Beam scheduling method and apparatus for satellite communication

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a beam scheduling method and apparatus for satellite communication. The method comprises: on the basis of whether there are uplink and downlink transmissions on each beam position, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam; and scheduling the signaling beam within the current scheduling period to a beam position which is not occupied by the signaling beam. In the beam scheduling method and apparatus for satellite communication that are provided in the present application, on the basis of whether a beam position is occupied by a signaling beam, a beam position selection mechanism is determined, such that flexible and dynamic scheduling of beam resources can be implemented, so as to avoid the situation where some beam positions occupy certain scheduling slots despite having no traffic or a small traffic volume, while some beam positions cannot use idle slot resources despite having a larger traffic volume, such that the flexibility of beam scheduling and the utilization efficiency of beam resources are improved.

Description

Beam scheduling method and device for satellite communication

[0001] This disclosure claims priority to a Chinese patent application filed with the Patent Office of China on March 28, 2024, with application number 202410368150.1 and titled “Beam Scheduling Method and Apparatus for Satellite Communication,” the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference into this disclosure. Technical Field

[0002] The present disclosure relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a beam scheduling method and device for satellite communication. Background Art

[0003] In a satellite communication system, there are multiple co-frequency beams within a satellite, which need to cover multiple ground wave positions.

[0004] In related technologies, beamwidth resource allocation typically uses a time-division approach to periodically multiplex the entire satellite's resources. A service beam can only cover a single beamwidth at a time. Therefore, when serving multiple beamwidths, beam hopping is used to scan different beamwidths at different times. In beam hopping, different beamwidths are multiplexed using time division.

[0005] However, a service beam periodically polls and covers multiple wavelengths. Some wavelengths may occupy certain time slot resources even though they have no business or very little business volume, while other wavelengths may only use fixed allocated time slot resources despite having a large business volume. This makes resource utilization inflexible, leading to the technical problem of low resource utilization. Summary of the Invention

[0006] The embodiments of the present disclosure provide a beam scheduling method and apparatus for satellite communications, so as to solve the technical problem of low utilization of beam resources in satellite communications.

[0007] In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a beam scheduling method for satellite communications, including:

[0008] Determine whether each beam is occupied by a signaling beam based on whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam;

[0009] Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the beam position not occupied by the signaling beam.

[0010] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0011] In the case that there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0012] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0013] In the case that there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0014] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0015] When there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0016] In some embodiments, scheduling a signaling beam in a current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam includes:

[0017] In the case where there are multiple beam positions not occupied by signaling beams, determining the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam;

[0018] Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the high-priority beam position.

[0019] In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0020] Determine the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams according to whether the service beams have been scheduled;

[0021] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the active beam positions not occupied by service beams.

[0022] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0023] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a first distance between the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam positions occupied by the signaling beam;

[0024] Screening out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0025] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0026] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0027] In a case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0028] Filtering out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0029] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0030] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0031] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determine a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam, and determine a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0032] Filtering out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0033] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0034] In some embodiments, scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position includes:

[0035] When there are multiple candidate activation wave positions, determine the priority of each candidate activation wave position;

[0036] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam positions with high priority.

[0037] In some embodiments, the activated wave position refers to a wave position in an activated state;

[0038] When a terminal accesses the waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated, the waveband is in the activated state.

[0039] In some embodiments, when the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband is transferred to the inactive state.

[0040] In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a network device, including a memory, a transceiver, and a processor;

[0041] A memory for storing a computer program; a transceiver for transmitting and receiving data under the control of the processor; and a processor for reading the computer program in the memory and performing the following operations:

[0042] Determine whether each beam is occupied by a signaling beam based on whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam;

[0043] Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the beam position not occupied by the signaling beam.

[0044] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0045] In the case that there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0046] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0047] In the case that there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0048] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0049] When there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0050] In some embodiments, scheduling a signaling beam in a current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam includes:

[0051] In the case where there are multiple beam positions not occupied by signaling beams, determining the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam;

[0052] Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the high-priority beam position.

[0053] In some embodiments, the processor is further configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0054] Determine the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams according to whether the service beams have been scheduled;

[0055] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the active beam positions not occupied by service beams.

[0056] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0057] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a first distance between the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam positions occupied by the signaling beam;

[0058] Screening out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0059] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0060] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0061] In a case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0062] Filtering out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0063] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0064] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0065] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determine a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam, and determine a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0066] Filtering out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0067] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0068] In some embodiments, scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position includes:

[0069] When there are multiple candidate activation wave positions, determine the priority of each candidate activation wave position;

[0070] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam positions with high priority.

[0071] In some embodiments, the activated wave position refers to a wave position in an activated state;

[0072] When a terminal accesses the waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated, the waveband is in the activated state.

[0073] In some embodiments, when the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband is transferred to the inactive state.

[0074] In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a beam scheduling device for satellite communications, including:

[0075] A first determination module is configured to determine whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam position;

[0076] The first scheduling module is used to schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by the signaling beam.

[0077] In some embodiments, the first determining module is configured to:

[0078] In the case that there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0079] In some embodiments, the first determining module is configured to:

[0080] In the case that there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0081] In some embodiments, the first determining module is configured to:

[0082] When there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0083] In some embodiments, the first scheduling module includes a signaling bearer priority determination unit and a signaling beam scheduling unit;

[0084] The signaling bearer priority determination unit is used to determine the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam when there are multiple beam positions not occupied by the signaling beam;

[0085] The signaling beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a high-priority beam position.

[0086] In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes a second determination module and a second scheduling module;

[0087] The second determining module is used to determine an activated beam position not occupied by a service beam according to whether the service beam has been scheduled;

[0088] The second scheduling module is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the active beam position not occupied by the service beam.

