Method and apparatus for concentrated always-on signal block configuration in wireless communication system

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising: obtaining first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal; transmitting a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONCENTRATED ALWAYS-ON SIGNAL BLOCK CONFIGURATION IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of communication, and more particularly, to a method performed by a user equipment, a method performed by a base station, a user equipment or a base station in a wireless communication system.

[0002] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5G (5th generation) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6G (6th generation) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems. For these reasons, 6G communication systems are referred to as beyond-5G systems.

[0003] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, will have a peak data rate of tera (1,000 giga)-level bit per second (bps) and a radio latency less than 100μsec, and thus will be 50 times as fast as 5G communication systems and have the 1 / 10 radio latency thereof.

[0004] In order to accomplish such a high data rate and an ultra-low latency, it has been considered to implement 6G communication systems in a terahertz (THz) band (for example, 95 gigahertz (GHz) to 3THz bands). It is expected that, due to severer path loss and atmospheric absorption in the terahertz bands than those in mmWave bands introduced in 5G, technologies capable of securing the signal transmission distance (that is, coverage) will become more crucial. It is necessary to develop, as major technologies for securing the coverage, Radio Frequency (RF) elements, antennas, novel waveforms having a better coverage than Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), beamforming and massive Multiple-input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and multiantenna transmission technologies such as large-scale antennas. In addition, there has been ongoing discussion on new technologies for improving the coverage of terahertz-band signals, such as metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS).

[0005] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collision avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of UE computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mechanisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0006] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive eXtended Reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0007] The present disclosure provides method and apparatus for concentrated always-on signal block configuration in wireless communication system.

[0008] According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided method and apparatus for concentrated always-on signal block configuration in wireless communication system.

[0009] Aspects of the present disclosure provide efficient communication methods in a wireless communication system.

[0010] Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the composition structure of various radio networks according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0011] Figs. 2A and 2B are schematic diagrams of wireless transmission and reception paths according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0012] Fig. 3A is a block diagram of a constituent structure of user equipment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0013] Fig. 3B is a block diagram of the composition structure of a base station according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0014] Fig. 3C illustrates a schematic diagram of a 4-step random access procedure according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0015] Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method performed by a UE (user equipment) in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0016] Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example of a time domain RO group composed of time domain continuous ROs according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0017] Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an example of a frequency domain RO group composed of frequency domain continuous ROs according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0018] Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an example of a time-frequency domain RO group composed of time-frequency domain continuous ROs according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0019] Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of determining the first uplink resource based on the 1-to-1 time domain offset of SSB and RO according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0020] Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of determining a first uplink resource based on a second time reference point and a first time offset according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0021] Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of the 1-to-many association of SSB and RO according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0022] Fig. 11 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0023] Fig. 12 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to an embodiment of the disclosure; and

[0024] Fig. 13 is a block diagram of a network entity according to an embodiment of the disclosure;

[0025] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0026] In describing the embodiments, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art and not associated directly with the disclosure will be omitted. Such an omission of unnecessary descriptions is intended to prevent obscuring of the main idea of the disclosure and more clearly transfer the main idea.

[0027] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. Further, the size of each element does not completely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, identical or corresponding elements are provided with identical reference numerals or different reference numerals.

[0028] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth below, but may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only to completely disclose the disclosure and inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the disclosure, and the disclosure is defined only by the scope of the appended claims. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, in describing the disclosure, a detailed description of known functions or constitution incorporated herein will be omitted in the case that it is determined that the description may make the subject matter of the disclosure unnecessarily unclear. The terms which will be described below are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the disclosure, and may be different according to users, intentions of the operators, or customs. Therefore, the definitions of the terms should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

[0029] Herein, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be performed based on computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded collectively onto at least one processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which perform through any one of, or in any combination of, the at least one processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for performing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the function specified in the flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a computer executed process such that the instructions that perform on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus provide steps for executing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s).

[0030] Further, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks(or functions) shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

[0031] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a “~unit” may refer to a software element or a hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs a predetermined function. However, the term including the word “~unit” does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The “~unit” may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the “~unit” includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, components such as class elements and task elements, processes, functions, properties, procedures, sub-routines, segments of a program code, drivers, firmware, micro-codes, circuits, data, database, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The components and functions provided by the “~unit” may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a “~unit,” or divided into additional components and a “~unit.” Moreover, the components and “~units” may be implemented to reproduce one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a device or a security multimedia card. Further, in the embodiments, the “~unit” may include one or more processors.

[0032] It should be appreciated that the blocks in each flowchart and combinations of the flowcharts may be performed by one or more computer programs which include instructions. The entirety of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory device or the one or more computer programs may be divided with different portions stored in different multiple memory devices.

[0033] Any of the functions or operations described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or the combination of processors is circuitry performing processing and includes circuitry like an application processor (AP, e.g. a CPU), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth® chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, connectivity chips, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a finger-print sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like.

[0034] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.

[0035] Any such software may be stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readable storage media store one or more computer programs (software modules), the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure.

[0036] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like read only memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a computer program or computer programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.

[0037] Hereinafter, the determination of priority between A and B in the present disclosure may refer to various actions such as selecting the one having a higher priority based on a predefined priority rule and performing an operation corresponding thereto, or omitting or dropping an operation corresponding to the one having a lower priority.

[0038] Hereinafter, "A or B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0039] In addition, "at least one of A, B, and C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0040] In addition, "at least one of A, B, or C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0041] Furthermore, "A / B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0042] Furthermore, "A, B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0043] Furthermore, "A and B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0044] Furthermore, “if condition A and condition B are satisfied,” as described in the present disclosure, may not be limited to a case where both condition A and condition B are satisfied, but may be understood to include a case where either condition A or condition B is individually satisfied, both condition A and condition B are satisfied, or one or more additional conditions are satisfied in combination.

[0045] Furthermore, throughout this disclosure, ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc., (and similar qualifiers) are used merely to distinguish between different instances, occurrences, configurations, messages, stages, or aspects of elements, operations, or information as described herein. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the use of such ordinal terms does not itself require that the elements, operations, or information distinguished by these terms be structurally different, numerically distinct, or substantively dissimilar. For example, a "first signal" and a "second signal" may refer to instances of the same signal transmitted at different times or containing the same core information despite minor variations, or they may refer to signals with different content or characteristics, depending on the specific context. Similarly, a "first value" and a "second value" may represent the same magnitude but measured or applied in different circumstances, or they may represent different magnitudes. The interpretation should be guided by the specific technical context, function, and relationship described in the relevant portion of the specification and claims.

[0046] Furthermore, the terms “first ~”, “second ~”, etc., as described in the present disclosure with respect to various elements (e.g., information, objects, operation, sequences, or the like), should not limit those elements. These terms may only be intended to distinguish one element from another, and may not be intended to indicate a specific order. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element.

[0047] Furthermore, even if “first ~” and “second ~” are described in the present disclosure, it may be understood that element(s) referred to by “first ~” and “second ~” may be the same or different. For example, in case of element(s) being information, first information and second information may both be same information and, in some cases, are separate and different information.

[0048] In addition, the terms “if ~” and “in case that ~” as used in the disclosure or claims may be interpreted to include the meanings of “when (or upon) ~,” “in response to ~,” “based on ~,” or “according to ~,” and may be used interchangeably with these expressions. In addition, expressions other than those exemplified herein may also be used, as long as they have substantially the same meaning and do not impair the technical features of the present disclosure.

[0049] For example, the physical layer signaling may be referred to as Layer 1 (L1) signaling and may include downlink control information (DCI). In addition, the higher layer signaling may include a medium access control (MAC) control message, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message, a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling. It should be noted, however, that the higher layer signaling is not limited to the aforementioned examples.

[0050] In addition, the term "not perform" as used in the present disclosure or claims may, in context, be understood to mean that the corresponding step is omitted or skipped. Such a term may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0051] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and B" as described in the present disclosure, may be understood as encompassing both (i) transmitting A and B in a single message, and (ii) transmitting A and B separately via multiple messages (e.g., transmitting a first message including A and a second message including B). This interpretation may also apply to messages that include two or more items (e.g., A, B, C), transmitted either together or separately.

[0052] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and transmitting a message including B" may also be interpreted as transmitting a message including A and B in a single message.

[0053] In the specific embodiments of the present disclosure described below, terms or components included in the disclosure may be expressed in singular or plural form depending on the specific embodiments presented. However, such singular or plural expressions are selected appropriately for convenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limited to a singular or plural number of components. A component expressed in the plural form may be implemented as a single component, and a component expressed in the singular form may be implemented as multiple components.

[0054] The drawings or flowcharts described below illustrate exemplary methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure, and various modifications may be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts of the present disclosure. For example, although illustrated as a series of steps, various steps in each drawing or flowchart may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or be repeated. In other examples, any step may be omitted or replaced with another step.

[0055] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to each embodiment individually, but may also be applied in combination of all or some of the embodiments proposed in the disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be modified and applied without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0056] In this case, even if certain wordings are described differently across embodiments, they may be used interchangeably or in substitution or in combination if their underlying concepts are equivalent. For example, for the same or equivalent concept, even if one embodiment uses the expression "A" and another embodiment uses the expression "B", such expressions may be understood interchangeably, in substitution, or in combination.

[0057] The terms used in the following description to refer to access nodes, network entities, messages, interfaces between network entities, various types of identification information, and the like, are provided merely for the convenience of explanation by way of example. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms described below, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may also be used. Such terms may also be interchangeable with terms defined in any 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS) where appropriate.

[0058] Hereinafter, a base station is an entity that allocates resources to terminals, and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a base station (BS), a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.

[0059] Furthermore, the base station of the present disclosure may include a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). In this structure, the CU is configured to process the higher layers of the control and user planes, while the DU is configured to process lower-layer radio resource functions. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally applicable to 5G base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.

[0060] A terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, or a multimedia system capable of performing communication functions.

[0061] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a UE, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a UE transmits a signal to a BS.

[0062] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5th generation (5G) mobile communication technologies (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)), 6th generation (6G) mobile communication technologies may be described by way of example, but the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds or channel types. For example, newly evolved mobile communication systems developed after 5G and 6G may be included. Furthermore, based on determinations by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems (e.g., Wi-Fi systems) through some modifications without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure

[0063] In the following description, the terms physical channel and signal may be used interchangeably with data or control signal. For example, the term physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) refers to a physical channel through which data is transmitted, but the term PDSCH may also be used to refer to the data itself. That is, in the present disclosure, the expression "transmit a physical channel" may be interpreted as being equivalent to the expression "transmit data or a signal via a physical channel."

[0064] Hereinafter, in the context of the present disclosure, higher layer signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of the following: master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB) or SIB M (M = 1, 2, ...), radio resource control (RRC), or medium access control (MAC) control element (CE), or a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling.

[0065] In addition, L1 signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of signaling techniques using the at least one or any combination of the following physical layer channels or signaling: physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), downlink control information (DCI), user equipment (UE)-specific DCI, group-common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI used for scheduling downlink or uplink data), non-scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI not used for scheduling downlink or uplink data) physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or uplink control information (UCI). The L1 signaling message may be referred to as a physical layer signaling.

[0066] Hereinafter, the expression that information is configured by the BS, as used in the present disclosure or claims, may, in context, be understood to mean that the terminal receives the corresponding information from the BS via a physical layer signaling or a higher layer signaling. Such an expression may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0067] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0068] In order to meet the increasing demand for wireless data communication services since the deployment of 4G communication systems, efforts have been made to develop improved 5G or pre-5G communication systems. Therefore, 5G or pre-5G communication systems are also called "Beyond 4G networks" or "Post-LTE systems".

