Beam management method and apparatus, electronic device, and storage medium

Abstract

The present application discloses a beam management method and apparatus, an electronic device, and a storage medium. The method comprises: initiating beam reporting when a first beam reporting condition is satisfied; and performing beam switching on the basis of beam reporting. In embodiments of the present application, when a terminal senses that a wireless environment has changed and beam switching needs to be performed, beam reporting is directly initiated, and then beam switching is actively performed on the basis of beam reporting.

Description

Beam management method, device, electronic device and storage medium Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a beam management method, device, electronic device and storage medium. Background Art

[0002] The fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) system and the future sixth generation mobile communication technology (6G) system are both beam-based communication systems.

[0003] 5G and 6G systems have high frequency bands and short wavelengths, resulting in high path loss and limited coverage. To compensate for the high path loss, beamforming technology is used to generate high-gain directional signals to improve coverage.

[0004] The purpose of beam management is to align the optimal set of gNodeB (gNB) beams and terminal beams for uplink and downlink, thereby obtaining the best beam pair between the gNB and the terminal. The beam management process includes beam measurement, beam reporting, beam switching, and beam recovery.

[0005] In the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the existing beam management process is controlled by the network side (such as the gNB): the network side performs beam management based on resource configuration such as the reporting settings of the Channel State Information (CSI) and its associated reference signals (including the Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) and the Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS)). The reporting of beams and CSI is managed and controlled by the network side.

[0006] Summary of the Invention

[0007] Exemplary embodiments of the present application provide a beam management method, apparatus, electronic device, and storage medium.

[0008] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a beam management method, which is applied to a terminal and includes:

[0009] When the first beam reporting condition is met, initiate beam reporting;

[0010] Beam switching is performed based on beam reporting.

[0011] In one embodiment, after initiating the beam reporting, the method further includes:

[0012] Perform self-activation of the beam;

[0013] Accordingly, the beam switching based on beam reporting includes:

[0014] Beam switching is performed based on reported and / or self-activated beams.

[0015] In one embodiment, the first beam reporting condition includes:

[0016] The terminal detects a degradation in signal quality through beam measurement.

[0017] In one embodiment, the terminal detects a degradation in signal quality through beam measurement, including at least one of the following:

[0018] The layer 1 reference signal received power L1-RSRP is less than the first threshold value,

[0019] The layer 1 signal to interference plus noise ratio L1-SINR is less than the second threshold value,

[0020] The layer 1 signal-to-noise ratio L1-SNR is less than the third threshold,

[0021] The physical downlink control channel block error rate PDCCH BLER is greater than the fourth threshold, or,

[0022] Assume that the PDCCH BLER is greater than a fifth threshold.

[0023] In one embodiment, the initiating beam reporting includes:

[0024] Sending a channel state information (CSI) update request including beam information; and / or,

[0025] A beam update request including the beam information is sent.

[0026] In one embodiment, the beam information includes at least one of the following: a beam identification ID or a beam group identification ID.

[0027] In one embodiment, the initiating beam reporting includes:

[0028] Initiate beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource or the nearest uplink resource.

[0029] In one embodiment, before initiating beam reporting, the method further includes:

[0030] Configuring a mapping relationship between uplink resources and the beams of the terminal and / or the beams of the network device;

[0031] The mapping relationship includes the correspondence between the uplink resources and the beam ID of the beam.

[0032] In one embodiment, when beam reporting is initiated in the agreed uplink resource, the beam switching based on the beam reporting includes:

[0033] In response to satisfying the first agreed condition, the terminal switches to the reported or self-activated beam for transmission and / or reception.

[0034] In one embodiment, the first agreed condition includes at least one of the following:

[0035] After transmission of N1 frames, after transmission of N2 subframes, after transmission of N3 time slots, after transmission of N4 symbols, or after expiration of timer timer; wherein N1, N2, N3 and N4 are positive integers.

[0036] In one embodiment, when beam reporting is not initiated in the agreed uplink resources, the performing beam switching based on the beam reporting includes:

[0037] In response to confirmation information from the network device, beam switching is performed based on the reported or self-activated beam.

[0038] In one embodiment, in response to confirmation information from the network device, beam switching is performed based on the beam reporting, including:

[0039] In response to the network device's consent ACK confirmation information, the reported or self-activated beam is used for transmission and / or reception.

[0040] In one embodiment, when beam reporting is not initiated in the agreed uplink resources, the method further includes:

[0041] In response to the confirmation information of the network device, the beam reporting is initiated again, or the beam management of the network device is waited for; wherein the confirmation information is a rejection NACK confirmation information.

[0042] In one embodiment, the confirmation information is received via PDCCH and / or PDSCH;

[0043] or,

[0044] The confirmation information is included in the TCI information of the downlink control information DCI and / or the medium access control-control element MAC-CE information.

[0045] In one embodiment, before performing beam switching based on beam reporting, the method further includes:

[0046] Receive TCI information in DCI sent by the network device via the physical downlink control channel PDCCH;

[0047] Beam switching is performed according to the beam indication in the TCI information.

[0048] In one embodiment, after beam switching is performed based on beam reporting, the method further includes:

[0049] Receive TCI information in DCI sent by the network device via the physical downlink control channel PDCCH;

[0050] When the beam in the TCI information is different from the self-activated beam, beam switching is performed according to the preset switching priority.

[0051] In one embodiment, performing beam switching according to a preset switching priority includes:

[0052] Prioritizing beam switching according to the beam indication in the TCI information; or,

[0053] Beam switching is performed preferentially according to reported or self-activated beams.

[0054] In one embodiment, the performing beam switching includes:

[0055] If the second agreed condition is met, beam switching is performed; or,

[0056] Direct beam switching.

[0057] In one embodiment, the second agreed condition includes:

[0058] Wait for the beam application duration BeamAppTime.

[0059] In one embodiment, the self-activation of the beam includes:

[0060] When a beam reports a first beam ID, determining the TCI state corresponding to the beam associated with the first beam ID as an activated state; and / or

[0061] When a beam reports a first beam group ID, the TCI state corresponding to each of the multiple beams associated with the first beam group ID is determined to be an activated state.

[0062] In one embodiment, the self-activation of the beam further comprises:

[0063] The QCL attribute of the downlink reference signal RS is configured, where the QCL attribute is associated with the activated TCI state.

[0064] In one embodiment, the RS includes at least one of the following:

[0065] CSI-RS, Tracking Reference Signal TRS, Synchronization Signal Block SSB, Demodulation Reference Signal DMRS of PDSCH, or DMRS of PDCCH.

[0066] In one embodiment, the method further includes:

[0067] Beam tracking is performed according to a first method; wherein the first method includes periodic, non-periodic, and semi-persistent.

[0068] In one embodiment, the beam tracking comprises:

[0069] Actively report auxiliary information of the beam structure through PUCCH or PUSCH for beam tracking;

[0070] The auxiliary information includes one or more of beam grouping information, beam coverage area information, beam width information, and beam transmission angle / incident angle information.

[0071] In one embodiment, the beam tracking comprises:

[0072] Inter-symbol beam tracking is performed on a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS between different symbols, where the different symbols represent different beams.

[0073] In one embodiment, the beam tracking comprises:

[0074] Actively enhance the reported channel state information reference signal CSI-RS and report it through PUCCH or PUSCH to perform intra-symbol beam tracking, where different frequency domain resources represented in the symbol represent different beams.

