Paging method and apparatus

Abstract

To provide a paging method and a device for reducing energy consumption of a terminal when the terminal is paged, which can be widely applied in fields such as communication technology, artificial intelligence, the Internet of vehicles, and the Internet of smart homes.SOLUTION: A method includes a terminal receiving a first paging indication transmitted by a network device prior to a paging occasion of the terminal. The first paging indication includes a first field, the first field is used to indicate whether a paging is transmitted on R paging occasions, the R paging occasions include the paging occasion of the terminal, and R is an integer equal to or greater than 1. In addition, the terminal determines whether to monitor a DCI on the paging occasion of the terminal on the basis of a first paging occasion.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202010761727.7, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on July 31, 2020, under the title of "METHOD FOR DESIGNING DCI OF PAGING INDICATION", and Chinese Patent Application No. 202010791001.8, filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration on August 7, 2020, under the title of "PAGING METHOD AND APPARATUS", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0002] Embodiments of this application relate to the field of communication technologies, particularly paging methods and apparatuses.

Background Art

[0003] When the terminal is in the idle or inactive state, the terminal periodically receives network-side paging initiated thereby. For example, the terminal obtains the paging occasion in the PF and the monitoring at the PO through the paging frame and calculation, and the downlink control information (DCI) used to schedule the paging message. When the DCI is monitored, the monitored DCI schedules the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) that carries the paging message, and the terminal receives the PDSCH that carries the paging message at the position indicated by the DCI, and determines whether the terminal is being paged based on the paging message carried on the PDSCH.

[0004] Before a terminal can monitor DCI to the PO, it must receive one or more synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) transmitted by the network side in order to correctly receive DCI. The SSBs must then be used to perform time / frequency synchronization and automatic gain control (AGC) adjustments. Specifically, before monitoring DCI, the terminal needs to expend energy to receive one or more SSBs. Between the reception of the SSB and PO, or between two SSBs, the terminal does not need to receive signals and prepare for communication, but it must maintain an operational state, resulting in energy consumption.

[0005] In the phase of researching energy conservation in devices, how to reduce the energy consumption of a device during the paging process is an urgent issue that needs to be resolved. [Overview of the Initiative]

[0006] Embodiments of the present invention provide a paging method and apparatus to solve the problem of high energy consumption in terminals when paging is performed.

[0007] To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the following technical solutions are used in the embodiments of this application.

[0008] According to a first aspect, the present invention provides a paging method. The method comprises a terminal receiving a first paging indication transmitted by a network device, which includes a first field, before the terminal's paging opportunity, the first field being used to indicate whether paging has been transmitted to R paging opportunities, including the terminal's paging opportunity. Based on the first paging opportunity, the terminal decides whether to monitor the DCI used to schedule paging messages for the terminal's paging opportunity.

[0009] Based on the method according to the first embodiment, the paging indicator may be set in advance of a paging opportunity, and whether or not paging exists in a paging opportunity is indicated to the terminal in advance by using the paging indicator. As a result, if there is no paging in a paging opportunity, the terminal is triggered to stop operating in advance and enter a sleep state in order to reduce the terminal's energy consumption. Furthermore, in the method according to the first embodiment, in order to reduce signaling overhead, one paging indicator may be used to indicate multiple paging opportunities at once in order to indicate whether or not paging exists in multiple paging opportunities.

[0010] In a possible design, the first field contains R indicator information, where the i-th indicator information indicates whether paging has been transmitted to the i-th paging opportunity of the R paging opportunities, and i is an integer between 1 and R. Based on the possible design, indicator information that has a one-to-one correspondence with paging opportunities may be designed in the paging indicator, and as a result the terminal can successfully distinguish the indicator information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity from multiple indicator information, simplifying the system design.

[0011] In a possible design, a terminal's decision to monitor downlink control information DCI at a terminal's paging opportunity based on a first paging opportunity includes the terminal determining indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the terminal's paging opportunity's time-domain position among R paging opportunities, and then deciding whether to monitor DCI at the terminal's paging opportunity based on the indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity. In a possible design, the terminal may find indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the time-domain position of multiple paging opportunities corresponding to paging indications, and then decide whether to continue monitoring DCI based on the paging indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity, thereby improving the accuracy of the terminal's ability to pre-determine whether a paging message exists at the terminal's paging opportunity and simplifying the system design.

[0012] In a possible design, a terminal receiving a first paging indication transmitted by a network device prior to the terminal's paging opportunity includes the terminal determining K paging indications corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the terminal's paging opportunity's time-domain position, where K is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The terminal receives K paging indications prior to the paging opportunity and determines the first paging indication from the K paging indications. Based on a possible design, a single paging opportunity may be configured to correspond to multiple paging indications. The multiple paging indications are designed to minimize energy consumption and ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that the terminal can receive paging indications belonging to its paging opportunity and know in advance whether paging exists in the paging opportunity.

[0013] In a possible design, K is configured by a network device for the terminal. Specifically, the network device uniformly manages the number of paging indications corresponding to paging opportunities, resulting in a unified terminal configuration, easier management, and increased configuration flexibility provided by the network device.

[0014] In a possible design, a terminal receiving a first paging indication transmitted by a network device prior to a terminal paging opportunity includes the terminal receiving a first paging indication transmitted by a network device at a monitoring time interval. The monitoring time interval is designed to receive the paging indication in order to simplify the system design.

[0015] In a feasible design, the terminal receives monitoring time window configuration information transmitted by the network device and used to determine the monitoring time interval, and determines the monitoring time interval based on the monitoring time window configuration information. Specifically, the network device configures the monitoring time interval, resulting in a unified terminal configuration, easier management, and increased configuration flexibility by the network device.

[0016] In a possible design, R paging opportunities are those that occur after the first paging indication and are the R paging opportunities closest to the first paging indication. Thus, the time domain position of the paging indication can be close to the time domain position of the paging opportunity, and the time interval between paging opportunities and paging indications is shortened, avoiding the problem of excessive energy consumption when a terminal monitors DCI for paging opportunities only within a long period after receiving a paging indication, if paging is present in either the paging opportunity or the paging indication.

[0017] In a possible design, R is comprised of network devices for the terminal. Specifically, network devices constitute the value of R, resulting in a unified terminal configuration, easier management, and increased configuration flexibility through network devices.

[0018] In a possible design, the first field contains indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities, each of the R paging opportunities containing a number of M bits, the number of M bits used to indicate whether paging exists for the paging opportunity corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Based on the possible design, in order to reduce the probability of false alarms for the terminal and increase the probability of successfully paging the terminal, the indication information showing the paging opportunity may contain multiple bits, i.e., the paging opportunities are grouped.

[0019] In a possible design, M is comprised of network devices for the terminal; or M is given by the formula: M =

number

[0020] In a possible design, the first field contains indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities, and the R paging opportunities

number

Number

Number

[0021] In a possible design, the paging indication further includes one or more of the following fields: the second field, the third field, and the fourth field. The second field is used to indicate whether the paging indication includes SM, the third field is used to indicate SM, and the fourth field is used to indicate the availability of the supplementary reference signal. The supplementary reference signal is a supplementary reference signal configured by the network device or a supplementary reference signal associated with the R paging opportunities. Based on possible designs, some fields used to indicate useful information may be set in the paging indication in advance, so that the terminal can know useful information in advance to avoid the energy consumption that occurs when the terminal needs to obtain useful information from DCI or other information after pre-synchronization.

[0022] In a possible design, the second field is the common information of the R paging opportunities. Based on possible designs, the second field may be set as the common information of multiple paging opportunities to reduce overhead.

[0023] In a possible design, the SM indicates one or more of the following information: system information change indication information, earthquake and tsunami warning information, commercial mobile alert information, and indication information indicating the stop of monitoring paging messages. Based on this, in order to improve the scope of use of the information indicated by the SM, a large amount of useful information may be retained in the SM as much as possible.

[0024] In a possible design, the length of the third field is configured by the network device. Based on the possible design, in order to improve the flexibility of the configuration and the management and control rights of the network device, the network device may configure the length of the third field.

[0025] In a possible design, the third field is the common information of R paging opportunities. Based on the possible design, the third field may be set as the common information of multiple paging opportunities in order to reduce overhead.

[0026] In a possible design, that the fourth field is used to indicate the availability of the auxiliary reference signal includes that the length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups configured by the network device, and the auxiliary reference signal group includes one or more auxiliary reference signals; or the length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups associated with R paging opportunities; or the fourth field includes R sub - fields, the sub - fields correspond to R paging opportunities, and one sub - field is used to indicate the availability of the auxiliary reference signal associated with the paging opportunity corresponding to the sub - field. Based on the possible design, the fourth field may be used to indicate the availability of the auxiliary reference signal or auxiliary reference signal group. The indication method is flexible and diverse and has wide applicability.

[0027] In a possible design, the first paging indication further includes a fifth field. The fifth field is used to indicate the number of paging opportunities indicated by the first field. Alternatively, the fifth field is used to indicate the length of the first field. Thus, the number of paging indications indicated by the first field or the length of the first field can be adjusted more flexibly.

[0028] In a possible design, to avoid the possibility that the indication information received by the terminal and corresponding to the paging opportunity may not match, the content indicated by the first field in different paging indications for the same paging opportunity is identical, and as a result, the terminal cannot achieve the purpose of saving energy by using paging indications.

[0029] In possible designs, a QCL relationship exists between a first paging indication and the synchronization signal block SSB closest to the first paging indication, or between a first paging indication and an SSB associated with the first paging indication, and as a result, in order to improve the accuracy of the terminal receiving the paging indication, the terminal receives the paging indication based on the received beam of the SSB.

[0030] According to a second aspect, the present invention provides a communication device. The communication device may be a terminal or a chip or system-on-a-chip within a terminal, or a functional module located within a terminal and configured to implement a method relating to the first aspect or any one of the possible designs of the first aspect. The communication device may implement functions performed by the terminal in the aforementioned aspects or possible designs, and the functions may be implemented by hardware running corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the aforementioned functions. For example, the communication device may include a receiving unit and a processing unit.

[0031] The receiving unit is configured to receive a first paging indication transmitted by a network device, which includes a first field, before a terminal's paging opportunity. The first field is used to indicate whether paging is being transmitted to R paging opportunities, including the terminal's paging opportunity.

[0032] The processing unit is configured to determine, based on the first paging opportunity, whether to monitor the DCI used to schedule paging messages for the terminal's paging opportunity.

[0033] For specific details regarding the relevant execution operations of the receiving unit and processing unit, please refer to the description in either the first embodiment or one of the possible designs of the first embodiment. Further details will not be provided here.

[0034] According to a third embodiment, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be a terminal or a chip or system-on-a-chip in a terminal. The communication device may implement functions performed by the terminal in the above embodiments or possible designs, and the functions may be implemented in hardware. In a possible design, the communication device may include a processor and a communication interface. The processor may be configured to support the communication device implementing the functions in either of the first embodiments or possible designs of the first embodiment described above. For example, the processor is configured to receive, through the communication interface, a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before a terminal paging opportunity, including a first field used to indicate whether paging has been transmitted to R paging opportunities, including the terminal paging opportunity; and to determine, based on the first paging opportunity, whether to monitor a DCI used to schedule paging messages to the terminal paging opportunity. In another possible design, the communication device may further include memory. The memory is configured to store computer executable instructions and data necessary for the communication device. When the communication device is executed, the processor executes computer executable instructions stored in memory, and as a result, the communication device executes a paging method relating to either the first embodiment or a possible design of the first embodiment described above.

[0035] According to a fourth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided. The computer-readable storage medium may be a readable non-volatile storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores instructions. When the instructions are executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to execute a paging method according to either the first aspect described above or a possible design of the aforementioned aspects.

[0036] According to the fifth aspect, a computer program product including instructions is provided. When the computer program product is executed on a computer, the computer is enabled to perform a paging method relating to either the first aspect described above or a possible design of the aforementioned aspects.

[0037] According to the sixth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be a terminal or a chip or system-on-a-chip in a terminal. The communication device includes one or more processors and one or more memories. The one or more memories are coupled to the one or more processors and are configured to store computer program code, the computer program code includes computer instructions. When the one or more processors execute computer instructions, the terminal is enabled to execute a paging method according to either the first aspect or a possible design of the first aspect.

[0038] For the technical effects achieved by any one of the designs from the third to the sixth aspect, please refer to the technical effects achieved by either the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect described above. Further details will not be provided.

[0039] According to the seventh aspect, one embodiment of the present application provides a communication system. The communication system may include a communication device, a system-on-a-chip, or a network device according to either the second or sixth aspect. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0040] [Figure 1a] This is a schematic diagram illustrating the relationship between PF and PO.

[0041] [Figure 1b] This is a schematic diagram of the temporal domain positional relationship between a single PO and SSB.

[0042] [Figure 1c]This is a schematic diagram of the temporal domain positional relationship between multiple POs and SSBs.

[0043] [Figure 1d] This is a schematic diagram of SSB and PO monitoring using different terminals.

[0044] [Figure 1e] This is a schematic diagram showing whether or not paging has been performed in advance and the relationship between this and energy consumption.