[0069] In order to achieve a higher data rate, 5G communication systems are implemented in higher frequency (millimeter, mmWave) bands, e.g., 60 GHz bands. In order to reduce propagation loss of radio waves and increase a transmission distance, technologies such as beamforming, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), full-dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antenna, analog beamforming and large-scale antenna are discussed in 5G communication systems.

[0070] In addition, in 5G communication systems, developments of system network improvement are underway based on advanced small cell, cloud radio access network (RAN), ultra-dense network, device-to-device (D2D) communication, wireless backhaul, mobile network, cooperative communication, coordinated multi-points (CoMP), reception-end interference cancellation, etc.

[0071] In 5G systems, hybrid FSK and QAM modulation (FQAM) and sliding window superposition coding (SWSC) as advanced coding modulation (ACM), and filter bank multicarrier (FBMC), non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and sparse code multiple access (SCMA) as advanced access technologies have been developed.

[0072] In order to make the objectives, technical schemes and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure, a clearly and complete description will be made with respect to the technical schemes of the embodiments of the present disclosure, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present disclosure. Apparently, the described embodiments are a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, not all of the embodiments. Based on the described embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by common skilled in the art without creative labor belong to the protection scope of the present disclosure.

[0073] Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The term “couple” and its derivatives refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether those elements are in physical contact with one another. The terms “transmit,” “receive,” and “communicate,” as well as derivatives thereof, encompass both direct and indirect communication. The terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and / or. The phrase “associated with,” as well as derivatives thereof, means to include, be included within, interconnect to or with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relationship to or with, or the like. The term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation. Such a controller may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. The function associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. The phrase “at least one of,” when used with a list of items, means that different combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used, and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, “at least one of the following: A, B, and C” includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C. For example, "at least one of A, B, or C " includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C.

[0074] In addition, various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed by computer-readable program code and embodied in a computer-readable medium. The terms "application" and "program" refer to one or more computer programs, software components, instruction sets, procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data or parts thereof appropriate for implementation in suitable computer-readable program code. The phrase "computer readable program code" includes any type of computer code, including source code, objective code and executable code. The phrase "computer readable medium" includes any type of medium that can be accessed by a computer, such as Read-Only Memory (ROM), Random Access Memory (RAM), hard disk drive, compact disk (CD), digital video disk (DVD) or any other type of memory. A "non-transitory" computer-readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical or other communication links that transfer transitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computer-readable medium includes a medium in which data can be stored permanently and a medium in which data can be stored and rewritten later, such as rewritable optical disks or erasable memory devices.

[0075] The terms used herein to describe the embodiments of the present application is not intended to limit and / or define the scope of the present application. For example, unless otherwise defined, the technical or scientific terms used in the present disclosure should have common meanings as understood by common skilled in the art to which the present application belongs.

[0076] It should be understood that "first", "second" and similar words used in the present disclosure do not indicate any order, quantity or importance, but are only used to distinguish different components. Unless clearly indicated otherwise in the context, similar words such as "a", "an", "the" and the like in the singular form do not indicate a quantitative limitation, but indicate the existence of at least one.

[0077] As used herein, any reference to "one example" or "an example", "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" means that a particular element, feature, structure or characteristic described in conjunction with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances of the phrases "in one embodiment" or "in one example" in different places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.

[0078] As used herein, "a part of" a certain thing means "at least some of" this thing, so it may mean being less than the entirety thereof or being the entirety thereof. Therefore, "a part of" the thing includes the whole thing as a special case, that is, an example in which the whole thing is a part of the thing.

[0079] It will be further understood that words such as "include", "contain" or the like means that the elements or objects appearing preceding the word encompass the elements or objects listed behind the word as well as their equivalents, without excluding other elements or objects. Words such as "connect", "interconnect" or the like are not limited to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connection, whether direct or indirect. "Up", "Down", "Left" and "Right" are only used to indicate relative positional relationships. When the absolute position of the described object changes, accordingly, the relative positional relationship may change as well.

[0080] The various embodiments discussed below for describing the principle of the present disclosure in this patent document are for illustration only, and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principle of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged wireless communication system. For example, although the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present disclosure will focus on LTE and 5G communication systems, those skilled in the art can understand that the main points of the present disclosure can also be applied to other communication systems with similar technical backgrounds and channel formats, with slight modifications and basically without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. The schemes of the embodiments of the present application may be applied to various communication systems. For example, the communication systems may include a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) system, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) system, a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD), Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) system or New Radio (NR), etc. In addition, the schemes of the embodiments of the present application may be applied to future-oriented communication technologies. In addition, the schemes of the embodiments of the present application may be applied to future-oriented communication technologies.

[0081] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. The description includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but should be regarded as exemplary only. Accordingly, the common skilled in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications to the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and structures may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.

[0082] The terms and wordings used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only, but not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

[0083] It should be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents, unless clearly indicated otherwise in the context. Thus, for example, reference to “a component surface” includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.

[0084] The term “include” or “may include” refers to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component which can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure, and does not limit the existence of one or more additional functions, operations, or components. The terms “include” and / or “have” may be construed to represent certain characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof, but may not be construed to exclude the possibility of existence of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.

[0085] The term “or” used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any of the listed terms or all combinations thereof. For example, “A or B” may include A, may include B, or may include both A and B.

[0086] Unless defined differently, all terms used in the present disclosure, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meanings as those understood by the skilled in the art as described in the present disclosure. Common terms as defined in a dictionary are to be interpreted to have meanings consistent with the context in the relevant technical field o, and are not to be interpreted ideally or excessively, unless clearly defined as such in the present disclosure.

[0087] The figures discussed below and various embodiments for describing the principle of the present disclosure in this patent document are only for illustration, and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principle of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged system or device.

[0088] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network 100 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network 100 shown in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 can be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0089] The wireless network 100 includes a gNodeB (gNB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. gNB 101 communicates with gNB 102 and gNB 103. gNB 101 also communicates with at least one Internet Protocol (IP) network 130, such as the Internet, a private IP network, or other data networks.

[0090] Depending on a type of the network, other well-known terms such as "base station" or "access point" can be used instead of "gNodeB" or "gNB". For convenience, the terms "gNodeB" and "gNB" are used in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access for remote terminals. And, depending on the type of the network, other well-known terms such as "mobile station", "user station", "remote terminal", "wireless terminal" or "user apparatus" can be used instead of "user equipment" or "UE". For convenience, the terms "user equipment" and "UE" are used in this patent document to refer to remote wireless devices that wirelessly access the gNB, no matter whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile phone or a smart phone) or a fixed device (such as a desktop computer or a vending machine).

[0091] gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of User Equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs include a UE 111, which may be located in a Small Business (SB); a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi Hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R); a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cellular phone, a wireless laptop computer, a wireless PDA, etc. GNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs include a UE 115 and a UE 116. In some embodiments, one or more of gNBs 101-103 can communicate with each other and with UEs 111-116 using 5G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE-A, WiMAX or other advanced wireless communication technologies.

[0092] The dashed lines show approximate ranges of the coverage areas 120 and 125, and the ranges are shown as approximate circles merely for illustration and explanation purposes. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with the gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending on configurations of the gNBs and changes in the radio environment associated with natural obstacles and man-made obstacles.

[0093] As will be described in more detail below, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 include a 2D antenna array as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more of gNB 101, gNB 102, and gNB 103 support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays.

[0094] Although FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the wireless network 100, various changes can be made to FIG. 1. The wireless network 100 can include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement, for example. Furthermore, gNB 101 can directly communicate with any number of UEs and provide wireless broadband access to the network 130 for those UEs. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 can directly communicate with the network 130 and provide direct wireless broadband access to the network 130 for the UEs. In addition, gNB 101, 102 and / or 103 can provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0095] FIGs. 2A and 2B illustrate example wireless transmission and reception paths according to the present disclosure. In the following description, the transmission path 200 can be described as being implemented in a gNB, such as gNB 102, and the reception path 250 can be described as being implemented in a UE, such as UE 116. However, it should be understood that the reception path 250 can be implemented in a gNB and the transmission path 200 can be implemented in a UE. In some embodiments, the reception path 250 is configured to support codebook designs and structures for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0096] The transmission path 200 includes a channel coding and modulation block 205, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210, a size N Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) block 215, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 220, a cyclic prefix addition block 225, and an up-converter (UC) 230. The reception path 250 includes a down-converter (DC) 255, a cyclic prefix removal block 260, a Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 265, a size N Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) block 270, a Parallel-to-Serial (P-to-S) block 275, and a channel decoding and demodulation block 280.

[0097] In the transmission path 200, the channel coding and modulation block 205 receives a set of information bits, applies coding (such as Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) coding), and modulates the input bits (such as using Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)) to generate a sequence of frequency-domain modulated symbols. The Serial-to-Parallel (S-to-P) block 210 converts (such as demultiplexes) serial modulated symbols into parallel data to generate N parallel symbol streams, where N is a size of the IFFT / FFT used in gNB 102 and UE 116. The size N IFFT block 215 performs IFFT operations on the N parallel symbol streams to generate a time-domain output signal. The Parallel-to-Serial block 220 converts (such as multiplexes) parallel time-domain output symbols from the Size N IFFT block 215 to generate a serial time-domain signal. The cyclic prefix addition block 225 inserts a cyclic prefix into the time-domain signal. The up-converter 230 modulates (such as up-converts) the output of the cyclic prefix addition block 225 to an RF frequency for transmission via a wireless channel. The signal can also be filtered at a baseband before switching to the RF frequency.

[0098] The RF signal transmitted from gNB 102 arrives at UE 116 after passing through the wireless channel, and operations in reverse to those at gNB 102 are performed at UE 116. The down-converter 255 down-converts the received signal to a baseband frequency, and the cyclic prefix removal block 260 removes the cyclic prefix to generate a serial time-domain baseband signal. The Serial-to-Parallel block 265 converts the time-domain baseband signal into a parallel time-domain signal. The Size N FFT block 270 performs an FFT algorithm to generate N parallel frequency-domain signals. The Parallel-to-Serial block 275 converts the parallel frequency-domain signal into a sequence of modulated data symbols. The channel decoding and demodulation block 280 demodulates and decodes the modulated symbols to recover the original input data stream.

[0099] Each of gNBs 101-103 may implement a transmission path 200 similar to that for transmitting to UEs 111-116 in the downlink, and may implement a reception path 250 similar to that for receiving from UEs 111-116 in the uplink. Similarly, each of UEs 111-116 may implement a transmission path 200 for transmitting to gNBs 101-103 in the uplink, and may implement a reception path 250 for receiving from gNBs 101-103 in the downlink.

[0100] Each of the components in FIGs. 2A and 2B can be implemented using only hardware, or using a combination of hardware and software / firmware. As a specific example, at least some of the components in FIGs. 2A and 2B may be implemented in software, while other components may be implemented in configurable hardware or a combination of software and configurable hardware. For example, the FFT block 270 and IFFT block 215 may be implemented as configurable software algorithms, in which the value of the size N may be modified according to the implementation.

