Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

The present application provides a communication method and an apparatus. The method comprises: monitoring a wake-up signal on a first link; and when the first link receives a wake-up signal, waking up a second link so as to allow the second link to enter a discontinuous reception (DRX) on duration, and, within the DRX on duration, stopping monitoring a wake-up signal on the first link, the power consumption of the first link being lower than that of the second link. While the power consumption of terminal devices is reduced by means of wake-up signals, the time delay of data transmission can also be ensured.

Description

Communication method and device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application with application number 202311635898.5 filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of China on November 30, 2023, and priority to the Chinese patent application with the invention name “A Communication Method and Device”, all contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communications, and more particularly, to a communication method and apparatus. Background Art

[0003] To reduce power consumption in terminal devices, discontinuous reception (DRX) technology has been proposed. Specifically, in DRX mode, a terminal device can periodically enter a sleep period and not monitor subframes carrying the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). When the terminal device needs to monitor, a wake-up signal is used to wake it up, causing it to enter an active period (on duration) from the sleep period. This allows the terminal device to achieve both power and energy conservation.

[0004] How to further save power in terminal devices and effectively ensure timely data transmission while saving power are issues that need to be considered.

[0005] Summary of the Invention

[0006] The present application provides a communication method and apparatus that can reduce the power consumption of a terminal device through a wake-up signal while ensuring the delay of data transmission.

[0007] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, comprising: monitoring a wake-up signal on a first link; waking up a second link when the first link receives the wake-up signal, so that the second link enters a discontinuous reception (DRX) activation period, and stopping monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link during the DRX activation period, wherein power consumption of the first link is lower than that of the second link.

[0008] In the embodiments of the present application, the "first link" may be referred to as the "auxiliary link" and the "second link" may be referred to as the "primary link." However, it should be noted that the above names are merely exemplary and do not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. It is sufficient that the power consumption of the first link is lower than that of the second link.

[0009] In the above solution of the embodiment of the present application, when the second link is already in the DRX activation period, the first link is no longer used to monitor the wake-up signal, which can save device power consumption.

[0010] For example, a low-power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) can be configured. The auxiliary link monitors for LP-WUS and, upon receiving it, wakes up the primary link to enter the DRX active period and monitor PDCCH subframes. Since the primary link is already in the monitoring state, the auxiliary link no longer needs to monitor for LP-WUS to wake up the primary link, thereby further saving power.

[0011] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link includes: periodically monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link, or monitoring the wake-up signal within a first time period, wherein the first time period is a period of time before the start of the DRX activation period.

[0012] Based on the above scheme, there are two ways to monitor the wake-up signal on the first link: periodically monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link, or monitoring the wake-up signal for a period of time before the terminal enters the DRX activation period. Compared with continuously monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link, the discontinuous monitoring in this application can achieve the purpose of saving more power.

[0013] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: determining a monitoring period and a monitoring bias of the wake-up signal; and determining a monitoring timing for periodically monitoring the wake-up signal according to the monitoring period and the monitoring bias of the wake-up signal.

[0014] Based on the above scheme, the terminal device can determine the specific monitoring time of the wake-up signal according to the monitoring period and monitoring bias of the wake-up signal, such as monitoring the system frame number and subframe number, so as to realize periodic monitoring of the wake-up signal, which can save more power than the continuous monitoring method.

[0015] One or more of the parameters such as the monitoring period and the monitoring offset may be determined by the terminal device itself or indicated to the terminal device by the network device.

[0016] In conjunction with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: the terminal can determine different long and short periods of wake-up signal monitoring timing based on the size of the monitoring period parameter. The long monitoring period and the short monitoring period can be switched between each other.

[0017] For example, the terminal starts with a long listening period wake-up signal by default on the first link. After the wake-up signal is detected for the first time, it switches to a short listening period wake-up signal or directly enters the continuous listening wake-up signal mode. After the wake-up signal is detected, it indicates that there may be subsequent business scheduling. Whether the short listening period is compared with the long listening period, the effect of reducing business latency can be achieved. If no wake-up signal is detected after a short listening period or a period of continuous monitoring, the terminal can switch back to the long listening period to achieve deep energy saving.

[0018] In combination with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method also includes: receiving first indication information from a network device, the first indication information is used to indicate a second duration, and the second duration is the minimum time length for continuously monitoring the wake-up signal; determining the listening timing for periodically monitoring the wake-up signal, including: determining the listening timing for periodically monitoring the wake-up signal based on the first indication information received by the network device, the listening period of the wake-up signal, and the listening bias.

[0019] Based on the above solution, the network device can indicate the second duration, so that the terminal device can determine the monitoring period, thereby achieving the effect of the network device flexibly controlling the first link to periodically monitor the wake-up signal. For example, the network device can indicate the above second duration through newly added timer information.

[0020] In conjunction with the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the monitoring period and / or the monitoring offset are predefined by the protocol. In this way, there is no need for the network device to perform parameter indication, thus saving signaling overhead.

[0021] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving second indication information sent by the network device, where the second indication information is used to instruct to stop monitoring the wake-up signal during the DRX activation period.

[0022] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving third indication information sent by the network device, where the third indication information is used to indicate monitoring of a wake-up signal on the first link after the DRX activation period ends.

[0023] Based on the above scheme, the network device can indicate the start and end of the terminal device's monitoring of the wake-up signal on the first link. For example, when the second link monitoring opportunity ends, the network device sends a signal to indicate the current first link monitoring opportunity, which can be the same as the previous first link monitoring opportunity; or, because the terminal device has just passed the second link data transmission, the possibility of data transmission in a short period of time is not very high, so a shorter monitoring duration or a longer period first link monitoring opportunity can be set to achieve the purpose of saving more power. The setting of the first link monitoring opportunity is not limited here.

[0024] In other implementations, the terminal device may independently determine when to stop monitoring the LP-WUS on the first link. For example, if the LP-WUS monitoring opportunity falls within a DRX activation period, the terminal device may independently stop monitoring the LP-WUS during the DRX activation period, thereby saving power.

[0025] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, fourth indication information is received from a network device, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first duration.

[0026] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the fourth indication information is further used to indicate a bandwidth part BWP resource, and the time domain resources corresponding to the BWP resource are within the first duration.

[0027] In combination with the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first duration is determined by the network device according to a sleep state of the second link.

