Repeater, network device and method

Abstract

[0003] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, an apparatus, and a computer storage medium for communication. A network device receives an indication of a correlation between a backhaul beam and a control beam of the repeating device from a repeating device. The backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device, and the control beam is used for a control link between the network device and the repeating device. The network device indicates at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam to the repeating device.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] TECHNICAL FIELD Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly to communication methods, apparatus, and computer storage media. [Background technology]

[0002] Coverage is a fundamental aspect of cellular network deployment. Mobile operators rely on different types of network nodes (or network equipment) to provide comprehensive coverage in their deployments. Deploying regular full-stack cells is one option, but it is not always possible (e.g., backhaul is unavailable) or economically viable. A new type of network node, the radio frequency (RF) repeater, is being widely deployed to complement the coverage provided by regular full-stack cells. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0003] RF repeaters typically perform amplify and forward operations without considering various factors that may improve performance. A network-controlled repeater (NCR) is an enhanced version of an RF repeater. The NCR has the ability to receive and process side control information from the network to improve amplify and forward operations. The side control information may include beamforming information for the NCR's beam management (BM). To extend network coverage more efficiently, the BM operation of the NCR needs to be designed. [Means for solving the problem]

[0004] SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present disclosure generally provide a communication method, apparatus, and computer storage medium.

[0005] In a first aspect, there is provided a method performed by a network device, the method including receiving from the repeating device an indication of a correlation between a backhaul beam and a control beam of the repeating device, where the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device and the control beam is used for a control link between the network device and the repeating device, and indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam to the repeating device.

[0006] In a second aspect, there is provided a method performed by a network device, the method including: determining, during a first channel measurement of the terminal device via beam sweep, that at least one of a beam of the network device and a backhaul beam of a repeating device has changed, where the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device; and sending, to the terminal device, an indication to deactivate channel state information reports of the terminal device according to the determination that at least one of the beam of the network device and the backhaul beam of the repeating device has changed.

[0007] In a third aspect, a method is provided that is performed by a network device, the method including: determining whether a repeating device has completed a second channel measurement on a link between the network device and the repeating device; and, pursuant to determining that the second channel measurement is completed, sending an indication to the repeating device to enable a forwarding module of the repeating device for forwarding to the terminal device.

[0008] In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method performed by a repeating device, the method including: transmitting an indication of a correlation between a backhaul beam and a control beam of the repeating device to a network device, where the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device and the control beam is used for a control link between the network device and the repeating device; and receiving at least one indication from the network device associated with at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0009] In a fifth aspect, there is provided a method performed by a repeating device, the method including: determining that at least one condition is met, including at least one of a condition that a repeating device second channel measurement is completed on a link between the repeating device and a network device, and a condition that an indication to enable a forwarding module of the repeating device is received from the network device, and enabling a forwarding module of the repeating device for forwarding to the terminal device in accordance with determining that the at least one condition is met.

[0010] In a sixth aspect, there is provided a method performed by a terminal device, the method including receiving, during channel measurement of the terminal device via beam sweeping, a channel state information reporting deactivation instruction from a network device, and stopping the channel state information reporting.

[0011] In a seventh aspect, there is provided a network device, the network device comprising: a processor and a memory, the memory being coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the network device to perform a method according to the first, second or third aspect of the present disclosure.

[0012] In an eighth aspect, there is provided a repeating device, comprising a processor and a memory, coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the repeating device to perform a method according to the fourth or fifth aspect of the present disclosure.

[0013] In a ninth aspect, there is provided a terminal device, the repeating device comprising a processor and a memory, the memory being coupled to the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the terminal device to perform a method according to the sixth aspect of the present disclosure.

[0014] In a tenth aspect, a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform a method according to one of the preceding aspects of the present disclosure.

[0015] Other features of the present disclosure will become readily apparent from the following description. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0016] The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent from the following detailed description of several embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings.

[0017] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary communication network in which some embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented;

[0018] [Figure 2] FIG. 1 is a high-level signaling diagram of an exemplary beam pointing process according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0019] [Figure 3] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary beam pointing method according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0020] [Figure 4] FIG. 1 illustrates an example implementation of a beam index for an access beam according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0021] [Figure 5A] FIG. 1 illustrates an example mapping of backhaul beams and control beams according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5B] FIG. 1 illustrates an example mapping of backhaul beams and control beams according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5C] FIG. 1 illustrates an example mapping of backhaul beams and control beams according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5D] FIG. 1 illustrates an example mapping of backhaul beams and control beams according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. [Figure 5E] FIG. 1 illustrates an example mapping of backhaul beams and control beams according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0022] [Figure 6] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary process for determining an effective time of a shown beam according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0023] [Figure 7] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary beam pointing method according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0024] [Figure 8] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary process for finer beam training according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0025] [Figure 9] FIG. 1 illustrates an example method for updating a CSI-RS configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0026] [Figure 10]FIG. 10 illustrates an example process for updating a CSI-RS configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0027] [Figure 11] FIG. 1 illustrates an example method for updating a CSI-RS configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0028] [Figure 12] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary method for enabling forwarding operations of a repeating device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0029] [Figure 13] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary process for enabling a forwarding operation according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0030] [Figure 14] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary method for enabling forwarding operations of a repeating device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0031] [Figure 15] FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus suitable for practicing embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0032] Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numbers represent the same or similar elements. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0033] The principles of the present disclosure will be described with reference to several embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are set forth for illustrative purposes only to aid those skilled in the art in understanding and practicing the present disclosure, and do not imply any limitations on the scope of the present disclosure. The present disclosure described herein can be embodied in various forms other than those described below.

[0034] In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

[0035] As used herein, the term "terminal device" refers to any device with wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of terminal devices include user equipment (UE), personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communication (URLLC) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, in-vehicle devices for V2X communications where X represents pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure / network, devices for Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB), small data transmission (SDT), mobility, Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBS), positioning, dynamic / flexible duplexing in commercial networks, reduced capability (RedCap), and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Spacecraft or aerial vehicles in a non-terrestrial network (NTN), including satellites and high altitude platforms (HAP), including satellites and high altitude platforms (SAT), extended reality (XR) devices, including different types of reality such as augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones, etc.This includes, but is not limited to, devices in aircraft (e.g., pilotless vehicles), high-speed trains (HSTs), image capture devices such as digital cameras, sensors, and gaming devices, music storage and playback devices, and Internet appliances that enable wireless or wired Internet access and browsing. A "terminal device" may also have "multicast / broadcast" capabilities and support public safety and mission-critical applications, V2X applications, transparent IPv4 / IPv6 multicast delivery, IPTV, smart TV, wireless services, over-the-air software delivery, group communications, and IoT applications. It may also incorporate one or more subscriber identity modules (SIMs), referred to as multi-SIMs. The term "terminal device" may be used interchangeably with UE, mobile station, subscriber station, mobile terminal, user terminal, or wireless device.

[0036] The term "network device" refers to a device capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage area over which terminal devices can communicate. Examples of network devices include, but are not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), a next generation Node B (gNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radio head (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a low-power node such as an IAB node, a femto node, a pico node, and a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). In some embodiments, a network device may also be referred to as a network node.

[0037] A terminal device or network device may have artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning capabilities, which typically include models trained from a large amount of collected data for a specific function and can be used to predict some information.

[0038] A terminal device or network device may operate in multiple frequency ranges, such as FR1 (410 MHz to 7125 MHz), FR2 (24.25 GHz to 71 GHz), frequency bands greater than 100 GHz, and terahertz (THz). It can also operate in licensed, unlicensed, and shared spectrum. A terminal device may have multiple connections with network devices in Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) application scenarios. A terminal device or network device can operate in full duplex, flexible duplex, and cross division duplex modes.

[0039] Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in test equipment, such as, for example, a signal generator, a signal analyzer, a spectrum analyzer, a network analyzer, a test terminal equipment, a test network equipment, a channel emulator, and the like.

[0040] In some embodiments, a terminal device may be connected to a first network device and a second network device. One of the first network device and the second network device may be a master node, and the other may be a secondary node. The first network device and the second network device may use different radio access technologies (RATs). In some embodiments, the first network device may be a first RAT device, and the second network device may be a second RAT device. In some embodiments, the first RAT device is an eNB, and the second RAT device is a gNB. Information related to the different RATs may be transmitted to the terminal device from at least one of the first network device and the second network device. In some embodiments, the first information may be transmitted from the first network device to the terminal device, and the second information may be transmitted from the second network device directly or via the first network device to the terminal device. In some embodiments, information related to the configuration of the terminal device configured by the second network device may be transmitted from the second network device via the first network device. Information regarding the reconfiguration of the terminal device set by the second network device may be sent to the terminal device directly from the second network device or via the first network device.

[0041] In this disclosure, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the singular forms "a," "the," and "the" are intended to include the plural. The term "comprises" and variations thereof are interpreted as open terms meaning "including, but not limited to." The term "based on" is interpreted as "based at least in part on." The terms "one embodiment" and "an embodiment" are interpreted as "at least one embodiment." The term "another embodiment" is interpreted as "at least one other embodiment." Terms such as "first," "second," etc. may refer to different objects or the same object. The following content may include other definitions, both explicit and implicit.

[0042] In some instances, values, processes, or devices are referred to as "optimal," "lowest," "highest," "minimum," "maximum," etc. It is understood that such descriptions are intended to indicate choices among multiple functional alternatives used, and that such choices are not necessarily better, smaller, higher, or more preferred than other choices.

[0043] In this disclosure, the term "repeating device" refers to a device that can provide amplification and forwarding functions between a terminal device and a network device, especially when the terminal device is outside the coverage of the network device. In some embodiments, the repeating device can receive control information from the network device to enhance the amplification and forwarding functions. Examples of repeating devices include, but are not limited to, a network-controlled repeater (NCR), a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), etc. For convenience of explanation, some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described by taking an NCR as an example of a repeating device.

[0044] In some embodiments, a repeating device may include a control module and a forwarding module. The control module communicates with a network device via a control link, e.g., to receive control information. The forwarding module amplifies and forwards UL / DL RF signals between the network device and the terminal device via a backhaul link and an access link. The control module and the forwarding module may be implemented as hardware, firmware, and / or algorithm-based software components of the repeating device and may be co-located or separate from each other. Examples of the control module and the forwarding module include, but are not limited to, an NCR mobile terminal (MCR-MT) and an NCR forwarder (NCR-Fwd). For convenience of explanation, some embodiments of the present disclosure will be described using the MCR-MT and NCR-Fwd as examples of the control module and the forwarding module of the repeating device.

[0045] As explained above, coverage is a fundamental aspect of cellular network deployment. However, deployment of regular full-stack cells is not always possible or economically feasible. To provide mobile operators with greater flexibility in network deployment, new types of nodes are being considered. For example, integrated access and backhaul (IAB) can be used as a new type of node that does not require wired backhaul to provide coverage extension.

