Communication method and communication apparatus

Abstract

Embodiments of the present application relate to the technical field of communications, and disclose a communication method and a communication apparatus, which can reduce the power consumption of a terminal device blindly detecting a PDCCH. In the method, the complexity of PDCCH blind detection can be reduced by means of indicating a range in which PDCCH blind detection is required and / or not required, or the complexity of PDCCH blind detection can be reduced by means of indicating whether PDCCH blind detection is required, thereby preventing unnecessary PDCCH blind detection.

Description

A communication method and a communication apparatus

[0001] The present application claims priority to the Chinese Patent Application No. 202410892866.1, filed on July 3, 2024, and entitled "A communication method and a communication apparatus", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method and a communication apparatus. BACKGROUND

[0003] Terminal equipment performs physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) blind detection, which is a necessary process for terminal equipment to obtain uplink and downlink scheduling information. PDCCH blind detection is performed by terminal equipment in a predetermined control resource set (CORESET) and search space using predetermined rules, usually with a large number of blind detections, and the power consumption of blind detection PDCCH accounts for a high proportion of the overall energy consumption of terminal equipment. Therefore, how to reduce the power consumption of terminal equipment blind detection PDCCH is a problem that needs to be solved. SUMMARY

[0004] The present application provides a communication method and a communication apparatus, which can reduce the power consumption of terminal equipment blind detection PDCCH.

[0005] In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, and the execution subject of the method can be a terminal-side apparatus, which is terminal equipment, or a component or apparatus (such as a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) applied to terminal equipment, or a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of terminal equipment. The method comprises: receiving a low-power signal, the low-power signal comprising first information; the first information indicating a range of physical downlink control channels that need to be monitored, and / or a range of physical downlink control channels that do not need to be monitored; and determining the range of physical downlink control channels that need to be monitored or do not need to be monitored based on the low-power signal.

[0006] In the present application, the physical downlink control channel can be PDCCH, or in future communication systems, PDCCH can be replaced by other names.

[0007] In the present application, terminal equipment can include a main receiver (MR) and a low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR / LR), and the low-power signal can be received by the LP-WUR.

[0008] In this application, the MR can also be understood as a main radio, a main receiver, a main communication module, a main circuit, or the like. The MR can be used to receive or transmit signaling, data, measurement signals, and the like.

[0009] The LP-WUR can also be understood as a low-power radio, a wake-up receiver (WUR), a wake-up circuit, a low-power radio (LP-R) module, an auxiliary communication module, an auxiliary circuit, or the like. The working power consumption of the LP-WUR is much lower than that of the MR. The LR is used to receive or transmit low-power signals (such as low-power wake-up signals, low-power synchronization signals, or low-power measurement signals), wake up the MR, or trigger the MR to enter a sleep state, and the like.

[0010] Therefore, in this application, the terminal-side device does not need to monitor all candidate PDCCHs in the preconfigured PDCCH range, but can monitor part of the PDCCHs after determining the range of the PDCCHs to be monitored or the range of the PDCCHs not to be monitored according to the first information. In this way, the number of times of blind detection of the PDCCHs by the terminal-side device can be reduced, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal-side device in blind detection of the PDCCHs.

[0011] In a possible design, the range of the physical downlink control channel includes at least one of the following: a downlink control information type; an aggregation level; a downlink control information size; a candidate set of the physical downlink control channel; a format of a wireless network temporary identifier; a secondary carrier; a carrier number group; a carrier number; a subset of a search space; a search space group; a relative position of the physical downlink control channel and a low-power signal; an absolute position of the physical downlink control channel; a subset of a time domain position; a subset of a frequency domain position; a subset of resources in a resource block of a control resource set; one of multiple control resource sets; one of multiple bandwidth parts; and a subset in one bandwidth part. The range of the physical downlink control channel in this application is not limited to the examples herein, but can also be other examples. In this way, the terminal-side device does not need to monitor all physical downlink control channels, but can monitor or not monitor the physical downlink control channels in the range according to the range of the physical downlink control channel, so as to reduce the complexity of blind detection of the physical downlink control channel by the terminal-side device.

[0012] In a possible design, the first information indicates that, in a first time period, the range of the physical downlink control channel needs to be monitored, and / or the range of the physical downlink control channel does not need to be monitored. The first time period can be pre-defined or configured by a higher layer, or can be carried in the first information, which is not limited in this application. In this way, the complexity of blind detection of the physical downlink control channel by the terminal-side device in the first time period can be reduced, so as to reduce the power consumption of the terminal-side device in blind detection of the physical downlink control channel.

[0013] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided. The execution subject of the method can be a terminal-side device, which is a terminal device, or a component or device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system) applied to the terminal device, or a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the terminal device functions. The method includes: receiving a low-power signal, the low-power signal including second information, the second information indicating monitoring or not monitoring a physical downlink control channel; and determining whether to monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the low-power signal.

[0014] Thus, in this application, when the terminal-side device determines not to monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the second information in the low-power signal, the terminal-side device can avoid performing invalid physical downlink control channel monitoring, thereby reducing the complexity of the terminal-side device in blindly detecting the physical downlink control channel, i.e., reducing the power consumption of the terminal-side device in blindly detecting the physical downlink control channel.