[0089] In some embodiments, the second scheduling module includes a beam distance determination unit, a screening unit, and a service beam scheduling unit;

[0090] The beam distance determining unit is configured to determine, when there are multiple activated beams not occupied by service beams, a first distance between the activated beams not occupied by service beams and the activated beams occupied by signaling beams;

[0091] The screening unit is used to screen out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0092] The service beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0093] In some embodiments, the second scheduling module includes a beam distance determination unit, a screening unit, and a service beam scheduling unit;

[0094] The beam distance determining unit is configured to determine, when there are multiple activated beams not occupied by service beams, a second distance between the activated beams not occupied by the service beams and the activated beams occupied by the service beams;

[0095] The screening unit is used to screen out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0096] The service beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0097] In some embodiments, the second scheduling module includes a beam distance determination unit, a screening unit, and a service beam scheduling unit;

[0098] The beam distance determination unit is configured to determine, when there are multiple activated beams not occupied by service beams, a first distance between the activated beams not occupied by service beams and the activated beams occupied by signaling beams, and determine a second distance between the activated beams not occupied by service beams and the activated beams occupied by service beams;

[0099] The screening unit is used to screen out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0100] The service beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0101] In some embodiments, the service beam scheduling unit includes a data bearer priority determination subunit and a service beam scheduling subunit;

[0102] The data bearer priority determination subunit is used to determine the priority of each candidate activation beam position when there are multiple candidate activation beam positions;

[0103] The service beam scheduling subunit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position with high priority.

[0104] In some embodiments, the activated wave position refers to a wave position in an activated state;

[0105] When a terminal accesses the waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated, the waveband is in the activated state.

[0106] In some embodiments, when the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband is transferred to the inactive state.

[0107] In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a non-transitory readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and the computer program is used to enable a processor to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication as described in the first aspect above.

[0108] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a processor-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and the computer program is used to enable the processor to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication as described in the first aspect above.

[0109] In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores a computer program, and the computer program is used to enable a computer to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication as described in the first aspect above.

[0110] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a communication device, in which a computer program is stored, and the computer program is used to enable the communication device to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication as described in the first aspect above.

[0111] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a chip product, in which a computer program is stored, and the computer program is used to enable the chip product to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication as described in the first aspect above.

[0112] The beam scheduling method and device for satellite communications provided by the present invention determine the beam position selection mechanism based on whether the beam position is occupied by a signaling beam, which can realize flexible dynamic scheduling of beam resources, avoiding the situation where some beam positions have no business or very little business volume but still occupy certain scheduling time slots, while some beam positions have a large business volume but cannot use idle time slot resources, thereby improving the flexibility of beam scheduling and the utilization efficiency of beam resources. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0113] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure or related technologies, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or related technical descriptions. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of the present disclosure. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0114] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a pattern of beam scanning wave positions;

[0115] FIG2 is a schematic flow chart of a beam scheduling method for satellite communications provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0116] FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a process of service beam scheduling provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0117] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of a wave position state transition provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0118] FIG5 is a schematic diagram of the beam scheduling principle for satellite communications provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0119] FIG6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0120] FIG7 is a schematic structural diagram of a beam scheduling device for satellite communications provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0121] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "and / or" describes the association relationship between associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent three situations: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0122] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "plurality" refers to two or more than two, and other quantifiers are similar thereto.

[0123] The following will be combined with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the embodiments described are only part of the embodiments of the present disclosure and not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without making any creative efforts shall fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0124] In a satellite communication system, there are multiple co-frequency beams within a satellite, which need to cover multiple ground wave positions.

[0125] In related technologies, beam resource allocation generally uses a time-division method to periodically multiplex the entire satellite's resources. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of a beam scanning beam position. As shown in Figure 1, a service beam can only cover a single beam position at a time. Therefore, when serving multiple beam positions, a beam hopping mode is used to scan different beam positions at different times. The time required for a beam to scan all service beam positions is called the beam retracement period (i.e., beam-periodicity, abbreviated as Tbeam). The beam position here refers to a fixed area on the ground.

[0126] In a beam hopping scenario, different beam positions multiplex beam bandwidth resources through time division. For a single beam position, the effective period of the beam position within a retracement cycle is determined by the start time (startTime) and the dwell time (duration). As shown in Figure 1, the beam scanning pattern in the absolute time interval [T, T+2*Tbeam] is fixed. When calculating the time domain position of the synchronization signal block (SSB) of beam position 2, startTime is used as the time domain reference point. The first effective dwell time of beam position 2 corresponds to startTime ~ startTime + duration, and the second effective dwell time corresponds to Tbeam + startTime ~ Tbeam + startTime + duration.

[0127] In the aforementioned solutions of related technologies, a service beam periodically polls multiple slots. This means that some slots, despite having no traffic or minimal traffic, still occupy certain time slots. Other slots, despite having heavy traffic, are restricted to fixed time slots. This results in inflexible resource utilization and low resource efficiency. Furthermore, when multiple co-frequency beams are present, mutual interference between slots can occur.

[0128] Based on the above technical problems, the embodiments of the present disclosure propose a beam scheduling method and device for satellite communications. The beam position selection mechanism is determined according to whether the beam position is occupied by a signaling beam, which can realize flexible dynamic scheduling of beam resources, avoiding the situation where some beam positions have no business or very little business volume but still occupy certain scheduling time slots, while some beam positions have a large business volume but cannot use idle time slot resources, thereby improving the flexibility of beam scheduling and the utilization efficiency of beam resources.

[0129] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure more clear, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field based on the embodiments of the present disclosure without making any creative efforts shall fall within the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0130] FIG2 is a flow chart of a beam scheduling method for satellite communications provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG2 , an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a beam scheduling method for satellite communications, the execution subject of which may be a network device, such as a satellite device, a ground station, a core network device, etc. The method includes:

[0131] Step 201: Determine whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam based on whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam position.

[0132] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the scheduling of beam resources may adopt periodic scheduling, for example, using a time slot as a scheduling period, or using a subframe as a scheduling period, etc.

