Carrier aggregation method, and communication apparatus

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of communications. Disclosed are a carrier aggregation (CA) method, and a communication apparatus, which can improve the utilization rate of a discrete spectrum. The method comprises: sending first configuration information, the first configuration information comprising a first CBW and a first BWP of a terminal device on a first carrier, wherein the first CBW is the bandwidth of the first carrier; and sending second configuration information, the second configuration information comprising a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on a second carrier, wherein the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier. The spectrum of the first BWP and the spectrum of the second BWP are not continuous, and the second carrier and the first carrier are supported to be combined into downlink in-band continuous CA; and at least one of the first carrier and the second carrier satisfies the following conditions: the first carrier comprises the spectrum of a local operator and the spectrum of a non-local operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the local operator; and the second carrier comprises the spectrum of the local operator and the spectrum of the non-local operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the local operator. The embodiments of the present application are used for carrier aggregation.

Description

Carrier aggregation method and communication device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on August 31, 2023, with application number 202311128815.3 and application name “A Carrier Aggregation Method and Communication Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

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

[0003] Carrier aggregation (CA) usually aggregates standard cell bandwidth spectrum defined by standards, such as 20M, 30M, ..., 90M and 100M. For the use scenario of discrete spectrum integration in the same frequency band, the use of carrier aggregation has certain limitations. For example, in some scenarios, the same operator has intra-band continuous CA and intra-band discontinuous CA in the same frequency band. Intra-band discontinuous CA is a combination of different CCs defined by multiple standards. In other scenarios, there are multiple discontinuous carriers in the same frequency band, and the multiple discontinuous carriers are bandwidth spectra of different operators, and even some bandwidth spectra are bandwidths that are not defined by standards. Undefined bandwidth spectra will not be able to perform intra-band discontinuous CA of the same operator, and the use of CA is limited.

[0004] Furthermore, in time division duplex (TDD) scenarios, intra-band discontinuous CA requires double the number of RF channels. Once a terminal device leaves the factory, it cannot subsequently support additional discrete spectrum combinations via over-the-air (OTA) software upgrades. For example, the N40 band currently does not define intra-band discontinuous CA combinations, and existing terminal devices cannot subsequently support N40's intra-band discontinuous CA via OTA upgrades.

[0005] Summary of the Invention

[0006] The embodiments of the present application provide a carrier aggregation method and a communication device, which can improve the utilization rate of discrete spectrum.

[0007] To achieve the above objectives, the embodiments of the present application adopt the following technical solutions.

[0008] In a first aspect, a carrier aggregation method is provided, the method comprising: receiving first configuration information, the first configuration information including a first channel bandwidth (CBW) and a first bandwidth portion (BWP) of a terminal device on a first carrier, the first CBW being the bandwidth of the first carrier; receiving second configuration information, the second configuration information including a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on a second carrier, the second CBW being the bandwidth of the second carrier; the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP being discontinuous, and the second carrier and the first carrier supporting combination as downlink intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation (CA). The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following conditions 1 and 2: Condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the first carrier; Condition 2 is that the second carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the second carrier.

[0009] The non-operator spectrum of the terminal device may be a spectrum that has been allocated to other operators for use, or it may be an idle spectrum that has not been allocated for use.

[0010] The embodiments of the present application can be applied in TDD scenarios and executed by terminal devices. If the bandwidth of a carrier is a virtual standard bandwidth, the carrier includes the spectrum of the operator and the spectrum of a non-operator. If at least one of the first carrier and the second carrier includes the spectrum of the operator and the spectrum of a non-operator, and the first carrier and the second carrier support downlink intra-band continuous carrier aggregation, if the standard stipulates that the spectrum bandwidth for carrier aggregation must be a standard spectrum bandwidth, one of the bandwidth of the first carrier and the bandwidth of the second carrier is a virtual standard bandwidth, and the other is a virtual standard bandwidth or a standard bandwidth.

[0011] In this application, if the first carrier corresponds to the first cell and the second carrier corresponds to the second cell, the first configuration information is equivalent to configuring the terminal device as a primary cell, i.e., the first cell is the primary cell, and the second configuration information is equivalent to configuring the terminal device as a secondary cell, i.e., the second cell is the secondary cell. When the first CBW configured for the terminal device is the bandwidth of the first carrier and the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier, if the first and second carriers support downlink intra-band contiguous CA, after sending the first and second configuration information to the terminal device, the first and second carriers, where the first and second BWPs are located, are combined into downlink intra-band contiguous CA. In downlink intra-band contiguous CA, both the first and second BWPs are useful spectrum for the terminal device. In this way, even if the spectrum of the first and second BWPs is discrete, non-standard bandwidth spectrum of the operator, since the bandwidths of the first and second carriers are virtual standard bandwidths or standard bandwidths, they support downlink intra-band contiguous CA. The first and second BWPs can be used together to effectively integrate the discrete spectrum in TDD scenarios, improve the utilization of the discrete spectrum, and increase the downlink throughput of the terminal device.

[0012] Furthermore, in TDD scenarios, a second cell supporting downlink intra-band continuous CA reuses the radio frequency channels of the first cell, minimizing hardware costs for the terminal device. For uplink transmission, the terminal device continues to transmit the uplink signal on the first BWP of the first cell initially accessed, with the local oscillator spectrum at the center frequency of the first BWP. This prevents the terminal device from interfering with uplinks from non-carriers in the first cell.

[0013] In one possible design, receiving the first configuration information includes: receiving the first configuration information on the initial uplink and downlink BWP of the first carrier in the case of initial access to the first carrier. That is, when the terminal device selects the first cell as the initial access cell, it can parse the initial uplink and downlink BWP from the system message of the first cell and initiate the access process with the network device on the initial uplink and downlink BWP. After the terminal device accesses the first cell, the network device can send the first configuration information after the terminal device accesses the first cell to the terminal device on the initial uplink and downlink BWP, indicating the available BWP of the terminal device in the first cell, namely the first BWP. The first BWP may include the resources of the initial uplink and downlink BWP, that is, after access, the terminal device switches the available BWP from the initial uplink and downlink BWP to the first BWP. Therefore, when the bandwidth of the first carrier is a virtual standard bandwidth, the first cell is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell, and the terminal device can communicate on the available BWP of the first cell.

[0014] In one possible design, before receiving the second configuration information, the method further includes: sending an uplink signal on the first BWP, and receiving a downlink signal on the first BWP. That is, after the terminal device initially accesses the first cell, if the first cell is a virtual standard large-bandwidth cell, the terminal device only performs uplink and downlink communications on the available BWP of the first cell, that is, the first BWP. The second cell is only a cell used for downlink in-band continuous CA, and the BWP used for uplink communication of the terminal device is still the first BWP in the first cell. For uplink communication of the terminal device, the local oscillator frequency is at the center frequency position of the first BWP, which can avoid uplink interference with other operators in the first cell.

[0015] In one possible design, before receiving the first configuration information, the method further includes: sending capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports intra-band continuous CA and the carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device. If the carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device includes the bandwidth of the first carrier initially accessed, the network device may send the first configuration information to the terminal device so that the terminal device can perform uplink and downlink communications on the first BWP of the first cell. If the terminal device supports intra-band continuous CA and supports the bandwidth of the second carrier, the network device may configure the second cell for the terminal device, combining the first carrier and the second carrier into downlink intra-band continuous CA, thereby improving the downlink throughput of the terminal device.

[0016] In one possible design, receiving the second configuration information includes: receiving the second configuration information on the first BWP. That is, when the network device configures the second carrier, it can send the second configuration information to the terminal device on the valid BWP of the first carrier to improve the downlink transmission efficiency of the terminal device.

[0017] In one possible design, the method further includes: receiving an activation indication for activating a second carrier; and, upon activating the second carrier, receiving downlink signals on the first carrier and the second carrier. In this way, when one of the first cell and the second cell is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell and the other is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell or a standard bandwidth cell, the first BWP and the second BWP, both of which have discontinuous spectrum segments, can be aggregated for use, thereby improving the downlink throughput of the terminal device.

[0018] In one possible design, the method further includes: sending a channel quality indication, the channel quality indication being used to indicate the downlink channel quality of the downlink signal received by the terminal device on the downlink intra-band continuous CA; receiving a deactivation indication when the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, the deactivation indication being used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; and receiving a downlink signal on the first BWP and sending an uplink signal on the first BWP when the second carrier is deactivated. For example, on the downlink intra-band continuous CA, the terminal device may also receive downlink signals from non-operators, and when the signal strength received by the terminal device from the non-operator is higher than the signal strength received from the operator, and the difference in signal strength is large, the downlink demodulation performance of the terminal device may be poor. In this case, the network device may instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second cell, causing the terminal device to return to single-carrier mode and perform uplink and downlink communications only on the first BWP of the first cell, so that the terminal device can restore the downlink demodulation performance in the single-carrier mode.

[0019] In a second aspect, a carrier aggregation method is provided, the method comprising: sending first configuration information, the first configuration information including a first channel bandwidth (CBW) and a first bandwidth portion (BWP) of a terminal device on a first carrier, the first CBW being the bandwidth of the first carrier; sending second configuration information, the second configuration information including a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on a second carrier, the second CBW being the bandwidth of the second carrier; the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP being discontinuous, and the second carrier and the first carrier supporting combination as downlink intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation (CA). The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following conditions 1 and 2: Condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the first carrier; Condition 2 is that the second carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the second carrier.

[0020] The beneficial effects of the second aspect can be found in the description of the first aspect.

