Communication method and related apparatus

Abstract

The present application discloses a communication method and a related apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal device acquires first information, the first information comprising a measurement result of at least one cell; the terminal device receives second information, the second information being related to the power headroom of the at least one cell; when the first information and the second information satisfy a first condition, the terminal device sends a first signal to a target cell, the first signal being used for triggering the target cell to adjust a transmit power; and when the first information and the second information satisfy a second condition, the terminal device initiates random access to the target cell, thereby reducing a cell handover failure rate and reducing network energy consumption.

Description

A communication method and related device

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office on January 9, 2024, with application number 202410039817.3 and application name “A communication method and related device”, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

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

[0003] As network scale continues to expand, network energy consumption is also increasing. During communication between terminal devices and network equipment, cell handover failures may occur. To address this, terminal devices can determine whether to perform a cell handover based on signal measurement results. However, in scenarios where network equipment transmit power can be dynamically adjusted, directly determining whether to perform a cell handover based on signal measurement results may increase the cell handover failure rate. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The present application provides a communication method and related devices, which can reduce the failure rate of cell switching and reduce network energy consumption.

[0005] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is executed by a terminal device, or by some components in the terminal device (such as a processor, chip, or chip system), or the terminal device can be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the communication device. In this method, the terminal device obtains first information, the first information including the measurement results of at least one cell; the terminal device receives second information, the second information being related to the power headroom of at least one cell; when the first information and the second information meet a first condition, the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell, the first signal being used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmit power; when the first information and the second information meet a second condition, the terminal device initiates random access to the target cell.

[0006] Based on the above technical solution, in order to reduce the probability of handover failure and improve the reliability of handover, the terminal device considers the measurement results of the cell and the power margin of the cell when determining whether to perform cell handover. When the terminal device determines that the first condition is met, it triggers the target cell to adjust the transmit power to avoid the problem of handover failure caused by the terminal device performing cell handover when there is power margin in the target cell but the transmit power is insufficient to cover the terminal device, thereby reducing the failure rate of cell handover and network energy consumption. On this basis, when the terminal device determines that the second condition is met, the terminal device initiates random access to the target cell to further reduce the failure rate of cell handover.

[0007] Optionally, the first information is obtained based on a reference signal.

[0008] For example, when a terminal device and a network device communicate via a downlink, the reference signal may include one or more of the following: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a cell specific reference signal (CRS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a synchronization system / physical broadcast channel block (SS / PBCH block). The SS / PBCH block may be referred to as a synchronization signal block (SSB).

[0009] For example, when the terminal device and the network device to which the cell belongs communicate through the side link, the reference signal may include a sidelink synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (sidelink synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block, sidelink SSB, SL-SSB, or S-SS / PSBCH block), a sidelink channel state information reference signal (sidelink channel state information reference signal, SL-CSI-RS), etc.

[0010] Optionally, the second information indicates a range of the power headroom and / or whether the power headroom exists.

[0011] Optionally, the first signal is an uplink wake up signal (UL WUS).

[0012] Optionally, the serving cell may also be referred to as the network equipment to which the serving cell belongs, the neighboring cell may also be referred to as the network equipment to which the neighboring cell belongs, and the target cell may also be referred to as the network equipment to which the target cell belongs. The interaction between the serving cell, the neighboring cell, and the target cell may also be understood as the interaction between the network equipment to which the serving cell belongs, the network equipment to which the neighboring cell belongs, and the network equipment to which the target cell belongs. The power headroom of a cell may also be referred to as the power headroom of the network equipment to which the cell belongs.

[0013] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the at least one cell includes a serving cell and a target cell, and the first condition includes at least one of the following:

[0014] The difference between the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell and the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is greater than or equal to a first threshold; or,

[0015] The sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is less than a second threshold; or,

[0016] Third information of the serving cell is received, and a measurement result of the target cell is less than a fourth threshold, where the third information is used to instruct to perform cell switching.

[0017] Based on the above technical solution, when determining whether to perform a cell handover, the terminal device considers not only the cell measurement results but also the cell's power headroom. If the terminal device determines that the first condition is met, it indicates that the link quality of the serving cell is poor and the link quality of the target cell is good. On this basis, compared to the terminal device directly performing a cell handover, the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell to trigger the target cell to adjust its transmit power, thereby improving the success rate of the cell handover and preventing the terminal device from performing a cell handover prematurely.

[0018] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the at least one cell includes a serving cell and a target cell, and the second condition includes at least one of the following:

[0019] The sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is less than the second threshold, and the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell is greater than or equal to the third threshold; or,

[0020] The sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell is greater than or equal to a third threshold; or,

[0021] Third information of the serving cell is received, and a measurement result of the target cell is greater than or equal to a fourth threshold, where the third information is used to instruct to perform cell switching.

[0022] Based on the above technical solution, if the terminal device determines that the second condition is met, it means that the transmission power of the target cell has exceeded the maximum adjustable range. At this time, the terminal device will initiate random access to the target cell to avoid the terminal device performing cell switching in advance.

[0023] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the terminal device includes a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information, the first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and a waveform of a transmission signal, the power consumption of the first module is less than the power consumption of the second module, and the terminal device sending the first signal to the target cell includes:

[0024] The terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell based on the first module.

[0025] Based on the above technical solution, the terminal device includes a first module with lower power consumption and a first module with higher power consumption. The terminal device sends a first signal to the network device based on the first module with lower power consumption, which can further reduce energy consumption.

[0026] Optionally, the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell based on the first module, the target cell receives the first signal based on the first module, and adjusts the transmission power of the second module of the target cell according to the first signal.

[0027] Optionally, the terminal device sends the first signal to the target cell based on the second module. Correspondingly, the network device receives the first signal based on the second module, and then adjusts the transmission power of the second module of the target cell according to the first signal.

[0028] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes:

[0029] The terminal device receives the fourth information of the service cell, which includes configuration information of the second signal. The second signal is used for uplink synchronization. The second signal is different from the first signal in at least one of the time-frequency resources, sequence, and chirp slope. The first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power.

[0030] Based on the above technical solution, the terminal device can use the second signal to complete uplink synchronization.

[0031] Optionally, the second signal is a UL WUS. The second signal is different from the first signal in one or more of time-frequency resources, signal waveform or sequence.

[0032] In a possible implementation manner of the first aspect, a method for a terminal device to obtain adjustment of transmit power of a serving cell and / or a target cell includes:

[0033] The terminal device receives fifth information from the serving cell, where the fifth information is used to indicate adjustment information of the transmit power of the target cell, and / or the fifth information is used to indicate power headroom information of the serving cell and / or the target cell.

[0034] Optionally, the power headroom information of the target cell indicates a range of the power headroom of the target cell and / or whether the power headroom of the target cell exists.

[0035] Optionally, the power headroom information of the serving cell indicates a range of the power headroom of the serving cell and / or whether the power headroom of the serving cell exists.

[0036] Optionally, the fifth information is carried by a synchronization sequence indication, a master information block (MIB), a system information block (SIB) broadcast, a MAC CE, or a DCI.

[0037] Optionally, the adjustment information for indicating the transmission power of the serving cell and / or the target cell and the power margin information for indicating the serving cell and / or the target cell can be transmitted through the same information (fifth information) or the same message, or through different information (for example, the fifth information and the sixth information) or different messages.

[0038] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, the method further includes:

[0039] The terminal device receives fifth information from a neighboring cell, where the fifth information is related to a power headroom of at least one neighboring cell, where the at least one neighboring cell includes a serving cell and / or a target cell;

[0040] The terminal device sends the first information and the fifth information to the serving cell.

[0041] Based on the above technical solution, when the terminal device reports the measurement results to the serving cell, it will also consider the influence of the power margin of the neighboring cell to avoid the problem of switching failure caused by the terminal device performing cell switching when there is power margin in the neighboring cell but the transmission power is insufficient to cover the terminal device, thereby reducing the failure rate of cell switching.

[0042] Optionally, the fifth information is carried by a synchronization sequence indication, a master information block (MIB), a system information block (SIB) broadcast, a MAC CE, or a DCI.

[0043] Optionally, the fifth information indicates a range of a power headroom of a neighboring cell and / or whether a power headroom of a neighboring cell exists.

[0044] In a possible implementation of the first aspect, a terminal device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information, the first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and a waveform of a transmitted signal, and the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. The method further includes:

[0045] The terminal device receives configuration information of the third signal based on the first module;

[0046] The terminal device performs cell selection and / or cell reselection based on the measurement result of the third signal.

[0047] Correspondingly, the network side also has a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information. The transmission power of the first module is relatively fixed to ensure coverage, while the transmission power of the second module is dynamically adjusted as needed. When the terminal device performs cell selection and / or cell reselection, the configuration information of the third signal received by the first module can improve the reception success rate.

[0048] The second aspect of the present application provides a communication method, which is executed by a terminal device, or by some components in the terminal device (such as a processor, chip or chip system, etc.), or the terminal device can be a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the communication device. The terminal device includes a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition and waveform of the transmission signal, and the power consumption of the first module is less than the power consumption of the second module. In this method, the terminal device receives a wake-up signal from a serving cell based on the first module; the terminal device obtains a measurement result of a fourth signal based on the second module; when the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than a fifth threshold, the terminal device sends a first signal to the serving cell, and the first signal is used to trigger the serving cell to adjust the transmission power; when the measurement result of the fourth signal is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold, the terminal device sends or receives a signal based on the second module.

[0049] Since the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module, the transmission power of the first module is relatively fixed, and the signal coverage range of the first module is generally greater than the signal coverage range of the second module. It is generally used to ensure coverage, and the transmission power of the second module can be dynamically adjusted. Taking into account that terminal devices in idle or inactive states may move outside the coverage range of the second module, the terminal device receives the wake-up signal based on the first module, which can improve the success rate of signal reception, and further reduces network energy consumption compared to receiving the wake-up signal based on the second module. After the terminal device wakes up the second module based on the wake-up signal, when the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than the fifth threshold, the terminal device is triggered to send the first signal, which avoids the terminal device from performing cell switching in advance and further reduces network energy consumption.

[0050] A third aspect of the present application provides a communication method, which is performed by a first network device, or by some components (such as a processor, chip, or chip system) in the first network device, or the first network device can be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the communication device. The first network device is a target cell / a network device to which the target cell belongs. In this method, the first network device receives a first signal; the first network device adjusts the transmit power of the first network device according to the first signal.

[0051] The first network device receives the first signal from the terminal device, adjusts the transmission power of the first network device, and communicates with the terminal device based on the adjusted transmission power, thereby preventing the terminal device from performing cell switching in advance.

[0052] In a possible implementation of the third aspect, a first network device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information, the first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and a waveform of a transmitted signal, the power consumption of the first module being less than the power consumption of the second module, and the first network device receiving the first signal including:

[0053] The first network device receives the first signal based on the first module;

[0054] The first network device adjusts the transmit power of the first network device according to the first signal, including:

[0055] The first network device adjusts the transmission power of the second module according to the first signal.

[0056] Compared to the second module, the first module has a wider coverage range and lower power consumption. Therefore, when the first network device receives the first signal based on the first module with lower power consumption, it can not only improve the success rate of receiving the first signal, but also reduce network energy consumption. Because the transmit power of the second module can be dynamically adjusted, after receiving the first signal based on the first module, the first network device can adjust the transmit power of the second module according to the first signal and communicate with the terminal device based on the adjusted transmit power, thereby ensuring that the terminal device to be connected is within its coverage range.

[0057] In a possible implementation of the third aspect, the method further includes:

[0058] The first network device sends fifth information to the serving cell, where the fifth information is used to indicate the adjustment information of the transmit power of the target cell and / or the power headroom information of the target cell.

[0059] Optionally, the power headroom information of the target cell indicates a range of the power headroom of the target cell and / or whether the power headroom of the target cell exists.

[0060] Optionally, the fifth information is carried by a synchronization sequence indication, a master information block (MIB), a system information block (SIB) broadcast, a MAC CE, or a DCI.

[0061] Optionally, the adjustment information for indicating the transmit power of the target cell and the power headroom information for indicating the target cell can be transmitted through the same information (fifth information) or the same message, or through different information (such as the fifth information and the sixth information) or different messages.

[0062] In a possible implementation of the third aspect, the method further includes:

[0063] The first network device receives seventh information from the serving cell, where the seventh information is used to request the target cell to adjust transmit power.

[0064] Optionally, the seventh information carries a power adjustment value.

[0065] A fourth aspect of the present application provides a communication method, which is performed by a second network device, or by some components (such as a processor, chip, or chip system) in the second network device, or the second network device can be a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the functions of the communication device, and the second network device is a serving cell / a network device to which the serving cell belongs. In this method, the second network device sends eighth information to the terminal device, and the eighth information is used to configure at least one of the following information:

[0066] a first threshold corresponding to the difference between the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell and the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell; or

[0067] a second threshold value corresponding to the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell; or

[0068] a third threshold corresponding to the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell; or

[0069] a fourth threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the target cell; or

[0070] a fifth threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the fourth signal; or,

[0071] Configuration information of the first signal.

[0072] Optionally, the eighth information may be carried by at least one of the following: system message, RRC signaling, MAC CE or predefined.