[0075] In one embodiment, before the first beam reporting condition is met, the method further includes:

[0076] receiving radio resource control (RRC) signaling sent by a network device, and determining, based on the RRC signaling, a set of candidate beams configured by the network device for the terminal and a corresponding TCI state list, where the TCI state list includes a quasi-co-location (QCL) attribute of a downlink reference signal (RS) associated with the TCI state;

[0077] receiving a media access control (MAC-CE) command sent by a network device, determining a target beam from the candidate beams based on the MAC-CE command and activating a corresponding TCI state, where the TCI state includes an activated state and an inactivated state;

[0078] The receiving network device performs beam indication by sending downlink control information DCI through the physical downlink control channel PDCCH; the DCI includes transmission configuration indicator TCI information; the TCI information is used to indicate the TCI state corresponding to the first beam, including the TCI state corresponding to the first beam, and the first beam is the beam to be specifically used by the terminal, belonging to one or more of the target beams.

[0079] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a beam management method, which is applied to a network device and includes:

[0080] In response to the beam reporting initiated by the terminal, switch to the beam associated with the beam reporting to receive and / or send signals.

[0081] In one embodiment, responding to a beam reporting initiated by a terminal includes:

[0082] The beam information reported by the terminal is received in the agreed uplink resource and / or the most recent uplink resource.

[0083] In one embodiment, the beam information includes at least one of the following:

[0084] The beam ID and beam group ID of the beam to which the terminal wants to switch.

[0085] In one embodiment, when beam information reported by a terminal is received in the agreed uplink resource, the method further includes:

[0086] Configure the mapping relationship between uplink resources and the beam of the terminal and / or the beam of the base station;

[0087] The mapping relationship includes the correspondence between the uplink resources and the beam ID of the beam.

[0088] In one embodiment, after switching to the beam associated with the beam report for reception and / or transmission, the method further includes:

[0089] Send a confirmation message to the terminal.

[0090] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a beam management device, which can be applied to a terminal, including:

[0091] A processing unit, configured to initiate beam reporting when a preset beam reporting condition is met;

[0092] The switching unit is used to perform beam switching based on beam reporting.

[0093] The first beam reporting condition includes:

[0094] The terminal detects a degradation in signal quality through beam measurement.

[0095] The terminal detecting a degradation in signal quality through beam measurement includes at least one of the following:

[0096] The layer 1 reference signal received power L1-RSRP is less than a first threshold, the layer 1 signal to interference plus noise ratio L1-SINR is less than a second threshold, the layer 1 signal to noise ratio L1-SNR is less than a third threshold, and the physical downlink control channel block error rate PDCCH BLER is greater than a fourth threshold, or it is assumed that the PDCCH BLER is greater than a fifth threshold.

[0097] Optionally, the processing unit initiates beam reporting, specifically including:

[0098] Sending a channel state information (CSI) update request including beam information; and / or,

[0099] A beam update request including the beam information is sent.

[0100] The beam information includes at least one of the following: a beam identification ID or a beam group identification ID.

[0101] Optionally, the processing unit initiates beam reporting, specifically including:

[0102] Initiate beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource or the nearest uplink resource.

[0103] The apparatus further includes: a configuration unit, configured to configure a mapping relationship between uplink resources and beams of the terminal and / or beams of the network device;

[0104] The mapping relationship includes the correspondence between the uplink resources and the beam ID of the beam.

[0105] Optionally, when the processing unit initiates beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource, the switching unit 72 performs beam switching based on the beam reporting, specifically including:

[0106] In response to satisfying the first agreed condition, the terminal switches to the reported or self-activated beam for transmission and / or reception.

[0107] The first agreed condition includes at least one of the following:

[0108] After transmission of N1 frames, after transmission of N2 subframes, after transmission of N3 time slots, after transmission of N4 symbols, or after expiration of timer timer; wherein N1, N2, N3 and N4 are positive integers.

[0109] Optionally, when the processing unit does not initiate beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource, the switching unit performs beam switching based on the beam reporting, specifically including:

[0110] In response to confirmation information from the network device, beam switching is performed based on the reported or self-activated beam.

[0111] Optionally, the switching unit, in response to confirmation information of the network device, performs beam switching based on beam reporting, specifically including:

[0112] In response to the network device's consent ACK confirmation information, the reported or self-activated beam is used for transmission and / or reception.

[0113] Optionally, when the processing unit does not initiate beam reporting in the agreed uplink resources, the processing unit is further configured to:

[0114] In response to the confirmation information of the network device, the beam reporting is initiated again, or the beam management of the network device is waited for; wherein the confirmation information is a rejection NACK confirmation information.

[0115] The confirmation information is received via PDCCH and / or PDSCH;

[0116] or,

[0117] The confirmation information is included in the TCI information of the downlink control information DCI and / or the medium access control-control element MAC-CE information.

[0118] Optionally, before performing beam switching based on beam reporting, the switching unit is further configured to:

[0119] Receive TCI information in DCI sent by the network device via the physical downlink control channel PDCCH;

[0120] Beam switching is performed according to the beam indication in the TCI information.

[0121] Optionally, after performing beam switching based on the beam reporting, the switching unit is further configured to:

[0122] Receive TCI information in DCI sent by the network device via the physical downlink control channel PDCCH;

[0123] When the beam in the TCI information is different from the self-activated beam, beam switching is performed according to the preset switching priority.

[0124] The performing beam switching according to a preset switching priority includes:

[0125] Prioritizing beam switching according to the beam indication in the TCI information; or,

[0126] Beam switching is performed preferentially according to reported or self-activated beams.

[0127] Optionally, the switching unit performs beam switching, specifically for:

[0128] If the second agreed condition is met, beam switching is performed; or,

[0129] Direct beam switching.

[0130] The second agreed condition includes:

[0131] Wait for the beam application duration BeamAppTime.

[0132] Optionally, the processing unit performs self-activation of the beam, specifically for:

[0133] When a beam reports a first beam ID, determining the TCI state corresponding to the beam associated with the first beam ID as an activated state; and / or

[0134] When a beam reports a first beam group ID, the TCI state corresponding to each of the multiple beams associated with the first beam group ID is determined to be an activated state.

[0135] The processing unit performs self-activation of the beam and is further configured to:

[0136] The QCL attribute of the downlink reference signal RS is configured, where the QCL attribute is associated with the activated TCI state.

[0137] The RS includes at least one of the following:

[0138] CSI-RS, Tracking Reference Signal TRS, Synchronization Signal Block SSB, Demodulation Reference Signal DMRS of PDSCH, or DMRS of PDCCH.

[0139] Optionally, the device further includes a tracking unit for performing beam tracking in a first manner; wherein the first manner includes periodic, non-periodic, and semi-persistent.

[0140] The tracking unit is used for beam tracking, specifically for:

[0141] Actively report auxiliary information of the beam structure through PUCCH or PUSCH for beam tracking;

[0142] The auxiliary information includes one or more of beam grouping information, beam coverage area information, beam width information, and beam transmission angle / incident angle information.

[0143] The tracking unit is used for beam tracking, specifically for:

[0144] Inter-symbol beam tracking is performed on a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS between different symbols, where the different symbols represent different beams.

[0145] The tracking unit is used for beam tracking, specifically for:

[0146] Actively enhance the reported channel state information reference signal CSI-RS and report it through PUCCH or PUSCH to perform intra-symbol beam tracking, where different frequency domain resources represented in the symbol represent different beams.

[0147] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a beam management device, which can be applied to a network device, including:

[0148] A switching unit is used to respond to the beam reporting initiated by the terminal and switch to the beam associated with the beam reporting to receive and / or send signals.

[0149] Optionally, the switching unit, in response to the beam reporting initiated by the terminal, is specifically configured to:

[0150] The beam information reported by the terminal is received in the agreed uplink resource and / or the most recent uplink resource.

