

[0125] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include: components for sending a configuration change request for a configuration change of one or both of a downlink control information (DCI) state or a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state to a network device to enable multi-DCI (m-DCI) operation.

[0126] In some example embodiments, the configuration change request may request the network device to configure one PDCCH per TCI state for the terminal device, and configure a common beam configuration for the PDCCH and a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) for each TCI state.

[0127] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include: components for receiving a threshold adjustment instruction from the network device, the threshold adjustment instruction indicating to adjust one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH; and components for adjusting one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH based on the threshold adjustment instruction to activate or deactivate beam alignment using the PDCCH.

[0128] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include: components for triggering beam alignment using the PDCCH based on determining one or both of the following: the current CQI level is higher than the threshold level of the CQI; or the current PH level is higher than the threshold level of the PH.

[0129] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include: components for performing beam alignment using the PDCCH for one or both of a primary link connection or a secondary link connection.

[0130] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include: components for performing beam alignment using the PDCCH by: for a primary link connection, receiving a PDCCH message using a first set of downlink (DL) layers with wide beams; scanning for better primary link connection and / or secondary link connection using dynamic narrow beams in different angular directions to measure the signal quality of the PDDCH; and performing beam alignment for one or both of the primary link or the secondary link based on the measured signal quality.

[0131] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include: components for receiving an activation indication for activating beam alignment using the PDCCH.

[0132] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include: a component for receiving a deactivation indication for deactivating beam alignment using PDCCH.

[0133] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may include a terminal device having 4 receive layers.

[0134] In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes a component for performing other steps in some embodiments of method 200. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to cause the apparatus to perform in conjunction with the at least one processor.

[0135] In some embodiments, an apparatus (e.g., the second device 120) capable of performing any of the methods in method 600 may include components for performing the corresponding steps of method 600. The components may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the components may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module.

[0136] In some embodiments, the apparatus includes: a component for receiving capability information from a terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using the physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and a component for sending one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more transmission configuration indication TCI states.

[0137] In some embodiments, the capability information may further include one or both of a threshold level of a channel quality indicator CQI or a threshold level of a power headroom PH for triggering beam alignment using PDCCH.

[0138] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include a component for receiving a configuration change request for a configuration change of one or both of a downlink control information DCI state or a TCI state from a terminal device to enable multi-DCIm-DCI operation.

[0139] In some embodiments, the configuration change request may request the network device to configure one PDCCH per TCI state for the terminal device and configure a common beam configuration for the PDCCH and the physical downlink shared channel PDSCH for each TCI state.

[0140] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include a component for sending a threshold adjustment instruction to the terminal device, the threshold adjustment instruction indicating an adjustment of one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH.

[0141] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for sending an activation indication for activating beam alignment using PDCCH.

[0142] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for sending a deactivation indication for deactivating beam alignment using PDCCH.

[0143] In some example embodiments, the apparatus may further include means for performing other steps in some embodiments of method 600. In some example embodiments, the means includes at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code. The at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform.

[0144] Figure 9 is a simplified block diagram of a device 900 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 900 may be provided to implement a communication device, such as Figure 1 the terminal device 110 and the network device 120 shown. As shown, the device 900 includes one or more processors 910, and one or more communication modules 940 coupled to the processors 910, such as a transmitter and / or a receiver (TX / RX). The device 900 may further include one or more memories 920 coupled to the processors 910. The device 900 may further include one or more memories 920 for storing instructions coupled to one or more processors 910.

[0145] The communication module 940 may be used for two-way communication. The communication module 940 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication. The communication interface may represent any interface required for communication with other network elements.

[0146] The processor 910 may be of any type suitable for a local technical network and, by way of non-limiting example, may include one or more of the following: a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture. The device 900 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is subordinate in time to a clock synchronized with the main processor.

[0147] The communication module 940 may include, for example, a communication interface. The communication interface may represent any interface required to communicate with other network elements. The communication interface may be a hardware-based or software-based interface. For example, the communication interface may be one or more transceivers. One or more transceivers may be coupled to one or more antennas or antenna ports to wirelessly transmit and / or receive communication signals. The antennas or antenna ports may be of the same or different types. One or more transceivers allow the communication device to communicate with other wired and / or wireless devices. The transceiver may support one or more radio technologies. For example, one or more transceivers may include a cellular subsystem, a WLAN subsystem, and / or a Bluetooth TM subsystem. In some examples, one or more transceivers may include a processor, a controller, a radio, a socket, a plug, a buffer, and similar circuits / devices for connecting to a network and for communication on the network.

[0148] The memory 920 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) 1024, electrically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, hard disk, compact disk (CD), digital video disk (DVD), and other magnetic storage devices and / or optical storage devices. Examples of volatile memories include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM) 1022 and other volatile memories that do not persist during a power outage.

[0149] The computer program 930 includes computer-executable instructions executed by the associated processor 910. The program 1030 may be stored in the ROM 924. The processor 910 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 930 into the RAM 922.

[0150] Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 930 such that the device 900 may execute any process of the present disclosure referred to Figures 2 to 8 in the discussion. Embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

[0151] In some embodiments, the program 930 may be tangibly embodied in a computer-readable medium, which may be included in the device 900 (such as in the memory 920) or in other storage devices accessible by the device 900. The device 900 may load the program 930 from the computer-readable medium into the RAM 922 for execution. The computer-readable medium may include any type of tangible non-volatile memory, such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, etc. Figure 10 An example of a computer-readable medium 1000 in the form of a CD or DVD is shown. The program 930 is stored on the computer-readable medium.