[0046] Another type of node is a radio frequency (RF) repeater, which amplifies and forwards any signals it receives. To complement the coverage provided by a regular full-stack cell, RF repeater deployments may exist over a wide area in second generation (2G), third generation (3G), and fourth generation (4G). RF and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) requirements may be designed for New Radio (NR) RF repeaters, covering both FR1 and FR2.

[0047] RF repeaters provide a cost-effective means of extending network coverage. However, RF repeaters may typically simply perform amplify and forward operations without consideration of various factors that may improve performance. Such factors may include information regarding semi-static and / or dynamic downlink (DL) / uplink (UL) configuration, adaptive transmitter / receiver spatial beamforming, on / off status, etc.

[0048] A network-controlled repeater (NCR) is an enhancement to the simple amplify-and-forward RF repeater. The NCR has the ability to receive and process side-control information from the network. The side-control information allows the NCR to perform its amplify-and-forward operations more efficiently. Potential benefits include mitigation of unwanted noise amplification, better spatial directionality in transmission and reception, and simplified network integration.

[0049] The NCR may include an NCR mobile terminal (NCR-MT) and an NCR forwarder (NCR-Fwd). The NCR-MT may function as an entity or module that communicates with a network device (e.g., a gNB) via a control link (C-link) to enable the exchange of information (e.g., side control information) between the network device and the NCR. The C-link may be based on the NewRadio (NR) Uu interface. The NCR-Fwd functions as an entity or module that performs amplification and forwarding of UL / DL RF signals between the network device and a terminal device (e.g., a UE) via a backhaul link and an access link. The operation of the NCR-Fwd may be controlled according to side control information received by the NCR-MT from the network device.

[0050] The side control information may include information for the NCR, such as beamforming information, timing information for aligning the transmit / receive boundaries of the NCR, information on UL-DL TDD configuration, on / off information for efficient interference management and improved energy efficiency, and power control information for efficient interference management. Beamforming information for NCR-based beam management (BM) can enhance network coverage, especially at high frequencies (HF). However, there is no effective and efficient approach for indicating beamforming information from the network to the NCR.

[0051] Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a beam direction scheme for a repeating device (e.g., NCR). In this scheme, the repeating device reports the correlation between the repeating device's backhaul beam and control beam to a network device (e.g., gNB). The backhaul beam and control beam are used for the backhaul link and the control link between the network device and the repeating device, respectively. The correlation between the backhaul beam and the control beam depends on the network plan and / or hardware information and configuration of the repeating device, for example, the relative positions of the repeating device's control module (e.g., NCR-MR) and forwarding module (e.g., NCR-Fwd) or the number or arrangement of the antennas of the two modules.

[0052] Considering the correlation between the backhaul beam and the control beam, the network device indicates at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam to the repeating device according to the correlation between the backhaul beam and the control beam or regardless of the correlation between the backhaul beam and the control beam. For example, if the correlation between the backhaul beam and the control beam is relatively high, the network device can implicitly indicate the backhaul beam using an indication of the control beam. The network device can also send to the repeating device an indication dedicated to the backhaul beam and the access beam, or a joint indication of both the backhaul beam and the access beam, regardless of the correlation between the backhaul beam and the control beam.

[0053] In this way, the backhaul beam and / or access beam can be effectively and efficiently instructed by the network device to the repeating device. Based on such instruction, the repeating device's beam can be uniquely determined, thereby reducing misalignment. Furthermore, spatial beamforming of the transmitter / receiver can be facilitated, thereby achieving better spatial directivity.

[0054] The principles and embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

[0055] Example of a communication network FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary communications network 100 in which some embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented.

[0056] 1, communication network 100 may include a terminal device 110 and a network device 120 that serves terminal device 110. Between terminal device 110 and network device 120, a block 125 may block communication between the two devices 110 and 120, creating a blocked or blind area outside the coverage of network device 120. Communication network 100 may further include a repeating device 130 that forwards communication between the two devices 110 and 120 within the blocked or blind area.

[0057] It should be understood that the number of devices in Figure 1 is shown for purposes of explanation and is not intended to limit the present disclosure. Communications network 100 may include any suitable number of terminal devices, network devices, and / or repeating devices adapted for embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0058] In some embodiments, terminal device 110 and network device 120 may communicate with each other via repeating device 130 over channels, such as wireless communication channels over the air interface (e.g., the Uu interface). The wireless communication channels may include a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), a physical random access channel (PRACH), a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH). Of course, any other suitable channels may also be used.

[0059] Communications in communication network 100 may conform to any suitable standard, including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), New Radio (NR), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN), Machine Type Communication (MTC), etc. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed in accordance with any currently known or future-developed generation of communication protocols. Examples of communication protocols include, but are not limited to, first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, 5.5G, 5G-Advanced networks, or sixth generation (6G) networks.

[0060] 1 , the repeating device 130 may include a control module 135 and a forwarding module 140. The control module 135 may communicate with the network device 120 via a control link 145. The forwarding module 140 may perform amplification and forwarding of UL / DL RF signals between the network device 120 and the terminal device 110 via a backhaul link 150 and an access link 155.

[0061] The control module 135 and the forwarding module 140 may have any suitable relative location depending on the network deployment or plan and / or hardware configuration of the two modules 135 and 140, such as the number of antenna panels and / or the number of antennas. Although the control module 135 is shown in FIG. 1 as being co-located or very close to the forwarding module 140, this is for illustrative purposes and is not intended to imply limitation. In some embodiments, the control module 135 may be separate from or remote from the forwarding module 140 and may cooperate with multiple forwarding modules if multiple blocks exist and disrupt transmission of RF signals between the network devices 120 and the terminal devices 110 in the communications network 100.

[0062] Beamforming may be used for communications in communication network 100 to achieve greater spatial directionality. As shown in FIG. 1 , network device 120 may communicate with repeating device 130 using beams 160-1, 160-2, 160-3...160-P (individually or collectively referred to as beams 160). Repeating device 130 may communicate with network device 120 over control link 145 using control beam 165 and over backhaul link 150 using backhaul beam 170. Repeating device 130 may further communicate with terminal device 110, which may use beam 180, over access link 155 using access beams 175-1, 175-2, 175-3...175-L (individually or collectively referred to as access beams 175). P and L may represent any suitable integers.

[0063] It should be understood that the number of beams configured for the terminal device 110, the network device 120, and the repeating device 130 shown in Figure 1 is for illustrative purposes only and is not meant to imply any limitation. Any suitable number of beams may be provided for the device 110, the device 120, or the device 130 depending on the network plan within the communication network 100 and the capabilities of the device 110, the device 120, and the device 130.

[0064] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the backhaul beam 170 and / or the access beam 180 of the repeating device 130 may be configured by the network device 120 via the control link 145. The backhaul beam 170 and / or the access beam 175 may be indicated by the network device 120 in consideration of the correlation between the control beam 165 and the backhaul beam 170. The correlation may be indicated by the repeating device 130 to the network device 120. An example of the beam direction process will be described below with reference to FIG. 2 , taking a gNB as an example of the network device 120, an NCR as an example of the repeating device 130, and NCR-MT and NCR-Fwd as examples of the control module 135 and the forwarding module 140.

[0065] 2 shows a high-level signaling diagram of a beam direction process 200 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For ease of explanation, the process 200 will be described with reference to FIG.

[0066] 2, gNB 202 may receive 205 capabilities regarding beam correlation between NCR-MT and NCR-Fwd of NCR 208. Based on the reported capabilities, gNB 202 may indicate 210 backhaul (BH) and access (AC) beams for NCR 208. Then, gNB 202 may transmit 215 signals via beams corresponding to the indicated beams.

[0067] The correlation capability includes a correlation value range from 0 to 1, where "0" means no correlation and "1" means perfect correlation or a correlation type such as high correlation, medium correlation, or low correlation. If the correlation value is greater than a first threshold or the correlation type is high correlation, a beam index associated with the beam width for the access beam is indicated separately or independently, while a beam index for the backhaul beam is associated with the beam of the NCR-MT. If the correlation value is less than a second threshold or the correlation type is low correlation, a joint beam index associated with the beam widths of both the access beam and the backhaul beam may be indicated. The bit length of the beam index may be determined by the beam width.

[0068] In some embodiments, beam indication (also referred to as beam indication) for NCR-MT can reuse conventional procedures and signaling, including Radio Resource Control (RRC), Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC-CE), and Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state settings in Downlink Control Information (DCI). In some embodiments, beam indication for the backhaul link of NCR-Fwd may be the same as that of NCR-MT. The backhaul beam may be derived according to that of NCR-MT. Alternatively, or additionally, beam indication for the backhaul link may be independent of that of NCR-MT. Explicit indication may be used regardless of which beam is used for NCR-MT.

[0069] In some embodiments, the beam instruction for the access link of the NCR-Fwd may be combined with the instruction for the backhaul link of the NCR-Fwd, or may be an instruction independent of the instruction for the backhaul link of the NCR-Fwd.

[0070] 3 illustrates an example beam pointing method 300 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 300 may be implemented by the network device 120. For ease of explanation, the method 300 will be described from the perspective of the network device 120 with reference to FIG.

[0071] 3, in block 305, the network device 120 receives from the repeating device 130 an indication of a correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 of the repeating device 130. The correlation of the two beams 165 and 170 may be associated with the relative locations of the control module 135 and the forwarding module 140. For example, if the two modules 135 and 140 are located near each other, the correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may be relatively high or greater than a first threshold. In some embodiments, the indication of correlation may indicate a range of correlation values ​​from 0 to 1, or a level (or correlation type) of correlation, such as a high level (or high correlation), a medium level (medium correlation), and a low level (low correlation).

[0072] At block 310, the network device 120 indicates at least one of the backhaul beam 170 or the access beam 175. In some embodiments, the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175 may be indicated depending on the correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165. For example, if the level of correlation is equal to or higher than a threshold level, the indication of the control beam 165 may be reused to at least partially indicate the backhaul beam 170.

[0073] In some embodiments, the control beam 165 indication may reuse conventional procedures and signaling, including TCI state configuration in RRC, MAC-CE, and DCI. For example, the UE (as an example of the terminal device 110) or NCR-MT may be configured with a list of up to M (M depends on the maxNumberConfiguredTCIstatesPerCC of the UE capabilities) TCI state configurations in the higher layer parameter PDSCHConfig to decode the PDSCH in response to a detected PDCCH with DCI for the UE and a given serving cell. Each TCI state may include parameters for configuring a quasi-co-location relationship between one or two downlink reference signals and a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS) port of the PDSCH, a DM-RS port of the PDCCH, or a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) port of a CSI-RS resource.

