Communication method and communication apparatus

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and a communication apparatus. The method comprises: receiving a first signal from a network device in a low-power-consumption state; and determining a first measurement value of the first signal, wherein the first measurement value is an average received power of the first signal on a first bandwidth at a first time, and the first bandwidth is a receive bandwidth of a terminal device in the low-power-consumption state or a transmit bandwidth of the first signal. The solution defines a measurement metric suitable for a low-power-consumption receiver, so that the terminal device having no frequency domain processing capability or having limited frequency domain processing capability can accurately determine the measurement value.

Description

Communication method and communication device

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on October 24, 2023, with application number 202311382711.5 and application name “A Communication Method and Communication Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0003] The present application relates to the field of wireless communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and a communication device. Background Art

[0004] The existing new radio (NR) system defines metrics for serving cell signal measurement, the most commonly used of which includes the synchronization signal reference signal received power (SS-RSRP). The SS-RSRP in NR is defined as the average power on all resource elements (REs) carrying the secondary synchronization signal (SSS), that is, the sum of the power on all REs occupied by the SSS divided by the number of REs occupied by the SSS.

[0005] However, the existing NR definition of SS-RSRP is not suitable for terminal devices in a low-power state, or in other words, it is not suitable for the low-power receiver of the terminal device. This is because the existing SS-RSRP is defined as the average power over all REs carrying the SSS, which includes the concept of frequency-domain REs. According to this definition, when the terminal device measures and calculates SS-RSRP, it needs to Fourier transform the received signal into the frequency domain for processing. However, to achieve low power consumption, the low-power receiver of the terminal device usually does not include a fast Fourier transform (FFT) module and cannot perform RE-granular signal processing in the frequency domain.

[0006] How to determine the measurement value of the terminal device in low power consumption state, such as RSRP, remains to be solved.

[0007] Summary of the Invention

[0008] Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and a communication device for determining a measurement value of a terminal device in a low power consumption state.

[0009] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method that can be performed by a terminal device or a module (such as a chip) in the terminal device. The method includes: receiving a first signal from a network device in a low-power state; and determining a first measurement value of the first signal, where the first measurement value is an average received power of the first signal over a first bandwidth at a first time, where the first bandwidth is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low-power state or the transmitting bandwidth of the first signal.

[0010] The above solution defines measurement metrics suitable for low-power receivers, so that terminal devices with no frequency domain processing capability or low frequency domain processing capability can accurately determine measurement values.

[0011] In a possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation, and the first time is an OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0012] In one possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using on-off keying (OOK) modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies one OFDM symbol, and the first time is the OOK ON modulation symbol occupied by the first signal, or the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal. In one possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using OOK modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies a segment on an OFDM symbol, and the first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal, or the OOK segment occupied by the first signal.

[0013] In a possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation, and the first time is an OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or a frequency branch on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0014] In a possible implementation method, the method also includes: determining a second measurement value based on the first measurement value, the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state, the sending bandwidth of the first signal, and the noise and interference power; wherein the noise and interference power is the average receiving power of the noise and / or interference measured on the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state over a second time occupied by the noise and / or interference, and the second time is not used to send the first signal.

[0015] In one possible implementation method, Among them, RSRP2 is the second measurement value, RSRP1 is the first measurement value, B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state, B1 is the sending bandwidth of the first signal, P Noise is the noise interference power.

[0016] In a possible implementation method, the method further includes: determining a third measurement value based on the first measurement value, a receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state, and a sending bandwidth of the first signal.

[0017] In one possible implementation method, Among them, RSRP3 is the third measurement value, RSRP1 is the first measurement value, B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state, and B1 is the sending bandwidth of the first signal.

[0018] In a possible implementation method, the terminal device determines a first measurement value of the first signal, including: determining the first measurement value of the first signal when the frequency domain processing capability of the low-power receiver of the terminal device is less than a first threshold.

[0019] In a possible implementation method, the method also includes: sending capability information, the capability information including first information, second information or at least one of the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state; wherein the first information is used to indicate the frequency domain processing capability of the low power consumption receiver of the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate the noise and / or interference estimation capability of the low power consumption receiver; receiving a measurement threshold, the measurement threshold is determined based on the capability information; and judging whether to perform a wireless link operation according to the measurement threshold.

[0020] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which can be a terminal device or a module (such as a chip) in the terminal device. The device has the function of implementing any implementation method of the first aspect described above. The function can be implemented by hardware or by hardware executing corresponding software implementation. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above functions.

[0021] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising units or means for executing each step of any implementation method in the above-mentioned first aspect.

[0022] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, comprising a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the processor is configured to communicate with other devices via the interface circuit and execute any implementation method of the first aspect. The processor comprises one or more.

[0023] Optionally, the communication device may further include a memory for storing computer instructions, the memory being coupled to a processor, and the processor executing the computer instructions stored in the memory so that the device executes any implementation method in the above-mentioned first aspect.

[0024] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product, which includes a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are run by a communication device, any implementation method in the above-mentioned first aspect is executed.

[0025] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores instructions, which, when run on a communication device, enables any implementation method in the above-mentioned first aspect to be executed.

[0026] In the seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system, including: a processor, used to execute any implementation method in the above-mentioned first aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] FIG1( a ) is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system used in an embodiment of the present application;

[0028] Figure 1(b) shows a schematic diagram of a network device;

[0029] FIG2 is an example diagram of discrete on-off keying;

[0030] FIG3 is an example diagram of envelope detection;

[0031] Figure 4 is an example of Manchester encoding;

[0032] Figure 5 is another example of Manchester encoding;

[0033] FIG6 is an example diagram of an OFDM system sending an OOK signal;

[0034] FIG7 is another example diagram of an OFDM system sending an OOK signal;

[0035] FIG8 is an example diagram showing the relationship between the transmission bandwidth of a low-power synchronization signal and the reception bandwidth of a low-power receiver;

[0036] FIG9 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] FIG10 is an example diagram of a signal transmitted using OFDM modulation;

[0038] FIG11 is an example diagram of a signal transmitted using FSK modulation;

[0039] FIG12 is an example diagram showing how to reduce the effects of noise and / or interference on measurement values;

[0040] FIG13 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0041] FIG14 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0042] Figure 1(a) is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system used in an embodiment of the present application. The communication system shown in Figure 1(a) includes a wireless access network 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system also includes the Internet 300. The wireless access network 100 may include at least one network device (such as 110a and 110b in Figure 1(a)) and may also include at least one terminal device (such as 120a-120j in Figure 1(a)). The terminal device is connected to the network device wirelessly, and the network device is connected to the core network wirelessly or by wire. The core network device and the network device may be independent and distinct physical devices, or the functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the 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 network device. Terminal devices and network devices may be connected to each other via wired or wireless connections. Figure 1(a) is merely a schematic diagram. The communication system may also include other network devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in Figure 1(a).

[0043] A network device is an access device that a terminal device uses to access a communication system via a wired or wireless method. A network device may be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a fifth generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next generation base station in a sixth generation (6G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system; it may also be a module or unit that performs some of the functions of a base station, for example, a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU). A network device may be a macro base station (such as 110a in FIG1(a)), a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in FIG1(a)), a relay node or a donor node, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the network device.

