Signal sending method and apparatus

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communications, and provide a signal sending method and apparatus, which can reduce the complexity of signal quality measurement. The method comprises: a terminal device receives first configuration information, and sends reference signals on the basis of the first configuration information. The first configuration information is used for indicating a mapping mode; the mapping mode comprises mapping the same reference signal to a first part and a second part in a plurality of consecutive time-domain symbols; the first part and the second part are continuous in the time domain; among the reference signal located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part, the last time-domain symbol of one reference signal and the first time-domain symbol of the other reference signal are continuous in the time domain; and the plurality of consecutive time-domain symbols at least comprise the first part and the second part.

Description

Signal sending method and device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on November 20, 2023, with application number 202311556827.6 and application name “Signal Transmitting Method and Device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The embodiments of the present application relate to the field of communications, and in particular to a signal transmission method and apparatus. Background Art

[0003] Compared to terrestrial communications, non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) offer wide coverage and flexible networking. NTNs utilize uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), high-altitude platforms, and satellites to provide data transmission, voice communication, and other services to user equipment (UE). Among NTN satellite communication systems, low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication systems have garnered widespread attention for their advantages, including low data transmission latency, minimal transmission loss, and relatively low launch costs.

[0004] In LEO satellite communication systems, UEs frequently switch to their serving LEO satellites due to satellite mobility. Specifically, when a UE is within the coverage area of ​​two LEO satellites, it transmits a reference signal to each LEO satellite. Each LEO satellite then detects the reference signal and determines the signal quality of each LEO satellite, thereby assisting the serving satellite in determining the target LEO satellite for handover.

[0005] However, when the UE is in the boundary area, the arrival time of the reference signal sent by it at different satellites varies greatly, which increases the complexity of detection.

[0006] Summary of the Invention

[0007] The signal sending method and device provided in the embodiments of the present application can reduce the complexity of detecting signal quality.

[0008] In a first aspect, a signal transmission method is provided, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by a component of the terminal device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the terminal device, or by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the terminal device. The method includes: receiving first configuration information, the first configuration information is used to indicate a mapping method, the mapping method includes mapping the same reference signal to the first part and the second part of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, and in the reference signal located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part, the last time domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of another reference signal, and the multiple consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part; according to the first configuration information, sending the reference signal.

[0009] Based on this scheme, since the last time domain symbol of one of the reference signals located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of the other reference signal, that is, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals mapped in the first part and the second part respectively.

[0010] Because the time window for receiving the reference signal determined by the network device includes multiple detection periods for detecting the reference signal, where the duration of each detection period is equal to the transmission duration of the reference signal, if the time window is not aligned with the arrival time of the reference signal, the reference signal detected within a detection period includes partial information of the reference signal in the first part and partial information of the reference signal in the second part. In this case, the sum of the transmission durations of these two partial information equals the transmission duration of one reference signal.

[0011] Since the first part and the second part map the same reference signal respectively, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals, and the sum of the transmission durations of the two parts of information is equal to the transmission duration of one reference signal, it can be considered that the two parts of information can be combined into a complete reference signal. That is, the network device can obtain the complete reference signal from the two parts for detection, thereby reducing the complexity of detection, and compared with the scheme of detecting incomplete reference signals, the detection performance is more stable.

[0012] In one possible design, the signal sending method also includes: receiving first indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the effective period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols; accordingly, sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information, including: sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information.

[0013] Based on this possible design, the serving network device may indicate to the terminal device the effective period of the first time-frequency resource. For example, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource may be the period when the terminal device is located in the boundary area of ​​the coverage ranges of multiple network devices (i.e., the period when the terminal device switches to the network device that serves it). Thus, the terminal device may send a reference signal through the first time-frequency resource during the effective period, thereby avoiding increasing the reference signal overhead due to sending the reference signal during the period when the terminal device does not need to switch to the network device that serves it. That is, under this possible design, the resource overhead can be reduced.

[0014] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple intra-orbit switching periods, the signal sending method also includes: receiving second indication information, the second indication information is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity, wherein the first period is the time interval between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods in the multiple intra-orbit switching periods, and between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods, the service network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of intra-orbit switching periods; sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, including: sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information and the second indication information.

[0015] Based on this possible design, the serving network device can indicate the period (i.e., the first period) corresponding to the intra-orbit switching period and the number of times the intra-orbit switching period is effective (i.e., the first number) to the terminal device through the second indication information, so that the terminal device is aware of multiple intra-orbit switching periods during the movement process, and can thus send a reference signal in each intra-orbit switching period. Compared with the solution of configuring each intra-orbit switching period for the terminal device separately, the overhead of configuring the intra-orbit switching period can be reduced.

[0016] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple inter-rail switching periods, the signal sending method also includes: receiving third indication information, the third indication information is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, wherein the second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in the multiple inter-rail switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-rail switching periods; sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information, including: sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information and the third indication information.

[0017] Based on this possible design, the serving network device can indicate the period (i.e., the second period) corresponding to the inter-rail switching period and the number of times the inter-rail switching period is effective (i.e., the second number) to the terminal device through the third indication information, so that the terminal device is aware of multiple inter-rail switching periods during the movement process, and can thus send a reference signal in each inter-rail switching period. Compared with the solution of configuring each inter-rail switching period for the terminal device separately, the overhead of configuring the inter-rail switching period can be reduced.

[0018] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple intra-rail switching periods and at least one inter-rail switching period, the signal sending method further includes: receiving fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period among the multiple intra-rail switching periods, the Nth intra-rail switching period being the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period among the at least one inter-rail switching period, where M is a positive integer and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0019] In one possible design, before the first configuration information, the signal sending method also includes: receiving second configuration information, the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is used to send a reference signal; the signal sending method also includes: receiving fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to indicate deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

[0020] Based on this optional solution, since in the embodiment of the present application, there is no need to use the second time-frequency resource configured by the service network device for the terminal device to send the reference signal, but instead the first time-frequency resource is used to send the reference signal, the second time-frequency resource can be deactivated to reduce the overhead of the resources used to send the reference signal.

[0021] In a second aspect, a signal transmission method is provided, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by a component of the terminal device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the terminal device, or by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the terminal device functions. The method includes: receiving first indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the effective period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, wherein the effective period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols includes at least one intra-track switching period and / or at least one inter-track switching period, wherein the intra-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, the first condition including that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on the same track; the inter-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, the second condition including that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on different tracks; and sending a reference signal according to the first indication information.

[0022] Based on this scheme, based on the effective period of the first time-frequency resource indicated by the first indication information (that is, the effective period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols is the period when the terminal device is located in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices (that is, the period when the terminal device switches to the network device that serves it)), the terminal device can send a reference signal during the intra-track switching period and / or the inter-track switching period, avoiding the increase of the reference signal overhead due to the sending of the reference signal during the period when the terminal device does not need to switch to the network device that serves it, that is, under this possible design, the resource overhead can be reduced.

[0023] In one possible design, the first time-frequency resource includes multiple consecutive time-domain symbols. Therefore, the valid period of the multiple consecutive time-domain symbols can also be understood as the valid period of the first time-frequency resource.

[0024] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple intra-orbit switching periods, second indication information is received, and the second indication information is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity, wherein the first period is the time interval between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods in the multiple intra-orbit switching periods, and between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods, the service network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of intra-orbit switching periods.

[0025] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple inter-rail switching periods, third indication information is received, and the third indication information is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, wherein the second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in the multiple inter-rail switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-rail switching periods.

[0026] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple intra-rail switching periods and at least one inter-rail switching period, the signal sending method further includes: receiving fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period among the multiple intra-rail switching periods, the Nth intra-rail switching period being the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period among the at least one inter-rail switching period, where M is a positive integer and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0027] In one possible design, the signal sending method also includes: receiving first configuration information, the first configuration information is used to indicate a mapping method, the mapping method includes mapping the same reference signal in the first part and the second part of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, and among the reference signal located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part, the last time domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of another reference signal, and the multiple consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part.

[0028] In one possible design, before the first configuration information, the signal sending method also includes: receiving second configuration information, the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is used to send a reference signal; the signal sending method also includes: receiving fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to indicate deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

[0029] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design in the second aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding design in the above-mentioned first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0030] In a third aspect, a signal receiving method is provided. The method can be performed by a serving network device, or by a component of the serving network device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the serving network device, or by a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the serving network device. The method includes: sending first configuration information, the first configuration information being used to indicate a mapping method, the mapping method including mapping the same reference signal to a first portion and a second portion of a plurality of consecutive time domain symbols, wherein the last time domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of the other reference signal, and the plurality of consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first portion and the second portion; and receiving the reference signal.

[0031] Based on this scheme, since the last time domain symbol of one of the reference signals located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part are continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of the other reference signal, that is, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals mapped in the first part and the second part respectively.

[0032] Because the time window for receiving the reference signal determined by the network device includes multiple detection periods for detecting the reference signal, where the duration of each detection period is equal to the transmission duration of the reference signal, if the time window is not aligned with the arrival time of the reference signal, the reference signal detected within a detection period includes partial information of the reference signal in the first part and partial information of the reference signal in the second part. In this case, the sum of the transmission durations of these two partial information equals the transmission duration of one reference signal.

[0033] Since the first part and the second part map the same reference signal respectively, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals, and the sum of the transmission durations of the two parts of information is equal to the transmission duration of one reference signal, it can be considered that the two parts of information can be combined into a complete reference signal. That is, the network device can obtain the complete reference signal from the two parts for detection, thereby reducing the complexity of detection, and compared with the scheme of detecting incomplete reference signals, the detection performance is more stable.

[0034] In one possible design, the signal receiving method further includes: sending first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate the effective time period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols.

[0035] In one possible design, when the effective period includes multiple intra-track switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: sending second indication information, the second indication information is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity, wherein the first period is the time interval between two adjacent intra-track switching periods in the multiple intra-track switching periods, and between two adjacent intra-track switching periods, the service network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of intra-track switching periods.

[0036] In one possible design, when the effective period includes multiple inter-rail switching periods, the signal receiving method also includes: sending third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, wherein the second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in the multiple inter-rail switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-rail switching periods.

[0037] In one possible design, when the effective period includes multiple intra-rail switching periods and at least one inter-rail switching period, the signal receiving method further includes: sending fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period among the multiple intra-rail switching periods, the Nth intra-rail switching period being the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period among the at least one inter-rail switching period, where M is a positive integer and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0038] In one possible design, before receiving the first configuration information, the signal receiving method also includes: sending second configuration information, the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is used to send a reference signal; the signal sending method also includes: sending fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to indicate deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

[0039] In one possible design, before receiving the reference signal, the signal receiving method also includes: sending sixth indication information, where the sixth indication information is used to indicate location information of the terminal device.

[0040] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design in the third aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding design in the above-mentioned first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0041] In a fourth aspect, a signal receiving method is provided. The method can be executed by a service network device, or by a component of the service network device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the service network device, or by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the service network device.

[0042] The method includes: sending first indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the effective time period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, wherein the effective time period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols includes at least one intra-track switching period and / or at least one inter-track switching period, wherein the intra-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, and the first condition includes that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on the same track; receiving the reference signal.

[0043] Based on this scheme, the serving network device can indicate the effective time periods of multiple consecutive time domain symbols to the terminal device through the first indication information (that is, the effective time periods of multiple consecutive time domain symbols are the time periods when the terminal device is located in the boundary area of ​​the coverage ranges of multiple network devices (that is, the time periods when the terminal device switches to the network device that serves it)), so that the terminal device can send reference signals during the intra-track switching period and / or the inter-track switching period, avoiding the increase of reference signal overhead due to the sending of reference signals during the period when the terminal device does not need to switch to the network device that serves it, that is, under this possible design, resource overhead can be reduced.

[0044] In one possible design, the first time-frequency resource includes multiple consecutive time-domain symbols. Therefore, the valid period of the multiple consecutive time-domain symbols can also be understood as the valid period of the first time-frequency resource.

[0045] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple intra-orbit switching periods, a second indication information is sent, and the second indication information is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity, wherein the first period is the time interval between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods in the multiple intra-orbit switching periods, and between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods, the service network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of intra-orbit switching periods.

[0046] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple inter-rail switching periods, third indication information is sent, and the third indication information is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, wherein the second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in the multiple inter-rail switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-rail switching periods.

[0047] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-rail switching period and at least one inter-rail switching period, and the at least one intra-rail switching period includes multiple intra-rail switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: sending fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period in the multiple intra-rail switching periods, the Nth intra-rail switching period being the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period in the at least one inter-rail switching period, where M is a positive integer and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0048] In one possible design, the signal receiving method also includes: sending first configuration information, the first configuration information is used to indicate a mapping method, the mapping method includes mapping the same reference signal in the first part and the second part of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, among the reference signal located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part, the last time domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of another reference signal, and the multiple consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part.

