Communication method and apparatus, and storage medium

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus, and a storage medium. The communication method may comprise: a network device determines configuration information; the network device sends the configuration information to a terminal device; and the network device determines a paging window on the basis of the configuration information, the paging window being less than a paging cycle of the terminal device, and the network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle. By using the embodiments of the present application, the network device can use the paging window less than the paging cycle to send the paging message, and does not send the paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle, saving the power consumption of the network device.

Description

Communication method, device and storage medium

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the China Patent Office on February 19, 2024, with application number 202410185831.4 and application name “Communication Method, Device and Storage Medium”, 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, device, and storage medium. Background Art

[0003] Mobile network energy costs account for a large portion of operators' total costs, and most of the energy consumption comes from wireless access networks. Therefore, how to save energy consumption of network equipment is a technical problem that needs to be solved urgently by those skilled in the art.

[0004] To save power when receiving paging messages, terminal devices (such as user equipment (UE)) can use discontinuous reception (DRX) technology to periodically receive paging messages according to the DRX cycle. In the time domain, the terminal device attempts to receive paging messages during specific subframes (i.e., paging occasions (PO)) of the paging frame (PF) within its DRX cycle.

[0005] Currently, if a DRX cycle contains N PFs, these N PFs are evenly distributed across the system frame of the DRX cycle, with each PF carrying the same number of terminal devices. This means that network devices use evenly distributed time domain resources to send paging messages to different terminal devices. However, the timing of paging messages to terminal devices is random, and network devices may need to send paging messages at any time. This prevents network devices from entering deep sleep, making energy conservation difficult. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The embodiments of the present application disclose a communication method, apparatus, and storage medium. A network device sends a paging message using a paging window smaller than a paging cycle, and does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle, thereby saving power consumption of the network device.

[0007] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a first communication method, which can be executed by a network device, or by a component in the network device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system), or by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the network device's functions. Taking a network device as an example, the method includes: the network device determining configuration information; the network device sending the configuration information to a terminal device; the network device determining a paging window based on the configuration information, wherein the network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0008] The paging window is smaller than the paging cycle of the terminal device.

[0009] Optionally, the method further includes: the network device sending a paging message to the terminal device based on the paging window.

[0010] It can be understood that by implementing the first communication method, the network device can send paging messages using a paging window smaller than the paging cycle, and not send paging messages outside the paging window within the paging cycle, which can save power consumption of the network device.

[0011] In conjunction with the first aspect, in some feasible examples, the network device determines the configuration information, including: the network device obtains N1 pre-configured configuration sets, where N1 is the number of paging frames within the paging window, and each configuration in the N1 sets of configurations is used to indicate the location and size of a different paging window, as well as the location of a paging frame within the paging window; and the network device determines the configuration information from the N1 sets of configurations via a common group physical downlink control channel. In this way, the flexibility and efficiency of the configuration information can be improved.

[0012] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a second communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by a component in the terminal device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system), or by a logic module or software that can implement all or part of the terminal device's functions. Taking a terminal device as an example, the method includes: the terminal device receiving configuration information from a network device; the terminal device determining a paging window based on the configuration information, and the terminal device not receiving a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0013] The paging window is smaller than the paging cycle of the terminal device.

[0014] Optionally, the method further includes: the terminal device obtaining a paging message based on the paging window.

[0015] It can be understood that by implementing the second communication method, the network device can send paging messages using a paging window smaller than the paging cycle, and not send paging messages outside the paging window within the paging cycle, thereby saving power consumption of the network device.

[0016] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the paging cycle is a DRX cycle.

[0017] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, determining the paging window based on the configuration information includes: determining the position and size of the paging window based on the configuration information, and determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window.

[0018] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the configuration information includes the size of the paging window, the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, or the starting position of the paging window is configured by the configuration information; the method includes: determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset; or determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0019] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, and the predefined position includes the starting position of the paging cycle or the starting position of the discontinuous reception cycle.

[0020] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the configuration information includes the starting position and the ending position of the paging window, and the method includes: determining the size of the paging window based on the starting position and the ending position of the paging window; determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset; or determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and the size of the paging window, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0021] In combination with the first aspect, in some feasible examples, the method further includes: the network device sending a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window.

[0022] In combination with the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the method further includes: the terminal device obtains a paging message based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window.

[0023] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0024] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N1)*(UE_ID mod N1)

[0025] Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

[0026] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0027] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N)*(UE_ID mod N)

[0028] Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

[0029] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0030] SFN = PW_start + UE id mod M;

[0031] Wherein, M is the size of the paging window, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and PW_start is the starting position of the paging window.

[0032] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the method further includes: determining a position of a paging occasion of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information.

[0033] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, determining the position of the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information includes: determining the position of the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the number of paging frames in the paging window and the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0034] In combination with the first aspect, in some feasible examples, the method further includes: the network device sending a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window.

[0035] In combination with the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the method further includes: the terminal device obtaining a paging message based on the position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window.

[0036] In combination with the first aspect, or in combination with the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, and i_s is obtained based on the following formula:

[0037] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N1)mod Ns

[0038] The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the Ns is the number of paging occasions in the paging frame.

[0039] In combination with the first aspect, or in combination with the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, and i_s is obtained based on the following formula:

[0040] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N)mod Ns

[0041] The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, and Ns is the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame.

[0042] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the configuration information also includes at least one of the following: the number of paging frames in the paging window, the offset of the paging frames in the paging window, and the number of paging opportunities of the paging frames in the paging window.

[0043] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the size of the paging window is expressed by the number of time domain resource granularities, and the time domain resource granularity includes at least one of the following: superframe, frame, time slot, sub-time slot, symbol.

[0044] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the starting position of the paging window is indicated by a bitmap, the number of bits of the bitmap is determined by the quotient between the total number of system frames in the paging cycle and the indicated time domain resource granularity, the numerical value corresponding to each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether the position of the system frame corresponding to the bit is the starting position of the paging window, and the indicated time domain resource granularity is the difference between the system frame numbers corresponding to two adjacent bits in the bitmap; or the starting position of the paging window is indicated by the offset of the starting position of the paging cycle.

[0045] In combination with the first aspect or the second aspect, in some feasible examples, the identifier of the terminal device includes an international mobile subscriber identity code IMSI, a temporary mobile subscriber identity S-TMSI, and a cell radio network temporary identifier C-RNTI.

[0046] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a third communication method, which can be executed by a network device, or by a component in the network device (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or can be executed by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the network device functions. Taking a network device as an example, the method includes: the network device determines configuration information, the configuration information includes an aggregation factor, and the aggregation factor is an integer greater than 1; the network device sends the configuration information to the terminal device; the network device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging cycle based on the aggregation factor, the paging cycle, the number and offset of paging frames in the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0047] Optionally, the method further includes: the network device sending a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle.

[0048] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a fourth communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by a component in the terminal device (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.), or can be executed by a logic module or software that can realize all or part of the terminal device functions. Taking a terminal device as an example, the method includes: the terminal device receives configuration information from a network device, the configuration information includes an aggregation factor, and the aggregation factor is an integer greater than 1; the terminal device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging cycle based on the aggregation factor, the paging cycle, the number and offset of paging frames in the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0049] Optionally, the method further includes: the terminal device acquiring a paging message based on a position of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle.

[0050] In combination with the third aspect or the fourth aspect, in some feasible examples, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle is obtained based on the following formula:

[0051] (SFN+PF_offset)mod T=(T div N) / X*(UE_ID mod N)

[0052] Among them, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging cycle, the PF_offset is the offset of the paging frame, T is the paging cycle, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and N is the number of paging frames in the paging cycle.

[0053] It is understood that by implementing the third or fourth communication method, the network device can use a clustering factor to concentrate the previously dispersed paging frames within a paging cycle into a single area, which can be referred to as a paging window. In this way, the network device uses a portion of the paging cycle to send paging messages, resulting in areas within the paging cycle where paging messages are not sent, thereby saving power consumption of the network device.

[0054] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a communication device, which includes a unit or module or means for executing each step in the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, third aspect or fourth aspect and any aspect thereof.

[0055] In a sixth aspect, the present application discloses a fifth communication device, which may be a network device or a terminal device, or may include a device in these devices, such as a chip, a chip system, a circuit, or a device capable of implementing related functions. The communication device includes a processor, which is configured to execute instructions stored in a memory. When the instructions are executed, the communication method of the first, second, third, or fourth aspects and feasible examples of any of the above aspects is implemented.

[0056] In some feasible examples, the communication device further includes one or more of a memory and a transceiver, where the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data and / or signaling.

[0057] In the seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program. When the computer program is executed by one or more processors, the computer program implements the communication method in the feasible examples of the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, third aspect or fourth aspect and any of the aspects.