[0028] Based on the above solution, the monitoring time period can be determined according to the sleep state of the second link. Different sleep states have different wake-up times. In this way, the network device configures a long time period according to the second link being in deep sleep and a short time period according to the second link being in light sleep.

[0029] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, the method comprising: a network device sending first indication information, the first indication information being used to indicate a second duration, the second duration being a minimum time length for continuously monitoring a wake-up signal.

[0030] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the network device sends second indication information, where the second indication information is used to instruct to stop monitoring the wake-up signal during the DRX activation period.

[0031] In combination with the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the network device sends third indication information, where the third indication information is used to instruct to monitor the wake-up signal on the first link after the DRX activation period ends.

[0032] Based on the above solution, the network device can instruct the terminal device to start and end monitoring LP-WUS on the first link. For example, when the second link monitoring period ends, the network device sends a signal indicating the current first link monitoring period, which can be the same as the previous first link monitoring period. Because the terminal device has just transmitted data on the second link, the possibility of data transmission in a short period of time is not high. Therefore, a shorter monitoring duration or a longer period of monitoring can be set for the first link monitoring period to achieve greater power conservation.

[0033] In combination with the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the network device sends fourth indication information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first duration. The fourth indication information is also used to indicate the bandwidth part BWP resources, and the time domain resources corresponding to the BWP resources are located within the first duration.

[0034] In a third aspect, a communication device is provided, the device being configured to execute the method provided in any one of the first and second aspects. Specifically, the device may include units and / or modules, such as a processing unit and / or a communication unit, configured to execute the method provided in any one of the above implementations of any one of the first and second aspects.

[0035] In one implementation, the apparatus is a communication device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device). When the apparatus is a communication device, the communication unit may be a transceiver or an input / output interface; the processing unit may be at least one processor. Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input / output interface may be an input / output circuit.

[0036] In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip, chip system, or circuit used in a communication device. When the apparatus is a chip, chip system, or circuit used in a communication device, the communication unit may be an input / output interface, interface circuit, output circuit, input circuit, pin, or related circuit on the chip, chip system, or circuit; and the processing unit may be at least one processor, processing circuit, or logic circuit.

[0037] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, comprising: a memory for storing programs; and at least one processor for executing computer programs or instructions stored in the memory to execute the method provided in any one of the above-mentioned implementations of any one of the above-mentioned first to second aspects.

[0038] In one implementation, the apparatus is a communication device (such as a terminal device or a network device).

[0039] In another implementation, the apparatus is a chip, a chip system, or a circuit used in a communication device.

[0040] In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a processor for executing the methods provided in the above aspects.

[0041] For the operations such as sending and acquiring / receiving involved in the processor, unless otherwise specified, or if they do not conflict with their actual functions or internal logic in the relevant descriptions, they can be understood as operations such as processor output and input, or as sending and receiving operations performed by the radio frequency circuit and antenna. This application does not limit this.

[0042] In a sixth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which stores a program code for execution by a device, and the program code includes a method provided by any one of the above-mentioned implementation methods for executing any one of the above-mentioned first to second aspects.

[0043] In a seventh aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided, which, when run on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method provided by any one of the above-mentioned implementations of any one of the above-mentioned first to second aspects.

[0044] In an eighth aspect, a chip is provided, which includes a processor and a communication interface. The processor reads instructions stored in a memory through the communication interface and executes the method provided by any of the above-mentioned implementation methods of any of the above-mentioned first to second aspects.

[0045] Optionally, as an implementation method, the chip also includes a memory, in which a computer program or instruction is stored, and the processor is used to execute the computer program or instruction stored on the memory. When the computer program or instruction is executed, the processor is used to execute the method provided in any one of the above implementation methods of any one of the first to second aspects.

[0046] In a ninth aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising a first communication device and a second communication device, wherein the first communication device is configured to execute the method provided in any one of the implementations of the first aspect, and the second communication device is configured to execute the method provided in any one of the implementations of the second aspect.

[0047] In the tenth aspect, a computer program product is provided, which includes: a computer program (also referred to as code, or instructions), which, when executed, enables a computer to execute a method in any possible implementation of the first to second aspects above. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0048] FIG1 is a schematic architecture diagram of a communication system 100 of the present application.

[0049] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of an example of DRX configuration of the present application.

[0050] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the LP-WUS wake-up mechanism of the present application.

[0051] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of an example of an auxiliary link monitoring LP-WUS according to the present application.

[0052] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of determining a temporary monitoring position during auxiliary link monitoring in the present application.

[0053] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of an example of monitoring LP-WUS during auxiliary link monitoring opportunity according to the present application.

[0054] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of another example of monitoring LP-WUS during auxiliary link monitoring opportunity according to the present application.

[0055] FIG8 is a schematic diagram of an example of the auxiliary link continuously monitoring LP-WUS of the present application.

[0056] FIG9 is a schematic diagram of another example of monitoring LP-WUS during auxiliary link monitoring opportunity according to the present application.

[0057] FIG10 is a schematic block diagram of an example of a communication device of the present application.

[0058] FIG11 is a schematic block diagram of an example of a terminal device of the present application.

[0059] FIG12 is a schematic block diagram of an example of a network device of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0060] The technical solution in this application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0061] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as: global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, code division multiple access (CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (GPRS), long term evolution (LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (TDD), universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, future fifth generation (5G) system or new radio (NR), etc.

[0062] As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device in the embodiments of the present application may refer to a user equipment, an access terminal device, a user unit, a user station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal device, a mobile device, a user terminal device, a wireless communication device, a user agent or a user device. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a future 5G network or a terminal device in a future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), etc., and the embodiments of the present application are not limited to this.

[0063] As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be called wearable smart devices, which are a general term for wearable devices that are intelligently designed and developed using wearable technology for daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing, and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothes or accessories. Wearable devices are not only hardware devices, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Broadly speaking, wearable smart devices include those that are fully functional, large in size, and can achieve complete or partial functions without relying on smartphones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, as well as those that only focus on a certain type of application function and need to be used in conjunction with other devices such as smartphones, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0064] In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can also be a terminal device in the Internet of Things (IoT) system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, thereby realizing an intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and object-to-object interconnection.

[0065] The network device in the embodiment of the present application can be a device for communicating with a terminal device. The network device can be a base transceiver station (BTS) in a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system or a code division multiple access (CDMA), or a base station (NodeB, NB) in a wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, or an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, or a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or the network device can be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a network device in a future 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved PLMN network, etc. It can be an access point (AP) in a WLAN, or a 5G base station (gNodeB, gNB) in an NR system. The embodiment of the present application is not limited.