[0152] Generally, the various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented using hardware or special-purpose circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented using hardware, while other aspects may be implemented using firmware or software that can be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Although the various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other graphical representation, it should be understood that, by way of non-limiting example, the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented using hardware, software, firmware, special-purpose circuits or logic, general-purpose hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

[0153] The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as instructions included in a program module, which are executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor to perform the method 200 or 600 described above with reference to Figures 2 - 8 the foregoing. Generally, a program module includes routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform specific tasks or implement specific abstract data types. In various embodiments, the functions of the program modules may be combined or split as needed among the program modules. The machine-executable instructions of the program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, the program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0154] The program code for performing the methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions / operations specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram to be implemented. The program code may be executed entirely on the machine, partially on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partially on the machine and partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

[0155] In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier such that the device, apparatus, or processor can perform the various processes and operations described above. Examples of carriers include signals, computer-readable media, etc.

[0156] A computer-readable medium can be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. A computer-readable medium can include, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer floppy disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0157] Moreover, although the operations are described in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all of the illustrated operations be performed to achieve the desired result. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Also, although several specific implementation details are included in the foregoing discussion, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented separately or in any suitable sub-combination in multiple embodiments.

[0158] Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the above specific features or acts are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. A terminal device, comprising: one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the terminal device to: obtain capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and send the capability information to a network device.

2. The terminal device according to claim 1, where the capability information further comprises: one or both of a threshold level of a channel quality indicator CQI for triggering the beam alignment using the PDCCH or a threshold level of a power headroom PH.

3. The terminal device according to claim 1 or 2, where the terminal device is further caused to: send a configuration change request for a configuration change of one or both of a downlink control information DCI state or a transmission configuration indicator TCI state to the network device to enable multi-DCIm-DCI operation.

4. The terminal device according to claim 3, where the configuration change request requires the network device to configure one PDCCH for each TCI state for the terminal device, and configure a common beam configuration for the PDCCH and a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH for each TCI state.

5. The terminal device according to any one of claims 2 to 4, where the terminal device is further caused to: receive a threshold adjustment instruction from the network device, the threshold adjustment instruction indicating: adjusting one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH; and based on the threshold adjustment instruction, adjust one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH to activate or deactivate the beam alignment using the PDCCH.

6. The terminal device according to any one of claims 2 to 5, where the terminal device is further caused to: trigger the beam alignment using the PDCCH based on determining one or both of the following: the current CQI level is higher than the threshold level of the CQI; or the current PH level is higher than the threshold level of the PH.

7. The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, where the terminal device is further caused to: perform the beam alignment using the PDCCH on one or both of a primary link connection or a secondary link connection.

8. The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, where the terminal device is further caused to perform the beam alignment using the PDCCH by: for a primary link connection, receiving a PDCCH message using a first set of downlink DL layers with wide beams; scanning for better primary link connections and / or secondary link connections using dynamic narrow beams in different angular directions to measure the signal quality of the PDDCH; and based on the measured signal quality, perform beam alignment on one or both of the primary link connection or the secondary link.

9. The terminal device according to any one of the foregoing claims, where the terminal device is further caused to: Receive an activation indication for activating the beam alignment using the PDCCH.

10. The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the terminal device is further configured to: Receive a deactivation indication for deactivating the beam alignment using the PDCCH.

11. The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the terminal device comprises a terminal device with 4 receive layers.

12. A network device, comprising: One or more transceivers; and One or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more transceivers, and the one or more processors are configured to cause the network device to: Receive capability information from a terminal device, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using the physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and Send one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more transmission configuration indication TCI states.

13. The network device according to claim 12, wherein the capability information further comprises: One or both of a threshold level of a channel quality indicator CQI for triggering the beam alignment using the PDCCH or a threshold level of a power headroom PH.

14. The network device according to claim 12 or 13, wherein the network device is further configured to: Receive a configuration change request for a configuration change of one or both of a downlink control information DCI state or a TCI state from the terminal device to enable multi-DCIm-DCI operation.

15. The network device according to claim 14, wherein the configuration change request requires the network device to configure one PDCCH per TCI state for the terminal device, and configure a common beam configuration for the PDCCH and the physical downlink shared channel PDSCH for each TCI state.

16. The network device according to any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the network device is further configured to: Send a threshold adjustment instruction to the terminal device, the threshold adjustment instruction indicating to adjust one or both of the threshold level of the CQI or the threshold level of the PH.

17. The network device according to any one of claims 12 to 16, wherein the network device is further configured to: Send an activation indication for activating the beam alignment using the PDCCH.

18. The network device according to any one of claims 12 to 17, wherein the network device is further configured to: Send a deactivation indication for deactivating the beam alignment using the PDCCH.

19. A method at a terminal device, comprising: Obtain the capability information of the terminal device, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using the physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and Send the capability information to a network device.

20. A method at a network device, comprising: Receive capability information from a terminal device, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using the physical downlink control channel PDCCH; and Send one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states.

21. An apparatus for a terminal device, comprising: means for obtaining capability information of the terminal device, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and means for sending the capability information to a network device.

22. An apparatus for a network device, comprising: means for receiving capability information from a terminal device, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and means for sending one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states.

23. A terminal device, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to: obtain capability information of the terminal device, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and send the capability information to a network device.

24. A network device, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the network device to: receive capability information from a terminal device, wherein the capability information indicates that the terminal device supports beam alignment using a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); and send one or more PDCCH messages to the terminal device respectively using one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states.

25. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to claim 19 or 20.

Images