[0044] A terminal device is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities that can send signals to or receive signals from network devices. Terminal devices include, but are not limited to, terminal devices, terminals, user equipment (UE), mobile stations, mobile terminals, etc. Terminal devices can be widely used in various scenarios, such as side-link communication (e.g., device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication), machine-type communication (MTC), Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, telemedicine, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, etc. The terminal device can specifically be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver capabilities, wearable device, vehicle, aircraft, ship, robot, robotic arm, smart home device, etc. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal device.

[0045] Network devices and terminal devices can be fixed or mobile. They can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on water; they can also be deployed on aircraft, balloons, and artificial satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of network devices and terminal devices.

[0046] The roles of network devices and terminal devices can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 1(a) can be configured as a mobile network device. For terminal devices 120j that access the wireless access network 100 via 120i, terminal device 120i is a network device. However, for network device 110a, 120i is a terminal device, meaning that communication between 110a and 120i occurs via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, communication between 110a and 120i can also occur via an interface protocol between network devices. In this case, relative to 110a, 120i is also a network device. Therefore, both network devices and terminal devices can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 1(a) can be referred to as communication devices with network device functionality, and 120a-120j in Figure 1(a) can be referred to as communication devices with terminal device functionality.

[0047] Network devices and terminal devices, network devices and network devices, and terminal devices and terminal devices can communicate through authorized spectrum, unauthorized spectrum, or both; can communicate through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), spectrum above 6 GHz, or spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz simultaneously. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communications.

[0048] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the network device may also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the network device, or by a control subsystem that includes the network device functions. The control subsystem that includes the network device functions here may be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, smart transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal device may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal device, or by a device that includes the terminal device functions.

[0049] In this application, a network device sends downlink signals or downlink information to a terminal device, and the downlink information is carried on a downlink channel. A terminal device sends uplink signals or uplink information to a network device, and the uplink information is carried on an uplink channel. To communicate with a network device, a terminal device needs to establish a wireless connection with a cell controlled by the network device. The cell with which a terminal device has established a wireless connection is called the serving cell of the terminal device.

[0050] Figure 1(b) shows a schematic diagram of a network device. As shown in Figure 1(b), the network device includes one or more CUs, one or more DUs, and one or more RUs. For clarity, Figure 1(b) shows only one CU, DU, and RU. The CU is connected to the core network and one or more DUs. Optionally, the CU may have some of the core network's functionality. The CU may include a CU-control plane (CP) and a CU-user plane (UP).

[0051] The CU and DU can be configured according to the protocol layer functions of the wireless network they implement: for example, the CU is configured to implement the functions of the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer and the protocol layers above it (such as the radio resource control (RRC) layer and / or the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, etc.); the DU is configured to implement the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer (such as the radio link control (RLC) layer, the medium access control (MAC) layer, and / or the physical (PHY) layer, etc.). For another example, the CU is configured to implement the functions of the protocol layers above the PDCP layer (such as the RRC layer and / or the SDAP layer), and the DU is configured to implement the functions of the PDCP layer and the protocol layers below it (such as the RLC layer, the MAC layer, and / or the PHY layer, etc.).

[0052] The above configuration of CU and DU is only an example, and the functions of CU and DU can also be configured as needed. For example, the CU or DU can be configured to have the functions of more protocol layers, or the CU or DU can be configured to have partial processing functions of the protocol layer. For example, some functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers above the RLC layer are set in the CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer are set in the DU. For another example, the functions of the CU or DU can be divided according to the service type or other system requirements, such as by delay, and the functions whose processing time needs to meet the smaller delay requirement are set in the DU, and the functions that do not need to meet the delay requirement are set in the CU.

[0053] The DU and RU can work together to implement the functions of the PHY layer. A DU can be connected to one or more RUs. The functions of the DU and RU can be configured in various ways according to the design. For example, the DU is configured to implement the baseband function, and the RU is configured to implement the mid-RF function. For another example, the DU is configured to implement the high-layer functions in the PHY layer, and the RU is configured to implement the low-layer functions in the PHY layer or to implement the low-layer functions and the RF functions. The high-layer functions in the physical layer may include a part of the functions of the physical layer, which is closer to the MAC layer, and the low-layer functions in the physical layer may include another part of the functions of the physical layer, which is closer to the mid-RF side.

[0054] The CU and DU may be set separately, or may be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU) or a remote radio head (RRH). In different systems, CU, DU or RU may have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, CU may also be called O-CU (open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, and RU may also be called O-RU. Any of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0055] To facilitate understanding of the content of this application, the nouns or terms involved in the embodiments of this application are explained below.

[0056] 1. Power saving technology

[0057] Compared to Long Term Evolution (LTE), 5G New Radio (NR) supports larger transmission bandwidth, more transmit and receive antenna arrays, higher transmission rates, and a more flexible and fine-grained scheduling mechanism. While these features expand its applicability, they significantly increase the power consumption of terminal devices.

[0058] To reduce the power consumption of terminal devices, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) introduced a power saving research topic in NR Rel-16 / 17. Its purpose is to study possible power saving solutions for terminal devices in various states (including connected, idle, and inactive).

[0059] The idle state refers to the state that a terminal device is in when it has completed its residency in a cell but has not yet performed a random access procedure. A terminal device typically enters the idle state after being powered on or after radio resource control (RRC) is released.

[0060] The corresponding state to the idle state is the connected state. The connected state refers to the state of the terminal device after completing the random access procedure and before performing RRC release. The terminal device can transmit data with the network device in the connected state. When the terminal device is in the idle state, after completing the random access procedure, the terminal device state transitions to the connected state. When the terminal device is in the connected state, after completing the RRC release, the terminal device state transitions to the idle state.

[0061] The inactive state is between the connected and idle states. For a terminal device in the inactive state, the user plane bearer of the air interface is suspended, while the user plane bearer and control plane bearer between the RAN and the core network (CN) are still maintained. When the terminal device initiates a call or service request, the user plane bearer of the air interface needs to be activated, and the existing user plane bearer and control plane bearer between the RAN and the CN are reused.

[0062] Before the 3GPP NR system, the following power saving methods have been defined:

[0063] Method 1: Extended discontinuous reception (eDRX) mechanism

[0064] In LTE and NR systems, the maximum DRX cycle is 2.56 seconds. Considering that some terminal devices have high energy-saving requirements, such as some IoT terminals (such as water and electricity meters), the eDRX mechanism is introduced to extend the terminal device's paging monitoring cycle to achieve the purpose of power conservation. The eDRX mechanism can introduce a monitoring cycle of up to 2 hours.

[0065] Method 2: Power saving model (PSM) / mobile initiated connection only (MICO) mode

[0066] Some terminal devices may only perform uplink-triggered services, such as sensors, which periodically report their collected data. They may not perform downlink-triggered services or may be insensitive to the latency of downlink-triggered services. Therefore, PSM / MICO is introduced. Under PSM / MICO, terminal devices do not need to monitor downlink paging during normal operations, only monitoring for paging within a short period after uplink services have ended, further reducing terminal energy consumption.

[0067] 2. Wakeup radio (WUR)

[0068] Wake-up radio refers to a wireless communication station that turns on only a low-power receiver to listen for a low-power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) when the main receiver (or main radio) is in ultra-deep sleep mode or is completely powered off.

