Method and apparatus for sidelink communication

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a method and apparatus for sidelink communication, which method and apparatus facilitate initial beam pairing performed by two or more terminal devices in a sidelink communication system on the basis of a sidelink. The method comprises: a first terminal device sending a first S-SSB by means of one or more transmission beams (S510), wherein the first S-SSB is used for bearing first information, and the first information is used for one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

Description

Method and device for sideline communication Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for sideline communication. Background Art

[0002] When communicating in higher-frequency bands (e.g., millimeter-wave bands), network equipment can achieve system coverage through beam scanning using large-scale antenna arrays. Beam scanning requires certain spatial and temporal resources and consumes significant power. Therefore, network equipment and terminal devices use beam pairing to determine the optimal transmit and receive beam pair for uplink and downlink transmission.

[0003] In a sideline communication system, how terminal devices perform beam pairing based on sideline links is a problem that needs to be solved.

[0004] Summary of the Invention

[0005] The present application provides a method and apparatus for sideline communication. The following describes various aspects of the embodiments of the present application.

[0006] In a first aspect, a method for sideline communication is provided, comprising: a first terminal device sends a first S-SSB through one or more transmit beams, the first S-SSB is used to carry first information, and the first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

[0007] According to a second aspect, a method for sideline communication is provided, comprising: a second terminal device receives a first S-SSB sent by a first terminal device through one or more transmit beams, the first S-SSB being used to carry first information, and the first information being used by the second terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

[0008] According to a third aspect, a device for sideline communication is provided, wherein the device is a first terminal device, and the first terminal device includes: a sending unit, configured to send a first S-SSB through one or more transmit beams, wherein the first S-SSB is used to carry first information, and the first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

[0009] In a fourth aspect, a device for sideline communication is provided, wherein the device is a second terminal device, and the second terminal device includes: a receiving unit for receiving a first S-SSB sent by the first terminal device through one or more transmit beams, the first S-SSB being used to carry first information, and the first information being used by the second terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

[0010] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a program, and the processor is used to call the program in the memory to execute the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0011] In a sixth aspect, a device is provided, comprising a processor for calling a program from a memory to execute the method as described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0012] In a seventh aspect, a chip is provided, comprising a processor for calling a program from a memory so that a device equipped with the chip executes the method described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0013] In an eighth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, on which a program is stored, wherein the program enables a computer to execute the method as described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0014] In a ninth aspect, a computer program product is provided, comprising a program, wherein the program enables a computer to execute the method as described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0015] In a tenth aspect, a computer program is provided, which enables a computer to execute the method as described in the first aspect or the second aspect.

[0016] In the embodiment of the present application, the first terminal device sends a first S-SSB through one or more transmit beams. For the terminal device that receives the first SSB, the first information carried by the first S-SSB can indicate whether the terminal device is the target terminal device that the first terminal device needs to communicate with, thereby determining whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device. It can be seen that the terminal device can determine whether to perform beam pairing based on the first information in the first S-SSB, thereby reducing the power consumption and resource consumption of the terminal device for beam scanning. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] FIG1 is a wireless communication system used in an embodiment of the present application.

[0018] Figure 2 is an example diagram of NR-V2X communication.

[0019] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of beam scanning performed by a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal respectively.

[0020] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of beam scanning of multiple transmitting terminal devices corresponding to one receiving terminal device.

[0021] FIG5 is a flow chart of a method for sideline communication provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0022] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a possible implementation of the method shown in FIG5 .

[0023] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of resource sensing performed by a terminal device of a unicast link.

[0024] FIG8 is a flow chart of a possible implementation of beam pairing based on beam response signals.

[0025] FIG9 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a time slot carrying a beam response signal in FIG8 .

[0026] FIG10 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another time slot carrying the beam response signal in FIG8 .

[0027] FIG11 is a schematic structural diagram of a device for sideline communication provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0028] FIG12 is a schematic structural diagram of another device for sideline communication provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0029] FIG13 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] The following will describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of this application in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of this application. Obviously, the embodiments described are part of the embodiments of this application, not all of the embodiments. With respect to the embodiments in this application, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0031] Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating a system architecture of a wireless communication system 100 applicable to an embodiment of the present application. The wireless communication system 100 may include a network device 110 and terminal devices 121 to 129. The network device 110 may provide communication coverage for a specific geographic area and may communicate with terminals within the coverage area.

[0032] In some implementations, terminal devices may communicate with each other via a sidelink (SL). Sidelink communication may also be referred to as proximity services (ProSe) communication, unilateral communication, sidelink communication, device-to-device (D2D) communication, etc.

[0033] In other words, sidelink data is transmitted between terminal devices via a sidelink. The sidelink data may include data and / or control signaling. In some implementations, the sidelink data may be, for example, a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a PSCCH demodulation reference signal (DMRS), a PSSCH DMRS, a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH), etc.

[0034] The following describes several common sidelink communication scenarios with reference to Figure 1. Sidelink communication can be categorized into three scenarios, depending on whether the terminal device in the sidelink is within the coverage of the network device. Scenario 1: The terminal device conducts sidelink communication within the coverage of the network device. Scenario 2: Some terminal devices conduct sidelink communication within the coverage of the network device. Scenario 3: The terminal device conducts sidelink communication outside the coverage of the network device.

[0035] As shown in Figure 1, in scenario 1, terminal devices 121-122 can communicate via a sidelink, and terminal devices 121-122 are all within the coverage of network device 110, or in other words, terminal devices 121-122 are all within the coverage of the same network device 110. In this scenario, network device 110 can send configuration signaling to terminal devices 121-122, and accordingly, terminal devices 121-122 communicate via the sidelink based on the configuration signaling.

[0036] As shown in Figure 1, in scenario 2, terminal devices 123 to 124 can communicate via a side link, and terminal device 123 is within the coverage of network device 110, while terminal device 124 is outside the coverage of network device 110. In this scenario, terminal device 123 receives configuration information from network device 110 and communicates via a side link based on the configuration of the configuration signaling. However, for terminal device 124, since terminal device 124 is outside the coverage of network device 110, it cannot receive the configuration information of network device 110. At this time, terminal device 124 can obtain the configuration of the side link communication based on the pre-configuration configuration information and / or the configuration information sent by terminal device 123 within the coverage area, so as to communicate with terminal device 123 via the side link based on the obtained configuration.

[0037] In some cases, the terminal device 123 may send the above configuration information to the terminal device 124 via a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH) to configure the terminal device 124 to communicate via the sidelink.

[0038] As shown in Figure 1, in scenario 3, terminal devices 125-129 are all outside the coverage of network device 110 and cannot communicate with network device 110. In this case, the terminal devices can all perform sidelink communication based on pre-configured information.

[0039] In some cases, terminal devices 127-129 located outside the coverage area of ​​the network device can form a communication group, and the terminal devices 127-129 in the communication group can communicate with each other. In addition, the terminal device 127 in the communication group can serve as a central control node, also known as a cluster header (CH), and correspondingly, the terminal devices in other communication groups can be referred to as "group members."

[0040] The terminal device 127 as a CH can have one or more of the following functions: responsible for establishing a communication group; joining and leaving group members; coordinating resources, allocating side transmission resources to group members, and receiving side feedback information from group members; coordinating resources with other communication groups, etc.

[0041] It should be noted that Figure 1 exemplarily shows a network device and multiple terminal devices. Optionally, the wireless communication system 100 may include multiple network devices and the coverage range of each network device may include other numbers of terminal devices. This embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

[0042] Optionally, the wireless communication system 100 may further include other network entities such as a network controller and a mobility management entity, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0043] It should be understood that the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: fifth generation (5G) system or new radio (NR) system, long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD) system, etc. The technical solutions provided in this application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as the sixth generation mobile communication system, satellite communication system, etc.

[0044] The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station, mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), remote station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to a user, and can be used to connect people, objects and machines, such as a handheld device with wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, etc. The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer (Pad), a laptop computer, a PDA, a mobile internet device (MID), a wearable device, a vehicle, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self-driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical surgery, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home, etc. Optionally, the terminal device can be used to act as a base station. For example, a terminal device can act as a dispatching entity, providing sidelink signals between terminal devices in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) or D2D networks. For example, a cell phone and a car can communicate with each other using sidelink data. A cell phone and a smart home device can also communicate with each other without relaying the communication signal through a base station.

[0045] The network device in the embodiments of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, and may also be referred to as an access network device or a radio access network device. For example, the network device may be a base station. The network device in the embodiments of the present application may refer to a radio access network (RAN) node (or device) that connects a terminal device to a wireless network. A base station can broadly cover various names as follows, or be replaced with the following names, such as: NodeB, evolved NodeB (eNB), next generation NodeB (gNB), relay station, transmitting and receiving point (TRP), transmitting point (TP), access point (AP), master station MeNB, secondary station SeNB, multi-standard radio (MSR) node, home base station, network controller, access node, wireless node, transmission node, transceiver node, baseband unit (BBU), remote radio unit (RRU), active antenna unit (AAU), remote radio head (RRH), central unit (CU), distributed unit (DU), positioning node, etc. A base station can be a macro base station, a micro base station, a relay node, a donor node or the like, or a combination thereof. A base station can also refer to a communication module, a modem or a chip used to be set in the aforementioned device or apparatus. The base station can also be a mobile switching center and a device that performs base station functions in D2D, V2X, and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, a network-side device in a 6G network, or a device that performs base station functions in future communication systems. The base station can support networks with the same or different access technologies. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the network equipment.

[0046] Base stations can be fixed or mobile. For example, a helicopter or drone can be configured to act as a mobile base station, and one or more cells can move based on the location of the mobile base station. In other examples, a helicopter or drone can be configured to act as a device that communicates with another base station.

[0047] In some deployments, the network device in the embodiments of the present application may refer to a CU or a DU, or the network device may include a CU and a DU. The gNB may also include an AAU.

[0048] The network equipment and terminal devices can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on water; they can also be deployed in the air on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the scenarios in which the network equipment and terminal devices are located.

[0049] It should be understood that all or part of the functions of the communication device in this application can also be implemented through software functions running on hardware, or through virtualization functions instantiated on a platform (such as a cloud platform).

[0050] For ease of understanding, some relevant technical knowledge involved in the embodiments of this application is first introduced. The following related technologies can be combined with the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application as optional solutions, and they all fall within the scope of protection of the embodiments of this application. The embodiments of this application include at least part of the following contents.

[0051] With the development of wireless communication technology, communication systems have increasingly higher requirements for data transmission speeds, number of connections, and coverage. For example, the 5G mobile standard requires improvements based on higher data transmission speeds, a larger number of connections, and better coverage to provide data rates of tens of megabits per second for each of tens of thousands of users.

[0052] Some wireless communication networks (e.g., 5G or subsequent technology evolutions) can support operation in very high or even extra high frequency (EHF) bands. These higher frequency bands (FR) include millimeter wave (mmW) bands. Typically, these bands correspond to wavelengths of 1mm to 10mm, or frequencies of 30GHz to 300GHz. For example, FR2 in 5G systems corresponds to a frequency range of 24.25 to 52.6GHz.