[0015] Moreover, in the case where the terminal device includes an MR and an LP-WUR, the MR of the terminal device does not need to be in a normal working state all the time, and can be determined whether to enter the normal working state to monitor the PDCCH according to the second information in the low-power signal. That is, when the LP-WUR determines that the second information indicates not monitoring the physical downlink control channel, no wake-up signal is sent to the MR to avoid the terminal device performing invalid physical downlink control channel blind detection.

[0016] In a possible design, the second information indicates monitoring or not monitoring the physical downlink control channel in a first time period. The first time period can be predefined or configured by a higher layer, or can be carried in the second information, which is not limited in this application. In this way, when the terminal-side device does not monitor the physical downlink control channel in the first time period, the terminal-side device can avoid performing invalid physical downlink control channel blind detection.

[0017] In the first aspect and / or the second aspect,

[0018] In a possible design, the first time period is at least one time slot, or at least one mini-slot, or a time period related to a subcarrier spacing, or a protocol predetermined time period or a configured time period.

[0019] In one possible design, the low power signal is at least one of a chirp signal, a sequence signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, a frequency shift keying (FSK) signal, an on-off keying (OOK) signal, or a low power synchronization signal. Alternatively, the low power signal can also be a combination or an optimized design of these example signals. The low power signal is received by the LP-WUR under the architecture that the terminal-side device includes both the MR and the LP-WUR, which can enable the MR of the terminal-side device to not need to be always in the normal operation state, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal-side device for monitoring the low power signal.

[0020] In one possible design, the second information indicates that the at least one terminal-side device monitors or does not monitor the physical downlink control channel on the at least one carrier or secondary carrier or carrier group. In this way, the terminal-side device can avoid the invalid physical downlink control channel monitoring when it is determined based on the second information that the physical downlink control channel is not monitored.

[0021] In one possible design, receiving the low power signal includes monitoring the low power signal in a second time period, and the second time period is indicated by at least one of an identification of the third time period, a monitoring periodicity, a monitoring window in the third time period, or a monitoring window in the monitoring periodicity. The second time period can be protocol predefined or configured by higher layer signaling or physical layer signaling, so that the terminal-side device monitors the low power signal based on the configured second time period.

[0022] In one possible design, the second time period is a subset of the first time period, or the second time period does not overlap with the first time period. When the second time period is a subset of the first time period, it can also be understood that the time period for monitoring the low power signal and the time period for monitoring the physical downlink control channel are both within one time period. When the second time period does not overlap with the first time period, it can be that the first time period is within a time period after the second time period.

[0023] In one possible design, the relative location of the low power signal and the physical downlink control channel in the time domain is related to the capability of the terminal-side device. In this way, the time domain location for monitoring the physical downlink control channel can be flexibly designed based on the capability of the terminal-side device.

[0024] In one possible design, the time domain location of the low power signal is the first symbol of the first time period. In this way, the terminal-side device can determine whether to blindly monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the low power signal as early as possible, thereby reducing the latency of the terminal-side device for blindly monitoring the physical downlink control channel.

[0025] In one possible design, the time domain location of the low power signal is the symbol before the first symbol of the first time period. In this way, the terminal-side device can determine whether to blindly monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the low power signal as early as possible, thereby reducing the latency of the terminal-side device for blindly monitoring the physical downlink control channel.

[0026] In a possible design, a frequency domain location of the low power consumption signal is determined according to a control resource set related to a currently activated bandwidth part of the terminal-side device; or, the frequency domain location of the low power consumption signal is a preconfigured fixed location.

[0027] In a possible design, the low power consumption signal is a broadcast signal or a groupcast signal, and the second information occupies at least 1 bit, and the second information indicates whether the at least one terminal-side device monitors the physical downlink control channel or does not monitor the physical downlink control channel. In this way, for the terminal-side device receiving the broadcast signal or the groupcast signal, the terminal-side device can avoid performing invalid physical downlink control channel monitoring.

[0028] In a possible design, the low power consumption signal is a unicast signal or a groupcast signal, and the low power consumption signals monitored by different terminal-side devices or different groups of terminal-side devices are frequency division multiplexed, or time division multiplexed, or space division multiplexed. In this way, the complexity of monitoring the physical downlink control channel by different terminal-side devices or different groups of terminal-side devices can be reduced based on the first information or the second information in the low power consumption signal.

[0029] In a possible design, the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in the time domain or the frequency domain. In this way, the transmission reliability of the low power consumption signal can be improved.

[0030] In a third aspect, a communication method is provided. An execution subject of the method can be a network-side device, which can be a network equipment, or a component or device (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) applied to the network equipment, or a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the network equipment functions. The method includes: transmitting a low power consumption signal, the low power consumption signal including first information, the first information indicating a range of physical downlink control channels that need to be monitored, and / or a range of physical downlink control channels that do not need to be monitored.

[0031] The third aspect has beneficial effects as described for the first aspect.

[0032] In a possible design, the range of the physical downlink control channel includes at least one of the following: a downlink control information type; an aggregation level; a downlink control information size; a candidate set of the physical downlink control channel; a format of a radio network temporary identifier; a secondary carrier; a carrier number group; a carrier number; a subset of a search space; a search space group; a relative position of the physical downlink control channel and the low power consumption signal; an absolute position of the physical downlink control channel; a subset of a time domain position; a subset of a frequency domain position; a subset of resources in a resource block of a control resource set; one of a plurality of control resource sets; one of a plurality of bandwidth parts; and a partial subset in a bandwidth part.