[0049] In one possible design, before the first configuration information, the signal receiving method also includes: sending second configuration information, the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is used to send a reference signal; the signal receiving method also includes: sending fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to indicate deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

[0050] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design in the third aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding design in the above-mentioned first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0051] In a fifth aspect, a signal receiving method is provided, which can be executed by a service network device, or by a component of the service network device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the service network device, or by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the service network device. The method includes: sending first indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the effective period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, wherein the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-track switching period and / or at least one inter-track switching period, wherein the intra-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, the first condition including that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on the same track; the inter-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, the second condition including that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on different tracks; sending sixth indication information, the sixth indication information is used to indicate the location information of the terminal device; and receiving the reference signal.

[0052] Based on this scheme, the serving network device sends the first indication information and the sixth indication information to the candidate network device, so that the candidate network device can determine the first reception duration based on the first indication information and the sixth indication information. Compared with the scheme of receiving the reference signal during the entire time period, the duration of receiving the reference signal can be reduced, thereby reducing the complexity of detecting the signal quality of the reference signal.

[0053] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-orbit switching period, and the at least one intra-orbit switching period includes multiple intra-orbit switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: sending second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity, wherein the first period is a time interval between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods in the multiple intra-orbit switching periods, and between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods, the serving network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of intra-orbit switching periods;

[0054] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one inter-rail switching period, and at least one inter-rail switching period includes multiple inter-rail switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: sending third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, wherein the second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in the multiple inter-rail switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-rail switching periods; and receiving a reference signal.

[0055] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-rail switching period and at least one inter-rail switching period, and the at least one intra-rail switching period includes multiple intra-rail switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: sending fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period in the multiple intra-rail switching periods, the Nth intra-rail switching period being the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period in the at least one inter-rail switching period, where M is a positive integer and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0056] In one possible design, the signal receiving method also includes: sending first configuration information, the first configuration information is used to indicate a mapping method, the mapping method includes mapping the same reference signal in the first part and the second part of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, among the reference signal located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part, the last time domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of another reference signal, and the multiple consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part.

[0057] In one possible design, before the first configuration information, the signal receiving method also includes: sending second configuration information, the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is used to send a reference signal; the signal receiving method also includes: sending fifth indication information, and the fifth indication information is used to indicate deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

[0058] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design in the fifth aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding design in the above-mentioned first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0059] In a sixth aspect, a signal receiving method is provided, which can be executed by a candidate network device, or by a component of the candidate network device, such as a processor, chip, or chip system of the candidate network device, or by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the candidate network device. The method includes: receiving first indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the effective period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, wherein the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-track switching period and / or at least one inter-track switching period, wherein the intra-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, the first condition including that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on the same track; the inter-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, the second condition including that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on different tracks; receiving sixth indication information, the sixth indication information is used to indicate the location information of the terminal device; determining a first receiving period based on the first indication information and the sixth indication information; and receiving a reference signal within the first receiving period.

[0060] Based on this scheme, the candidate network device can determine the first receiving duration based on the first indication information and the sixth indication information. Compared with the scheme of receiving the reference signal during the entire time period, it can reduce the duration of receiving the reference signal, thereby reducing the complexity of detecting the signal quality of the reference signal.

[0061] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-orbit switching period, and the at least one intra-orbit switching period includes multiple intra-orbit switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: receiving second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity, wherein the first period is a time interval between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods in the multiple intra-orbit switching periods, and between two adjacent intra-orbit switching periods, the serving network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of intra-orbit switching periods;

[0062] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one inter-rail switching period, and at least one inter-rail switching period includes multiple inter-rail switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: receiving third indication information, the third indication information being used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, wherein the second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in the multiple inter-rail switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-rail switching periods; and receiving a reference signal.

[0063] In one possible design, when the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-rail switching period and at least one inter-rail switching period, and the at least one intra-rail switching period includes multiple intra-rail switching periods, the signal receiving method further includes: receiving fourth indication information, the fourth indication information being used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period in the multiple intra-rail switching periods, the Nth intra-rail switching period being the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period in the at least one inter-rail switching period, M is a positive integer, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0064] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design in the sixth aspect can refer to the technical effects brought about by the corresponding design in the above-mentioned first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0065] In combination with the above six aspects, in a possible design, the effective period overlaps with the period when the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices.

[0066] In combination with the above six aspects, in a possible design, the effective period includes at least one intra-track switching period and / or at least one inter-track switching period; wherein the intra-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, and the first condition includes that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on the same track; the inter-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, and the second condition includes that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on different tracks.

[0067] In combination with the above six aspects, in a possible design, the duration of the intra-track switching period is shorter than the duration of the inter-track switching period.

[0068] In combination with the above six aspects, in one possible design, the fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-track switching period among multiple intra-track switching periods, including: the fourth indication information is used to indicate the offset, and the offset is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-track switching period.

[0069] In combination with the above six aspects, in one possible design, the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period is the sum of the end time of the N-1th intra-rail switching period among multiple intra-rail switching periods, the first period, and the offset; or, the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period is the sum of the end time of the N-1th intra-rail switching period and the offset.

[0070] In combination with the above six aspects, in a possible design, the mapping method indicated by the first configuration information also includes that the first time domain symbol among multiple consecutive time domain symbols includes a cyclic prefix, and / or, the last time domain symbol among multiple consecutive time domain symbols includes a cyclic suffix.

[0071] In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes a unit or module, and the unit or module is used to execute any one of the methods described in the first to sixth aspects above.

[0072] In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided for implementing various methods. The communication device may be a terminal device in the first aspect or the second aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or a chip system; or, the communication device may be a network device (such as a serving network device or a candidate network device) in any one of the third to sixth aspects, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or a chip system. The communication device includes a module, unit, or means corresponding to the implementation method, and the module, unit, or means may be implemented by hardware, software, or by executing the corresponding software implementation by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules or units corresponding to the functions.

[0073] In some possible designs, the communication device may include a processing module and a transceiver module. The processing module may be configured to implement the processing functionality of any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof. The transceiver module may include a receiving module and a transmitting module, respectively configured to implement the receiving functionality and the transmitting functionality of any of the above aspects and any possible implementations thereof.

[0074] In some possible designs, the transceiver module may be composed of a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver or a communication interface.

[0075] In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a processor and a memory; the memory is configured to store computer instructions, and when the processor executes the instructions, the communication device performs the method described in any one of the aspects. The communication device may be the terminal device described in the first or second aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or chip system; or the communication device may be the network device described in any one of the third to sixth aspects, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or chip system.

[0076] In a tenth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a processor and a communication interface; the communication interface is configured to communicate with a module external to the communication device; and the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instruction to cause the communication device to perform the method described in any aspect. The communication device may be the terminal device described in the first or second aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or chip system; or the communication device may be the network device described in any of the third to sixth aspects, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or chip system.

[0077] In an eleventh aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: at least one processor; the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instruction stored in a memory, so that the communication device performs the method described in any aspect. The memory may be coupled to the processor, or may be independent of the processor. The communication device may be the terminal device described in the first or second aspect, or a device included in the terminal device, such as a chip or chip system; or the communication device may be the network device described in any of aspects three to six, or a device included in the network device, such as a chip or chip system.

[0078] In a twelfth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, in which a computer program or instruction is stored. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a communication device, the communication device can execute the method described in any one of the first to sixth aspects.

[0079] In a thirteenth aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided, which, when executed on a communication device, enables the communication device to execute the method described in any one of the first to sixth aspects.

[0080] In a fourteenth aspect, a communication device is provided (for example, the communication device may be a chip or a chip system), which includes a processor for implementing the functions involved in any one of the first to sixth aspects.

[0081] In some possible designs, the communication device includes a memory for storing necessary program instructions and data.

[0082] In some possible designs, when the device is a chip system, it can be composed of a chip or include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0083] It can be understood that when the communication device provided in any one of aspects 7 to 14 is a chip, the sending action / function of the communication device can be understood as output information, and the receiving action / function of the communication device can be understood as input information.

[0084] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design method in the third to tenth aspects can refer to the technical effects brought about by different design methods in the first to sixth aspects, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0085] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a cell switching process provided by the present application;

[0086] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of another cell switching process provided by the present application;

[0087] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a signal mapping method provided by the present application;

[0088] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided by the present application;

[0089] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of a time window for detecting signal quality provided by the present application;

[0090] FIG6 is a diagram of a satellite network architecture in a transparent transmission mode provided by the present application;

[0091] FIG7 is a diagram of a satellite network architecture in a regeneration mode provided by the present application;

[0092] FIG8 is a network architecture diagram of a non-terrestrial network NTN and terrestrial network integration provided by the present application;

[0093] FIG9 is a diagram of another network architecture of NTN and terrestrial network integration provided by the present application;

[0094] FIG10 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of a signal sending method provided by the present application;

[0095] FIG11 is a schematic diagram of another signal mapping method provided by the present application;

[0096] FIG12 is a schematic diagram of another signal mapping method provided by the present application;

[0097] FIG13 is a schematic diagram of another signal mapping method provided by the present application;

[0098] FIG14 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of another signal sending method provided by the present application;

[0099] FIG15 is a schematic diagram of the relationship between a terminal device and multiple network devices provided by the present application;

[0100] FIG16 is a schematic diagram of the relationship between another terminal device and multiple network devices provided by the present application;

[0101] FIG17 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of another signal sending method provided by the present application;

[0102] FIG18 is a schematic diagram of a time window corresponding to a first receiving duration provided by the present application;

[0103] FIG19 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of another signal sending method provided by the present application;

[0104] FIG20 is a schematic diagram of a flow chart of another signal sending method provided by the present application;

[0105] FIG21 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by the present application;

[0106] FIG22 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided by the present application;

[0107] FIG23 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0108] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, " / " indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship, for example, A / B can represent A or B; "and / or" in this application is merely a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist, for example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural.

[0109] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "plurality" means two or more than two. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, or abc, where a, b, and c can be single or plural.

[0110] In addition, to facilitate the clear description of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, the words "first" and "second" are used to distinguish between identical or similar items with substantially the same functions and effects. Those skilled in the art will understand that the words "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity or execution order, and the words "first" and "second" do not necessarily mean different.

[0111] In the embodiments of this application, words such as "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate examples, illustrations, or descriptions. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary" or "for example" in the embodiments of this application should not be construed as being preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of words such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a concrete manner to facilitate understanding.

[0112] It will be understood that the “embodiment” mentioned throughout the specification means that the specific features, structures or characteristics related to the embodiment are included in at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, the various embodiments throughout the specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, these specific features, structures or characteristics can be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner. It will be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence number of each process does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiment of the present application.

[0113] It can be understood that in this application, "when" and "if" both mean that corresponding processing will be taken under certain objective circumstances, and do not limit the time, nor do they require any judgment action when implementing, nor do they mean that there are other limitations.

[0114] It is understood that some optional features in the embodiments of the present application may, in certain scenarios, be implemented independently of other features, such as the solution on which they are currently based, to solve corresponding technical problems and achieve corresponding effects. They may also be combined with other features in certain scenarios as needed. Accordingly, the devices provided in the embodiments of the present application may also implement these features or functions accordingly, which will not be described in detail here.

[0115] In this application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can refer to each other. In the various embodiments in this application, and the various implementation methods / implementation methods / implementation methods in each embodiment, if there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments and the various implementation methods / implementation methods / implementation methods in each embodiment are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different embodiments and the various implementation methods / implementation methods / implementation methods in each embodiment can be combined to form new embodiments, implementation methods, implementation methods, or implementation methods according to their inherent logical relationships. The implementation methods of this application described below do not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of this application.

[0116] In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, a brief introduction to the relevant technologies of the present application is first given as follows.

[0117] 1. Non-terrestrial networks (NTN):

[0118] Currently, the fifth-generation (5G) New Radio (NR) has moved from standardization to commercial deployment. The NR standard is primarily designed to address the unique characteristics of terrestrial communications, which provide high-speed, high-reliability, and low-latency communications for user terminals.

[0119] Compared to terrestrial communications, NTN communications offer significant advantages, including global coverage, long-distance transmission, flexible networking, easy deployment, and freedom from geographical constraints. They have been widely used in a variety of fields, including maritime communications, positioning and navigation, disaster relief, scientific experiments, video broadcasting, and Earth observation. NTN networks can be integrated with terrestrial networks, leveraging their strengths and complementing their weaknesses to form a seamless, integrated global communications network covering land, sea, air, space, and ground, meeting the diverse service needs of users everywhere.