[0058] In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application disclose a computer program product for storing a computer program. When the computer program is executed on a computer, the computer executes the communication method of the first, second, third, or fourth aspects, or any feasible example thereof.

[0059] In the ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a first chip, comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the processor is used to call and execute instructions stored in the memory from the memory, so that a device equipped with the chip executes the communication method in the feasible examples of the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, third aspect or fourth aspect and any of the aspects.

[0060] In the tenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a second chip, including: an input interface, an output interface and a processing circuit, the input interface, the output interface and the processing circuit are connected through an internal connection path, and the processing circuit is used to execute the communication method in the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, third aspect or fourth aspect and any feasible examples in any of them.

[0061] In the eleventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a third chip, comprising: an input interface, an output interface, a processor, and optionally, a memory, wherein the input interface, the output interface, the processor and the memory are connected through an internal connection path, and the processor is used to execute the code in the memory. When the code is executed, the processor is used to execute the communication method in the feasible examples of the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, third aspect or fourth aspect and any aspect thereof.

[0062] In the twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a chip system comprising at least one processor, a memory and an interface circuit, wherein the memory, the transceiver and the at least one processor are interconnected through lines, and a computer program is stored in the at least one memory; the computer program is executed by the processor according to the communication method in the feasible examples of the above-mentioned first aspect, second aspect, third aspect or fourth aspect and any of the aspects.

[0063] It should be understood that the implementation and beneficial effects of the above-mentioned aspects of the present application can be referenced to each other. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0064] The following is an introduction to the drawings used in the embodiments of this application.

[0065] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0066] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network device and a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0067] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a paging cycle provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0068] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a terminal device receiving a paging message according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0069] FIG5 is a distribution diagram of PF within a paging cycle provided by the prior art;

[0070] FIG6 is a distribution diagram of PF within a paging cycle provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0071] Figures 7, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, and 10 are schematic flow charts of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0072] FIG11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0073] FIG12 is a schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0074] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, such as long term evolution (LTE) systems, new radio (NR) systems, advanced long term evolution (LTE-A) systems, device-to-device (D2D) communication systems, vehicle to everything (V2X) communication systems, machine to machine (M2M) communication systems, Internet of Things (IoT), narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), integrated perception and communication systems, frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, time division duplex (TDD) systems, non-terrestrial communication (NTN) systems, wireless projection communication systems, integrated access and backhaul (IAB) communication systems, public land mobile networks (PLMNs), and non-public networks (Non-Public) network, NPN), and communication systems evolved after the 5G communication system (for example, 6G communication system), or non-3GPP (3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP) communication systems, etc., are not restricted.

[0075] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of this application clearer, the embodiments of this application are described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of this application.

[0076] Please refer to Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of the architecture of a communication system provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 1, communication system 100 may include at least one network device (e.g., network device 101), and one or more terminal devices connected to the network device (e.g., terminal device 102 and terminal device 103 connected to network device 101). Optionally, different terminal devices can communicate with each other.

[0077] The terminal devices involved in this application may be referred to as terminals hereinafter. A terminal is an entity on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals and can provide voice and / or data to the user. A terminal may also be referred to as a terminal, user equipment (UE), access terminal, UE unit, UE station, mobile device, mobile station, mobile station, mobile terminal, mobile client, mobile unit, remote station, remote terminal, remote unit, wireless unit, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device, etc. Among them, the access terminal can be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capabilities, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a terminal in future 5G or a terminal in a future evolved PLMN, or a terminal in a future NPN, etc. In the embodiments of this application, the chip used in the above-mentioned devices may also be referred to as a terminal.

[0078] In the embodiments of the present application, a network device is a node or device that connects a terminal device to a wireless network and can support both wired and wireless access. In some embodiments, the network device can be an access network (AN) device or a radio access network (RAN) device, which can be simply referred to as an access network and is used to provide access services to the terminal so that the terminal can access (or access) the network.

[0079] The access network may include, but is not limited to, access point (AP), enhanced nodeB (eNB), home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), baseband unit (BBU), next generation base station (NR nodeB, gNB), transmission reception point (TRP), transmission point (TP) or some other access node, such as a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, etc. The AN / RAN node may be one or more antenna panels, or a network node constituting a gNB or a transmission point, such as a BBU or a distributed unit (DU), etc., or may be a device that performs RAN functions in communication systems such as D2D, V2X, M2M, and U2U. The AN / RAN node may be a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or may be an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN), or may be an access network in a communication system evolved after the 5G communication system, for example, an xNodeB in a 6G communication system, or may be an access network in a PLMN network evolved after the 5G communication system, etc., without limitation herein.

[0080] In some embodiments, the network device and the terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, which may be a general device or a dedicated device, and the embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

[0081] The network device and the terminal device can communicate with each other. For example, when the system information of the communication system changes, the network device 101 sends a paging message to the terminal device 102 so that the terminal device 102 obtains the changed system information.

[0082] Please refer to Figure 2, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network device and a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application. It is understood that the network device 20 in Figure 2 can be the network device 101 in the communication system 100 shown in Figure 1, and the terminal device 30 can be the terminal device 102 and the terminal device 103 in the communication system 100 shown in Figure 1.

[0083] As shown in Figure 2, terminal device 30 includes at least one processor 301 and at least one transceiver 303. Furthermore, terminal device 30 may also include at least one memory 302, at least one input device 304, and at least one output device 305. Processor 301, memory 302, and transceiver 303 are connected via a communication link. The communication link may include a path for transmitting information between the aforementioned components.

[0084] The processor 301 may be a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present application. In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 301 may also include multiple CPUs, and the processor 301 may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. The processor here may refer to one or more devices, circuits, or processing cores for processing data (such as computer program instructions).

[0085] The memory 302 may be a device having a storage function. For example, it may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM) or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, or an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact discs, laser discs, optical discs, digital versatile discs, Blu-ray discs, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and can be accessed by a computer, but is not limited thereto. The memory 302 may exist independently and be connected to the processor 301 via a communication line. The memory 302 may also be integrated with the processor 301.

[0086] The memory 302 is used to store computer-executable instructions for executing the solution of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 301. Specifically, the processor 301 is used to execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 302, thereby implementing the method described in the embodiment of the present application.

[0087] Alternatively, in the present application, the processor 301 may perform processing-related functions in the method provided in the present application, and the transceiver 303 may be responsible for communicating with other devices or communication networks. The embodiments of the present application do not specifically limit this.

[0088] The computer-executable instructions involved in this application may also be referred to as application code or computer program code, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of this application.

[0089] The transceiver 303 can be any transceiver-like device for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, radio access networks (RAN), or wireless local area networks (WLAN). The transceiver 303 includes a transmitter (Tx) 306 and a receiver (Rx) 307.

[0090] Input device 304 communicates with processor 301 and can display information in a variety of ways. For example, input device 304 can be a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED) display device, a cathode ray tube (CRT) display device, or a projector.

[0091] The output device 305 communicates with the processor 301 and can receive user input in various ways. For example, the output device 305 can be a mouse, keyboard, touch screen device, or sensor device.

[0092] The network device 20 includes at least one processor 201 and at least one transceiver 203. Furthermore, the network device 20 may also include at least one memory 202 and at least one network interface 204. The processor 201, the memory 202, the transceiver 203 and the network interface 204 are connected via a communication line. The network interface 204 is used to connect to the core network device through a link (for example, an S1 interface), or to connect to the network interface of other network devices through a wired or wireless link (for example, an X2 interface) (not shown in Figure 2), which is not specifically limited in this embodiment of the present application. The transceiver 203 includes a transmitter 205 and a receiver 206. In addition, the relevant description of the processor 201, the memory 202 and the transceiver 203 can refer to the description of the processor 301, the memory 302 and the transceiver 303 in the terminal device 30, which will not be repeated here.

[0093] It is understood that the structure shown in FIG2 does not constitute a specific limitation on the terminal device 30 and the network device 20. For example, in other embodiments of the present application, the terminal device 30 and the network device 20 may include more or fewer components than shown, or combine or separate certain components, or arrange the components differently. The components shown in the figure may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0094] The following first defines the technical terms that may appear in the embodiments of this application, and briefly describes the paging process and the reception of paging messages. The terms used in the implementation methods of this application are only used to explain the specific embodiments of this application, and are not intended to limit this application.

[0095] (1) System information is cell-level information that network devices periodically broadcast on the broadcast control channel (BCCH). After a terminal device performs a cell search and completes downlink synchronization with a cell, it needs to obtain the cell's system information in order to access the cell and operate correctly within it.

[0096] Currently, 5G NR system information includes a master information block (MIB) and multiple system information blocks (SIBs). SIBs currently include 14 types of system information blocks, SIB1-SIB14, with more SIBs likely to be introduced in the future. The MIB includes essential physical layer information. For example, the MIB may include the system frame number (SFN), which is carried in the systemFrameNumber field and used for synchronization between terminal devices and the network.

