Communication method, apparatus and system

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a communication method, an apparatus and a system. The method comprises: a terminal apparatus receives configuration information, the configuration information being used for configuring the terminal apparatus to perform communications in K cells, and K being a positive integer; and the terminal apparatus receives first indication information, the first indication information indicating a first capability, the first capability being related to the configuration information, and the first capability being at least one of a first band combination, a first feature set or a first carrier feature set. The terminal apparatus can promptly acquire accurate communication configuration, so as to avoid anomalies, such as uplink and downlink reception losses and error codes, caused by a network apparatus and the terminal apparatus being unable to accurately align such information with each other, thereby improving communication quality.

Description

Communication method, device and system

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on August 11, 2023, with application number 202311019187.5 and invention name “Communication Method, Device and System”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular to a communication method, device, and system. Background Art

[0003] In wireless communication systems, terminals generally report their capabilities first, and the base station then sends wireless configurations for carrying services to the terminal based on the terminal capabilities. Under 5G, terminal capabilities are very complex, including user equipment (UE) level, frequency band (BAND) level, feature set (FS) level, feature set per component-carrier (FSPC) level, and band combination (BC) level. The capabilities reported by the terminal are very complex, but with current technology, the terminal cannot accurately know through downlink signaling configuration which capabilities reported by the terminal the configuration sent by the base station is based on. When the terminal capabilities expected by the terminal to be based on the network-sent configuration are inconsistent with the terminal capabilities actually based on the network-sent configuration, it will lead to impaired uplink and downlink reception and abnormalities such as bit errors, thereby affecting communication.

[0004] Summary of the Invention

[0005] The present application provides a communication method, device, and system that can improve communication quality.

[0006] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided. This method may be executed by a terminal device, or may be executed by a chip or circuit for the terminal device, which is not limited in this application. For ease of description, the following description is based on an example of execution by a terminal device.

[0007] The method includes: a terminal device receives configuration information, the configuration information being used to configure the terminal device to communicate on K cells, where K is a positive integer; the terminal device receives first indication information, the first indication information indicating a first capability, the first capability being related to the configuration information, and the first capability being at least one of a first frequency band combination, a first feature set, or a first carrier feature set.

[0008] In some implementations, the K cells may be replaced by K frequency bands, and the configuration information is used to configure dynamic uplink transmission channel switching of the terminal device in the K frequency bands.

[0009] In this method, the terminal device can obtain accurate communication configuration in a timely manner, avoiding uplink and downlink reception damage, bit errors and other anomalies caused by the inability to accurately align the information between the network device and the terminal device, and can improve communication quality.

[0010] In some implementations, before receiving the configuration information, the method further includes: the terminal device sends capability information, the capability information including at least one of the following: at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device; at least one feature set supported by the terminal device, the feature set including a downlink feature set and / or an uplink feature set, each feature set in the feature set corresponding to a frequency band entity in a frequency band combination; at least one carrier feature set supported by the terminal device, the carrier feature set including a carrier downlink feature set and / or a carrier uplink feature set, each carrier feature set in the carrier feature set corresponding to a carrier in a frequency band in a frequency band combination.

[0011] In some implementations, the first capability is the first frequency band combination, the first indication information indicates an identifier of the first frequency band combination, and the first frequency band combination belongs to at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device.

[0012] In some implementations, the first capability is the first feature set, the first indication information indicates the index of the first feature set, the index of the first feature set indicates the position of the first feature set in the first feature set combination, the first feature set combination is the feature set combination corresponding to the first frequency band combination, and the first feature set is a subset of at least one feature set supported by the terminal device.

[0013] In some implementations, the first capability is the first carrier feature set, the first indication information indicates the identifier of the first carrier feature set, the first carrier feature set is the first carrier downlink feature set and / or the first carrier uplink feature set, and the first carrier feature set is a subset of at least one carrier feature set supported by the terminal device.

[0014] In some implementations, the first carrier characteristic set belongs to a first carrier characteristic set combination, the first carrier characteristic set combination includes L carrier characteristic sets, where L is a positive integer, the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to a first cell, and the first cell belongs to the K cells.

[0015] In some implementations, the K cells correspond one-to-one to K carrier characteristic set combinations, and each of the K carrier characteristic set combinations includes one or more carrier characteristic sets.

[0016] In some implementations, L carrier characteristic sets correspond one-to-one to L carriers, the L carriers are candidate carriers used for communication in a first cell, the L carrier characteristic sets belong to a first carrier characteristic set combination, and the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to the first cell.

[0017] In certain implementations, the L carrier uplink characteristic sets are arranged in a first order, which is the arrangement order of the L carriers in the first cell, and / or the L carrier characteristic sets are L downlink carrier characteristic sets, and the L carrier downlink characteristic sets are arranged in a second order, which is the arrangement order of the L downlink carriers in the first cell.

[0018] In this implementation, the carrier characteristic sets are arranged in the order of the carriers, and the carrier characteristic set corresponding to a certain carrier can be determined according to the order without requiring other indications, thus saving indication overhead.

[0019] In some implementations, the first indication information further indicates a first carrier corresponding to the first carrier characteristic set.

[0020] In some implementations, the capability information is first capability information, and the capability information includes a first identifier, where the first identifier is used to indicate that the capability information is the first capability information.

[0021] In this manner, the first identifier carried in the capability information enables the network device and the terminal device to determine the same capability information, thereby preventing the terminal device from being unable to determine corresponding capability information among multiple capability information, thereby improving the accuracy of the terminal in determining the first capability.

[0022] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a network device, or by a chip or circuit used in the network device, which is not limited in this application. For ease of description, the following description is based on an example of execution by a network device.

[0023] The method includes: a network device determines configuration information based on a first capability, where the first capability is at least one of a first frequency band combination, a first feature set, or a first carrier feature set, and the configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to communicate on K cells, where K is a positive integer; the network device sends the configuration information; and the network device sends first indication information, where the first indication information indicates the first capability.

[0024] In some implementations, before sending the configuration information, the method also includes: the network device receives capability information, the capability information including at least one of the following: at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device; at least one feature set supported by the terminal device, the feature set including a downlink feature set and / or an uplink feature set, each feature set in the feature set corresponding to a frequency band entity in a frequency band combination; at least one carrier feature set supported by the terminal device, the carrier feature set including a carrier downlink feature set and / or a carrier uplink feature set, each carrier feature set in the carrier feature set corresponding to a carrier in a frequency band in a frequency band combination.

[0025] In some implementations, the first capability is the first frequency band combination, the first indication information indicates an identifier of the first frequency band combination, and the first frequency band combination belongs to at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device.

[0026] The identifier of the first frequency band combination may indicate the position of the first frequency band combination in the at least one frequency band combination. The at least one frequency band combination may be presented in the form of a list or a set. For example, the identifier of the first frequency band combination may be an index in the frequency band combination list. Each frequency band combination in the frequency band combination list may correspond to an identifier (or index). The identifiers may be incremented in sequence according to the arrangement order of each frequency band combination table entry, for example, the identifier of the first frequency band combination is 1, the identifier of the second frequency band combination is 2, and so on.

[0027] Optionally, the frequency band combination list is a frequency band combination list supporting uplink transmission channel switching, and the identifier of the first frequency band combination indicates a position of the first frequency band combination in the frequency band combination list supporting uplink transmission channel switching.

[0028] Optionally, in a dual connection (DC) scenario, the frequency band combination list is the frequency band combination list reported by the terminal device in UE-MRDC-Capability. In an NR scenario, the frequency band combination list is the frequency band combination list reported by the terminal device in UE-NR-Capability.

[0029] In some implementations, the first capability is the first feature set, the first indication information indicates the index of the first feature set, the index of the first feature set indicates the position of the first feature set in the first feature set combination, the first feature set combination is the feature set combination corresponding to the first frequency band combination, and the first feature set is a subset of at least one feature set supported by the terminal device.

[0030] In some implementations, the first capability is the first carrier feature set, the first indication information indicates the identifier of the first carrier feature set, the first carrier feature set is the first carrier downlink feature set and / or the first carrier uplink feature set, and the first carrier feature set is a subset of at least one carrier feature set supported by the terminal device.

[0031] In some implementations, the first carrier characteristic set belongs to a first carrier characteristic set combination, the first carrier characteristic set combination includes L carrier characteristic sets, where L is a positive integer, the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to a first cell, and the first cell belongs to the K cells.

[0032] In some implementations, the K cells correspond one-to-one to K carrier characteristic set combinations, and each of the K carrier characteristic set combinations includes one or more carrier characteristic sets.

[0033] In some implementations, L carrier characteristic sets correspond one-to-one to L carriers, the L carriers are candidate carriers used for communication in a first cell, the L carrier characteristic sets belong to a first carrier characteristic set combination, and the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to the first cell.

[0034] In certain implementations, the L carrier uplink characteristic sets are arranged in a first order, which is the arrangement order of the L carriers in the first cell, and / or the L carrier characteristic sets are L downlink carrier characteristic sets, and the L carrier downlink characteristic sets are arranged in a second order, which is the arrangement order of the L downlink carriers in the first cell.

[0035] In some implementations, the first indication information further indicates a first carrier corresponding to the first carrier characteristic set.

[0036] In some implementations, the method further includes: the capability information is first capability information, the capability information includes a first identifier, and the first identifier is used to indicate that the capability information is the first capability information.

[0037] It should be understood that the second aspect is an implementation method on the network device side corresponding to the first aspect. The relevant explanations, supplements, possible implementation methods and descriptions of beneficial effects of the first aspect are also applicable to the second aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0038] In a third aspect, a communication method is provided. This method may be executed by a terminal device, or by a chip or circuit for the terminal device, which is not limited in this application. For ease of description, the following description is based on an example of execution by a terminal device.