[0053] These high-frequency bands can support very high throughput when communicating. However, significant propagation loss at high frequencies is one of the challenges of wireless communications at these very high or extreme frequencies. For example, in the millimeter wave band, propagation loss can be severe.

[0054] To reduce propagation losses, beamforming can be performed using large-scale antenna arrays. However, the large number of densely distributed antenna elements increases the complexity and cost of digital beamforming. Communication devices typically perform beamforming in the analog domain based on large-scale antenna arrays. The beam generated by analog beamforming points in a single direction at a given moment. Communication devices transmit using beam scanning, also known as beam sweeping. For example, network equipment can transmit data to terminal devices by sweeping a set of beams focused in different directions. Another example is that network equipment can achieve system coverage through beam scanning. However, beam scanning requires certain spatial and temporal resources and consumes a lot of power. In other words, generating and scanning a set of swept beams is expensive in terms of power consumption, time, and air resources.

[0055] For communications between network devices and terminal devices, when the terminal device is within the coverage of the network device, beam pairing can be used to determine the optimal transmit and receive beam pair for uplink / downlink transmission. For example, in communications between network devices and terminal devices based on the Uu communication interface, a three-stage initial beam pairing process can be used for initial pairing. The three-stage initial pairing process includes P1, P2, and P3.

[0056] Before beam pairing, a terminal device in a sidelink communication system may not know whether there are other devices nearby, or be unclear about the transmission occasions for different beam transmissions, or be uncertain about the received reference signal. Therefore, for sidelink communication system terminal devices, how to perform beam pairing based on the sidelink is a problem that needs to be solved. For example, in FR2, how to establish beam pairing in the sidelink to complete subsequent communication is also one of the research topics of Release 18.

[0057] In order to analyze this problem, the communication mode of the sidelink is first briefly described with reference to FIG1 and FIG2 .

[0058] With the development of side-by-side communication technology, its application scenarios are increasing. For example, multiple V2X scenarios have been proposed in NR. These V2X scenarios include vehicle platooning, advanced driving, extended sensors, remote driving, and more.

[0059] Sidewalk communication technology can involve information exchange between multiple terminal devices. Taking the V2X communication system 200 shown in Figure 2 as an example, the vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication performed by terminal device 201 and terminal device 202 involves information exchange between vehicles themselves. The vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, vehicle-to-network (V2N) communication, and vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) communication performed by terminal device 201 and terminal devices 203 to 205, respectively, involve information exchange between vehicles and external systems.

[0060] The gradual expansion of information exchange places higher demands on communication systems. For example, these systems must support higher throughput, lower latency, greater reliability, wider coverage, and more flexible resource allocation. Taking the development of V2X as an example, in LTE-V2X, only broadcast mode is supported for sidelink communication between end devices. NR-V2X supports three communication modes: broadcast, groupcast, and unicast.

[0061] Broadcast is the most basic communication mode in sideline communications. In a broadcast transmission mode, the terminal device receiving the sideline data can be any terminal device surrounding the transmitting terminal device. For example, referring to Figure 1 , assuming terminal device 125 is the transmitter and broadcasts sideline data, then terminal devices 121-124 and 126-129 located around terminal device 125 may all serve as receivers of the sideline data.

[0062] Multicast communication supports information exchange between terminal devices within a specific group (or communication group) to facilitate negotiation and decision-making among terminal devices within the group. Sidelink multicast is divided into two transmission types. Type 1 is for fixed groups (managed groups) with stable connections, with clear ID information and information about group members. Type 2 is for temporary groups (connectionless groups) formed in a connectionless manner. For example, it is a multicast that is dynamically formed based on distance and requires clear indication of the communication distance of the current service.

[0063] For the multicast transmission mode, the terminal devices receiving the sideline data may be all the terminal devices in a communication group. Alternatively, the terminal devices receiving the sideline data may be all the terminal devices within a certain transmission distance. For example, referring to FIG1 , for a communication group including terminal devices 127 to 129, when terminal device 127 sends sideline data in a multicast manner, the other terminal devices 128 to 129 in the communication group are all receiving terminals that receive the sideline data. For another example, referring to FIG1 , assuming that the terminal devices within a preset range include terminal devices 127 to 129, when terminal device 127 sends sideline data in a multicast manner, the other terminal devices 128 to 129 within the preset range are all receiving terminals that receive the sideline data.

[0064] Unicast communication enables sidelink communication between two terminal devices. Taking NR-V2X as an example, radio resource control (RRC) signaling based on the newly defined PC5 interface can achieve reliable communication between terminal devices.

[0065] The previous section describes various transmission modes for sidelink communication. In beam-based sidelink links, a terminal device can perform beam-based sidelink transmissions with other terminal devices. For example, two terminal devices can communicate using transmit and receive beams. The following briefly describes beam-based communication between terminal devices, using Figure 3.

[0066] 3 , a terminal device 310 receives data via three receive beams, and a terminal device 320 sends data via three transmit beams, wherein the three transmit beams are TX1, TX2, and TX3, and the three receive beams are RX1, RX2, and RX3.

[0067] As shown in Figure 3, when terminal devices 310 and 320 communicate based on beams, they perform transmit beam scanning and receive beam scanning, respectively. As previously mentioned, beam scanning consumes significant power and consumes expensive space-time resources. Therefore, in a sidelink communication system, terminal devices must perform beam pairing based on sidelinks to establish unicast or multicast links with other terminal devices. Whether establishing a unicast link, a multicast link, or a broadcast link, beam pairing cannot be performed solely by the receiving or transmitting terminal devices.

[0068] As mentioned above, for the terminal device of the side link, it may not be aware of the existence of other communication devices around it before beam pairing is performed. If the terminal device establishes a transmission link based on the beam pairing of the communication request, it may lead to inefficient utilization of resources. Taking the beam pairing based on the direct communication request (DCR) as an example, the terminal device usually uses PSSCH to send the DCR. The terminal device on the transmitting end may need to perform multiple transmit beam scans based on all beams that send the DCR message in order to start the process of establishing a unicast link with the intended receiving terminal device. If the transmitting terminal device must perform multiple transmit beam scans, multiple PSSCH transmissions are required to establish a unicast link, which will result in reduced utilization of time-frequency resources.

[0069] In addition, during beam pairing, the terminal device at the receiving end may also face the problem of being unable to determine which terminal device the received beam comes from. In other words, the terminal device cannot determine which terminal device the multiple received beams come from. For beam pairing, it is very important for the receiving end to be able to distinguish whether the multiple received beams come from a single transmitter or from multiple transmitters. If the terminal device cannot distinguish where the received beams come from, the terminal device cannot determine which one is the optimal beam, and it is impossible to perform beam pairing based on the received beam. For ease of understanding, the problem that the terminal device in the side link cannot determine the transmitter corresponding to the beam is introduced in conjunction with Figure 4. Figure 4 is a schematic diagram of a receiving terminal device performing beam communication with multiple transmitting terminal devices.

[0070] Referring to Figure 4, terminal device 410 receives data through three receiving beams, which are RX1, RX2 and RX3 respectively. There are three terminal devices on the transmitting end, namely terminal device 420, terminal device 440 and terminal device 460. As shown in Figure 4, the three terminal devices on the transmitting end may respectively transmit the same signal through three transmitting beams (TX). For example, the three terminal devices may all transmit synchronization signals based on the same synchronization source. In this case, terminal device 410 cannot identify terminal devices on different transmitting ends. Terminal device 410 should send report beams to the three terminal devices respectively, but terminal device 410 may only send a report beam to terminal device 440, and not report to terminal device 420 and terminal device 460.

[0071] In summary, before establishing a sidelink, the challenge is how to efficiently perform beam pairing on the terminal device to establish a unicast or multicast link. To achieve efficient beam pairing, the following uses the establishment of a unicast link as an example to further analyze the aforementioned issues and related technologies.

[0072] As previously mentioned, a terminal device has no information about the existence of other terminal devices before beam pairing. If a terminal device directly establishes a unicast link based on a communication request, this will result in inefficient resource utilization. Therefore, terminal devices can be configured to perform an initial beam pairing process. This initial beam pairing allows a terminal device to establish a unicast link with another terminal device. Without the initial beam pairing process before establishing a unicast link, the terminal device may not be able to determine the appropriate beam pair for the required information exchange, and basic communication range cannot be guaranteed.

[0073] Furthermore, the reference signal used for initial beam pairing needs to be configured or pre-configured. The relationship between the reference signal transmission and the beam also needs to be configured, and the beam pairing process cannot exchange information through other channels. Therefore, the transmission of the reference signal from the transmitting terminal to the receiving terminal can be similar to the random access channel (RACH) process. In order to perform initial beam pairing, the reference signal used for initial beam pairing also needs to be regularly transmitted using configured or pre-configured resources to implement beam management.

[0074] In order to solve some of the above problems, an embodiment of the present application proposes a method for sidelink communication. Through this method, the terminal device can perform initial beam pairing based on the sidelink synchronization signal block (S-SSB), so that the terminal device can use the paired beam to establish a unicast or multicast link. The following text will take the establishment of a unicast link as an example to introduce the method for the terminal device to perform beam pairing based on the sidelink. This method can also be applied to the terminal device to establish a multicast link such as a groupcast or broadcast link.

[0075] S-SSB is the relevant information used for synchronization in the sidelink communication system. Among them, the synchronization signal block (SSB) can also represent the synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel signal block (synchronisation signal and PBCH block). For example, the sidelink synchronization signal of NR V2X mainly includes the sidelink primary synchronization signal block (sidelink-primary synchronisation signal, S-PSS), the sidelink secondary synchronization signal block (sidelink-secondary synchronisation signal, S-SSS), and is combined with PSBCH to form S-SSB in block format. Among them, an M sequence with a length of 127 can be used for S-PSS, and a Gold sequence with a length of 127 can be used for S-SSS. Exemplarily, the terminal device can use S-PSS for initial signal detection and for synchronization acquisition. Exemplarily, the terminal device can use S-PSS and S-SSS to obtain detailed synchronization and for detecting synchronization signal identity (ID).

[0076] During the beamforming process, multiple S-SSB transmissions within an S-SSB period can be supported. Furthermore, the terminal device can send S-SSBs with a period of 160ms outside the resource pool. For example, the number of S-SSBs that support repeated transmission within an S-SSB period is specified in R16. In order to maintain the flexibility of S-SSB configuration, the number of S-SSBs within a period is configurable. For the specific configuration scheme of the number of S-SSBs within a period, please refer to Table 1.

[0077] Table 1

[0078] As shown in Table 1, for FR2, a maximum of 64 S-SSBs can be transmitted in one cycle. Therefore, it is necessary to indicate the time domain resources occupied by multiple S-SSBs transmitted in one cycle. S-SSBs include three types of signals or channels: the S-PSS, S-SSS, and PSBCH. A guard interval (GP) is placed on the last symbol of the timeslot containing the S-SSB.