[0101] Furthermore, although described as using FFT and IFFT, this is only illustrative and should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure. Other types of transforms can be used, such as Discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) functions. It should be understood that for DFT and IDFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer (such as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), while for FFT and IFFT functions, the value of variable N may be any integer which is a power of 2 (such as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc.).

[0102] Although FIGs. 2A and 2B illustrate examples of wireless transmission and reception paths, various changes may be made to FIGs. 2A and 2B. For example, various components in FIGs. 2A and 2B can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. Furthermore, FIGs. 2A and 2B are intended to illustrate examples of types of transmission and reception paths that can be used in a wireless network. Any other suitable architecture can be used to support wireless communication in a wireless network.

[0103] FIG. 3A illustrates an example UE 116 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of UE 116 shown in FIG. 3A is for illustration only, and UEs 111-115 of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a UE has various configurations, and FIG. 3A does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of the UE.

[0104] UE 116 includes an antenna 305, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 310, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 315, a microphone 320, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 325. UE 116 also includes a speaker 330, a processor / controller 340, an input / output (I / O) interface 345, an input device(s) 350, a display 355, and a memory 360. The memory 360 includes an operating system (OS) 361 and one or more applications 362.

[0105] The RF transceiver 310 receives an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the wireless network 100 from the antenna 305. The RF transceiver 310 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 325, where the RX processing circuit 325 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuit 325 transmits the processed baseband signal to speaker 330 (such as for voice data) or to processor / controller 340 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0106] The TX processing circuit 315 receives analog or digital voice data from microphone 320 or other outgoing baseband data (such as network data, email or interactive video game data) from processor / controller 340. The TX processing circuit 315 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 310 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuit 315 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via the antenna 305.

[0107] The processor / controller 340 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute an OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of UE 116. For example, the processor / controller 340 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceiver 310, the RX processing circuit 325 and the TX processing circuit 315 according to well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor / controller 340 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0108] The processor / controller 340 is also capable of executing other processes and programs residing in the memory 360, such as operations for channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. The processor / controller 340 can move data into or out of the memory 360 as required by an execution process. In some embodiments, the processor / controller 340 is configured to execute the application 362 based on the OS 361 or in response to signals received from the gNB or the operator. The processor / controller 340 is also coupled to an I / O interface 345, where the I / O interface 345 provides UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices such as laptop computers and handheld computers. I / O interface 345 is a communication path between these accessories and the processor / controller 340.

[0109] The processor / controller 340 is also coupled to the input device(s) 350 and the display 355. An operator of UE 116 can input data into UE 116 using the input device(s) 350. The display 355 may be a liquid crystal display or other display capable of presenting text and / or at least limited graphics (such as from a website). The memory 360 is coupled to the processor / controller 340. A part of the memory 360 can include a random access memory (RAM), while another part of the memory 360 can include a flash memory or other read-only memory (ROM).

[0110] Although FIG. 3A illustrates an example of UE 116, various changes can be made to FIG. 3A. For example, various components in FIG. 3A can be combined, further subdivided or omitted, and additional components can be added according to specific requirements. As a specific example, the processor / controller 340 can be divided into a plurality of processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Furthermore, although FIG. 3A illustrates that the UE 116 is configured as a mobile phone or a smart phone, UEs can be configured to operate as other types of mobile or fixed devices.

[0111] FIG. 3B illustrates an example gNB 102 according to the present disclosure. The embodiment of gNB 102 shown in FIG. 3B is for illustration only, and other gNBs of FIG. 1 can have the same or similar configuration. However, a gNB has various configurations, and FIG. 3B does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any specific implementation of a gNB. It should be noted that gNB 101 and gNB 103 can include the same or similar structures as gNB 102.

[0112] As shown in FIG. 3B, gNB 102 includes a plurality of antennas 370a-370n, a plurality of RF transceivers 372a-372n, a transmission (TX) processing circuit 374, and a reception (RX) processing circuit 376. In certain embodiments, one or more of the plurality of antennas 370a-370n include a 2D antenna array. gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 378, a memory 380, and a backhaul or network interface 382.

[0113] RF transceivers 372a-372n receive an incoming RF signal from antennas 370a-370n, such as a signal transmitted by UEs or other gNBs. RF transceivers 372a-372n down-convert the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is transmitted to the RX processing circuit 376, where the RX processing circuit 376 generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. RX processing circuit 376 transmits the processed baseband signal to controller / processor 378 for further processing.

[0114] The TX processing circuit 374 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, network data, email or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 378. TX processing circuit 374 encodes, multiplexes and / or digitizes outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. RF transceivers 372a-372n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from TX processing circuit 374 and up-convert the baseband or IF signal into an RF signal transmitted via antennas 370a-370n.

[0115] The controller / processor 378 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 378 can control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of backward channel signals through the RF transceivers 372a-372n, the RX processing circuit 376 and the TX processing circuit 374 according to well-known principles. The controller / processor 378 can also support additional functions, such as higher-level wireless communication functions. For example, the controller / processor 378 can perform a Blind Interference Sensing (BIS) process such as that performed through a BIS algorithm, and decode a received signal from which an interference signal is subtracted. A controller / processor 378 may support any of a variety of other functions in gNB 102. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0116] The controller / processor 378 is also capable of executing programs and other processes residing in the memory 380, such as a basic OS. The controller / processor 378 can also support channel quality measurement and reporting for systems with 2D antenna arrays as described in embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, the controller / processor 378 supports communication between entities such as web RTCs. The controller / processor 378 can move data into or out of the memory 380 as required by an execution process.

[0117] The controller / processor 378 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 382. The backhaul or network interface 382 allows gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems through a backhaul connection or through a network. The backhaul or network interface 382 can support communication over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when gNB 102 is implemented as a part of a cellular communication system, such as a cellular communication system supporting 5G or new radio access technology or NR, LTE or LTE-A, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs through wired or wireless backhaul connections. When gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the backhaul or network interface 382 can allow gNB 102 to communicate with a larger network, such as the Internet, through a wired or wireless local area network or through a wired or wireless connection. The backhaul or network interface 382 includes any suitable structure that supports communication through a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or an RF transceiver.

[0118] The memory 380 is coupled to the controller / processor 378. A part of the memory 380 can include an RAM, while another part of the memory 380 can include a flash memory or other ROMs. In certain embodiments, a plurality of instructions, such as the BIS algorithm, are stored in the memory. The plurality of instructions are configured to cause the controller / processor 378 to execute the BIS process and decode the received signal after subtracting at least one interference signal determined by the BIS algorithm.

[0119] As will be described in more detail below, the transmission and reception paths of gNB 102 (implemented using RF transceivers 372a-372n, TX processing circuit 374 and / or RX processing circuit 376) support aggregated communication with FDD cells and TDD cells.

[0120] Although FIG. 3B illustrates an example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 3B. For example, gNB 102 can include any number of each component shown in FIG. 3A. As a specific example, the access point can include many backhaul or network interfaces 382, and the controller / processor 378 can support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another specific example, although shown as including a single instance of the TX processing circuit 374 and a single instance of the RX processing circuit 376, gNB 102 can include multiple instances of each (such as one for each RF transceiver).

[0121] The time domain unit (also called time unit) in this application can be: an OFDM symbol, an OFDM symbol group (composed of multiple OFDM symbols), a slot, a slot group (composed of multiple slots), a subframe, a subframe group (composed of multiple subframes), a system frame and a system frame group (composed of multiple system frames). It can also be an absolute time unit, such as 1 millisecond, 1 second, etc. A time unit can also be a combination of various granularities, such as N1 slots plus N2 OFDM symbols.

[0122] The frequency domain unit (also called frequency unit) in this application can be: a subcarrier, a subcarrier group (composed of multiple subcarriers), a resource block (RB), which can also be called a physical resource block (PRB), a resource block group (composed of multiple RBs), a bandwidth part (BWP), a bandwidth part group (composed of multiple BWPs), a bandwidth / carrier, and a bandwidth group / carrier group. It can also be an absolute frequency domain unit, such as 1 Hz, 1 kHz, etc. The frequency domain unit can also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as M1 PRBs plus M2 subcarriers.

[0123] Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0124] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to help readers understand the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0125] It can be understood by those skilled in the art that the singular forms "a", "an", "the" and "the" used herein can also include plural forms unless specifically stated. It should be further understood that the word "comprising" used in the specification of this application refers to the presence of said features, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or components, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and / or groups thereof. It should be understood that when we say that an element is "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element, or intervening elements may also exist. Furthermore, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include wireless connection or wireless coupling. As used herein, the phrase "and / or" includes all or any unit and all combinations of one or more associated listed items.

[0126] It can be understood by those skilled in the art that unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical terms and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this application belongs. It should also be understood that terms, such as those defined in general dictionaries, should be understood to have meanings consistent with those in the context of the prior art, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless they are specifically defined as here.

[0127] It can be understood by those skilled in the technical field that the "terminal" and "terminal equipment" used here include both the equipment of wireless signal receiver, which only has the equipment of wireless signal receiver without transmission capability, and the equipment of receiving and transmitting hardware, which has the equipment of receiving and transmitting hardware capable of bidirectional communication on the bidirectional communication link. Such devices may include a cellular or other communication device having a single-line display or a multi-line display or a cellular or other communication device without a multi-line display. PC (Personal Communications Service), which can combine voice, data processing, fax and / or data communication capabilities. PDA(Personal Digital Assistant), which may include RF receiver, pager, Internet / Intranet access, web browser, notepad, calendar and / or GPS(Global Positioning System) receiver; a conventional laptop and / or palmtop computer or other device having and / or including a conventional laptop and / or palmtop computer or other device of a radio frequency receiver. As used herein, "terminal" and "terminal equipment" can be portable, transportable, installed in vehicles (air, sea and / or land), or suitable and / or configured to operate locally, and / or operate in any other location on the earth and / or space in a distributed form. The "terminal" and "terminal equipment" used here can also be communication terminals, internet terminals and music / video playing terminals, such as PDA, mobile internet device (Mobile Internet Device) and / or mobile phone with music / video playing function, as well as smart TV, set-top box and other devices.

[0128] Without departing from the scope of the present invention, the term "send" in the present invention can be used interchangeably with "transmission", "report" and "notification".

[0129] Text and drawings are provided as examples only to help readers understand the present disclosure. They are not intended and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, based on the disclosure herein, it is obvious to those skilled in the art that changes can be made to the illustrated embodiments and examples without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

[0130] The transmission link of wireless communication system mainly includes: a downlink communication link from 5G gNB to User Equipment, UE) and an uplink communication link from UE to network.

[0131] Nodes used for positioning measurement in wireless communication systems, such as current wireless communication systems, include: UE that initiates positioning request message; Location Management Function (LMF) that is used for UE positioning and transmitting positioning auxiliary data; gNB or transmission-reception point (TRP) that broadcasts positioning auxiliary data and performs uplink positioning measurement, and UE that is used for downlink positioning measurement. In addition, the method of the present invention can also be extended to other communication systems, such as automobile communication (V2X), for example, sidelink communication, in which the transmitting and receiving point or UE can be any device in V2X.

[0132] Transmission in a wireless communication system includes: a transmission from a base station (gNB) to User Equipment (UE) (called a downlink transmission), corresponding slots are called downlink slots; a transmission from UE to the base station (called an uplink transmission), and corresponding slots are called uplink slots.

