Timing advance group indication

Abstract

The embodiments disclosed herein relate to apparatus, method, device, and computer-readable storage medium for a specific timing advance group (TAG) indication technology for blind user equipment (UE). The method includes: at a first device, determining whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more corresponding indices in a RAR is obtained from a second device; and based on the determination of the association, determining the suitability of the RAR for a random access procedure of the first device.

Description

Timing Advance Group Indication Technology Field of the Invention Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunications, and in particular, to methods, apparatuses, devices, and computer-readable storage media for timing advance group (TAG) indication technology, especially for blind user equipment (UE) specific TAG indication technology. Background of the Invention The main objectives of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) enhancement may involve beam management, multi-transmission reception points (mTRPs) for ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), mTRPs for enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), and time-division duplex (TDD) / frequency-division duplex (FDD) reciprocity. Summary of the Invention In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a first device is provided. The first device includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to at least perform the following operations: determining whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a special cell (SpCell) of the first device and one or more indices respectively corresponding in a random access response (RAR) is obtained from a second device; and determining the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first device based on the determination of the association. In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a second device is provided. The second device includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second device to at least perform the following operations: configuring an association between at least one TAG associated with an SpCell of a first device and one or more indices respectively corresponding in a RAR for the first device. In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided. The method includes: at a first device, determining whether an association between at least one TAG associated with an SpCell of the first device and one or more indices respectively corresponding in a RAR is obtained from a second device; and determining the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first device based on the determination of the association. In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, a method is provided. The method includes: configuring, from a second device, an association between at least one TAG associated with an SpCell of a first device and one or more indices respectively corresponding in a RAR for the first device. In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a first device is provided. The first device includes: a component for determining whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more indexes in a RAR respectively corresponding thereto is obtained from a second device; and a component for determining the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first device based on the determination of the association. In a sixth aspect of the present disclosure, a second device is provided. The second device includes a component for configuring an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of a first device and one or more indexes in a RAR respectively corresponding thereto for the first device. In a seventh aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided. The computer-readable medium stores instructions for causing a device to at least execute the method according to the third aspect. In an eighth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable medium is provided. The computer-readable medium stores instructions for causing a device to at least execute the method according to the fourth aspect. It should be understood that the summary of the invention section is neither intended to identify key or essential features of the embodiments of the present disclosure nor intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. According to the following description, other features of the present disclosure will become readily understandable. Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment The principles of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some exemplary embodiments. It should be understood that these embodiments are described for illustrative purposes only and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without indicating any limitation to the scope of the present disclosure. The embodiments described herein can be implemented in various ways other than the ways described below. In the following description and claims, unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains. References in the present disclosure to "one embodiment", "an embodiment", "an exemplary embodiment" and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure or characteristic, but not every embodiment necessarily includes the particular feature, structure or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it should be understood that the implementation of this feature, structure or characteristic in connection with other embodiments is within the knowledge of those skilled in the art, whether or not explicitly described. It should be understood that although terms such as "first", "second",... etc. before nouns and their like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by such terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another and do not limit the order of the nouns. For example, without departing from the scope of the exemplary embodiments, the first element may be referred to as the second element, and similarly, the second element may be referred to as the first element. As used herein, the term "and / or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed items. As used herein, "at least one of the following: <list of two or more elements>" and "at least one <list of two or more elements>" and similar phrases, where the list of two or more elements is connected by "and" or "or", means at least any one of such elements, or at least any two or more of such elements, or at least all of such elements. As used herein, unless explicitly stated, performing a step "in response to A" does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after "A" and may include one or more intermediate steps. The terms used herein are for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and are not intended to limit the exemplary embodiments. As used herein, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the singular forms "a", "an", and "the" are also intended to include the plural forms. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises", "comprising", "has", "having", "includes", and / or "including", when used herein, specify the presence of the stated features, elements, and / or components, etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components, and / or combinations thereof. As used in this application, the term "circuitry" may refer to one or more or all of the following: (a) only hardware circuit implementations (such as implementations only in analog and / or digital circuitry), and (b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (if applicable): (i) combinations of analog and / or digital hardware circuits and software / firmware, and (ii) any part of a hardware processor with software (including digital signal processors, software, and memory that work together to enable a device such as a mobile phone or a server to perform various functions), and (c) hardware circuits and / or processors, such as a microprocessor or a part of a microprocessor, that require software (such as firmware) to operate, but where the software may not be present when it is not required to operate. This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of the term in this application, including all uses in any claim. As another example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also encompasses implementations that are only hardware circuits or processors (or multiple processors), or portions of hardware circuits or processors, along with their accompanying software and / or firmware. For example and in the context of elements applicable to a particular claim, the term circuitry also encompasses a baseband integrated circuit or a processor integrated circuit for a mobile device, or a similar integrated circuit in a server, a cellular network device, or other computing or networking device. As used herein, the term "communication network" refers to a network that complies with any suitable communication standard, such as New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-IoT), and so on. In addition, the communication between a terminal device and a network device in a communication network can be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocol, including but not limited to the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), 2.5G, 2.75G, third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), 4.5G, fifth generation (5G), sixth generation (6G) communication protocols and / or any other protocol known currently or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems. Given the rapid development of communications, there will of course also be future types of communication technologies and systems that can embody the present disclosure. It should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the foregoing systems. As used herein, the term "network device" refers to a node in a communication network through which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services from the network. The network device can refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP), such as Node B (NodeB or NB), evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), NR NB (also referred to as gNB), Remote Radio Unit (RRU), Radio Head (RH), Remote Radio Head (RRH), repeater, Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, low-power nodes such as femto, pico, non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network devices such as satellite network devices, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites and Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, airborne network devices, etc., depending on the terms and technologies applied. In some exemplary embodiments, a radio access network (RAN) split architecture includes a Central Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. The IAB node includes a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE to the parent node, and the DU part of the IAB node behaves like a base station to the next-hop IAB node. The term "terminal device" refers to any terminal device capable of wireless communication. By way of example and not limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE), subscriber station (SS), portable subscriber station, mobile station (MS), or access terminal (AT). Terminal devices may include, but are not limited to, mobile phones, cellular phones, smartphones, IP voice (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, tablet computers, wearable terminal devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable computers, desktop computers, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, game terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, in-vehicle wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop embedded equipment (LEE), laptop mounted equipment (LME), USB hardware locks, smart devices, wireless customer premise equipment (CPE), Internet of Things (IoT) devices, watches or other wearable devices, head-mounted displays (HMDs), vehicles, drones, medical devices and applications (such as remote surgery), industrial devices and applications (such as robots and / or other wireless devices operating in the context of industrial and / or automation processing chains), consumer electronic devices, devices operating on commercial and / or industrial wireless networks, and the like. A terminal device may also correspond to the mobile terminal (MT) part of an IAB node (such as a relay node). In the following description, the terms "terminal device", "communication device", "terminal", "user equipment", and "UE" may be used interchangeably. As used herein, the terms "resource", "transmission resource", "resource block", "physical resource block (PRB)", "uplink resource", or "downlink resource" may refer to any resource used to perform communication, such as communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in the time domain, a resource in the frequency domain, a resource in the spatial domain, a resource in the code domain, or any other combination of time, frequency, spatial, and / or code domain resources that enables communication, and the like. Hereinafter, unless explicitly stated, resources in both the frequency domain and the time domain will be used as examples of transmission resources for describing some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains. As used herein, the term "transmission reception point (TRP)" may refer to an antenna port or an antenna array (having one or more antenna elements) available for a network device located at a specific geographical location. For example, a network device may be coupled to multiple RAPs in different geographical locations to achieve better coverage. Alternatively or additionally, multiple TRPs may be incorporated into the network device, or in other words, the network device may include multiple TRPs. The term "TRP" may also be referred to as a cell, such as a macro cell, a small cell, a pico cell, a remote radio head, a relay node, etc. It should be understood that the term "TRP" may refer to a logical concept that can be physically implemented in various ways. For example, a TRP may refer to or correspond to a physical cell identity (PCI) or a control resource set (CORESET) pool index (i.e., CORESETPoolIndex). In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the term "TRP" may be used interchangeably with the term "PCI" or " CORESETPoolIndex". FIG. 1 shows an exemplary communication network 100 in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication network 100 may include a first device 110-1 and a first device 110-2. Each of the first device 110-1 and the first device 110-2 may be referred to as a terminal device (e.g., UE). Hereinafter, the first device 110-1 and the first device 110-2 may be collectively referred to as the first device 110. The communication network 100 may further include a second device 120-1 and a second device 120-2. Each of the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may be referred to as a network device (e.g., gNB or TRP). Hereinafter, the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may be collectively referred to as the second device 120. Both the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may serve the first device 110. That is, each of the second device 120-1 and the second device 120-2 may serve the first device 110 within its serving cell. In this case, the serving cell associated with the second device 120-1 and the serving cell associated with the second device 120-2 may be referred to as the SpCell 102 of the first device 110. The SpCell may be referred to as a primary cell (PCell) and / or a primary and secondary cell (PSCell). In some scenarios, the first device 110 may be configured with multiple TRPs (MTRP), such as a first TRP (e.g., the second device 120-1) and a second TRP (e.g., the second device 120-2) within the SpCell of the first device 110. When the first device 110 communicates with the second device 120 within a serving cell, it should be understood that the first device 110 can communicate with one or both of the first TRP and the second TRP. For example, the terminal device may be allowed to transmit and / or receive control information and data from the first TRP and the second TRP. It should be understood that the number of network devices and terminal devices shown in FIG. 1 is given for illustrative purposes and does not imply any limitation. The communication network 100 may include any suitable number of network