[0073] In a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the method further includes:

[0074] The second network device receives fifth information from at least one neighboring cell, where the fifth information is related to a power headroom of the at least one neighboring cell, where the at least one neighboring cell includes a serving cell and / or a target cell.

[0075] Based on the above technical solution, the second network device can obtain the fifth information based on the interaction between cells, and the first network device sends the fifth information to the serving cell so that the serving cell decides whether to perform cell switching and whether to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power based on the power margin of the neighboring cell.

[0076] Optionally, the second network device may also receive fifth information reported from the terminal device.

[0077] In a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the method further includes:

[0078] The second network device sends fifth information to the terminal device, where the fifth information is used to indicate adjustment information of the transmission power of the serving cell and / or the target cell, and / or the fifth information is used to indicate power headroom information of the serving cell and / or the target cell.

[0079] In a possible implementation of the fourth aspect, the method further includes:

[0080] The second network device sends seventh information to the target cell, where the seventh information is used to request the target cell to adjust the transmit power.

[0081] The fifth aspect of the present application provides a communication method, which is executed by a second network device, or by some components in the second network device (such as a processor, chip or chip system, etc.), or the second network device may be a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the functions of the communication device, and the second network device is a service cell / a network device to which the service cell belongs. The second network device is used for a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition and waveform of the transmission signal. The power consumption of the first module is less than the power consumption of the second module. The second network device is a network device to which the service cell belongs. In the method, the second network device sends a wake-up signal to the terminal device based on the first module; the second network device receives the first signal from the terminal device; and adjusts the transmission power of the second network device according to the first signal. Or, the second network device sends a wake-up signal to the terminal device based on the first module; the second network device sends or receives a signal based on the second module.

[0082] In a sixth aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided, which includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit, the processing unit being used to obtain first information, the first information including the measurement results of at least one cell; the transceiver unit being used to receive second information, the second information being related to the power margin of at least one cell; the processing unit being further used to send a first signal to a target cell when the first information and the second information meet a first condition, the first signal being used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power; the processing unit being further used to initiate random access to the target cell when the first information and the second information meet a second condition.

[0083] In the sixth aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to execute the steps performed in each possible implementation method of the first aspect and achieve corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the first aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0084] In the seventh aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided, which includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit; the processing unit is used to receive a wake-up signal from a serving cell based on a first module; the processing unit is used to obtain a measurement result of a fourth signal based on a second module; the transceiver unit is used to send a first signal to the serving cell when the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than a fifth threshold, and the first signal is used to trigger the serving cell to adjust the transmission power; the transceiver unit is used to send or receive a signal based on the second module when the measurement result of the fourth signal is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold.

[0085] In the seventh aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to execute the steps performed in each possible implementation method of the second aspect and achieve corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the second aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0086] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit; the transceiver unit is used to receive a first signal; and the processing unit is used to adjust the transmission power of the first network device according to the first signal.

[0087] In the eighth aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to execute the steps performed in each possible implementation method of the third aspect and achieve corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the third aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0088] In the ninth aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided, which includes a transceiver unit; the transceiver unit is used to send eighth information to the terminal device, and the eighth information is used to configure one or more of the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, the fourth threshold, the fifth threshold or the configuration information of the first signal.

[0089] In the ninth aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to execute the steps performed in each possible implementation method of the fourth aspect and achieve corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the fourth aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0090] In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, comprising a transceiver unit and a processing unit; the transceiver unit is configured to send a wake-up signal to a terminal device based on a first module; the transceiver unit is configured to receive a first signal from the terminal device; and the processing unit is configured to adjust the transmit power of a second network device based on the first signal. Alternatively, the transceiver unit is configured to send a wake-up signal to the terminal device based on the first module; and the processing unit is configured to send or receive a signal based on the second module.

[0091] In the tenth aspect of the present application, the constituent modules of the communication device can also be used to execute the steps performed in each possible implementation method of the fifth aspect and achieve corresponding technical effects. For details, please refer to the fifth aspect and will not be repeated here.

[0092] In the eleventh aspect of the present application, a communication device is provided, comprising at least one processor, wherein the at least one processor is coupled to a memory; the memory is used to store programs or instructions; and the at least one processor is used to execute the program or instructions so that the device implements a method of any possible implementation method of any one of the first to fifth aspects.

[0093] In a possible implementation, the communication device further includes a memory. Optionally, the processor and the memory are integrated together.

[0094] The twelfth aspect of the present application provides a communication device, comprising at least one logic circuit and an input / output interface; the logic circuit is used to execute a method as any possible implementation method of any one of the first to fifth aspects mentioned above.

[0095] A thirteenth aspect of the present application provides a communication system, which includes the above-mentioned terminal device, a first network device and a second network device.

[0096] In the fourteenth aspect of the present application, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which is used to store one or more computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor executes a method as any possible implementation method of any aspect of the first to fifth aspects mentioned above.

[0097] The fifteenth aspect of the present application provides a computer program product (or computer program). When the computer program in the computer program product is executed by the processor, the processor executes any possible implementation method of any aspect of the first to fifth aspects above.

[0098] In the sixteenth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes at least one processor for supporting a communication device to implement any possible implementation method of any aspect of the first to fifth aspects.

[0099] In one possible design, the chip system may further include a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The chip system may be composed of a chip alone or may include a chip and other discrete components. Optionally, the chip system may further include an interface circuit that provides program instructions and / or data to at least one processor.

[0100] Among them, the technical effects brought about by any design method in the sixth to sixteenth aspects can refer to the technical effects brought about by the different design methods in the above-mentioned first to fifth aspects, and will not be repeated here. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0101] Figures 1a to 1f are schematic diagrams of a communication system provided by this application;

[0102] FIG2 a is a schematic diagram of the coverage range after the PDSCH transmit power is adjusted;

[0103] FIG2 b is a schematic diagram of the coverage of the main transceiver and the low-power transceiver of the network device;

[0104] FIG2c is a schematic diagram of triggering the target cell to increase transmit power;

[0105] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of an implementation of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0106] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a cell handover process in a basic handover scenario provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0107] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of another implementation of the communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0108] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of determining triggering transmit power adjustment in a paging scenario according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0109] 7 to 11 are schematic diagrams of the communication device provided in this application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0110] First, some of the terms used in the embodiments of the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0111] (1) Terminal device: It can be a wireless terminal device that can receive network device scheduling and instruction information. The wireless terminal device can be a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to the user, or a handheld device with wireless connection function, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem.

[0112] Terminal devices can communicate with one or more core networks or the Internet via a radio access network (RAN). Terminal devices can be mobile terminal devices, such as mobile phones (also known as "cellular" phones, mobile phones), computers, and data cards. For example, they can be portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-built-in, or vehicle-mounted mobile devices that exchange voice and / or data with the radio access network. Examples include personal communication service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, wireless local loop (WLL) stations, personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablet computers, and computers with wireless transceiver capabilities. Wireless terminal equipment can also be called system, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, mobile station (MS), remote station, access point (AP), remote terminal equipment (remote terminal), access terminal equipment (access terminal), user terminal equipment (user terminal), user agent, subscriber station (SS), customer premises equipment (CPE), terminal equipment, user equipment (UE), mobile terminal equipment (MT), etc.

[0113] As an example and not a limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices may also be referred to as wearable smart devices or smart wearable devices, etc., 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, etc., 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, smart helmets, and smart jewelry for vital sign monitoring.

[0114] The terminal device can also be a drone, a robot, a terminal device in device-to-device communication (D2D), a vehicle to everything (V2X) terminal device, a virtual reality (VR) terminal device, an augmented reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal device in industrial control, a wireless terminal device in self-driving, a wireless terminal device in remote medical, a wireless terminal device in a smart grid, a wireless terminal device in transportation safety, a wireless terminal device in a smart city, a wireless terminal device in a smart home, etc.

[0115] In addition, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in a communication system evolved after the fifth generation (5G) communication system (e.g., a sixth generation (6G) communication system) or a terminal device in a future-evolved public land mobile network (PLMN). For example, the 6G network can further expand the form and function of 5G communication terminal devices, and 6G terminal devices include but are not limited to vehicles, cellular network terminal devices (with integrated satellite terminal device functions), drones, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

[0116] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also obtain AI services provided by the network device. Optionally, the terminal device may also have AI processing capabilities.

[0117] (2) Network equipment: It can be a device in a wireless network, for example, a network device can be a RAN node (or device) that connects a terminal device to a wireless network, which can also be called a base station. Currently, some examples of RAN equipment are: base station, evolved NodeB (eNodeB), gNB (gNodeB) in a 5G communication system, transmission reception point (TRP), evolved Node B (eNB), radio network controller (RNC), Node B (NB), home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), base band unit (BBU), base station, transmission reception point, or wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) access point AP in a 6G communication system or a next-generation wireless communication system. In addition, in a network structure, a network device can include a centralized unit (CU) node, a distributed unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node.

[0118] Alternatively, a RAN node can be a macro base station, micro base station, indoor base station, relay node, donor node, or a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario. A RAN node can also be a server, wearable device, vehicle, or vehicle-mounted device. For example, the access network device in vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology can be a roadside unit (RSU).

[0119] In another possible scenario, multiple RAN nodes collaborate to assist terminal devices in achieving wireless access, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of the functions of the base station. For example, the RAN node can be a centralized unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU). The CU and DU can be set separately, or they can be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or radio frequency unit, such as a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0120] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU may also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN) system, CU may also be called O-CU (open CU), DU may also be called O-DU, CU-CP may also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP may also be called O-CU-UP, and RU may also be called O-RU. For the convenience of description, this application takes CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples for description. Any unit of CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0121] The communication between the access network device and the terminal device follows a certain protocol layer structure. The protocol layer may include a control plane protocol layer and a user plane protocol layer. The control plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: a radio resource control (RRC) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, a media access control (MAC) layer, or a physical (PHY) layer. The user plane protocol layer may include at least one of the following: a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a PDCP layer, an RLC layer, a MAC layer, or a physical layer.

[0122] For the correspondence between network elements in the ORAN system and their achievable protocol layer functions, please refer to Table 1 below.

[0123] Table 1

[0124] The network device may be any other device that provides wireless communication functionality to the terminal device. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific technology and device form used by the network device. For ease of description, the embodiments of this application do not limit this.

[0125] The network equipment may also include core network equipment, such as a mobility management entity (MME), a home subscriber server (HSS), a serving gateway (S-GW), a policy and charging rules function (PCRF), and a public data network gateway (PDN gateway, P-GW) in a fourth generation (4G) network; and network elements such as an access and mobility management function (AMF), a user plane function (UPF), or a session management function (SMF) in a 5G network. In addition, the core network equipment may also include other core network equipment in a 6G network and the next generation network of the 6G network.

[0126] In an embodiment of the present application, the above-mentioned network device may also have a network node with AI capabilities, which can provide AI services for terminal devices or other network devices. For example, it can be an AI node of a network device (access network or core network), a computing power node, a RAN node with AI capabilities, a core network element with AI capabilities, etc.

[0127] In the embodiments of the present application, the apparatus for implementing the function of the network device may be the network device, or may be a device capable of supporting the network device in implementing the function, such as a chip system, which may be installed in the network device. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the network device as an example.

[0128] (3) Beam

[0129] Beaming is a communication resource that creates a unique, directional transmission or reception effect through an antenna array in a transmitter or receiver of a network device or terminal. Similar to the beam formed by a flashlight that focuses light in a single direction, beaming effectively increases signal transmission distance.

[0130] Beams can be divided into transmit beams and receive beams. The technology for forming beams can be beamforming technology or other technical means. Beamforming includes transmit beamforming and receive beamforming. The beamforming technology can be digital beamforming technology, analog beamforming technology, or hybrid digital / analog beamforming technology.

[0131] Transmit beam: The transmitting end device transmits a signal with a certain beamforming weight, forming a spatially directional beam. In the uplink direction, the transmitting end device can be a terminal device; in the downlink direction, the transmitting end device can be a network device.

[0132] Receive beam: The receiving device receives signals using certain beamforming weights, forming a spatially directional beam. In the uplink direction, the receiving device can be a network device; in the downlink direction, the receiving device can be a terminal device.

[0133] The beam can be a wide beam, a narrow beam, or other types of beams.

[0134] Beams generally correspond to resources. For example, when performing beam measurement, the network device measures different beams through different resources, and the terminal device feeds back the measured resource quality, so that the network device can know the quality of the corresponding beam. During data transmission, the beam can also be indicated by its corresponding resource. For example, the network device indicates a transmission configuration indication-state through the transmission configuration index (TCI) field in the downlink control information (DCI), and the terminal device determines the beam corresponding to the reference resource based on the reference resource contained in the TCI-state. Different beams can be considered as different resources, and the same information or different information can be sent using (or through) different beams.

[0135] Beam pairs are based on the concept of beams. A beam pair typically consists of a transmit beam from a transmitting device and a receive beam from a receiving device. Unless otherwise specified, the transmit beam in the following text refers to the transmit beam of the network device, and the receive beam refers to the receive beam of the terminal device.