[0120] According to the height of the flight platform above the ground, the NTN can include uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), high altitude platform subnetworks (HAPSs), and satellite communication subnetworks (SATCOM subnetworks).

[0121] For example, in HAPS, base stations or base station functions are deployed on high-altitude flying platforms (such as airplanes) 8km to 50km above the ground to provide coverage for terminals; in SATCOM subnetwork, base stations or base station functions are deployed on satellites more than 50km above the ground to provide coverage for terminals.

[0122] Furthermore, according to the orbital altitude of the satellite, the satellite communication system can be divided into geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite communication system, medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite communication system and low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite communication system.

[0123] The GEO satellite communication system is also known as the geostationary orbit satellite system. GEO satellites orbit at an altitude of 35,786 km and move at the same speed as the Earth's rotation, meaning that GEO satellites can remain stationary relative to the Earth. GEO satellite communication systems can provide large cell coverage, typically with a cell diameter of 500 km. However, GEO satellite communication also has significant disadvantages: 1) GEO satellite orbits are far from the Earth, resulting in high free-space propagation losses, which leads to tight communication link budgets. To increase transmit / receive gain, satellites may need to be equipped with larger antennas; 2) Communication transmission latency is high, such as a round-trip latency of around 500 milliseconds, which cannot meet the needs of real-time services; 3) GEO orbital resources are relatively scarce, launch costs are high, and coverage of the Earth's polar regions is impossible.

[0124] MEO satellites orbit at altitudes between 2,000 and 35,786 km, enabling global coverage with a relatively small number of satellites. However, MEO satellites orbit at higher altitudes than LEO satellites, resulting in higher transmission latency compared to LEO satellite communications. Therefore, considering the advantages and disadvantages of MEO satellite communications, MEO satellites are primarily used for positioning and navigation.

[0125] The orbital altitude of LEO satellites is between 300 and 2000 km, which is lower than that of MEO satellites. They have the advantages of low transmission delay, low transmission loss, and relatively low launch cost.

[0126] 2. Mobility Management

[0127] Mobility management mainly includes cell handover, cell reselection, registration update, and tracking area update. Taking cell handover as an example, as shown in Figure 1, cell handover in the new radio (NR) system mainly includes the following steps:

[0128] 1) Cell handover measurement: The source base station (such as the next generation node B (gNodeB or gNB)) can send measurement configurations of multiple cells (including serving cells and neighboring cells) to the terminal device. The terminal device measures the cell signal quality according to the measurement configuration. Exemplarily, the cell signal quality can be represented by reference signal receiving power (RSRP) and / or reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ).

[0129] 2) Measurement Result Reporting: The terminal device reports the measurement results to the source base station. For example, the terminal device can report periodically or based on event triggering. For example, the reporting triggering event can be the signal quality of the serving cell being less than threshold 1 and / or the signal quality of the neighboring cell being greater than threshold 2.

[0130] 3) Handover decision: The source base station selects a suitable neighboring cell as the target cell based on the measurement results and sends a handover request to the target base station, which carries the context information related to the user handover.

[0131] 4) Admission Control: After receiving the handover request, the target base station performs admission control. If the terminal device is allowed to access, it sends a handover request confirmation message to the source base station, which carries relevant information for the terminal device to access the target cell. After receiving the handover request confirmation message, the source base station sends a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration message to the terminal device, which carries relevant information for accessing the target cell.

[0132] 5) Handover execution: After receiving the handover-related information, the terminal device completes the access process in the target cell.

[0133] Exemplarily, the terminal device sends a random access preamble to the target cell to initiate random access in the target cell. The random access preamble used by the terminal device during the handover process is a dedicated preamble, which is different from the contention-based random access preamble used during initial access. In addition, the period of the random access channel (RACH) configured by the network during cell handover can be 10 / 20 / 40 / 80 / 160 milliseconds (ms).

[0134] During the cell reselection process, the base station broadcasts parameters such as the measurement configuration related to the neighboring cell. The terminal device compares the signal quality measurement value with the parameters sent by the network (such as the reselection threshold, etc.) and autonomously reselects to the target neighboring cell if the reselection conditions are met.

[0135] That is, in the NR system, the terminal device performs cell handover or cell reselection based on the reported measurement results of the cell signal quality. However, the neighboring cells in the NTN are time-varying. Therefore, compared with the NR system, the frequency of NTN measurement configuration updates is higher. Accordingly, the terminal device frequently triggers the reporting of measurement results, resulting in high signaling overhead for mobility-related configuration on the network side and measurement result reporting on the terminal side.

[0136] Therefore, NTN proposes to use reference signals to determine the signal quality of each cell, thereby realizing mobility management in the NTN network. Specifically, taking cell handover as an example, assuming that the terminal device is located in the boundary area of ​​the coverage of multiple base stations, as shown in Figure 2, before the handover decision, the cell handover in NTN also includes the following steps. In other words, the cell handover measurement and measurement result reporting process in the NR system can be replaced by the following cell handover measurement and measurement result transmission process:

[0137] 1) Signal Quality Detection: The source base station can send reference signal configuration information to the terminal device. Based on this configuration information, the terminal device sends reference signals to base stations belonging to multiple cells (e.g., serving base station, candidate base stations (e.g., candidate base station #1 and candidate base station #2)). Each of the base stations then detects the signal quality of the received reference signals and determines the reference signal quality as the cell signal quality.

[0138] 2) Sending detection results: The candidate base stations to which each cell belongs send detection results to the source base station.

[0139] It should be noted that in NTN, the source base station refers to the serving satellite of the terminal device, and the candidate base station refers to the candidate satellite.

[0140] The frame structure of the reference signal is configured as a "cyclic prefix (CP) + symbol" mode, that is, as shown in FIG3 , each reference signal is mapped on the symbol, and a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted at the front end of the reference signal.

[0141] As shown in Figure 4, compared to the moment when the reference signal arrives at the serving base station, when the terminal device is located at different locations, the moment when the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station is relatively different; for example, for terminal device #1, the moment when the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station is before the moment when the reference signal arrives at the serving base station (that is, compared to the moment when the reference signal arrives at the serving base station, the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station in advance), and for terminal device #3, the moment when the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station is after the moment when the reference signal arrives at the serving base station (that is, compared to the moment when the reference signal arrives at the serving base station, the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station later). Among them, the maximum delay difference between the moment when the reference signal arrives at the serving base station and the moment when the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station is much larger than the CP length, so the signal quality of the reference signal is measured asynchronously between multiple base stations.

[0142] Specifically, taking the candidate base station as a LEO satellite as an example, as shown in Table 1 below, the maximum delay difference between the candidate base station and the serving base station in receiving the reference signal is related to parameters such as orbital altitude, beam size, and minimum communication angle:

[0143] Table 1

[0144] It can be seen from Table 1 above that the higher the orbit altitude and the larger the beam diameter, the greater the maximum delay difference.

[0145] Exemplarily, taking the case where the time domain resources of the reference signal are two consecutive time domain symbols, as shown in FIG5 , the candidate base station can determine the approximate time when the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station (i.e., the time window in FIG5 ) based on the configuration information of the reference signal, so that the candidate base station can detect the signal quality of the reference signal according to the time window. However, since the candidate base station cannot determine the exact time when the reference signal arrives at the candidate base station, that is, the time between the time window and the reference signal is not aligned, the candidate base station cannot detect the complete reference signal when detecting the reference signal. For example, based on the example shown in FIG5 , the starting time of the time window is t1, and the starting detection time of the first reference signal is t2, but the actual arrival time of the reference signal is t3, and the duration of the reference signal includes the CP within the time window. Since detection is not performed during the CP period within the time window, the signal detected by the candidate base station is the shaded portion in FIG5 , thereby affecting the detection performance.

[0146] Based on this, an embodiment of the present application provides, on one hand, a signal transmission method. In this method, since the last time domain symbol of one reference signal in the first part and the first time domain symbol of the other reference signal in the second part are continuous in the time domain, that is, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals mapped in the first part and the second part, respectively.

[0147] Because the time window for receiving the reference signal determined by the network device includes multiple detection periods for detecting the reference signal, where the duration of each detection period is equal to the transmission duration of the reference signal, if the time window is not aligned with the arrival time of the reference signal, the reference signal detected within a detection period includes partial information of the reference signal in the first part and partial information of the reference signal in the second part. In this case, the sum of the transmission durations of these two partial information equals the transmission duration of one reference signal.

[0148] Since the first part and the second part map the same reference signal respectively, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals, and the sum of the transmission durations of the two parts of information is equal to the transmission duration of one reference signal, it can be considered that the two parts of information can be combined into a complete reference signal. That is, the network device can obtain the complete reference signal from the two parts for detection, thereby reducing the complexity of detection, and compared with the scheme of detecting incomplete reference signals, the detection performance is more stable.

[0149] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be used in NTN systems such as satellite communication systems, HAPS communications, and drones. For example, integrated communication and navigation (IcaN) systems, global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), etc. NTN systems can be integrated with traditional mobile communication systems. For example, the mobile communication system can be a fourth generation (4G) communication system (for example, a long term evolution (LTE) system), a 5G communication system (for example, a NR system), a sidelink (SL) communication system, a machine to machine (M2M) communication system, an Internet of Things (IoT) communication system, an Internet of Vehicles communication system, and future mobile communication systems.

[0150] Among them, the above-mentioned communication system applicable to this application is only an example, and the communication system and communication scenarios applicable to this application are not limited to this. The communication system and communication scenarios provided in this application do not impose any limitations on the solution of this application. They are uniformly explained here and will not be repeated below.

[0151] Exemplarily, a communication system applicable to the solution of the present application may include at least one terminal device and at least two network devices. Exemplarily, the terminal devices may communicate with each other, the terminal devices may communicate with the network devices, and the network devices may communicate with each other via wired or wireless means.

[0152] Optionally, the terminal device may be a user-side device with wireless transceiver functions, or may be a chip or chip system provided in the device. The terminal device may also be referred to as user equipment (UE), terminal, access terminal, user unit, user station, mobile station (MS), remote station, remote terminal, mobile terminal (MT), user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device, etc. The terminal device may be, for example, a terminal device in IoT, V2X, SL, M2M, 5G network, or a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN). The terminal device may be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; it may also be deployed on water (such as ships, etc.); it may also be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons and satellites, etc.).

[0153] Exemplarily, the terminal device may be a drone, an IoT device (e.g., a sensor, an electricity meter, a water meter, etc.), a V2X device, a station (ST) in a wireless local area network (WLAN), a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA) device, a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device (also referred to as a wearable smart device), a tablet computer or a computer with wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (VR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in self-driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical care, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, a smart home, or a similar device. The terminal device can be a mobile or fixed device, which is not specifically limited in this application.

[0154] Optionally, the network device may be a network-side device with wireless transceiver functions, or may be a chip or chip system or module provided in the device. The network device is located in the radio access network (RAN) of the mobile communication system and is used to provide access services for terminal devices.

[0155] As a possible implementation, the network device can be a wireless relay node or a wireless backhaul node. For example, the network device can function as a layer 1 relay device to regenerate physical layer signals (i.e., wireless frequency filtering, frequency conversion, and amplification) without any higher protocol layers.

[0156] As another possible implementation, the network device may implement some or all of the functions of a base station. For example, the network device may be an evolutionary Node B (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE or evolved LTE system (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A), such as a traditional macro eNB and a micro eNB in ​​a heterogeneous network scenario; or a next generation node B (gNodeB or gNB) in a 5G system; or a transmission reception point (TRP); or a base station in a future evolved PLMN; or a device that implements base station functions in IoT, V2X, SL, or M2M.

[0157] Alternatively, the network device may be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU and a DU, a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and DU may be configured separately or included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0158] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, the network device may be a network device or a module of a network device in an open radio access network (open RAN, ORAN) system. In the ORAN system, CU may also be referred to as open (open, O)-CU, DU may also be referred to as O-DU, CU-CP may also be referred to as O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be referred to as O-CU-UP, and RU may also be referred to as 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.

[0159] Exemplarily, the base stations in the embodiments of the present application may include various forms of base stations, such as: macro base stations, micro base stations (also called small stations), relay stations, access points, etc., and the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

[0160] Optionally, the network devices in the embodiments of the present application can be deployed on non-ground platforms, such as low-altitude platforms (such as drones), high-altitude platforms (such as airplanes), or satellites. Therefore, the network devices in the embodiments of the present application can also be referred to as non-ground network devices.

[0161] For example, in the case where the network device is deployed on a satellite, or the network device is a satellite, the communication system may further include an NTN gateway (also known as a gateway station). Typically, the NTN gateway is deployed on the ground. The NTN gateway can communicate with the satellite, and the link between the satellite and the NTN gateway can be called a feeder link.