[0151] The beam information includes at least one of the following:

[0152] The beam ID and beam group ID of the beam to which the terminal wants to switch.

[0153] Optionally, when the switching unit receives beam information reported by the terminal in the agreed uplink resource, the apparatus further includes a configuration unit configured to configure a mapping relationship between the uplink resource and the beam of the terminal and / or the beam of the base station;

[0154] The mapping relationship includes the correspondence between the uplink resources and the beam ID of the beam.

[0155] Optionally, after switching to the beam associated with the beam report for receiving and / or sending, the switching unit is further configured to:

[0156] Send a confirmation message to the terminal.

[0157] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides an electronic device, comprising a processor, a communication interface, a memory, and a communication bus, wherein the processor, the communication interface, and the memory communicate with each other via the communication bus;

[0158] Memory for storing computer programs;

[0159] The processor is configured to implement the above-mentioned method steps when executing the program stored in the memory.

[0160] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the method steps described above are implemented.

[0161] The beneficial effects of this application are as follows:

[0162] The beam management method, apparatus, electronic device, and storage medium provided in the embodiments of the present application enable a terminal to initiate a beam report when a first beam reporting condition is met, and then perform beam switching based on the beam report. In the embodiments of the present application, when the terminal senses a change in the wireless environment and requires beam switching, it directly initiates a beam report and then performs beam switching based on the beam report, without waiting for instructions from the network side. This reduces the signaling overhead of beam reporting and beam switching delay, thereby ensuring communication quality.

[0163] Other features and advantages of the present application will be described in the following description, and in part will become apparent from the description, or will be understood by practicing the present application. The purposes and other advantages of the present application can be realized and obtained by the structures particularly pointed out in the written description, claims, and drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0164] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, without paying any creative work, they can also obtain drawings of other embodiments based on these drawings.

[0165] The drawings described herein are used to provide a further understanding of the present application and constitute a part of the present application. The illustrative embodiments of the present application and their descriptions are used to explain the present application and do not constitute an improper limitation on the present application. In the drawings:

[0166] FIG1 is a flow chart of a beam management method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0167] FIG2 is a flowchart of the interaction between the terminal and the network device for beam alignment;

[0168] FIG3 is another flow chart of the beam management method in an embodiment of the present application;

[0169] FIG4 is an interactive flow chart of the beam management method in an embodiment of the present application;

[0170] FIG5 is another interactive flow chart of the beam management method in an embodiment of the present application;

[0171] FIG6 is another interactive flow chart of the beam management method in an embodiment of the present application;

[0172] FIG7 is a schematic structural diagram of a beam management device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0173] FIG8 is another structural diagram of a beam management device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0174] FIG9 is a schematic structural diagram of an electronic device shown in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0175] To make the purpose, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of this application more clear, the technical solutions of this application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of this application. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the technical solutions of this application, but not all of them. Based on the embodiments described in this application document, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making creative efforts shall fall within the scope of protection of the technical solutions of this application.

[0176] The terms "first" and "second" in the specification and claims of this application and the above-mentioned drawings are used to distinguish different objects, rather than to describe a specific order. In addition, the term "comprising" and any of its variations are intended to cover non-exclusive protection. For example, a process, method, system, product or device that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally also includes steps or units that are not listed, or optionally also includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices. "Multiple" in this application can mean at least two, for example, two, three or more, and the embodiments of this application are not limited thereto.

[0177] In addition, the term "and / or" in this document simply describes an association between related objects, indicating that three possible relationships exist. For example, "A and / or B" can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, or B exists alone. Furthermore, the character " / " in this document, unless otherwise specified, generally indicates an "or" relationship between the related objects.

[0178] In 3GPP, the beam management process is controlled by network equipment on the network side (such as eNB, gNB, macro base station, small base station, micro base station, pico base station, and Transmission and Receiving Point (TRP)). The network equipment performs beam management based on the resource configuration of reference signals such as SSB and CSI-RS associated with the CSI reporting. The reporting of beams and CSI is managed and controlled by the network equipment.

[0179] Specifically, the beam management process includes three parts: P1: the transmitting and receiving ends perform beam scanning simultaneously; P2: the transmitting end (referring to the terminal) beam scanning; P3: the receiving end (referring to the network device) beam scanning. Among them, for the transmitting end beam scanning, the terminal needs to report its preferred beam through beam measurement. After the beam is reported, the network device will update the transmission configuration indicator (Transmission Configuration Indication, referred to as TCI) status used for beam indication to indicate the new beam of the terminal. Optionally, when the network device receives the beam report from the terminal, it updates the TCI status by means of a media access control (MAC)-control element (CE) command and / or by indicating the TCI status through downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, referred to as DCI). This process will bring delays in beam switching and signaling overhead.

[0180] Furthermore, beam changes caused by terminal rotation or movement are unknown or unpredictable to network equipment. Although existing beam management already supports periodic, semi-persistent, and aperiodic beam management, timely beam reporting remains difficult. The above process incurs relatively high beam management latency. Existing methods can reduce latency by configuring frequent beam reporting, but this incurs significant uplink resource overhead.

[0181] Typically, network equipment may be unaware that beams and corresponding channels have undergone significant and significant changes, preventing them from performing timely beam updates and CSI updates. Due to the unpredictable nature of beam changes (e.g., due to terminal rotation or movement or environmental changes), network equipment lacks the information necessary to effectively and robustly manage and control beams and CSI reporting. For example, the gNB may be unaware that link quality, terminal location, speed, and orientation have significantly changed, resulting in a significant degradation in beam quality since the last beam update.

[0182] As described above, the existing 3GPP beam management based on network-side network device control suffers from high latency and high signaling overhead, primarily due to TCI status indication and application latency. Application latency is divided into two types: when the TCI status is known and when the TCI status is unknown. In the first case, the delay is primarily determined by the MAC-CE decoding delay. In the second case, the delay requires additional Layer 1 Reference Signal Received Power (L1-RSRP) measurement and reporting. Since the beam is unknown, this delay is caused by beam acquisition, as well as beam measurement, update, and tracking.

[0183] The beam management method provided in the embodiment of the present application firstly initiates beam reporting and self-activates when the beam reporting conditions are met by the terminal, and then performs beam switching based on the self-activated beam. The process of the method in the embodiment of the present application is shown in Figure 1. The method is applied to the terminal and the execution steps are as follows:

[0184] Step 101: When the first beam reporting condition is met, initiate beam reporting;

[0185] In some embodiments, when the terminal perceives that the communication environment has changed and the beam used by the terminal can no longer guarantee the communication quality, it determines that the first beam reporting condition is met and directly performs beam reporting to inform the network side terminal to perform beam switching.

[0186] In other embodiments, the first beam reporting condition may be other conditions, such as the terminal detecting a beam failure, or the terminal receiving a switching instruction from a network device, or the terminal responding to user control. This embodiment is not limited to this.

[0187] In some embodiments, the reported beam information may include, but is not limited to, a beam identifier ID or a beam group ID. Optionally, the beam information may also include the TCI state corresponding to the beam and / or the Quasi-Colocation (QCL) attribute of the downlink reference signal (RS) associated with the TCI state.

[0188] Optionally, the TCI state includes an active state and an inactive state.

[0189] Optionally, the QCL attributes include one or more of QCL-Type A, QCL-Type B, QCL-Type C, and QCL-Type D.

[0190] Optionally, TCI can be used to implement uplink beam indication. In this case, the uplink power control parameters may include a TCI state list and / or a power control parameter list. The power control parameters may be associated with the TCI state (i.e., when the element in the power control parameter list is configured with the TCI state) or independently of the TCI state (i.e., when the element in the power control parameter list is not configured with the TCI state).