[0079] The above describes S-SSB technologies, which can be used by terminal devices for initial beam pairing to reduce the resource consumption of direct link establishment. Because terminal devices can have a (pre-)configured set of dedicated resources for S-SSB transmission, when used for initial beam pairing, the terminal device does not need to dynamically allocate resources for S-SSB transmission, which does not affect the beam pairing process.

[0080] As mentioned above, during the initial beam pairing process, the terminal device may also face the problem of not being able to identify the terminal device associated with the beam used for pairing. This problem may also exist when S-SSB is used for initial beam pairing.

[0081] On the one hand, the S-SSB in the related art usually only contains the sidelink synchronization signal ID, which is mainly used for synchronization purposes. The S-SSB does not contain the source ID information of the transmitting terminal device and the ID information of the target terminal device. This is because the S-SSB can be sent from different terminal devices. The ID of the target terminal device can also be called the target ID or destination ID. When the S-SSB does not contain the source ID and target ID, the terminal device at the receiving end cannot distinguish which terminal device sent the S-SSB, and other terminal devices will also read the S-SSB information, causing confusion and confusion of resources.

[0082] On the other hand, when the first terminal device transmits the first S-SSB via different transmit beams, other terminal devices may be present around the first terminal device. These other terminal devices may include terminal devices related to communication with the first terminal device, or may include terminal devices unrelated to communication with the first terminal device. Terminal devices unrelated to communication with the first terminal device do not need to undergo initial beam pairing. If these devices can identify that they are unrelated to the first terminal device, they can be shielded during subsequent communications, thereby reducing interference.

[0083] Based on the above analysis of S-SSB, the present embodiment proposes a method for initial beam pairing based on S-SSB. It should be understood that the present embodiment is based on the above analysis, and this analysis should be considered part of the present invention's contribution to the prior art. To facilitate understanding, the method proposed in the present embodiment is described in detail below with reference to Figure 5.

[0084] Referring to FIG. 5 , in step S510 , the first terminal device sends a first S-SSB via one or more transmit beams.

[0085] The first terminal device is any of the aforementioned terminal devices for sidelink communication. For example, the first terminal device can be a vehicle in V2X or a pedestrian in V2X. In another example, the first terminal device can be a transmitting terminal in a sidelink or a receiving terminal in a sidelink.

[0086] The first terminal device may be a communication device that needs to transmit data in side-by-side communication. The first terminal device may engage in unicast, multicast, or broadcast communication with other terminal devices. In some embodiments, the first terminal device may be a group leader terminal initiating a multicast or broadcast communication, or a group member in a multicast or broadcast communication. For example, in V2X, the first terminal device may be a vehicle conducting a multicast communication with other vehicles, or another vehicle in the multicast communication.

[0087] In some embodiments, the first terminal device may be located within or outside the coverage of the network. When located within the coverage of the network, the first terminal device may perform side communication based on the configuration of the network device.

[0088] The first terminal device may be a communication device that supports an antenna array. In some embodiments, the first terminal device may perform analog beamforming based on the antenna array. For example, the first terminal device may generate a transmit beam and send signals to other terminal devices through beam scanning. A transmit beam may also be referred to as a transmit beam. In another example, the first terminal device may generate a receive beam and receive signals sent by other terminal devices through beam scanning. In some embodiments, the first terminal device may perform wireless communications in high frequency or ultra-high frequency. For example, the first terminal device may communicate within the frequency range corresponding to FR2.

[0089] The first terminal device transmits the first S-SSB via one or more transmit beams, which means that the first terminal device may generate a transmit beam carrying the first S-SSB at a specific moment, or may generate multiple transmit beams carrying the first S-SSB at multiple moments. The one or more transmit beams may be related to the beam scanning period and beam scanning mode of the first terminal device. For example, if the first terminal device is configured to perform a coarse scan of two beams in the initial stage, the number of the multiple transmit beams may be two.

[0090] In some embodiments, the number of transmit beams can be used to determine the time slot location of the S-SSB and the synchronization signal burst within a period. The number of transmit beams can be determined based on the capabilities of the first terminal device. The number of transmit beams varies for terminal devices with different capabilities, so the number of beams is used to determine the number of S-SSB transmissions so that all beam directions are covered. For example, if the first terminal device can generate up to 8 beams, the number of transmit beams can be less than or equal to 8.

[0091] In some embodiments, for multiple directional beams, the first terminal device can independently determine which beam to use for each (pre-)configured resource. That is, the mapping relationship between multiple transmit beams and resources can be configured by the first terminal device. For example, the multiple transmit beams can each point in a different direction. Therefore, the multiple transmit beams can be beams from a set of beams generated by the first terminal device that are focused in different directions.

[0092] In some embodiments, multiple transmit beams of the first terminal device may be associated with a time unit. For example, different S-SSB time indexes may correspond to different side beams. The first terminal device may send S-SSBs on different beams. The first terminal device may predefine or preconfigure such a time mapping relationship. For example, when the first terminal device transmits a beam based on a time slot, the relationship between the transmit beam and the time slot index value may be used to determine the optimal transmit beam for the first terminal device. The relationship between the transmit beam and the time slot index value means that there is a mapping relationship between the transmit beam used by the first terminal device and the corresponding time slot index. Therefore, the first terminal device may send an S-SSB to the terminal device at the receiving end in a configured or preconfigured time slot.

[0093] In some embodiments, multiple transmit beams may be periodically beam scanned based on the transmission resource corresponding to the first S-SSB. For example, within an S-SSB period, when multiple S-SSBs are repeatedly transmitted, multiple transmit beams may be periodically beam scanned based on the repetition period. For ease of understanding, the following exemplary description of periodic beam scanning performed by the first terminal device is provided in conjunction with FIG6 .

[0094] Referring to Figure 6 , on the time axis, the first terminal device performs transmit beam scanning based on the time interval corresponding to period 610. Each transmit beam scan in Figure 6 includes four transmit beams, which can be directed in four different directions. The four beams in different directions can be used to repeatedly transmit the first S-SSB.

[0095] In some embodiments, the time slot position of the S-SSB and the number of synchronization signal bursts in a period need to be set according to the number of beams, the beam scanning period, and the beam scanning mode. The number of transmit beams varies based on the capabilities of different UEs, so the number of beams needs to be used to determine the number of S-SSB transmissions so that all beam directions are covered.

[0096] The first S-SSB can carry first information, and the first information can be used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device. The one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device can be any terminal device that receives the first S-SSB, such as the second terminal device. Through initial beam pairing, it is possible to facilitate the establishment of a side transmission link between terminal devices. Since the initial beam pairing is determined based on the first S-SSB, the multiple beam scans based on sending DCR messages or payloads mentioned above can be avoided. Instead, the DCR messages or payloads are sent only on the paired beams, thereby improving resource utilization.

[0097] Beam pairing can also be called beam alignment or beam targeting. In order to facilitate the terminal device to determine whether to perform beam pairing, the first information can be the identification information of the terminal device, or it can be indication information about beam pairing. Exemplarily, the identification information of the terminal device may include the identification information of the first terminal device, and / or the identification information of the target terminal device corresponding to one or more transmit beams. This will be described in detail later in conjunction with the redesign of the first S-SSB information structure. Exemplarily, the first S-SSB may also carry indication information about beam pairing, such as information such as the type or location of the terminal device with which the first terminal device needs to perform beam pairing.

[0098] In some embodiments, any terminal device other than the first terminal device can determine whether to establish a connection with the first terminal device based on the first information. If the connection is established, initial beam pairing is performed. For example, when the terminal device that receives the first S-SSB determines that the first terminal device needs to establish a connection based on the first information, the terminal device can perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device to establish a unicast link. For another example, when the terminal device that receives the first S-SSB can determine that the first terminal device is a communication device that it needs to establish a connection with based on the first information, the terminal device can establish a connection with the first terminal device and inform the first terminal device of the specific information. For another example, when the terminal device that receives the first S-SSB does not belong to the target terminal device, the terminal device may not perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device. Furthermore, the terminal device can also shield the transmit beam of the first terminal device to reduce interference.

[0099] In some embodiments, multiple terminal devices other than the first terminal device may determine whether to establish a connection with the first terminal device based on the first information. When the first information is used for initial beam pairing between the first terminal device and multiple terminal devices, it may be used to establish unicast links, multicast links, or broadcast links.

[0100] As shown in Figure 5, the first information carried by the first S-SSB can be used by other terminal devices to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device and establish a unicast link through the paired beam. By performing initial beam pairing, the first terminal device can establish a unicast link with other terminal devices that are farther away, thereby meeting more business needs or more advanced business use case requirements.

[0101] As can be seen from the foregoing, the first information can be used to solve the problem of unrecognition. When the first S-SSB carries the first information, it is necessary to resolve the information structure of the S-SSB so that other terminal devices performing initial beam pairing can identify the first terminal device from the S-SSB transmission of the first terminal device. The following is a specific explanation using the example of the first information including the identification information of the terminal device.

[0102] In some embodiments, the first S-SSB used to perform initial beam pairing may carry first information including terminal device identification information to facilitate the receiving terminal device in determining whether to perform initial beam pairing. In other words, the first S-SSB carried by one or more transmit beams may be used to indicate the identification information of the relevant terminal device.

[0103] The terminal device identification information may be the identification information of the first terminal device, or the identification information of the target terminal device corresponding to one or more transmit beams sent by the first terminal device. The target terminal device is one or more terminal devices with which the first terminal device needs to communicate. In some embodiments, the target terminal device may include a second terminal device, that is, the second terminal device may be any terminal device with which the first terminal device needs to communicate.

[0104] In some embodiments, the first information may include identification information of the first terminal device, so that the receiving terminal device can determine the source terminal device of the beam. The receiving terminal device can determine whether to perform beam pairing with the first terminal device based on the information of the source terminal device.

[0105] In some embodiments, the first information may include identification information of the target terminal device, so that the receiving terminal device can determine whether it belongs to the target terminal device. For the receiving terminal device, based on the first information, it can be determined whether the first terminal device wishes to perform beam pairing with the terminal device to establish a unicast link.

[0106] As a possible implementation, the first terminal device may know the identification information of the target terminal device in advance. For example, the DCR message may be broadcast or unicast. In the case of unicast DCR, the ID of the target terminal device (used for unicast link establishment) is known in advance by the first terminal device.

[0107] As another possible implementation, the receiving terminal device can determine the target ID information of the first terminal device by detecting the S-PSS / S-SSS, and use this to determine whether the first terminal device needs to communicate with it. For example, if the receiving terminal detects its own ID, it needs to determine the optimal transmit beam sent by the first terminal device. Conversely, if it detects ID information that does not belong to it, it abandons the beam pairing process.

[0108] As an embodiment, if the second terminal device is determined to be a target terminal device based on the first information, the second terminal device may determine a first beam pair for establishing a unicast link with the first terminal device based on one or more transmit beams used to send the first S-SSB. In the first beam pair, the transmit / receive beam corresponding to the first terminal device may correspond to one of the one or more transmit beams. Exemplarily, the first beam pair may be the optimal beam pair for establishing a sidelink between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0109] In some embodiments, the first information may include identification information of the first terminal device and the target terminal device, so that the terminal device receiving the transmitted beam can determine whether it is relevant. For example, the first information may include a source ID and a target ID.