[0069] The main receiver, also known as the main communication module or main circuit, is a traditional receiver in NR terminal devices, used to receive NR downlink signaling, signals, and data. The main receiver includes a mid-range radio frequency module and a baseband processing module.

[0070] A low-power receiver is also called a wakeup receiver, a low-power wake-up radio (LP-WUR) receiver, a wake-up circuit, a communication auxiliary module, or an auxiliary circuit. A low-power receiver includes a simple receiver composed of a mid-range radio frequency module, or a low-power receiver includes a module with even lower power consumption. This allows the low-power receiver to operate with much lower power consumption than the main receiver. For example, the power consumption of a low-power receiver in operation is less than one-tenth of the average power consumption of a main receiver in idle mode.

[0071] A low-power receiver may, for example, be some RF circuits and baseband circuits with lower power consumption. For example, a low-power receiver may not include a phase-locked loop (PLL) ring oscillator and may use a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with a higher noise figure. A low-power receiver may also be a submodule (i.e., a partial module) of a main receiver, or may reuse some circuits and devices with the main receiver. Alternatively, compared to the main receiver, a low-power receiver may include fewer devices during operation. For example, a low-power receiver may not include a fast Fourier transform module, a complex channel decoding module, a low-density parity check code (LDPC) decoding module, or a polarization decoding module. It may also have fewer registers and memory units and use a lower-bandwidth bus, so its power consumption is lower than that of the main receiver. Alternatively, the main receiver can be a low-power receiver in a low-power working mode, for example, the main receiver becomes a low-power receiver when the operating voltage is reduced, the clock frequency is slowed down, or the sampling rate and bit width of analog-to-digital sampling are reduced.

[0072] The operating modes of the main receiver and low-power receiver are as follows:

[0073] When the main receiver completes data transmission and reception and returns to the idle state, the main receiver can enter the ultra-deep sleep mode or even shut down completely to reduce power consumption. At this time, the low-power receiver is in the on state and receives LP-WUS.

[0074] Once the low-power receiver receives the LP-WUS sent to itself or its group, the low-power receiver will trigger the main receiver to wake up or turn on, and the main receiver will continue to send and receive data or signaling.

[0075] In this application, LP-WUS can be a general term, which includes the following two aspects:

[0076] (1) Low power synchronization signal (LP-SS): This low power synchronization signal is also called synchronization sequence. This low power synchronization signal can be sent periodically. It mainly provides time synchronization function for low power receivers, so that low power receivers can determine the current frame, subframe, time slot, symbol, etc., determine whether the terminal device is within the cell coverage, and determine whether the local clock is offset.

[0077] (2) Wake-up signal: The wake-up signal is used to wake up a specific terminal device or a group of terminal devices, triggering the terminal device to perform certain operations, including but not limited to updating system messages, receiving paging messages, initiating random access, receiving disaster warning information, etc.

[0078] In another implementation, the LP-WUS may also include a wake-up signal but not a synchronization signal. The low-power synchronization signal may be broadcast by the network device via an additional signaling. For ease of explanation, in this application, the LP-WUS specifically refers to the wake-up signal, and the synchronization signal received by the low-power receiver is represented by LP-SS.

[0079] 3. On-off keying (OOK) and envelope detection (ED)

[0080] On-off keying is the simplest form of amplitude-shift keying (ASK) modulation, in which information is represented by the presence or absence of a signal. For example, the presence of a signal (ON) during the signal sampling time represents a bit value of 1, while the absence of a signal (OFF) during the signal sampling time represents a bit value of 0. The signal transmitted during the sampling time is also called an OOK symbol.

[0081] Figure 2 shows an example of discrete on-off keying. Here, 24 samples are transmitted, and each 12 samples represent a coded bit. The first 12 samples transmit a signal, indicating on, and are therefore coded as 1. The last 12 samples do not transmit a signal, indicating off, and are therefore coded as 0.

[0082] The above-mentioned simple modulation characteristics of the OOK symbol enable the receiver to obtain the signal only through energy detection. For example, in the above-mentioned first 12 sample points, once the received signal energy detected by the terminal device exceeds a certain threshold, it can be considered that the network device has sent code 1. In the above-mentioned last 12 sample points, once the received signal detected by the terminal device does not exceed a certain threshold, it can be considered that the network device has not sent a signal, which is expressed as code 0.

[0083] The simple modulation characteristics of OOK make it possible to demodulate and receive OOK symbols using simple devices, making it a suitable modulation method for LP-WUS. Envelope detection is generally used to receive OOK symbols, which primarily detects signal amplitude.

[0084] Figure 3 is an example diagram of envelope detection. Figure 3 (a) represents the real part of the signal (real), Figure 3 (b) represents the imaginary part of the signal (imag), and Figure 3 (c) represents the signal amplitude (amplitude) obtained based on the real and imaginary parts.

[0085] In addition to OOK, low-power receivers can also use frequency shift keying (FSK) or orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems to send wake-up signals (LP-WUS) and low-power synchronization signals (LP-SS).

[0086] 4. Manchester encoding

[0087] Manchester coding uses two or more consecutive different levels (envelopes) to represent one bit. Table 1 shows 1 / 2 Manchester coding, which encodes one information bit into two symbols.

[0088] Table 1

[0089] The envelope pattern (ie, signal level) corresponding to code 01 shown in Table 1 is shown in FIG. 4 , and the envelope pattern (ie, signal level) corresponding to code 10 shown in Table 1 is shown in FIG. 5 .

[0090] The advantage of Manchester encoding is that when receiving a signal, a terminal device can directly compare the two symbols in the code to perform decoding. For example, with 1 / 2 Manchester encoding, if the signal level of the first symbol is lower than that of the second symbol, it is judged as 1; otherwise, it is judged as 0. This scheme does not require threshold judgment between the two symbols, that is, there is no need to compare the signal level of each symbol with a threshold separately.

[0091] 5. OFDM-based OOK system

[0092] There are two ways to send OOK signals in an OFDM system:

[0093] Method 1: 1-bit OOK, that is, one OFDM symbol carries one OOK ON modulation symbol or one OOK OFF modulation symbol.

[0094] Figure 6 shows an example of an OFDM system transmitting an OOK signal. In this example, the OOK signal occupies 12 resource elements (REs) in the frequency domain. Symbols 0 and 3 are transmitted, indicating OOK ON, while symbols 1 and 2 are not transmitted, indicating OOK OFF. When using 1:2 Manchester encoding, symbols 0 and 1 are combined as (ON, OFF), representing information 0, while symbols 2 and 3 are combined as (OFF, ON), representing information 1. This shows that when using a 1:2 Manchester encoding system, each OFDM symbol of 1-bit OOK actually carries only 0.5 bits of information.

[0095] Mode 2: M-bitOOK, that is, one OFDM symbol carries an M-bitOOK signal, where M is an integer greater than 1.

[0096] Figure 7 is another example diagram of an OFDM system sending an OOK signal. The samples contained in each OFDM symbol are divided into 4 OOK segments (OOK segments are also referred to as segments below), and each segment carries an OOK ON modulation symbol or an OOK OFF modulation symbol. Here, the sample points contained in each OFDM symbol are divided into 4 segments as an example. In practice, the number of divisions is not limited. Referring to Figure 7, when 1:2 Manchester encoding is used, in each OFDM symbol, segment 0 and segment 1 are combined into one coded bit, and segment 2 and segment 3 are combined into one coded bit. Therefore, one OFDM symbol carries 2 bits of information, so M=2. It can also be obtained that for a 2-bit OOK system with 1:2 Manchester encoding, the number of segments on each OFDM symbol is 2*M=4, half of which sends OOK ON, and the other half of the segments have no signal, which is OOK OFF.