[0021] In one possible design, sending the first configuration information includes: when the terminal device initially accesses the first carrier, sending the first configuration information to the terminal device on the initial BWP of the first carrier.

[0022] In one possible design, before sending the second configuration information, the method further includes: sending a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first BWP, and receiving an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the first BWP.

[0023] In one possible design, before sending the first configuration information, the method further includes: receiving capability information sent by the terminal device, the capability information including an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA, and a carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

[0024] In one possible design, sending the second configuration information includes: sending the second configuration information to the terminal device on the first BWP.

[0025] In one possible design, the method further includes: sending an activation indication to the terminal device, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier; and sending a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first carrier and the second carrier.

[0026] In one possible design, the method also includes: receiving a channel quality indication sent by a terminal device, the channel quality indication being used to indicate the downlink channel quality of a downlink signal received by the terminal device on continuous CA within the downlink band; sending a deactivation indication when the downlink channel quality does not meet a channel quality threshold, the deactivation indication being used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; sending a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first BWP, and receiving an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the first BWP.

[0027] According to a third aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a receiving unit configured to receive first configuration information, the first configuration information including a first channel bandwidth (CBW) and a first bandwidth portion (BWP) of a terminal device on a first carrier, the first CBW being the bandwidth of the first carrier; and the receiving unit further configured to receive second configuration information, the second configuration information including a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on a second carrier, the second CBW being the bandwidth of the second carrier; the first BWP and the second BWP having discontinuous spectrum, and the second carrier and the first carrier supporting a combination of downlink intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation (CA). The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following conditions 1 and 2: Condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum from the current operator and spectrum from a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the current operator's spectrum in the first carrier; and Condition 2 is that the second carrier includes spectrum from the current operator and spectrum from a non-current operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the current operator's spectrum in the second carrier.

[0028] In one possible design, the receiving unit is used to: receive the first configuration information on the initial uplink and downlink BWP of the first carrier when initially accessing the first carrier.

[0029] In one possible design, it further includes a sending unit, used to send an uplink signal on the first BWP; and a receiving unit, also used to receive a downlink signal on the first BWP.

[0030] In a possible design, a sending unit is further included, which is used to: before receiving the first configuration information, send capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA.

[0031] In one possible design, the receiving unit is used to: receive second configuration information on the first BWP.

[0032] In one possible design, the receiving unit is further used to: receive an activation indication, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier; and when the second carrier is activated, receive downlink signals on the first carrier and the second carrier.

[0033] In one possible design, it also includes a sending unit for sending a channel quality indication, where the channel quality indication is used to indicate the downlink channel quality of the terminal device receiving the downlink signal on the downlink in-band continuous CA; the receiving unit is also used to receive a deactivation indication when the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, where the deactivation indication is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; when the second carrier is deactivated, the receiving unit is also used to: receive the downlink signal on the first BWP, and the sending unit is used to: send the uplink signal on the first BWP.

[0034] In a fourth aspect, a communications device is provided, comprising: a transmitting unit, configured to transmit first configuration information, the first configuration information including a first channel bandwidth (CBW) and a first bandwidth portion (BWP) of a terminal device on a first carrier, the first CBW being the bandwidth of the first carrier; and the transmitting unit, further configured to transmit second configuration information, the second configuration information including a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on a second carrier, the second CBW being the bandwidth of the second carrier; the first BWP and the second BWP having discontinuous spectrum, and the second carrier and the first carrier supporting a combination of downlink intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation (CA). The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following conditions 1 and 2: Condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum from the current operator and spectrum from a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the current operator's spectrum in the first carrier; and Condition 2 is that the second carrier includes spectrum from the current operator and spectrum from a non-current operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the current operator's spectrum in the second carrier.

[0035] In one possible design, the sending unit is used to: when the terminal device initially accesses the first carrier, send the first configuration information to the terminal device on the initial uplink and downlink first BWP of the first carrier.

[0036] In one possible design, the sending unit is further used to: send a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first BWP before sending the second configuration information; and the receiving unit is used to receive the uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the first BWP.

[0037] In one possible design, the receiving unit is used to: before sending the first configuration information, receive capability information sent by the terminal device, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA and a carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

[0038] In a possible design, the sending unit is used to: send the second configuration information to the terminal device on the first BWP.

[0039] In one possible design, the sending unit is further used to: send an activation indication, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier; and send a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first carrier and the second carrier.

[0040] In one possible design, the receiving unit is used to receive a channel quality indication sent by the terminal device, where the channel quality indication is used to indicate the downlink channel quality of the terminal device receiving the downlink signal on the downlink in-band continuous CA; the sending unit is also used to send a deactivation indication when the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, where the deactivation indication is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; the sending unit is also used to send a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first BWP, and the receiving unit is also used to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the first BWP.

[0041] In a fifth aspect, a device is provided. The device provided in this application has the function of implementing the network device or terminal device behavior in one or more of any possible implementation methods of the first aspect, the second aspect, and the aspects above, and includes means for executing the steps or functions described in the above method aspects. The steps or functions can be implemented by software, hardware, or a combination of hardware and software.

[0042] In one possible design, the apparatus includes one or more processors and may further include a communication unit. The one or more processors are configured to support the apparatus in performing the corresponding network device functions in the above method. For example, determining first configuration information and second configuration information. The communication unit is configured to support the apparatus in communicating with other devices to implement receiving and / or sending functions. For example, sending the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0043] Optionally, the apparatus may further include one or more memories coupled to the processor to store program instructions and / or data necessary for the network device. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor or may be separate from the processor. This application is not limited thereto.

[0044] The device may be a base station, a next-generation base station (gNodeB, gNB) or a transmission / receiving point (TRP), a distributed unit (DU) or a distributed unit (CU), etc. The communication unit may be a transceiver or a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the transceiver may also be an input / output circuit or an interface.

[0045] The device may also be a chip. The communication unit may be an input / output circuit or an interface of the chip.

[0046] In another possible design, the apparatus includes a processor coupled to a memory. The memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program in the memory, causing the apparatus to perform the method performed by the network device in the second aspect, or any possible implementation of the second aspect. Furthermore, the apparatus may also include a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive under the control of the processor.

[0047] In one possible design, the apparatus includes one or more processors and, further, a communication unit. The one or more processors are configured to support the apparatus in executing the corresponding functions of the terminal device in the above method, for example, activating the second cell. The communication unit is configured to support the apparatus in communicating with other devices to implement receiving and / or transmitting functions, for example, transmitting or receiving scheduling information.

[0048] Optionally, the device may further include one or more memories coupled to the processor to store program instructions and / or data necessary for the device. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor or may be separate from the processor. This application is not limited thereto.

[0049] The device may be a smart terminal or a wearable device, etc., and the communication unit may be a transceiver or a transceiver circuit. Optionally, the transceiver may also be an input / output circuit or an interface.

[0050] The device may also be a chip. The communication unit may be an input / output circuit or an interface of the chip.

[0051] In another possible design, the apparatus includes a processor coupled to a memory. The memory is configured to store a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program in the memory, causing the apparatus to perform the method performed by the terminal device in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, any possible implementation of the first aspect, any possible implementation of the second aspect, or any possible implementation of the third aspect.

[0052] In a sixth aspect, a system is provided, which includes the above-mentioned network device and terminal device.

[0053] In the seventh aspect, a readable storage medium or program product is provided for storing a program or instruction, which includes instructions for executing the method of any aspect from the first aspect to the second aspect, or any possible implementation of any aspect from the first aspect to the second aspect.

[0054] In an eighth aspect, a chip or circuit is provided for executing the method of any one of the first to second aspects, or any possible implementation of any one of the first to second aspects.

[0055] The methods, devices, systems, and readable storage media provided in the embodiments of this application can be applied to MBB networks. It is understood that any of the aforementioned network devices, terminal devices, communication devices, chips, systems, computer-readable storage media, or computer program products can be applied to the corresponding methods provided above. Therefore, the beneficial effects achieved by such methods can be referenced to the beneficial effects of the corresponding methods and are not further elaborated here.

[0056] These and other aspects of the present application will become more readily apparent from the following description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0057] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of a discontinuous multi-segment discrete spectrum within a TDD band provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a flexible multi-frequency spectrum combination and flexible scheduling solution provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of uplink and downlink interference of a virtual large bandwidth of a discrete multi-spectrum provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0061] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of a carrier aggregation method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0062] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a downlink intra-band continuous CA according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0063] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of a carrier aggregation method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] FIG8 is a schematic diagram of two virtual standard large-bandwidth cells in a downlink intra-band continuous CA according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0065] FIG9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0066] FIG10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0067] For ease of understanding, some examples of concepts related to the embodiments of this application are provided for reference as follows:

[0068] Time division duplex (TDD) is a full-duplex communication technology used in mobile communication systems. It distinguishes wireless channels in a timely manner during downlink operation and continues uplink operation within a frame period. In TDD mobile communication systems, reception and transmission occur in different time slots of the same frequency channel (i.e., carrier), with guaranteed time separating the receive and transmit channels.

[0069] Frequency division duplex (FDD): refers to the uplink and downlink transmissions being performed on different frequencies.

[0070] A carrier is a radio signal (electromagnetic wave) with a specific frequency, bandwidth, and format, emitted by the radio frequency equipment of a base station or terminal. It is the main carrier used to carry information in wireless mobile communications. The carrier used by the base station for transmission is called the downlink carrier, and the carrier used by the terminal for transmission is called the uplink carrier.

