Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

The present application relates to a communication method and apparatus. The method comprises: sending an ESS to a terminal, wherein the ESS is used for completing downlink synchronization with a network device by means of the ESS when the terminal does not detect an SSB sent by the network device; and sending PNI to the terminal, wherein a first resource position for transmitting the PNI is related to a second resource position for transmitting the ESS, and the PNI is used for indicating whether the network device has paging information to be sent to the terminal. In the embodiments of the present application, a terminal can complete or realize downlink synchronization with a network device by means of an ESS that is more easily detected compared with an SSB; and moreover, PNI capable of indicating whether the network device has paging information to be sent to the terminal can be accurately received on a first resource position related to a second resource position for transmitting the ESS, thereby ensuring that the terminal can also well receive the paging information of the network device when the signal received quality is relatively poor.

Description

Communication method and device

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] This application claims priority to the Chinese patent application filed with the State Intellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China on February 29, 2024, with application number 202410235984.5 and application name "A Communication Method and Device", the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this application. Technical Field

[0003] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and device. Background Art

[0004] Compared to traditional terrestrial network communications, non-terrestrial network (NTN) communications offer advantages such as wider coverage, faster speeds, and reduced vulnerability to natural disasters. However, in NTN communications, signal reception quality can still be affected by factors such as obstruction. For example, when a terminal is obstructed by an object, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) drops sharply, preventing the terminal from properly receiving downlink information from network devices.

[0005] At this point, if the network device pages the terminal, the terminal may miss the call or fail to receive the paging message from the network device in a timely manner due to poor signal reception quality, which may pose certain risks. For example, if the paging message contains public warning system (PWS) information, if the terminal fails to receive the paging message or fails to receive it in a timely manner, it may pose a public safety risk. Summary of the Invention

[0006] Embodiments of the present application provide a communication method and apparatus for ensuring that a terminal can receive paging information from a network device even when signal reception quality is poor.

[0007] In the first aspect, a communication method is provided. The method can be executed by a network device, or by a chip system (or, chip) or other functional module, and the chip system or functional module can realize the function of the network device, and the chip system or functional module is, for example, set in the network device. In the following description, the method is taken as an example of being executed by a network device. The method includes: sending an enhanced synchronization signal (ESS) to a terminal, wherein the ESS is used for the terminal to complete downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS when the terminal does not detect a synchronization signal block (SSB) sent by the network device; and sending paging notification information (PNI) to the terminal, wherein the first resource location for transmitting the PNI may be related to the second resource location for transmitting the ESS, and the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal.

[0008] In an embodiment of the present application, when the terminal fails to detect the SSB sent by the network device under the condition of poor reception quality, the network device may send the ESS, which is easier to detect than the SSB, to the terminal. In this way, after receiving the ESS, the terminal can complete or obtain downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS. Then, the network device may send the PNI, which can indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, to the terminal at a first resource location related to the second resource location for transmitting the ESS. After receiving the PNI, if the terminal determines that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, the terminal can receive the paging information sent by the network device to the terminal during a subsequent corresponding paging occasion (PO), thereby alleviating the problem that the terminal may miss a connection or fail to receive the paging information from the network device in a timely manner due to poor signal reception quality, thereby bringing certain risks.

[0009] In an optional embodiment, before sending the ESS to the terminal, the process may further include: determining that the terminal has not responded to at least one paging message sent by the network device to the terminal. In other words, the network device will only send the ESS to the terminal after determining that the terminal has not responded to at least one paging message sent by the network device to the terminal. In this embodiment, the network device only sends the ESS to the terminal when it determines that the terminal cannot receive or has not responded to the paging message sent by the network device to the terminal. This reduces the complexity of the communication system by simplifying the operations related to the network device sending the ESS to the terminal.

[0010] In an optional embodiment, the method may further include: sending first information to the terminal, the first information being used to indicate whether the cell in which the terminal is located allows the terminal to report its PNI receiving capability; receiving second information from the terminal, the second information being used to indicate whether the terminal has the PNI receiving capability; and sending third information to the terminal, the third information being used to indicate whether the terminal has enabled the PNI receiving capability. In this way, after the terminal accesses the network device and enables the PNI receiving capability, it can receive the PNI sent by the network device to the terminal, thereby ensuring that the terminal can subsequently receive paging information sent by the network device to the terminal.

[0011] In an optional implementation, the first resource location may be determined based on the second resource location and the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI. Thus, once the terminal obtains the second resource location and the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI, it can determine the first resource location for transmitting the PNI, thereby ensuring that the terminal can accurately receive the PNI at the first resource location.

[0012] In an optional embodiment, the method may further include: sending first indication information to the terminal, the first indication information being used to indicate the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI. In this manner, the network device has already sent the ESS to the terminal, so there is no need to send indication information of the first resource location for transmitting the PNI to the terminal. To save resource overhead, the network device may simply send indication information (i.e., the first indication information) to the terminal indicating that the terminal receives the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI. Furthermore, since the signaling overhead required to transmit the first indication information is relatively low, the problem of the high signaling overhead required for the network device to send the indication information of the first resource location to the terminal is also alleviated, thereby saving the signaling overhead required for communication between the network device and the terminal. Furthermore, after obtaining the resource location offset, the terminal may determine the first resource location in combination with the second resource location of the received ESS, thereby ensuring that the terminal can accurately receive the PNI sent by the network device to the terminal.

[0013] In an optional embodiment, the method may further include: sending second indication information to the terminal, the second indication information is used to indicate the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal is located; the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, and may include: the PNI may include a first sub-indication field, the first sub-indication field may correspond to the terminal group identifier, for example, the first sub-indication field included in the PNI may correspond to one or more terminal group identifiers, that is, the first sub-indication field may indicate the indication value corresponding to each of the one or more terminal group identifiers; when the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a first value (for example, 1), it indicates that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, and when the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a second value (for example, 0), it indicates that the network device does not have paging information sent to the terminal.

[0014] In this embodiment, after the terminals are grouped, the network device is informed of whether there is any terminal paged by the network device in the terminal group to which the terminal belongs. This allows the PNI to avoid individually indicating to each terminal whether the network device has any paging information sent to the terminal, thereby reducing the signaling overhead required to transmit the PNI.

[0015] In an optional embodiment, before sending the second indication information to the terminal, the process may further include determining that the terminal has transitioned from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state. In other words, the network device sends the second indication information to the terminal only after determining that the terminal has transitioned from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state. In this embodiment, the network device determines whether to send the second indication information to the terminal based on the terminal's state, thereby reducing the probability of false alarms and signaling overhead of the communication system.

[0016] In an optional embodiment, the PNI may also include a second indication field, which indicates whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information. In this embodiment, after parsing the second indication field of the PNI, the terminal can determine whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information, thereby effectively mitigating any subsequent public safety risks that may exist or occur.

[0017] In another optional implementation, the ESS may also be used to indicate to the network device whether the broadcast public warning paging information exists. In this way, the terminal can determine whether the broadcast public warning paging information exists in the network device by parsing the ESS, without requiring the PNI to carry relevant information through the second indication field, thereby saving the signaling overhead required to transmit the PNI. Furthermore, compared to the terminal determining whether the broadcast public warning paging information exists in the network device by decoding the second indication field in the PNI, the terminal can determine whether the broadcast public warning paging information exists in the network device upon completing downlink synchronization with the network device. That is, the terminal can determine whether the public warning paging information exists earlier, thereby more effectively avoiding possible public safety risks.

[0018] In an optional embodiment, the second indication field may also be used to indicate whether the system information of the cell in which the terminal is located has been modified. In this way, the network device can promptly notify the terminal of the modification of the system information of the cell in which the terminal is located. Furthermore, because the network device does not need to send separate information to the terminal indicating whether the system information of the cell in which the terminal is located has been modified, additional signaling overhead is reduced.

[0019] In an optional embodiment, at least one of the first resource locations may be associated with the same second resource location. In this embodiment, while the terminal completes downlink synchronization with the network device via an ESS, the network device may send one or more PNIs to the terminal based on the resource locations occupied by the same ESS. This allows the terminal to receive at least one PNI after completing one synchronization, thereby simplifying the process of receiving the PNI. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located and the index of the PNI transmitted at the at least one first resource location. For example, the generation process of the ESS may be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located and the index of the PNI transmitted at at least one resource location associated with the second resource location in which the ESS is transmitted. In this way, when performing sequence detection on the ESS, the network device can not only obtain relevant information about the network device but also distinguish between multiple received PNIs.

[0020] In another optional embodiment, at least one of the second resource locations may be associated with different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI. This approach fully considers that when a network device sends a PNI to a terminal, due to reasons such as poor communication quality (e.g., signal reception quality), the PNI received by the terminal may differ from the PNI sent by the network device. Therefore, to improve the reception quality of the PNI, the network device may send the same PNI to the terminal at least once. That is, the same PNI may correspond to at least one ESS. This allows the terminal to receive the PNI at different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI, and to combine and decode the PNIs received at the different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI, thereby enabling the terminal to obtain a more accurate PNI. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located, the index of the PNI, and the index of the ESS transmitted by the at least one second resource location. In this embodiment, not only can the terminal accurately obtain the complete information of a PNI, but it can also distinguish between multiple received ESSs.

[0021] In a second aspect, another communication method is provided. The method can be executed by a terminal, or by a chip system (or, chip) or other functional module, the chip system or functional module can realize the functions of the terminal, and the chip system or functional module is, for example, set in the terminal. In the following description, the method is taken as an example of being executed by the terminal. The method includes: receiving an ESS of a network device, the ESS being used for the terminal to complete downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS when the terminal does not detect the SSB sent by the network device; receiving a PNI of the network device, wherein the first resource location for transmitting the PNI can be related to the second resource location for transmitting the ESS, and the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal.

