Method performed by user equipment, method performed by base station, user equipment and base station

Abstract

The invention provides a method performed by a user equipment, a method performed by a base station, the user equipment and the base station. The method comprises the following steps: receiving configuration information, wherein the configuration information comprises W values of the number of random access occasions ROs N corresponding to a random access attempt and a random access configuration index; determining information related to at least one RO group corresponding to the number of ROs N based on the configuration information, wherein each RO group comprises N ROs; wherein, the information related to the at least one RO group includes the resource location of the RO group and / or the number of RO groups, the first RO group in the at least one RO group includes N adjacent ROs start from the first RO, and other RO groups include N adjacent ROs after the first RO group respectively; or the information related to the at least one RO group includes the resource locations of Y RO groups in every second time period; determining preamble(s) corresponding to the number of ROs N; performing a random access attempt based on the information related to the at least one RO group and the preamble(s).

Description

METHOD PERFORMED BY USER EQUIPMENT, METHOD PERFORMED BY BASE STATION, USER EQUIPMENT AND BASE STATION

[0001] The present invention relates to communication, and more particularly, to a method performed by user equipment, a method performed by a base station, user equipment and a base station.

[0002] Fifth generation (5G) mobile communication technologies define broad frequency bands to enable high transmission rates and new services, and can be implemented not only in "Sub 6GHz" bands, such as 3.5GHz, but also in "Above 6GHz" bands referred to as millimeter wave (mmWave) including 28GHz and 39GHz. In addition, it has been considered to implement sixth generation (6G) mobile communication technologies (referred to as Beyond 5G systems) in terahertz bands (e.g., 95GHz to 3THz bands) in order to accomplish transmission rates fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technologies and ultra-low latencies one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technologies.

[0003] In the initial stage of 5G mobile communication technologies, in order to support services and to satisfy performance requirements in connection with enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra reliable & low latency communications (URLLC), and massive machine-type communications (mMTC), there has been ongoing standardization regarding beamforming and massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) for alleviating radio-wave path loss and increasing radio-wave transmission distances in mmWave, numerology (for example, operating multiple subcarrier spacings) for efficiently utilizing mmWave resources and dynamic operation of slot formats, initial access technologies for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadbands, definition and operation of bandwidth part (BWP), new channel coding methods, such as a low density parity check (LDPC) code for large-capacity data transmission and a polar code for highly reliable transmission of control information, layer 2 (L2) pre-processing, and network slicing for providing a dedicated network customized to a specific service.

[0004] Currently, there are ongoing discussions regarding improvement and performance enhancement of initial 5G mobile communication technologies in view of services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technologies, and there has been physical layer standardization regarding technologies, such as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) for aiding driving determination by autonomous vehicles based on information regarding positions and states of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and for enhancing user convenience, new radio unlicensed (NR-U) aimed at system operations conforming to various regulation-related requirements in unlicensed bands, new radio (NR) user equipment (UE) power saving, non-terrestrial network (NTN) which is UE-satellite direct communication for securing coverage in an area in which communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable, and positioning.

[0005] Moreover, there has been ongoing standardization in wireless interface architecture / protocol fields regarding technologies, such as industrial Internet of things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, integrated access and backhaul (IAB) for providing a node for network service area expansion by supporting a wireless backhaul link and an access link in an integrated manner, mobility enhancement including conditional handover and dual active protocol stack (DAPS) handover, and two-step random access for simplifying random access procedures (2-step random access channel (RACH) for NR). There also has been ongoing standardization in system architecture / service fields regarding a 5G baseline architecture (for example, service based architecture or service based interface) for combining network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) technologies, and mobile edge computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE positions.

[0006] If such 5G mobile communication systems are commercialized, connected devices that have been exponentially increasing will be connected to communication networks, and it is accordingly expected that enhanced functions and performances of 5G mobile communication systems and integrated operations of connected devices will be necessary. To this end, new research is scheduled in connection with extended reality (XR) for efficiently supporting augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), or the like, 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), AI service support, metaverse service support, and drone communication.

[0007] Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a basis for developing not only new waveforms for securing coverage in terahertz bands of 6G mobile communication technologies, full dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), multi-antenna transmission technologies, such as array antennas and large-scale antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional space multiplexing technology using orbital angular momentum (OAM), and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), but also full-duplex technology for increasing frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technologies and improving system networks, AI-based communication technology for implementing system optimization by utilizing satellites and artificial intelligence (AI) from the design stage and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions, and next-generation distributed computing technology for implementing services at levels of complexity exceeding the limit of UE operation capability by utilizing ultra-high-performance communication and computing resources.

[0008] The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the disclosure.

[0009] In order to meet the increasing demand for wireless data communication services since the deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop improved 5G or pre-5G communication systems. Therefore, 5G or pre-5G communication systems are also called "Beyond 4G networks" or "Post-LTE systems".

[0010] In order to achieve a higher data rate, 5G communication systems are implemented in higher frequency (millimeter, mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands. In order to reduce propagation loss of radio waves and increase a transmission distance, technologies such as beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beamforming and large-scale antenna are discussed in 5G communication systems.

[0011] In addition, in 5G communication systems, developments of system network improvement are underway based on advanced small cell, cloud radio access network (RAN), ultra-dense network, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, mobile network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation, etc.

[0012] In 5G systems, hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as advanced access technologies have been developed.

[0013] In some network systems, such as 5G NR system, because a new frequency band (such as FR2) is enabled, power is limited, and so on, the problem of insufficient uplink coverage of random access may occur. Therefore, random access procedure needs to be enhanced.

[0014] Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the presented embodiments.

[0015] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system, which includes receiving configuration information including W values of the number of random access occasions ROs N corresponding to a random access attempt and a random access configuration index; determining information related to at least one RO group corresponding to the number of ROs N based on the configuration information, wherein each RO group comprises N ROs; wherein, the information related to the at least one RO group includes the resource location of the RO group and / or the number of RO groups, the first RO group in the at least one RO group includes N adjacent ROs start from the first RO, and the other RO groups respectively include N adjacent ROs after the first RO group; or the information related to the at least one RO group includes the resource locations of Y RO groups in every second time period; determining preamble(s) corresponding to the number of ROs N; performing a random access attempt based on the information related to the at least one RO group and the preamble(s), wherein N, W and Y are positive integers.

[0016] In an implementation, the first RO corresponds to the first RO index configured or the first RO after a reference time point, the reference time point includes the start time point of SFN0 or a third time period, and the third period includes at least one of: one or more time units, a mapping cycle from SSB or CSI-RS to RO, an association period, and an association pattern period.