[0033] In a possible design, the first information indicates a range of physical downlink control channels that need to be monitored and / or a range of physical downlink control channels that do not need to be monitored in the first time period.

[0034] In a fourth aspect, a communication method is provided. An execution subject of the method can be a network side device, which can be a network device, or a component or device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system) applied to the network device, or a logic module or software capable of implementing all or part of the network device functions. The method includes: sending a low-power consumption signal, the low-power consumption signal including second information, the second information indicating monitoring or not monitoring a physical downlink control channel.

[0035] The fourth aspect has the advantages of the second aspect.

[0036] In a possible design, the second information indicates monitoring or not monitoring the physical downlink control channel in the first time period.

[0037] In the third aspect and / or the fourth aspect,

[0038] In a possible design, the first time period is at least one time slot, or at least one mini-slot, or a time period related to a subcarrier spacing, or a time period predetermined by a protocol or configured.

[0039] In a possible design, the low-power consumption signal is at least one of the following: a chirp signal, a sequence signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, a frequency shift keying (FSK) signal, an on-off keying (OOK) signal, or a low-power consumption synchronization signal.

[0040] In a possible design, the second information indicates that at least one terminal side device monitors or does not monitor the physical downlink control channel on at least one carrier or auxiliary carrier or carrier group.

[0041] In a possible design, the sending of the low-power consumption signal includes: sending the low-power consumption signal in a second time period; and the second time period is indicated by at least one of the following: an identifier of the third time period, a monitoring period, a monitoring window in the third time period, or a monitoring window in the monitoring period.

[0042] In a possible design, the second time period is a subset of the first time period, or the second time period and the first time period do not overlap.

[0043] In a possible design, a relative position of the low-power consumption signal and the physical downlink control channel in the time domain is related to a capability of the terminal side device.

[0044] In a possible design, a time domain position of the low-power consumption signal is a first symbol of the first time period.

[0045] In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, which can be a terminal-side device, which can be a terminal device, or a component or device (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) applied to a terminal device, or a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of a terminal device. The method includes a transceiver module and a processing module. The transceiver module is configured to perform the method of receiving in the first aspect and / or the second aspect and any possible design of the first aspect and / or the second aspect. The processing module is configured to perform the method of other behaviors other than receiving in the first aspect and / or the second aspect and any possible design of the first aspect and / or the second aspect. For example, the transceiver module is configured to receive a low-power consumption signal, and the low-power consumption signal includes first information. The first information indicates a range in which the physical downlink control channel needs to be monitored, and / or a range in which the physical downlink control channel does not need to be monitored. The processing module is configured to determine whether the physical downlink control channel needs to be monitored or does not need to be monitored based on the low-power consumption signal. Alternatively, the transceiver module is configured to receive a low-power consumption signal, and the low-power consumption signal includes second information. The second information indicates whether to monitor the physical downlink control channel or not to monitor the physical downlink control channel. The processing module is configured to determine whether to monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the low-power consumption signal.

[0046] In a possible design, the range of the physical downlink control channel includes at least one of the following: a downlink control information type; an aggregation level; a downlink control information size; a candidate set of the physical downlink control channel; a format of a radio network temporary identifier; a secondary carrier; a carrier number group; a carrier number; a subset of search spaces; a search space group; a relative position of the physical downlink control channel to the low-power consumption signal; an absolute position of the physical downlink control channel; a subset of time domain positions; a subset of frequency domain positions; a subset of resources in a resource block of a control resource set; one of multiple control resource sets; one of multiple bandwidth parts; a subset in one bandwidth part.

[0047] In a possible design, the first information indicates that, in a first time period, the range in which the physical downlink control channel needs to be monitored, and / or the range in which the physical downlink control channel does not need to be monitored.

[0048] In a possible design, the transceiver module is configured to monitor the low-power consumption signal in a second time period. The second time period is indicated by at least one of the following: an identification of a third time period; a monitoring period; a monitoring window in the third time period; a monitoring window in the monitoring period.

[0049] In a sixth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided, which can be a network side apparatus, which can be a network device, or a component or apparatus (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) applied to a network device, or a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of network device functions. The communication apparatus includes a transceiver module, which is configured to perform the method of any possible design of the third aspect and / or the third aspect and the first aspect and / or the second aspect. For example, the transceiver module is configured to transmit a low-power consumption signal, the low-power consumption signal including first information, the first information indicating a range of monitoring a physical downlink control channel and / or a range of not monitoring the physical downlink control channel. Alternatively, the transceiver module is configured to transmit a low-power consumption signal, the low-power consumption signal including second information, the second information indicating monitoring the physical downlink control channel or not monitoring the physical downlink control channel.

[0050] In a possible design, the second information indicates monitoring the physical downlink control channel or not monitoring the physical downlink control channel in the first time period.

[0051] In a possible design, the first time period is at least one time slot, or at least one mini-slot, or a time period related to a subcarrier spacing, or a time period predetermined by a protocol or configured.

[0052] In a possible design, the transceiver module is configured to transmit the low-power consumption signal in a second time period; the second time period is indicated by at least one of the following: an identity of a third time period; a monitoring period; a monitoring window in the third time period; a monitoring window in the monitoring period.

