Communication method and apparatus, storage medium, and chip system

Abstract

A communication method, apparatus, storage medium, and chip system relate to the field of communication technologies for reducing bit errors and / or packet losses. In this application, a terminal device receives configuration information from a network device, and the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier. The terminal device sends first information to the network device. The first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. Therefore, after receiving this information, the network device may stop data scheduling on the first carrier to reduce bit errors and / or packet losses. The first information further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier. Therefore, the network device may determine that the reason for not receiving the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device is not another reason (for example, the signal quality of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions), but rather because the first terminal device does not measure the first carrier, and then the network device can more appropriately activate the carrier.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of communication technologies, and more particularly, to a communication method and apparatus, a storage medium, and a chip system.

Background Art

[0002] Cross-reference to Related Applications This application claims the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202210870334.9, titled "COMMUNICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS, STORAGE MEDIUM, AND CHIP SYSTEM", filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on July 18, 2022, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

[0003] In communication systems such as long term evolution (LTE) systems and new radio (NR) systems, in order to increase the bandwidth, multiple carriers may be aggregated for use through carrier aggregation (CA) technology. In CA technology, the carrier corresponding to the primary cell (PCell) is called the primary carrier component (PCC), and the carrier corresponding to the secondary cell (SCell) is called the secondary carrier component (SCC). The network device configures the corresponding amount of secondary carriers for the terminal device based on the capabilities reported by the terminal device.

[0004] In some scenarios, the carrier aggregation ability of a terminal device is lower than the carrier aggregation ability reported by the terminal device to a network device, which may cause bit errors and packet losses. For example, a terminal device supports communication with a plurality of associated communication systems (e.g., communication system A and communication system B) by using multiple user identifications. Communication with multiple communication systems shares the hardware capabilities of the terminal device. The service of communication system A preempts the hardware resources (e.g., baseband processing resources and / or radio frequency resources) that need to be used for communication on the carrier of communication system B. In this case, when a network device in communication system B schedules data on the carrier, since the hardware resources of the carrier are preempted by communication system A, the terminal device cannot receive or send data on the carrier, and as a result, packet losses are caused. In addition, since the hardware resources of the carrier are occupied by communication system A, when the terminal device receives data on the carrier, the terminal device cannot normally decode the data, causing bit errors. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] This application provides a communication method, an apparatus, a storage medium, and a chip system for reducing bit errors and / or packet losses.

[0006] According to a first aspect, this application provides a communication method. The method may be implemented by a terminal device or a chip, unit, or module in the terminal device. An example in which the method is implemented by the terminal device is used for illustration in this application. The method includes the following.

[0007] The terminal device receives configuration information from the network device, and the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier. The terminal device sends first information to the network device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier.

[0008] In some scenarios, the capabilities of the terminal device may be temporarily limited. For example, since multiple communication systems share the hardware resources of the terminal device, the terminal device may not be able to perform data transmission on a first carrier configured by the network device. If the network device is unaware that the terminal device cannot support the first carrier, the network device may continue to schedule data on the first carrier. As a result, the terminal device may not be able to correctly decode the data on the first carrier, which wastes carrier resources and significantly reduces the user experience.

[0009] In this embodiment of the present application, when the terminal device is unable to receive or send data on the first carrier, the terminal device may notify the network device by using the first information, whereby the network device can stop data scheduling on the first carrier to reduce bit errors and / or packet losses.

[0010] In addition, when the network device configures a first carrier for the terminal device, the terminal device can indicate to the network device by sending first information that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. Thus, the network device can determine that the reason for not receiving the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device is not another reason (for example, the signal quality of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions), but rather that the first terminal device does not measure the first carrier. Then, the network device can more appropriately activate the carrier.

[0011] For example, the terminal device can support communication with multiple associated communication systems (such as communication system A and communication system B) by using multiple user identifications, and the communication with multiple communication systems shares the hardware capabilities of the terminal device. When the hardware resources required by communication system A and communication system B conflict, the terminal device may determine the communication system whose service is more important or has a higher priority, and then the terminal device can allocate hardware resources to the high-priority service (for example, the terminal device allocates the hardware resources of the first carrier to communication system A). Therefore, the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate with the communication system (communication system B) corresponding to the low-priority service based on the first carrier where resource conflict occurs.

[0012] In addition, when the network device configures measurements for the first carrier for the terminal device, and the terminal device still needs to maintain measurements on the first carrier, during the time period of measuring the first carrier, the terminal device allocates the hardware resources used for communication on another carrier to the first carrier for measurement. This causes an interruption of the service (for example, the service of communication system A and / or the service of communication system B). However, since data transmission on the first carrier is stopped, the necessity for the terminal device to maintain measurements on the first carrier is low. In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can stop the measurements on the first carrier, thereby avoiding the interruption of another service caused by the measurements on the first carrier.

[0013] In a possible implementation, the first indication information may be information indicating that the first carrier should be restricted, suspended, or deactivated, or that the activation of the first carrier should be restricted. The fact that the first carrier is in a restricted state, a suspended state, or a deactivated state may include that the first carrier stops being used for data transmission and the terminal device stops measuring on the first carrier.

[0014] In this implementation, it can be understood that when the first carrier is in a restricted state or a suspended state, the terminal device can clarify its behavior to the network device. For example, under the condition that the capabilities of the terminal device are temporarily limited for reasons such as dual-card hardware resource sharing, in order to ensure that the network device and the terminal device have a consistent understanding that the first carrier is in a restricted state or a suspended state, the terminal device cannot receive or send data and cannot perform measurements on the first carrier that requires the terminal device to be restricted or suspended.

[0015] In another possible implementation, the first indication information includes information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated or the activation of the first carrier should be restricted, and may include information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated or the activation of the first carrier should be restricted due to hardware resource contention. The hardware resource contention may alternatively be, for example, "hardware resource sharing, dual-card hardware resource sharing, dual-card reason, dual-card behavior, dual-card purpose", etc. Therefore, when the network device determines based on the first information that the terminal device should deactivate the first carrier or restrict the activation of the first carrier due to hardware resource contention, the network device stops the first carrier from being used for data transmission and determines that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier.

[0016] In another possible implementation, the first information includes information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated, restricted, or suspended, or the activation of the first carrier should be restricted. The first information further includes information indicating that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier. The information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated, restricted, or suspended, or the activation of the first carrier should be restricted, is different from the information indicating that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier. In this example, the first carrier being in a deactivated state, restricted state, or suspended state may include the first carrier being stopped from being used for data transmission, and may not include the terminal device stopping measurements on the first carrier.

[0017] In a possible implementation, when the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device.

[0018] Determining that the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier may be understood as the terminal device being unable to receive a downlink and / or send an uplink, or the terminal device being unable to support the activation state of the first carrier, including at least one of downlink and / or uplink scheduling information, downlink and / or uplink service data, downlink and / or uplink signaling, downlink messages and / or uplink messages, downlink feedback and / or uplink feedback, and downlink reference signals and / or uplink reference signals on the first carrier. When the network device configures the first carrier for the terminal device, it indicates that the network device believes that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier. When the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device, whereby the network device may stop data scheduling on the first carrier to reduce bit errors and / or packet losses.

[0019] In a possible implementation, the terminal device uses the first information to notify the network device that the terminal device has stopped data transmission on the first carrier and has stopped measurements on the first carrier. The terminal device may stop data transmission on the first carrier and stop measurements on the first carrier before or after sending the first information. In this implementation, the terminal device may not need to pay attention to the response message returned by the network device. The network device may or may not return a response message. When the network device feeds back the second information, this second information may be considered as a response message to the first information. In a possible implementation, the second information may be feedback information of the first message, for example, a radio link control layer (RLC) protocol acknowledgement (ACK). After sending the first information, the terminal device does not know whether the network device has received the first information normally. In this solution, the terminal device may determine, based on the second information, that the network device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier of the first terminal device. Additionally, if the terminal device determines that the network device has not received the first information normally, the terminal device may send the first information to the network device again. In this solution, it is possible to further improve the reliability of receiving the first information by the network device, and it can be understood that the case where the network device schedules data on the first carrier because the network device does not receive the first information normally can be avoided.

[0020] In another possible implementation, the network device returns second information after receiving the first information. For example, the terminal device receives the second information from the network device. The second information may indicate that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. The terminal device stops data transmission on the first carrier based on the second information. In other words, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device to request to stop data transmission on the first carrier and to stop measurements on the first carrier. The network device decides, by sending the second information, that the terminal device can stop data transmission on the first carrier and stop measurements on the first carrier, and then the terminal device stops data transmission on the first carrier and stops measurements on the first carrier based on the second information sent by the network device. In a possible implementation, the second information indicates that the network device stops data scheduling on the first carrier. For example, the second information is a secondary cell activation / deactivation media access control control element (MAC CE), and the second information indicates that the first carrier is deactivated. The second information indicating that the first carrier is deactivated may include indicating that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped and that measurements on the first carrier should be stopped.

[0021] In a possible implementation, the terminal device supports communication with the first communication system and the second communication system simultaneously. Configuration information is used to configure a first carrier for the first communication system. The first communication system is associated with a first user identification of the terminal device, and the second communication system is associated with a second user identification of the terminal device.

[0022] Since the hardware resources used by the terminal device to communicate with the first communication system and the second communication system are shared, when the terminal device communicates with the first communication system and the second communication system simultaneously, the hardware resources of the terminal device occupied by the first communication system and the second communication system may compete or collide, and the capabilities that can be currently supported by the terminal device in the first communication system are lower than the capabilities initially reported by the terminal device to the network device, or the capabilities of the terminal device currently operating in the first communication system are temporarily limited. This application is also applicable to this scenario. In this scenario, when it is determined that data transmission cannot be performed on the first carrier, the terminal device may send the first information to avoid packet loss caused by data scheduling on the first carrier by the network device. In addition, in this scenario, the terminal device may not measure the first carrier.

[0023] In a possible implementation, the configuration information is measurement configuration information used to configure the first carrier, and the measurement configuration information indicates that the serving cell measurement object of the terminal device for the first carrier is configured. In this implementation, since the terminal device does not have the ability to perform communication based on the first carrier, after the terminal device receives the configuration information from the network device, the terminal device stops measuring on the first carrier, and the terminal device sends a measurement report to the network device. The measurement report does not include the measurement results of the first carrier, or the information indicating the measurement results of the first carrier in the measurement report is a preset value.

[0024] Therefore, it is possible to avoid interruptions in service data transmission caused by measurements on the first carrier by the terminal device. Further, the network device, by using the configuration information, configures the serving cell measurement target of the terminal device for the first carrier, and since the terminal device does not measure the first carrier, the measurement report sent from the terminal device to the network device may not include the measurement result of the first carrier, or the information indicating the measurement result of the first carrier in the measurement report is a preset value. Therefore, since the terminal device does not measure the first carrier, the terminal device can use the hardware resources associated with the first carrier for transmissions in another communication system, for example, for transmissions of higher priority services or more important services being carried out in another communication system. In addition, this also conforms to the configuration of the network device and has a higher compatibility with existing procedures.

[0025] In a possible implementation, after the terminal device sends the first information to the network device, the terminal device sends third information to the network device, and the third information indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the third information further indicates that the terminal device can recover the ability to measure the first carrier.

[0026] Therefore, the network device can determine, based on the third information, that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier. Then, when the downlink service volume of the network device increases, the network device can activate more carriers or more carriers for scheduling data to improve the downlink data transmission speed.

[0027] In a possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier, the terminal device can send the third information to the network device.

[0028] In another possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier and the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than a preset signal quality threshold, the terminal device sends third information to the network device. It can be understood that when the terminal device determines that the signal quality of the first carrier is good, it sends third information to the network device. After recovering the ability to measure the first carrier, the terminal device may not send the third information when the signal quality of the first carrier is poor (for example, the signal quality of the first carrier is below the preset signal quality threshold). Therefore, it is possible to avoid the case where the network device activates a carrier with poor actual signal quality. At that time, bit errors and / or packet losses can be reduced, and waste of radio resources and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device can be reduced.

[0029] In another possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier and the preset measurement reporting conditions are met, the terminal device sends third information to the network device. There are multiple preset measurement reporting conditions. For example, when the network device configures the terminal device to periodically report the measurement results of the first carrier, Terminal the device reports the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device at the moment when it is configured by the network device to report the measurement results of the first carrier. In another example, when the network device configures the terminal device to report the measurement results of the first carrier when a preset event is met, the terminal device reports the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device when it determines that the preset event is met. After the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier and when the preset measurement reporting conditions are met, it sends the third information. Therefore, the terminal device may further report the measurement results of the first carrier.

[0030] In a possible implementation, the fact that the third information includes the measurement result of the first carrier may also be understood as the third information being the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0031] In this implementation, the measurement result of the first carrier can be understood to indicate that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and can recover the ability to measure the first carrier. In other words, the measurement result of the first carrier may implicitly indicate the content indicated by the third information. When receiving the measurement result of the first carrier, the network device may determine that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and may manage the first carrier based on the measurement result of the first carrier. In this way, it is possible to reduce the signaling overhead sent by the terminal device. In addition, the network device may perform corresponding carrier management operations based on the measurement result of the first carrier, thereby reducing problems such as bit errors, packet losses, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by erroneously activating a carrier with poor signal quality by the network device.

[0032] In another possible implementation, the third information and the measurement result of the first carrier may be two different pieces of information, and these two pieces of information may be carried in one message or two messages.

[0033] In a possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier, after obtaining the measurement result of the first carrier, the terminal device can send the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. In this solution, the terminal device does not need to wait for the preset measurement reporting conditions to be met. Instead, when the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier, after obtaining the measurement result of the first carrier, the terminal device can send the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. This can accelerate the speed at which the network device obtains the measurement result of the first carrier, enabling the network device to manage the carrier more appropriately based on the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0034] In another possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier and the first duration is greater than the preset duration threshold, the terminal device can send the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. The first duration includes the duration from the moment when the terminal device does not have the data transmission ability on the first carrier to the moment when the terminal device has the data transmission ability on the first carrier. When the time is short, the moving distance of the terminal device is not large and the quality of the carrier does not change significantly. Therefore, when the restricted duration of the first carrier does not exceed the first duration, the terminal device may not send the measurement result of the first carrier after the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier and obtains the measurement result of the first carrier. Therefore, the amount of signaling can be reduced and resources can be saved. The terminal device reports the measurement result of the first carrier when the preset measurement reporting conditions are met. In this way, this can also be made more compatible with the prior art.

[0035] In another possible implementation, when the preset measurement reporting condition is satisfied, the terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. In this way, this can be more compatible with the prior art. In another possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier and the preset measurement reporting condition is satisfied, the terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. In this way, this can be more compatible with the prior art.

[0036] In a possible implementation, the third information is After the measurement result of the first carrier is received from the terminal device, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled, When the measurement result reported by the terminal device based on the preset second event is not received before the first moment, where the first moment exists after a preset second duration starting from the moment when the network device receives the third information, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled, When the measurement result of the first carrier is received from the terminal device before the first moment and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled, or When the measurement result of the first carrier is received from the terminal device before the first moment and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, after the first moment arrives, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled, further shows one of the above contents.