[0017] In an implementation, two adjacent RO groups in the at least one RO group are separated by X time units, where X is a positive integer.

[0018] In an implementation, the second time period includes X1 time units, where X1 is a positive integer, and if the number of RO groups included in the second time period is greater than Y, the Y RO groups are the first Y RO groups of RO groups included in the second time period, the last Y RO groups of RO groups included in the second time period, or the Y RO groups determined at a gap of X2 time units in the second time period, where X2 is a positive integer.

[0019] In an implementation, the configuration information further includes an RO group mask index, and the information related to at least one RO group includes the resource location of at least one RO group determined based on the RO group mask index.

[0020] In an implementation, the RO group mask index is an RO mask index.

[0021] In an implementation, the RO group mask index indicates at least one RO group index, the at least one RO group index is a logical index in a third time period, and the third period includes at least one of: one or more time units, a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block (SSB) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) to RO mapping cycle, an association period and an association pattern period.

[0022] In an implementation, the RO group mask index indicates odd-numbered RO groups, even-numbered RO groups, one RO group in every X4 RO groups, the first X5 RO groups, the last X6 RO groups and all RO groups in the third time period, where X4, X5 and X6 are the same or different positive integers.

[0023] In an implementation, the information related to the at least one RO group further comprises a first time period, wherein the patterns of the RO groups are repeated or the same in the first time period, and the method further comprises determining W time periods of the patterns of the RO groups respectively corresponding to each of W values of the number of ROs N, and determining the first time period based on the W time periods of the patterns of the RO groups; or determining the first time period based on a first value related to W values of the number of ROs N.

[0024] In an implementation, the first time period includes at least one of: the least common multiple of the W time periods; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the least common multiple of the W time periods; the maximum value of the W time periods; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the maximum value of the W time periods.

[0025] In an implementation, the first value includes at least one of: the least common multiple of the W values; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the least common multiple of the W values; the maximum value of the W values; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the maximum value of the W values.

[0026] In an implementation, each RO group corresponds to the same preambles, and determining the preamble(s) corresponding to the number of ROs N includes: determining the preamble(s)s based on the configured information about the preambles; and / or dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups corresponding to W values of the number of ROs N, and determining the preambles respectively corresponding to the number of ROs N from the preamble group corresponding to the number of ROs N.

[0027] In an implementation, the dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups respectively corresponding to W values of the number of ROs N includes: dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups according to the preamble index order; or dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups at equal intervals according to preamble indexes.

[0028] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a base station in a communication system, which comprises: sending configuration information, wherein the configuration information comprises W values of the number of random access occasions ROs N corresponding to a random access attempt and a random access configuration index; receiving a random access channel, wherein the random access channel is transmitted based on information related to at least one RO group corresponding to the number of ROs N and preamble(s) corresponding to the number of ROs N, each RO group includes N ROs, wherein the information related to the at least one RO group is determined based on the configuration information, wherein the information related to the at least one RO group includes the resource location of the RO group and / or the number of RO groups, a first RO group in the at least one RO group comprises N adjacent ROs start from the first RO, and other RO groups respectively comprise N adjacent ROs after the first RO group; or the information related to the at least one RO group includes the resource locations of Y RO groups in every second time period, where N, W and Y are positive integers.

[0029] In an implementation, the first RO corresponds to the first RO index configured or the first RO after a reference time point, the reference time point includes the start time point of SFN0 or a third time period, and the third period includes at least one of: one or more time units, a mapping cycle from SSB or CSI-RS to RO, an association period, and an association pattern period.

[0030] In an implementation, two adjacent RO groups in the at least one RO group are separated by X time units, where X is a positive integer.

[0031] In an implementation, the second time period includes X1 time units, where X1 is a positive integer, and if the number of RO groups included in the second time period is greater than Y, the Y RO groups are the first Y RO groups of the RO groups included in the second time period, the last Y RO groups of the RO groups included in the second time period, or the Y RO groups determined at a gap of X2 time units in the second time period, where X2 is a positive integer.

[0032] In an implementation, the configuration information further includes an RO group mask index, and the information related to at least one RO group includes the resource location of at least one RO group determined based on the RO group mask index.

[0033] In an implementation, the RO group mask index is an RO mask index.

[0034] In an implementation, the RO group mask index indicates at least one RO group index, the at least one RO group index is a logical index in a third time period, and the third period includes at least one of: one or more time units, a mapping cycle from SSB or CSI-RS to RO, an association period, and an association pattern period.

[0035] In an implementation, the RO group mask index indicates odd-numbered RO groups, even-numbered RO groups, one RO group in every X4 RO groups, the first X5 RO groups, the last X6 RO groups and all RO groups in the third time period, where X4, X5 and X6 are the same or different positive integers.

[0036] In an implementation, the information related to the at least one RO group further includes a first time period, in which the patterns of the RO groups are repeated or the same, wherein the first time period is determined based on W time periods of the patterns of the RO groups respectively corresponding to each of W values of the number of ROs N; or wherein the first time period is determined based on a first value related to W values of the number of ROs N.

[0037] In an implementation, the first time period includes at least one of: the least common multiple of the W time periods; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the least common multiple of the W time periods; the maximum value of the W time periods; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the maximum value of the W time periods.

[0038] In an implementation, the first value related to W values of the number of ROs N includes at least one of the following: the least common multiple of the W values; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the least common multiple of the W values; the maximum value of the W values; the minimum value of power of 2 not less than the maximum value of the W values.

[0039] In an implementation, each RO group corresponds to the same preambles, wherein the preambles corresponding to the number of ROs N are determined by at least one of: determined based on configured information on preambles; determined from a preamble group corresponding to the number of ROs, with multiple preambles related to RO are divided into W preamble groups respectively corresponding to W values of the number of ROs N.

[0040] In an implementation, the dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups respectively corresponding to W values of the number of ROs N includes: dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups according to the preamble index order; or dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups at equal intervals according to preamble indexes.

[0041] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment (UE), including a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals; a controller configured to control the UE to perform the method according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0042] According to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a base station including a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals; a controller configured to control the base station to perform the method according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0043] The present invention provides a method and an apparatus to enhance random access procedure.

[0044] Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the disclosure will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses various embodiments of the disclosure.

[0045] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0046] FIGs. 2a and 2b illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure;

[0047] FIG. 3a illustrate an example user equipment according to the present disclosure and FIG. 3b illustrate an example base station according to the present disclosure;

[0048] FIG. 4 illustrate a contention-based random access procedure in LTE-A;

[0049] FIG. 5 illustrate a schematic diagram of preamble(s) corresponding to a value of N according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0050] FIG. 6 illustrate a schematic structural diagram of user equipment according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0051] FIG. 7 illustrate a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0052] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure defined by the claims and their equivalents. This description includes various specific details to facilitate understanding but should only be considered as exemplary. Therefore, those skilled in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications can be made to the various embodiments described herein without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, for the sake of clarity and conciseness, descriptions of well-known functions and structures may be omitted.