[0074] A quasi-co-located relationship may be established by the higher layer parameter qcl-Type1 for the first DL RS and by qcl-Type2 for the second DL RS (if configured). For two DL RSs, the quasi-co-located (QCL) type may be the same regardless of whether they refer to the same or different DL RSs. The quasi-co-located type corresponding to each DL RS is specified by the higher layer parameter qcl-Type in QCL-Info and may take one of the following values: -'typeA': {Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, delay spread} -'type B': {Doppler shift, Doppler spread} -'type C': {Doppler shift, average delay} -'typeD':{spatial Rx parameters}

[0075] The UE may receive an activation command that is used to map up to eight TCI states to codepoints of the DCI field "Transmission Configuration Indication" in one Component Carrier (CC) / DL Bandwidth Part (BWP) or a set of CC / DL BWPs, respectively. When a set of TCI state IDs is activated for a set of CC / DL BWPs (where the list of applicable CCs is determined by the CCs indicated in the activation command), the same set of TCI state IDs may apply to all DL BWPs within the indicated CCs.

[0076] The TCI may be configured via the DCI. For example, for DCI format 1-1, it is 0 bit if the Transmission Configuration Indication - upper layer parameter tci-PresentInDCI is not enabled, and 3 bits otherwise. For DCI format 1-2, it is 0 bit if the Transmission Configuration Indication - upper layer parameter tci-PresentDCI-1-2 is not configured, and 1, 2, or 3 bits determined by the upper layer parameter tci-PresentDCI-1-2 otherwise.

[0077] The threshold level may be set according to actual needs or network plans. For example, it may be predefined such that when the level of correlation is equal to or higher than a medium level (as an example of the threshold level), the instruction of the control beam 165 can be reused for the backhaul beam 170. As another example, the threshold level may be set to a high level.

[0078] When the backhaul beam 170 is implicitly indicated by the instruction of the control beam 165, the network device 120 may further transmit an instruction dedicated to the access beam 175 to the repeating device 130. This dedicated instruction may include the beam index of the access beam 175 (referred to as a first beam index). The first beam index may be associated with the beamwidth of the access beam 175 (referred to as a first beam width) and / or the number of access beams having the same first beam width. For example, if the first beam width of the access beam 175 is wider, the number of access beams having the same first beam width may be smaller. The required bit length of the first beam index of the access beam 175 may be shorter. If the first beam width is narrower, the number of access beams having the same first beam width may be larger. Therefore, the bit length of the first beam index may be longer.

[0079] The first beam width may be notified in advance to the repeating device 130 by the network device 120. For example, the network device 120 may send an indication of the beam width of the access beam to be used to the repeating device 130. Based on such indication, the repeating device 130 may determine the setting (e.g., bit length) of the first beam index of the access beam 175, and may further detect or decode the first beam index according to a predefined rule.

[0080] In some embodiments, the first beam width may be associated with a channel carried on the access link 155. Accordingly, the first beam index may be related to the associated channel. For example, a common channel such as a Physical Broadcasting Channel (PBCH) may be associated with an omni-directional beam or a middle beam so that surrounding devices can detect signals on the common channel with a high probability. Fewer bits may be required to indicate an omni-directional beam or a middle beam, and therefore, the first beam index associated with the common channel may have fewer bits.

[0081] In some embodiments, if the access beam 175 is indicated to be an omni-directional beam, the indication dedicated to the access beam 175 may further indicate the on / off status of the access link 170. In this manner, signaling overhead may be reduced and network efficiency may be improved.

[0082] A dedicated channel such as a PDSCH or a PUSCH may be associated with a medium beam or a narrow beam so that information on the dedicated channel is received by a specific device. Therefore, more bits may be required for the first beam index associated with the dedicated channel.

[0083] In some embodiments, the first beam index of the access beam 175 may include a predetermined number of bits so that the indication of the access beam 175 occupies a fixed payload, further simplifying the processing or operation for decoding the side control information of the repeating device 130. The valid bits within the predetermined number of bits may be determined based on the first beam width of the access beam 175.

[0084] As an example, in some embodiments, the backhaul beam of the NCR-Fwd (an example of the forwarding module 140) may be the same as the backhaul beam of the NCR-MT (an example of the control module 135). An implicit indication by the access link of the NCR-Fwd or an independent indication may be used for the backhaul beam. The backhaul beam may be implicitly indicated by the beam indication of the NCR-MT via the TCI state setting (QCL information indication).

[0085] A dedicated beam index may be indicated for the beam of the access link of NCR-Fwd. The beam index or payload may be associated with the beam width and / or the number of beams with the same width.

[0086] FIG. 4 illustrates an example implementation 400 of a beam index for an access beam according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0087] In implementation 400, beams 202, 204, 206, and 208 may have the same width and be configured with beam indices #1, #2, #3, and #4. Beams 210, 212, 214, 216, 218, 220, 222, and 224 may have the same width, narrower than beams 202, 204, 206, and 208, and be configured with beam indices #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, and #12. Beam 226 (largest beam) is an omnidirectional beam with beam index #0.

[0088] 4 are merely examples for distinguishing between different beams. In some embodiments, the beam indices of beams 210 through 224 may be numbered consecutively, such as #1 through #8 or #0 through #7. In some embodiments, the beam indices of beams 202 through 208 may be numbered consecutively, such as #0 through #3.

[0089] In some embodiments, a beam width may be associated with a channel having a fixed payload of the beam indication. The effective bits in the fixed-length indication used to determine the beam may be determined by the beam width applied to the channel. For example, a common channel may be associated with an omni-directional beam (the first or most significant bit is used or effective) or an intermediate beam (the first and second beams are used or effective). A PDSCH and / or PUSCH channel may be associated with an intermediate beam or a narrow beam (all bits are used or effective). In some embodiments, the access link on / off indication may be jointly encoded with the omni-directional beam indication.

[0090] By way of example only, increasing or decreasing the beamwidth level is not prohibited.

[0091] Table 1 shows an example of another implementation of the beam index. [Table 1]

[0092] In some embodiments, to reduce the complexity for the repeating device to decode the side control information, a fixed manner or mechanism is used for indicating at least one of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175 by the network device 120, independent of the correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165. For example, if the level of correlation is higher than a threshold level, the network device 120 may send a joint indication of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175 to indicate both the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175, even if the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 are the same, e.g., due to co-location of the forwarding module 140 and the control module 135.

[0093] Similar to the instruction for the access beam 175, the joint instruction may include a beam index (referred to as the second beam index), which may be associated with the first beamwidth of the access beam 175 and the beamwidth of the backhaul beam 170 (referred to as the second beamwidth), the number of access beams having the first beamwidth and the number of backhaul beams having the second beamwidth, and / or the channels associated with the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175.

[0094] In some embodiments, the location of the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 may be relatively fixed, while the location of the terminal device 110 may change over time due to mobility, so the bit set for the backhaul beam 170 (referred to as the first bit set) in the second beam index may precede the bit set for the access beam 180 (referred to as the second bit set). The first bit set and / or the second bit set may include one or more bits, or any suitable number of bits. In these embodiments, the backhaul beam 170 may be indicated by the most significant bits of the second beam index, and the access beam 180 may be indicated by the least significant bits of the second beam index.

[0095] The value of the joint indication may change slowly over time because the locations of the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 may be relatively fixed. In some embodiments, the network device 120 may indicate the difference between the current value and a previous value of the joint indication to further reduce signaling overhead.

[0096] In some embodiments, the beam 160 of the network device 120 may be paired with the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130 according to the relative positions of the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 (e.g., the forwarding module 140). For example, the network device 120 may determine one or more valid pairs of the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130 and the beam 160 of the network device 120 to exclude invalid pairs or combinations of the beams 170 and 160. The joint designation of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175 may be determined by the network device 120 based on the valid pairs of the beams 170 and 160, for example, by eliminating the backhaul beam 170 from invalid pairs of the backhaul beam 170 and the beam 160 of the network device 120. In this manner, a second beam index for the joint designation can be efficiently determined, further reducing system overhead and improving system efficiency.

[0097] The valid pairs of beams 170 and 160 may be determined based on information about pairs of beams 170 and 160 (also referred to as pair information) that may be transmitted by the repeating device 130 to the network device 120. Such pair information may be determined based on measurements of received signal strength, which may be indicated by Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), and / or other suitable measurements based on other suitable criteria.

[0098] In some embodiments, the repeating device 120 (e.g., the control module 135) may measure the strength of received signals at multiple pairs of the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130 and the beam 160 of the network device 120 and report the measurement results to the network device 120. Alternatively, or additionally, the repeating device 120 may report multiple beams 160 of the network device 120 associated with the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130, along with the strength of received signals at the beams 160. This allows the network device 120 to determine the backhaul beam 170 based on the associated strength of the received signals to improve spatial directionality. In some embodiments, the reported beam 160 may have the highest strength to further increase channel gain in the spatial domain and improve the efficiency of future communications in the communications network 100.

[0099] For example, in some embodiments, explicit indication or combined (or joint) indication with the beam for the access link of NCR-Fwd may be used. Similar to NCR-MT, the beam width or number of beams for the backhaul link of NCR (an example of repeating device 130) may be reported to the gNB (an example of network device 120).

[0100] For both the backhaul beam and the access beam, a dedicated beam index and a joint beam index may be defined, and the backhaul beam may be encrypted before the access beam. The beam width is associated with the beam index. Therefore, the payload may be determined by the beam width of both the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0101] Table 2 shows an example of the implementation of beam index for joint indication of backhaul beam and access beam. [Table 2]

[0102] In some embodiments, pairing information between the backhaul beam and the gNB's beam may be predefined or determined before the combined beam designation is determined. The pairing information may include the RSRP of each beam pair, or the top N gNB beams and associated RSRPs for each backhaul beam, where N represents any suitable integer. The NCR-MT may measure the RSRPs and report the measurements.

[0103] In some embodiments, the control module 135 and the forwarding module 140 of the repeating device 130 are near each other, and a correlation exists between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165. However, the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may be associated with different antenna panels, and thus the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may be different. In these embodiments, for example, the network device 120 may indicate some of the information about the backhaul beam 170 using instructions from the control module 165 and indicate the remaining information about the backhaul beam 170 using instructions dedicated to the backhaul beam 170. Alternatively, the remaining information may be indicated by a joint instruction of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175.

[0104] As noted above, the locations of the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 may be relatively fixed. Therefore, the channel of the backhaul link 150 between the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 may change more slowly. In some embodiments, to reduce signaling overhead and conserve processing and computational resources of the network device 120 and the repeating device 130, instructions specific to the backhaul beam 170 may be semi-statically transmitted by the network device 120 to the repeating device 130.

[0105] Additionally, the instructions dedicated to the backhaul beam 170 may be dynamically changed or adjusted to switch to an alternate beam, for example, if a temporary blockage occurs between the network device 120 and the repeating device 130. The dynamic change of the backhaul beam 170 may be based on periodic beam measurements for the backhaul link 150, for example, to track channel changes. Alternatively, or additionally, the dynamic change of the backhaul beam 170 may be based on the quality of the channel between the network device 120 and the terminal device 110, for example, to further improve the overall channel gain between the network device 120 and the terminal device 110.

[0106] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may maintain a pair of the backhaul beam 170 and the beam 160 of the network device 120. Thus, the network device 120 may need to maintain multiple beam pairs, which may include one or more pairs of the backhaul beam 170 and the beam 160 of the network device 120, and one or more pairs of the control beam 165 and the beam 160 of the network device 120.