[0037] From the above content, in this embodiment of the present application, after the delay of the time period after receiving the third information, it can be understood that the network device distributes a message used to activate the first carrier. During the time period, the network device may wait for the terminal device to measure the first carrier and wait for the terminal device to determine whether the measurement result of the first carrier needs to be reported. If the terminal device triggers event A2 or event A6 for the cell corresponding to the first carrier during the time period, the network may release or change the SCell based on the measurement report, but does not activate the first carrier. This solution can reduce problems such as bit errors, packet losses, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by the network device accidentally activating a carrier with poor signal quality. In addition, if the terminal device determines that the signal quality of the first carrier is poor, the terminal device may ignore the message distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier in order to reduce problems such as bit errors, packet losses, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by performing a carrier activation operation (including RF warming up, etc.).

[0038] In a possible implementation, after the terminal device sends the third information to the network device and before the terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device, the terminal device receives information used to activate the first reference signal from the network device, the terminal device receives the first reference signal from the network device, and the terminal device measures the first carrier based on the first reference signal to obtain the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0039] In a possible implementation, the time-domain density (periodicity) of the first reference signal may be configured by the network and may be greater than that of another reference signal used for measurement, and / or the frequency-domain density of the first reference signal may be greater than that of another reference signal used for measurement. Therefore, when the terminal device recovers its ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device can obtain the reference signal resources that can be used to measure the first carrier more quickly and measure the first carrier more quickly.

[0040] In a possible implementation, before the terminal device receives the information used to activate the preset first reference signal from the network device, the terminal device receives the configuration information of the first reference signal from the network device.

[0041] Since the network device can pre-configure the configuration information of the first reference signal, the terminal Device can know in advance the configuration information of the first reference signal, for example, the time-domain position and the frequency-domain position. When the terminal device recovers its ability to communicate based on the first carrier and the terminal device receives the information used to activate the first reference signal from the network device, the terminal device can determine the location of the first reference signal based on the configuration information and measure the first carrier more quickly based on the first reference signal.

[0042] Since the network device can dynamically activate the first reference signal by using the activation information of the first reference signal, in order to ensure that the terminal device can obtain the measurement result of the first carrier more quickly and the network device does not need to send the first reference signal at other times, the network device can send the first reference signal in a specific scenario (for example, in a scenario where the terminal device stops carrier measurement due to hardware resource competition and resumes the measurement ability after the hardware resources are released). Therefore, it is possible to avoid the case where the first reference signal unnecessarily occupies radio resources and affects the data transmission rate. After receiving the activation information of the first reference signal from the network device, it can be understood that the terminal device can start to perform measurements based on the first reference signal. The UE does not need to obtain the first reference signal before receiving the information used to activate the first reference signal.

[0043] According to a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method. This method may be implemented by a terminal device or a chip, unit, or module in the terminal device, and an example where this method is implemented by the terminal device is used for illustration in the present application. This method includes the following.

[0044] The terminal device receives configuration information from the network device, and the configuration information is used to configure the first carrier. The terminal device sends first information to the network device, and the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. The terminal device sends information used to request the network device to configure a first gap, and the first gap is used to measure the first carrier.

[0045] From the above content, in this embodiment of the present application, it can be understood that the terminal device requests a first gap from the network and measures the first carrier during the first gap when it is impossible to perform the measurement on the first carrier due to insufficient hardware capabilities. In addition, the information used to request to configure the first gap may further implicitly indicate to the network device that the terminal device cannot measure the first carrier.

[0046] In a possible implementation, when the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device sends information used to request the network device to configure the first gap.

[0047] In a possible implementation, the information used to request to configure the first gap further indicates that the first gap is used to measure the first carrier. Therefore, the network device may know about the function of the first gap, and the network device may also know that the terminal device can measure the first carrier during the first gap provided by the network. If the network device does not receive the measurement result from the terminal device, the network device may determine that the terminal device does not send the measurement result because the measurement result of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions, rather than because the terminal device cannot measure the first carrier. Therefore, the network device can perform carrier management more appropriately.

[0048] In a possible implementation, after the terminal device sends the information used to request the network device to configure the first gap to the network device, the terminal device receives the configuration information of the first gap from the network device, and the terminal device measures the first carrier during the first gap based on the configuration information of the first gap to obtain the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0049] In a possible implementation, after the terminal device receives the configuration information of the first gap from the network device, the terminal device sends information to the network device indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap. Since the terminal device can perform communication based on the first carrier after recovering the ability to perform communication based on the first carrier, the terminal device can also measure the first carrier at times other than the first gap. Therefore, the terminal device does not need to request the first gap from the network to measure the first carrier. The terminal device sends information to the network device indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap, and thus, the network device can cancel the configuration of the first gap to reduce resource consumption and optimize the service experience.

[0050] In a possible implementation, the information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap includes UE assistance information. For example, the terminal device does not include the configuration of the first gap in the UE assistance information. Therefore, when the UE assistance information received by the network device from the terminal device does not include the configuration of the first gap, the network device may decide to stop the preference of the terminal device regarding the configuration of the first gap, and the network device can cancel the configuration of the first gap to reduce resource consumption and optimize the service experience. This solution can be more compatible with the prior art.

[0051] According to a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method. This method may be implemented by a network device or a chip, unit, or module in the network device, and an example where the method is implemented by the network device is used for illustration in the present application. This method includes the following.

[0052] The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device, and the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier. The network device receives first information from the terminal device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier.

[0053] In some scenarios, the capabilities of the terminal device may be temporarily limited. For example, since multiple communication systems share the hardware resources of the terminal device, the terminal device may not be able to perform data transmission on the first carrier configured by the network device. If the network device does not know that the terminal device cannot support the first carrier, the network device may continue to schedule data on the first carrier. As a result, the terminal device may not be able to correctly decode the data on the first carrier, which wastes carrier resources and significantly reduces the user experience.

[0054] In this embodiment of the present application, when the terminal device is unable to receive or send data on the first carrier, the terminal device may notify the network device by using the first information, whereby the network device can stop data scheduling on the first carrier to reduce bit errors and / or packet losses.

[0055] In addition, when the network device configures a first carrier for the terminal device, the terminal device can indicate to the network device to stop measurements on the first carrier by sending first information, so that the network device can determine that the reason for not receiving the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device is not another reason (for example, the signal quality of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions), but because the first terminal device does not measure the first carrier, and then the network device can more appropriately activate the carrier.

[0056] In a possible implementation, the terminal device uses the first information to notify the network device that the terminal device has stopped data transmission on the first carrier and has stopped measurements on the first carrier. The terminal device may stop data transmission on the first carrier and stop measurements on the first carrier before or after sending the first information. In this implementation, the terminal device may not need to pay attention to the response message returned by the network device. The network device may or may not return a response message. When the network device feeds back the second information, this second information may be considered as a response message to the first information. In a possible implementation, the second information may be feedback information of the first message, for example, a radio link control layer (RLC) protocol acknowledgement (ACK). After sending the first information, the terminal device does not know whether the network device has received the first information normally. In this solution, the terminal device may determine based on the second information that the network device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier of the first terminal device. In addition, if the terminal device determines that the network device has not received the first information normally, the terminal device may send the first information to the network device again. In this solution, it is possible to further improve the reliability of receiving the first information by the network device, and it can be understood that the case where the network device schedules data on the first carrier because the network device does not receive the first information normally can be avoided.

[0057] In another possible implementation, the network device returns the second information after receiving the first information. For example, the terminal device receives the second information from the network device. The second information may indicate that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. The terminal device stops data transmission on the first carrier based on the second information. In other words, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device to request stopping data transmission on the first carrier and stopping measurements on the first carrier. The network device decides, by sending the second information, that the terminal device can stop data transmission on the first carrier and stop measurements on the first carrier, and then the terminal device stops data transmission on the first carrier and stops measurements on the first carrier based on the second information sent by the network device. In a possible implementation, the second information indicates that the network device stops data scheduling on the first carrier. For example, the second information is a Secondary Cell (SCell) activation / deactivation Media Access Control (MAC) control element, and the second information indicates that the first carrier is deactivated. The fact that the second information indicates that the first carrier is deactivated may include indicating that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped and measurements on the first carrier should be stopped.

[0058] In a possible implementation, the configuration information is measurement configuration information used to configure the first carrier, and the measurement configuration information indicates to the terminal device that the first carrier should be measured. After the network device sends the configuration information to the terminal device, the network device receives a measurement report from the terminal device. The measurement report does not include the measurement result of the first carrier, or the information indicating the measurement result of the first carrier in the measurement report is a preset value.

[0059] In this implementation, since the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device stops sending and receiving data on the first carrier. Accordingly, the terminal device stops radio resource management measurements on the first carrier. This can avoid interruptions in service data transmission caused by measurements performed by the terminal device on the first carrier where data transmission is not carried out. Further, the network device configures, by using configuration information, that the terminal device needs to measure the first carrier. Since the terminal device does not measure the first carrier, the measurement report sent by the terminal device to the network device may not include the measurement result of the first carrier, or the information indicating the measurement result of the first carrier in the measurement report is a preset value. Since the terminal device does not measure the first carrier, the terminal device can use the hardware resources associated with the first carrier for transmission in another communication system, for example, for the transmission of a higher-priority service or a more important service being carried out in another communication system. Additionally, this also conforms to the configuration of the network device and has a higher compatibility with existing procedures.

[0060] In a possible implementation, after the network device receives the first information from the terminal device, the network device receives the third information from the terminal device, and the third information indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the third information further indicates that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. Accordingly, the network device may determine, based on the third information, that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier. Then, when the downlink service volume of the network device increases, the network device can activate more carriers or more carriers for scheduling data in order to improve the downlink data transmission speed.

[0061] In a possible implementation, the fact that the third information includes the measurement result of the first carrier may also be understood as the third information being the measurement result of the first carrier. In this implementation, the measurement result of the first carrier may be understood to indicate that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and to recover the ability of the terminal device to measure the first carrier. In other words, the measurement result of the first carrier may implicitly indicate the content indicated by the third information. When receiving the measurement result of the first carrier, the network device may determine that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and may manage the first carrier based on the measurement result of the first carrier. In this way, it is possible to reduce the signaling overhead sent by the terminal device. In addition, the network device may perform corresponding carrier management operations based on the measurement result of the first carrier, thereby reducing problems such as bit errors, packet losses, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by the network device accidentally activating a carrier with poor signal quality.

[0062] In another possible implementation, the third information and the measurement result of the first carrier may be two different pieces of information, and these two pieces of information may be carried in one message or two messages. After the network device receives the first information from the terminal device, the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device. Therefore, when receiving the measurement result of the first carrier, the network device manages the first carrier based on the measurement result of the first carrier to reduce problems such as bit errors, packet losses, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by the network device accidentally activating a carrier with poor signal quality.

[0063] In a possible implementation, after the network device receives third information from the terminal device, the method After receiving the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device, the network device determines that the terminal device can resume the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier. When the network device does not receive the measurement result reported by the terminal device based on a preset second event before the first moment, where the first moment exists after a preset second duration starting from the moment when the network device receives the third information, the network device determines that the terminal device can resume the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier. When the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device before the first moment and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than a preset signal quality threshold, the network device determines that the terminal device can resume the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier, or When the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device before the first moment and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than a preset signal quality threshold, after the first moment arrives, the network device determines that the terminal device can resume the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier. further includes one of the above contents.

[0064] From the above content, in this embodiment of the present application, after the delay of the time period after receiving the third information, it can be understood that the network device distributes a message used to activate the first carrier. During the time period, the network device may wait for the terminal device to measure the first carrier and wait for the terminal device to determine whether the measurement result of the first carrier needs to be reported. If the terminal device triggers event A2 or event A6 for the cell corresponding to the first carrier during the time period, the network may release or change the SCell based on the measurement report, but does not activate the first carrier. This solution can reduce problems such as bit errors, packet loss, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by the network device accidentally activating a carrier with poor signal quality. In addition, if the terminal device determines that the signal quality of the first carrier is poor, the terminal device may ignore the message distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier in order to reduce problems such as bit errors, packet loss, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by performing a carrier activation operation (including RF warming up, etc.).

[0065] In a possible implementation, after the network device receives the third information from the terminal device, the network device sends information used to activate the first reference signal to the terminal device, the network device sends the first reference signal to the terminal device, the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device, and the measurement result of the first carrier is obtained by measuring the first carrier based on the first reference signal.

[0066] In a possible implementation, the time-domain density (periodicity) of the first reference signal may be greater than that of another reference signal, and / or the frequency-domain density of the first reference signal may be greater than that of another reference signal. Therefore, when the terminal device recovers its ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device can obtain the reference signal resources that can be used to measure the first carrier more quickly and measure the first carrier more quickly.

[0067] In a possible implementation, before the network device sends the information used to activate the first reference signal to the terminal device, the network device sends the configuration information of the first reference signal to the terminal device. Since the network device can pre-configure the configuration information of the first reference signal, the terminal Device can know in advance the configuration information of the first reference signal, for example, the time-domain position and the frequency-domain position. When the terminal device recovers its ability to communicate based on the first carrier and the terminal device receives the information used to activate the first reference signal from the network device, the terminal device can determine the location of the first reference signal based on the configuration information and measure the first carrier more quickly based on the first reference signal.

[0068] Since the network device can dynamically activate the first reference signal by using the activation information of the first reference signal, in order to ensure that the terminal device can obtain the measurement result of the first carrier more quickly and that the network device does not need to send the first reference signal at other times, the network device can send the first reference signal in a specific scenario (for example, in a scenario where the terminal device stops carrier measurement due to hardware resource contention and resumes the measurement ability after the hardware resources are released). Therefore, it is possible to avoid the case where the first reference signal occupies wireless resources unnecessarily and affects the data transmission rate. After receiving the activation information of the first reference signal from the network device, it can be understood that the terminal device can start to perform measurements based on the first reference signal. The UE does not need to obtain the first reference signal before receiving the information used to activate the first reference signal.

[0069] According to a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication method. This method may be implemented by a network device or a chip, unit, or module in the network device, and an example where this method is implemented by the network device is used for illustration in the present application. This method includes the following.

[0070] The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device, and the configuration information is used to configure the first carrier. The network device receives first information from the terminal device, and the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. The network device receives information used to request the configuration of a first gap from the terminal device, and the first gap is used to measure the first carrier.

[0071] From the above content, in this embodiment of the present application, it can be understood that the terminal device requests a first gap from the network and can measure the first carrier during the first gap when it is impossible to perform the measurement on the first carrier due to insufficient hardware capabilities. In addition, the information used to request to configure the first gap may further implicitly indicate to the network device that the terminal device cannot measure the first carrier.

