Terminal device, control method, and program for communication control taking into account antenna arrangement

Abstract

To perform appropriate communication control according to the arrangement of antennas in a terminal device.SOLUTION: A terminal device having a plurality of antennas uses each of the plurality of antennas to measure a signal transmitted from a base station device of a network to which the terminal device belongs, determines whether a first antenna and a second antenna included in the plurality of antennas have a predetermined characteristic in common identified based on the measured signal, and notifies the network to which the terminal device belongs of information indicating results of the determination.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a communication control technique according to the arrangement of antennas in a terminal device. [Background technology]

[0002] In accordance with the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard, a wireless communication system is widely used in which multiple geographically distributed base station devices provide wireless communication services to terminal devices within the range of the radio waves transmitted by each of the base station devices. In such a wireless communication system, various communication controls are performed according to the state of the transmission path between the antenna of the base station device and the antenna of the terminal device.

[0003] As wireless communication is used in various situations, the configuration of terminal devices is also diversified. For example, not only small terminal devices such as conventional mobile phones, but also terminal devices mounted on large objects such as vehicles can be used. In fixed wireless access (FWA) using a cellular communication system, a user's wireless device can be used as a terminal device of the cellular communication system. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Conventionally, when a terminal device has multiple antennas, it is assumed that all of the antennas are arranged inside a small terminal device, and therefore the characteristics of the transmission paths between the multiple antennas and the antenna of the base station device are generally treated as being common. On the other hand, with the diversification of terminal devices, it is assumed that the multiple antennas of the terminal device are arranged at positions distant from each other, and the characteristics of the transmission paths between the multiple antennas and the antenna of the base station device are significantly different. In such a case, if the characteristics of the transmission paths of the multiple antennas of the terminal device are generally treated as being common, it is not easy to obtain sufficient communication quality. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The present invention provides a method for enabling appropriate communication control to be performed in accordance with the arrangement of antennas in a terminal device.

[0006] A terminal device according to one embodiment of the present invention has a plurality of antennas, a measurement means for measuring signals transmitted from a base station device of a network to which the terminal device belongs using each of the plurality of antennas, a determination means for determining whether a first antenna and a second antenna included in the plurality of antennas have a predetermined characteristic identified based on the measured signals in common, and a notification means for notifying the network to which the terminal device belongs of information indicating the result of the determination. Effect of the Invention

[0007] According to the present invention, it is possible to execute appropriate communication control in accordance with the arrangement of antennas in a terminal device. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system configuration. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a hardware configuration of the apparatus. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of a terminal device. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of a base station device. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow of processes executed in the system. [Figure 6] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of information to be notified. [Figure 7] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of information to be notified. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0009] Hereinafter, the embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims, and not all combinations of features described in the embodiments are essential to the invention. Two or more features among the multiple features described in the embodiments may be arbitrarily combined. In addition, the same reference numbers are used for the same or similar configurations, and duplicated descriptions are omitted.

[0010] (System Configuration) 1 shows an example of the configuration of a wireless communication system according to this embodiment. The wireless communication system may be, for example, a cellular communication system conforming to the fifth generation (5G) standard standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). However, this is only one example, and the following discussion may be applied to wireless communication systems conforming to conventional standards such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and sixth generation and later standards, and may also be applied to wireless communication systems other than cellular communication systems.

[0011] This wireless communication system includes, for example, a base station device 101 and a terminal device 111. The base station device 101 is a radio access network node connected to a core network, and other network nodes may also be included in the network, but such configurations are omitted in FIG. 1 for ease of explanation. Here, the terminal device 111 has a plurality of (at least two) antennas, and among the plurality of antennas, the antennas 121 and 122 are assumed to be located at positions far away from the antennas 123 and 124. In this case, it is assumed that the antennas 121 and 122 have approximately the same characteristics with respect to radio waves arriving from the base station device 101. For example, the reception timing of radio waves received by the antennas 121 and 122 is approximately the same, and the same settings can be used for reception timing control such as timing control for Fourier transform, and the same settings can be used for transmission timing control such as timing advance. That is, a common communication timing control (timing control in at least one of the uplink and the downlink) can be used in communication via the antennas 121 and 122. Similarly, the antenna 123 and the antenna 124 are assumed to have substantially the same characteristics with respect to radio waves arriving from the base station device 101, and for example, a common communication timing control can be applied. On the other hand, it may be assumed that the antenna 121 or the antenna 122 and the antenna 123 or the antenna 124 have different characteristics. For this reason, if a common communication timing control is applied to the antenna 121 and the antenna 123, it may become impossible to perform appropriate communication. For example, a Fourier transform window setting appropriate for the antenna 121 in the downlink may not be appropriate for the antenna 123, and orthogonality may not be guaranteed.