[0097] It should be noted that this application only lists the information related to this application included in the MIB. In fact, the MIB can also include other information, such as subcarrier spacing, subcarrier offset, demodulation reference signal (DMRS) position information, etc. Please refer to the relevant description in the standard and will not repeat it here.

[0098] (2) Paging: It is used to notify idle or inactive terminal devices to establish a called service, or to notify the terminal device that the system information of the communication system has changed and the terminal device needs to re-read the changed system broadcast message, or to notify the terminal device to receive earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS) information.

[0099] The terminal device can periodically receive paging messages, and this period is called the paging cycle. Optionally, when using DRX technology, the paging cycle can be the DRX cycle of the terminal device (DRX cycle of the UE), for example, 1.28s or 2.56s. In other words, the terminal device is awakened when the DRX cycle arrives and is used to obtain paging messages.

[0100] The specific moment when the terminal device receives the paging message is called the paging occasion (PO), which is determined by the network device and configured to the terminal device. For example, please refer to Figure 3, which is a structural diagram of a paging cycle proposed in this application. As shown in Figure 3, a paging cycle may include multiple paging frames (PF), and each paging frame includes multiple paging occasions (PO). Among them, each PO corresponds to an SFN, and a PO corresponds to one or more terminal devices, that is, the paging message transmitted in a PO can be effective for one or more terminal devices. Optionally, each PF may also have an offset.

[0101] Optionally, each PF corresponds to multiple synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel blocks (SSBs).

[0102] A paging message is a type of downlink control information (DCI), which can be scrambled using a paging radio network temporary identity (P-RNTI). A paging message is a radio resource control (RRC) message carried on the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). It is used to send a call request to a terminal device in the RRC idle state, notifying it to initiate random access.

[0103] The process of a terminal device receiving a paging message is as follows: calculating the locations PO and PF where the paging message may be sent; detecting the paging message based on PO and PF. For example, please refer to Figure 4, which is a schematic diagram of a terminal device receiving a paging message proposed in this application. In Figure 4, the terminal device obtains the paging opportunity according to the paging cycle. At the first paging opportunity in Figure 4, the terminal device does not obtain the P-RNTI-scrambled DCI. The terminal device continues to obtain, and at the second paging opportunity in Figure 4, the terminal device obtains the P-RNTI-scrambled DCI, and receives the paging message scheduled by the DCI.

[0104] Currently, the method for determining PF can refer to the following formula (1), and the method for determining PO can refer to the following formula (2).

[0105] (SFN + PF_offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N) (1)

[0106] i_s = floor (UE_ID / N) mod Ns (2)

[0107] Among them, SFN is the system frame number, and its value range is 0-1023. T is the paging cycle of the terminal device (such as DRX cycle), which is a constant, such as 32, 64, 128, 256, etc., and the unit is ms. N is the number of PFs in T. Ns is the number of POs in the PF, and PF_offset is the offset of the PF. UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and i_s is used to indicate the PO that is the previous PO of the nth PO in the PF. In other words, i_s+1 indicates the nth PO in the PF that sends the paging message of the terminal device.

[0108] This application does not limit the identification of the terminal device. The identification of the terminal device can be a UE-level identification, such as an international mobile subscriber identification number (IMSI), an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), a temporary mobile user identity (S-TMSI), etc., or it can be a cell-level or group-level identification, such as a cell-radio network temporary identity (C-RNTI), etc.

[0109] Optionally, the numerical value corresponding to the identifier of the terminal device may be the modulus between the identifier of the terminal device and the first threshold. The first threshold may be 1024 or 4096. For example, UE_ID = IMSI mod 1024. It can be seen from the above formula that for a certain terminal device, by calculating the PF, the SFN of the paging message received by the terminal device can be known, and then by calculating i_s, it can be known that the PO of the terminal device is the i_s+1th PO in the PF. And according to the above formula, when the network device configures time-frequency resources, it evenly divides frames with different SFN numbers and frames with PF offsets into T system frames, evenly distributes N PFs into T system frames, and evenly distributes terminal devices with different UE_ID numbers into N PFs. In other words, the PFs are evenly scattered in the period T, and the network device uses evenly distributed time domain resources to send paging messages to each terminal device.

[0110] For example, please refer to Figure 5, which is a distribution diagram of PF within a paging cycle provided by the prior art. As shown in Figure 5, the black squares represent paging frames. It can be seen that within the paging cycle, 10 paging frames are evenly distributed. The frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device with UE_ID 0 / 16 / 32 is 0, the frame number corresponding to the paging frame of the terminal device with UE_ID 1 / 17 / 33 is 2, and the frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device with UE_ID 9 / 25 / 41 is 18.

[0111] However, the timing of sending paging messages of each terminal device is random, and the network device may need to send paging messages at any time, which causes the network device to be unable to enter deep sleep and its energy saving effect is difficult to improve.

[0112] Based on this, the present application proposes a communication method, which determines a paging window within a paging cycle, and the paging window includes paging frames configured for each terminal device. The network device can use the paging frames within the paging window to send paging messages to the terminal device, instead of using system frames other than the paging window within the paging cycle to send paging messages, which can save power consumption of the network device.

[0113] For example, please refer to Figure 6, which is a distribution diagram of PF within a paging cycle provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 6, the black squares represent paging frames. It can be seen that within the paging cycle, 3 paging frames are concentratedly distributed. The frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device with UE_ID 0 / 16 / 32 is 2, the frame number corresponding to the paging frame of the terminal device with UE_ID 1 / 17 / 33 is 3, and the frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device with UE_ID 9 / 25 / 41 is 4. In this way, compared with the evenly dispersed distribution of paging frames shown in Figure 5, Figure 6 concentrates the distribution of paging frames within the paging cycle, which can increase the deep sleep time of the network device and save power consumption.

[0114] The following describes the communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. Please first refer to Figure 7, which is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication device involved in the communication method can be described with reference to Figures 1 and 2. As shown in Figure 7, the communication method includes the following steps:

[0115] S100: The network device determines configuration information.

[0116] S102: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0117] Accordingly, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device.

[0118] The configuration information is used to determine the paging window. This application does not limit the number of paging windows, and a paging cycle may include at least one paging window.

[0119] Exemplarily, a paging window includes N1 PFs, and each of the N1 PFs includes multiple system subframes (such as POs). N1 may be equal to or different from the number of PFs in a paging cycle defined in the prior art (such as N in formula (1)). The number of POs in each PF may also be equal to or different from the value defined in the prior art (such as Ns in formula (2)). It should be understood that the number of paging frames in the paging window, the offset of the paging frame, and the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame may be carried in the configuration information of step S102, or may be sent using other system information or other information, or may be predefined information.

[0120] This application does not limit the type of configuration information, and the configuration information may include at least one of the following: system information, radio resource control (RRC) information, media access control element (MAC CE) information, and downlink control information (DCI). The configuration information in step S102 can be understood as indication information of a newly added paging window. In this way, the terminal device can determine the attribute information of the paging window based on the newly configured configuration information of the network device, and determine the sending timing of the paging message configured for the terminal device within the paging window, thereby obtaining the paging message of the terminal device based on the sending timing.

[0121] In some feasible examples, step S100 may include: the network device obtains a pre-configured N1 set of configurations; and the network device determines configuration information from the N1 set of configurations via a common group physical downlink control channel (Group common PDCCH).

[0122] N1 is the number of paging frames within the paging window. Each of the N1 configurations determines the location and size of a different paging window, as well as the position of the terminal device's paging frame within the paging window. As can be appreciated, N1 different configurations are pre-configured, each with different paging window attribute information, increasing configuration flexibility. The network device determines the configuration to be used for this paging call via the common group physical downlink control channel, indicating a specific configuration from the N1 configurations as configuration information. This improves the configuration rate.

[0123] This application does not limit the content of the configuration information. Optionally, the configuration information may include the following four feasible methods.

[0124] A first feasible approach: the configuration information includes the size of the paging window, and the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position.

[0125] The size of the paging window can be expressed as a value of time domain resources. This application does not limit the unit of time domain resources, and can include superframes, radio frames (referred to as frames), subframes, slots, sub-slots, symbols, etc. For example, the size of the paging window is 20 slots.

[0126] The size of the paging window can also be represented by the number of time domain resource granularities M. That is, the size of the paging window is represented in the configuration information using the number of time domain resource granularities. The time domain resource granularity can be the aforementioned superframe, frame, time slot, sub-time slot, symbol, etc. In the embodiment of the present application, the size of the paging window can be represented by the number of system frames contained in the paging window. For example, when the subcarrier spacing is 15 kHz, 1 frame is equal to 10 time slots, that is, the time domain resource granularity is 10. If the size of the paging window is 20 slots, then M is 2.