[0053] The terms and expressions used in the following specification and claims are not limited to their dictionary meanings, but are only used by the inventors to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Therefore, it should be obvious to those skilled in the art that the following descriptions of various embodiments of the present disclosure are provided for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the purposes of the present disclosure as defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0054] It should be understood that singular forms of "a", "an" and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Thus, for example, a reference to a "component surface" includes a reference to one or more such surfaces.

[0055] The terms "include" or "may include" refer to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component that can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure, and do not limit the existence of one or more additional functions, operations or features. In addition, the terms "including" or "having" can be interpreted as indicating certain characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof, but should not be interpreted as excluding the possibility of the existence of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

[0056] The term "or" used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any of the listed terms and all combinations thereof. For example, "a or b" may include a, may include b, or may include both a and b.

[0057] Unless defined differently, all terms (including technical terms or scientific terms) used in this disclosure have the same meaning as those understood by those skilled in the art in this disclosure. Common terms, as defined in dictionaries, are interpreted as having meanings consistent with the context in the relevant technical fields, and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal way unless explicitly defined in this disclosure.

[0058] The technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) system, code division multiple access (CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, 5th generation (5G) system or new radio (NR), etc. In addition, the technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to future-oriented communication technologies.

[0059] FIG. 1 illustrate an example wireless network 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network 100 shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 can be used without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0060] Wireless network 100 includes GNB 101, gNB 102 and gNB 103. GNB 101 communicates with gNB 102 and gNB 103. GNB 101 also communicates with at least one Internet Protocol (IP) network 130, such as the Internet, a proprietary IP network or other data networks.

[0061] Depending on the network type, other well-known terms such as "base station" or "access point" can be used instead of "gNB" or "GNB". For convenience, the terms "gNodeB" and "gNB" are used in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access for remote terminals. Also, depending on the network type, other well-known terms such as mobile station, user station, remote terminal, wireless terminal or user device can be used instead of user equipment or UE. For convenience, the terms "user equipment" and "UE" are used in this patent document to refer to remote wireless devices that wirelessly access gNB, regardless of whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile phone or a smart phone) or a commonly considered fixed device (such as a desktop computer or a vending machine).

[0062] GNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to network 130 for a first plurality of user equipments (UE) within coverage area 120 of gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes: UE 111, which may be located in a small enterprise (SB); UE 112, which can be located in enterprise (e); UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (r); UE 115, which may be located in the second residence (r); the UE 116 can be a mobile device (M), such as a cellular phone, a wireless laptop computer, a wireless PDA, etc. GNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within the coverage area 125 of gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes UE 115 and UE 116. In some embodiments, one or more of gNB 101-103 can communicate with each other and with UE 111-116 using 5G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-A, WiMAX or other advanced wireless communication technologies.

[0063] The dashed lines show approximate ranges of the coverage areas 120 and 125, and the ranges are shown as approximate circles for illustration and explanation purposes only. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with gNB, such as coverage areas 120 and 125, can have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending on the configuration of gNB and changes in the radio environment associated with natural obstacles and man-made obstacles.

[0064] As described in more detail below, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 includes a 2D antenna array as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102 and gNB 103 support codebook design and structure for systems with 2D antenna arrays.

[0065] Although FIG. 1 illustrate an example of a wireless network 100, various changes can be made to FIG. 1. For example, the wireless network 100 can include any number of GNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement. Moreover, gNB 101 can directly communicate with any number of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access to network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 can communicate directly with the network 130 and provide the UE with direct wireless broadband access to the network 130. In addition, gNB 101, 102 and / or 103 can provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0066] FIGs. 2a and 2b illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure. In the following description, the transmission path 200 can be described as being implemented in a gNB, such as gNB 102, and the reception path 250 can be described as being implemented in a UE, such as UE 116. However, it should be understood that the reception path 250 can be implemented in gNB and the transmission path 200 can be implemented in UE. In some embodiments, the receive path 250 is configured to support a codebook design and structure for a system having a 2D antenna array as described in embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0067] The transmission path 200 includes a channel coding and modulation block 205, a serial-to-parallel (S to P) block 210, an N-point inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) block 215, a parallel-to-serial (P to S) block 220, a cyclic prefix adding block 225, and an upconverter (UC)230. The reception path 250 includes a down converter (DC)255, a cyclic prefix removal block 260, a serial-to-parallel (S to P) block 265, an N-point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block 270, a parallel-to-serial (P to S) block 275, and a channel decoding and demodulation block 280.

[0068] In the transmission path 200, the channel coding and modulation block 205 receives a set of information bits, applies coding such as low-density parity-check (LDPC) coding, and modulates the input bits such as using quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) to generate a sequence of frequency-domain modulation symbols. A serial-to-parallel (S to P) block 210 converts (such as demultiplexes) serial modulation symbols into parallel data to generate n parallel symbol streams, where n is the number of IFFT / FFT points used in gNB 102 and UE 116. The n-point IFFT block 215 performs IFFT operations on n parallel symbol streams to generate a time domain output signal. The parallel-to-serial block 220 converts (such as multiplexes) the parallel time-domain output symbols from the n-point IFFT block 215 to generate a serial time-domain signal. The add cyclic prefix block 225 inserts the cyclic prefix into the time domain signal. The upconverter 230 modulates (such as upconverts) the output of the cyclic prefix-added block 225 into an RF frequency for transmission via a wireless channel. The signal can also be filtered at baseband before frequency conversion to RF frequency.

[0069] The RF signal transmitted from gNB 102 reaches UE 116 after passing through the wireless channel, and the operation opposite to that at gNB 102 is performed at UE 116. The downconverter 255 downconverts the received signal to a baseband frequency, and the cyclic prefix removal block 260 removes the cyclic prefix to generate a serial time domain baseband signal. The serial-to-parallel block 265 converts the time-domain baseband signal into a parallel time-domain signal. The n-point FFT block 270 executes an FFT algorithm to generate n parallel frequency domain signals. The parallel-to-serial block 275 converts parallel frequency domain signals into a sequence of modulated data symbols. The channel decoding and demodulation block 280 demodulates and decodes the modulation symbols to recover the original input data stream.