[0045] [Figure 1f] This is a schematic diagram illustrating the relationship between the position and energy consumption of paging indications.

[0046] [Figure 1g] This is a schematic diagram illustrating the relationship between SSB in the SSB cycle and MO in PO.

[0047] [Figure 2] This is a schematic diagram of the fields included in the paging indication.

[0048] [Figure 3a] This is a schematic diagram of the mapping relationship between a paging opportunity and a paging indication according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0049] [Figure 3b] This is a schematic diagram of another mapping relationship between a paging opportunity and a paging indication, according to one embodiment of the present application.

[0050] [Figure 3c] This is a schematic diagram of yet another mapping relationship between paging opportunities and paging indications according to one embodiment of the present application.

[0051] [Figure 4] This is an architecture diagram of the communication system relating to the present invention.

[0052] [Figure 5] This is a structural diagram of a communication device according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0053] [Figure 6] This is a flowchart of a paging method according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0054] [Figure 7] This is a schematic diagram of a communication device 70 according to one embodiment of the present invention.

[0055] [Figure 8] This is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0056] Before describing the embodiments of this application, some terms used in the embodiments (such as paging, PO, and DCI) will be explained and defined. Note that the following explanations and descriptions are intended to make the embodiments of this application easier to understand and should not be construed as limitations on the scope of protection claimed in the embodiments.

[0057] Paging is the process by which a network-side device periodically sends paging messages to an idle or inactive terminal to wake it up and return it to a connected state. A paging process may include, on the network side, a network-side device (e.g., an access network device) obtaining a paging occasion (PO) corresponding to a terminal through computation, and sending a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carrying a DCI to the terminal's PO. The DCI may be used to indicate whether the DCI has scheduled a PDSCH to carry the paging message. If the DCI indicates that a PDSCH carrying the paging message is scheduled, the network-side device sends the PDSCH carrying the paging message at the location of the resource indicated by the DCI. On the terminal side, the terminal obtains a PO corresponding to the terminal through computation and monitors the DCI on the PO obtained through computation using the terminal's paging-radio network temporary identity (P-RNTI). If the DCI is monitored and indicates that a PDSCH carrying paging messages is scheduled, the terminal receives the PDSCH carrying the paging messages at the location of the resource indicated by the DCI and determines whether the terminal is being paged based on the paging messages carried by the PDSCH. For example, the paging messages may contain identification information for the paged device (e.g., the terminal's user equipment identifier (UE_ID)). If the paging message received by the terminal contains the terminal's identification information, the terminal determines that the terminal is being paged.If a paging message received by a terminal does not contain the terminal's identification information, the terminal determines that it is not being paged. If the terminal is not being paged, it initiates a random access procedure and switches to a connected state.

[0058] A PO (Point of Presence) is a time-domain position / time interval at which a terminal monitors the DCI (Digital Control Interface) that schedules the PDSCH (Paging System Control Line) that carries paging messages. Once the position of a PO is determined, the position of a paging frame (PF) must first be determined, and then the final position of the PO is determined based on the relative positions of the POs within the PF. A PF may be associated with one or more POs, and the POs within a PF are arranged consecutively, starting from the PF's starting position. For example, the starting position of the first PO in a PF is the same as the starting position of the PF, and the starting position of the second PO overlaps with the ending position of the first PO. By analogy, multiple POs are configured. The length of a single PO may be several time slots. Specifically, based on the user equipment identifier (UE_ID) of the terminal, the system frame number (SFN) of the PF may be obtained through calculation using the following formula (1), and the sequence number i_s of the PO that needs to be monitored by the terminal may be obtained through calculation using the following formula (2): (SFN+PF_offset)mod T=(T div N)*(UE_ID mod N) Equation (1) i_s=floor(UE_ID / N)mod Ns Equation (2).

[0059] In the above formula, PF_offset is used to determine the offset value of the PF. PF_offset may be specified in advance in the protocol or may be determined by the access network device and configured for the terminal. T is a discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle, N is the number of PFs in the DRX cycle T, and Ns is the number of POs in one PF. "mod" represents the remainder obtained after division is performed on two numbers before and after mod. floor() represents truncation to the nearest integer. * represents multiplication. div represents division. (SFN+PF_offset)mod T=(T div N)*(UE_ID mod N) represents that all terminals are divided into N groups based on the UE_ID. The value of UE_ID mod N can be used to determine the group to which a terminal is located and the corresponding PF to which the terminal is located. For example, N=4 is used as an example. If the UE_ID is a binary string, the value of the last two bits of the UE_ID determines the PF to which the terminal is ultimately located. floor(UE_ID / N) mod Ns corresponds to the terminal's PF being further divided into Ns groups. The value of floor(UE_ID / N) mod Ns can be used to determine the specific group to which the terminal corresponds, i.e., a specific PO. The value of UE_ID is the terminal's 5G-S temporary mobile subscriber identity (5G-S-TMSI) mod 1024.

[0060] Generally, there are N*Ns POs in one DRX cycle. The terminal is divided into N*Ns groups based on UE_IDs, and each group corresponds to a PO. For example, Figure 1a is a schematic diagram where N=4 and Ns=5. As shown in Figure 1a, there are four PFs, and each PF has five POs. The terminal may obtain that it is monitoring DCI for a specific PO of a specific PF through calculations according to equations (1) and (2) above.

[0061] Furthermore, in order to match beam-based transmission in NR system design, a PO may be further divided into multiple monitoring occasions (MOs), with different MOs associated with different SSBs, i.e., different beam directions. The number of MOs included in one PO is determined based on the number of SSBs actually transmitted in one SSB cycle, and the number of SSBs actually transmitted in one SSB cycle is determined by the network device using system information.

[0062] It should be noted that in this application, the DRX cycle T, the number of PFs in the DRX cycle N, and the number of POs in a single PF Ns may be set dynamically based on requirements or may be specified in advance in the protocol. This is not limited to these.

[0063] The DCI is used to indicate whether to send a paging message and may be used to schedule a PDSCH that carries the paging message. In this application, the DCI may be referred to as paging DCI, scheduling information, or by another name, etc., but is not limited thereto. The DCI may include multiple fields. The position of each field in the DCI, the number of bits occupied by each field, and the meaning indicated by the value of each field may be predetermined in the protocol or determined based on the configuration of the network device. The fields included in the DCI are described below.

[0064] (1) Short message indicator (SMI) field

[0065] The SMI field occupies 2 bits. The first bit is used to indicate whether the current DCI is carrying a short message (SM), and the second bit is used to indicate whether the current DCI is scheduling a PDSCH that will carry a paging message.

[0066] (2) Short message (SMI) field

[0067] The SMI field occupies 8 bits. The first bit indicates a system information change (SI change), the second bit indicates an earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS) and / or a commercial mobile alert system (CMAS), the third bit indicates whether to stop reading paging messages in NR unlicensed (NRU), and the remaining last 5 bits are reserved. The reserved bits may be used to indicate other information, for example, information that will be subsequently expanded with advancements in communication technology.

[0068] Note that if the first bit in the SMI field indicates that the current DCI is carrying an SM, the SMI field corresponds to 8 bits. The first three bits are filled with indication information used to indicate whether to stop reading paging messages in the NRU, respectively: SI change information, ETWS information, and NRU. If the first bit in the SIM field indicates that the current DCI is not carrying an SM, the 8 bits corresponding to the SM field are meaningless bits and indicate no content.

[0069] (3) Frequency Domain Resource Assignment (FDRA) field

[0070] The FDRA field may be used to indicate frequency domain resources used for PDSCH transmission, including physical resource blocks (PRBs) used for data transmission. The number of bits occupied by the FDRA field is determined based on the bandwidth size of control resource set (CORESET) 0.

[0071] (4) Time Domain Resource Assignment (TDRA) field

[0072] The TDRA field occupies 4 bits. The TDRA field may be used to indicate time-domain resources used for PDSCH transmission, including time slots used for data transmission and symbols used within those time slots.

[0073] (5) Fields for mapping virtual resource blocks (VRBs) to physical resource blocks (PRBs).

[0074] The mapping field from VRB to PRB occupies 1 bit. The mapping field from VRB to PRB may be used to indicate the mapping scheme used when the VRB is mapped to the PRB, specifically, it may be an interleaved mapping or a non-interleaved mapping, etc.

[0075] (6) Modulation and coding scheme (MCS) field

[0076] The MCS field may occupy 5 bits. The MCS field may be used to specify the modulation and coding scheme used during PDSCH transmission.

[0077] (7) Transport Block Scaling (TB scaling) field

[0078] The TB scaling field may occupy 2 bits and is used to indicate whether the size of the transport block (TB) carried on the PDSCH that carries the paging message is scaled and the conversion ratio.

[0079] (8) Reserved Fields

[0080] Reserved fields may occupy 6 bits.

[0081] If there are N PFs in one DRX cycle, and one PF is divided into Ns POs, then there are only N*Ns groups of POs in total in one DRX cycle. In this case, multiple terminals need to monitor DCI for the same PO in one DRX cycle. When multiple terminals monitor DCI for the same PO, if one terminal receives DCI for the PO corresponding to it, the terminal only knows that it is being paged to the current PO, but does not know whether it is being paged. Only after receiving DCI, based on the DCI indication, does the terminal further receive a PDSCH carrying the paging message and check whether the paged terminals include it by viewing the paging message carried on the PDSCH. If the paged terminals include it, the terminal is being paged. If the paged terminals do not include it, the terminal is not being paged. However, the probability that a terminal is being paged is low. Since there are many terminals monitoring DCI in the same PO, the probability that network-side devices will send paging DCIs is high, and terminals are also likely to be in a false alarm state of being paged. A false alarm state of being paged indicates that a terminal receives a paging DCI and a PDSCH carrying a paging message, but the terminal is not being paged.

[0082] To correctly receive the DCI and PDSCH scheduled by the DCI and carrying the paging message, and based on the received DCI and PDSCH, the terminal must perform the following process to determine whether it is in a "false alarm of being paged" or is actually paged: The access network device periodically transmits one or more synchronization signals and physical broadcast channel (PBCH) blocks (SSBs) before the terminal's PO. After calculating the terminal's PO, and before monitoring the DCI to the PO, the terminal selects one or more SSBs close to the PO from the SSBs preceding the PO, receives the SSBs at the resource locations of the selected SSBs, and performs steps such as time / frequency synchronization and automatic gain control (AGC) adjustments with the access network device based on the received SSBs.

[0083] In this application, the step by which a terminal performs time / frequency synchronization and AGC adjustment using SSB may be collectively referred to as pre-synchronization. Furthermore, in one SSB cycle, an access network device transmits multiple SSBs, but the SSBs in one SSB cycle typically correspond to different beam transmission directions. For the same terminal, the SSBs used when the terminal performs pre-synchronization should correspond to the same beam transmission direction. Therefore, one or more SSBs used by a terminal to perform pre-synchronization are typically located in different SSB cycles.

[0084] Note that in this application, the cycle for transmitting an SSB, the time interval between adjacent SSBs, and the location of an SSB resource may be predetermined in the protocol or configured by the network-side device for the terminal using system information. An SSB prior to a PO may refer to an SSB whose time domain location is prior to the time domain location of the PO and whose time domain location does not overlap with the time domain location of the PO. All SSBs prior to a terminal's PO are SSBs that may / can be used by the terminal for pre-synchronization. These SSBs may be referred to as available SSBs, which have been uniformly described in this specification and will not be described in detail again below.

[0085] For example, Figure 1b is a schematic diagram of the relationship between a PO and an SSB. Two SSBs exist prior to the time domain position of the PO. The two SSBs may be referred to as available SSBs. To perform pre-synchronization, the terminal may select and receive one SSB closest to the PO from the two SSBs, or it may select and receive both SSBs to perform pre-synchronization. In Figure 1b, the two SSBs may be located in different SSB cycles.

[0086] In another example, Figure 1c is a schematic diagram of the time-domain positional relationships between multiple POs and SSBs. As shown in Figure 1c, SSB1 to SSB5 are located before PO5, SSB1 to SSB4 are located before PO4, SSB1 to SSB3 are located before PO3, SSB1 to SSB3 are located before PO2, and SSB1 and SSB2 are located before PO1. If the terminal's PO is PO5 in Figure 1c, the terminal may perform pre-synchronization by selecting and receiving one, two, three, or four SSBs from SSB1 to SSB5 that are closest to PO5 and are located before PO5, or by selecting and receiving five SSBs. Similarly, if the terminal's PO is PO4 in Figure 1c, the terminal may perform pre-synchronization by selecting and receiving one, two, or three SSBs from SSB1 to SSB4 that are closest to PO4, or by selecting and receiving four SSBs. Note that the vertical relationship between SSB and PO in Figure 1c is primarily used to prevent difficulty in distinguishing the time-domain positional relationship when SSB and PO overlap, and does not represent a specific frequency-domain positional relationship between PO and SSB. In other words, Figure 1c primarily represents the time-domain positional status of SSB and PO. Similarly, in Figure 1c, SSB1 to SSB5 may be located in different SSB cycles.