[0162] As shown in Figure 6, when a satellite serves as a wireless relay node, or in other words, a satellite has relay and forwarding capabilities, the NTN gateway has base station functions or partial base station functions. In this case, the NTN gateway can function as a base station. Alternatively, the NTN gateway can be deployed separately from the base station. In other words, in addition to the NTN gateway, the communication system also includes a satellite base station deployed on the ground. Figure 6 illustrates the example of separate deployment of the NTN gateway and base station.

[0163] As shown in Figure 7, when a satellite can perform some or all of the functions of a base station, the satellite has data processing capabilities and can be used as a base station. In this case, the NTN gateway and the satellite can transmit user plane data of the terminal device through the satellite radio interface (SRI).

[0164] In the architectures shown in Figures 6 and 7, NG refers to the interface between the base station and the core network. Uu refers to the interface between the base station and the terminal device. It is understood that as communication systems evolve, the names of the interfaces between the base station and the core network, between the base station and the terminal device, and between base stations may also change, and this application does not specifically limit this.

[0165] Optionally, when a satellite functions as a wireless relay node and has relay forwarding capabilities, it can be considered to be operating in transparent mode. When a satellite has data processing capabilities and can perform some or all of the functions of a base station, it can be considered to be operating in regenerative mode. A satellite may support only transparent mode, only regenerative mode, or both, and be able to switch between these two modes.

[0166] In some implementation scenarios, NTN and terrestrial networks can be integrated.

[0167] See Figure 8, which illustrates a converged network architecture for an NTN and terrestrial network, according to an embodiment of the present application. In the architecture shown in Figure 8, Satellites 1, 2, and 3 operate in transparent transmission mode, requiring the deployment of additional NTN base stations. These NTN base stations refer to base stations within the NTN.

[0168] Referring to Figure 9 , which illustrates another NTN and terrestrial network convergence architecture according to an embodiment of the present application, Satellites 1, 2, and 3 operate in regenerative mode. Satellites can function as NTN base stations, or NTN base stations can be deployed on satellites.

[0169] In addition, the architecture shown in Figure 8 or Figure 9 above may also include a ground base station, which refers to a base station in a ground network. NTN base stations and ground base stations can be interconnected through a common core network. As a bearer network, the core network provides an interface to the data network, provides communication connection, authentication, management, policy control, and data service carrying for terminal devices. Exemplarily, the core network may include an access and mobility management function (AMF) network element, a session management function (SMF) network element, an authentication server function (AUSF) network element, a policy control function (PCF) network element, a user plane function (UPF) network element, and other network elements.

[0170] Alternatively, NTN base stations and terrestrial base stations can also achieve more timely assistance and interconnection through interfaces defined between base stations. For example, the interface between base stations can be an Xn interface, and the interface between a base station and the core network can be an NG interface. Of course, other implementations of the interface between base stations and the interface between a base station and the core network are also possible, and this application does not specifically limit this.

[0171] Optionally, in embodiments of the present application, satellites can provide services to terminal devices via beams. For example, different beams can provide services to terminal devices via one or more of time division, frequency division, and space division. On the one hand, satellites can operate in either regenerative mode or transparent mode. On the other hand, satellites can operate in either non-staring mode or staring mode. Satellites can be LEO satellites, MEO satellites, GEO satellites, etc., without limitation.

[0172] It is understandable that the satellites in the architectures described in Figures 6 to 9 can be replaced by ground payloads on other flying platforms such as drones and airplanes.

[0173] It should be noted that the communication system described in the embodiment of the present application is intended to more clearly illustrate the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application. Ordinary technicians in this field can know that with the evolution of network architecture and the emergence of new business scenarios, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

[0174] The following describes the signal sending method provided in the embodiment of the present application by taking the interaction between a network device and a terminal device as an example in combination with the communication system shown in Figures 6 to 9.

[0175] It should be noted that in the following embodiments of the present application, the message names, parameter names, or information names between devices are only examples. In other embodiments, they may also be other names, and the method provided in this application does not make specific limitations on this.

[0176] It is understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the execution subject may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application. These steps or operations are merely examples, and the embodiments of the present application may also perform other operations or variations of various operations. In addition, the various steps may be performed in a different order than those presented in the embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all operations in the embodiments of the present application need to be performed.

[0177] For example, the following embodiments are described using the aforementioned flying platform as a satellite, that is, satellite communications in NTN as an example. Of course, the method can also be applied to other scenarios in NTN, such as HAPS, without specific limitation.

[0178] 10 is a flowchart of a signal sending method provided in an embodiment of the present application. The signal sending method may include the following steps:

[0179] S1001. A serving network device sends first configuration information to a terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first configuration information from the serving network device.

[0180] In which, the first configuration information is used to indicate a mapping method, which includes mapping the same reference signal in the first part and the second part of multiple consecutive time domain symbols, and among the reference signal located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part, the last time domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of another reference signal, and multiple consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part.

[0181] Exemplarily, since the last time domain symbol of one of the reference signals located in the first part and the first time domain symbol of the other reference signal located in the second part are continuous in the time domain, that is, after the one reference signal is sent, the next signal sent is the other reference signal, that is, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals.

[0182] Exemplarily, the same reference signal can be understood as follows: the reference signal in the first part is a repetition of the reference signal in the second part, or the reference signal in the second part is a repetition of the reference signal in the first part. Alternatively, the same reference signal can also be understood as: the synchronization sequence generating the two reference signals is the same.

[0183] Exemplarily, the time domain symbols may include but are not limited to orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols and single carrier symbols (such as discrete Fourier transform spreading orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM) symbols).

[0184] Exemplarily, the reference signal may be an uplink reference signal. For example, the reference signal includes but is not limited to a sounding reference signal (SRS) and a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

[0185] Optionally, the mapping mode may be located in the first field in the first configuration information.

[0186] As an example, the first field is used to indicate mapping mode #1 or mapping mode #2, where mapping mode #1 is a traditional mapping mode (i.e., a mapping mode based on the "CP+symbol" mode), and mapping mode #2 is the mapping mode described in the above step S1001 (i.e., the first part and the second part of multiple consecutive time domain symbols map the same reference signal, the first part and the second part are continuous in the time domain, and the reference signal located in the first part and the reference signal located in the second part are continuous in the time domain, and multiple consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part).

[0187] For example, in this example, taking the reference signal as SRS, the first configuration information is SRS resource configuration information. In this case, the first field can be represented by 1 bit. If the 1 bit is 0, the first field indicates mapping mode #1. Correspondingly, when the 1 bit is 1, the first field indicates mapping mode #2. Alternatively, if the 1 bit is 0, the first field indicates mapping mode #2. Correspondingly, when the 1 bit is 1, the first field indicates mapping mode #1.

[0188] As another example, the first field is used to indicate mapping mode #2. That is, when the first field exists in the first configuration information, it indicates that the first configuration information indicates mapping mode #2; when the first field does not exist in the first configuration information, it indicates that the first configuration information indicates a mapping mode other than mapping mode #2 (for example, mapping mode #1); or, when the first field does not exist in the first configuration information, it indicates that the first configuration information does not indicate a mapping mode. Exemplarily, the first field may also be referred to as a mapping mode field, a repetition type field, etc., which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0189] Optionally, the first configuration information may further indicate a first time-frequency resource, wherein the first time-frequency resource includes a plurality of consecutive time-domain symbols. Alternatively, the first time-frequency resource may be indicated by other information other than the first configuration information, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0190] Optionally, the first part can be one or more time domain symbols that are continuous in the time domain among multiple continuous time domain symbols, and correspondingly, the second part can be one or more time domain symbols that are continuous in the time domain among multiple continuous time domain symbols; wherein, in the first part and the second part, the last time domain symbol of one part is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of the other part.

[0191] Exemplarily, the first part may be located before the second part, or the second part may be located before the first part. The embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For the convenience of description, the following is introduced as an example in which the first part is located before the second part. The unified explanation is given here and no further details are given.

[0192] As a possible implementation manner, the time domain symbols included in the first part and the second part are all symbols in a plurality of continuous time domain symbols.

[0193] As an example, the first part and the second part each include one time domain symbol. That is, in this case, the multiple consecutive time domain symbols refer to two consecutive time domain symbols.

[0194] For example, taking multiple consecutive time-domain symbols including time-domain symbol #0 and time-domain symbol #1 as an example, as shown in FIG11(a), the first portion includes time-domain symbol #0, and correspondingly, the second portion includes time-domain symbol #1. In this case, the reference signal mapped to time-domain symbol #0 and time-domain symbol #1 is the same. Furthermore, time-domain symbol #0 and time-domain symbol #1 are consecutive in the time domain, and no other information, such as a cyclic prefix, is inserted between the two reference signals located at time-domain symbol #0 and time-domain symbol #1.

[0195] As another example, the first part and the second part respectively include multiple time domain symbols. In this case, the multiple consecutive time domain symbols refer to multiple consecutive time domain symbols greater than two.

[0196] Exemplarily, taking multiple consecutive time domain symbols including time domain symbol #0 to time domain symbol #X-1 as an example, as shown in (b) of Figure 11, the multiple time domain symbols included in the first part are: time domain symbol #0, ..., time domain symbol #Y-1, and the multiple time domain symbols included in the second part are: time domain symbol #1, ..., time domain symbol #X-1. Among them, Y and X are both positive integers, and the value of Y is half of X. At this time, the last time domain symbol of the reference signal located in the first part is time domain symbol #Y-1, and the first time domain symbol of the reference signal located in the second part is time domain symbol #Y. That is, time domain symbol #Y-1 and time domain symbol #Y are continuous in the time domain, that is, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals.

[0197] Optionally, in this possible implementation, the mapping method indicated by the first configuration information also includes the first time domain symbol among multiple consecutive time domain symbols including a cyclic prefix CP, and / or the last time domain symbol among multiple consecutive time domain symbols includes a cyclic postfix (CP).

[0198] It should be noted that since the abbreviations of the cyclic prefix and the cyclic suffix are both CP, in the following description, in a time domain symbol, the CP located at the end of the time domain symbol refers to the cyclic suffix, and the CP located at the front end of the time domain symbol refers to the cyclic prefix. They are explained uniformly here and will not be repeated.

[0199] Exemplarily, in the case where the first part and the second part respectively include a time domain symbol, taking multiple consecutive time domain symbols including time domain symbol #0 and time domain symbol #1 as an example, as shown in (a) in Figure 12, at this time, time domain symbol #0 may include a cyclic prefix; and / or, time domain symbol #1 may include a cyclic suffix.

[0200] In the case where the first part and the second part respectively include multiple time domain symbols, taking multiple consecutive time domain symbols including time domain symbol #0 to time domain symbol #X-1 as an example, as shown in (b) in Figure 12, at this time, the first time domain symbol among the multiple consecutive time domain symbols is time domain symbol #0, that is, time domain symbol #0 can include a cyclic prefix; the last time domain symbol among the multiple consecutive time domain symbols is time domain symbol #X-1, that is, time domain symbol #X-1 can include a cyclic suffix.

[0201] In addition, in this possible implementation, among multiple consecutive time domain symbols, other information such as a cyclic prefix and a cyclic suffix is ​​not inserted into other time domain symbols except the first time domain symbol and the last time domain symbol.

[0202] For example, as shown in (b) of FIG12 , time domain symbols other than time domain symbol #0 and time domain symbol #X-1 do not include other information such as a cyclic prefix and a cyclic suffix. That is, in this possible implementation, only the first time domain symbol may include a cyclic prefix; and / or the last time domain symbol may include a cyclic suffix.

[0203] As another possible implementation manner, the time domain symbols included in the first part and the second part are partial symbols of a plurality of continuous time domain symbols.

[0204] Optionally, in this possible implementation, the multiple consecutive time domain symbols further include an Mth part and an Nth part, where M and N are both positive integers greater than 2, and the values ​​of M and N are different.

[0205] As an example, the implementation of the Mth part is similar to that of the first part, and correspondingly, the implementation of the Nth part is similar to that of the second part. That is, the same reference signal is mapped to the Mth part and the Nth part, and in the reference signal in the Mth part and the reference signal in the Nth part, the last time domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in the time domain with the first time domain symbol of the other reference signal. For the specific implementation, refer to the relevant description of the first and second parts above and will not be repeated here.

[0206] In a possible implementation, the time domain symbols in the first part, the second part, the Mth part, and the Nth part are all continuous in the time domain.

[0207] Exemplarily, in this possible implementation, the time domain symbols in the first part, the second part, the Mth part, and the Nth part are all continuous in the time domain, which can be understood as: the last time domain symbol of the reference signal located in the second part and the first time domain symbol of the reference signal located in the Mth part are continuous in the time domain; at this time, the Mth part and the Nth part are both located after the first part and the second part, and the first part is located before the second part, and the Mth part is located before the Nth part.