[0022] In an optional embodiment, the method may further include: receiving first information from the network device, the first information being used to indicate whether the cell where the terminal is located allows the terminal to report the receiving capability of the PNI; sending second information to the network device, the second information being used to indicate whether the terminal has the receiving capability of the PNI; and receiving third information from the network device, the third information being used to indicate whether the terminal has enabled the receiving capability of the PNI.

[0023] In an optional implementation manner, the first resource location may be determined according to the second resource location and a resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

[0024] In an optional implementation, the method may further include: receiving first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

[0025] In an optional embodiment, the method may further include: the method also includes: receiving second indication information of the network device, the second indication information is used to indicate the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal is located; the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, and may include: the PNI may include a first sub-indication field, the first sub-indication field may correspond to the terminal group identifier, when the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a first value, it indicates that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, and when the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a second value, it indicates that the network device does not have paging information sent to the terminal.

[0026] In an optional implementation manner, before receiving the second indication information of the network device, the method may further include: the terminal switching from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state.

[0027] In an optional embodiment, the PNI may further include a second indication field, the second indication field being used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information. In another optional embodiment, the ESS may also be used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast the public warning paging information.

[0028] In an optional implementation, the second indication field may also be used to indicate whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located is modified.

[0029] In an optional implementation, at least one of the first resource locations may be associated with the same second resource location. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with an identifier of a cell where the network device is located and an index of a PNI respectively transmitted by the at least one first resource location.

[0030] In another optional embodiment, at least one of the second resource locations may be associated with different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with an identifier of the cell where the network device is located, an index of the PNI, and an index of the ESS transmitted by the at least one second resource location.

[0031] In an optional implementation, the method may further include: receiving the PNIs respectively at different first resource locations for transmitting the same PNI, and combining and decoding the PNIs respectively received at different first resource locations for transmitting the same PNI.

[0032] In a third aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the network device described in the first aspect above. The communication device may be a chip system (or, chip) or other functional module, and the chip system or functional module may realize the function of the terminal network device, and the chip system or functional module may be arranged in the network device, for example. In an optional implementation, the communication device includes a radio frequency device and a baseband device. In another optional implementation, the communication device includes a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module) and a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module). The transceiver unit may realize a sending function and a receiving function. When the transceiver unit realizes the sending function, it may be referred to as a sending unit (sometimes also referred to as a sending module), and when the transceiver unit realizes the receiving function, it may be referred to as a receiving unit (sometimes also referred to as a receiving module). The sending unit and the receiving unit may be the same functional module, which is called a transceiver unit, and the functional module may realize a sending function and a receiving function; or the sending unit and the receiving unit may be different functional modules, and the transceiver unit is a general term for these functional modules.

[0033] In an optional embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is configured to send an ESS to the terminal, where the ESS is used for the terminal to complete downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS when the terminal does not detect the SSB sent by the network device; the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is further configured to send a PNI to the terminal, where a first resource location for transmitting the PNI may be related to a second resource location for transmitting the ESS, and the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information to send to the terminal.

[0034] In an optional implementation, the processing unit (or processing module) may send an ESS to the terminal through the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) after determining that the terminal does not respond to at least one paging message sent by the network device to the terminal.

[0035] In an optional embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is further configured to send first information to the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate whether the cell where the terminal is located allows the terminal to report its capability to receive the PNI; the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is configured to receive second information from the terminal, where the second information is used to indicate whether the terminal has the capability to receive the PNI; and the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is further configured to send third information to the terminal, where the third information is used to indicate whether the terminal has enabled the capability to receive the PNI.

[0036] In an optional implementation manner, the first resource location may be determined by the processing unit (or processing module) according to the second resource location and a resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

[0037] In an optional implementation manner, the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is further configured to send first indication information to the terminal, where the first indication information is used to indicate a resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

[0038] In an optional embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) is further used to send second indication information to the terminal, where the second indication information is used to indicate the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal belongs; accordingly, the PNI may include a first sub-indication field, and the first sub-indication field may correspond to the terminal group identifier. When the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a first value, it indicates that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal. When the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a second value, it indicates that the network device does not have paging information sent to the terminal.

[0039] In an optional embodiment, the processing unit (or processing module) may control the transceiver unit (or the sending unit) to send second indication information to the terminal after determining that the terminal is converted from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state.

[0040] In an optional embodiment, the PNI may further include a second indication field, the second indication field being used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information. In another optional embodiment, the ESS may also be used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast the public warning paging information.

[0041] In an optional implementation, the second indication field may also be used to indicate whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located is modified.

[0042] In an optional implementation, at least one of the first resource locations may be associated with the same second resource location. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with an identifier of a cell where the network device is located and an index of a PNI respectively transmitted by the at least one first resource location.

[0043] In another optional embodiment, at least one of the second resource locations may be associated with different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with an identifier of the cell where the network device is located, an index of the PNI, and an index of the ESS transmitted by the at least one second resource location.

[0044] In an optional embodiment, the communication device also includes a storage unit (sometimes also referred to as a storage module), and the processing unit (or processing module) is used to couple with the storage unit and execute the program or instructions in the storage unit, so that the processing unit (or processing module) can control or execute the method described in the first aspect above through the above-mentioned transceiver unit.

[0045] In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the terminal described in the second aspect above. The communication device may be a chip system (or chip) or other functional module, which can realize the functions of the terminal, and the chip system or functional module is, for example, provided in the terminal. In an optional implementation, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device. In another optional implementation, the communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also referred to as a processing module) and a transceiver unit (sometimes also referred to as a transceiver module). For the implementation of the transceiver unit, reference may be made to the introduction of the third aspect.

[0046] In an optional embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is used to receive an ESS from a network device, where the ESS is used for the terminal to complete downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS when the terminal does not detect an SSB sent by the network device; the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is further used to receive a PNI from the network device, where the first resource location for transmitting the PNI may be related to the second resource location for transmitting the ESS, and the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information to send to the terminal.

[0047] In an optional implementation manner, the first resource location may be determined by the processing unit (or processing module) according to the second resource location and a resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

[0048] In an optional implementation, the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is further configured to receive first indication information from the network device, where the first indication information is used to indicate a resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

[0049] In an optional embodiment, the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) is further used to receive second indication information of the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal is located; accordingly, the PNI may include a first sub-indication field, and the first sub-indication field may correspond to the terminal group identifier. When the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a first value, it indicates that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal; when the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a second value, it indicates that the network device does not have paging information sent to the terminal.

[0050] In an optional implementation, the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) may receive the second indication information of the network device after the terminal is switched from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state.

[0051] In an optional embodiment, the PNI may further include a second indication field, the second indication field being used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information. In another optional embodiment, the ESS may also be used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast the public warning paging information.

[0052] In an optional implementation, the second indication field may also be used to indicate whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located is modified.

[0053] In an optional implementation, at least one of the first resource locations may be associated with the same second resource location. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with an identifier of a cell where the network device is located and an index of a PNI respectively transmitted by the at least one first resource location.

[0054] In another optional embodiment, at least one of the second resource locations may be associated with different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI. Accordingly, the ESS may be associated with an identifier of the cell where the network device is located, an index of the PNI, and an index of the ESS transmitted by the at least one second resource location.

[0055] In an optional implementation, the transceiver unit (or the receiving unit) may be configured to respectively receive the PNI at different first resource locations for transmitting the same PNI, and the processing unit (or processing module) may combine and decode the PNIs received at different first resource locations for transmitting the same PNI.

[0056] In an optional embodiment, the communication device also includes a storage unit (sometimes also referred to as a storage module), and the processing unit (or processing module) is used to couple with the storage unit and execute the program or instructions in the storage unit, so that the processing unit (or processing module) can control or execute the method described in the second aspect above through the above-mentioned transceiver unit.

[0057] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be a network device, or a chip or chip system used in a network device. The communication device includes a communication interface and a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is used to store a computer program. The processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor reads the computer program or instructions through the communication interface, the communication device executes the method performed by the network device in the first aspect.

[0058] In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, which may be a terminal, or a chip or chip system used in a terminal. The communication device includes a communication interface and a processor, and optionally, a memory. The memory is used to store a computer program, and the processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor reads the computer program or instructions through the communication interface, the communication device executes the method performed by the terminal in the second aspect above.

[0059] In the seventh aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, which is used to store computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are executed, the methods in the above-mentioned first aspect or second aspect and various possible implementation methods in all aspects are implemented.

[0060] In an eighth aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions is provided, which enables the methods in the above-mentioned first aspect or second aspect and various possible implementations in all aspects to be implemented when the computer program or instructions are executed on a computer.

[0061] In the ninth aspect, a chip system is provided, comprising a processor and an interface, wherein the processor is used to call and run instructions from the interface so that the chip system implements the methods in the above-mentioned first aspect or second aspect and various possible implementation methods in each aspect.

[0062] The technical effects that can be achieved in each of the above-mentioned aspects from the second to the ninth aspect and each possible implementation scheme in each of them can refer to the description of the effects that can be achieved by the corresponding possible design schemes in the above-mentioned first aspect, and the repetitions will not be discussed. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0063] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of two typical application scenarios of satellite-ground fusion networks provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of another typical application scenario of a satellite-ground fusion network provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0065] FIG3 is a flow chart of a communication method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0066] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a PNI payload provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0067] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of another PNI payload provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0068] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of a correspondence relationship between an ESS and a PNI provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0069] FIG7 is a schematic diagram of another correspondence relationship between ESS and PNI provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0070] FIG8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0071] FIG9 is a schematic diagram of another device provided in an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0072] The communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to the fourth generation mobile communication (4G) system, such as the long term evolution (LTE) system, and can also be applied to the fifth generation mobile communication (5G) system, such as the 5G new radio (NR) system, and can also be applied to new communication systems that will emerge in future communication developments. Of course, the communication system can also be applied to machine to machine (M2M) networks, machine type communication (MTC) or other networks, and can also be applied to satellite-ground converged networks.