[0133] The status of a wave position can be either active or inactive. A wave position in the active state is called an active wave position, and a wave position in the inactive state is called an inactive wave position.

[0134] When a terminal accesses the waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated, the waveband is in the activated state.

[0135] When the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband changes to the inactive state.

[0136] At the beginning of a scheduling cycle, it is possible to determine whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam position and whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam.

[0137] For example, when a broadcast is scheduled on a waveband, it is determined that the waveband is occupied by a signaling beam.

[0138] For another example, when signaling information is scheduled on a beam, it is determined that the beam is occupied by a signaling beam.

[0139] Step 202: Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam.

[0140] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, after determining the beam positions not occupied by the signaling beam, the signaling beam in the current scheduling period can be scheduled to the beam positions not occupied by the signaling beam.

[0141] For example, there is only one signaling beam that is not scheduled in the current time slot, and there is only one beam position that is not occupied by the signaling beam. The signaling beam can be directly scheduled to this beam position.

[0142] For another example, there is only one signaling beam that is not scheduled in the current time slot, and there are multiple beam positions that are not occupied by the signaling beam. A beam position that is not occupied by the signaling beam can be randomly selected and the signaling beam can be scheduled to the randomly selected beam position.

[0143] For another example, there is only one signaling beam that is not scheduled in the current time slot, and there are multiple wave positions that are not occupied by the signaling beam. The priority of each wave position that is not occupied by the signaling beam can be determined, and the signaling beam can be scheduled to the wave position that is not occupied by the signaling beam and has a high priority carrier.

[0144] For another example, when there are multiple signaling beams that are not scheduled in the current time slot, the signaling beams can be scheduled one by one.

[0145] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure determines the selection mechanism of the beam position based on whether the beam position is occupied by the signaling beam, which can realize flexible dynamic scheduling of signaling beam resources, avoiding the situation where some beam positions have no business or very little business volume but still occupy certain scheduling time slots, while some beam positions have a large business volume but cannot use idle time slot resources, thereby improving the flexibility of signaling beam scheduling and the utilization efficiency of signaling beam resources.

[0146] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0147] In the case that there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0148] Whether the wave position is occupied by the signaling beam can be determined by judging whether broadcast or signaling information is scheduled on the wave position.

[0149] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the beam position is occupied by the signaling beam is determined by judging whether there is a statically configured downlink transmission on the beam position.

[0150] In the case that there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0151] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiment of the present disclosure determines whether the wave position is occupied by a signaling beam by judging whether there is a statically configured downlink transmission on the wave position, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the wave position status judgment and further improving the flexibility of signaling beam scheduling and the utilization efficiency of signaling beam resources.

[0152] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0153] In the case that there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0154] Whether the wave position is occupied by the signaling beam can be determined by judging whether broadcast or signaling information is scheduled on the wave position.

[0155] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the beam position is occupied by the signaling beam is determined by judging whether there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the beam position.

[0156] In the case that there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0157] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiment of the present disclosure determines whether the wave position is occupied by a signaling beam by judging whether there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the wave position, thereby ensuring the accuracy of the wave position status judgment and further improving the flexibility of signaling beam scheduling and the utilization efficiency of signaling beam resources.

[0158] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0159] When there is uplink scheduled physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission or downlink scheduled hybrid automatic repeat reQuest (HARQ) transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0160] Whether the wave position is occupied by the signaling beam can be determined by judging whether broadcast or signaling information is scheduled on the wave position.

[0161] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, whether the beam position is occupied by the signaling beam is determined by judging whether there is an uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or a downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the beam position.

[0162] When there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0163] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the disclosed embodiments determines whether a beam position is occupied by a signaling beam by judging whether there is an uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or a downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the beam position. This ensures the accuracy of beam position status judgment, further improving the flexibility of signaling beam scheduling and the efficiency of signaling beam resource utilization. It also avoids interference caused by collisions between uplink transmissions of signaling beams and uplink transmissions of service beams.

[0164] In some embodiments, scheduling a signaling beam in a current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam includes:

[0165] In the case where there are multiple beam positions not occupied by signaling beams, determining the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam;

[0166] Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the high-priority beam position.

[0167] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when there are multiple wave positions not occupied by signaling beams, the priority of each wave position not occupied by a signaling beam is determined; and the signaling beam in the current scheduling period is scheduled to a wave position with a high priority.

[0168] For example, the beam positions not occupied by the signaling beam include beam position 1 and beam position 2. If it is determined that the priority of beam position 2 is higher than the priority of beam position 1, the signaling beam in the current time slot is preferentially scheduled to beam position 2.

[0169] In one implementation, the priority of the beam position may be determined by the priority of the bearer on the beam position. When there are multiple bearers on the beam position, the priority of the beam position is determined by the bearer with the highest priority.

[0170] For example, the priority of a waveband is equal to the priority of the bearer with the highest priority among all bearers on the waveband.

[0171] The beam scheduling method for satellite communication proposed in the embodiment of the present disclosure schedules the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the high-priority beam when there are multiple beam positions not occupied by signaling beams, so that the beam positions with high-priority carriers can be scheduled to the signaling beam first, thereby ensuring reliability.

[0172] In some embodiments, the method further comprises:

[0173] Determine the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams according to whether the service beams have been scheduled;

[0174] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the active beam positions not occupied by service beams.

[0175] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when scheduling a service beam, the activated wave position not occupied by the service beam can be determined based on whether the wave position has been scheduled for a service beam. The activated wave position for which a service beam has been scheduled is marked as the activated wave position occupied by the service beam, and the activated wave position for which a service beam has not been scheduled is not marked as the activated wave position occupied by the service beam.

[0176] For example, if there is an ongoing data service on an activated beam position, the activated beam position has been scheduled with a service beam and is marked as an activated beam position occupied by the service beam.

[0177] After determining the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams, the service beams in the current scheduling period are scheduled to the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams.