[0191] Optionally, the TCI state may be associated with a path loss reference signal (PL-RS), that is, a pathlossReferenceRS-Id may be introduced into the TCI state.

[0192] Optionally, beam reporting can also be implemented by sending one or more uplink control indicators (UCI) on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0193] Step 102: Perform beam switching based on beam reporting.

[0194] In an embodiment of the present application, when the terminal reports a beam, it can directly switch to a new beam on its own, or it can wait for feedback information from the network device and then switch to a new beam; the new beam is one of the beams or beam groups determined during the beam reporting process.

[0195] In an optional embodiment, after the terminal initiates beam reporting, it may also include: performing self-activation of the beam; optionally, the self-activation of the beam includes: when the beam reports the first beam ID, determining the TCI state corresponding to the beam associated with the first beam ID as an activated state; and / or, when the beam reports the first beam group ID, determining the TCI state corresponding to each of the multiple beams associated with the first beam group ID as an activated state.

[0196] Optionally, the terminal may also report the activated beam / beam group information to the network device. Optionally, the reporting may be performed by associating the RS used for beam management with the activated TCI state. The RS used for beam management (such as beam measurement or reporting) may include at least one of the following: CSI-RS, SSB, PDSCH DMRS, PDCCH DMRS, etc.

[0197] Accordingly, step 102, performing beam switching based on beam reporting, includes:

[0198] Beam switching is performed based on reported and / or self-activated beams.

[0199] The beam management method provided in the embodiment of the present application is that when the terminal senses that the first reporting condition is met, for example, when the wireless environment changes and beam switching is required, the beam report is directly initiated, and then the beam report is used to perform beam switching without waiting for instructions from the network side, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of the beam report and the beam switching delay, and ensuring communication quality.

[0200] Optionally, before step 101, the network device and the terminal have already performed beam alignment, and the beam alignment process may specifically include the following process:

[0201] Step 1: The terminal receives Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling sent by a network device, and determines, based on the RRC signaling, a set of candidate transmit beams configured by the network device for the terminal and a corresponding Transmit Conf (TCI) state list, where the TCI state list includes quasi-co-location (QCL) attributes of downlink reference signals (RSs) associated with the TCI states.

[0202] Step 2: Receive a MAC-CE command sent by the network device, determine a target beam from the candidate beams based on the MAC-CE command, and activate a corresponding TCI state, where the TCI state includes an activated state and an inactivated state.

[0203] Step 3, receiving the DCI sent by the network device through PDCCH for beam indication; the DCI includes TCI information; the TCI information is used to indicate the TCI state corresponding to the first beam, including the TCI state corresponding to the first beam, and the first beam is the beam to be used specifically by the terminal, belonging to one or more of the target beams.

[0204] In step 4, the terminal sends uplink control information (UCI) through PUCCH, performs ACK confirmation to perform beam alignment with the network device, and waits for BeamAppTime before applying the first beam for communication.

[0205] Step 5: Receive the trigger status, CSI-RS resources, and reporting settings configured by the network device through RRC;

[0206] Step 6: Receive the DCI sent by the network device through the PDCCH; the DCI includes a CSI request field to dynamically trigger the terminal's non-periodic CSI reporting; the network device can also send multiple CSI-RS(s) according to the non-periodic triggering offset Aperiodic Triggering Offset, and the CSI-RS is used to dynamically trigger the terminal to perform beam measurement.

[0207] The interaction process between the network device and the terminal corresponding to the above beam alignment process can also be referred to Figure 2. As shown in Figure 2, the interaction process of beam alignment specifically includes the following steps:

[0208] Step 201: The network device sends RRC signaling to configure candidate beams for the terminal.

[0209] Optionally, the network device configures a set of candidate transmit beams and a corresponding TCI state list for the terminal through RRC signaling, where the TCI state list includes quasi-co-location QCL attributes of the RS associated with the TCI state;

[0210] Step 202: The network device sends a MAC-CE command to activate the TCI state.

[0211] Optionally, the network device determines a target beam from the candidate beams based on the MAC-CE command and activates a corresponding TCI state, where the TCI state includes an activated state and an inactivated state;

[0212] Step 203: The network device performs beam indication via the DCI sent via the PDCCH.

[0213] The DCI includes TCI information; the TCI information is used to indicate the TCI state corresponding to the first beam, including the TCI state corresponding to the first beam, where the first beam is the beam to be specifically used by the terminal and belongs to one or more of the target beams.

[0214] Step 204: The terminal sends UCI via PUCCH and performs ACK confirmation to perform beam alignment with the network device;

[0215] Step 205: After waiting for BeamAppTime, the terminal uses the first beam to communicate.

[0216] Step 206: The network device sends the trigger status, CSI-RS resources, and reporting settings configured via RRC to the terminal.

[0217] In step 207, the network device sends a DCI via the PDCCH. The DCI includes a CSI request field to dynamically trigger the terminal's aperiodic CSI reporting. The network device may also send multiple CSI-RS(s) according to the aperiodic triggering offset. The CSI-RS is used to trigger the terminal to perform beam measurement.

[0218] Optionally, the first beam reporting condition in step 101 includes but is not limited to: the terminal detects a decrease in signal quality through beam measurement.

[0219] Optionally, the terminal detects a degradation in signal quality through beam measurement, including but not limited to: a layer 1 reference signal received power L1-RSRP is less than a first threshold value;

[0220] The layer 1 signal to interference plus noise ratio L1-SINR is less than the second threshold value,

[0221] The layer 1 signal-to-noise ratio L1-SNR is less than the third threshold,

[0222] The physical downlink control channel block error rate (PDCCH BLER) is greater than the fourth threshold, or,

[0223] Assume that the PDCCH BLER is greater than a fifth threshold.

[0224] Optionally, the beam measurement may include at least one of the following: measurement of PDSCH DMRS, measurement of DMRS in SSB, measurement of PDCCH DMRS, and measurement of CSI-RS.

[0225] Optionally, the terminal initiating beam reporting may include: sending a channel state information (CSI) update request containing beam information; and / or sending a beam update request containing the beam information. Optionally, the terminal may report the beam information to the network device via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH).

[0226] Furthermore, the beam reporting can initiate the beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource or the most recent uplink resource; without waiting for the base station configuration or instruction.

[0227] Accordingly, in one possible implementation manner, before initiating beam reporting, the method further includes:

[0228] Configuring a mapping relationship between uplink resources and the beams of the terminal and / or the beams of the network device;

[0229] The mapping relationship includes a correspondence between the uplink resource and the beam ID of the beam. It should be understood that the beam for self-activation by the terminal is also selected from the beam corresponding to the uplink resource.

[0230] Optionally, uplink resources include but are not limited to uplink time slot resources and uplink frequency resources; the agreed uplink resources can be uplink resources pre-agreed by the network device and the terminal, or reserved uplink resources. As long as the network device knows that the uplink resources are uplink resources used for beam reporting by different terminals, the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0231] Different terminals correspond to different uplink resources. For example, terminal A's uplink resource is a, and the network device and terminal A have agreed on uplink resource a: uplink resource a is used for beam reporting by terminal A. The terminal beam corresponding to uplink resource a is a1, and the network device beam corresponding to uplink resource a is a2. In this way, when the network device receives data through uplink resource a, since different terminals correspond to different uplink resources, it can be determined that the data is uplink data sent by terminal A, and uplink resource a is used for beam reporting. At this time, the terminal beam corresponding to uplink resource a is a1, and the network device beam corresponding to uplink resource a is a2. That is, the terminal will subsequently switch to beam a1 for communication, and the network device will switch to beam a2 for communication.