[0072] In a possible implementation, the information used to request to configure the first gap further indicates that the first gap is used to measure the first carrier. Therefore, the network device may know about the function of the first gap, and the network device may also know that the terminal device has measured the first carrier. If the network device does not receive the measurement result from the terminal device, the network device may determine that the terminal device does not send the measurement result not because the terminal device cannot measure the first carrier, but because the measurement result of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions. Therefore, the network device can perform carrier management more appropriately.

[0073] In a possible implementation, after a network device receives information used by a terminal device to request the configuration of a first gap from the terminal device, the network device receives from the terminal device information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap. Since the terminal device can perform communication based on the first carrier after recovering the ability to perform communication based on the first carrier, the terminal device may also measure the first carrier at times other than the first gap. Therefore, the terminal device does not particularly need to request the first gap to measure the first carrier. The terminal device sends to the network device information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap, and thus, the network device can cancel the configuration of the first gap to reduce resource consumption.

[0074] In a possible implementation, the information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap includes UE assistance information. For example, the UE assistance information does not include the configuration of the first gap. Therefore, when the UE assistance information received by the network device from the terminal device does not include the configuration of the first gap, the network device may determine the information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap, and the network device may cancel the configuration of the first gap to reduce resource consumption. This solution may be more compatible with the prior art.

[0075] Corresponding to any of the communication methods in the first to fourth aspects, the present application further provides a communication device. The communication device may be any transmitting-end device or receiving-end device that performs data transmission in a wireless manner, for example, a communication chip, a terminal device, or a network device (such as a base station). In communication processing, the transmitting-end device and the receiving-end device are relative. In some communication processes, the communication device may be used as the above network device or a communication chip that can be used in the network device. In some communication processes, the communication device may be used as the above terminal device or a communication chip that can be used in the terminal device.

[0076] According to a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is the above network device or terminal device. The device may include a communication unit and a processing unit to implement any implementation of any of the communication methods in the first to fourth aspects. The communication unit is configured to perform functions related to sending and receiving. Optionally, the communication unit includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. In a design, the communication device is a communication chip, and the communication unit may be an input / output circuit or port of the communication chip.

[0077] In another design, the communication unit may be a transmitter and a receiver, or the communication unit may be a transmitter machine and a receiver machine.

[0078] Optionally, the communication device further includes a module that can be configured to implement any implementation of any of the communication methods in the first to fourth aspects.

[0079] According to a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is the above-described first network element, a terminal device (e.g., the first terminal device), or an access network device. The communication device is the above-described terminal device or network device. The communication device includes a processor and a memory. Optionally, the communication device further includes a transceiver. The memory is configured to store a computer program or instructions. The processor is configured to call a computer program or instructions from the memory and operate the computer program or instructions. When the processor executes the computer program or instructions in the memory, the communication device is enabled to implement any implementation of any communication method in the first aspect to the fourth aspect.

[0080] Optionally, there is one or more processors and one or more memories.

[0081] Optionally, the memory may be integrated with the processor, or the memory and the processor may be disposed separately.

[0082] Optionally, the transceiver may include a transmitter machine (transmitter) and a receiver machine (receiver).

[0083] According to a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device is the above-described first network element, a terminal device (e.g., the first terminal device), or an access network device. The device may include a processor. The processor may be coupled to a memory and configured to implement a method according to any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the fourth aspect. Optionally, the communication device further includes a memory. Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication interface, and the processor is coupled to the communication interface.

[0084] In an implementation, the communication device is a terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal device, the communication interface may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0085] In another implementation, the communication device is a network device. When the communication device is a network device, the communication interface may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0086] In yet another implementation, the communication device is a chip or a chip system. When the communication device is a chip or a chip system, the communication interface may be an input / output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin, a related circuit, etc. on the chip or chip system. Optionally, the processor may be provided as a processing circuit or a logic circuit instead.

[0087] According to an eighth aspect, a system is provided. This system includes the above-mentioned terminal device and network device.

[0088] According to a ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided. The computer program product includes a computer program (which may also be referred to as code or instructions). When the computer program code is run, the computer is enabled to implement the method according to any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect, or the computer is enabled to implement the method according to any one of the implementations from the first aspect to the fourth aspect.

[0089] According to a tenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable medium stores a computer program (which may also be referred to as code or instructions). When the computer program is run on a computer, the computer is enabled to implement a method according to any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect, or the computer is enabled to implement a method according to any one of the implementations from the first aspect to the fourth aspect.

[0090] According to an eleventh aspect, a chip system is provided. The chip system may include a processor. The processor may be coupled to a memory and configured to implement a method according to any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the fourth aspect. Optionally, the chip system further includes a memory. The memory is configured to store a computer program (which may also be referred to as code or instructions). The processor is configured to call the computer program from the memory and run the computer program, whereby the device in which the chip system is installed implements a method according to any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the fourth aspect.

[0091] According to a twelfth aspect, a processing device is provided, including an input circuit, an output circuit, and a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to receive signals through the input circuit and transmit signals through the output circuit, whereby a method according to any one of the first aspect to the fourth aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect to the fourth aspect is implemented.

[0092] In a specific implementation process, the processing device may be a chip. The input circuit may be an input pin. The output circuit may be an output pin. The processing circuit may be a transistor, a gate circuit, a trigger, or some kind of logic circuit, etc. The input signal received by the input circuit may be received and input, for example, but not limited to, by a receiver, and the signal output by the output circuit may be output to, for example, but not limited to, a transmitter and transmitted by the transmitter. The input circuit and the output circuit may be the same circuit, and this circuit is used as the input circuit and the output circuit at different moments. The specific implementation of the processor and various circuits is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0093]

Figure 1A

Figure 1B

Figure 1C

Figure 2A

Figure 2B

Figure 3

Figure 4A

Figure 4B

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0094] The communication method provided in the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as the internet of things (IoT), narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) communication system, LTE and 5G hybrid architecture, and 6th generation (6G) communication system or new communication systems emerging in future communication development. The 5G communication system in the present application may include at least one of a non-standalone (NSA) 5G communication system and a standalone (SA) 5G communication system. Alternatively, the communication system may be a machine to machine (M2M) network, a machine type communication (MTC) network, or another network.

[0095] A communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applicable may include a scheduling device and a scheduled device. The scheduling device may be, for example, a network device, such as a base station, a core network, or an access point. The scheduling device may alternatively be a terminal device. For example, in device-to-device (D2D) communication, the scheduling device may alternatively be a terminal device. The scheduled device may be a terminal device, such as a mobile terminal device, a fixed terminal device, a vehicle-mounted terminal device, or an Internet-of-Things terminal device. In an embodiment of the present application, an example in which the scheduling device is a network device and the scheduled device is a terminal device is used for the purpose of explanation. In the subsequent content of the embodiments of the present application, the solutions on the network device side may also be applicable to the scheduling device, and the solutions on the terminal device side may also be applicable to the scheduled device.

[0096] FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B, and FIG. 1C are some exemplary diagrams of a network architecture to which embodiments of the present application are applicable. Hereinafter, the content provided in the embodiments of the present application will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0097] In FIG. 1A, an example in which the communication system is a 5G communication system is used for the purpose of explanation. As shown in FIG. 1A, the communication system includes a terminal device and a network device.

[0098] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be a device with a wireless transceiver function, and may also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, user device, etc. In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may be a mobile phone, tablet computer (Pad), computer with a wireless transceiver function, virtual reality (VR) terminal, augmented reality (AR) terminal, wireless terminal in industrial control, wireless terminal in self-driving, etc.

[0099] In embodiments of the present application, the network device may connect the terminal device to a radio access network (RAN) and may be a wireless access device of various standards. For example, the network device may be a next generation NodeB (gNB) in an NR system, or an evolved NodeB (eNB), a radio network controller (RNC) or a NodeB (NB), a base transceiver station (BTS), a home NodeB (for example, a home evolved NodeB or a home NodeB, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), an access point (AP) in a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) system, a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, or a transmission and reception point (TRP or transmission point, TP), or a gNB or a transmission point (TRP or TP) in a 5G (NR) system, or one antenna panel of a base station in a 5G system or one group of antenna panels (including a plurality of antenna panels), or a network node forming a gNB or a transmission point, for example, a baseband unit (BBU) or a DU in a central unit - distributed unit (CU - DU) architecture. In FIG. 1A, an example where the network device is a gNB or an ng - eNB is used for illustration.

[0100] As shown in FIG. 1A, the network includes a 5G core (5GC) network and a next generation radio access network (NG-RAN). The 5GC includes a plurality of core network devices, such as access and mobility management function (AMF) network elements and user plane function (UPF) network elements. The NG-RAN includes gNB, ng-eNB, etc. The gNB can provide NR user plane and control plane protocol terminations to terminal devices. The ng-eNB provides evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) user plane and control plane protocol terminations to terminal devices. The gNB and ng-eNB are connected to each other through the Xn interface. The gNB and ng-eNB may be connected to core network devices through the NG interface.

[0101] In FIG. 1B, an example where the communication system is an LTE communication system is used for illustration. For the relevant content of the terminal device and the network device in FIG. 1B, refer to the relevant description in FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1B, an example where the network device is an eNB is used for illustration. As shown in FIG. 1B, the communication system includes an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN). The E-UTRAN includes eNB. The eNB may be connected to each other through the X2 interface. The eNB may be connected to the MME / S-GW. The MME / S-GW may be connected to the eNB through the S1 interface.

[0102] In FIG. 1C, an example where the communication system is an EN-DC communication system is used for illustration. For the related content of the terminal device and the network device in FIG. 1C, refer to the related description in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIG. 1C, the network includes an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and an E-UTRAN. The EPC includes a plurality of devices, such as an MME network element and an S-GW network element. The E-UTRAN includes an eNB and an en-gNB. The eNB and the en-gNB are connected to each other through an X2 interface, the eNBs are connected to each other through an X2 interface, and the en-gNBs are connected to each other through an X2-U interface. The en-gNB may be connected to a device in the EPC through an S1-U interface, and the eNB may be connected to a device in the EPC through an S1 interface. Tokyo The embodiments of the present application may be further applied to multi-carrier transmission scenarios including, but not limited to, CA, supplementary uplink (SUL), supplementary downlink (SDL), and other scenarios. FIGS. 2A and 2B show some exemplary diagrams of possible scenarios to which the embodiments of the present application are applicable.

[0103]

[0104] ​In FIG. 2A, an example where the scenario to which the embodiment of the present application is applicable is a CA scenario is used for illustration. As shown in FIG. 2A, a network device can aggregate a plurality of component carriers (CCs) and configure a plurality of component carriers for use by a terminal device to increase the bandwidth and improve the data transmission rate. FIG. 2A shows a scenario where three carriers are aggregated. The terminal device can use the three carriers simultaneously. Among the three carriers, one carrier is called a primary carrier component (PCC), and the cell corresponding to the PCC is called a primary cell (PCell). The other two carriers are called secondary carrier components (SCCs), and the cells corresponding to the SCCs are called secondary cells (SCells).

[0105] In conventional CA, one time division duplex (TDD) carrier (a carrier includes an uplink part and a downlink part), or one pair of a frequency division duplex (FDD) carrier (one downlink carrier and one uplink carrier) corresponds to one cell. After SUL is introduced, one FDD cell may correspond to one downlink carrier and two uplink carriers (a normal uplink / non-supplementary uplink (NUL) carrier and a SUL carrier), or one TDD cell may correspond to two carriers, namely, one NUL carrier and one SUL carrier.

[0106] In addition, a component carrier (CC) is sometimes also referred to as a carrier component (CC). For ease of explanation, the component carrier is generically referred to as a carrier component or a carrier in the embodiments of this application.

[0107] In FIG. 2B, an example where the scenario to which the embodiments of this application are applicable is a DC scenario is used for illustration. As shown in FIG. 2B, the terminal device establishes connections to two network devices (the network devices in this specification are logical network devices) in a DC manner. One of the two network devices is a master node (MN), and the other network device is a secondary node (SN). Both the MN and the SN may independently perform CA. The cells associated with the MN and aggregated by CA form a master cell group (MCG), and the cells associated with the SN and aggregated by CA form a secondary cell group (SCG). When dual connectivity is not implemented, the group of cells communicating with the terminal device is the MCG.

[0108] The MCG includes one primary cell (PCell) and at least one secondary cell (SCell). The SCG includes one primary secondary cell (PSCell) and at least one SCell. The PCell in the MCG and the SCell in the MCG are combined by using carrier aggregation (CA) technology. The PSCell in the SCG and the SCell in the SCG are also combined by using carrier aggregation technology.

[0109] Based on FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B, FIG. 1C, FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, and other content, FIG. 3 is a diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 3, the interaction between the network device and the terminal device is used as an example for explanation. In this embodiment of the present application, the operations performed by the network device may alternatively be performed by a chip or module in the network device, and the operations performed by the terminal device may alternatively be performed by a chip or module in the terminal device.

[0110] As shown in FIG. 3, the method includes the following steps.

[0111] Step 301: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0112] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information from the network device. The configuration information is used to configure the first carrier.

[0113] Before step 301, the terminal device may report its wireless capabilities (UE wireless capabilities, and hereinafter abbreviated as the capabilities of the terminal device) to the network device. For example, the terminal device reports its capabilities by using UE Capability Information, and the terminal device usually reports its capabilities to the network device after registering with the network. The network device may configure a carrier for the terminal device based on the capabilities of the terminal device.

[0114] The terminal device may report, in the UECapabilityInformation, a list of supported band combinations (supportedBandCombinationList) supported by the terminal device, and the list of band combinations includes the band combinations (BandCombination, BC) that the terminal device supports for carrier aggregation. For each of the band combinations, the terminal device may report information on the band relationship forming the band combination, such as the number of bands and the carrier aggregation bandwidth class (CA - bandwidthClass) of the bands. The carrier aggregation bandwidth class of a band indicates, among other things, the maximum amount of contiguous aggregated carriers supported by the band, the maximum aggregation bandwidth, etc. For each of the band combinations, the terminal device may further report the corresponding feature set combination of the band combination, the CA parameters of the band combination, etc. Based on the capabilities of the terminal device reported by the terminal device, the network device can know about the bands, the amount of carriers, the bandwidth, and the carrier aggregation method that the terminal device supports for carrier aggregation.

[0115] In step 301, the network device may configure carriers for the terminal device based on the capabilities of the terminal device. The first carrier is the carrier configured by the network device for the terminal device based on the capabilities of the terminal device. The capabilities of the terminal device reported by the first terminal device indicate that the terminal device supports communication with the network device based on the first carrier.

[0116] In this embodiment of the present application, the first carrier (the carrier is an abbreviation of the component carrier, and the component carrier is called the component carrier) may be one or more carriers, which is called the first carrier for ease of explanation in this embodiment of the present application. The first carrier may be a supplementary uplink (SUL) carrier, a normal uplink / non-supplementary uplink (NUL) carrier, a supplementary downlink (SDL) carrier, or a normal downlink / non-supplementary downlink (NDL) carrier. Alternatively, the first carrier may be the first cell, and the first cell may be one or more cells or a cell group (CG). The first cell may be an FDD cell or a TDD cell. The first cell may be a primary cell (PCell) or a secondary cell (SCell). The cell group may be a master cell group (MCG) or a secondary cell group (SCG). In a dual connectivity (DC) scenario, the secondary cell (SCell) may include an SCell in the MCG, a PSCell in the SCG, or an SCell in the SCG. The fact that the network device configures the first carrier for the terminal device may also be understood as the network device enabling the terminal device to perform communication on the first carrier.