[0110] The identification information of the terminal device may be the ID information of the terminal device, the group ID information of the terminal device, or other information used to distinguish different terminal devices.

[0111] In some embodiments, the ID information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is associated with one or more of the following information: a temporary mobile subscriber identity (TMSI) of the terminal device; sidelink control information (SCI) sent by the terminal device; or ID information determined based on an upper layer.

[0112] For example, the ID information of the terminal device may be the unique ID information formed by each terminal device based on the temporary TSMI. The ID information may be used by the terminal device in the sidelink to determine the terminal device with which to communicate.

[0113] For example, the ID information of the terminal device can be based on the source ID / destination ID information in the SCI format 2 in the side chain. For example, the SCI format 2 carries a 24-bit source ID and a 24-bit destination ID, which will help the receiving terminal identify whether the SCI format 2 is potentially related to the first terminal device.

[0114] Exemplarily, the ID information of the terminal device may be ID information generated by the first terminal device based on an upper layer, or may be ID information generated by the target terminal device based on an upper layer.

[0115] In some embodiments, the terminal device identification information can be indicated by a sidelink-synchronisation signal identity (SL-SSID) or by an extended SL-SSID. For example, the SL-SSID parameter for the NR-V2X synchronization priority has a total of 672 IDs, and this information is carried by S-PSS / S-SSS. The SL-SSID carried by S-PSS and S-SSS is used to identify the type of synchronization source and whether the terminal device is directly or indirectly connected to the synchronization source. In some cases, the SL-SSID is not unique to each terminal device and cannot be used to distinguish between different terminal devices. The identification information of the terminal device can be indicated by an extended SL-SSID.

[0116] As a possible implementation, the extended SL-SSID can be used as terminal device-specific information to distinguish different terminal devices. For example, the extended SL-SSID can be enhanced with two parts: one containing terminal device-specific information and the other containing synchronization information. Synchronization information can be determined by reusing related technology processes. Terminal device-specific information can be determined based on the source ID and / or target ID, or generated based on terminal device ID information generated by higher layers.

[0117] As mentioned above, the S-SSB in related technologies does not contain source ID and target ID information. In order to perform beam matching based on S-SSB, the S-SSB information structure can be redesigned, the S-SSB resources can be reconfigured, and the PSBCH information field can be redesigned.

[0118] In some embodiments, the first S-SSB may include a PSBCH. The first information may be carried in the PSBCH. In this case, the changes to the S-SSB information structure are minor, and related technologies can be well adopted.

[0119] In some embodiments, the first S-SSB may not carry the PSBCH. That is, the first S-SSB may not include the PSBCH, so the data carried by the S-SSB is reduced, thereby reducing the resource requirements for initial beam pairing.

[0120] As a possible implementation, when the first S-SSB does not carry the PSBCH, the first S-SSB may be a dedicated S-SSB during the beam establishment process. For example, the first S-SSB may be a dedicated information block that only carries the first information. As another example, the first S-SSB may not carry the PSBCH during beam establishment, and the PSBCH information field may be added during the subsequent synchronization process.

[0121] When the first S-SSB does not carry the PSBCH, in order to include the identification information of the terminal device in the S-SSB, it is necessary to generate a sequence of the identification information for transmission. This identification information can be generated by one or more of the following methods: a cyclic shift of the S-PSS sequence, a cyclic shift of the S-SSS sequence, or a dedicated sequence of the first information.

[0122] Exemplarily, when the identification information of the terminal device is the ID information of the terminal device, the source ID information and the target ID information can be generated based on separate sequences. That is, the first S-SSB can set a dedicated sequence for the first information to indicate the identification information to the terminal device at the receiving end.

[0123] For example, the terminal device's identification information can be generated based on a cyclic shift of an S-PSS sequence or an S-SSS sequence. As mentioned above, the S-PSS is an M sequence with a length of 127, and the S-SSS is a gold sequence with a length of 127. The terminal device's identification information can be generated based on processing of these sequences, such as cyclic shift processing.

[0124] Exemplarily, the identification information of the terminal device may also be composed of a combination of an S-PSS sequence and an S-SSS sequence.

[0125] In some embodiments, the first S-SSB may include an S-PSS and / or an S-SSS. For example, the first S-SSB may include an S-PSS / S-SSS, or may include only an S-SSS, depending on the number of target IDs and / or the capabilities of the terminal device.

[0126] The transmission resources corresponding to the first S-SSB can be configured or pre-configured by the first terminal device, and the configuration or pre-configuration can be referred to as the first configuration. The first terminal device can perform the first configuration according to the information structure of the first S-SSB. For example, when the first S-SSB does not carry PSBCH, the first configuration can instruct the first S-SSB to be sent independently and periodically. That is to say, the first S-SSB may not be associated with sidelink data, sidelink media access control control element (MAC-CE) and other data. For another example, the first configuration can pre-configure the time domain resources for the first terminal device to send the first S-SSB.

[0127] In some embodiments, the first configuration may indicate the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB. Exemplarily, when the first S-SSB does not carry the PSBCH, the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB may include a first time domain resource and a second time domain resource, the first time domain resource being used to send the S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the second time domain resource being used to send one or more of the following: a reference signal, automatic gain control (AGC), or a guard interval (GAP). For example, when the first S-SSB is transmitted through a time slot, if the S-SSB does not carry the PSBCH, after sending the PSS and SSS, the remaining symbols may send the GAP, the reference signal, or the AGC.

[0128] In some embodiments, the time domain resource corresponding to the first S-SSB may be one or more continuous time units, or multiple time periods determined according to the first time interval, or a dynamically indicated time period. The time unit may be a time slot or a symbol, which is not limited here.

[0129] Exemplarily, the time domain resource corresponding to the first S-SSB may be one or more consecutive time slots. For example, a complete S-SSB signal may be sent in one time slot. The S-SSB signal may include only the S-PSS and the S-SSS. For another example, the S-SSB may be sent via consecutive time slots in the time domain.

[0130] Exemplarily, the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB may be multiple time periods determined according to the first time interval. The first time interval may be one or more time slots, or one or more symbols. The multiple time periods may be time periods separated according to the first time interval within a time unit, or time periods separated according to the first time interval within multiple consecutive time units. For example, the first S-SSB may be sent through time slots separated by a certain time interval in the time domain. For another example, the first time interval may be one or two orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols, and the multiple time periods for sending the first S-SSB may span only one or two symbols.

[0131] The previous section describes the redesigned information structure of the first S-SSB and the first information it carries. This information allows the receiving terminal device to identify the transmitting and receiving terminal devices of the beam. If the receiving terminal device finds that beam pairing with the first terminal device is required, it determines the optimal transmit beam for the first terminal device to establish the first beam pair.

[0132] In some embodiments, the first S-SSB may be transmitted via multiple transmit beams. If the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmit beams include the second terminal device, the signal strengths corresponding to the multiple transmit beams may be used by the first terminal device and the second terminal device to determine a first beam pair. The first beam pair includes a beam for sideline communication between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0133] As a possible implementation manner, the signal strength may include reference signal receiving power (RSRP), reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ), and other parameters that can reflect the SSB transmission quality.

[0134] As a possible implementation method, the first terminal device can configure the relationship between the transmit beam and the time unit index value, and the second terminal device can determine which transmit beam it is based on the time when the transmit beam is received, thereby determining the optimal transmit beam of the first terminal device. Exemplarily, the second terminal device can perform measurements based on each transmitted S-SSB to obtain the RSRP value of each transmit beam of the first terminal device. For example, the beam with the highest measured RSRP is determined as the receive beam of the second terminal device, and the corresponding transmit beam is determined as the transmit beam of the first terminal device. The receive beam of the second terminal device and the transmit beam of the first terminal device can form a first beam pair for side-by-side communication between the first terminal device and the second terminal device. Accordingly, the beam direction with the highest measured RSRP can also be used for the second terminal device to determine the transmit beam, and the direction of the corresponding transmit beam can also be used for the first terminal device to determine the receive beam. The first beam pair also includes the transmit beam of the second terminal device and the receive beam of the first terminal device.

[0135] As an example, the second terminal device can set the number of beams that can be reported. The second terminal device can directly report the RSRP value, or it can report the difference between the RSRP of a certain beam and the RSRP of the strongest beam. For example, the second terminal device can report the strongest RSRP value based on the set number of beams, or several stronger RSRP values. For another example, the second terminal device can report the difference between the RSRP of the remaining beams and the strongest beam.

[0136] The previous article described a method for performing initial beam pairing between a first and second sidelink terminal device based on S-SSB. The second terminal device can determine the optimal transmit beam based on signal strength measurements, thereby determining the optimal first beam pair. However, the sidelink communication resources occupied by the first beam pair may potentially conflict.

[0137] To solve this problem, the terminal device can sense the resources to determine whether there is a conflict. If the first terminal device determines that there is an expected / potential resource conflict with the resources occupied by the optimal first beam pair, it can select the suboptimal beam pair reported by the second terminal device to establish a connection, or select other resources for the transmission of the first beam pair. For example, the second terminal device can report multiple measurement results with the strongest and second strongest RSRP. For multiple measurement results, the first terminal device can select a reasonable beam pair or resource based on the resource conflict situation to avoid potential resource conflicts.

[0138] In some embodiments, the first terminal device may request the target terminal device to perform resource sensing to determine whether there is a resource conflict. For example, the first terminal device may reduce potential resource conflicts by sending second information. The second information may instruct the target terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the received transmit beam and / or the receive beam corresponding to the received transmit beam. This resource sensing may be used to indicate whether the resource corresponding to the transmit / receive beam conflicts with other resource requirements, or whether the resource corresponding to the transmit / receive beam is a preferred resource or a non-preferred resource.

[0139] As an example, the second information may be one or more IUC requests based on the inter-UE coordination (IUC) mechanism to facilitate the terminal device to exchange preferred resources / non-preferred resources. However, the relevant IUC mechanism does not take into account the directionality of the transmit beam / receive beam / sensing. The relevant IUC request cannot indicate for which beam the IUC information is requested. Furthermore, the legacy IUC information cannot indicate which beam the preferred resources / non-preferred resources in the IUC information are associated with. In order to solve this problem, when the second information is an IUC request, it is necessary to add information to the IUC information to indicate the transmit / receive beam associated with the preferred / non-preferred resources. In this case, the second information may instruct the terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the association between the transmit / receive beam and the resource. For example, when the target terminal device performs resource sensing based on the transmit beam, the target terminal device can sense whether the resource corresponding to the beam has an expected resource configuration or a resource configuration that causes a potential resource conflict.

[0140] In some embodiments, when the target terminal device includes a second terminal device, the second terminal device may perform resource sensing based on the second information and send the sensing result to the first terminal device. The sensing result may be used by the first terminal device to determine a beam pair or resource for sideline communication with the second terminal device.