[0178] For example, there is only one service beam that is not scheduled in the current time slot, and there is only one activated beam position that is not occupied by the service beam. The service beam can be directly scheduled to the activated beam position.

[0179] For another example, there is only one service beam that is not scheduled in the current time slot, and there are multiple activation wave positions that are not occupied by the service beam. An activation wave position that is not occupied by the service beam can be randomly selected and the service beam can be scheduled to the randomly selected activation wave position.

[0180] For another example, there is only one service beam that is not scheduled in the current time slot, and there are multiple activated wavelets that are not occupied by the service beam. The priority of each activated wavelet that is not occupied by the service beam can be determined, and the service beam can be scheduled to the activated wavelet that is not occupied by the service beam and has a high-priority carrier.

[0181] For another example, when there are multiple service beams that are not scheduled in the current time slot, the service beams can be scheduled one by one.

[0182] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure determines the beam position selection mechanism based on whether the beam position is occupied by a service beam, which can realize flexible and dynamic scheduling of service beam resources, avoiding the situation where some beam positions have no service or very little service volume but still occupy certain scheduling time slots, while some beam positions have a large service volume but cannot use idle time slot resources, thereby improving the flexibility of service beam scheduling and the utilization efficiency of service beam resources.

[0183] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0184] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a first distance between the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam positions occupied by the signaling beam;

[0185] Screening out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0186] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0187] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when there are multiple activation wave positions that are not occupied by service beams, the first distance between the activation wave positions that are not occupied by service beams and the activation wave positions occupied by signaling beams can be determined first, and then, the activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than the first preset threshold are selected as candidate activation wave positions, and finally, the service beams in the current scheduling period are scheduled to the candidate activation wave positions.

[0188] The first preset threshold can be configured according to actual conditions.

[0189] When there are multiple candidate activation beam positions, one implementation is to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to a randomly selected candidate activation beam position. Another implementation is to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to a high-priority candidate activation beam position.

[0190] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure avoids interference between signaling beams and service beams of the same frequency by determining the distance between beam positions, thereby improving reliability.

[0191] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0192] In a case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0193] Filtering out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0194] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0195] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when there are multiple activation wave positions that are not occupied by service beams, the second distance between the activation wave positions that are not occupied by service beams and the activation wave positions occupied by service beams can be determined first, and then, the activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than the second preset threshold are selected as candidate activation wave positions, and finally, the service beams in the current scheduling period are scheduled to the candidate activation wave positions.

[0196] The second preset threshold can be configured according to actual conditions.

[0197] When there are multiple candidate activation beam positions, one implementation is to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to a randomly selected candidate activation beam position. Another implementation is to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to a high-priority candidate activation beam position.

[0198] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure avoids interference between service beams of the same frequency by determining the distance between beam positions, thereby improving reliability.

[0199] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0200] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determine a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam, and determine a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0201] Filtering out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0202] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0203] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, when there are multiple activation wave positions that are not occupied by service beams, the first distance between the activation wave position that is not occupied by the service beam and the activation wave position that is occupied by the signaling beam, as well as the second distance between the activation wave position that is not occupied by the service beam and the activation wave position that is occupied by the service beam can be determined first. Then, the activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than the first preset threshold and whose second distance is greater than the second preset threshold are screened out as candidate activation wave positions, and finally the service beams in the current scheduling period are scheduled to the candidate activation wave positions.

[0204] The first preset threshold and the second preset threshold can be configured according to actual conditions.

[0205] When there are multiple candidate activation beam positions, one implementation is to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to a randomly selected candidate activation beam position. Another implementation is to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to a high-priority candidate activation beam position.

[0206] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiment of the present disclosure avoids interference between service beams of the same frequency and between signaling beams and service beams of the same frequency by determining the distance between beam positions, thereby improving reliability.

[0207] In some embodiments, scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position includes:

[0208] When there are multiple candidate activation wave positions, determine the priority of each candidate activation wave position;

[0209] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam positions with high priority.

[0210] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, when there are multiple candidate activation wavelets, the priority of each candidate activation wavelet can be determined first, and then the service beam in the current scheduling period can be scheduled to the candidate activation wavelet with a high priority.

[0211] In one implementation, the priority of the candidate activation beam position may be determined by the priority of the bearer on the candidate activation beam position. When there are multiple bearers on the candidate activation beam position, the priority of the candidate activation beam position is determined by the bearer with the highest priority.

[0212] For example, the priority of a candidate activation beam position is equal to the priority of a bearer with the highest priority among all bearers on the candidate activation beam position.

[0213] For example, FIG3 is a schematic diagram of a process of service beam scheduling provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG3 , the service beam scheduling process may include the following steps:

[0214] Step 1: When scheduling the service beam of the current time slot, the beam status must first be obtained from the beam status management module, and the beam queue that is already in the active state must be updated and maintained before proceeding to Step 2.

[0215] Step 2: In the active beam position queue maintained in Step 1, determine the spatial isolation between beam positions occupied by signaling beams. Activated beam positions that do not meet the spatial isolation requirement, as well as those occupied by signaling beams, are removed from the active beam position queue (to avoid uplink and downlink interference between signaling beams and service beams, as these beam positions are considered ineligible for service beam scheduling in this time slot). The active beam position queue for unscheduled service beams is updated, and the process proceeds to Step 3. The spatial isolation determination condition is as follows: the inter-beam position distance Dbeam > the spatial division multiplexing threshold SDMthreshold.

[0216] Step 3: If an active beam is already selected in this slot, a service beam is scheduled and the active beam is marked as occupied by a service beam. The spatial isolation between the active beam and the beam occupied by a service beam is determined. Active beams that do not meet the spatial isolation requirement and those occupied by service beams are removed from the active beam queue. The active beam queue for unscheduled service beams is updated, and the process proceeds to Step 4. Otherwise, if no active beam has been selected in this slot, the process proceeds directly to Step 4.