[0107] In some embodiments, when an instruction dedicated to the backhaul beam 170 is transmitted by the network device 120 to the repeating device 130, an instruction dedicated to the access beam 175 may also be transmitted to indicate information about the access beam 175. In some embodiments, the instruction dedicated to the access beam 175 may be transmitted dynamically, for example, via downlink control information (DCI). In some embodiments, the instruction dedicated to the access beam 175 may be conveyed via fields related to the modulation and coding scheme (MCS) and / or frequency domain resource allocation (FDRA) in the DCI. Also, any other fields of the DCI may be reused to avoid changing the existing system architecture for backward compatibility or to avoid defining a new DCI format that would increase complexity. In some embodiments, the instruction dedicated to the access beam 175 may further be semi-statically configured for the repeating device 130.

[0108] As mentioned above, the location of the terminal device 110 may change over time due to its mobility. Therefore, the channel conditions on the access link 155 between the repeating device 130 and the terminal device 110 may change more quickly over time. Dynamic transmission of instructions dedicated to the access beam 175 can adapt to the time-varying channel conditions and further improve the channel gain and communication efficiency.

[0109] In some embodiments, a backhaul beam is mapped to a set of control beams, or a set of backhaul beams is mapped to a control beam. The mapping relationship between multiple backhaul beams and multiple control beams may be determined in relation to different combinations of beamwidths of the backhaul beams and the control beams. Some embodiments in this regard are described in the following paragraphs with reference to Figures 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, and 5E. Alternatively or additionally, the mapping relationship may be predefined or determined according to a network plan or capability of the repeating device 130.

[0110] For example, the backhaul beam may be different from the backhaul beam of NCR-MT (an example of control module 135). For example, different panels may be applied to the backhaul links of NCR-Fwd (an example of forwarding module 135) and NCR-MT. However, the backhaul beam may be partially correlated with the backhaul beam of NCR-MT. The beam of NCR-MT may also be referred to as the MT beam. For example, in some scenarios, the locations of NCR-MT and NCR-Fwd may be close to each other, and therefore, a correlation may exist between the BH beam and the MT beam.

[0111] A relationship may be defined between the beams of NCR-Fwd and NCR-MT, and the beams of NCR-MT may be used to indicate some information about the beam-handling (BH) beam. The relationship may be predefined or determined based on the network plan and hardware information or settings (number of antennas, beam direction, etc.), and / or based on measurements based on signals received by NCR-MT and NCR-Fwd. NCR-Fwd may have the ability to measure the strength of the received signal. The relationship may be extended to multiple relationships with various combinations of beam widths.

[0112] 5A, 5B, 5C, 5D, and 5E illustrate examples of mapping of backhaul beams 170 and control beams 165 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0113] 5A and 5C, one control beam 165-1...165-4 is mapped to one backhaul beam 170-1...170-4. In FIG. 5D, multiple control beams are mapped to one backhaul beam. As shown, two of the control beams 165-1...165-8 are mapped to one of the backhaul beams 170-1...170-4. For example, the control beams 165-1 and 165-2 are mapped to the backhaul beam 170-1. When the mapping relationship is from one control beam to one BH beam or from multiple control beams to one BH beam, the BH beam may be completely implicitly determined by the control beam.

[0114] In FIG. 5B, multiple BH beams 170-1...170-4 are mapped to multiple control beams 165-1...165-4. For example, BH beam 170-1 is mapped to control beam 165-1 and control beam 165-2, and control beam 165-2 is mapped to BH beam 170-1 and BH beam 170-2. In FIG. 5E, two of BH beams 170-1...170-8 are mapped to one of control beams 165-1...165-4. For example, BH beams 170-1 and BH beam 170-2 are mapped to control beam 165-1. When the mapping relationship is from multiple BH beams to one control beam or from multiple BH beams to multiple control beams, the partial information of the BH beam may be determined by the control beam. The other information may be indicated separately or jointly encrypted with the beam index of the access beam.

[0115] In some embodiments, if the level of correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 is lower than another predefined threshold level, e.g., the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may be different due to separate positioning of the transport module 140 and the control module 135. In these embodiments, the network device 120 may send an instruction dedicated to the backhaul beam 170 to the repeating device 130 to at least partially indicate the backhaul beam 170. For example, some information about the backhaul beam may be indicated by this dedicated instruction, and some other information may be indicated by a joint instruction of the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0116] As an example, in some embodiments, the backhaul beam may be completely different from that of the NCR-MT (as an example of control module 135), or may be completely independent from that of the NCR-MT in scenarios where the locations of the NCR-MT and NCR-Fwd are different and therefore there is no correlation between the channels or beams of the two links.

[0117] Combined or separate beam instructions may be used for beam instructions for BH beams and AC beams. Separate or dedicated instructions for BH beams may include semi-static instructions and dynamic state instructions for switching to alternate beams. Periodic beam measurements may be applied to the backhaul link to track channel changes. In a gNB (as an example of a network device 120), multiple beam pairs may be maintained. Dedicated instructions for AC beams may include dynamic instructions via DCI by reusing fields such as MCS and / or FDRA to indicate AC beams.

[0118] In some embodiments, the indication of the BH beam and the AC beam may have some time-domain signaling characteristics. For example, the indication of the receive (Rx) beam for NCR-MT may have semi-static settings (static channel conditions) and aperiodic triggers (blockage). The indication of the BH beam for NCR-Fwd may have semi-static settings (static channel conditions) and aperiodic triggers (blockage), as well as dynamic settings for adjusting the entire channel between the gNB (an example of the network device 120) and the UE (an example of the terminal device 110). The indication for the AC beam for NCR-Fwd may have dynamic settings.

[0119] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may determine an effective time of the backhaul beam and the access beam for communication with the repeating device 130. The effective time may be determined based on a time indicated by the repeating device 130. The indicated time may be associated with a processing delay or a transmission delay of the repeating device 130.

[0120] For example, the indicated time may be associated with decoding of at least one instruction for at least one of a backhaul beam and an access beam. After receiving the beam instruction, the repeating device 130 may decode it to obtain information about the backhaul beam and / or the access beam. Thus, the effective time may be associated with the decoding time.

[0121] The indicated time may further include the time of information transmission from the control module 135 of the repeating device 130 to the forwarding module 140. For example, after the control module 135 receives and decodes the backhaul beam and / or access beam instructions, the control module 135 may transmit the decoded information to the forwarding module 140 if the two modules 135 and 140 are far or separated from each other.

[0122] Based on the decoded information, the forwarding module 140 may switch to the indicated backhaul beam and / or access beam, and thus the indicated time may be further associated with switching between the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0123] As an example, in some embodiments, the effective time of a indicated beam may take into account the time to decode instructions from the NCR-MT (an example of control module 135) and the time for information transmission from the NCR-MT to the NCR-Fwd (an example of forwarding module 140). If the time for information transmission is negligible, for example, in a scenario where two modules are co-located, this time may be excluded from consideration of the effective time.

[0124] The effective time may take into account beam switching times for NCR-Fwd, such as beam switching for BH beams (e.g., including beam width switching only, direction switching only, and / or both beam width and direction switching) and beam switching for AC beams (e.g., including beam width switching only, direction switching only, and / or both beam width and direction switching). In some embodiments, the beam switching time may be selected as the maximum time of the beam width switching time, the direction switching time, and the beam width and direction switching time, or the beam switching time may be associated with such maximum time.

[0125] The switching time may depend on whether simultaneous beam switching between the BH beam and the AC beam is supported. If simultaneous beam switching is supported, the definition of effective time may include max(t AC ,t BH ) may be used, where t AC represents the switching time of the AC beam, and t BH represents the switching time of the BH beam, and max() represents the function to calculate the maximum value. If simultaneous beam switching is not supported, sum(t AC ,t BH ) can also be used, where sum() represents the function that calculates the sum.

[0126] t AC t may be 0 if no AC beams are switched. Otherwise, it may be the time for switching the AC beams, or for switching only the beam width, only the direction, and / or for switching both the beam width and the direction. BH may be 0 if the BH beam is not switched, otherwise it may be the time for switching the BH beam, or for switching only the beam width, only the direction, and / or for switching both the beam width and the direction.

[0127] FIG. 6 illustrates a process 600 for determining an effective time of a shown beam according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0128] As shown in Figure 6, the NCR-MT may receive the instruction at time 605. The effective time of the instruction may be determined to be a point in time after the instruction is decoded at the NCR-MT 610, the transmission time from the NCR-MT to the NCR-Fwd 615, and the beam switching time of the NCR (an example of a repeating device 130) 620. The three times listed may initially be reported by the NCR as capabilities. If the transmission time is negligible, the NCR may not report this information or may report it as "0."

[0129] 7 illustrates a beam directing method 700 according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 700 can be implemented by the repeating device 130. For ease of explanation, the method 700 will be described from the perspective of the repeating device 130 with reference to FIG. 1.

[0130] In block 705, the repeating device 130 transmits to the network device 120 an indication of the correlation between the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130 and the control beam 165. The backhaul beam 170 is used for the backhaul link 150 between the network device 120 and the repeating device 130, and the control beam 165 is used for the control link 145 between the network device 120 and the repeating device 130.

[0131] The correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may be reported as a capability by the repeating device 130. The correlation may be predefined or predetermined depending on the network plan and hardware information or settings (number of antennas, beam direction, etc.) and / or depending on measurements based on signals received at the control module 135 and the forwarding module 140.

[0132] In block 710, the repeating device 130 receives at least one instruction associated with at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam from the network device 120. In some embodiments, the instruction may be sent by the network device 120 based on a correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 according to a predefined relationship.

[0133] For example, if the level of correlation is equal to or higher than a threshold level (e.g., a medium level or a high level), the repeating device 130 may receive an indication of a control beam that may at least partially indicate a backhaul beam from the network device 120. In this example, after receiving the indication of the control beam 165, the repeating device 130 may determine, based on the correlation between the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165, that the indication of the control beam 165 may at least partially indicate the backhaul beam 170.

[0134] The backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may have any suitable mapping relationship according to the relative positions of the forwarding module 140 and the control module 135 and / or the hardware configuration of the two modules 140 and 135. In some embodiments, the backhaul beam 170 may be mapped to the control beam 165 based on at least one of the number of antennas forming the backhaul beam and the control beam, the direction of the backhaul beam and the control beam, the width of the backhaul beam and the control beam, the strength of the received signals on the backhaul link and the control link, and the positions of the antennas forming the backhaul beam and the control beam.

[0135] In some embodiments, when the transport module 140 and the control module 135 are co-located, the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may be the same. In some embodiments, for example, even though the transport module 140 and the control module 135 are co-located, the backhaul beam 170 and the control beam 165 may be associated with different antenna panels. In this example, some information about the backhaul beam 170 may be partially indicated by the control beam 165, and other information about the backhaul beam 170 may be indicated by a dedicated designation of the backhaul beam 170 or a joint designation of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175.