[0012] Also, for example, the terminal device 111 can use multiple panels to communicate with different transmission / reception points in the network. In this case, it is expected that the characteristics of each panel will differ significantly, so it may not be appropriate to use a common setting for communication using multiple panels. Although separate settings can be applied to each of the multiple antennas, the processing may become more complicated as the number of antennas increases.

[0013] For this reason, in this embodiment, when radio waves arriving from the base station device 101 via multiple antennas are detected, it may be determined whether to apply the same setting control or different setting controls depending on whether the respective predetermined characteristics are common. For this purpose, the terminal device 111 notifies the base station device 101 (a network node in the network) of information that can identify at least one of a second antenna with a common predetermined characteristic and a third antenna with no common predetermined characteristic for a first antenna among multiple antennas possessed by the own device. For example, the terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 that the antenna 121 has a common predetermined characteristic with the antenna 122. The terminal device 111 may also notify the base station device 101 that the antenna 121 does not have a common predetermined characteristic with the antenna 123 or the antenna 124. Furthermore, the terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 that, for example, the antennas 121 and 122 belong to a first group, and the antennas 123 and 124 belong to a second group. In this case, it may be indicated that two antennas in the same group have a predetermined characteristic in common, and two antennas in different groups do not have a predetermined characteristic in common. Based on this notification, the network node (for example, the base station device 101) sets up and controls common communication for the antenna group that shares the predetermined characteristic, and sets up and controls communication independently for the antenna group that does not share the predetermined characteristic.

[0014] In one example, the predetermined characteristic relates to the magnitude of delay observed in radio waves transmitted from the base station device 101 or the base station device 102 and arriving at the terminal device 111, or radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 111 and arriving at the base station device 101 or the base station device 102. In this case, based on the difference between the magnitude of delay at the antenna 121 and the magnitude of delay at other antennas, an antenna whose difference does not exceed a predetermined value is treated as an antenna having the predetermined characteristic in common with the antenna 121. Also, an antenna whose difference exceeds a predetermined value can be treated as an antenna not having the predetermined characteristic in common with the antenna 121. Note that the magnitude of delay here can be the average value of the time difference between the radio waves transmitted from the base station device 101 or the base station device 102 and arriving at the terminal device 111 for each antenna. Also, the magnitude of delay at each antenna may be specified based on the timing at which the radio waves arrive at any one antenna.

[0015] The network node may apply a common communication timing control to antenna groups whose timings of radio waves sent from the base station device 101 and the base station device 102 to reach the terminal device 111 are sufficiently close, that is, antenna groups whose delay characteristics are common. On the other hand, the network node may apply an independent communication timing control to antenna groups whose delay characteristics are not common, because it may be difficult to ensure orthogonality if the common communication timing control is applied to the antenna groups. The communication timing control may include, for example, a setting of a timing advance used when transmitting an uplink signal. In addition, the network node may notify the terminal device 111 of setting information that enables different reception control, such as setting a Fourier transform window corresponding to different timings, for the antennas 121 and 122 and the antennas 123 and 124. In addition, the network node may set and control the uplink transmission power control in common for the antenna groups whose delay characteristics are common, and set and control the uplink transmission power control independently for the antenna groups whose delay characteristics are different. It is assumed that the propagation loss of antennas having significantly different average delays will differ according to the magnitude of the average delay. For this reason, a common transmission power control setting and control may be performed for antenna groups having a roughly common average delay, and transmission power control may be set and controlled independently for antenna groups having different average delays.

[0016] In addition, the predetermined characteristic, in one example, relates to the magnitude of delay spread observed for radio waves transmitted from the base station device 101 or the base station device 102 and arriving at the terminal device 111, or radio waves transmitted from the terminal device 111 and arriving at the base station device 101 or the base station device 102. In this case, based on the difference between the magnitude of delay spread at the antenna 121 and the magnitude of delay spread at another antenna, an antenna whose difference does not exceed a predetermined value is treated as an antenna having the predetermined characteristic in common with the antenna 121. An antenna whose difference exceeds a predetermined value can be treated as an antenna whose predetermined characteristic is not shared with the antenna 121. In addition, when the shape of the delay spread at the antenna 121 and the correlation value between the shape of the delay spread are calculated, an antenna whose correlation value exceeds a predetermined value is treated as an antenna whose predetermined characteristic is shared with the antenna 121. In addition, an antenna whose correlation value does not exceed a predetermined value can be treated as an antenna whose predetermined characteristic is not shared with the antenna 121.