[0133] In wireless communication systems, such as LTE or NR systems, 2-step or 4-step random access procedure is used to establish the link between the device and the base station. The base station periodically sends synchronization signals and broadcast channels to users through synchronization signal block (SSB, synchronization signal / PBCH block, or referred to as the first downlink reference signal). The period is called SSB periodicity, or SSB burst periodicity. At the same time, the base station will configure a physical random access channel configuration period (PRACH configuration period), during which a certain number of random access transmission occasions (also called random access occasions, RO) will be configured.

[0134] In the New Radio (NR) communication system, before the establishment of radio resource control, such as in random access procedure, the performance of random access directly affects the user's experience. In traditional wireless communication systems, such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, or in 5G or NR systems, the random access procedure is used in many scenarios, such as establishing an initial connection, the cell handover, reestablishing uplink connection, RRC connection reestablishment, etc., and is divided into Contention-based Random Access and Contention-free Random Access according to whether users monopolize the preamble resources. Fig. 3C illustrates a schematic diagram of a 4-step random access procedure according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the Contention-based Random Access procedure is divided into four steps, as shown in Figure 3C. In the first step, UE randomly selects a preamble sequence from a preamble sequence (also interchangeably referred to as "preamble" herein) resource pool and sends it to the base station. The base station performs the correlation detection on the received signal, thus identifying the preamble sequence sent by the UE. In the second step, the base station sends a Random Access Response, RAR) to the UE. The RAR may include a random access preamble sequence identifier, a timing advance command determined according to the time delay estimation between the UE and the base station, a cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), and / or time-frequency resources allocated for the next uplink transmission of the UE (time-frequency resources may refer to time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources). The UE should search for the PDCCH carrying the feedback based on the RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH occasion on which the random access preamble sequence is transmitted. The RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH occasion (e.g., RO) on which the random access preamble sequence is transmitted may be based on the index of the first OFDM symbol of the PRACH occasion, the index of the first slot of the PRACH occasion in the system frame, the index of the PRACH occasion in the frequency domain, and the UL carrier used for random access preamble transmission. For example, RA-RNTI can be calculated according to the following formula:

[0135] RA-RNTI = 1 + s_id + 14 × t_id + 14 × 80 × f_id + 14 × 80 × 8 × ul_carrier_id,

[0136] Herein, s_id is the index of the first OFDM symbol of the PRACH occasion (0 ≤ s_id < 14), and t_id is the index of the first slot of the PRACH occasion in the system frame （0 ≤ t_id < 80), where μ = {0, 1, 2, 3} is used to determine the value of the subcarrier spacing of t_id based on μ. t_id is the index of 120 kHz slot containing PRACH occasion in the system frame (0 ≤ t_id < 80), f_id is the index of PRACH occasion in the frequency domain (0 ≤ f_id < 8), and ul_carrier_id is the UL carrier used for random access preamble transmission (0 for NUL carrier and 1 for SUL carrier).

[0137] In the third step, the user sends a third message (message 3, Msg3) to the base station according to the information in the RAR. Msg3 contains information such as user terminal identification and RRC link request, where the user terminal identification is unique to the user and is used for conflict resolution; in the fourth step, the base station sends a conflict resolution identification to the user, including the identification of the user terminal that won the conflict resolution. After detecting its own identification, the user upgrades the temporary C-RNTI to C-RNTI, sends an ACK signal to the base station to complete the random access procedure, and waits for the scheduling of the base station. Otherwise, the user will start a new random access procedure after a delay.

[0138] For the Contention-free Random Access procedure, because the base station knows the user identification, it can assign a preamble sequence to the user. Therefore, when the user sends the preamble sequence, the random selection of the sequence is not needed, but the allocated preamble sequence is used. After detecting the allocated preamble sequence, the base station will send the corresponding random access response, including information such as timing advance and uplink resource allocation. After receiving the random access response, the user thinks that the uplink synchronization has been completed and waits for the further scheduling of the base station. Therefore, the Contention-free Random Access only includes two steps: step 1 is to send a preamble sequence; step 2 is to the random access response.

[0139] For example, the random access procedure is suitable for the following scenarios:

[0140] 1. an initial access under RRC _ idle;

[0141] 2. re-establish the RRC connection;

[0142] 3. cell handover;

[0143] 4. in RRC connection state, the downlink data arrives and requests the random access procedure (when the uplink is asynchronous);

[0144] 5. in RRC connection state, the uplink data arrives and requests the random access procedure (when the uplink is asynchronous or no resources in PUCCH resources are allocated to the scheduling request);

[0145] 6. positioning.

[0146] For initial access, long-period downlink physical signal (for example, SSB signal) resource configuration and random access channel configuration can realize network energy saving, but it will affect the performance of users' random access.

[0147] Therefore, for initial access, how to realize network energy saving is an urgent problem to be solved.

[0148] Various embodiments of the present disclosure provide a a method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising: obtaining first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal; transmitting a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.

[0149] The resource allocation of the downlink physical signal (for example, SSB signals) and the associated allocation method of the random access channel provided by various embodiments of the present disclosure can alleviate the problem of a large random access delay caused by the long-period traditional SSB burst set or the random access channel, ensure that the base station has a long idle time of not sending SSB signals and receiving uplink signals on the random access channel, and realize network energy saving.

[0150] Moreover, the problems that can be solved by this disclosure are not limited to those mentioned in the above and the following description, but can also solve all problems that can be actually solved according to the essence of the technology of this disclosure. For the convenience of description, SSB or SSB burst associated with a specific feature can be called "downlink physical signal or first downlink physical signal", and the configuration for the first downlink physical signal is called "configuration of downlink physical signal or configuration related to the first downlink signal" and so on.

[0151] In this disclosure, SSB is described as a downlink reference signal related to random access, but this is only an example, and SSB can also be replaced by other reference signals, such as CSI-RS, PRS, etc.

[0152] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, unless otherwise specified, the configuration information includes at least one of the following: information configured by the base station, information indicated in the received signaling, information configured by the higher layer, and preconfigured information. Further, it can be a set of configuration information obtained by the above method. It can also be multiple sets of configuration information obtained by the above method, and the UE or node can select a set of configuration information to use according to predefined conditions. It can also be a set of configuration information obtained by the above method, and the set of configuration information contains a plurality of subsets, and the UE or node can select a subset to use according to predefined conditions.

[0153] In the embodiment in this disclosure, the first downlink physical signal set (or written as a downlink physical signal set) includes a plurality of first downlink physical signals, wherein the first downlink physical signal set can be an SSB burst set, or other signals used for downlink synchronization and / or broadcast information.

[0154] Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a method performed by a UE (user equipment) in a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 4, the method can include one or more of the following steps:

[0155] Step 401: Obtain configuration information (first configuration information) transmitted by the base station. The configuration information includes at least one of the following: first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to random access configuration.

[0156] Herein, the second information can be configuration information for four-step random access, or configuration information for two-step random access, or configuration information for feature-related random access, and the feature can be network energy saving (NES).

[0157] Optionally, before obtaining the configuration information, the first downlink physical signal is received, and based on the first downlink physical signal, Physical cell ID (PCI) is obtained. For example, based on the sequence information carried by the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) of the first downlink physical signal, the cell identification is obtained.

[0158] The first information includes at least one of the following: first information related to the first downlink physical signal resource. Herein, the first downlink physical signal can be an SSB burst signal, or other signals used for downlink synchronization and / or broadcasting information, etc. Optionally, the first downlink physical signal can contain one or more sub-signals, for example, when the first downlink physical signal is an SSB burst set signal, each burst set signal can contain one or more SSB signals.

[0159] Herein, the first information can be obtained based on the received first downlink physical signal, for example, when the first downlink physical signal is SSB, the first downlink physical signal is received to obtain the first information and the second information, herein the first downlink physical signal at least includes at least one of the following: a synchronization signal for synchronization, a reference signal for decoding and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), and the first information and the second information are included in the physical broadcast channel.

[0160] Herein, the first information includes at least one of the following: a period of the first downlink physical signal, index information (a first part) of the first downlink physical signal, and indication information for indicating the first downlink physical signal sent in the first downlink physical signal set.

[0161] Optionally, a part of the index information (a second part) of the first downlink physical signal, such as the least significant bit of the index, can be included in the reference signal of the first downlink physical signal, and the most significant bit of index is included in the first information (the first part).

[0162] Optionally, in the first downlink physical signal set, all the first downlink physical signals contain the same third configuration information. The third configuration information includes: a period of the first downlink physical signal, indication information for indicating the first downlink physical signal transmitted in the first downlink physical signal set, and random access resource configuration (first uplink resource configuration) associated with all the first downlink physical signals in the first downlink physical signal set. The invention has the advantages that even if the UE can only receive or successfully decode the first downlink physical signal in the first downlink physical signal set, it can also determine random access resources (also called first uplink resources) associated with all other first downlink physical signals, based on the first configuration information contained in the first downlink physical signal.

[0163] Herein, the second information includes at least one of the following: random access time domain resource related configuration, a first time position for indicating a time reference point, a first time offset for indicating a time offset, random access frequency domain resource related configuration, a first frequency position for indicating a frequency reference point, a first frequency offset for indicating a frequency offset,

[0164] - Random access time domain resource related configuration includes at least one of the following: a random access resource configuration period, a number and positions of random access frames in the random access configuration period, an index of a subframe or a slot in one random access frame, a position of a random access start symbol in one random access subframe or slot, a number of random access slots in one random access subframe, a number of ROs in one random access slot, a number of symbols occupied by one RO, and a format of a random access preamble.

[0165] Preferably, the random access resource configuration period is determined according to the configuration period of the first downlink physical signal, for example, it is the same as the period of the first downlink physical signal, which has the advantage that the base station can complete signal transmission and reception within the same time window, and then go into the deep sleep, which is beneficial to network energy saving.

[0166] - a first time position for indicating a time reference point, wherein the time reference point can be at least one of the following: a system frame number (SFN), a subframe index, a half-subframe index, a slot index, a symbol index, a subcarrier index, an index of the first downlink physical signal, etc. Alternatively, the first time position can also be used to indicate parameter configuration related to calculating the time reference point. For example, if the parameter O=x determined according to the indication, the time reference point is the first or last slot position of the system frame with mod (SFN, O) = x.

[0167] - The first time offset for indicating the time offset between the random access resource (e.g. RO) and the time reference point. For example, the offset is D, and the unit can be a symbol, a slot, a subframe and a system frame. Herein the time reference point can be the first time position; it can also be a time reference point (second time position) specified in the protocol, for example, the reference point can be a predefined time reference point, and the unit of the time reference point can be a radio frame, a subframe, a half-subframe, a slot or a symbol. Taking a radio frame as an example, the time domain position of the reference point satisfies SFN mod K=0, where the value of K can be a predefined value in the protocol or a configurable value, for example, K=4, which means that the reference point appears once every four radio frames. Alternatively, the time reference point can be predefined as the edge position (for example, the end position) of the first downlink physical signal, such as the last symbol or symbol index where the first downlink physical signal is located, or the slot or slot index where the last symbol is located. Alternatively, the time reference point can be predefined as the edge position of the first downlink physical signal set (for example, the end position of the last downlink physical signal in the set), such as the last symbol or symbol index of the last downlink physical signal in the set, or the slot or slot index where the last downlink physical signal is located; herein, the first downlink physical signal or the edge position of the first downlink physical signal can be obtained based on the first information, for example, the number and positions of the first downlink physical signals configured in one configured period of the first downlink physical signal set can be obtained based on the indication information indicating the first downlink physical signal transmitted in the first downlink physical signal set, wherein the edge position is the symbol or symbol index corresponding to the position of the last downlink physical signal, or the slot or slot index where the last symbol is located.