[0136] In some embodiments, for example, according to the width and direction of the backhaul beam and the control beam, one backhaul beam 170 may be mapped to a set of control beams (or one or more control beams), and / or a set of backhaul beams (or one or more backhaul beams) may be mapped to one control beam.

[0137] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may receive from the network device 120 a dedicated indication for the backhaul beam 170 that may at least partially indicate the backhaul beam 170. For example, in an embodiment in which the indication for the control beam 165 indicates a portion of the information about the backhaul beam 170, the repeating device 130 may receive from the network device 120 a dedicated indication for the backhaul beam 170 that indicates the remaining portion of the information about the backhaul beam 170. Alternatively, or additionally, the dedicated indication for the backhaul beam 170 may be used together with a joint indication of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175 to indicate information about the backhaul beam 170.

[0138] In some embodiments, the dedicated indication of the backhaul beam 170 may be transmitted semi-statically by the network device 120 because the locations of the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 are relatively fixed. In some embodiments, to account for changing channel conditions due to movement of blocks within the backhaul link 150, the dedicated indication of the backhaul beam 170 may be dynamically changed based on at least one of periodic beam measurements for the backhaul link 150 and the quality of the channel between the network device 120 and the terminal device 110.

[0139] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may receive an access beam dedicated instruction from the network device 120. In some embodiments, the access beam dedicated instruction may be dynamically received by the repeating device 130 via the DCI. In some embodiments, the access beam dedicated instruction may be conveyed via MCS and / or FDRA related fields in the DCI. Dynamic transmission of the access beam 175 dedicated instruction may adapt to time-varying channel conditions in the access link 155 due to the mobility of the terminal device 110.

[0140] In some embodiments, the instructions dedicated to the access beam 175 may include a first beam width of the access beam 175, the number of access beams having the first beam width, and a first beam index associated with at least one of the channels associated with the access beam 175.

[0141] For example, if the first beam width of the access beam 175 is wider or if there are fewer access beams with the same first beam width, the first beam index may have fewer bits. If the first beam width is narrower or if there are more access beams with the same first beam width, the first beam index may have more bits.

[0142] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may receive an indication of the beam width of the access beam to be used from the network device 120. Based on this indication, the repeating device 130 may determine the setting of the first beam index, such as the bit length, and decode the first beam index accordingly.

[0143] In embodiments in which the first beam index is associated with a channel carried on the access link 155, the repeating device 130 may associate the first beam index with the monitored or detected channel and further decode the first beam index according to a predefined rule associated with the channel. For example, common channels such as the PBCH may be associated with an omnidirectional beam or an intermediate beam, and therefore the first beam index associated with the common channel may have fewer bits. Dedicated channels such as the PDSCH and PUSCH channels may be associated with an intermediate beam or a narrow beam, and therefore the first beam index associated with the dedicated channel may require more bits.

[0144] In some embodiments, the first beam index may include a predetermined number of bits to occupy a fixed payload to simplify processing or operation of both the transmitter and the receiver. In some embodiments, the effective bits within the predetermined number of bits may be determined based on the first beamwidth of the access beam 175 and / or the number of access beams having the same first beamwidth. If the first beamwidth is wider or the number of access beams having the same first beamwidth is smaller, the effective bits may be fewer. If the first beamwidth is narrower or the number of access beams having the same first beamwidth is larger, the effective bits may be more.

[0145] In some embodiments, the access beam 175 may be designated as an omni-directional beam. In these embodiments, an indication dedicated to the access beam 175 may further indicate the on / off state of the access link 155, thereby further reducing signaling overhead and improving network efficiency.

[0146] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may receive from the network device 120 a joint indication of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175, which may refer to both the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175. In some embodiments, the joint indication of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175 may include a second beam index associated with at least one of a first beamwidth of the access beam and a second beamwidth of the backhaul beam, a number of access beams having the first beamwidth and a number of backhaul beams having the second beamwidth, and a channel associated with the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0147] In some embodiments, the second beam index may include a first set of bits for the backhaul beam 170 and a second set of bits for the access beam 175 that follows the first set of bits for the backhaul beam 170. Given that the locations of the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 may be relatively fixed, the value of the joint indication may change more slowly over time. In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may receive an indication of the difference between the current value and a previous value of the joint indication from the network device 120 to further reduce signaling overhead.

[0148] Some pairs of the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130 and the beam 160 of the network device 120 may be invalid, for example, due to the network plan and / or the capabilities of the devices 120 and 130. In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may determine valid pairs of the backhaul beam of the repeating device 130 and the beam of the network device 120. The joint indication of the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175 may be determined by the network device 120 based on the valid pairs, for example, by excluding the backhaul beam from the invalid pairs of beam 170 and beam 160.

[0149] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may transmit information to the network device 120 regarding pairs of backhaul beams 170 and beams 160 of the network device 120. This information may be related to at least one of received signal strength at multiple pairs of the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130 and beams 160 of the network device 120, or received signal strength at multiple beams 160 of the network device 120 and multiple beams 160 of the network device 120 associated with the backhaul beam 170 of the repeating device 130.

[0150] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may transmit to the network device 120 an indication of a time associated with at least one of decoding an indication of at least one of the backhaul beam 170 or the access beam 175, transmitting information from the control module 135 of the repeating device 130 to the forwarding module 140, and switching between the backhaul beam 170 and the access beam 175. Based on the time indicated by the repeating device 130, the network device 120 may determine and further indicate to the repeating device 130 an effective time of the backhaul beam 170 and / or the access beam 175.

[0151] All operations and features of the repeating device 130 described above with reference to Figures 1 to 6 are equally applicable and have similar effects to the method 700 of the repeating device 130, and details are omitted for the sake of brevity.

[0152] A beam direction scheme for a repeating device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure has been described above with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7. This scheme defines signaling and processes for beam direction or QCL information direction for a repeating device. Based on the signaling, a backhaul beam and / or an access beam can be uniquely determined, thereby avoiding misalignment between a network device and a terminal device. Such beam direction can improve the efficiency of beam management (BM) based on a repeating device.

[0153] As another part of beam management, both the repeating device and the terminal device may need to perform beam scanning to find a better suited or optimal beam for future communications. For example, the repeating device may detect synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) or system information blocks (SIBs) from the network device, and both the repeating device and the network device may determine an initial pair of beams for communications. The repeating device may forward SSBs or other common signals from the network device to the terminal device so that the terminal device can determine an initial beam to perform initial access (IA).

[0154] Furthermore, the repeating device may further perform finer beam management (BM) based on the channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources configured by the network device. For example, the repeating device may measure the RSRP for each CSI-RS resource to find a better or best Rx beam (such as a BH beam or MT beam). Thus, the network device can determine and further configure the beams of the network device and the repeating device.

[0155] When the terminal device completes initial access (IA), the gNB may send a CSI-RS configuration to the terminal device via a repeating device for further fine beam training of the terminal. The terminal device may then measure the RSRP for each CSI-RS resource to find a better or best Rx beam. The network device may configure a beam between the repeating device and the terminal device. The Tx beam for DL ​​may be captured by a "downlink spatial domain transmission filter."

[0156] After the repeating device completes finer beam training, the network device may switch to a narrower beam. If the terminal device has not yet completed finer beam training, the set of CSI-RS-related measurements of the terminal device may have a different baseline. An example of such a situation is described below with reference to Figure 8.

[0157] 8 illustrates an example process 800 for finer beam training according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, a gNB 805 acts as a network device, an NCR 810 acts as a repeating device, and a UE 815 acts as a terminal device.

[0158] As shown in FIG. 8, the gNB 805 may transmit CSI-RS to the NCR 810 via a beam 817 of the gNB 805 and a beam 820 of the NCR 810 for finer beam training. The beams 817 and 820 may be determined based on SSB or SIB detection of the NCR 810. The CSI-RS may occupy multiple CSI-RS resources. The NCR 810 may forward the CSI-RS to the UE 815 via beams 830-1, 830-2, 830-3...830-G of the NCR 810 and beam 835 of the UE 815, where G represents any suitable integer. Each CSI-RS may be transmitted using one of the CSI-RS resources via one of the beams 830-1, 830-2, 830-3...830-G.

[0159] In this example, the NCR 810's finer beam training may end early, causing the gNB 805 to switch to a narrower beam to continue transmitting CSI-RS. At this point, the UE 815 may have already performed CSI-RS measurements on beams 830-1 and 830-2, but may not have yet performed CSI-RS measurements on beam 830-3. In this situation, the UE 815 may perform measurements on beams 830-3 through 830-G based on the CSI-RS transmitted by the gNB 805 using the switched-to narrower beam. Thus, measurements on beams 830-1 and 830-2 and beams 830-3 through 830-G may not be compared to each other because they are derived based on different baselines associated with different beam widths. A similar situation may occur if the NCR 810 changes the beam width of beam 820 after finer beam training while the UE 825 is performing CSI-RS measurements.

[0160] Additionally, before and after the finer BM of the repeater, the network device and / or the repeater may use different beamwidths to transmit BM signals to the terminal device. Therefore, there are multiple quasi-co-location (QCL) assumptions. For example, considering a gNB Tx beam (as an example of a Tx beam of the network device) and an NCR Tx beam (as an example of a Tx beam of the repeater), the SSB and CSI-RS for the BM may use QCL type C or QCL type D, and the CSI-RS and DMRS for the BM may use QCL type D.

[0161] Table 3 shows the different beam widths before and after finer beam management (BM). [Table 3]

[0162] As shown in Table 3, beam combinations (1) and (2) may follow the QCL type C assumption in front of the finer BM of both the NCR and the UE. Beam combinations (3) and (5) and beam combinations (4) and (6) may both follow the QCL type C assumption. However, beam combinations (3) and (4) and beam combinations (5) and (6) may not follow the QCL type D assumption and may instead follow the QCL type C assumption.

[0163] In view of the above, if the beamwidth of the network device and / or repeating device changes, the CSI-RS configuration for the terminal device needs to be updated.

[0164] Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a dynamic deactivation scheme for CSI-RS reporting for a terminal device. In this scheme, if the beam of a network device and / or the backhaul beam of a repeating device is changed during a channel measurement (referred to as a first channel measurement) of the terminal device via beam sweeping, the network device sends a deactivation instruction for the CSI reporting of the terminal device to the terminal device. After receiving the deactivation instruction, the terminal device stops CSI reporting.

[0165] Based on the signaling, the CSI-RS configuration for the UE can be updated in a timely manner to avoid channel estimation errors introduced by outdated quasi-co-location (QCL) assumptions.

[0166] 9 illustrates an example method 900 for updating a CSI-RS configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 900 may be implemented by a network device 120. For ease of explanation, the method 900 will be described from the perspective of the network device 120 with reference to FIG. 1.

[0167] In block 905, the network device 120 determines that the network device's beam 160 and / or the repeating device's 130 backhaul beam 170 have changed during the terminal device's 110 first channel measurement via beam sweep. For example, if the network device 120 determines to switch to another beam based on the repeating device's 130's finer BM, the network device 120 may determine that the beam 160 has changed.