[0217] Step 4: Check whether the queue of active schedulable beams is empty. If so, it means there are no beams in the current time slot that need to schedule service beams, and the service beam spatial scheduling process ends. Otherwise, proceed to Step 5.

[0218] Step 5: For all UEs in the active beam queue of the unscheduled service beam, determine the set of bearers participating in the service beam spatial scheduling in this time slot. The uplink and downlink bearers in the set are hierarchically processed, and the bearers in the downlink scheduled time slot are uniformly sorted with the bearers in the uplink scheduled time slot, including the uplink control channel resources Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) and Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). This forms a priority queue for bearers participating in the service beam spatial scheduling. The bearer set participating in the service beam spatial scheduling is hierarchically processed, and priority weights are calculated for bearers in the same layer to form a priority queue of candidate bearers participating in this service beam spatial scheduling. Based on this priority queue, the priority ranking of the active beam queue of the unscheduled service beam is maintained and updated. The currently highest priority active beam is selected, the service beam is scheduled, and this beam is marked as occupied by the service beam, and the process proceeds to Step 6.

[0219] Step 6: Determine whether the beams have been allocated. If there are still beams available for scheduling, proceed to Step 3. If they have been allocated, the service beam airspace scheduling process ends.

[0220] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications proposed in the embodiment of the present disclosure preferentially schedules the service beam in the current scheduling period to the activated wave positions that are not occupied by the service beam and have high-priority bearers when there are multiple activated wave positions that are not occupied by the service beam. This allows the activated wave positions that have high-priority bearers to be preferentially scheduled to the service beam, thereby ensuring reliability.

[0221] In addition, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the state of the wave position can be further divided into the following states:

[0222] Inactive: Not occupied by a signaling beam;

[0223] Inactive ones are occupied by signaling beams;

[0224] The activation is occupied by the signaling beam;

[0225] The activation is occupied by the service beam;

[0226] The active beam is not occupied by signaling and traffic beams.

[0227] FIG4 is a schematic diagram of the wave position state transition provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG4 , the conditions for the wave position state transition are as follows:

[0228] The inactive state is converted to the active state: a user accesses the waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated;

[0229] The active state is converted to the inactive state: all users on the waveband are released, and the waveband-level control plane resources are released;

[0230] The inactive signaling beam is not occupied by the signaling beam and is converted to the inactive signaling beam occupied by the signaling beam: the signaling beam schedules broadcast or signaling information on this beam position;

[0231] The inactive signaling beam is converted to the inactive signaling beam is not occupied: the signaling beam leaves the coverage of this beam position, and no broadcast or signaling information is scheduled;

[0232] The activation is not occupied by the service and signaling beams and is converted to activation occupied by the signaling beam: the signaling beam schedules broadcast or signaling information on this activation beam position;

[0233] The activation of a beam not occupied by a service or signaling beam is converted to an activation of a service beam: the service beam schedules data services on this activated beam position;

[0234] The activation of a signaling beam occupied or a service beam occupied is converted to activation not occupied by service and signaling beams: both the signaling beam and the service beam have left the coverage of this wave position, and no broadcast and signaling information or data services are scheduled.

[0235] The method in the above embodiment is further illustrated below with a specific example.

[0236] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of the beam scheduling principle for satellite communication provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 5, in the current time slot N, wave positions 1 to 9 are activated wave positions. Assuming that broadcast information is to be sent on wave position 1 or there is high-priority scheduling such as signaling, the signaling beam in this time slot needs to be scheduled to wave position 1, and wave position 1 is marked as occupied by the signaling beam.

[0237] When scheduling the service beam, the spatial isolation between wavelet 5 and wavelet 1 occupied by the signaling beam is not met. The activated wavelet queue of the unscheduled service beam is updated, and wavelet 1 and wavelet 5 are deleted from the activated wavelet queue of the unscheduled service beam. At this time, the activated wavelet queue of the unscheduled service beam contains wavelets 2 to 4 and wavelets 6 to 9. According to the bearer priority queue of all UEs in the activated wavelet queue of the unscheduled service beam, the wavelet where the UE with the highest priority is located is selected, assuming it is wavelet 2. At this time, wavelet 2 is selected, and the service beam is scheduled for wavelet 2, and wavelet 2 is marked as occupied by the service beam. At this time, it is determined that there are still beams remaining, and the next round of wavelet selection is entered.

[0238] The activated beam position queue for the unscheduled service beam is updated, and beam position 2 and beam position 6, which do not meet the spatial isolation requirement with beam position 2, are removed from the activated beam position queue for the unscheduled service beam. The activated beam position queue for the unscheduled service beam now contains beam positions 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9. Based on the bearer priority queues of all UEs in the activated beam position queue for the unscheduled service beam, the beam position of the UE with the highest priority is selected. Assuming it is beam position 3, beam position 3 is selected, a service beam is scheduled for beam position 3, and beam position 3 is marked as occupied by a service beam. If it is determined that there are beams remaining, the next round of beam position selection begins.

[0239] Update the activated waveband queue of the unscheduled service beam, and delete waveband 3 and waveband 7 that does not meet the spatial isolation degree with waveband 3 from the activated waveband queue of the unscheduled service beam. At this time, the activated waveband queue of the unscheduled service beam contains waveband 4, waveband 8 and waveband 9. According to the bearer priority queue of all UEs in the activated waveband queue of the unscheduled service beam, select the waveband where the UE with the highest priority is located, assuming it is waveband 4. At this time, waveband 4 is selected, and the service beam is scheduled for waveband 4, and waveband 4 is marked as occupied by the service beam. At this time, assuming that all beams are used and four wavebands are selected, waveband 1, waveband 2, waveband 3 and waveband 4, corresponding to the signaling beam, service beam 1, service beam 2 and service beam 3 respectively, and end this process.