[0141] Exemplarily, the first terminal device and the second terminal device may determine multiple beam pairs based on the first S-SSB. Among the multiple beam pairs, the first beam pair and the second beam pair may be determined based on signal strength (e.g., RSRP). The first beam pair may be the optimal beam pair, and the second beam pair may be the suboptimal beam pair. If the sensing result of the second terminal device shows that a resource conflict exists with the first resource associated with the first beam pair, the first terminal device may perform side communication with the second terminal device through the second beam pair.

[0142] For example, if the first terminal device receives a notification from the second terminal device and finds that there is a potential conflict in the resources occupied by the optimal beam pair, the first terminal device may select the optimal resources occupied by the RSPR second strongest beam pair for transmission.

[0143] For example, the first terminal device and the second terminal device may determine a first beam pair based on the first S-SSB, and determine that resources of the first beam pair include a preferred first resource and a non-preferred second resource. If the sensing result of the second terminal device indicates that there is a resource conflict with the first resource, the first terminal device transmits / receives a beam using the non-preferred second resource.

[0144] In some embodiments, the first terminal device may also perform resource sensing and determine a beam pair or resource for communicating with the target terminal device based on all or part of the sensing results.

[0145] For ease of understanding, the following uses a unicast link as an example to illustrate the method for performing resource sensing by the terminal device in FIG7 .

[0146] 7 , terminal device 710 and terminal device 720 have a unicast link. Terminal device 710 may be a first terminal device, and terminal device 720 may be a second terminal device. Two candidate beam pairs for unicast communication exist between the two terminal devices, namely beam pair 702 and beam pair 704.

[0147] After receiving the IUC request from terminal device 710, terminal device 720 may notify terminal device 710 of preferred / non-preferred resources. As shown in FIG7 , terminal device 720 senses sidelink transmission 706 from terminal device 730. Sidelink transmission 706 is sensed using beam pair 704, rather than beam pair 702. Based on the IUC request, terminal device 720 may notify terminal device 710 of preferred / non-preferred resources based on the sensing results of beam pair 704 and / or anticipated or potential resource conflicts.

[0148] After receiving a notification from terminal device 720, terminal device 710 may select suboptimal resources for transmission or a suboptimal beam pair if it finds a potential conflict with the resources occupied by the optimal beam pair. As shown in Figure 7 , after terminal device 720 senses a transmission from terminal device 730 via beam pair 704, it sends the sensing result to terminal device 710. Based on the sensing result, terminal device 710 may select beam pair 702 for sidelink communication with terminal device 720, even if beam pair 704 is the optimal beam pair.

[0149] In some cases, the first terminal device may find that there is a potential resource conflict between the optimal beam pair and the suboptimal beam pair, and the beam pairing of the first terminal device and the second terminal device will be seriously affected. For example, in some business environments, there are many vehicles around and more sensing needs to be established, so there will be many sensed resource conflicts. In this case, after receiving the notification from the second terminal device, the first terminal device may find that there is a potential conflict in the resources occupied by the optimal beam pair, and there is also a potential conflict in the alternative beam or the beam with the second strongest signal strength (for example, RSRP), thereby affecting the beam pairing of the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0150] To solve this problem, the second terminal device may determine the services corresponding to the potentially conflicting resources based on the sensing situation. Further, the second terminal device may determine whether to use the potentially conflicting resources based on the services corresponding to the resources.

[0151] In some embodiments, if a potentially conflicting resource corresponds to a higher-priority service, the second terminal device will not use the resource but will reserve the resource for the higher-priority service. If a potentially conflicting resource corresponds to a service with a lower priority than the service of the second terminal device, the second terminal device will prioritize using the resource, meaning that the resource will not be reserved for the lower-priority service.

[0152] In some embodiments, if a potentially conflicting resource corresponds to an emergency or safety-related service, the second terminal device does not use the resource, but reserves the resource for the emergency or safety-related service.

[0153] As an embodiment, the second terminal device may report the beam quality or beam strength to the first terminal device through beam measurement and / or beam resource sensing results for multiple transmit beams. The first terminal device may select a beam for communicating with the second terminal device based on the maximum value of multiple beam qualities or beam intensities. For example, the second terminal device may determine the beam quality or beam strength by measuring the signal carried by the beam. The beam quality or beam strength may be the signal strength associated with the beam. For another example, when the second terminal device reports the measurement results to the first terminal device, the reported beam quality may be determined based on the actual measurement results of each transmit beam in the multiple transmit beams and the conflict information of the resources corresponding to each transmit beam. That is, the beam quality is determined based on the signal strength of each transmit beam and the conflict information of the resources corresponding to each transmit beam. The conflict information of a resource refers to whether there is an expected or potential use demand for the resource, or whether the resource has been occupied or will be occupied.

[0154] The following describes a method for determining the optimal beam for communication between the first terminal device and the second terminal device, taking the example of a first terminal device sending a first S-SSB through M transmit beams and determining the optimal beam pair by measuring RSRP.

[0155] The M beams sent by the first terminal device are BF0, BF1, BF2, ... BF M-1 , that is, BF i The second terminal device measures the received transmission beam to obtain the signal strength, and the signal strength of the i-th beam is RSRP. BFi , where i is a natural number from 0 to M-1.

[0156] When the second terminal device receives the IUC request from the first terminal device, the second terminal device will notify the first terminal device of the preferred / non-preferred resources or the optimal beam and suboptimal beam corresponding to the two resources.

[0157] Use Q ci Indicates the BF sensed by the second terminal device i The corresponding resource conflict information. ci =0 means the resource is not occupied, Q ci =1 indicates that the resource has been occupied or will be occupied.

[0158] When the second terminal device senses a potential conflict in resources, if it is a potential conflict with a higher priority or urgent or security-related service, it sets Q ci = 1. If the priority of the service that has potential resource conflict is lower than the service of the second terminal device, then Q ci =0.

[0159] Based on the above settings, the beam quality of each beam reported by the second terminal device to the first terminal device is:

[0160] Among them, Q cji Indicates the conflict information related to the resources corresponding to the i-th beam of the j-th terminal device among the K nearby terminal devices sensed by the second terminal device, where j is a natural number from 0 to K-1. If the service of the j-th terminal device is of higher priority, more urgent, or involves safety than the service of the second terminal device, then Q is set. cji =1; if the priority of the service of the jth terminal device is lower than that of the service of the second terminal device, then set Q cji =0.

[0161] The second terminal device calculates the RSRP′ BFiReport to the first terminal device. The beam RSRP′ selected by the first terminal device to be paired with the second terminal device BF The following conditions are met: RSRP′ BF =Max[RSRP′ BFi ].

[0162] The foregoing describes a method for a second terminal device to determine the optimal beam for side-by-side communication with a first terminal device based on signal strength and resource conflict information. Furthermore, the second terminal device needs to feed back this information to the first terminal device. In order to enable the second terminal device to report the signal of the transmit beam of the first terminal device, an embodiment of the present application also introduces a beam response signal. The beam response signal can also be called a beam feedback signal. Through the beam response signal, the second terminal device can notify the first terminal device of its existence and its selected S-SSB.

[0163] In some embodiments, the beam response signal sent to the first terminal device requires (pre-)definition or (pre-)configuration of multiple corresponding resources. For example, a mapping rule between the resources used by the first terminal device to send the S-SSB and the resources used by the second terminal device to send the beam response signal can be (pre-)defined, so that the first terminal device can determine the transmit beam selected by the second terminal device.

[0164] As a possible implementation method, each resource corresponding to the beam response signal can be associated / mapped with each resource of the S-SSB transmission of the first terminal device. That is, the second terminal device can select the resource associated / mapped with the resource of the S-SSB transmission of the first terminal device to send a beam response signal to the first terminal device. Through the association / mapping relationship of these resources, the first terminal device can identify the second terminal device for unicast link establishment and the transmit beam of the first terminal device preferred by the second terminal device by detecting the beam response signal from the second terminal device. Exemplarily, the first terminal device can use different receive beams to monitor the beam response signal. These different receive beams can be receive beams derived based on multiple transmit beams of the first terminal device. For example, the receive beam of the first terminal device can be derived from the transmit beam of the first terminal device based on the correspondence between transmit / receive beams.

[0165] As a possible implementation, the resources corresponding to the beam response signal can be used to configure the timing for transmitting the beam response signal. For example, the first terminal device can perform a second configuration based on multiple resources corresponding to multiple transmit beams. The second configuration can indicate multiple transmit opportunities corresponding one-to-one to the multiple resources. These transmit opportunities can be used by the second terminal device to transmit the beam response signal to the first terminal device. Because the multiple transmit opportunities correspond one-to-one to the multiple transmit beams of the first terminal device, the timing used by the second terminal device to transmit the beam response signal can indicate the selected transmit beam.

[0166] As an embodiment, the multiple transmission opportunities may include a first transmission opportunity. If the first terminal device receives a beam response signal sent by the second terminal device at the first transmission opportunity, the transmission beam of the first terminal device corresponding to the first transmission opportunity can be used to determine the first beam pair for the second terminal device to perform sideline communication with the first terminal device. In other words, the transmission beam corresponding to the first transmission opportunity is the preferred transmission beam determined by the second terminal device. For example, the second terminal device can select the optimal transmission beam based on the signal strength of the transmission beam, and then send a beam response signal to the first terminal device according to the transmission opportunity corresponding to the transmission beam.

[0167] In some embodiments, the transmission opportunity corresponding to the beam response signal is also used to send a beam report, and therefore may also be referred to as a report beamforming occasion (RBO). For example, for the second terminal device, if a certain S-SSB is the optimal beam based on the L1-RSRP measurement result, a beam report may be sent at the report beam occasion corresponding to the S-SSB after the second terminal device has sent all S-SSBs. The beam report may also be completed through the beam response signal.

[0168] For ease of understanding, a possible implementation of the embodiment of the present application is briefly described below in conjunction with Figure 8. Figure 8 is written from the perspective of the interaction between a first terminal device and a second terminal device. The second terminal device is the target terminal device to which the first terminal device transmits a beam.

[0169] Referring to Figure 8 , in step S810, the first terminal device performs transmit beam scanning. This transmit beam scanning is used to transmit the first S-SSB of the first terminal device. As shown in Figure 8 , the first terminal device performs transmit beam scanning using transmit beam 812, transmit beam 814, and transmit beam 816, respectively. Transmit beam 812 corresponds to S-SSB1, transmit beam 814 corresponds to S-SSB2, and transmit beam 816 corresponds to S-SSB3.

[0170] In step S820, the second terminal device performs receive beam scanning, which can be used by the second terminal device to measure multiple transmit beams.

[0171] In step S830, the second terminal device sends a beam response signal to the first terminal device. The beam response signal can be sent through one of the beams 822, 824, and 826 shown in Figure 8. Beam 822 corresponds to beam reporting opportunity RBO1, beam 824 corresponds to beam reporting opportunity RBO2, and beam 826 corresponds to beam reporting opportunity RBO3. Among them, S-SSB and RBO are one-to-one mapping relationships, and each S-SSB corresponds to one RBO. For example, S-SSB1 corresponds to RBO1, S-SSB2 corresponds to RBO2, S-SSB3 corresponds to RBO3...