[0071] Cell: A cell is described by higher layers (such as the radio resource control layer and the media access control layer, which are protocol layers above the physical layer) from the perspective of resource management or mobility management. The coverage area of ​​each network device can be divided into one or more cells.

[0072] In the current NR standard, a cell can be configured with one downlink carrier, and optionally, one uplink carrier or two uplink carriers. For a terminal device, the cell that provides service to it is called a serving cell. The cell involved in this application may also be a serving cell.

[0073] Subcarrier spacing (SCS): In new radio (NR), multiple SCSs are defined, and the SCS number corresponds to 2 μ 15kHz. For example, the SCS numbers 0 to 4 correspond to 15KHz, 30KHz, 60KHz, 120KHz, and 240KHz, respectively.

[0074] Carrier aggregation (CA): To achieve high-speed transmission, NR has a CA mechanism. Terminals that support CA can transmit data on multiple carriers simultaneously, increasing the data transmission rate.

[0075] Each carrier in CA is also called a component carrier or component carrier (CC).

[0076] Among multiple cells in CA, the downlink carrier of one cell carries a control channel and can schedule the uplink and downlink data channels of another cell.

[0077] Intra-band continuous carrier aggregation (CA) means that multiple CCs combined into carrier aggregation belong to the same frequency band, and the spectrum of each CC is continuous. The center frequency interval meets the following requirements of the protocol (38101-1).

[0078] 1) For a frequency band with a channel grid of 100 kHz, the nominal channel spacing requirement for the center frequencies of two adjacent CCs is:

[0079] 2) For frequency bands where the channel grid is not 100kHz, the center frequency spacing requirement for two adjacent CCs is:

[0080] Where n = μ0, μ0 is the maximum subcarrier spacing configuration μ, BW Channel(1) and BW Channel(2) is the channel bandwidth of 2 CCs,

[0081] GB Channel(i) It is the minimum guard band of a CC with a channel bandwidth of i when the subcarrier spacing is configured as μ0, where i is an integer.

[0082] Intra-band non-contiguous CA: This means that multiple CCs combined into CA belong to the same frequency band. The spectrum is discontinuous and does not meet the protocol requirements of intra-band continuous CA.

[0083] Primary carrier (Pcell): Also known as the primary cell, this cell operates on the primary frequency band. The UE performs initial connection establishment or begins connection reestablishment in this cell. During handover, this cell is designated as the primary cell.

[0084] Secondary cell (Scell): Also known as a secondary cell, it is a cell operating on a secondary frequency band. Once a radio resource control (RRC) connection is established, the secondary cell may be configured to provide additional radio resources.

[0085] Bandwidth part (BWP): This is a new concept introduced by NR, designed to accommodate a variety of different types of terminal devices. Because NR is a high-bandwidth system, not all terminal devices can utilize this high bandwidth, so this small bandwidth system can be used.

[0086] BWP is equivalent to dividing the 5G spectrum into many small blocks within a certain period of time. Each BWP can use a different parameter set, and its bandwidth, subcarrier spacing, and other control parameters can be different. It is equivalent to dividing the 5G cell into several sub-cells with different configurations to accommodate different types of terminals and service types.

[0087] Control-resource set (CORESET): CORESET is a concept introduced in NR. A CORESET is defined on a cell and contains a set of continuous or non-contiguous resource blocks (RBs) in the frequency domain and 1 / 2 / 3 continuous OFDM symbols in the time domain. A search space with an aggregation level (AL) of L is defined as a set of physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) candidates containing several control channel elements of size L. A search space set is a set of search spaces with different ALs. A search space set is associated with a CORESET.

[0088] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application. In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified, " / " means or, for example, A / B can mean A or B; "and / or" in this article is merely a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist, for example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, in the description of the embodiments of the present application, "multiple" means two or more than two.

[0089] In the following, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be understood to indicate or imply relative importance or implicitly specify the number of the technical features indicated. Therefore, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of this embodiment, unless otherwise specified, "plurality" means two or more.

[0090] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system used in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG1 , the communication system 10 includes a network device 110 and at least one terminal device (such as the terminal device 120 in FIG1 ). The terminal device is connected to the network device via a wireless method. The network device may be a wireless access network device, and the wireless access network device is connected to the core network device via a wireless or wired method. The core network device and the wireless access network device may be independent and different physical devices, or the functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the wireless access network device may be integrated into the same physical device, or a physical device may integrate some of the functions of the core network device and some of the functions of the wireless access network device. The terminal device may be fixed or mobile. FIG1 is only a schematic diagram. The communication system 10 may also include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in FIG1 . The embodiments of the present application do not limit the number of wireless access network devices and terminal devices included in the communication system 10.

[0091] The network device 110 is an access device that the terminal device uses to access the communication system 10 wirelessly. It can be a base station NodeB, an evolved base station eNodeB, a base station in an NR mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi (wireless fidelity) system. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network device 110.

[0092] Network device 110 can provide communication coverage for a specific geographical area and can communicate with terminal devices located in this coverage area. As shown in Figure 1, network device 110 can communicate with terminal device 120 within its coverage area. Figure 1 shows four cells in which network device 110 provides communication coverage: Cell 1, Cell 2, Cell 3, and Cell 4. These four cells can correspond to the same frequency range or different frequency ranges. As an example, terminal device 120 is located in Cell 2.

[0093] A terminal device may also be referred to as a terminal, UE, mobile station (MS), or mobile terminal (MT). A terminal device may be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver capabilities, virtual reality (VR) terminal device, augmented reality (AR) terminal device, wireless terminal used in industrial control, wireless terminal used in self-driving vehicles, wireless terminal used in remote medical surgery, wireless terminal used in smart grids, wireless terminal used in transportation safety, wireless terminal used in smart cities, or wireless terminal used in smart homes.

[0094] The network equipment and terminal equipment can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water; and can also be deployed in the air on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of the network equipment and terminal equipment.

[0095] The embodiments of the present application can be applied to downlink signal transmission as well as uplink signal transmission. For downlink signal transmission, the transmitting device is a wireless access network device, and the corresponding receiving device is a terminal device. For uplink signal transmission, the transmitting device is a terminal device, and the corresponding receiving device is a wireless access network device. The transmission direction of the signal in the embodiments of the present application is not limited. The network device 110 and the terminal device, as well as the terminal devices and the terminal devices, can communicate through a licensed spectrum, or through an unlicensed spectrum, or through both a licensed spectrum and an unlicensed spectrum at the same time. The wireless access network device and the terminal device, as well as the terminal devices and the terminal devices, can communicate through a spectrum below the sixth generation mobile communication technology (6G), or through a spectrum above 6G, or through a spectrum below 6G and a spectrum above 6G at the same time. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used between the network device 110 and the terminal device.

[0096] The present application is introduced below using the communication architecture provided by the above-mentioned communication system 10.

[0097] The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standard defines the maximum bandwidth of a single carrier, or CC, that can be supported by a terminal device. For example, for the 5G TDD frequency range (FR) 1, a single carrier can support a maximum bandwidth of 100MHz. With the upgrading of mobile networks, more and more existing spectrum is released for 5G networks. However, due to the different rhythms of the historical release of various spectrums, the same operator has multiple discontinuous carriers in the same frequency band, and even some spectrum bandwidths are not defined by the standard. For example, the bandwidth of 55M is not defined by the standard. Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of discontinuous multiple discrete spectrums within a TDD band. In Figure 2, in the same frequency band, there are two discontinuous 30M CCs under operator A, and a 30M CC under operator B between these two 30M CCs. How to maximize the utilization of spectrum resources, the performance of multiple carriers, and the maximum utilization of spectrum is an urgent problem to be solved.

[0098] Currently, CA is a common technology for integrating and utilizing multiple spectrum segments. Depending on the spectrum being integrated, CA can be categorized as inter-band CA, intra-band discontinuous CA, and intra-band continuous CA. However, CA currently only aggregates spectrum within standard cell bandwidths defined in 38101-1, such as 20 MHz, 30 MHz, ..., 90 MHz, and 100 MHz. CA has certain limitations when integrating discrete spectrum within the same frequency band.

[0099] As explained above, for the aggregation of in-band spectrum, CA technologies primarily include contiguous and discontiguous CCs. Contiguous CA requires contiguous spectrum, with both CCs meeting nominal channel spacing requirements. It cannot address scenarios with discrete spectrum within the same band. Discontiguous CA can theoretically address scenarios with discrete spectrum within the same band. However, it is limited to spectrum combinations defined in 38101-1 and cannot be used for spectrum not defined in the standard. Furthermore, compared to contiguous CA, discontiguous CA requires twice as many RF channels in TDD spectrum, requiring a change in RF channels. For example, when two discontiguous CCs are combined using CA, each CC corresponds to a separate RF channel, requiring two RF channels for data transmission. Once a terminal device leaves the factory, it cannot be updated over-the-air (OTA) to support additional frequency band combinations, limiting CA technology's flexibility.

[0100] In other scenarios, a technology for integrating discrete spectrum uses flexible multi-spectrum combination and flexible scheduling. This solution combines multiple discrete spectrum segments, including intermediate non-operator spectrum, into a continuous spectrum resource, which is then configured as a virtual large-bandwidth cell. Channels are configured within the spectrum portion of the owning operator. Through flexible uplink and downlink bandwidth workaround configuration and RB scheduling, terminal devices can use only the spectrum resources of the owning operator. For example, Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of a flexible multi-spectrum combination and flexible scheduling solution. If the spectrum is FDD, the downlink spectrum can be configured as a 40 MHz virtual standard large-bandwidth cell. Through RRC signaling, the downlink bandwidth workaround is configured to 40 MHz, while the uplink bandwidth workaround is configured to 15 MHz. The uplink and downlink spectrum are different. Flexible downlink scheduling eliminates the 10 MHz intermediate non-operator spectrum, allowing terminal devices to experience a large available downlink bandwidth of 30 MHz.