[0087] Specifically, a terminal may determine which SSB from the available SSBs the terminal will begin receiving from the access network device, based on the channel quality between the terminal and the terminal's access network device and / or hardware processing status (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), or signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR)), i.e., which available SSBs can be used for pre-synchronization. For example, a terminal may determine which SSBs to use for pre-synchronization based on the channel quality between the terminal and the access network device. When the terminal is close to the access network device, the SINR is high, the terminal's coverage is better, the SSB signal is strong, and the terminal uses fewer SSBs for pre-synchronization. However, when the terminal is far from the access network device, the SINR is low, the terminal's coverage is worse, the SSB signal is weak, and the terminal uses more SSBs for pre-synchronization.

[0088] For example, as shown in Figure 1d, the PO for UE1 and UE2 is PO1, and the two SSBs located before PO1 may be used as available SSBs for pre-synchronization. Specifically, if UE1 has poor coverage, SSB1 and SSB2 are used to perform pre-synchronization. If UE2 has good coverage, UE2 may perform pre-synchronization using one SSB (e.g., SSB2, the closest to PO1).

[0089] A terminal needs to consume energy when receiving an SSB. During the period between receiving an SSB and a PO, or between two adjacent SSBs when receiving multiple SSBs, the terminal does not need to receive signals to "prepare for communication (e.g., monitoring DCI for a PO or preparing to accurately receive the next SSB)," but the terminal needs to remain operational at all times. However, an operational terminal consumes some energy.

[0090] Figure 1d is used as an example. After UE1 receives SSB1, UE1 continues to maintain its operational state, receives SSB2, and performs pre-synchronization based on SSB1 and SSB2. After successful pre-synchronization, UE1 continues to maintain its operational state and monitors DCI to UE1's PO1. In other words, UE1 must maintain its operational state and consume energy during the period from when it begins receiving SSB1 until it monitors DCI to PO1. Similarly, UE2 also needs to enable its operational state to prepare to receive SSB2. After receiving SSB2, UE2 performs pre-synchronization based on SSB2. After successful pre-synchronization, UE2 continues to maintain its operational state and monitors DCI to UE2's PO1. UE2 must maintain its operational state and consume energy during the period from when it begins receiving SSB2 until it monitors DCI to PO1.

[0091] As mentioned above, in the process of a terminal receiving a paging message, most of the energy consumed by the terminal is consumed in the process of the terminal receiving the SSB and performing pre-synchronization, and some additional energy is consumed, especially during periods when the terminal does not receive a signal but needs to remain operational. Furthermore, since multiple terminals need to monitor the DCI at the same PO in a single DRX cycle, each terminal needs to perform processes such as pre-synchronization and DCI and PDSCH reception in order to determine whether each terminal is being paged. In other words, the aforementioned additional energy consumption is unavoidable.

[0092] However, most terminals have high energy efficiency requirements. If a terminal consumes excessive energy, its performance is affected and the user experience is diminished. Taking this into consideration, embodiments of the present invention provide the following solution: Before the PO (e.g., during terminal pre-synchronization), the terminal is notified by the PO whether paging is being sent, and as a result, the terminal can know sooner whether it may be paging and, if it is not paging, stop operating as soon as possible, thus avoiding unnecessary energy consumption by not maintaining a continuous operating state. For example, as shown in Figure 1e, if UE1 knows that it is not paging near SSB1, UE1 will not subsequently maintain an operating state, and if UE2 knows that it is not paging near SSB2, UE2 will not maintain an operating state. Compared to Figure 1d, the energy consumption of UE11 and UE12 is significantly reduced.

[0093] In this application, information indicating whether paging has been transmitted to the PO may be referred to as a paging indication. Note that the name of the paging indication is not limited in this application. The paging indication may be referred to by alternative names such as wake-up signal (WUS), early paging indication (or early transmitted paging indication), pre-paging indication, or other names, but is not limited thereto.

[0094] However, if the location of the paging indication corresponding to the PO is not properly designed, some terminals will still need to consume a large amount of energy. For example, as shown in Figure 1f, UE1 is a UE with poor coverage and UE2 is a UE with good coverage. The paging indication may be transmitted near SSB1 or near SSB2. If the paging indication is transmitted only near SSB1, the power consumption of UE1 and UE2 is shown in Figure 1f, when the presence or absence of paging at PO1 is indicated to UE1 and UE2 using the paging indication. Similarly, if the paging indication is transmitted only near SSB2, the power consumption of UE1 and UE2 is shown in Figure 1f, when the presence or absence of paging at PO1 is indicated to UE1 and UE2 using the paging indication. UE2 does not originally need to use SSB1 to perform pre-synchronization, but if the paging indication is only sent near SSB1, UE2 needs to receive SSB1 in order to receive the paging indication again, and after it is indicated that paging is present, UE2 needs to continue to operate until PO1. In this regard, the circled part in the third line of Figure 1f can be compared with the seventh line of Figure 1f. Furthermore, if the paging indication is only sent near SSB2, UE1 cannot know in advance whether paging is present, so UE1 needs to receive SSB1 and maintain an operating state until UE1 receives the paging indication after SSB2 to ensure that paging can be correctly received if it is present. If it is indicated that paging is not present, a comparison between the circled part in the sixth line of Figure 1f and the second line of Figure 1f shows that more energy is wasted.

[0095] Furthermore, even if a paging indication is designed to show whether paging exists in a PO, Figure 1f shows that some energy can be wasted in the process of some terminals receiving paging messages. The optimal solution for a terminal is for the terminal to receive a paging indication near the first SSB that it needs to receive. However, multiple terminals need to monitor DCI on the same PO in a single DRX cycle, terminal coverage and / or hardware processing status may differ, the number of SSBs received by terminals may differ, and different terminals perform pre-synchronization to different starting points. Specifically, the first SSB corresponding to different terminals may be different. Access network devices cannot know which SSB is the first SSB received by most terminals, and therefore cannot send a paging indication on the first SSB used by most terminals to reduce the energy consumption of most terminals.

[0096] To ensure that each terminal can receive a paging indication near the first SSB corresponding to that terminal, the best solution is for the paging indication corresponding to the same PO to be transmitted near multiple SSBs preceding the PO. In other words, the paging indication corresponding to one PO is transmitted near multiple SSBs. This has two advantages: on one hand, a terminal corresponding to a PO can receive the paging indication near its first SSB with high probability and, based on the indication of the paging indication, can stop operating as soon as possible, enter sleep mode, and reduce energy consumption. On the other hand, if a PO is divided into multiple MOs, and different MOs correspond to different SSBs in one SSB cycle, and one PO corresponds to paging indications near multiple SSBs, and the multiple SSBs have a preferably one-to-one correspondence with the multiple MOs obtained by dividing the PO, then a terminal corresponding to each MO can receive the paging indication near its SSB and, based on the indication of the paging indication, can reduce energy consumption. For example, as shown in Figure 1f, the paging indication is transmitted near both SSB1 and SSB2. Specifically, multiple paging indications may be used for the same PO to indicate whether paging is present at the PO, ensuring that most terminals monitoring DCI at the PO can receive the paging indication near the first SSB that needs to be received by the terminal.

[0097] Note that when one PO corresponds to the nearby paging indication of multiple SSBs, the multiple SSBs may be located in the same SSB cycle or in different SSB cycles. For example, when multiple SSBs correspond to multiple MOs, the multiple SSBs are located in the same SSB cycle. When multiple SSBs correspond to the same MO, the multiple SSBs are located in different SSB cycles. For example, as shown in Figure 1g, there are five SSB cycles, with four SSBs transmitted in each SSB cycle, and the SSB indices are SSB0 to SSB3, respectively. In this case, there are four MOs in one PO, and their indices are 0 to 3, respectively. Each SSB has a one-to-one correspondence with each MO in the PO, i.e., SSB0 corresponds to MO0, SSB1 corresponds to MO1, SSB2 corresponds to MO2, and SSB3 corresponds to MO3. The relationships between SSBs and MOs are shown in Figure 1g. The portions with the same padding pattern represent the corresponding SSBs and MOs.

[0098] Furthermore, SSBs preceding different POs may overlap, and different POs may be associated with the same SSB. Therefore, paging indications near the same SSB may be associated with multiple POs and need to indicate whether paging exists for multiple POs. For example, as shown in Figure 1c, the SSBs preceding PO2 include SSB1 through SSB3, and the SSBs preceding PO1 include SSB1 and SSB2, and there are two overlapping SSBs preceding the two different POs: SSB1 and SSB2. In this case, both SSB1 and / or SSB2 may be associated with PO1 and PO2 and used by the terminals corresponding to PO1 and PO2 to perform pre-synchronization. For example, SSB2 is associated with PO1 and PO2. Paging indications near SSB2 may be associated with PO1 and PO2 to indicate whether paging exists for PO1 and PO2.

[0099] It should be noted that in this application, the SSB may be one or more SSBs that are before the paging opportunity and closest to the PO. A paging indication near the SSB may be a paging indication that uses the end of the SSB as its starting point, or a paging indication that is after the end of the SSB and whose time difference from the end of the SSB is less than a preset time threshold, or a paging indication that is near the SSB and after the end of the SSB. The preset time threshold may be set on a case-by-case basis and is not limited to. Furthermore, in this application, the SSB is not limited to the SSB that is closest to the PO and before the paging opportunity. Alternatively, a corresponding SSB may be pre-configured for the paging opportunity, i.e., the paging opportunity is associated with the SSB. In this case, the paging indication corresponding to the paging opportunity may be located near the SSB.

[0100] The following describes the design method of paging indicators by using an example in which paging indicators are associated with R paging opportunities and are used to indicate whether paging exists for R paging opportunities, where R is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0101] First, in order to enable the paging indicator to have the function of indicating whether paging exists for multiple POs, the paging indicator may include at least a first field, which may be used to indicate whether paging exists for R POs.

[0102] In this application, it should be noted that the R POs indicated by the first field may be different POs in the same DRX cycle, POs in different DRX cycles, or POs appearing in different DRX cycles. This is not limited to these. Specifically, the R POs may be POs appearing in the same DRX cycle. In this case, the R POs are different POs. For example, the first field may indicate whether paging exists for PO1, PO2, and PO3, and PO1, PO2, and PO3 may be different POs appearing in the same DRX cycle 1. Alternatively, the R POs may be POs appearing in different DRX cycles. For example, the first field may indicate whether paging exists for PO1, PO2, and PO3. PO1 may be a PO in DRX cycle 1, PO2 and PO3 may be POs in DRX cycle 2, and the three POs are different POs. Alternatively, the R POs may be R POs appearing periodically in multiple DRX cycles. Specifically, the first field is used to indicate whether paging exists for one or more POs in R consecutive DRX cycles, and as a result, if there is no paging for POs in some consecutive DRX cycles, the terminal is indicated in advance to remain in a sleep state for some consecutive DRX cycles in order to achieve the objective of saving energy for a long time. For example, the first field may be used to indicate whether paging exists for PO1 in DRX cycle 1, PO in DRX cycle 2, and PO3 in DRX cycle 3, that is, the first field may be used to indicate whether paging exists for the same periodically transmitted PO, or the first field may be used to indicate whether paging exists for PO1 in DRX cycle 1, PO in DRX cycle 2, PO1 in DRX cycle 1, and PO2 in DRX cycle 2.

[0103] For example, the first field may contain R indication information. The R indication information corresponds one-to-one with R paging opportunities. The i-th indication information of the R indication information indicates whether paging is being sent to the i-th paging opportunity of the R paging opportunities, where i is an integer between 1 and R.

[0104] The order of the R indication information in the first field is not limited in this application. The R indication information may be arranged in the first field based on the time domain positions of the R paging opportunities. For example, based on the order of time domain positions, indication information corresponding to earlier paging opportunities with earlier time domain positions is placed first, and indication information corresponding to later paging opportunities with later time domain positions is placed second. Alternatively, indication information corresponding to earlier paging opportunities with earlier time domain positions is placed second, and indication information corresponding to later paging opportunities with later time domain positions is placed first. Alternatively, the indication information may be arranged in the first field based on a predetermined order. This is not limited. For example, paging indications near SSB2 need to show information about PO1, PO2, and PO3. Since the order of the three POs is PO1 to PO3, the order of the three indication information in DCI is the indication information for PO1, the indication information for PO2, and the indication information for PO3.

[0105] In one example, if terminals in the same paging opportunity are not grouped, each indication may contain one bit used to indicate whether paging exists in a given paging opportunity. For example, a binary bit "1" indicates that paging exists in the paging opportunity, and a binary bit "0" indicates that paging does not exist in the paging opportunity.

[0106] In another example, if terminals in the same paging opportunity are grouped into multiple groups, for example, M groups, the indication information corresponding to the paging opportunity may contain M bits, one bit used to indicate whether paging exists in a group. The M bits in the indication information may be arranged in the indication information based on the order of the group numbers of the M groups. Specifically, the group to which a terminal belongs may be obtained by calculation based on the UE_ID, for example, floor(floor(UE_ID / N) / Ns)modM or floor(UE_ID / N / Ns)modM. In this way, the number of terminals in a group may be further reduced. For example, N*Ns groups may be changed to N*Ns*M groups, which can reduce the false alarm probability of terminals in each of the N*Ns*M groups and increase the probability of successfully paging terminals.