[0053] In the fifth aspect and / or the sixth aspect,

[0054] In a possible design, the low-power consumption signal is at least one of the following: a chirp signal, a sequence signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, a frequency shift keying (FSK) signal, an on-off keying (OOK) signal, or a low-power consumption synchronization signal.

[0055] In a possible design, the second information indicates that at least one terminal side apparatus monitors the physical downlink control channel or does not monitor the physical downlink control channel on at least one carrier or a secondary carrier or a carrier group.

[0056] In a possible design, the second time period is a subset of the first time period, or the second time period and the first time period do not overlap.

[0057] In a possible design, a relative position of the low-power consumption signal and the physical downlink control channel in the time domain is related to a capability of the terminal side apparatus.

[0058] In a possible design, a time domain position of the low-power consumption signal is a first symbol of the first time period.

[0059] In a possible design, the frequency domain position of the low-power consumption signal is determined according to a control resource set related to a currently activated bandwidth part of the terminal-side device; or, the frequency domain position of the low-power consumption signal is a preconfigured fixed position.

[0060] In a possible design, the low-power consumption signal is a broadcast signal or a groupcast signal, and the second information occupies at least 1 bit, and the second information indicates whether the at least one terminal-side device monitors the physical downlink control channel or does not monitor the physical downlink control channel.

[0061] In a possible design, the low-power consumption signal is a unicast signal or a groupcast signal, and the low-power consumption signals monitored by different terminal-side devices or different groups of terminal-side devices are frequency division multiplexed, or time division multiplexed, or space division multiplexed.

[0062] In a possible design, the low-power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in the time domain or the frequency domain.

[0063] In a seventh aspect, a communication system is provided, including a first communication device and a second communication device, the first communication device is configured to perform the method in the first aspect and any possible design of the first aspect, and / or the method in the second aspect and any possible design of the second aspect; and the second communication device is configured to perform the method in the third aspect and any possible design of the third aspect, and / or the method in the fourth aspect and any possible design of the fourth aspect. The communication device can be a chip or a chip system, or a communication device including the chip or the chip system.

[0064] In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided, including at least one processor and a memory, the at least one processor is configured to read and execute a program stored in the memory, so that the communication device performs the method in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, and / or the method in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect. The communication device can be a chip or a chip system, or a communication device including the chip or the chip system.

[0065] In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided, including at least one processor and a memory, the at least one processor is configured to read and execute a program stored in the memory, so that the communication device performs the method in the third aspect or any possible design of the third aspect, and / or the method in the fourth aspect or any possible design of the fourth aspect.

[0066] In a tenth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium is provided, including computer instructions, which, when executed on a communication apparatus, cause the communication apparatus to perform the communication method in any one of the aspects and any one of the possible implementation manners.

[0067] In an eleventh aspect, a computer program product is provided, which, when executed on a communication apparatus, causes the communication apparatus to perform the communication method in any one of the aspects and any one of the possible implementation manners. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0068] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0069] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a SA architecture, a DC architecture and a macro-micro scenario according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0070] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of indicating whether to monitor PDCCH by WUS according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0071] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of waking up MR by LP-WUS according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0072] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0073] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a time domain position of monitoring PDCCH according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0074] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of indicating whether to monitor CORESET of PDCCH by first information according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0075] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0076] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0077] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of indicating meaning of second information according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0078] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a signal of chirp signal in frequency domain according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0079] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0080] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0081] For the convenience of understanding, some of the example-related concepts of the embodiments of the present application are described for reference as follows.

[0082] 1. Subcarrier spacing (SCS).

[0083] SCS is a frequency domain concept, which can be understood as the bandwidth of a subcarrier. By using different SCS, the needs of different services, frequency bands, and mobile speed scenarios can be adapted.

[0084] 2. Carrier wave.

[0085] A carrier wave is a radio signal, or electromagnetic wave, emitted by the radio frequency equipment of a base station or terminal. It has a specific frequency, bandwidth, and standard and is the main component used to carry information in wireless mobile communication. For example, carrier waves can be divided into uplink carriers and downlink carriers, high-frequency carriers and low-frequency carriers, etc.

[0086] To achieve high-speed transmission, new radio (NR) employs carrier aggregation (CA) mechanisms. Terminals supporting CA can transmit data simultaneously on multiple carriers, increasing the data transmission rate. For example, carriers can be divided into primary and secondary carriers, or carrier group 1 and carrier group 2, etc.

[0087] In the future, carriers and carrier groups may also be defined in new ways and classified in different ways, and this application does not impose any restrictions.

[0088] 3. Physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).

[0089] A single PDCCH in an NR can contain L control channel elements (CCEs). Here, L is called the aggregation level (AL) of the PDCCH, and L = 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16, etc. A CCE contains 6 resource element groups (REGs), and each REG corresponds to a resource block (RB) on an orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol. New definition methods may be defined in the future, and this application does not impose any restrictions.

[0090] A PDCCH candidate set can or can not contain a PDCCH for a terminal. A terminal can monitor multiple PDCCH candidates in a PDCCH candidate set to determine whether there is a PDCCH for itself.

[0091] A search space (SS) with an aggregation level (AL) L is a set of PDCCH candidate sets with the same AL in the control region. Sometimes, search space is a general concept, which can be used to represent a search space, a search space set, multiple search space sets, or a type of search space set.