[0097] 6. Mobility Measurement

[0098] Traditional NR terminal devices will periodically perform mobility measurements in idle or connected states. Mobility measurements include:

[0099] 1) Serving cell measurement or resident cell measurement.

[0100] The serving cell refers to the cell that a terminal device accesses in the connected state, while the resident cell refers to the cell that the terminal device resides in when in the idle state. The terminal device periodically checks the signal quality of the synchronization signal (primary synchronization signal (PSS) or secondary synchronization signal (SSS)) of the current serving cell or resident cell. If the signal quality is too low, it can enter the cell reselection process and re-search the network to select the resident or serving cell.

[0101] 2) Neighborhood measurement.

[0102] Neighboring cell measurement refers to the terminal device measuring the synchronization signal quality of other (adjacent) cells outside the serving cell or the resident cell. Neighboring cell measurement includes same-frequency neighboring cell measurement and different-frequency neighboring cell measurement, where same-frequency neighboring cell measurement refers to the synchronization signals and bandwidth of the serving cell and other cells being on the same frequency, while different-frequency neighboring cell measurement refers to the synchronization signals and bandwidth of the serving cell and other cells being on different frequencies. If the quality of the neighboring cell synchronization signal measured by the terminal device meets certain conditions (criteria), for example, the difference between the neighboring cell signal quality and the serving cell is higher than a threshold, and the duration exceeds a preset time value, the terminal device initiates the cell switching process and switches the serving cell to the neighboring cell.

[0103] The existing NR system defines some metrics for serving cell signal measurement, the most commonly used of which include:

[0104] 1) Synchronization signal reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) is defined as the average power on all REs carrying SSS, that is, the sum of the power on all REs divided by the number of REs.

[0105] 2) Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI): This is defined as the average power received by the terminal device over the measurement bandwidth per symbol. Typically, this measurement bandwidth is greater than or equal to the SSS bandwidth.

[0106] 3) Synchronization signal reference signal received quality (SS-RSRQ), defined as Where N is the bandwidth of SSS.

[0107] After obtaining SS-RSRP and SS-RSRQ, the terminal device can choose whether to stay in or access the cell based on the S criterion. The S criterion is: when Srxlev>0 and Squal>0, the terminal device stays in or accesses the cell, where Srxlev and Squal are defined as:

[0108] Srxlev=Q rxlevmeas -(Q rxlevmin +Q rxlevminoffset )-P compensation -Qoffset temp

[0109] Squal=Q qualmeas -(Q qualmin +Q qualminoffset )-Qoffset temp

[0110] Among them, Q rxlevmeas That is SS-RSRP, Q qualmeas This is SS-RSRQ. rxlevmin , Q rxlevminoffset , P compensation , Qoffset temp , Q qualmin and Q qualminoffset These parameters are configured by the network through system messages or pre-agreed upon. They define the SS-RSRP and SS-RSRQ thresholds. Once both meet these thresholds (i.e., Srxlev > 0 and Squal > 0), the terminal device can reside in or access the cell.

[0111] In order to achieve flexible switching between the low-power receiver and the main receiver (that is, the terminal device switches between ultra-low power consumption and normal power consumption modes), the low-power receiver needs to at least support service cell measurement, that is, the terminal device must receive the low-power synchronization signal or other reference signal sent by the service cell and evaluate the signal quality. If the signal quality meets a predetermined criterion, for example, the signal quality is lower than the threshold T1 and the duration is greater than T2, the terminal device needs to restart or wake up the main receiver and switch from the low-power state or ultra-low power consumption state to the working state of the main receiver.

[0112] The existing NR definition of SS-RSRP is not suitable for low-power receivers. This is because the existing SS-RSRP is defined as the average power on all REs carrying SSS, which includes the concept of frequency domain RE. According to this definition, when the terminal device measures and calculates SS-RSRP, it is necessary to Fourier transform the received signal into the frequency domain for processing. However, in order to achieve low power consumption, the low-power receiver usually does not include a fast Fourier transform (FFT) module and cannot perform RE granularity signal processing in the frequency domain. It can only receive and measure the low-power synchronization signal reference signal received power (lowpower SS-RSRP, LP-SS-RSRP) in the time domain. Therefore, it is necessary to redefine the received power suitable for low-power receivers. In an embodiment of the present application, when the low-power receiver performs signal measurement, if the measured signal is similar to the LP-SS measured by the main receiver, the received power of the measured signal can be recorded as LP-SS-RSRP. Of course, in this application, the low-power receiver can not only measure the received power of LP-SS, but also measure the received power of other signals, such as the SSS of NR or the channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

[0113] In addition, when the terminal device is measuring in the time domain, the receiving bandwidth of its low-power receiver (generally corresponding to the bandwidth of the last filter before digital baseband signal processing) usually does not match the transmission bandwidth of the low-power synchronization signal. Among them, the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver is also called the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low-power state. For example, in one design, the transmission bandwidth of the low-power synchronization signal is 4.32 MHz, and the bandwidth granularity of the analog domain low-pass or band-pass filter integrated in the radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) of the terminal device is usually only 1 MHz, so the terminal device may only be able to use a 5 MHz filter at the lowest to receive the low-power synchronization signal. Figure 8 is an example diagram of the relationship between the transmission bandwidth of the low-power synchronization signal and the reception bandwidth of the low-power receiver. It can be seen that the reception bandwidth of the low-power receiver is greater than the transmission bandwidth of the low-power synchronization signal. At both ends of the actual received signal, a large amount of interference or noise signals may be received and measured, reducing the accuracy of LP-SS-RSRP.

[0114] To solve the above problems, the embodiments of the present application provide corresponding solutions.

[0115] Referring to Figure 9, a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application is provided. The method is executed by a network device or a module (such as a chip) of a network device, and a terminal device or a module (such as a chip) of a terminal device. For ease of explanation, the following description is based on an example of a network device and a terminal device executing the method. The method includes the following steps:

[0116] Step 901: The network device sends a first signal to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first signal in a low power consumption state.

[0117] The terminal device receives the first signal in a low power consumption state, which means that the terminal device turns on the low power consumption receiver and uses the low power consumption receiver to receive the first signal.

[0118] The first signal may be a low power synchronization signal (LP-SS) or a reference signal, and the reference signal may be, for example, a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), or a CSI-RS, etc. This application does not limit the type of the first signal.

[0119] Step 902: The terminal device determines a first measurement value of a first signal.

[0120] The measurement value here may also be referred to as a measurement metric, for example, it may be a reference signal receiving power (RSRP) or the like.

[0121] The first measurement value is an average received power of a first signal over a first bandwidth at a first time, where the first bandwidth is a receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver or a transmitting bandwidth of the first signal. The receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver is also referred to as the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low-power state.

[0122] The above solution defines measurement metrics suitable for low-power receivers, so that terminal devices with no frequency domain processing capability or low frequency domain processing capability can accurately determine measurement values.