[0070] Each of gNB 101-103 may implement a transmission path 200 similar to transmitting to UEs 111-116 in the downlink, and may implement a reception path 250 similar to receiving from UEs 111-116 in the uplink. Similarly, each of the UE 111-116 may implement a transmission path 200 for transmitting to the GNBs 101-103 in the uplink, and may implement a reception path 250 for receiving from the GNBs 101-103 in the downlink.

[0071] Each of the components in FIGs. 2a and 2b can be implemented using only hardware or using a combination of hardware and software / firmware. As a specific example, at least some of the components in FIGs. 2a and 2b may be implemented by software, while other components may be implemented by configurable hardware or a mixture of software and configurable hardware. For example, the FFT block 270 and the IFFT block 215 may be implemented as configurable software algorithms, in which the value of the number of points n may be modified according to the implementation.

[0072] Furthermore, although described as using FFT and IFFT, this is merely illustrative and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Other types of transforms can be used, such as discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) functions. It should be understood that for DFT and IDFT functions, the value of the variable n can be any integer (such as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), while for FFT and IFFT functions, the value of the variable n can be any integer as a power of 2 (such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.).

[0073] Although FIGs. 2a and 2b show examples of wireless transmission and reception paths, various changes can be made to FIGs. 2a and 2b. For example, various components in FIGs. 2a and 2b can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific needs. Moreover, FIGs. 2a and 2b are intended to show examples of types of transmission and reception paths that can be used in a wireless network. Any other suitable architecture can be used to support wireless communication in a wireless network.

[0074] FIG. 3a illustrate an example UE 116 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 shown in FIG. 3a is for illustration only, and the UE 111-115 of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configurations. However, the UE has various configurations, and FIG. 3a does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of the UE.

[0075] The UE 116 includes an antenna 305, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 310, a transmit (TX) processing circuit 315, a microphone 320 and a receive (RX) processing circuit 325. The UE 116 also includes a speaker 330, a processor / controller 340, an input / output (I / O) interface 345, an input device (s) 350, a display 355, and a memory 360. The memory 360 includes an operating system (OS)361 and one or more applications 362.

[0076] The RF transceiver 310 receives an incoming RF signal transmitted by the gNB of the wireless network 100 from the antenna 305. The RF transceiver 310 downconverts an incoming RF signal to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is sent to the RX processing circuit 325, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. RX processing circuit 325 sends the processed baseband signal to speaker 330 (such as for voice data) or to processor / controller 340 (such as for network browsing data) for further processing.

[0077] TX processing circuit 315 receives analog or digital voice data from microphone 320 or other outgoing baseband data (such as network data, e-mail or interactive video game data) from processor / controller 340. TX processing circuit 315 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 310 receives an outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuit 315 and upconverts the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via the antenna 305.

[0078] The processor / controller 340 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor / controller 340 can control the reception of the forward channel signal and the transmission of the reverse channel signal through the RF transceiver 310, the RX processing circuit 325 and the TX processing circuit 315 according to well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor / controller 340 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0079] The processor / controller 340 can also execute other processes and programs residing in the memory 360, such as operations for channel quality measurement and reporting of a system having a 2D antenna array as described in the embodiment of the present disclosure. The processor / controller 340 can move data into or out of the memory 360 as needed to execute the process. In some embodiments, the processor / controller 340 is configured to execute the application 362 based on the OS 361 or in response to a signal received from a gNB or an operator. The processor / controller 340 is also coupled to an I / O interface 345, which provides the UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop computers and handheld computers. I / O interface 345 is a communication path between these accessories and processor / controller 340.

[0080] Processor / controller 340 is also coupled to input device (s) 350 and display 355. An operator of the UE 116 can input data into the UE 116 using the input device (s) 350. The display 355 may be a liquid crystal display or other display capable of presenting text and / or at least limited graphics, such as from a website. The memory 360 is coupled to the processor / controller 340. A part of the memory 360 can include random access memory (RAM), and another part of the memory 360 can include flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

[0081] Although FIG. 3a illustrate an example of the UE 116, various changes can be made to FIG. 3a. For example, various components in FIG. 3a can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific needs. As a specific example, the processor / controller 340 can be divided into multiple processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPU) and one or more graphics processing units (GPU). Moreover, although FIG. 3a illustrate the UE 116 configured as a mobile phone or a smart phone, the UE can be configured to operate as other types of mobile or fixed devices.

[0082] FIG. 3b illustrate an example gNB 102 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of the gNB 102 shown in FIG. 3b is for illustration only, and other gNBs of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configurations. However, gNB has various configurations, and FIG. 3b does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of gNB. It should be noted that gNB 101 and gNB 103 can include the same or similar structures as gNB 102.

[0083] As shown in FIG. 3b, gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 370a-370n, multiple RF transceivers 372a-372n, a transmit (TX) processing circuit 374 and a receive (RX) processing circuit 376. In some embodiments, one or more of the plurality of antennas 370a-370n comprises a 2D antenna array. GNB 102 also includes controller / processor 378, memory 380 and backhaul or network interface 382.

[0084] RF transceivers 372a-372n receive incoming RF signals from antennas 370a-370n, such as signals transmitted by UE or other GNBs. RF transceivers 372a-372n downconvert incoming RF signals to generate IF or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signal is sent to the RX processing circuit 376, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. RX processing circuit 376 sends the processed baseband signal to controller / processor 378 for further processing.

[0085] The TX processing circuit 374 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, network data, e-mail or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 378. TX processing circuit 374 encodes, multiplexes and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceivers 372a-372n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuit 374 and upconvert the baseband or IF signal into RF signals transmitted via the antennas 370a-370n.

[0086] The controller / processor 378 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 378 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceivers 372a-372n, the RX processing circuit 376 and the TX processing circuit 374 according to well-known principles. The controller / processor 378 can also support additional functions, such as more advanced wireless communication functions. For example, the controller / processor 378 can perform a BIS process such as that performed by a blind interference sensing (BIS) algorithm, and decode the received signal from which the interference signal is subtracted. The controller / processor 378 may support any of a variety of other functions in the gNB 102. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0087] The controller / processor 378 is also capable of executing programs and other processes residing in the memory 380, such as a basic OS. The controller / processor 378 can also support channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 supports communication between entities such as web RTC. The controller / processor 378 can move data into or out of the memory 380 as needed to execute the process.

[0088] The controller / processor 378 is also coupled to a backhaul or network interface 382. Backhaul or network interface 382 allows gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems through a backhaul connection or through a network. The backhaul or network interface 382 can support communication over any suitable wired or wireless connection (s). For example, when the gNB 102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system, such as one that supports 5G or new radio access technology or NR, LTE or LTE-A, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow the gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs through wired or wireless backhaul connections. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow the gNB 102 to communicate with a larger network, such as the Internet, through a wired or wireless local area network or through a wired or wireless connection. The backhaul or network interface 382 includes any suitable structure that supports communication through wired or wireless connections, such as an Ethernet or RF transceiver.