[0066] In addition, in an embodiment of the present application, the access network device provides services for a cell, and the terminal device communicates with the access network device through the transmission resources used by the cell (for example, frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources). The cell can be a cell corresponding to the access network device (for example, a base station). The cell can belong to a macro base station or a base station corresponding to a small cell. The small cells here may include: metro cells, micro cells, pico cells, femto cells, etc. These small cells have the characteristics of small coverage and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-speed data transmission services.

[0067] In addition, multiple cells can operate simultaneously on the same frequency on a carrier in an LTE or 5G system. In certain special scenarios, the concepts of carrier and cell can be considered equivalent. For example, in a carrier aggregation (CA) scenario, when a secondary carrier is configured for a user equipment (UE), both the carrier index of the secondary carrier and the cell identification (Cell ID) of the secondary cell operating on the secondary carrier are carried. In this case, the concepts of carrier and cell can be considered equivalent, for example, UE accessing a carrier is equivalent to accessing a cell.

[0068] The core network device can be connected to multiple access network devices to control the access network devices, and can distribute data received from the network side (for example, the Internet) to the access network devices.

[0069] In addition, in the present application, the network equipment may include gNB, such as macro base stations, micro base stations, indoor hotspots, and relay nodes, etc., whose function is to send radio waves to terminal devices to realize downlink data transmission on the one hand, and send scheduling information to control uplink transmission on the other hand, and receive radio waves sent by terminal devices to receive uplink data transmission.

[0070] Among them, the functions and specific implementation methods of the terminal devices, access network devices and core network devices listed above are only exemplary descriptions, and this application is not limited to them.

[0071] In an embodiment of the present application, a terminal device or a network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a central processing unit (CPU), a memory management unit (MMU), and memory (also called main memory). The operating system can be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes, such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a Windows operating system. The application layer includes applications such as browsers, address books, word processing software, and instant messaging software. In addition, the embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the specific structure of the execution subject of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application. As long as it is possible to communicate according to the method provided in the embodiment of the present application by running a program that records the code of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the execution subject of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module in the terminal device or the network device that can call a program and execute the program.

[0072] In addition, various aspects or features of the present application can be implemented as methods, devices or products using standard programming and / or engineering techniques. The term "product" as used in this application covers computer programs that can be accessed from any computer-readable device, carrier or medium. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks or magnetic tapes, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact discs (CDs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), etc.), smart cards and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), cards, sticks or key drives, etc.). In addition, the various storage media described herein may represent one or more devices and / or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing and / or carrying instructions and / or data.

[0073] It should be noted that in an embodiment of the present application, multiple applications can be run at the application layer. In this case, the application that executes the communication method of an embodiment of the present application and the application used to control the receiving device to complete the action corresponding to the received data may be different applications.

[0074] To better understand the technical solution of the present application, the following description is made from the following aspects: a communication system, a communication method, and a communication device.

[0075] 1. Communication System

[0076] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a system 100 to which the communication method according to an embodiment of the present application can be applied. As shown in FIG1 , system 100 includes an access network device 102. Access network device 102 may include one or multiple antennas, such as antennas 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, and 114. Furthermore, access network device 102 may additionally include a transmitter chain and a receiver chain. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that each of these may include multiple components related to signal transmission and reception (e.g., a processor, a modulator, a multiplexer, a demodulator, a demultiplexer, or an antenna, etc.).

[0077] The access network device 102 can communicate with a plurality of terminal devices, such as the terminal device 116 and the terminal device 122. However, it is understood that the access network device 102 can communicate with any number of terminal devices similar to the terminal device 116 or the terminal device 122. The terminal devices 116 and 122 can be, for example, cellular phones, smartphones, laptops, handheld communication devices, handheld computing devices, satellite radios, global positioning systems, PDAs, and / or any other suitable devices for communicating on the wireless communication system 100.

[0078] 1 , terminal device 116 is in communication with antennas 112 and 114, where antennas 112 and 114 transmit information to terminal device 116 via a forward link (also known as a downlink) 118 and receive information from terminal device 116 via a reverse link (also known as an uplink) 120. Furthermore, terminal device 122 is in communication with antennas 104 and 106, where antennas 104 and 106 transmit information to terminal device 122 via a forward link 124 and receive information from terminal device 122 via a reverse link 126.

[0079] In an embodiment of the present application, data or information may be carried by time-frequency resources, wherein the time-frequency resources may include resources in the time domain and resources in the frequency domain.

[0080] In the time domain, time-frequency resources may include one or more time units. A time unit may be a symbol, a mini-slot, a slot, a frame, or a subframe. A slot may consist of multiple symbols, for example, 14 symbols; a mini-slot may include at least one symbol (for example, 2 symbols, 4 symbols, 7 symbols, or any number of symbols less than or equal to 14 symbols).

[0081] In the present application, in the time domain, it can be divided into frames with a time length of 10ms, each frame is divided into 10 subframes of the same size and a length of 1ms, and each subframe can contain one or more time slots, where the number of time slots can be determined according to the subcarrier spacing.

[0082] In order to facilitate a better understanding of the technical solution of this application, some related technologies involved in the technical solution of this application are introduced.

[0083] 1) DRX: Discontinuous Reception. A DRX cycle may include an activation period and a sleep period. The activation period may also be referred to as the on-duration period. The terminal device may communicate with the network device during the activation period. During the activation period, the UE monitors the downlink PDCCH subframes, and during this period, the UE is in an awake state. The sleep period may also be referred to as the DRX opportunity (opportunity for DRX) period. The terminal device may not transmit data during the sleep period. As shown in Figure 2, during the sleep period, the UE goes into sleep and does not monitor the PDCCH subframes in order to save power. The longer the time used for DRX sleep, the lower the power consumption of the UE, but accordingly, the delay in service transmission will also increase.

[0084] 2) LP-WUS: Low-power wake-up signal. As shown in Figure 3, under the LP-WUS configuration, the terminal device adopts a combination of the main link and the auxiliary link. The auxiliary link detects (also called monitors) the LP-WUS signal. After detecting the LP-WUS, it wakes up the main link to monitor the PDCCH.