[0208] Alternatively, the time domain symbols in the first part, the second part, the Mth part, and the Nth part are all continuous in the time domain, which can also be understood as: the last time domain symbol of the reference signal located in the Nth part and the first time domain symbol of the reference signal located in the first part are continuous in the time domain; at this time, the first part and the second part are both located after the Mth part and the Nth part, and the first part is located before the second part, and the Mth part is located before the Nth part.

[0209] Optionally, in this possible implementation, the mapping method indicated by the first configuration information also includes: the first time domain symbol among multiple consecutive time domain symbols includes a cyclic prefix, and / or the last time domain symbol among multiple consecutive time domain symbols includes a cyclic suffix.

[0210] Exemplarily, taking the example where both the Mth part and the Nth part are located after the first part and the second part, and the first part is located before the second part, and the Mth part is located before the Nth part, as shown in (a) in Figure 13, the first time domain symbol among the multiple consecutive time domain symbols is time domain symbol #0, and the last time domain symbol among the multiple consecutive time domain symbols is time domain symbol #3; at this time, time domain symbol #0 may include a cyclic prefix; and / or, time domain symbol #3 may include a cyclic suffix.

[0211] In another possible implementation, the first part and the second part are continuous in the time domain, the Mth part and the Nth part are continuous in the time domain, but the second part and the Mth part are not continuous in the time domain, or the first part and the Nth part are not continuous in the time domain.

[0212] Exemplarily, when the Mth part and the Nth part are both located after the first part and the second part, and the first part is located before the second part, and the Mth part is located before the Nth part, the second part and the Mth part are discontinuous in the time domain; when the first part and the second part are both located after the Mth part and the Nth part, and the first part is located before the second part, and the Mth part is located before the Nth part, the first part and the Nth part are discontinuous in the time domain.

[0213] Optionally, in this possible implementation, the mapping method indicated by the first configuration information also includes: the first time domain symbol in the first part includes a cyclic prefix, and / or, the last time domain symbol in the second part includes a cyclic suffix.

[0214] Exemplarily, taking the example where both the Mth part and the Nth part are located after the first part and the second part, and the first part is located before the second part, and the Mth part is located before the Nth part, as shown in (b) in Figure 13, among multiple consecutive time domain symbols, the first time domain symbol in the first part is time domain symbol #0, and the last time domain symbol in the second part is time domain symbol #1; at this time, time domain symbol #0 may include a cyclic prefix; and / or, time domain symbol #1 may include a cyclic suffix.

[0215] Optionally, in this possible implementation, the mapping method indicated by the first configuration information also includes: the first time domain symbol in the Mth part includes a cyclic prefix, and / or, the last time domain symbol in the Nth part includes a cyclic suffix.

[0216] For example, taking the case where both the Mth part and the Nth part are located after the first part and the second part, and the first part is located before the second part, and the Mth part is located before the Nth part, as shown in (b) in Figure 13, among multiple consecutive time domain symbols, the first time domain symbol in the Nth part is time domain symbol #X-2, and the last time domain symbol in the second part is time domain symbol #X-1; at this time, the time domain symbol #X-2 may include a cyclic prefix; and / or, the time domain symbol #X-1 may include a cyclic suffix.

[0217] Optionally, among multiple consecutive time domain symbols, the time domain symbols in other parts except the first part, the second part, the Mth part, and the Nth part can adopt a traditional mapping method (i.e., the "CP+symbol" mode), that is, a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted at the front end of each time domain symbol.

[0218] S1002: The terminal device sends a reference signal to multiple network devices according to the first configuration information. Correspondingly, the multiple network devices respectively receive the reference signal from the terminal device. The multiple network devices include a serving network device and a candidate network device.

[0219] Exemplarily, the terminal device may map the reference signal to the first time-frequency resource according to the mapping method indicated by the first configuration information, and send the reference signal.

[0220] Optionally, the terminal device is located within the coverage area of ​​multiple network devices. In other words, the terminal device is located within the intersection of the coverage areas of the multiple network devices. Among these, all network devices except the serving network device can be referred to as candidate network devices.

[0221] Optionally, after receiving the reference signal, each network device can detect the reference signal to determine the uplink channel quality between the network device and the terminal device (such as using the signal quality of the reference signal as the uplink channel quality); taking the time division duplexing (TDD) system as an example, after determining the uplink channel information, the downlink channel quality can be further determined based on the reciprocity of the uplink and downlink channels. That is, the signal quality can be used as the downlink channel quality between the network device and the terminal device, thereby assisting the service network device in determining the target network device for terminal device switching.

[0222] An embodiment of the present application provides a signal transmission method. In this method, since the last time domain symbol of one reference signal in the first part and the first time domain symbol of the other reference signal in the second part are continuous in the time domain, that is, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals mapped in the first part and the second part, respectively.

[0223] Because the time window for receiving the reference signal determined by the network device includes multiple detection periods for detecting the reference signal, where the duration of each detection period is equal to the transmission duration of the reference signal, if the time window is not aligned with the arrival time of the reference signal, the reference signal detected within a detection period includes partial information of the reference signal in the first part and partial information of the reference signal in the second part. In this case, the sum of the transmission durations of these two partial information equals the transmission duration of one reference signal.

[0224] Since the first part and the second part map the same reference signal respectively, no other information such as a cyclic prefix is ​​inserted between the two reference signals, and the sum of the transmission durations of the two parts of information is equal to the transmission duration of one reference signal, it can be considered that the two parts of information can be combined into a complete reference signal. That is, the network device can obtain the complete reference signal from the two parts for detection, thereby reducing the complexity of detection, and compared with the scheme of detecting incomplete reference signals, the detection performance is more stable.

[0225] Optionally, in addition to the above process, as shown in FIG14 , before step S1002 , the signal sending method further includes the following step S1003 :

[0226] S1003: The serving network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information from the serving network device, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate a valid period of the first time-frequency resource.

[0227] Optionally, in step S1003, the serving network device may also send first indication information to the candidate network device, and correspondingly, the candidate network device receives the first indication information from the serving network device.

[0228] Exemplarily, the serving network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device and the candidate network device respectively (ie, the serving network device sends the first indication information multiple times), which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0229] Exemplarily, since the first time-frequency resource includes multiple consecutive time domain symbols, the first indication information is used to indicate the effective period of the first time-frequency resource, which can also be understood as the first indication information being used to indicate the effective period of multiple consecutive time domain symbols.

[0230] Optionally, the first indication information may include a second field and a third field, wherein the second field is used to indicate the starting time of the effective period of the first time-frequency resource, and the third field is used to indicate the ending time of the effective period of the first time-frequency resource. In other words, the second field and the third field in the second indication information are used to indicate the effective period of the first time-frequency resource.

[0231] Exemplarily, the second field may also be called the t-start field; the third field may also be called the t-end field; or, the second field and the third field may also have other names, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0232] Exemplarily, the start time and the end time of the validity period of the first time-frequency resource may be absolute times.

[0233] It can be understood that the satellite coverage area is approximately rectangular, with multiple satellites in the same orbit evenly distributed and relatively stationary. For example, taking an orbit containing three satellites as an example, the coverage areas of multiple satellites in the same orbit are shown in Figure 15(a). The dashed area in Figure 15(a) represents the boundary between the coverage areas of two satellites.

[0234] Relative to satellites, the motion of terminal devices is negligible. Using satellites as a reference, since each satellite has the same coverage area and multiple satellites are relatively stationary, the motion path of a terminal device can be predicted based on the satellite's motion path and direction. For example, consider terminal device #1 and terminal device #2 in Figure 15(b). At time t0, terminal device #1 is within the coverage area of ​​satellite #3 (i.e., SAT#3) and is served by SAT#3, while terminal device #2 is located at the intersection of the coverage areas of SAT#3 and STA#2. The motion paths of terminal devices #1 and #2 are indicated by the arrows in Figure 15(b). Therefore, after time t0, the relationships between terminal devices #1 and #2 and SAT#1 to STA#3, respectively, are shown in Figure 15(c). As shown in Figure 15(c), when a terminal device moves between multiple satellites in the same orbit, the period during which it switches to the network device it serves is regular and predictable, meaning that the period during which it switches to the network device it serves is periodic.

[0235] Similar to the principle of multiple satellites in the same orbit, multiple satellites in different orbits are relatively stationary. Therefore, when the terminal device moves between multiple satellites in different orbits, the time period for switching to the network device it serves is also regular and predictable. Specifically, the movement path of the terminal device between multiple satellites in different orbits can be shown in Figure 16. Among them, the dotted area and the area where the solid circle is located in Figure 16 are the intersection areas of the coverage ranges of the two satellites. The dotted area is the time period when the terminal device switches between multiple satellites in the same orbit (or, it can also be simply referred to as the intra-orbit switching period), and the solid circle area is the time period when the terminal device switches between multiple satellites in different orbits (or, it can also be simply referred to as the inter-orbit switching period).

[0236] In practice, the intra-orbit switching period can also be referred to by other names, such as the first period. Similarly, the inter-orbit switching period can also be referred to as the second period, etc., and this is not limited in the present embodiment. For ease of description, the present embodiment uses the period when a terminal device switches between multiple satellites in the same orbit as the intra-orbit switching period, and the period when a terminal device switches between multiple satellites in different orbits as the inter-orbit switching period as an example. This is described uniformly here and will not be repeated.

[0237] Since the network devices in the embodiments of the present application are deployed on satellites, or the network devices are satellites, the coverage of multiple network devices in the embodiments of the present application may also be as shown in Figure 15 (i.e. (a) in Figure 15 or (b) in Figure 15 or (c) in Figure 15) or Figure 16. Furthermore, the movement path of the terminal device can also be predicted based on the movement path and movement direction of the network device. Thus, the time period when the terminal device passes through the boundary area of ​​the coverage of multiple network devices (i.e., the time period when the terminal device switches to the network device serving it) can be determined. Furthermore, the terminal device can send a reference signal within this time period to achieve the switching of the network device, that is, the first time-frequency resource needs to take effect within this time period.

[0238] Optionally, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource overlaps with the period when the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices.

[0239] Exemplarily, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource may include a period when the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage ranges of multiple network devices; or, the period when the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage ranges of multiple network devices may include the effective period of the first time-frequency resource; or, there is an intersection between the effective period of the first time-frequency resource and the period when the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage ranges of multiple network devices. For the convenience of description, the following is an example in which the effective period of the first time-frequency resource may include the period when the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage ranges of multiple network devices.

[0240] Optionally, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-track switching period and / or at least one inter-track switching period; wherein, the intra-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, and the first condition includes that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on the same track; the inter-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, and the second condition includes that the terminal device is in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices on different tracks.

[0241] Exemplarily, when the movement path of the terminal device is within the coverage of multiple network devices on the same track, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-track switching period; at this time, the movement path of the terminal device can be the movement path of terminal device #1 as shown in (b) of Figure 15, or the movement path of terminal device #2, that is, the terminal device only performs intra-track switching. When the movement path of the terminal device is within the coverage of multiple network devices on different tracks, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one inter-track switching period, and the terminal device only performs inter-track switching; or, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource includes at least one intra-track switching period and at least one inter-track switching period, and at this time, the movement path of the terminal device can be the movement path of the terminal device as shown in Figure 16, that is, the terminal device performs both intra-track switching and inter-track switching. Among them, the first switching, the third switching, and the fifth switching of the terminal device during the movement process are all intra-track switching, and the second switching, the fourth switching, and the sixth switching are all inter-track switching. By analogy to multiple tracks, that is, the odd-numbered switching of the terminal device during the movement process are all intra-track switching, and the even-numbered switching are all inter-track switching.

[0242] Optionally, the duration of the intra-track switching period and the duration of the inter-track switching period are determined respectively according to the duration of the intra-track switching and the duration of the inter-track switching.

[0243] Exemplarily, when the duration of intra-rail switching is greater than the duration of inter-rail switching, the duration of the intra-rail switching period is greater than the duration of the inter-rail switching period; when the duration of intra-rail switching is less than the duration of inter-rail switching, the duration of the intra-rail switching period is less than the duration of the inter-rail switching period; when the duration of intra-rail switching is equal to the duration of inter-rail switching, the duration of the intra-rail switching period is equal to the duration of the inter-rail switching period.

[0244] Optionally, the second field includes a second field #1 and / or a second field #2, wherein the second field #1 is used to indicate the start time of the intra-track switching period, and the second field #2 is used to indicate the start time of the inter-track switching period. The third field includes a third field #1 and / or a third field #2, wherein the third field #1 is used to indicate the end time of the intra-track switching period, and the third field #2 is used to indicate the end time of the inter-track switching period. That is, the second field #1 and the second field #2 in the second indication information are used to indicate the intra-track switching period. The third field #1 and the third field #2 in the second indication information are used to indicate the inter-track switching period.