[0127] Optionally, the predefined position of the starting position of the paging window may be the starting position of the paging cycle. Furthermore, the starting position of the paging window may be the starting position of the discontinuous reception cycle. In other words, the starting point of the paging window is fixed to the starting point of the paging cycle or the starting point of the discontinuous reception cycle.

[0128] It can be understood that in the first feasible manner, the starting position of the paging window is fixed, and the configuration information includes the size of the paging window, so that the ending position of the paging window can be determined according to the starting position and size of the paging window.

[0129] The second feasible method: the configuration information includes the starting position and size of the paging window.

[0130] A third feasible approach: the configuration information includes the start position and end position of the paging window.

[0131] The starting position of the paging window can be indicated by a bitmap. This application does not limit the representation of the bitmap. The value corresponding to each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether it is the starting position of the paging window. For example, 1 can be used to indicate the starting position of the paging window, and 0 can be used to indicate that it is not the starting position of the paging window.

[0132] The number of bits in the bitmap can be determined by the quotient of the total number of system frames in the paging cycle and the indicated time domain resource granularity. For example, the number of bits in the bitmap is equal to the integer of the quotient of the total number of system frames in the paging cycle and the indicated time domain resource granularity. The indicated time domain resource granularity is the difference between the system frame numbers corresponding to two adjacent bits in the bitmap. For example, when the total number of system frames in the paging cycle is 100 frames and the indicated time domain resource granularity is 10, the number of bits in the bitmap can be 10, and the system frame numbers corresponding to the bits in the bitmap are 0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90. If the time domain resource granularity is 1, the number of bits in the bitmap is equal to the total number of system frames in the paging cycle, that is, 1 bit corresponds to 1 system frame, and the system frame numbers corresponding to the bits in the bitmap are 0 to 99. It can be understood that when the time domain resource granularity is 1, the number of bits in the bitmap is equal to the total number of system frames in the paging cycle, which improves the accuracy of the indication, but requires a large amount of resources to indicate the starting position of the paging window. When the time domain resource granularity is greater than 1, the occupied resources can be reduced.

[0133] The starting position of the paging window can be indicated by an offset from the starting position of the paging cycle. The offset from the starting position of the paging cycle can be expressed as the number of time domain resources between the starting position of the paging window and the starting position of the paging cycle, such as 20 slots. The offset can also be expressed as the number of time domain resource granularities. For example, when the unit of the offset is a frame and the unit of the time domain resource is a slot, if 1 frame equals 10 time slots, then the offset is 2.

[0134] It is understood that after the configuration information includes the starting position and size of the paging window, the ending position of the paging window can be determined based on the starting position and size of the paging window, thereby determining the position of the paging window. If the configuration information includes the starting position and ending position of the paging window, the size of the paging window can be determined based on the starting position and ending position of the paging window. That is, the third feasible method implicitly indicates the size of the paging window.

[0135] The above-described forms of the starting position of the paging window are merely examples, and in fact, other forms may be included. Similarly, the ending position of the paging window may also be indicated in the above-mentioned two ways, which will not be described in detail here.

[0136] A fourth feasible approach: the configuration information includes an aggregation factor.

[0137] The aggregation factor may be represented by a character X, and X may be an integer greater than 1. The aggregation factor is used to aggregate scattered paging messages configured by different terminal devices into an area within a paging cycle, which may be called a paging window.

[0138] It is understood that when the configuration information includes a clustering factor, the clustering factor can be used to aggregate previously dispersed paging frames within the paging cycle. This allows the paging window to be smaller than the paging cycle of the terminal device. If the paging frames of different terminal devices are configured within the paging window, the network device can use the paging frames within the paging window to send paging messages to the terminal device, rather than using system frames within the paging cycle outside the paging window, thereby saving power consumption of the network device.

[0139] It should be noted that the above four feasible methods are examples of this application. In fact, the configuration information may contain other information. For example, the configuration information may also include at least one of the following: the number of paging frames in the paging window, the offset of the paging frame, the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame, etc. If the number and offset of the paging frames in the paging window and the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame are not included, the number of paging frames in the paging cycle can be used as the number of paging frames in the paging window or other default values, the offset of the paging frames in the paging cycle can be used as the offset of the paging frames in the paging window or set to 0, and the number of paging opportunities in the paging frames of the paging cycle can be used as the number of paging opportunities in the paging frames of the paging window or other default values.

[0140] S103: The network device determines a paging window based on the configuration information. The paging window is smaller than the paging cycle of the terminal device. The network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0141] S104: The terminal device determines a paging window based on the configuration information. The paging window is smaller than the paging cycle of the terminal device. The terminal device does not obtain a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0142] It should be understood that the network device can determine the paging window based on the configuration information, so that when a paging event of the terminal device occurs (such as establishing a called event, a change in the system information of the communication system, or the need to notify the terminal device to receive ETWS information, etc.), the network device can send a paging message of the terminal device based on the paging window. Accordingly, the terminal device can determine the paging window based on the configuration information, so that when the paging cycle arrives, the paging message of the terminal device is obtained (or detected) based on the paging window. The method for determining the paging window by the network device and the terminal device can be the same. This article takes the terminal device as an example for explanation, and specifically refers to the embodiments shown in Figures 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B and 10.

[0143] In the method shown in Figure 7, the paging window is smaller than the paging cycle. Thus, the network device sends paging messages to the terminal device based on the paging window and does not use time domain resources outside the paging window within the paging cycle to send paging messages. This eliminates the need for the network device to wait for paging messages at all times, allowing it to enter deep sleep during periods outside the paging window within the paging cycle, thus saving power.

[0144] It should be noted that in FIG7 , step S103 is performed before step S104. In practice, step S103 and step S104 can be performed simultaneously, or step S103 can be performed after step S104. Optionally, step S103 can be performed after determining that a paging event has occurred for the terminal device, or after step S100 has been performed.

[0145] The following will describe in detail how to determine the paging window based on the configuration information. The position and size of the paging window can refer to the description of the four feasible methods mentioned above, and can be directly obtained from the configuration information, or determined through the configuration information, which will not be repeated here. For the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window, please refer to the communication methods shown in Figures 8A and 8B respectively. The configuration information in Figure 8A is the first feasible method or the second feasible method mentioned above, and the configuration information in Figure 8B is the third feasible method mentioned above. As shown in Figure 8A, the method includes:

[0146] S200: The network device determines configuration information, where the configuration information includes a size of a paging window. A starting position of the paging window is a predefined position or a position configured by the configuration information, and the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle.

[0147] S202: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0148] Accordingly, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device.

[0149] Among them, steps S200 and S202 can be referred to the description of FIG7 , which will not be repeated here.

[0150] S203: The network device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset.

[0151] S204: The terminal device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames within the paging window, and the offset.

[0152] The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window can be determined by the system frame number corresponding to the paging frame in the paging window. This application does not limit the method for determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window, and the following description takes the terminal device as an example.

[0153] In some feasible examples, step S204 may include: the terminal device determines the position of each paging frame in the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, and the number of paging frames in the paging window; the terminal device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the terminal device's identifier and the number of paging frames in the paging window, the position and offset of each paging frame in the paging window.

[0154] The number and offset of paging frames within the paging window may be included in the configuration information or may be obtained from preset information or other information. If the number of paging frames within the paging window cannot be obtained, the number of paging frames within the paging cycle may be used as the number of paging frames within the paging window. If the offset of paging frames within the paging window cannot be obtained, the offset of paging frames within the paging cycle may be used as the offset of paging frames within the paging window, or may be set to 0.

[0155] Each paging frame within the paging window can be evenly distributed. The paging frame of the terminal device can be the Rth paging frame within the paging window, where R can be equal to the modulus between the terminal device identifier and the number of paging frames within the paging window, or can be equal to the difference or minimum value between the hash value corresponding to the terminal device identifier and the number of paging frames within the paging window, etc., without limitation herein.

[0156] It can be understood that the position of each paging frame in the paging window is determined according to the size of the paging window and the number of paging frames in the paging window, and then the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined according to the identifier of the terminal device and the number of paging frames in the paging window, the position and offset of each paging frame in the paging window, so that different terminal devices are distributed in different paging frames.

[0157] Optionally, the terminal devices are evenly distributed in different paging frames to avoid a single paging frame being used to send paging messages for multiple terminal devices.

[0158] Alternatively, step S203 may be for the network device to determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames within the paging window, and the offset. Correspondingly, step S204 may be for the terminal device to determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames within the paging window, and the offset.