[0039] The method includes: a terminal device receiving configuration information, the configuration information being used to configure the terminal device to switch an uplink transmission channel or a downlink reception channel between frequency bands of a first frequency band pair, the first frequency band pair including at least two frequency bands, the configuration information including at least one of the following:

[0040] identifiers of frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair;

[0041] a switching option for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0042] a switching time for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0043] the number of transmission channels for transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0044] An identifier of a second frequency band affected by the switching of transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0045] In this method, by indicating the switching time and other information of the transmission channel switching of the first frequency band pair in the configuration information by the network, it is possible to avoid inconsistent understanding of the transmission channel switching between the terminal and the network, and to avoid the terminal being unable to correctly decode the data block sent by the network when the switching time between the first frequency band pairs expected by the terminal is less than the switching time when the network dynamically schedules the transmission channel switching, thereby causing bit errors when the transmission channel is switched, thereby improving communication reliability.

[0046] The identifiers of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair indicate the positions of the frequency bands supporting dynamic switching in at least one frequency band pair. The at least one frequency band pair may be in the form of a list or a set. For example, the identifiers of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair may be identifiers (or indexes) of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair in the frequency band pair list, which are used to indicate the positions of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair in the frequency band pair list. The identifiers may be incremented in sequence according to the arrangement order of each frequency band combination table entry, for example, the identifier of the first frequency band combination is 1, the identifier of the second frequency band combination is 2, and so on.

[0047] Optionally, the frequency band combination list is a frequency band combination list supporting uplink transmission channel switching, and the identifier of the first frequency band combination indicates a position of the first frequency band combination in the frequency band combination list supporting uplink transmission channel switching.

[0048] Optionally, in a dual connection (DC) scenario, the above-mentioned frequency band combination list is a frequency band combination list reported by the terminal device in UE-MRDC-Capability. In an NR scenario, the above-mentioned frequency band combination list is a frequency band combination list reported by the terminal device in UE-NR-Capability.

[0049] In certain implementations, when the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the second frequency band is a frequency band whose downlink reception is affected by uplink transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0050] In certain implementations, when the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the switching option for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair is switched uplink transmission switchedUL or dual uplink transmission dualUL; or,

[0051] In a case where the transmission channel switching is downlink receiving channel switching, the switching options for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched downlink transmission switchedDL or dual downlink transmission dualDL.

[0052] In some implementations, before receiving the configuration information, the method further includes: the terminal device sending capability information, where the capability information includes a transmission channel switching capability supported by the terminal device.

[0053] In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a network device, or by a chip or circuit used in a network device, which is not limited in this application. For ease of description, the following description is based on an example of execution by a network device.

[0054] The network device sends configuration information, where the configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to switch an uplink transmission channel or a downlink reception channel between frequency bands of a first frequency band pair, where the first frequency band pair includes at least two frequency bands, and the configuration information includes at least one of the following:

[0055] identifiers of frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair;

[0056] a switching option for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0057] a switching time for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0058] the number of transmission channels for transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0059] An identifier of a second frequency band affected by the switching of transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0060] In certain implementations, when the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the second frequency band is a frequency band whose downlink reception is affected by uplink transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0061] In certain implementations, when the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the switching option for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair is switched uplink transmission switchedUL or dual uplink transmission dualUL; or

[0062] In a case where the transmission channel switching is downlink receiving channel switching, the switching options for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched downlink transmission switchedDL or dual downlink transmission dualDL.

[0063] In some implementations, before sending the configuration information, the method further includes:

[0064] The network device receives capability information, where the capability information includes a transmission channel switching capability supported by the terminal device; and the network device determines the configuration information based on the capability information.

[0065] It should be understood that the fourth aspect is an implementation method on the network device side corresponding to the third aspect. The relevant explanations, supplements, possible implementation methods and descriptions of the beneficial effects of the third aspect are also applicable to the fourth aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0066] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising a transceiver unit and a processing unit, wherein the communication device is used to execute the method of the first aspect, or the third aspect, or any possible method in the first aspect, or any possible method in the third aspect, or all possible methods in the first aspect, or all possible methods in the third aspect.

[0067] In the sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including a transceiver unit and a processing unit, and the communication device is used to execute the method of the second aspect, or the fourth aspect, or any possible method in the second aspect, or any possible method in the fourth aspect, or all possible methods in the second aspect, or all possible methods in the fourth aspect.

[0068] In the seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, including an interface circuit and a processor, wherein the interface circuit is used to implement the function of the transceiver module in the fifth aspect, and the processor is used to implement the function of the processing module in the fifth aspect.

[0069] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising an interface circuit and a processor, wherein the interface circuit is used to implement the function of the transceiver module in the sixth aspect, and the processor is used to implement the function of the processing module in the sixth aspect.

[0070] In the ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable medium storing a program code for execution on a terminal device, the program code including instructions for executing the method of the first aspect, or the third aspect, or any possible manner in the first aspect, or any possible manner in the third aspect, or all possible manners in the first aspect, or all possible manners in the third aspect.

[0071] In the tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer-readable medium storing a program code for execution by a network device, the program code including instructions for executing the method of the second aspect, or the fourth aspect, or any possible manner in the second aspect, or any possible manner in the fourth aspect, or all possible manners in the second aspect, or all possible manners in the fourth aspect.

[0072] In the eleventh aspect, a computer program product storing computer-readable instructions is provided, which, when the computer-readable instructions are executed on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method of the first aspect, or the third aspect, or any possible manner in the first aspect, or any possible manner in the third aspect, or all possible manners in the first aspect, or all possible manners in the third aspect.

[0073] In the twelfth aspect, a computer program product storing computer-readable instructions is provided, which, when the computer-readable instructions are run on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method of the above-mentioned second aspect, or the fourth aspect, or any possible method in the second aspect, or any possible method in the fourth aspect, or all possible methods in the second aspect, or all possible methods in the fourth aspect.

[0074] In the thirteenth aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes a method for implementing the above-mentioned first aspect, or the third aspect, or any possible manner in the first aspect, or any possible manner in the third aspect, or all possible manners in the first aspect, or all possible manners in the third aspect, the second aspect, or the fourth aspect, or any possible manner in the second aspect, or any possible manner in the fourth aspect, or all possible manners in the second aspect, or all possible manners in the fourth aspect, and a device with various possible designed functions.

[0075] In the fourteenth aspect, a processor is provided for coupling with a memory, for executing the method of the above-mentioned first aspect, or the third aspect, or any possible manner in the first aspect, or any possible manner in the third aspect, or all possible manners in the first aspect, or all possible manners in the third aspect.

[0076] In the fifteenth aspect, a processor is provided for coupling with a memory, for executing the method of the second aspect, or the fourth aspect, or any possible manner in the second aspect, or any possible manner in the fourth aspect, or all possible manners in the second aspect, or all possible manners in the fourth aspect.

[0077] In a sixteenth aspect, a chip system is provided, comprising a processor and a memory configured to execute computer programs or instructions stored in the memory, so that the chip system implements the method of any of the aforementioned first, second, third, or fourth aspects, as well as any possible implementation of any of the aspects. The chip system may be composed of a chip alone, or may include a chip and other discrete components.

[0078] In the seventeenth aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: a network device determines configuration information based on a first capability, wherein the first capability is at least one of a first frequency band combination, a first feature set, or a first carrier feature set, and the configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to communicate on K cells, where K is a positive integer; the network device sends the configuration information to the terminal device; the network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, wherein the first indication information indicates the first capability.

[0079] In an eighteenth aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: a network device sending configuration information to a terminal device, the configuration information being used to configure the terminal device to switch an uplink transmission channel or a downlink reception channel between frequency bands of a first frequency band pair, wherein the first frequency band pair includes at least two frequency bands, and the configuration information includes at least one of the following:

[0080] identifiers of frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair;

[0081] a transmission type of transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0082] a switching time for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0083] An identifier of a second frequency band affected by the switching of transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0084] FIG1 shows a system architecture applicable to an embodiment of the present application.

[0085] FIG2 shows a schematic diagram of a communication method.

[0086] FIG3 shows a schematic diagram of the corresponding relationship between a characteristic set and a frequency band combination.

[0087] FIG4 shows a schematic diagram of a communication method.

[0088] FIG5 is a schematic flow chart showing several communication methods.

[0089] FIG6 shows a schematic flow chart of two communication methods.

[0090] FIG7 shows a schematic flow chart of yet another communication method.

[0091] FIG8 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device.

[0092] FIG9 shows a schematic block diagram of yet another communication device. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0093] The technical solution in this application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0094] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system 1000 used in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1 , the communication system includes a radio access network 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The radio access network 100 may include at least one radio access network device (such as 110a and 110b in Figure 1 ) and at least one terminal (such as 120a-120j in Figure 1 ). The terminal is wirelessly connected to the radio access network device, and the radio access network device is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the core network. The core network device and the radio access network device may be independent, distinct physical devices, or the core network device's functions and the radio access network device's logical functions may be integrated into the same physical device, or a single physical device may integrate some of the core network device's functions and some of the radio access network device's functions. Terminals and radio access network devices may be interconnected via wired or wireless connections. Figure 1 is merely a schematic diagram. The communication system may also include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in Figure 1 .

[0095] A radio access network device can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next-generation NodeB (gNB) in a fifth-generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next-generation base station in a sixth-generation (6G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a Wi-Fi system. It can also be a module or unit that performs some of the functions of a base station, such as a centralized unit (CU) or a distributed unit (DU). The CU performs the functions of the base station's radio resource control protocol and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP), as well as the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP). The DU performs the functions of the base station's radio link control layer and medium access control (MAC) layer, as well as some or all of the physical layer. For detailed descriptions of each of these protocol layers, please refer to the relevant technical specifications of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The wireless access network device can be a macro base station (such as 110a in Figure 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in Figure 1), a relay node, a donor node, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and device form used by the wireless access network device. For ease of description, the following description uses a base station as an example of a wireless access network device.