[0073] Taking the embodiment of the present application as an example, the satellite-terrestrial converged network mainly consists of two parts: the non-terrestrial network (NTN) and the terrestrial network (TN). The NTN offers wider coverage, higher speeds, and lower costs. Especially in areas where TN cannot be directly deployed, such as in the ocean, deserts, and in the air, the NTN can serve as a supplement or extension of the TN, achieving wide-area seamless coverage. This allows the satellite-terrestrial converged network to effectively address internet access issues in areas lacking communication infrastructure.

[0074] Among them, NTN is proposed in contrast to traditional terrestrial networks. It refers to a network established using non-terrestrial communication technologies. It can include, but is not limited to, networks that use spectrum resources on communication platforms such as satellite platforms, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) platforms, or high altitude platform stations (HAPS) to provide communication services. Therefore, NTN systems can include but are not limited to satellite communication systems, UAV communication systems, and HAPS systems.

[0075] Taking satellite communication systems as an example, according to the height of the satellite from the earth's surface (i.e., the satellite orbit altitude), satellite communication systems can be divided into geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite systems or geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO or GSO) satellite systems, highly elliptical orbit (HEO) satellite systems, medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite systems, and low earth orbit (LEO) satellite systems.

[0076] Among them, the GEO satellite system can also be called a geostationary orbit satellite system. The HEO satellite system, MEO satellite system, and LEO satellite system can also be collectively referred to as a non-geostationary Earth orbit (NGEO or NGSO) satellite system, or a non-geostationary orbit satellite system. Correspondingly, according to the type of satellite communication system, the satellites in the satellite communication system can also be divided into GEO satellites, HEO satellites, MEO satellites, LEO satellites, etc.

[0077] The TN may include various communication networks on the ground, such as the ground access network (AN), (ground) core network (CN) and data network (DN).

[0078] In order to better describe the above-mentioned satellite-ground converged network, the following first explains the communication equipment or network elements that may be involved in the application scenario of the satellite-ground converged network to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

[0079] (1) Terminal. In the embodiments of the present application, a terminal is a device with wireless transceiver capabilities (i.e., it can send signals to a network device and receive signals from a network device). It can be a fixed device, a mobile device, a handheld device (such as a mobile phone), a wearable device, an in-vehicle device, or a wireless device built into any of the above devices (such as a communication module, a modem, or a chip system, etc.). The terminal is used to connect people, objects, machines, etc., and can be widely used in various scenarios, such as but not limited to the following scenarios: perception scenarios, cellular communications, device-to-device communication (D2D), vehicle to everything (V2X), M2M / MTC, Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), industrial control (industrial control), self-driving, remote medical, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, drones, robots, indoor commercial scenarios (such as mobile phone screen projection, file sharing, mobile phone to VR glasses video transmission) and other scenarios.

[0080] Among them, when the terminal is applied to V2X, it can also be called a V2X device, for example, a smart car (or intelligent car), a digital car (or digital car), an unmanned car (or driverless car or pilotless car or automobile), an automatic car (or self-driving car or autonomous car), a pure electric vehicle (or battery EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (or hybrid electric vehicle, HEV), a range extended electric vehicle (or range extended EV, REEV), a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (or plug-in HEV, PHEV), a new energy vehicle (or new energy vehicle), and a roadside unit (or road site unit, RSU). The terminal can also be a device in D2D communication, such as a smart meter, a smart water meter, or other smart instrument. In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal can also be a terminal in an IoT system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, thereby realizing an intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and object-to-object interconnection.

[0081] As described above, various terminals, if located on a vehicle (e.g., placed in a vehicle or installed in a vehicle), can be considered as a vehicle-mounted terminal, which is also referred to as an on-board unit (OBU). The terminal of the present application can also be an on-board module, on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip or on-board unit built into the vehicle as one or more components or units, and the vehicle can implement the method of the present application through the built-in on-board module, on-board module, on-board component, on-board chip or on-board unit.

[0082] The terminal may sometimes be referred to as user equipment (UE), terminal equipment, access station, UE station, remote station, wireless communication device, or user device, etc.

[0083] In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device used to implement the terminal function can be a terminal, or a communication device capable of supporting the terminal to implement the function, such as a chip system, and the communication device can be installed in the terminal. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the communication device used to implement the terminal function as an example.

[0084] (2) Network equipment. The network equipment in the embodiments of the present application may be a non-terrestrially deployed network equipment (i.e., a non-terrestrial network equipment) or a network equipment deployed on the ground (i.e., a terrestrial network equipment). For example, the non-terrestrial network equipment may be a satellite that communicates with a terminal at an air interface, and the terrestrial network equipment may be a terrestrial access network equipment and a terrestrial core network equipment. Therefore, the network equipment may include, but is not limited to, one or more of a satellite, a ground station, an access network equipment (such as a base station), and a core network equipment. The following only explains several types of network equipment:

[0085] A. Satellite.

[0086] The satellite can be a GEO satellite, a HEO satellite, a MEO satellite or a LEO satellite, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not impose specific restrictions on the communication mode of the satellite. For example, the communication mode of the satellite can be a transparent transmission mode or a regenerative mode. When the communication mode of the satellite is transparent transmission mode, the satellite acts as an analog radio frequency repeater to achieve wireless frequency conversion and amplification, and can transparently transmit or copy the signal between the base station and the terminal, that is, the satellite only has the function of signal forwarding. For example, the signal sent by the terminal can be transparently transmitted by the satellite, forwarded by the ground station, and enter the base station. When the communication mode of the satellite is regenerative mode, the satellite can serve as a base station for wireless communication, achieve regeneration of signals received from the ground, and can parse (or understand) and process these signals, that is, the satellite has the ability to process signals. For example, the satellite can be a base station carried by an artificial earth satellite or a high-altitude aircraft. At this time, the ground station can forward the signaling between the satellite (i.e., the base station) and the core network.

[0087] Furthermore, satellites can wirelessly communicate with terminals by broadcasting communication and navigation signals. Optionally, each satellite can provide terminals with communication, navigation, and positioning services using multiple beams. For example, each satellite can use multiple beams to cover its service area, and the relationships between different beams can be based on one or more of time division, frequency division, and space division. Furthermore, satellites can operate in either quasi-Earth-fixed or satellite-fixed modes.

[0088] Among them, the quasi-Earth fixed mode, also known as the staring mode, refers to dynamically adjusting the satellite's beam pointing so that it continuously serves a certain physical area over a period of time. For example, over a period of time (such as time t0, time t1, and time t2), the satellite dynamically adjusts the beam pointing so that the beam approximately covers the same area on the ground. In practice, due to issues with beam pointing accuracy and distortion caused by beam projections at different incident angles on the ground, the coverage area of ​​the staring beam may experience a certain degree of jitter over time.

[0089] Satellite fixed mode means that the satellite's beam moves with the satellite, and the physical area it serves also changes continuously. For example, over a period of time (such as time t0, time t1, and time t2), the satellite beam coverage moves with the satellite.

[0090] B. Ground station.

[0091] Ground stations (also known as gateways (GW), earth stations, gateways, and gateways) can be used to connect satellites and terrestrial network equipment (such as base stations on the ground). For example, one or more satellites can be connected to one or more terrestrial network equipment (such as base stations on the ground) through one or more ground stations, without limitation.

[0092] Among them, the link between the satellite and the terminal is called the service link (or user link), and the link between the satellite and the ground station is called the feeder link (or feedback circuit).

[0093] C. Access network equipment.

[0094] The access network equipment can be deployed on a satellite or on the ground (such as a ground base station or ground station). The access network equipment involved in the embodiments of the present application can be a radio access network (RAN) node. Among them, the RAN can be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, an NR system, and a future wireless access system defined in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The RAN can also include two or more different wireless access systems mentioned above. The RAN can also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0095] RAN node, also known as radio access network equipment, RAN entity or access node, is used to help terminals access the communication system wirelessly. In one application scenario, the RAN nodes in the embodiments of the present application include but are not limited to base stations (base transceiver station (BTS), Node B, evolved node B (eNodeB) / eNB, or the next generation node B (gNodeB) / gNB), transmission reception point (TRP), base stations of subsequent evolution of 3GPP, access nodes in wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) systems, wireless relay nodes, wireless backhaul nodes, etc. The base station can be: a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a small station, a relay station, etc. Multiple base stations can support networks with the same access technology or networks with different access technologies. The base station can include one or more co-sited or non-co-sited transmission and reception points. The RAN node can also be a base station control device. The RAN node can also be other devices in the access network such as a server, which is not limited in this application. For example, the network device in the V2X technology may be a road side unit (RSU).

[0096] For example, the RAN node is a base station. The base station can communicate with the terminal, or communicate with the terminal through a relay station. The terminal can communicate with multiple base stations using different access technologies.

[0097] In another application scenario, multiple RAN nodes can collaborate to help terminals achieve wireless access, meaning that different RAN nodes each implement part of the base station's functionality. Therefore, the aforementioned RAN node can also be one or more logical network elements, such as a radio controller, a centralized unit (CU), and / or a distributed unit (DU), in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario.