[0123] Optionally, after determining the first measurement value, the terminal device may perform a radio link operation according to the first measurement value, where the radio link operation includes confirming whether to turn on or wake up the main receiver, confirming whether to switch cells, and the like.

[0124] For ease of understanding and explanation, this application will be described below using the RSRP measurement value as an example.

[0125] The above-mentioned definition of RSRP in the low power consumption state may be a criterion agreed upon between the network device and the terminal device, and the terminal device performs RSRP measurement and calculation based on the criterion. When the first RSRP of the measured first signal meets a certain criterion, the terminal device performs a corresponding operation. For example, when the first RSRP is lower than a preset threshold value T1 and the duration of the RSRP lower than T1 reaches a time threshold value T2 (or the number of measurements lower than T1 reaches a threshold value T3), the terminal device restarts or wakes up the main receiver and uses the main receiver to work.

[0126] The following introduces various specific implementation methods of the first RSRP.

[0127] Implementation method 1: The first signal is sent using OFDM modulation, and the first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal. Therefore, the first measurement value (i.e., the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth in the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0128] Exemplarily, the first RSRP is equal to a ratio of the received power of the first signal in the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal and the first bandwidth to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal.

[0129] If the first signal is sent using OFDM modulation, the first signal occupies one or more OFDM symbols in the time domain. As shown in the example of Figure 10, the first signal occupies four consecutive OFDM symbols in the time domain. The terminal device calculates the received power of the four OFDM symbols in the first bandwidth (12 consecutive REs in the figure), and calculates the average value of the received power relative to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal to obtain the first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal in the four OFDM symbols and 12 REs occupied by the first signal divided by 4.

[0130] In this embodiment of the present application, the first RSRP calculated by the first implementation method is referred to as P0.

[0131] Implementation method two: the first signal is sent using OOK modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies one OFDM symbol, the first time is the OOK ON modulation symbol occupied by the first signal, or the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, so the first measurement value (ie, the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth on the OOK ON modulation symbol occupied by the first signal; or the first measurement value (ie, the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0132] Exemplarily, the first RSRP is equal to the ratio of the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth and the OOK ON modulation symbols occupied by the first signal to the number of OOK ON modulation symbols occupied by the first signal, or the first RSRP is equal to the ratio of the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth and the OOK ON modulation symbols occupied by the first signal to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal.

[0133] The first signal is sent using OOK modulation and each OOK modulation symbol occupies one OFDM symbol, which can also be referred to as: the first signal is sent using 1-bit OOK modulation. The OOK modulation symbol can be an OOK ON modulation symbol or an OOK OFF modulation symbol.

[0134] In one implementation method, if the first signal is sent using 1-bit OOK modulation, the first signal occupies N OFDM symbols in the time domain, half of which are OOK ON and the other half are OOK OFF. Taking the example of Figure 6 as an example, the first signal occupies 4 OFDM symbols in the time domain, 2 of which are OOK ON modulation symbols and the other 2 are OOK OFF modulation symbols. The terminal device calculates the received power of the 2 OOK ON modulation symbols on the first bandwidth (12 consecutive REs in the figure), and calculates the average value of the received power relative to the number of OOK ON modulation symbols occupied by the first signal to obtain the first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth occupied by the OOK ON modulation symbols divided by 2. In the embodiment of the present application, the first RSRP calculated by this implementation method is referred to as P1.

[0135] In another implementation method, if the first signal is sent using 1-bit OOK modulation, the first signal occupies N OFDM symbols in the time domain, half of which are OOK ON and the other half are OOK OFF. Taking the example of Figure 6 as an example, the first signal occupies 4 OFDM symbols in the time domain, 2 of which are OOK ON modulation symbols and the other 2 are OOK OFF modulation symbols. The terminal device calculates the received power of the 2 OOK ON modulation symbols on the first bandwidth (12 consecutive REs in the figure), and calculates the average value of the received power relative to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal to obtain the first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth occupied by the OOK ON modulation symbols divided by 4. In the embodiment of the present application, the first RSRP calculated by this implementation method is referred to as P2, and it is obvious that P2 = 1 / 2*P1.

[0136] Implementation method three: the first signal is sent using OOK modulation, and each OOK modulation symbol occupies a segment on an OFDM symbol. The first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal, or the OOK segment occupied by the first signal. Therefore, the first measurement value (i.e., the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal; or the first measurement value (i.e., the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth on the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal; or the first measurement value (i.e., the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth on the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal.

[0137] Exemplarily, the first RSRP is equal to the ratio of the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth in the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal, or the first RSRP is equal to the ratio of the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth in the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal to the number of segments on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or the first RSRP is equal to the ratio of the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth in the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal to the number of OOK ON segments on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0138] The first signal is sent using OOK modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies the first segment of an OFDM symbol, and each OFDM symbol contains 2*M segments, which can also be referred to as: the first signal is sent using M-bit OOK modulation. The OOK modulation symbol can be an OOK ON modulation symbol or an OOK OFF modulation symbol.

[0139] In one implementation method, if the first signal is sent using M-bit OOK modulation, M is an integer greater than 1, and the first signal occupies N OFDM symbols in the time domain, in each OFDM symbol, half of the segments are OOK ON with signal energy, and the other half of the segments are OOK OFF without signal energy. Taking the example of Figure 7 as an example, M=2, the first signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols in the time domain, wherein in each OFDM symbol, 2 segments are OOK ON and the other 2 segments are OOK OFF. The terminal device calculates the received power of the 4 OOK ON segments on the first bandwidth (12 consecutive REs in the figure), and calculates the average value of the received power relative to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal to obtain the first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth in the OOK ON segments occupied by the first signal divided by 2. In the embodiment of the present application, the first RSRP calculated by this implementation method is referred to as P3.

[0140] In another implementation method, if the first signal is sent using M-bit OOK modulation, M is an integer greater than 1, and the first signal occupies N OFDM symbols in the time domain, in each OFDM symbol, half of the segments are OOK ON with signal energy, and the other half of the segments are OOK OFF without signal energy. Taking the example of Figure 7 as an example, M=2, the first signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols in the time domain, wherein in each OFDM symbol, 2 segments are OOK ON and the other 2 segments are OOK OFF. The terminal device calculates the received power of 4 OOK ON segments on the first bandwidth (12 consecutive REs in the figure), and calculates the average value of the received power relative to the number of segments on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal to obtain the first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth in the OOK ON segments occupied by the first signal divided by 8. In the embodiment of the present application, the first RSRP calculated by this implementation method is referred to as P4. Obviously, P4=P3 / (2*M).

[0141] In another implementation method, if the first signal is sent using M-bit OOK modulation, M is an integer greater than 1, and the first signal occupies N OFDM symbols in the time domain, in each OFDM symbol, half of the segments are OOK ON with signal energy, and the other half of the segments are OOK OFF without signal energy. Taking the example of Figure 7 as an example, M=2, the first signal occupies 2 OFDM symbols in the time domain, of which 2 segments in each OFDM symbol are OOK ON and the other 2 segments are OOK OFF. The terminal device calculates the received power of 4 OOK ON segments on the first bandwidth (12 consecutive REs in the figure), and calculates the average value of the received power relative to the number of OOK ON segments on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal to obtain the first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth in the OOK ON segments occupied by the first signal divided by 4. In the embodiment of the present application, the first RSRP calculated by this implementation method is referred to as P5. Obviously, P5=P3 / M.