[0136] In a communication system, such as a 5G new radio (NR) system, both network equipment and terminal equipment can generate one or more transmit beams and one or more receive beams. Before transmitting data, network equipment and terminal equipment need to perform beam alignment. In the communication protocol, a beam can be specifically characterized as a digital beam, an analog beam, a spatial domain filter, a spatial filter, a spatial parameter, a TCI, a TCI-state, etc. The beam used to send a signal can be called a transmission beam (or Tx beam), a spatial domain transmission filter, a spatial transmission filter, a spatial domain transmission parameter, a spatial transmission parameter, etc. The beam used to receive signals can be called a reception beam (or Rx beam), a spatial domain reception filter, a spatial reception filter, a spatial domain reception parameter, a spatial reception parameter, etc. It can be understood that the embodiments of the present application uniformly use beams for description, but beams can be replaced by other equivalent concepts and are not limited to the concepts mentioned above.

[0137] (4) Resources

[0138] In communication protocols, reference signals are configured as resources. Network equipment allocates each reference signal to a terminal device as a resource. A resource is a configuration information unit that typically includes parameters related to a reference signal, such as the reference signal's time-frequency resource location, number of ports, and time domain type (periodic, semi-static, or aperiodic).

[0139] The resource may be an uplink signal resource or a downlink signal resource.

[0140] The uplink signal includes but is not limited to a sounding reference signal (SRS) and a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

[0141] Downlink signals include, but are not limited to, channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), cell-specific reference signal (CRS), demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and synchronization system / physical broadcast channel block (SS / PBCH block). The SS / PBCH block can be referred to as a synchronization signal block (SSB).

[0142] Resources can be configured through RRC messages. A resource is a data structure containing parameters related to its corresponding uplink / downlink signal. Examples include the uplink / downlink signal type, the resource element carrying the uplink / downlink signal, the uplink / downlink signal transmission time and period, and the number of ports used to transmit the uplink / downlink signal. Each uplink / downlink signal resource has a unique identifier to identify the downlink signal resource.

[0143] (5) Chirp signal

[0144] A chirp signal is a signal in which the carrier frequency increases linearly over the duration of a pulse when encoding the pulse. In other words, the frequency of the signal increases or decreases over time.

[0145] (6) Configuration and pre-configuration: In this application, configuration and pre-configuration are used simultaneously. Configuration refers to the network device / server sending some parameter configuration information or parameter values ​​to the terminal device through messages or signaling, so that the terminal device can determine the communication parameters or resources during transmission based on these values ​​or information. Pre-configuration is similar to configuration, and can be parameter information or parameter values ​​pre-negotiated between the network device / server and the terminal device, or parameter information or parameter values ​​used by the base station / network device or terminal device as specified in the standard protocol, or parameter information or parameter values ​​pre-stored in the base station / server or terminal device. This application does not limit this.

[0146] Furthermore, these values ​​and parameters can be changed or updated.

[0147] (7) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application can be used interchangeably. "Multiple" refers to two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, "at least one of A, B and C" includes A, B, C, AB, AC, BC or ABC. In addition, unless otherwise specified, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects.

[0148] (8) In the embodiments of the present application, “sending” and “receiving” refer to 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 via the air interface, or indirect sending via the air interface from 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 via the air interface, or indirect receiving from YY via 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.

[0149] In other words, sending and receiving can be performed between devices, for example, between a network device and a terminal device, or can be performed within a device, for example, sending or receiving between components, modules, chips, software modules or hardware modules within the device through a bus, wiring or interface.

[0150] It is understandable that information may be processed between the source and destination of information transmission, such as coding, modulation, etc., but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in this application can be understood similarly and will not be repeated.

[0151] (9) In the embodiments of the present application, "indication" may include direct indication and indirect indication, and may also include explicit indication and implicit indication. The information indicated by a certain information (such as the indication information described below) is called 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, directly indicating the information to be indicated, such as the information to be indicated itself or the index of the information to be indicated. The information to be indicated may also be indirectly indicated by indicating other information, wherein the other information is associated with the information to be indicated; or only a part of the information to be indicated may be indicated, while the other part of the information to be indicated is known or agreed in advance. For example, the indication of specific information may be achieved by means of the arrangement order of each information agreed in advance (such as predefined by the protocol), thereby reducing the indication overhead to a certain extent. The present application does not limit the specific method of indication. It is understandable that for the sender of the indication information, the indication information can be used to indicate the information to be indicated, and for the receiver of the indication information, the indication information can be used to determine the information to be indicated.

[0152] In this application, unless otherwise specified, the same or similar parts between the various embodiments can refer to each other. In the various embodiments of this application, and the various methods / designs / implementations in each embodiment, if there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments and the various methods / designs / implementations in each embodiment are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different embodiments and the various methods / designs / implementations in each embodiment can be combined to form new embodiments, methods, or implementations according to their inherent logical relationships. The following description of the implementation methods of this application does not constitute a limitation on the scope of protection of this application.

[0153] This application can be applied to LTE systems, NR systems, or communication systems evolved after 5G (such as Beyond 5G (B5G), 5.5G, 6G, etc.). The communication system includes at least one network device and / or at least one terminal device.

[0154] Please refer to Figure 1a, which is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system 1000 used in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1a, the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 may also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (such as 110a and 110b in Figure 1a, collectively referred to as 110) and may also include at least one terminal device (such as 120a-120j in Figure 1a, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 may also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in Figure 1a). The terminal device 120 is wirelessly connected to the RAN node 110, and the RAN node 110 is wirelessly or wiredly connected to the core network 200. The core network devices in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 may be independent and different physical devices, or they may be the same physical device that integrates the logical functions of the core network devices and the logical functions of the RAN nodes. Terminal devices and RAN nodes can be connected to each other via wired or wireless means.

[0155] RAN100 can be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a NR system, a 6G system, or a future radio access system defined in 3GPP. RAN100 can also include two or more of the aforementioned different radio access systems. RAN100 can also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0156] For ease of description, a base station is taken as an example of a RAN node for description below.

[0157] Base stations and terminal devices can be fixed or mobile. They can be deployed on land, indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; on water; or on aircraft, balloons, and satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of base stations and terminal devices.

[0158] The roles of base stations and terminal devices can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 1a can be configured as a mobile base station. To terminal devices 120j accessing the wireless access network 100 via 120i, terminal device 120i is a base station. However, to base station 110a, 120i is a terminal device, meaning that communication between 110a and 120i occurs via a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, communication between 110a and 120i can also occur via a base station-to-base station interface protocol. In this case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, base stations and terminal devices can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 1a can be referred to as communication devices with base station functionality, while 120a-120j in Figure 1a can be referred to as communication devices with terminal functionality.

[0159] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station may also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem that includes the base station functions. The control subsystem that includes the base station functions here may be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, smart transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal device may also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal device, or by a device that includes the terminal device functions.

[0160] Figure 1b is another schematic diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. In Figure 1b, the network device is a base station as an example for illustration, and device 1 and device 2 are both terminal devices. As shown in Figure 1b, the communication link between device 1 and device 2 can be called a sidelink (SL), and the communication link between device 1 (or device 2) and the base station can be called an uplink and a downlink, including an uplink and a downlink. It can be seen that a sidelink is a communication mechanism that allows different terminal devices to communicate directly without going through a network device.

[0161] Optionally, in the sidelink (SL), generally speaking, the transmitting device and the receiving device can be a terminal device or network device of the same type, or a road side unit (RSU) and a terminal device, wherein the RSU is a road side station or road side unit from a physical entity point of view, and from a functional point of view, the RSU can be a terminal device or a network device, and this application does not impose any restrictions on this. That is, the transmitting device is a terminal device and the receiving device is also a terminal device; or, the transmitting device is a road side station and the receiving device is also a terminal device; or, the transmitting device is a terminal device and the receiving device is also a road side station. In addition, the sidelink can also be a base station device of the same type or different types. At this time, the function of the sidelink is similar to that of the relay link, but the air interface technology used can be the same or different.

[0162] Exemplarily, the sidelink supports broadcast, unicast, and multicast.

[0163] Broadcast communication is similar to network device broadcasting system information, that is, the terminal device sends broadcast service data to the outside without encryption. Any other terminal device within the effective receiving range can receive the broadcast service data if it is interested in the broadcast service.

[0164] Unicast communication is similar to data communication that occurs after an RRC connection is established between a terminal device and a network device. It requires a unicast connection to be established between the two devices. After the unicast connection is established, the two devices can communicate data based on a negotiated identifier. This data can be encrypted or unencrypted. Unlike broadcasting, unicast communication is only possible between two devices that have established a unicast connection.

[0165] Optionally, a unicast communication on the sidelink corresponds to a pair of a source layer-2 identifier (denoted as source L2 ID) and a destination layer-2 identifier (denoted as destination L2 ID). Optionally, the source L2 ID and the destination L2 ID are included in a subheader of a media access control protocol data unit (MAC PDU) in the sidelink to ensure that the data is transmitted to the correct receiving end.

[0166] Multicast communication refers to communication between all terminal devices in a communication group. Any terminal device in the group can send and receive data of the multicast service.

[0167] As shown in Figure 1c, when a terminal device (denoted as UE1) communicates directly with another terminal device (denoted as UE2) without going through a network device, the communication link between the two terminal devices can be called a sidelink, or the two terminal devices are said to communicate based on the proximity-based services communication 5 (PC5) port.

[0168] As shown in Figure 1d, V2X communication technology, a typical application of sidelinks, leverages and enhances current cellular network features and elements to enable low-latency and high-reliability communications between various nodes in a vehicle network, including vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), and vehicle-to-network (V2N). As cellular systems evolve from 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) to 5G, C-V2X is evolving from LTE-V2X to NR-V2X (New Radio V2X).

[0169] Furthermore, V2X communication has significant potential to reduce vehicle collisions, thereby reducing the number of casualties. The advantages of V2X extend beyond safety. Vehicles capable of V2X communication contribute to better traffic management, further promoting green transportation and lowering energy consumption. The Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is an application that integrates V2X. Based on V2X technology, vehicle users (V-UEs) can transmit information such as their location, speed, and intentions (turns, lane changes, and reversing) to surrounding V-UEs periodically, as well as information triggered by aperiodic events. Similarly, V-UEs receive real-time information from surrounding users. 5G NR V2X supports lower transmission latency, more reliable communication, higher throughput, and a better user experience, meeting the needs of a wider range of application scenarios. Furthermore, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology supported by V2X can be extended to device-to-device (D2D) communication in any system.

[0170] As shown in Figure 1e, the application scenario of the embodiment of the present application can be an SA scenario, and the terminal device can be connected to a single base station, wherein the base station to which the terminal device is connected and the core network to which the base station is connected are of the same standard. For example, if the core network is 5G Core, the corresponding base station is a 5G base station, and the 5G base station is connected to the 5G Core; for another example, if the core network is 6G Core, the corresponding base station is a 6G base station, and the 6G base station is connected to the 6G Core. It should be noted that the number of terminal devices can be one or more.

[0171] As shown in Figure 1f, the application scenario of the embodiment of the present application can be a DC scenario, and the terminal device can be connected to base stations of different standards or the same standard at the same time. For example, the core network is 5G Core, and the terminal device can be connected to a 5G base station and a 6G base station at the same time, wherein the 5G base station serves as the primary station and the 6G base station serves as the secondary station; for another example, the core network is 6G Core, and the terminal device can be connected to a 5G base station and a 6G base station at the same time, wherein the 6G base station serves as the primary station and the 5G base station serves as the secondary station; for another example, the core network can be 6G Core, and the terminal device can be connected to two 6G base stations at the same time, and both the primary station and the secondary station are 6G base stations. It should be noted that the number of terminal devices can be one or more.

[0172] In wireless communication systems, communication between terminal devices and network devices follows a specific protocol layer structure. For example, the protocol layer structure may include the RRC layer, the packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, the radio link control (RLC) layer, the media access control (MAC) layer, and the physical layer (PHY) layer. In the 3GPP standard, Layer 1 (L1) may refer to the PHY layer, Layer 2 may refer to the MAC layer, and Layer 3 may refer to the RRC layer.

[0173] The technical solution provided in this application can be applied to wireless communication systems (for example, the systems shown in Figures 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, or 1f), and applicable scenarios include terrestrial cellular communications, non-terrestrial communications NTN, satellite communications, high altitude platform station (HAPS) communications, V2X, integrated access and backhaul (IAB), reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) communications, and other scenarios.

[0174] In wireless communication systems, as the scale of the network continues to expand, network energy consumption is also increasing. In order to reduce network energy consumption, one of the approaches is to enable adaptive adjustment of the power offset between the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and the channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). The network device can broadcast the transmit power of the SSB through a system message to indicate the transmit power of the secondary synchronization signal (SSS). In addition, the network device can also configure the power offset between the non-zero power channel state information reference signal (NZP CSI-RS) and the SSB through RRC signaling to determine the transmit power of the NZP CSI-RS. In addition, the network device will also configure the power offset between the PDSCH and the NZP CSI-RS.

[0175] To better achieve effective adjustment of the power offset between PDSCH and CSI-RS, the protocol has made corresponding enhancements to CSI measurement and feedback. The main idea is to measure and report based on different power offset values ​​to assist network equipment in determining the optimal power offset between PDSCH and CSI-RS and notify the terminal equipment accordingly.