[0168] - random access frequency domain resource related configuration includes at least one of the following: a number of ROs for random access, a frequency starting position of ROs for random access, for example, a frequency starting position of a first RO, and other ROs in frequency domain are obtained based on the position of the first RO, the size of frequency domain resources occupied by one RO, and / or the frequency domain interval between ROs.

[0169] - A first frequency position for indicating the frequency reference point of a random access resource (such as RO), which can include at least one of the following: an index for indicating the carrier frequency, and an index of a physical resource block, PRB).

[0170] - A first frequency offset, which is used to indicate the frequency offset between a random access resource (e.g., RO) and a frequency reference point. The unit of the first frequency offset can be a subcarrier, a physical resource block, and a physical resource block group (including a plurality of physical resource blocks), wherein the frequency reference point can be the first frequency position; it can also be a frequency reference point (second frequency position) specified in the protocol, such as the center frequency or the index of the lowest PRB or the frequency of the lowest subcarrier in the lowest PRB of the first physical downlink signal, or the center frequency of coreset #0 (Type 0 PDCCH) or the index of PRB where the center frequency is located or the index of lowest PRB or the frequency of lowest subcarrier in lowest PRB, the center frequency (PointA) of subcarrier # 0 of common resource block, the center frequency of the initial BWP(initial bandwidth part) or the index of the lowest PRB or the frequency of the lowest subcarrier in the lowest PRB, the center frequency of the first physical downlink signal in the primary cell (PCell) or the index of the lowest PRB or the frequency of the lowest subcarrier in the lowest PRB..

[0171] Preferably, the first uplink resource can be a single RO or a RO group, wherein one RO group includes multiple ROs, and the RO group can also be written as a RO set. Wherein, the resource configuration of the RO group can be at least one of the following: multiple time domain continuous ROs, multiple frequency domain continuous ROs, and multiple time-frequency domain continuous ROs.

[0172] - multiple time domain continuous ROs, where the number of time domain continuous ROs is N_t, where N_t can be configured by the base station, for example, N_t = 2, 4, 8, .... Alternatively, N_t can be selected according to the measurement result. For example, if the measured value of the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the synchronization signal of the received first physical downlink signal is greater than the power threshold value P_1, then N_t=2 is selected, that is, the same preamble is transmitted on two time domain continuous ROs in the RO group. Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example of a time domain RO group composed of time domain continuous ROs according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 5, RO group#0 includes RO#0 and RO#2 which are continuous in time domain; RO group#1 includes RO#1 and RO#3 which are continuous in time domain. The UE can choose to send the preamble on one RO group according to the above method, for example, it chooses to send the same preamble on RO group#0, that is, on RO#0 and RO#2.

[0173] - multiple frequency domain continuous ROs, where the number of frequency domain continuous ROs is N_f, where N_f can be configured by the base station, for example, N_f = 2, 4, 8, ..; Alternatively, N_f can be selected according to the measurement result. For example, if the measured value of the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the synchronization signal of the received first physical downlink signal is greater than the power threshold value P_2, then N_f=2 is selected, that is, the same preamble is transmitted on two frequency domain continuous ROs in the RO group. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of an example of a frequency domain RO group composed of frequency domain continuous ROs according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 6, RO group#0 includes RO#0 and RO#1 which are continuous in frequency domain; RO group#1 includes RO#2 and RO#3 which are continuous in frequency domain. According to the above method, UE can choose to send the preamble on one RO group, for example, choose to send the same preamble on RO group#0, that is, on RO#0 and RO#1.

[0174] - multiple time-frequency domain continuous ROs, where the number of time domain continuous ROs is N_tt and the number of frequency domain continuous ROs is N_ff, where N_tt can be configured by the base station, for example, N_tt = 2, 4, 8,. N_ff can be configured by the base station, for example, N_ff = 2, 4, 8,. Alternatively, N_tt and N_ff can be selected according to the measurement result. For example, if the measured value of the reference signal received power (RSRP) of the synchronization signal of the received first physical downlink signal is greater than the power threshold value P_3, then N_tt=2 and N_ff=2 are selected, that is, the same preamble is transmitted on four time-frequency domain continuous ROs in the RO group. Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an example of a time-frequency domain RO group composed of time-frequency domain continuous ROs according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 7, RO group#0 includes RO#0, RO#1, RO#2 and RO #3 which are continuous in time domain and frequency domain; RO group#1 includes RO#4, RO#5, RO#6 and RO#7 which are continuous in time domain and frequency domain, the UE can choose to send the preamble on one RO group according to the above method, for example, it can choose to send the same preamble on RO group #0, that is, RO#0, RO#1, RO#2 and RO#3.

[0175] The first configuration information also includes at least one of the following: a mapping ratio between a first downlink physical signal used for random access and a random access occasion (RO); random access related period; a random access preamble root sequence index for random access; a number of random access preambles for random access; cyclic shift related configuration of a random access preamble; power related configuration for random access; first indication information for indicating the configuration related to the first uplink resource; second indication information for indicating a cell mode; third indication information related to cell configuration.

[0176] Among them, the mapping ratio between the first downlink physical signal used for random access and the RO is used to indicate the mapping relationship between SSB and RO, for example, one SSB is mapped to one or more ROs, or multiple SSBs are mapped to one RO. For example, when the mapping ratio is 1, it means that RO and SSB are 1 to 1 mapping (or association); when the mapping ratio is 1 / 4, one SSB can be mapped to four ROs. The mapping ratio can be the mapping ratio for a single SSB, and the ratios between SSBs with different indexes and RO can be the same or different. For example, SSB#1 can be mapped to 2 ROs, SSB#2 can be mapped to 4 ROs, and SSB#3 can be mapped to 2 ROs.

[0177] The random access related period includes at least one of the following: random access configuration period, a mapping cycle of SSB-RO, an association period of SSB-RO, and an association pattern period of SSB-RO;

[0178] Herein, the number of random access preambles for random access, for example, the number of preambles for second random access on one RO;

[0179] Herein, the cyclic shift related configuration of a random access preamble includes at least one of the following: the configuration related to the restriction set and the configuration related to the zero correlation zone.

[0180] Herein, the power related configuration for random access includes at least one of the following: a power offset (which can enable the UE to increase the transmission power in the cell energy-saving mode and increase the probability of successful random access); a power threshold for repeated transmission; a target received power of preamble for random access, and path loss compensation coefficient alpha for random access (for example, alphaХ path loss, when alpha is less than 1, it means that partial path loss compensation is performed; when alpha=1, it means that all path loss compensation is performed; when alpha>1, it means that excess path loss compensation is performed. This scenario is beneficial to increase the UE's power when transmitting the preamble on the first uplink resource associated with the first downlink physical signal, when using the common preamble target received power); a power threshold of the first downlink physical signal; a power increase difference (delta value) for random access, the power ramping priority and / or step for the second random access, etc. The transmission power P is determined according to one or more of the target received power P0, the alpha Х the path loss, the delta, the power ramping step Х the number of retransmissions and the power offset. Optionally, the number of retransmissions can be set to a value which can increase the initial value in the cell energy-saving mode, for example, it can be set greater than or equal to 2 (which can enable the UE to increase the transmission power in the cell energy-saving mode and increase the probability of successful random access).

[0181] Preferably, the target received power and / or the power threshold of the first downlink physical signal can be determined based on the second indication information, for example, when the second indication information is 0, the target received power and / or the power threshold of the first downlink physical signal is -100 dB; when the second indication information is 1, the target received power and / or the power threshold of the first downlink physical signal is -200dB, wherein the target received power is used to determine the target received power of the receiver on the network side, and the power threshold of the first downlink physical signal is used to determine the selection of the first downlink physical signal and the corresponding first uplink resource based on the first downlink physical signal meeting the power threshold, and is used for path loss estimation and (re) transmission.

[0182] The first indication information is used to indicate the configuration related to the first uplink resource, for example, the first indication information can be an indication index indicating the configuration of the first uplink resource mapped by the first downlink physical signal for random access, wherein the configuration of the first uplink resource includes at least one of the following: the first time position, the first time offset, the first frequency position, the first frequency offset, the number of frequency domain RO occupied by the first uplink resource, the time starting position of the first uplink resource, the frequency starting position of the first uplink resource, the number of symbols occupied by a single RO, the format of the random access preamble, and the index indication of the first uplink resource, which can be used for the calculation of RA-RNTI.

[0183] The second indication information is used to indicate different modes of the cell. For example, the second indication information can be 1-bit information, where 0 indicates the cell energy-saving mode and 1 indicates that the cell is a non-energy-saving mode or a normal mode.

[0184] Preferably, the first uplink resource is a dedicated random access resource (dedicated RO) mapped by a first downlink physical signal for random access, wherein the received signal power(for example, the synchronous signal-reference signal received power (SS-RSRP) ) of the first downlink physical signal for random access is the highest among one or more received first downlink physical signals, or exceeds the power threshold, wherein the power threshold is a configurable parameter, and the configuration can be through RRC signaling. The dedicated RO can be a RO resource (RO or RO group) associated with the first downlink physical signal.

[0185] Preferably, the first uplink resource associated with the first downlink physical signal will be uniquely determined based on the first information and the second information carried in the first downlink physical signal. Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of determining the first uplink resource based on the 1-to-1 time domain offset of SSB and RO according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 8, four SSBs with indexes # 0 to # 3 are configured at the beginning of the system frame number (SFN) i. Different first uplink resources can be determined based on the first configuration information carried by SSBs with different indexes, for example, based on the first time offset (Nd_0) carried by SSB#0 and the ending position (the second time position) of the last symbol of SSB#0, the starting position of the first uplink resource associated with SSB#0 can be determined, and according to the number of time domain ROs occupied by the first uplink resource (for example, 1), the first uplink resource associated with SSB#0 can be determined as RO#0, where the index of SSB can be determined according to the index of the first downlink physical signal in the first information.

[0186] Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of determining a first uplink resource based on a second time reference point and a first time offset according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 9, four SSB (SSB bursts) with indexes #0~#3 are configured at the beginning position of system frame number (SFN) i. Based on the first time offset (Nd_0) and the second time position (e.g. the slot where the last symbol of SSB burst is located) carried by SSB#0, and the number of time domain RO occupied by the first uplink resource (e.g. 1), the first uplink resource associated with SSB#0 can be determined as RO#0.

[0187] In some examples, the method for determining the edge position of the first downlink physical signal in the second time position can be to determine the time domain position of the last downlink physical signal sent in the first downlink physical signal set (for example, the end position of the last downlink physical signal) based on the indication information in the first information for indicating the downlink physical signals sent in the first downlink physical signal set. Specifically, for example, the received indication information is a bitmap, where 1 means that the first downlink physical signal corresponding to the corresponding index in the first downlink physical signal set is configured as a transmission signal, and 0 means that the first downlink physical signal corresponding to the corresponding index in the first downlink physical signal set is configured as an unsent signal, for example, the indication information is [0,1,1,1,0,0,0,0], where the first downlink physical signals with the index of 1,2. 3 are configured to transmit, and the first downlink physical signals with indexes of 0, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are configured to not transmit, then the last first downlink physical signal in the first downlink physical signal set is the first downlink physical signal with index of 3.

[0188] In some examples, the frequency starting position of the first uplink resource can be determined according to the PCI, wherein the PCI is obtained according to the received first downlink physical signal.