[0089] The memory 380 is coupled to the controller / processor 378. A part of the memory 380 can include RAM, and another part of the memory 380 can include flash memory or other ROM. In some embodiments, multiple instructions, such as the BIS algorithm, are stored in memory. A plurality of instructions are configured to cause the controller / processor 378 to perform a BIS process and decode the received signal after subtracting at least one interference signal determined by the BIS algorithm.

[0090] As described in more detail below, the transmit and receive paths of gNB 102 (implemented using RF transceivers 372a-372n, TX processing circuit 374 and / or RX processing circuit 376) support aggregated communication with FDD cells and TDD cells.

[0091] Although FIG. 3b illustrate an example of the gNB 102, various changes can be made to FIG. 3b. For example, gNB 102 can include any number of each component shown in FIG. 3a. As a specific example, the access point can include many backhaul or network interfaces 382, and the controller / processor 378 can support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another specific example, although shown as including a single instance of TX processing circuit 374 and a single instance of RX processing circuit 376, gNB 102 can include multiple instances of each (such as one for each RF transceiver).

[0092] The time domain unit (also called time unit) in this application can be: an OFDM symbol, an OFDM symbol group (composed of multiple OFDM symbols), a slot, a slot group (composed of multiple slots), a subframe, a subframe group (composed of multiple subframes), a system frame and a system frame group (composed of multiple system frames); It can also be an absolute time unit, such as 1 millisecond, 1 second, etc. A time unit can also be a combination of various granularities, such as N1 slots plus N2 OFDM symbols.

[0093] The frequency domain unit (also called frequency unit) in this application can be: a subcarrier, a subcarrier group (composed of multiple subcarriers), a resource block (RB), which can also be called a physical resource block (PRB), a resource block group (composed of multiple RBs), a bandwidth part (BWP). It can also be an absolute frequency domain unit, such as 1 Hz, 1 kHz, etc. The frequency domain unit can also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as M1 PRBs plus M2 subcarriers.

[0094] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0095] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to help readers understand the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0096] It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the singular forms "a", "an", "the" and "the" used herein can also include plural forms unless specifically stated. It should be further understood that the word "comprising" used in the specification of this application refers to the presence of said features, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or components, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and / or groups thereof. It should be understood that when we say that an element is "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element, or intervening elements may also exist. Furthermore, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include wireless connection or wireless coupling. As used herein, the phrase "and / or" includes all or any unit and all combinations of one or more associated listed items.

[0097] It can be understood by those skilled in the art that unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical terms and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. It should also be understood that terms, such as those defined in general dictionaries, should be understood to have meanings consistent with those in the context of the prior art, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless they are specifically defined as here.

[0098] It can be understood by those skilled in the technical field that the "terminal" and "terminal device / equipment" used here include both the device of wireless signal receiver, which only has the device of wireless signal receiver without transmission capability, and the device of receiving and transmitting hardware, which has the device of receiving and transmitting hardware capable of bidirectional communication on the bidirectional communication link. Such devices may include a cellular or other communication device having a single-line display or a multi-line display or a cellular or other communication device without a multi-line display; pCS (Personal Communications Service), which can combine voice, data processing, fax and / or data communication capabilities; pDA(Personal Digital Assistant), which may include RF receiver, pager, Internet / Intranet access, web browser, notepad, calendar and / or GPS(Global Positioning System) receiver; a conventional laptop and / or palmtop computer or other device having and / or including a radio frequency receiver. As used herein, "terminal" and "terminal device / equipment" can be portable, transportable, installed in (aviation, maritime and / or land) vehicles, or suitable and / or configured to operate locally, and / or operate in any other location on the earth and / or space in a distributed form. The "terminal" and "terminal device / equipment" used here can also be communication terminals, internet terminals and music / video playing terminals, such as PDA, mobile internet device and / or mobile phone with music / video playing function, as well as smart TV, set-top box and other devices.

[0099] Without departing from the scope of the present invention, the term "send" in the present invention can be used interchangeably with "transmit", "report" and "notify".

[0100] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to help readers understand the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0101] The transmission link of wireless communication system mainly includes: downlink communication link from 5G gNB to user equipment (UE) and uplink communication link from UE to network.

[0102] Nodes used for positioning measurement in wireless communication systems, such as current wireless communication systems, include: UE that initiates a positioning request message, location management function (LMF) that is used for UE positioning and sending positioning assistance data, gNB or transmission-reception point (TRP) that broadcasts positioning assistance data and performs uplink positioning measurement, and UE that is used for downlink positioning measurement. In addition, the method of the present invention can also be extended to other communication systems, such as automobile communication (V2X), that is, sidelink communication, in which the transmission-reception point or UE can be any device in V2X.

[0103] Transmission in a wireless communication system includes: transmission from a base station (gNB) to user equipment (UE) (called downlink transmission), corresponding slots are called downlink slots, transmission from UE to the base station (called uplink transmission), and corresponding slots are called uplink slots.

[0104] In the downlink communication of wireless communication system, the system sends synchronization signals and broadcast channels to users through synchronization signal / PBCH block (SSB) with periodicity, which is called SSB periodicity, or SSB burst periodicity. Meanwhile, the base station will configure a physical random access channel configuration period (PRACH configuration period), during which a certain number of random access transmission occasions (also called random access occasions, ROs), and all SSBs can be mapped to a corresponding RO in an association period (a certain length of time), and all SSBs in an SSB periodicity can be mapped to the required random access resources in an SSB-to-RO mapping cycle, and there can be one or more mapping cycles in an association period. An SSB to RO association pattern period includes one or more association periods, and the association pattern from SSB to RO in each association pattern period is the same.

[0105] In the New Radio (NR) communication system, before the establishment of radio resource control, such as during random access procedure, the performance of random access directly affects the user's experience. In traditional wireless communication systems, such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, random access procedure is used in many scenarios, such as initial link establishment, cell handover, re-establishment of uplink, RRC connection reestablishment and so on, and it is classified into Contention-based Random Access and Contention-free Random Access according to whether the user monopolizes a preamble resource. Because in the contention-based random access, each user selects a preamble from the same preamble resources when trying to establish the uplink, it may appear that multiple users choose the same preamble to send to the base station, so the mechanism for conflict resolution is an important research direction in random access. How to reduce the collision probability and how to quickly resolve the conflicts that have occurred are the key indicators that affect the performance of random access.