[0101] Specifically, the solution shown in Figure 3 may include the following process, which is explained by taking the network device as a base station and the terminal device as a UE as an example.

[0102] 1) The base station is configured with a large-bandwidth cell, where the cell bandwidth includes multiple discrete and discontinuous spectrums within the same frequency band.

[0103] 2) The base station configures common control channels such as synchronization signal block (SSB), CORESET0, and initial uplink / downlink (UL / DL) BWP on one of the carriers.

[0104] 3) The UE initiates the access procedure on the initial UL / DL BWP.

[0105] 4) The base station configures a dedicated carrier with large bandwidth and BWP for the user. The dedicated carrier with large bandwidth is, for example, the 40M large bandwidth cell in the downlink spectrum and the 15M bandwidth cell in the uplink spectrum. The BWP is one of the two 15M downlink BWPs belonging to the operator in the large bandwidth cell and the 15M uplink BWP in the uplink spectrum.

[0106] 5) When transmitting downlink data, the base station allocates BWP to users in real time according to business needs in a large-bandwidth cell, schedules RB resources, and performs user filtering to reduce interference.

[0107] 6) When transmitting uplink data, the base station performs interference frequency band detection in real time and dynamically schedules the user's uplink RB resources within the uplink BWP based on the interference and the amount of uplink transmission data.

[0108] In this way, for multiple discontinuous spectrums within the same frequency band, multiple carriers can be combined into a virtual continuous large-bandwidth cell. Multiple discontinuous spectrums can share one common control channel. The base station's integrated scheduler can flexibly configure user-exclusive carrier bandwidth and BWP for users within the virtual large bandwidth of the cell based on the UE's carrier support capability, physical resource block (PRB) utilization and interference information.

[0109] Among them, since the aggregated virtual large-bandwidth spectrum includes spectrums of non-operators, there is interference in four different directions during the uplink and downlink data transmission between the base station and the UE.

[0110] Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of uplink and downlink interference in a discrete multi-spectrum virtual large bandwidth. For the downlink, there is interference in directions A and C. Direction A represents the downlink interference from the base station of the operator in the virtual large bandwidth cell to the UE of other operators, while direction C represents the downlink interference from the base station of other operators to the terminals in the virtual large bandwidth cell. For the uplink, there is interference in directions D and B. Direction D represents the uplink interference from the UE in the virtual large bandwidth cell to the base station of other operators, while direction B represents the uplink interference from the UE of other operators to the base station of the operator in the virtual large bandwidth cell.

[0111] Typically, when performing downlink transmission, a base station can add filters for sub-bandwidths within the BWP to the base station in the virtual large-bandwidth cell to reduce downlink interference in direction A. During uplink reception, the base station can enhance its uplink interference band detection and identification capabilities. Based on uplink RB granularity interference measurement, it can identify the interference band and add filters to eliminate interference, or perform interference avoidance scheduling to reduce the impact of interference in direction B. The base station can also perform interference measurement and flexibly adjust the position of the BWP to reduce interference in direction C. However, for interference in direction D, if applied in the TDD spectrum, the base station cannot reduce interference due to the following fundamental factors.

[0112] 1) In the TDD system, the protocol constrains that the center frequencies of the uplink and downlink BWPs must be the same. Therefore, under this virtual large bandwidth technology, the center frequency of the uplink BWP will be close to the center frequency of the virtual large bandwidth cell, and it is possible that the center frequency will be in a frequency band other than that of the operator.

[0113] 2) The UE's uplink local oscillator (LO) frequency (carrier leakage) is typically located at the center RE of the uplink BWP. However, the central spectrum of the virtual large bandwidth belongs to other operators, making it impossible to reduce the LO frequency on the base station of this operator. This uplink LO interference affects the demodulation performance of base stations of other operators.

[0114] 3) Considering UE compatibility and implementation complexity, the UE will not use multiple sets of filters in one BWP, and general interference caused by uplink scheduled RBs to non-scheduled RBs will also exist.

[0115] Therefore, this application provides a carrier aggregation method for TDD spectrum, integrating discrete spectrum within the same frequency band. This method addresses scenarios where intra-band discontinuous CA is unsupported by terminal devices and resolves the aforementioned four-way uplink and downlink interference issues. In this application, when multiple spectrums from the same operator are discontinuous, the virtual large bandwidth configuration method can be modified. Unlike the prior art method of configuring a complete virtual standard bandwidth cell, this application, in TDD scenarios, divides the discontinuous spectrum of the operator and spectrum of non-operators within the same frequency band into two standard bandwidth cells / carriers supporting continuous CA. These two cells / carriers can form intra-band continuous CA, with each standard bandwidth cell comprising a segment of valid spectrum. Furthermore, by flexibly configuring a user's dedicated BWP, terminal devices can operate within the spectrum available to the operator. Furthermore, for CA-capable terminal devices, downlink intra-band continuous CA can be configured. This improves downlink transmission efficiency when multiple discontinuous segments of the operator's spectrum exist. By dividing these multiple segments into two standard bandwidth carriers and combining these two standard bandwidth carriers into downlink intra-band continuous CA, the configuration is configured for the terminal device.

[0116] In addition, the carrier configured later for the terminal device is only used for downlink continuous CA transmission. Therefore, for the uplink, the uplink BWP is still the effective BWP of the operator in the first configured carrier. While the user's downlink reception enjoys a large bandwidth experience, the uplink local oscillator frequency of the terminal device is located at the center RE of the operator's BWP, which can eliminate the uplink interference of the operator's terminal on other operators' base stations (D-direction interference).

[0117] The following describes the embodiments of the present application.

[0118] In this application, the use of discrete TDD spectrum within a frequency band is integrated through virtual large bandwidth technology and intra-band continuous CA technology, which can be applied to the following scenarios. For example, in scenario 1, the protocol does not specify intra-band discontinuous CA for the frequency band; in scenario 2, the bandwidths of the two discrete spectrum segments are not within the CA band combination; and in scenario 3, at least one of the two discrete spectrum segments is not the standard NR cell bandwidth. This application does not limit the applicable scenarios.

[0119] As shown in FIG5 , a flowchart of a carrier aggregation method provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. The method includes the following process.

[0120] 501. A terminal device receives first configuration information, where the first configuration information includes a first channel bandwidth (CBW) and a first BWP of the terminal device on a first carrier, where the first CBW is the bandwidth of the first carrier.

[0121] The terminal device receiving the first configuration information may include: the terminal device receiving the first configuration information sent by the network device. Accordingly, the network device sends the first configuration information, that is, the network device sends the first configuration information to the terminal device.

[0122] The following example takes the terminal device as UE and the network device as a base station as an example.

[0123] In some embodiments, the base station can split the entire spectrum segment containing the multiple discrete spectrum segments into at least two segments based on the bandwidth combination of intra-band continuous CA supported by the protocol and the multiple discrete spectrum segments to be integrated, and configure multiple standard bandwidth cells on the base station. Assume that there are two multiple standard bandwidth cells: the first cell and the second cell. Here, the two possible splitting results of the entire spectrum segment are:

[0124] 1) The first cell is a standard bandwidth cell (the spectrum of this operator), and the second cell is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell (including the spectrum of this operator and the spectrum of non-this operator). When the first cell corresponds to the first carrier, the spectrum of the first carrier is the spectrum of this operator. When the second cell corresponds to the second carrier, the second carrier includes the spectrum of this operator and the spectrum of non-this operator. Alternatively, the first cell is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell, the second cell is a standard bandwidth cell, the first carrier includes the spectrum of this operator and the spectrum of non-this operator, and the spectrum of the second carrier is the spectrum of this operator. The carriers of the two cells are continuous.

[0125] For example, referring to the CA scenario diagram shown in Figure 6, when the first cell is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell, the virtual standard large bandwidth is a continuous 60M in-band spectrum combining the spectrum of at least two operators, for example, including the spectrum of operator A and the spectrum of operator B. In this case, for any operator, the spectrum bandwidth of the operator within the first carrier is smaller than the bandwidth of the first carrier. When the second cell is a standard bandwidth cell, the bandwidth of the second carrier is 30M as defined in the standard.

[0126] 2) Both the first cell and the second cell are virtual standard large-bandwidth cells.

[0127] That is, the first carrier includes spectrum from at least two operators, and the second carrier also includes spectrum from at least two operators. The spectrum of the first and second carriers is contiguous. For any operator, the spectrum bandwidth of the operator in the first carrier is smaller than the bandwidth of the first carrier, and the spectrum bandwidth of the operator in the second carrier is smaller than the bandwidth of the second carrier.

[0128] In the configured first cell and second cell, two effective spectrum segments of the same operator are not continuous.

[0129] For example, if the UE selects a first cell to access based on signal strength and frequency priority when selecting a cell to camp on, the UE can parse the system message received from the common control channel of the first cell to obtain the initial uplink and downlink BWP of the first cell. The base station process for accessing the first cell can then be executed based on the initial uplink and downlink BWP.

[0130] In some embodiments, when a terminal device accesses the first cell on an initial uplink / downlink BWP, the terminal device may send capability information of the terminal device to a network device, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports intra-band continuous CA and the carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device. Accordingly, the network device receives the capability information sent by the terminal device.