[0117] Step 302: The terminal device sends the first information to the network device.

[0118] Correspondingly, the network device receives the first information from the terminal device. The first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier.

[0119] Before step 302, the first carrier configured by the network device may be in an activated state, a deactivated state, or a dormant state.

[0120] In this embodiment of the present application, the fact that the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped (data transmission on the first carrier may include uplink data transmission and / or downlink data transmission on the first carrier) may also be understood as the first information indicating one or more of the following. The terminal device stops data transmission on the first carrier; the first information requests the network device to stop data transmission on the first carrier; the first information indicates to the terminal device to stop, suspend, or temporarily limit the data transmission capability on the first carrier; the first information requests the network device to stop, suspend, or temporarily limit the data transmission capability on the first carrier; the first information requests the network device to stop, suspend, or temporarily limit the data scheduling on the first carrier; or the hardware resources corresponding to the first carrier conflict with the hardware resources corresponding to another communication system. The fact that the first information further indicates that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier may also be understood as the first information requesting to stop measurements on the first carrier.

[0121] In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. The measurements may be understood as radio resource management (RRM) measurements and include measurements based on at least one of a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) and / or a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (SSB). The terminal device stopping measurements on the first carrier may include at least one of the following. The terminal device suspends measurements on the first carrier, the terminal device does not measure the first carrier, the terminal device does not measure the frequency on which the first carrier is arranged, or the terminal device does not report the measurement results of the first carrier.

[0122] In a possible implementation, the terminal device receives measurement configuration information from the network device. The measurement configuration information may or may not be carried in the configuration information in step 301. The measurement configuration information and the configuration information can be sent respectively by using two messages. The measurement configuration information indicates to the terminal device that it should measure a first carrier (or it can indicate to the terminal device that it should measure the first carrier by indicating to the terminal device that it should measure the frequency at which the first carrier is located). The measurement configuration information includes one or more of the following: the configuration of a measurement object (MO), preset measurement reporting conditions (which may also be called measurement reporting configuration), the configuration of a measurement identity, the configuration of a measurement gap, etc. The preset measurement reporting conditions include criteria for triggering the terminal device to send a measurement report (for example, periodic measurement reporting or event-triggered measurement reporting). In periodic measurement reporting, the periodic reporting interval may be further configured in the preset measurement reporting conditions. In event-triggered measurement reporting, the preset measurement reporting conditions may further include the configuration of preset events (for example, one or more of event A1, event A2, event A3, event A4, event A5, event A6, event B1, or event B2, where the preset events may further include other events, which are only examples in this specification). The configuration information of the preset events may include a signal quality threshold, a signal quality range, a hysteresis parameter, a trigger time, etc. corresponding to the events.

[0123] The event definition of event A2 includes that the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than a threshold. Event A2 may be used to remove the SCell in the CA scenario. When the signal quality of the SCell satisfies event A2, the network device (e.g., the base station) may remove / release the SCell. The event definition of event A6 includes that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is higher than that of the serving cell SCell by an offset. Event A6 may be used to change the SCell. When event A6 is satisfied, the network device (e.g., the base station) may change the SCell by using the RRC reconfiguration message without changing the PCell.

[0124] The terminal device stops measuring on the first carrier, and the terminal device sends a measurement report to the network device. Correspondingly, the network device receives the measurement report. The measurement report may not include the measurement result of the first carrier, or the information indicating the measurement result of the first carrier in the measurement report is a preset value.

[0125] For example, the network device configures a serving cell measurement object (servingcellMO) for the serving cell (or the first cell) associated with the first carrier. In this case, the terminal device needs to include the measurement result of the first carrier in the measurement report. Since the terminal device stops measuring on the first carrier, the measurement report reported by the terminal device does not include the measurement result of the first carrier, or the measurement result of the first carrier in the measurement report is set to a preset value. The measurement report may be a periodically triggered measurement report or an event-triggered measurement report.

[0126] In this implementation, the terminal device does not have the ability to measure the first cell. Therefore, the network device configures the serving cell measurement target of the terminal device for the first cell by using the configuration information. Since the terminal device does not measure the first cell, the measurement report sent from the terminal device to the network device may not include the measurement result of the first cell, or the information indicating the measurement result of the first cell in the measurement report is a preset value. Since the terminal device does not measure the first carrier, the terminal device may use the hardware resources associated with the first carrier for transmissions in another communication system, for example, transmissions of higher-priority services or more important services being carried out in another communication system. Additionally, this is also compliant with the configuration of the network device and has higher compatibility with existing procedures.

[0127] In this embodiment of the present application, the network device and the terminal device may communicate with each other through multiple carriers or may communicate with each other through one carrier. The terminal device may further communicate with multiple network devices simultaneously. For example, the terminal device supports two SIM cards, and the terminal device communicates with different network devices through the two SIM cards, and the two SIM cards share the hardware resources of the terminal device. The hardware resources include resources such as baseband resources and radio frequency resources. The baseband resources include processor resources, memory resources, etc. The radio frequency resources include antennas, radio frequency front end modules (FEMs), RFIC channels, etc.

[0128] In some scenarios, the capabilities that can be supported by a terminal device may be lower than the capabilities initially reported by the terminal device to a network device, or the capabilities of the terminal device may be temporarily limited in some scenarios. For example, since the hardware resources used by a terminal device to communicate with multiple network devices in multiple communication systems are shared, when the terminal device communicates with multiple communication systems simultaneously, the hardware resources of the terminal device may conflict or collide. As a result, the terminal device determines that it cannot communicate with the network device based on one or more carriers configured by the network device for the terminal device. For example, the terminal device cannot communicate with the network device based on a first carrier. If the network is unaware that the terminal device does not have the ability to support data transmission on the first carrier, the network device continues to schedule data on the first carrier. As a result, the terminal device cannot correctly decode the data on the first carrier, which wastes carrier resources, causes bit errors and / or packet losses, and significantly reduces the user experience.

[0129] In this embodiment of the present application, when the network device configures a first carrier for the terminal device, since the terminal device may indicate to the network device that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped by sending first information, when the terminal device cannot receive or send data on the first carrier, the terminal device may notify the network device by using the first information, whereby the network device can stop data scheduling on the first carrier and reduce bit errors and / or packet losses.

[0130] In addition, when the network device configures a first carrier for the terminal device, the terminal device can indicate to the network device by sending first information that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. Thus, the network device can determine that the reason it does not receive the measurement results of the first carrier from the terminal device is not due to another reason (e.g., the signal quality of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions), but because the first terminal device does not measure the first carrier. Then, the network device can more appropriately activate the carrier.

[0131] In another example, the terminal device supports communication with multiple associated communication systems (e.g., communication system A and communication system B) by using multiple user identifications. The communication with multiple communication systems shares the hardware capabilities of the terminal device. When the hardware resources required by communication system A and communication system B conflict, the terminal device may determine which communication system has a more important service or a higher priority. Then, the terminal device can allocate hardware resources to the high-priority service (e.g., the terminal device allocates the hardware resources of the first carrier to communication system A). Therefore, the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate with the communication system (communication system B) corresponding to the low-priority service based on the first carrier where resource competition occurs.

[0132] In addition, when the network device configures measurements for a first carrier for the terminal device, and the terminal device still needs to maintain measurements on the first carrier, during the time period in which the first carrier is being measured, the terminal device allocates to the first carrier the hardware resources used for communication on another carrier for measurement purposes. This causes an interruption of services (e.g., the services of communication system A and / or the services of communication system B). However, since data transmission on the first carrier has stopped, the necessity for the terminal device to maintain measurements on the first carrier is low. In this embodiment of the present application, the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier, thereby making it possible to avoid interruptions of other services caused by measurements on the first carrier.

[0133] In step 302, the terminal device may implicitly indicate that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. For example, by using the same information, the terminal device may indicate that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, which may indicate that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. Alternatively, the terminal device may explicitly indicate that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. For example, the information used by the terminal device to indicate that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped may be different from the information indicating that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. Hereinafter, exemplary descriptions are provided by using method A1 and method A2.

[0134] Method A1: The first information includes first indication information. The first indication information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped and is information indicating that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier.

[0135] In a possible implementation, the first indication information may be information indicating that the first carrier should be restricted or suspended. In method A1, the information indicating that the first carrier should be restricted or suspended further indicates that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. In this embodiment of the present application, the fact that the first carrier is restricted may sometimes be referred to as the first carrier being in a restricted state. The fact that the first carrier is suspended may sometimes be referred to as the first carrier being in a suspended state. In method A1, the fact that the first carrier is in a restricted state or a suspended state may include that the first carrier stops being used for data transmission and the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier.

[0136] In this implementation, it can be understood that when the first carrier is in a restricted state or a suspended state, the terminal device can clarify its behavior to the network device. For example, under the condition that the capabilities of the terminal device are temporarily limited for reasons such as dual-card hardware resource sharing, in order to ensure that the network device and the terminal device have a consistent understanding that the first carrier is in a restricted state or a suspended state, the terminal device cannot perform measurements on the first carrier that requires the terminal device to restrict or suspend.

[0137] In another possible implementation, the first indication information may be information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated or that the activation of the first carrier should be restricted. Restricting the activation may be understood as the terminal device indicating to the network device that the first carrier should not be activated. For example, before the terminal device sends the first information, the first carrier is not activated (e.g., in a deactivated state), but the hardware resources corresponding to the first carrier are occupied. The terminal device may indicate to the network device that the first carrier should not be activated by sending the first indication information. In another example, before the terminal device sends the first information, the first carrier is activated, but the hardware resources corresponding to the first carrier are occupied. The terminal device may indicate to the network device that the first carrier should be deactivated by sending the first indication information. In Method A1, the information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated or that the activation of the first carrier should be restricted further indicates that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. In this embodiment of the present application, the fact that the first carrier is deactivated may sometimes be referred to as the first carrier being in a deactivated state. In Method A1, the fact that the first carrier is in a deactivated state may include stopping the use of the first carrier for data transmission and the terminal device stopping measurements on the first carrier.

[0138] In another possible implementation, the first indication information includes information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated or the activation of the first carrier should be restricted, and includes information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated or the activation of the first carrier should be restricted due to hardware resource contention. The hardware resource contention may alternatively be, for example, "hardware resource sharing, dual-card hardware resource sharing, dual-card reason, dual-card behavior, dual-card purpose", etc. In method A1, the information indicating that the first carrier should be deactivated or the activation of the first carrier should be restricted due to hardware resource contention may further indicate that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. In this example, when the network device receives the first information and the first information indicates that the terminal device deactivates the first carrier or restricts the activation of the first carrier due to hardware resource contention, the network device stops the first carrier from being used for data transmission and determines that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier.

[0139] In this embodiment of the present application, after receiving the first information, the network device may further determine the following, or it is further understood that the first information indicates that the terminal device stops performing one or more of the following on the first carrier: transmission of a sounding reference signal (SRS), reporting of channel state information (CSI), transmission on the uplink shared channel (UL-SCH), transmission on the random access channel (RACH), transmission on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), monitoring of the physical downlink control channel, or monitoring of the physical downlink control channel used for the first carrier. Therefore, the terminal device may use the hardware resources associated with the first carrier for transmission in another communication system, for example, for transmission of a higher-priority service or a more important service being performed in another communication system.

[0140] In this embodiment of the present application, the message carrying the first information may be a media access control (MAC) layer message, for example, a media access control control element (MAC CE), or a radio resource control (RRC) message, for example, UE assistance information (UAI). The first information may be sent to the network device in an RRC resume request message, an RRC resume complete message, an RRC re-establishment request message, or an RRC re-establishment un complete message. When the message carrying the first information is a MAC CE, the network device can be more quickly indicated whether the carrier should be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or whether the activation of the carrier should be restricted, and the delay is lower. Therefore, the network can be more quickly notified that the data scheduling on the first carrier should be stopped, and it is possible to avoid bit errors and / or packet losses.

[0141] For example, a message that carries first information is a MAC CE. Bits in the MAC CE can correspond to carriers configured by the network. The bit value of a bit indicates whether the carrier corresponding to the bit should be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or whether the activation of the carrier corresponding to the bit should be restricted. For example, when the value of a bit in the MAC CE is 1 (which can be regarded as first indication information), it indicates that the carrier corresponding to the bit should be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or that the activation of the carrier corresponding to the bit should be restricted. Correspondingly, when the value of the bit is 0, it indicates that the carrier corresponding to the bit can be made active or that the restriction on the carrier corresponding to the bit can be cancelled.

[0142] In another example, the message carrying the first information is an RRC message, for example, UE assistance information. Optionally, the UE includes in the RRC message an identifier of the first carrier or the first cell, for example, the serving cell index of the first cell or the serving cell index of the cell associated with the first carrier, and the RRC message indicates that the first cell or the first carrier should be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or that the activation of the first cell or the first carrier should be restricted. For example, the RRC message includes a first list (in particular, the first list may be a sequence type information element (IE)). When the first list includes an identifier (which can be regarded as the first indication information) of the first carrier, it indicates that the first carrier should be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or that the activation of the first carrier should be restricted. When the RRC message does not include an identifier of the first carrier or the first list is empty, it indicates that the first carrier may be activated or the restriction on the first carrier may be cancelled, or that the message carrying the first information is invalid.

[0143] In another example, the RRC message includes a bitmap, and one or more bits in the bitmap correspond to one carrier. For example, the first bit corresponds to a cell with index 1, the second bit corresponds to a cell with index 2, and so on. When the value of the bit is 1 (which can be regarded as the first indication information), it indicates that the carrier corresponding to the bit should be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or that the activation of the carrier corresponding to the bit should be restricted. When the value of the bit is 0, it indicates that the carrier corresponding to the bit may be activated or the restriction on the carrier corresponding to the bit may be cancelled.

[0144] Method A2: The first information includes second indication information and third indication information.

[0145] The second indication information is information indicating that the first carrier should be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or that the activation of the first carrier should be restricted. The third indication information is information indicating that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. In Method A2, the second indication information and the third indication information are different information.

[0146] In Method A2, the first carrier being in an inactive state, a restricted state, or a suspended state may include the first carrier ceasing to be used for data transmission, and may not include the terminal device stopping measurements on the first carrier.

[0147] In Implementation A2, for the method of including the second indication information in the message carrying the first information in this solution, refer to the solution related to the first indication information in the above Implementation A1. The message carrying the first information may carry the third indication information by using another one or more bits. The third indication information may also be understood as the measurements on the carrier indicated by the second indication information to be suspended, restricted, or made inactive, or the carrier indicated that its activation should be restricted being stopped by the terminal device.