[0107] In another example, if the R POs indicated by the first field are POs located in several consecutive DRX cycles, i.e., the first field is used to indicate whether paging exists in one or more POs in Q consecutive DRX cycles, then the specific indication method of the first field may include several cases. Case 1: If the terminals in the paging opportunity are not grouped, and the first field is used to indicate whether paging exists in the same PO in R consecutive DRX cycles, i.e., in this case Q=R, then the first field includes one indication piece of information. The indication piece may include a number of bits, the number of which is used to indicate whether paging exists in the PO in R consecutive DRX cycles, or the indication piece may include a number of R bits, the number of which is used to indicate whether paging exists in the PO in the j-th DRX cycle. Alternatively, the first field may contain R indication information, each of which may contain a number of bits, the i-th indication information being used to indicate whether paging exists in the PO in the j-th DRX cycle, where j is an integer between 1 and R (inclusive).

[0108] Case 2: If terminals in a paging opportunity are not grouped, the first field is used to indicate whether paging exists for multiple different POs (e.g., P POs) in Q consecutive DRX cycles, where P and Q are positive integers, P*Q=R, and the first field contains P indication information. Each indication information may contain a number of one bit, and the i-th indication information is used to indicate whether paging exists for the i-th PO in Q consecutive DRX cycles. Alternatively, the first field contains P indication information, each indication information may contain a number of Q bits, and the j-th bit number in the i-th indication information is used to indicate whether paging exists for the i-th PO in the j-th DRX cycle. Alternatively, the first field may contain R indication information, each of which may contain a number of bits, the i-th indication information being used to indicate whether paging exists at the i-th PO in the j-th DRX cycle, where j is an integer between 1 and R (inclusive).

[0109] Case 3: If terminals in a paging opportunity are grouped into M groups, the first field is used to indicate whether paging exists for multiple different POs (e.g., P POs) in Q consecutive DRX cycles, where P and Q are positive integers, P*Q=R, and the first field contains P indication information. One indication information may contain a number of M bits, and the number of the s-th bit in the i-th indication information may be used to indicate whether paging exists for the s-th group at the i-th PO in Q consecutive DRX cycles, where s is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than M. Alternatively, the first field contains P indication information, and one indication information may contain a number of Q*M bits, and the number of the s-th bit in the i-th indication information may be used to indicate whether paging exists for the s-th group at the i-th PO in the j-th DRX cycle.

[0110] In this application, the number of paging opportunities corresponding to different paging indicators may be the same or different. In other words, the number of paging opportunities corresponding to a paging indicator may be fixed or dynamically adjusted. The number of indication information entries in the first field for different paging indicators may be the same or different. In other words, the number of indication information entries in the first field may change with the paging opportunities corresponding to the paging indicator, and may be a constant amount or dynamically adjusted. The number of bits included in the different indication information may be the same or different, and may be a constant amount or dynamically adjusted.

[0111] Furthermore, the information contained in the SM is also important to the terminal. If the SM in the SMI and DCI is not included in the paging indication, the terminal must continue to receive the DCI from the PO and retrieve the SM from the DCI, even if the terminal knows that no paging message has been sent, in order to determine whether the SM exists and whether the SM further contains one or more of the following information: system information change indication information, earthquake and tsunami warning information, commercial mobile alert information, and indication information indicating that monitoring of paging messages should be stopped. Thus, in all cases, the terminal needs to maintain an operational state at the PO's location and consume a large amount of energy.

[0112] To avoid energy consumption resulting from the terminal monitoring SMIs being transported in DCI and acquiring SMs, the paging indication may further hold a second and a third field. The second and third fields may be used by the terminal to acquire some information contained in the SM prior to the terminal's PO. Since the information contained in the SM, such as SI change information and ETWS information, does not change frequently, the SMs that are normally transmitted to multiple adjacent POs will likely be identical. Therefore, if a paging indication is used to indicate whether paging exists for R adjacent POs, and the paging indication includes a second and a third field, the information contained in the second and third fields may be common information for the R POs and are referred to as PO common information. The second and third fields may be for all terminals corresponding to the R POs. For all terminals corresponding to the R POs, the content indicated by the second and third fields will be identical.

[0113] A second field may be used to indicate whether the paging indication includes an SM, and the second field may occupy one bit, which may be used to indicate whether the paging indication includes an SM. The second field may be called the SMI. However, the SMI in paging indications and the SMI in DCI differ in terms of the number of bits occupied (or length), and indicate different content.

[0114] A third field may be used to indicate a SM, which may include one or more of the following: system information change indication information, earthquake and tsunami warning information, commercial mobile alert information, and indication information indicating that monitoring of paging messages should be stopped. The length of the third field (or the number of bits occupied) may be specified in the protocol or configured by a network device (e.g., an access network device). For example, an access network device may configure the length of the third field based on information that needs to be shown to the terminal.

[0115] For example, the third field may be specified or configured to occupy 2 bits, 3 bits, or 8 bits, etc., but is not limited to this. If the third field occupies 2 bits and the second field indicates the presence of an SM, the third field may hold SI change information and ETWS information. If the third field occupies 3 bits and the second field indicates the presence of an SM, the third field may hold SI change information, ETWS information, and information on whether to stop paging in the NRU. If the third field occupies 8 bits and the second field indicates the presence of an SM, the third field may hold SI change information, ETWS information, and information on whether to stop paging in the NRU, and the remaining 5 bits are reserved.

[0116] Furthermore, assistance RSs are reference signals configured by the access network device for one or more terminals in idle or inactive mode, and are used to assist the terminals in performing time-frequency synchronization and AGC adjustment. To ensure that terminals can use these RSs properly, the access network device may indicate to the terminals in advance whether these RSs remain available, i.e., the availability of the RSs. Thus, in addition to the first, second, and third fields, the paging indication may also hold a fourth field, which may be used to indicate the availability of the assistance RSs.

[0117] In one example, the length of the fourth field may be equal to the number of auxiliary reference signal groups composed of auxiliary reference signals or network devices. An auxiliary reference signal group may contain one or more auxiliary reference signals and is obtained by dividing an auxiliary reference signal composed of network devices based on a preset division granularity. The preset division granularity may be set based on requirements. For example, one auxiliary reference signal group may contain four auxiliary reference signals, or one auxiliary reference signal group may contain three auxiliary reference signals, but is not limited thereto.

[0118] In this example, the fourth field is common information for the R POs and should be noted as PO common information. The fourth field is for all terminals corresponding to the R POs. Each terminal corresponding to the R POs may analyze the fourth field and, based on the information held in the fourth field, determine whether an auxiliary reference signal or an auxiliary reference signal group consisting of network devices is available.

[0119] For example, if an access network device configures a total of nine RSs, the length of the fourth field could be 9 bits, with 9 bits representing a one-to-one correspondence with each of the nine RSs to indicate whether each of the nine RSs is available. Alternatively, if one auxiliary reference signal group contains three auxiliary reference signals, and there are three auxiliary reference signal groups, the length of the fourth field could be 3 bits, with 3 bits representing a one-to-one correspondence with each of the three auxiliary reference signal groups to indicate whether each of the three auxiliary reference signal groups is available.

[0120] In another example, the length of the fourth field may be equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups associated with R paging opportunities. See the previous explanation for an explanation of the association of auxiliary reference signal groups. Further details will not be provided here.

[0121] In this example, the fourth field is common information for the R POs and is referred to as PO common information. The fourth field may be for all terminals corresponding to the R POs. Each of the terminals corresponding to the R POs may analyze the fourth field and, based on the information held in the fourth field, determine the auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups associated with the R paging opportunities.

[0122] For example, suppose an access network device has a total of 10 RSs: RS1 to RS10, R=3, and R paging opportunities, each PO1 to PO3, where RS1 to RS6 are associated with PO1 to PO3. In this case, the length of the fourth field may be equal to 6 bits, which have a one-to-one correspondence with the 6 RSs associated with PO1 to PO3, indicating whether the 6 RSs associated with the 3 POs, i.e., PO1 to PO3, are available. Alternatively, if there are 3 auxiliary reference signal groups, each containing 2 auxiliary reference signals, the length of the fourth field is 3 bits, which have a one-to-one correspondence with the 3 auxiliary reference signal groups, indicating whether the 3 auxiliary reference signal groups associated with the 3 POs, i.e., PO1 to PO3, are available.

[0123] In another example, the fourth field may contain R subfields, each corresponding to R paging opportunities, with one subfield used to indicate the availability of an auxiliary reference signal associated with the corresponding paging opportunity, the length of which may be equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups associated with the corresponding paging opportunity. Specifically, the fourth field may be divided into subfields corresponding to a single specific paging opportunity, with each subfield indicating the availability of an auxiliary reference signal associated with that single paging opportunity. Thus, in this example, each subfield holds information about a single specific PO, is for a single PO, and is PO-specific information.

[0124] For example, suppose an access network device has a total of 10 RSs, RS1 to RS10, making up R=3, and R paging opportunities, PO1 to PO3, where RS1 and RS2 are associated with PO1, RS3 and RS4 with PO2, and RS5 and RS6 with PO3. In this case, the fourth field may be divided into three subfields, each with a length of 2 bits, where each bit represents one RS. Alternatively, if one RS group contains two RSs, each subfield has a length of 1 bit, where each bit represents one RS group. The three subfields have a one-to-one correspondence with PO1 to PO3. For example, the first subfield indicates whether the two RSs associated with PO1 are available, the second subfield indicates whether the two RSs associated with PO2 are available, and the third subfield indicates whether the two RSs associated with PO3 are available.

[0125] In this example, it should be noted that subfields may be arranged based on the time domain position of the PO associated with the subfield. For example, a subfield corresponding to a PO with an earlier time domain position will be placed earlier, and a subfield corresponding to a PO with a later time domain position will be placed earlier. Alternatively, subfields may be arranged in a predetermined order, but are not limited to this.

[0126] Furthermore, to allow for more flexible adjustment of the number of POs indicated by the first field or the length of the first field, the paging indication may further include a fifth field. In one example, the fifth field may be used to directly or indirectly indicate the number of paging opportunities indicated by the first field. For example, the value of the fifth field may be the number R of paging opportunities indicated by the first field, and the number R may be determined directly based on the value of the fifth field. Alternatively, a mapping relationship may exist between the value of the fifth field and the number R, and the number R of paging opportunities indicated by the first field may be determined based on the mapping relationship.

[0127] For example, Table 1 shows the mapping relationship between the bits held in the first field and the number R. As shown in Table 1, bit 00 corresponds to number 2, bit 01 corresponds to number 3, bit 10 corresponds to number 4, and bit 11 corresponds to number 5. It is assumed that the fifth field holds bit 10, and from Table 1 it can be seen that the number R of the paging opportunity indicated by the fifth field is 4. Table 1 [Table 1]

[0128] In another example, the fifth field may be used to indicate the length of the first field. As described above, if the first field contains R indication information, and each indication information contains one bit, the length of the first field may be 5 bits, and the value of the fifth field may indicate 5. For example, the fifth field may directly hold the value R, or it may hold the number of binary bits that have a mapping relationship with R. As described above, if the first field contains R indication information, each indication information contains M bits, the length of the first field is R*M, and the value of the fifth field may indicate R*M. For example, the fifth field may directly hold the value R*M, or it may hold the number of binary bits that have a mapping relationship with R*M.

[0129] Note that the fifth field is common information for POs and is referred to as PO common information. The fifth field may be for all terminals corresponding to R POs. All terminals corresponding to R POs may analyze the fifth field and, based on the information held in the fifth field, determine the number of paging opportunities R or the length of the indication information corresponding to R paging opportunities.

[0130] Other fields in DCI, such as the FDRA field, TDRA field, VRB-to-PRB mapping field, MCS field, and TB scaling field, are primarily used to indicate time-frequency resources and transmission parameters, etc., for scheduling the PDSCH that carries the paging message. Because the paging indication is sent earlier than the PO, and the time interval between the paging indication and the PDSCH can be relatively long, access network devices cannot predict / determine in advance the time-frequency resources and transmission parameters that will be used when the PDSCH is actually sent. Therefore, the FDRA field, TDRA field, VRB-to-PRB mapping field, MCS field, and TB scaling field are not suitable for inclusion in the paging indication.

[0131] As shown in Figure 2, it can be seen from the above that the paging indication may include at least a first field, and further may include a second, third, fourth, and fifth field. In this case, if the length of the paging indication is sufficiently long and there are remaining bits, these remaining bits may be used as blank padding in the paging indication. As shown in Figure 2, the first field is a PO-specific field, and the indication information in the first field is for a specific PO, while the second, third, and fifth fields are PO-common fields and may be for all terminals corresponding to R POs. These fields are shared by the R POs. The fourth field may be a PO-common field or a PO-specific field.

[0132] Please note that Figure 2 is merely an illustrative diagram. In addition to the fields shown in Figure 2, with advancements in communication technology, Figure 2 may include other fields that may be included in paging indications. This is not limited to these fields.