[0176] As shown in Figure 2a, based on the above enhancements, the transmit power of the PDSCH can be adjusted semi-statically more effectively. In other words, the transmit power of the PDSCH can be less than the maximum transmit power, thereby reducing the energy consumption of network devices by reducing the transmit power. However, the above enhancements only adjust the transmit power of the PDSCH. The transmit power of common signals, such as SSB, system information block 1 (SIB1), other system information (OSI), and paging messages, is not adjusted. The transmit power of common signals is still sent through SIB1, and whether to adjust it is left to the network devices. When the network device decides to adjust, it will update the SIB1 message accordingly. However, in actual networks, after the network is planned, the transmit power of common signals is not adjusted to avoid coverage holes.

[0177] Based on the above problems, in order to reduce the energy consumption of network devices, a first module and a second module are deployed on the network devices. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of the transmitted signal, and the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. The first module is, for example, a low-power radio (LR) transceiver, which is based on a chirp signal, an on-off key (OOK) signal, or a passive reflection signal. The second module is, for example, a main radio (MR) transceiver, which is based on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) or discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). As shown in Figure 2b, the low-power transceiver ensures coverage, and the transmit power of the main transceiver is dynamically adjusted according to user requests. Based on this, when there are only nearby users in the network or even when the network is unloaded, the main transceiver can transmit signals at a lower transmit power. For users that are not covered by the primary transceiver, they can send auxiliary information to trigger the base station to increase the transmission power or increase the number of repetitions.

[0178] In scenarios where network equipment is deployed with both low-power transceivers and primary transceivers, the transmit power of the primary transceiver can be dynamically adjusted because the signals sent by the two have different waveforms and transmit powers. In this architecture, if the cell does not transmit the signal at full power, then directly determining whether to perform a cell handover based on the measurement results of the signal may cause the terminal device to perform a cell handover prematurely, increasing network energy consumption. In this architecture, how mobility management should be performed, that is, how cell selection, cell reselection, and cell handover should be performed, is one of the issues that needs to be addressed urgently. If the network equipment has power headroom, theoretically, as shown in Figure 2c, when the terminal device is out of the coverage of the primary transceiver or the signal quality is poor, can it still increase the transmit power by triggering the target cell?

[0179] In order to solve the above problems, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method. Before introducing the specific implementation of the method provided in the embodiment of the present application, mobility management is first introduced.

[0180] Taking the terminal device as UE and the network device as base station as an example, NR supports three states of UE, including idle state, inactive state and connected state, according to the connection between UE and base station and core network. Specifically:

[0181] RRC connected state: The UE and the base station have established an RRC connection.

[0182] RRC idle state: No RRC connection is established between the UE and the base station.

[0183] RRC Inactive State: In this state, the UE suspends data processing, but the base station still maintains the UE's context information. Simply put, the air interface state of a UE in RRC Inactive State is similar to that in RRC Idle State, but from the core network side, the UE in RRC Inactive State is still in Connected State.

[0184] Mobility management in different states is divided into:

[0185] RRC connection state: cell switching.

[0186] RRC idle state: cell reselection, tracking area (TA) update.

[0187] RRC inactive state: cell reselection, RAN notification area (RNA) update, TA update, etc.

[0188] As can be seen, mobility management in the RRC inactive state is similar to mobility management in the RRC idle state, mainly including cell reselection and RNA or TA update. RNA and TA are similar in that the core concept is that when the UE moves out of the area (RNA area or TA area), the UE needs to re-establish a connection to notify the network side so that the network side can subsequently page the UE in the new RNA area or TA area.

[0189] The overall process for cell reselection includes three stages: initiating neighbor cell measurements, reselection evaluation and decision, and cell reselection execution. In NR systems, the measurement signal for cell reselection is SSB. The following describes these three stages in detail.

[0190] 1. Start Neighborhood Measurement

[0191] In order to achieve the purpose of UE energy saving by limiting measurement actions, the UE will start neighbor cell measurement only when certain conditions are met. A decision is made on the current serving cell based on this condition, and neighbor cell measurement is started only after the decision is passed.

[0192] The conditions for starting neighboring cell measurement mainly consider two factors: cell reselection priority and the signal quality of the current serving cell. The details are as follows:

[0193] (1) Neighboring cell priority is higher than serving cell: No matter how good the serving cell signal is, neighboring cell measurement is started unconditionally.

[0194] (2) Neighboring cell priority is equal to the serving cell: Based on the signal quality of the current serving cell and the signal quality threshold configured on the network side (the threshold defined in NR, the same-frequency measurement start threshold S in the system information block 2 (SIB2) intrasearchP , inter-frequency measurement start threshold S nonintrasearchP ) to determine whether to start neighboring cell measurement.

[0195] (a) The signal quality of the current serving cell is higher than the signal quality threshold configured on the network side, and the neighboring cell measurement is not started.

[0196] (b) If the signal quality of the current serving cell is lower than or equal to the signal quality threshold configured on the network side, neighboring cell measurement is initiated.

[0197] (3) The neighboring cell priority is lower than the serving cell: Based on the signal quality of the current serving cell and the signal quality threshold configured on the network side, determine whether to start the neighboring cell measurement.

[0198] As can be seen, the cell reselection priority is one of the key factors affecting whether to initiate neighbor cell measurement. In the NR system, the cell reselection priority is generally obtained from the system message of the current serving cell. This type of priority is also called the general cell reselection priority. In addition, the cell reselection priority can also be obtained from the RRC release message or inherited from other systems. This type of message is called the UE-specific priority. If the UE obtains both the general cell reselection priority and the UE-specific priority at the same time, the UE will ignore the general cell reselection priority.

[0199] II. Re-evaluation Decision

[0200] Similar to the aforementioned neighbor cell measurement initiation, reselection evaluation decisions can also be divided into the following three scenarios based on priority:

[0201] (1) High-priority neighbor cell reselection evaluation and decision.

[0202] The UE has been in the serving cell for more than 1s, and the signal quality of the high-priority neighboring cell is greater than the cell reselection threshold (Thresh X,highP ,Thresh X,highQ )

[0203] (2) Evaluation and decision on reselection of neighboring cells with equal priority.

[0204] (a) Calculate the R value of the neighboring cell and the current serving cell

[0205] The R value of the cell is calculated according to the formula in 3GPP TS 38.304 (3rd generation partnership project).

[0206] a) Signal quality level of the neighboring cell: R n = Q meas,n - Q offset - Q offsettemp .

[0207] b) Signal quality level of the current serving cell: R s = Q meas,n + Q hyst - Q offsettemp .

[0208] Among them, R n is the R value of the neighboring cell, R s is the R value of the serving cell, Q meas is the reference signal received power (RSRP) value for cell reselection, Q hyst is the hysteresis value of the sorting criterion, Q offset and Q offsettemp are used to determine the offset, and the parameters are sent to the terminal device through the system message.

[0209] (b) The UE is in the serving cell for more than 1 s, and the best cell selected (the cell with the highest R value in the sorting result) continuously meets the cell reselection criterion during TreselectionNR.

[0210] (3) Low-priority neighboring cell reselection evaluation and decision.

[0211] None of the cells in the high-priority and equal-priority cells meet the cell reselection criterion, and within a certain period of time, the signal quality of the serving cell is lower than the threshold indicated in SIB2 (Squal < ThreshServing,LowQ), and the low-priority frequency band is higher than the threshold in SIB4 or system information block 5 (Squal > ThreshX,LowQ).

[0212] III. Cell reselection execution

[0213] After completing the measurement of neighboring cells and confirming that there is a new cell meeting the cell reselection conditions, the UE will start to attempt to camp on the new cell. The UE searches for the target cell, then receives the system message of the target cell. If there is no access restriction, it camps on the target cell, that is, reselects to the target cell; otherwise, the UE still camps on the current serving cell.

[0214] For connected UEs, the UE will perform measurements and provide feedback based on the measurement objects (SSB or CSI-RS) configured by the network side. The network side will determine whether to perform a handover based on the reported measurement results, interact with the target station, obtain the configuration information of the target station, and send a handover signaling to instruct the UE to perform the handover. Depending on whether the gNodeBs to which the serving cells before and after the handover belong are cross-site, or whether there are corresponding Xn interfaces between gNodeBs when cross-site, the handover is divided into three scenarios: intra-site handover, inter-site Xn handover, and inter-site NG handover. Regardless of the scenario, the handover mainly includes the following steps:

[0215] (1) gNodeB decides whether to start the handover process.

[0216] (2) The gNodeB transmits the measurement configuration information to the UE via the RRCReconfiguration message.

[0217] (3) The UE performs relevant measurements according to the measurement configuration information and generates cell measurement results.

[0218] (4) The UE reports the measurement results to the gNodeB via a measurement report (measurement result reporting).

[0219] (5) The gNodeB determines whether there is a suitable new serving cell based on the measurement report.

[0220] (6) The gNodeB finds a suitable new serving cell and instructs the UE to perform handover.

[0221] In traditional NR basic handover, due to the deterioration of the wireless environment between the UE and the source base station, the following two situations may occur, and both situations will lead to handover failure. At this time, the UE will recognize the radio link failure and initiate the RRC re-establishment process.

[0222] (1) The UE's measurement report cannot reach the base station.

[0223] (2) After the base station receives the measurement report, the handover command sent to the UE cannot reach the UE.

[0224] Therefore, to reduce the probability of handover failure and improve handover reliability, the 3GPP Release 16 (R16) protocol introduced conditional handover (CHO). CHO allows the source base station to send a handover command (containing the radio parameter configuration of candidate target base stations and the trigger conditions for handover execution) to the UE in advance before the wireless environment between the UE and the source base station deteriorates further. This allows the UE to know how to access the target base station in advance. Once the UE finds a base station among the candidate target base stations that meets the handover trigger conditions, it can independently decide to initiate the handover, thereby increasing the chances of successful message transmission and improving the success rate of handovers.

[0225] In addition, the traditional NR basic switching, acquisition of measurement configuration and reporting of measurement results are all based on RRC signaling. Since the RRC signaling takes at least a dozen milliseconds to take effect, it will bring corresponding delays. Therefore, the 3GPP version 18 (release 18, R18) protocol introduced Layer 1 / Layer 2 triggered mobility (L1 / L2 triggered mobility, LTM). Its core idea is that the network side will configure LTM candidate cells in advance through RRC signaling, and the terminal device will perform downlink synchronization and uplink synchronization in the candidate cell in advance (such as receiving downlink synchronization signals and sending uplink preamble sequences). The UE will report the measurement results of the candidate cell through the L1 measurement report, and the network side will send a cell switching instruction MAC CE to instruct the terminal device to switch.

[0226] In NR cell handover, whether basic handover, conditional handover, or mobility triggered by L1 / L2, the measurement signal is SSB or CSI-RS, and the specific information is obtained through the measurement object configuration configured by the base station. In NR cell reselection, the measurement signal is SSB, and the specific information is obtained through the base station's system messages.

[0227] It should be understood that the above mobility management is implemented in a scenario where only the primary transceiver exists on the base station. To reduce energy consumption on the base station side, the base station side will deploy both low-power transceivers and the primary transceiver. Under this architecture, this embodiment provides a communication method. Please refer to Figure 3, which is a schematic diagram of an implementation of the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The method includes the following steps.

[0228] It should be noted that in Figure 3, the method is illustrated by taking the terminal device and the network device to which the cell belongs as the execution subjects of the interaction diagram as an example, but this application does not limit the execution subjects of the interaction diagram. For example, in Figure 3, the execution subject of the method can be replaced by a chip, chip system, processor, logic module or software in the terminal device or network device.

[0229] S301. The terminal device obtains first information, where the first information includes measurement results of at least one cell.

[0230] The first information may be understood as a measurement result of a downlink reference signal, or may be understood as signal quality between a terminal device and at least one cell.

[0231] In one implementation, the signal quality between the terminal device and at least one cell may be obtained based on a reference signal.

[0232] The network equipment to which the cell belongs will configure each reference signal as a resource to the terminal device. A resource is a configuration information unit, which usually includes parameters related to a reference signal, such as the time-frequency resource location of the reference signal, the number of ports, and the time domain type (periodic / semi-static / aperiodic). The terminal device measures the current serving cell based on the configuration information. If measurements of neighboring cells are required, the terminal device also measures the neighboring cells based on the measurement configuration. The measurement report is obtained based on the measurement results of reference signals (such as SS / PBCH blocks, CSI-RS, etc.).

[0233] For example, when a terminal device and a network device communicate via a downlink, the reference signal may include CSI-RS, SSS, primary synchronization signal (PSS), cell specific reference signal (CRS), demodulation reference signal (DMRS), discovery reference signal (DRS), and synchronization system / physical broadcast channel block (SS / PBCH block). SS / PBCH block can be referred to as SSB.

[0234] For example, when the terminal device and the network device to which the cell belongs communicate through the side link, the reference signal may include a sidelink synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (sidelink synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block, sidelink SSB, SL-SSB, or S-SS / PSBCH block), a sidelink channel state information reference signal (sidelink channel state information reference signal, SL-CSI-RS), etc.

[0235] Optionally, the terminal device obtains configuration information of the reference signal based on a message broadcast by the network device.