[0096] A terminal may also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. Terminals can be widely used in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, etc. A terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, wearable device, vehicle, drone, helicopter, airplane, ship, robot, robotic arm, smart home appliance, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal. The following description takes the terminal as an example of a wireless terminal device.

[0097] Base stations and terminals can be fixed or mobile. They can be deployed on land, indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; on water; or on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminals.

[0098] The roles of base stations and terminals can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 1 can be configured as a mobile base station. To terminals 120j accessing the wireless access network 100 via 120i, terminal 120i is a base station. However, to base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, meaning that communication between 110a and 120i occurs via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, communication between 110a and 120i can also occur via a base station-to-base station interface protocol. In this case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, base stations and terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be referred to as communication devices with base station functionality, while 120a-120j in Figure 1 can be referred to as communication devices with terminal functionality.

[0099] Communication between base stations and terminals, between base stations, and between terminals can be carried out through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both; communication can be carried out through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), spectrum above 6 GHz, or spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0100] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station may also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem that includes the base station functions. The control subsystem that includes the base station functions here may be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, smart transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or modem) in the terminal, or by a device that includes the terminal functions.

[0101] The technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application can be applied to wireless communications between communication devices. Wireless communications between communication devices may include: wireless communications between base stations and terminals, wireless communications between base stations, and wireless communications between terminal devices. In the embodiments of this application, the term "wireless communications" may also be referred to as "communication," which may also be described as "data transmission," "information transmission," or "transmission."

[0102] It can be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the physical downlink share channel (PDSCH), the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and the physical uplink share channel (PUSCH) are merely examples of downlink data channels, downlink control channels and uplink data channels, respectively. In different systems and different scenarios, data channels and control channels may have different names, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0103] In wireless communication systems, terminals typically report their capabilities first, and the base station then sends the wireless configuration for carrying services based on these capabilities. In 5G, terminal capabilities are very complex, encompassing capabilities at the UE, band, feature set (FS), component carrier (FSPC), and band combination (BC) levels. A BC contains multiple bands, each band can have multiple FS capabilities, and each FS can contain multiple FSPC capabilities. BCs come in a variety of types, each supporting up to 65,536 BCs. The type of BC can be BC for NR independent networking (StandAlone, SA) (exemplarily, reported in the supportedBandCombinationList information element in UE-NR-Capability), BC for MR-DC (exemplarily, reported in the supportedBandCombinationList information element in UE-MRDC-Capability), and BC for uplink selection (exemplarily, reported in the supportedBandCombinationList-UplinkTxSwitch information element).

[0104] When configuring carrier aggregation or dual connectivity, the base station will configure the terminal based on the BC capabilities reported by the terminal, taking into account terminal-level and band-level capabilities. For example, for dynamic uplink transmit switching, the terminal will report the BCs that support uplink transmit switching. Each BC for uplink transmit switching includes at least two frequency bands. The terminal will also report the switching time for dynamic uplink switching between a pair of frequency bands before and after the switch. During this switching time, the terminal will not perform uplink transmissions. The terminal will also report capabilities such as switching options (uplink switch UL or dual uplink dual UL). When configuring dynamic uplink antenna switching, the base station will indicate the frequency band for uplink transmit switching in the Radio Resource Control (RRC) configuration and dynamically schedule uplink transmit switching through underlying signaling (such as downlink control information (DCI)). The terminal determines how to perform uplink antenna switching based on the RRC configuration information. However, since the terminal may report multiple BCs, multiple BCs may contain the same frequency band pairs that support uplink transmission switching, but these frequency band pairs have different switching times in different BCs. Therefore, the terminal needs to align with the base station to determine which BC capability the base station configures for uplink transmission switching. This avoids inconsistency between the BC capability applied when the terminal expects the base station to send the configuration and the BC capability actually applied when the base station configures it, resulting in the terminal expecting the base station to schedule the switching time to be less than the switching time actually scheduled by the base station, resulting in the terminal being unable to correctly decode the data when dynamic switching occurs.

[0105] For example, considering the protection of the underlying hardware, the terminal needs to perform certain capability checks on the base station configuration, that is, to ensure that the base station configuration meets the capabilities reported by the terminal. Therefore, the terminal also needs to know which group of BCs, or which FS, or which FSPC the base station is based on to issue the configuration.

[0106] The BC capabilities reported by terminals are very complex, and it is impossible to accurately match a unique BC through downlink signaling configuration. The following example briefly illustrates this.

[0107] Terminal reporting capabilities:

[0108] The carrier aggregation (CA) combination configured by the base station is: PCell (band A) + SCell #1 (band B) + SCell #2 (band C)

[0109] Because the CA combination {bandA+bandB+bandC} configured by the base station can be obtained from BC1 and BC2, the base station can configure the CA combination {bandA+bandB+bandC} based on the capabilities of BC#1 or BC#2. The terminal cannot uniquely determine the BC capabilities based on which the base station issued the configuration. Therefore, it cannot align the uplink transmission switching time with the base station, resulting in impaired uplink and downlink reception, causing anomalies such as bit errors.

[0110] In view of this, the present application proposes a communication method, which enables a terminal to accurately obtain the base station configuration to avoid affecting communication.

[0111] It should be understood that the transmission channel (transmitter, TX) in this application: the radio frequency (RF) transmission channel is referred to as the transmission channel, which is a physical concept. The transmission channel can receive the baseband signal from the baseband chip, perform radio frequency processing (such as up-conversion, amplification and filtering) on ​​the baseband signal to obtain a radio frequency signal, and finally radiate the radio frequency signal into space through the antenna. Specifically, the transmission channel may include one or more electronic devices such as an antenna switch, an antenna tuner, a low noise amplifier (LNA), a power amplifier (PA), a mixer, a local oscillator (LO), and a filter. These electronic devices can be integrated into one or more chips as needed. The antenna can sometimes also be considered as part of the transmission channel.

[0112] In an embodiment of the present application, the transmitting channel can also be replaced by Tx, antenna, RF, RF chain, transmitting port, number of RF chains, number of transmission layers, maximum number of transmission layers, maximum number of transmission layers supported, receiving channel or any combination thereof.

[0113] As shown in FIG2 , the method includes the following steps:

[0114] 210. The base station sends first indication information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the first indication information.

[0115] The first indication information indicates a first capability, which is at least one of a first band combination (BC), a first feature set (FS), or a first carrier feature set.

[0116] The first capability may be a first frequency band combination, which is at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal.

[0117] For example, the at least one frequency band combination may be BC1, BC2, and BC3 mentioned above, and the first capability is BC1.

[0118] In one possible implementation, the first indication information indicates the identifier of the first frequency band combination. In a frequency band combination set, the identifier of the frequency band combination can uniquely identify a frequency band combination. For example, the frequency band combination set includes frequency band combination A, frequency band combination B, and frequency band combination C, where the identifier of frequency band combination A is 1, the identifier of frequency band combination B is 2, and the identifier of frequency band combination C is 3. When the first indication information indicates the identifier of a frequency band combination in a frequency band combination set, it can uniquely indicate a frequency band combination in the frequency band combination set. For example, the first indication information indicates identifier 2, which indicates frequency band combination B.

[0119] The above-mentioned frequency band combination set may also be a frequency band combination list (BC List), and a frequency band combination list includes multiple frequency band combinations. The at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal may be a frequency band combination list. The frequency band combination list supported by the terminal may be determined from multiple frequency band combination lists. For example, the terminal determines the frequency band combination list described in the first frequency band combination from frequency band combination list A, frequency band combination list B, or frequency band combination list C, such as frequency band combination list A. In one possible manner, the terminal selects a corresponding frequency band combination list from multiple frequency band combination lists according to current communication requirements. For example, if the current wireless communication access technology is NR, the terminal determines the first frequency band combination according to the frequency band combination list applicable to NR; if the current wireless communication access technology is MRDC, the terminal determines the first frequency band combination according to the frequency band combination list applicable to MRDC; if the current network is configured with uplink transmission switching, the terminal determines the first frequency band combination according to the frequency band combination list applicable to uplink transmission switching.

[0120] In other words, the identifier of the first frequency band combination may indicate the position of the first frequency band combination in the at least one frequency band combination. The at least one frequency band combination may be presented in the form of a list or a set. For example, the identifier of the first frequency band combination may be an index in the frequency band combination list. Each frequency band combination in the frequency band combination list may correspond to an identifier (or index) to indicate the position of the corresponding frequency band combination in the frequency band combination list. The identifiers may be incremented in sequence according to the arrangement order of each frequency band combination table item, for example, the identifier of the first frequency band combination is 1, the identifier of the second frequency band combination is 2, and so on. Different identifiers correspond to different frequency band combination lists. In other words, the frequency band combination lists may also be distinguished by identifiers.

[0121] Optionally, the first indication information also indicates the identifier of the frequency band combination list. The identifier of the frequency band combination list and the identifier of the frequency band combination can uniquely determine a frequency band combination. For example, the identifier of the frequency band combination list A is A, which includes 10 frequency band combinations, and the identifiers are 1 to 10 respectively; the identifier of the frequency band combination list B is B, which includes 12 frequency band combinations, and the identifiers are 1 to 12 respectively. If the first indication information only indicates the identifier of the frequency band combination, such as 8, there is a frequency band combination identified as 8 in both frequency band combination lists. When the first indication information indicates identifier A and identifier 8, it can uniquely indicate the frequency band combination identified as 8 in the frequency band combination list A.

[0122] It should be understood that the above identifiers can be interchangeable with indexes. For example, the identifier of the first frequency band combination can be replaced with the index of the first frequency band combination. The present application is not limited thereto. For example, any method having a distinguishing function can be applied to the identifiers of the above frequency band combinations and / or frequency band combination lists.