[0172] As shown in Figure 8 , if the second terminal device transmits a beam response signal via beam 824 in step S830, the first terminal device receives the beam response report in RB02. The first terminal device can identify the desired optimal transmit beam as transmit beam 814. After the first and second terminal devices determine the transmit and receive beam pairs based on this method, they can establish a unicast link using the existing link establishment process.

[0173] In some embodiments, the beam response signal may indicate the presence of the second terminal device and the preferred beam based solely on the resource detected by the signal, and thus the beam response signal may not carry a payload. Exemplarily, the beam response signal may be similar to the physical random-access channel (PRACH) in Uu interface communications. Exemplarily, the beam response signal may be a reference signal. For example, the beam response signal may be represented as an S-SSB RS.

[0174] As a possible implementation manner, the beam response signal may be one of the following signals or information: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a sounding reference signal (SRS), an acknowledgement (ACK) or a negative acknowledgement (NACK), and a feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB. The feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB may be a feedback signal of a PSFCH dedicated to the S-SSB.

[0175] In some embodiments, the beam response signal sent by the second terminal device may indicate one or more of the following information: identification information of the second terminal device, identification information of the first terminal device, identification of the transmit beam and / or receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal, and association information between the transmit beam and / or receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal and the time domain resource. The association information between the transmit beam and / or receive beam and the time domain resource is, for example, a mapping relationship between the transmit beam and / or receive beam and a time slot index.

[0176] In some embodiments, multiple transmission opportunities for sending beam response signals can be represented by symbols within the time slot structure. Exemplarily, the time domain resources corresponding to each transmission opportunity in the multiple transmission opportunities may include one or more of the following: symbols corresponding to AGC, one or more symbols adjacent to AGC, and time domain resources occupied by PSFCH. One or more symbols adjacent to AGC are, for example, dedicated symbols added after AGC. For example, in the time slot structure, the second terminal device can use AGC symbols, or dedicated symbol information added after AGC as time domain resources used by the beam response signal. For another example, the second terminal device can use the time domain resources occupied by PSFCH to send the beam response signal.

[0177] For ease of understanding, two time slot structures with beam response signals are introduced below in conjunction with the time slot structure diagrams shown in Figures 9 and 10. The beam response signal is an S-SSB RS.

[0178] As shown in Figures 9 and 10, the first sidelink symbol in a time slot can be used as an automatic gain control (AGC) symbol. Data on the AGC symbol is generally not used for data demodulation. The last symbol in a time slot is a guard interval (GAP) symbol. Symbols unrelated to beam response signals are used to transmit the PSCCH / PSSCH / PSFCH.

[0179] In Figure 9, the first side symbol after the AGC symbol is used to send the beam response signal. In Figure 10, the first side symbol after the AGC symbol is used to send the beam response signal, and the second side symbol is a guard interval GAP symbol related to the beam response signal.

[0180] The method embodiment of the present application is described in detail above in conjunction with Figures 1 to 10. The device embodiment of the present application is described in detail below in conjunction with Figures 11 and 13. It should be understood that the description of the device embodiment corresponds to the description of the method embodiment. Therefore, for portions not described in detail, reference can be made to the above method embodiment.

[0181] FIG11 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for sideline communication according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1100 may be any of the first terminal devices described above. The apparatus 1100 shown in FIG11 includes a sending unit 1110.

[0182] The sending unit 1110 can be used to send a first S-SSB through one or more transmitting beams. The first S-SSB is used to carry first information. The first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

[0183] Optionally, the one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device include target terminal devices corresponding to one or more transmission beams, and the first information includes identification information of the first terminal device and / or the target terminal device.

[0184] Optionally, the identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is ID information, and the ID information is associated with one or more of the following information: a temporary mobile user identification of the first terminal device or the target terminal device; an SCI sent by the first terminal device; or ID information determined by an upper layer corresponding to the first terminal device or the target terminal device.

[0185] Optionally, the identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is indicated by an extended SL-SSID.

[0186] Optionally, the first S-SSB does not include PSBCH, and the first information is generated by one or more of the following methods: cyclic shift of the S-PSS sequence; cyclic shift of the S-SSS sequence; a dedicated sequence for the first information.

[0187] Optionally, the first S-SSB includes S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB include first time domain resources and second time domain resources. The first time domain resources are used to send S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the second time domain resources are used to send one or more of the following: reference signal, AGC, GAP.

[0188] Optionally, the first S-SSB includes PSBCH, and the first information is carried in the PSBCH.

[0189] Optionally, the device 1100 also includes a first configuration unit, which can be used to perform a first configuration on the transmission resources corresponding to the first S-SSB, and the first configuration is used to indicate the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB.

[0190] Optionally, the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB include one of the following: one or more continuous time units; multiple time periods determined according to the first time interval.

[0191] Optionally, the first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include a second terminal device. The multiple transmission beams are used by the second terminal device to determine the beam quality or beam strength of each transmission beam in the multiple transmission beams, and the beam quality or beam strength is used by the first terminal device to determine a first beam pair, wherein the first beam pair is used for side-by-side communication between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0192] Optionally, the beam quality is determined based on the signal strength of each transmit beam and conflict information of resources corresponding to each transmit beam, and the conflict information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to each transmit beam.

[0193] Optionally, the conflict information is determined based on the resource sensing result of the second terminal device, and the sending unit 1110 is also used to send second information to the second terminal device, and the second information is used to instruct the second terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the received transmit beam and / or the receive beam corresponding to the received transmit beam.

[0194] Optionally, the first S-SSB is sent through M transmission beams, the second terminal device senses K terminal devices according to the M transmission beams, and the beam quality RSRP′ corresponding to the i-th transmission beam in the M transmission beams is BFi The following conditions are met:

[0195] Among them, RSRP BFi Indicates the signal strength of the i-th transmit beam, i is a natural number from 0 to M-1, Q cji Indicates the conflict information between the jth terminal device among the K terminal devices and the resource corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, where j is a natural number from 0 to K-1, and Q cji =0 indicates that the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, Q cji =1 indicates that the second terminal device does not use the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam.

[0196] Optionally, the first S-SSB is transmitted through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include a second terminal device. The device 1100 also includes a second configuration unit, which can be used to perform a second configuration based on multiple resources corresponding to the multiple transmission beams. The second configuration is used to indicate multiple transmission opportunities corresponding one-to-one to the multiple resources, wherein the multiple transmission opportunities are used for the second terminal device to send a beam response signal to the first terminal device.

[0197] Optionally, the multiple sending opportunities include a first sending opportunity, and the device 1100 also includes a receiving unit, which can be used to receive the beam response signal sent by the second terminal device at the first sending opportunity, and the transmitting beam of the first terminal device corresponding to the first sending opportunity is used to determine the first beam pair for side communication between the second terminal device and the first terminal device.

[0198] Optionally, the time domain resources corresponding to each of the multiple transmission opportunities include one or more of the following: symbols corresponding to the AGC, one or more symbols adjacent to the AGC, and time domain resources occupied by the PSFCH.

[0199] Optionally, the beam response signal sent by the second terminal device is used to indicate one or more of the following information: identification information of the second terminal device; identification information of the first terminal device; identification of the transmit beam and / or receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal; association information between the transmit beam and / or receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal and the time domain resources.

[0200] Optionally, the beam response signal includes one of the following: CSI-RS, SRS, ACK / NACK, and a feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB.

[0201] FIG12 is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for sideline communication according to an embodiment of the present application. The apparatus 1200 may be any of the second terminal devices described above. The apparatus 1200 shown in FIG12 includes a receiving unit 1210.

[0202] The receiving unit 1210 can be used to receive a first side synchronization signal block S-SSB sent by a first terminal device through one or more transmitting beams. The first S-SSB is used to carry first information, and the first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

[0203] Optionally, the one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device include target terminal devices corresponding to one or more transmission beams, and the first information includes identification information of the first terminal device and / or the target terminal device.

[0204] Optionally, the identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is ID information, and the ID information is associated with one or more of the following information: a temporary mobile user identification of the first terminal device or the target terminal device; an SCI sent by the first terminal device; or ID information determined by an upper layer corresponding to the first terminal device or the target terminal device.

[0205] Optionally, the identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is indicated by an extended SL-SSID.

[0206] Optionally, the first S-SSB does not include PSBCH, and the first information is generated by one or more of the following methods: cyclic shift of the S-PSS sequence; cyclic shift of the S-SSS sequence; a dedicated sequence for the first information.

[0207] Optionally, the first S-SSB includes S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB include first time domain resources and second time domain resources. The first time domain resources are used to send S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the second time domain resources are used to send one or more of the following: reference signal, AGC, GAP.

[0208] Optionally, the first S-SSB includes PSBCH, and the first information is carried in the PSBCH.

[0209] Optionally, the first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include a second terminal device. The multiple transmission beams are used by the second terminal device to determine the beam quality or beam strength of each transmission beam in the multiple transmission beams, and the beam quality or beam strength is used by the first terminal device to determine a first beam pair, wherein the first beam pair is used for side-by-side communication between the first terminal device and the second terminal device.

[0210] Optionally, the beam quality is determined based on the signal strength of each transmit beam and conflict information of resources corresponding to each transmit beam, and the conflict information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to each transmit beam.

[0211] Optionally, the conflict information is determined based on the resource sensing result of the second terminal device, and the receiving unit 1210 is also used to receive second information sent by the first terminal device, and the second information is used to instruct the second terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the received transmit beam and / or the receive beam corresponding to the received transmit beam.

[0212] Optionally, the first S-SSB is sent through M transmission beams, the second terminal device senses K terminal devices according to the M transmission beams, and the beam quality RSRP′ corresponding to the i-th transmission beam in the M transmission beams is BFi The following conditions are met:

[0213] Among them, RSRP BFi Indicates the signal strength of the i-th transmit beam, i is a natural number from 0 to M-1, Q cji Indicates the conflict information between the jth terminal device among the K terminal devices and the resource corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, where j is a natural number from 0 to K-1, and Q cji =0 indicates that the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, Q cji=1 indicates that the second terminal device does not use the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam.

[0214] Optionally, the first S-SSB is transmitted through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include the second terminal device. The device 1200 also includes a transmitting unit, which can be used to send a beam response signal to the first terminal device at a first transmission opportunity. The first transmission opportunity is one of the multiple transmission opportunities configured for the first terminal device. The multiple transmission opportunities correspond one-to-one to the multiple resources corresponding to the multiple transmission beams. The transmission beam of the first terminal device corresponding to the first transmission opportunity is used to determine the first beam pair for the second terminal device to perform side communication with the first terminal device.

[0215] Optionally, the time domain resources corresponding to each of the multiple transmission opportunities include one or more of the following: symbols corresponding to the AGC, one or more symbols adjacent to the AGC, and time domain resources occupied by the PSFCH.

[0216] Optionally, the beam response signal sent by the second terminal device is used to indicate one or more of the following information: identification information of the second terminal device; identification information of the first terminal device; identification of the transmit beam and / or receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal; association information between the transmit beam and / or receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal and the time domain resources.