[0133] Based on the design shown in Figure 2, terminal energy consumption can be reduced by informing the terminal in advance whether paging exists in a PO; one paging indication may be used to indicate multiple POs to indicate whether paging exists in multiple POs at once, and a PO common field is distinguished from PO specific fields, and as many PO common fields as possible are used when sufficient indication information is provided to reduce signaling overhead.

[0134] The following explains how the terminal determines which POs are the R POs indicated by the first field, given that the first field indicates whether paging exists for R POs.

[0135] Method 1: One paging opportunity corresponds to K paging indicators; that is, one paging opportunity may be represented by K paging indicators.

[0136] K is an integer greater than or equal to 1, and K may be pre-configured by the access network device for the terminal or pre-specified in the protocol, but is not limited thereto. The K paging indicators corresponding to a paging opportunity may be the K consecutive paging indicators closest to and preceding the paging opportunity. The K paging indicators correspond to the K consecutive SSBs closest to and preceding the paging opportunity. The paging indicators are located near the SSBs corresponding to the paging indicators. Optionally, the K consecutive SSBs are the K SSBs in the K consecutive SSB cycles, or the SSBs having the same index in the K consecutive SSB cycles.

[0137] According to Method 1, after obtaining the terminal's PO through computation, the terminal may determine the K consecutive SSBs that are in front of the terminal's PO and closest to it, based on the time domain positions of the PO and the SSBs, and determine the K paging indicators near the K SSBs corresponding to the terminal's PO. Furthermore, using the same method, the terminal may obtain several other POs near the terminal's PO through computation and determine the K paging indicators corresponding to each of the several POs. The K paging indicators corresponding to each of the several POs may be the same paging indicators as the K paging indicators corresponding to the terminal's PO. In this way, the terminal may determine the PO associated with each of the K paging indicators corresponding to the terminal's PO.

[0138] Furthermore, after determining the PO associated with the paging indication corresponding to the terminal's PO, the terminal determines the indication information corresponding to the terminal's PO based on the time domain position of the PO and the ordering rules of the indication information in the first field, and determines whether paging exists for the terminal's PO based on the indication information corresponding to the terminal's PO. If paging does not exist, the terminal may stop operating as soon as possible to reduce energy consumption.

[0139] From the process described above, it can be seen that in Method 1, the number of POs corresponding to different paging indications may be the same or different.

[0140] For example, as shown in Figure 3a, it is assumed that one PO corresponds to two paging indicators. SSB1 to SSB5 exist before PO5, SSB1 to SSB4 exist before PO4, SSB1 to SSB3 exist before PO3, SSB1 to SSB3 exist before PO2, and SSB1 and SSB2 exist before PO1. The paging indicators corresponding to PO5 may be two corresponding paging indicators near SSB4 and SSB5. The paging indicators corresponding to PO4 may be two corresponding paging indicators near SSB4 and SSB3. The paging indicators corresponding to PO3 may be two corresponding paging indicators near SSB3 and SSB2. The paging indicators corresponding to PO2 may be two corresponding paging indicators near SSB3 and SSB2. The paging indicators corresponding to PO1 may be two corresponding paging indicators near SSB2 and SSB1. It can be seen that paging indications near SSB4 may correspond to PO4 and PO5, paging indications near SSB3 may correspond to PO3 and PO2, paging indications near SSB2 may correspond to PO3, PO2, and PO1, and paging indications near SSB1 may correspond only to PO1. It is assumed that the terminal's PO is PO2, and PO2 corresponds to the paging indication near SSB2. According to the method described above, the terminal may determine that the paging indication corresponding to PO2 also corresponds to PO1 and PO3, and may determine that the indication information corresponding to PO2 is the second indication information in the first field based on the temporal domain positional relationship between PO3, PO2, and PO1 and the ordering rules corresponding to the indication information.

[0141] Method 2: A monitoring time interval is configured before a paging opportunity. As a result, after obtaining the terminal's paging opportunity through calculation, the terminal receives a paging indication corresponding to the paging opportunity in the monitoring time interval corresponding to the paging opportunity. The terminal obtains the indication information corresponding to the paging opportunity from the received paging opportunity and determines whether paging exists for the paging opportunity based on the indication information.

[0142] The monitoring time interval may be configured by the access network device for the terminal. For example, the access network device sends monitoring window configuration information to the terminal, the terminal receives the monitoring window configuration information, and determines the monitoring time interval corresponding to the paging opportunity based on the received monitoring window configuration information.

[0143] Specifically, the monitoring time window configuration information may directly include the monitoring time interval. Alternatively, the monitoring time window configuration information may include the start point of the monitoring time interval. In this case, the end point of the monitoring time interval may be set to the start of a paging opportunity or a point in time prior to the start of a paging opportunity. Alternatively, the monitoring time configuration information may include both the start and end points of the monitoring time interval. This is not limited to these.

[0144] According to Method 2, after obtaining the terminal's PO through calculation, the terminal may obtain several other POs near the terminal's PO through calculation and determine the paging indication corresponding to each of the several POs. In this case, it is assumed that the paging indication corresponding to the PO is near the SSB in front of the PO. Furthermore, the terminal may determine which paging indications corresponding to several other POs near the terminal's PO are also included in the monitoring time interval corresponding to the terminal's PO, and determine the PO associated with the paging indication in the monitoring time interval. Furthermore, after determining the PO associated with the paging indication in the monitoring time interval, the terminal may determine the indication information corresponding to the terminal's PO based on the time domain position of the PO and the ordering rules of the indication information in the first field, and determine whether paging exists at the terminal's PO based on the indication information corresponding to the terminal's PO, and if paging does not exist, it may stop operation as soon as possible to reduce energy consumption.

[0145] From the process described above, it can be seen that in Method 2, the number of paging opportunities corresponding to different paging indications may be the same or different.

[0146] Figure 3b is used as an example. SSB1 to SSB5 exist before PO5, SSB1 to SSB4 exist before PO4, SSB1 to SSB3 exist before PO3, SSB1 to SSB3 exist before PO2, and SSB1 and SSB2 exist before PO1. The terminal's PO is PO2, and the monitoring time interval corresponding to the terminal's PO2 is one time interval from the start of SSB1 to the end of the paging indication near SSB2, and the near paging indications of SSB2 and SSB1 are within the monitoring time interval. Furthermore, based on the setting principle that the paging indication corresponding to a PO is located near the SSB preceding the PO, it can be seen that the paging indication corresponding to PO3 may be the paging indication near SSB3, SSB2, and SSB1; the paging indication corresponding to PO2 may be the paging indication near SSB3, SSB2, and SSB1; and the paging indication corresponding to PO1 may be the paging indication near SSB2 and SSB1. In the monitoring time interval, the paging indication near SSB2 may correspond to PO1, PO2, and PO3; and the paging indication near SSB1 may correspond to PO1, PO2, and PO3. Therefore, based on the temporal domain positional relationship between PO3, PO2, and PO1 and the ordering rules corresponding to the indication information, it can be determined that the indication information corresponding to PO2 is the second indication information in the first field.

[0147] Method 3: The number of paging opportunities indicated by one paging indication is defined as R, and the number of paging opportunities indicated by different paging indications is the same, i.e., R paging opportunities.

[0148] For example, the R paging opportunities indicated by the paging indication may be R consecutive paging opportunities following the paging indication, and the first paging opportunity among the R paging opportunities may be the paging opportunity that is after the paging indication and closest to the paging indication. The value of R may be configured by the access network device for the terminal, or it may be specified in advance in the protocol. This is not limited to this.

[0149] According to Method 3, after the paging indication is set near the SSB, the terminal can determine which R POs the paging indication corresponds to and which R POs corresponding to the paging indication include the terminal's PO. Based on the R POs corresponding to the paging indication and the ordering rule of the indication information in the first field, the terminal determines the indication information corresponding to the terminal's PO. Based on the indication information corresponding to the terminal's PO, the terminal determines whether paging exists for the terminal's PO, and if paging does not exist, it stops operation as quickly as possible to reduce energy consumption.

[0150] Figure 3c is used as an example. R=3, and it is assumed that paging indications are set separately near SSB1 to SSB5. The three POs corresponding to the paging indication near SSB1 are PO1 to PO3, the three POs corresponding to the paging indication near SSB2 are PO2 to PO4, and the three POs corresponding to the paging indication near SSB3 are PO3 to PO5. If the terminal's PO is PO2, the terminal may determine that the paging indication corresponding to PO2 and located at SSB1 further indicates PO1 and PO3, and then, based on the temporal domain positional relationship between PO3, PO2, and PO1 and the ordering rules corresponding to the indication information, determine that the indication information corresponding to PO2 is the second indication information in the first field.

[0151] From the above, it can be seen that when paging opportunities are grouped, for example, divided into M MOs, the M bits included in the indication information corresponding to each paging opportunity may be fixed or dynamically adjusted. To avoid wasting signaling overhead when it is certain that the probability of a terminal false alarm is low, all bits in a fixed-length paging indication are occupied as much as possible, i.e., all bits are filled with available information. Specifically, the method is shown in Example 1 or Example 2 below.

[0152] Example 1: If there is another field in the paging indication other than the first field that indicates valid information, M=

number

number

[0153] A is the length of the paging indication, and B is the length of the fields within the paging indication that indicate valid information, other than the first field, which may be the total length of the second, third, fourth, and fifth fields, for example.

[0154] According to the method shown in Example 1, in order to reduce the probability of false alarms when paging terminals and increase the probability of successfully paging terminals, the number of padding bits in the paging indication can be as small as possible, the number of valid information bits can be as large as possible, and the number M of grouped paging opportunities can be as large as possible.

[0155] Example 2: R paging opportunities

number

number

number

[0156] A is the length of the paging indication, and B is the length of the fields within the paging indication that indicate valid information, other than the first field, which may be the total length of the second, third, fourth, and fifth fields, for example. Note that if the only field indicating valid information within the paging indication is the first field, the value of B in the formula shown in Example 2 is 0.

[0157] In Example 2,

number

[0158] According to the method shown in Example 2, the presence of padding bits can be completely avoided, and in order to reduce the probability of false alarms paging terminals and increase the probability of successfully paging terminals, the number of bits of valid information is made as large as possible, and furthermore, the number M of grouped paging opportunities is made as large as possible.

[0159] Furthermore, to help the terminal accurately receive paging indications near SSBs, there exists a quasi-co-located (QCL) relationship between the paging indication and the synchronous signal block SSB closest to the paging indication, or a QCL relationship between the paging indication and the SSB associated with the paging indication. In other words, a terminal device may assume that a quasi-co-located relationship exists between the paging indication and the synchronous signal block SSB closest to the paging indication. When the paging indication is a DCI, the QCL relationship between the paging indication and the SSB may be described as equivalent to the existence of a QCL relationship between the CORESET associated with the search space in which the paging indication is located and the associated (or nearest) SSB.

[0160] A QCL relationship actually represents the beam receiving parameters used by the terminal to receive a signal. If two downlink signals are QCL signals, the terminal may receive both signals using the same receiving beam. For example, if a QCL relationship exists between a paging indicator and the synchronization signal block SSB closest to the paging indicator, the terminal may receive the paging indicator using the same receiving beam used to receive the SSB. If a QCL relationship exists between a paging indicator and the SSB associated with the paging indicator, the terminal may receive the paging indicator using the same receiving beam used to receive the SSB associated with the paging indicator.

[0161] Furthermore, if a single paging opportunity can be indicated by multiple paging indicators, the indicator information received by the terminal corresponding to the paging opportunity may not match. As a result, the terminal cannot achieve its energy-saving objective by using paging indicators. For example, a terminal is one with poor coverage and needs to receive SSB1 and SSB2 for pre-synchronization. If the information indicated by the paging indicators near SSB1 and SSB2 matches, the terminal may enter sleep mode to save energy after being indicated by the paging indicator near SSB1 that it cannot be paged. If the information indicated by the paging indicators near SSB1 and SSB2 does not match, the terminal also needs to receive the paging indicator near SSB2 to ensure security. In this case, no energy-saving gain can be obtained.

[0162] To avoid the aforementioned problems, the embodiments of the present application should further specify that the indication content of the first field is identical in different paging indications for the same paging opportunity, and as a result, the content of the indication information is identical in all paging indications for the same paging opportunity.

[0163] The following describes the process by which a network device pages terminals, using an example where the paging indication consists of the design described above.

[0164] The paging method provided in the embodiments of this application may be applied to any one of the following: a 4th generation (4G) system, a long-term evolution (LTE) system, a 5th generation (5G) system, a new radio (NR) system, an NR vehicle-to-everything (V2X) system, an Internet of Things system, or another next-generation communication system. This is not limited to these applications. The paging method provided in the embodiments of this application will be described below using the communication system shown in Figure 4 as an example.

[0165] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 4, the communication system may include a network device and a plurality of terminals such as terminal 1, terminal 2, and terminal 3. In the system shown in Figure 4, data may be transmitted between terminals and network devices through a Uu interface. For example, the network device may send downlink data to terminals through the Uu interface, and terminals may send uplink data to the network device through the Uu interface. Data may be transmitted between terminals through an SL. As described above, both the network device and terminals in Figure 4 may be referred to as communication devices. Note that Figure 4 is an example of a configuration diagram. The number of nodes included in Figure 4 is not limited. In addition to the functional nodes shown in Figure 4, other nodes, such as a core network device, gateway device, or application server, may be further included. This is not limited.