[0236] It should be understood that, for ease of explanation, in this application, the serving cell may also be referred to as the network device to which the serving cell belongs, the neighboring cell may also be referred to as the network device to which the neighboring cell belongs, and the target cell may also be referred to as the network device to which the target cell belongs. The interaction between the serving cell, the neighboring cell, and the target cell may also be understood as the interaction between the network device to which the serving cell belongs, the network device to which the neighboring cell belongs, and the network device to which the target cell belongs. The power headroom of the cell may also be referred to as the power headroom of the network device to which the cell belongs. In this embodiment, the network device to which the cell belongs is directly described as a cell. It should be understood that those skilled in the art can unambiguously understand that, for example, sending information to a cell means sending information to the network device to which the cell belongs.

[0237] In this embodiment, the network equipment to which the cell belongs includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and transmission signal waveform, with the first module's power consumption being less than the second module's. Correspondingly, the terminal equipment also includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and transmission signal waveform, with the first module's power consumption being less than the second module's.

[0238] Optionally, the first module is a low power radio (LR), which transmits and receives a first type of signal Type 1, which is a chirp signal, an on-off key signal, or a passive reflection signal.

[0239] Optionally, the second module is a main radio (MR), which transmits and receives a second type of signal, namely, a Type 2 signal. The second type of signal is an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal or a discrete Fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM) signal.

[0240] Since the waveforms and transmission powers of the first type of signal and the second type of signal are different, the coverage ranges of the first type of signal and the second type of signal may be different. The first type of signal is used to ensure cell coverage, that is, terminal devices within the cell coverage, regardless of whether they are in an idle state, an inactive state, or a connected state, can receive the first type of signal. The second type of signal provides services for users with data transmission demands, and it is necessary to consider the state of the terminal device, that is, only consider terminal devices in a connected state, or terminal devices in an inactive state that support small packet data transmission. It should be understood that the transmission power adjusted by the network equipment to which the cell belongs only guarantees coverage for such users.

[0241] Under this architecture, the low-power transceiver of the network equipment belonging to the cell is used to ensure coverage, so its transmission power is relatively fixed. The main transceiver of the network equipment belonging to the cell is used to provide services to users, so its transmission power can be dynamically adjusted, such as based on the location of the terminal device, channel quality, data volume, etc.

[0242] In this architecture, for connected terminal devices, the network equipment of the cell to which the cell belongs mainly transmits and receives signals through the primary transceiver. Therefore, cell switching is mainly based on the reference signal sent by the primary transceiver for measurement.

[0243] It should be understood that when the terminal device determines whether to perform cell switching, it also needs to consider the power headroom of the cell. To this end, the terminal device will regularly receive the second information from the network device to which the cell belongs. For details, please refer to the content of S302.

[0244] It should be understood that the execution order of S301 and S302 is not limited.

[0245] S302. The terminal device receives second information, where the second information is related to the power headroom of at least one cell.

[0246] The at least one cell includes at least one of a serving cell and a neighboring cell, and the neighboring cell includes a target cell. In this step, corresponding to different handover scenarios, the content of the second information received by the terminal device may be different.

[0247] Optionally, the second information indicates a range of the power headroom and / or whether the power headroom exists.

[0248] Optionally, the network device to which the cell belongs includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of a transmitted signal, and the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. The second information is related to a power headroom of the second module of the network device to which the cell belongs.

[0249] The power headroom is divided into the power headroom of the network equipment to which the cell belongs and the power headroom of the beam, which can be the same or different.

[0250] In one implementation, the terminal device may receive or update the second information based on one or more of the following methods.

[0251] Method 1: Based on SSB reception.

[0252] Optionally, SSB can be replaced by SSS, CSI-RS, or master information block (MIB).

[0253] Method 2: Based on SIB reception.

[0254] The network device to which the cell belongs sends an SIB to the terminal device. The SIB carries the second information and broadcasts the second information through the SIB.

[0255] Method 3: Based on DCI reception.

[0256] The network device to which the cell belongs sends DCI to the terminal device, and the DCI carries the second information.

[0257] Optionally, DCI may be replaced by a media access control control element (MAC CE).

[0258] Method 4: Update based on indication of paging short message.

[0259] When the power headroom of the network device to which the cell belongs changes, the network device to which the cell belongs may update the second information through a paging message, which is carried by a short message scrambled based on a paging radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI).

[0260] Optionally, the upper layer (MAC layer) of the terminal device can determine whether the network device to which the cell belongs has power headroom or a range of power headroom based on the out-of-sync indication and the indication of power headroom existence reported by the physical layer.

[0261] After the terminal device obtains the first information and the second information, the terminal device can determine whether to initiate random access or whether to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power based on the first information and the second information.

[0262] In one example, cell handover scenarios mainly include basic handover, conditional handover, and LTM. For ease of description, the steps of this embodiment are described below in conjunction with the scenarios.

[0263] 1. Basic Switching

[0264] In the basic switching scenario, when the terminal device reports the measurement results to the serving cell, it will also consider the power margin of the neighboring cell to avoid the terminal device performing cell switching in advance when there is still power margin in the neighboring cell to be switched, thereby improving the success rate of cell switching.

[0265] In the basic switching scenario, the main execution process is:

[0266] (1) The terminal device reports the measurement results to the serving cell

[0267] In one implementation, the terminal device receives fifth information from a neighboring cell, where the fifth information is related to a power headroom of at least one neighboring cell, where the at least one neighboring cell includes a serving cell and / or a target cell.

[0268] The terminal device sends the first information and the fifth information to the serving cell.

[0269] Optionally, the fifth information indicates a range of the power headroom of the target cell and / or whether the power headroom of the target cell exists.

[0270] Optionally, the fifth information indicates a range of a power headroom of the serving cell and / or whether a power headroom of the serving cell exists. Optionally, the fifth information is carried by a synchronization sequence indication, a master information block (MIB), a system information block (SIB), a MAC CE, or a DCI.

[0271] In another implementation manner, the serving cell receives the fifth information sent from the neighboring cell.

[0272] In this implementation, the fifth information of the neighboring cell does not need to be reported by the terminal device, but is completed based on the interaction between the cells. The serving cell can directly receive the fifth information sent by the neighboring cell, and when the fifth information of the neighboring cell changes, the neighboring cell will send the changed fifth information to the serving cell.

[0273] (2) The serving cell determines whether the handover can be performed and whether it is necessary to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power based on the first information and the fifth information.

[0274] After the serving cell receives the fifth information and the first information reported by the terminal device, there are the following two implementation methods.

[0275] In a first implementation manner, the serving cell sends seventh information to the target cell, where the seventh information is used to request the target cell to adjust transmit power.

[0276] In addition to including the request information for adjusting the transmit power, the seventh information may also optionally carry a recommended power adjustment value.

[0277] After receiving the seventh information, the target cell will reply with a response message, which carries indication information on whether to perform power adjustment.

[0278] Optionally, the response message also carries a power adjustment value.

[0279] Optionally, the response message also carries configuration information of the switching signaling sent to the terminal device.

[0280] Optionally, as shown in Figure 4, after the target cell's power is adjusted, the terminal device is triggered to report the measurement result again to assist the serving cell in making a cell handover decision. If the serving cell determines to perform a cell handover, it will send a handover command to the terminal device accordingly.

[0281] In a second implementation manner, the serving cell receives a message from the target cell, where the message carries configuration information of the first signal.

[0282] Optionally, the message is a handover response message or other messages.

[0283] In one example, after the terminal device reports the first information to the serving cell, the serving cell sends a handover request to the target cell. The target cell sends a message to the serving cell, and the serving cell sends the configuration information of the first signal carried in the message to the terminal device via a handover instruction. The terminal device then initiates random access to the target cell.

[0284] Optionally, the first signal is an uplink wake up signal (UL WUS).

[0285] Optionally, the configuration information of the first signal includes a position, a sequence, etc. of the time-frequency resources of the first signal.

[0286] The serving cell sends the configuration information of the first signal to the terminal device, and instructs / triggers the terminal device to send the first signal to the target cell, where the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power.

[0287] Optionally, after the power of the target cell is adjusted, the terminal device is triggered to report the measurement result again to assist the serving cell in making a cell handover decision. If the serving cell determines to perform a cell handover, it will send a handover instruction to the terminal device accordingly.

[0288] Optionally, the terminal device includes a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information, the first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of a transmission signal, the power consumption of the first module is less than the power consumption of the second module, and the terminal device sending the first signal to the target cell includes:

[0289] The terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell based on the first module.

[0290] Based on the above technical solution, the terminal device includes a first module with lower power consumption and a first module with higher power consumption. The terminal device sends a first signal to the network device based on the first module with lower power consumption, which can further reduce the energy consumption of the device.

[0291] When the terminal device sends a first signal to the network device based on the first module, the network device can receive the first signal based on the first module, and then adjust the transmission power of the second module of the network device according to the first signal.

[0292] It should be understood that the network equipment includes a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of the transmission signal. The power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. In this scenario, the first module is used to ensure coverage, and the transmission power is relatively fixed. The second module is used to provide services to users, and the transmission power can be dynamically adjusted. Therefore, under the premise that there is still power margin in the target cell, if the terminal device is still within the coverage of the first module, the terminal device can increase the success rate of cell switching by triggering the target cell to adjust the transmission power, thereby reducing unnecessary connection reconstruction.

[0293] Optionally, the first network device is a network device belonging to the target cell, and the first network device includes a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information. The first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition and waveform of the transmission signal. The power consumption of the first module is less than the power consumption of the second module. After the terminal device sends the first signal to the target cell based on the first module, the first network device receives the first signal based on the first module, and then the first network device adjusts the transmission power of the second module according to the first signal.

[0294] It should be understood that, compared to the second module, since the first module has a larger coverage range and lower power consumption, the first network device receives the first signal based on the first module with lower power consumption, which not only improves the success rate of receiving the first signal, but also reduces network energy consumption. Since the transmission power of the second module can be dynamically adjusted, the first network device can adjust the transmission power of the second module according to the first signal after the terminal device receives the first signal based on the first module, that is, dynamically adjust the transmission power of the second module according to actual needs to reduce the energy consumption of the second module. On this basis, the first network device communicates with the terminal device based on the adjusted transmission power, thereby avoiding the terminal device from performing cell switching in advance.

[0295] Optionally, the terminal device sends the first signal to the target cell based on the second module. Correspondingly, the network device receives the first signal based on the second module, and then adjusts the transmission power of the second module of the target cell according to the first signal.

[0296] It should be understood that in this embodiment, for terminal devices in different states, signal measurements based on different types of signals / transceivers are defined through the collaboration of the first module and the second module, which can support mobility management of terminals in different states on the basis of minimizing network energy consumption.

[0297] 2. Conditional Switching

[0298] In the conditional switching scenario, the serving cell (source cell) will request conditional switching configuration from one or more target cells. Accordingly, the target cell will reply with a conditional switching response message to the serving cell. The conditional switching response message includes the configuration information of the target cell. The serving cell can then send the configuration information to the terminal device via an RRC reconfiguration message. The RRC reconfiguration message includes switching-related configuration information and information on the execution conditions of the conditional switching.

[0299] In this embodiment, the conditional handover response message sent by the target cell to the serving cell includes not only the handover-related configuration information but also the configuration information of the first signal. Correspondingly, after the serving cell receives the conditional handover response message, it will carry the handover-related configuration information and the configuration information of the first signal in the RRC reconfiguration message sent to the terminal device.

[0300] Optionally, the configuration information of the first signal includes information such as the time-frequency resources, sending timing, candidate sequence, or chirp slope of the first signal.

[0301] Optionally, the configuration information of the first signal further includes information on whether the power headroom of the target cell exists and / or a range of the power headroom of the target cell.

[0302] The information on the execution condition of the conditional switching carried in the RRC reconfiguration message is the information on the first condition in this embodiment. After the terminal device receives the information on the first condition, in one implementation:

[0303] S303. When the terminal device determines that the first condition is met based on the first information and the second information, it sends a first signal to the target cell, where the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust its transmit power. In response, upon receiving the first signal, the target cell adjusts the transmit power of the network device to which the cell belongs based on the first signal.

[0304] In this implementation, optionally, the at least one cell includes a serving cell and a target cell, and the first condition includes one or more of the following information A to information B.

[0305] Information A: A difference between a sum of a measurement result of the target cell and a power headroom of the target cell and a sum of a measurement result of the serving cell and a power headroom of the serving cell is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

[0306] Information B: The sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is less than the second threshold.

[0307] Information A is mainly determined based on the measurement result of the serving cell (i.e., the signal quality between the terminal device and the network device to which the serving cell belongs), the power margin of the serving cell, the measurement result of the target cell (i.e., the signal quality between the terminal device and the network device to which the target cell belongs), and the power margin of the target cell. In information A, the first threshold value can be understood as the threshold value / upper limit value of the offset in the A3 event, and the A3 event is that the measurement result of the neighboring cell is better than the measurement result of the serving cell by an offset. In this embodiment, the terminal device considers the power margin of the cell at the same time. When the terminal device determines that the difference between the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power margin of the target cell and the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power margin of the serving cell is greater than or equal to the first threshold value, the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell to request the target cell to increase the transmission power.