[0123] Optionally, before the base station sends the first indication information, the base station may obtain capability information of the terminal. The capability information may come from the terminal or from other access network devices or core network devices, that is, capability information from the terminal forwarded by other access network devices or core network devices. The capability information includes at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal. That is, the terminal reports a list of supported frequency band combinations to the base station.

[0124] It should be understood that the base station that sends the first indication information and the base station that obtains the terminal capability information may be the same base station or different base stations.

[0125] Optionally, in a dual connection (EUTRA-NR Dual Connection, EN-DC) scenario, the frequency band combination list is the frequency band combination list reported by the terminal device in UE-MRDC-Capability. In an NR scenario, the frequency band combination list is the frequency band combination list reported by the terminal device in UE-NR-Capability.

[0126] Optionally, the frequency band combination list is a frequency band combination list supporting uplink transmission channel switching, and the identifier of the first frequency band combination indicates a position of the first frequency band combination in the frequency band combination list supporting uplink transmission channel switching.

[0127] The following provides an example of first indication information when the first capability is a first frequency band combination.

[0128] An example of the first instruction information is as follows:

[0129] bandCombinationIndex BandCombinationIndex,

[0130] This field indicates the index of the frequency band combination, that is, the index of the frequency band combination in the frequency band combination list (BCList) reported by the BC reference terminal configured by the base station in the capability information.

[0131] The frequency band combination list has the following versions:

[0132] When uplinkTxSwitching is not configured in SA, BCList corresponds to supportedBandCombinationList in UE-NR-Capability.

[0133] When uplinkTxSwitching is configured in SA, BCList corresponds to supportedBandCombinationList-UplinkTxSwitch-r16 in UE-NR-Capability.

[0134] When uplinkTxSwitching is not configured in MRDC, BCList corresponds to supportedBandCombinationList in UE-MRDC-Capability.

[0135] When uplinkTxSwitching is configured in MRDC, BCList corresponds to supportedBandCombinationList-UplinkTxSwitch-r16 in UE-MRDC-Capability.

[0136] That is, BCList is related to NR, MRDC, and whether uplinkTxSwitching is configured.

[0137] The aforementioned capability information is the first capability information, and the capability information includes a first identifier, which is used to indicate that the capability information is the first capability information. One possible scenario is that when the terminal's capability is updated, it triggers the base station to re-query and report the terminal's capabilities. However, the capabilities reported by the terminal may not be sent to other network devices in a timely manner. When the terminal moves between base stations, such as from a first access network device to a second access network device, if the second access network device fails to obtain the latest terminal capability information in a timely manner and uses the capability information before the capability update, this will cause the frequency band combination determined by the second access network device to be different from the frequency band combination determined by the terminal according to the identifier of the frequency band combination indicated in the configuration information. For example, due to changes in the number and arrangement order of the frequency band combinations in the frequency band combination list, the frequency band combination corresponding to the same identifier in the frequency band combination list before and after the capability update has changed. For example, the total number of identifiers included in the capability information is 32. The identifier of the initial terminal capability information is 0, and the identifier is increased by 1 when the terminal capability changes. Capability containers of different access technologies can correspond to different identifiers.

[0138] Possible implementations of the capability information reported by the terminal to the base station are as follows:

[0139] UE-NR-Capability::=SEQUENCE{

[0140] …

[0141] versionIndication INTEGER (0…31), UE capability version information.

[0142] }

[0143] or,

[0144] UE-MRDC-Capability::=SEQUENCE{

[0145] …

[0146] versionIndication INTEGER (0…31), UE capability version information.

[0147] }

[0148] Here, versionIndication is an example of the first identifier.

[0149] The first capability may also be a first characteristic set.

[0150] Here, a feature refers to the functions and characteristics of communication resources used to transmit data in a wireless communication system to meet specific communication requirements.

[0151] For example, a feature set may cover multiple aspects, such as modulation mode, coding method, modulation rate, spectrum efficiency, multiple access technology, etc. These functions and features are crucial for ensuring communication quality, maximizing bandwidth utilization, and providing different quality of service.

[0152] Optionally, the feature can be a carrier feature or a feature of a frequency band in a frequency band combination. That is, the feature set can be a carrier feature set or a feature set of a frequency band in a frequency band combination. In this document, for the purpose of distinction, the feature set (Feature Set) corresponds to the set of capability parameters of a frequency band entity (band entry) in a frequency band combination, and the carrier feature set (Feature Set PerCC) corresponds to the set of capability parameters of a carrier on a frequency band entity in a frequency band combination.

[0153] The first feature set belongs to at least one feature set supported by the terminal. In other words, the first feature set is a subset of at least one feature set supported by the terminal. Each feature set in the at least one feature set corresponds to a band entry in a band combination (BC).

[0154] FIG3 shows a schematic diagram of the corresponding relationship between a characteristic set and a frequency band combination.

[0155] As shown in the figure, a frequency band combination BC1 includes three frequency band entities: band A, band B, and band C. Each frequency band entity corresponds to at least one feature set. For example, band A corresponds to FSUL-1 (feature set uplink, FSUL) and FSDL-5 (feature set downlink, FSDL), or FSUL-6 and FSDL-10; band B corresponds to FSUL-2 and FSDL-2, or FSUL-2 and FSDL-7, or FSUL-2 and FSDL-8; and band B corresponds to FSUL-0 and FSDL-3, or FSUL-0 and FSDL-8, or FSUL-0 and FSDL-0.

[0156] FSDL is the downlink feature set, which can be used for downlink transmission. FSUL is the uplink feature set, which can be used for uplink transmission. The uplink and downlink feature sets corresponding to each frequency band entity are collectively referred to as feature sets. That is, the first feature set includes both the uplink and downlink feature sets. FSUL-1 and FSDL-5 indicate that, in the first FS line, the uplink FS and downlink FS of band A are identified as 1 and 5 in the FSUL and FSDL sets, respectively.

[0157] For BC1, its corresponding feature set combination includes three rows of FS, each row of FS includes at least one pair of downlink / uplink feature sets, and each pair of downlink / uplink feature sets corresponds to a frequency band entity in BC#1. For example, the first row includes feature sets FSUL-1 and FSDL-5, FSUL-2 and FSDL-2, and FSUL-0 and FSDL-3, corresponding to band A, band B, and band C, respectively. A BC can have multiple rows of FS, corresponding to the capabilities of different feature sets of each frequency band entity. For example, the feature sets in the second row are FSUL-6 / FSDL-10, FSUL-2 / FSDL-7, and FSUL-0 / FSDL-8, corresponding to another set of capabilities for band A, band B, and band C, respectively.

[0158] In one possible implementation, the first indication information indicates the index (or identifier) ​​of the first feature set, and the index of the first feature set indicates the position of the first feature set in the first feature set combination. The first feature set combination is a feature set combination corresponding to the first frequency band combination. That is, the first feature set is used to determine a pair of downlink / uplink feature sets corresponding to each frequency band in the frequency band combination. For example, if the index of the first feature set is 1, it indicates that the feature set corresponding to bandA in BC#1 is FSUL-1 and FSDL-5, the feature set corresponding to bandB is FSUL-2 and FSDL-2, and the feature set corresponding to bandC is FSUL-0 and FSDL-3. In other words, when the first indication information indicates index 1, it indicates the first row FS.

[0159] It should be understood that the feature set in the above example includes a downlink feature set and an uplink feature set. However, this is not limited to this. For example, the feature set includes a downlink feature set, or the feature set includes an uplink feature set. In other words, the feature set in this application includes an uplink feature set and / or a downlink feature set.

[0160] Specifically, an example of the first indication information is as follows:

[0161] featureSetEntryIndex

[0162] This field indicates the row of FS in the FSC corresponding to the BC to which the FS of the base station refers. That is, the first indication information indicates the position of the first feature set in the first feature set combination. Furthermore, the first capability may be a first carrier feature set (Feature set per CC). The first carrier feature set is a subset of at least one carrier feature set supported by the terminal. The first carrier feature set is a first carrier downlink feature set and / or a first carrier uplink feature set.

[0163] The first carrier characteristic set belongs to a first carrier characteristic set combination. The first carrier characteristic set combination includes L carrier characteristic sets, where L is a positive integer. The first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to a first cell. The first cell is the cell in which the terminal is configured to communicate. In other words, the first cell is the serving cell of the terminal. The terminal may be configured to communicate in multiple cells, for example, K, where K is a positive integer. The first cell belongs to these K cells.

[0164] The K cells correspond one-to-one to the K carrier characteristic set combinations, wherein each carrier characteristic set combination includes one or more carrier characteristic sets.

[0165] In one possible approach, each of the K carrier characteristic set combinations is arranged in a preset order, which is the arrangement order of the K cells. For example, K is 3, the three cells are arranged in the order of cell A, cell B, and cell C, and the three carrier characteristic set combinations are carrier characteristic set combination A, carrier characteristic set combination B, and carrier characteristic set combination C, where carrier characteristic set combination A corresponds to cell A, carrier characteristic set combination B corresponds to cell B, and carrier characteristic set combination C corresponds to cell C. Alternatively, the three cells are arranged in the order of PCell, SCell#1, and SCell#2, and the three carrier characteristic set combinations are carrier characteristic set combination A, carrier characteristic set combination B, and carrier characteristic set combination C, corresponding to PCell, SCell#1, and SCell#2, respectively.

[0166] The arrangement order of the cells may be primary cells first and secondary cells later, wherein the arrangement order of the secondary cells may be in ascending order (i.e., arranged from small to large) or descending order (i.e., arranged from large to small) of the secondary cell index configured by the network.