[0168] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may determine that the backhaul beam 170 is to be changed based on a report of the switching status of the backhaul beam 170 from the repeating device 130. For example, the repeating device 130 may switch the BH beam 170 to active. The switching status of the backhaul beam 170 is reported to the network device 120 and may be associated with the index, width, and / or direction of the backhaul beam 170. After the network device 120 receives the indication of the switching status, the network device 120 may determine that the backhaul beam 170 is to be changed.

[0169] In block 910, network device 120 transmits a deactivation instruction for CSI reporting of terminal device 110 to terminal device 110. In some embodiments, network device 120 may transmit an indication of a time offset for reactivating CSI reporting to terminal device 110. The indication of the time offset may be transmitted together with the deactivation instruction or separately from the deactivation instruction. The indication may include an offset in index of a reference signal (RS) resource for terminal device 110's first channel measurement. Thus, terminal device 110 may know when and / or where to reactivate CSI reporting. In some embodiments, network device 120 may discard previous CSI reports received from terminal device 110 during the period in which the deactivation instruction is transmitted to save storage resources.

[0170] FIG. 10 illustrates an example process 1000 for updating a CSI-RS configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0171] In the process 1000, CSI reporting may be deactivated in association with the latest configuration of the UE (an example of the terminal device 110). Measurements that are not in operation or reported may be discarded by the UE upon receiving the CSI reporting deactivation instruction.

[0172] As shown in FIG. 10 , the gNB (as an example of the network device 120) determines the best Tx narrow beam at time 1002 and sends a deactivation instruction to the UE at time 1004. Thereafter, the measurement procedure related to CSI-RS resources #M+K+1...#P, including signal reception, CSI-RS decoding, and estimation based on the decoded CSI-RS, is terminated or canceled. The measurement report for CSI-RS resource #M+K is discarded at time 1006. Measurements related to other CSI-RS resources in the same period are discarded by the gNB.

[0173] For the CSI-RS resources in the resource set, the time offset may be reconfigured. As shown in Figure 10, the next group of CSI-RS measurements may be configured to take effect at time 1008. Then, at time 1010, which corresponds to CSI-RS resource #M+K+2, the UE may reactivate detection for CSI-RS resource #M. The time offset may be measurement occasion K+2.

[0174] Considering the gNB Tx beam, NCR Rx beam, and NCR Tx beam, the beamwidth of the NCR (an example of a repeating device 130) for the backhaul link may also affect the overall channel characteristics of the UE. Therefore, when any beam between the gNB and the NCR for the BH link is changed, a deactivation instruction may be sent to the UE. When the NCR switches the Rx beam (e.g., the BH beam) to active, the switching status (including, e.g., beam index, beam width, beam direction, etc.) and the effective time of the beam switch may be reported to the gNB. The gNB may deactivate the current measurement procedure and reconfigure the CSI-RS according to the received report.

[0175] In some embodiments, network device 120 may transmit to repeating device 130 an indication of a relatively long period for reporting received signal strength on RS resources for the repeating device 130's channel measurements (referred to as second channel measurements) on the link between network device 120 and repeating device 130. The received signal strength may be indicated by RSRP, RSSI, and / or other suitable measurements based on other suitable criteria.

[0176] For example, the period may exceed a threshold period, such as the number of slots. In this way, after the terminal device 110 completes fine beam training based on the wider beam, the beam between the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 can be changed or adapted to the narrower beam, further avoiding channel estimation errors introduced by the old QCL assumption.

[0177] 11 illustrates an example method 1100 for updating a CSI-RS configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1100 may be performed by terminal device 110. For ease of explanation, method 1100 will be described from the perspective of terminal device 110 with reference to FIG. 1 .

[0178] In block 1105, the terminal device 110 receives a CSI reporting deactivation instruction from the network device 120 during a first channel measurement of the terminal device 110 via beam sweeping. In block 1110, the terminal device 110 stops CSI reporting.

[0179] In some embodiments, terminal device 110 may receive an indication of a time offset for reactivating CSI reporting from network device 120. In some embodiments, the indication of the time offset may include an offset in an index of an RS resource for the first channel measurement. Based on the time offset, terminal device 110 may determine when to resume the first channel measurement and CSI reporting.

[0180] All operations and features relating to terminal device 110 described above with reference to Figures 9 and 10 apply equally to, and have similar effect on, method 1100 of terminal device 110. For the sake of brevity, details are omitted.

[0181] Dynamically deactivating the terminal device's CSI-RS reporting allows the CSI-RS configuration to be updated to the terminal device in real time, further avoiding channel estimation errors introduced by outdated QCL assumptions.

[0182] To prevent changes in the beamwidth of the network device 120 and / or the repeating device 130 from affecting the channel characteristics of the terminal device 110, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for activating the forwarding module of the repeating device, in which the repeating device activates the forwarding module for forwarding to the terminal device when a second channel measurement of the repeating device is completed on the link between the repeating device and the network device and / or when an instruction to activate the forwarding module of the repeating device is received from the network device.

[0183] In this way, the forwarding module of the repeating device may be switched on after the second channel measurement of the repeating device is completed, and the NCR does not expect to receive an instruction to enable the forwarding module before the second channel measurement is completed. Therefore, invalid channel measurements of the terminal device can be avoided in the event of updating the beamwidth of the network device and / or the repeating device.

[0184] 12 illustrates an example method 1200 for enabling forwarding operations of a repeating device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1200 may be implemented by network device 120. For purposes of explanation, method 1200 will be described from the perspective of network device 120 with reference to FIG. 1.

[0185] In block 1205, the network device 120 determines whether the repeating device 130 has completed a second channel measurement on the link between the network device 120 and the repeating device 130. In some embodiments, the network device 120 may receive a report about the second channel measurement from the repeating device 130. Based on receiving the report, the network device 120 may determine that the second channel measurement is complete.

[0186] In block 1210, if the second channel measurement is completed, the network device 120 sends an instruction to the repeating device 130 to enable the forwarding module 140 of the repeating device 130 for forwarding to the terminal device 110. In this way, the terminal device's first channel measurement can be prevented from being affected by beamwidth updates of the network device 120 and / or the repeating device 130.

[0187] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may send an indication of RS resources for the second channel measurement to the repeating device 130. The indicated RS resources may have a smaller offset. The offset may be lower than a threshold offset, such as a number of slots. In this way, a finer BM may be initiated earlier in the repeating device 130 and the terminal device 110.

[0188] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may transmit to the repeating device 130 an indication of a period for reporting received signal strength (e.g., RSRP and RSSI) on the RS resource for the second channel measurement. The period may be longer than a threshold period, e.g., the number of slots. This allows the beam between the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 to be changed or adapted to the narrower beam after the terminal device 110 completes finer beam training based on the wider beam, thereby further avoiding channel estimation errors due to outdated QCL assumptions.

[0189] In some embodiments, the network device 120 may configure the repeating device 130 with two or more different CSI-RS resource sets. One of the CSI-RS resource sets may include trigger-state CSI-RS resources with an offset less than a threshold. Based on this CSI-RS resource set, finer beam training can be completed quickly. Another of the CSI-RS resource sets may include CSI-RS resources with a longer period. Considering that the network device 120 and the repeating device 130 are relatively stable or static, this CSI-RS resource set can be used by the repeating device 130 for normal beam sweeping and channel tracking, further reducing system overhead. These CSI-RS resource sets may have different validity times.

[0190] As an example, in some embodiments, to avoid invalid channel measurements caused by beamwidth updates of the gNB (an example of the network device 120), the NCR (an example of the repeating device 130) may forward signals only when CSI-RS-based beam management is terminated. The NCR may not expect to receive an instruction to switch on the access link forwarding module before reporting all RSRPs associated with the CSI-RS resources in the CSI-RS resource set. To save time in finding the optimal finer beam, triggered CSI-RS resources with an offset smaller than K slots may be configured for the NCR. The period for reporting RSRPs of CSI-RS resources for the NCR may be greater than Q slots. K and Q may represent any suitable integers.

[0191] In some embodiments, to simplify the beam sweeping operation of the repeating device 130 and the terminal device 110, the network device 120 may determine two beam configurations for the repeating device 130 in a beam sweep for the repeating device 130 (referred to as a first beam sweep) and a beam sweep for the terminal device 110 (referred to as a second beam sweep). In the first beam sweep, the network device 120 may configure a fixed Rx beam (a CSI-RS resource set with the repeat setting "off") for the terminal device 110 and a group of Tx beams for the repeating device 130. The group of Tx beams may be configured via a group of beam indices having a common period and a common slot offset, and each beam index may be configured using a symbol offset. As another example, the group of Tx beams for the repeating device 130 may be configured by a group of beam indices having a common period and a common symbol offset, and each beam index may be configured using a slot offset. Alternatively or additionally, a group of Tx beams for the repeating device 130 may be configured via a group of beam indices having a common period, and each beam index may be configured using a symbol offset and a slot offset, with the number of beam indices in the group being determined by the number of access beams in the NCR.

[0192] In the second beam sweep of the terminal device 110, the Tx beam of the repeating device 130 may be fixed. For example, the network device 120 may configure a beam index for the repeating device 130 using a group of a period, a slot offset, and a symbol offset, where the number of symbol offsets is equal to the number of Rx beams of the terminal device 110. Alternatively or additionally, the network device 120 may configure a beam index for the repeating device 130 using a group of a period, a symbol offset, and a slot offset, where the number of slot offsets is equal to the number of Rx beams of the terminal device 110. Alternatively or additionally, the network device 120 may configure a beam index using a group of period and offset pairs, where each pair includes a slot offset and a symbol offset (the number of symbol offsets is equal to the number of Rx beams of the terminal device 110). At the same time, the CSI-RS configuration configured for the terminal device by the network device includes a CSI-RS resource set in which the repeat setting is "ON".

[0193] 13 illustrates an example process 1300 for enabling forwarding operations according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, a gNB 1305 functions as a network device 120, an NCR 1310 functions as a repeating device 130, and a UE 1315 functions as a terminal device 110.

[0194] As shown in FIG. 13, at 1320, the NCR 1310 may turn off the forwarding module (an example of the forwarding module 140). At 1322, the gNB 1305 and the NCR 1310 may perform NCR initial access based on SSB and / or SIB detection. At 1324, the gNB 1305 may send a CSI-RS configuration for finer beam training to the NCR 1310. At 1326, the gNB 1305 may send the CSI-RS of the NCR 1310. At 1328, the NCR 1310 may measure the RSRP for each CSI-RS resource and find an optimal Rx beam (e.g., a beam-height beam). At 1330, the NCR 1310 may feed back the CSI-RS resource indicator (CRI)-RSRP of the NCR 1310. At 1332, the gNB 1305 may determine an optimal Tx beam for the gNB 1305. At 1334, the gNB 1305 may selectively send an on / off instruction for the transmit module to the NCR 1310. At 1336, the NCR 1310 may turn on the transmit module in response to the instruction.