[0308] Information B is mainly determined based on the measurement results of the serving cell and the power margin of the serving cell. In information B, the second threshold value can be understood as the / upper limit value of threshold value 1 in the A5 event. The A5 event is that the service quality of the serving cell (ie, the measurement result) is lower than threshold value 1, and the service quality of the neighboring cell (ie, the measurement result) is higher than threshold value 2. In this embodiment, the terminal device also considers the power margin of the cell. In one example, after the serving cell sends the measurement signal resource to the terminal device at full power, when the terminal device determines that the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power margin of the serving cell is less than the second threshold value, the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell to request the target cell to increase the transmission power.

[0309] Optionally, the terminal device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information, the first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and a waveform of a transmitted signal, the power consumption of the first module being less than the power consumption of the second module, and the terminal device sending the first signal to the target cell includes: the terminal device sending the first signal to the target cell based on the first module. For details, refer to the description in basic switching and are not repeated here.

[0310] After the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell, and the target cell adjusts transmit power based on the first signal, in one implementation:

[0311] S304. When the terminal device determines that the second condition is met based on the first information and the second information, it initiates random access to the target cell.

[0312] In this implementation, optionally, the at least one cell includes a serving cell and a target cell, and the second condition includes one or more of the following information A to information B.

[0313] Information A: The sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is less than the second threshold, and the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell is greater than or equal to the third threshold.

[0314] Information B: The sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell is greater than or equal to a third threshold.

[0315] In information A, the third threshold can be understood as the upper limit of threshold 2 in the A5 event. The A5 event occurs when the quality of service (i.e., measurement result) of the serving cell is lower than threshold 1, and the quality of service (i.e., measurement result) of the neighboring cell is higher than threshold 2. In this embodiment, the terminal device also considers the power headroom of the cell. After the target cell adjusts its transmit power, if the terminal device determines that information A is satisfied, it initiates random access to the target cell.

[0316] It should be understood that the third threshold value may also be the threshold value of the corresponding threshold in other events, which can be set in combination with actual needs and is not limited here.

[0317] It should be understood that after the target cell adjusts its transmission power, if the terminal device determines that the second condition is met, it means that the transmission power of the target cell has exceeded the maximum adjustable range. At this time, the terminal device will initiate random access to the target cell to avoid the terminal device performing cell switching in advance.

[0318] LTM

[0319] In the LTM scenario, the serving cell (source cell) will carry the configuration information of the LTM candidate cell in advance through RRC signaling. Optionally, the terminal device can complete uplink and downlink synchronization with the target cell in advance (such as receiving downlink synchronization signals and sending uplink preambles).

[0320] During the cell handover execution phase of LTM, the terminal device reports a measurement report based on the physical layer or layer 1 to the serving cell. The measurement report includes the measurement results of the neighboring cells. The serving cell makes a decision based on the measurement results, and when it determines to perform cell handover, it sends a cell handover instruction to the terminal device to instruct the terminal device to perform cell handover. The terminal device initiates random access to the target cell based on the cell handover instruction. After the terminal device completes access, the target cell sends an RRC reconfiguration complete message to the terminal device to indicate that the cell handover is complete.

[0321] In this embodiment, improvements are made to the configuration information of the LTM candidate cell sent by the serving cell, the uplink synchronization between the terminal device and the target cell, the terminal device reporting the measurement report, and the process after the terminal device receives the cell switching instruction, as follows.

[0322] 1. Configuration information of LTM candidate cells sent by the serving cell

[0323] In one implementation, S305. The terminal device receives fifth information from the serving cell, where the fifth information is used to indicate adjustment information of the transmit power of the serving cell and / or the target cell, and / or the fifth information is used to indicate power headroom information of the serving cell and / or the target cell.

[0324] It should be understood that the terminal device can detect / determine that the transmit power of the serving cell and / or the target cell has been adjusted, and / or the power margin information of the serving cell and / or the target cell through the fifth information. The information on the transmit power of the reference signals corresponding to all candidate cells is added to the configuration information of the LTM candidate cell sent by the serving cell to the terminal device, where the reference signal includes CSI-RS or SSB, etc. When the transmit power of the reference signal corresponding to the target cell is adjusted, the serving cell sends the fifth information to the terminal device. Based on the fifth information, the terminal device determines that the transmit power of the target cell has been adjusted and / or the adjusted value of the transmit power.

[0325] Optionally, the power headroom information of the target cell indicates a range of the power headroom of the target cell and / or whether the power headroom of the target cell exists.

[0326] Optionally, the power headroom information of the serving cell indicates a range of the power headroom of the serving cell and / or whether the power headroom of the serving cell exists.

[0327] Optionally, the fifth information is carried by a synchronization sequence indication, a master information block (MIB), a system information block (SIB) broadcast, a MAC CE, or a DCI.

[0328] Optionally, the adjustment information for indicating the transmission power of the serving cell and / or the target cell and the power margin information for indicating the serving cell and / or the target cell can be transmitted through the same information (fifth information) or the same message, or through different information (for example, the fifth information and the sixth information) or different messages.

[0329] In one example, the MAC CE includes the ID or index of the cell and indication information of the transmission power adjustment. The indication information may include information on whether the transmission power is adjusted and / or the adjustment value of the transmission power.

[0330] Optionally, the serving cell may also carry the fifth information through the second-level DCI in the two-level DCI.

[0331] 2. Uplink synchronization between the terminal device and the target cell

[0332] In one implementation, S306: The terminal device receives fourth information from the serving cell, where the fourth information includes configuration information of a second signal used for uplink synchronization.

[0333] Optionally, the second signal is different from the first signal in at least one of time-frequency resources, sequence, and chirp slope, and the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust transmit power.

[0334] It should be understood that, in addition to supporting the terminal device to send a preamble to the serving cell to complete uplink synchronization, in this embodiment, the terminal device is also supported to complete uplink synchronization based on the second signal. Accordingly, the configuration information of the LTM candidate cell sent by the serving cell includes configuration information of the first signal and the second signal, wherein the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmit power, and the second signal is used to trigger the terminal device to complete early synchronization with the target cell.

[0335] Optionally, the second signal is different from the first signal in at least one of time-frequency resources, sequence, and chirp slope, wherein being based on a different sequence includes being based on a different preamble or a different chirp.

[0336] Optionally, the second signal is a UL WUS. The second signal is different from the first signal in one or more of time-frequency resources, signal or preamble sequence.

[0337] 3. Terminal equipment reports measurement reports

[0338] In this embodiment, the layer 1 measurement report reported by the terminal device to the serving cell includes not only the measurement results of the neighboring cells, but also, optionally, the power headroom of the neighboring cells (the network device to which the neighboring cells belong).

[0339] In one implementation, the terminal device reports the measurement results of the neighboring cells and the power headroom of the neighboring cells to the serving cell.

[0340] In one implementation, the configuration information about L1 measurement reporting configured by the serving cell to the terminal device includes a virtual reporting switch. After the virtual reporting switch is turned on, the terminal device reports to the serving cell the channel quality indicator (CQI) corresponding to when the serving cell and / or candidate cell sends signals at full power.

[0341] In this implementation, the CQI value reported by the terminal device to the serving cell is not the actually measured CQI value, but the CQI value corresponding to the assumption that the serving cell and / or candidate cell transmits signals at full power.

[0342] It should be understood that the CQI value corresponding to the serving cell and / or candidate cell transmitting at full power is used as the basis for determining the serving cell, so that the terminal device decides whether to perform cell switching based on the signal quality under optimal conditions. On this basis, the terminal device can determine whether to trigger the serving cell and / or candidate cell to increase the transmit power to improve the signal quality based on the signal quality, thereby improving the success rate of cell switching.

[0343] 4. Process after the terminal device receives the cell switching instruction

[0344] In one implementation, S307. When the terminal device receives third information from the serving cell and the measurement result of the target cell is less than the fourth threshold, the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell, the third information is used to indicate the execution of cell switching, and the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power.

[0345] After receiving the third information from the serving cell, if the terminal device determines that the measurement result of the target cell is less than the fourth threshold, it indicates that the transmit power of the target cell / the network device to which the target cell belongs is low. The terminal device triggers the target cell / the network device to which the target cell belongs to adjust the transmit power by sending a first signal to the target cell.

[0346] Optionally, the terminal device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information, the first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition, and a waveform of a transmitted signal, the power consumption of the first module being less than the power consumption of the second module, and the terminal device sending the first signal to the target cell includes: the terminal device sending the first signal to the target cell based on the first module. For details, refer to the description in basic switching and are not repeated here.

[0347] In another implementation, S308. When the terminal device receives third information from the serving cell and the measurement result of the target cell is greater than or equal to the fourth threshold, the terminal device initiates random access to the target cell, and the third information is used to instruct to perform cell switching.

[0348] If the terminal device determines that the measurement result of the target cell is greater than or equal to the fourth threshold, it means that the transmit power of the target cell / the network device to which the target cell belongs has exceeded the maximum adjustable range. Only when the transmit power of the target cell / the network device to which the target cell belongs cannot be further adjusted will the terminal device initiate random access to the target cell to avoid the terminal device performing cell handover prematurely and reduce energy consumption loss.

[0349] It should be understood that the fourth threshold can be understood as a threshold / threshold for determining the quality of the signal, and the fourth threshold can be set according to actual needs. If the terminal device detects that the measurement result of the target cell (that is, the signal quality between the terminal device and the target cell) is less than the fourth threshold, it means that the signal of the second module corresponding to the network device (second network device) to which the target cell belongs is weak. On this basis, when the terminal device receives the third information, the terminal device sends a first signal to the target cell to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power. When the terminal device detects that the measurement result of the target cell is greater than or equal to the fourth threshold, it means that the transmission power of the target cell has reached the terminal device to initiate random access to the target cell.

[0350] The following describes the cell selection and / or cell reselection scenarios.

[0351] In one implementation, S309. The terminal device receives configuration information of a third signal from a serving cell based on the first module, and performs cell selection and / or cell reselection based on a measurement result of the third signal.

[0352] It should be understood that since the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module, the signal coverage range of the first module is generally greater than the signal coverage range of the second module. When the terminal device performs cell selection and / or cell reselection, the configuration information of the third signal received by the first module can not only improve the reception success rate but also reduce network energy consumption.

[0353] In an architecture where the network equipment to which the cell belongs includes a first module and a second module, since the transmission power of the signal transmitted by the first module is relatively fixed and is used to ensure coverage, cell selection and cell reselection are based on detection of signals sent by the base station low-power transceiver, such as chirp-based signals, such as chirp-based synchronization signals, or chirp-based measurement signals, and the configuration information of the measurement signal can be broadcast through system messages.

[0354] Considering that when the network is busy, the coverage of the second module is equivalent to that of the first module. In this scenario, in order to support better flexibility, the measurement signal used for cell selection and cell reselection can also be based on the signal sent by the second module, such as the SSB or synchronization signal in NR or 6G. The configuration information of the measurement signal can be broadcast through the system message.

[0355] To enable the above two scenarios, taking the first module as LR and the second module as MR as an example, optionally, the SIB message can be configured with a measurement signal for cell reselection by choice, that is: based on the measurement signal sent by LR, or based on the measurement signal sent by MR; the signal sent by LR can be a chirp-based synchronization signal, and the signal sent by MR can be an OFDM-based synchronization signal.

[0356] This embodiment also provides a communication method. Please refer to Figure 5, which is another implementation diagram of the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The method includes the following steps. It should be noted that in Figure 5, the terminal device and the network device to which the cell belongs are used as the execution subjects of the interaction diagram to illustrate the method, but this application does not limit the execution subjects of the interaction diagram. For example, in Figure 5, the execution subject of the method can be replaced by a chip, chip system, processor, logic module or software in the terminal device or network device.

[0357] Figure 5 mainly focuses on the sending of paging messages. This paging includes not only paging messages sent by the upper layer of the terminal device, but also the sending of short messages. The uses of short messages defined in NR include: system message changes, earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS) notifications and / or commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) notifications, stop paging instructions, and system message change notifications for configuring eDRX terminal devices. eDRX is an extended discontinuous reception (DRX), and each eDRX cycle includes multiple DRX cycles.

[0358] Optionally, the paging refers to information that needs to be indicated or scheduled based on the DCI scrambled by the P-RNTI.

[0359] Optionally, the paging may indicate only the short message, or only the relevant resource information carrying the paging message, or indicate both the short message and the paging message.

[0360] In this method, the second network device is a network device belonging to a service cell, the second network device is used for a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information, the terminal device includes a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information, the first module and the second module differ in at least one of power consumption, hardware composition and waveform of the transmission signal, and the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module.

[0361] The first module is used to ensure coverage, and the transmission power is relatively fixed. The transmission power of the second module can be dynamically adjusted according to actual needs. Taking into account that when a terminal device in an idle or inactive state moves, the cell may not be able to obtain the location of the terminal device in time, causing the terminal device to move out of the coverage of the second module. Therefore, in an architecture where the cell has LR and MR, the paging message is sent through the LR, and accordingly, the terminal device also needs to receive it through the corresponding module. For example, the network side sends a paging message through the LR, and the paging message is carried by a chirp signal. Accordingly, the terminal device also needs to complete the reception of the paging message based on the chirp signal, that is, the terminal device side also needs to receive the paging based on the low-power module. If the terminal device receives the paging based on the first module, the terminal device receives a low power wake up signal (LP-WUS) through the first module. Take the first module as LR and the second module as MR as an example. The steps include:

[0362] S501. The second network device sends a wake-up signal to the terminal device based on the first module.