[0085] 3) Combination of LP-WUS and DRX: As shown in Figure 4, in order to reduce the power consumption of the main receiver of the existing terminal device, a longer sleep cycle can be used to enable the terminal device to periodically start communicating, but this will bring about a larger communication delay. If the terminal device can be woken up on demand, both low power consumption performance and latency requirements can be taken into account. The low-power wake-up receiver can realize the on-demand wake-up function. By adding the auxiliary wake-up module to the main receiver of the existing terminal device, the main receiver of the terminal device is turned off or in sleep mode when there is no communication demand, and only the low-power wake-up receiver is turned on to monitor LP-WUS and wake up the main receiver in time. During the DRX sleep period of the main receiver of the terminal device, after the auxiliary link of the terminal device monitors the LP-WUS signal, it can wake up the main receiver and activate the monitoring of PDCCH, thereby completing the data transmission service.

[0086] 4) DRX timer: also known as the on-duration timer, this timer is used to determine the minimum length of the on-duration period. During the operation of the timer or before the timer expires, the terminal device is in the on-duration period and can turn on the receiving antenna to monitor the PDCCH.

[0087] 5) Auxiliary link: Detects and receives LP-WUS, triggering the start of the main link.

[0088] 6) Main Link: Used for data transmission and reception. Before waking up, the main link has multiple sleep states, including ultra-deep sleep, deep sleep, light sleep, and micro-sleep. Each state differs in its ramp-up time, which primarily refers to the time it takes to start the main link-related hardware.

[0089] 7) Main receiver (MR): The UE is equipped with an MR, main circuit (MR), or main module for transmitting and receiving signals. The UE can operate on the 5G NR main link through the MR. The main receiver is the receiver on the terminal device's main link. The main receiver can be in the on, off, and sleep states. The sleep state can be divided into deep sleep state, ultra-deep sleep state, etc. depending on the degree of sleep. The energy and time required to switch to the on state vary from state to state. The main receiver mainly includes the RF processing module and the baseband processing module.

[0090] 8) Low-power receiver: The receiver on the auxiliary link of the terminal device, also known as a low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR). Compared to the main receiver, the low-power receiver has lower complexity, lower power consumption, and lower processing capabilities (such as demodulation and calculation). It is used to receive LP-WUS, low-power synchronization signal (LP-SS), or low-power reference signal.

[0091] Before introducing the solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the following points are explained.

[0092] (1) In the embodiments of the present application, "indication" may include direct indication, indirect indication, explicit indication, and implicit indication. When describing that a certain indication information is used to indicate A, it can be understood that the indication information carries A, directly indicates A, or indirectly indicates A.

[0093] In this application, the information indicated by the indication information is referred to as the information to be indicated. In the specific implementation process, there are many ways to indicate the information to be indicated, such as but not limited to, the information to be indicated can be directly indicated, such as the information to be indicated itself or the index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated can also be indirectly indicated by indicating other information, wherein there is an association between the other information and the information to be indicated. It is also possible to indicate only a part of the information to be indicated, while the other parts of the information to be indicated are known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of specific information can also be achieved with the help of the arrangement order of each information agreed in advance (for example, stipulated by the protocol), thereby reducing the indication overhead to a certain extent. In addition, the information to be indicated can be sent together as a whole, or it can be divided into multiple sub-information and sent separately, and the sending period and / or sending time of these sub-information can be the same or different.

[0094] (2) In this application, "sending" and "receiving" indicate the direction of signal transmission. For example, "sending information to XX" can be understood as the destination of the information being XX, which can include direct sending through the air interface, and also include indirect sending through the air interface by other units or modules. "Receiving information from YY" can be understood as the source of the information being YY, which can include direct receiving from YY through the air interface, and also include indirect receiving from YY through the air interface from other units or modules. "Sending" can also be understood as the "output" of the chip interface, and "receiving" can also be understood as the "input" of the chip interface. In other words, sending and receiving can be carried out between devices, for example, between a network device and a terminal device, or can be carried out within a device, for example, sending or receiving between components, modules, chips, software modules or hardware modules within the device through a bus, a line or an interface.

[0095] (3) In the various embodiments of this application, unless otherwise specified or there is a logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced by each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments based on their inherent logical relationships.

[0096] (4) In this application, the terms "first" and "second" are used for convenience of description only and are not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application. They are not used to describe the order or precedence of features. It should be understood that the terms described in this manner may be interchangeable, where appropriate, to describe solutions other than the embodiments of this application.

[0097] (5) In the embodiments of the present application, the first link may be an auxiliary link, and the second link may be a primary link, provided that the power consumption of the first link is less than that of the second link. The embodiments of the present application are primarily described using the primary link and the auxiliary link as examples, and these specific names do not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0098] (6) In the present application, the first link can also wake up the receiver with low power consumption and can be used to receive the wake-up signal, which is not limited here.

[0099] (7) In this application, the first link may also be referred to as a first receiver, and the second link may also be referred to as a second receiver. These specific names do not limit the scope of the embodiments of this application.

[0100] (8) In the embodiments of the present application, the wake-up signal may be an LP-WUS or other type of wake-up signal, as long as its function is to wake up the primary link to monitor the PDCCH. This embodiment mainly uses the LP-WUS as an example for illustration, and this specific name does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0101] 2. Communication method

[0102] This application mainly addresses the problem of how to reduce the power consumption of terminal devices through LP-WUS while ensuring the delay of data transmission.

[0103] Through the embodiments of the present application, the LP-WUS monitoring timing of the auxiliary link can be determined, and on this basis, further consideration can be given to how LP-WUS can cooperate more effectively with DRX, specifically: monitoring the wake-up signal on the auxiliary link; when the auxiliary link receives the wake-up signal, waking up the main link so that the main link enters the discontinuous reception DRX activation period, and stopping monitoring the wake-up signal on the auxiliary link during the DRX activation period. The power consumption of the auxiliary link is lower than that of the main link. Therefore, compared to continuously monitoring the LP-WUS signal on the auxiliary link without distinguishing whether the main link has been awakened, the solution of the embodiments of the present application can further reduce the power consumption of the device and achieve the purpose of saving more power.

[0104] The various solutions of the embodiments of the present application are described in detail below.

[0105] The terminal device can periodically monitor the wake-up signal on the auxiliary link instead of continuously monitoring the wake-up signal, thereby saving power. Specifically, the terminal device can determine the monitoring timing of the periodic monitoring of LP-WUS on the auxiliary link, such as the system frame number and subframe number of LP-WUS.