[0148] Based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, and 3, and other content, FIG. 4A is an exemplary diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. FIG. 4A may be considered as an extended embodiment of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3. The description regarding the entity for executing the method of FIG. 4A is the same as the description regarding the entity for executing the method of FIG. 3, and will not be described in detail again. As shown in FIG. 4A, the method includes the following steps.

[0149] Step 401: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0150] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information from the network device.

[0151] For the related description of step 401, refer to the related description of step 301.

[0152] Step 402: The terminal device determines that the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0153] The fact that the terminal device determines that the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier may be understood as that the terminal device cannot receive a downlink and / or send an uplink among at least one of downlink and / or uplink scheduling information, downlink and / or uplink service data, downlink and / or uplink signaling, downlink messages and / or uplink messages, downlink feedback and / or uplink feedback, and downlink reference signals and / or uplink reference signals on the first carrier, or the terminal device cannot support the activation state of the first carrier.

[0154] In step 402, in some scenarios, the capabilities that can be currently supported by the terminal device in the first communication system are lower than the capabilities initially reported by the terminal device to the network device, or the capabilities of the terminal device currently operating in the first communication system are temporarily limited. For example, the capabilities reported by the terminal device to the network device indicate that the terminal device supports communication with the network device based on the first carrier. During actual application, the terminal device determines that it cannot communicate with the network device based on the first carrier.

[0155] For example, the CA capabilities that can be supported by the terminal device are lower than the CA capabilities reported by the terminal device to the network device. For example, if the terminal device is a terminal device supporting a multi-universal subscriber identity module (MUSIM), for example, a terminal device supporting two subscriber identity modules (SIM), the terminal device supports communication with the first communication system and the second communication system simultaneously. The first communication system is associated with the first subscriber identity module (corresponding to the first user identification and sometimes also abbreviated as SIM card 1 or card 1 in this application), and the second communication system is associated with the second subscriber identity module (corresponding to the second user identification and sometimes also abbreviated as SIM card 2 or card 2 in this application). A terminal device supporting two SIM cards may sometimes be abbreviated as a "dual-card terminal device", and the two SIM cards may sometimes be abbreviated as "two cards".

[0156] Simultaneous communication includes operating simultaneously in a first communication system and a second communication system, maintaining an RRC connection with the first communication system and the second communication system simultaneously, or performing data transmission with the first communication system and the second communication system simultaneously. Since the hardware resources used by the terminal device to communicate with the first communication system and the second communication system are shared, when the terminal device communicates with the first communication system and the second communication system simultaneously, the hardware resources of the terminal device occupied by the first communication system and the second communication system may compete or collide. The hardware resources include resources such as baseband resources and radio frequency resources. The baseband resources include processor resources, memory resources, etc. The radio frequency resources include antennas, radio frequency front end modules (FEMs), radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) channels, etc. In this embodiment of the present application, the fact that the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on a first carrier may include that the hardware resources of the first carrier are in a resource competition state or are about to enter a resource competition state. In an embodiment, whether the hardware resources are in a resource competition state may be a determination process. For example, the terminal device determines whether the hardware resources are in a resource competition state based on resource configuration information, based on carrier configuration information, or based on the scheduling information of the network device, or directly determines to send first information to the network device based on the configuration information.

[0157] In a possible scenario, when the terminal device operates only in the first communication system, the terminal device supports the configuration and activation of the first carrier, and the terminal device can receive and send data on the first carrier. When the terminal device operates in the second communication system and the transmission / operation in the second communication system occupies part of the capabilities of the terminal device, the terminal device may not be able to receive and send signaling or data on the first carrier configured in the first communication system. Part of the capabilities of the terminal device may include the hardware capabilities of the terminal device, such as baseband processing capabilities and / or radio frequency capabilities. The hardware capabilities of the terminal device may also be understood as the hardware resources of the terminal device, such as baseband resources and / or radio frequency resources. It may also be understood that the hardware resources of the terminal device occupied by the carriers activated by the network devices in the first communication system and in the second communication system compete. In this case, the terminal device cannot normally receive and send data or signaling on the first carrier, and the CA capabilities of the terminal device in the first communication system are temporarily limited.

[0158] In another example, the terminal device may alternatively be another device that supports communication with an associated communication system by using multiple user identifications, and the communication with multiple communication systems shares the hardware capabilities of the terminal device. For example, in a device that supports unicast communication and broadcast / multicast communication, the terminal device conducts unicast communication with a first communication system, and the terminal device conducts broadcast / multicast communication with a second communication system. The first communication system is associated with a first user identification of the terminal device, and the second communication system is associated with a second user identification of the terminal device. The capabilities reported by the terminal device in the first communication system can support the configuration and activation of the first carrier when the terminal device operates only in the first communication system. When the transmission / operation of the terminal device in the second communication system occupies a part of the capabilities of the terminal device, the terminal device may not be able to receive and send signaling or data on the first carrier of the first communication system, and the CA capabilities of the terminal device in the first communication system are temporarily limited.

[0159] Furthermore, a terminal device that supports two SIM cards is used as an example. For a network device, a terminal device that supports two SIM cards is considered as two independent terminal devices. The two SIM cards may belong to the same operator or different operators. However, on the terminal device side, the two SIM cards actually share hardware resources. When SIM card 1 and SIM card 2 perform communication simultaneously, the carrier resources occupied by SIM card 1 and SIM card 2 may conflict. For example, the radio frequency resources associated with the carrier may conflict. FIG. 4B shows an example of resource conflict according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4B, the radio frequency resources of the terminal device include four radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). In the network corresponding to SIM card 1, the four configured carrier components (CCs) include PCC and SCC1 to SCC3. PCC is associated with RFIC0, SCC1 is associated with RFIC1, SCC2 is associated with RFIC2, and SCC3 is associated with RFIC3. In the network corresponding to SIM card 2, one configured CC is PCC, and PCC is associated with RFIC1. Although RFIC1 is associated with two CCs simultaneously, since RFIC1 can provide service to only one of the CCs at the same moment, radio frequency conflict occurs between the two CCs. When the network schedules data simultaneously on the two CCs, the terminal device can receive data only on one of the CCs, and bit errors occur during reception on the other CC, which greatly affects the user experience.

[0160] Furthermore, in a scenario where multiple communication systems supported by a terminal share hardware resources, similar resource contention problems also occur. For example, a UE supports at least two communications among communication systems such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, non-public network (NPN) communication, and multicast broadcast service (MBS) communication simultaneously.

[0161] Step 403: The terminal device sends the first information to the network device.

[0162] Correspondingly, the network device receives the first information from the terminal device.

[0163] For the related description of step 403, please refer to the related description of step 302.

[0164] Step 404: The network device sends the second information to the terminal device.

[0165] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second information from the network device.

[0166] The second information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. In a possible implementation, the second information further indicates to the terminal device that measurements on the first carrier should be stopped. Step 404 is an optional step. When the terminal device determines that it does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device may stop measurements on the first carrier, or may decide to stop measurements on the first carrier after receiving the second information.

[0167] In a possible implementation, the terminal device uses the first information to notify the network device that the terminal device has stopped data transmission on the first carrier and has stopped measurements on the first carrier. The terminal device may stop data transmission on the first carrier and stop measurements on the first carrier before or after sending the first information. In this implementation, the terminal device may not need to pay attention to the response message returned by the network device. The network device may or may not return a response message. When the network device feeds back the second information, this second information may be considered as a response message to the first information. In a possible implementation, the second information may be feedback information of the first message, for example, a radio link control layer (RLC) protocol acknowledgement (ACK) or a hybrid automatic repeat request acknowledge (HARQ ACK). After sending the first information, the terminal device does not know whether the network device has received the first information normally. In this solution, the terminal device may determine based on the second information that the network device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier for the first terminal device. Additionally, if the terminal device determines that the network device has not received the first information normally, the terminal device may resend the first information to the network device. In this solution, it is possible to further improve the reliability of receiving the first information by the network device, and it can be understood that the case where the network device schedules data on the first carrier because the network device does not receive the first information normally can be avoided.

[0168] In another possible implementation, the network device returns the second information after receiving the first information. For example, the terminal device receives the second information from the network device. The second information may indicate that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. The terminal device stops data transmission on the first carrier based on the second information. In other words, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device to request to stop data transmission on the first carrier and to stop measurements on the first carrier. The network device decides, by sending the second information, that the terminal device can stop data transmission on the first carrier and stop measurements on the first carrier, and then the terminal device stops data transmission on the first carrier and stops measurements on the first carrier based on the second information sent by the network device. In a possible implementation, the second information indicates that the network device stops data scheduling on the first carrier. For example, the second information is a Secondary Cell (SCell) activation / deactivation Media Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE), and the second information indicates that the first carrier is deactivated. The fact that the second information indicates that the first carrier is deactivated may include indicating that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped and that measurements on the first carrier should be stopped.

[0169] Step 405: The terminal device determines that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0170] Determining that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier may be understood as the current ability of the terminal device to support receiving a downlink and / or sending an uplink on the first carrier, including at least one of downlink and / or uplink scheduling information, downlink and / or uplink service data, downlink and / or uplink signaling, downlink messages and / or uplink messages, downlink feedback and / or uplink feedback, and downlink reference signals and / or uplink reference signals, or that the terminal device can support the activation state of the first carrier.

[0171] In step 405, there can be multiple scenarios where the terminal device determines that it has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier. For the example in step 402, an example is provided. For example, when the terminal device determines to stop operating / transmitting in the second communication system, to exit the RRC connection state in the second communication system, the configuration of the network device for the terminal device in the second communication system changes, reducing the hardware resources required to be occupied for communication with the second communication system, and thus the ability of the terminal device that can be used in the first communication system can support communication on the first carrier, or when it is determined that the hardware resources used by the first communication system and the second communication system conflict, the terminal device preferentially allocates resources to the first communication system for communication, so as to recover the ability to receive and send signaling or data and perform measurements on the first carrier of the first communication system.

[0172] Step 406: The terminal device sends the third information to the network device.

[0173] Correspondingly, the network device receives third information from the terminal device.

[0174] The third information indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the third information further indicates that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. Therefore, the network device may determine, based on the third information, that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier. Next, when the downlink service volume of the network device increases, the network device can activate more carriers or more carriers for scheduling data in order to improve the downlink data transmission speed.

[0175] In a possible implementation, in step 405, after determining that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device may measure the first carrier, for example, for the first carrier, and measure the first carrier based on the measurement configuration information configured by the network device.

[0176] The terminal device may implicitly or explicitly indicate that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. For example, the third information includes information indicating that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the information indicating that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier further indicates that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. This may also be understood as the information indicating that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and the information indicating that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier being the same information. In another possible implementation, in the third information, the information indicating that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier is different from the information indicating that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier.

[0177] In this embodiment of the present application, the third information indicating that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier means that the restriction of the first carrier is cancelled, the suspension of the first carrier is cancelled, the state restricting the activation of the first carrier is cancelled, the network device can activate the first carrier, the network device can schedule resources and data on the first carrier, the terminal device can recover the data transmission ability on the first carrier, the network device cancels the temporary limitation on the first carrier and / or requires it, the hardware resource competition of the terminal device is cancelled, or the first information is invalid. It may also be understood that the third information indicates one or more of the above.

[0178] For example, when the terminal device is a terminal device that simultaneously supports communication with a first communication system and a second communication system, the first communication system is associated with a first user identification of the terminal device, the second communication system is associated with a second user identification of the terminal device, and the capabilities of the terminal device that can be used for the first communication system support communication on a first carrier. In this case, the terminal device may sometimes be said to no longer be in a resource contention state. That the capabilities of the terminal device that can be used for the first communication system support communication on the first carrier means that the terminal device supports receiving a downlink and / or sending an uplink on the first carrier, including at least one of downlink and / or uplink scheduling information, downlink and / or uplink service data, downlink and / or uplink signaling, downlink messages and / or uplink messages, downlink feedback and / or uplink feedback, and downlink reference signals and / or uplink reference signals, or it may be understood that the terminal device supports the active state of the first carrier. That the terminal device is no longer in a resource contention state may be understood as the resource contention between the hardware resources used by the terminal in the first communication system and the hardware resources used by the terminal in the second communication system being stopped.

[0179] The message carrying the third information may be a MAC layer message, for example, a MAC CE, or it may be an RRC message, for example, UE assistance information (UAI). The message carrying the third information and the message carrying the first information may alternatively be the same message. For related content, refer to the above description of the first information. Details will not be described again.

[0180] Step 407: The terminal device measures a first carrier and obtains a measurement result of the first carrier.

[0181] In step 407, in a possible implementation, after the terminal device has recovered the ability to measure the first carrier and has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device may measure the first carrier based on a measurement resource (including a synchronization signal block (SSB) resource or a CSI-RS resource) and obtain a measurement result of the first carrier. The measurement result of the first carrier may be obtained by measuring the available measurement resource once, or may be a plurality of measurement results (or the average value of the plurality of measurement results) obtained by measuring the available measurement resources at a plurality of times within a time period. The measurement resource used by the terminal device to measure the first carrier may be the measurement resource first received from the network device after the terminal device has recovered the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0182] In step 407, the measurements performed by the terminal device on the carrier may include at least one of intra-frequency measurement, inter-frequency measurement, and inter-RAT measurement. The measurements performed by the terminal device on the carrier include at least one of periodically configured measurements by the network, event-triggered measurements, cell global identifier (CGI) measurements, and system frame number and frame timing difference (SFTD) measurements. The measurements performed by the terminal device on the carrier may include at least one of SSB-based measurements or CSI-RS-based RRM measurements. The measurement result of the first carrier may be understood as a cell-level measurement result. For example, the measurement configuration information of the network device indicates that the terminal device measures one or more beams of the cell and performs an averaging process on the obtained results (for example, power values) to obtain a measurement result of the cell (which may be regarded as the measurement result of the first carrier). The measurement result of the first carrier may include at least one of RSRP, RSRQ, or SINR.

[0183] Step 408: The terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device.

[0184] Correspondingly, the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device.

[0185] In a possible implementation, the terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device when the second condition is satisfied. The second condition includes at least one of the terminal device recovering its ability to measure the first carrier or preset measurement reporting conditions.

[0186] In a possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier, after obtaining the measurement result of the first carrier, the terminal device can send the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. In this solution, the terminal device does not need to wait for the preset measurement reporting conditions to be satisfied (the preset measurement reporting conditions may not be satisfied). Instead, when the ability to measure the first carrier is recovered, the terminal device can send the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device when the measurement result of the first carrier is obtained. This can accelerate the speed at which the network device obtains the measurement result of the first carrier, so that the network device can manage the carrier more appropriately based on the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0187] In another possible implementation, when the preset measurement reporting conditions are satisfied, the terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. In another possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier and the preset measurement reporting conditions are satisfied, the terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. In this way, this can be more compatible with the prior art.