[0245] For example, the second field #1 can also be called the t-start1 field; the second field #2 can also be called the t-start2 field; the third field #1 can also be called the t-end1 field; the third field #2 can also be called the t-end2 field; or, the second field #1, the second field #2, the third field #1 and the third field #2 can also have other names, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0246] Optionally, in step S1003, sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information includes: sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information.

[0247] Exemplarily, sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information can also be understood as: within the effective period of the first time-frequency resource, mapping the reference signal to the first time-frequency resource based on the mapping method of the first configuration information, and sending the reference signal.

[0248] Based on the above two optional methods, the serving network device can indicate the effective period of the first time-frequency resource to the terminal device. For example, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource can be the period when the terminal device is located in the boundary area of ​​the coverage range of multiple network devices (that is, the period when the terminal device switches to the network device that serves it), so that the terminal device can send a reference signal through the first time-frequency resource during the effective period, avoiding the increase of the resource overhead of the reference signal due to the terminal device sending the reference signal during the period when it does not need to switch to the network device that serves it. That is, under this optional method, the resource overhead can be reduced.

[0249] Optionally, when the valid period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple intra-orbit switching periods, as shown in FIG14 , the signal sending method further includes step S1004:

[0250] S1004. The service network device sends second indication information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second indication information from the service network device.

[0251] Among them, the second indication information is used to indicate the first period and / or the first quantity, the first period is the time interval between two adjacent intra-track switching periods in multiple intra-track switching periods, and between two adjacent intra-track switching periods, the service network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of intra-track switching periods.

[0252] Optionally, in step S1004, the serving network device may also send second indication information to the candidate network device, and correspondingly, the candidate network device receives the second indication information from the serving network device.

[0253] Exemplarily, the serving network device may send the second indication information to the terminal device and the candidate network device respectively (ie, the serving network device sends the second indication information multiple times), which is not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0254] Optionally, in step S1004, the intra-track switching period indicated by the first indication information may be understood as: the first intra-track switching period experienced by the terminal device during its movement.

[0255] For example, based on the relevant description of the aforementioned Figure 15, it can be seen that when the terminal device moves between multiple satellites in the same orbit, the period for its intra-orbit switching is periodic. Therefore, the service network device can configure the start and end periods, the first period, and the first quantity of the first intra-orbit switching period to the terminal device to indicate the period for the terminal device to send a reference signal during the movement (such as the intra-orbit switching period).

[0256] Optionally, the second indication information includes a fourth field and a fifth field. The fourth field is used to indicate the time interval between two adjacent intra-rail switching periods in the plurality of intra-rail switching periods, and the fifth field is used to indicate the number of intra-rail switching periods. That is, the first period is in the fourth field, and the first number is in the fifth field.

[0257] Exemplarily, the fourth field may also be called the period1 field; the fifth field may also be called the periodnum1 field; or, the fourth field and the fifth field may also have other names, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0258] Optionally, in step S1004, sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information includes: sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information and the second indication information.

[0259] Exemplarily, sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information and the second indication information can also be understood as: within the intra-orbit switching period, mapping the reference signal to the first time-frequency resource based on the mapping method of the first configuration information, and sending the reference signal.

[0260] Based on the above two optional methods, the serving network device can indicate the period (i.e., the first period) corresponding to the intra-orbit switching period and the number of times the intra-orbit switching period is effective (i.e., the first number) to the terminal device through the second indication information, so that the terminal device is aware of multiple intra-orbit switching periods during the movement process, and can thus send a reference signal in each intra-orbit switching period. Compared with the solution of configuring each intra-orbit switching period for the terminal device separately, the overhead of configuring the intra-orbit switching period can be reduced.

[0261] Optionally, when the valid period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple inter-track switching periods, as shown in FIG14 , the signal sending method further includes step S1005:

[0262] S1005. The service network device sends third indication information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third indication information from the service network device.

[0263] The third indication information is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, wherein the second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in multiple inter-rail switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-rail switching periods.

[0264] Optionally, in step S1005, the serving network device may also send third indication information to the candidate network device, and correspondingly, the candidate network device receives the third indication information from the serving network device.

[0265] Exemplarily, the serving network device may send the third indication information to the terminal device and the candidate network device respectively (ie, the serving network device sends the third indication information multiple times), which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0266] Optionally, in step S1005, the inter-rail switching period indicated by the first indication information may be understood as: the first inter-rail switching period experienced by the terminal device during its movement.

[0267] For example, similar to the process of a terminal device moving between multiple satellites in the same orbit, when a terminal device moves between multiple satellites in different orbits, the period for its inter-orbit switching is also periodic. Therefore, the service network device can configure the start and end periods, the second period, and the second number of the first and second failure periods to the terminal device to indicate the period for the terminal device to send reference signals during the movement (such as the inter-orbit switching period).

[0268] Optionally, the third indication information includes a sixth field and a seventh field. The sixth field is used to indicate the time interval between any two adjacent inter-rail switching periods in the plurality of inter-rail switching periods, and the seventh field is used to indicate the number of inter-rail switching periods. That is, the second period is in the sixth field, and the second number is in the seventh field.

[0269] For example, the sixth field may also be called the period2 field; the seventh field may also be called the periodnum2 field; or, the sixth field and the seventh field may also have other names, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0270] Optionally, in step S1005, sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information includes: sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information and the third indication information.

[0271] Exemplarily, sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information and the third indication information can also be understood as: within the inter-track switching period, mapping the reference signal to the first time-frequency resource based on the mapping method of the first configuration information, and sending the reference signal.

[0272] Based on the above two optional methods, the serving network device can indicate the period (i.e., the second period) corresponding to the inter-rail switching period and the number of times the inter-rail switching period is effective (i.e., the second number) to the terminal device through the third indication information, so that the terminal device is aware of multiple inter-rail switching periods during the movement process, and can thus send a reference signal in each inter-rail switching period. Compared with the solution of configuring each inter-rail switching period for the terminal device separately, the overhead of configuring the inter-rail switching period can be reduced.

[0273] Optionally, when the valid period of the first time-frequency resource includes multiple intra-orbit switching periods and at least one inter-orbit switching period, as shown in FIG14 , the signal sending method further includes step S1006:

[0274] S1006. The serving network device sends fourth indication information to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the fourth indication information from the serving network device.

[0275] The fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-rail switching period among multiple intra-rail switching periods, and the Nth intra-rail switching period is the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period in at least one inter-rail switching period, where M is a positive integer and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0276] Optionally, in step S1006, the serving network device may also send fourth indication information to the candidate network device, and correspondingly, the candidate network device receives the fourth indication information from the serving network device.

[0277] Exemplarily, the serving network device may send the fourth indication information to the terminal device and the candidate network device respectively (ie, the serving network device sends the fourth indication information multiple times), which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

[0278] Optionally, in step S1006, the effective period indicated by the first indication information may include: the first intra-track switching period and the first inter-track switching period experienced by the terminal device during movement.

[0279] Exemplarily, the movement path of the terminal device can be as shown in FIG16 , that is, odd-numbered switches of the terminal device during movement are all intra-rail switches, and even-numbered switches are all inter-rail switches. Since the first and third switches do not meet the definition of two adjacent intra-rail switching periods in the first cycle, after the second switch (i.e., the first inter-rail switching period), the start time of the third switch (i.e., the first intra-rail switching period after the first inter-rail switching period) can be determined according to the fourth indication information.

[0280] Optionally, the fourth indication information is used to indicate the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period among multiple intra-rail switching periods, including: the fourth indication information is used to indicate an offset, and the offset is used to indicate the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period.

[0281] As an example, the offset is used to indicate the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period. This can be understood as the offset between the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period and the end time of the (N-1)th intra-rail switching period. Therefore, the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period is the sum of the end time of the (N-1)th intra-rail switching period and the offset.

[0282] For example, the end time of the N-1th intra-track switching period is the 25th minute, and the offset is +15 minutes, that is, the start time of the Nth intra-track switching period is the 40th minute.

[0283] As another example, the offset used to indicate the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period can be understood as the offset of the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period relative to the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period calculated based on the end time of the (N-1)th intra-rail switching period and the first period. Therefore, the start time of the Nth intra-rail switching period is the sum of the end time of the (N-1)th intra-rail switching period, the first period, and the offset among the multiple intra-rail switching periods.

[0284] For example, the end time of the N-1th intra-track switching period is the 25th minute, the first cycle is 10 minutes, and the offset is +5 minutes, that is, the start time of the Nth intra-track switching period is the 40th minute.

[0285] It should be noted that the movement path of the terminal device shown in Figure 16 above is only an example. In fact, the movement path of the terminal device can also include other implementation forms. For example, the terminal device continuously experiences multiple intra-track switching periods, and then experiences an inter-track switching period, and so on. Its implementation process is similar to the implementation of the movement path in Figure 16 above. For details, please refer to the relevant description of Figure 16, which will not be repeated here.

[0286] Exemplarily, in each switching period (such as each intra-rail switching period and / or each inter-rail switching period), the terminal device only sends a reference signal once. Since the terminal device is located within the coverage of multiple network devices, multiple network devices can receive the reference signal from the terminal device during the switching period. Optionally, before step S1001, as shown in FIG14 , the signal transmission method further includes step S1007:

[0287] S1007: The serving network device sends second configuration information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second configuration information from the serving network device, wherein the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is used to send a reference signal.

[0288] Exemplarily, step S1007 can also be understood as, before this solution, the service network device has configured a second time-frequency resource for the terminal device for sending a reference signal, and in an embodiment of the present application, the second time-frequency resource is not used to send the reference signal, but the reference signal is sent based on the first time-frequency resource.

[0289] Optionally, as shown in FIG14 , the signal transmission method may further include step S1008: S1008, the serving network device transmits fifth indication information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the fifth indication information from the serving network device, wherein the fifth indication information is used to instruct deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

[0290] Exemplarily, the fifth indication information includes an eighth field, and the eighth field is used to indicate the deactivated time-frequency resource (such as the second time-frequency resource). That is, the second time-frequency resource is located in the eighth field. For example, taking the reference signal as SRS as an example, the eighth field can also be called the muted-srs-ResourceId field; or, the eighth field can also have other names, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0291] Based on this optional solution, since in the embodiment of the present application, there is no need to use the second time-frequency resource configured by the service network device for the terminal device to send the reference signal, but instead the first time-frequency resource is used to send the reference signal, the second time-frequency resource can be deactivated to reduce the overhead of the resources used to send the reference signal.

[0292] It should be noted that at least one of the above-mentioned first indication information, second indication information, third indication information, fourth indication information, or fifth indication information can be sent simultaneously with the first configuration information, or at least one of the first indication information, second indication information, third indication information, fourth indication information, or fifth indication information can be carried in the first configuration information; exemplarily, the first indication information, second indication information, third indication information, fourth indication information, and fifth indication information can all be carried in the first configuration information. At this time, the service network device only needs to send the first configuration information once to complete the configuration of the reference signal, thereby reducing configuration overhead.

[0293] Optionally, before step S1002, as shown in FIG17 , the signal sending method further includes the following steps S1009 to S1010:

[0294] S1009: The serving network device sends sixth indication information to each candidate network device, and correspondingly, each candidate network device receives the sixth indication information from the serving network device, wherein the sixth indication information is used to indicate the location information of the terminal device.

[0295] Optionally, the sixth indication information may also indicate the time information of the serving network device and / or the location information of the serving network device. Alternatively, the time information of the serving network device and / or the location information of the serving network device may also be indicated by other information other than the sixth indication information, which is not limited in the implementation of this application.

[0296] S1010: The candidate network device determines a first receiving time period according to the first indication information and the sixth indication information.

[0297] Exemplarily, the candidate network device can determine the first receiving time period based on parameters such as the location information of the terminal device, the effective period of the first time-frequency resource, the time information of the serving network device, the location information of the serving network device, the time information of the candidate network device, and the location information of the candidate network device.

[0298] It can be understood that the candidate network device in step S1001 is any one of the multiple candidate network devices in the multiple network devices, that is, each candidate network device can determine its corresponding first receiving time period.

[0299] Optionally, in step S1010, the multiple network devices in step S1002 respectively receive the reference signal from the terminal device, including: each candidate network device respectively receives the reference signal from the terminal device within the first receiving time period.