[0189] Preferably, the frequency starting position of the first uplink resource can be determined based on a frequency reference point and a frequency offset relative to the frequency reference point, wherein the frequency reference point can be the first frequency position or the second frequency position, and the frequency offset can be the first frequency offset, and the unit of the frequency offset can be 1 PRB or a frequency domain resource occupied by one RO, for example, 3 PRBs.

[0190] In one method, the frequency offset can also be obtained by modulo operation based on the difference between different PCIs and the first value P, where the first value P can be a number preset in the protocol, such as P=10 or other positive integers. In one possible embodiment, in cell #0, PCI0=10 and in cell #1, PCI1=13, P=4, the frequency reference point is the second frequency position, for example, the index of the lowest PRB of the first physical downlink signal of the primary cell (cell #0) is K=0, and the unit of frequency offset is the frequency domain resource occupied by one RO, for example, three PRBs, then the frequency offset is equal to mod[(PCI1-PCI0),P]=mod(3,4)=3ROs (i.e. 9 PRBs).

[0191] Alternatively, the frequency offset can also be obtained by modulo operation based on the absolute value of the difference between different PCIs and the first value P, for example, the frequency offset is equal to mod[|(PCI1-PCI0)|,P]=mod(3,4)=3ROs (i.e. 9 PRBs).

[0192] In one method, the frequency offset can also be obtained based on the product of the difference between different PCIs and the first value P, where the first value P can be a number preset in the protocol, such as P=4 or other positive integers. In one possible embodiment, in cell #0, PCI0=10 and in cell #1, PCI1=13, P=4, the frequency reference point is the second frequency position, for example, the index of the lowest PRB of the first physical downlink signal of the primary cell (cell #0) is K=0, and the unit of frequency offset is the frequency domain resource occupied by one RO, for example, three PRBs, then the frequency offset is equal to (PCI1-PCI0)×P=1×4=4 ROs (i.e., 12 PRBs).

[0193] Alternatively, the frequency offset can also be obtained based on the product of the absolute value of the difference between different PCIs and the first value P, for example, the frequency offset is equal to |(PCI1-PCI0)|×P=1×4=4 ROs (i.e. 12 PRBs).

[0194] Alternatively, the frequency offset can also be obtained by modulo operation based on the difference between different PCIs and the first value P, where the first value P can be a number preset in the protocol, for example, P=10 or other positive integers. In one possible embodiment, in cell #0, PCI0=10 and in cell #1, PCI1=13, P=4, the frequency reference point is the second frequency position, for example, the index of the lowest PRB of the first physical downlink signal of the primary cell (cell #0) is K=0, and the unit of frequency offset is the frequency domain resource occupied by one RO, for example, three PRBs, then the frequency offset is equal to mod[(PCI1-PCI0),P]=mod(3,4)=3 ROs (i.e., 9 PRBs).

[0195] In some examples, the frequency starting position of the first uplink resource can also be determined according to the center frequency of the first downlink physical signal. For example, the frequency offset can be determined based on the difference of different central frequencies of the first downlink physical signals in different cells. For example, if the frequency of the first downlink physical signal in cell #0 is f0=700MHz (the frequency reference point) and the frequency of the first downlink physical signal in cell #1 is f1=705MHz, then the frequency offset is f1-f0=5MHz.

[0196] The above-mentioned determination of the frequency starting position of the first uplink resource according to the center frequency of the PCI or the first downlink physical signal has the beneficial effects that different cells (for example, a plurality of adjacent cells) can make the RO between cells be frequency-division multiplexed RO through different frequency starting positions, and even if different cells can configure the same root sequence index, the UE in different cells can still send the same preamble on the frequency-division multiplexed RO without conflict, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of root sequence index configuration and saving the resources of the root sequence.

[0197] Step 402: transmit a random access preamble based on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is determined based on the first information and the second information. Specifically, the random access resource is a first uplink resource associated with a first downlink physical signal.

[0198] In some examples, the UE can send a single preamble on the first uplink resource, for example, the first uplink resource associated with the first downlink physical signal is a single RO, which has the beneficial effects of ensuring that all the first downlink physical signals with different indexes can be mapped with at least one RO under the condition of limited RO resources, which is beneficial to the optimization of random access by the base station and reduces the random access delay.

[0199] In some examples, the UE may repeatedly send a preamble on the first uplink resource, for example, the first uplink resource associated with the first downlink physical signal is a RO group, and all ROs in the RO group are associated with the same index of the first downlink physical signal, and the same preamble is sent on the RO group. For example, the first uplink resource includes N time domain continuous ROs, and the UE sends the same preamble on the N time domain continuous ROs, which has the advantage that the base station can receive the same preamble on different ROs and combine all the received preambles to generate a combining gain, thus improving the reliability of random access and further improving the success rate of random access.

[0200] Fig. 10 is a schematic diagram of the 1-to-many association of SSB and RO according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 10, three SSBs with indexes # 0 to # 2 are configured at the beginning of the system frame number (SFN) i. Based on the received SS-RSRP of SSBs, the UE can determine SSBs for random access, such as SSB#0, where the index of SSB is determined according to the index of the first downlink physical signal included in the first information. The UE can obtain the first information and the second information based on the received SSB#0. Based on the first information and the second information, it can be determined that the distance between the first uplink resource associated with SSB#0 and the end position of the last symbol of SSB#0 is Nd_0 slots (the first time offset), and the number of time domain ROs occupied by the first uplink resource is 2 (RO#0, and RO#1, where RO#0 and RO#1 can be used as a RO group), the UE sends the same preamble on RO#0 and RO#1.

[0201] In some examples, the first uplink resource can be judged to get an effective RO according to the aforementioned RO validity rule.

[0202] In some examples, the first uplink resource can be considered as all valid ROs.

[0203] In some examples, the preamble can be a preamble preset in the protocol, for example, one is selected from a predefinednumber (e.g., 64 or 128) preambles.

[0204] In some examples, the preamble can be generated according to a cyclic shift and a root sequence index, wherein the cyclic shift can be obtained according to a configuration related to the restriction set and a configuration related to the zero correlation zone; Alternatively, the cyclic shift is a preset cyclic shift in the protocol; Alternatively, the configuration related to the restriction set and the configuration related to the zero correlation zone are preset configurations in the protocol, and a cyclic shift can be determined for generating the preamble according to the preset configuration.

[0205] Herein, the root sequence index can be generated based on the reference root sequence index and PCI. The reference root sequence index can be the root sequence index preset in the protocol, and the cell root sequence index can be obtained by performing modular operation on the reference root sequence index and PCI. The method has the advantages that the configuration of the root sequence index of each cell can be omitted, and each cell can determine a different root sequence index through the modular operation of PCI and reference root sequence index, thus reducing the interference that may be generated between cells in the same random access resource.

[0206] In one method, a cell root sequence index = a reference root sequence index mod PCI. For example, if the PCI of cell #1 is 100, the PCI of cell #2 is 101, the PCI of cell #3 is 102, and the reference root sequence index is 100, then the root sequence index of cell #1 is 100 mod 100 =0, the root sequence index of cell #2 is 100 mod 101 = 1, and the root sequence index of cell #3 is 100 mod 102 = 2. Preferably, the PCI of the cell is greater than or equal to the reference root sequence index.

[0207] Alternatively, a cell root sequence index = (a reference root sequence index mod PCI) × scaling factor, where the scaling factor can be a preset value in the protocol, such as 10, then the root sequence index of cell #1 is （100 mod 100）×10=0, the root sequence index of cell #2 is （100 mod 101）×10=10, and the root sequence index of cell #3 is （100 mod 102）×10=20.

[0208] In one method, a cell root sequence index =PCI mod a reference root sequence index. For example, if the PCI of cell #1 is 100, the PCI of cell #2 is 101, the PCI of cell #3 is 102, and the reference root sequence index is 10, then the root sequence index of cell #1 is 100 mod 10 =0, the root sequence index of cell #2 is 101 mod 10 = 1, and the root sequence index of cell #3 is 102 mod 10 = 2. Preferably, the PCI of the cell is greater than or equal to the reference root sequence index.

[0209] Alternatively, a cell root sequence index =(PCI mod a reference root sequence index) × scaling factor, where the scaling factor can be a preset value in the protocol, such as 10, then the root sequence index of cell #1 is （100 mod 10）×10=0, the root sequence index of cell #2 is （101 mod 10）×10=10, and the root sequence index of cell #3 is （102 mod 10）×10=20.

[0210] In some examples, the format of the preamble can be random access preamble format information included in the first uplink resource configuration indicated by the first indication information; Alternatively, it is preset according to the frequency range of the frequency bands in the protocol. For example, the preamble format is fixed to format 0 or other predefinedformats in FR1, and the preamble format is predefined to format C2 or other predefined formats in FR2.

[0211] In some examples, the preamble configuration can be determined according to a cell mode, wherein the cell mode can be determined according to the second indication information. For example, when the cell is in the energy-saving mode, a first preamble selected from a group of dedicated preambles is used, and the group of dedicated preambles can be a group of preambles for the energy-saving mode.

[0212] In some examples, the information on the cell entering the NES mode can be determined according to the signaling notification, which can be divided into dynamic signaling notification or RRC signaling notification, and also divided into for the connected UE and for the disconnected UE. For example, for a connected UE, the information of NES cell change is received, which can be notified by dedicated RRC signaling or DCI.

[0213] The UE can receive a dedicated random access resource indication (second configuration information), and the second configuration information is related to a second feature, such as SBFD, NES, etc., but not limited thereto. In this description, NES is described as an example of the second feature for convenience of expression and easy understanding.

[0214] The random access preamble is transmitted according to the received dedicated random access resources. The UE can obtain the UE dedicated random access resource indication through at least one of the following: a PDCCH command (for example, a PDCCH order), a MAC control element (MAC CE), and RRC higher layersignaling.

[0215] In some examples, the UE dedicated random access resource indication can include at least one of the following: a second downlink physical signal index; a second uplink resource index indication; a dedicated preamble index (also called the index of the first preamble); a dedicated RNTI indication (also called the indication of the first RNTI); a preamble transmission resource.

[0216] In some examples, the first / second uplink resource associated with the first / second downlink physical signal index correspond to a first time range, that is, the second uplink resource associated with the first / second downlink physical signal index are valid within the first time range. The association refers to the random access resource (the first uplink resource / second uplink resource) associated with the first / second downlink physical signal determined based on the first configuration information.

[0217] The first time range includes a mapping cycle of the first / second downlink physical signal-random access occasion RO, or an association period, or an association pattern period, or a preset number of time units (such as one slot), or a random access configuration period.

[0218] Preferably, the second uplink resource index mapped by the second downlink physical signal index can be one RO or multiple RO indexes, and can be odd or even indexes.

[0219] In some examples, the second uplink resource index indication can include, for example, a second uplink resource index within a certain time period.

[0220] The second uplink resource index can be a time domain independent index; or a frequency domain independent index or a time-frequency two-dimensional joint index.

[0221] Preferably, the second uplink resource index can include at least one of the following: an index of a single RO, an index of N continuous ROs (n is a positive integer), and an index of the first (e.g., starting) RO of N continuous ROs; the subsequent N-1 ROs can be obtained in turn.

[0222] In some examples, the dedicated preamble index includes a dedicated preamble index configured for the UE, indicating the UE to select a preamble corresponding to the index for transmission.