[0188] The condition that the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier may alternatively be that the terminal device determines that it recovers its ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device cancels the restriction of the first carrier, etc. In this implementation, when the terminal determines that the terminal device has recovered its ability to measure the first carrier, the case where the terminal device reports the measurement result of the first carrier can be triggered.

[0189] There are multiple preset measurement reporting conditions. For example, when the network device configures the terminal device to periodically report the measurement result of the first carrier, TerminalThe device reports the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device at the moment when it is configured by the network device to report the measurement results of the first carrier. In another example, when the network device configures the terminal device to report the measurement results of the first carrier when a preset event is satisfied, the terminal device reports the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device when it determines that the preset event is satisfied.

[0190] In this embodiment of the present application, the preset event may include, for example, one or more of event A1, event A2, event A3, event A4, event A5, event A6, event B1, or event B2. The preset event may further include a preset measurement reporting event. For example, a serving cell measurement object is configured for the first carrier or the first cell. When the measurement results of another carrier / cell / frequency satisfy the measurement reporting conditions triggered by the preset event, the measurement report sent by the terminal device to the network device also includes the measurement results of the first carrier / first cell.

[0191] In another possible implementation, when the terminal device determines that the second condition is not satisfied, the terminal device does not send the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device. For example, when the terminal device determines that it cannot recover the ability to measure the first carrier, since the terminal device cannot measure the first carrier, the terminal device does not send the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device. In another example, when the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier but determines that the preset measurement reporting conditions are not satisfied, the terminal device does not send the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device. This solution can be more compatible with the prior art.

[0192] In another possible implementation, after receiving the first piece of information and before receiving the measurement result of the first carrier, the network device does not activate the first carrier. This can also be understood as follows. Before the terminal device reports the measurement result of the first carrier, the terminal device does not expect the network device to activate the first carrier, or before the network device obtains the measurement result of the first carrier, the terminal device does not expect the network device to activate the first carrier.

[0193] In another possible implementation, the network device may indicate a trigger condition for the terminal device to report the measurement result of the first carrier. For example, the trigger condition indicated by the network device includes the terminal device recovering the ability to measure the first carrier. The indication information may be sent to the terminal device by using an RRC reconfiguration message.

[0194] In another possible implementation, when the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier and the first duration is greater than the preset duration threshold, the terminal device may send the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. The first duration includes the duration from the moment when the terminal device does not have the data transmission ability on the first carrier to the moment when the terminal device has the data transmission ability on the first carrier. When the time is short, the moving distance of the terminal device is not large, and the quality of the carrier does not change significantly. Therefore, when the restricted duration of the first carrier does not exceed the first duration, the terminal device may not send the measurement result of the first carrier after the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier and obtains the measurement result of the first carrier. Therefore, the amount of signaling can be reduced, and resources can be saved. The terminal device reports the measurement result of the first carrier when the preset measurement reporting condition is met. In this way, it is also possible to be more compatible with the prior art.

[0195] In this implementation, after receiving the third piece of information, the network device determines that the duration for which the first carrier is restricted does not exceed the first duration. In this case, after receiving the third piece of information, the network device can determine that the first carrier can be activated without waiting for the measurement result of the first carrier, that the restriction on the first carrier can be cancelled, that resource scheduling on the first carrier can be restored, or that uplink / downlink data transmission on the first carrier can be restored.

[0196] Below, by using a specific example, the beneficial effects brought about by a second condition that includes the terminal device recovering the ability to measure the first carrier are analyzed.

[0197] For example, the second condition is a preset measurement reporting condition. The preset measurement reporting condition is Event A2. The definition of Event A2 includes that the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than a threshold. When it is determined that the signal quality of the first carrier is lower than the threshold (meeting Event A2), the terminal device reports the measurement result of the first carrier. When it is determined that the signal quality of the first carrier is not lower than the threshold (not meeting Event A2), the terminal device does not report the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0198] After receiving the third message, if the network device does not receive the measurement result of the first carrier, the network device considers that the signal quality of the first carrier does not meet event A2 and considers that the signal quality of the first carrier is good. When the data volume of the downlink service sent to the terminal device by the network device is large, the activated carrier needs to be increased to meet the service rate requirement. Although the actual signal quality of the first carrier with the restriction removed is poor, if the terminal device does not send the measurement report of the first carrier to the network device, after the network device determines that the restriction of the first carrier is removed and does not receive the measurement result of the first carrier, before receiving the measurement result of the first carrier (for example, the measurement report triggered by event A2), the network device considers that the signal quality of the first carrier is good. Then, the network device may activate the first carrier with poor actual signal quality. As a result, radio resources are wasted, the power consumption of the terminal device increases, and bit errors and packet losses are caused.

[0199] In addition, since the network device does not receive the measurement result of the first carrier after determining that the restriction of the first carrier is removed, the network device cannot determine whether the terminal device fails to obtain the measurement result of the first carrier, or whether the terminal device performs the measurement, obtains the measurement result of the first carrier, but does not trigger the measurement reporting. If the network device waits for a long time before activating the carrier, the service experience is affected.

[0200] In this problem, in this embodiment of the present application, the second condition may include that the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier. This may also be understood as that in this embodiment, a new measurement reporting event is added. After recovering the ability to measure the first carrier, the terminal device may trigger the reporting of the measurement result of the first carrier without waiting for the preset measurement reporting condition (for example, event A2) to be satisfied. Therefore, the network device can timely know the signal quality of the first carrier whose restriction has been cancelled, and thereby the network device can perform RRM management (for example, operations such as carrier activation, carrier removal, or carrier change) on the carrier. For example, the network device may then determine whether the first carrier needs to be activated based on factors such as the signal quality of the first carrier. When it is determined to activate the first carrier, the network device sends carrier activation information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the carrier activation information from the network device. The carrier activation information is used to activate the first carrier.

[0201] Based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 3, and 4A, and other content, FIG. 5 is an exemplary diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. FIG. 5 may be considered as an extended embodiment of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3. The description of the entity for executing the method in FIG. 5 is the same as the description of the entity for executing the method in FIG. 3. Details will not be described again.

[0202] As shown in FIG. 5, the method includes the following steps.

[0203] Step 501: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0204] For the description related to step 501, please refer to the description related to step 401.

[0205] Step 502: The terminal device determines that it does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0206] For the description related to step 502, please refer to the description related to step 402.

[0207] Step 503: The terminal device sends the first information to the network device.

[0208] For the description related to step 503, please refer to the description related to step 403.

[0209] Step 504: The network device sends the second information to the terminal device, and the second information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped.

[0210] For the description related to step 504, please refer to the description related to step 404.

[0211] Step 505: The terminal device determines that it has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0212] For the description related to step 505, please refer to the description related to step 405.

[0213] Step 506a: When the first condition is met, the terminal device sends the third information to the network device.

[0214] Correspondingly, the network device receives the third information.

[0215] The first condition includes that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. The first condition further includes one of condition 1 and condition 2.

[0216] Condition 1: The signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold.

[0217] The preset signal quality threshold can be configured by the network. For example, the preset signal quality threshold may be the threshold of event A2 (A2 threshold). In an implementation where the first condition includes Condition 1, when the terminal device determines that the signal quality of the first carrier is good, it can be understood that the terminal device sends the third information to the network device. After recovering the ability to measure the first carrier, when the signal quality of the first carrier is poor (for example, the signal quality of the first carrier is below the preset signal quality threshold), the terminal device may not send the third information. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the case where the network device activates a carrier with poor actual signal quality. At that time, bit errors and / or packet losses can be reduced, and waste of radio resources and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device can be reduced.

[0218] In a possible implementation, when Condition 1 is satisfied, the preset measurement reporting condition may not be satisfied. For example, the preset measurement reporting event includes event A2 and / or event A6. The event definition of event A2 includes that the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than the threshold. The event definition of event A6 includes that the signal quality of the neighboring cell is higher than that of the serving cell SCell by an offset. When the signal quality of the first carrier is poor, it can be understood that both event A2 and event A6 can be triggered. Therefore, Condition 1 can also be understood as follows. The signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold (the preset signal quality threshold may be greater than the threshold defined in event A2), and the signal quality of the first carrier does not satisfy event A2 and / or event A6.

[0219] Condition 2: Preset measurement reporting condition.

[0220] There are multiple preset measurement reporting conditions. For example, when the network device configures the terminal device to periodically report the measurement results of the first carrier, Terminal at the moment when the device is configured by the network device to report the measurement results of the first carrier, the device reports the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device. In another example, when the network device configures the terminal device to report the measurement results of the first carrier when a preset event is satisfied, the terminal device reports the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device when it determines that the preset event is satisfied. For related content, please refer to the above description. Details will not be described again.

[0221] After the terminal device recovers its ability to measure the first carrier and when the preset measurement reporting condition is satisfied, it sends the third information. Therefore, the terminal device may further report the measurement results of the first carrier. In another possible implementation, the third information and the measurement results of the first carrier may be two different pieces of information, and these two pieces of information may be carried in one message or two messages.

[0222] In a possible implementation, the third information includes the measurement results of the first carrier. This may also be understood as the third information being the measurement results of the first carrier. In this implementation, step 506a may alternatively be step 506b.

[0223] Step 506b: When the first condition is satisfied, the terminal device sends the measurement results of the first carrier to the network device.

[0224] In this implementation, it can be understood that the measurement result of the first carrier may indicate that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and the ability to recover the ability of the terminal device to measure the first carrier. In other words, the measurement result of the first carrier may implicitly indicate the content indicated by the third information. When receiving the measurement result of the first carrier, the network device may determine that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and may manage the first carrier based on the measurement result of the first carrier. In this way, the signaling overhead sent by the terminal device can be reduced. In addition, the network device may perform corresponding carrier management operations based on the measurement result of the first carrier, thereby avoiding bit errors and / or packet losses, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the UE caused by erroneously activating a carrier with poor signal quality by the network device.

[0225] Based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 3, 4A, and 5, and other contents, FIG. 6 is an exemplary diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. FIG. 6 may be considered as an extended embodiment of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3. The description regarding the entity for executing the method of FIG. 5 is the same as the description regarding the entity for executing the method of FIG. 3 and will not be described again in detail.

[0226] As shown in FIG. 6, the method includes the following steps.

[0227] Step 601: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0228] For the related description of step 601, please refer to the related description of step 401.

[0229] Step 602: The terminal device determines that it does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0230] For the description related to Step 602, please refer to the description related to Step 402.

[0231] Step 603: The terminal device sends the first information to the network device.

[0232] For the description related to Step 603, please refer to the description related to Step 403.

[0233] Step 604: The network device sends the second information to the terminal device.

[0234] For the description related to Step 604, please refer to the description related to Step 404.

[0235] Step 605: The terminal device determines that it has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0236] For the description related to Step 605, please refer to the description related to Step 405.

[0237] Step 606: The terminal device sends the third information to the network device.

[0238] Step 607: The network device determines to recover the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier.

[0239] In Step 607, there are multiple possible implementations. Hereinafter, exemplary descriptions will be provided by using Implementation 1, Implementation 2, and Implementation 3.

[0240] Implementation 1 The third piece of information further indicates that when measurement results reported by the terminal device based on a preset second event are not received before the first moment, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled. The first moment is a moment that exists after a preset second duration starting from the moment when the network device receives the third message. The second duration can be determined by the network device or predefined in the standard. The second duration is greater than or equal to the time interval between the moment when the network device receives the third message and the first reference signal resource (SSB / CSI-RS) that can be used to measure the first carrier. Therefore, before the first moment arrives, the first terminal device can measure the first carrier based on the reference signal resource.

[0241] In Implementation 1, in a possible implementation, after receiving the third piece of information in step 606, the network device may perform the following steps. When, before the first moment, the network device does not receive measurement results reported by the terminal device based on a preset second event, the network device determines to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier.

[0242] The preset second event is, for example, Event A2 and / or Event A6. In this case, when the network device does not receive measurement results reported by the terminal device based on a preset second event before the first moment, the network device may determine that the terminal device is measuring the first carrier and the signal quality of the first carrier is good (for example, Event A2 and / or Event A6 are not satisfied). Therefore, the network device may determine to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier.

[0243] In another possible implementation, when the network device receives the measurement results reported by the terminal device based on a preset second event before the first moment, since the measurement results of the first carrier indicate that the signal quality of the first carrier is poor, the network device may decide not to activate the first carrier or not to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier.

[0244] Implementation 2 The third information further indicates that after the measurement results of the first carrier are received from the terminal device, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled.

[0245] In Implementation 2, in a possible implementation, after receiving the third information in step 606, the network device may perform the following steps. After receiving the measurement results of the first carrier from the terminal device, the network device decides to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier.

[0246] In another possible implementation, even if the network device receives the third information before receiving the measurement results of the first carrier from the terminal device, the network device decides not to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier. In another possible implementation, before reporting the measurement results of the first carrier, the terminal device does not expect the network device to activate the first carrier. For example, when receiving information distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier before reporting the measurement results of the first carrier, the terminal device still ignores this information, that is, does not activate the first carrier.

[0247] In Implementation 2, in a possible implementation, the third piece of information further indicates that when the measurement result of the first carrier is received from the terminal device before the first moment and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled.

[0248] In Implementation 2, in another possible implementation, after receiving the third piece of information in step 606, the network device may perform the following steps. The network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device before the first moment, and when the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, the network device determines to restore the terminal device's ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier.

[0249] This implementation may also be considered as adding a new trigger condition for the terminal device to report the measurement result of the first carrier, that is, the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold.

[0250] In another possible implementation, if the network device does not receive the measurement result of the first carrier reported by the terminal device based on the condition that "the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold" before the first moment, even if the network device receives the third piece of information, the network device determines not to restore the terminal device's ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier.

[0251] In another description method, for the first carrier whose measurement has been restored, before the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, the terminal device does not expect to receive the information distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier. Instead, if the terminal device receives a message distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier before the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, the terminal device may ignore the message used to activate the first carrier.

[0252] Implementation 3 The third piece of information further indicates that when the measurement result of the first carrier is received from the terminal device before the first moment and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, data transmission on the first carrier is enabled after the first moment arrives.

[0253] In Implementation 3, in another possible implementation, after receiving the third information in step 606, the network device may perform the following steps. When the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device before the first moment, and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, after the first moment arrives, the network device considers that the terminal device has recovered the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier. In this embodiment of the present application, when the network device determines that the terminal device has recovered the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier, the network device may activate the first carrier. The network device's determination that the terminal device has recovered the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier may alternatively be that the network device determines that it is possible to activate the first carrier. When the network device determines that the terminal device has not recovered the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier, the network device may not activate the first carrier. The network device's determination that the terminal device has not recovered the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier may alternatively be that the network device determines that it is impossible to activate the first carrier.

[0254] Implementation 3 may be considered as an extended embodiment of the possible implementations of Implementation 2. Before the network device determines to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier, the condition that "the first moment arrives" is further required. For example, at the moment when the network device receives the third message, a timer is started (the timer is set to the second duration). When the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device before the first moment, and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, after the first moment arrives (after the timer expires), the network device determines to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier.