[0159] Step S203 or S204 may be implemented based on the following three optional formulas, where:

[0160] The first optional formula:

[0161] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N1)*(UE_ID mod N1) (3)

[0162] Where M is the size of the paging window, N1 is the number of paging frames within the paging window, and SFN, PF_offset, and UE_ID refer to the definitions above. System frames within the paging window should be confined to the paging window. The position of the system frame within the paging window should be determined by the starting position of the paging window and the size of the paging window. The expression formula is as follows:

[0163] SFN Tstart <= SFN<= SFN Tstart +M (4)

[0164] It can be understood that formula (3) is based on formula (1), with T in formula (1) replaced by M and N replaced by N1. This is equivalent to shortening the paging cycle, increasing the deep sleep time of the network device, and saving power consumption.

[0165] The second optional formula:

[0166] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N)*(UE_ID mod N) (5)

[0167] SFN, PF_offset, UE_ID, M, and N can refer to the definitions above. SFN satisfies the above formula (4). It should be noted that N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, but N is equal to the number of paging frames, that is, N1 in formula (3). It can be understood that formula (5) is based on formula (1), only the new parameter M is introduced, and the value of N is modified to the number of paging frames.

[0168] The third optional formula:

[0169] (SFN+PF_offset1)mod M=(M div N1)*(UE_ID mod N1) (6)

[0170] Where PF_offset1 is the paging frame offset. SFN, UE_ID, M, and N1 can refer to the definitions above. SFN satisfies the above formula (4). PF_offset1 can be understood as the updated value of PF_offset in formula (5). It should be understood that in formula (3), formula (5), and formula (6), the value of the paging frame offset can be equal to or different from the offset configured in the paging frame in the prior art.

[0171] It should be understood that any of the above three formulas can be used to evenly distribute the paging frames of the paging messages of different terminal devices within the paging window. It should be noted that the above three formulas are only examples. In fact, other formulas may also be included, such as the following formula (7).

[0172] (SFN+PF_offset1)mod M=(M div N)*(UE_ID mod N) (7)

[0173] It should be noted that in FIG8A , step S203 is performed before step S204. In practice, step S203 and step S204 can be performed simultaneously, or step S203 can be performed after step S204. Optionally, step S203 can be performed after determining that a paging event has occurred for the terminal device, or after step S200 has been performed.

[0174] S205. The network device sends a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0175] S206. The terminal device obtains a paging message based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The terminal device does not obtain a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0176] Referring to FIG. 8B again, the method shown in FIG. 8B includes:

[0177] S300: The network device determines configuration information, where the configuration information includes a start position and an end position of a paging window, and the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle.

[0178] S302: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0179] Accordingly, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device.

[0180] Among them, steps S300 and S302 can be referred to the description of FIG7 , which will not be repeated here.

[0181] S303: The network device determines the size of the paging window based on the starting position and the ending position of the paging window.

[0182] S304: The terminal device determines the size of the paging window based on the starting position and the ending position of the paging window.

[0183] The size of the paging window can be determined by the time domain resources between the starting position and the ending position of the paging window. For example, if the ending position of the paging window corresponds to the system frame number 18 and the starting position of the paging window corresponds to the system frame number 2, the size of the paging window is 16 frames.

[0184] S305: The network device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset.

[0185] S306: The terminal device determines a position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames within the paging window, and the offset.

[0186] Among them, step S305 and step S306 can refer to the description of step S204 and will not be repeated here.

[0187] Alternatively, step S305 may be for the network device to determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames within the paging window, and the offset. Correspondingly, step S306 may be for the terminal device to determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames within the paging window, and the offset.

[0188] It should be noted that in FIG8B , step S303 is performed before step S304, and step S305 is performed before step S306. In practice, step S303 and step S304 can be performed simultaneously, or after step S304. Alternatively, step S303 can be performed after determining that a paging event has occurred for the terminal device, and step S305 can be performed after step S303 is performed; or step S303 can be performed after step S300 is performed, and step S305 can be performed after step S303 is performed.

[0189] S307: The network device sends a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0190] S308. The terminal device obtains a paging message based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The terminal device does not obtain a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0191] It can be understood that in the method shown in Figure 8A or Figure 8B, the paging window is smaller than the paging cycle. In this way, the network device sends a paging message to the terminal device based on the paging window, and does not use time domain resources other than the paging window in the paging cycle to send the paging message, which can save the power consumption of the network device. The network device can determine the size and position of the paging window and the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information, so that when a paging event of the terminal device occurs, the network device can send a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame. Accordingly, the terminal device can determine the size and position of the paging window and the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information, so that when the paging cycle arrives, the paging message of the terminal device is obtained based on the position of the paging frame.

[0192] The method for determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window may refer to the communication method shown in Figure 9A or Figure 9B. The configuration information in Figure 9A is the first feasible method or the second feasible method mentioned above, and the configuration information in Figure 9B is the third feasible method mentioned above. As shown in Figure 9A, the communication method includes:

[0193] S400: The network device determines configuration information, where the configuration information includes the size of a paging window. A starting position of the paging window is a predefined position or a position configured by the configuration information, and the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle.

[0194] S402: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0195] Accordingly, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device.

[0196] Among them, step S400 and step S402 can refer to the description of Figure 7, and will not be repeated here.

[0197] S403: The network device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0198] S404: The terminal device determines a position of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0199] This application does not limit the method for determining the position of the terminal device's paging frame within the paging window. The determination method in steps S403 and S404 is unrelated to the number of paging frames within the paging window. Specifically, R can be first determined based on the size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device, and then the position of the terminal device's paging frame within the paging window can be determined based on the starting position of the paging window and R. R can be described with reference to FIG8A and will not be repeated here.

[0200] It can be understood that after determining the order of the paging frames of the terminal device in the paging window, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window can be determined according to the system frame number corresponding to the starting position of the paging window and R.

[0201] Alternatively, step S403 and step S404 may be implemented based on the following formula (8).

[0202] SFN=PW_start+UE_ID mod M (8)

[0203] Where PW_start is the starting position of the paging window, and SFN, M, and UE_ID can refer to the above definitions. The value obtained by modulating UE_ID with M is the above R. The SFN in formula (8) can satisfy the above formula (4).

[0204] It can be understood that by using formula (8) to determine the paging frames of different terminal devices within the paging window, the originally evenly dispersed paging frames are concentrated and evenly distributed within the paging window, and the paging frames within the paging window are evenly allocated to different terminal devices, which can avoid the terminal devices being concentrated in the same paging frame.

[0205] It should be noted that formula (8) is only an example. In practice, there may be other determination formulas, such as formula (9):

[0206] SFN=PW_start+Hash(UE_ID,M) (9)

[0207] PW_start, SFN, M, and UE_ID refer to the definitions above. Hash(UE_ID, M) represents a hash operation on UE_ID and M. In other cases, other formulas may exist, such as the hash function may include other parameters in addition to UE_ID and M; or the hash function may include UE_ID and then perform a modulo operation on M after hashing the UE_ID. These are not limited here.

[0208] In FIG9A , step S403 is performed before step S404. In practice, step S403 and step S404 can be performed simultaneously, or step S403 can be performed after step S404. Alternatively, step S403 can be performed after determining that a paging event has occurred for the terminal device, or after step S400 has been performed.

[0209] S405: The network device sends a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0210] S406: The terminal device obtains a paging message based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The terminal device does not obtain a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0211] Referring to FIG. 9B , the method shown in FIG. 9B includes:

[0212] S500: The network device determines configuration information, where the configuration information includes a start position and an end position of a paging window, and the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle.

[0213] S502: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0214] Accordingly, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device.

[0215] S503: The network device determines the size of the paging window based on the starting position and the ending position of the paging window.

[0216] S504: The terminal device determines the size of the paging window based on the starting position and the ending position of the paging window.

[0217] S505: The network device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0218] S506: The terminal device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0219] Among them, steps S500 to S506 can refer to the above and are not repeated here.

[0220] It should be noted that in FIG9B , step S503 is performed before step S504, and step S505 is performed before step S506. In practice, step S503 and step S504 can be performed simultaneously, or after step S504. Alternatively, step S503 can be performed after determining that a paging event has occurred for the terminal device, and step S505 can be performed after step S503 is performed; or step S503 can be performed after step S500 is performed, and step S505 can be performed after step S503 is performed.

[0221] S507: The network device sends a paging message to the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0222] S508: The terminal device obtains a paging message based on the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window. The terminal device does not obtain a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0223] It can be understood that in the method shown in Figure 9A or Figure 9B, the paging window is smaller than the paging cycle. In this way, the network device sends a paging message to the terminal device based on the paging window, and does not use time domain resources other than the paging window in the paging cycle to send the paging message, which can save the power consumption of the network device. The network device can determine the size and starting position of the paging window and the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information, so that when a paging event of the terminal device occurs, the network device can send a paging message of the terminal device based on the position of the paging frame. Accordingly, the terminal device can determine the size and starting position of the paging window and the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information, so that when the paging cycle arrives, the paging message of the terminal device is obtained based on the position of the paging frame.