[0142] In some cases, the network device uses M-bit OOK to send the first signal, but hopes to calculate the RSRP based on the reference K-bit OOK (K≠M) definition. For example, the network device uses 2-bit OOK modulation to send the first signal, but hopes that the terminal device actually uses 1-bit OOK to calculate the RSRP, then it is necessary to convert the RSRP of 2-bit OOK to 1-bit OOK. For example, 2-bit OOK is defined by P5, which actually calculates the energy of each fragment within the first bandwidth. The reference RSRP is defined by P1. From the definition of P1, we know that P1 is equivalent to the energy sent when the fragment occupies the entire OFDM symbol. Therefore, the conversion formula can be P1=2M*P5, which is equivalent to sending all 2M fragments of an OFDM symbol to obtain the receiving power of P1. Generally speaking, for an M-bit OOK signal, its RSRP definition may be P3, P4, and P5 as mentioned above. For a K-bit OOK signal (K≠M), its corresponding RSRP definition is recorded as P3K, P4K, and P5K, and the conversion relationship shown in Table 2 can be obtained.

[0143] Table 2

[0144] Implementation method four, the first signal is sent using frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation, and the first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or the frequency branch on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, so the first measurement value (ie, the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal; or the first measurement value (ie, the first RSRP) is the average received power of the first signal on the first bandwidth on the frequency branch on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0145] Exemplarily, the first RSRP is equal to the ratio of the received power of the first signal on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal and the first bandwidth to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal, or the first RSRP is equal to the ratio of the received power of the first signal on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal and the first bandwidth to the number of frequency branches on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0146] The frequency branches may be understood as multiple frequency domain bandwidth ranges. For example, each frequency domain branch includes X RBs. Different frequency branches do not overlap, and different frequency branches may be continuous or discontinuous.

[0147] Taking Figure 11 as an example, the first signal is transmitted using two frequencies, F1 and F2 (denoted as 2-FSK). In the time domain, the first signal occupies four OFDM symbols. When the first signal is transmitted on F1 but not on F2, it represents information 0. When the first signal is transmitted on F2 but not on F1, it represents information 1. Therefore, the information transmitted across the four OFDM symbols in the figure is 0110.

[0148] In one implementation method, the terminal device calculates the received power over all first bandwidths (including F1 and F2) in the OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal (4 in Figure 11), and calculates the average of the received power relative to the number of OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal (4 in the figure) to obtain a first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal in the OFDM symbols occupied by the first signal and the first bandwidth divided by 4. In this embodiment of the present application, the first RSRP calculated by this implementation method is referred to as P6.

[0149] In another implementation method, the terminal device calculates the received power on all first bandwidths (including F1 and F2) in the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal (4 in Figure 11), and calculates the average value of the received power relative to the number of frequency branches on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal (4*2=8 in the figure) to obtain the first RSRP. That is, the first RSRP is equal to the received power of the first signal on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal and the first bandwidth divided by 8. In this embodiment of the application, the first RSRP calculated by this implementation method is referred to as P7. Obviously, P7=1 / 2*P6.

[0150] Furthermore, 2-FSK can be extended to M-FSK (M frequency branches, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 2), and a similar definition can be obtained.

[0151] Four different implementation methods for determining the first RSRP are given above. In actual use, one or more of these methods can be selected to calculate the RSRP according to actual needs.

[0152] In one implementation method, after obtaining the first RSRP using the aforementioned method, the terminal device corrects the first RSRP to obtain a more accurate second RSRP, thereby improving the accuracy of the RSRP. This is described below in different scenarios.

[0153] In case 1, the terminal device determines the second RSRP based on the first RSRP, the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver, the transmitting bandwidth of the first signal, and the noise and interference power. The noise and interference power is the average received power of the noise and / or interference measured over the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver. The low-power receiver can measure the noise and interference power at the second time, and the second time is not used to send the first signal. Optionally, the second time may include one or more null symbols of zero power, or the second time may include one or more OFDM symbols or segments within OFDM symbols that do not send any information.

[0154] It can be understood that the first RSRP is the initial RSRP determined in step 902, and the second RSRP is the accurate RSRP after reducing interference and / or noise.

[0155] Exemplarily, when the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver is greater than the sending bandwidth of the first signal,

[0156] Among them, RSRP2 is the second RSRP, and RSRP1 is the first RSRP. B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver. In a specific implementation, the passband bandwidth or noise equivalent bandwidth of the last filter before the digital baseband processing of the terminal device can be used as the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver. B1 is the transmission bandwidth of the first signal, or the preset reference bandwidth, or the bandwidth negotiated between the network device and the terminal device (the negotiated bandwidth can be configured to the terminal device by the network device through signaling). Noise is the noise interference power.

[0157] Refer to Figure 12, which is an example diagram for reducing the impact of noise and / or interference on the measured value. In conjunction with Figure 12, it can be seen that the meaning of the above formula (1) is: the received power measured by the terminal device on the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver includes the noise and / or interference power of the (B2-B1) bandwidth part. In order to remove these powers, the terminal device also needs to measure the noise and / or interference power measured at the second time (for example, one or more empty symbols) and the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver. The bandwidth of the noise and / or interference is also B2, and then the noise and / or interference power is scaled to the bandwidth (B2-B1) to approximate the noise and / or interference power on both sides of the first signal, that is, Then, this power is subtracted from the measured value RSRP1 to obtain the corrected RSRP2.

[0158] It should be noted that the second time for measuring the average received power of noise and / or interference should match the first time for measuring the first RSRP. Specifically, if the first time includes one or more OOK segments, the second time includes one or more OOK segments; if the first time includes one or more OOK ON segments, the second time includes one or more OOK ON segments; if the first time includes one or more OFDM symbols, the second time includes one or more OFDM symbols; if the first time includes one or more frequency branches on one or more OFDM symbols, the second time includes one or more frequency branches on one or more OFDM symbols.

[0159] Taking the second time for measuring the power of noise and interference including a null symbol as an example, the null symbol may be defined in any of the following ways 1), 2), or 3):

[0160] 1) For the first signal using Manchester encoding, the power of noise and / or interference may be measured directly based on one or more OOK OFF modulation symbols or OOK segments, that is, the null symbol is an OOK OFF modulation symbol.

[0161] It should be noted that the terminal device knows the sequence form of the first signal in advance, and therefore knows the actual position of the OOKOFF modulation symbol, and can further measure the power of noise and / or interference on the OOKOFF modulation symbol or OOK segment.

[0162] 6 , the null symbol may be OFDM symbol 1 or OFDM symbol 2 .

[0163] 7 , the null symbol may be segment 1 or segment 2 in OFDM symbol 0 , or segment 0 or segment 3 in OFDM symbol 1 .

[0164] 2) For the first signal modulated by FSK, the power of noise and / or interference can be measured directly based on the known frequency of the unsent signal.

[0165] It should be noted that the terminal device knows the sequence form of the first signal in advance, and therefore knows the actual position of the frequency branch occupied by the first signal, and can measure the power of noise and / or interference on the frequency branch where no signal is sent.

[0166] 6 , the null symbol may be OFDM symbol 0 corresponding to frequency F2, or OFDM symbol 1 corresponding to frequency F1, or OFDM symbol 2 corresponding to frequency F1, or OFDM symbol 3 corresponding to frequency F2. That is, the power of noise and / or interference is measured using the time-frequency resources on the blank pattern in FIG6 .