[0217] Optionally, the beam response signal includes one of the following: CSI-RS, SRS, ACK / NACK, and a feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB.

[0218] FIG13 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. The dashed lines in FIG13 indicate that the unit or module is optional. Apparatus 1300 may be used to implement the method described in the above method embodiment. Apparatus 1300 may be a chip or a terminal device.

[0219] The device 1300 may include one or more processors 1310. The processor 1310 may support the device 1300 to implement the method described in the above method embodiment. The processor 1310 may be a general-purpose processor or a special-purpose processor. For example, the processor may be a central processing unit (CPU). Alternatively, the processor may be another general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component, etc. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor, etc.

[0220] The apparatus 1300 may further include one or more memories 1320. The memories 1320 store programs that can be executed by the processor 1310, causing the processor 1310 to perform the methods described in the above method embodiments. The memories 1320 may be independent of the processor 1310 or integrated into the processor 1310.

[0221] The apparatus 1300 may further include a transceiver 1330. The processor 1310 may communicate with other devices or chips via the transceiver 1330. For example, the processor 1310 may transmit and receive data with other devices or chips via the transceiver 1330.

[0222] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium for storing a program. The computer-readable storage medium can be applied to a terminal device or network device provided in the present application, and the program enables a computer to execute the method performed by the terminal device or network device in each embodiment of the present application.

[0223] The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be read by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a digital versatile disc (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid state drive (SSD)).

[0224] The present application also provides a computer program product. The computer program product includes a program. The computer program product can be applied to a terminal device or network device provided in the present application, and the program causes a computer to execute the method performed by the terminal or network device in each embodiment of the present application.

[0225] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from a website, a computer, a server or a data center via a wired

[0226] The data is transmitted to another website, computer, server or data center by means of (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.).

[0227] The present application also provides a computer program that can be applied to a terminal device or network device provided in the present application, and enables a computer to execute the method performed by the terminal or network device in each embodiment of the present application.

[0228] The terms "system" and "network" in this application may be used interchangeably. In addition, the terms used in this application are only used to explain the specific embodiments of this application and are not intended to limit this application. The terms "first," "second," "third," and "fourth" in the specification and claims of this application and the accompanying drawings are used to distinguish different objects rather than to describe a specific order. In addition, the terms "including" and "having," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions.

[0229] In the embodiments of this application, the term "indication" may refer to a direct indication, an indirect indication, or an indication of an association. For example, "A indicates B" may refer to a direct indication of B, e.g., B can obtain information through A; it may refer to an indirect indication of B, e.g., A indicates C, e.g., B can obtain information through C; or it may refer to an association between A and B.

[0230] In the embodiments of the present application, the term "corresponding" may indicate a direct or indirect correspondence between the two, or an association relationship between the two, or a relationship between indication and indication, configuration and configuration, etc.

[0231] In the embodiments of the present application, "pre-definition" or "pre-configuration" may be implemented by pre-storing corresponding codes, tables, or other methods that can be used to indicate relevant information in a device (e.g., including a terminal device and a network device). The present application does not limit the specific implementation method. For example, pre-definition may refer to a definition in a protocol.

[0232] In the embodiments of the present application, the "protocol" may refer to a standard protocol in the communication field, for example, it may include an LTE protocol, a NR protocol, and related protocols used in future communication systems, and this application does not limit this.

[0233] In the embodiments of the present application, determining B based on A does not mean determining B only based on A. B can also be determined based on A and / or other information.

[0234] In the embodiments of this application, the term "and / or" is simply a description of the association relationship between related objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / " in this document generally indicates that the related objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0235] In various embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

[0236] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0237] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of these units may be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0238] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0239] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this application should be included in the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of this application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for sideline communication, characterized in that: include: The first terminal device sends a first side synchronization signal block S-SSB through one or more transmission beams, where the first S-SSB is used to carry first information, and the first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device include target terminal devices corresponding to the one or more transmit beams, and the first information includes identification information of the first terminal device and / or the target terminal device.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is identification ID information, and the ID information is associated with one or more of the following information: A temporary mobile user identity of the first terminal device or the target terminal device; Side control information SCI sent by the first terminal device; ID information determined by the upper layer corresponding to the first terminal device or the target terminal device.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is indicated by an extended side synchronization signal identifier SL-SSID.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that The first S-SSB does not include a physical side broadcast channel PSBCH, and the first information is generated by one or more of the following methods: Cyclic shift of the side primary synchronization signal S-PSS sequence; Cyclic shift of the side auxiliary synchronization signal S-SSS sequence; A dedicated sequence of the first information.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The first S-SSB contains S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB include first time domain resources and second time domain resources, the first time domain resources are used to send the S-PSS and / or the S-SSS, and the second time domain resources are used to send one or more of the following: reference signal, automatic gain control AGC, and guard interval GAP.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that The first S-SSB includes a PSBCH, and the first information is carried in the PSBCH.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The method further comprises: The first terminal device performs a first configuration on the transmission resources corresponding to the first S-SSB, and the first configuration is used to indicate the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The time domain resource corresponding to the first S-SSB includes one of the following: One or more consecutive time units; A plurality of time periods are determined according to the first time interval.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include a second terminal device. The multiple transmission beams are used by the second terminal device to determine the beam quality or beam strength of each of the multiple transmission beams, and the beam quality or beam strength is used by the first terminal device to determine a first beam pair, wherein the first beam pair is used for the first terminal device to perform side-by-side communication with the second terminal device.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that The beam quality is determined based on the signal strength of each transmit beam and conflict information of resources corresponding to each transmit beam, and the conflict information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to each transmit beam.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The conflict information is determined according to a resource sensing result of the second terminal device, and the method further includes: The first terminal device sends second information to the second terminal device, where the second information is used to instruct the second terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the received transmit beam and / or the receive beam corresponding to the received transmit beam.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that: The first S-SSB is sent through M transmission beams, the second terminal device senses K terminal devices according to the M transmission beams, and the beam quality RSRP′ corresponding to the i-th transmission beam in the M transmission beams BFi The following conditions are met: Among them, RSRP BFi represents the signal strength of the i-th transmit beam, i is a natural number from 0 to M-1, Q cji represents the conflict information related to the j-th terminal device among the K terminal devices and the resource corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, where j is a natural number from 0 to K-1, and Q cji =0 indicates that the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, Q cji =1 indicates that the second terminal device does not use The resources corresponding to the i-th transmit beam.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmit beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmit beams include a second terminal device. The method also includes: The first terminal device performs a second configuration based on multiple resources corresponding to the multiple transmit beams, and the second configuration is used to indicate multiple transmission opportunities corresponding one-to-one to the multiple resources, wherein the multiple transmission opportunities are used for the second terminal device to send a beam response signal to the first terminal device.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that The plurality of transmission opportunities include a first transmission opportunity, and the method further includes: The first terminal device receives the beam response signal sent by the second terminal device at the first sending timing, and the transmission beam of the first terminal device corresponding to the first sending timing is used to determine a first beam pair for the second terminal device to perform side-line communication with the first terminal device.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that The time domain resources corresponding to each of the multiple transmission opportunities include one or more of the following: symbols corresponding to the AGC, one or more symbols adjacent to the AGC, and time domain resources occupied by a physical side feedback channel PSFCH.

17. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 16, characterized in that: The beam response signal sent by the second terminal device is used to indicate one or more of the following information: identification information of the second terminal device; identification information of the first terminal device; an identifier of a transmit beam and / or a receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal; The beam response signal includes information on the association between the transmit beam and / or receive beam and the time domain resources.

18. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 17, characterized in that: The beam response signal includes one of the following: a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS, a sounding reference signal SRS, an acknowledgment ACK / negative acknowledgment NACK, and a feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB.

19. A method for wireless communication, characterized in that: include: The second terminal device receives the first side synchronization signal block S-SSB sent by the first terminal device through one or more transmit beams, where the first S-SSB is used to carry first information, and the first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

20. The method according to claim 17, characterized in that The one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device include target terminal devices corresponding to the one or more transmit beams, and the first information includes identification information of the first terminal device and / or the target terminal device.

21. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is identification ID information, and the ID information is associated with one or more of the following information: A temporary mobile user identity of the first terminal device or the target terminal device; Side control information SCI sent by the first terminal device; ID information determined by the upper layer corresponding to the first terminal device or the target terminal device.

22. The method according to claim 20, characterized in that The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is indicated by an extended side synchronization signal identifier SL-SSID.

23. The method according to any one of claims 19 to 22, characterized in that The first S-SSB does not include a physical side broadcast channel PSBCH, and the first information is generated by one or more of the following methods: Cyclic shift of the side primary synchronization signal S-PSS sequence; Cyclic shift of the side auxiliary synchronization signal S-SSS sequence; A dedicated sequence of the first information.

24. The method according to claim 23, characterized in that The first S-SSB contains S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB include first time domain resources and second time domain resources, the first time domain resources are used to send the S-PSS and / or the S-SSS, and the second time domain resources are used to send one or more of the following: reference signal, automatic gain control AGC, and guard interval GAP.

25. The method according to any one of claims 19 to 22, characterized in that The first S-SSB includes a PSBCH, and the first information is carried in the PSBCH.

26. The method according to any one of claims 19 to 25, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include the second terminal device. The multiple transmission beams are used by the second terminal device to determine the beam quality or beam strength of each of the multiple transmission beams, and the beam quality or beam strength is used by the first terminal device to determine a first beam pair, wherein the first beam pair is used for the first terminal device to perform side-by-side communication with the second terminal device.

27. The method according to claim 26, characterized in that The beam quality is determined based on the signal strength of each transmit beam and conflict information of resources corresponding to each transmit beam, and the conflict information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to each transmit beam.

28. The method according to claim 27, characterized in that The conflict information is determined according to a resource sensing result of the second terminal device, and the method further includes: The second terminal device receives second information sent by the first terminal device, where the second information is used to instruct the second terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the received transmit beam and / or the receive beam corresponding to the received transmit beam.

29. The method according to claim 27 or 28, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through M transmission beams, the second terminal device senses K terminal devices according to the M transmission beams, and the beam quality RSRP′ corresponding to the i-th transmission beam in the M transmission beams BFi The following conditions are met: Among them, RSRP BFi represents the signal strength of the i-th transmit beam, i is a natural number from 0 to M-1, Q cji represents the conflict information related to the j-th terminal device among the K terminal devices and the resource corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, where j is a natural number from 0 to K-1, and Q cji =0 indicates that the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, Q cji =1 indicates that the second terminal device does not use the resources corresponding to the i-th transmit beam.

30. The method according to any one of claims 19 to 29, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through a plurality of transmit beams, and target terminal devices corresponding to the plurality of transmit beams include the second terminal device. The method further includes: The second terminal device sends a beam response signal to the first terminal device at a first sending timing, where the first sending timing is one of multiple sending timings configured by the first terminal device, and the multiple sending timings correspond one-to-one to multiple resources corresponding to the multiple transmit beams. The transmit beam of the first terminal device corresponding to the first sending timing is used to determine a first beam pair for side-by-side communication between the second terminal device and the first terminal device.