[0195] At 1338, the gNB 1305 and UE 1315 may perform initial access for the UE 1315 based on SSB and / or SIB detection using the additional SSB index associated with the gNB 1305's CSI-RS beam and the NCR's 1310 beam sweep to determine a first Tx beam (e.g., a first AC beam) for the NCR 1310 associated with the SSB. At 1340, the gNB 1305 may transmit a CSI-RS configuration for finer beam training to the UE 1315 via the CSI-RS beam. At 1342, the NCR 1310 may forward the CSI-RS configuration to the UE 1315 via the Tx beam determined in the initial access. At 1344, the gNB 1305 may transmit the UE 1315's CSI-RS to the NCR 1310 via the gNB 1305's CSI-RS beam. At 1346, the NCR 1310 may forward the UE 1315's CSI-RS to the UE 1315 via multiple secondary access beams associated with the CSI-RS. At 1350, the UE 1315 may measure the RSRP for each CSI-RS resource and find an optimal Rx beam for the UE 1315. At 1352, the UE 1315 may feed back the UE 1315's cri-RSRP. At 1354, the NCR 1310 may forward the UE 1315's cri-RSRP to the gNB 1305. Based on the UE 1315's received cri-RSRP, the gNB 1305 determines the optimal secondary access beam for the NCR 1310 and sends a related instruction to the NCR 1310.

[0196] 14 illustrates an exemplary method 1400 for enabling forwarding operations of a repeating device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Method 1400 may be implemented by repeating device 130. For ease of explanation, method 1400 will be described from the perspective of repeating device 130 with reference to FIG. 1.

[0197] In block 1405, the repeating device 130 determines that at least one of the following conditions is met: a second channel measurement of the repeating device has been completed on the link between the repeating device and the network device; and / or an indication to enable a forwarding module of the repeating device has been received from the network device. If the at least one condition is met, in block 1410, the repeating device 130 enables the forwarding module 140 for forwarding to the terminal device 110.

[0198] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may send a report about the second channel measurement to the network device 120 to notify the network device 120 of the completion of the second channel measurement. In response, the network device 120 may send an instruction to enable the forwarding module 140.

[0199] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may receive an indication of RS resources for the second channel measurement from the network device 120. The indicated RS resources may have a smaller offset. The offset may be lower than a threshold offset, such as a number of slots. In this way, a finer BM may be initiated earlier in the repeating device 130 and the terminal device 110.

[0200] In some embodiments, the repeating device 130 may receive an indication of a period for reporting received signal strength on a reference signal resource for the second channel measurement from the network device 120. The period may be longer than a threshold period, e.g., a number of slots, to extend the finer beam training procedure at the repeating device 130.

[0201] All operations and features relating to the repeating device 130 described above with reference to Figures 12 and 13 apply equally to, and have similar effect on, the method 1400 of the repeating device 130, and details are omitted for the sake of brevity.

[0202] Figure 15 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 1500 suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. The apparatus 1500 can be considered another exemplary implementation of the terminal device 110, the network device 120, or the repeating device 130 shown in Figure 1. Thus, the apparatus 1500 can be implemented in, or at least as part of, the terminal device 110, the network device 120, or the repeating device 130.

[0203] As shown, the apparatus 1500 comprises a processor 1510, a memory 1520 coupled to the processor 1510, a suitable transmitter (TX) / receiver (RX) 1540 coupled to the processor 1510, and a communication interface coupled to the TX / RX 1540. The memory 1510 stores at least a portion of a program 1530. The TX / RX 1540 is for bidirectional communication. The TX / RX 1540 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, although in practice, the access nodes referred to in this disclosure may have multiple antennas. The communication interface may represent any interface required for communication with other network elements, such as, for example, an X2 / Xn interface for bidirectional communication between eNBs / gNBs, an S1 / NG interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) / Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) / SGW / UPF and an eNB / gNB, an Un interface for communication between an eNB / gNB and a relay node (RN), or a Uu interface for communication between an eNB / gNB and a terminal device.

[0204] The program 1530 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 1510, cause the device 1500 to operate in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, as described herein with reference to FIGS. 1-14. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 1510 of the device 1500, by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 1510 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the combination of the processor 1510 and the memory 1520 may form a processing means 1550 suitable for implementing various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0205] Memory 1520 may be of any type suitable for a local technology network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as, by way of non-limiting example, non-transitory computer-readable storage media, semiconductor-based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory, and removable memory. While only one memory 1520 is shown in device 1500, device 1500 may have multiple physically distinct memory modules. Processor 1510 may be of any type suitable for a local technology network and may include, by way of non-limiting example, one or more of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture. Device 1500 may have multiple processors, such as application-specific integrated circuit chips that are time-slaved to a clock that synchronizes the main processor.

[0206] In some embodiments, device 1500 may include circuitry configured to perform the processes or methods described with reference to FIGS. 1-14. As used herein, the term "circuitry" may refer to a hardware circuit and / or a combination of a hardware circuit and software. For example, a circuit may be a combination of analog and / or digital hardware circuitry and software / firmware. As another example, a circuit may be any portion of a hardware processor with software, where the hardware processor includes digital signal processor(s), software, and memory(s) that work together to cause a device, such as a terminal device or network device, to perform various functions. As yet another example, a circuit may be a hardware circuit and / or processor, such as a microprocessor or portion of a microprocessor, that requires software / firmware for operation, but the software may not be present when not necessary for operation. As used herein, the term circuitry also includes simply a hardware circuit or processor(s) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor(s) and its associated software and / or firmware implementation.

[0207] In summary, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide the following solutions:

[0208] In one solution, a communication method includes receiving, in a network device, from a repeating device an indication of a correlation between a backhaul beam and a control beam of the repeating device, wherein the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device and the control beam is used for a control link between the network device and the repeating device, and indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam to the repeating device.

[0209] In some embodiments, indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam includes sending a control beam instruction to the repeating device to at least partially indicate the backhaul beam in response to the level of correlation being equal to or greater than a threshold level.

[0210] In some embodiments, the backhaul beams are mapped to the control beams based on at least one of the number of antennas forming the backhaul beams and control beams, the direction of the backhaul beams and control beams, the width of the backhaul beams and control beams, the strength of the received signals on the backhaul links and control links, and the positions of the antennas forming the backhaul beams and control beams.

[0211] In some embodiments, the backhaul beam and the control beam are associated with different antenna panels.

[0212] In some embodiments, a backhaul beam is mapped to a set of control beams, and the set of control beams includes the control beam, or a set of backhaul beams is mapped to a control beam, and the set of backhaul beams includes the backhaul beam.

[0213] In some embodiments, the instruction for the control beam indicates a portion of the information regarding the backhaul beam, and indicating at least one of the backhaul beam or the access beam further includes sending an instruction dedicated to the backhaul beam to the repeating device to indicate the remaining portion of the information regarding the backhaul beam.

[0214] In some embodiments, indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam includes sending an instruction dedicated to the backhaul beam to the repeating device to at least partially indicate the backhaul beam.

[0215] In some embodiments, the instructions specific to the backhaul beam are transmitted semi-statically.

[0216] In some embodiments, the instructions dedicated to the backhaul beam are dynamically changed based on at least one of periodic beam measurements of the backhaul link and the quality of the channel between the network device and the terminal device.

[0217] In some embodiments, the method further includes maintaining a pair of the backhaul beam and the network beam.

[0218] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting instructions specific to the access beam to the repeating device.

[0219] In some embodiments, the instructions specific to the access beam are dynamically transmitted via downlink control information.

[0220] In some embodiments, the access beam dedicated indication is conveyed via a field related to modulation and coding scheme and / or frequency domain resource allocation in the downlink control information.

[0221] In some embodiments, the instructions dedicated to the access beam include a first beam index associated with at least one of a first beam width of the access beam, a number of access beams having the first beam width, and a channel associated with the access beam.

[0222] In some embodiments, the first beam index includes a predetermined number of bits.

[0223] In some embodiments, the valid bits within the predetermined number of bits are determined based on a first beam width of the access beam.

[0224] In some embodiments, the access beam is shown as an omni-directional beam, and an indication dedicated to the access beam further indicates the on / off status of the access link.

[0225] In some embodiments, indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam includes sending a joint indication of the backhaul beam and the access beam to the repeating device to indicate both the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0226] In some embodiments, the joint instruction of the backhaul beam and the access beam includes a second beam index associated with at least one of: a first beamwidth of the access beam and a second beamwidth of the backhaul beam; the number of access beams having the first beamwidth and the number of backhaul beams having the second beamwidth; and channels associated with the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0227] In some embodiments, the second beam index includes a first bit set for the backhaul beam and a second bit set for the access beam, the second bit set following the first bit set.

[0228] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining valid pairs of backhaul beams of the repeating device and beams of the network device, and joint indication of the backhaul beams and access beams is determined based on the valid pairs.

[0229] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving information from the repeating device regarding pairs of backhaul beams of the repeating device and beams of the network device, the information being associated with at least one of multiple pairs of backhaul beams of the repeating device and beams of the network device, or received signal strengths at multiple beams of the network device associated with the backhaul beams of the repeating device, and received signal strengths at multiple beams of the network device.

[0230] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving from the repeating device an indication of time associated with at least one of decoding an indication of at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam, transmitting information from the control module of the repeating device to the forwarding module, and switching between the backhaul beam and the access beam, and determining effective times of the backhaul beam and the access beam based on the indication of time.

[0231] In one solution, a communication method includes, in a network device, determining that at least one of the beam of the network device and the backhaul beam of the repeating device has changed during a first channel measurement of the terminal device via beam sweep, where the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device, and sending an instruction to the terminal device to deactivate the channel state information report of the terminal device according to the determination that at least one of the beam of the network device and the backhaul beam of the repeating device has changed.

[0232] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving an indication of a switching state of the backhaul beam from the repeating device, the switching state being associated with at least one of an index, width, or direction of the backhaul beam, and determining that at least one of the beams of the network device or the backhaul beams of the repeating device has changed includes determining that the backhaul beam has changed based on the switching state of the backhaul beam.

[0233] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting to the terminal device an indication of a time offset for reactivating channel state information reporting.

[0234] In some embodiments, the indication of the time offset includes an offset in an index of a reference signal resource for the first channel measurement.

[0235] In some embodiments, the method further includes discarding previous channel state information reports received from the terminal device in the period, and the deactivation indication is transmitted in the period.

[0236] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting to the repeating device an indication of a periodicity for reporting received signal strength on a reference signal resource for a second channel measurement of the repeating device in a link between the network device and the repeating device, the periodicity exceeding a threshold periodicity.

[0237] In one solution, the communication method includes determining, in the network device, whether a second channel measurement of the repeating device has been completed on a link between the network device and the repeating device, and sending an instruction to the repeating device to enable a forwarding module of the repeating device for forwarding to the terminal device according to a determination that the second channel measurement has been completed.

[0238] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting an indication of a reference signal resource for the second channel measurement to the repeating device, the reference signal resource having an offset less than a threshold offset.