devices and terminal devices. In some exemplary embodiments, the link from the second device 120 to the first device 110 may be referred to as a downlink (DL), and the link from the first device 110 to the second device 120 may be referred to as an uplink (UL). In the DL, the second device 120 is a transmitting (TX) device (or transmitter), and the first device 110 is a receiving (RX) device (or receiver). In the UL, the first device 110 is a TX device (or transmitter), and the second device 120 is an RX device (or receiver). Communication in the communication environment 100 may be implemented according to any suitable communication protocol, including but not limited to cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G), second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), fifth generation (5G), sixth generation (6G), and the like, wireless local area network communication protocols such as those of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and / or any other protocol currently known or to be developed in the future. In addition, the communication may utilize any suitable wireless communication technology, including but not limited to: code division multiple access (CDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division duplexing (FDD), time division duplexing (TDD), multiple input multiple output (MIMO), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), discrete Fourier transform (Fourier Transform) spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM), and / or any other technology currently known or to be developed in the future. As discussed above, MIMO has been widely used in current wireless communication systems. Specifically, MIMO is one of the key technologies in the NR system and has achieved success in commercial deployment. MIMO characteristics have been studied and specified for both frequency division duplexing (FDD) and time division duplexing (TDD) systems, with the main part being used for downlink MIMO operations. Identifying and specifying the necessary enhancements for UL MIMO is very important, while at the same time the necessary enhancements for downlink MIMO still need to be introduced to facilitate the use of large antenna arrays (not only for frequency range 1 (FR1), but also for frequency range 2 (FR2)) to meet the requirements of the NR deployment evolution. This includes the following enhancement areas. First, in commercial deployments, especially in multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) scenarios, significant performance losses of UEs have been observed at high / medium speeds. Since the performance losses are partly caused by outdated channel state information (CSI), enhancing CSI acquisition to mitigate such losses may be beneficial. Second, a unified transmission configuration indicator (TCI) framework has been introduced, which facilitates simplified multi-beam operation for FR2. Since it focuses on single-TRP use cases, it is beneficial to extend the unified TCI framework to focus on multi-TRP use cases. Third, due to the increasing demands of various use cases for the multiplexing capacity of downlink and uplink demodulation reference signals (DMRS), the number of orthogonal ports for DMRS needs to be increased. Fourth, features for facilitating multi-TRP deployments have been introduced, which focus on non-coherent joint transmission (NC-JT). Since coherent joint transmission (CJT) improves coverage and average throughput in commercial deployments by leveraging high-performance backhaul and synchronization, enhancing CSI acquisition for FDD and TDD of FR1 may be beneficial for extending the utility of multi-TRP deployments. Fifth, when advanced UEs (such as customer premise equipment (CPE), fixed wireless access (FWA), vehicles, industrial devices) become more relevant, introducing necessary enhancements to support 8 antenna ports and 4 or more layers for UL transmission can provide the required improvements in UL coverage and average throughput. Sixth, in the case of introducing features for UL panel selection, advanced UEs (such as CPE, FWA, vehicles, industrial devices) can benefit from higher UL coverage and average throughput through simultaneous UL multi-panel transmission. Finally, some other enhancements that facilitate UL multi-TRP deployments via two timing advances (TAs) and enhanced UL power control can further improve UL performance. In addition, the study of two timing advances (TAs) for UL multi-downlink control information (DCI) for multi-TRP operation has been discussed. It has been agreed that for two TAs of DCI for multi-TRP operation, the UE can configure two timing advance groups (TAGs) for each serving cell. The corresponding protocol may indicate the following: For multi-DCI-based multi-TRP operation using two TAs, support configuring two TAGs belonging to one serving cell. For intra-cell multi-DCI-based multi-TRP operation using two TA enhancements and physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order-free random access (CFRA), use 1 bit (the first TAG ID or the second TAG ID of the serving cell) as part of the TA command in the random access response (RAR) to indicate the representation form of the TAG identifier (ID). For intra-cell multi-DCI-based multi-TRP operation, only configure a single N TA,offset 。 It has also been agreed that for contention-based random access (CBRA), the mechanism for the CFRA case can be used, i.e., the random access (RA) RAR indication TAG is used. This means that when the UE performs an RA procedure on a serving cell configured with 2 TAGs (for CBRA, this execution is always for the SpCell, i.e., the PCell or PSCell), the network (NW) indicates the TAG applicable to the RAR via the indication in the RAR. The general understanding is that the R bit in the media access control (MAC) payload of the RAR can be used for this indication. The MAC RAR is octet-aligned and consists of the following fields: - R: Reserved bit, set to 0; - Timing Advance Command (TAC): The Timing Advance Command field indicates the index value used to control the amount of timing adjustment that the MAC entity must apply T A 。The size of the Timing Advance Command field is 12 bits; - UL Grant: The Uplink Grant field indicates the resources to be used on the uplink. The size of the UL Grant field is 27 bits; - Temporary C-RNTI: The Temporary Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI) field indicates the temporary identifier used by the MAC entity during random access. The size of the Temporary C-RNTII field is 16 bits. As discussed above, when performing the CBRA procedure, the NW only identifies the UE after receiving the message 3 (Msg3) transmission of the RA procedure from the UE. This causes problems in indicating the associated TAG in the RAR (e.g., message 2 (Msg2)) of the RA procedure when two UEs within the same serving cell have different TAG IDs associated with the same TRP of the cell. For example, as shown in Figure 1, this may occur in the following situation: The first device 110-1 (e.g., the first UE) performs an initial access to the beam provided by the second device 120-1 (e.g., the first TRP), and the first TA#0 provided to the first device 110-1 can be associated with TAG#0 (towards the second device 120-1), while the additional TAs of the second device 120-2 (e.g., the second TRP) can be further associated with TAG#1 / 2 / 3. On the other hand, the first device 110-2 (e.g., the second UE) can perform an initial access to the beam provided by the second device 120-2 (e.g., the second TRP), and the first TA#0 provided to the first device 110-2 can be associated with TAG#0 (towards the second device 120-2), while the additional TAs of the second device 120-1 (e.g., the first TRP) can be further associated with TAG#1 / 2 / 3. Thus, since the NW does not know which UE transmitted the preamble after receiving the preamble via the random access channel (RACH), the NW does not know whether the UE is configured with multiple TAGs for the serving cell, and if so, the NW also does not know which TAG ID is associated with a given TRP of the UE. According to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, a solution for blind UE-specific TAG indication is provided. In this solution, the first device 110 determines whether the association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device 110 and one or more indexes in the RAR respectively corresponding thereto is obtained from the second device 120. Based on the determination of the association, the first device 110 determines the applicability of the RAR to the random access procedure of the first device 110. In this way, if the UE is configured with two TAGs for its SpCell, the NW can indicate the appropriate TAG for the UE via the RAR without identifying the UE. Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring now to FIG. 2, which shows a signaling diagram 200 for communication according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 2, the signaling diagram 200 involves the terminal device 110 and the network device 120. For the purpose of discussion, FIG. 1 is referred to describe the signaling diagram 200. In some scenarios related to FIG. 2, at least two TAGs associated with the SpCell 102 of the first device 110 may be configured for the first device 110. In some embodiments, the second device 120 may configure (205) the first device 110 with the association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell 102 of the first device 110 and one or more indexes in the RAR respectively corresponding thereto. For example, after configuring the second TAG for the first device 110, the first device 110 may obtain (210) the association. That is, the second device 120 may provide / configure the association between each TAG (e.g., among two TAGs) associated with the SpCell and the indication (e.g., index) via the RAR. This association may indicate, that is, which TAG is applicable to which index value indicated in the RAR. It should be understood that in some embodiments, the index in the RAR or the indication in the RAR may be indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR. In some examples, the index in the RAR or the indication in the RAR may be indicated by the value of a bit field in the UL grant field of the RAR. As another example, if there is no second TAG, the first device 110 may obtain (215) the association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR. For example, the second device 120 may configure such an association after the initial configuration of the first device 110, that is, the association between the first TAG and the corresponding index in the RAR. For the association between at least one TAG and one or more respective corresponding indexes / indications, the second device 120 may configure only the association between one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device 110 and the index in the RAR having a specific index value (e.g., value #1). The first device 110 may determine that other TAGs associated with the SpCell of the first device 110 are indicated by indexes in the RAR having another index value (e.g., value #0). Optionally or alternatively, the indications in the RAR are always interpreted in a certain way. For example, a lower index value (e.g., value #0) of the indication in the RAR may always be mapped to a TAG having a lower TAG index value (e.g., TAG ID #0), while a higher index value (e.g., #1) of the indication in the RAR may always be mapped to a TAG of the first device 110 having a higher TAG index value (e.g., TAG ID #2). In this case, in some embodiments, the second device 120 may have to ensure that the TAG ID of the first device 110 that has two TAGs configured for the SpCell is properly configured. For example, after configuring the second TAG associated with the SpCell for the first device 110, the second device 120 may need to reconfigure TAG ID #0 to the second TAG and configure a new TAG ID (e.g., TAG ID #2) for the first TAG of the first device 110. The second device 120 may transmit (220) the RAR (e.g., in the RA procedure) to the first device 110. The first device 110 may determine the TAG indication (e.g., index) in the RAR. In some embodiments, if the first device 110 determines, based on the configured association, that the received RAR indication corresponds to the index of the TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device, then the first device 110 may determine that this received RAR is applicable to the RA procedure. That is, the first device 110 will apply (225) this RAR during the RA procedure only when the indication (e.g., index) in the RAR corresponds to the configured value of the TAG of the first device 110. Otherwise, the first device 110 may not apply the received RAR to the RA procedure until the first device 110 receives an RAR including an indication (e.g., index) corresponding to the configured value of its TAG. In some other embodiments, it is also possible that neither the configuration of the second TAG nor the corresponding index in the received RAR exists. In this case, the first device 110 may ignore the indication in the RAR (or treat it as a reserved bit) and always apply the RAR (225) to the RA procedure. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a message format including a TAG indication according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the index associated with the TAG ID of the TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device 110 may be included in the TID field 301 of the MAC payload of the RAR. For example, if the TID field 301 indicates that in the RAR received by the first device 110, the index has an index value #1, which is associated with TAG #1 associated with the SpCell of the first device 110, then the first device 110 may apply this RAR to the RA procedure. Based on the proposed solutions of the present disclosure, various embodiments proposed in the present disclosure can be implemented into the MAC specification. Different alternative implementations associated with the TID field in the RAR of the MAC specification can be listed as follows: Although the solutions of the present disclosure have been described with a 4-step RA procedure (i.e., Msg 2 in the 4-step RA procedure), it should be understood that these solutions can also be applied to 2-step RA MSGB and / or feedback RAR. By applying the exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, if the UE configures two TAGs for its SpCell, the NW can indicate the appropriate TAG for the UE via the RAR without having to identify the UE. FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 400 implemented at a first device according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, method 400 will be described from the perspective of the first device 110 in FIG. 1. At block 410, the first device 110 determines whether the association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device and one or more indexes respectively corresponding in the RAR is obtained from the second device. At block 420, the first device 110 determines the applicability of the RAR to the random access procedure of the first device based on the determination of the association. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device is capable of being configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell. In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes: obtaining the association after configuring the second TAG for the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes: obtaining an association between a first TAG and a corresponding index in a RAR when there is no configuration of a second TAG. In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes: determining, based on the association, that the received RAR is to be applied to a random access procedure in response to a determination that the RAR indicates an index corresponding to a TAG associated with a SpCell of a first device. In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes: determining, based on the association, that the received RAR is not to be applied to a random access procedure in response to a determination that the RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a TAG associated with a SpCell of a first device. In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes: obtaining an association between a TAG associated with a SpCell and an index having a specific index value in a RAR; and determining that another TAG associated with the SpCell is associated with another index having another index value in the RAR. In some exemplary embodiments, a lower index value in a RAR is associated with a TAG having a lower group identifier, and a higher index value in the RAR is associated with a TAG having a higher group identifier. In some exemplary embodiments, method 400 further includes: determining that the RAR is to be applied to a random access procedure in response to a determination that there is neither a configuration of a second TAG nor a corresponding index in the received RAR. In some exemplary embodiments, an index in a RAR is indicated by a value of a bit field in the RAR. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device. FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an exemplary method 500 implemented at a second device according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. For purposes of discussion, method 500 will be described from the perspective of the second device 120 in FIG. 1. At block 510, the second device 120 configures an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more respective corresponding indexes in a RAR for the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device is capable of being configured with two TAGs associated with a SpCell. In some exemplary embodiments, method 500 further includes: after configuring a second TAG for the first device, configuring the association for the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, method 500 further includes: when there is no configuration of a second TAG, configuring an association between a first TAG and a corresponding index in a RAR for the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, method 500 further includes: configuring, for a first device, an index having a specific index value in a TAG and a RAR associated with a SpCell. In some exemplary embodiments, a lower index value in the RAR is associated with a TAG having a lower group identifier, and a higher index value in the RAR is associated with a TAG having a higher group identifier. In some exemplary embodiments, method 500 further includes: in response to configuring a TAG having a lower group identifier associated with a higher index value, reconfiguring, when configuring a TAG having a higher group identifier, a TAG having a lower group identifier associated with a lower index value. In some exemplary embodiments, the index in the RAR is indicated by a value of a bit field in the RAR. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device. In some exemplary embodiments, a first device (e.g., the first device 110 in FIG. 1) capable of performing any of the methods 400 may include components for performing respective operations of the method 400. The components may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the components may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module. The first device may be implemented as or included in the first device 110 in FIG. 1. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes: a component for determining whether an association between at least one TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device and one or more indexes respectively corresponding in a RAR is obtained from a second device; and a component for determining the applicability of the RAR to a random access procedure of the first device based on the determination of the association. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device is capable of being configured with two TAGs associated with a SpCell. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes: a component for obtaining an association after configuring a second TAG for the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes: a component for obtaining an association between a first TAG and a corresponding index in the RAR when there is no configuration of a second TAG. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further includes: a component for determining, based on a determination that a received RAR indicates an index corresponding to a TAG associated with a SpCell of the first device according to the association, that the RAR will be applied to a random access procedure. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further comprises: a component for determining that the RAR is not applied to the random access procedure based on a determination that the received RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further comprises: a component for obtaining an association between a TAG associated with the SpCell and an index having a specific index value in the RAR; and a component for determining that another TAG associated with the SpCell is associated with another index having another index value in the RAR. In some exemplary embodiments, a lower index value in the RAR is associated with a TAG having a lower group identifier, and a higher index value in the RAR is associated with a TAG having a higher group identifier. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further comprises: a component for determining that the RAR will be applied to the random access procedure based on a determination that neither the configuration of the second TAG nor the corresponding index in the received RAR exists. In some exemplary embodiments, the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device further comprises a component for performing method 400 or other operations in some exemplary embodiments of the first device 110. In some exemplary embodiments, the component includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory that stores instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the execution of the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, the second device (e.g., the second device 120 in FIG. 1) capable of performing any of the methods 500 may include components for performing the respective operations of method 500. The components may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the components may be implemented in a circuit system or a software module. The second device may be implemented as or included in the second device 120 in FIG. 1. In some exemplary embodiments, the second device comprises a component for configuring an association between at least one TAG associated with the SpCell of the first device and one or more indices respectively corresponding in the RAR for the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device is capable of being configured with two TAGs associated with the SpCell. In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further comprises: a component for configuring an association for the first device after configuring the second TAG for the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further includes: means for associating, when there is no assembly of the second TAG, a first TAG with a corresponding index in the RAR to the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further includes: means for associating a TAG associated with a SpCell and an index having a specific index value in the RAR to the first device. In some exemplary embodiments, a lower index value in the RAR is associated with a TAG having a lower group identifier, and a higher index value in the RAR is associated with a TAG having a higher group identifier. In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further includes: in response to assembling a TAG having a lower group identifier associated with a higher index value, when assembling a TAG having a higher group identifier, reassembling a TAG having a lower group identifier associated with a lower index value. In some exemplary embodiments, the index in the RAR is indicated by the value of a bit field in the RAR. In some exemplary embodiments, the first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device. In some exemplary embodiments, the second device further includes means for performing method 500 or other operations in some exemplary embodiments of the second device 120. In some exemplary embodiments, the means includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second device to execute. FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram of a device 600 suitable for implementing exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 