[0255] In another possible implementation, before the first moment arrives, the network device is not allowed to perform data transmission on the first carrier. Before the first moment arrives, the network device determines not to restore the ability of the terminal device to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier.

[0256] In another description method, for the first carrier whose measurement has been restored, before the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold and before the first moment, the terminal device does not expect to receive the information distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier. Instead, if the terminal device receives the message distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier before the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold and before the first moment, the terminal device may ignore the message used to activate the first carrier.

[0257] From the above content, in this embodiment of the present application, it can be understood that after a delay in the time period after receiving the third information, the network device distributes a message used to activate the first carrier. During the time period, the network device may wait for the terminal device to measure the first carrier and wait for the terminal device to determine whether the measurement result of the first carrier needs to be reported. If the terminal device triggers event A2 or event A6 for the cell corresponding to the first carrier during the time period, the network may release or change the SCell based on the measurement report, but does not activate the first carrier. This solution can reduce problems such as bit errors, packet loss, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by the network device accidentally activating a carrier with poor signal quality. In addition, if the terminal device determines that the signal quality of the first carrier is poor, the terminal device may ignore the message distributed by the network device and used to activate the first carrier in order to reduce problems such as bit errors, packet loss, waste of radio resources, and energy consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by performing a carrier activation operation (including RF warming up, etc.). For other related descriptions of step 606 and step 607, please refer to the related description of step 406. Details will not be described again.

[0258] Based on the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 3, 4A, 5, and 6, and other content, FIG. 7 is an exemplary diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. FIG. 7 may be considered as an extended embodiment of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3. The description of the entity for executing the method in FIG. 7 is the same as the description of the entity for executing the method in FIG. 3. Details will not be described again.

[0259] As shown in FIG. 7, this method includes the following steps.

[0260] Step 701: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0261] For the related description of step 701, please refer to the related description of step 401.

[0262] Step 702: The terminal device determines that the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0263] For the related description of step 702, please refer to the related description of step 402.

[0264] Step 703: The terminal device sends the first information to the network device.

[0265] For the related description of step 703, please refer to the related description of step 403.

[0266] Step 704: The network device sends the second information to the terminal device.

[0267] For the related description of step 704, please refer to the related description of step 404.

[0268] Step 705: The terminal device determines that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0269] For the related description of step 705, please refer to the related description of step 405.

[0270] Step 706: The terminal device sends the third information to the network device.

[0271] For the description related to step 706, please refer to the description related to step 406 or step 606.

[0272] Step 707: The network device sends information used to activate the first reference signal to the terminal device.

[0273] The terminal device receives information used to activate the first reference signal from the network device.

[0274] In a possible implementation, before step 707, the network device sends the configuration information of the first reference signal to the terminal device. The configuration information of the first reference signal may be carried in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message, such as an RRC reconfiguration message. The terminal device receives the configuration information of the first reference signal from the network device. The configuration information of the first reference signal may be carried in the configuration information sent by the network device in step 701, or may be carried in another message. The first reference signal may include, for example, a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). The network device may configure the first reference signal for one or more serving cells. The configuration information of the first reference signal may include frequency domain information of the first reference signal (e.g., measurement bandwidth and starting physical resource block (PRB) location), time domain information of the first reference signal (e.g., periodicity and offset), etc.

[0275] In a possible implementation, the time-domain density (periodicity) of the first reference signal may be greater than that of another reference signal, and / or the frequency-domain density of the first reference signal may be greater than that of another reference signal. Therefore, when the terminal device recovers its ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device can more quickly acquire the reference signal resources that can be used to measure the first carrier and more quickly measure the first carrier.

[0276] The information used to activate the first reference signal in step 707 may be carried in MAC CE, RRC signaling, or physical layer signaling (e.g., Downlink Control Information (DCI)). Compared with the solution where the information used to activate the first reference signal is included in the RRC message, when the information used to activate the first reference signal can be included in DCI or MAC CE, the transmission delay and processing delay of the lowest layer signaling are lower, so the terminal device can receive the activation information more quickly.

[0277] Step 708: The network device sends the first reference signal to the terminal device.

[0278] The terminal device receives the first reference signal from the network device.

[0279] Step 709: The terminal device measures the first carrier based on the first reference signal and obtains the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0280] Correspondingly, the network device receives the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device. The measurement result of the first carrier is obtained by measuring the first carrier based on the first reference signal. For the remaining related descriptions of step 709, please refer to the related descriptions of step 407.

[0281] Step 710: The terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device.

[0282] For the description related to Step 710, please refer to the description related to Step 408.

[0283] In a possible implementation, after Step 710, the terminal device may receive, from the network device, information indicating that the first reference signal should be deactivated. After receiving the information indicating that the first reference signal should be deactivated, the terminal device stops the measurement based on the first reference signal.

[0284] From the above content, since the network device can pre-configure the configuration information of the first reference signal, it can be understood that the terminal can know in advance the configuration information of the first reference signal, such as the time-domain position and the frequency-domain position. When the terminal device restores the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, if the terminal device receives, from the network device, information used to activate the first reference signal, the terminal device determines the location of the first reference signal based on the configuration information and can more quickly measure the first carrier based on the first reference signal.

[0285] Since the network device can dynamically activate the first reference signal by using the activation information of the first reference signal, the terminal device can obtain the measurement result of the first carrier more quickly, and to ensure that the network device does not need to send the first reference signal at other times, the network device can send the first reference signal in a specific scenario (for example, in a scenario where the terminal device stops carrier measurement due to hardware resource contention and resumes the measurement ability after the hardware resources are released). Therefore, it is possible to avoid the case where the first reference signal unnecessarily occupies radio resources and affects the data transmission rate. After receiving the activation information of the first reference signal from the network device, it can be understood that the terminal device can start to perform measurements based on the first reference signal. The UE does not need to obtain the first reference signal before receiving the information used to activate the first reference signal.

[0286] Based on the embodiments shown in FIG. 1A, FIG. 1B, FIG. 1C, FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, and FIG. 3, and other contents, FIG. 8 is an exemplary diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. FIG. 8 may be considered as an extended embodiment of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3. The description of the entity for executing the method of FIG. 8 is the same as the description of the entity for executing the method of FIG. 3. Details will not be described again.

[0287] As shown in FIG. 8, the method includes the following steps.

[0288] Step 801: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0289] For the related description of step 801, please refer to the related description of step 301.

[0290] Step 802: The terminal device determines that the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0291] For the description related to step 802, please refer to the description related to step 402.

[0292] Step 803: The terminal device sends first information to the network device.

[0293] For the content of step 803, please refer to the content of step 302. The difference between step 803 and step 302 is that the first information in step 803 indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information may not indicate that the terminal device stops measurements on the first carrier. For the remaining related description of step 803, please refer to the related description of step 302.

[0294] Step 804: The terminal device sends information used to request the network device to configure a first gap.

[0295] Correspondingly, the network device receives from the terminal device the information used to request the configuration of a first gap.

[0296] The first gap is used to measure the first carrier. The information used to request configuring the first gap and the first information can be carried in one message or in different messages. The information used to request configuring the first gap may further indicate that the first gap is used to measure the first carrier, and / or the information used to request configuring the first gap may further be used to stop measurements on the first carrier for reasons such as dual-card hardware resource sharing. Thus, the network device may know about the function of the first gap, and the network device may also know that the terminal device has measured the first carrier. If the network device does not receive the measurement result from the terminal device, the network device may determine that the terminal device does not send the measurement result because the measurement result of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions, rather than because the terminal device is unable to measure the first carrier. Thus, the network device may more appropriately perform carrier management.

[0297] In a possible implementation, in step 804, when the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device sends the information used to request configuring the first gap to the network device. The information used to request configuring the first gap may include at least one of the length, periodicity, start location, offset, etc. of the first gap.

[0298] In the first gap, the terminal device may not need to receive signals other than the reference signals used for measurement from the serving cell and may not need to send data to the serving cell. This is because when the amount of the receiver of the terminal device is insufficient to cover the frequency where the first carrier / cell to be measured (the first cell is the cell corresponding to the first carrier) is located or the bandwidth of the receiver is insufficient, the terminal device cannot receive and send signals in the serving cell and simultaneously perform measurements on the first carrier / first cell. In this case, the first gap can be configured to allow the terminal device to complete the measurement by exiting the current frequency. During the first gap, the network device stops uplink and downlink scheduling, and the terminal device neither sends nor receives any data but adjusts the receiver to the frequency of the first carrier / first cell for measurement. After the first gap ends, data transmission in the serving cell continues.

[0299] For example, the information used to request configuring the first gap may be UE assistance information. The information used to request configuring the first gap may be included in the MUSIM assistance information. In step 804, the network device may be a network device associated with a communication system in which the terminal device communicates based on the first carrier or may be a network device associated with another communication system. The first gap can be used for the terminal device to operate in a communication system in which the terminal device communicates based on the first carrier or can be used for the terminal device to operate in another communication system.

[0300] The sequence of step 804 and step 803 is not strictly limited. For example, step 804 may be performed first, and then step 803 may be performed, or the two pieces of information in step 803 and step 804 are carried in one message.

[0301] Step 805: The terminal device receives the configuration information of the first gap from the network device.

[0302] Step 806: The terminal device measures the first carrier in the first gap based on the configuration information of the first gap, and obtains the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0303] After step 806, in a possible implementation, if the measurement result of the first carrier meets the preset measurement reporting conditions, the terminal device may report the measurement result of the first carrier. If the measurement result of the first carrier does not meet the preset measurement reporting conditions, the terminal device may not report the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0304] In another possible implementation, when the terminal device obtains the measurement result of the first carrier and determines to restore the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the terminal device sends the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device. This implementation may also be understood as adding a new trigger condition to trigger the terminal device to report the measurement result of the first carrier. The trigger condition is that the terminal device obtains the measurement result of the first carrier and the terminal device determines to restore the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0305] Step 807: The network device sends the second information to the terminal device.

[0306] For the related description of step 807, please refer to the related description of step 404.

[0307] Step 808: The terminal device determines that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0308] For the related description of step 808, please refer to the related description of step 405.

[0309] Step 809: The terminal device sends third information to the network device.

[0310] For the related description of step 809, please refer to the related description of step 406 or step 606.

[0311] Step 810: The terminal device sends information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap to the network device.

[0312] Correspondingly, the network device receives, from the terminal device, information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap.

[0313] Since the terminal device can perform communication based on the first carrier after recovering the ability to perform communication based on the first carrier, the terminal device can also measure the first carrier at times other than the first gap. Therefore, the terminal device does not need to request the first gap from the network device to measure the first carrier. The terminal device sends information indicating that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap to the network device, and thus, the network device can cancel the configuration of the first gap to reduce resource consumption and optimize the service experience.

[0314] In a possible implementation, at step 810, the terminal device may send UE assistance information to the network device. The UE assistance information indicates that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap. For example, in a possible implementation, the terminal device does not include the configuration of the first gap in the UE assistance information. When the network device receives the UE assistance information, since the UE assistance information does not include the configuration of the first gap, the network device may decide to stop the terminal device's preference regarding the configuration of the first gap, and the network device may cancel the configuration of the first gap to reduce resource consumption and optimize the service experience. This solution may be more compatible with the prior art.

[0315] In another possible implementation, step 810 may not be performed. The third information in step 809 further indicates that the terminal device has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap. For example, the network device receives the third information and decides to restore the terminal device's ability to communicate based on the first carrier. Therefore, the network device may decide that the terminal device no longer anticipates or has no preference regarding the configuration of the first gap.

[0316] From the above content, in this embodiment of the present application, it can be understood that the terminal device requests the network for a first gap to measure the first carrier in the first gap when it is impossible to perform the measurement on the first carrier due to insufficient hardware capabilities. In addition, the information used to request the configuration of the first gap may further implicitly indicate to the network device that the terminal device cannot measure the first carrier. The embodiment shown in FIG. 8 may also be combined with the above embodiment. In a possible implementation, if the network device does not configure the first gap for the terminal device, the terminal device may use the embodiment shown in any one of FIGS. 3, 4A, 5, 6, or 7.

[0317] It should be noted that the names of the above messages are only used as examples. With the development of communication technologies, the name of any of the above messages may be changed. However, regardless of how the name of the message changes, the message falls within the protection scope of this application on the condition that the meaning of the message is the same as that of the above message in this application.

[0318] In the above, from the perspective of the interaction between network elements, the solutions in the embodiments of this application have been mainly described. To implement the above functions, it can be understood that the above network elements include corresponding hardware structures and / or corresponding software modules for implementing the functions. A person skilled in the art should easily notice that the present invention can be implemented by hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software in combination with the example units and algorithm steps described in the embodiments disclosed in this specification. Whether the function is implemented by hardware or is hardware-driven by computer software depends on the specific application and the design constraints of the technical solution. A person skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the functions described for each specific application, but the implementation should not be regarded as exceeding the scope of the present invention.

[0319] According to the above method, FIG. 9 is a diagram of the structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of this application. As shown in FIG. 9, the communication device can be a terminal device or a network device, or a chip or a circuit, for example, a chip or a circuit that may be disposed in a terminal device, or a chip or a circuit that may be disposed in a network device.

[0320] The communication device 1301 includes a processor 1302 and a transceiver 1303. The communication device 1301 may implement a method on the terminal device side or the network device side in the related solutions of FIG. 3, FIG. 4A, FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, or FIG. 8.

[0321] Furthermore, the communication device 1301 may include a memory 1304. In the figure, the memory 1304 is shown as a dashed line, which further identifies that the memory is optional.

[0322] Furthermore, the communication device 1301 may further include a bus system. The processor 1302, the memory 1304, and the transceiver 1303 may be connected through the bus system.

[0323] It should be understood that the processor 1302 may be a chip. For example, the processor 1302 may be a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), a digital signal processor (DSP), a micro controller unit (MCU), a programmable logic device (PLD), or another integrated chip. Unit (micro controller unit, MCU), a programmable logic device (PLD), or another integrated chip.

[0324] In the implementation process, the steps of the above method can be implemented by using instructions in the form of integrated logic circuits or software in the processor 1302. The steps of the method disclosed with respect to the embodiments of the present application can be directly implemented by a hardware processor or can be implemented by using a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor 1302. The software module can be disposed in a mature storage medium in the art, for example, random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable memory, or a register. The storage medium is disposed in the memory 1304, and the processor 1302 reads the information in the memory 1304 and combines it with the hardware of the processor to complete the steps of the above method.

[0325] The memory 1304 in the embodiments of this application may be a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, or may include a volatile memory and a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (RAM) used as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, many forms of RAM may be used, such as static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM), enhanced SDRAM (ESDRAM), synchlink DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein may include, but is not limited to, these memories and any other suitable type of memory.

[0326] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 receives configuration information from a network device, where the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier, and sends first information to the network device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier.

[0327] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is specifically configured to send first information to the network device when the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier.

[0328] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is further configured to receive second information from the network device, where the second information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped.

[0329] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is further configured to send third information to the network device, where the third information indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the third information further indicates that the terminal device should recover the ability to measure the first carrier.