[0017] A network node may, for example, apply a common setting of a sounding reference signal (SRS) to antenna groups having common delay spread characteristics. On the other hand, an SRS setting may be applied independently to antenna groups having no common delay spread characteristics. Here, the SRS setting may include, for example, a setting of the density of frequency resources to which the SRS should be transmitted. That is, the number of subcarriers to which the SRS is transmitted may be set to be different for each of the multiple antennas of the terminal device 111. In this way, a common SRS setting is applied to antenna groups having common delay spread characteristics, and separate settings are applied independently to antenna groups having no common delay spread characteristics, so that an SRS setting suitable for the transmission path can be used for each of the multiple antennas having significantly different transmission path conditions.

[0018] In addition, the predetermined characteristic, in one example, relates to the direction in which the radio waves sent from the base station device 101 or the base station device 102 reach the terminal device 111. In this case, an antenna whose difference between the arrival direction of the radio waves at the antenna 121 and the arrival direction of the radio waves at the other antennas does not exceed a predetermined value is treated as an antenna whose predetermined characteristic is common to the antenna 121. Also, an antenna whose difference exceeds a predetermined value can be treated as an antenna whose predetermined characteristic is not common to the antenna 121. For example, the network node may share settings and control for beam control for antenna groups whose characteristics of the arrival direction of the radio waves are common. On the other hand, the network node may independently apply settings and control for beam control to antenna groups whose characteristics of delay spread are not common. Here, the settings for beam control may include, for example, settings of channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS).

[0019] In addition, whether or not each of the antennas 121 to 124 has a predetermined characteristic in common with other antennas can be adaptively classified according to a measurement result of a wireless environment using the antennas 121 to 124 in the terminal device 111. That is, the terminal device 111 can measure a signal transmitted from the base station device 101, for example, and identify a combination of antennas that share the predetermined characteristic as described above or a combination of antennas that do not share the predetermined characteristic based on the measured signal. Then, the terminal device 111 notifies the base station device 101 of the identification result. Based on the notification, the base station device 101 can execute a common setting control process for the antenna group that shares the predetermined characteristic among the multiple antennas, and execute an independent setting control process for the antennas that do not share the predetermined characteristic.

[0020] In this embodiment, the terminal device 111 specifies the propagation characteristics for each of the antennas 121 to 124. For example, the terminal device 111 may specify the channel response, the timing of the Fourier transform, and which beam is used for communication with the base station device 101. In one example, the terminal device 111 performs statistical processing on the propagation characteristics and specifies a feature quantity indicating a predetermined characteristic related to the transmission path with the base station device 101 for each antenna of the terminal device. The feature quantity indicating the predetermined characteristic may include, for example, at least one of a transmission path loss, a delay profile, a Doppler spread, a Doppler shift, an average delay, and a delay spread. Then, the terminal device 111 may determine whether the multiple antennas of the terminal device 111 have a common characteristic with each other by comparing the feature quantity for each antenna. For example, when the difference between the feature quantities related to two antennas is equal to or less than a predetermined value, the terminal device 111 determines that the two antennas have a common characteristic corresponding to the feature quantity. On the other hand, when the difference between the features of the two antennas exceeds a predetermined value, the terminal device 111 determines that the two antennas do not have a common predetermined characteristic corresponding to the feature. That is, two antennas having similar features indicating the predetermined characteristic may be determined as a pair of antennas having the common predetermined characteristic. In addition, when the predetermined characteristic is a feature expressed by a waveform or a sequence, for example, the terminal device 111 may calculate a correlation value of the waveform or sequence for each of the two antennas, and when the correlation value exceeds a predetermined value, the terminal device 111 may determine that the two antennas have a common predetermined characteristic corresponding to the feature. In addition, when the correlation value does not exceed a predetermined value, the terminal device 111 may determine that the two antennas have a common predetermined characteristic corresponding to the feature. Note that the predetermined value used as a criterion for determining whether the predetermined characteristic is common or not may be notified from the base station device 101 to the terminal device 111, or may be registered in a storage device in the terminal device 111 when the terminal device 111 is manufactured. The predetermined value may be notified to the terminal device 111 from the network when the terminal device 111 is registered with the network, and may be maintained as is even if the connected base station device or the serving cell changes.