[0131] If the carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device includes the bandwidth of the first carrier, the terminal device may receive the first configuration information sent by the first carrier on the initial uplink and downlink BWP for initial access to the first carrier. Accordingly, the network device sends the first configuration information to the terminal device on the first BWP. The first configuration information includes the first CBW and first BWP of the terminal device on the first carrier. The first CBW is the bandwidth of the first carrier. At this time, the network device switches the initial uplink and downlink BWP for the terminal device to access the first cell to the available BWP of the terminal device on the first carrier, namely the first BWP. The first BWP may include resources of the initial uplink and downlink BWP.

[0132] If the first cell is a virtual standard large-bandwidth cell, the first carrier includes the spectrum of the current operator and the spectrum of non-current operator. The first CBW can be understood as the user-dedicated carrier bandwidth of the terminal device configured by the network device. The user-dedicated carrier bandwidth is the bandwidth of the first carrier. The first BWP can be understood as the available BWP or effective BWP of the terminal device on the spectrum of the current operator in the first carrier.

[0133] If the first cell is a standard bandwidth cell, the first CBW configured for the terminal device is the bandwidth of the first carrier of the first cell. The first CBW is the bandwidth of the terminal device's own operator, that is, the bandwidth of the first carrier is the user-dedicated carrier bandwidth configured by the network device. The first BWP is the available BWP or valid BWP in the first carrier.

[0134] The non-operator spectrum of the terminal device may be a spectrum that has been allocated to other operators for use, or it may be an idle spectrum that has not been allocated for use.

[0135] For example, assume that the downlink intra-band continuous CA in this application is CC1 and CC2 as shown in Figure 6. CC1 is the carrier corresponding to the virtual standard large-bandwidth cell, and CC2 is the carrier corresponding to the standard-bandwidth cell. The first cell may be Cell 1 corresponding to CC1, or Cell 2 corresponding to CC2. CC1 has a bandwidth of 60 Mbps, including 30 Mbps of Operator A and 30 Mbps of Operator B. CC2 has a bandwidth of 30 Mbps of Operator A. If the UE's operator is Operator A, the UE selects CC1 as the first carrier for initial access. The UE's first CBW on this first carrier is the carrier bandwidth of CC1, i.e., 60 Mbps. The first BWP can be Operator A's 30 Mbps bandwidth spectrum in Cell 1. If the UE initially accesses CC2, the UE's first CBW on this first carrier is the carrier bandwidth of CC2, i.e., 30 Mbps of Operator A in the cell of CC2. The first BWP can be Operator A's 30 Mbps bandwidth spectrum in Cell 2 corresponding to CC2. In other words, the UE's available BWP / effective BWP on CC2 is the carrier bandwidth of CC2's entire Cell 2.

[0136] Then, the terminal device and the network device can perform uplink and downlink communications on the first BWP.

[0137] Therefore, in some embodiments, after receiving the first configuration information, the terminal device sends an uplink signal on the first BWP and receives a downlink signal on the first BWP. Accordingly, the network device sends a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first BWP and receives an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the first BWP.

[0138] 502. The terminal device receives second configuration information, where the second configuration information includes a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on a second carrier, where the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier, and the second carrier and the first carrier support a combination of downlink intra-band continuous CA.

[0139] In some embodiments, after a terminal device accesses a first cell, if the network device determines the carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device, the terminal device supports intra-band continuous carrier aggregation, and there is a second carrier in the same frequency band that is continuous with the first carrier, and the bandwidth of the second carrier is standard bandwidth, the network device may configure an SCell for the terminal device. That is, the network device may send second configuration information to the terminal device over the first BWP. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the second configuration information over the first BWP, and the first cell initially accessed by the terminal device is designated as the PCell, and the SCell to be configured is designated as the second cell.

[0140] In some embodiments, the first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following conditions 1 and 2:

[0141] Condition 1: The first carrier includes the spectrum of the operator and the spectrum of non-operators, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the operator in the first carrier;

[0142] Condition 2 is that the second carrier includes the spectrum of the current operator and the spectrum of non-current operators, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the second carrier.

[0143] The frequency spectrum of the second BWP is discontinuous with that of the first BWP.

[0144] That is, in this application, when the first carrier corresponds to the first cell and the second carrier corresponds to the second cell, at least one of the first cell and the second cell is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell that includes the spectrum of this operator and the spectrum of non-this operator.

[0145] After the network device configures the second cell for the terminal device, the network device may activate the second cell based on the service needs of the terminal device. Therefore, in some embodiments, the method may further include: the terminal device receiving an activation instruction, the activation instruction being used to activate the second carrier; and when the second carrier is activated, receiving downlink signals on the first carrier and the second carrier.

[0146] Therefore, when the second carrier and the first carrier support a combination of downlink intra-band continuous CA, and the bandwidth of the first carrier and the bandwidth of the second carrier are standard bandwidths, if the second carrier is activated, the network device can send downlink data to the terminal device simultaneously on the first carrier and the second carrier, and the terminal device can receive downlink data sent by the network device simultaneously on the first carrier and the second carrier.

[0147] Regardless of whether the first cell is a virtual standard large-bandwidth cell and the second cell is a standard-bandwidth cell, the first cell is a standard-bandwidth cell and the second cell is a virtual large-bandwidth cell, or both the first and second cells are virtual standard large-bandwidth cells, the configured second cell is used for downlink transmission by the network device. When the network device sends downlink data on a downlink intra-band continuous CA and the terminal device receives downlink data on a downlink intra-band continuous CA, the network device still only receives uplink signals sent by the terminal device on the first BWP of the first cell initially accessed, and the terminal device sends uplink signals on the first BWP.

[0148] For example, as shown in Figure 6, if the first carrier is CC1, the second carrier here can be CC2. If the first carrier is CC2, the second carrier here can be CC1. That is, if the UE has the carrier bandwidth capability to support CC1 and CC2, and the carriers of CC1 and CC2 are contiguous, the base station can combine CC1 and CC2 into downlink intra-band contiguous carrier aggregation to broaden the bandwidth for the UE to receive downlink signals and improve downlink transmission efficiency. If the initially accessed carrier is CC1, the base station still receives uplink data sent by the UE on the first BWP of CC1.

[0149] In this way, in the TDD spectrum, when the first CBW configured for the terminal device is the bandwidth of the first carrier and the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier, if the first carrier and the second carrier support downlink intra-band continuous CA, after sending the first configuration information and the second configuration information to the terminal device, it is equivalent to combining the first carrier and the second carrier of the spectrum where the first BWP and the second BWP are located, which are two discontinuous spectrum segments, into downlink intra-band continuous CA. In downlink intra-band continuous CA, the first BWP and the second BWP are both useful spectrum for the terminal device. In this way, even if the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP is the discrete non-standard bandwidth spectrum of the operator, because the bandwidth of the first carrier and the second carrier is a virtual standard bandwidth or a standard bandwidth, it supports the combination of downlink intra-band continuous CA. The first BWP and the second BWP can be used together to effectively integrate the use of discrete spectrum in TDD scenarios, improve the utilization rate of discrete spectrum, and improve the downlink throughput of the terminal device.

[0150] Moreover, for the uplink of the carrier combination, downlink intra-band carrier aggregation does not affect the uplink BWP, which is the effective BWP of this operator. That is, the uplink of the terminal equipment works in single-carrier mode, which can enable users to enjoy a large bandwidth experience. At the same time, the uplink local oscillator frequency of the terminal equipment is located at the center RE of the BWP of this operator, which can eliminate the uplink interference of this operator's terminal on other operators' base stations.

[0151] As shown in FIG7 , a flowchart of a carrier aggregation method provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown, and the method includes the following process.

[0152] 701. The base station side configures at least one virtual large bandwidth cell, where the at least one virtual large bandwidth cell includes a first cell. The initial uplink and downlink BWP of the first cell is the effective bandwidth portion of the first cell, and the configuration complies with standard specifications.

[0153] Among them, the standard specification can be 3GPP.

[0154] For example, within the TDD spectrum, for the same operator, there may be multiple discontinuous spectrum segments within the same frequency band. Some spectrum segments may not be defined in the frequency band combination of CA, and the bandwidth of some spectrum segments may not be the standard NR cell bandwidth, or intra-band discontinuous CA is not defined within the frequency band. The present application can integrate multiple discontinuous spectrum segments in the TDD spectrum on the base station side, configure at least one virtual large bandwidth spectrum, and obtain at least one virtual large bandwidth cell, so that the same operator can use the virtual large bandwidth cell combination as downlink intra-band continuous CA. It is called a virtual large bandwidth cell here because each virtual large bandwidth cell includes the spectrum of this operator and the spectrum of non-this operator. In some embodiments, a spectrum segment can be the valid bandwidth part of one operator, or it can be the invalid bandwidth part of another operator. That is, a spectrum segment may belong to multiple virtual large bandwidth cells.