600 may be provided to implement a communication device, such as the first device 110 or the second device 120 shown in FIG. 1. As shown, the device 600 includes one or more processors 610, one or more memories 620 coupled to the processor 610, and one or more communication modules 640 coupled to the processor 610. The communication module 640 is for two-way communication. The communication module 640 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interface may represent any interface necessary for communicating with other network elements. In some exemplary embodiments, the communication module 640 may include at least one antenna. As a non-limiting example, the processor 610 may belong to any type suitable for the network of the present technology, and may include one or more of the following: a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture. The device 600 may have multiple processors, such as an application-specific integrated circuit chip that is subordinate in time to a clock that synchronizes with a main processor. Memory 620 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, read-only memory (ROM) 624, electronically programmable read-only memory (EPROM), flash memory, hard disk, compact disc (CD), digital video disc (DVD), optical disc, laser disc, and other magnetic storage and / or optical storage. Examples of volatile memories include, but are not limited to, random access memory (RAM) 622 and other volatile memories that do not persist during power-off duration. Computer program 630 includes computer-executable instructions executed by associated processor 610. The instructions of program 630 may include instructions for performing the operations / actions of some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Program 630 may be stored in a memory, such as in ROM 624. Processor 610 may execute any suitable actions and processing by loading program 630 into RAM 622. Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of program 630 such that device 600 may execute any process of the present disclosure discussed with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5. Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware. In some exemplary embodiments, program 630 may be tangibly embodied in a computer-readable medium that may be included in device 600 (such as in memory 620) or other storage devices accessible by device 600. Device 600 may load program 630 from the computer-readable medium into RAM 622 for execution. In some exemplary embodiments, the computer-readable medium may include any type of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. As used herein, the term "non-transitory" is a limitation on the medium itself (i.e., tangible, rather than a signal), rather than a limitation on the persistence of data storage (e.g., RAM versus ROM). FIG. 7 shows an example of a computer-readable medium 700 that may be in the form of a CD, DVD, or other optical storage disk. Program 630 is stored on computer-readable medium 700. Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or in special-purpose circuitry, software, logic, or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software executable by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. Although various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other graphical representation for illustration and description, it should be understood that the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented as non-limiting examples in hardware, software, firmware, special-purpose circuitry or logic, general hardware or controller, or other computing device, or some combination thereof. Some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium such as a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, that are executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor to perform any of the methods described above. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. In various embodiments, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or separated as needed among the program modules. The machine-executable instructions of the program modules may be executed locally or within a distributed device. In a distributed device, the program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media. The code for implementing the methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. The code may be provided to a processor or controller of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, or other programmable data processing device such that the code, when executed by the processor or controller, causes the functions / operations specified in the flowchart and / or block diagram to be implemented. The code may be executed entirely on the machine, partially on the machine, executed as a stand-alone software package, partially on the machine and partially on a remote machine, or entirely on a remote machine or server. In the context of the present disclosure, the computer code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier such that a device, apparatus, or processor can execute the various processes and operations described above. Examples of carriers include signals, computer-readable media, and the like. The computer-readable media may be a computer-readable signal medium or a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable media may include, but is not limited to, electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor systems, apparatus, or devices, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the computer-readable storage media will include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In addition, although the operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be construed as requiring that the operations be performed in the particular order shown or in a sequential order, or that all of the stated operations be performed to achieve a desired result. In some cases, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Similarly, although several specific implementation details are included in the above discussion, these details should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather should be construed as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features described in the context of individual embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Conversely, various features described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented separately in multiple embodiments or in any suitable sub-combination, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and / or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. The fact is that the specific features and acts described above are disclosed in an exemplary form for implementing the claims. 100: Communication network 102: Special cell (SpCell) 110: First device, terminal device 110-1, 110-2: First device 120: Second device, network device 120-1, 120-2: Second device 200: Signaling chart 205, 210, 215, 220, 225: Steps 301: TID field 400, 500: Methods 410, 420, 510: Blocks 600: Device 610: Processor 620: Memory 622: Random access memory 624: Read-only memory 630: Program, computer program 640: Communication module 700: Computer-readable medium Some exemplary embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary communication environment in which exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented; FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling chart depicting an example of a process according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a message format including a TAG indication according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a first device according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of a method implemented at a second device according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; FIG. 6 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device suitable for implementing exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure; and FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary computer-readable medium according to some exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. In the throughout diagrams, the same or similar component symbols represent the same or similar components. 400: Method 410, 420: Blocks