[0167] In another possible approach, L carrier characteristic sets correspond one-to-one to L carriers, and the L carriers are candidate carriers used for communication in the first cell. In other words, these L carriers are configured for the terminal to communicate in the first cell. The terminal may use some of these carriers, or use all of the L carriers to communicate in the first cell. For example, if a cell corresponds to two uplink carriers, the supplementary uplink (UL) and the normal uplink (NUL), then the carrier characteristic set combination corresponding to the cell includes two carriers, one-to-one corresponding to the NUL and the SUL.

[0168] The L carrier characteristic sets described above belong to a first carrier characteristic set combination, which corresponds to the first cell. That is, the first cell corresponds to a carrier characteristic set combination, which includes multiple carrier characteristic sets, each corresponding one-to-one to multiple carriers. In other words, this carrier characteristic set is per-CC.

[0169] For example, L is 3, and the three carriers are CC1, CC2, and CC3. The first carrier characteristic set combination includes three carrier characteristic sets: carrier characteristic set 1, carrier characteristic set 2, and carrier characteristic set 3. Carrier characteristic set 1 corresponds to CC1, carrier characteristic set 2 corresponds to CC2, and carrier characteristic set 3 corresponds to CC3. This correspondence can also be understood as the carrier characteristic set being the characteristic set of the carrier. For example, carrier characteristic set 1 is the characteristic set of CC1, indicating the functions or characteristics of CC1.

[0170] In one possible implementation, the carrier characteristic set may be either an uplink carrier characteristic set or a downlink carrier characteristic set. The L uplink carrier characteristic sets are arranged in a first order, which is the order of arrangement of the L carriers in the first cell. The L downlink carrier characteristic sets are arranged in a second order, which is the order of arrangement of the L downlink carriers in the first cell. That is, the carrier characteristic sets are arranged in the order of the carriers.

[0171] For example, L is set to 4, the four carriers are carrier B, carrier A, carrier C, and carrier D, and the four carrier characteristic sets are carrier characteristic set 1, carrier characteristic set 2, carrier characteristic set 3, and carrier characteristic set 4. Carrier characteristic set 1 corresponds to carrier B, carrier characteristic set 2 corresponds to carrier A, carrier characteristic set 3 corresponds to carrier C, and carrier characteristic set 4 corresponds to carrier D.

[0172] For another example, a cell corresponds to two uplink carriers, namely NUL and SUL, and the first order is NUL first and then SUL. Then, carrier characteristic set 1 corresponds to NUL, and carrier characteristic set 2 corresponds to SUL.

[0173] Optionally, the first indication information further indicates a carrier corresponding to the first carrier characteristic set, that is, the first carrier. For example, the first indication information may indicate an index of the first carrier.

[0174] The above-mentioned feature set may also be a cell feature set. For example, the first capability is a first cell feature set. The first cell feature set corresponds to the first cell. This feature set corresponds one-to-one with the cell. That is, this feature set is at the cell level.

[0175] Optionally, in the set of cell characteristic sets, multiple cell characteristic sets are arranged in order, for example, in the order in which the cells are arranged. For example, the number of cells is 4, namely cell B, cell A, cell C, and cell D, and the four cell characteristic sets are cell characteristic set 1, cell characteristic set 2, cell characteristic set 3, and cell characteristic set 4. Cell characteristic set 1 corresponds to cell B, cell characteristic set 2 corresponds to cell A, cell characteristic set 3 corresponds to cell C, and cell characteristic set 4 corresponds to cell D.

[0176] The multiple cells may be serving cells.

[0177] An example of the first instruction information is as follows:

[0178] featureSetDownlinkPerCCList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofServingCells))OF FeatureSetDownlinkPerCC-Id

[0179] FeatureSetDownlinkPerCC-Id is the identifier (or index) of the downlink carrier feature set corresponding to each cell.

[0180] In one possible implementation, multiple cells are arranged from small to large according to cellIndex, and the smallest cellIndex corresponds to the first feature set in featureSetDownlinkPerCCList.

[0181] In a DAPS handover scenario, the source cell can be ranked before the target cell. The source cell is the serving cell before the handover, and the target cell is the destination cell of the handover.

[0182] Another example of the first instruction:

[0183] featureSetUplinkPerCCPerServingCellList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofServingCells))OF FeatureSetUplinkPerCCPerServingCell

[0184] FeatureSetUplinkPerCCPerServingCell is the uplink carrier feature set corresponding to each cell.

[0185] In one possible implementation, cells are arranged from small to large according to cellIndex, and the smallest cellIndex corresponds to the first feature set in featureSetUplinkPerCCPerServingCellList.

[0186] In the DAPS handover scenario, the source cell is ranked before the target cell.

[0187] Another example of the first instruction:

[0188] BandCombinationIndication SEQUENCE{

[0189] …

[0190] featureSetUplinkPerCCList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofUplinks))OF FeatureSetUplinkPerCC-Id

[0191] }

[0192] maxNrofUplinks INTEGER::=64

[0193] FeatureSetUplinkPerCC-Id is an identifier (or index) of an uplink carrier feature set corresponding to the uplink (Uplink).

[0194] A possible implementation is that when the flag value is 0, it indicates an invalid value and is used in carrier switching or SDL scenarios.

[0195] The cells are arranged from small to large according to cellIndex, with all NULs arranged first and then all SULs. The smallest cellIndex corresponds to the first uplink carrier feature set in featureSetUplinkPerCCList.

[0196] In a DAPS handover scenario, the source cell is ranked before the target cell.

[0197] Another example of the first indication information, FeatureSetDownlinkPerCC is placed in the configuration of each CC:

[0198] ServingCellConfig::=SEQUENCE{

[0199] …

[0200] featureSetDownlinkPerCC FeatureSetDownlinkPerCC OPTIONAL,--Need M.

[0201] }

[0202] This field indicates the FeatureSetDownlinkPerCC-Id corresponding to the cell.

[0203] Another example of the first indication information, FeatureuplinkPerCC is placed in each uplink configuration:

[0204] UplinkConfig::=SEQUENCE{

[0205] …

[0206] featureSetUplinkPerCC FeatureSetUplinkPerCC OPTIONAL,--Need M

[0207] }

[0208] Among them, the FeatureSetDownlinkPerCC-Id value corresponding to the cell is 0, which indicates an invalid value and is used in carrier switching scenarios.

[0209] Optionally, the first indication information may be carried in RRC signaling, such as an RRC reconfiguration message (RRCReconfiguration) or an RRC resume (RRC Resume) message.

[0210] Optionally, the first indication information may be of the Need M (maintained) type, ie, the terminal needs to save the first indication information. When the first indication information is missing in the RRC signaling carrying the first indication information, the terminal uses the saved or last received first indication information.

[0211] 220. The base station determines configuration information based on the first capability.

[0212] In other words, the configuration information is related to the first capability. For example, the first capability is the first frequency band combination, and the configuration information may be configuration information related to the first frequency band combination, such as the configuration of the carrier for CA or DC determined according to the first frequency band combination. For example, the base station may determine the number of MIMO layers of the configured carrier based on the capability of the first frequency band combination; for another example, the switching frequency band pair (bandpair) and the corresponding switching period (period) in the uplink transmission switching scenario may be determined based on the first frequency band combination. The configuration information corresponding to different frequency band combinations may be different.

[0213] It should be understood that the switching period, switching time, and switching interruption duration in this application can be replaced with each other.

[0214] For example, the first capability is BC1, which includes three frequency bands: band A, band B, and band C. Based on the BC1 capability, the base station delivers the CA configuration between CC1 on band A, CC2 on band B, and CC3 on band C. Based on the first capability, the terminal determines that the switching period for uplink transmission switching between carriers of band A and band C is 35us, and the switching period for uplink transmission switching between carriers of band A and band B is 140us.

[0215] Optionally, the above configuration information does not include the switching period between frequency band pairs, but the terminal can determine based on the first indication information the BC capability based on which the base station sends the configuration, thereby determining the uplink switching time used when performing uplink transmission switching.

[0216] For example, carrier characteristic set 1 corresponds to CC1, carrier characteristic set 2 corresponds to CC2, and carrier characteristic set 3 corresponds to CC3. The base station sends the first capability of carrier characteristic set 1 to the terminal. Based on carrier characteristic set 1, the terminal determines that the switching period for transmitting on CC1 is 35us.

[0217] In another example, cell feature set 1 corresponds to cell 1, cell feature set 2 corresponds to cell 2, and cell feature set 3 corresponds to cell 3. The base station sends a first capability, cell feature set 2, to the terminal. Based on cell feature set 2, the terminal determines that the switching period for transmit handover in cell 2 is 140 μs. For example, the terminal determines that the switching period for transmit handover on all carriers in cell 2 is 140 μs.

[0218] That is, the base station determines the first capability and then determines the relevant configuration for the terminal based on the first capability. In other words, the configuration information is associated with the terminal's capability.

[0219] It should be understood that the first indication information and the configuration information may be carried in the same message. Exemplarily, the message may be an RRC reconfiguration message (RRCReconfiguration) or an RRC resume (RRCResume) message. The first indication information and the configuration information may also be carried in different messages.

[0220] 230. The base station sends configuration information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the configuration information.

[0221] The configuration information indicates the configuration determined by the base station for the terminal according to the first capability in step 220. For the configuration information, refer to the description of step 220.

[0222] The terminal can communicate with the base station in the serving cell according to the configuration information.

[0223] Exemplarily, the message may be an RRC reconfiguration message (RRCReconfiguration), an RRC resume (RRC Resume) message or an RRC connection reconfiguration message (RRCConnectionReconfiguration).

[0224] For example, the configuration information can be carried in RRCmobilityFromEUTRACommand, such as in the NR target access technology capability container message NR targetRAT-MessageContainer.

[0225] In this method, the terminal can obtain accurate communication configuration in a timely manner, avoiding uplink and downlink reception damage, bit errors and other anomalies caused by the inability to accurately align the information between the base station and the terminal, and can improve communication quality.