[0300] Exemplarily, the first receiving period determined by the candidate network device is shown in FIG18 , so that after receiving the reference signal in the first receiving period, the reference signal can be detected based on the arrival time of the reference signal determined in the first receiving period. For example, based on the example shown in FIG18 , the start time of the first receiving period is t1, and the start detection time of the first reference signal is t2. However, the actual arrival time of the reference signal is t3, and the duration of the reference signal includes the CP in the first receiving period. Since detection is not performed during the CP period in the first receiving period, the first detection reference signal period in the first receiving period fails to detect a complete reference signal. However, based on the mapping method indicated by the first configuration information, the signal detected during the second monitoring reference signal period is equivalent to the cyclically shifted reference signal. That is, the complete reference signal is detected at this time, thereby reducing the complexity of detection and achieving more stable detection performance compared to a solution that detects an incomplete reference signal.

[0301] For example, FIG18 above only exemplifies the example of a first receiving period including three reference signal detection periods and a first time-frequency resource mapped by the reference signal including two continuous symbols in the time domain. In fact, the first receiving period and the first time-frequency resource may have other implementation forms, for example, the first receiving period including four reference signal detection periods and the first time-frequency resource mapped by the reference signal including three continuous symbols in the time domain, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

[0302] In addition, the scheme of determining the first receiving duration based on the first indication information and the sixth indication information can reduce the duration of receiving the reference signal compared to the scheme of receiving the reference signal in the full time period, thereby reducing the complexity of detecting the signal quality of the reference signal.

[0303] Optionally, after step S1002, when the candidate network device determines that the signal quality of the reference signal it receives is greater than the first threshold, the candidate network device may send seventh indication information to the serving network device, and accordingly, the serving network device receives the indication information from the terminal device, wherein the seventh indication information is used to indicate the terminal device.

[0304] Exemplarily, the seventh indication information may include an identifier of the terminal device, or the seventh indication information may include an information identifier of the first indication information or the first configuration information associated with the terminal device, thereby indicating to the serving network device that the candidate network device meets the conditions for being the target network device for this switching, so as to assist the serving network device in determining the target network device for this switching.

[0305] In addition to the signal sending method described above, an embodiment of the present application further proposes a signal sending method, which includes the following steps as shown in FIG19 :

[0306] S1901, wherein step S1901 is the same as the above-mentioned step S1003. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above-mentioned step S1003 and will not be repeated here.

[0307] S1902: The terminal device sends a reference signal according to the first indication information. Correspondingly, multiple network devices receive the reference signal from the terminal device.

[0308] Exemplarily, the implementation of step S1902 may refer to the relevant description of the reference signal in the above step S1003 and will not be repeated here.

[0309] An embodiment of the present application provides a signal sending method. In this method, a service network device can indicate the effective period of a first time-frequency resource to a terminal device through at least one of the first indication information, the second indication information, or the third indication information, so that the terminal device is informed of multiple intra-track switching periods and / or multiple inter-track switching periods during the movement process, thereby being able to send a reference signal within each intra-track switching period and / or each inter-track switching period. Compared with the solution of separately configuring each intra-track switching period and / or each inter-track switching period for the terminal device, the overhead of configuring the intra-track switching period and / or the inter-track switching period can be reduced.

[0310] Optionally, before step S1902, the signal sending method may further include steps S1903 to S1906:

[0311] S1903, wherein step S1903 is the same as the above step S1004, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1004, which will not be repeated here.

[0312] S1904, wherein step S1904 is the same as the above step S1005. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above step S1005 and will not be repeated here.

[0313] S1905, wherein step S1905 is the same as the above-mentioned step S1006. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above-mentioned step S1006 and will not be repeated here.

[0314] S1906, wherein step S1906 is the same as the above step S1001, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1001, which will not be repeated here.

[0315] Optionally, before step S1906, the signal sending method may further include step S1907:

[0316] S1907, wherein step S1907 is the same as the above step S1007. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above step S1007 and will not be repeated here.

[0317] Optionally, the signal sending method may further include step S1908:

[0318] S1908, wherein step S1908 is the same as the above step S1008. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above step S1008 and will not be repeated here.

[0319] Optionally, before step S1904, the signal sending method further includes the following steps S1909 to S1910:

[0320] S1909, wherein step S1909 is the same as the above step S1009. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above step S1009 and will not be repeated here.

[0321] S1910, wherein step S1910 is the same as the above-mentioned step S1010. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above-mentioned step S1010 and will not be repeated here.

[0322] It should be noted that, for the above steps S1901 to S1903, S1905 to S1906, and S1908, the order is not limited. Steps S1901 to S1903, S1905 to S1906, and S1908 can be executed simultaneously, or can be executed at different times, as long as they are executed before step S1805.

[0323] In addition to the signal sending method described above, an embodiment of the present application further proposes a signal sending method, which includes the following steps as shown in FIG20 :

[0324] S2001, wherein step S2001 is the same as the above step S1003, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1003, which will not be repeated here.

[0325] S2002, wherein step S2002 is the same as the above step S1009, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1009, which will not be repeated here.

[0326] S2003, wherein step S2003 is the same as the above step S1010, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1010, which will not be repeated here.

[0327] S2004: The terminal device sends a reference signal. Accordingly, each candidate network device receives the reference signal from the terminal device within a first receiving period.

[0328] For example, the implementation of step S2004 may refer to the relevant description of step S1002 in the above step S1010 and will not be repeated here.

[0329] Embodiments of the present application provide a signal transmission method in which a candidate network device can determine a first reception duration based on first indication information and sixth indication information. Compared to a method of receiving reference signals throughout a full period of time, this method can reduce the duration of receiving reference signals and thereby reduce the complexity of detecting the signal quality of the reference signals.

[0330] Optionally, before step S2003, the signal method may further include the following steps S2005 to S2010:

[0331] S2005, wherein step S2005 is the same as the above step S1004, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1004, which will not be repeated here.

[0332] S2006, wherein step S2006 is the same as the above step S1005, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1005, which will not be repeated here.

[0333] S2007, wherein step S2007 is the same as the above step S1006. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above step S1006 and will not be repeated here.

[0334] S2008, wherein step S2008 is the same as the above step S1001, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1001, which will not be repeated here.

[0335] Optionally, before step S2008, the signal method may further include the following step S2009:

[0336] S2009, wherein step S2009 is the same as the above step S1007. For details, please refer to the relevant description of the above step S1007 and will not be repeated here.

[0337] Optionally, the signal method may further include the following step S2010:

[0338] S2010, wherein step S2010 is the same as the above step S1008, and the details can be referred to the relevant description of the above step S1008, which will not be repeated here.

[0339] It should be noted that, for the above steps S2005 to S2008 and S2010, the order is not limited. Steps S2005 to S2008 and S2010 can be executed simultaneously, or can be executed at different times, as long as they are executed before step S2004.

[0340] It is understood that in each of the above embodiments, the methods and / or steps implemented by a network device (such as a serving network device or a candidate network device) may also be implemented by components applicable to the network device (such as a processor, chip, chip system, circuit, logic module, or software); and the methods and / or steps implemented by a terminal device may also be implemented by components applicable to the terminal device (such as a processor, chip, chip system, circuit, logic module, or software). The chip system may be composed of a chip, or the chip system may include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0341] It is understandable that, in order to realize the above functions, the communication device includes hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to the execution of each function. It should be easily appreciated by those skilled in the art that, in combination with the units and algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed herein, 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 the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered to be beyond the scope of this application.

[0342] The embodiment of the present application can divide the functional modules of the communication device according to the above method embodiment. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above integrated modules can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical functional division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods.

[0343] Communication Device Figure 21 shows a schematic structural diagram of a communication device 210. The communication device 210 includes a processing module 2101 and a transceiver module 2102. The communication device 210 can be used to implement the functions of the above-mentioned network device or terminal device.

[0344] In some embodiments, the communication device 210 may further include a storage module (not shown in FIG. 21 ) for storing program instructions and data.

[0345] In some embodiments, the transceiver module 2102, which may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, is configured to implement a sending and / or receiving function. The transceiver module 2102 may be composed of a transceiver circuit, a transceiver, a transceiver, or a communication interface.

[0346] In some embodiments, the transceiver module 2102 may include a receiving module and a sending module, which are respectively used to execute the receiving and sending steps performed by the network device or terminal device in the above method embodiments, and / or used to support other processes of the technology described herein; the processing module 2101 may be used to execute the processing steps (such as determination, etc.) performed by the network device or terminal device in the above method embodiments, and / or used to support other processes of the technology described herein.

[0347] In the present application, the communication device 210 may be presented in the form of various functional modules divided in an integrated manner. The "module" here may refer to a specific application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a circuit, a processor and memory that executes one or more software or firmware programs, an integrated logic circuit, and / or other devices that can provide the above functions.

[0348] In some embodiments, when the communication device 210 in Figure 21 is a chip or a chip system, the function / implementation process of the transceiver module 2102 can be implemented through the input and output interface (or communication interface) of the chip or chip system, and the function / implementation process of the processing module 2101 can be implemented through the processor (or processing circuit) of the chip or chip system.

[0349] Since the communication device 210 provided in this embodiment can execute the above method, the technical effects that can be obtained can refer to the above method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0350] As a possible product form, the terminal device or network device described in the embodiments of the present application can also be implemented using the following: one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), controllers, state machines, gate logic, discrete hardware components, any other suitable circuits, or any combination of circuits that can perform the various functions described throughout this application.

[0351] As another possible product form, the terminal device or network device described in the embodiment of the present application can be implemented by a general bus architecture. For ease of explanation, refer to Figure 22, which is a structural diagram of a communication device 2200 provided in an embodiment of the present application, wherein the communication device 2200 includes a processor 2201 and a transceiver 2202. The communication device 2200 can be a network device, or a chip or chip system therein; or, the communication device 2200 can be a terminal device, or a chip or module therein. Figure 22 only shows the main components of the communication device 2200. In addition to the processor 2201 and the transceiver 2202, the communication device may further include a memory 2203, and an input and output device (not shown in the figure).

[0352] Optionally, the processor 2201 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, as well as control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process software program data. The memory 2203 is primarily used to store software programs and data. The transceiver 2202 may include a radio frequency circuit and an antenna. The radio frequency circuit is primarily used to convert baseband signals into radio frequency signals and process radio frequency signals. The antenna is primarily used to transmit and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as a touch screen, display, and keyboard, are primarily used to receive user input and output data to the user.

[0353] Optionally, the processor 2201, the transceiver 2202, and the memory 2203 may be connected via a communication bus.

[0354] When the communication device is powered on, the processor 2201 can read the software program in the memory 2203, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor 2201 performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits the radio frequency signal to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the communication device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 2201. The processor 2201 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0355] In another implementation, the RF circuit and antenna may be provided independently of the processor performing baseband processing. For example, in a distributed scenario, the RF circuit and antenna may be remotely arranged independent of the communication device.

[0356] In some embodiments, in terms of hardware implementation, those skilled in the art may conceive that the above-mentioned communication device 210 may take the form of the communication device 2200 shown in FIG. 22 .

[0357] As an example, the functions / implementation process of the processing module 2101 in FIG21 can be implemented by the processor 2201 in the communication device 2200 shown in FIG22 calling the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 2203. The functions / implementation process of the transceiver module 2102 in FIG21 can be implemented by the transceiver 2202 in the communication device 2200 shown in FIG22.

[0358] As another possible product form, the network device or terminal device in this application may adopt the structure shown in Figure 23, or include the components shown in Figure 23. Figure 23 is a schematic diagram of the composition of a communication device 2300 provided in this application. The communication device 2300 can be a terminal device or a chip or system-on-chip in a terminal device; or it can be a network device or a module, chip or system-on-chip in a network device.

[0359] As shown in FIG23 , the communication device 2300 includes at least one processor 2301 and at least one communication interface ( FIG23 is merely an example of one communication interface 2304 and one processor 2301). Optionally, the communication device 2300 may further include a communication bus 2302 and a memory 2303.

[0360] Processor 2301 can be a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a network processor (NP), a digital signal processor (DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable logic device (PLD), or any combination thereof. Processor 2301 can also be other devices with processing capabilities, such as circuits, devices, or software modules, without limitation.

[0361] Communication bus 2302 is used to connect the various components in communication device 2300, enabling communication between them. Communication bus 2302 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus or an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, for example. This bus can be categorized as an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and so on. For ease of illustration, FIG23 shows only one thick line, but this does not imply that there is only one bus or only one type of bus.

[0362] Communication interface 2304 is used to communicate with other devices or communication networks. Exemplarily, communication interface 2304 can be a module, circuit, transceiver, or any other device capable of communication. Optionally, communication interface 2304 can also be an input / output interface within processor 2301, used to implement signal input and output to the processor.

[0363] The memory 2303 may be a device with a storage function, used to store instructions and / or data, wherein the instructions may be computer programs.

[0364] Exemplarily, the memory 2303 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and / or instructions, or a random access memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and / or instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, etc., without limitation.