Claims

1. A first device for communication, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to perform at least the following operations: determining whether an association between at least one timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in a random access response RAR corresponding to each TAG is obtained from a second device; and determining, based on the determination of the association, the suitability of the random access response RAR for a random access procedure of the first device.

2. As in the first device of request item 1, wherein, The first device can be assembled with two timing advance groups TAG associated with the specific cell SpCell.

3. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, The first device is caused to perform the following operation: obtain the association after configuring a second timing advance group TAG for the first device.

4. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, The first device is caused to perform the following operation: when no second time advance group TAG is configured, obtain an association between a first time advance group TAG and a corresponding index in the random fetch response RAR.

5. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, The first device is caused to perform the following operation: based on a determination made on the association that a received random access response RAR indication corresponds to an index of a timing advance group TAG associated with the specific cell SpCell of the first device, the random access response RAR is determined to be applied to the random access procedure.

6. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, The first device is caused to perform the following operation: based on a determination made on the association that a received random access response RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a timing advance group TAG associated with the specific cell SpCell of the first device, the random access response RAR is determined not to be applied to the random access procedure.

7. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, The first device is caused to perform the following operations: obtain an association between a timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell and an index having a specific index value in the random retrieval response RAR; and determine that another timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell is associated with another index having another index value in the random retrieval response RAR.

8. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, One of the lower index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a lower group identifier, and one of the higher index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a higher group identifier.

9. As in the first device of request item 1, wherein, The first device is caused to perform the following operation: based on the determination that there is no second timing advance group TAG and no corresponding index in a received random access response RAR, the random access response RAR is determined to be applied to the random access procedure.

10. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, An index in the random retrieval response RAR is indicated by a value in a bit field of the random retrieval response RAR.

11. The first device as requested in item 1 or 2, wherein, The first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

12. A second device for communication, comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the second device to perform at least the following operations: associating a first device with at least one timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell of the first device and with each corresponding index in one or more in a random access response RAR.

13. The second device as claimed in claim 12, wherein, The first device can be assembled with two timing advance groups TAG associated with the specific cell SpCell.

14. The second device as requested in item 12 or 13, wherein, The second device is caused to perform the following operation: after configuring a second timing advance group TAG for the first device, configure the association for the first device.