[0240] The beam scheduling method for satellite communications provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure can realize flexible dynamic scheduling of beam resources and real-time status maintenance of beam positions through the spatial domain wave position selection mechanism of signaling beams and service beams, thereby avoiding the situation where some wave positions have no business or very little business volume but still occupy certain scheduling time slots, while some wave positions cannot use idle time slot resources despite having a large business volume, thereby improving scheduling flexibility and resource utilization efficiency.

[0241] In the scenario where multiple beams are scheduled on the same frequency, the above-mentioned spatial beam selection mechanism ensures that the selected beams meet a certain degree of spatial isolation, thereby reducing interference between beams. In addition, the resources of the same-frequency beam can be fully spatially multiplexed, thereby improving resource utilization efficiency.

[0242] FIG6 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a network device provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG6 , the network device includes a memory 620, a transceiver 600, and a processor 610, wherein:

[0243] The memory 620 is used to store computer programs; the transceiver 600 is used to send and receive data under the control of the processor 610; the processor 610 is used to read the computer program in the memory 620 and perform the following operations:

[0244] Determine whether each beam is occupied by a signaling beam based on whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam;

[0245] Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the beam position not occupied by the signaling beam.

[0246] In FIG6 , the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically various circuits linked together by one or more processors represented by processor 610 and memory represented by memory 620. The bus architecture may also link together various other circuits such as peripheral devices, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and are therefore not further described herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 600 may be a plurality of components, namely, a transmitter and a receiver, providing a unit for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium, such as a wireless channel, a wired channel, an optical cable, and the like. The processor 610 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 620 may store data used by the processor 610 when performing operations.

[0247] The processor 610 may be a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), or a complex programmable logic device (CPLD). The processor may also adopt a multi-core architecture.

[0248] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0249] In the case that there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0250] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0251] In the case that there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0252] In some embodiments, determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission occurs on each beam position includes:

[0253] When there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0254] In some embodiments, scheduling a signaling beam in a current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam includes:

[0255] In the case where there are multiple beam positions not occupied by signaling beams, determining the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam;

[0256] Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the high-priority beam position.

[0257] In some embodiments, the processor is further configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations:

[0258] Determine the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams according to whether the service beams have been scheduled;

[0259] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the active beam positions not occupied by service beams.

[0260] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0261] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a first distance between the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam positions occupied by the signaling beam;

[0262] Screening out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0263] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0264] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0265] In a case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0266] Filtering out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0267] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0268] In some embodiments, scheduling a service beam in a current scheduling period to an active beam position not occupied by a service beam includes:

[0269] In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determine a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam, and determine a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam;

[0270] Filtering out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0271] Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0272] In some embodiments, scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position includes:

[0273] When there are multiple candidate activation wave positions, determine the priority of each candidate activation wave position;

[0274] Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam positions with high priority.

[0275] In some embodiments, the activated wave position refers to a wave position in an activated state;

[0276] When a terminal accesses the waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated, the waveband is in the activated state.

[0277] In some embodiments, when the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband is transferred to the inactive state.

[0278] The above-mentioned network device provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented by the above-mentioned method embodiment in which the execution subject is the network device, and can achieve the same technical effect. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those of the method embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0279] FIG7 is a schematic structural diagram of a beam scheduling device for satellite communications provided by an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG7 , an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a beam scheduling device for satellite communications, including:

[0280] A first determining module 701 is configured to determine whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam position;

[0281] The first scheduling module 702 is configured to schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam.

[0282] In some embodiments, the first determining module is configured to:

[0283] In the case that there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0284] In some embodiments, the first determining module is configured to:

[0285] In the case that there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0286] In some embodiments, the first determining module is configured to:

[0287] When there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by the signaling beam.

[0288] In some embodiments, the first scheduling module includes a signaling bearer priority determination unit and a signaling beam scheduling unit;

[0289] The signaling bearer priority determination unit is used to determine the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam when there are multiple beam positions not occupied by the signaling beam;

[0290] The signaling beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a high-priority beam position.

[0291] In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes a second determination module and a second scheduling module;

[0292] The second determining module is used to determine an activated beam position not occupied by a service beam according to whether the service beam has been scheduled;

[0293] The second scheduling module is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the active beam position not occupied by the service beam.

[0294] In some embodiments, the second scheduling module includes a beam distance determination unit, a screening unit, and a service beam scheduling unit;

[0295] The beam distance determining unit is configured to determine, when there are multiple activated beams not occupied by service beams, a first distance between the activated beams not occupied by service beams and the activated beams occupied by signaling beams;

[0296] The screening unit is used to screen out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0297] The service beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0298] In some embodiments, the second scheduling module includes a beam distance determination unit, a screening unit, and a service beam scheduling unit;

[0299] The beam distance determining unit is configured to determine, when there are multiple activated beams not occupied by service beams, a second distance between the activated beams not occupied by the service beams and the activated beams occupied by the service beams;

[0300] The screening unit is used to screen out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0301] The service beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0302] In some embodiments, the second scheduling module includes a beam distance determination unit, a screening unit, and a service beam scheduling unit;

[0303] The beam distance determination unit is configured to determine, when there are multiple activated beams not occupied by service beams, a first distance between the activated beams not occupied by service beams and the activated beams occupied by signaling beams, and determine a second distance between the activated beams not occupied by service beams and the activated beams occupied by service beams;

[0304] The screening unit is used to screen out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions;

[0305] The service beam scheduling unit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

[0306] In some embodiments, the service beam scheduling unit includes a data bearer priority determination subunit and a service beam scheduling subunit;

[0307] The data bearer priority determination subunit is used to determine the priority of each candidate activation beam position when there are multiple candidate activation beam positions;

[0308] The service beam scheduling subunit is used to schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position with high priority.

[0309] In some embodiments, the activated wave position refers to a wave position in an activated state;

[0310] When a terminal accesses the waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated, the waveband is in the activated state.

[0311] In some embodiments, when the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband is transferred to the inactive state.