[0092] A search space set is associated with a control resource set (CORESET). A CORESET is a concept introduced in NR, which is defined on a cell and contains a set of contiguous or non-contiguous RBs in the frequency domain and 1, 2, or 3 contiguous OFDM symbols in the time domain.

[0093] Future search spaces and CORESETs can also define new definitions and classification methods, which are not limited in this application.

[0094] 4. Types of search space sets.

[0095] A search space set can be divided into a common search space (CSS) and a user equipment (UE)-specific search space (USS). A search space set can also be divided into different groups, such as search space group 1 and search space group 2.

[0096] 5. PDCCH monitoring capability.

[0097] There are two items in PDCCH monitoring that have a greater impact on the implementation complexity of a terminal. One is the number of PDCCH candidates (sometimes also referred to as the number of blind detections (BD)), and the other is the number of non-overlapping CCEs (sometimes simply referred to as the number of CCEs). The more PDCCH candidates monitored, the higher the decoding complexity of the UE; the more non-overlapping CCEs, the higher the channel estimation complexity of the UE.

[0098] For each of the scheduled cells, the blind decoding / CCE limit of the scheduling cell for scheduling the scheduled cell in a unit time can be determined according to the protocol, which is referred to as the BD / CCE limit. The unit time can include a plurality of consecutive OFDM symbols, and can be a slot or a time span.

[0099] 6. Downlink control information (DCI).

[0100] 1. Introduction of DCI basic concept.

[0101] In NR, DCI is carried on PDCCH. For example, the DCI in the PDCCH scheduling the physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) can contain the scheduling information of the PDSCH, such as the frequency domain resource allocation and the time domain resource allocation. The DCI in the PDCCH scheduling the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) can contain the scheduling information of the PUSCH, such as the frequency domain resource allocation and the time domain resource allocation.

[0102] 2. Size of DCI.

[0103] The size of DCI has two understandings, the first one is the number of bits of the payload in the DCI, and the second one is the sum of the number of bits of the payload and the number of bits of the cyclic redundancy check (CRC). If the information bits in the DCI are padded, the number of bits of the payload is the sum of the number of information bits and the number of padded information bits; if the information bits in the DCI are not padded, the number of bits of the payload is the number of information bits.

[0104] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application. In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless otherwise specified, " / " represents the meaning of or, for example, A / B can represent A or B; in this document, "and / or" is only a description of the association relationship of the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B, which can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, in the description of the embodiments of the present application, "multiple" means two or more than two.

[0105] Hereinafter, the terms "first" and "second" are only for descriptive purposes, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined with "first" and "second" can explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the embodiments, unless otherwise specified, the meaning of "multiple" is two or more than two.

[0106] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system 1000 to which embodiments of the present application are applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100, wherein the RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (such as 110a and 110b in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 110), and can also include at least one terminal (such as 120a-120j in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 can also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG. 1). The terminals 120 are connected to the RAN nodes 110 in a wireless manner. Terminals and terminals and RAN nodes and RAN nodes can be connected to each other in a wired or wireless manner. The communication system 1000 can also include a core network 200. The RAN nodes 110 are connected to the core network 200 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network devices in the core network 200 and the RAN nodes 110 in the RAN 100 can be independent and different physical devices, or can be the same physical device integrated with the logical functions of the core network devices and the logical functions of the RAN nodes. The communication system 1000 can also include the Internet 300.

[0107] The RAN 100 can be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, and future wireless access systems defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). The RAN 100 can also include two or more different wireless access systems described above. The RAN 100 can also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0108] A RAN node, also referred to as a radio access network device, a RAN entity, or an access node, is configured to help a terminal to access a communication system via a wireless interface. In one application scenario, the RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a future base station (NodeB, gNB) in a 5th generation (5G) mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. The RAN node can be a macro base station (e.g., 110a in FIG. 1), a micro base station, or an indoor station (e.g., 110b in FIG. 1), a relay node, or a donor node.

[0109] In another application scenario, wireless access can be achieved for a terminal through cooperation of a plurality of RAN nodes, and different RAN nodes respectively implement part of functions of a base station. For example, a RAN node can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU). Here, the CU completes functions of a radio resource control protocol and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) of a base station, and can also complete a function of a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP); the DU completes functions of a radio link control layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer of a base station, and can also complete a part of functions of a physical layer or all functions of a physical layer. For specific descriptions of the above protocol layers, reference can be made to relevant technical specifications of 3GPP. The RU can be used to implement functions of transceiving a radio frequency signal. The CU and the DU can be two independent RAN nodes, or can be integrated in a same RAN node, for example, integrated in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device, for example, included in a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU can be further divided into two types of RAN nodes of a CU-control plane and a CU-user plane.

[0110] In different systems, a RAN node can have different names. For example, in an O-RAN system, a CU can be referred to as an open CU (O-CU), a DU can be referred to as an open DU (O-DU), and an RU can be referred to as an open RU (O-RU). A RAN node in an embodiment of the present application can be implemented through a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. For example, the RAN node can be a server loaded with a corresponding software module. Embodiments of the present application do not limit specific technologies and specific device forms adopted by the RAN node. For ease of description, a base station is described below as an example of a RAN node.