31. The method according to claim 30, characterized in that The time domain resources corresponding to each of the multiple transmission opportunities include one or more of the following: symbols corresponding to the AGC, one or more symbols adjacent to the AGC, and time domain resources occupied by a physical side feedback channel PSFCH.

32. The method according to claim 30 or 31, characterized in that The beam response signal sent by the second terminal device is used to indicate one or more of the following information: identification information of the second terminal device; identification information of the first terminal device; an identifier of a transmit beam and / or a receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal; The beam response signal includes information on the association between the transmit beam and / or receive beam and the time domain resources.

33. The method according to any one of claims 30 to 32, characterized in that The beam response signal includes one of the following: a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS, a sounding reference signal SRS, an acknowledgment ACK / negative acknowledgment NACK, and a feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB.

34. A device for sideline communication, characterized in that: The apparatus is a first terminal device, and the first terminal device includes: A sending unit is used to send a first side synchronization signal block S-SSB through one or more transmitting beams, wherein the first S-SSB is used to carry first information, and the first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

35. The device according to claim 34, characterized in that The one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device include target terminal devices corresponding to the one or more transmit beams, and the first information includes identification information of the first terminal device and / or the target terminal device.

36. The device according to claim 35, characterized in that The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is identification ID information, and the ID information is associated with one or more of the following information: A temporary mobile user identity of the first terminal device or the target terminal device; Side control information SCI sent by the first terminal device; ID information determined by the upper layer corresponding to the first terminal device or the target terminal device.

37. The device according to claim 35, characterized in that The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is indicated by an extended side synchronization signal identifier SL-SSID.

38. The device according to any one of claims 34 to 37, characterized in that The first S-SSB does not include a physical side broadcast channel PSBCH, and the first information is generated by one or more of the following methods: Cyclic shift of the side primary synchronization signal S-PSS sequence; Cyclic shift of the side auxiliary synchronization signal S-SSS sequence; A dedicated sequence of the first information.

39. The device according to claim 38, characterized in that The first S-SSB contains S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB include first time domain resources and second time domain resources, the first time domain resources are used to send the S-PSS and / or the S-SSS, and the second time domain resources are used to send one or more of the following: reference signal, automatic gain control AGC, and guard interval GAP.

40. The device according to any one of claims 34 to 37, characterized in that The first S-SSB includes a PSBCH, and the first information is carried in the PSBCH.

41. The device according to any one of claims 34 to 40, characterized in that The first terminal device also includes: The first configuration unit is used to perform a first configuration on the transmission resources corresponding to the first S-SSB, and the first configuration is used to indicate the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB.

42. The device according to claim 41, characterized in that The time domain resource corresponding to the first S-SSB includes one of the following: One or more consecutive time units; A plurality of time periods are determined according to the first time interval.

43. The device according to any one of claims 34 to 42, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include a second terminal device. The multiple transmission beams are used by the second terminal device to determine the beam quality or beam strength of each of the multiple transmission beams, and the beam quality or beam strength is used by the first terminal device to determine a first beam pair, wherein the first beam pair is used for the first terminal device to perform side-by-side communication with the second terminal device.

44. The device according to claim 43, characterized in that The beam quality is determined based on the signal strength of each transmit beam and conflict information of resources corresponding to each transmit beam, and the conflict information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to each transmit beam.

45. The device according to claim 44, characterized in that The conflict information is determined based on the resource sensing result of the second terminal device, and the sending unit is also used to send second information to the second terminal device, and the second information is used to instruct the second terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the received transmit beam and / or the receive beam corresponding to the received transmit beam.

46. ​​The device according to claim 44 or 45, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through M transmission beams, the second terminal device senses K terminal devices according to the M transmission beams, and the beam quality RSRP′ corresponding to the i-th transmission beam in the M transmission beams BFi The following conditions are met: Among them, RSRP BFi represents the signal strength of the i-th transmit beam, i is a natural number from 0 to M-1, Q cji represents the conflict information related to the j-th terminal device among the K terminal devices and the resource corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, where j is a natural number from 0 to K-1, and Q cji =0 indicates that the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, Q cji =1 indicates that the second terminal device does not use the resources corresponding to the i-th transmit beam.

47. The device according to any one of claims 34 to 46, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmit beams, the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmit beams include a second terminal device, and the first terminal device also includes: The second configuration unit is used to perform a second configuration based on multiple resources corresponding to the multiple transmit beams, and the second configuration is used to indicate multiple transmission opportunities corresponding one-to-one to the multiple resources, wherein the multiple transmission opportunities are used for the second terminal device to send a beam response signal to the first terminal device.

48. The device according to claim 47, characterized in that The multiple sending opportunities include a first sending opportunity, and the first terminal device further includes: A receiving unit is used to receive a beam response signal sent by the second terminal device at the first sending opportunity, and the transmission beam of the first terminal device corresponding to the first sending opportunity is used to determine a first beam pair for the second terminal device to perform side communication with the first terminal device.

49. The device according to claim 47 or 48, characterized in that The time domain resources corresponding to each of the multiple transmission opportunities include one or more of the following: symbols corresponding to the AGC, one or more symbols adjacent to the AGC, and time domain resources occupied by a physical side feedback channel PSFCH.

50. The device according to any one of claims 47 to 49, characterized in that The beam response signal sent by the second terminal device is used to indicate one or more of the following information: identification information of the second terminal device; identification information of the first terminal device; an identifier of a transmit beam and / or a receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal; The beam response signal includes information on the association between the transmit beam and / or receive beam and the time domain resources.

51. The device according to any one of claims 47 to 50, characterized in that The beam response signal includes one of the following: a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS, a sounding reference signal SRS, an acknowledgement ACK / negative acknowledgement NACK, and a feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB.

52. A device for wireless communication, characterized in that: The apparatus is a second terminal device, and the second terminal device includes: A receiving unit is used to receive a first side synchronization signal block S-SSB sent by a first terminal device through one or more transmitting beams, wherein the first S-SSB is used to carry first information, and the first information is used by one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device to determine whether to perform initial beam pairing with the first terminal device.

53. The device according to claim 52, characterized in that The one or more terminal devices other than the first terminal device include target terminal devices corresponding to the one or more transmit beams, and the first information includes identification information of the first terminal device and / or the target terminal device.

54. The device according to claim 53, characterized in that The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is identification ID information, and the ID information is associated with one or more of the following information: A temporary mobile user identity of the first terminal device or the target terminal device; Side control information SCI sent by the first terminal device; ID information determined by the upper layer corresponding to the first terminal device or the target terminal device.

55. The device according to claim 53, characterized in that The identification information of the first terminal device or the target terminal device is indicated by an extended side synchronization signal identifier SL-SSID.

56. The device according to any one of claims 52 to 55, characterized in that The first S-SSB does not include a physical side broadcast channel PSBCH, and the first information is generated by one or more of the following methods: Cyclic shift of the side primary synchronization signal S-PSS sequence; Cyclic shift of the side auxiliary synchronization signal S-SSS sequence; A dedicated sequence of the first information.

57. The device according to claim 56, characterized in that The first S-SSB contains S-PSS and / or S-SSS, and the time domain resources corresponding to the first S-SSB include first time domain resources and second time domain resources, the first time domain resources are used to send the S-PSS and / or the S-SSS, and the second time domain resources are used to send one or more of the following: reference signal, automatic gain control AGC, and guard interval GAP.

58. The device according to any one of claims 52 to 55, characterized in that The first S-SSB includes a PSBCH, and the first information is carried in the PSBCH.

59. The device according to any one of claims 52 to 58, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmission beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmission beams include the second terminal device. The multiple transmission beams are used by the second terminal device to determine the beam quality or beam strength of each of the multiple transmission beams, and the beam quality or beam strength is used by the first terminal device to determine a first beam pair, wherein the first beam pair is used for the first terminal device to perform side-by-side communication with the second terminal device.

60. The device according to claim 59, characterized in that The beam quality is determined based on the signal strength of each transmit beam and conflict information of resources corresponding to each transmit beam, and the conflict information is used to indicate whether the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to each transmit beam.

61. The device according to claim 60, characterized in that The conflict information is determined based on the resource sensing result of the second terminal device, and the receiving unit is also used to receive second information sent by the first terminal device, and the second information is used to instruct the second terminal device to perform resource sensing based on the received transmit beam and / or the receive beam corresponding to the received transmit beam.

62. The device according to claim 60 or 61, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through M transmission beams, the second terminal device senses K terminal devices according to the M transmission beams, and the beam quality RSRP′ corresponding to the i-th transmission beam in the M transmission beams BFi The following conditions are met: Among them, RSRP BFi represents the signal strength of the i-th transmit beam, i is a natural number from 0 to M-1, Q cji represents the conflict information related to the j-th terminal device among the K terminal devices and the resource corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, where j is a natural number from 0 to K-1, and Q cji =0 indicates that the second terminal device uses the resources corresponding to the i-th transmission beam, Q cji =1 indicates that the second terminal device does not use the resources corresponding to the i-th transmit beam.

63. The device according to any one of claims 52 to 62, characterized in that The first S-SSB is sent through multiple transmit beams, and the target terminal devices corresponding to the multiple transmit beams include the second terminal device, and the second terminal device also includes: A sending unit is used to send a beam response signal to the first terminal device at a first sending opportunity, wherein the first sending opportunity is one of multiple sending opportunities configured for the first terminal device, and the multiple sending opportunities correspond one-to-one to multiple resources corresponding to the multiple transmit beams. The transmit beam of the first terminal device corresponding to the first sending opportunity is used to determine a first beam pair for side-by-side communication between the second terminal device and the first terminal device.

64. The device according to claim 63, characterized in that The time domain resources corresponding to each of the multiple transmission opportunities include one or more of the following: symbols corresponding to the AGC, one or more symbols adjacent to the AGC, and time domain resources occupied by a physical side feedback channel PSFCH.

65. The device according to claim 63 or 64, characterized in that The beam response signal sent by the second terminal device is used to indicate one or more of the following information: identification information of the second terminal device; identification information of the first terminal device; an identifier of a transmit beam and / or a receive beam corresponding to the beam response signal; The beam response signal includes information on the association between the transmit beam and / or receive beam and the time domain resources.

66. The device according to any one of claims 63 to 65, characterized in that The beam response signal includes one of the following: a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS, a sounding reference signal SRS, an acknowledgment ACK / negative acknowledgment NACK, and a feedback signal corresponding to the first S-SSB.

67. A communication device, characterized in that: It comprises a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a program, and the processor is used to call the program in the memory to execute the method as described in any one of claims 1-33.

68. A device, characterized in that Comprising a processor, configured to call a program from a memory to execute a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 33.

69. A chip, characterized in that: It comprises a processor, which is used to call a program from a memory, so that a device equipped with the chip executes a method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 33.

70. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that A program is stored thereon, the program causing a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 33.

71. A computer program product, characterized in that The method comprises a program which causes a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 33.

72. A computer program, characterized in that The computer program causes a computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 33.

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