[0021] The terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 (network) of information indicating which predetermined characteristics are common to a combination of two antennas among the antennas 121 to 124. For example, it is assumed that a transmission path loss and a Doppler spread are used as the predetermined characteristics. In this case, as an example, the terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 of information focusing on the antenna 121, such as information that the transmission path loss and the Doppler spread are common to the antenna 122, that only the transmission path loss is common to the antenna 123, and that no characteristics are common to the antenna 124. Furthermore, the terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 of information such as information that only the transmission path loss is common between the antenna 122 and the antennas 123 and 124, and that the transmission path loss and the Doppler shift are common between the antennas 123 and 124. This is just an example, and the terminal device 111 may specify whether a predetermined characteristic is common between a first antenna among a plurality of antennas possessed by the terminal device 111 and a second antenna among the plurality of antennas based on a measurement result of a radio signal, and notify the base station device 101 of the result of the specification. When the terminal device 111 determines only whether a specific predetermined characteristic is common between two antennas, the terminal device 111 may not notify the base station device 101 of information indicating which characteristic is common. Regarding the plurality of predetermined characteristics, information capable of specifying whether each of the plurality of predetermined characteristics is common in all combinations of two antennas among the plurality of antennas possessed by the terminal device 111 may be notified to the base station device 101.

[0022] The terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 of which predetermined characteristics are common between the combinations of two antennas, using Quasi Co-Location (QCL) type defined in the 3GPP 5G standard. For example, QCL type A may indicate that the characteristics of Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread are common, and QCL type B may indicate that the characteristics of Doppler shift and Doppler spread are common. That is, when the terminal device 111 determines that the characteristics of Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread are common between the antennas 121 and 122 based on the measurement result of the signal from the base station device 101, for example, the terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 of QCL type A as the relationship between the antennas 121 and 122.

[0023] As described above, it may be notified whether or not the predetermined characteristic is common to each of all combinations of two antennas among the multiple antennas possessed by the terminal device 111, or which of the predetermined characteristics is common. Alternatively, the multiple antennas may be classified into multiple groups, and it may be notified whether or not the predetermined characteristic is common between the groups. That is, the antennas 121 to 124 possessed by the terminal device 111 may be grouped in advance, and it may be determined whether or not the predetermined characteristic is common between the two groups. For example, the antennas are grouped in advance based on the positional relationship in which the antennas are arranged. In one example, the antennas 121 to 124 possessed by the terminal device 111 are classified into a first group including the antennas 121 and 122, and a second group including the antennas 123 and 124. Then, the terminal device 111 may determine whether or not the predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group. In this case, for example, if it is determined that a predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group, the predetermined characteristic is treated as being common between antenna 121, antenna 123, and antenna 124, and also between antenna 122, antenna 123, and antenna 124.

[0024] The terminal device 111 may calculate a first statistical value of a feature amount indicating a predetermined characteristic in one or more antennas belonging to a first group and a second statistical value of a feature amount indicating a predetermined characteristic in one or more antennas belonging to a second group, and may determine whether or not the predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group by comparing the first statistical value and the second statistical value. Here, the statistical value may be, for example, an average value or a median value. The terminal device 111 may determine that the predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group when the difference between the statistical values ​​is equal to or less than a predetermined value. The statistical value may also be expressed by a distribution, and the terminal device 111 may determine that the predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group when the correlation value of the distribution exceeds a predetermined value. The predetermined value here may also be notified from the base station device 101 to the terminal device 111, or may be registered in a storage device in the terminal device 111 when the terminal device 111 is manufactured. The predetermined value may be notified to the terminal device 111 from the network when the terminal device 111 is registered with the network, and may be maintained as is even if the connected base station device or the serving cell changes.