[0155] Taking at least one virtual large-bandwidth cell including the first cell as an example, when configuring the first cell, the carrier bandwidth of the first cell and the initial available bandwidth portion, i.e., the initial uplink and downlink bandwidths (BWPs) for initial access to the first cell, can be configured. The configuration of the carrier bandwidth of the first cell complies with standard specifications. For example, the first cell corresponds to CC1 as shown in Figure 6. Before CC1 is configured, the spectrum segment includes Spectrum 1 of Operator A and Spectrum 2 of Operator B, and Spectrum 1 and Spectrum 2 of Operator B are contiguous. Considering that Spectrum 3 of Operator A is contiguous with Spectrum 2 of Operator B, if the bandwidths of Spectrum 1 and Spectrum 2 can be combined to form a large bandwidth defined by the symbol standard, the present application can combine Spectrum 1 and Spectrum 2 into a virtual large-bandwidth carrier on the base station, resulting in a virtual CC1 corresponding to the first cell. The initial uplink and downlink BWPs in CC1 are the resources within Spectrum 1, i.e., the effective BWPs when a terminal device accesses CC1 on CC1. In this way, if downlink intra-band continuous carrier aggregation is desired, CC1 and CC2 can be combined when the spectrum of CC2 is Spectrum 3. In this way, although CC1 and CC2 are nominally combined into downlink intra-band continuous CA, the bandwidth actually used is the effective BWP of CC1 and the spectrum 3 of CC2.

[0156] In addition, when configuring the first cell, you can also configure the center frequency and transmit / receive power of the first cell. The center frequency of the first cell is near the center frequency of the first cell's available bandwidth. When configuring the first cell's effective bandwidth, you can do so by configuring the start and end frequency positions.

[0157] 702. The base station side configures at least one virtual large bandwidth cell, where the frequency domain positions of all channels of each virtual large bandwidth cell are the effective bandwidth part of the virtual large bandwidth cell, and the configuration complies with standard specifications.

[0158] That is, after configuring at least one virtual large-bandwidth cell, the base station can configure the frequency domain locations of all channels in the virtual large-bandwidth cell, such as SSB and CORESET0, on the effective BWP of the virtual large-bandwidth cell. Thus, taking CC1 configured in Figure 6 as an example, when the base station transmits uplink and downlink data to the UE of operator A in the first cell, it only uses channels on the effective BWP for data transmission.

[0159] Among them, the configuration of resources such as SSB and CORESET0 configured on the base station side complies with standard specifications.

[0160] 703. When accessing the network, the UE performs cell scanning and system message parsing on the common control channel, and selects a first cell to be accessed.

[0161] For example, in an NR system, if a UE wishes to access the network in connected / idle / activated state, it can search for the SSB on the public control channel, parse the SSB to obtain the master information block (MIB), and parse the MIB to obtain the location of the downlink demodulation reference signal (DMRS), the configuration of the SIB1 in the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), the cell blocking indication (4G is in SIB1), and the common search space. The UE can then receive SIB1 based on the SIB1 configuration and parse the SIB1 to obtain information about the availability and scheduling of other SIBs (such as the mapping of SIBs to system information (SI), periodicity, and SI window size). It also indicates whether one or more SIBs are provided only on demand, and in which cases the UE performs the configuration required for the SI request. It also carries information used to assess whether the UE is allowed to access the cell, terminal-general radio resource configuration, and restriction information required for unified access control (UAC).

[0162] For example, if the UE receives SSBs sent by multiple cells and parses them to obtain the signal strength access threshold and frequency priority of each cell, the UE can select an accessible cell based on the signal strength access threshold of each cell and select the cell with the highest frequency priority among the accessible cells. If the UE chooses to access the first cell, the time-frequency domain resource information of the initial uplink and downlink BWP, the time-frequency domain resource information of the PDCCH CORESET, the time-frequency domain resource information of the PUCCH, and the configuration information of the first carrier can be obtained from the SIB1 received in the first cell.

[0163] 704. The UE initiates an access procedure for accessing the first cell to access the first cell.

[0164] Exemplarily, the UE may initiate a 4-way handshake with the base station of the first cell on the initial uplink and downlink BWP according to the configuration of the initial uplink and downlink BWP parsed from the SIB1 of the first cell, execute the access procedure, and perform uplink synchronization with the first cell to access the first cell.

[0165] Then, the base station may configure an RRC link between the first cell and the UE, including configurations such as signaling radio bearer (SRB) / data radio bearer (DRB), so that an RRC link is established between the base station and the UE.

[0166] Afterwards, the base station can establish an initial context with the UE and the core network to establish the UE's outbound context on the base station, including packet data unit (PDU) session context, security keys, mobility restriction list, UE radio capabilities, and security capabilities. In this way, when data is subsequently transmitted, the base station and the UE can perform uplink and downlink data transmission based on the initial context.

[0167] At this time, the first cell here may be a virtual standard large bandwidth cell or a standard bandwidth cell.

[0168] 705. The UE reports capability information to the base station. The capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA and a carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

[0169] For example, after the UE completes the initial context establishment with the base station and the core network side, the UE can report capability information to the base station on the initial uplink and downlink BWP of the first cell, including an indication of whether the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA, an indication of the carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device, and information such as the band combination (BC).

[0170] 706. The base station sends first configuration information to the UE. The first configuration information includes a first CBW and a first BWP of the terminal device on the first carrier, where the first CBW is the bandwidth of the first carrier.

[0171] After the base station obtains the capability information of the UE, when the base station determines the bandwidth of the first carrier supported by the UE for access, the base station may send first configuration information to the user, where the first configuration information includes the user-specific carrier bandwidth of the UE on the first carrier and the available BWP of the UE.

[0172] The user-specific carrier bandwidth is denoted as the first CBW, which is the bandwidth of the first carrier. The available BWP / effective BWP of the UE on the first carrier is denoted as the first BWP. The initial uplink and downlink BWP of the UE accessing the first cell can be part of the resources of the first BWP.

[0173] When the cell of the first carrier is the first cell, the first cell may be a virtual standard large bandwidth cell or a standard bandwidth cell.

[0174] For example, referring to Figure 6, if the first cell is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell and the first carrier is CC1, the user-specific carrier bandwidth can be the virtual large bandwidth of CC1, that is, the carrier bandwidth of CC1, for example, 60M, including the 30M bandwidth of operator A to which the UE belongs and the 30M bandwidth of operator B. The available BWP of the UE is the 30M bandwidth spectrum of operator A in CC1. At this time, the cell CBW of the UE in CC1 is the bandwidth of the first carrier of the first cell, that is, the virtual large bandwidth, and the bandwidth of the available BWP of the UE on the first carrier is the 30M bandwidth spectrum of operator A in the first carrier.

[0175] Referring to Figure 6, if the first cell is a standard bandwidth cell, the first carrier is CC2, and the operator of CC2 is Operator A to which the UE belongs, the first CBW configured for the UE, i.e., the user-specific carrier bandwidth, can be the bandwidth of CC2, for example, 30 MHz for Operator A in CC2. The UE's available BWP is the 30 MHz bandwidth spectrum of CC2. In this case, the bandwidth of the available BWP is the user-specific carrier bandwidth, or the bandwidth spectrum of the first BWP is the entire spectrum of the first carrier, or the UE's available BWP is the entire spectrum of the cell CBW of the first cell.

[0176] In some embodiments, the base station sending the first configuration information to the UE may include: the base station sending RRC signaling to the UE, the RRC signaling including the first configuration information. Accordingly, the UE receives the RRC signaling sent by the base station. The configuration of the first BWP includes, among other things, the bandwidth size of the first BWP, the offset of the frequency domain position of the first BWP relative to the initial subcarrier position of the first carrier, and the subcarrier spacing of the first carrier.

[0177] 707. The base station sends second configuration information to the UE. The second configuration information includes a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on the second carrier. The second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier. The second carrier and the first carrier support a combination of downlink intra-band continuous CA.

[0178] In some embodiments, when the base station determines that the terminal device supports intra-band continuous CA, and there is a second carrier that is continuous with the first carrier, the operator of the second carrier is operator A to which the UE belongs, and the carrier bandwidth supported by the UE includes the bandwidth of the second carrier, the base station may determine that the second carrier and the first carrier band support combination is downlink intra-band continuous CA. Therefore, when the available spectrum (available BWP) in the second carrier is discontinuous with the available spectrum in the first carrier, in order to improve the downlink reception efficiency of the UE, the base station may configure an SCell, i.e., a second cell, for the UE, so that when there is a high-bandwidth service demand, the UE can receive the downlink signal of the first cell and the downlink signal of the second cell on the two available BWPs of downlink intra-band continuous CA.

[0179] Of course, before the base station sends the second configuration to the UE, it needs to measure the second carrier / cell. If the signal quality of the second carrier is good, the base station sends the second configuration information to the UE.

[0180] Exemplarily, the second cell may be a standard bandwidth cell or a virtual standard large bandwidth cell. If the second cell is a standard bandwidth cell, for example, cell 2 of CC2 shown in FIG6 , and the first carrier is CC1, if CC1 and CC2 are combined into downlink intra-band contiguous CA, the UE can simultaneously receive downlink signals on the first BWP of CC2 and the second BWP of CC2.

[0181] Figure 8 shows a schematic diagram of downlink intra-band continuous CA, where two cells are virtual standard large-bandwidth cells. If both the first and second cells are virtual standard large-bandwidth cells configured on the base station side, the scenario of CC1 and CC2 combined for downlink intra-band continuous CA may be as shown in Figure 8 (a). Before downlink intra-band continuous CA, if the standard bandwidth includes 45 MHz, the bandwidth of CC1 configured on the base station side is 45 MHz, and CC1's spectrum includes operator A's spectrum 1 (30 MHz) and operator B's spectrum 2 (e.g., 15 MHz). The bandwidth of CC2 is 45 MHz, and CC2's spectrum includes operator B's spectrum 3 (e.g., 15 MHz) and operator A's spectrum 4 (30 MHz). If the UE's operator is operator A and the first carrier is CC1, CC1's first BWP is operator A's spectrum 1. The second carrier can be CC2, and CC2's second BWP is operator A's spectrum 4. The bandwidth of the downlink intra-band continuous CA composed of CC1 and CC2 is: 45 MHz + 45 MHz.