[0226] The present application also provides a communication method, as shown in FIG4 , which includes the following steps:

[0227] 410. The terminal sends capability information to the base station, and correspondingly, the base station receives the capability information.

[0228] The capability information includes the transmission channel switching capability supported by the terminal.

[0229] For example, the terminal reports two frequency band combinations BC#1 and BC#2, where BC#1 includes the frequency bands {bandA+bandB+bandC+bandD}, and BC#2 includes the frequency bands {bandA+bandB+bandC+bandD}. The frequency band pairs for uplink transmission switching reported in BC#1 and BC#2, and the switching time between the frequency band pairs can be shown in the following table.

[0230] It should be understood that this table is only an example. For example, the correspondence between the switching time, frequency band pairs, and frequency band combinations in the table is only an example.

[0231] 420. The base station determines configuration information based on the capability information.

[0232] The configuration information is used to configure the terminal to switch an uplink transmission channel or a downlink reception channel between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0233] In this application, uplink transmission channel (Tx chain) switching can be replaced by uplink transmission (Tx) switching. Uplink transmission switching can refer to dynamic uplink transmission switching, that is, uplink transmission switching combined with RRC configuration and low-layer signaling dynamic scheduling.

[0234] The first frequency band pair includes at least two frequency bands. For example, the first frequency band pair includes a first frequency band and a second frequency band. The first frequency band is the frequency band of the uplink transmit channel before channel switching, and the second frequency band is the frequency band of the uplink transmit channel after channel switching. The first frequency band is different from the second frequency band. The first frequency band pair belongs to a first frequency band combination, and the first frequency band combination may further include a second frequency band pair. In other words, the first frequency band combination includes at least one frequency band pair.

[0235] The first frequency band pair can also include more than two frequency bands. For example, the first frequency band pair includes four frequency bands, of which the first frequency band includes two frequency bands, which are the frequency bands where the uplink transmission channel is located before channel switching; the second frequency band includes two frequency bands, which are the frequency bands where the uplink transmission channel is located after channel switching. The frequency bands included in the first frequency band and the frequency bands included in the second frequency band can be different or partially the same. For example, the terminal has two transmission channels. Before channel switching, the transmission channels are located in band A and band B respectively, and after switching, the transmission channels are located in band C and band D respectively. For another example, before switching, the transmission channels are located in band A and band B, and after switching, the transmission channels are located in band A and band C respectively.

[0236] For another example, the first frequency band pair includes three frequency bands, wherein the first frequency band includes two frequency bands, which are the frequency bands where the uplink transmission channel is located before channel switching; the second frequency band includes one frequency band, which is the frequency band where the uplink transmission channel is located after channel switching.

[0237] For example, the first frequency band combination includes frequency band pair A and frequency band pair B, wherein frequency band pair A includes frequency band 1 and frequency band 2, and frequency band pair B includes frequency band 3 and frequency band 4.

[0238] The identifiers of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair indicate the positions of the frequency bands supporting dynamic switching in at least one frequency band pair. The at least one frequency band pair may be in the form of a list or a set. For example, the identifiers of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair may be identifiers (or indices) of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair in the frequency band pair list, indicating the positions of the frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair in the frequency band pair list.

[0239] The above configuration information includes at least one of the following:

[0240] an identifier of a frequency band included in the first frequency band pair;

[0241] a switching option for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair (UplinkTxSwitchingOption);

[0242] a switching time for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair;

[0243] the number of transmission channels for switching the transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair; and the identifier of the second frequency band affected by switching the transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0244] The frequency bands included in the first frequency band pair each correspond to an identifier. For example, the first frequency band pair includes frequency band A and frequency band B, frequency band A corresponds to identifier 1, and frequency band B corresponds to identifier 2. It should be understood that the identifier can also be called the index of the frequency band.

[0245] The switching options for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are as follows:

[0246] In the case where the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the switching options for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched uplink transmission switchedUL or dual uplink transmission dualUL; or,

[0247] In a case where the transmission channel switching is downlink receiving channel switching, the switching options for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched downlink transmission switchedDL or dual downlink transmission dualDL.

[0248] The second frequency band affected by the transmission channel switching between the frequency bands of the first frequency band pair:

[0249] In a possible implementation, when the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the second frequency band is a frequency band whose downlink reception is affected by the uplink transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0250] In another possible implementation, when the transmission channel switching is downlink receiving channel switching, the second frequency band is a frequency band in which uplink transmission is affected by downlink receiving channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

[0251] For example, the capability information reported by the terminal to the base station is Table 2, which includes two capabilities, BC#1 and BC#2. The base station determines the first capability as BC#1 and then determines the configuration information based on BC#1. For example, the frequency bands include bandA, bandB, bandC, and bandD. Among them, there are three types of frequency band pairs, namely bandA-bandB, bandA-bandC, and bandB-bandC. Furthermore, the transmission channel switching between the frequency bands of these three frequency band pairs is uplink transmission switching. In addition, the base station can determine the switching time for the transmission channel switching of different frequency band pairs as follows: the switching time for bandA-bandB is 140us, the switching time for bandA-bandC is 35us, and the switching time for bandB-bandC is 35us.

[0252] Optionally, the terminal can also determine the configuration information corresponding to the capability based on the capability information indicated by the base station. For example, if the base station indicates to the terminal that the first capability is BC#1 and configures the frequency band pairs for uplink transmission switching to be the three frequency band pairs described above, the terminal can further determine information such as the switching time for switching the transmission channels between the frequency band pairs based on BC#1. That is, the switching times for the three frequency band pairs bandA–bandB, bandA–bandC, and bandB–bandC are 140us, 35us, and 35us, respectively, rather than 35us, 140us, and 35us as in BC#2. This can avoid receiving errors caused by inconsistencies between the switching time expected by the terminal and the switching time actually used by the base station.

[0253] Optionally, the number of transmission channels for the transmission channel switching of the first frequency band pair is different, and the corresponding switching time may also be different. For example, for the transmission channel switching of 1Tx (i.e., the number of transmission channels is 1)-2Tx (i.e., the number of transmission channels is 2) between the first frequency band pair, the corresponding switching time is the first switching time; for the switching of the transmission channel of 2Tx-2Tx between the first frequency band pair, the corresponding switching time is the second switching time. The first switching time may be different from the second switching time. In the above configuration information, the base station may indicate the first switching time and the second switching time respectively.

[0254] Optionally, in the EN-DC scenario, the terminal may report the above-mentioned frequency band pair list in the UE-MRDC-Capability. In the NR scenario, the terminal may report the above-mentioned frequency band pair list in the UE-NR-Capability.

[0255] The above steps 410 and 420 are optional. It should also be understood that, in a possible implementation, the base station that receives the capability information in 410 and the base station that determines the configuration information based on the capability information in 420 may not be the same base station.

[0256] For example, the capability information may come from the terminal or from other access network devices or core network devices, i.e., capability information from the terminal forwarded by other access network devices or core network devices. Base station #A receives the capability information and forwards it to base station #B, which then determines configuration information based on the capability information.

[0257] 430. The base station sends configuration information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the configuration information.

[0258] For configuration information, refer to the description of step 420 .

[0259] In this method, the base station indicates in the configuration information the first frequency band pair for transmission channel switching, the switching time for transmission channel switching between the frequency bands of the first frequency band pair, the switching options for transmission channel switching of the first frequency band pair, and other information. This can avoid inconsistent understandings of the transmission channel switching between the terminal and the base station, and avoid the terminal being unable to correctly decode the data blocks sent by the network when the switching time between the first frequency band pairs expected by the terminal is less than the switching time when the base station dynamically schedules the transmission channel switching, thereby causing bit errors when the transmission channel is switched, thereby improving communication reliability.

[0260] To facilitate understanding of the communication method of the present application, several implementation examples in different communication scenarios are given below.

[0261] Example 1: In the SA networking scenario:

[0262] A possible implementation is shown in (a) of Figure 5:

[0263] The terminal sends capability information to a base station (such as the next generation Node B (GNB)), and the base station receives the capability information accordingly.

[0264] The capability information is UECapabilityInformation. The terminal carries a capability version flag (an example of a first identifier) ​​in UECapabilityInformation and reports the capabilities supported by the terminal, such as BCList, to the base station.

[0265] The base station sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC reconfiguration message.

[0266] The base station carries at least one of the following in the RRC reconfiguration message (RRCReconfiguration): capability version information, BC indication, FS indication of the row corresponding to the BC, featureSetDownlinkPerCC corresponding to each CC, and featureSetUplinkPerCC corresponding to each uplink.

[0267] That is to say, the aforementioned first indication information is carried in the RRC reconfiguration message.

[0268] The terminal completes RRC reconfiguration with the base station according to the configuration indicated by the base station.

[0269] The terminal sends an RRC reconfiguration completion message to the base station.

[0270] Another possible implementation is shown in (b) of Figure 5:

[0271] The base station sends an RRC release message (RRCRelease) to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC release message.

[0272] Based on the RRC release message, the terminal enters the RRC inactive state, at which point the first indication information becomes invalid. One way to understand the invalidation of the first indication information is that the terminal deletes the first indication information saved or previously received, i.e., the first indication information is of the Need M type. The invalidation of the first indication information below can be referred to in the description here and will not be repeated here.

[0273] The terminal sends an RRC recovery request to the base station, and correspondingly, the base station receives the RRC recovery request.

[0274] The base station sends an RRC resume message (RRC Resume) to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC resume message.

[0275] The RRC recovery message carries at least one of the following: capability version information, BC indication, FS row number indication corresponding to the BC, featureSetDownlinkPerCC corresponding to each CC, and featureSetUplinkPerCC corresponding to each uplink. That is, the aforementioned first indication information is carried in the RRC recovery message.