[0166] Network devices are primarily configured to implement functions such as resource scheduling, wireless resource management, and wireless access control of terminals. Specifically, a network device may be any of the following nodes: a small base station, a wireless access point, a transmission reception point (TRP), a transmission point (TP), or another access node. In this embodiment of the Application, the device configured to implement the functions of a network device may be a network device, or a device that can support the network device in implementing its functions, such as a chip system (e.g., a processing system including one or more chips) or a modem. The paging method provided in this embodiment of the Application will be described below using an example in which the device configured to implement the functions of a network device is a network device.

[0167] The terminal may be terminal equipment, user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), or mobile terminal (MT), etc. Specifically, the terminal may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, or a computer having wireless transceiver functionality, or it may be a virtual reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in autonomous driving, a wireless terminal in telemedicine, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a smart home, or an in-vehicle terminal, etc. In this embodiment of the present application, the device configured to implement the functions of the terminal may be a terminal, or it may be a device that can support the terminal in implementing functions, such as a chip system (e.g., a processing system including one or more chips) or a modem. The paging method provided in this embodiment of the present application will be described below using an example in which the device configured to implement the functions of the terminal is a terminal.

[0168] During a particular implementation, the network elements shown in Figure 4, such as terminals and network devices, may use the organizational structure shown in Figure 5, or may include the components shown in Figure 5. Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a communication device 500 according to one embodiment of the present application. When the communication device 500 has the functions of a terminal in this embodiment of the present application, the communication device 500 may be a terminal, or a chip or system-on-a-chip within a terminal.

[0169] As shown in Figure 5, the communication device 500 may include a processor 501, a communication line 502, and a communication interface 503. Furthermore, the communication device 500 may further include a memory 504. The processor 501, memory 504, and communication interface 503 may be connected to each other through the communication line 502.

[0170] The processor 501 may be a central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a network processor (NP), a digital signal processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable logic device (PLD), or any combination thereof. Alternatively, the processor 501 may be another device having processing capabilities, such as a circuit, component, or software module.

[0171] The communication line 502 is configured to transmit information between components included in the communication device 500.

[0172] The communication interface 503 is configured to communicate with another device or another communication network. The other communication network may be Ethernet®, a radio access network (RAN), or a wireless local area network (WLAN), etc. The communication interface 503 may be a radio frequency module, a transceiver, or any device capable of implementing communication. In this embodiment of the present application, an example in which the communication interface 503 is a radio frequency module is used for illustrative purposes. The radio frequency module may include an antenna and a radio frequency circuit, etc. The radio frequency circuit may include an integrated radio frequency chip and a power amplifier, etc.

[0173] Memory 504 is configured to store instructions. These instructions may be computer programs.

[0174] The memory 504 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or another type of static storage device capable of storing static information and / or instructions, or a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device capable of storing information and / or instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), another compact disc storage, an optical disc storage, or a magnetic disc storage medium or another magnetic storage device. Optical disc storage includes compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital multipurpose discs, and Blu-ray discs, etc.

[0175] It should be noted that memory 504 may be independent of processor 501 or may be integrated with processor 501. Memory 504 may be configured to store instructions, program code, or some data. Memory 504 may be located inside or outside communication device 500, but is not limited thereto. Processor 501 is configured to execute instructions stored in memory 504 and implement the paging method provided in the following embodiments of the present application.

[0176] In one example, the processor 501 may include one or more CPUs in Figure 5, for example, CPU0 and CPU1.

[0177] In an optional implementation example, the communication device 500 includes multiple processors. For example, in addition to processor 501 in Figure 5, the communication device 500 may further include processor 507.

[0178] In an optional implementation example, the communication device 500 further includes an output device 505 and an input device 506. The input device 506 is a keyboard, mouse, microphone, or joystick, and the output device 505 is a device, such as a display or speaker.

[0179] It should be noted that the communication device 500 may be a desktop computer, laptop computer, network server, mobile phone, tablet computer, wireless terminal, embedded device, chip system, or a device having a structure similar to that shown in Figure 5. Furthermore, the organizational structure shown in Figure 5 does not constitute a limitation on the communication device. In addition to the components shown in Figure 5, the communication device may include more or fewer components than those shown in the figure, some components may be combined, or different component layouts may exist.

[0180] In this embodiment of the present application, the chip system may include a chip, or it may include a chip and another discrete component.

[0181] Referring to the communication system shown in Figure 4, the process by which a network device pages a first terminal is described below, using an example where the paging indication is PO. In the following embodiments, each device may have the components shown in Figure 5, and the operations and terminology involved in the embodiments may be referenced to one another. The names of messages exchanged between devices and the names of parameters in messages in the embodiments are merely examples. Different names may be used during a particular implementation, and are not limited thereto. For example, "include" in this application may be replaced with "contain" or "carry". The paging indication described in this application may be replaced with WUS or early paging indication, etc.

[0182] Figure 6 shows a paging method according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 6, the method may comprise the following steps.

[0183] Step 601: The network device decides to page the terminal.

[0184] The network device may be the network device shown in Figure 4. The terminals may include one or more terminals in an idle or inactive state as shown in Figure 4, for example, a first terminal, a second terminal, and a third terminal, etc. These terminals may correspond to the same PO or different POs, but are not limited thereto. This embodiment is explained using an example in which these terminals correspond to the same PO.

[0185] For example, if a terminal has downlink service requirements, the network device decides to page the terminal, triggering the terminal to switch from an idle or inactive state to a connected state, and the terminal receives downlink services in the connected state.

[0186] Step 602: The network device periodically transmits one or more SSBs in front of the terminal's PO and transmits one or more paging indications near the one or more SSBs.

[0187] The terminal's PO may be the time interval during which the terminal monitors the DCI for scheduling the PDSCH that carries the paging messages. For example, a network device may determine the terminal's PF and terminal's PO according to equations (1) and (2) described above. Details will not be explained again.

[0188] SSB may be used by the terminal to perform pre-synchronization. A related explanation of SSB has been given above, and further details will not be given again.

[0189] Paging indications may be used to indicate whether paging exists for one or more POs, including the PO of a terminal. For example, a paging indication may indicate whether paging exists for R POs, where R is an integer greater than or equal to 1. See the previous explanation for the number of indication pieces included in a paging indication and the number of bits included in each indication piece. For example, one indication piece may contain one bit or M bits, and the number of bits included in all indication pieces may be the same or different. Further details will not be provided.

[0190] The SSBs transmitting the paging indication nearby may be located in the same SSB cycle or in different SSB cycles, but are not limited to this. Furthermore, for the sake of clarity, in this application, the SSBs transmitting the paging indication nearby may be referred to as the SSB associated with / corresponding to the paging indication, or the SSB closest to the paging indication, etc., but are not limited to this. For example, a paging indication corresponds to an SSB. One SSB may correspond to one paging indication, that is, one paging indication may be transmitted near one SSB. For the positional relationship between an SSB and a paging indication near an SSB, please refer to the above explanation. Further details will not be provided here.

[0191] For specific details regarding the design format of each paging indicator, please refer to the explanation in Figure 2. For methods of determining the mapping relationship between paging indicators and POs, such as the number of POs specifically indicated by one paging indicator or the number of POs specifically corresponding to one PO, please refer to Method 1, Method 2, or Method 3. For example, one paging indicator may indicate R POs, one PO may correspond to K paging indicators, or one PO may correspond to a paging indicator in one monitoring time interval. Further details are not provided.

[0192] Furthermore, to avoid the terminal being unable to achieve its energy-saving objective due to mismatched indication information corresponding to the same PO, if a terminal's PO corresponds to multiple paging indicators, the terminal enters a sleep state in advance to save energy if the indication information in the terminal's PO is identical and the terminal is not being paged, in order to resolve the mismatch in indication information corresponding to the same PO and to ensure that the terminal is ready to retrieve the indication information.

[0193] Furthermore, to improve the accuracy with which network devices transmit paging indicators and to help terminals accurately receive paging indicators, a QCL relationship exists between a PO and the SSB corresponding to the PO, or between a PO and an SSB associated with the PO. Network devices may transmit paging indicators to terminals based on the transmission beam of the SSB. Correspondingly, to improve the accuracy with which terminals receive paging indicators, terminals receive paging indicators based on the received beam of the SSB.

[0194] Step 603: The network device sends a DCI to the terminal's PO, which is used to schedule the PDSCH that will carry the paging message.

[0195] For a related explanation of DCI and PDSCH, please refer to the previous explanation. Further details will not be provided here.

[0196] A paging message may contain identification information for multiple terminals that need to be paged (such as a first terminal and a second terminal), and the POs of the terminals that need to be paged are the same. In this way, multiple terminals can be paged in a single paging process to reduce the signaling overhead and energy consumption caused by interactions between network devices and terminals.

[0197] Step 604: The terminal receives one or more SSBs and one or more paging indicators.

[0198] For example, a terminal may determine which SSBs need to be received based on the relevant configuration of the SSBs, the terminal's coverage status, and / or the terminal's hardware processing capabilities; further determine which SSBs need to be received that are located near the terminal's PO and where the paging indication corresponding to the terminal's PO is located, based on Method 1, Method 2, or Method 3; and based on the determination, receive one or more SSBs and one or more paging indications.

[0199] It should be noted that the execution order of steps 603 and 604 is not limited in this application. Steps 603 and 604 may be executed simultaneously, or, as shown in Figure 6, step 603 may be executed before step 604, or step 604 may be executed before step 603. This is not limited. Furthermore, it should be noted that in this application, the "design format of the paging indication (e.g., the fields included in the paging indication, and the number of bits included in each indication information in the paging indication)" and the "method for determining the number of POs specifically indicated by one paging indication and the number of POs specifically corresponding to one PO" are the same for network devices and terminals. The design format and determination method used may be predetermined by the network device and terminal. Alternatively, the network device may determine the selected design format and determination method and indicate the selection result to the terminal. This is not limited.

[0200] Step 605: Based on the first paging indication, the terminal decides whether to monitor (or continue monitoring) the DCI for the terminal's PO.

[0201] The first paging indicator may be the first paging indicator in one or more paging indicators corresponding to the terminal's PO, or it may be any one of the one or more paging indicators corresponding to the terminal's PO, etc. It is not limited to this.

[0202] For example, a terminal deciding whether to monitor (or continue monitoring) DCI at its PO based on a first paging indication may include the terminal determining indication information corresponding to its PO based on the terminal's PO's time-domain location in R POs, and then deciding whether to monitor DCI at its PO based on the indication information corresponding to its PO. For example, if the indication information corresponding to its PO is used to indicate the presence of paging at its PO, it is decided to monitor DCI at its PO. If the indication information corresponding to its PO is used to indicate the absence of paging at its PO, it is not decided to monitor DCI at its PO, and the terminal stops operating and enters sleep mode to reduce energy consumption.

[0203] As explained above, the R indication information corresponding to the R POs may be placed in the paging indicator based on the order of the time domain positions of the R POs. For example, the indication information corresponding to POs with earlier time domain positions is placed before the paging indicator, and the indication information corresponding to POs with later time domain positions is placed after the paging indicator. Alternatively, the indication information corresponding to POs with earlier time domain positions is placed after the paging indicator, and the indication information corresponding to POs with later time domain positions is placed before the paging indicator. The terminal determining the indication information corresponding to its PO based on the time domain position of the terminal's PO in the R POs may include the terminal determining the indication information corresponding to its PO based on an ordering rule for the R indication information.

[0204] Furthermore, if the terminal decides to monitor the DCI at its PO based on the first paging indication, the terminal, after receiving the first paging indication, remains operational, completes pre-synchronization, monitors the DCI at its PO after pre-synchronization, receives a PDSCH carrying a paging message at the resource location indicated by the DCI, determines whether the terminal is being paged based on the terminal identification information carried in the paging message, and if the terminal is being paged, initiates a random access process, and after successful random access, transmits service data to the network device.

[0205] Based on the method shown in Figure 6, a network device may pre-configure a paging indicator before the PO and use the paging indicator to show the terminal in advance whether paging exists at the PO. As a result, if paging does not exist at the PO, the terminal is triggered to stop operating in advance and enter a sleep state in order to reduce the terminal's energy consumption. Furthermore, in the method shown in Figure 6, in order to reduce signaling overhead, one paging indicator may be configured to show whether paging exists at multiple POs at once.

[0206] The preceding description primarily concerns the solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application from the perspective of interaction between nodes. To implement the aforementioned functions, it can be understood that nodes, such as terminals, include corresponding hardware structures and / or software modules for performing the functions. In combination with the algorithmic steps described in the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein, those skilled in the art will readily recognize that the present application can be implemented in hardware or in combination of hardware and computer software. Whether the functions are implemented in hardware or performed by hardware driven by computer software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the functions described for each specific application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of the present application.