[0330] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is specifically configured to send third information to the network device when a first condition is met.

[0331] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is further configured to send the measurement result of the first carrier to the network device when the second condition is satisfied.

[0332] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is further configured to receive information used to activate the first reference signal from the network device, receive the first reference signal from the network device, and measure the first carrier based on the first reference signal to obtain the measurement result of the first carrier.

[0333] When the communication device 1301 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is configured to receive configuration information from the network device, where the configuration information is used to configure the first carrier, send the first information to the network device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and send information used to request the network device to configure the first gap, where the first gap is used to measure the first carrier.

[0334] When the communication device 1301 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is configured to send configuration information to the terminal device, where the configuration information is used to configure the first carrier, receive the first information from the terminal device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped and further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier.

[0335] When the communication device 1301 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is further configured to send second information to the terminal device, and the second information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped.

[0336] When the communication device 1301 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is further configured to receive third information from the terminal device, and the third information indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the third information further indicates that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier.

[0337] When the communication device 1301 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is further configured to receive the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device.

[0338] When the communication device 1301 is a network device, in a possible implementation, the processor 1302, through the transceiver 1303, After receiving the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device, determine that the terminal device recovers the ability to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier, When the measurement result reported by the terminal device based on the preset second event is not received before the first moment, determine that the terminal device recovers the ability to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier, where the first moment is a moment existing after a preset second duration starting from the moment when the network device receives the third information. When the measurement result of the first carrier is received from the terminal device before the first moment, and the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than the preset signal quality threshold, determine that the terminal device recovers the ability to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier, or Before the first moment, receive measurement results of a first carrier from a terminal device, and when the measurement results of the first carrier indicate that the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than a preset signal quality threshold, after the first moment arrives, determine that the terminal device recovers the ability to communicate with the terminal device based on the first carrier. It is further configured to perform one of the following.

[0339] When the communication device 1301 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is configured to send information used to activate a first reference signal to the terminal device, send the first reference signal to the terminal device, and receive measurement results of the first carrier from the terminal device, where the measurement results of the first carrier are obtained by measuring the first carrier based on the first reference signal.

[0340] When the communication device 1301 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the transceiver 1303, the processor 1302 is configured to send configuration information to the terminal device, where the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier, receive first information from the terminal device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and receive information used to request to configure a first gap from the terminal device, where the first gap is used to measure the first carrier.

[0341] Regarding the concept, explanation, detailed description, and other steps of the communication device related to the technical solution provided in the embodiments of this application, please refer to the descriptions in the above method or other embodiments. Details will not be described again in this specification.

[0342] According to the above method, FIG. 10 is a diagram of the structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 10, the communication device 1401 may include a communication interface 1403 and a processor 1402. Further, the communication device 1401 may include a memory 1404. In the figure, the memory 1404 is shown as a dashed line, which further identifies that the memory is optional. The communication interface 1403 is configured to input and / or output information. The processor 1402 is configured to execute a computer program or instructions, whereby the communication device 1401 implements the method on the terminal device side in the related solutions of FIGS. 3, 4A, 5, 6, 7, or 8, or the communication device 1401 implements the method on the network device side in the related solutions of FIGS. 3, 4A, 5, 6, 7, or 8. In this embodiment of the present application, the communication interface 1403 may implement the solution implemented by the transceiver 1303 in FIG. 9, the processor 1402 may implement the solution implemented by the processor 1302 in FIG. 9, and the memory 1404 may implement the solution implemented by the memory 1304 in FIG. 9. Details will not be described again herein.

[0343] Based on the above embodiments and the same concept, FIG. 11 is a diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 11, the communication device 1501 may be a terminal device or a network device, or may be a chip or a circuit, for example, a chip or a circuit that may be disposed in a terminal device or a network device.

[0344] The communication device 1501 includes a processing unit 1502 and a communication unit 1503. Further, the communication device 1501 may or may not include a storage unit 1504. In the figure, the storage unit 1504 is shown as a dashed line, which further identifies that the memory is optional.

[0345] The communication device can correspond to the terminal device in the above method. The communication device can implement the steps performed by the terminal device in any one or more of the corresponding methods shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 4A, FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, or FIG. 8. The communication device may include a processing unit 1502, a communication unit 1503, and a storage unit 1504.

[0346] When the communication device 1501 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the communication unit 1503, the processing unit 1502 receives configuration information from the network device, the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier, and sends first information to the network device, the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier.

[0347] When the communication device 1501 is a terminal device, in a possible implementation, through the communication unit 1503, the processing unit 1502 receives configuration information from the network device, the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier, sends first information to the network device, the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and sends information used to request the network device to configure a first gap, the first gap is used to measure the first carrier.

[0348] When the communication device 1501 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the communication unit 1503, the processing unit 1502 sends configuration information to the terminal device, the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier, and receives first information from the terminal device, the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier.

[0349] When the communication device 1501 is a network device, in a possible implementation, through the communication unit 1503, the processing unit 1502 sends configuration information to the terminal device, where the configuration information is used to configure the first carrier, and receives first information from the terminal device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and receives information used to request the terminal device to configure a first gap, where the first gap is used to measure the first carrier.

[0350] Regarding the concept, explanation, detailed description, and other steps of the communication device related to the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application, please refer to the description of the content in the above method or other embodiments. Details will not be described again in this specification.

[0351] It can be understood that for the functions of each unit in the communication device 1501, refer to the implementation of the corresponding method embodiment. Details will not be described again in this specification.

[0352] It should be understood that the division of the units of the communication device is only a logical function division. During actual implementation, all or part of the units can be integrated into a physical entity or physically separated. In this embodiment of this application, the communication unit 1503 may be implemented by the transceiver 1303 in FIG. 9, and the processing unit 1502 may be implemented by the processor 1302 in FIG. 9.

[0353] Based on the method provided in the embodiments of this application, this application further provides a computer program product. The computer program product includes computer program code or instructions. When the computer program code or instructions are run on a computer, the computer is enabled to implement the method in any one of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3, 4A, 5, 6, 7, or 8.

[0354] Based on the method provided in the embodiments of the present application, the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores program code. When the program code is run on a computer, the computer is enabled to implement the method in any one of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3, 4A, 5, 6, 7, or 8.

[0355] According to the method provided in the embodiments of the present application, the present application further provides a chip system. The chip system may include a processor. The processor may be coupled to a memory and configured to implement the method in any one of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3, 4A, 5, 6, 7, or 8. Optionally, the chip system further includes a memory. The memory is configured to store a computer program (which may also be referred to as code or instructions). The processor is configured to call the computer program from the memory and run the computer program, whereby the device in which the chip system is installed implements the method in any one of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 3, 4A, 5, 6, 7, or 8.

[0356] According to the method provided in the embodiments of the present application, the present application further provides a system. The system includes one or more of the above terminal devices and one or more of the above network devices.

[0357] All or part of the above embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When software is used to implement an embodiment, all or part of the embodiment may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, or digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wirelessly (e.g., infrared, radio, or microwave). The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium accessible by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center incorporating one or more available media. The available media may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., digital video disc (DVD)), a semiconductor medium (e.g., Solid State Drive (solid-state drive, SSD)), etc.

[0358] It should be noted that part of this patent application document contains content protected by copyright. The copyright owner reserves the copyright except for the copies made for the patent document or the recorded content of the patent document at the National Intellectual Property Administration of China.

[0359] The network device and the terminal device in the above device embodiment correspond to the network device or the terminal device in the method embodiment. The corresponding module or unit performs the corresponding steps. For example, the communication unit (transceiver) performs the receiving step or the sending step in the method embodiment, and the steps other than the sending step and the receiving step can be performed by the processing unit (processor). For the functions of specific units, please refer to the corresponding method embodiment. There may be one or more processors.

[0360] As used herein, technical terms such as "component", "module", and "system" are used to indicate computer-related entities, hardware, firmware, combinations of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component can be, but is not limited to, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable file, an execution thread, a program, and / or a computer. As shown in the figures, both a computing device and an application running on the computing device can be components. One or more components may reside within a process and / or an execution thread, and a component may be located on one computer and / or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can be executed from various computer-readable media storing various data structures. For example, a component can communicate by using local and / or remote processing and by following a signal having, for example, one or more data packets (e.g., data through a network such as the Internet interacting with another component in a local system, a distributed system, and / or interacting with other systems by using signals from two components interacting with each other).

[0361] One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that steps, in combination with the illustrative logical blocks described in the embodiments disclosed herein, can be implemented by electronic hardware, by computer software, or by a combination of electronic hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented by hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall solution. One of ordinary skill in the art may use different methods for implementing the described functions for each particular application, but such implementation should not be regarded as exceeding the scope of this application.

[0362] For the sake of simplicity and convenience of description, those of ordinary skill in the art can clearly understand that for the detailed operation processes of the above-described systems, apparatuses, and units, reference may be made to the corresponding processes in the above-described method embodiments. Details will not be described again herein.

[0363] It should be understood that in some embodiments provided in this application, the disclosed systems, apparatuses, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the described apparatus embodiments are merely examples. For example, unit division is only a logical function division, and in actual implementation, it may be divided in other ways. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not implemented. Further, the shown or discussed mutual coupling, direct coupling, or communication connection may be implemented by using some interfaces. The indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatuses or units may be implemented in electronic form, mechanical form, or other forms.

[0364] The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and the parts shown as units may or may not be physical units. In other words, they can be placed in one location or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected based on actual requirements to achieve the objectives of the embodiments' solutions.

[0365] In addition, in the embodiments of this application, the functional units may be integrated into one processing unit, or each of the units may physically exist alone, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. When a function is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, the function can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium.

[0366] The above description is only a specific implementation of this application and is not intended to limit the protection scope of this application. Any modification or substitution that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this application falls within the protection scope of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of this application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, comprising: a step of receiving configuration information by a terminal device, where the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier; a step of sending first information by the terminal device, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device should stop measurements on the first carrier; The communication method as described above.

2. The step of sending the first information by the terminal device includes: when the terminal device does not have the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, the step of sending the first information by the terminal device. The method according to Claim 1.

3. After the step of sending the first information by the terminal device, the method further includes: a step of receiving second information by the terminal device, where the second information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. The method according to Claim 1 or 2.

4. After the step of sending the first information by the terminal device, the method further includes: a step of sending third information by the terminal device, where the third information indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the third information further indicates that the terminal device should recover the ability to measure the first carrier. The method according to any one of Claims 1 to 3.

5. The step of sending the third information by the terminal device includes: when a first condition is met, the step of sending the third information by the terminal device, where the first condition includes at least one of the following: the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier, or the signal quality of the first carrier is greater than a preset signal quality threshold, or preset measurement reporting conditions. The method according to Claim 4.

6. The third information includes measurement results of the first carrier. The measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. The method according to claim 4 or 5. **Claim 7** After the step of sending the first information by the terminal device, the method further includes: when a second condition is satisfied, the step of sending, by the terminal device, the measurement result of the first carrier; The second condition is: the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier, or the preset measurement reporting condition, The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, including at least one of the above. **Claim 8** After the step of sending the third information by the terminal device, the method further includes: the step of receiving, by the terminal device, information used to activate a first reference signal; the step of receiving, by the terminal device, the first reference signal; the step of measuring, by the terminal device, the first carrier based on the first reference signal and obtaining the measurement result of the first carrier The method according to any one of claims 4 to 7, further including the above. **Claim 9** A communication method, including: the step of receiving, by a terminal device, configuration information, where the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier; the step of sending, by the terminal device, first information, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped; the step of sending, by the terminal device, information used to request configuring a first gap, where the first gap is used to measure the first carrier The communication method includes the above. **Claim 10** A communication method, including: the step of sending, by a network device, configuration information, where the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier; the step of receiving, by the network device, first information, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped, and the first information further indicates that the terminal device stops measurement on the first carrier A communication method including

11. After the step of receiving the first information by the network device, the method further includes: A step of sending second information by the network device, where the second information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped. The method according to claim 10, further including this step.

12. After the step of receiving the first information by the network device, the method further includes: A step of receiving third information by the network device, where the third information indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier, and the third information further indicates that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. The method according to claim 10 or 11, further including this step.

13. The third information includes the measurement result of the first carrier. The measurement result of the first carrier indicates that the terminal device has the ability to communicate based on the first carrier and that the terminal device recovers the ability to measure the first carrier. The method according to claim 12.

14. After the step of receiving the first information by the network device, the method further includes: A step of receiving the measurement result of the first carrier by the network device. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, further including this step.

15. After the step of receiving the third information by the network device, the method includes: After receiving the measurement result of the first carrier from the terminal device, a step of determining by the network device that the terminal device recovers the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier. A step of determining that the terminal device recovers the ability to communicate with the network device based on the first carrier when the measurement result reported by the terminal device based on a preset second event is not received before a first moment, where the first moment exists after a preset second duration starting from the moment when the network device receives the third information. Receiving, from the terminal device before a first moment, a measurement result of the first carrier, and when the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that a signal quality of the first carrier is greater than a preset signal quality threshold, determining, by the network device, to recover an ability of the terminal device to perform communication with the terminal device based on the first carrier, or Receiving, from the terminal device before a first moment, a measurement result of the first carrier, and when the measurement result of the first carrier indicates that a signal quality of the first carrier is greater than a preset signal quality threshold, after the first moment arrives, determining, by the network device, to recover an ability of the terminal device to perform communication with the terminal device based on the first carrier, The method according to any one of claims 12 to 14, further including one of the above contents.

16. After the step of receiving, by the network device, third information, the method includes: Sending, by the network device, information used to activate a first reference signal; Sending, by the network device, the first reference signal; Receiving, by the network device, a measurement result of the first carrier, where the measurement result of the first carrier is obtained by measuring the first carrier based on the first reference signal, The method according to claim 15, further including the above steps.

17. A communication method, including: Sending, by a network device, configuration information, where the configuration information is used to configure a first carrier; Receiving, by the network device, first information, where the first information indicates that data transmission on the first carrier should be stopped; Receiving, by the network device, information used to request to configure a first gap, where the first gap is used to measure the first carrier The communication method including the above steps.

18. A communication device, where the device includes a processing unit and a communication unit. The communication unit is configured to input and / or output information, The processing unit is configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17, A communication device.

19. A communication device, comprising a processor and a memory, The memory is configured to store an executable program, The processor executes the computer-executable program in the memory, and as a result, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is implemented, or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17 is implemented, A communication device.

20. A communication device, comprising a processor and a communication interface, The communication interface is configured to input and / or output information, The processor executes a computer-executable program, and as a result, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is implemented, or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17 is implemented, A communication device.

21. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer-executable program, wherein when the computer-executable program is called by a computer, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is implemented, or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17 is implemented.

22. A chip system, A communication interface configured to input and / or output information, and A processor configured to execute a computer-executable program to enable the device on which the chip system is installed to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 9 or the method according to any one of claims 10 to 17 A chip system comprising the above.

Images