[0276] The terminal completes RRC recovery with the base station based on the RRC recovery message.

[0277] The terminal sends an RRC recovery completion message to the base station, and correspondingly, the base station receives the RRC recovery completion message.

[0278] Another possible implementation is shown in (c) of Figure 5:

[0279] The terminal sends an RRC reestablishment request (RRCReestablishment Request) to the base station, and correspondingly, the base station receives the RRC reestablishment request.

[0280] In this case, the first indication information is invalid. For example, before the RRC re-establishment request is sent, the first indication information is invalid.

[0281] The base station sends an RRC re-establishment message (RRCReestablishment) to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC re-establishment message.

[0282] The terminal sends an RRC re-establishment completion message to the base station, and correspondingly, the base station receives the RRC re-establishment completion message.

[0283] Example 2: In an NSA networking scenario, a terminal accesses a network (such as an evolved NodeB (ENB)).

[0284] A possible implementation is shown in (a) of Figure 6:

[0285] The ENB sends an RRC connection reconfiguration message (RRCConnectionReconfiguration) to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC connection reconfiguration message.

[0286] The RRC connection reconfiguration message carries capability version information, BC indication, FS row number indication corresponding to the BC, featureSetDownlinkPerCC corresponding to each CC, and featureSetUplinkPerCC corresponding to each uplink. That is, the aforementioned first indication information is carried in the RRC connection reconfiguration message.

[0287] The terminal sends an RRC connection reconfiguration complete message to the ENB, and correspondingly, the ENB receives the connection reestablishment complete message.

[0288] The GNB sends an RRC reconfiguration message (RRCConnectionReconfiguration) to the terminal.

[0289] The RRC connection reconfiguration message carries at least one of the following: capability version information, BC indication, FS row number indication corresponding to the BC, featureSetDownlinkPerCC corresponding to each CC, and featureSetUplinkPerCC corresponding to each uplink. That is, the aforementioned first indication information is carried in the RRC connection reconfiguration message.

[0290] The terminal completes the RRC connection reconfiguration with the GNB based on the RRC connection reconfiguration message.

[0291] The terminal sends an RRC connection reconfiguration completion message to the GNB, and correspondingly, the GNB receives the RRC connection reconfiguration completion message.

[0292] Another possible implementation is shown in FIG6 (b),

[0293] The ENB sends capability request information to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the capability request message.

[0294] The terminal sends capability information to the ENB, and correspondingly, the ENB receives the capability information.

[0295] The capability information is UECapabilityInformation. The terminal carries a capability version flag (an example of a first identifier) ​​in UECapabilityInformation and reports the capabilities supported by the terminal, such as BCList, to the base station.

[0296] The GNB sends an RRC reconfiguration message to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the RRC reconfiguration message.

[0297] The terminal sends an RRC reconfiguration completion message to the GNB, and correspondingly, the GNB receives the RRC reconfiguration message.

[0298] When the ENB sends a UECapabilityEnquiry message to the terminal, the first indication information before the message becomes invalid. The terminal can report the supported capabilities to the ENB in ​​the UECapabilityInformation message. The GNB can again carry the first indication information in the RRC reconfiguration message.

[0299] Example 2, in the wireless access technology switching scenario:

[0300] A possible implementation is shown in Figure 7.

[0301] The terminal is connected to the network and enters the connected state.

[0302] The ENB sends a mobility-from-EUTRA command message (mobilityFromEUTRACommand) to the terminal, and correspondingly, the terminal receives the mobilityFromEUTRACommand.

[0303] The RRCmobilityFromEUTRACommand message carries the NR target access technology capability container message NR targetRAT-MessageContainer, which carries at least one of the following: capability version information, BC indication, FS row indication corresponding to the BC, featureSetDownlinkPerCC corresponding to each CC, and featureSetUplinkPerCC corresponding to each uplink. That is, the aforementioned first indication information is carried in the mobilityFromEUTRACommand message.

[0304] The terminal sends an RRC reconfiguration completion message to the GNB, and correspondingly, the GNB receives the RRC reconfiguration completion message.

[0305] In addition, when the base station indicates the frequency band of the uplink transmission channel and at least one frequency band pair for uplink transmission switching to the terminal, but does not indicate the uplink transmission switching time of the frequency band pair to the terminal, the terminal can determine the switching time based on the following two implementations, and further determine the first capability.

[0306] Method 1: When the terminal device supports multiple switching times for the frequency band pair, the shortest switching time for the frequency band pair is selected, the first capability is further determined, and subsequent communication is completed.

[0307] Taking the table in 410 as an example, the terminal supports BC#1 and BC#2. The base station indicates to the terminal that the frequency band pair for uplink transmission switching is bandA-bandB, but does not indicate whether the base station determines the switching time for this frequency band pair based on BC#1 or BC#2. In BC#1, the switching time corresponding to bandA-bandB is 140us. In BC#2, the switching time corresponding to bandA-bandB is 35us. The terminal selects the switching time of 35us and further determines that the first capability is BC#2.

[0308] Mode 2: The terminal determines the switching time according to the priority of the frequency band pair, further determines the first capability, and completes subsequent communication.

[0309] For example, the base station indicates to the terminal that the frequency bands for uplink transmission switching include bandA, bandB, and bandC. The above three frequency bands are sent to the terminal device by configuring a frequency band list for uplink transmission switching. The frequency bands in the above frequency band list are arranged in descending order of priority, that is, the frequency band ranked first has the highest priority, the frequency band ranked second has the second priority, and so on. The frequency band ranked last has the lowest priority. Different frequency bands have different priorities, and the priority of a frequency band pair can be determined according to the priority of the frequency bands included in the frequency band pair. For example, the priority of bandA is 1, the priority of bandB is 2, and the priority of bandC is 3. The smaller the value, the higher the priority. Then the priority of the frequency band pair bandA-bandB is the highest, the priority of bandA-bandC is the second highest, and the priority of bandB-bandC is the lowest.

[0310] Taking the table in 410 as an example, the terminal device supports BC#1 and BC#2. The base station configures the terminal with uplink transmission switching frequency bands: bandA, bandB, and bandC, arranged in descending order of priority. BandA has the highest priority, followed by bandB, and bandC last. However, the base station does not indicate whether the configuration is based on BC#1 or BC#2. Based on the frequency band priorities, the terminal can determine that bandA–bandB has the highest priority and select the BC with the shorter switching time for bandA–bandB as its first capability. That is, in BC#1, the switching time for bandA–bandB is 140µs, while in BC#2, the switching time for bandA–bandB is 35µs. The terminal determines the switching time for bandA–bandB to be 35µs and further determines BC#2 as its first capability. Based on BC#2, the switching times between bandA–bandB, bandA–bandC, and bandB–bandC can be determined.

[0311] In this method, the terminal can obtain accurate communication configuration in a timely manner, avoiding uplink and downlink reception damage, bit errors and other anomalies caused by inaccurate alignment between the base station and the terminal, and can improve communication quality.

[0312] It should be understood that the above-mentioned frequency band pairs, frequency bands or priorities corresponding to frequency band pairs, the list format of frequency bands for uplink transmission switching, and the order of arrangement of frequency bands in the list are only examples and should not constitute a limitation to the application.

[0313] It is understood that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the network devices and terminal devices include hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. Those skilled in the art should readily appreciate that, in combination with the units and method steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in this application, the present application can be implemented in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is executed in hardware or in a manner driven by computer software depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0314] Figures 8 and 9 are schematic diagrams of the structures of possible communication devices provided in embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the terminal or base station in the above-mentioned method embodiments, thereby also achieving the beneficial effects of the above-mentioned method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be one of the terminals 120a-120j shown in Figure 1, or it can be the base station 110a or 110b shown in Figure 1, or it can be a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal or base station.

[0315] As shown in Figure 8 , a communication device 800 includes a processing unit 810 and a transceiver unit 820. The communication device 800 is used to implement the functions of a base station or a terminal in the method embodiment shown in Figure 2 .

[0316] When the communication device 800 is used to implement the function of the base station in the method embodiment shown in FIG2 :

[0317] The transceiver unit 820 may be configured to send first indication information;

[0318] The transceiver unit 820 may also be used to send configuration information;

[0319] The processing unit 810 is configured to determine configuration information based on the first capability.

[0320] When the communication device 800 is used to implement the functions of the terminal in the method embodiment shown in FIG2 :

[0321] The transceiver unit 820 is configured to receive first indication information;

[0322] The transceiver unit 820 is further configured to receive configuration information.

[0323] When the communication device 800 is used to implement the function of the base station in the method embodiment shown in FIG4 :

[0324] The transceiver unit 820 may be used to receive capability information;

[0325] The processing unit 810 is configured to determine configuration information based on the capability information;

[0326] The transceiver unit 820 may be configured to send configuration information.

[0327] When the communication device 800 is used to implement the functions of the terminal in the method embodiment shown in FIG4 :

[0328] The transceiver unit 820 may be used to send capability information;

[0329] The transceiver unit 820 may be configured to receive configuration information.

[0330] A more detailed description of the processing unit 810 and the transceiver unit 820 can be directly obtained by referring to the relevant descriptions in the method embodiments shown in Figures 3 to 4, and will not be repeated here.

[0331] As shown in Figure 9, communication device 900 includes a processor 910 and an interface circuit 920. Processor 910 and interface circuit 920 are coupled to each other. It is understood that interface circuit 920 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, communication device 900 may also include a memory 940 for storing instructions executed by processor 910, input data required by processor 910 to execute instructions, or data generated after processor 910 executes instructions.

[0332] When the communication device 900 is used to implement the methods shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 7 , the processor 910 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 810 , and the interface circuit 920 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 820 .

[0333] When the communication device is a chip used in a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above method embodiments. The terminal chip receives information from other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna), and the information is sent by the base station to the terminal; or the terminal chip sends information to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station.