[0224] In another embodiment, please refer to the communication method shown in FIG10. As shown in FIG10, the communication method includes:

[0225] S600: The network device determines configuration information, where the configuration information includes an aggregation factor, and the aggregation factor is an integer greater than 1.

[0226] S602: The network device sends configuration information to the terminal device.

[0227] Accordingly, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device.

[0228] The clustering factor may refer to the description of the fourth feasible approach mentioned above, and step S600 may refer to the description of step S100 in FIG. 7 , which will not be repeated here.

[0229] S603: The network device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle based on the aggregation factor, the paging cycle of the terminal device, the number and offset of paging frames within the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0230] S604: The terminal device determines a position of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle based on the clustering factor, the paging cycle of the terminal device, the number and offset of paging frames within the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0231] This application does not limit the method for determining the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle. The following description takes the terminal device as an example. In some feasible examples, step S604 may include: the terminal device determines the position of each paging frame within the paging cycle based on the paging cycle, the number of paging frames within the paging cycle, and the clustering factor; the terminal device determines the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle based on the terminal device identifier and the number of paging frames within the paging cycle, the position of each paging frame in the paging window, and the offset.

[0232] The position of each paging frame within a paging cycle, before the clustering factor is used, may be referred to as a source position, and after the clustering factor is used, may be referred to as a target position. Specifically, a method for determining the target position may include: the terminal device first determines the source position of each paging frame within the paging cycle based on the paging cycle and the number of paging frames within the paging cycle; the terminal device then centrally arranges the source positions of the paging frames within the paging cycle based on the clustering factor and the position of each paging frame within the paging cycle, thereby obtaining the target position of each paging frame within the paging window.

[0233] Step S603 or step S604 may alternatively be implemented based on the following formula (10).

[0234] (SFN+PF_offset)mod T=(T div N) / X*(UE_ID mod N) (10)

[0235] Wherein, X is the aggregation factor, and SFN, PF_offset, UE_ID, T and N can refer to the above definitions.

[0236] It can be understood that the configuration method corresponding to this formula is used to configure the time domain resources for sending paging messages to each terminal device, so that the originally evenly dispersed paging frames are evenly distributed within the paging window, and different terminal devices are evenly allocated to the paging frames within the paging window, which can avoid the terminal devices being concentrated in the same paging frame.

[0237] It should be noted that in FIG10 , step S603 is performed before step S604. In practice, step S603 and step S604 can be performed simultaneously, or step S603 can be performed after step S604. Optionally, step S603 can be performed after determining that a paging event has occurred for the terminal device, or after step S600 has been performed.

[0238] It is understood that in the method shown in Figure 10, the network device can use a clustering factor to concentrate the paging frames that were originally dispersed within the paging cycle into a region. In this way, the network device uses a portion of the paging cycle region to send paging messages, so that there are regions within the paging cycle where no paging messages are sent, which can save power consumption of the network device.

[0239] Then, it is introduced how to determine the position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information.

[0240] In some feasible examples, such as after step S202 (or step S203 or step S204) of Figure 8A, after step S302 (or step S303, step S304, step S305 or step S306) of Figure 8B, after step S402 (or step S403 or step S404) of Figure 9A, after step S502 (or step S503, step S504, step S505 or step S506) of Figure 9B and after step S602 (or step S303 or step S604) of Figure 10, the communication method may further include: determining the position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information.

[0241] The position of the paging occasion of the terminal device in the paging frame within the paging window may be the i_s+1th paging occasion in the paging frame in which the terminal device receives the paging message. This application does not limit i_s, and i_s may be determined by the identifier of the terminal device and the number of paging occasions in the paging frame. For example, i_s is equal to the modulo value between the identifier of the terminal device and the number of paging occasions in the paging frame.

[0242] Or i_s can be determined by the identifier of the terminal device, the number of pagings in the paging window, and the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame. Optionally, the position of the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined based on the configuration information, including: the terminal device determines the position of the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the identifier of the terminal device and the number of paging frames in the paging window, as well as the identifier of the terminal device. For example, first determine the order R of the paging opportunities of the paging frames of the terminal device in the paging window according to the identifier of the terminal device and the number of paging frames in the paging window, and then determine the position of the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window according to the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame and R.

[0243] The position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is determined based on the configuration information, or the position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window can be determined based on the following formula (10).

[0244] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N1)mod Ns (11)

[0245] Among them, UE_ID, N1 and Ns can refer to the above definitions.

[0246] The variation of formula (11) can be similar to the aforementioned formula (5), that is, N can follow the definition in the prior art, but the value of N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window. In other words, i_s is obtained based on formula (2).

[0247] The above describes in detail the method of the embodiment of the present application. The following describes the device of the embodiment of the present application.

[0248] Please refer to Figure 11, which is a structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device may include a transceiver unit 101 and a processing unit 102. Among them, the transceiver unit 101 may be a device with signal input (reception) or output (transmission), used to transmit signals with other network devices or other devices in the device. The processing unit 102 may be a device with processing functions, which can be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit can be used to control the device (such as a host node, relay node or chip, etc.), execute software programs, and process software program data. The transceiver unit 101 may include one or more transceivers, and the processing unit 102 may include one or more processors. Please refer to the description of Figure 2, which will not be repeated here.

[0249] In an embodiment of the present application, the communication device includes a network device or a terminal device.

[0250] In one implementation scenario, the communication device is a network device, wherein:

[0251] The processing unit 102 is used to determine configuration information;

[0252] The transceiver unit 101 is used to send configuration information to the terminal device;

[0253] The processing unit 102 is further configured to determine a paging window based on the configuration information, where the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle of the terminal device, and the network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0254] Optionally, the processing unit 102 is specifically used to obtain a pre-configured N1 set of configurations, where N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, and each configuration in the N1 set of configurations is used to indicate the position and size of different paging windows, as well as the position of the paging frame in the paging window; and determine the configuration information from the N1 set of configurations through the common group physical downlink control channel.

[0255] Optionally, the processing unit 102 is specifically configured to determine the position and size of the paging window, and the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information.

[0256] Optionally, the configuration information includes the size of the paging window, the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, or the starting position of the paging window is configured by the configuration information; the processing unit 102 is specifically used to determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset; or determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0257] Optionally, the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, and the predefined position includes the starting position of the paging cycle or the starting position of the discontinuous reception cycle.

[0258] Optionally, the configuration information includes the starting position and ending position of the paging window, and the processing unit 102 is specifically used to determine the size of the paging window based on the starting position and ending position of the paging window; determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset; or determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0259] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0260] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N1)*(UE_ID mod N1)

[0261] Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

[0262] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0263] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N)*(UE_ID mod N)

[0264] Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

[0265] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0266] SFN = PW_start + UE id mod M;

[0267] Wherein, M is the size of the paging window, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and PW_start is the starting position of the paging window.

[0268] Optionally, the processing unit 102 is further configured to determine a position of a paging occasion of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information.

[0269] Optionally, the processing unit 102 is specifically configured to determine a position of a paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the number of paging frames within the paging window and the number of paging occasions within the paging frame, and an identifier of the terminal device.

[0270] Optionally, the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula:

[0271] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N1)mod Ns

[0272] The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the Ns is the number of paging occasions in the paging frame.

[0273] Optionally, the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula:

[0274] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N)mod Ns

[0275] The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, and Ns is the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame.

[0276] Optionally, the configuration information further includes at least one of the following: the number of paging frames in the paging window, the offset of the paging frames in the paging window, and the number of paging occasions of the paging frames in the paging window.

[0277] Optionally, the size of the paging window is represented by the number of time domain resource granularities, and the time domain resource granularity includes at least one of the following: superframe, frame, time slot, sub-time slot, and symbol.

[0278] Optionally, the starting position of the paging window is indicated by a bitmap, the number of bits of the bitmap is determined by the quotient between the total number of system frames in the paging cycle and the indicated time domain resource granularity, the numerical value corresponding to each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether the position of the system frame corresponding to the bit is the starting position of the paging window, and the indicated time domain resource granularity is the difference between the system frame numbers corresponding to two adjacent bits in the bitmap; or the starting position of the paging window is indicated by the offset of the starting position of the paging cycle.

[0279] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal device includes IMSI, S-TMSI, and C-RNTI.

[0280] Optionally, the paging cycle is a DRX cycle.

[0281] In another implementation scenario, the communication device is a terminal device, wherein:

[0282] The transceiver unit 101 is used to receive configuration information from the network device;

[0283] The processing unit 102 is configured to determine a paging window based on the configuration information, where the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle of the terminal device, and the terminal device does not obtain a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

[0284] Optionally, the processing unit 102 is specifically configured to determine the position and size of the paging window, and the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information.