15. The second device as requested in item 12 or 13, wherein, The second device is caused to perform the following operation: when no second timing advance group TAG is configured, to configure the first device with an association between a first timing advance group TAG and a corresponding index in the random fetch response RAR.

16. The second device as requested in item 12 or 13, wherein, The second device is caused to perform the following operation: to assign a timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell and an index with a specific index value in the random access response RAR to the first device.

17. The second device as requested in item 12 or 13, wherein, One of the lower index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a lower group identifier, and one of the higher index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a higher group identifier.

18. The second device as claimed in claim 17, wherein, The second device is caused to perform the following operation: in response to the configuration of the timing advance group TAG with the lower group identifier associated with the higher index value, when configuring the timing advance group TAG with the higher group identifier, reconfigure the timing advance group TAG with the lower group identifier associated with the lower index value.

19. The second device as requested in item 12 or 13, wherein, An index in the random retrieval response RAR is indicated by a value in a bit field of the random retrieval response RAR.

20. The second device as requested in item 12 or 13, wherein, The first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

21. A method for communication, comprising: at a first device, determining whether an association between at least one timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in a random access response RAR, respectively, is obtained from a second device; and determining, based on the determination of the association, the suitability of the random access response RAR for a random access procedure of the first device.

22. As in request item 21, wherein, The first device can be assembled with two timing advance groups TAG associated with the specific cell SpCell.

23. The method of request 21 or 22, further comprising: obtaining the association after configuring a second timing advance group TAG for the first device.

24. The method of request item 21 or 22, further comprising: obtaining an association between a first timed advance group TAG and a corresponding index in the random fetch response RAR when no second timed advance group TAG is configured.

25. The method of claim 21 or 22, further comprising: determining that the random access response RAR will be applied to the random access procedure based on a determination made based on the association that a received random access response RAR indication corresponds to an index of a timing advance group TAG associated with the specific cell SpCell of the first device.

26. The method of claim 21 or 22, further comprising: determining that the random access response RAR will not be applied to the random access procedure based on a determination made based on the association that a received random access response RAR does not indicate an index corresponding to a timing advance group TAG associated with the particular cell SpCell of the first device.

27. The method of claim 21 or 22, further comprising: obtaining an association between a timing advance group TAG associated with a particular cell SpCell and an index having a specific index value in the random retrieval response RAR; and determining that another timing advance group TAG associated with a particular cell SpCell is associated with another index having another index value in the random retrieval response RAR.

28. As in request item 21 or 22, wherein, One of the lower index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a lower group identifier, and one of the higher index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a higher group identifier.

29. The method of request item 21, further comprising: determining, based on a determination that there is no second timing advance group TAG and no corresponding index in a received random access response RAR, that the random access response RAR will be applied to the random access procedure.

30. As in request item 21 or 22, wherein, An index in the random retrieval response RAR is indicated by a value in a bit field of the random retrieval response RAR.

31. As in request item 21 or 22, wherein, The first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

32. A method for communication, comprising: associating a second device with a first device at least one timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell of the first device and the respective corresponding indices in a random access response RAR.

33. As in request item 32, wherein, The first device can be assembled with two timing advance groups TAG associated with the specific cell SpCell.

34. The method of claim 32 or 33 further comprises: configuring the association on the first device after configuring a second timing advance group TAG on the first device.

35. The method of request item 32 or 33, further comprising: when no second timing advance group TAG is configured, associating the first device with a first timing advance group TAG and a corresponding index in the random access response RAR.

36. The method of claim 32 or 33, further comprising: assigning a timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell to the first device and an index having a specific index value in the random access response RAR.

37. As in request item 32 or 33, wherein, One of the lower index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a lower group identifier, and one of the higher index values ​​in the random retrieval response RAR is associated with a time-advance group TAG having a higher group identifier.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising: in response to the configuration of the timing advance group TAG having the lower group identifier associated with the higher index value, when configuring the timing advance group TAG having the higher group identifier, reconfiguring the timing advance group TAG having the lower group identifier associated with the lower index value.

39. As in request item 32 or 33, wherein, An index in the random retrieval response RAR is indicated by a value in a bit field of the random retrieval response RAR.

40. If method 32 or 33 is requested, where, The first device includes a terminal device, and the second device includes a network device.

41. A first device for communication, comprising: means for determining whether an association between at least one timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell of the first device and one or more indices in a random access response RAR, respectively, is obtained from a second device; and means for determining the suitability of the random access response RAR for a random access procedure of the first device based on the determination of the association.

42. A second device for communication, comprising: a component for associating a first device with at least one timing advance group TAG associated with a specific cell SpCell of the first device and the association between each corresponding index in one or more indices in a random access response RAR.

43. A computer-readable medium comprising stored instructions for causing a device to perform at least the method of any one of claims 21 to 31 or the method of any one of claims 32 to 40.

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