[0223] In some examples, the dedicated RNTI indication includes the RNTI configured for the UE to use when searching for and receiving the feedback from the base station (such as the feedback PDCCH, etc.).

[0224] In some examples, the configuration of preamble transmission resources (including time-frequency resources and / or preamble resources and / or transmission power related) can include at least one of the following:

[0225] - a time unit interval, for example, an interval value between the time unit where the configured preamble transmission resource (for example, the RO where the preamble is located) is located and the time unit where the downlink resource to receive the UE dedicated random access resource indication is located; For example, the time unit where the preamble transmission resource is located can be determined by the interval and the time unit where the downlink resource to receive the UE dedicated random access resource indication is located;

[0226] - On the time unit (e.g. slot) where the preamble transmission resource is located, the starting symbol of RO transmitted by the preamble can be indicated by an index value of the symbol on the time unit, or can be obtained the number of symbol intervals indicating the starting symbol from the starting position of the time unit;

[0227] - The number of time units and / or frequency domain units occupied by one RO;

[0228] - The format index of the random access preamble, for indicating the format used by the configured preamble, wherein the optional items of the format are predefined, and each optional item can obtain the number of time units and / or frequency domain units occupied by the preamble format;

[0229] - a root sequence index of the preamble;

[0230] - a length of the preamble, such as 839 or 139, etc.

[0231] - a subcarrier spacing of the preamble;

[0232] -a period of the preamble transmission resource.

[0233] The method according to the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure described in connection with Fig. 4 can further include that the UE receives feedback information from the base station, specifically including at least one of the following: the UE uses the second RNTI to detect the feedback information; the UE searches the feedback of the base station in the specified control resource set (COREST) and / or search space. The specified control resource set and / or search space can be dedicated to NES UE (e.g., supported by NES UE); or NES random access dedicated (e.g., random access configuration used by base station in power saving mode).

[0234] Preferably, the UE searches for feedback from the base station in the specified search window, where the UE can be a support. For example, the feedback information can include at least one of the following: Random Access Response (RAR), Message 2, or Message B. The specified search window can be dedicated to NES UE (e.g., supported by NES UE); or NES random access dedicated (e.g., random access configuration used by base station in power saving mode). Specifically, it includes the starting point of time unit and / or the length of time unit of the search window.

[0235] In some embodiments, the second RNTI includes at least one of:

[0236] -a random access radio network temporary identifier RA-RNTI calculated according to the first / second uplink resource used for transmitting the preamble. One possible way to calculate RA-RNTI is that RA-RNTI = 1 + s_id + 14 Х t_id + 14 Х 80 Х f_id + 14 Х 80 Х 8 Х ul_carrier_id, where s_id is the index of the first symbol of the first / second uplink resource, for example, an index of the OFDM symbol. t_id is the slot index including the first / second uplink resource, f_id is the index including the first / second uplink resource in the frequency domain, and ul_carrier_id is the UL carrier used for random access preamble transmission (0 for NUL carrier and 1 for SUL carrier).

[0237] -a RA-RNTI calculated according to the first / second uplink resource used for transmitting the preamble and calculated according to a feature index or a feature group index. A possible way to calculate RA-RNTI is that RA-RNTI = 1 + s_id + 14 Х t_id + 14 Х 80 Х f_id + 14 Х 80 Х 8 Х ul_carrier_id+14 Х 80 Х k Х2Хfeature_id, where k is the maximum value of f_id, for example, k=8. The feature_id is obtained by logical index of one or more features or feature combinations configured by the base station for random access. For example, the base station can configure the feature_id for NES as feature_id =0, and the feature_id for message 3 repetition as feature_id= 1, respectively, for two features NES and message 3 repetition.

[0238] -a RA-RNTI calculated according to the index indication of the first / second uplink resource, wherein the index indication of the first / second uplink resource can indicate the time domain index value t_ii and the frequency domain index value f_ii of a group of random resources (ROs), and one possible way to calculate the RA-RNTI is that RA-RNTI = 1 + s_id + 14 Х t_ii + 14 Х 80 Х f_ii + 14 Х 80 Х 8 Х ul_carrier_id. Or, another possible calculation method is that RA-RNTI = 1 + s_id + 14 Х t_ii + 14 Х 80 Х f_ii + 14 Х 80 Х 8 Х ul_carrier_id+14 Х 80 Х k Х 2 Х feature_id, where k is the maximum value of f_id, for example, k=8. The feature_id is obtained by logical index of one or more features or feature combinations configured by the base station for random access. For example, the base station can configure the feature_id for NES as feature_id =0, and the feature_id for message 3 repetition as feature_id= 1, respectively, for two features NES and message 3 repetition.

[0239] -a temporary identifier C-RNTI of the cell radio network, for example, the UE uses the C-RNTI configured by the base station to receive the feedback from the base station;

[0240] -the aforementioned dedicated RNTI (i.e., the first RNTI), for example, is configured in the dedicated random access resource configured by the base station to receive feedback from the base station.

[0241] The method provided by various embodiments of the present disclosure can alleviate the problem of a large random access delay caused by the long-period SSB burst set or the random access channel, ensure that the base station has a long idle time of not sending SSB signals and receiving uplink signals on the random access channel, and realize network energy saving.

[0242] In some examples, the UE can determine the cell configuration preset in the protocol based on the third indication information in the second information. Preferably, N cell configuration information can be preset in the protocol, and the third indication information can be an index indication for indicating one of the N different cell configurations, where N is greater than or equal to 1, and different cell configurations can be determined based on different cell features, for example, according to different cell energy-saving requirements. The advantage of this is that the network does not need to periodically send system information block (such as SIB1 (system information block 1)) to inform the UE about the configuration information related to the cell, and the UE does not need to read the configuration information related to the cell by receiving the system information blocks, but directly determines the predefined configuration of the cell through the third indication information, thus saving the overhead of sending system information blocks periodically by the cell and realizing network energy saving.

[0243] In some examples, the UE can also receive resource configuration information for receiving the system information block (e.g., SIB1), including at least one of the following: configuration information of a PDCCH for receiving the system information block, and resource information of a PDSCH for receiving the system information block. Herein, the resource configuration of the system information block can be included in at least one of the following: Random Access Response (RAR), Message 2, or Message B, a broadcast physical channel, and UE dedicated RRC signaling.

[0244] Fig. 11 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 500 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0245] The terminal is an electronic device capable of wireless communication, may include a User Equipment (UE), a portable phone, a smartphone, a tablet, an Internet of things (IoT) device, etc., having various form factors, and may perform wireless communication with a base station (BS) through a wireless channel.

[0246] Referring to FIG. 11, the UE 500 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply "transceiver") 501, at least one controller (hereinafter, referred to as simply "controller") 502, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply "memory") 503. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 501, the controller 502, and the memory 503 of the UE 500 may operate. However, components of the UE 500 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 5. In another embodiment, the UE 500 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 501, the controller 502, or the memory 503 may be integrated in the form of one component. The user equipment 500 may be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, so as to enable it to perform the method performed by the user equipment described in the present disclosure.

[0247] The transceiver 501 is configured to transmit and receive signals to and from the outside. The transceiver 501 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 500 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 501 may enable the UE 500 to transmit or receive a signal to or from a BS through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another UE through cellular communication. For example, the transceiver 501 may support at least one of various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (501) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.

[0248] According to an embodiment, the UE 500 may include a plurality of transceivers. For example, in the case of supporting evolved-universal terrestrial radio access-new radio (E-UTRA-NR) sual connectivity (EN-DC), the UE 500 may include a first transceiver supporting the 4G LTE wireless communication and a second transceiver supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to another embodiment, in the case of supporting NR-dual connectivity (NR-DC), the UE 500 may include a plurality of transceivers supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to still another embodiment, in the case of supporting near field wireless communication, the UE 500 may separately include a transceiver supporting at least one standard in the group of wireless communication protocol standards as defined in the protocol standards for Bluetooth®, wireless local area network (WLAN) network (including institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11-2016 standard or its amendments, e.g., 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be, without being limited thereto).

[0249] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 501 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a BS through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 501 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 501 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the controller 502 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the controller 502.

[0250] The controller 502 may control general operations of the UE 500 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The controller 502 is configured to perform the method performed by the user equipment described above. The controller 502 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The controller 502 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 503, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the controller 502 may include a single-core controller or multi-core controller, and may include a controller assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0251] The controller 502 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 501 to control the transceiver 501.

[0252] The controller 502 may include at least one controller (or processing circuitry), and the at least one controller may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. For example, the controller 502 may include a communication controller (CP) configured to control communication operations and an application controller (AP) configured to control execution of an upper layer (for example, an application layer) . In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the controller 502 may be included in one chip and the other part of the controller 502 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one controller may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 501 or the memory 503.

[0253] The controller 502 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 500 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the controller 502 may control operations of the UE 500 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the controller 502 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 503, so as to control other components of the UE 500 to enable execution of various operations.

[0254] The memory 503 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 503 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0255] The memory 503 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the controller 502 and may be accessed by the controller 502.

[0256] The memory 503 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the controller 502. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the controller 502 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 503, the controller 502 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0257] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 500 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 503 by at least one controller (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0258] Fig. 12 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 600 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0259] The BS 600 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 600 through a wireless channel.

[0260] Referring to FIG. 12, the BS 600 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply "transceiver") 601, at least one controller (hereinafter, referred to as simply "controller") 602, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply "memory") 603. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 601, the controller 602, and the memory 603 of the BS 600 may operate. However, components of the BS 600 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 6. In another embodiment, the BS 600 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 601, the controller 602, or the memory 603 may be integrated in the form of one component. The base station 600 may be implemented in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software, so that it can perform the method described by the base station in this disclosure.

[0261] The transceiver 601 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 600 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. The transceiver 601 is configured to transmit and receive signals to and from the outside. For example, the transceiver 601 may enable the BS 600 to transmit or receive a signal to or from the UE 500 through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another network entity through wireless communication. For example, the transceiver 601 may support various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (601) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 601 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a UE through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 601 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 601 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the controller 602 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the controller 602.

[0262] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the BS 600 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 600 may perform wired or wireless communication with an adjacent BS, or a node or an entity of a core network through a backhaul network. Although not illustrated in FIG. 6, when the BS 600 performs wired communication, the BS 600 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 601. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.

[0263] The controller 602 may control general operations of the BS 600 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The controller 602 is configured to perform the method performed by the base station described above. The controller 602 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The controller 602 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 603, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the controller 602 may include a single-core controller or multi-core controller, and may include a controller assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0264] The controller 602 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 601 to control the transceiver 601.

[0265] The controller 602 may include at least one controller (or processing circuitry), and the at least one controller may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the controller 602 may be included in one chip and the other part of the controller 602 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one controller may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 601 or the memory 603.

[0266] The controller 602 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 600 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the controller 602 may control operations of the BS 600 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 600 may transmit or receive a signal to or from a neighboring BS, transfer a signal received from a UE to an upper node of the network, or transmit a signal transferred from an upper node of the network to a UE. To this end, the controller 602 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 603, so as to control other components of the BS 600 to enable execution of various operations.

[0267] The memory 603 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 603 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0268] The memory 603 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the controller 602 and may be accessed by the controller 602.

[0269] The memory 603 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the controller 602. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the controller 602 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributely stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 603, the controller 602 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0270] The UE or the base station may perform various communication procedures related to the control plane or the user plane by cooperating with one or more network entities based on wireless communication. For example, the UE may communicate with network entity such as an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) or a Session Management Function (SMF) via the base station, or the base station may perform at least one communication procedure by directly transmitting and receiving signals to / from, or relaying signals between, the network entities.