[0334] When the above-mentioned communication device is a module applied to a base station, the base station module implements the functions of the base station in the above-mentioned method embodiment. The base station module receives information from other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the terminal to the base station; or the base station module sends information to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna), and the information is sent by the base station to the terminal. The base station module here can be the baseband chip of the base station, or it can be a DU or other module. The DU here can be a DU under the open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture.

[0335] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (CPU), or may be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0336] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions that can be executed by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, and the software modules can be stored in random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, erasable programmable read-only memory, electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, registers, hard disk, mobile hard disk, CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and storage medium can also exist in a base station or a terminal as discrete components.

[0337] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a base station, a user equipment, or other programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another. For example, the computer program or instructions may be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server or data center that integrates one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, hard disk, or magnetic tape; an optical medium, such as a digital video disk; or a semiconductor medium, such as a solid-state drive. The computer-readable storage medium may be a volatile or nonvolatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile types of storage media.

[0338] In the various embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified or there is a logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced by each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationships.

[0339] Depending on whether it is used in the specification, it is optional: In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In the textual description of this application, the character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formula of this application, the character " / " indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in a "division" relationship. "Including at least one of A, B and C" can mean: including A; including B; including C; including A and B; including A and C; including B and C; including A, B and C.

[0340] It is understood that the various numbers used in the embodiments of this application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The order of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not necessarily imply a specific order of execution; the order of execution of the processes should be determined by their functions and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Receiving configuration information, the configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to communicate on K cells, where K is a positive integer; First indication information is received, where the first indication information indicates a first capability, where the first capability is related to the configuration information, and where the first capability is at least one of a first frequency band combination, a first feature set, or a first carrier feature set.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Before receiving the configuration information, the method further includes: Send capability information, where the capability information includes at least one of the following: at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device; at least one feature set supported by the terminal device, the feature set comprising a downlink feature set and / or an uplink feature set, each feature set in the feature set corresponding to a frequency band entity in a frequency band combination; The terminal device supports at least one carrier characteristic set, where the carrier characteristic set includes a carrier downlink characteristic set and / or a carrier uplink characteristic set, and each carrier characteristic set in the carrier characteristic set corresponds to a carrier in a frequency band in a frequency band combination.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The first capability is the first frequency band combination, the first indication information indicates an identifier of the first frequency band combination, and the first frequency band combination belongs to at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The first capability is the first feature set, the first indication information indicates the index of the first feature set, the index of the first feature set indicates the position of the first feature set in a first feature set combination, the first feature set combination is the feature set combination corresponding to the first frequency band combination, and the first feature set is a subset of at least one feature set supported by the terminal device.

5. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The first capability is the first carrier characteristic set, the first indication information indicates an identifier of the first carrier characteristic set, the first carrier characteristic set is a first carrier downlink characteristic set and / or a first carrier uplink characteristic set, and the first carrier characteristic set is a subset of at least one carrier characteristic set supported by the terminal device.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that The first carrier characteristic set belongs to a first carrier characteristic set combination, the first carrier characteristic set combination includes L carrier characteristic sets, where L is a positive integer, the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to a first cell, and the first cell belongs to the K cells.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that The K cells correspond one-to-one to K carrier characteristic set combinations, and each of the K carrier characteristic set combinations includes one or more carrier characteristic sets.

8. The method according to claim 7, characterized in that The L carrier characteristic sets correspond one-to-one to L carriers, the L carriers are candidate carriers used for communication in the first cell, the L carrier characteristic sets belong to a first carrier characteristic set combination, and the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to the first cell.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The L carrier uplink characteristic sets are arranged in a first order, the first order is the arrangement order of the L carriers in the first cell, and / or the L carrier characteristic sets are L downlink carrier characteristic sets, the L carrier downlink characteristic sets are arranged in a second order, the second order is the arrangement order of the L downlink carriers in the first cell.

10. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 9, characterized in that The first indication information further indicates a first carrier corresponding to the first carrier characteristic set.

11. The method according to any one of claims 2 to 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: The capability information is first capability information. The capability information includes a first identifier, and the first identifier is used to indicate that the capability information is first capability information.

12. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Determine configuration information based on a first capability, where the first capability is at least one of a first frequency band combination, a first characteristic set, or a first carrier characteristic set, and the configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to communicate on K cells, where K is a positive integer; Sending the configuration information; First indication information is sent, where the first indication information indicates the first capability.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that Before sending the configuration information, the method further includes: Receive capability information, where the capability information includes at least one of the following: at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device; At least one feature set supported by the terminal device, the feature set comprising a downlink feature set and / or an uplink feature set, the feature set Each feature set in corresponds to a frequency band entity in a frequency band combination; The terminal device supports at least one carrier characteristic set, where the carrier characteristic set includes a carrier downlink characteristic set and / or a carrier uplink characteristic set, and each carrier characteristic set in the carrier characteristic set corresponds to a carrier in a frequency band in a frequency band combination.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The first capability is the first frequency band combination, the first indication information indicates an identifier of the first frequency band combination, and the first frequency band combination belongs to at least one frequency band combination supported by the terminal device.

15. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The first capability is the first feature set, the first indication information indicates the index of the first feature set, the index of the first feature set indicates the position of the first feature set in a first feature set combination, the first feature set combination is the feature set combination corresponding to the first frequency band combination, and the first feature set is a subset of at least one feature set supported by the terminal device.

16. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The first capability is the first carrier characteristic set, the first indication information indicates an identifier of the first carrier characteristic set, the first carrier characteristic set is a first carrier downlink characteristic set and / or a first carrier uplink characteristic set, and the first carrier characteristic set is a subset of at least one carrier characteristic set supported by the terminal device.

17. The method according to claim 16, characterized in that The first carrier characteristic set belongs to a first carrier characteristic set combination, the first carrier characteristic set combination includes L carrier characteristic sets, where L is a positive integer, the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to a first cell, and the first cell belongs to the K cells.

18. The method according to any one of claims 12 to 17, characterized in that: The K cells correspond one-to-one to K carrier characteristic set combinations, and each of the K carrier characteristic set combinations includes one or more carrier characteristic sets.

19. The method according to claim 18, characterized in that The L carrier characteristic sets correspond one-to-one to L carriers, the L carriers are candidate carriers used for communication in the first cell, the L carrier characteristic sets belong to a first carrier characteristic set combination, and the first carrier characteristic set combination corresponds to the first cell.

20. The method according to claim 19, characterized in that The L carrier uplink characteristic sets are arranged in a first order, the first order is the arrangement order of the L carriers in the first cell, and / or the L carrier characteristic sets are L downlink carrier characteristic sets, the L carrier downlink characteristic sets are arranged in a second order, the second order is the arrangement order of the L downlink carriers in the first cell.

21. The method according to any one of claims 16 to 20, characterized in that The first indication information further indicates a first carrier corresponding to the first carrier characteristic set.

22. The method according to any one of claims 17 to 21, characterized in that The method further comprises: The capability information is first capability information. The capability information includes a first identifier, and the first identifier is used to indicate that the capability information is first capability information.

23. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Receive configuration information, where the configuration information is used to configure an uplink transmission channel switch or a downlink reception channel switch of a terminal device between frequency bands of a first frequency band pair, where the first frequency band pair includes at least two frequency bands, and the configuration information includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a frequency band included in the first frequency band pair; a switching option for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair; a switching time for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair; An identifier of a second frequency band affected by the switching of transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

24. The method according to claim 23, characterized in that In a case where the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the second frequency band is a frequency band in which downlink reception is affected by uplink transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

25. The method according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that In the case where the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the switching options of the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched uplink transmission switchedUL, or dual uplink transmission dualUL; or, In the case where the transmission channel switching is downlink receiving channel switching, the switching options for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched downlink transmission switchedDL, or dual downlink transmission dualDL.

26. The method according to any one of claims 23 to 25, characterized in that Before receiving the configuration information, the method further includes: Capability information is sent, where the capability information includes a transmission channel switching capability supported by the terminal device.

27. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Send configuration information, where the configuration information is used to configure the terminal device to switch an uplink transmission channel or a downlink reception channel between frequency bands of a first frequency band pair, where the first frequency band pair includes at least two frequency bands, and the configuration information includes at least one of the following: an identifier of a frequency band included in the first frequency band pair; a switching option for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair; a switching time for switching transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair; An identifier of a second frequency band affected by the switching of transmission channels between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

28. The method according to claim 27, characterized in that In a case where the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the second frequency band is a frequency band in which downlink reception is affected by uplink transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair.

29. The method according to claim 27 or 28, characterized in that In the case where the transmission channel switching is uplink transmission channel switching, the switching options of the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched uplink transmission switchedUL, or dual uplink transmission dualUL; or In the case where the transmission channel switching is downlink receiving channel switching, the switching options for the transmission channel switching between frequency bands of the first frequency band pair are switched downlink transmission switchedDL, or dual downlink transmission dualDL.

30. The method according to any one of claims 27 to 29, characterized in that Before sending the configuration information, the method further includes: receiving capability information, the capability information including a transmission channel switching capability supported by the terminal device; The configuration information is determined based on the capability information.

31. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device comprises a processing module and a transceiver module, and is used to execute the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, or claims 23 to 26.

32. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device comprises a processing module and a transceiver module, and is used to execute the method as claimed in any one of claims 12 to 22, or claims 27 to 30.

33. A communication device, comprising a processor, wherein the processor is connected to a memory, the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is used to execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the device performs the method according to any one of claims 1 to 30.

34. A communication system, characterized in that: Comprising a communication device as claimed in claims 31 and 32.

35. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program is run on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 30.

36. A chip, characterized in that: The method comprises a processor and a communication interface, wherein the processor is used to read instructions to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 30.

37. A computer program product storing computer-readable instructions, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 30.

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