[0111] A terminal is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can send signals to a base station or receive signals from a base station. A terminal can also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. A terminal can be widely applied in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), internet of things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, automatic driving, remote medical treatment, smart power grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. A terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, wearable device, vehicle, airplane, ship, robot, mechanical arm, smart home device, etc. Embodiments of the present application do not limit specific technologies and specific device forms adopted by a terminal.

[0112] A base station and a terminal can be fixed in position or movable. A base station and a terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on water surface; can also be deployed on an airplane, balloon and artificial satellite. Embodiments of the present application do not limit application scenarios of a base station and a terminal.

[0113] The roles of a base station and a terminal can be relative, for example, the helicopter or drone 120i in FIG. 1 can be configured as a mobile base station, and for those terminals 120j accessing to the wireless access network 100 through 120i, 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, that is, 110a and 120i communicate with each other through a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate with each other through a base station-to-base station interface protocol, in which case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, a base station and a terminal can be collectively referred to as a communication apparatus, 110a and 110b in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication apparatus with base station function, and 120a-120j in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication apparatus with terminal function.

[0114] In some embodiments, the present application can be applied in a standalone (SA) architecture. A terminal connects with a single base station, the base station connected by the terminal, and the core network connected by the base station are of the same standard. For example, as shown in (a) of FIG. 2, a schematic diagram of an SA architecture includes a core network, a base station, and a terminal. The core network is a 5G core network, the base station corresponds to a 5G base station, and the 5G base station is directly connected to the 5G core network. Alternatively, the core network is a core network of a future communication network, the base station is a base station under the future communication network, and the base station under the future communication network is directly connected to the core network of the future communication network.

[0115] In some embodiments, the present application can be applied in a dual connectivity (DC) architecture. A terminal simultaneously connects with base stations of different / same standards, which is suitable for a connected state UE. As shown in (b) of FIG. 2, a schematic diagram of a DC architecture, for example, the core network is a 5G core network, and the terminal simultaneously connects with a 5G base station and a base station of a future communication network, wherein the 5G base station is a master station, and the base station of the future communication network is a secondary station; for another example, the core network is a core network of a future communication network, and the terminal simultaneously connects with a base station of the future communication network and a 5G base station, wherein the base station of the future communication network is a master station, and the 5G base station is a secondary station; for another example, the core network is a core network of a future communication network, and the terminal simultaneously connects with two base stations of the future communication network, i.e., the master station and the secondary station are both base stations of the future communication network.

[0116] From the perspective of scenarios, the present application can be applied in a scenario where a wide coverage base station and a small coverage base station exist at the same time, as shown in the wide coverage base station of RAN 110a and the small coverage base station of RAN 110b in FIG. 1.

[0117] Similarly, the present application can also be applied in a macro-micro scenario composed of different forms of base stations in a future communication network, as shown in (c) of FIG. 2, wherein the super station (super BS) can be a satellite, an air balloon station, a drone station, a high-altitude platform station, a high-power high-tower (HPMT), a medium-power medium-tower (MPMT), etc., and the ground station can be a current cellular station (macro station, small station, micro station, relay station, transmission reception point (TRP), etc.), which can cover a terminal.

[0118] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station can also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem containing the functions of the base station. The control subsystem containing the functions of the base station herein can be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, intelligent transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal can also be performed by a module (such as a chip or modem) in the terminal, or by a device containing the functions of the terminal.

[0119] In the present application, the base station sends a downlink signal or downlink information to the terminal, and the downlink information is carried on a downlink channel; the terminal sends an uplink signal or uplink information to the base station, and the uplink information is carried on an uplink channel. In order to communicate with the base station, the terminal needs to establish a wireless connection on a cell controlled by the base station. The cell with which the terminal establishes a wireless connection is called the service cell of the terminal. When the terminal communicates with the service cell, it will also be interfered by signals from neighboring cells.

[0120] In the embodiments of the present application, the time domain symbol can be an OFDM symbol or a discrete fourier transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol. If not specified, the symbol in the embodiments of the present application refers to a time domain symbol.

[0121] It can be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the PDCCH is only an example of the physical downlink control channel, and in different systems and different scenarios, the control channel can have different names, which are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

[0122] In the evolution of the NR system, research on reducing the energy consumption of the terminal side is continuously carried out, such as discontinuous reception (DRX), bandwidth part (BWP) adaptation defined in 3GPP Rel-15, cross-slot scheduling, PDCCH-based wake up signal (WUS) defined in Rel-16, paging early indication (PEI), PDCCH monitoring adaptation defined in Rel-17, and low-power reception and low-power wake up signal to be supported in Rel-18 / 19.

[0123] For a terminal in a connected state, PDCCH blind detection is a necessary process for the terminal to obtain scheduling information. Since PDCCH blind detection requires the terminal to perform blind detection in a preset CORESET and search space using a predetermined rule, the number of PDCCH blind detections is large, and the power consumption ratio accounts for a high proportion in the overall energy consumption of the terminal. Therefore, in the evolution of cellular networks, optimization design is always carried out for terminal PDCCH blind detection.