[0271] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0272] Fig. 13 is a block diagram of a network entity 1300 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0273] The network entity 1300 may include an entity (apparatus, device, or server, etc.) that performs one or more network functions (NFs) or a part of a network function constituting a core network (e.g., a 5th generation (5G) core (5GC)) in a communication system. In this case, multiple NFs may be implemented within a single network entity, or a single NF may be distributed and implemented across a plurality of network entities. In addition, when an NF is implemented within the network entity, the NF may be implemented in the form of software, and in such a case, a program for operating the NF may be stored in memory of the network entity 1300.

[0274] A single NF may be implemented by one or more instances, which may be deployed on the same network entity or distributed across multiple network entities to operate. The instance may be a software unit that logically executes a specific network function, and may be implemented in a form that is decoupled from physical hardware resources. Further, one or more NFs may be implemented in the form of one network slice to operate to satisfy specifications required by a particular service.

[0275] The NF may include at least one of an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a local session management function (L-SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a local user plane function (L-UPF), a policy control function (PCF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF), a network repository function (NRF), an application function (AF), a network slice selection function (NSSF), a network data analytics function (NWDAF), a network slice admission control function (NSACF), an authentication server function (AUSF), or a data network (DN).

[0276] Referring to FIG. 13, the network entity 1300 may include at least one network interface 1301, at least one processor 1302 (hereinafter, "processor"), and at least one memory 1303 (hereinafter, "memory"). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 1300, or may be virtualized and executed in the form of an instance. When implemented as an instance, the NF need not necessarily include physical components as illustrated in FIG. 13. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.

[0277] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the network interface 1301, the processor 1302, and the memory 1303 of the network entity 1300 may operate. However, components of the network entity 1300 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 13. In another embodiment, the network entity 1300 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in an embodiment, the network interface 1301, the processor 1302, or the memory 1303 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0278] The network interface 1301 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 1300 and a receiver part of the network entity 1300, and may be a communication circuit for transmitting or receiving a signal to or from a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), or another network entity. Here, the communication circuit may include both a communication circuit for wireless communication and a communication circuit for a wired communication. For example, the network interface 1301 may include a circuit, logic, hardware, etc., configured to exchange a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless communication or wired communication. The network interface 1301 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 1301 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.

[0279] The processor 1302 may control general operations of the network entity 1300 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1302 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 1302 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1303, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1302 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme. Further, it should be noted that, according to another embodiment, in a case where NF is implemented in the form of an instance, the network function may be not necessarily configured by physical hardware.

[0280] According to an embodiment, the processor 1302 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the network interface 1301 to control the network interface 1301.

[0281] The processor 1302 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1302 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 1302 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the network interface 1301 or the memory 1303.

[0282] The processor 1302 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 1300 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1302 may control operations of the network entity 1300 for exchanging a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless or wired communication, using various protocols (e.g., NAS protocol). To this end, the processor 1302 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1303, so as to control other components of the network entity 1300 to enable execution of various operations.

[0283] The memory 1303 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1303 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0284] The memory 1303 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 1302 and may be accessed by the processor 1302.

[0285] The memory 1303 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1302. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1302 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1303, the processor 1302 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0286] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 1300 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1303 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0287] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 600 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 603 by at least one controller (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0288] According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising: obtaining first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal; transmitting a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.

[0289] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the second information includes at least one of the following: information related to a time reference point; information related to a frequency reference point; a first time offset of the random access resource relative to the time reference point; a first frequency offset of the random access resource relative to the frequency reference point; a number of frequency domain random access occasions (RO) occupied by the random access resource; a time starting position of the random access resource; a frequency starting position of the random access resource; a number of symbols occupied by a single RO; a format of random access preamble; an index indication of a first random access resource.

[0290] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the first configuration information further includes at least one of the following: a mapping ratio between a first downlink physical signal used for random access and a random access occasion (RO); period related information for random access; a random access preamble root sequence index for random access; a number of random access preambles for random access; cyclic shift related configuration of a random access preamble; power related configuration for random access; first indication information associated with the second information; second indication information for indicating a cell mode; third indication information related to cell configuration.

[0291] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the time reference point is a time domain end position of the first downlink physical signal, and the frequency reference point is a center frequency of the first downlink physical signal.

[0292] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the first configuration information is included in a physical broadcast channel in the first downlink physical signal; wherein a first part of an index of the first downlink physical signal is included in the first information, and a second part of the index of the first downlink physical signal is included in a reference signal in the first downlink physical signal.

[0293] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein a frequency starting position of the random access resource is obtained according to a frequency reference point and a frequency offset, wherein the frequency reference point is included in the second information or is preset; wherein the frequency offset is included in the second information or obtained according to at least one of the following: a physical cell ID (PCI); a center frequency of the first downlink physical signal.

[0294] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the random access preamble is generated based on a root sequence index, wherein the root sequence index is determined based on a physical cell ID (PCI) and a reference root sequence.

[0295] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein a format of the preamble is associated with a frequency range of frequency bands.

[0296] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the power related configuration for random access comprises at least one of the following: a power offset; a number of retransmissions associated with a cell mode; a power threshold of the first downlink physical signal associated with a cell mode; a target received power of the preamble associated with a cell mode.

[0297] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the random access resource includes at least one of the following: multiple ROs in continuous time; multiple ROs in continuous frequency domain; multiple ROs in continuous time and frequency domain.

[0298] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the method further comprises: receiving second configuration information related to a first feature, wherein the second configuration information includes at least one of the following: an index of a second downlink physical signal; an index indication of a second random access resource; an index of a first preamble; an indication of first RNTI; a preamble transmission resource.

[0299] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the method further comprises: detecting feedback information from a base station using a second RNTI, wherein the second RNTI includes at least one of the following: RA-RNTI determined based on at least one of a time domain index and / or a frequency domain index of at least one RO, a feature index and a feature group index.

[0300] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the at least one RO is associated with an index indication configured by the base station.

[0301] According to the method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system provided by the present disclosure, wherein the method further comprises: receiving third configuration information, wherein the third configuration information includes information of a resource of a system information block; wherein the third configuration information is received via at least one of the following: random access response (RAR), message 2, message B, a broadcast physical channel, and UE dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling.

[0302] According to an aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising: transmitting first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal; receiving a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.

[0303] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment UE comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals with the outside; and a controller configured to control the transceiver to perform the above method performed by the UE.

[0304] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a base station comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals with the outside; and a controller configured to control the transceiver to perform the above method performed by the base station.

[0305] According to another aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored thereon a program which, when being executed by a computer, performs any of the above methods.

[0306] Those skilled in the art will understand that the illustrative embodiments described above are described herein and are not intended to be limiting. It should be understood that any two or more of the embodiments disclosed herein can be combined in any combination. In addition, other embodiments can be utilized and other changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readily understood that aspects of the present invention of the present disclosure, as generally described herein and shown in the accompanying drawings, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated and designed in various different configurations, all of which are contemplated herein.

[0307] Those skilled in the art will understand that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and steps described in the present application can be implemented as hardware, software, or a combination of both. In order to clearly illustrate this interchangeability between hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are generally described above in the form of their function set. Whether such a function set is implemented as hardware or software depends on the specific application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled people can implement the described function set in different ways for each specific application, but such design decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

[0308] The various illustrative logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in the present application can be implemented in a general-purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware component, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors cooperating with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0309] The steps of the method or technique described in the present application can be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of both. Software modules may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, register, hard disk, removable disk, or any other form of storage media known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to a processor to enable the processor to read and write information from / to the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in the UE. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in the UE as discrete components.

[0310] In one or more exemplary designs, the described functions can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, each function can be stored on or transferred by a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or codes. Computer-readable media include both computer storage media and communication media, which includes any media that facilitates the transfer of computer programs from one place to another. The storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer.

[0311] What has been described above is only an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, and is not used to limit the protection scope of the present disclosure, which is determined by the appended claims.

[0312] Meanwhile, although specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1.A method performed by user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:obtaining first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal; andtransmitting a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.2.The method of claim 1, wherein the second information includes at least one of the following:information related to a time reference point;information related to a frequency reference point;a first time offset of the random access resource relative to the time reference point;a first frequency offset of the random access resource relative to the frequency reference point;a number of frequency domain random access occasions (RO) occupied by the random access resource;a time starting position of the random access resource;a frequency starting position of the random access resource;a number of symbols occupied by a single RO;a format of random access preamble;an index indication of a first random access resource.3.The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration information further includes at least one of the following:a mapping ratio between a first downlink physical signal used for random access and a random access occasion (RO);period related information for random access;a random access preamble root sequence index for random access;a number of random access preambles for random access;cyclic shift related configuration of a random access preamble;power related configuration for random access;first indication information associated with the second information;second indication information for indicating a cell mode;third indication information related to cell configuration, andwherein the power related configuration for random access comprises at least one of the following:a power offset;a number of retransmissions associated with a cell mode;a power threshold of the first downlink physical signal associated with a cell mode;a target received power of the preamble associated with a cell mode.4.The method of claim 2, wherein the time reference point is a time domain end position of the first downlink physical signal, and the frequency reference point is a center frequency of the first downlink physical signal.5.The method of claim 1, wherein the first configuration information is included in a physical broadcast channel in the first downlink physical signal;wherein a first part of an index of the first downlink physical signal is included in the first information, and a second part of the index of the first downlink physical signal is included in a reference signal in the first downlink physical signal.6.The method of claim 1, wherein a frequency starting position of the random access resource is obtained according to a frequency reference point and a frequency offset,wherein the frequency reference point is included in the second information or is preset;wherein the frequency offset is included in the second information or obtained according to at least one of the following:a physical cell ID (PCI);a center frequency of the first downlink physical signal.7.The method of claim 1, wherein the random access preamble is generated based on a root sequence index,wherein the root sequence index is determined based on a physical cell ID (PCI) and a reference root sequence.8.The method of claim 1, wherein a format of the preamble is associated with a frequency range of frequency bands.9.The method of claim 1, wherein the random access resource includes at least one of the following: multiple ROs in continuous time; multiple ROs in continuous frequency domain; multiple ROs in continuous time and frequency domain.10.The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:receiving second configuration information related to a first feature, wherein the second configuration information includes at least one of the following:an index of a second downlink physical signal;an index indication of a second random access resource;an index of a first preamble;an indication of first RNTI;a preamble transmission resource.11.The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:detecting feedback information from a base station using a second RNTI, wherein the second RNTI includes at least one of the following:RA-RNTI determined based on at least one of a time domain index and / or a frequency domain index of at a least one RO, a feature index and a feature group index, andwherein the at least one RO is associated with an index indication configured by the base station.12.The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:receiving third configuration information, wherein the third configuration information includes information of a resource of a system information block;wherein the third configuration information is received via at least one of the following: random access response (RAR), message 2, message B, a broadcast physical channel, and UE dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling.13.A method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising:transmitting first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal;receiving a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.14.A user equipment (UE) comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to:obtain first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal,transmit a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.15.A base station comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the base station to:transmit first configuration information including first information related to a first downlink physical signal and second information related to a random access resource, wherein the first configuration information is included in the first downlink physical signal;receive a random access preamble on the random access resource, wherein the random access resource is associated with a resource of the first downlink physical signal.

Images