[0232] Further, when the beam reporting is initiated by initiating beam reporting in an agreed uplink resource, the beam switching based on the beam reporting includes:

[0233] In response to satisfying the first agreed condition, the terminal switches to the reported or self-activated beam for transmission and / or reception.

[0234] Optionally, when the terminal initiates a beam report on the agreed uplink resource, the beam used by the network device to subsequently communicate with the terminal can be determined based on the correspondence between the pre-configured uplink resource and the beam ID of the network device. The terminal can also determine the beam used by the terminal to subsequently communicate with the network device based on the correspondence between the pre-configured uplink resource and the beam ID of the terminal. In this way, the terminal can directly switch the beam to the beam of the terminal corresponding to the uplink resource without waiting for the beam indication or confirmation information from the network device before switching. It can also directly switch to the self-activated beam for communication after the first agreed condition is met, wherein the self-activated beam is also selected and determined from the beam of the terminal corresponding to the uplink resource.

[0235] Optionally, the first agreed condition may be to wait for a certain period of time before switching, which may include at least one of the following: after N1 frames have been transmitted, after N2 subframes have been transmitted, after N3 time slots have been transmitted, after N4 symbols have been transmitted, or after the expiration of a timer. N1-N4 are positive integers, and their respective values ​​may be the same or different. Of course, N1-N4 may also be set to 0. This duration is related to the RF readjustment and / or baseband preparation time, which is not limited in this embodiment.

[0236] Furthermore, when beam reporting is initiated through unassigned uplink resources, the beam switching based on the beam reporting includes:

[0237] In response to confirmation information from the network device, beam switching is performed based on the reported or self-activated beam.

[0238] Here, when beam reporting is not initiated in the agreed uplink resources, the terminal needs to wait for the network device to feedback confirmation information on the beam reporting to ensure that the beams between the network device and the terminal are aligned before performing beam switching.

[0239] Optionally, the confirmation information may be acknowledgement (ACK) information or rejection (NACK) information.

[0240] Accordingly, in response to the confirmation information of the network device, beam switching is performed based on the beam reporting, including:

[0241] In response to an ACK confirmation message from the network device, use the reported or self-activated beam to transmit and / or receive; or,

[0242] In response to a confirmation message from the network device, the terminal initiates beam reporting again, or waits for beam management by the network device; wherein the confirmation message is a negative acknowledgement message. A maximum number of reports, M, can be set. If the terminal receives a negative acknowledgement message after performing M beam reports, it can fall back to beam management by the network device.

[0243] Furthermore, when the terminal does not receive any confirmation information, it can re-report the beam after exceeding the preset time length. Until M beam reports are performed as described above and no confirmation information is received, it can fall back to the beam management performed by the network device.

[0244] Optionally, the terminal may receive the confirmation information via PDCCH and / or PDSCH;

[0245] or,

[0246] The confirmation information is included in the TCI information of the DCI and / or the MAC-CE information.

[0247] Furthermore, before the terminal performs beam switching based on beam reporting, it receives TCI information in the DCI sent by the network device through the PDCCH; beam switching can be performed according to the beam indication in the TCI information. Optionally, after the terminal performs beam switching according to the beam indication of the TCI information, when it again senses that the first beam reporting condition is met, the above step 101 can be performed again to perform beam reporting. Or, when the terminal performs beam switching according to the beam indication of the TCI information, it is found that the beam of the TCI information is the same as the reported or self-activated beam, then there is no need to perform beam switching again; or, when the terminal performs beam switching according to the beam indication of the TCI information, it is found that the beam of the TCI information is different from the reported or self-activated beam, then beam switching can be performed according to the preset switching priority.

[0248] Furthermore, after beam switching is performed based on the beam reporting, the method further includes:

[0249] Receive TCI information in DCI sent by the network device through PDCCH;

[0250] When the beam in the TCI information is the same as the reported or self-activated beam, beam switching is not required. When the beam in the TCI information is different from the reported or self-activated beam, beam switching is performed again according to the preset switching priority. It should be understood that before this beam switching, the terminal has already performed beam switching based on the reported or self-activated beam, so the beam currently used by the terminal is the reported or self-activated beam.

[0251] Optionally, the above-mentioned preset switching priority may be to switch first according to the beam indication in the TCI information, or to switch first according to the reported or self-activated beam.

[0252] Optionally, when the terminal performs beam switching, it may also include: performing beam switching when a second agreed condition is met; or directly performing beam switching.

[0253] Wherein, if the second agreed condition is met, the waiting time may be after the beam application time BeamAppTime. After waiting for the agreed time, the terminal may immediately use the reported or self-activated beam for communication.

[0254] Optionally, the self-activating the beam includes:

[0255] When a beam reports a first beam ID, determining the TCI state corresponding to the beam associated with the first beam ID as an activated state; and / or

[0256] When a beam reports a first beam group ID, the TCI state corresponding to each of the multiple beams associated with the first beam group ID is determined to be an activated state.

[0257] The self-activation of the beam further includes:

[0258] A Quasi-Colocation (QCL) attribute of a downlink reference signal RS is configured, where the QCL attribute is associated with an activated TCI state.

[0259] The RS includes at least one of the following:

[0260] CSI-RS, Tracking Reference Signal (TRS), Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) for PDSCH, or DMRS for PDCCH;

[0261] Optionally, if the terminal measures that the beam switching fails, it can report the failure event to the network device and re-report the beam. At this time, the beam reporting can be the beam reporting of the embodiment described above, or it can fall back to the beam management process led by the network device.

[0262] Optionally, the method further includes:

[0263] Beam tracking is performed according to a first method; wherein the first method includes periodic, non-periodic, and semi-persistent.

[0264] Optionally, the beam tracking includes:

[0265] Actively report auxiliary information of the beam structure through PUCCH or PUSCH for beam tracking;

[0266] The auxiliary information includes one or more of beam grouping information, beam coverage area information, beam width information, and beam transmission angle / incident angle information.

[0267] Optionally, the beam tracking includes:

[0268] Inter-symbol beam tracking is performed on the CSI-RS between different symbols, where the different symbols represent different beams.

[0269] Optionally, the beam tracking includes:

[0270] The reported CSI-RS is actively enhanced and reported through PUCCH or PUSCH to perform intra-symbol beam tracking, wherein different frequency domain resources represented in the symbol represent different beams.

[0271] The present application also provides a beam management method, which is applied to a network device, which may be an eNB, a gNB, a macro base station, a small base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a TRP, etc. As shown in FIG3 , the method includes the following steps:

[0272] Step 301: In response to a beam report initiated by a terminal, switch to the beam associated with the beam report to receive and / or send signals.

[0273] Optionally, responding to a beam reporting initiated by a terminal includes:

[0274] The beam information reported by the terminal is received in the agreed uplink resource and / or the most recent uplink resource, wherein the beam information includes at least one of the following: a beam ID and a beam group ID of the beam to be switched by the terminal.

[0275] When beam information reported by the terminal is received in the agreed uplink resource, the method further includes:

[0276] Configure a mapping relationship between uplink resources and the terminal's beam and / or the base station's beam; wherein the mapping relationship includes a correspondence between the uplink resources and the beam ID of the beam. Optionally, when the terminal initiates a beam report on the agreed uplink resource, the network device can determine the beam for subsequent communication with the terminal based on the correspondence between the pre-configured uplink resource and the beam ID of the network device. In this way, the network device can directly switch the beam to the beam of the network device corresponding to the uplink resource.

[0277] Optionally, after switching to the beam associated with the beam report for reception and / or transmission, the method further includes:

[0278] Sending confirmation information to the terminal. Optionally, the confirmation information can be an acknowledgement (ACK) confirmation information or a rejection (NACK) confirmation information.