[0285] Optionally, the configuration information includes the size of the paging window, the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, or the starting position of the paging window is configured by the configuration information; the processing unit 102 is specifically used to determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset; or determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0286] Optionally, the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, and the predefined position includes the starting position of the paging cycle or the starting position of the discontinuous reception cycle.

[0287] Optionally, the configuration information includes the starting position and ending position of the paging window, and the processing unit 102 is specifically used to determine the size of the paging window based on the starting position and ending position of the paging window; determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset; or determine the position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0288] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0289] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N1)*(UE_ID mod N1)

[0290] Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

[0291] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0292] (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N)*(UE_ID mod N)

[0293] Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

[0294] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula:

[0295] SFN = PW_start + UE id mod M;

[0296] Wherein, M is the size of the paging window, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and PW_start is the starting position of the paging window.

[0297] Optionally, the processing unit 102 is further configured to determine a position of a paging occasion of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the configuration information.

[0298] Optionally, the processing unit 102 is specifically configured to determine a position of a paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the number of paging frames within the paging window and the number of paging occasions within the paging frame, and an identifier of the terminal device.

[0299] Optionally, the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula:

[0300] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N1)mod Ns

[0301] The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the Ns is the number of paging occasions in the paging frame.

[0302] Optionally, the paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula:

[0303] i_s=floor(UE_ID / N)mod Ns

[0304] The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, and Ns is the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame.

[0305] Optionally, the configuration information further includes at least one of the following: the number of paging frames in the paging window, the offset of the paging frames in the paging window, and the number of paging occasions of the paging frames in the paging window.

[0306] Optionally, the size of the paging window is represented by the number of time domain resource granularities, and the time domain resource granularity includes at least one of the following: superframe, frame, time slot, sub-time slot, and symbol.

[0307] Optionally, the starting position of the paging window is indicated by a bitmap, the number of bits of the bitmap is determined by the quotient between the total number of system frames in the paging cycle and the indicated time domain resource granularity, the numerical value corresponding to each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether the position of the system frame corresponding to the bit is the starting position of the paging window, and the indicated time domain resource granularity is the difference between the system frame numbers corresponding to two adjacent bits in the bitmap; or the starting position of the paging window is indicated by the offset of the starting position of the paging cycle.

[0308] Optionally, the identifier of the terminal device includes IMSI, S-TMSI, and C-RNTI.

[0309] Optionally, the paging cycle is a DRX cycle.

[0310] In another implementation scenario, the communication device is a network device, wherein:

[0311] The processing unit is configured to determine configuration information, where the configuration information includes a clustering factor, where the clustering factor is an integer greater than 1;

[0312] The transceiver unit is used to send configuration information to the terminal device;

[0313] The processing unit is further configured to determine a position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window based on the clustering factor, the paging cycle of the terminal device, the number and offset of paging frames within the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0314] Optionally, the paging cycle is a DRX cycle.

[0315] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle is obtained based on the following formula:

[0316] (SFN+PF_offset)mod T=(T div N) / X*(UE_ID mod N)

[0317] Among them, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging cycle, the PF_offset is the offset of the paging frame, T is the paging cycle, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and N is the number of paging frames in the paging cycle.

[0318] In another implementation scenario, the communication device is a terminal device, wherein:

[0319] The transceiver unit is used to receive configuration information from the network device, where the configuration information includes an aggregation factor, where the aggregation factor is an integer greater than 1;

[0320] The processing unit is configured to determine a position of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle based on the clustering factor, the paging cycle of the terminal device, the number and offset of paging frames within the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

[0321] Optionally, the paging cycle is a DRX cycle.

[0322] Optionally, the position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle is obtained based on the following formula:

[0323] (SFN+PF_offset)mod T=(T div N) / X*(UE_ID mod N)

[0324] Among them, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging cycle, the PF_offset is the offset of the paging frame, T is the paging cycle, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and N is the number of paging frames in the paging cycle.

[0325] It should be noted that the implementation of each unit may also correspond to the corresponding description of at least one embodiment in reference to FIG. 7 , FIG. 8A , FIG. 8B , FIG. 9A , FIG. 9B and FIG. 10 .

[0326] Please refer to Figure 12, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of another communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 12, the communication device 1000 may include one or more processors 1001, which may also be referred to as processing units, and may implement corresponding control functions. Processor 1001 can refer to the description of processor 301 in Figure 2, and will not be repeated here.

[0327] In an optional design, the processor 1001 may also store instructions 1003, and the instructions 1003 can be executed by the processor 1001, so that the communication device 1000 executes the communication method described in the above method embodiment.

[0328] In an optional design, processor 1001 may include a transceiver unit for implementing receiving and transmitting functions. For example, the transceiver unit may be a transceiver circuit, an interface, an interface circuit, or a communication interface. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit for implementing the receiving and transmitting functions may be separate or integrated. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit may be used for reading and writing code / data, or the transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit may be used for transmitting or delivering signals.

[0329] In another possible design, the communication device 1000 may include a circuit that can implement the sending, receiving, or communication functions in the aforementioned communication method embodiments.

[0330] Optionally, the communication device 1000 may include one or more memories 1002, on which instructions 1004 may be stored. The instructions 1004 may be executed on the processor 1001, so that the communication device 1000 performs the communication method described in the above method embodiment. Optionally, data may also be stored in the memory. Optionally, instructions and / or data may also be stored in the processor 1001. The processor 1001 and the memory 1002 may be provided separately or integrated together. For example, the corresponding relationship described in the above method embodiment may be stored in the memory 1002 or in the processor 1001.

[0331] Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further include a transceiver 1005 and / or an antenna 1006. The processor 1001 may be referred to as a processing unit, which controls the communication device 1000. The transceiver 1005 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a transceiver device, or a transceiver module, etc., which is used to implement transceiver functions.

[0332] The processor and transceiver described in this application can be implemented on an integrated circuit (IC), an analog IC, a radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), a mixed-signal IC, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a printed circuit board (PCB), an electronic device, etc. The processor and transceiver can also be manufactured using various IC process technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), p-type metal oxide semiconductor (positive channel metal oxide semiconductor, PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

[0333] Optionally, the communication device 1000 in the embodiment of the present application can be used to execute the steps described in at least one communication method in Figures 7, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B and 10 in the embodiment of the present application.

[0334] The communication device described in the above embodiments may be a network device or a terminal device. It should be understood that the scope of the communication device described in this application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the communication device may not be limited to FIG. 12 . The communication device may be an independent device or may be part of a larger device. For example, the communication device may be:

[0335] (1) An independent integrated circuit (IC), or chip, or chip system or subsystem;

[0336] (2) having a set of one or more ICs, optionally including a storage component for storing data and / or instructions;

[0337] (3) ASIC, such as a mobile station modem (MSM);

[0338] (4) Modules that can be embedded in other devices.

[0339] The embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a processor, can implement the process related to the network device or terminal device in the communication method provided in the above method embodiment. The embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product, which is used to store a computer program, and when the computer program runs on a computer (or processor), causes the computer to execute one or more steps in any of the above communication methods. If the various component modules of the above-mentioned devices are implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium.

[0340] An embodiment of the present application provides a chip, including a processor, for calling and executing instructions stored in a memory, so that a communication device equipped with the chip executes any of the above methods.

[0341] An embodiment of the present application also provides another chip, including: an input interface, an output interface and a processing circuit, the input interface, the output interface and the circuit are connected through an internal connection path, and the processing circuit is used to execute any of the above methods.

[0342] Optionally, the chip further includes a memory. The input interface, the output interface, the processor, and the memory are connected via an internal connection path. The processor is configured to execute code in the memory. When the code is executed, the processor is configured to execute any of the above methods.

[0343] The present application also provides a chip system, comprising at least one processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface and the at least one processor are interconnected via a circuit, and the at least one processor is configured to execute a computer program or instruction to perform any of the aforementioned methods. The chip system may be composed of a chip alone, or may include a chip and other discrete components.

[0344] An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system, which includes a network device and a terminal device. For a specific description, please refer to the communication method shown in Figures 7, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B and 10.

[0345] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the units and algorithm steps of each example described in conjunction with the embodiments provided herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are performed in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Professional and technical personnel can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0346] 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 units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods, such as multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. Another point is that the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed can be through some interfaces, indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units, which can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0347] Units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and 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.

[0348] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated into a processing unit, or each unit can be physically present separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The steps in the method of the embodiment of the present application can be adjusted, merged and deleted in sequence according to actual needs. The steps of each embodiment can be partially executed (for example, the terminal may not execute the steps performed by the terminal in the above embodiment). The execution order of different steps can be changed. The embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments, different embodiments can be combined with each other, and different steps of different embodiments of this document can be combined.