[0098] For example, in the CU-DU architecture, the RAN node may include one or more logical network elements such as CU, DU, CU-control plane (CP), CU-user plane (UP), or radio unit (RU). CU and DU may be set separately, or may be included in the same network element, such as a baseband unit (BBU). CU-CP can be divided into CU-CP1 and CU-CP2. CU-CP1 includes various radio resource management functions, and CU-CP2 includes radio resource control (RRC) functions and packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)-C functions (i.e., the basic functions of control plane signaling at the PDCP layer). In this network architecture, the signaling generated by the CU can be sent to the terminal through the DU, or the signaling generated by the terminal can be sent to the CU through the DU. The DU can encapsulate the signaling directly through the protocol layer and transparently transmit it to the terminal or CU without parsing it. The RU may be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, for example, in a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU) or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0099] In addition, the above-mentioned CU-DU architecture can split the protocol layers of the network device, and the functions of some protocol layers are placed in the CU for centralized control, and the functions of the remaining part or all of the protocol layers are distributed in the DU, and the DU is centrally controlled by the CU. For example, the functions of the PDCP layer and above protocol layers can be set in the CU, and the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer (such as the radio link control (RLC) layer and the medium access control (MAC) layer, etc.) are set in the DU. It should be noted that this division of the protocol layers is only an example, and it can also be divided in other protocol layers, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0100] It should be noted that in different systems, RAN nodes may have different names. For example, in an O-RAN system, CU may be called an open CU (open CU, O-CU), DU may be called an open DU (open DU, O-DU), and RU may be called an open RU (open RU, O-RU). For the convenience of description, the embodiments of the present application are described using CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU as examples. Any of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. For example, the RAN node may be a server loaded with the corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the RAN node.

[0101] D. Core network equipment.

[0102] Core network equipment is a device installed on the ground and capable of communicating with NTN equipment in the NTN system. Core network equipment is a network element included in the core network part of the communication system. Core network equipment can connect terminals to different data networks and perform services such as authentication, billing, mobility management, session management, policy control, and user plane forwarding. Core network equipment can be core network equipment in current communication systems or core network equipment in future communication systems. In communication systems of different standards, the names of core network equipment with the same function may differ. However, the embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific names of the core network equipment for each specific core network function.

[0103] For example, in LTE, the network element responsible for access control, security control, and signaling coordination is called a mobility management entity (MME); the network element serving as the local mobility management anchor is called a serving gateway (S-GW); the network element serving as the anchor for switching to the external data network and responsible for allocating Internet protocol (IP) addresses is called a packet data network (PDN) gateway (P-GW); the network element that stores user-related data and subscription data is called a home subscriber server (HSS); and the network element responsible for policy and charging functions is called a policy and charging rule function (PCRF) network element.

[0104] For example, in 5G, the core network can be divided into the CP and UP based on specific logical functions. The network elements responsible for control plane functions are collectively referred to as control plane network elements, and the network elements responsible for user plane functions are collectively referred to as user plane network elements. Specifically, in the UP, the network element that serves as the interface to the data network and is responsible for user plane data forwarding and other functions is called the user plane function (UPF) network element. In the CP, the network element responsible for access control and mobility management functions is called the access and mobility management function (AMF) network element; the network element responsible for session management and execution of control policies is called the session management function (SMF) network element, as shown in Figure 2, that is, the core network can include the AMF network element and SMF network element on the control plane, and the UPF network element on the user plane; the network element responsible for managing functions such as contract data and user access authorization is called the unified data management (UDM) network element; the network element responsible for billing and policy control functions is called the policy control function (PCF) network element; the application function (AF) network element is responsible for transmitting the requirements of the application side to the network side.

[0105] In an embodiment of the present application, the communication device used to implement the function of the network device can be a network device, or it can be a device that can support the network device to implement the function, such as a chip system, which can be installed in the network device.

[0106] Based on the above explanation of the communication equipment or network elements that may be involved in the application scenarios of the satellite-ground fusion network, the satellite-ground fusion network applicable to the embodiment of the present application will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. For example, refer to Figure 1, which is a schematic diagram of typical application scenarios of two satellite-ground fusion networks adapted by the embodiment of the present application. The satellite-ground fusion network may include: satellites, terminals, ground stations, base stations, core networks and data networks. Among them, the terminal can communicate directly with the satellite (as shown in (a) in Figure 1) or communicate with the ground network through the base station, or communicate with one satellite and another satellite (as shown in (b) in Figure 1). The ground station is used to connect the satellite and the base station. For example, one or more satellites can be connected to one or more base stations through one or more ground stations, which is not limited here.

[0107] As shown in Figure 1 (a), when the satellite is in transparent transmission mode, the terminal and satellite, and the satellite and ground station are connected via an air interface (e.g., the Uu interface). The satellite acts as a repeater, forwarding signals between the terminal and the ground station. The ground station has a communication connection with the base station in the terrestrial network. The base station and the core network can communicate via a next-generation (NG) network interface (e.g., the N2 interface), while the core network and the data network can communicate via the N6 interface.

[0108] Compared to the satellite shown in Figure 1 (a), the satellite shown in Figure 1 (b) is in regeneration mode. A satellite is carried in the satellite communication system as a base station, and in this case, the satellite can be referred to as a satellite base station. Terminals can establish a communication connection with the satellite via the air interface, while the satellite can establish a communication connection with the core network via the ground station via the NG interface. Alternatively, in another scenario, the satellite can establish a communication connection with a base station in the terrestrial network via the Xn interface, and the base station in the terrestrial network can establish a communication connection with the core network via the NG interface. Communication between the core network and the data network occurs via the N6 interface. Furthermore, in the application scenario shown in Figure 1 (b), satellites (base stations) can also communicate with each other, meaning that a terminal can access the network via one or more satellites (base stations). Satellites (base stations) can communicate with each other via the Xn interface.

[0109] The following describes interfaces between communication devices or network elements in various application scenarios shown in FIG1 .

[0110] Air interface: This refers to the wireless link between the terminal and the ground base station. For example, the air interface can be the Uu interface.

[0111] Xn interface: represents the interface between satellite base stations, mainly used for signaling interaction such as switching.

[0112] NG interface: refers to the interface between the ground base station and the ground core network, mainly exchanging signaling such as the non-access stratum (NAS) of the core network, as well as user service data. Exemplarily, the NG interface may include the N2 interface, the N3 interface, etc.

[0113] It is worth noting that although the application scenarios in Figures 1 and 2 only show a limited number of satellites, ground stations, and terminals, in the embodiments of this application, there is no limitation on the number of the above-mentioned communication devices or network elements (such as satellites, ground stations, terminals, etc.). That is, in actual scenarios, a collaborative architecture of multiple satellites and / or multiple ground stations can be adopted according to communication needs. Each satellite can provide communication services to one or more terminals, and each ground station can correspond to one or more satellites; similarly, each satellite can also correspond to one or more ground stations. This embodiment of this application does not specifically limit this.

[0114] In addition, the satellite communication system shown in Figure 1 or Figure 2 does not constitute a limitation on the communication system to which the embodiments of the present application can be applied. Therefore, the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application can also be applied to other communication systems.

[0115] Based on the contents shown in Figures 1 and 2 above and the other contents mentioned above, it can be seen that NTN communication (such as satellite communication) in the satellite-ground integrated network system has advantages over terrestrial communication, such as wide coverage and less vulnerability to natural disasters, and has become an important direction for 3GPP standard discussions.

[0116] However, in an NTN communication scenario (for example, a terminal directly connected to a network device (such as a satellite) or a terrestrial network), the signal reception quality may be affected due to reasons such as the terminal being blocked by an object, for example, the terminal being placed in a bag or being blocked in a car, a ship, or a building. For example, when the terminal is blocked by an object, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) will drop sharply, so that when the network device receives a paging call to the terminal, the terminal may miss the call due to poor SNR or fail to receive the (downlink) paging information in time, which may bring certain risks. In particular, when the network device has a public warning paging message sent to the terminal, if the terminal cannot (or does not receive the public warning paging message in time), there may be a public safety risk. Optionally, the public warning paging message may also be referred to as PWS-type information, which may include but is not limited to: earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS) warning / alarm information and commercial mobile alert system (CMAS) warning / alarm information.

[0117] Based on the above-mentioned problems, the present application provides a communication method, apparatus, and system for ensuring that a terminal can receive paging information from network devices even when signal reception quality is poor, such as in a satellite-ground converged network where the signal quality of the received satellite or ground base station signal is reduced due to factors such as the terminal being blocked. The method, apparatus, and system are based on the same technical concept, and because the principles for solving the problems in the method, apparatus, and system are similar, the implementation of the method, apparatus, and system can refer to each other, and any repetitions will not be repeated.

[0118] In an embodiment of the present application, when it is determined that the terminal has not detected the SSB sent by the network device, the network device may send an ESS, which is easier to detect than the SSB, to the terminal, so that after receiving the ESS, the terminal can complete or obtain downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS; then, the network device may send a PNI to the terminal at a first resource position related to a second resource position for transmitting the ESS, which can indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, so that after receiving the PNI, if the terminal determines that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, it can receive the paging information sent by the network device to the terminal in a subsequent corresponding PO, thereby ensuring that the terminal can receive the paging information of the network device well even when the signal reception quality is poor.

[0119] It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the number of nouns, unless otherwise specified, means "singular noun or plural noun", that is, "one or more". "At least one" means one or more, and "plural" means two or more. "And / or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that three relationships may exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the previous and next associated objects are in an "or" relationship. For example, A / B means: A or B. "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 means: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c, or a and b and c, where a, b, c can be single or multiple.

[0120] The ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of this application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the size, content, order, timing, priority or importance of multiple objects. For example, the first information and the second information can be the same information or different information, and such names do not indicate the difference in the sending end / receiving end, format, content, size, application scenario, priority or importance of the two information. In addition, the numbering of the steps in the various embodiments introduced in this application is sometimes only for distinguishing different steps and is not used to limit the order of the steps.