[0363] S502. The terminal device receives a wake-up signal from the serving cell based on the first module.

[0364] According to different information carried in the wake-up signal sent by the second network device, when the terminal device receives the wake-up signal, the terminal device performs different actions to wake up the MR.

[0365] Optionally, if the LP-WUS carries sub-group information, after the MR of the terminal device wakes up, it continues to monitor at the paging opportunity to confirm whether there is a paging message for itself.

[0366] Optionally, if the LP-WUS carries group information, the MR of the terminal device wakes up and executes a paging early indication (PEI) to confirm whether to continue monitoring at subsequent paging opportunities.

[0367] Optionally, if the LP-WUS carries a specific terminal device identifier (ID), after the MR of the terminal device wakes up, it will initiate a random access process through the MR to establish a connection with the network (for example, send a preamble).

[0368] Since the transmit power of the MR of the second network device is dynamically adjusted, the terminal device wakes up the MR for further transmission and reception after receiving the LR wake-up signal. However, since the transmit power of the second network device may be insufficient to cover the terminal device, the MR of the terminal device may be unable to perform the above actions, i.e., monitoring at the paging opportunity or the paging advance indication opportunity, or initiating random access.

[0369] Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in Figure 6, after the terminal device receives the low-power wake-up signal, the terminal device wakes up the MR, measures the signal quality based on the MR, and determines whether to trigger the transmission of the first signal based on the comparison of the measurement result with the fifth threshold. The terminal device can also obtain an indication of the power headroom of the serving cell, such as through a synchronization sequence or MIB indication, to obtain whether there is a power headroom and / or the range of the power headroom.

[0370] S503. The terminal device obtains a measurement result of the fourth signal based on the second module.

[0371] Optionally, the fourth signal is a synchronization signal.

[0372] S504. The terminal device determines whether the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than a fifth threshold value. If so, execute S505 to S506; if not, execute S507 to S508.

[0373] Optionally, the fifth threshold is predefined by the protocol.

[0374] Optionally, the fifth threshold is obtained through a SIB message or RRC dedicated signaling.

[0375] If the quality of the MR's received signal (ie, the measurement result of the fourth signal) is lower than the threshold, the terminal device will trigger the sending of the first signal to trigger the serving cell to increase the transmission power.

[0376] S505. The terminal device sends a first signal to the serving cell, where the first signal is used to trigger the serving cell to adjust the transmission power.

[0377] Optionally, the first signal may be sent via a first module of the terminal device.

[0378] Optionally, the first signal may also be sent through a second module of the terminal device.

[0379] Optionally, the first signal is UL WUS.

[0380] For the case where the LP-WUS carries sub-group information or group information:

[0381] In one implementation, for multi-beam scenarios, UL WUS can also carry beam information in an explicit or implicit manner. For example: the UL WUS explicitly carries the beam ID, or the beam associated with it can be implicitly obtained through the transmission time of the UL WUS. For another example: the LP-WUS of different beams is sent in time division in the time domain, and each LP-WUS is associated with a UL WUS resource, such as a one-to-one correspondence in the time domain, or corresponding to different UL WUS frequency domain resources, so that the base station can obtain the beam indicated by the terminal device through the reception of the UL WUS.

[0382] In another implementation, considering that the terminal device may send UL WUS after receiving LP-WUS, the time interval T between the terminal device receiving LP-WUS and receiving paging message / PEI monitoring needs to be greater than the threshold. The threshold can be predefined by the protocol to ensure that paging reception or PEI reception is after the UL WUS is sent.

[0383] Regarding the identification of the specific terminal device carried in the above LP-WUS:

[0384] In one implementation, the UL WUS carries identification information of the terminal device. After the terminal device sends the UL WUS, the terminal device receives a random access response (RAR) accordingly. That is, in this scenario, the first step of the random access process changes from sending a preamble to sending a UL WUS.

[0385] Taking into account the transmission power adjustment and effectiveness of the second network device, after the terminal device sends the UL WUS, the starting position of the RAR receiving window may be later than the RAR starting window position in the normal random access scenario. For example, in the normal random access scenario, after the terminal device sends the preamble, it will start monitoring the RAR after time n. In this embodiment, after the terminal device sends the UL WUS, it will start monitoring the RAR at time m, where m is greater than n.

[0386] In another implementation, when the measurement result of the fourth signal is greater than or equal to a fifth threshold, the terminal sends a preamble based on a random access channel (RACH) configuration provided in the SIB message.

[0387] S506. The second network device adjusts the transmission power of the second network device according to the first signal.

[0388] If the measurement result of the fourth signal is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold, the terminal device will perform paging or PEI reception based on the MR, or send a physical random access channel (PRACH) to the serving cell.

[0389] S507. The terminal device sends or receives a signal based on the second module.

[0390] S508. The second network device sends or receives a signal based on the second module.

[0391] It should be understood that since the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module, the transmission power of the first module is relatively fixed, and the signal coverage range of the first module is generally greater than the signal coverage range of the second module. It is generally used to ensure coverage, and the transmission power of the second module can be dynamically adjusted. Taking into account that the terminal device in the idle or inactive state may move outside the coverage range of the second module, the terminal device receives the wake-up signal based on the first module, and can obtain the location of the terminal device in time, which further reduces the network energy consumption compared to receiving the wake-up signal based on the second module. After the terminal device wakes up the second module based on the wake-up signal, when the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than the fifth threshold, the terminal device is triggered to send the first signal, which avoids the terminal device from performing cell switching in advance and further reduces the network energy consumption.

[0392] The fifth threshold value can be understood as a threshold value / threshold of the signal quality corresponding to the signal received by the terminal device, and the signal is sent by the second network device based on the second module. The terminal device determines whether to trigger the transmission of the first signal by comparing the measurement result of the fourth signal with the fifth threshold value.

[0393] Regarding the first to fifth thresholds mentioned in this embodiment, optionally, the terminal device determines one or more of the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, the fourth threshold, the fifth threshold or the configuration information of the first signal based on the eighth information configured by the second network device.

[0394] The eighth information is used to configure at least one of the following information:

[0395] a first threshold corresponding to the difference between the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell and the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell, a second threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the serving cell and the sum of the power headroom of the serving cell, a third threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the target cell and the sum of the power headroom of the target cell, a fourth threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the target cell, or a fifth threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the fourth signal.

[0396] Optionally, the eighth information is further used to configure configuration information of the first signal. Optionally, the eighth information may be carried by at least one of the following: a system message, an RRC signaling, a MAC CE, or a predefined message.

[0397] Referring to Figure 7, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication device 700. The communication device 700 can implement the functions of the terminal device, the first network device, or the second network device in the above-mentioned method embodiment, thereby also achieving the beneficial effects of the above-mentioned method embodiment. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device 700 can be a terminal device (or the first network device or the second network device), or it can be an integrated circuit or component, such as a chip, within the terminal device (or the first network device or the second network device).

[0398] It should be noted that the transceiver unit 702 may include a sending unit and a receiving unit, which are respectively used to perform sending and receiving.

[0399] In one possible implementation, when the device 700 is used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the aforementioned embodiment, the device 700 includes a processing unit 701 and a transceiver unit 702; the processing unit 701 is used to obtain first information, and the first information includes the measurement results of at least one cell; the transceiver unit 702 is used to receive second information, and the second information is related to the power margin of at least one cell; the processing unit 701 is also used to send a first signal to the target cell when the first information and the second information meet the first condition, and the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power; the processing unit 701 is also used to initiate random access to the target cell when the first information and the second information meet the second condition.

[0400] In one possible implementation, when the device 700 is used to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the aforementioned embodiment, the device 700 includes a processing unit 701 and a transceiver unit 702; the processing unit 701 is used to receive a wake-up signal from a service cell based on a first module; the processing unit 701 is used to obtain a measurement result of a fourth signal based on a second module; the transceiver unit 702 is used to send a first signal to the service cell when the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than a fifth threshold, and the first signal is used to trigger the service cell to adjust the transmit power; the transceiver unit 702 is used to send or receive a signal based on the second module when the measurement result of the fourth signal is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold.

[0401] In one possible implementation, when the device 700 is used to execute the method executed by the first network device in the aforementioned embodiment, the device 700 includes a processing unit 701 and a transceiver unit 702; the transceiver unit 702 is used to receive a first signal; and the processing unit 701 is used to adjust the transmission power of the first network device according to the first signal.

[0402] In one possible implementation, when the device 700 is used to execute the method executed by the second network device in the aforementioned embodiment, the device 700 includes a transceiver unit 702; the transceiver unit 702 is used to send eighth information to the terminal device, and the eighth information is used to configure one or more of the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, the fourth threshold, the fifth threshold or the configuration information of the first signal.

[0403] It should be noted that, for details on the information execution process of the units of the above-mentioned communication device 700, please refer to the description in the method embodiment shown above in this application, and no further details will be given here.

[0404] Please refer to Fig. 8, which is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device 800 provided in this application. The communication device 800 includes a logic circuit 801 and an input / output interface 802. The communication device 800 may be a chip or an integrated circuit.

[0405] The transceiver unit 702 shown in FIG7 may be a communication interface, which may be the input / output interface 802 in FIG8 , which may include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication interface may be a transceiver circuit, which may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0406] Optionally, the logic circuit 801 is used to obtain first information, where the first information includes measurement results of at least one cell; the input and output interface 802 is used to receive second information, where the second information is related to the power margin of at least one cell; the logic circuit 801 is also used to send a first signal to the target cell when the first information and the second information meet a first condition, where the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust the transmission power; the logic circuit 801 is also used to initiate random access to the target cell when the first information and the second information meet a second condition.

[0407] Optionally, the logic circuit 801 is used to receive a wake-up signal from the serving cell based on the first module; the logic circuit 801 is used to obtain the measurement result of the fourth signal based on the second module; the input-output interface 802 is used to send a first signal to the serving cell when the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than a fifth threshold, and the first signal is used to trigger the serving cell to adjust the transmission power; the input-output interface 802 is used to send or receive a signal based on the second module when the measurement result of the fourth signal is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold.

[0408] Optionally, the input / output interface 802 is configured to receive a first signal; and the logic circuit 801 is configured to adjust the transmit power of the first network device according to the first signal.

[0409] Optionally, the input / output interface 802 is used to send eighth information to the terminal device, where the eighth information is used to configure one or more of the first threshold, the second threshold, the third threshold, the fourth threshold, the fifth threshold or the configuration information of the first signal.

[0410] The logic circuit 801 and the input / output interface 802 may also execute other steps executed by the first communication device or the second communication device in any embodiment and achieve corresponding beneficial effects, which will not be described in detail here.

[0411] In a possible implementation, the processing unit 701 shown in FIG. 7 may be the logic circuit 801 in FIG. 8 .

[0412] Optionally, the logic circuit 801 may be a processing device, and the functions of the processing device may be partially or entirely implemented by software. The functions of the processing device may be partially or entirely implemented by software.

[0413] Optionally, the processing device may include a memory and a processor, wherein the memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor reads and executes the computer program stored in the memory to perform corresponding processing and / or steps in any one of the method embodiments.

[0414] Optionally, the processing device may include a processor. A memory for storing the computer program is located outside the processing device, and the processor is connected to the memory via circuits / wires to read and execute the computer program stored in the memory. The memory and processor may be integrated or physically separate.

[0415] Optionally, the processing device may be one or more chips, or one or more integrated circuits. For example, the processing device may be one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), system-on-chips (SoCs), central processor units (CPUs), network processors (NPs), digital signal processors (DSPs), microcontroller units (MCUs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), or other integrated chips, or any combination of the above chips or processors.

[0416] Please refer to Figure 9, which shows a communication device 900 involved in the above-mentioned embodiments provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 900 can specifically be a communication device serving as a terminal device in the above-mentioned embodiments. The example shown in Figure 9 is that the terminal device is implemented through the terminal device (or a component in the terminal device).

[0417] Herein, a possible logical structure diagram of the communication device 900 is shown. The communication device 900 may include but is not limited to at least one processor 901 and a communication port 902 .

[0418] The transceiver unit 702 shown in FIG7 may be a communication interface, which may be the communication port 902 in FIG9 , which may include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the communication port 902 may be a transceiver circuit, which may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0419] Further optionally, the device may also include at least one of a memory 903 and a bus 904 . In an embodiment of the present application, the at least one processor 901 is used to control and process the actions of the communication device 900 .

[0420] In addition, the processor 901 can be a central processing unit, a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the disclosure of this application. The processor can also be a combination that implements computing functions, such as a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, and so on. Those skilled in the art will clearly understand that for the convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can refer to the corresponding processes in the aforementioned method embodiments and will not be repeated here.

[0421] It should be noted that the communication device 900 shown in Figure 9 can be specifically used to implement the steps implemented by the terminal device in the aforementioned method embodiment and achieve the corresponding technical effects of the terminal device. The specific implementation methods of the communication device shown in Figure 9 can refer to the description in the aforementioned method embodiment and will not be repeated here.