[0349] The modules / units in the device of the embodiment of the present application can be merged, divided and deleted according to actual needs.

[0350] Reference herein to an "embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearance of the phrase in various places in the specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, nor is it an independent or alternative embodiment mutually exclusive of other embodiments.

[0351] In this application, it may refer to a communication protocol or specification, such as the 3GPP communication protocol.

[0352] The terms "first", "second", "third", "fourth", etc. (if any) in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish similar objects and are not necessarily used to describe a specific order or sequence.

[0353] In the embodiments of the present application, "include" can be an inclusion relationship or an equality relationship. For example, A includes B, which means that A includes B and can also include other content, or A and B are the same content.

[0354] In the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, " / " indicates that the objects associated before and after are in an "or" relationship. For example, A / B can represent A or B. "And / or" in this application is only a description of the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In addition, in the description of this application, unless otherwise specified, "multiple" refers to two or more than two. "At least one of the following items" or similar expressions refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single items or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can represent: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, or abc, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0355] In the embodiments of the present application, the terms "information," "signal," "message," and "channel" may be used interchangeably. It should be noted that, when the distinction between them is not emphasized, the meanings they convey are the same. The terms "of," "corresponding," and "relevant" may be used interchangeably. It should be noted that, when the distinction between them is not emphasized, the meanings they convey are the same.

[0356] It should be understood that in the various embodiments of the present application, the size of the serial numbers of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a terminal device, the method includes: The terminal device receives configuration information from the network device; The terminal device determines a paging window based on the configuration information, where the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle of the terminal device. The terminal device does not acquire a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that Determining a paging window based on the configuration information includes: The position and size of the paging window are determined based on the configuration information, and the position of the paging frame of the terminal device is determined within the paging window.

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes the size of the paging window, and the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, or the starting position of the paging window is configured by the configuration information; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset.

4. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes the size of the paging window, and the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, or the starting position of the paging window is configured by the configuration information; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is determined based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

5. The method according to claim 3 or 4, characterized in that The predefined position includes a starting position of a paging cycle or a starting position of a discontinuous reception cycle.

6. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; Determining a size of the paging window based on a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset.

7. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; Determining a size of the paging window based on a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is determined based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

8. The method according to claim 3 or 6, characterized in that The method comprises: The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula: (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N1)*(UE_ID mod N1) Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

9. The method according to claim 3 or 6, characterized in that The method comprises: The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula: (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N)*(UE_ID mod N) Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

10. The method according to claim 4 or 7, characterized in that The method comprises: The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula: SFN = PW_start + UE id mod M; Wherein, M is the size of the paging window, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and PW_start is the starting position of the paging window.

11. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that The method further comprises: A position of a paging occasion of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is determined based on the configuration information.

12. The method according to claim 11, characterized in that The determining, based on the configuration information, a position of a paging occasion of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window, includes: The position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined based on the number of paging frames in the paging window and the number of paging occasions in the paging frame, as well as the identifier of the terminal device.

13. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The method comprises: The paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula: i_s=floor(UE_ID / N1)mod Ns The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the Ns is the number of paging occasions in the paging frame.

14. The method according to claim 12, characterized in that The method comprises: The paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula: i_s=floor(UE_ID / N)mod Ns The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, and Ns is the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame.

15. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 14, characterized in that The configuration information further includes at least one of the following: the number of paging frames in the paging window, the offset of the paging frames in the paging window, and the number of paging occasions of the paging frames in the paging window.

16. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 15, characterized in that The size of the paging window is represented by the number of time domain resource granularities, and the time domain resource granularity includes at least one of the following: superframe, frame, time slot, sub-time slot, and symbol.

17. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 16, characterized in that The starting position of the paging window is indicated by a bitmap, the number of bits of the bitmap is determined by the quotient of the total number of system frames in the paging cycle and the indicated time domain resource granularity, the value corresponding to each bit in the bitmap is used to indicate whether the position of the system frame corresponding to the bit is the starting position of the paging window, and the indicated time domain resource granularity is the difference between the system frame numbers corresponding to two adjacent bits in the bitmap; or The starting position of the paging window is indicated by an offset of the starting position of the paging cycle.

18. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 17, characterized in that The identifier of the terminal device includes an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), a Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (S-TMSI), and a Cell Radio Network Temporary Identifier (C-RNTI).

19. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 18, characterized in that The configuration information includes at least one of the following: system information, radio resource control information, media access control element information, and downlink control information.

20. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 19, characterized in that The paging cycle is a discontinuous reception DRX cycle.

21. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a network device, the method includes: The network device determines configuration information; The network device sends the configuration information to the terminal device; The network device determines a paging window based on the configuration information, where the paging window is smaller than a paging cycle of the terminal device, and the network device does not send a paging message outside the paging window within the paging cycle.

22. The method according to claim 21, characterized in that The network device determines configuration information, including: The network device obtains N1 pre-configured configurations, where N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, and each configuration in the N1 configurations is used to indicate a position and size of a different paging window, and a position of a paging frame in the paging window; The network device determines configuration information from the N1 set of configurations via a common group physical downlink control channel.

23. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes the size of the paging window, and the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, or the starting position of the paging window is configured by the configuration information; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined based on the starting position and size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset.

24. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes the size of the paging window, and the starting position of the paging window is a predefined position, or the starting position of the paging window is configured by the configuration information; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is determined based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

25. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; Determining a size of the paging window based on a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined based on the size of the paging window, the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the offset.

26. The method according to claim 21 or 22, characterized in that The method comprises: The configuration information includes a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; Determining a size of the paging window based on a starting position and an ending position of the paging window; The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is determined based on the starting position and size of the paging window and the identifier of the terminal device.

27. The method according to claim 23 or 25, characterized in that The method comprises: The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula: (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N1)*(UE_ID mod N1) Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

28. The method according to claim 23 or 25, characterized in that The method comprises: The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula: (SFN+PF_offset)mod M=(M div N)*(UE_ID mod N) Among them, M is the size of the paging window, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, PF_offset is the offset set for the paging frame, the PF_offset is the offset reconfigured by the configuration information, or the PF_offset is the originally set offset value.

29. The method according to claim 24 or 26, characterized in that The method comprises: The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is obtained based on the following formula: SFN = PW_start + UE id mod M; Wherein, M is the size of the paging window, SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window, UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and PW_start is the starting position of the paging window.

30. The method according to any one of claims 21 to 29, characterized in that The method further comprises: A position of a paging occasion of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window is determined based on the configuration information.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein The determining, based on the configuration information, a position of a paging occasion of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging window, includes: The position of the paging occasion of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is determined based on the number of paging frames in the paging window and the number of paging occasions in the paging frame, as well as the identifier of the terminal device.

32. The method according to claim 31, characterized in that The method comprises: The paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula: i_s=floor(UE_ID / N1)mod Ns The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, the N1 is the number of paging frames in the paging window, and the Ns is the number of paging occasions in the paging frame.

33. The method according to claim 31, characterized in that The method comprises: The paging opportunity of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging window is the i_s+1th paging opportunity in the paging frame, where i_s is obtained based on the following formula: i_s=floor(UE_ID / N)mod Ns The UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, N represents the number of paging frames in the paging cycle, N is equal to the number of paging frames in the paging window, and Ns is the number of paging opportunities in the paging frame.

34. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a terminal device, the method includes: The terminal device receives configuration information from the network device, the configuration information aggregation factor, the aggregation factor being an integer greater than 1; The terminal device determines a position of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle based on the clustering factor, the paging cycle of the terminal device, the number and offset of paging frames within the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

35. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to a network device, the method includes: The network device determines configuration information, and an aggregation factor of the configuration information, where the aggregation factor is an integer greater than 1; The network device sends the configuration information to the terminal device; The network device determines a position of a paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle based on the clustering factor, the paging cycle of the terminal device, the number and offset of paging frames within the paging cycle, and the identifier of the terminal device.

36. The method according to claim 34 or 35, characterized in that The method comprises: The position of the paging frame of the terminal device within the paging cycle is obtained based on the following formula: (SFN+PF_offset)mod T=(T div N) / X*(UE_ID mod N) Among them, the SFN is the system frame number of the paging frame of the terminal device in the paging cycle, the PF_offset is the offset of the paging frame, the T is the paging cycle, the UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, and the N is the number of paging frames in the paging cycle.

37. A communication device, characterized in that: The method comprises means for performing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 36.

38. A communication device, characterized in that: The device comprises a processor configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, wherein when the instructions are executed, the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 36 is implemented.

39. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is run on one or more processors, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 36 is implemented.

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