[0121] In the embodiments of the present application, descriptions such as "when...", "in the case of...", "if" and "if" all refer to the device making corresponding processing under certain objective circumstances. They do not limit the time, nor do they require the device (such as a network device or a terminal) to have a judgment action when implementing it, nor do they mean that there are other limitations. It should be noted that in the embodiments of the present application, "used for indication" may include direct indication (or display indication) and indirect indication (or implicit indication). When describing a certain information used to indicate A, it may include the information directly indicating A or indirectly indicating A, but it does not mean that the information must carry A. Taking the first information used to indicate the first content as an example, the first information may include the first content, a part of the first content or an identifier or index of the first content, etc., and may also include an algorithm for determining the first content, calculation parameters, etc. In particular, the embodiments of the present application do not limit the method of "indication".

[0122] Refer to Figure 3, which is a flow chart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. In the following introduction, the application scenario shown in Figure 1 or Figure 2 is used as an example. The process of the method is described as follows. In the following method process, the network device can be a satellite, a ground station, a ground base station, or other equipment, or a device or chip set in a satellite, a ground station, or a ground base station, etc., and this application does not limit this. The terminal can be a terminal that communicates directly with a ground base station, or a terminal that communicates directly with a satellite, or a device or chip set in the above-mentioned terminal, etc., and this application does not limit this.

[0123] S301: A network device sends an ESS to a terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the ESS sent by the network device.

[0124] Among them, since the ESS can be used for the terminal to complete downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS when the terminal does not detect the SSB sent by the network device. For example, when at least one paging message sent to the terminal has not received a response from the terminal, the network device may determine that the downlink communication quality is poor and the terminal may not be able to accurately receive the paging message. At this time, the ESS can be sent to the terminal to enhance the synchronization between the terminal and the network device. Accordingly, when the terminal is in or enters an environment with poor signal reception quality (e.g., SNR), once it finds that the signal quality for detecting SSB is poor (e.g., the SSB cannot be detected well), it can turn to detecting the ESS sent by the network device, thereby achieving downlink synchronization between the terminal and the network device.

[0125] If it is necessary to reduce the complexity of the communication system by reducing the number of operations related to the network device sending an ESS to a terminal, the network device may only send an ESS to the terminal when it determines that the terminal is unable to receive or has not responded to a paging message that the network device has already sent to the terminal. Optionally, this embodiment of the present application may further include: S300: the network device determines that the terminal has not responded to at least one paging message sent by the network device to the terminal. After executing S300, the network device only sends an ESS to the terminal when it determines that the terminal has not responded to the at least one paging message sent by the network device to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal can receive an ESS sent by the network device even when it is unable to receive a paging message sent by the network device.

[0126] Optionally, the terminal may blindly detect the ESS sent by the network device to the terminal in a manner similar to detecting SSB, so that the terminal can still receive the ESS sent by the network device to the terminal even if the network device has not configured and informed the terminal of the resource location for receiving the ESS, or the network device and the terminal have not negotiated to determine the resource location for the terminal to receive the ESS.

[0127] It should be noted that since the ESS is a symbol-level downlink synchronization signal, the downlink synchronization achieved between the terminal and the network device through the ESS is also symbol-level. That is, the terminal can achieve symbol-level downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS. Therefore, compared with the time slot-level downlink synchronization achieved between the terminal and the network device through the SSB, the time it takes for the terminal and the network device to achieve downlink synchronization is shorter. Therefore, it can be seen that the ESS can not only achieve downlink synchronization between the network device and the terminal under poor signal reception quality, but also save the signaling overhead (such as system resource occupation) required to maintain downlink synchronization between the network device and the terminal for a long time.

[0128] S302: The network device sends a PNI to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the PNI sent by the network device.

[0129] Specifically, when executing S302, after determining that the terminal has completed downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS, the network device may send a PNI to the terminal. The PNI may be used to indicate whether the network device has paging information to send to the terminal, that is, whether the network device has paged the terminal or is about to page the terminal.

[0130] To ensure that the terminal can accurately receive the PNI sent by the network device to the terminal, the network device can send indication information of the first resource location for transmitting the PNI to the terminal, so that after obtaining the indication information of the aforementioned first resource location, the terminal can accurately receive the PNI sent by the network device to the terminal at the first resource location. Since the network device has already sent the ESS to the terminal, in order to save resource overhead, the network device can send indication information of the resource location offset between the terminal receiving the ESS and the PNI to the terminal, that is, the first resource location for transmitting the PNI is related to the second resource location for transmitting the ESS (that is, the resource location where the terminal receives the ESS sent by the network device to the terminal), and the first resource location can be determined based on the second resource location and the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI. The first resource location and the second resource location can both include, but are not limited to, time domain resource locations and / or frequency domain resource locations.

[0131] In this way, after completing downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS, the terminal can receive relevant information sent by the network device to the terminal, indicating whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, that is, the above-mentioned PNI. This ensures that even when the signal reception quality is poor, the terminal can still know whether the network device has sent a paging message to itself through the received PNI. Subsequently, the terminal can also receive the paging message sent by the network device in the corresponding PO, thereby avoiding the risks that may be caused by missing or not receiving the paging information from the network device in time.

[0132] For example, assuming that the second resource location is represented by S tf 2, and the resource location offset between ESS and PNI is expressed as Offset_PNI, then after determining or obtaining the aforementioned resource location offset Offset_PNI, the terminal can receive the second resource location S of the ESS according to the tf 2 and the aforementioned resource location offset Offset_PNI to determine the first resource location S tf 1=S tf 2+Offset_PNI; In this way, the terminal can be at the first resource location S tf 1=S tf 2+Offset_PNI, accurately receive the PNI sent by the network device to the terminal.

[0133] In an optional implementation, the network device may configure or determine whether a terminal has the ability to receive PNI based on the indication information reported by the terminal indicating whether it has the ability to receive PNI. For example, if the network device determines that the terminal has the ability to receive PNI based on the aforementioned indication information reported by the terminal, the network device may configure the terminal to enable the ability to receive PNI, thereby ensuring that the terminal can receive PNI sent by the network device even when signal reception quality is poor. Optionally, the network device may broadcast information within the cell where the terminal is located indicating whether the terminal is allowed to report its ability to receive PNI. In this way, when the terminal determines that the cell where the terminal is located allows the terminal to report its ability to receive PNI, it may report to the network device the indication information indicating whether the terminal supports the ability to receive PNI.

[0134] Then the embodiment of the present application may also include: S303, the network device sends the first information to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the first information sent by the network device, and the first information is used to indicate that the cell where the terminal is located allows the terminal to report the receiving capability of PNI. The first information can also be understood as the indication information of the cell-level PNI receiving capability report. S303, for example, occurs after S301 and before S302 (as shown in Figure 3), and of course it can also occur before S301, that is, there is no clear order between S303 and S301, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit this. Exemplarily, the network device can send the first information to the terminal in a broadcast manner. For example, the network device can broadcast a system information block (SIB) carrying the first information so that the terminal can receive the first information sent by the network device. Of course, other methods can also be used to send the first information to the terminal. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific method for the network device to send the first information to the terminal.

[0135] This embodiment of the present application may further include: S304: After receiving the first information, the terminal confirms that the cell in which the terminal is located allows the terminal to report the PNI receiving capability, and then sends second information to the network device. In response, the network device receives the second information sent by the terminal, and the second information is used to indicate whether the terminal has the PNI receiving capability.

[0136] The embodiment of the present application may also include: S305, after the network device receives the second information sent by the terminal, it sends a third information to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the third information sent by the network device, and the third information is used to indicate whether the terminal has enabled the PNI receiving capability. For example, S304 and S305 occur after S303 and before S302 (as shown in Figure 3). Optionally, since the second information is used to indicate whether the terminal has the ability to receive PNI, the second information can also be referred to as terminal PNI receiving capability indication information, or terminal PNI feature support capability indication information, or it can have other names, which are not limited in this application; similarly, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the names of the above-mentioned first information and the above-mentioned third information.

[0137] Exemplarily, when executing S304 and S305, the network device may determine whether to allow the terminal to enable the PNI receiving capability based on the terminal identifier (e.g., UE-ID). For example, the network device may determine the terminal's payment method based on the terminal identifier, and determine whether to allow the terminal to enable the PNI receiving capability based on the terminal's payment method. Furthermore, the network device may send downlink information (e.g., radio resource control (RRC) signaling, etc.) carrying third information to the terminal to implement the sending of terminal-level PNI receiving capability enabling or disabling indication information.

[0138] Based on the method described in steps S303 to S305 above, after the terminal accesses the network device and enables the PNI receiving capability (ie, PNI enable), it can receive the PNI sent by the network device to the terminal, ensuring that the terminal can subsequently receive paging information sent by the network device to the terminal.

[0139] In an optional implementation, since the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI can be determined by the network device, to ensure that the terminal can accurately receive the PNI sent by the network device to the terminal and to alleviate the problem of high signaling overhead required for the network device to send the indication information of the first resource location to the terminal, the network device can also send the terminal an indication information of the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI. Optionally, this embodiment of the present application may further include: S306, the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the first indication information sent by the network device, and the first indication information is used to indicate the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI. For example, S306 occurs before S302 and after S305 (as shown in Figure 3).

[0140] It can be understood that the above-mentioned first indication information can explicitly indicate the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI. For example, the first indication information may include or directly carry the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI; or, the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI may be implicitly indicated in other ways. For example, the first indication information may include other information associated with the resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI, etc. This embodiment of the present application is not limited to this.