[0025] Also, as described above, the terminal device 111 may determine whether a predetermined characteristic is common for a combination of one of one or more antennas belonging to the first group and one of one or more antennas belonging to the second group, and determine whether a predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group. For example, the terminal device 111 may determine whether a predetermined characteristic is common for all combinations of one or more antennas belonging to the first group and one or more antennas belonging to the second group, and may determine that a predetermined characteristic is not common between the first group and the second group when it is determined that a predetermined characteristic is not common for any combination of antennas. Also, the terminal device 111 may determine that a predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group when it is determined that a predetermined characteristic is common for all combinations of antennas belonging to the first group and antennas belonging to the second group. Furthermore, the terminal device 111 may determine that the predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group when it is determined that the predetermined characteristic is common for a predetermined number or more of combinations of antennas belonging to the first group and antennas belonging to the second group. In this case, the terminal device 111 may determine that the predetermined characteristic is not common between the first group and the second group when it is determined that the predetermined characteristic is common only for combinations less than a predetermined number of combinations of antennas belonging to the first group and antennas belonging to the second group.

[0026] The terminal device 111 may determine whether or not a certain characteristic is common between the first group and the second group for a plurality of predetermined attributes, and may notify the base station device 101 of which characteristic is common among the plurality of characteristics. At this time, the terminal device 111 may notify the characteristic common between the first group and the second group, for example, by using the QCL type.

[0027] Furthermore, the terminal device 111 may perform the above-mentioned notification periodically, when a predetermined event occurs, such as when a combination of antennas with common characteristics is changed, or when a request is received from the base station device 101. Note that, when performing notification, the terminal device 111 may notify only a difference value from the previous notification. Note that the base station device 101 may specify which of the predetermined characteristics the relationship regarding which is to be notified.

[0028] Note that the multiple groups may not be determined in advance, and the terminal device 111 may dynamically determine the groups based on a signal received from the base station device 101. For example, the terminal device 111 may determine the groups of antennas based on a specific feature such as a transmission path loss. For example, the terminal device 111 may determine that the first antenna and the second antenna belong to the same group when the difference between the magnitude of the transmission path loss in the first antenna and the magnitude of the transmission path loss in the second antenna is equal to or less than a predetermined value. For example, when the difference between the magnitude of the transmission path loss in the antennas 121 and 122, the difference between the magnitude of the transmission path loss in the antennas 121 and 123, and the difference between the magnitude of the transmission path loss in the antennas 122 and 123 are all equal to or less than a predetermined value, the terminal device 111 may determine that the antennas 121 to 123 belong to the same group. On the other hand, when the difference in the magnitude of the transmission path loss between antennas 121 and 122 and the difference in the magnitude of the transmission path loss between antennas 121 and 123 are equal to or less than a predetermined value but the difference in the magnitude of the transmission path loss between antennas 122 and 123 exceeds the predetermined value, the terminal device 111 may determine that the antenna having a smaller value of the transmission path loss than that of antenna 121, out of antennas 122 and 123, belongs to the same group as antenna 121. Note that this is just an example, and the groups may be determined by other methods.

[0029] The terminal device 111 may further specify the relationship between two antennas included in a group as described above, and notify the base station device 101 of the specified information. The terminal device 111 may also notify the base station device 101 of the number of antenna groups. For example, when the multiple antennas owned by the terminal device 111 are classified into two groups, a first group and a second group, the terminal device 111 may notify the base station device 101 of information indicating that the number of groups is "2", information indicating whether or not a predetermined characteristic is common between the first group and the second group, and information indicating whether or not a predetermined characteristic is common between the antennas in each of the first group and the second group.

[0030] (Device configuration) Next, the configuration of the terminal device 111 that executes the above-mentioned processing will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the terminal device 111. The base station device 101 may have a similar configuration. In one example, the terminal device 111 includes a processor 201, a ROM 202, a RAM 203, a storage device 204, and a communication circuit 205. The processor 201 is a computer that includes one or more processing circuits, such as a general-purpose CPU (Central Processing Unit) or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), and executes the overall processing of the device and each of the above-mentioned processing by reading and executing a program stored in the ROM 202 or the storage device 204. The ROM 202 is a read-only memory that stores information such as programs and various parameters related to the processing executed by the terminal device 111. The RAM 203 functions as a workspace when the processor 201 executes a program, and is a random access memory that stores temporary information. The storage device 204 is, for example, a removable external storage device. The communication circuit 205 is, for example, configured to include a circuit for communicating with other devices. 2 illustrates one communication circuit 205, the terminal device 111 may have multiple communication circuits. The terminal device 111 of the present embodiment may be configured to include multiple antennas, and the multiple antennas may be connected to one communication circuit 205, or one or more of the multiple antennas may be connected to one communication circuit 205 and other antennas may be connected to another communication circuit 205.