[0279] Optionally, the network device may send the confirmation information via PDCCH and / or PDSCH;

[0280] or,

[0281] The confirmation information is included in the TCI information of the DCI and / or the MAC-CE information.

[0282] FIG4 shows an interactive process of a beam management method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG4 , the method is based on FIG2 and additionally includes steps 408 to 410, wherein steps 201 to 207 are the same as the corresponding steps in FIG2 above and are not repeated here.

[0283] Step 408: When the terminal determines that the first beam reporting condition is met during the beam measurement process, it initiates beam reporting and self-activation, specifically by sending a CSI update request and / or a beam update request in the agreed uplink resources.

[0284] Optionally, in this step, the beam measurement of the terminal includes at least one of the following: measurement of the communication quality of a specified beam through PDSCH DMRS, measurement of DMRS in SSB, measurement of PDCCH DMRS or measurement of CSI-RS.

[0285] When the terminal determines that the first beam reporting condition is met, it no longer waits for the reporting resources configured by the network device, but directly sends a CSI update request and / or a beam update request in the agreed uplink resources to report the selected or preferred beam information to the network device. The beam information may include, but is not limited to, beam ID, beam group ID, and QCL attributes associated with the activated TCI. The QCL attributes include at least one of the following: QCL-Type A, QCL-Type B, QCL-Type C, or QCL-Type D.

[0286] In the embodiment of the present application, beam reporting does not need to wait for the instruction of the network device to be activated, which reduces the signaling overhead and delay in the traditional beam management process.

[0287] Step 409: The network device transmits and / or receives signals according to the beam corresponding to the agreed uplink resource;

[0288] Since the network device is configured with a mapping relationship between uplink resources and network device beams, the network device determines the corresponding beam according to the mapping relationship, and the network device directly uses the corresponding beam to send and / or receive signals.

[0289] In step 410, when the agreed conditions are met, the terminal performs beam switching on its own and switches to a new beam to send and / or receive signals.

[0290] Beam reporting is sent in pre-agreed / reserved (grant-free) uplink resources. The terminal does not need to wait for information confirmation (ACK / NACK) information fed back by the network device. As long as the agreed conditions are met, the terminal can directly switch to the selected activated beam and / or beam group for transmission or reception. The agreed conditions can be the first agreed conditions mentioned above.

[0291] FIG5 shows an interactive process of a beam management method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG5 , the method is based on FIG2 and additionally includes steps 508 to 510, wherein steps 201 to 207 are the same as the corresponding steps in FIG2 above and are not repeated here.

[0292] Step 508: When the terminal determines that the first beam reporting condition is met during the beam measurement process, it initiates beam reporting and self-activation, specifically sending a CSI update request and / or a beam update request in an unassigned uplink resource;

[0293] Optionally, in this step, the beam measurement of the terminal includes at least one of the following: communication quality of a specified beam through PDSCH DMRS measurement, DMRS measurement in SSB, PDCCH DMRS measurement or CSI-RS measurement.

[0294] When the terminal determines that the first beam reporting condition is met, it no longer waits for the reporting resources configured by the network device, but directly reports the selected or preferred beam information to the network device by sending a CSI update request and / or a beam update request in the uplink resource. The beam information may include but is not limited to: beam ID, beam group ID, and may also include: QCL attributes associated with the activated TCI. The QCL attributes include at least one of the following: QCL-Type A, QCL-Type B, QCL-Type C, or QCL-Type D.

[0295] The uplink resource may be a most recent uplink resource.

[0296] In the embodiment of the present application, the beam is reported and self-activated without waiting for the instruction of the network device to activate, thereby reducing the signaling overhead and delay in the traditional beam management process.

[0297] Step 509: The network device selects a beam based on the received beam information and sends a DCI via the PDCCH for beam indication.

[0298] Step 510: After waiting for the BeamAppTime, the terminal switches to a new beam according to the beam indication to send and / or receive signals.

[0299] FIG6 shows an interactive process of a beam management method provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG6 , the method is based on FIG2 and additionally includes steps 608 to 610, wherein steps 201 to 207 are the same as the corresponding steps in FIG2 above and are not repeated here.

[0300] Step 608: When the terminal determines that the first beam reporting condition is met during the beam measurement process, it initiates beam reporting and self-activation, specifically sending a CSI update request and / or a beam update request in an unassigned uplink resource.

[0301] Optionally, in this step, the beam measurement of the terminal includes at least one of the following: communication quality of a specified beam through PDSCH DMRS measurement, DMRS measurement in SSB, PDCCH DMRS measurement or CSI-RS measurement.

[0302] When the terminal determines that the first beam reporting condition is met, it no longer waits for the reporting resources configured by the network device, but directly sends a CSI update request and / or a beam update request in the uplink resource to report the selected or preferred beam information to the network device. The beam information may include but is not limited to: beam ID, beam group ID, and may also include: QCL attributes associated with the activated TCI. The QCL attributes include at least one of the following: QCL-Type A, QCL-Type B, QCL-Type C, or QCL-Type D.

[0303] The uplink resource may be a most recent uplink resource.

[0304] In the embodiment of the present application, the beam is reported and self-activated without waiting for the instruction of the network device to activate, thereby reducing the signaling overhead and delay in the traditional beam management process.

[0305] Step 609: The network device selects a beam based on the received beam information and sends a DCI via the PDCCH for beam indication.

[0306] In step 610, when the agreed conditions are met, the terminal performs beam switching on its own and switches to a new beam to send and / or receive signals.

[0307] There is no necessary order for step 609 and step 610. When the terminal first performs step 610 to perform beam switching and then receives DCI sent by the network device in step 609, this embodiment may further include:

[0308] When the beam indicated in the TCI information in the DCI is different from the beam after the terminal is switched, performing beam switching according to the preset switching priority;

[0309] The beam switching is performed according to the preset switching priority, including:

[0310] Prioritizing beam switching according to the beam indication in the TCI information; or,

[0311] Beam switching is performed preferentially according to the self-activated beam. It should be understood that the beam switched by the terminal at this time is the beam switched according to the self-activated beam. When beam switching is performed preferentially according to the self-activated beam, the terminal does not need to perform beam switching at this time.

[0312] Alternatively, when the terminal receives the DCI sent by the network device in step 609 before executing step 610, this embodiment may further include:

[0313] When the DCI includes ACK information, the beam represented in the TCI information in the DCI is the same as the self-activated beam, and step 610 is executed.

[0314] When the DCI contains NACK confirmation information, the beam in the TCI information in the DCI is different from the self-activated beam. Beam switching can be performed according to the beam indication in the TCI information; or, beam switching can be performed according to the self-activated beam; or, beam reporting is initiated again, or, beam management of the network device is waited for.

[0315] Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present application provides a beam management device, which can be provided in a terminal. The structure of the device is shown in FIG7 , including:

[0316] The processing unit 71 is configured to initiate beam reporting when a first beam reporting condition is met;

[0317] The switching unit 72 is configured to perform beam switching based on the self-activated beam.

[0318] The processing unit 71 is further configured to perform beam self-activation after initiating beam reporting;

[0319] Accordingly, the switching unit 72 performs beam switching based on the beam reporting, and is configured to:

[0320] Beam switching is performed based on reported and / or self-activated beams.

[0321] The first beam reporting condition includes:

[0322] The terminal detects a degradation in signal quality through beam measurement.

[0323] The terminal detecting a degradation in signal quality through beam measurement includes at least one of the following:

[0324] The layer 1 reference signal received power L1-RSRP is less than a first threshold, the layer 1 signal to interference plus noise ratio L1-SINR is less than a second threshold, the layer 1 signal to noise ratio L1-SNR is less than a third threshold, and the physical downlink control channel block error rate PDCCH BLER is greater than a fourth threshold, or it is assumed that the PDCCH BLER is greater than a fifth threshold.