[0106] In one possible implementation, the terminal device may determine a monitoring period and a monitoring offset of the LP-WUS; and determine a monitoring timing of the LP-WUS according to the monitoring period and the monitoring offset of the LP-WUS.

[0107] Among them, the monitoring period and / or monitoring bias can be predefined by the protocol, or determined by the network device and the terminal device through negotiation, or determined by the terminal device based on other information, such as according to the instructions of the network device, or determined by itself based on other local information.

[0108] In an embodiment of the present application, the auxiliary link of the terminal device starts monitoring the LP-WUS signal at the determined monitoring opportunity, wherein the specific position of the monitoring opportunity (including the system frame number and subframe number) can be determined by the following formula 1:

[0109] [(SFN×10) +subframe number] mod (LP-WUS cycle)=(LP-WUS offset) Equation 1

[0110] Wherein, SFN represents the system frame number, subframe number represents the subframe number, and mod represents the modulus operation.

[0111] Among them, LP-WUS cycle represents the monitoring period of LP-WUS, that is, every few time units (for example, subframes) to start monitoring LP-WUS. LP-WUS offset represents the monitoring bias of LP-WUS, that is, it refers to the time unit (for example, subframe) at which the LP-WUS monitoring period begins. The terminal device determines the monitoring period and monitoring bias of LP-WUS, that is, determines the LP-WUS cycle and LP-WUS offset in formula 1, so that the terminal device can determine the monitoring timing of LP-WUS in each system frame starting from the starting system frame (for example, frame number 0). The monitoring timing of LP-WUS can be represented by (SFN, subframe number).

[0112] It should be noted that the time unit for scheduling in the time domain is a subframe, such as 1 ms. A radio frame includes 10 subframes, and the radio frame number is called the system frame number. If the number of subframes included in a frame is adjusted, the above formula 1 can be modified accordingly, and such modification also falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application. In addition, those skilled in the art will understand that the above formula 1 is only one possible expression form, and any equivalent or equivalent calculation method should fall within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

[0113] One possible implementation method is that the terminal device may receive a first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a second duration, wherein the second duration is the minimum time length for continuously monitoring the LP-WUS signal; and determine the listening timing for periodically monitoring the wake-up signal, including: determining the listening timing for periodically monitoring the wake-up signal based on the first indication information received from the network device, the listening period of the wake-up signal, and the listening bias.

[0114] The second duration is the minimum duration for continuously monitoring the LP-WUS signal. For example, the second duration may be a timer duration, i.e., the duration for monitoring the LP-WUS within a cycle. The timer may also be referred to as an LP-WUS timer or have other names, which are not limited in this application.

[0115] Optionally, the first indication information for indicating the second duration may be directly sent by the network device to the terminal device, or may be forwarded to the terminal device via a relay device. The first indication information may be carried in an existing message such as an RRC reconfiguration message, an RRC establishment request message, or an RRC reestablishment request message, or a field indicating the second duration may be added to the first indication information.

[0116] The second duration field may include multiple optional values. For example, the multiple optional values ​​included in the field are 4, 6, and 8, indicating that the second duration may include 4 subframes, 6 subframes, or 8 subframes. The network device selects one of the values ​​and sends it to the terminal device through RRC signaling. For example, the network device selects a second duration field including 6 and sends the field to the terminal device. The terminal device can thereby determine that the second duration is 6 subframes. Optionally, these 6 subframes are consecutive subframes.

[0117] Optionally, the first indication information may also be predefined by a protocol, or sent by the network device to the terminal device at a fixed time or through a service information block (SIB) broadcast, which is not limited in this application.

[0118] The following uses an example to illustrate how to calculate the system frame number and subframe number of the auxiliary link monitored by the terminal device LP-WUS, which is expressed as (SFN, subframe number).

[0119] Assume that the LP-WUS cycle is 5 subframes, the LP-WUS offset is 2 subframes, and the LP-WUS timer occupies 2 subframes.

[0120] Combining Figure 5 and Equation 1, when the system frame number (SFN) is 0, Equation 1 is satisfied for subframe numbers 2 and 7; when the system frame number (SFN) is 1, Equation 1 is satisfied for subframe numbers 2 and 7. Since the LP-WUS timer occupies two subframes, each LP-WUS monitoring opportunity occupies two subframes. Therefore, the auxiliary link monitoring opportunities for LP-WUS signals are (0, 2), (0, 7), (1, 2), (1, 7), ..., and each monitoring opportunity is two subframes long. That is, the terminal device monitors the LP-WUS signal at the subframe positions marked in black in Figure 5 of the auxiliary link.

[0121] When the LP-WUS timer cooperates with DRX, there is a problem that the LP-WUS monitoring timing of the auxiliary link coincides with the DRX cycle of the primary link. When the primary link is already in the awake state, there is no need for the auxiliary link to monitor the LP-WUS signal during the DRX cycle. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application also provides multiple ways to stop the auxiliary link from monitoring LP-WUS during the DRX activation period of the primary link. The following will exemplify two ways to stop the auxiliary link from monitoring LP-WUS during the DRX activation period of the primary link:

[0122] Method 1: As shown in Figure 6, the auxiliary link monitors LP-WUS within the monitoring period. When LP-WUS is monitored, the main link is awakened to monitor PDCCH. When the monitoring timing of the auxiliary link LP-WUS does not coincide with the DRX activation period of the main link, that is, the monitoring timing of the solid line of the main link and the auxiliary link in Figure 6, the auxiliary link periodically monitors the LP-WUS signal. When the LP-WUS monitoring timing coincides with the DRX activation period, that is, the monitoring timing of the dotted line in Figure 6, the terminal device determines by itself that the auxiliary link does not monitor the LP-WUS signal on the LP-WUS timer. In this way, the terminal device can determine when to stop monitoring the LP-WUS signal based on the overlap of the LP-WUS monitoring timing and the DRX activation period, thereby further achieving the purpose of power saving, and does not require signaling interaction, saving signaling overhead.

[0123] Method 2: As shown in Figure 7, the terminal device can receive the second indication information sent by the network device, and the second indication information is used to instruct to stop monitoring the wake-up signal during the DRX activation period. In addition, the terminal device can receive the third indication information sent by the network device, and the third indication information is used to instruct to monitor the wake-up signal on the auxiliary link after the DRX activation period ends. In this way, the terminal device can start and / or end monitoring of LP-WUS according to the instruction of the network device, so that the network device can instruct the terminal device when to perform what kind of monitoring, thereby further achieving the purpose of power saving, and it is possible to improve the monitoring efficiency of the terminal device in a more targeted manner.