[0031] 3 is a diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of the terminal device 111. The terminal device 111 includes, for example, a relationship determination unit 301, a relationship information notification unit 302, a group identification unit 303, and a processing unit 304. The functions shown in FIG. 3 can be realized, for example, by the processor 201 executing a program stored in the ROM 202 or the storage device 204. Note that this is only an example, and some or all of the functions shown in FIG. 3 may be realized by dedicated hardware. Also, FIG. 3 shows only the functions related to this embodiment among the functions possessed by the terminal device 111, and the terminal device 111 may naturally have functions other than those shown in FIG. 3, such as functions naturally possessed by a terminal device in a cellular communication system.

[0032] The relationship determination unit 301 determines whether a first antenna and a second antenna among a plurality of antennas possessed by the terminal device 111 have a common predetermined characteristic based on a signal (e.g., channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS)) received from the base station device 101. The relationship information notification unit 302 notifies the base station device 101 of the result determined by the relationship determination unit 301. The group identification unit 303 groups the plurality of antennas. Note that, for example, information on the groups determined in advance based on the positions at which the antennas are arranged is stored in advance, and the group identification unit 303 may identify the groups by referring to the information. The group identification unit 303 may adaptively group the antennas based on the signal from the base station device 101 as described above. Note that, when the relationship between the antennas is notified to the base station device 101 and the relationship between the groups is not notified to the base station device 101, the group identification unit 303 may be omitted. When the relationship between the groups is notified to the base station device 101, the relationship determination unit 301 determines the relationship between the groups. The processing unit 302 receives control and setting instruction information from the base station device 101, and executes setting processing and control processing based on the instruction information. At this time, the base station device 101 may perform common setting control for antennas that share a predetermined characteristic, and perform independent setting control for antennas that do not share the predetermined characteristic.

[0033] Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of the base station device 101. The base station device 101 includes, for example, an information acquisition unit 401 and a setting control unit 402. The functions shown in Fig. 4 can be realized, for example, by the processor 201 executing a program stored in the ROM 202 or the storage device 204. Note that this is only an example, and some or all of the functions shown in Fig. 4 may be realized by dedicated hardware. Also, Fig. 4 shows only the functions related to the present embodiment among the functions possessed by the base station device 101, and the base station device 101 may naturally have functions other than those shown in Fig. 4, such as functions naturally possessed by a base station device in a cellular communication system.

[0034] The information acquisition unit 401 acquires, from the terminal device 111, information capable of identifying whether a first antenna and a second antenna among a plurality of antennas possessed by the terminal device 111 have a predetermined characteristic in common. The setting control unit 402 executes setting and control of the terminal device 111 based on the information acquired by the information acquisition unit 401. In addition, the setting control unit 402 can notify the terminal device 111 of a predetermined value to be used as a criterion for determining whether a first antenna and a second antenna among a plurality of antennas possessed by the terminal device 111 have a predetermined characteristic in common, for example.

[0035] (Processing flow) Next, an example of the flow of processing executed between the base station device 101 and the terminal device 111 will be described with reference to FIG. 5. In this processing, the terminal device 111 receives a predetermined signal such as CSI-RS transmitted by the base station device 101 (S501), and determines whether or not a predetermined characteristic is common for each combination of two antennas among the multiple antennas that the terminal device 111 has, based on the received signal, thereby determining the relationship between the antennas (S502). The terminal device 111 may specify the relationship between the groups of the multiple antennas, and may further perform group classification for this purpose. Then, the terminal device 111 notifies the base station device 101 of the determination result of the relationship between the antennas (S503). After that, the base station device 101 applies common setting control to antennas that share the predetermined characteristic based on the notified relationship, and applies individual setting control to antennas that do not share the predetermined characteristic. The base station device 101 may notify the terminal device 111 in advance of a predetermined value that serves as a criterion for the determination in S502.

[0036] An example of information notified from the terminal device 111 to the base station device 101 will be described with reference to Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. It is assumed in Fig. 6 and Fig. 7 that the relationship between antennas is notified by QCL type. Fig. 6 shows an example of notifying the relationship between two individual antennas among multiple antennas that the terminal device 111 has, and Fig. 7 shows an example of notifying the relationship between groups of antennas.