[0325] Optionally, the processing unit 71 initiates beam reporting, specifically including:

[0326] Sending a channel state information (CSI) update request including beam information; and / or,

[0327] A beam update request including the beam information is sent.

[0328] The beam information includes at least one of the following: a beam identification ID or a beam group identification ID.

[0329] Optionally, the processing unit 71 initiates beam reporting, specifically including:

[0330] Initiate beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource or the nearest uplink resource.

[0331] The apparatus further includes: a configuration unit, configured to configure a mapping relationship between uplink resources and beams of the terminal and / or beams of the network device;

[0332] The mapping relationship includes the correspondence between the uplink resources and the beam ID of the beam.

[0333] Optionally, when the processing unit 71 initiates beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource, the switching unit 72 performs beam switching based on the self-activated beam, specifically including:

[0334] In response to satisfying a first agreed condition, the terminal switches to the self-activated beam for transmission and / or reception.

[0335] The first agreed condition includes at least one of the following:

[0336] After transmission of N1 frames, after transmission of N2 subframes, after transmission of N3 time slots, after transmission of N4 symbols, or after expiration of timer timer; wherein N1, N2, N3 and N4 are positive integers.

[0337] Optionally, when the processing unit 71 does not initiate beam reporting in the agreed uplink resource, the switching unit 72 performs beam switching based on the beam reporting, specifically including:

[0338] In response to confirmation information from the network device, beam switching is performed based on the reported or self-activated beam.

[0339] Optionally, the switching unit 72 performs beam switching based on the beam reporting in response to confirmation information of the network device, specifically including:

[0340] In response to the network device's consent ACK confirmation information, the reported or self-activated beam is used for transmission and / or reception.

[0341] Optionally, when the processing unit 71 does not initiate beam reporting in the agreed uplink resources, the processing unit 71 is further configured to:

[0342] In response to the confirmation information of the network device, the beam reporting is initiated again, or the beam management of the network device is waited for; wherein the confirmation information is a rejection NACK confirmation information.

[0343] The confirmation information is received via PDCCH and / or PDSCH;

[0344] or,

[0345] The confirmation information is included in the TCI information of the downlink control information DCI and / or the medium access control-control element MAC-CE information.

[0346] Optionally, before performing beam switching based on beam reporting, the switching unit 72 is further configured to:

[0347] Receive TCI information in DCI sent by the network device via the physical downlink control channel PDCCH;

[0348] Beam switching is performed according to the beam indication in the TCI information.

[0349] Optionally, after performing beam switching based on the beam reporting, the switching unit 72 is further configured to:

[0350] Receive TCI information in DCI sent by the network device via the physical downlink control channel PDCCH;

[0351] When the beam in the TCI information is different from the reported or self-activated beam, beam switching is performed according to the preset switching priority.

[0352] The performing beam switching according to a preset switching priority includes:

[0353] Prioritizing beam switching according to the beam indication in the TCI information; or,

[0354] Beam switching is performed preferentially according to reported or self-activated beams.

[0355] Optionally, the switching unit 72 performs beam switching, specifically for:

[0356] If the second agreed condition is met, beam switching is performed; or,

[0357] Direct beam switching.

[0358] The second agreed condition includes:

[0359] Wait for the beam application duration BeamAppTime.

[0360] Optionally, the processing unit 71 performs self-activation of the beam, specifically for:

[0361] When a beam reports a first beam ID, determining the TCI state corresponding to the beam associated with the first beam ID as an activated state; and / or

[0362] When a beam reports a first beam group ID, the TCI state corresponding to each of the multiple beams associated with the first beam group ID is determined to be an activated state.

[0363] The processing unit 71 performs self-activation of the beam and is further configured to:

[0364] The QCL attribute of the downlink reference signal RS is configured, where the QCL attribute is associated with the activated TCI state.

[0365] The RS includes at least one of the following:

[0366] CSI-RS, Tracking Reference Signal TRS, Synchronization Signal Block SSB, Demodulation Reference Signal DMRS of PDSCH, or DMRS of PDCCH.

[0367] Optionally, the device further includes a tracking unit for performing beam tracking in a first manner; wherein the first manner includes periodic, non-periodic, and semi-persistent.

[0368] The tracking unit is used for beam tracking, specifically for:

[0369] Actively report auxiliary information of the beam structure through PUCCH or PUSCH for beam tracking;

[0370] The auxiliary information includes one or more of beam grouping information, beam coverage area information, beam width information, and beam transmission angle / incident angle information.

[0371] The tracking unit is used for beam tracking, specifically for:

[0372] Inter-symbol beam tracking is performed on a channel state information reference signal CSI-RS between different symbols, where the different symbols represent different beams.

[0373] The tracking unit is used for beam tracking, specifically for:

[0374] Actively enhance the reported channel state information reference signal CSI-RS and report it through PUCCH or PUSCH to perform intra-symbol beam tracking, where different frequency domain resources represented in the symbol represent different beams.

[0375] Based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present application provides a beam management device, which can be provided in a network device. The structure is shown in FIG8 , including:

[0376] The switching unit 81 is used to respond to the beam reporting initiated by the terminal and switch to the beam associated with the beam reporting to receive and / or send signals.

[0377] Optionally, the switching unit 81, in response to the beam reporting initiated by the terminal, is specifically configured to:

[0378] The beam information reported by the terminal is received in the agreed uplink resource and / or the most recent uplink resource.

[0379] The beam information includes at least one of the following:

[0380] The beam ID and beam group ID of the beam to which the terminal wants to switch.

[0381] Optionally, when the switching unit 81 receives beam information reported by the terminal in the agreed uplink resource, the apparatus further includes a configuration unit configured to configure a mapping relationship between the uplink resource and the beam of the terminal and / or the beam of the base station;

[0382] The mapping relationship includes the correspondence between the uplink resources and the beam ID of the beam.

[0383] Optionally, after switching to the beam associated with the beam report for reception and / or transmission, the switching unit 81 is further configured to:

[0384] Send a confirmation message to the terminal.

[0385] The beam management method, apparatus, electronic device, and storage medium provided in the embodiments of the present application initiate beam reporting by a terminal when a first beam reporting condition is met, and perform beam switching based on the beam reporting. In the embodiments of the present application, when the terminal senses a change in the wireless environment and requires beam switching, it directly initiates beam reporting and then performs beam switching based on the beam reporting, without waiting for instructions from the network side. This reduces the signaling overhead of beam reporting and beam switching delay, thereby ensuring communication quality.

[0386] An embodiment of the present application also provides an electronic device, as shown in Figure 9, including a processor 610, a communication interface 620, a memory 630 and a communication bus 640, wherein the processor 610, the communication interface 620, and the memory 630 communicate with each other through the communication bus 640.

[0387] The memory 630 is configured to store computer programs; the processor 610 is configured to implement the beam management method described in any one of the above embodiments when executing the program stored in the memory 630;

[0388] The communication interface 620 is used for communication between the electronic device and other devices.

[0389] The memory may include random access memory (RAM) or non-volatile memory (NVM), such as at least one disk storage. Alternatively, the memory may be at least one storage device located away from the processor.

[0390] The above-mentioned processor can be a general-purpose processor, including a central processing unit (CPU), a network processor (NP), etc.; it can also be a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, and discrete hardware components.

[0391] Accordingly, an embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores instructions. When the computer-readable storage medium is run on a computer, the computer executes the beam management method described in any one of the above embodiments.