[0312] The above-mentioned beam scheduling device for satellite communication provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented by the above-mentioned method embodiment in which the execution subject is a network device, and can achieve the same technical effect. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those of the method embodiment will not be repeated here.

[0313] It should be noted that the division of units / modules in the above-mentioned embodiments of the present disclosure is schematic and is merely a logical functional division. In actual implementation, other division methods may be used. Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated into a single processing unit, or each unit may exist physically separately, or two or more units may be integrated into a single unit. The above-mentioned integrated units may be implemented in the form of hardware or software functional units.

[0314] If the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a processor-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present disclosure is essentially or the part that contributes to the relevant technology or all or part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including a number of instructions to enable a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the method described in each embodiment of the present disclosure. The aforementioned storage medium includes: U disk, mobile hard disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), disk or optical disk, etc. Various media that can store program codes.

[0315] In some embodiments, a non-transitory readable storage medium is also provided, which stores a computer program, and the computer program is used to enable a processor to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication provided by the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0316] The above-mentioned non-transitory readable storage medium provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented in the above-mentioned method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effects. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those of the method embodiment will not be repeated here.

[0317] It should be noted that the non-transitory readable storage medium can be any available medium or data storage device that can be accessed by the processor, including but not limited to magnetic storage (such as floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes, magneto-optical disks (MO), etc.), optical storage (such as CDs, DVDs, BDs, HVDs, etc.), and semiconductor storage (such as ROMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, non-volatile memories (NAND FLASH), solid-state drives (SSDs)), etc.

[0318] In some embodiments, a processor-readable storage medium is also provided, which stores a computer program. The computer program is used to enable a processor to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication provided by the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0319] The processor-readable storage medium provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented in the above-mentioned method embodiments and can achieve the same technical effects. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those of the method embodiment will not be repeated here.

[0320] In some embodiments, a computer-readable storage medium is further provided, which stores a computer program, and the computer program is used to enable a computer to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication provided by the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0321] The above-mentioned computer-readable storage medium provided in the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented by the above-mentioned method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effects. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those of the method embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0322] In some embodiments, a communication device is further provided, in which a computer program is stored. The computer program is used to enable the communication device to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication provided by the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0323] The above-mentioned communication device provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented by the above-mentioned method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effects. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those of the method embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0324] In some embodiments, a chip product is further provided, in which a computer program is stored. The computer program is used to enable the chip product to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication provided by the above-mentioned method embodiments.

[0325] The above-mentioned chip product provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure can implement all the method steps implemented by the above-mentioned method embodiments, and can achieve the same technical effects. The parts and beneficial effects of this embodiment that are the same as those of the method embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0326] It should also be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the embodiments of the present disclosure are used to distinguish similar objects, and are not used to describe a specific order or precedence. It should be understood that the terms used in this manner are interchangeable where appropriate, such that the embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented in an order other than that illustrated or described herein. Furthermore, the terms "first" and "second" generally distinguish objects of the same type, and do not limit the number of objects. For example, the first object can be one or more.

[0327] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "and / or" describes the association relationship between associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent three situations: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0328] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, "determine B based on A" means that the factor A must be considered when determining B. It is not limited to "B can be determined based on A alone", and should also include: "determine B based on A and C", "determine B based on A, C and E", "determine C based on A, and determine B based on C", etc. It can also include taking A as a condition for determining B, for example, "when A meets the first condition, use the first method to determine B"; for another example, "when A meets the second condition, determine B", etc.; for another example, "when A meets the third condition, determine B based on the first parameter", etc. Of course, it can also be a condition that takes A as a factor in determining B, for example, "when A meets the first condition, use the first method to determine C, and determine B based on C", etc.

[0329] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "plurality" refers to two or more than two, and other quantifiers are similar thereto.

[0330] The technical solution provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applicable to a variety of systems, especially 5G systems. For example, applicable systems may be global system of mobile communication (GSM) systems, code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) general packet radio service (GPRS) systems, long term evolution (LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (TDD) systems, long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) systems, universal mobile telecommunication systems (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) systems, 5G new air interface (NR) systems, etc. These various systems include terminal devices and network devices. The system may also include a core network part, such as an evolved packet system (EPS), a 5G system (5GS), etc.

[0331] The terminal device involved in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with wireless connection function, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. In different systems, the name of the terminal device may also be different. For example, in a 5G system, the terminal device may be called User Equipment (UE). A wireless terminal device can communicate with one or more core networks (CN) via a radio access network (RAN). The wireless terminal device may be a mobile terminal device, such as a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone) and a computer with a mobile terminal device. For example, it may be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-built-in or vehicle-mounted mobile device that exchanges voice and / or data with a radio access network. For example, Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and other devices. The wireless terminal device may also be referred to as a system, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remote station, an access point, a remote terminal device, an access terminal device, a user terminal device, a user agent, or a user device, but is not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0332] The network device involved in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a base station, which may include multiple cells providing services to terminals. Depending on the specific application scenario, the base station may also be called an access point, or may be a device in an access network that communicates with a wireless terminal device through one or more sectors on an air interface, or may be called another name. The network device may be used to interchange received air frames with Internet Protocol (IP) packets, acting as a router between the wireless terminal device and the rest of the access network, wherein the rest of the access network may include an Internet Protocol (IP) communication network. The network device may also coordinate the attribute management of the air interface. For example, the network device involved in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be a base transceiver station (BTS) in the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) or code division multiple access (CDMA), a network device (NodeB) in wide-band code division multiple access (WCDMA), an evolutionary Node B (eNB or e-NodeB) in the long term evolution (LTE) system, a 5G base station (gNB) in the 5G network architecture (next generation system), a home evolved Node B (HeNB), a relay node, a femto, a pico, etc., and is not limited in the embodiments of the present disclosure. In some network structures, the network device may include a centralized unit (CU) node and a distributed unit (DU) node, and the centralized unit and the distributed unit may also be geographically separated.