[0365] It should be noted that the memory 2303 can exist independently of the processor 2301 or can be integrated with the processor 2301. The memory 2303 can be located within the communication device 2300 or outside the communication device 2300, without limitation. The processor 2301 can be used to execute instructions stored in the memory 2303 to implement the methods provided in the following embodiments of the present application.

[0366] As an optional implementation, the communication device 2300 may further include an output device 2305 and an input device 2306. The output device 2305 communicates with the processor 2301 and can display information in a variety of ways. For example, the output device 2305 can be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display device, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device, or a projector. The input device 2306 communicates with the processor 2301 and can receive user input in a variety of ways. For example, the input device 2306 can be a mouse, a keyboard, a touch screen device, or a sensor device.

[0367] In some embodiments, in terms of hardware implementation, those skilled in the art may conceive that the communication device 210 shown in FIG. 21 may take the form of the communication device 2300 shown in FIG. 23 .

[0368] As an example, the functions / implementation process of the processing module 2101 in FIG21 can be implemented by the processor 2301 in the communication device 2300 shown in FIG23 calling the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 2303. The functions / implementation process of the transceiver module 2102 in FIG21 can be implemented by the communication interface 2304 in the communication device 2300 shown in FIG23.

[0369] It should be noted that the structure shown in FIG23 does not constitute a specific limitation on the network device or terminal device. For example, in other embodiments of the present application, the network device or terminal device may include more or fewer components than shown in the figure, or combine or split certain components, or arrange the components differently. The components shown in the figure may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0370] In some embodiments, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication device, which includes a processor for implementing the method in any of the above method embodiments.

[0371] As a possible implementation, the communication device further includes a memory. The memory is used to store necessary computer programs and data. The computer program may include instructions, and the processor may invoke the instructions in the computer program stored in the memory to instruct the communication device to execute any of the above-described method embodiments. Of course, the memory may not be located in the communication device.

[0372] As another possible implementation, the communication device also includes an interface circuit, which is a code / data read / write interface circuit, and the interface circuit is used to receive computer execution instructions (computer execution instructions are stored in a memory, may be read directly from the memory, or may pass through other devices) and transmit them to the processor.

[0373] As another possible implementation, the communication device further includes a communication interface, where the communication interface is used to communicate with a module outside the communication device.

[0374] It can be understood that the communication device can be a chip or a chip system. When the communication device is a chip system, it can be composed of chips or include chips and other discrete devices. The embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

[0375] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program or instruction stored thereon, which implements the functions of any of the above method embodiments when executed by a computer.

[0376] The present application also provides a computer program product, which implements the functions of any of the above method embodiments when executed by a computer.

[0377] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that, for the sake of convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described systems, devices, and units may refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0378] It is understood that the systems, devices, and methods described in this application may also be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. For example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some interface, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, and may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

[0379] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, i.e., they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Components shown as units may or may not be physical units. Some or all of these units may be selected to achieve the objectives of this embodiment as needed.

[0380] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

[0381] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using a software program, 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 instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more media integrated therein. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state drive (SSD)). In the embodiment of the present application, the computer may include the aforementioned device.

[0382] Although the present application is described herein in conjunction with various embodiments, in the process of implementing the claimed application, those skilled in the art can understand and implement other changes to the disclosed embodiments by reviewing the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word "comprising" does not exclude other components or steps, and "a" or "an" does not exclude multiple situations. A single processor or other unit can implement several functions listed in the claims. Certain measures are recorded in different dependent claims, but this does not mean that these measures cannot be combined to produce good results.

[0383] Although the present application has been described with reference to specific features and embodiments thereof, it is apparent that various modifications and combinations may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Accordingly, this specification and the drawings are merely illustrative of the present application as defined by the appended claims and are deemed to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations or equivalents within the scope of the present application. Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various modifications and variations to the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Thus, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A signal sending method, characterized in that The method includes: Receiving first configuration information for indicating a mapping manner, where the mapping manner includes mapping the same reference signal in a first part and a second part of a plurality of consecutive time-domain symbols. Among the reference signal in the first part and the reference signal in the second part, the last time-domain symbol of one reference signal is continuous in time domain with the first time-domain symbol of the other reference signal, and the plurality of consecutive time-domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part; Sending a reference signal according to the first configuration information.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that The method further includes: Receiving first indication information for indicating an effective period of the plurality of consecutive time-domain symbols; The sending the reference signal according to the first configuration information includes: Sending the reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein The effective period overlaps with a period when the terminal device is within a boundary region of coverage areas of a plurality of network devices.

4. The method according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that, The effective period includes at least one intra-track handover period and / or at least one inter-track handover period; where The intra-track handover period is for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, and the first condition includes that the terminal device is within a boundary region of coverage areas of a plurality of network devices on the same track; The inter-track handover period is for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, and the second condition includes that the terminal device is within a boundary region of coverage areas of a plurality of network devices on different tracks.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein The duration of the intra-track handover period is less than the duration of the inter-track handover period.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that, When the effective period includes a plurality of the intra-track handover periods, the method further includes: Receiving second indication information for indicating a first period and / or a first quantity, where the first period is a time interval between two adjacent intra-track handover periods among the plurality of intra-track handover periods, and between the two adjacent intra-track handover periods, the serving network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of the intra-track handover periods; The sending the reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information includes: Sending the reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information, and the second indication information.

7. The method according to any one of claims 4-6, characterized in that When the effective period includes the plurality of inter-track handover periods, the method further includes: Receiving third indication information for indicating a second period and / or a second quantity, where the second period is a time interval between any two adjacent inter-track handover periods among the plurality of inter-track handover periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of the inter-track handover periods; The sending the reference signal according to the first configuration information and the first indication information includes: Sending the reference signal according to the first configuration information, the first indication information, and the third indication information.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that, When the effective period includes a plurality of the intra-track handovers and the at least one inter-track handover period, the method further includes: Receive fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate a starting time of an Nth intra-rail switching period among the multiple intra-rail switching periods, where the Nth intra-rail switching period is the first intra-rail switching period after the Mth inter-rail switching period among the at least one inter-rail switching period, where M is a positive integer, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that, The fourth indication information is used to indicate the starting time of the Nth intra-track switching period among the multiple intra-track switching periods, including: The fourth indication information is used to indicate an offset, and the offset is used to indicate a start time of the Nth intra-track switching period.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that The starting time of the Nth intra-track switching period is the ending time of the N-1th intra-track switching period among the multiple intra-track switching periods, the first period, and the sum of the offset, wherein the first period is the time interval between two adjacent intra-track switching periods among the multiple intra-track switching periods, and between the two adjacent intra-track switching periods, the service network device of the terminal device remains unchanged; or , The starting time of the Nth intra-track switching period is the sum of the ending time of the N-1th intra-track switching period and the offset.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1-10, characterized in that, Before receiving the first configuration information, the method further includes: receiving second configuration information, where the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, where the second time-frequency resource is used to send the reference signal; The method further comprises: Fifth indication information is received, where the fifth indication information is used to indicate deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

12. A signal receiving method, characterized in that, The method comprises: Sending first configuration information, where the first configuration information is used to indicate a mapping mode, where the mapping mode includes mapping the same reference signal to a first part and a second part of a plurality of consecutive time domain symbols, where the last time domain symbol of one reference signal and the first time domain symbol of another reference signal are consecutive in the time domain, and the plurality of consecutive time domain symbols include at least the first part and the second part; Receive a reference signal.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein The method further comprises: First indication information is sent, where the first indication information is used to indicate a valid period of the multiple consecutive time domain symbols.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein The validity period includes at least one intra-track switching period and / or at least one inter-track switching period; wherein, The intra-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a first condition, where the first condition includes that the terminal device is in a boundary area of ​​coverage areas of multiple network devices on the same track; The inter-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, where the second condition includes that the terminal device is located in a boundary area of ​​coverage areas of multiple network devices on different tracks.

15. The method according to claim 14, characterized in that, When the effective period includes a plurality of the intra-track switching periods, the method further includes: Send a second indication message, where the second indication message is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity. The first period is the time interval between two adjacent intra-track handover periods among the multiple intra-track handover periods. Between the two adjacent intra-track handover periods, the serving network device of the terminal device remains unchanged. The first quantity indicates the number of intra-track handover periods.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that, When the effective period includes multiple second effective inter-track handover periods, the method further includes: Send a third indication message, where the third indication message is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity. The second period is the time interval between any two adjacent inter-track handover periods among the multiple inter-track handover periods. The second quantity indicates the number of inter-track handover periods.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, characterized in that When the effective period includes multiple intra-track handover periods and the at least one inter-track handover period, the method further includes: Send a fourth indication message, where the fourth indication message is used to indicate the start time of the Nth intra-track handover period among the multiple intra-track handover periods. The Nth intra-track handover period is the first intra-track handover period after the Mth inter-track handover period among the at least one inter-track handover period, M is a positive integer, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein The fourth indication message is used to indicate the start time of the Nth intra-track handover period among the multiple intra-track handover periods, including: The fourth indication message is used to indicate an offset, and the offset is used to indicate the start time of the Nth intra-track handover period.

19. The method according to any one of claims 12 - 18, characterized in that, Before receiving the first configuration information, the method further includes: Send a second configuration information, where the second configuration information is used to indicate a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is used to send the reference signal; The method further includes: Send a fifth indication message, where the fifth indication message is used to indicate deactivation of the second time-frequency resource.

20. The method according to any one of claims 12-19, characterized in that, Before receiving the reference signal, the method further includes: Send a sixth indication message, where the sixth indication message is used to indicate the location information of the terminal device.

21. A signal receiving method, characterized in that, The method includes: Receive a first indication message, where the first indication message is used to indicate an effective period of multiple consecutive time-domain symbols. The multiple consecutive time-domain symbols at least include the first part and the second part. The first part and the second part are used to map the same reference signal, and the first part and the second part are consecutive in the time domain; Receive a sixth indication message, where the sixth indication message is used to indicate the location information of the terminal device; Determine a first reception period according to the first indication message and the sixth indication message; Receive the reference signal within the first reception period.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein The effective period includes at least one intra-track handover period and / or at least one inter-track handover period; where The intra-track handover period is used for the terminal device to send the reference signal under a first condition. The first condition includes that the terminal device is within the overlapping area of the coverage ranges of multiple network devices on the same track; The inter-track switching period is used for the terminal device to send a reference signal under a second condition, and the second condition includes that the terminal device is within a boundary area of coverage ranges of multiple network devices on different tracks.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein When the effective period includes multiple in-track switching periods, the method further includes: Receiving second indication information, where the second indication information is used to indicate a first period and / or a first quantity, where the first period is a time interval between two adjacent in-track switching periods among the multiple in-track switching periods, and between the two adjacent in-track switching periods, the serving network device of the terminal device remains unchanged, and the first quantity indicates the number of in-track switching periods.

24. The method according to claim 22 or 23, characterized in that, When the effective period includes multiple inter-track switching periods, the method further includes: Receiving third indication information, where the third indication information is used to indicate a second period and / or a second quantity, where the second period is a time interval between any two adjacent inter-track switching periods among the multiple inter-track switching periods, and the second quantity indicates the number of inter-track switching periods.

25. The method according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that, When the effective period includes multiple in-track switching periods and the at least one inter-track switching period, the method further includes: Receiving fourth indication information, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate a start time of the Nth in-track switching period among the multiple in-track switching periods, and the Nth in-track switching period is the first in-track switching period after the Mth inter-track switching period among the at least one inter-track switching period, M is a positive integer, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

26. The method according to claim 25, wherein The fourth indication information is used to indicate a start time of the Nth in-track switching period among the multiple in-track switching periods, including: Receiving fourth indication information for indicating an offset, where the offset is used to indicate the start time of the Nth in-track switching period.

27. The method according to any one of claims 21-26, characterized in that, When the signal quality of the reference signal is greater than a first threshold, the method further includes: Sending seventh indication information, where the seventh indication information is used to indicate the terminal device.

28. A communication device, characterized in that, The communication device includes a transceiver module and a processing module, The transceiver module is configured to perform a receiving action or a sending action in the method according to any one of claims 1-11, or is configured to perform a receiving action or a sending action in the method according to any one of claims 12-20, or is configured to perform a receiving action or a sending action in the method according to any one of claims 21-27; The processing module is configured to perform a processing action in the method according to any one of claims 1-11, or is configured to perform a processing action in the method according to any one of claims 12-20, or is configured to perform a processing action in the method according to any one of claims 21-27.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, A computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions or programs. When the computer instructions or programs are run on a computer, the method according to any one of claims 1-11 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 12-20 is executed, or the method according to any one of claims 21-27 is executed.

30. A computer program product, characterized in that, When the computer program product runs on a communication device, to cause the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 1-11, or to cause the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 12-20, or to cause the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 21-27.

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