[0167] 3) The network device predefines empty symbols or OFDM symbol segments for noise and / or interference measurement. For example, for a first signal modulated using OFDM, the network side can configure the noise and / or interference measurement symbols to be located near the first signal in time to ensure that the empty symbols and the transmitted symbols of the first signal have similar noise and / or interference.

[0168] For example, assuming that the first signal occupies four symbols, namely S1, S2, S3, and S4, the null symbol used for noise and / or interference measurement can be the previous symbol S0 or the next symbol S5 of the first signal. Alternatively, the null symbol used for noise and / or interference measurement can also be located within the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal. For example, the symbols are sequentially arranged in time as follows: S1, S2, null symbol, S3, S4. That is, the null symbol is located between S2 and S3.

[0169] In another example, the second RSRP is calculated as follows: RSRP2=RSRP1-P Noise ……(2)

[0170] Among them, RSRP2 is the second RSRP, RSRP1 is the first RSRP, P Noise is the noise interference power.

[0171] The above formula (2) means that the first signal reception power measured by the terminal device on the reception bandwidth of the low-power receiver includes noise and / or interference power. In order to weaken or remove these powers, the terminal device also needs to measure the noise and / or interference power measured at the second time (for example, one or more empty symbols) and the reception bandwidth of the low-power receiver. The reception bandwidth of the noise and / or interference is the same as the reception bandwidth of the first signal, and then subtract this part of the power from the measured value RSRP1 to obtain the corrected RSRP2.

[0172] In one implementation method, after determining the second RSRP, the terminal device can perform wireless link operations according to the second RSRP. The wireless link operations include confirming whether to turn on or wake up the main receiver, confirming whether to switch cells, etc.

[0173] In scenario 2, the terminal device determines a third RSRP based on the first RSRP, the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver, and the transmitting bandwidth of the first signal.

[0174] It can be understood that the first RSRP is the initial RSRP determined in step 902, and the third RSRP is a more accurately determined RSRP.

[0175] Exemplarily, when the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver is smaller than the sending bandwidth of the first signal,

[0176] RSRP3 is the third RSRP, and RSRP1 is the first RSRP. B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver. In a specific implementation, the passband bandwidth or noise equivalent bandwidth of the last filter before digital baseband processing in the terminal device can be used as the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver. B1 is the transmission bandwidth of the first signal, or a preset reference bandwidth, or a bandwidth negotiated between the network device and the terminal device.

[0177] In one implementation method, after determining the third RSRP, the terminal device can perform wireless link operations according to the third RSRP. The wireless link operations include confirming whether to turn on or wake up the main receiver, confirming whether to switch cells, etc.

[0178] In one implementation method, after the low-power receiver of the terminal device determines the RSRP of the first signal (such as the first RSRP, the second RSRP, or the third RSRP) by the above method, it can further determine the RSRQ, wherein: Among them, RSSI can be defined as the received signal strength of a low-power receiver based on a certain bandwidth within a certain time. The time and bandwidth are predetermined between the network device and the terminal device, or the network device indicates it to the terminal device through signaling (physical layer, high-layer signaling, etc.).

[0179] In the embodiment of the present application, since the low-power receivers of some terminal devices may have frequency domain signal processing capabilities, while the low-power receivers of some other terminal devices do not have frequency domain processing capabilities, the network side can define two sets of RSRP and define different switching parameters between the low-power receiver and the main receiver according to the capabilities of the terminal devices:

[0180] For a low-power receiver without frequency domain processing capability (i.e., a low-power receiver without an FFT module in the baseband), or a low-power receiver with a frequency domain processing capability less than the first threshold, its RSRP and RSRQ are defined in the manner described above in the embodiment of the present application, that is, RSRP can be the aforementioned first RSRP, second RSRP, or third RSRP, and the network device configures or agrees on the corresponding thresholds T1, T2, T3, etc. for triggering the execution of RLM for such terminal devices, or refers to the Q in the prior art. rxlevmin , Q rxlevminoffset , P compensation , Qoffset temp , Q qualmin and Q qualminoffset Parameters such as T1, T2, and T3 are used to determine the thresholds T1, T2, and T3 for triggering RLM. Based on this scenario, step 902 may specifically be: when the low-power receiver of the terminal device does not have frequency domain processing capability, the terminal device determines the first RSRP of the first signal.

[0181] For a low-power receiver with frequency domain processing capability (i.e., a low-power receiver with an FFT module in the baseband), or a low-power receiver with a frequency domain processing capability greater than or equal to the first threshold, its RSRP and RSRQ are defined in accordance with the existing NR method, and the network device configures or agrees on the corresponding thresholds T1, T2, T3, etc. for triggering the execution of RLM for such terminal devices, or refers to the Q in the prior art. rxlevmin , Q rxlevminoffset , P compensation , Qoffset temp , Q qualmin and Q qualminoffset Parameters such as T1, T2, T3, etc. determine the thresholds that trigger the execution of RLM.

[0182] Alternatively, in another implementation method, regardless of whether the low-power receiver has frequency domain processing capability, its RSRP and RSRQ are defined in the manner described above in the embodiment of the present application, that is, RSRP can be the aforementioned first RSRP, second RSRP or third RSRP, and the network device configures or agrees on the corresponding thresholds T1, T2, T3, etc. for triggering the execution of RLM for this type of terminal device, or refers to Q in the prior art. rxlevmin , Q rxlevminoffset , P compensation , Qoffset temp , Q qualmin and Q qualminoffset Parameters such as T1, T2, T3, etc. determine the thresholds that trigger the execution of RLM.

[0183] In one implementation method, the terminal device may send capability information, which includes at least one of the first information, the second information, or the receiving bandwidth of the low-power receiver. The first information is used to indicate the frequency domain processing capability of the low-power receiver of the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate the noise and / or interference estimation capability of the low-power receiver. The network device receives the capability information and determines the configuration parameters of the terminal device based on the capability information. The configuration parameters include a measurement threshold, which is used to determine whether to perform a wireless link operation. The measurement threshold, for example, includes the aforementioned thresholds T1, T2, T3, or Q for triggering the execution of the wireless link operation. rxlevmin , Q rxlevminoffset , P compensation , Qoffset temp , Q qualmin and Q qualminoffset. Optionally, the capability information reported by the terminal device can be first sent to the network device, and the network device transmits the capability information to the core network device, and then the core network device sends a paging message to the network device, and the paging message includes the capability information of the terminal device. Accordingly, the network device sends configuration parameters to the terminal device, specifically: the network device sends dedicated signaling to the terminal device, and the dedicated signaling includes a measurement threshold. The dedicated signaling can be radio resource management (RRC) signaling, physical layer or media access control (MAC) layer signaling.

[0184] In another implementation, if the terminal device does not report capability information, for example, because it is not required or the protocol does not define the reporting of capability information, the network device may send configuration parameters to the terminal device via a system message or other type of broadcast message. The configuration parameters may include multiple measurement thresholds. The terminal device may select an appropriate measurement threshold from the multiple measurement thresholds based on its capabilities.