[0106] Contention-based random access procedure in LTE-A is divided into four steps, as shown in FIG. 4. In the first step, the user randomly selects a preamble from the preamble resource pool and sends it to the base station. The base station performs correlation detection on the received signal, thereby identifying the preamble sent by the user; In the second step, the base station sends to the user, a Random Access Response (RAR), including a random access preamble identifier, a timing advance instruction determined according to the time delay estimation between the user and the base station, a cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), and time-frequency resources allocated for the next uplink transmission of the user; In the third step, the user sends a third message (message 3, Msg3) to the base station according to the information in the RAR. Msg3 contains information such as user terminal identification and RRC connection request and the like, where the user terminal identification is unique to the user and is used for conflict resolution; In the fourth step, the base station sends a conflict resolution identifier to the user, including the identifier of the user terminal that won in the conflict resolution. After detecting its own identification, the user upgrades the temporary C-RNTI to C-RNTI, sends an ACK signal to the base station to complete the random access procedure, and waits for the scheduling of the base station. Otherwise, the user will start a new random access procedure after a time delay.

[0107] For contention-free random access procedure, because the base station knows the user identification, it can assign a preamble to the user. Therefore, when the user sends the preamble, it does not need to randomly select the sequence, but will use the allocated preamble. After detecting the allocated preamble, the base station will send the corresponding random access response, including information such as timing advance and uplink resource allocation. After receiving the random access response, the user believes that the uplink synchronization has been completed and waits for the further scheduling of the base station. Therefore, contention-free random access procedure only includes two steps: step one is to send a preamble; Step two is to send the random access response.

[0108] Random access procedure in LTE is suitable for the following scenarios:

[0109] 1. initial access in RRC_idle;

[0110] 2. Re-establish RRC connection;

[0111] 3. Cell handover;

[0112] 4. In RRC connected state, downlink data arrives and random access procedure is requested (when the uplink is asynchronous);

[0113] 5. In RRC connected state, uplink data arrives and random access procedure is requested (when the uplink is asynchronous or no resources in the PUCCH resources are allocated to the scheduling request);

[0114] 6. Positioning.

[0115] In some network systems, such as 5G NR system, because a new frequency band (such as FR2) is enabled, power is limited, and so on, the problem of insufficient uplink coverage of random access may occur. Therefore, random access procedure needs to be enhanced.

[0116] Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0117] The performance of UE for random access can also be enhanced. Through the method provided by the present disclosure, the random access performance can be improved. The method is beneficial to determining multiple random access occasion groups (RACH occasion groups, RO groups) that can be used in a random access attempt to send multiple preambles, and also has various other advantageous effects that can be obtained according to the implementation of the solution of the present disclosure. In the present invention, sending one or more preambles and sending one or more random access channels (PRACH) are interchangeable; In wireless network system, UE may perform random access for various purposes (such as initial access to the system, obtaining uplink synchronization information, etc.). While performing random access requires the UE to determine the available random access resources, and the specific operation includes at least one of the following:

[0118] ● Receiving and / or determining random access related resource configuration information, including at least one of the following:

[0119] ■ Time domain related configuration information for random access, including at least one of the following:

[0120] ◆ Random access configuration index, wherein the configuration index indicates a random access preamble format, and / or a random access configuration period, and / or time unit index(es) for random access over a certain length of time (for example, a certain length of time is 10ms, and the time unit index is slots 1, 4, 7), and / or the number of random access occasions (PRACH occasions, ROs) in a time unit and / or start location of the time unit and / or the number of occupied time units.

[0121] ◆ The number N of random access preambles that can be sent in a random access attempt and / or the number N of random access channels that can be sent and / or the number N of random access occasions available for sending preambles; the random access attempt can be replaced by an associated or mapped SSB; where N is a positive integer, which can be 1, and / or 2, and / or 4, and / or 8; can be other positive integers greater than 1; the corresponding N ROs that can send to N preambles in a random access attempt form a RO group;

[0122] ◆ Determine RO groups; the UE determines the configuration information of the RO groups (including location of time-frequency resources and the number of RO groups) according to the RO configuration obtained by the received random access configuration index. For example, for each value of N, determining the configuration information of the RO groups includes at least one of the following:

[0123] ≫ Determine the start location of the first RO group, or determine the first RO in the first RO group, specifically, by the configured first RO index or according to the first RO after a certain reference time point, the certain reference time point includes SFN0, the start of a certain time period (including one or more SSB / CSI-RS to RO mapping cycles, association periods, association pattern periods, or one or more time units).

[0124] ≫ The first RO group, according to the obtained start location of the first RO group, or determining the first RO in the first RO group, form a RO group every N (consecutive or adjacent in time) ROs, and derive the first and / or other RO groups in this order;

[0125] ≫ Optionally, there is a time gap of X time units between each RO group, the X time units can be obtained from the configuration information by the base station or from a preset value, where X is a positive integer and X is configured or preset;

[0126] ≫ Optionally, determine Y RO groups per second time period, wherein the second time period is X1 time units, and X1 and / or Y can be positive integers, which can be obtained from the configuration information by the base station or from preset values; alternatively, Y can be 1; optionally, when a second time period includes more than Y RO groups, the Y RO groups in the second time period are determined as the first Y RO groups or the last Y RO groups, or the Y RO groups obtained at a certain interval / gap to make the Y RO groups evenly distributed in the second time period; the gap is X2 time units, X2 is a positive integer or a natural number, which can be obtained from configuration information by the base station or from a preset value;

[0127] ≫ Optionally, determine according to a configured RO group mask index, wherein the RO group mask index indicates one or more RO groups within the certain time period; optionally, the RO group mask index can reuse the RO mask index indication; wherein, the specific ways of indicating the RO group mask index include at least one of the following:

[0128] ◇ X3-bit RO group mask index indicates not more than or equal to 2^(X3) possible combinations of RO group indications, and x3 is a positive integer;

[0129] ◇ Each combination of RO group indications can be indexes of one or more RO groups; wherein, the RO group indexes are obtained by sequential logical index in the certain time period; among them, the indexes of multiple ROs can be obtained according to a rule, including at least: odd number of RO groups, or even number of RO groups, or one RO group in every X4 RO groups, or the first X5 RO groups, or the last X6 RO groups, or all RO groups, etc., where X4, X5 and X6 are positive integers, which may be the same or different;

[0130] ◆ Determine time period (Time period X) (for example, the first time period), and X is a positive integer. Optionally, the UE determines the first time period, and the RO group patterns provided in each first time period (for example, the number of RO groups and the location of time-frequency resources of RO groups in each time period) are the same (or appear repeatedly); the first time period can be directly obtained by receiving the configuration of the base station or derived according to a certain rule. Optionally, when there are W values of N in the received configuration (W is a positive integer greater than 0), the method for determining the first time period includes one or more of the following combinations:

[0131] ≫ Obtaining a first time period corresponding to each value of N directly by receiving configuration from base station and / or by deriving according to a certain rule, that is, W first time periods can be obtained, these W first time periods can be the same or different; For example, in an implementation, the first time period corresponding to each value of N is fixed or preset or configured by the base station, or the first time period corresponding to each value of N can be determined according to the SSB-RO association pattern period, so that the first time period corresponding to each value of N can at least include an RO group corresponding to the value of N to complete the transmission of N ROs. Optionally, according to the obtained W first time periods, determining a same overall first time period corresponding to all values of N, which may include at least one of the following:

[0132] ◇ Determining the value of least common multiple of all of the W first time periods, and taking the obtained value of least common multiple as the overall first time period, that is, all values of N correspond to the same first time period; and / or

[0133] ◇ Determining the value of least common multiple of all of the W first time periods, and taking the minimum value of 2^z (z is a positive integer) not less than (or greater than) the value of least common multiple as the overall first time period;

[0134] ◇ Determining the maximum value of all of the W first time periods as the overall first time period;

[0135] ◇ Determining the maximum value of all of the W first time periods, and taking the minimum value of 2^z (z is a positive integer) not less than (or greater than) the maximum value as the overall first time period;

[0136] ≫ Obtaining a value of N_common according to W values of N, and determining a value of the first time period according to the value of N_common; the method for determining the value of N_common comprises at least one of the following:

[0137] ◇ Determine the maximum value of all values of N as the value of N_common;

[0138] ◇ Determine the value of 2^z (z is a positive integer) not less than (or greater than) the maximum value of all values of N as the value of N_common.

[0139] ◇ Determine the least common multiple of all values of N as the value of N_common.

[0140] ◇ Determine the value of 2^z (z is a positive integer) not less than (or greater than) the least common multiple of all values of N as the value of N_common.

[0141] ≫ Determining the first time period according to N_common is the same as determining the first time period according to the value of N, and the value of N may be replaced with N_common;

[0142] ◆ Wherein, the SSB can be replaced by other downlink beam signals, including CSI-RS, PRS, TRS, etc.

[0143] ■ frequency domain related configuration information for random access, including at least one of the following:

[0144] ◆ The start location of the frequency domain unit of the first RO in the frequency domain, including the absolute frequency value indication and / or the value of gap frequency domain unit relative to a frequency domain reference point;

[0145] ◆ The number of gap frequency domain units betweeN adjacent ROs in frequency domain;

[0146] ◆ The number N_RO_FDM of frequency-division multiplexed ROs at a same time, optionally, the number of frequency-division multiplexed ROs may be within a frequency domain range, such as within a BWP, or within an RB set, or within other range of frequency domain units; where N_RO_FDM is a positive integer, which may be 1, and / or 2, and / or 4, and / or 8; may be other positive integers greater than 1;

[0147] ◆ Optionally, when a random access attempt can send N random access preambles, where N is a positive integer and may be 1, and / or 2, and / or 4, and / or 8; may be other positive integers greater than 1; the frequency domain locations of M random access occasions (where M is a positive integer and may be 1, and / or 2, and / or 4, and / or 8; may be other positive integers greater than 1; and / or M may be equal to N, that is, one random access preamble is sent on one RO; and / or M can be less than N, that is, multiple random access preambles are sent on one RO) may be determined according to at least one of the following ways:

[0148] ≫ The start locations of frequency domain units of the M ROs are obtained through individual configuration, that is, each RO has its own start location of frequency domain unit;

[0149] ≫ The start locations of frequency domain units of the M ROs are obtained according to a certain pattern rule.

[0150] ● according to the received random access related resource configuration information and / or the determined ROs, performing the sending of multiple random access preambles in a random access attempt; determining of the sequence(s) corresponding to the preambles; wherein multiple random access transmissions in a random access attempt use the same random access preamble sequence; the preamble and preamble sequence can be replaced with each other; among them, determining the preamble sequence to be sent requires determining the index of the preamble sequence, for example, there are X5 preambles available on one RO, and X5 is a positive integer, for example, X5 = 64; In the method proposed in the present invention, the way of determining the preamble index includes at least one of the following:

[0151] ■ available preamble indexes corresponding to a value of N is obtained according to configuration information by the base station, that is, the configuration information about the start index and / or the number of available preamble indexes in the base station configuration information is received;

[0152] ◆ available preamble indexes corresponding to a value of N is obtained according to a first rule, wherein the first rule includes that all available preamble indexes on an RO are evenly divided into W preamble index groups according to the mapped or associated W values of N, that is, the first value of N corresponds to the first preamble index group; and so on; the first preamble index of each preamble index group is the first preamble of a corresponding value of N, and the W2 preamble indexes in the index logical order are the available W2 preamble indexes of the corresponding value of N, where W2 is the ratio of the number of all available preamble indexes on an RO to the number W of values of N. As exemplified by Method 1 in FIG. 4, the preambles corresponding to N=2 and 4 are bisected to obtain two preamble index groups, and the preambles corresponding to N=2 are the preambles obtained continuously in the first preamble index group; the preambles corresponding to N=4 are the preambles obtained continuously in the second preamble index group;

[0153] ■ Optionally, W2 preamble indexes are determined according to a second rule, which includes at least one of the following:

[0154] ◆ Determining a preamble index every W3 preambles start from the determined first preamble index; until all of the W2 preamble indexes are determined; For example, Method 2 in FIG. 4, indexes corresponding to N=2 and N=4, are obtained every W3 (W3 is a positive integer or a natural number, for example, W3=1, but not limited to this); the W3 can be obtained by receiving the configuration from the base station or be preset; the every W3 preambles can also be replaced with a comb size of (W3+1), or the first or last or middle preamble index in every (W3+1) preambles;

[0155] ● performing the sending of multiple random access preambles in a random access attempt according to the determined RO group and preamble indexes;

[0156] FIG. 6 illustrate a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment 600 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 6, the user equipment 600 includes a transceiver 601 and a controller 602. The transceiver 601 is configured to transmit data or signals and receive data or signals. The controller 602 is coupled with the transceiver 601 and configured to perform control so that the user equipment 600 performs the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the user equipment 600 may further include a memory (not shown) on which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the instructions are performed by the controller 602, the user equipment 600 may perform at least one method corresponding to the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0157] FIG. 7 illustrate a schematic structural diagram of a base station 700 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 7, the base station 700 includes a transceiver 701 and a controller 702. The transceiver 701 is configured to transmit data or signals and receive data or signals. The controller 702 is coupled with the transceiver 701 and configured to perform control so that the base station 700 performs the method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the base station 700 may further include a memory (not shown) on which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the instructions are performed by the controller 702, the base station 700 may perform at least one method corresponding to the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0158] The above is only an example embodiment of the present invention, and it is not used to limit the present invention. Any modification, equivalent substitution, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0159] Those skil in that art will understand that the present invention includes apparatus for perform one or more of the operations described in this application. These devices can be specially designed and manufactured for required purposes, or they can also include known devices in general-purpose computers. These devices have computer programs stored therein, which are selectively activated or reconfigured. Such a computer program may be stored in a device (e.g., a computer) readable medium including but not limited to any type of disk (including floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, CD-ROM, and magneto-optical disk), ROM(Read-Only Memory, Read-only memory), RAM(Random Access Memory), EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory), EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), flash memory, magnetic card or optical card. That is, a readable medium includes any medium in which information is stored or transmitted by a device (e.g., a computer) in a readable form.