[0207] In embodiments of the present application, terminals and the like may be divided into functional modules based on the method examples described above. For example, each functional module may be obtained through division based on each corresponding function, or two or more functions may be integrated into a single processing module. The aforementioned integrated modules may be implemented in hardware form or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that in embodiments of the present application, the module divisions are merely examples and are only logical functional divisions. In actual implementations, other division methods may be used.

[0208] Figure 7 is a structural diagram of the communication device 70. The communication device 70 may be the first communication device, or a chip or system-on-a-chip within the first communication device. The communication device 70 may be configured to implement the functions of the first communication device in the embodiment described above. In implementation, the communication device 70 shown in Figure 7 includes a receiving unit 701 and a processing unit 702.

[0209] The receiving unit 701 is configured to receive a first paging indication transmitted by the network device, which includes a first field, before the terminal's paging opportunity. The first field is used to indicate whether paging is being transmitted for R paging opportunities, including the terminal's paging opportunity. For example, the receiving unit 701 may support the communication device 70 in performing step 604.

[0210] The processing unit 702 is configured to determine, based on the first paging opportunity, whether to monitor the DCI used to schedule paging messages for the terminal's paging opportunity. For example, the processing unit 702 may support the communication device 70 in performing step 605.

[0211] Specifically, all relevant details of the steps in the aforementioned method embodiment shown in Figure 6 may be referenced in the functional description of the corresponding functional module, and further details are not described herein. The communication device 70 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal in the paging method shown in Figure 6, and can therefore achieve the same effects as the aforementioned paging method.

[0212] In another implementation, the communication device 70 shown in Figure 7 includes a processing module and a communication module. The processing module is configured to control and manage the operation of the communication device 70. For example, the processing module may integrate the functions of a processing unit 702 and be configured to support the communication device 70 performing step 605 and another process of the technology described herein. The communication module may integrate the functions of a receiving unit 701 and be configured to support the communication device 70 performing step 604 and communicating with another network entity, for example, a function module or the network entity shown in Figure 4. The communication device 70 may further include a storage module for storing program code and data of the communication device 70.

[0213] The processing module may be a processor or a controller. The processing module may implement or execute various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described with reference to what is disclosed herein. Alternatively, the processor may be a combination of multiple processors implementing computing functions, for example, a combination of one or more microprocessors, or a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor. The communication module may be a transceiver circuit or a communication interface, etc. The storage module may be memory. When the processing module is a processor, the communication module is a communication interface, the storage module is memory, and the communication device 70 in this embodiment of the application may be the communication device 500 shown in Figure 5.

[0214] Figure 8 is a structural diagram of a communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in Figure 8, the communication system may include a terminal 80 and a network device. The functions of the terminal 80 are the same as those of the communication device 70.

[0215] For example, terminal 80 receives a first paging indication sent by a network device before terminal paging opportunity 80, which includes a first field used to indicate whether paging has been sent to R paging opportunities, including terminal paging opportunity 80; and is configured to determine, based on the first paging opportunity, whether to monitor DCI used to schedule paging messages for terminal paging opportunity 80.

[0216] For details on the design of paging opportunities, the mapping relationships between paging indications and paging opportunities, and the specific execution behaviors of terminals, please refer to the relevant explanations and design methods shown in Figure 6. Further details will not be provided here.

[0217] One embodiment of the present invention further provides a computer-readable storage medium. All or some of the processes in the method embodiments described above may be implemented by a computer program that instructs the relevant hardware. The program may be stored in the computer-readable storage medium. When the program is executed, the processes of the method embodiments described above can be implemented. The computer-readable storage medium may be an internal storage unit of a terminal (including a data transmission end and / or data reception end) in any one of the embodiments described above, for example, a hard disk or the terminal's memory. Alternatively, the computer-readable storage medium may be an external storage device of the terminal, for example, a plug-in hard disk, a smart media card (SMC), a secure digital (SD) card, or a flash card provided to the terminal. Furthermore, the computer-readable storage medium may alternatively include both the terminal's internal storage unit and external storage devices. The computer-readable storage medium is configured to store the computer program and any other programs and data required by the terminal. The computer-readable storage medium may be further configured to temporarily store output or output data.

[0218] Referring to the above description, the present application further provides the following embodiments.

[0219] Embodiment 1: A terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal's paging opportunity, wherein the first paging indication includes a first field, the first field is used to indicate whether paging has been transmitted to R paging opportunities, the R paging opportunities include the terminal's paging opportunities, and R is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Based on the first paging opportunity, the terminal decides whether to monitor the downlink control information DCI for the terminal's paging opportunity, where DCI is used to schedule paging messages. A paging method that includes the following features.

[0220] Embodiment 2: The first field contains R indication information, the i-th indication information of the R indication information indicates whether paging has been sent to the i-th paging opportunity of the R paging opportunities, where i is an integer between 1 and R. The method according to Embodiment 1.

[0221] Embodiment 3: The terminal determines whether to monitor the downlink control information DCI for the terminal's paging opportunity based on the first paging opportunity. The terminal determines indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the terminal's time-domain position of the terminal's paging opportunity in R paging opportunities; and The device determines whether to monitor DCI for the device's paging opportunity based on indication information corresponding to the device's paging opportunity. The method of Embodiment 2, including the following.

[0222] Embodiment 4: The terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal has a paging opportunity. The terminal determines K paging indications corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the terminal's time-domain position of the paging opportunity, where K is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and The terminal receives K paging indicators before a paging opportunity and determines the first paging indicator from the K paging indicators. A method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 3, including the following:

[0223] Embodiment 5: K is configured with network devices for the terminal, The method according to Embodiment 4.

[0224] Embodiment 6: The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 3, wherein the terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal has a paging opportunity, and the terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device at a monitoring time interval.

[0225] Embodiment 7: A terminal receives monitoring time window configuration information transmitted by a network device, where the monitoring time window configuration information is used to determine the monitoring time interval; and The terminal determines the monitoring time interval based on the monitoring time window configuration information. The method according to Embodiment 6.

[0226] Embodiment 8: The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 3, wherein R paging opportunities are after the first paging indication and are the R paging opportunities closest to the first paging indication.

[0227] Embodiment 9: R is configured with network devices for the terminal, The method described in Embodiment 8.

[0228] Embodiment 10: The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 9, wherein the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of R paging opportunities, the indication information corresponding to each of R paging opportunities includes a number of M bits, the number of M bits is used to indicate whether paging exists for the paging opportunity corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer of 1 or more.

[0229] Embodiment 11: M is configured with a network device for the terminal; or M is given by the formula: M =

number

[0230] Embodiment 12: The first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities; and R paging opportunities

number

number

number

[0231] Embodiment 13: The paging indication further includes one or more of the following fields: the second field embodiment, the third field embodiment, and the fourth field; The second field is used to indicate whether the paging indication includes a short message (SM); The third field is used to indicate SM; and The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 12, wherein a fourth field is used to indicate the availability of an auxiliary reference signal, the auxiliary reference signal being an auxiliary reference signal configured by a network device or an auxiliary reference signal associated with R paging opportunities.

[0232] Embodiment 14: The method according to Embodiment 13, wherein the second field is common information for R paging opportunities.

[0233] Embodiment 15: The method according to Embodiment 13, wherein the SM displays one or more of the following information: a system information change indication information embodiment, an earthquake and tsunami warning information embodiment, a commercial mobile alert information embodiment, and an indication information indicating that monitoring of paging messages should be stopped.

[0234] Embodiment 16: The method according to any one of Embodiments 13 to 15, wherein the length of the third field is comprised of a network device.

[0235] Embodiment 17: The method according to any one of Embodiments 13 to 16, wherein the third field is common information for R paging opportunities.

[0236] Embodiment 18: The fourth field is used to indicate the availability of an auxiliary reference signal, wherein the length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups configured by the network device, and the auxiliary reference signal group includes one or more auxiliary reference signals; or the length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups associated with R paging opportunities; or the fourth field includes R subfields, each subfield corresponding to a R paging opportunity, and one subfield is used to indicate the availability of an auxiliary reference signal associated with the paging opportunity corresponding to the subfield. A method according to any one of Embodiments 13 to 17, including the following:

[0237] Embodiment 19: The first paging indication further includes a fifth field; and the fifth field is used to indicate the number of paging opportunities indicated by the first field; or The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 7, wherein the fifth field is used to indicate the length of the first field.

[0238] Embodiment 20: For the same paging opportunity, the content indicated by the first field in different paging indications is the same. The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 19.

[0239] Embodiment 21: A quasi-joint position QCL relationship exists between the first paging indication and the synchronization signal block SSB closest to the first paging indication; or A QCL relationship exists between the first paging indication and the SSB associated with the first paging indication. The method according to any one of Embodiments 1 to 20.

[0240] Embodiment 22: A terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal's paging opportunity, the first paging indication includes a first field, the first field is used to indicate whether paging has been transmitted to R paging opportunities, the R paging opportunities include the terminal's paging opportunities, where R is an integer of 1 or more. Based on the first paging opportunity, the terminal decides whether to monitor the downlink control information DCI for the terminal's paging opportunity, and the DCI is used to schedule paging messages. A communication device equipped with the following features.

[0241] Embodiment 23: The first field includes R indication information, the i-th indication information of the R indication information indicates whether paging has been sent to the i-th paging opportunity of the R paging opportunities, where i is an integer between 1 and R. A communication device according to Embodiment 22.

[0242] Embodiment 24: The terminal determines whether to monitor the downlink control information DCI for the terminal's paging opportunity based on the first paging opportunity. The terminal determines indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the terminal's time-domain position of the terminal's paging opportunity in R paging opportunities; and The device determines whether to monitor DCI for the device's paging opportunity based on indication information corresponding to the device's paging opportunity. A communication device according to Embodiment 23, which includes the following:

[0243] Embodiment 25: The terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal has a paging opportunity. The terminal determines K paging indications corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the terminal's time-domain position of the terminal's paging opportunity, where K is an integer greater than or equal to 1; and The terminal receives K paging indicators before a paging opportunity and determines the first paging indicator from the K paging indicators. A communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 24, including the following:

[0244] Embodiment 26:K is configured with network devices for the terminal, A communication device according to Embodiment 25.

[0245] Embodiment 27: The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 24, wherein the terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before a paging opportunity of the terminal, and receiving the first paging indication transmitted by the network device by the terminal includes receiving the first paging indication transmitted by the network device at a monitoring time interval.

[0246] Embodiment 28: The terminal receives monitoring time window configuration information transmitted by a network device, and the monitoring time window configuration information is used to determine a monitoring time interval; and the terminal determines a monitoring time interval based on the monitoring time window configuration information The communication device according to Embodiment 27.

[0247] Embodiment 29: The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 24, wherein the R paging opportunities are after the first paging indication and are the R paging opportunities closest to the first paging indication.

[0248] Embodiment 30: R is configured by a network device for the terminal. The communication device according to Embodiment 29.

[0249] Embodiment 31: The first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities, the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities includes a number of M bits, the number of M bits is used to indicate whether there is a paging in the paging opportunity corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 30.

[0250] Embodiment 32: M is configured by a network device for the terminal; or M is the formula: M =

Number

[0251] Embodiment 33: The first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities; and R paging opportunities

number

number

number

[0252] Embodiment 34: The paging indication further includes one or more of the following fields: the second field embodiment, the third field embodiment, and the fourth field; The second field is used to indicate whether the paging indication includes a short message (SM); The third field is used to indicate SM; and A fourth field is used to indicate the availability of an auxiliary reference signal, the communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 33, wherein the auxiliary reference signal is an auxiliary reference signal configured by a network device or an auxiliary reference signal associated with R paging opportunities.

[0253] Embodiment 35: The communication device according to Embodiment 34, wherein the second field is common information of R paging opportunities.

[0254] Embodiment 36: The communication device according to Embodiment 34, wherein the SM displays one or more of the following information: a system information change indication information embodiment, an earthquake and tsunami warning information embodiment, a commercial mobile alert information embodiment, and an indication information indicating that monitoring of paging messages should be stopped.

[0255] Embodiment 37: A communication device according to any one of Embodiments 24 to 36, wherein the length of the third field is comprised of a network device.

[0256] Embodiment 38: A communication device according to any one of Embodiments 34 to 37, wherein the third field is common information for R paging opportunities.

[0257] Embodiment 39: The fourth field is used to indicate the availability of the auxiliary reference signal. The length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups configured by the network device, where each auxiliary reference signal group includes one or more auxiliary reference signals; or the length of the fourth field is equal to the number of auxiliary reference signals or auxiliary reference signal groups associated with R paging opportunities; or The fourth field contains R subfields, each corresponding to a R paging opportunity, and one subfield is used to indicate the availability of an auxiliary reference signal associated with the paging opportunity corresponding to that subfield. A communication device according to any one of Embodiments 24 to 38, including the following:

[0258] Embodiment 40: The first paging indication further includes a fifth field; and the fifth field is used to indicate the number of paging opportunities indicated by the first field; or The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 28, wherein the fifth field is used to indicate the length of the first field.

[0259] Embodiment 41: The content indicated by the first field in different paging indications for the same paging opportunity is the same. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 40.