[0124] In order to reduce the energy consumption of the terminal performing PDCCH blind detection, in Release 16, a WUS-based DRX mechanism is designed, which carries an indication of whether the terminal needs to wake up next time in an active state through WUS, as shown in FIG. 3 for a schematic diagram of indicating whether to monitor PDCCH through WUS. For example, before the on duration of the previous DRX cycle, the WUS received by the terminal indicates that the terminal detects PDCCH, and before the on duration of the next DRX cycle, the WUS received by the terminal indicates that the terminal does not monitor PDCCH. Wherein, the WUS is a traditional signal, and the terminal receives the traditional signal using a main receiver (MR), for example, the WUS can be a ZC (Zadoff-Chu) sequence or an OFDM signal.

[0125] It can be seen that in this WUS-based DRX mechanism, the terminal is indicated by the traditional signal WUS whether to wake up the terminal to monitor PDCCH, and the terminal needs to receive WUS using the MR of the terminal, which is always in a working state, and the energy consumption of the terminal is large.

[0126] Therefore, the present application proposes a communication method, which can be applied to a network device architecture comprising a main module and a low-power module. The low-power module can receive a low-power signal, which indicates whether to monitor a physical downlink control channel, or the low-power signal indicates a range of monitoring the physical downlink control channel and / or a range of not monitoring the physical downlink control channel. In this way, the present application can solve the problem of how to use a low-power signal to reduce the complexity of monitoring a physical downlink control channel to reduce the power consumption of the terminal. The low-power signal can be received by the low-power module of the terminal, and the main module of the terminal does not need to be in a working state to monitor WUS, which can reduce the energy consumption of the terminal. Moreover, the low-power signal indicates whether the terminal monitors the physical downlink control channel, which can avoid the terminal performing invalid physical downlink control channel blind detection and reduce the power consumption of the terminal blind detecting the physical downlink control channel. Or, the range of monitoring or not monitoring the physical downlink control channel indicated by the low-power signal can reduce the number of times of blind detection of the terminal for the physical downlink control channel and reduce the power consumption of the terminal blind detecting the physical downlink control channel.

[0127] For the convenience of understanding the low power signal in the present application, the low power wake up signal (LP-WUS) in 3GPP Release 18 is briefly introduced. In 3GPP Release 18, the purpose of studying LP-WUS is to evaluate the feasibility and potential optimization direction of 5G devices equipped with low power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR) for terminal energy saving. Generally, the terminal will consume tens of milliwatts of power even if it does not send or receive any data. This idle power consumption is caused by the terminal which must be periodically woken up for paging monitoring, measurement, etc.

[0128] In order to reduce the energy consumption of the idle terminal, it is proposed in Release 18 to perform the reception of the paging message through the LP-WUS, that is, for the idle terminal, the MR is turned off and only the LP-WUR is turned on. When the LP-WUR receives the LP-WUS containing the relevant information of the terminal, the terminal wakes up the MR to continue the reception of the paging message through the MR or initiates random access. In this way, the MR can obtain more sleep time as much as possible, thereby achieving better energy saving effect. As shown in FIG. 4, it is a schematic diagram of waking up the MR through the LP-WUS. When the LP-WUS signal does not contain the relevant information of the terminal (corresponding to OFF in FIG. 4), the MR does not need to be woken up, that is, the MR is still in the sleep state; when the LP-WUS signal contains the relevant information of the terminal (ON in FIG. 4), the LP-WUR sends a trigger signal (for example, trigger) for waking up the MR, and the MR enters the normal working state.

[0129] In some embodiments, in the present application, the LP-WUR in the terminal receives the low power signal, and wakes up the MR when the received low power signal indicates monitoring the physical downlink control channel, or wakes up the MR when the low power signal indicates the range of monitoring the physical downlink control channel.

[0130] In some embodiments, when the LP-WUR of the terminal receives the low power signal, the MR can be in the sleep state, and the LP-WUR needs to wake up the MR first; the MR can also be in the normal working state, and the LP-WUR only needs to notify the MR to monitor the physical downlink control channel or notify the MR of the range of monitoring the physical downlink control channel.

[0131] Based on this, the communication method for monitoring the physical downlink control channel based on the low power signal in the present application is exemplarily introduced as follows.

[0132] As shown in FIG. 5, a flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application is shown. In the method, a low-power signal can be used to indicate a range of a terminal device to monitor a physical downlink control channel and / or a range of the terminal device not to monitor the physical downlink control channel, so as to reduce the power consumption of the terminal device in blind detection of the physical downlink control channel. The method includes the following steps.

[0133] 501. The terminal device receives a low-power signal, the low-power signal including first information, the first information indicating a range of the terminal device to monitor a physical downlink control channel and / or a range of the terminal device not to monitor the physical downlink control channel.

[0134] Correspondingly, the network device sends the low-power signal.

[0135] In some embodiments, the low-power signal is an LP-WUS.

[0136] In some embodiments, the low-power signal can be received by an LP-WUR of the terminal device; the low-power information can also be received by the terminal device, such as the terminal device including the LP-WUR, and such as the terminal device or the MR of the terminal device having the capability of receiving the low-power signal.

[0137] In the case that the MR of the terminal device has the capability of receiving the low-power signal, the receiver of the terminal device can not include an LR. The MR of the terminal device receiving the low-power signal can also be understood as the terminal device receiving the low-power signal.

[0138] In some embodiments, the physical downlink control channel is a PDCCH.