[0160] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that each block in these structural diagrams and / or block diagrams and / or flow diagrams and combinations of blocks in these structural diagrams and / or block diagrams and / or flow diagrams can be implemented by computer program instructions. It can be understood by those skilled in the art that these computer program instructions can be provided to a general-purpose computer, a professional computer or a processor of other programmable data processing methods for implementation, so that the scheme specified in the block or blocks of the structure diagram and / or block diagram and / or flow diagram disclosed in the present invention can be performed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing methods.

[0161] Those skilled in the art can understand that the steps, measures and schemes in various operations, methods and processes discussed in the present invention can be alternated, modified, combined or deleted. Further, other steps, measures and schemes in the various operations, methods and processes already discussed in the present invention can also be alternated, changed, rearranged, decomposed, combined or deleted. Further, steps, measures and schemes in various operations, methods and flows disclosed in the present invention in the prior art can also be alternated, changed, rearranged, decomposed, combined or deleted.

[0162] What has been described above is only part of the implementation of the present invention. It should be pointed out that for those skilled in the art, several improvements and embellishments can be made without departing from the principles of the present invention, and these improvements and embellishments should also be regarded as the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1.A method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:receiving configuration information, wherein the configuration information comprises W values of the number N of random access occasions ROs corresponding to a random access attempt and a random access configuration index;determining information related to at least one RO group corresponding to the number of ROs N based on the configuration information, each RO group comprises N ROs; wherein, the information related to at least one RO group includes resource location of the RO groups and / or the number of RO groups, the first RO group among the at least one RO group includes N adjacent ROs start from the first RO, and the other RO groups respectively include N adjacent ROs after the first RO group; or the information related to the at least one RO group includes resource locations of Y RO groups in every second time period;determining preamble(s) corresponding to the number of ROs N;performing a random access attempt based on the information related to at least one RO group and the preamble(s),where N, W and Y are positive integers.2.The method according to claim 1, wherein the first RO corresponds to the first RO index configured or the first RO after a reference time point, the reference time point includes start time point of SFN0 or a third time period, and the third period includes at least one of: one or more time units, a mapping cycle from SSB or CSI-RS to RO, an association period, and an association pattern period.3.The method according to claim 1, wherein a gap between two adjacent RO groups in the at least one RO group is X time units, where X is a positive integer.4.The method according to claim 1, wherein the second time period comprises X1 time units, and X1 is a positive integer, andif the number of RO groups included in the second time period is greater than Y, the Y RO groups are the first Y RO groups of the RO groups included in the second time period, the last Y RO groups of the RO groups included in the second time period, or the Y RO groups determined at a gap of X2 time units in the second time period, where X2 is a positive integer.5.The method according to claim 1, wherein the configuration information further comprises an RO group mask index, and the information related to at least one RO group comprises resource locations of the at least one RO group determined based on the RO group mask index.6.The method according to claim 5, wherein the RO group mask index is an RO mask index.7.The method according to claim 5, wherein the RO group mask index indicates at least one RO group index, the at least one RO group index is a logical index in a third time period, and the third period includes at least one of: one or more time units, a mapping cycle from a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block (SSB) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) to RO, an association period, and an association pattern period, andwherein the RO group mask index indicates odd-numbered RO groups, even-numbered RO groups, an RO group in every X4 RO groups, the first X5 RO groups, the last X6 RO groups, all RO groups,where X4, X5 and X6 are the same or different positive integers.8.The method according to claim 1, wherein the information related to at least one RO group further comprises a first time period in which the patterns of the RO groups are repeated or the same,the method further comprises:determining W time periods of patterns of RO groups respectively corresponding to each of W values of the number of ROs N, and determining the first time period based on the W time periods of the patterns of the RO groups; ordetermining the first time period based on a first value related to W values of the number of ROs N.9.The method according to claim 8, wherein the first time period comprises at least one of:least common multiple of the W time periods;minimum value of power of 2 not less than least common multiple of the W time periods;maximum value of the W time periods;minimum value of power of 2 not less than the maximum value of the W time periods.10.The method according to claim 8, wherein the first value comprises at least one of:least common multiple of the W values;minimum value of power of 2 not less than least common multiple of the W values;maximum value of the W values;minimum value of power of 2 not less than the maximum value of the W values.11.The method according to claim 1, wherein each RO group corresponds to the same preambles, and determining the preamble(s) corresponding to the number of ROs N comprises:determining the preambles based on configured information about preambles; and / orrespectively dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups corresponding to W values of the number of ROs N, and determining the preambles corresponding to the number of ROs N from the preamble groups corresponding to the number of ROs N.12.The method according to claim 11, wherein the respectively dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups respectively corresponding to W values of the number of ROs N comprises:dividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups according to the preamble index order; ordividing multiple preambles related to RO into W preamble groups at equal intervals according to preamble indexes.13.A method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising:sending configuration information, wherein the configuration information comprises W values of the number of random access occasions ROs N corresponding to a random access attempt and a random access configuration index;receiving a random access channel,wherein the random access channel is transmitted based on information related to at least one RO group corresponding to the number of ROs N and preamble(s) corresponding to the number of ROs N, each RO group including N ROs,wherein information related to the at least one RO group is determined based on the configuration information,wherein, the information related to the at least one RO group includes resource location of the RO group and / or the number of RO groups, the first RO group in the at least one RO group includes N adjacent ROs start from the first RO, and the other RO groups respectively include N adjacent ROs after the first RO group; or the information related to the at least one RO group includes resource location of Y RO groups in every second time period, where N, W and Y are positive integers.14.A user equipment (UE), comprising:a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;a controller configured to control the UE to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.15.A base station, comprising:a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;a controller configured to control the base station to perform the method according to claim 13.

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