[0124] Optionally, the network device may send fifth indication information to instruct the user to stop monitoring for wake-up signals during the DRX active period, and also to instruct the user to monitor for wake-up signals on the auxiliary link after the DRX active period ends. In this way, the network device does not need to wait until the primary link enters DRX dormancy or is about to enter DRX dormancy before sending the third indication information again.

[0125] The second indication information may be sent via RRC signaling or MAC control element (MAC control element, MAC CE) signaling, and the third indication information may be sent via RRC signaling or MAC CE signaling.

[0126] Optionally, the length of the LP-WUS monitoring cycle can be flexibly configured according to the actual business situation. For example, different monitoring cycles can be achieved by adjusting the length of the LP-WUS cycle, such as a long monitoring cycle and a short monitoring cycle. It is possible to switch between long monitoring cycles and short monitoring cycles: for example, the initial default LP-WUS cycle of the auxiliary link of the terminal device is a long monitoring cycle. If LP-WUS is detected and it is found that subsequent data transmission may occur, the LP-WUS cycle can be switched to a short monitoring cycle, thereby further reducing the latency. If LP-WUS is not detected within a period of time, it can be switched back to the long monitoring cycle.

[0127] For example, the current auxiliary link LP-WUS monitoring timing is the same as the auxiliary link LP-WUS monitoring timing before the primary link activation period, that is, the auxiliary link LP-WUS monitoring timing is not changed.

[0128] For another example, the network device starts the current auxiliary link LP-WUS monitoring opportunity through RRC signaling or MAC CE indication. Since the PDCCH subframe has just been monitored through the main link, that is, data has just been received, if the terminal completes the related business, there may not be data to be transmitted immediately after entering the auxiliary link. In this case, an auxiliary link LP-WUS monitoring opportunity with a long monitoring period can be set.

[0129] For example, the LP-WUS cycle of the previous auxiliary link is T1. After the DRX activation period of the main link, the monitoring period of the next auxiliary link LP-WUS begins, and the LP-WUS cycle is set to T2. Since the main link has just received data, the value of T2 can be set relatively long, so T2>T1 can be set.

[0130] The LP-WUS monitoring cycle can be flexibly configured according to actual business conditions to achieve greater power saving.

[0131] As another embodiment, the wake-up signal may be monitored within a first duration, where the first duration is a period of time before the start of the DRX activation period.

[0132] Specifically, the DRX cycle is taken into consideration when determining when to monitor the LP-WUS, so that the setting of the LP-WUS monitoring time period is more reasonable, which can save device power consumption.

[0133] For example, the LP-WUS monitoring period may be set during the DRX dormant period, so that there is no need to perform LP-WUS monitoring during the DRX active period, thereby saving power consumption.

[0134] For another example, the LP-WUS monitoring time period may occupy part of the DRX sleep period, and there is no need to perform LP-WUS monitoring all the time, thereby further saving power consumption.

[0135] The terminal device receives fourth indication information from the network device, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first duration.

[0136] The fourth indication information is further used to indicate a bandwidth part BWP resource, and the time domain resource corresponding to the BWP resource is within the first duration.

[0137] Optionally, the fourth indication information may be sent by the network side to the terminal device.

[0138] Optionally, the fourth indication information may also be predefined by a protocol.

[0139] As shown in FIG8 , the network device configures a monitoring time period T.

[0140] It can be understood that the auxiliary link continuously monitors the LP-WUS within the first duration, and when the LP-WUS signal is monitored, the auxiliary link wakes up to monitor the PDCCH during the DRX activation period of the main link.

[0141] One possible implementation method is shown in (a) of Figure 8. The monitoring time period T is a period of time before the main link DRX activation period, and the activation period is after the end time of T. When LP-WUS is monitored within T, the main link DRX activation period is immediately awakened to monitor PDCCH.

[0142] One possible implementation method is shown in (b) of Figure 8. The end time of the monitoring time period T is a short time before the main link DRX activation period. This short time can be used for the terminal device to parse the LP-WUS, avoiding the UE entering the activation period before parsing the LP-WUS.

[0143] The first duration is determined by the network device according to the sleep state of the main link.

[0144] Before being awakened, the main link has multiple sleep states, including ultra-deep sleep, deep sleep, light sleep, and micro-sleep. The difference between these states is the wake-up time (ramp up).

[0145] In one possible implementation, it takes a long time for a main link in a deep sleep state to be awakened, so when the main link is in a deep sleep state, the network device is configured with a correspondingly longer first duration T1;

[0146] In one possible implementation, the main link in the light sleep state requires a shorter wake-up time than the deep sleep state, and the network device is configured with a correspondingly smaller first duration T2, where T1>T2. There may also be multiple durations corresponding to different sleep states, which are not limited here. For example, the ultra-deep sleep state corresponds to the network device configuration with a first duration T1, the deep sleep state corresponds to the network device configuration with a first duration T2, the light sleep state corresponds to the network device configuration with a first duration T3, and the micro sleep state corresponds to the network device configuration with a first duration T4, where T1>T2>T3>T4.

[0147] In a possible implementation, if the network device is not aligned with the main link sleep state, a larger first duration T1 is used by default.

[0148] Optionally, after configuring the first duration, the auxiliary link is enabled and monitors the LP-WUS only within the time period T. After monitoring the LP-WUS, the auxiliary link enters the DRX active period. During the remaining DRX dormant period outside the time period, the auxiliary link is disabled and no longer monitors the LP-WUS signal, thereby achieving further energy saving.

[0149] As another embodiment, as shown in FIG9 , the terminal device may further periodically monitor the LP-WUS within the first duration of the auxiliary link, which can further achieve the purpose of power saving.

[0150] Specifically, when the LP-WUS is periodically monitored within the first duration, the manner of period configuration within the first duration of the auxiliary link may be the same as that in FIG6 and FIG7 , and the embodiments of the present application will not be repeated herein.

[0151] 3. Communication Device

[0152] Referring to Figure 10 , Figure 10 is a schematic diagram of a communication device 1000 provided in an embodiment of the present application. Device 1000 includes a transceiver unit 1010 and a processing unit 1020. Transceiver unit 1010 can be used to implement corresponding communication functions. Transceiver unit 1010 can also be referred to as a communication interface or a communication unit. Processing unit 1020 can be used to perform processing, such as waking up the second link.