[0392] The present application is described with reference to the flow chart and / or block diagram of the method, device (system), and computer program product according to the embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that each flow process and / or box in the flow chart and / or block diagram and the combination of the flow process and / or box in the flow chart and / or block diagram can be realized by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processing machine or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce a device for realizing the function specified in one flow chart flow or multiple flows and / or one box or multiple boxes of the block diagram.

[0393] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory or non-volatile storage medium that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce a product including an instruction device that implements the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0394] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, so that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0395] Although the optional embodiments of the present application have been described, those skilled in the art may make additional changes and modifications to these embodiments once they have learned the basic creative concept. Therefore, the appended claims are intended to be interpreted as including the optional embodiments and all changes and modifications that fall within the scope of the present application.

[0396] Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various changes and modifications to the embodiments of the present application without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the embodiments of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application also intends to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A beam management method, which is applied to a terminal, and the method includes: When a first beam reporting condition is satisfied, initiate beam reporting; Perform beam switching based on the beam reporting.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein After initiating the beam reporting, it further includes: Perform self-activation of the beam; Correspondingly, the performing beam switching based on the beam reporting includes: Perform beam switching based on the reported and / or self-activated beam.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The first beam reporting condition includes: The terminal detects a decrease in signal quality through beam measurement.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein, The terminal detecting a decrease in signal quality through beam measurement includes at least one of the following: The layer 1 reference signal received power L1-RSRP is less than a first threshold, The layer 1 signal-to-interference plus noise ratio L1-SINR is less than a second threshold, The layer 1 signal-to-noise ratio L1-SNR is less than a third threshold, The physical downlink control channel block error rate PDCCH BLER is greater than a fourth threshold, or, Assume that the PDCCH BLER is greater than a fifth threshold.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The initiating beam reporting includes: Send a channel state information CSI update request including beam information; and / or, Send a beam update request including the beam information.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein, The beam information includes at least one of the following: beam identification ID or beam group identification ID.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, The initiating beam reporting includes: Initiate beam reporting in a pre-agreed uplink resource or the nearest uplink resource.

8. The method according to claim 7, before initiating the beam reporting, the method further includes: Configure the mapping relationship between the uplink resource and the beam of the terminal and / or the beam of the network device; Wherein, the mapping relationship includes the corresponding relationship between the uplink resource and the beam ID of the beam.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein, When initiating beam reporting in a pre-agreed uplink resource, the performing beam switching based on the beam reporting includes: In response to satisfying a first agreed condition, the terminal switches to the reported or self-activated beam for transmission and / or reception.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein, The first agreed condition includes at least one of the following: After N1 frames of transmission, After N2 subframes of transmission, After N3 time slots of transmission, After N4 symbols of transmission, or, After the expiration of a timer timer; Wherein, the N1, N2, N3, and N4 are positive integers.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein When not initiating beam reporting in a pre-agreed uplink resource, the performing beam switching based on the beam reporting includes: In response to the confirmation information of the network device, perform beam switching based on the reported or self-activated beam.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein, In response to the confirmation information of the network device, performing beam switching based on the reported or self-activated beam includes: In response to the network device's consent ACK confirmation information, use the reported or self-activated beam for transmission and / or reception.

13. The method according to claim 7, wherein When not initiating beam reporting in a pre-agreed uplink resource, the method further includes: When responding to the confirmation information of the network device, initiate beam reporting again, or wait for the beam management of the network device; wherein, the confirmation information is a rejection NACK confirmation information.

14. The method according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein The confirmation information is received through PDCCH and / or PDSCH; Or, The confirmation information is included in the Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) information of the Downlink Control Information (DCI), and / or, the Medium Access Control - Control Element (MAC-CE) information.

15. The method according to claim 1, wherein, Before performing beam switching based on beam reporting, the method further includes: Receiving the TCI information in the DCI sent by the network device through the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); Performing beam switching according to the beam indication in the TCI information.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein, After performing beam switching based on beam reporting, the method further includes: Receiving the TCI information in the DCI sent by the network device through the Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); When the beam in the TCI information is different from the reported or self-activated beam, performing beam switching according to a preset switching priority.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein, The performing beam switching according to the preset switching priority includes: Prioritizing beam switching according to the beam indication in the TCI information; or, Prioritizing beam switching according to the reported or self-activated beam.

18. The method according to claim 15 or 16, wherein, The performing beam switching includes: Satisfying a second agreed condition and performing beam switching; or, Directly performing beam switching.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein, The second agreed condition includes: After waiting for the Beam Application Time (BeamAppTime).

20. The method according to claim 2, wherein, The performing self-activation of a beam includes: When a first beam ID is reported for the beam, determining the TCI state corresponding to the beam associated with the first beam ID as the active state; and / or When a first beam group ID is reported for the beam, determining the TCI states corresponding to the multiple beams associated with the first beam group ID as the active states respectively.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein, The performing self-activation of a beam further includes: Configuring the Quasi-Co-Location (QCL) attribute of the Downlink Reference Signal (RS), where the QCL attribute is associated with the active TCI state.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein, The RS includes at least one of the following: Channel State Information - Reference Signal (CSI-RS), Tracking Reference Signal (TRS), Synchronization Signal Block (SSB), Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) of the Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), or DMRS of the PDCCH.

23. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein, The method further includes: Performing beam tracking in a first manner; where the first manner includes periodic, aperiodic, or semi-persistent.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein, The beam tracking includes: Proactively reporting auxiliary information of the beam structure through the Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) for beam tracking; Where the auxiliary information includes one or more of beam grouping information, beam coverage area information, beam width information, beam transmission angle / incident angle information.

25. The method according to claim 23, wherein, The beam tracking includes: Performing inter-symbol beam tracking for the Channel State Information - Reference Signal (CSI-RS) between different symbols, where the different symbols represent different beams.

26. The method according to claim 23, wherein, The beam tracking includes: Proactively enhancing the reported CSI-RS and reporting it through the PUCCH or the PUSCH for intra-symbol beam tracking, where the intra-symbol indicates that different frequency domain resources represent different beams.

27. A beam management method, which is applied to a network device, and the method includes: In response to the beam reporting initiated by the terminal, switching to the beam associated with the beam reporting for signal reception and / or transmission.

28. The method according to claim 27, wherein, In response to beam reporting initiated by a terminal, including: Receiving beam information reported by the terminal in a pre-agreed uplink resource and / or the most recent uplink resource.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein The beam information includes at least one of the following: The beam identification ID and beam group identification ID of the beam to which the terminal is to switch the beam.

30. The method according to claim 28, wherein, When receiving the beam information reported by the terminal in a pre-agreed uplink resource, the method further includes: Configuring the mapping relationship between the uplink resource and the beam of the terminal and / or the beam of the base station; Wherein, the mapping relationship includes the corresponding relationship between the uplink resource and the beam ID of the beam.

31. The method according to claim 27, wherein, After switching to receive and / or transmit using the beam associated with the beam reporting, the method further includes: Sending an acknowledgement message to the terminal.

32. A beam management device, including: A processing unit, configured to initiate beam reporting when a first beam reporting condition is satisfied; A switching unit, configured to perform beam switching based on the beam reporting.

33. An electronic device, the electronic device includes a processor, a communication interface, a memory, and a communication bus, wherein, A processor, a communication interface, and a memory complete communication with each other through a communication bus; The memory is used to store a computer program; The processor, when executing the program stored on the memory, implements the method steps described in any one of claims 1-26 or any one of claims 27-31.

34. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein a computer program is stored in the computer-readable storage medium, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the method steps described in any one of claims 1-26 or any one of claims 27-31 are implemented.

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