[0333] Network devices and terminal devices can each use one or more antennas for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transmission. MIMO transmission can be single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) or multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO). Depending on the form and number of antenna combinations, MIMO transmission can be 2D-MIMO, 3D-MIMO, FD-MIMO, or massive-MIMO. It can also use diversity transmission, precoding transmission, or beamforming transmission.

[0334] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, the present disclosure may take the form of a complete hardware embodiment, a complete software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware. Furthermore, the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to magnetic disk storage and optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code.

[0335] The present disclosure is described with reference to the flowcharts and / or block diagrams of the methods, devices (systems), and computer program products according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that each process and / or box in the flowchart and / or block diagram, as well as the combination of the processes and / or boxes in the flowchart and / or block diagram, can be implemented by computer-executable instructions. These computer-executable instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, an embedded processor, or other programmable data processing device to produce a machine, so that the instructions executed by the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing device produce a device for implementing the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0336] These processor-executable instructions may also be stored in a processor-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the processor-readable memory produce a product including an instruction device that implements the functions specified in one or more processes in the flowchart and / or one or more boxes in the block diagram.

[0337] These processor-executable instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing device so that a series of operational steps are executed on the computer or other programmable device to produce a computer-implemented process, whereby 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.

[0338] Obviously, those skilled in the art may make various changes and modifications to the present disclosure without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Thus, if these modifications and variations of the present disclosure fall within the scope of the claims of the present disclosure and their equivalents, the present disclosure is intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A beam scheduling method for satellite communications, wherein: include: Determine whether each beam is occupied by a signaling beam based on whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam; Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the beam position not occupied by the signaling beam.

2. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein: The determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission exists on each beam position includes: In a case where there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by a signaling beam.

3. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein: The determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission exists on each beam position includes: In a case where there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by a signaling beam.

4. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein: The determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission exists on each beam position includes: In a case where there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by a signaling beam.

5. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein: Scheduling the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam includes: In the case where there are multiple beam positions not occupied by the signaling beam, determining the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam; Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the high-priority beam position.

6. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 1, wherein: The method further comprises: Determine the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams according to whether the service beams have been scheduled; The service beam in the current scheduling period is scheduled to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam.

7. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 6, wherein: Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam includes: In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam; Screening out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions; Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

8. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 6, wherein: Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam includes: In the case that there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam; Screening out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions; Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

9. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to claim 6, wherein: Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam includes: In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determine a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam, and determine a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam; Filtering out activation wave positions where the first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and the second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions; Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

10. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein: Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position includes: When there are multiple candidate activation wave positions, determining the priority of each candidate activation wave position; Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam positions with high priority.

11. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein: The activated wave position refers to the wave position in the activated state; When a terminal accesses a waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated to the waveband, the waveband is in an activated state.

12. The beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein: When the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband is changed to an inactive state.

13. A network device, wherein: Including memory, transceiver, processor; memory for storing computer programs; a transceiver, configured to transmit and receive data under the control of the processor; A processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations: Determine whether each beam is occupied by a signaling beam based on whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam; Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the beam position not occupied by the signaling beam.

14. The network device according to claim 13, wherein: The determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission exists on each beam position includes: In a case where there is statically configured downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by a signaling beam.

15. The network device according to claim 13, wherein: The determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission exists on each beam position includes: In a case where there is dynamically scheduled downlink transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by a signaling beam.

16. The network device according to claim 13, wherein: The determining whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether uplink and downlink transmission exists on each beam position includes: In a case where there is uplink scheduled PUSCH transmission or downlink scheduled HARQ transmission on the target beam position, it is determined that the target beam position is occupied by a signaling beam.

17. The network device according to claim 13, wherein: Scheduling the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by a signaling beam includes: In the case where there are multiple beam positions not occupied by the signaling beam, determining the priority of each beam position not occupied by the signaling beam; Schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to the high-priority beam position.

18. The network device according to claim 13, wherein: The processor is further configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations: Determine the activated beam positions not occupied by the service beams according to whether the service beams have been scheduled; The service beam in the current scheduling period is scheduled to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam.

19. The network device according to claim 18, wherein: Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam includes: In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam; Screening out activation wave positions whose first distance is greater than a first preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions; Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

20. The network device according to claim 18, wherein Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam includes: In the case that there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determining a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam; Screening out activation wave positions whose second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions; Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

21. The network device according to claim 18, wherein: Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam includes: In the case where there are multiple activated beam positions not occupied by the service beam, determine a first distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the signaling beam, and determine a second distance between the activated beam position not occupied by the service beam and the activated beam position occupied by the service beam; Filtering out activation wave positions where the first distance is greater than a first preset threshold and the second distance is greater than a second preset threshold as candidate activation wave positions; Schedule the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position.

22. The network device according to any one of claims 19 to 21, wherein: Scheduling the service beam in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam position includes: When there are multiple candidate activation wave positions, determining the priority of each candidate activation wave position; Schedule the service beams in the current scheduling period to the candidate activation beam positions with high priority.

23. The network device according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein: The activated wave position refers to the wave position in the activated state; When a terminal accesses a waveband and waveband-level control plane resources are allocated to the waveband, the waveband is in an activated state.

24. The network device according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein: When the terminal on the activated waveband is released and the allocated waveband-level control plane resources are also released, the waveband is changed to an inactive state.

25. A beam scheduling device for satellite communication, wherein: include: A first determination module is configured to determine whether each beam position is occupied by a signaling beam according to whether there is uplink or downlink transmission on each beam position; The first scheduling module is used to schedule the signaling beam in the current scheduling period to a beam position not occupied by the signaling beam.

26. A non-transitory readable storage medium, wherein: The non-transitory readable storage medium stores a computer program, and the computer program is used to enable a processor to execute the beam scheduling method for satellite communication according to any one of claims 1 to 12.

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