[0239] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting to the repeating device an indication of a periodicity for reporting received signal strength on the reference signal resource for the second channel measurement, the periodicity exceeding the threshold periodicity.

[0240] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving a report from the repeating device about the second channel measurement, and determining whether the second channel measurement is complete includes determining that the second channel measurement is complete in response to receiving the report.

[0241] In one solution, a communication method includes, in a repeating device, transmitting to a network device an indication of a correlation between a backhaul beam and a control beam of the repeating device, wherein the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device and the control beam is used for a control link between the network device and the repeating device, and receiving from the network device at least one indication associated with at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0242] In some embodiments, receiving at least one indication includes receiving an indication of a control beam from the network device that at least partially indicates a backhaul beam in response to the level of correlation being equal to or greater than a threshold level.

[0243] In some embodiments, the backhaul beams are mapped to the control beams based on at least one of the number of antennas forming the backhaul beams and control beams, the direction of the backhaul beams and control beams, the width of the backhaul beams and control beams, the strength of the received signals on the backhaul links and control links, and the positions of the antennas forming the backhaul beams and control beams.

[0244] In some embodiments, the backhaul beam and the control beam are associated with different antenna panels.

[0245] In some embodiments, a backhaul beam is mapped to a set of control beams, and the set of control beams includes the control beam, or a set of backhaul beams is mapped to a control beam, and the set of backhaul beams includes the backhaul beam.

[0246] In some embodiments, the control beam instruction indicates a portion of the information regarding the backhaul beam, and receiving at least one instruction includes receiving an instruction from the network device that is dedicated to the backhaul beam, and the instruction that is dedicated to the backhaul beam indicates a remaining portion of the information regarding the backhaul beam.

[0247] In some embodiments, receiving at least one indication includes receiving an indication from the network device specific to the backhaul beam that at least partially indicates the backhaul beam.

[0248] In some embodiments, the instructions specific to the backhaul beam are transmitted semi-statically.

[0249] In some embodiments, the instructions dedicated to the backhaul beam are dynamically changed based on at least one of periodic beam measurements of the backhaul link and the quality of the channel between the network device and the terminal device.

[0250] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving an instruction from the network device that is dedicated to the access beam.

[0251] In some embodiments, the instructions dedicated to the access beam are dynamically received via downlink control information.

[0252] In some embodiments, the access beam dedicated indication is conveyed via a field related to modulation and coding scheme and / or frequency domain resource allocation in the downlink control information.

[0253] In some embodiments, the instructions dedicated to the access beam include a first beam index associated with at least one of a first beam width of the access beam, a number of access beams having the first beam width, and a channel associated with the access beam.

[0254] In some embodiments, the first beam index includes a predetermined number of bits.

[0255] In some embodiments, the valid bits within the predetermined number of bits are determined based on a first beam width of the access beam.

[0256] In some embodiments, the access beam is shown as an omni-directional beam, and an indication dedicated to the access beam further indicates the on / off status of the access link.

[0257] In some embodiments, receiving at least one instruction includes receiving a joint instruction for a backhaul beam and an access beam from the network device, wherein the joint instruction for a backhaul beam and an access beam is used to indicate both the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0258] In some embodiments, the joint instruction of the backhaul beam and the access beam includes a second beam index associated with at least one of: a first beamwidth of the access beam and a second beamwidth of the backhaul beam; the number of access beams having the first beamwidth and the number of backhaul beams having the second beamwidth; and channels associated with the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0259] In some embodiments, the second beam index includes a first bit set for the backhaul beam and a second bit set for the access beam, the second bit set following the first bit set.

[0260] In some embodiments, the method further includes determining valid pairs of backhaul beams of the repeating device and beams of the network device, and joint indication of the backhaul beams and access beams is determined based on the valid pairs.

[0261] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting, to the network device, information regarding pairs of backhaul beams of the repeating device and beams of the network device, the information being associated with at least one of multiple pairs of backhaul beams of the repeating device and beams of the network device, or received signal strengths at multiple beams of the network device associated with the backhaul beams of the repeating device, and received signal strengths at multiple beams of the network device.

[0262] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting to the network device an indication of a time associated with at least one of decoding an indication of at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam, transmitting information from the control module of the repeating device to the forwarding module, and switching between the backhaul beam and the access beam.

[0263] In one solution, a communication method includes determining, in a repeating device, that at least one condition is met, including at least one of the following conditions: a second channel measurement of the repeating device has been completed on a link between the repeating device and a network device; and an instruction to enable a forwarding module of the repeating device has been received from the network device; and enabling a forwarding module of the repeating device for forwarding to a terminal device according to the determination that the at least one condition is met.

[0264] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving from the network device an indication of a reference signal resource for the repeating device's second channel measurement, the reference signal resource having an offset less than a threshold offset.

[0265] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving from the network device an indication of a periodicity for reporting received signal strength on the reference signal resource for the second channel measurement, the periodicity exceeding the threshold periodicity.

[0266] In some embodiments, the method further includes transmitting a report of the second channel measurement to the network device, and an indication to enable the forwarding module is received from the network device in response to transmitting the report.

[0267] In one solution, a communication method includes, in a network device, receiving a channel state information reporting deactivation instruction from the network device during a first channel measurement of a terminal device via beam sweeping, and stopping the channel state information reporting.

[0268] In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving from the network device an indication of a time offset for reactivating channel state information reporting.

[0269] In some embodiments, the indication of the time offset includes an offset in an index of a reference signal resource for the first channel measurement.

[0270] In another solution, a communications device comprises a processor configured to cause the device to perform any of the above methods.

[0271] In general, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software that may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described using block diagrams, flowcharts, or some other pictorial representations, it should be understood that the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described in this disclosure may be implemented in, by way of non-limiting example, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller, or other computing device, or some combination thereof.

[0272] The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions (e.g., computer-executable instructions included in program modules) that execute on a device by a target real or virtual processor to perform the processes or methods described above with reference to FIGS. 1-14. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split among program modules as desired in various embodiments. The machine-executable instructions for the program modules may be executed in local or distributed devices. In a distributed device, the program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

[0273] Program code for implementing the methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, so that when executed by the processor or controller, the program code performs the functions / acts specified in the flowcharts and / or block diagrams. The program code may be executed entirely on a machine, partially on a machine, as a stand-alone software package, partially on a machine and partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server.

[0274] The program code may be embodied in a machine-readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that can contain or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine-readable medium may be a machine-readable signal medium or a machine-readable storage medium. The machine-readable medium includes, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination thereof. More specific examples of machine-readable storage media include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer disk, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0275] Furthermore, although operations are described in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring such operations to be performed in the particular order shown, or sequentially, or that all of the operations shown be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain situations, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, while several specific implementation details are included in the above description, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination.

[0276] Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological operations, it is to be understood that the present disclosure, which is limited to the appended claims, is not necessarily limited to the specific features or operations described above. Rather, the specific features and operations described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

1. In the network device, receiving from the repeating device an indication of a correlation between a backhaul beam and a control beam of the repeating device, wherein the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device, and the control beam is used for a control link between the network device and the repeating device; indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam to the repeating device; Method of communication.

2. indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam and transmitting an indication of the control beam to the repeating device to at least partially direct the backhaul beam in response to the level of correlation being equal to or greater than a threshold level. The method of claim 1.

3. The backhaul beam is mapped to a set of control beams, and the set of control beams includes the control beam, or a set of backhaul beams is mapped to the control beam, the set of backhaul beams including the backhaul beam; The method of claim 2.

4. indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam transmitting an instruction dedicated to the backhaul beam to the repeating device to at least partially indicate the backhaul beam; The method of claim 1.

5. transmitting instructions specific to the access beam to the repeating device; the indication dedicated to the access beam is dynamically transmitted via downlink control information, and the indication dedicated to the access beam is conveyed via a field related to a modulation and coding scheme and / or a frequency domain resource allocation in the downlink control information. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 4.

6. The instructions dedicated to the access beam include: a first beam width of the access beam; the number of access beams having the first beam width; and a channel associated with the access beam; a first beam index associated with at least one of The method of claim 5.

7. indicating at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam transmitting a joint indication of the backhaul beam and the access beam to the repeating device to indicate both the backhaul beam and the access beam; The method of claim 1.

8. the joint indication of the backhaul beam and the access beam includes a second beam index, the second beam index including a first bit set for the backhaul beam and a second bit set for the access beam, the second bit set following the first bit set; The method of claim 7.

9. decoding at least one indication of at least one of a backhaul beam and an access beam; transmitting information from the control module of the repeating device to a forwarding module; and Switching between the backhaul beam and the access beam; receiving from the repeating device an indication of a time associated with at least one of: determining effective times of the backhaul beam and the access beam based on the indication of the time. The method of claim 1.

10. In the repeating device, sending an indication of a correlation between a backhaul beam and a control beam of the repeating device to a network device, wherein the backhaul beam is used for a backhaul link between the network device and the repeating device, and the control beam is used for a control link between the network device and the repeating device; receiving at least one indication associated with at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam from the network device; Method of communication.

11. Receiving the at least one instruction includes: receiving, from the network device, an indication of the control beam that at least partially indicates the backhaul beam in response to the level of correlation being equal to or higher than a threshold level. The method of claim 10.

12. The backhaul beam is mapped to a set of control beams, and the set of control beams includes the control beam, or a set of backhaul beams is mapped to the control beam, the set of backhaul beams including the backhaul beam; The method of claim 11.

13. Receiving the at least one instruction includes: receiving an indication from the network device specific to the backhaul beam, the indication at least partially indicating the backhaul beam. The method of claim 10.

14. and receiving an instruction dedicated to the access beam from the network device, wherein the instruction dedicated to the access beam is dynamically received via downlink control information, and the instruction dedicated to the access beam is conveyed via a field related to a modulation and coding scheme and / or a frequency domain resource allocation in the downlink control information. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13.

15. The instructions dedicated to the access beam include: a first beam width of the access beam; the number of access beams having the first beam width; and a channel associated with the access beam; a first beam index associated with at least one of 15. The method of claim 14.

16. Receiving the at least one instruction includes: receiving a joint indication of the backhaul beam and the access beam from the network device, the joint indication of the backhaul beam and the access beam being used to indicate both the backhaul beam and the access beam; The method of claim 10.

17. the joint indication of the backhaul beam and the access beam includes a second beam index, the second beam index including a first bit set for the backhaul beam and a second bit set for the access beam, the second bit set following the first bit set; 17. The method of claim 16.

18. decoding at least one indication of at least one of the backhaul beam and the access beam; transmitting information from the control module of the repeating device to a forwarding module; and Switching between the backhaul beam and the access beam; transmitting an indication of a time associated with at least one of the following to the network device: The method of claim 10.

19. a processor; a memory, coupled to the processor, having instructions stored thereon, An apparatus, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9 or any one of claims 10 to 18.

20. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by at least one processor of a device, cause said device to carry out the method of any one of claims 1 to 9 or any one of claims 10 to 18.

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