[0153] Optionally, the device 1000 may further include a storage unit, which may be used to store instructions and / or data. The processing unit 1020 may read the instructions and / or data in the storage unit so that the device implements the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0154] As a design, the device 1000 can be the terminal device in the aforementioned embodiment (the device 1000 can implement the steps or processes corresponding to those performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment. Among them, the transceiver unit 1010 can be used to perform the transceiver-related operations of the network device in the above method embodiment (such as sending and / or receiving data or messages), and the processing unit 1020 can be used to perform the processing-related operations of the terminal device in the above method embodiment, or operations other than transceiver (such as operations other than sending and / or receiving data or messages).

[0155] In an embodiment of the present application, the transceiver unit 1010 may have the ability to support multi-link monitoring, such as the first link and the second link mentioned above, or the main link and the auxiliary link mentioned above. For example, the transceiver unit 1010 may include two sets of receivers, namely a main receiver and a low-power wake-up receiver (not shown in the figure), wherein the main link receiver is used to monitor and receive signals on the main link, and the low-power wake-up receiver is used to monitor and receive signals on the auxiliary link. As a design, the power consumption of the low-power wake-up receiver can be lower than that of the main link receiver.

[0156] In one possible implementation, the transceiver unit 1010 may be configured to monitor a wake-up signal on a first link. The processing unit 1020 may be configured to, when the transceiver unit 1010 receives a wake-up signal on the first link, wake up the second link, causing the second link to enter a DRX active period, and stop monitoring the first link for a wake-up signal during the DRX active period. The power consumption of the first link is lower than that of the second link.

[0157] Optionally, the transceiver unit 1010 may be specifically configured to periodically monitor the wake-up signal on the first link, or monitor the wake-up signal within a first duration, where the first duration is a period of time before the start of the DRX activation period.

[0158] Optionally, the processing unit 1020 may be further configured to determine a monitoring period and a monitoring offset of the wake-up signal; and determine a monitoring timing for periodically monitoring the wake-up signal according to the monitoring period and the monitoring offset of the wake-up signal.

[0159] Optionally, the transceiver unit 1010 may also be configured to receive first indication information from a network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a second duration, and the second duration is a minimum duration for continuously monitoring a wake-up signal.

[0160] Optionally, the processing unit 1020 may be specifically configured to determine a monitoring period and a monitoring offset of the wake-up signal, and determine the monitoring period of the transceiver unit 1010 for the wake-up signal according to the first indication information received by the transceiver unit 1010 from the network device.

[0161] Optionally, the transceiver unit 1010 may also be configured to receive second indication information sent by the network device, where the second indication information is used to instruct to stop monitoring the wake-up signal during the DRX activation period.

[0162] Optionally, the transceiver unit 1010 may further be configured to receive third indication information sent by the network device, where the third indication information is used to instruct monitoring of a wake-up signal on the first link after the DRX activation period ends.

[0163] Optionally, the transceiver unit 1010 may also be configured to receive fourth indication information from the network device, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first duration.

[0164] Optionally, the transceiver unit 1010 may be specifically configured to receive fourth indication information from the network device, wherein the fourth indication information is further configured to indicate a bandwidth part BWP resource, and a time domain resource corresponding to the BWP resource is within the first duration.

[0165] It should be understood that the specific process of each unit executing the above corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiment, and for the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0166] It should also be understood that the device 1000 here is embodied in the form of a functional unit. The term "unit" here may refer to an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), an electronic circuit, a processor (such as a shared processor, a dedicated processor or a group processor, etc.) and a memory for executing one or more software or firmware programs, a combined logic circuit and / or other suitable components that support the described functions. In an optional example, those skilled in the art will understand that the device 1000 can be specifically a terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiment (such as a first link, a second link, a first receiver, a second receiver, a main receiver, and a low-power wake-up receiver), which can be used to execute the various processes and / or steps corresponding to the communication device in the above-mentioned method embodiments. To avoid repetition, they will not be described here.

[0167] The apparatus 1000 of each of the above-mentioned schemes has the function of implementing the corresponding steps performed by the terminal device (such as the first link, the second link, the first receiver, the second receiver, the main receiver, and the low-power wake-up receiver) in the above-mentioned method. The functions can be implemented by hardware, or the corresponding software can be implemented by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-mentioned functions; for example, the transceiver unit can be replaced by a transceiver (for example, the sending unit in the transceiver unit can be replaced by a transmitter, and the receiving unit in the transceiver unit can be replaced by a receiver), and other units, such as the processing unit, can be replaced by a processor to respectively perform the sending and receiving operations and related processing operations in each method embodiment.

[0168] In addition, the transceiver unit 1010 may also be a transceiver circuit (for example, may include a receiving circuit and a transmitting circuit), and the processing unit 1020 may be a processing circuit.

[0169] It should be noted that the apparatus in FIG10 may be the device in the aforementioned embodiment, or may be a chip or chip system, such as a system on chip (SoC). The transceiver unit may be an input / output circuit or a communication interface; the processing unit may be a processor, microprocessor, or integrated circuit integrated on the chip. This is not limited here.

[0170] 11 is a schematic diagram of another communication device 1100 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The device 1100 includes a processing circuit 1110, including circuits for executing the methods in the above method embodiments.

[0171] It should be understood that the specific process of each circuit executing the above corresponding steps has been described in detail in the above method embodiment, and for the sake of brevity, it will not be repeated here.

[0172] Optionally, the processing circuit 1110 may be implemented by one or more processors, including the one or more processors or a processing portion in the one or more processors.

[0173] Optionally, the apparatus 1100 further includes an interface circuit 1120. The interface circuit 1120 is configured to receive and / or transmit signals. For example, the processing circuit 1110 is configured to control the interface circuit 1120 to receive and / or transmit signals.

[0174] Optionally, the apparatus 1100 may further include a memory. The processing circuit 1110 is coupled to the memory, and the memory is used to store computer programs or instructions and / or data. The processing circuit 1110 may be used to execute the computer programs or instructions stored in the memory, or to read data stored in the memory. Optionally, there may be one or more memories.

[0175] Optionally, the memory is located inside the processing circuit, or is separately provided outside the processing circuit.