[0422] Please refer to Figure 10, which is a structural diagram of the communication device 1000 involved in the above-mentioned embodiments provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1000 can specifically be a communication device as a network device in the above-mentioned embodiments. The example shown in Figure 10 is that the network device is implemented through the network device (or a component in the network device), wherein the structure of the communication device can refer to the structure shown in Figure 10.

[0423] The communication device 1000 includes at least one processor 1011 and at least one network interface 1014. Further optionally, the communication device also includes at least one memory 1012, at least one transceiver 1013 and one or more antennas 1015. The processor 1011, the memory 1012, the transceiver 1013 and the network interface 1014 are connected, for example, via a bus. In an embodiment of the present application, the connection may include various interfaces, transmission lines or buses, etc., which are not limited in this embodiment. The antenna 1015 is connected to the transceiver 1013. The network interface 1014 is used to enable the communication device to communicate with other communication devices through a communication link. For example, the network interface 1014 may include a network interface between the communication device and the core network device, such as an S1 interface, and the network interface may include a network interface between the communication device and other communication devices (such as other network devices or core network devices), such as an X2 or Xn interface.

[0424] The transceiver unit 702 shown in FIG7 may be a communication interface, which may be the network interface 1014 in FIG10 , which may include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the network interface 1014 may be a transceiver circuit, which may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0425] Processor 1011 is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, control the entire communication device, execute software programs, and process software program data, for example, to support the communication device in performing the actions described in the embodiments. The communication device may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit. The baseband processor is primarily used to process communication protocols and communication data, while the central processing unit is primarily used to control the entire terminal device, execute software programs, and process software program data. Processor 1011 in Figure 10 may integrate the functions of both a baseband processor and a central processing unit. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors interconnected via a bus or other technology. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network standards, multiple central processing units to enhance its processing capabilities, and various components of the terminal device may be connected via various buses. The baseband processor may also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be referred to as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The functionality for processing communication protocols and communication data may be built into the processor or stored in memory as a software program, which is executed by the processor to implement the baseband processing functionality.

[0426] The memory is primarily used to store software programs and data. Memory 1012 can exist independently and be connected to processor 1011. Alternatively, memory 1012 and processor 1011 can be integrated together, for example, within a single chip. Memory 1012 can store program code for executing the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and execution is controlled by processor 1011. The various computer program codes executed can also be considered drivers for processor 1011.

[0427] Figure 10 shows only one memory and one processor. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and multiple memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device. The memory may be a storage element on the same chip as the processor, i.e., an on-chip storage element, or an independent storage element, which is not limited in the present embodiment.

[0428] The transceiver 1013 can be used to support the reception or transmission of radio frequency signals between the communication device and the terminal. The transceiver 1013 can be connected to the antenna 1015. The transceiver 1013 includes a transmitter Tx and a receiver Rx. Specifically, one or more antennas 1015 can receive radio frequency signals. The receiver Rx of the transceiver 1013 is used to receive the radio frequency signal from the antenna, convert the radio frequency signal into a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal, and provide the digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal to the processor 1011 so that the processor 1011 can further process the digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal, such as demodulation and decoding. In addition, the transmitter Tx in the transceiver 1013 is also used to receive a modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal from the processor 1011, convert the modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal into a radio frequency signal, and transmit the radio frequency signal through one or more antennas 1015. Specifically, the receiver Rx can selectively perform one or more stages of down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion on the RF signal to obtain a digital baseband signal or a digital intermediate frequency signal. The order of the down-mixing and analog-to-digital conversion processes is adjustable. The transmitter Tx can selectively perform one or more stages of up-mixing and digital-to-analog conversion on the modulated digital baseband signal or digital intermediate frequency signal to obtain a RF signal. The order of the up-mixing and digital-to-analog conversion processes is adjustable. The digital baseband signal and the digital intermediate frequency signal may be collectively referred to as digital signals.

[0429] The transceiver 1013 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver device, etc. Optionally, a device in the transceiver unit that implements a receiving function may be referred to as a receiving unit, and a device in the transceiver unit that implements a transmitting function may be referred to as a transmitting unit. That is, the transceiver unit includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, an input port, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

[0430] It should be noted that the communication device 1000 shown in Figure 10 can be specifically used to implement the steps implemented by the network device in the aforementioned method embodiment, and to achieve the corresponding technical effects of the network device. The specific implementation methods of the communication device 1000 shown in Figure 10 can refer to the description in the aforementioned method embodiment, and will not be repeated here one by one.

[0431] Please refer to FIG11 , which is a schematic structural diagram of the communication device involved in the above-mentioned embodiment provided in an embodiment of the present application.

[0432] It can be understood that the communication device 110 includes, for example, modules, units, elements, circuits, or interfaces, which are appropriately configured together to implement the technical solutions provided in this application. The communication device 110 can be the terminal device or network device described above, or a component (such as a chip) in these devices, used to implement the method described in the following method embodiment. The communication device 110 includes one or more processors 111. The processor 111 can be a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor. For example, it can be a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor can be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit can be used to control the communication device (such as a RAN node, terminal, or chip, etc.), execute software programs, and process data of software programs.

[0433] Optionally, in one design, the processor 111 may include a program 113 (sometimes also referred to as code or instructions), which may be executed on the processor 111 to cause the communication device 110 to perform the methods described in the following embodiments. In yet another possible design, the communication device 110 includes circuitry (not shown in FIG11 ).

[0434] Optionally, the communication device 110 may include one or more memories 112 on which a program 114 (sometimes also referred to as code or instructions) is stored. The program 114 can be run on the processor 111 so that the communication device 110 performs the method described in the above method embodiment.

[0435] Optionally, the processor 111 and / or the memory 112 may include AI modules 117 and 118, which are used to implement AI-related functions. The AI ​​module may be implemented through software, hardware, or a combination of software and hardware. For example, the AI ​​module may include a wireless intelligent control (RIC) module. For example, the AI ​​module may be a near-real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC.

[0436] Optionally, data may be stored in the processor 111 and / or the memory 112. The processor and the memory may be provided separately or integrated together.

[0437] Optionally, the communication device 110 may further include a transceiver 115 and / or an antenna 116. The processor 111 may also be sometimes referred to as a processing unit, and controls the communication device (e.g., a RAN node or terminal). The transceiver 115 may also be sometimes referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, and is configured to implement the transceiver functions of the communication device through the antenna 116.

[0438] The processing unit 701 shown in FIG7 may be the processor 111. The transceiver unit 702 shown in FIG7 may be a communication interface, which may be the transceiver 115 shown in FIG11 . The transceiver 115 may include an input interface and an output interface. Alternatively, the transceiver 115 may be a transceiver circuit, which may include an input interface circuit and an output interface circuit.

[0439] An embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which is used to store one or more computer-executable instructions. When the computer-executable instructions are executed by a processor, the processor executes the method described in the possible implementation methods of the first communication device or the second communication device in the aforementioned embodiment.

[0440] An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product (or computer program). When the computer program product is executed by the processor, the processor executes the method that may be implemented by the above-mentioned first communication device or second communication device.

[0441] An embodiment of the present application also provides a chip system, which includes at least one processor for supporting a communication device to implement the functions involved in the possible implementation methods of the above-mentioned communication device. Optionally, the chip system also includes an interface circuit, which provides program instructions and / or data to the at least one processor. In one possible design, the chip system may also include a memory for storing program instructions and data necessary for the communication device. The chip system can be composed of chips, or it can include chips and other discrete devices, wherein the communication device can specifically be the first communication device or the second communication device in the aforementioned method embodiment.

[0442] An embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, wherein the network system architecture includes the first communication device and the second communication device in any of the above embodiments.

[0443] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are merely schematic. For example, the division of the units is merely a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0444] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of these units may be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0445] In addition, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present application can be integrated into a processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated unit can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional unit. If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the contributing part or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes 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.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a terminal device, and the method includes: Obtain first information, where the first information includes measurement results of at least one cell; Receive second information, where the second information is related to the power headroom of the at least one cell; When the first information and the second information meet a first condition, send a first signal to a target cell, where the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust its transmission power; When the first information and the second information meet a second condition, initiate a random access to the target cell.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein The at least one cell includes a serving cell and the target cell, and the first condition includes at least one of the following: The difference between the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell and the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is greater than or equal to a first threshold; or, The sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is less than a second threshold; or, Receive third information of the serving cell, and the measurement result of the target cell is less than a fourth threshold, where the third information is used to indicate the execution of cell handover.

3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that, The at least one cell includes a serving cell and a target cell, and the second condition includes at least one of the following: The sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power headroom of the serving cell is less than a second threshold, and the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell is greater than or equal to a third threshold; or, The sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power headroom of the target cell is greater than or equal to a third threshold; or, Receive third information of the serving cell, and the measurement result of the target cell is greater than or equal to a fourth threshold, where the third information is used to indicate the execution of cell handover.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, The terminal device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information, where at least one of the first module and the second module is different in power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of the transmitted signal, and the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. Sending the first signal to the target cell includes: Based on the first module, send the first signal to the target cell.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, It further includes: Receive fourth information of the serving cell, where the fourth information includes configuration information of a second signal, the second signal is used for uplink synchronization, and the second signal is different from the first signal in at least one of time-frequency resources, sequences, and chirp slopes, and the first signal is used to trigger the target cell to adjust its transmission power.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that The method for obtaining the adjusted transmission power of the serving cell and / or the target cell includes: Receive fifth information from the serving cell, where the fifth information is used to indicate the adjustment information of the transmission power of the serving cell and / or the target cell, and / or the fifth information is used to indicate the power headroom information of the serving cell and / or the target cell.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein The fifth information is carried by a media access control control element MAC CE or a downlink control information DCI.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that The terminal device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information. At least one of the first module and the second module is different in terms of power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of the transmitted signal. The power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. The method further includes: Based on the configuration information of the first module for receiving a third signal; Performing cell selection and / or cell reselection based on the measurement result of the third signal.

9. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a terminal device. The terminal device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information. At least one of the first module and the second module is different in terms of power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of the transmitted signal. The power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. The method includes: Receiving a wake-up signal from the serving cell based on the first module; Obtaining the measurement result of a fourth signal based on the second module; When the measurement result of the fourth signal is less than a fifth threshold, sending a first signal to the serving cell. The first signal is used to trigger the serving cell to adjust the transmission power; When the measurement result of the fourth signal is greater than or equal to the fifth threshold, transmitting or receiving signals based on the second module.

10. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a first network device. The first network device is the network device to which the target cell belongs. The method includes: Receiving a first signal; Adjusting the transmission power of the first network device according to the first signal.

11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that, It further includes: Sending fifth information to the serving cell. The fifth information is used to indicate the adjustment information of the transmission power of the target cell and / or the power margin information of the target cell.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that The first network device includes a first module and a second module for transmitting and receiving information. At least one of the first module and the second module is different in terms of power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of the transmitted signal. The power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. Receiving the first signal includes: Receiving the first signal based on the first module; Adjusting the transmission power of the first network device according to the first signal, including: Adjusting the transmission power of the second module according to the first signal.

13. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that, The method further includes: Receiving seventh information from the serving cell. The seventh information is used to request the target cell to adjust the transmission power.

14. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a second network device. The second network device is the network device to which the serving cell belongs. The method includes: Sending eighth information to the terminal device. The eighth information is used to configure at least one of the following information: A first threshold corresponding to the difference between the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power margin of the target cell and the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power margin of the serving cell; or, A second threshold corresponding to the sum of the measurement result of the serving cell and the power margin of the serving cell; or, A third threshold corresponding to the sum of the measurement result of the target cell and the power margin of the target cell; or, A fourth threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the target cell; or, A fifth threshold corresponding to the measurement result of the fourth signal; or, The configuration information of the first signal.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein It further includes: Send fifth information to the terminal device, where the fifth information is used to indicate adjustment information of the transmission power of the serving cell and / or the target cell, and / or the fifth information is used to indicate the power headroom information of the serving cell and / or the target cell.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that, It further includes: Send seventh information to the target cell, where the seventh information is used to request the target cell to adjust the transmission power.

17. A communication method, characterized in that, The method is applied to a second network device, which is the network device to which the serving cell belongs. The second network device includes a first module and a second module for sending and receiving information. At least one of the power consumption, hardware composition, and waveform of the transmitted signal of the first module and the second module is different, and the power consumption of the first module is less than that of the second module. The second network device is the network device to which the serving cell belongs. The method includes: Send a wake-up signal to the terminal device based on the first module; Receive a first signal from the terminal device; adjust the transmission power of the second network device according to the first signal; or, Send or receive signals based on the second module.

18. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes a module for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17.

19. A communication device, characterized in that, It includes at least one processor, and the at least one processor is coupled to a memory; the at least one processor is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17.

20. The communication device according to claim 19, wherein The communication device is a chip or a chip system.

21. A readable storage medium, characterized in that, A computer program or instruction is stored in the storage medium. When the computer program or instruction is executed by the communication device, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17 is implemented.

22. A computer program product, characterized in that, It includes a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction runs on a computer, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 17 is implemented.

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