[0182] Alternatively, the scenario of combining CC1 and CC2 for downlink intra-band continuous CA may be as shown in Figure 8 (b). Before downlink intra-band continuous CA, if the standard bandwidth includes 45 MHz, the bandwidth of CC1 configured on the base station side is 45 MHz, and CC1's spectrum includes operator A's spectrum 1 (for example, 30 MHz) and operator B's spectrum 2 (for example, 15 MHz). The bandwidth of CC2 is 45 MHz, and CC2's spectrum includes operator A's spectrum 3 (for example, 15 MHz) and operator B's spectrum 4 (for example, 30 MHz). If the UE's operator is operator A and the first carrier is CC1, CC1's first BWP is operator A's spectrum 1, the second carrier can be CC2, and CC2's second BWP is operator A's spectrum 3. The bandwidth of downlink intra-band continuous CA composed of CC1 and CC2 is: 45 MHz + 45 MHz.

[0183] 708. The UE sends an uplink signal to the base station on the first BWP, and receives a downlink signal sent by the base station on the first BWP.

[0184] That is, the above-mentioned downlink intra-band continuous CA is performed to expand the bandwidth for the UE to receive downlink signals. The UE initially accesses the first BWP in the first cell for uplink and downlink communications with the base station.

[0185] In this way, for the UE uplink, the effective BWP is still the first BWP in the first cell. The first BWP is used for uplink and downlink communications. The center frequency of the first BWP is at the center frequency position of the first BWP, and the local oscillator frequency is at the center frequency position of the first BWP. It will not cause interference to the uplink D direction of operator B.

[0186] 709. The UE receives an activation indication, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier.

[0187] Exemplarily, the base station may determine whether to activate the second cell configured for the UE based on the UE's service requirements. For example, if the base station determines that the UE's current service is data download or video playback, the base station may instruct the UE to activate the second cell and send downlink signals to the UE using downlink continuous in-band CA.

[0188] 710. When the second carrier is activated, the UE receives downlink signals on the first carrier and the second carrier.

[0189] In this way, for the UE, the second carrier and the second BWP in the second carrier can be activated. When receiving downlink signals, if the UE's operator is operator A, the UE not only receives downlink signals of operator A on the first BWP of the first carrier, but also receives downlink signals of operator A on the second BWP of the second carrier.

[0190] However, when the UE activates the second carrier, in downlink intra-band continuous carrier aggregation, if the first cell corresponding to the first carrier is a virtual standard large bandwidth cell, the UE will also receive downlink signals from non-operator A within the first cell. If the second cell is also a virtual standard large bandwidth cell, the UE will also receive downlink signals from non-operator A within the second cell. In this case, the downlink signal from non-operator A will interfere with the UE, which may affect the UE's demodulation of the received downlink signal from operator A. Therefore, the UE needs to promptly send the downlink channel quality information to the base station so that the base station can determine whether to deactivate the second cell.

[0191] Therefore, in some embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0192] The UE sends a channel quality indicator, which is used to indicate the downlink channel quality of the terminal device receiving downlink signals in the downlink in-band continuous CA. Correspondingly, the base station receives the channel quality indicator sent by the UE.

[0193] When the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, the UE receives a deactivation indication, which is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; accordingly, the base station sends a deactivation indication to the UE.

[0194] When the second carrier is deactivated, the UE receives downlink signals on the first BWP and sends uplink signals on the first BWP. Correspondingly, the base station sends downlink signals on the first BWP and receives uplink signals on the first BWP.

[0195] For example, taking Figure 6 as an example, in a TDD scenario, if CC2 is activated, CC1 and CC2 share a radio frequency channel in the downlink intra-band continuous CA. When the UE receives downlink data in the downlink intra-band continuous CA, it will not only receive the downlink signal of operator A on the first BWP and the second BWP, but also receive the downlink signal on frequency band 2 of operator B. The UE can periodically send a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) report of the first cell to the base station. The CSI-RS report includes a channel quality indication (CQI) of the first cell, indicating the downlink channel quality of the downlink signal received by the UE in the first cell. At the same time, the UE will also periodically send a CSI-RS report of the second cell to the base station. The CSI-RS report includes the CQI of the second cell. If, during downlink continuous CA, the UE's operator is operator A, and the signal strength received by the UE from operator B is higher than the signal strength received from operator A, and the signal strength difference is large, it may cause saturation of the signal amplifier in the RF channel, resulting in blocking the UE's reception of downlink signals. That is, the signal strength received by the UE in the invalid frequency band is much higher than the strength of the signal received on the valid BWP, which will affect the noise floor rise of the useful signals received by the UE on the first and second BWPs, and ultimately affect the UE's demodulation performance of the useful signals on the first and second BWPs, resulting in a poor signal-to-noise ratio and failure of the UE to demodulate the useful signal.

[0196] Therefore, in this case, the base station can send a deactivation instruction to the UE, instructing the UE to deactivate the second carrier. When the UE receives the deactivation instruction, it can return to the single carrier mode, that is, the UE only performs uplink and downlink transmission on the first BWP of the first carrier.

[0197] In some embodiments, after the base station deactivates the second carrier, it may also perform a reactivation delay penalty. For example, after the deactivation time reaches a certain time, if the UE's service still requires downlink in-band continuous CA, the base station may also send an activation indication to the UE again to activate the second carrier.

[0198] It should be noted that in the embodiment of the present application, downlink intra-band continuous CA is described using two CCs as an example. However, the present application is not limited to using only two CCs for downlink intra-band continuous CA. More than two CCs can also be used for downlink intra-band continuous CA. Moreover, for each CC in downlink intra-band continuous CA, the CC can also have spectrum from more than two operators, and is not limited to only two operators.

[0199] Therefore, in the present application, if at least one of the first carrier and the second carrier includes the spectrum of the operator of the terminal device and the spectrum of the non-operator of the terminal device, and the first carrier and the second carrier support downlink intra-band continuous CA, when the standard stipulates that the spectrum bandwidth for CA must be the standard spectrum bandwidth, one of the bandwidth of the first carrier and the bandwidth of the second carrier is a virtual standard bandwidth, and the other is a virtual standard bandwidth or a standard bandwidth.

[0200] In the present application, when the first CBW configured for the terminal device is the bandwidth of the first carrier and the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier, if the first carrier and the second carrier support downlink intra-band continuous CA, after sending the first configuration information and the second configuration information to the terminal device, it is equivalent to combining the first carrier and the second carrier of the spectrum where the first BWP and the second BWP are located, which are two discontinuous spectrum segments, into downlink intra-band continuous CA. In downlink intra-band continuous CA, the first BWP and the second BWP are both useful spectrums for the terminal device. In this way, even if the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP is a discrete non-standard bandwidth spectrum of this operator, since the bandwidth of the first carrier and the second carrier is a virtual standard bandwidth or a standard bandwidth, they support combination into downlink intra-band continuous CA. The first BWP and the second BWP can be used together to effectively integrate the use of discrete spectrum in TDD scenarios, improve the utilization rate of discrete spectrum, and improve the downlink throughput of the terminal device.

[0201] Furthermore, in intra-band continuous CA scenarios, the UE reuses the PCell's RF channels, minimizing hardware cost and ensuring relatively high support. For UE uplink, locating the local oscillator frequency at the center frequency of the available BWP reduces interference with other operators' uplink signals.

[0202] It is understandable that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the base station and the terminal (e.g., UE) include hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be readily apparent to those skilled in the art 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 a hardware or computer software-driven hardware manner depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0203] Figures 9 and 10 are schematic diagrams of the structures of possible communication devices provided by embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the terminal or base station in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be the terminal 120 as shown in Figure 1, or the base station 110 as shown in Figure 1, or a module (such as a chip) applied to a terminal or base station.

[0204] As shown in Figure 9 , a communication device 900 includes a processing unit 910 and a transceiver unit 920. The communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of a terminal or a base station in the method embodiments shown in Figures 5 and / or 7 above.

[0205] When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of a terminal in the method embodiments shown in Figures 5 and / or 7: the transceiver unit 920 is used to receive the first configuration information and the second configuration information; the processing unit 910 is used to process the first configuration information and the second configuration information. The processing unit 910 may also be used to determine the CBW and available BWP of the terminal on a first carrier, as well as the CBW and available BWP on a second carrier. The first carrier may include spectrum from the current operator and spectrum from a non-current operator, and / or the second carrier may include spectrum from the current operator and spectrum from a non-current operator.

[0206] When the communication device 900 is used to implement the functions of the base station in the method embodiments shown in Figures 5 and / or 7: the transceiver unit 920 is used to send the first configuration information and the second configuration information; the processing unit 910 is used to generate the first configuration information and the second configuration information.

[0207] For a more detailed description of the processing unit 910 and the transceiver unit 920 , reference may be made to the relevant descriptions in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 5 and / or FIG. 7 .

[0208] As shown in Figure 10, communication device 1000 includes a processor 1010 and an interface circuit 1020. Processor 1010 and interface circuit 1020 are coupled to each other. It will be appreciated that interface circuit 1020 may be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, communication device 1000 may further include a memory 1030 for storing instructions executed by processor 1010, input data required by processor 1010 to execute instructions, or data generated by processor 1010 after executing instructions.