[0037] In the example of FIG. 6, when focusing on antenna 1, the relationship between antenna 2 and antenna 4 is shown by QCL type A, and the relationship between antenna 3 is shown by QCL type B. Also, when focusing on antenna 2, the relationship between antenna 3 is shown by QCL type B, and the relationship between antenna 4 is shown by QCL type A. Also, it is shown that there is no common predetermined characteristic between antenna 3 and antenna 4. In the example of FIG. 7, when focusing on group 1, the relationship between group 2 is shown by QCL type A, and the relationship between group 3 is shown by QCL type B. Also, the relationship between group 2 and group 3 is shown by QCL type B. Note that these are only examples, and any information indicating a common characteristic may be notified, instead of information according to QCL type.

[0038] In this way, the terminal device 111 can appropriately determine the relationship between the antennas for each of the multiple antennas, and based on the relationship, common setting control is executed for antennas having common characteristics, and individual setting control is executed for antennas not having common characteristics. Since the relationship between the antennas is adaptively determined as described above, even if the arrangement of the antennas is changed, for example, the relationship between the antennas is specified according to the situation, and appropriate setting control can be applied to the terminal device 111.

[0039] In this way, it is possible to perform appropriate communication control in response to the diversification of antenna arrangements in terminal devices, which will contribute to Goal 9 of the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which is to "build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation."

[0040] The invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications and variations are possible within the scope of the gist of the invention.

Claims

1. A terminal device, A plurality of antennas; a measurement means for measuring a signal transmitted from a base station device of a network to which the terminal device belongs, using each of the plurality of antennas; a determination means for determining whether a first antenna and a second antenna included in the plurality of antennas have a common predetermined characteristic, the common characteristic being determined based on the measured signal; a notification means for notifying a network to which the terminal device belongs of information indicating the result of the determination; A terminal device comprising:

2. 2. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the notification means further notifies the network of information indicating the predetermined characteristic common to the first antenna and the second antenna.

3. The terminal device according to claim 2, characterized in that the notification means notifies the network of information capable of identifying whether or not one or more of the specified characteristics are common to the first antenna and the second antenna.

4. The terminal device according to claim 3, characterized in that the notification means notifies information capable of identifying whether the one or more predetermined characteristics are common between the first antenna and the second antenna by using a Quasi Co-Location (QCL) type.

5. The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the determination means determines whether the predetermined characteristic is common to the first antenna and the second antenna by comparing a first characteristic amount indicating the predetermined characteristic of the first antenna with a second characteristic amount indicating the predetermined characteristic of the second antenna.

6. The plurality of antennas are classified into a plurality of groups, The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the determination means determines whether the predetermined characteristic is common between the first antenna and the second antenna by determining whether the predetermined characteristic is common between a first group to which the first antenna belongs and a second group to which the second antenna belongs, among the multiple groups.

7. The terminal device according to claim 6, characterized in that the determination means determines whether the predetermined characteristic is common to the first group and the second group by comparing a first statistical value of a feature indicating the predetermined characteristic for one or more antennas included in the first group with a second statistical value of a feature indicating the predetermined characteristic for one or more antennas included in the second group.

8. The terminal device according to claim 6, characterized in that the determination means determines whether the predetermined characteristics are common to the first group and the second group by comparing a first feature indicating the predetermined characteristics for each of the one or more antennas included in the first group with a second feature indicating the predetermined characteristics for each of the one or more antennas included in the second group.

9. 9. The terminal device according to claim 6, further comprising a determining means for determining the plurality of groups based on the predetermined characteristics for each of the plurality of antennas.

10. 10. The terminal device according to claim 6, wherein the notification means further notifies the network of the number of groups included in the plurality of groups.

11. The terminal device according to any one of claims 6 to 10, characterized in that the notification means further notifies the network of information regarding whether or not the specified characteristics are common between two antennas included in one of the multiple groups.

12. 12. The terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined characteristics include at least one of a transmission path loss, a Doppler shift, a Doppler spread, an average delay, and a delay spread.

13. The terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 12, further comprising an acquisition means for acquiring from the network a predetermined value that serves as a criterion for determining whether the first antenna and the second antenna have the same predetermined characteristics.

14. A control method executed by a terminal device having multiple antennas, comprising: measuring a signal transmitted from a base station device of a network to which the terminal device belongs, using each of the plurality of antennas; determining whether a first antenna and a second antenna included in the plurality of antennas have a common predetermined characteristic identified based on the measured signal; notifying a network to which the terminal device belongs of information indicating a result of the determination; A control method comprising:

15. A program for causing a computer to function as the terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 13.

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