[0141] In an optional implementation, to reduce the signaling overhead required to transmit the PNI, the PNI may not individually indicate to each terminal whether the network device has received a paging message sent to the terminal. Instead, after grouping multiple terminals, the PNI may indicate to the network device whether a paging message has been sent to the terminal group to which the current terminal belongs. Referring to FIG4 , the PNI may include a first indication field, and the first indication field corresponds to multiple terminal group identifiers. As shown in FIG4 , the first indication field corresponds to 12 terminal group identifiers (terminal group 1, terminal group 2, terminal group 3, terminal group 4, terminal group 1', terminal group 2', terminal group 3', terminal group 4', terminal group 1", terminal group 2", terminal group 3", terminal group 14). The first indication field may include 12 sub-indication fields corresponding to each of the 12 terminal group identifiers. That is, the first indication field may include 12 first sub-indication fields. For example, the network device can indicate that the terminal group identifier of the terminal group where the current terminal is located is terminal group 1 (e.g., subgroup 1). In this way, after receiving the PNI of the network device, the terminal can determine whether the network device has paging information sent to the current terminal through the indication value corresponding to the first sub-indication field corresponding to terminal group 1 in the first indication field in the PNI.

[0142] In the above manner, since the terminal needs to determine the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal belongs when determining the indication value representing whether the network device has sent paging information to the terminal from the first indication field. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application may further include: S307, the network device sends second indication information to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the second indication information sent by the network device, and the second indication information is used to indicate the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal belongs. For example, S307 occurs before S302 and after S306 (as shown in Figure 3).

[0143] In an optional implementation, in order to reduce the false alarm probability and reduce the signaling overhead of the communication system, the network device may also determine whether to send the second indication information to the terminal based on the (working or running) state of the terminal. Optionally, in the embodiment of the present application, the following steps may also be included: S308: The network device determines that the terminal is converted from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state before executing S307 (i.e., the network device sends the second indication information to the terminal). Accordingly, the terminal can receive the second indication information sent by the network device only after it is converted from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state.

[0144] Optionally, when the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a first value, it indicates that the network device has paging information sent to the current terminal, and when the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a second value, it indicates that the network device does not have paging information sent to the terminal. Exemplarily, a 1-bit binary bit sequence can be used to represent the above-mentioned first value and the above-mentioned second value, and the value of the first value can be 1, and the value of the second value can be 0. Therefore, if the terminal receives the PNI and parses out from the first indication field of the PNI that the indication value corresponding to the first sub-indication field corresponding to the terminal group identifier where the terminal is located is 1, it can be determined that the network device has paging information sent to each terminal in the terminal group where the terminal is located, that is, there is a terminal paged by the network device in the terminal group where the terminal is located; or, it can be regarded as the network device having paging information sent to the terminal. Similarly. If the indication value corresponding to the first sub-indication field corresponding to the terminal group identifier of the terminal is parsed from the first indication field of the PNI and is 0, it can be determined that the network device does not have any paging information sent to each terminal in the terminal group where the terminal is located, that is, there is no terminal paged by the network device in the terminal group where the terminal is located; or, it can be regarded as the network device does not have any paging information sent to the terminal.

[0145] As shown in Figure 4, the PNI can also indicate the correspondence between different terminal group identifiers and different POs. For example, terminal group 1 to terminal group 4 correspond to PO1, terminal group 1' to terminal group 4' correspond to PO2, and terminal group 1" to terminal group 4" correspond to PO3. In this way, after the terminal determines that the indicator value corresponding to the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal belongs is 1, it can accurately receive the paging information sent by the network device to the terminal in the subsequent PO corresponding to the terminal group identifier. For example, as shown in Figure 4, assuming that the terminal group identifier of the terminal group to which the terminal belongs is terminal group 2 (e.g., subgroup 2), and since terminal group 2 corresponds to paging opportunity PO1; then, if the terminal determines from the first indicator field that the indicator value corresponding to the first sub-indication field corresponding to terminal group 2 is 1, that is, the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, the terminal can receive the paging information sent by the network device to the terminal in the subsequent PO1. It can be understood that since there is a correspondence between the terminal group identifier and the first sub-indication field, the correspondence between the terminal group identifier and the PO can also be considered as the correspondence between the first sub-indication field and the PO.

[0146] It should be understood that since the first sub-indication field is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information to send to the terminal, the first sub-indication field can also be called a paging indication field (paging indication filed). Therefore, the above-mentioned first indication field can also be called a full paging indication field; of course, the first sub-indication field or the first indication field can also have other names, and this application does not limit this.

[0147] In an optional implementation, the network device can determine the terminal group to which the current terminal belongs based on the number of terminals respectively included in the plurality of terminal groups. For example, assuming that there are three terminal groups (e.g., terminal group 1, terminal group 2, and terminal group 3), and terminal group 1 already includes three terminals, terminal group 2 already includes two terminals, and terminal group 3 already includes three terminals, in order to facilitate the management of the terminal groups, the number of terminals included in each terminal group can be kept the same as much as possible, so the current terminal can be assigned to terminal group 2. Exemplarily, when the network device determines that the terminal is converted from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state (i.e., the terminal enters an inactive state or an idle state), the network device can release the terminal through RRC and assign it to terminal group 2. In addition, in order to further reduce the possibility of false alarms, the number of terminals in each terminal group can be controlled to be not too large. For example, each terminal group can be set to accommodate a maximum of four terminals.

[0148] It should also be noted that the network device can send the PNI to the terminal through various downlink channels (e.g., the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). If the PNI is sent through the PDSCH, the network device can also send indication information of the resource location (e.g., symbol time domain location) of the demodulation reference signal (DMRS) corresponding to the aforementioned PNI to the terminal. The network device will send the DMRS to the terminal at the DMRS resource location. Correspondingly, the terminal will receive the DMRS sent by the network device to the terminal at the DMRS resource location according to the indication information, and receive the PNI on the PDSCH based on the received DMRS.

[0149] It is understandable that when the network device sends the first indication information, the second indication information, or the indication information of the resource location of the DMRS to the terminal, it can not only adopt a broadcast method, that is, the network device broadcasts the first indication information, the second indication information, or the indication information of the resource location of the DMRS to the cell where the terminal is located, but also adopt a unicast method, that is, the network device first establishes a network with the terminal, and then sends the first indication information, the second indication information, or the indication information of the resource location of the DMRS point-to-point to the terminal. Therefore, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific method of the network device sending the aforementioned multiple indication information to the terminal.

[0150] Furthermore, to ensure that the terminal can (or promptly receives) the public warning paging information sent by the network device to the terminal even when signal reception quality is poor, the network device may indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information when sending the ESS or PNI to the terminal. There are various ways to indicate the presence of broadcast public warning paging information in the network device, such as the following method A1 or method A2.

[0151] Method A1: The PNI may also include a second indication field, which indicates whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information. This allows the terminal to determine whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information after parsing the second indication field of the PNI, thereby effectively mitigating any subsequent public safety risks.

[0152] Optionally, the second indication field may use a binary bit sequence of 1 bit or more to indicate whether there is broadcast public warning paging information in the network device. Exemplarily, as shown in FIG4 , the second indication field may include an ETWS indication indication field and a CMAS indication indication field, that is, the PNI may use a second indication field of a 2-bit binary bit sequence to indicate whether there is ETWS warning information and CMAS warning information in the broadcast public warning paging information in the network device. For example, if the indication value of the ETWS indication indication field is 1, it may indicate that there is ETWS warning information in the broadcast public warning paging information in the network device; if the indication value of the ETWS indication indication field is 0, it may indicate that there is no ETWS warning information in the broadcast public warning paging information in the network device. Alternatively, if the indication value of the CMAS indication indication field is 1, it may indicate that there is broadcast CMAS warning information in the network device; if the indication value of the CMAS indication indication field is 0, it may indicate that there is no broadcast CMAS warning information in the network device.

[0153] Of course, the PNI can also use only a 1-bit binary bit sequence to indicate whether the network device has broadcast ETWS warning information or CMAS warning information. For example, if the indication value of the second indication field is 1, it can indicate that the network device has broadcast ETWS warning information or CMAS warning information; conversely, if the indication value of the second indication field is 0, it can indicate that the network device does not have broadcast ETWS warning information or CMAS warning information.

[0154] It should be understood that since the second indication field is used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information, the second indication field can also be called a public indication field (public indication field). Of course, it can also have other names, and this application does not limit this.

[0155] In an optional implementation, if the system information (SI) of the cell where the terminal is located is modified, the network device may also promptly notify the terminal of an indication that the system information of the cell where the terminal is located has been modified. Furthermore, to reduce additional signaling overhead, the second indication field may also use a binary bit sequence of a certain number of bits to indicate whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located has been modified, without the network device needing to separately send information indicating whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located has been modified to the terminal. For example, as shown in FIG5 , the second indication field may also include a SIMo indication field, i.e., the second indication field of the PNI uses a 1-bit binary bit sequence to indicate whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located has been modified. For example, if the indication value of the SIMo indication field is 1, it may indicate that the system information of the cell where the terminal is located has been modified. If the indication value of the SIMo indication field is 0, it may indicate that the system information of the cell where the terminal is located has not been modified.

[0156] It can be seen that the PNI may include not only the aforementioned first indication field, but also a second indication field, which may indicate whether there is broadcast public warning paging information in the network device and / or whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located has been modified.

[0157] It should be noted that the order of the significant bits of the aforementioned second indicator field and the aforementioned first indicator field in the PNI is not specifically limited in this application. That is, compared with the second indicator field, the first indicator field can be placed in a more significant bit or a less significant bit in the PNI, and this application does not impose any restrictions on this. For example, assuming that the second indicator field is only a single binary bit sequence, the second indicator field can be placed in the most significant bit or the least significant bit in the PNI.

[0158] Method A2: Use the ESS to indicate to the network device whether broadcast public warning paging information exists. Using this method, the terminal can determine whether broadcast public warning paging information exists in the network device by parsing the ESS, without having to determine whether broadcast public warning paging information exists in the network device through the second indication field of the PNI. This can save the signaling overhead required to transmit the PNI. Furthermore, compared to the terminal determining whether broadcast public warning paging information exists in the network device through the second indication field in the PNI, the terminal can determine whether broadcast public warning paging information exists in the network device when downlink synchronization with the network device is completed. In other words, the terminal can determine whether public warning paging information exists earlier, thereby more effectively avoiding possible public safety risks.