[0185] It is understood that in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the terminal device or network device includes 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 hardware or in a manner driven by computer software depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0186] Figures 13 and 14 are schematic diagrams of the structures of possible communication devices provided in embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments, thereby also achieving the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be a terminal device or a network device, or a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal device or the network device.

[0187] The communication device 1300 shown in Figure 13 includes a processing unit 1310 and a transceiver unit 1320. The communication device 1300 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiment.

[0188] When the communication device 1300 is used to implement the function of the terminal device in the above method embodiment, the transceiver unit 1320 is used to receive a first signal from the network device in a low power consumption state; the processing unit 1310 is used to determine a first measurement value of the first signal, where the first measurement value is the average received power of the first signal on a first bandwidth at a first time, and the first bandwidth is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state or the sending bandwidth of the first signal.

[0189] In a possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using OFDM modulation, and the first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0190] In one possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using OOK modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies one OFDM symbol, and the first time is the OOK ON modulation symbol occupied by the first signal, or the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal. In one possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using OOK modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies a segment on an OFDM symbol, and the first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal, or the OOK segment occupied by the first signal.

[0191] In a possible implementation method, the first signal is sent using FSK modulation, and the first time is an OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or a frequency branch on the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

[0192] In one possible implementation method, the processing unit 1310 is also used to determine a second measurement value based on the first measurement value, the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state, the sending bandwidth of the first signal, and the noise and interference power; wherein the noise and interference power is the average receiving power of the noise and / or interference measured on the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state over a second time occupied by the noise and / or interference, and the second time is not used to send the first signal.

[0193] In one possible implementation method, RSRP2 is the second measurement value, RSRP1 is the first measurement value, B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state, B1 is the sending bandwidth of the first signal, P Noise is the noise interference power.

[0194] In a possible implementation method, the processing unit 1310 is further used to determine a third measurement value based on the first measurement value, the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state, and the sending bandwidth of the first signal.

[0195] In one possible implementation method, Among them, RSRP3 is the third measurement value, RSRP1 is the first measurement value, B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state, and B1 is the sending bandwidth of the first signal.

[0196] In a possible implementation method, the terminal device determines a first measurement value of the first signal, including: determining the first measurement value of the first signal when the frequency domain processing capability of the low-power receiver of the terminal device is less than a first threshold.

[0197] In one possible implementation method, the transceiver unit 1320 is also used to send capability information, and the capability information includes first information, second information, or at least one of the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state; wherein the first information is used to indicate the frequency domain processing capability of the low power consumption receiver of the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate the noise and / or interference estimation capability of the low power consumption receiver; a measurement threshold is received, and the measurement threshold is determined based on the capability information; the processing unit 1310 is also used to determine whether to perform a wireless link operation based on the measurement threshold.

[0198] For a more detailed description of the processing unit 1310 and the transceiver unit 1320, reference can be made to the relevant description in the above method embodiment, which will not be repeated here.

[0199] The communication device 1400 shown in Figure 14 includes a processor 1410 and an interface circuit 1420. The processor 1410 and the interface circuit 1420 are coupled to each other. It is understood that the interface circuit 1420 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1400 may also include a memory 1430 for storing instructions executed by the processor 1410, or storing input data required by the processor 1410 to execute instructions, or storing data generated after the processor 1410 executes instructions.

[0200] When the communication device 1400 is used to implement the above method embodiment, the processor 1410 is used to implement the functions of the above processing unit 1310 , and the interface circuit 1420 is used to implement the functions of the above transceiver unit 1320 .

[0201] 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.

[0202] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by hardware or by a processor executing software instructions. 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 disks, mobile hard disks, compact disc read-only memory (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. Of course, 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 terminal device or a network device. Of course, the processor and storage medium can also exist as discrete components in an access network device or a terminal.

[0203] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. A computer program refers to a set of instructions that instruct an electronic computer or other device with message processing capabilities to perform each step of the action, usually written in a certain programming language and running on a certain target architecture. When the computer program or instruction is loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is executed in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network or other programmable device. The computer program or instruction can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer program or instruction can be transmitted from one website, computer, server or data center to another website, computer, server or data center by wired or wireless means. The computer-readable storage medium can 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, a hard disk, or a 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 non-volatile storage medium, or may include both volatile and non-volatile types of storage media.

[0204] 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.

[0205] In this application, "at least one" means one or more, and "more" means two or more. "And / or" describes the relationship between related 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, 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 related objects are in an "or" relationship; in the formulas of this application, the character " / " indicates that the previous and next related objects are in a "division" relationship.

[0206] It is understood that the various numbers used in the embodiments of this application are merely for ease of description and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. The order of the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not necessarily imply a specific order of execution; the order of execution of the processes should be determined by their functions and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a terminal device or a module of a terminal device, the method comprises: receiving a first signal from a network device in a low power consumption state; Determine a first measurement value of the first signal, where the first measurement value is an average received power of the first signal on a first bandwidth at a first time, and the first bandwidth is a receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state or a sending bandwidth of the first signal.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first signal is sent by adopting orthogonal frequency division multiplexing OFDM modulation, and the first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first signal is sent using on-off keying OOK modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies one OFDM symbol, and the first time is the OOK ON modulation symbol occupied by the first signal, or is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

4. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first signal is sent using OOK modulation, each OOK modulation symbol occupies a segment on an OFDM symbol, and the first time is the OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or the OOK ON segment occupied by the first signal, or the OOK segment occupied by the first signal.

5. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The first signal is sent using frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation, and the first time is an OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal, or a frequency branch on an OFDM symbol occupied by the first signal.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The method further comprises: Determine a second measurement value according to the first measurement value, a receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state, a sending bandwidth of the first signal, and noise interference power; Among them, the noise interference power is the average received power of the noise and / or interference measured on the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state during the second time occupied by the noise and / or interference, and the second time is not used to send the first signal.

7. The method according to claim 6, characterized in that RSRP2 is the second measurement value, RSRP1 is the first measurement value, B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state, B1 is the sending bandwidth of the first signal, P Noise is the noise interference power.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The method further comprises: A third measurement value is determined based on the first measurement value, a receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in a low power consumption state, and a sending bandwidth of the first signal.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that Among them, RSRP3 is the third measurement value, RSRP1 is the first measurement value, B2 is the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state, and B1 is the sending bandwidth of the first signal.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that The terminal device determines a first measurement value of the first signal, including: When the frequency domain processing capability of the low power consumption receiver of the terminal device is less than a first threshold, a first measurement value of the first signal is determined.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: Send capability information, the capability information including at least one of the first information, the second information, or the receiving bandwidth of the terminal device in the low power consumption state; wherein the first information is used to indicate the frequency domain processing capability of the low power consumption receiver of the terminal device, and the second information is used to indicate the noise and / or interference estimation capability of the low power consumption receiver; receiving a measurement threshold, the measurement threshold determined based on the capability information; According to the measurement threshold, it is determined whether to perform a radio link operation.

12. A communication device, characterized in that: Comprising modules for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

13. A communication device, characterized in that: The device comprises a processor and an interface circuit, wherein the processor is used to communicate with other devices through the interface circuit and execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

14. A computer program product, characterized in that The computer program product comprises instructions, which, when executed on a processor, cause the processor to perform the method according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

15. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The storage medium stores a computer program or instruction, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by the communication device, the method described in any one of claims 1 to 11 is implemented.

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