[0176] As an example, the processing circuit 1110 may have the function of the processing unit 1020 shown in FIG. 10 , and the interface circuit 1120 may have the function of the transceiver unit 1010 shown in FIG. 10 .

[0177] The interface circuit 1120 may include a transceiver, an input / output circuit, or a communication interface.

[0178] As a solution, the device 1100 is used to implement the operations performed by a communication device (such as a terminal device or a network device) in the above various method embodiments.

[0179] That is, the apparatus 1100 may be a terminal device, a network device, or a chip or chip system for a terminal device, or a chip or chip system for a network device.

[0180] It should be understood that the processing circuits mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be one or more of the following processing devices: a central processing unit (CPU), other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the portion of the aforementioned processing devices used for processing functions. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may also be any conventional processor, etc.

[0181] It should also be understood that the memory mentioned in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory and / or a non-volatile memory. Among them, the non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (RAM). For example, RAM can be used as an external cache. By way of example and not limitation, RAM includes the following forms: static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM).

[0182] It should be noted that when the processing circuit is a general-purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware component, the memory (storage module) can be integrated into the processing circuit.

[0183] It should also be noted that the memory described herein is intended to include, but is not limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

[0184] 12 is a schematic diagram of a chip system 1200 according to an embodiment of the present application. The chip system 1200 (or also referred to as a processing system) includes a logic circuit 1210 and an input / output interface 1220 .

[0185] Logic circuit 1210 may be a processing circuit within chip system 1200, configured to perform processing functions such as compressing channel information. Input / output interface 1220 may be an input / output circuit within chip system 1200, configured to output information processed by chip system 1200 or input data or signaling information to be processed into chip system 1200 for processing.

[0186] Alternatively, the logic circuit 1210 can be coupled to a memory to execute instructions in the memory, so that the chip system 1200 can implement the methods and functions of the various embodiments of the present application.

[0187] Specifically, for example, if the terminal device includes the chip system 1200, the logic circuit 1210 is coupled to the input / output interface 1220, the input / output interface 1220 can monitor the wake-up signal on the first link, and when the wake-up signal is monitored on the first link, the second link is awakened through the logic circuit 1210 to make the second link enter the DRX activation period, and stop monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link during the DRX activation period. The power consumption of the first link is lower than that of the second link.

[0188] As a solution, the chip system 1200 is used to implement the operations performed by a communication device (such as a terminal device, or a network device) in the above various method embodiments.

[0189] For example, the logic circuit 1210 is used to implement the processing-related operations performed by the terminal device (such as the first link, the second link, the first receiver, the second receiver, the main receiver, and the low-power wake-up receiver) in the above method embodiments; the input / output interface 1220 is used to implement the sending and / or receiving-related operations performed by the communication device (such as the first communication device, and the second communication device) in the above method embodiments.

[0190] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium on which computer instructions are stored for implementing the methods executed by a terminal device (such as a first link, a second link, a first receiver, a second receiver, a main receiver, or a low-power wake-up receiver) in the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0191] For example, when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer can implement the method executed by the terminal device (such as the first link, the second link, the first receiver, the second receiver, the main receiver, and the low-power wake-up receiver) in each embodiment of the above method.

[0192] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product comprising instructions, which, when executed by a computer, implement the methods performed by a terminal device (such as a first link, a second link, a first receiver, a second receiver, a main receiver, or a low-power wake-up receiver) in the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0193] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which includes the terminal device in the above embodiments (such as the first link, the second link, the first receiver, the second receiver, the main receiver, and the low-power wake-up receiver).

[0194] The explanation of the relevant contents and beneficial effects of any of the above-mentioned devices can be referred to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, which will not be repeated here.

[0195] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic. For example, the division of the units is only 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 mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0196] In the above embodiments, it can be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it can be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the process or function described in the embodiment of the present application is generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. For example, the computer can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc. The computer instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions can be transmitted from one website, computer, server or data center to another website, computer, server or data center by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) mode. The computer-readable storage medium can 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 available media integrations. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a DVD), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a solid state disk (SSD)). For example, the aforementioned available medium includes, but is not limited to, various media that can store program code, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0197] The above description is merely a specific embodiment of the present application, but the scope of protection of the present application is not limited thereto. Any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this application should be included in the scope of protection of this application. Therefore, the scope of protection of this application should be based on the scope of protection of the claims.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: include: Listening for a wake-up signal on the first link; When the first link receives the wake-up signal, the second link is woken up so that the second link enters a discontinuous reception DRX activation period, and stops monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link during the DRX activation period, wherein the power consumption of the first link is lower than that of the second link.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Listening for a wake-up signal on the first link includes: The wake-up signal is periodically monitored on the first link, or the wake-up signal is monitored within a first duration, wherein the first duration is a period of time before the DRX activation period starts.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method further comprises: Determining a monitoring period and a monitoring bias of the wake-up signal; The monitoring timing of the periodic monitoring of the wake-up signal is determined according to the monitoring period and the monitoring offset of the wake-up signal.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receiving first indication information from a network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a second duration, where the second duration is a minimum time length for continuously monitoring the wake-up signal; Determining a monitoring timing for periodically monitoring a wake-up signal includes: The monitoring timing of the periodic monitoring of the wake-up signal is determined according to the first indication information received from the network device, the monitoring period and the monitoring offset of the wake-up signal.

5. The method according to claim 4, characterized in that The monitoring period and / or the monitoring offset are predefined by a protocol.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive second indication information sent by a network device, where the second indication information is used to instruct to stop monitoring the wake-up signal during the DRX activation period.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that The method further comprises: Receive third indication information sent by a network device, where the third indication information is used to indicate monitoring the wake-up signal on the first link after the DRX activation period ends.

8. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The method further comprises: Fourth indication information is received from a network device, where the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first duration.

9. The method according to claim 8, characterized in that The fourth indication information is further used to indicate a bandwidth part BWP resource, and a time domain resource corresponding to the BWP resource is located within the first duration.

10. The method according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that: The first duration is determined by the network device according to a sleep state of the second link.

11. A communication device, characterized in that: The device comprises a processor, wherein the processor is configured to execute a computer program or instruction stored in a memory, so that the communication device executes the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

12. The device according to claim 11, characterized in that The device further comprises the memory and / or the communication interface, wherein the communication interface is coupled to the processor. The communication interface is used to input and / or output information.

13. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that: The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program or instruction, and when the computer program or instruction is executed on a communication device, the communication device is caused to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 10.

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