[0159] Since the ESS can be a sequence generated using an m-sequence or an m-sequence combined with a ZC sequence, the network device can further scramble the ESS during ESS generation, so that the newly added scrambling sequence in the ESS can indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information. Furthermore, the terminal can perform scrambling sequence detection on the ESS. If the scrambling sequence is detected in the ESS, the terminal can determine that the network device has broadcast public warning paging information when downlink synchronization with the network device is completed via the ESS. Exemplarily, the terminal can determine whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information by detecting whether the scrambling sequence in the ESS indicates the cell identifier of the cell in which the terminal is located. For example, if the terminal detects that the scrambling sequence in the ESS carries the cell identifier of the cell in which the terminal is located, the terminal can determine that the network device has broadcast public warning paging information. Conversely, if the terminal does not detect that the scrambling sequence in the ESS carries the cell identifier of the cell in which the terminal is located, the terminal can determine that the network device has broadcast public warning paging information.

[0160] A terminal can achieve downlink synchronization with a network device over a certain period of time through an ESS. This allows the network device to send multiple PNIs to the terminal during this downlink synchronization period. That is, the transmission of one ESS can correspond to the transmission of at least one PNI. Therefore, in an optional implementation, at least one first resource location can be associated with the same second resource location. For example, any first resource location in the at least one first resource location can be determined based on the resource location offset between the first resource location and the ESS and the same second resource location. Referring to Figure 6 , an ESS can correspond to three PNIs (PNI1, PNI2, and PNI3). Therefore, the first resource location for transmitting PNI1 is determined based on the resource location offset Offset_PNI1 between PNI1 and the ESS and the second resource location of the ESS. Similarly, the first resource location for transmitting PNI2 is determined based on the resource location offset Offset_PNI2 between PNI2 and the ESS and the second resource location of the ESS. Furthermore, the first resource location for transmitting PNI3 is determined based on the resource location offset Offset_PNI3 between PNI3 and the ESS and the second resource location of the ESS.

[0161] Based on the above approach, while the terminal completes downlink synchronization with the network device via the ESS, the network device can send one or more PNIs to the terminal based on the resource locations occupied by the same ESS (i.e., at least one first resource location). This allows the terminal to receive at least one PNI after completing one downlink synchronization with the network device, thereby simplifying the process of receiving PNIs. Specifically, the network device need not send an ESS to the terminal before each PNI is sent to the terminal. Optionally, to reduce ESS-related operations and conserve system resources, the network device can send an ESS to the terminal only when one or more PNIs associated with the ESS are scheduled to be sent to the terminal, i.e., the ESS is activated for transmission.

[0162] Given that at least one of the first resource locations can be associated with the same second resource location, the ESS can also be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located and the index of the PNI transmitted in at least one of the first resource locations. For example, the generation process of the ESS can be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located and the index of the PNI transmitted in at least one of the resource locations associated with the second resource location in which the ESS is transmitted. In this way, when performing scrambling sequence detection on the ESS, the terminal can not only obtain relevant information about the network device (e.g., the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located) but can also distinguish between multiple received PNIs.

[0163] Considering that when a network device sends a PNI to a terminal, there may be a difference between the PNI received by the terminal and the PNI sent by the network device due to reasons such as poor communication quality (e.g., signal reception quality). Therefore, in order to improve the reception quality of the PNI, the network device may also send the same PNI to the terminal at least once, that is, the same PNI may correspond to at least one ESS, to ensure that the terminal can obtain a more accurate PNI. In another optional implementation, at least one second resource location is associated with a different first resource location for transmitting the same PNI. For example, the first resource location for transmitting the same PNI may be determined based on the second resource location of the corresponding ESS and the resource location offset between the corresponding PNI and the ESS. For example, referring to FIG7 , one ESS may correspond to multiple PNIs, for example, ESS1 may correspond to at least PNI1 and PNI2, and the same PNI may also correspond to multiple ESSs, for example, PNI1 may correspond to at least ESS1 and ESS2. The resource location offset between ESSs (i.e., ESS period) may be configured in advance by the network device or determined according to other methods, and this embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto.

[0164] To ensure that the terminal can accurately obtain complete information about a PNI and distinguish between multiple received ESSs, the ESS can be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located, the index of the PNI, and the index of the ESS transmitted in at least one second resource location. For example, the generation process of the ESS can be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located, the index of the PNI, and the index of the ESS transmitted in at least one second resource location. As shown in Figure 7, the generation process of ESS1 can be associated with the identifier of the cell in which the network device is located, the indexes of multiple PNIs corresponding to ESS1 (such as PNI1 and PNI2), and the indexes of ESSs transmitted in at least one second resource location (such as ESS1 and ESS2).

[0165] Based on the above approach, after the network device sends the same PNI to the terminal at least once, the terminal can receive PNIs at different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI, and combine and decode the PNIs received at the different first resource locations that transmit the same PNI, ensuring that the terminal accurately obtains the complete information of the PNI. Still as shown in Figure 7, the network device can send PNI1 for the first time at PNI1 corresponding to ESS1, and for the second time at PNI1 corresponding to ESS2. Accordingly, the terminal can receive PNI1 once at the first resource location associated with the second resource location of ESS1, and receive PNI1 again at the first resource location associated with the second resource location of ESS2. After receiving the PNI1 sent by the network device at two different first resource locations, the terminal can combine and decode the two PNI1s. For example, the terminal can decode the two PNI1s separately and then combine the two PNI decoding results to obtain the complete indication information of PNI1.

[0166] In summary, based on the communication method described in steps S301 to S308 above, in an embodiment of the present application, when the reception quality of the terminal is poor, if the terminal fails to detect the SSB sent by the network device, then the terminal may detect the ESS, which is easier to detect than the SSB. In this way, after receiving the ESS, the terminal may complete or obtain downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS. Then, the network device may send a PNI to the terminal at a first resource location related to the second resource location for transmitting the ESS, which may indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal. After receiving the PNI, if the terminal determines that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, the terminal may receive the paging information sent by the network device to the terminal in a subsequent corresponding PO, thereby improving the problem that the terminal may miss the connection or fail to receive the paging information from the network device in a timely manner due to poor signal reception quality, which may bring certain risks.

[0167] Refer to Figure 8, which is a schematic diagram of the structure of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 800 may be the system architecture of the network device described in the embodiment shown in Figure 3, used to implement the method corresponding to the network device in the above method embodiment. Alternatively, the communication device 800 may be the system architecture of the terminal described in the embodiment shown in Figure 3, used to implement the method corresponding to the terminal in the above method embodiment.

[0168] The communication device 800 includes at least one processor 801. Processor 801 can be used for internal processing of the device to implement certain control processing functions. Optionally, processor 801 includes instructions. Optionally, processor 801 can store data. Optionally, different processors can be independent devices, located in different physical locations, or on different integrated circuits. Optionally, different processors can be integrated into one or more processors, for example, on one or more integrated circuits.

[0169] Optionally, the communication device 800 may include one or more memories 803 for storing instructions. The memories 803 may also store data. The processor 801 and the memories 803 may be provided separately or integrated together. The communication device 800 also includes a communication circuit 802 and at least one communication interface 804. Because the memories 803, communication circuit 802, and communication interface 804 are all optional, they are represented by dashed lines in FIG8 .

[0170] Optionally, the communication device 800 may further include a transceiver and / or an antenna. The transceiver may be used to send information to or receive information from other devices. The transceiver may be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, an input / output interface, etc., and is used to implement the transceiver function of the communication device 800 through the antenna. Optionally, the transceiver includes a transmitter and a receiver. For example, the transmitter may be used to generate a radio frequency signal from a baseband signal, and the receiver may be used to convert the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal.

[0171] The processor 801 may include a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the program of the present application.

[0172] Communication link 802 may include a pathway for transmitting information between the aforementioned components.

[0173] The communication interface 804 may be a device such as a transceiver, used to communicate with other devices or communication networks, such as Ethernet, radio access network (RAN), wireless local area network (WLAN), wired access network, etc.

[0174] The memory 803 may be a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a random access memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device 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, an optical disc storage (including a compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, 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 803 may exist independently and be connected to the processor 801 via the communication line 802. Alternatively, the memory 803 may be integrated with the processor 801.

[0175] The memory 803 is used to store computer-executable instructions for executing the solution of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 801. The processor 801 is used to execute the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 803, thereby implementing the steps performed by the network device or terminal described in the embodiment shown in Figure 3.

[0176] Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application code, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0177] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the processor 801 may include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG8 .

[0178] In a specific implementation, as an embodiment, the communication device 800 may include multiple processors, such as the processor 801 and the processor 805 in FIG8 . Each of these processors may be a single-core (single-CPU) processor or a multi-core (multi-CPU) processor. The processor herein may refer to one or more devices, circuits, and / or processing cores for processing data (e.g., computer program instructions).

[0179] When the device shown in FIG8 is a chip, such as a chip for a network device or a terminal, the chip includes a processor 801 (and may also include a processor 805), a communication circuit 802, and a communication interface 804. Optionally, the chip may include a memory 803. Specifically, the communication interface 804 may be an input interface, a pin, or a circuit. The memory 803 may be a register, a cache, or the like. The processor 801 and the processor 805 may be a general-purpose CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of a program according to any of the above-described embodiments of the communication method.