[0209] When the communication device 1000 is used to implement the method shown in FIG. 5 and / or FIG. 7 , the processor 1010 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 910 , and the interface circuit 1020 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 920 .

[0210] When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a terminal, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above-mentioned method embodiment. When the terminal chip receives information from the base station, it can be understood that the information is first received by other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal chip by these modules. When the terminal chip sends information to the base station, it can be understood that the information is first sent to other modules in the terminal (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the base station by these modules.

[0211] When the above-mentioned communication device is a chip applied to a base station, the base station chip implements the functions of the base station in the above-mentioned method embodiment. When the base station chip receives information from the terminal, it can be understood that the information is first received by other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the base station chip by these modules. When the base station chip sends information to the terminal, it can be understood that the information is sent to other modules in the base station (such as a radio frequency module or antenna) and then sent to the terminal by these modules.

[0212] In this application, when entity A sends information to entity B, it can be done directly from A to B or indirectly through another entity. Similarly, when entity B receives information from entity A, it can be done directly from entity B or indirectly through another entity. Entities A and B herein can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules within a RAN node or terminal. The sending and receiving of information can be information exchange between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between two RAN nodes, for example, between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be information exchange between different modules within a device, for example, between a terminal chip and other modules in the terminal, or between a base station chip and other modules within the base station.

[0213] 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.

[0214] 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.

[0215] 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 network device, a user device, 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.

[0216] 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.

[0217] 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 text description of this application, the character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" 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.

[0218] 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 carrier aggregation method, characterized in that: The method comprises: Sending first configuration information, where the first configuration information includes a first channel bandwidth CBW and a first bandwidth part BWP of a first carrier of a terminal device, where the first CBW is the bandwidth of the first carrier; Sending second configuration information, where the second configuration information includes a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on the second carrier, where the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier; the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP are discontinuous, and the second carrier and the first carrier support combination as downlink intra-band continuous carrier aggregation CA; The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following condition 1 and condition 2: The condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the first carrier; The condition 2 is that the second carrier includes a spectrum of the operator and a spectrum of a non-operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the operator in the second carrier.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The sending of the first configuration information comprises: When the terminal device initially accesses the first carrier, the first configuration information is sent to the terminal device on an initial BWP of the first carrier.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that: The method further comprises: A downlink signal is sent to the terminal device on the first BWP, and an uplink signal sent by the terminal device is received on the first BWP.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: Before sending the first configuration information, the method further includes: Receive capability information sent by the terminal device, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA and a carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that: The sending of the second configuration information comprises: The second configuration information is sent to the terminal device on the first BWP.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Sending an activation indication to the terminal device, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier; A downlink signal is sent to the terminal device on the first carrier and the second carrier.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that The method further comprises: receiving a channel quality indication sent by the terminal device, where the channel quality indication is used to indicate a downlink channel quality of a downlink signal received by the terminal device on the continuous CA within the downlink band; When the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, sending a deactivation indication, wherein the deactivation indication is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; A downlink signal is sent to the terminal device on the first BWP, and an uplink signal sent by the terminal device is received on the first BWP.

8. A carrier aggregation method, characterized in that: include: Receive first configuration information, where the first configuration information includes a first channel bandwidth CBW and a first bandwidth part BWP of a first carrier of a terminal device, where the first CBW is a bandwidth of the first carrier; Receive second configuration information, where the second configuration information includes a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on the second carrier, where the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier; the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP are discontinuous, and the second carrier and the first carrier support combination as downlink intra-band continuous carrier aggregation CA; The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following condition 1 and condition 2: The condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the first carrier; The condition 2 is that the second carrier includes a spectrum of the operator and a spectrum of a non-operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the operator in the second carrier.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The receiving first configuration information comprises: In case of initial access to the first carrier, the first configuration information is received on an initial uplink and downlink BWP of the first carrier.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that: The method further comprises: An uplink signal is sent on the first BWP, and a downlink signal is received on the first BWP.

11. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 10, characterized in that: Before receiving the first configuration information, the method further includes: Send capability information of the terminal device, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA and a carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

12. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 11, characterized in that: The receiving the second configuration information comprises: The second configuration information is received on the first BWP.

13. The method according to any one of claims 8 to 12, characterized in that: The method further comprises: receiving an activation indication, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier; When the second carrier is activated, downlink signals are received on the first carrier and the second carrier.

14. The method according to claim 13, characterized in that The method further comprises: Sending a channel quality indication, where the channel quality indication is used to indicate a downlink channel quality of a downlink signal received by the terminal device on the continuous CA within the downlink band; When the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, receiving a deactivation indication, wherein the deactivation indication is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; In case the second carrier is deactivated, a downlink signal is received on the first BWP, and an uplink signal is sent on the first BWP.

15. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A sending unit, configured to send first configuration information, where the first configuration information includes a first channel bandwidth CBW and a first bandwidth part BWP of a terminal device on a first carrier, where the first CBW is a bandwidth of the first carrier; The sending unit is further used to send second configuration information, where the second configuration information includes a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on the second carrier, where the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier; the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP are discontinuous, and the second carrier and the first carrier support a combination as a downlink intra-band continuous carrier aggregation CA; The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following condition 1 and condition 2: The condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the first carrier; The condition 2 is that the second carrier includes a spectrum of the operator and a spectrum of a non-operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the operator in the second carrier.

16. The communication device according to claim 15, characterized in that: The sending unit is used for: When the terminal device initially accesses the first carrier, the first configuration information is sent to the terminal device on an initial uplink and downlink first BWP of the first carrier.

17. The communication device according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that: The sending unit is further used to: send a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first BWP; A receiving unit is used to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the first BWP.

18. The communication device according to any one of claims 15 to 17, characterized in that: Receiving unit, for: Before sending the first configuration information, capability information sent by the terminal device is received, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA and a carrier bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

19. The communication device according to any one of claims 15 to 18, characterized in that: The sending unit is used for: The second configuration information is sent to the terminal device on the first BWP.

20. The communication device according to any one of claims 15 to 19, characterized in that: The sending unit is also used for: sending an activation indication, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier; A downlink signal is sent to the terminal device on the first carrier and the second carrier.

21. The communication device according to claim 20, characterized in that: A receiving unit, configured to receive a channel quality indication sent by the terminal device, wherein the channel quality indication is used to indicate a downlink channel quality of a downlink signal received by the terminal device on the continuous CA within the downlink band; The sending unit is further configured to send a deactivation indication when the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, wherein the deactivation indication is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; The sending unit is further used to send a downlink signal to the terminal device on the first BWP, and the receiving unit is further used to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal device on the first BWP.

22. A communication device, characterized in that: include: A receiving unit, configured to receive first configuration information, where the first configuration information includes a first channel bandwidth CBW and a first bandwidth part BWP of a terminal device on a first carrier, where the first CBW is a bandwidth of the first carrier; The receiving unit is further used to receive second configuration information, where the second configuration information includes a second CBW and a second BWP of the terminal device on the second carrier, where the second CBW is the bandwidth of the second carrier; the spectrum of the first BWP and the second BWP are discontinuous, and the second carrier and the first carrier support a combination as a downlink intra-band continuous carrier aggregation CA; The first carrier satisfies the following condition 1, or the second carrier satisfies the following condition 2, or the first carrier and the second carrier satisfy the following condition 1 and condition 2: The condition 1 is that the first carrier includes spectrum of the current operator and spectrum of a non-current operator, and the first BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the current operator in the first carrier; The condition 2 is that the second carrier includes a spectrum of the operator and a spectrum of a non-operator, and the second BWP is an available BWP on the spectrum of the operator in the second carrier.

23. The communication device according to claim 22, characterized in that: The receiving unit is used for: In case of initial access to the first carrier, the first configuration information is received on an initial uplink and downlink BWP of the first carrier.

24. The communication device according to claim 22 or 23, characterized in that: Also includes a sending unit, configured to send an uplink signal on the first BWP; The receiving unit is further configured to receive a downlink signal on the first BWP.

25. The communication device according to any one of claims 22 to 24, characterized in that: Also includes a sending unit, for: Before receiving the first configuration information, capability information of the terminal device is sent, where the capability information includes an indication that the terminal device supports in-band continuous CA.

26. The communication device according to any one of claims 22 to 25, characterized in that: The receiving unit is used for: The second configuration information is received on the first BWP.

27. The communication device according to any one of claims 22 to 26, characterized in that: The receiving unit is further used for: receiving an activation indication, where the activation indication is used to activate the second carrier; When the second carrier is activated, downlink signals are received on the first carrier and the second carrier.

28. The communication device according to claim 27, characterized in that It also includes a sending unit, which is used to send a channel quality indication, where the channel quality indication is used to indicate the downlink channel quality of the terminal device receiving the downlink signal on the continuous CA in the downlink band; The receiving unit is further configured to receive a deactivation indication when the downlink channel quality does not meet the channel quality threshold, wherein the deactivation indication is used to instruct the terminal device to deactivate the second carrier; In the case of deactivating the second carrier, the receiving unit is further configured to: receive a downlink signal on the first BWP, and the sending unit is configured to: send an uplink signal on the first BWP.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The method comprises computer instructions, which, when executed on an electronic device, cause the electronic device to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

30. A computer program product, characterized in that The method comprises computer instructions, which, when executed on an electronic device, cause the electronic device to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 14.

31. A system, characterized in that: The system comprises a network device and a terminal device, wherein the network device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, and the terminal device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 8 to 14.

Images