[0260] Embodiment 42: There is a quasi co-location (QCL) relationship between the first paging indication and the synchronization signal block (SSB) closest to the first paging indication; or There is a QCL relationship between the first paging indication and the SSB associated with the first paging indication. The communication device according to any one of Embodiments 22 to 41.

[0261] Embodiment 43: A terminal is configured to receive a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before a paging opportunity of the terminal. The first paging indication includes a first field, and the first field is used to indicate whether paging is being transmitted for R paging opportunities. The R paging opportunities include the paging opportunity of the terminal, and R is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The terminal determines whether to monitor downlink control information (DCI) for the paging opportunity of the terminal based on the first paging opportunity, and the DCI is used to schedule a paging message A communication system comprising the above.

[0262] Embodiment 44: A communication device comprising one or more processors and communication interfaces, wherein one or more processors and communication interfaces are configured to support the communication device performing the paging method described in any one of Embodiments 1 to 21.

[0263] Embodiment 45: A computer-readable storage medium comprising a computer instruction, wherein when the computer instruction is executed on the computer, the computer is enabled to perform the paging method described in any one of Embodiments 1 to 21.

[0264] In the specification, claims, and accompanying drawings, terms such as “first” and “second” are intended to distinguish different subjects and do not indicate a specific order. Furthermore, terms such as “including” and “having” and any other derivatives thereof are intended to extend to non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product, or device comprising a series of steps or units may optionally further include steps or units not listed, or other specific steps or units of the process, method, product, or device, but is not limited to those listed.

[0265] In this application, “at least one (item)” means one or more; “multiple” means two or more; “at least two (items)” means two, three or more; and “and / or” is used to describe a correspondence between related objects, and it should be understood that three relationships may exist). For example, “A and / or B” may indicate the following three cases: only A exists, only B exists, and both A and B exist, where A and B may be singular or plural. The symbol “ / ” generally indicates an “or” relationship between related objects. “At least one of the following items (elements)” or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of singular or plural items (elements). For example, at least one of a, b, or c may mean a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a, b and c, where a, b, and c may be singular or plural.

[0266] In the embodiments of this application, “B corresponding to A” should be understood to indicate that B is associated with A. For example, B may be determined based on A. It should be further understood that determining B based on A does not mean that B is determined solely based on A. B may, alternatively, be determined based on A and / or other information. Furthermore, in the embodiments of this application, “connection” means various connection methods, such as direct or indirect connections, for implementing communication between devices. This is not limited to the embodiments of this application.

[0267] In embodiments of this application, unless otherwise specified, “transmit / transmission” refers to bidirectional transmission and includes transmitting and / or receiving operations. Specifically, “transmit” in embodiments of this application includes data transmission, data reception, or data transmission and data reception. In other words, data transmission as used herein includes uplink data transmission and / or downlink data transmission. Data may include channels and / or signals. Uplink data transmission is uplink channel transmission and / or uplink signal transmission, and downlink data transmission is downlink channel transmission and / or downlink signal transmission. In embodiments of this application, “network” and “system” represent the same concept, and a communication system is a communication network.

[0268] Based on the above-described implementation, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that, for the sake of ease and conciseness of explanation, the above-described classification of functional modules is merely an example used for illustrative purposes. In actual applications, the above-described functions may be assigned to different functional modules for implementation according to requirements; that is, the internal structure of the device may be divided into different functional modules to implement all or some of the functions described above.

[0269] In some embodiments provided herein, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and methods may be implemented in other ways. For example, the embodiments of the described apparatus are merely examples. For example, the division into modules or units is merely a logical functional division and may be other divisions during actual implementation. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another apparatus, or some features may be ignored or not performed. Furthermore, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection indicated or discussed may be implemented through some interfaces. Indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatus or units may be implemented electrically, mechanically, or in other forms.

[0270] Units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts shown as units may be one or more physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple different locations. Some or all of the units may be selected based on the actual requirements for achieving the objectives of the solution of the embodiment.

[0271] Furthermore, the functional units in the embodiments of this application may be integrated to form a single processing unit, or each of these units may exist physically independently, or two or more units may be integrated to form a single unit. The aforementioned integrated unit may be implemented in hardware form or in the form of a software functional unit.

[0272] When an integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software function unit and sold or used as a separate product, the integrated unit may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, either essentially or in part with respect to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solutions, may be implemented in the form of a software product. The software product is stored on a storage medium and includes a number of instructions for instructing a device or processor (which may be a single-chip microcomputer or chip, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method in the embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes any medium capable of storing program code, such as a USB flash drive, removable hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk, or optical disk. [Other possible items] [Item 1] The step of a terminal receiving a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal's paging opportunity, wherein the first paging indication includes a first field, the first field is used to indicate whether paging has been transmitted to R paging opportunities, the R paging opportunities include the terminal's paging opportunities, and R is an integer of 1 or more; and The step of determining whether the terminal monitors downlink control information DCI for the terminal's paging opportunity based on a first paging opportunity, wherein the DCI is used to schedule paging messages. A paging method that includes the following features. [Item 2] The method according to item 1, wherein the first field includes R indication information, the i-th indication information of the R indication information indicates whether paging has been sent to the i-th paging opportunity of the R paging opportunities, and i is an integer between 1 and R. [Item 3] The step of determining whether the terminal monitors downlink control information DCI for the terminal's paging opportunity based on the first paging opportunity is: The step of the terminal determining indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity based on the terminal's time domain position of the paging opportunity in the R paging opportunities; and The step in which the terminal determines whether to monitor the DCI for the terminal's paging opportunity based on the indication information corresponding to the terminal's paging opportunity. The method described in item 2, having the characteristics of item 2. [Item 4] The step in which the terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal has a paging opportunity is: The step of the terminal determining K paging indications corresponding to the paging opportunity of the terminal based on the time domain position of the paging opportunity of the terminal, where K is an integer of 1 or more; and The terminal receives the K paging indicators before the paging opportunity and determines the first paging indicator from the K paging indicators. The method according to any one of items 1 to 3, having the characteristics of: [Item 5] The method according to item 4, wherein K is configured by the network device for the terminal. [Item 6] The step in which the terminal receives a first paging indication transmitted by a network device before the terminal has a paging opportunity is: The terminal receives the first paging indication transmitted by the network device at a monitoring time interval. The method according to any one of items 1 to 3, having the characteristics of: [Item 7] The terminal receives monitoring time window configuration information transmitted by the network device, wherein the monitoring time window configuration information is used to determine the monitoring time interval; and The terminal determines the monitoring time interval based on the monitoring time window configuration information. The method described in item 6. [Item 8] The method according to any one of items 1 to 3, wherein the R paging opportunities are the R paging opportunities that are after the first paging indication and closest to the first paging indication. [Item 9] The method according to item 8, wherein R is configured by the network device for the terminal. [Item 10] The method according to any one of items 1 to 9, wherein the first field includes indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities, the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities includes a number of M bits, the number of M bits is used to indicate whether paging exists for the paging opportunity corresponding to the indication information, and M is an integer of 1 or more. [Item 11] M is configured by the network device for the terminal; or M is given by the formula: M =

number

number

number

number

Claims

1. The step of receiving a first paging indication before a terminal paging opportunity, wherein the first paging indication includes a first field, the first field is used to indicate whether paging is monitored for R paging opportunities, the R paging opportunities include the terminal paging opportunities, R is an integer greater than 1, the first field includes R indication information, the i-th indication information of the R indication information indicates whether paging is monitored for the i-th paging opportunity of the R paging opportunities, i is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to R, and R is comprised of network devices; and Based on the first paging indication, a step is to determine whether to monitor downlink control information (DCI) on the paging opportunity of the terminal, wherein the DCI is used to schedule paging messages. A paging method that includes the following features.

2. The step of determining whether to monitor downlink control information (DCI) on the paging opportunity of the terminal based on the first paging indication is: A step of determining indication information corresponding to the paging opportunity of the terminal based on the time domain position of the terminal for the paging opportunity in the R paging opportunities; and A step in determining whether to monitor the DCI during the paging opportunity of the terminal, based on the indication information corresponding to the paging opportunity of the terminal. The paging method according to claim 1, comprising:

3. The paging method according to claim 2, wherein the R paging opportunities are different paging opportunities in the same DRX cycle.

4. The step of receiving a first paging indication before the terminal has a paging opportunity is, The step of receiving the first paging indication at the monitoring time interval. A paging method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, comprising:

5. Steps include receiving monitoring time window configuration information, wherein the monitoring time window configuration information is used to determine the monitoring time interval; and Steps to determine the monitoring time interval based on the monitoring time window configuration information. The paging method according to claim 4, further comprising the following:

6. The step of determining the monitoring time interval based on the monitoring time window configuration information is: A step of determining the starting point of the monitoring time interval based on the monitoring time window configuration information; A step in which the monitoring time interval is determined based on the starting point of the monitoring time window configuration information. The paging method according to claim 5, comprising:

7. The paging method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein each of the R indicator pieces of information includes M bits, the M bits are used to indicate whether paging is monitored for the paging opportunity corresponding to the indicator piece, and M is an integer greater than 1.

8. The paging method according to claim 7, wherein the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities includes indication information for a plurality of terminals grouped into M groups, and each of the M bits is used to indicate whether a terminal in the corresponding group in the M groups monitors paging for the corresponding paging opportunity.

9. The paging method according to claim 8, wherein the order of the M bits in the indication information is based on the order of the group numbers of the M groups.

10. The order of the M bits in the indication information is based on the order of the group numbers of the M groups. The s-th bit in the M bits is used to indicate whether paging exists for the s-th group, where s is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than M. The paging method according to claim 9, including the method described in claim 9.

11. M is comprised of network devices for the aforementioned terminal. The paging method according to claim 7.

12. The paging method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the first paging indication further comprises a fourth field, the fourth field used to indicate the availability of a support reference signal, and the support reference signal is a support reference signal configured by a network device for one or more terminals in idle mode or inactive mode.

13. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions, wherein when the computer instructions are executed on the computer, the computer is enabled to perform the paging method according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

14. A communication device comprising a module or unit configured to perform the paging method described in any one of claims 1 to 12.

15. A computer program for causing a computer to perform the paging method described in any one of claims 1 to 12.

16. A step of transmitting a first paging indication before a terminal paging opportunity, wherein the first paging indication includes a first field, the first field used to indicate whether paging is being transmitted to R paging opportunities, the R paging opportunities include the terminal paging opportunities, where R is an integer greater than 1, the first field includes R indicator information, the i-th indicator information of the R indicator information indicates whether paging is being monitored for the i-th paging opportunity of the R paging opportunities, where i is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to R, where R is comprised of network devices, and the first paging indication is used to determine whether downlink control information (DCI) is being monitored for the terminal paging opportunities, wherein the DCI is used to schedule paging messages. A paging method that includes the following features.

17. The paging method according to claim 16, wherein the R paging opportunities are different paging opportunities in the same DRX cycle.

18. The step of sending a first paging indication before the terminal has a paging opportunity is, Steps to send the first paging indication at monitoring time intervals. The paging method according to claim 16 or 17, comprising:

19. In the step of transmitting monitoring time window configuration information, the monitoring time window configuration information is used to determine the monitoring time interval. The paging method according to claim 18, further comprising:

20. The paging method according to claim 19, wherein the monitoring time window configuration information includes the starting point of the monitoring time interval.

21. The paging method according to any one of claims 16 to 20, wherein each of the R indicators includes M bits, the M bits are used to indicate whether paging is monitored for the paging opportunity corresponding to the indicator, and M is an integer greater than 1.

22. The paging method according to claim 21, wherein the indication information corresponding to each of the R paging opportunities includes indication information for a plurality of terminals grouped into M groups, and each of the M bits is used to indicate whether a terminal in the corresponding group in the M groups monitors paging for the corresponding paging opportunity.

23. The paging method according to claim 22, wherein the order of the M bits in the indication information is based on the order of the group numbers of the M groups.

24. The order of the M bits in the indication information is based on the order of the group numbers of the M groups. The s-th bit in the M bits is used to indicate whether paging exists for the s-th group, where s is an integer greater than or equal to 1 and less than M. The paging method according to claim 23, including the method described in claim 23.

25. The step of configuring the M for the aforementioned terminal. The paging method according to claim 24, further comprising:

26. The paging method according to any one of claims 16 to 25, wherein the first paging indication further comprises a fourth field, the fourth field used to indicate the availability of a support reference signal, the support reference signal being a support reference signal configured by a network device for one or more terminals in idle mode or inactive mode.

27. A communication device comprising one or more processors and a communication interface, wherein the one or more processors and the communication interface are configured to support the communication device performing the paging method described in any one of claims 16 to 25.

28. A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer instructions, wherein when the computer instructions are executed on the computer, the computer is enabled to perform the paging method according to any one of claims 16 to 25.

29. A communication device comprising a module or unit configured to perform the paging method described in any one of claims 16 to 25.

30. A computer program for causing a computer to perform the paging method described in any one of claims 16 to 25.

31. A communication system comprising a terminal and a network device, wherein the terminal is configured to perform the paging method described in any one of claims 1 to 12, and the network device is configured to perform the paging method described in any one of claims 16 to 25.

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