[0180] In the embodiment of the present application, the functional modules of the device can be divided according to the above-mentioned method examples. For example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated into one processing module. The above-mentioned integrated module can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional modules. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiment of the present application is schematic and is only a logical function division. There may be other division methods in actual implementation. For example, in the case of dividing each functional module according to each function, refer to Figure 9, which is a schematic diagram of a device. The device 900 can be the network device or terminal involved in the above-mentioned various method embodiments, or a chip in the network device or a chip in the terminal. The device 900 includes a processing unit 902 and a transceiver unit 901.

[0181] It should be understood that the device 900 can be used to implement the steps performed by the network device or the terminal in the communication method of the embodiment of the present application. The relevant process can refer to the embodiment shown in the steps performed by the network device or the steps performed by the terminal in Figure 3 above, and will not be repeated here.

[0182] Optionally, the functions / implementation processes of the processing unit 902 in FIG9 may be implemented by the processor 801 in FIG8 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 803. Alternatively, the functions / implementation processes of the processing unit 902 in FIG9 may be implemented by the processor 801 in FIG8 calling computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 803, and the functions / implementation processes of the transceiver unit 901 in FIG9 may be implemented by the communication interface 804 in FIG8.

[0183] When the device 900 is a chip or circuit, the functions / implementation processes of the transceiver unit 901 can also be implemented through pins or circuits. Optionally, the transceiver unit 901 can include a transmitting unit and / or a receiving unit, where the transmitting unit is used to implement the transmitting function and the receiving unit is used to implement the receiving function; or, the transceiver unit 901 can be an integral module capable of implementing the transmitting function and / or the receiving function. Optionally, the transceiver unit 901 can be implemented by a transceiver.

[0184] The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program or instruction. When the computer program or instruction is executed, the method performed by the network device or terminal in the above-mentioned method embodiment is implemented. In this way, the functions described in the above embodiments can be implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as independent products. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application can be essentially or in other words, the part that contributes or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for causing a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the communication method described in each embodiment of the present application. The storage medium includes various media that can store program codes, such as a USB flash drive, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

[0185] The present application also provides a computer program product, which includes: computer program code, which, when executed on a computer, enables the computer to execute the method executed by the network device or terminal in any of the aforementioned method embodiments.

[0186] An embodiment of the present application also provides a processing device, including a processor and an interface; the processor is used to execute the method executed by the network device or terminal involved in any of the above method embodiments.

[0187] This application also provides a communication system that can be used to implement the method embodiment described above, or any possible implementation of the method embodiment, performed by a network device or terminal. Specifically, the system includes at least a terminal and a network device for performing the method embodiment described above. For example, the communication system can have the architecture shown in Figure 1 or Figure 2.

[0188] The present application also provides a chip or chip system, which is coupled to a transceiver and is used to implement the method performed by a network device or terminal in any possible implementation of the above method embodiment or the method embodiment. Herein, "coupling" refers to the direct or indirect combination of two components with each other, which can be fixed or movable, and which allows flowing liquid, electricity, electrical signals or other types of signals to communicate between the two components. The chip system may include the chip. Specifically, the chip or chip system can be used to execute the method performed by the network device or terminal involved in any of the above method embodiments.

[0189] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, all or part of the embodiments may be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium. For example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) method. The computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that a computer can access or a data storage device such as a server or data center that includes one or more available media integrated therein. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (eg, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (eg, a digital video disc (DVD), or a semiconductor medium (eg, a solid state disk (SSD)).

[0190] The various illustrative logic units and circuits described in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented or operated by a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an ASIC, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor, and optionally, the general-purpose processor can also be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller or state machine. The processor can also be implemented by a combination of computing devices, such as a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

[0191] The steps of the methods or algorithms described in the embodiments of the present application can be directly embedded in hardware, software units executed by a processor, or a combination of the two. The software unit can be stored in RAM, flash memory, ROM, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), EEPROM, registers, hard disks, removable disks, CD-ROMs, or other storage media in any form in the art. Exemplarily, the storage medium can be connected to the processor so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and can write information to the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium can also be integrated into the processor. The processor and storage medium can be arranged in an ASIC, which can be arranged in a terminal. Alternatively, the processor and storage medium can also be arranged in different components in the terminal.

[0192] These computer program instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operating steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, so that the instructions executed on the computer or other programmable device provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0193] The contents of the various embodiments of this application can refer to each other. If there is no special explanation and logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referenced to each other. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their internal logical relationships.

[0194] It is understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the network device and / or terminal may perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application. These steps or operations are merely examples. In the embodiments of the present application, other operations or variations of various operations may also be performed. In addition, the various steps may be performed in a different order than those presented in the embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all of the operations in the embodiments of the present application need to be performed.

Claims

1. A communication method, characterized in that: Applicable to network equipment, including: sending an enhanced synchronization signal ESS to the terminal, where the ESS is used for the terminal to complete downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS when the terminal fails to detect a synchronization signal block SSB sent by the network device; A paging notification information PNI is sent to the terminal, wherein a first resource location for transmitting the PNI is related to a second resource location for transmitting the ESS, and the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information to send to the terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein Before sending the ESS to the terminal, the method further includes: It is determined that the terminal does not respond to at least one paging message sent by the network device to the terminal.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein: The method further comprises: Sending first information to the terminal, where the first information is used to indicate a receiving capability of a cell where the terminal is located that allows the terminal to report the PNI; receiving second information from the terminal, where the second information is used to indicate whether the terminal has a capability of receiving the PNI; Sending third information to the terminal, where the third information is used to indicate whether the terminal enables a receiving capability of the PNI.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein The first resource location is determined according to the second resource location and a resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein The method further comprises: First indication information is sent to the terminal, where the first indication information is used to indicate the resource location offset.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein The method further comprises: Sending second indication information to the terminal, where the second indication information is used to indicate a terminal group identifier of a terminal group to which the terminal belongs; The PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, including: The PNI includes a first sub-indication field, where the first sub-indication field corresponds to the terminal group identifier. When the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a first value, it indicates that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal. When the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a second value, it indicates that the network device does not have paging information sent to the terminal.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein Before sending the second indication information to the terminal, the method further includes: It is determined that the terminal is transitioned from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein The PNI further includes a second indication field, where the second indication field is used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information; or, The ESS indicates to the network device whether the broadcasted public warning paging information exists.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein The second indication field is further used to indicate whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located is modified.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein At least one of the first resource locations is associated with the same second resource location.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein The ESS is related to an identifier of a cell where the network device is located and an index of a PNI respectively transmitted at the at least one first resource location.

12. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein At least one of the second resource locations is associated with a different first resource location that transmits the same PNI.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein: The ESS is related to an identifier of a cell where the network device is located, an index of the PNI, and an index of the ESS respectively transmitted by the at least one second resource location.

14. A communication method, characterized in that: Applied to terminals, including: receiving an enhanced synchronization signal ESS of a network device, wherein the ESS is used for the terminal to complete downlink synchronization with the network device through the ESS when the terminal fails to detect a synchronization signal block SSB sent by the network device; Receive paging notification information PNI of the network device, wherein a first resource location for transmitting the PNI is related to a second resource location for transmitting the ESS, and the PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information to send to the terminal.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein The method further comprises: receiving first information from the network device, where the first information is used to indicate a receiving capability of the cell where the terminal is located to allow the terminal to report the PNI; Sending second information to the network device, where the second information is used to indicate whether the terminal has a capability of receiving the PNI; Receive third information from the network device, where the third information is used to indicate whether the terminal enables a receiving capability of the PNI.

16. The method according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that The first resource location is determined according to the second resource location and a resource location offset between the ESS and the PNI.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein The method further comprises: First indication information of the network device is received, where the first indication information is used to indicate the resource location offset.

18. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein: The method further comprises: receiving second indication information from the network device, where the second indication information is used to indicate a terminal group identifier of a terminal group to which the terminal belongs; The PNI is used to indicate whether the network device has paging information sent to the terminal, including: The PNI includes a first sub-indication field, where the first sub-indication field corresponds to the terminal group identifier. When the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a first value, it indicates that the network device has paging information sent to the terminal. When the indication value of the first sub-indication field is a second value, it indicates that the network device does not have paging information sent to the terminal.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein Before receiving the second indication information of the network device, the method further includes: The terminal is converted from an active state to an inactive state or an idle state.

20. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 19, wherein: The PNI further includes a second indication field, where the second indication field is used to indicate whether the network device has broadcast public warning paging information; or, The ESS indicates to the network device whether the broadcasted public warning paging information exists.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein The second indication field is further used to indicate whether the system information of the cell where the terminal is located is modified.

22. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 21, wherein: At least one of the first resource locations is associated with the same second resource location.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein The ESS is related to an identifier of a cell where the network device is located and an index of a PNI respectively transmitted at the at least one first resource location.

24. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 21, wherein: At least one of the second resource locations is associated with a different first resource location that transmits the same PNI.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein: The ESS is related to an identifier of a cell where the network device is located, an index of the PNI, and an index of the ESS respectively transmitted by the at least one second resource location.

26. The method according to claim 24 or 25, wherein: The method further comprises: The PNIs are respectively received at different first resource locations for transmitting the same PNI, and the PNIs respectively received at different first resource locations for transmitting the same PNI are combined and decoded.

27. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit; The transceiver unit is used to send and receive information; The processing unit is configured to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or execute the method according to any one of claims 14 to 26, through the transceiver unit.

28. A communication device, characterized in that: The communication device includes a processor and a memory, the memory stores a computer program, and the processor is configured to execute the computer program stored in the memory, so that the communication device performs the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or the communication device performs the method according to any one of claims 14 to 26.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, which, when executed on a computer, causes the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, or causes the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 14 to 26.

30. A communication system, characterized in that: Including network equipment and terminals; The network device is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, and the terminal is used to execute the method according to any one of claims 14 to 26.

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