[0139] In some embodiments, the first information indicates a range of the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH and / or a range of the terminal device not to monitor the PDCCH. The range of the PDCCH includes at least one of the following:

[0140] a downlink control information type; an aggregation level; a downlink control information size; a candidate set of downlink control information; a format of a radio network temporary identifier; a secondary carrier; a carrier number group; a carrier number; a subset of a search space; a search space group; a relative position of the physical downlink control channel and the low-power signal; an absolute position of the physical downlink control channel; a subset of a time domain position; a subset of a frequency domain position; a subset of resources in a resource block of a control resource set; one of a plurality of control resource sets; one of a plurality of bandwidth parts; a partial subset in a bandwidth part.

[0141] The downlink control information type, the aggregation level, the downlink control information size, the format of the candidate set of the downlink control information, or the wireless network temporary identifier can be understood as a range related to a variable of the blind detection PDCCH. The secondary carrier, the carrier number group, or the carrier number can be understood as a range related to a carrier of the blind detection PDCCH. The subset of the search space, the search space group, the relative position of the physical downlink control channel and the low-power signal, the absolute position of the physical downlink control channel, the subset of the time domain position, or the subset of the frequency domain position can be understood as a range related to a time domain of the blind detection PDCCH. The subset of the resource in the resource block of the control resource set, one of the plurality of control resource sets, one of the plurality of bandwidth parts, or the partial subset in the bandwidth part can be understood as a range related to a frequency domain of the blind detection PDCCH.

[0142] In some embodiments, the first information indicates that a range of the physical downlink control channel needs to be monitored in the first time period, and / or a range of the physical downlink control channel does not need to be monitored.

[0143] The first time period can be predefined or preconfigured, or carried in the first information, which is not limited in the present application.

[0144] In some embodiments, the first time period is at least one time slot, or at least one mini-slot, or a time period related to a subcarrier spacing, or a protocol predetermined time period or a configured time period.

[0145] For example, the first time period can be at least one symbol in a time slot.

[0146] In some embodiments, receiving the low-power signal includes monitoring the low-power signal in a second time period. The second time period is indicated by at least one of the following: an identification of the third time period; a monitoring period; a monitoring window in the third time period; a monitoring window in the monitoring period. For example, the third time period can be at least one time slot. The monitoring period can be a plurality of symbols, etc.

[0147] In some embodiments, the second time period is a subset of the first time period, or the second time period and the first time period do not overlap. For example, the first time period can be a time slot. The time slot can be a time slot in which the terminal device receives the low-power signal and a time slot in which the terminal device monitors the PDCCH, i.e. the second time period is included in the time slot. Alternatively, in the case of the second time period being a time slot, the first time period is a time slot after the second time period.

[0148] 502. The terminal device determines, based on the low-power signal, a range of the physical downlink control channel that needs to be monitored or does not need to be monitored.

[0149] In some embodiments, when the first information indicates a range in which the PDCCH needs to be monitored, the terminal device can monitor the PDCCH in the range indicated by the first information, and can not monitor the PDCCH in a range outside the range indicated by the first information.

[0150] In some embodiments, when the first information indicates a range in which the PDCCH does not need to be monitored, the terminal device can avoid monitoring the PDCCH in the range indicated by the first information. The terminal device can monitor the PDCCH in a range outside the range indicated by the first information in the preconfigured range of the PDCCH.

[0151] In some embodiments, the low-power consumption signal in the present application can be at least one of the following:

[0152] a chirp signal, a sequence signal, an OFDM signal, a frequency shift keying (FSK) signal, an On-Off keying (OOK) signal, a multi-carrier amplitude shift keying (MC-ASK) signal, a low-power consumption synchronization signal. The present application can be applicable to all low-power consumption signals. The low-power consumption signal in the present application can also be an optimized mode or a combined mode of the above signals.

[0153] For example, the OOK signal can be one or more of OOK-1, OOK-2, OOK-3, or OOK-4 (which can be an optimized mode or a combined mode of multiple).

[0154] The sequence signal can be one or more of the following (which can be an optimized mode or a combined mode of multiple): Gold sequence, M-sequence, ZC sequence, Chirp sequence, Walsh sequence, Golay sequence, Kasami sequence, Low density sequence, DFT / FFT sequence, or QAM symbol-based sequence, etc.

[0155] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device does not need to monitor all the candidate PDCCHs in the preconfigured PDCCH range, but can monitor part of the PDCCHs after determining the range of the PDCCH to be monitored or the range of the PDCCH not to be monitored according to the first information. In this way, the number of times of blind detection of the PDCCH by the terminal device can be reduced, and the power consumption of the terminal device for blind detection of the PDCCH can be reduced.

[0156] The content indicated by the first information is exemplarily described below.

[0157] Case 1: The first information indicates a range related to a variable of monitoring PDCCH.

[0158] Optionally, the first information indicates a DCI type that needs or does not need to be monitored. The DCI type can include at least one of a downlink (DL) DCI, an uplink (UL) DCI, or a DL DCI and a UL DCI. Wherein, the DL DCI, the UL DCI are pre-defined by a protocol or configured by a high layer signaling.

[0159] In some embodiments, the case that the first information indicates that the DCI type needs to be monitored can be one of the following: a, the DL DCI needs to be monitored; b, the UL DCI needs to be monitored; c, the DL DCI and the UL DCI need to be monitored.

[0160] Exemplarily, the first information occupies 2 bits, and the bit value of the field of the first information indicates the DCI type as shown in Table 1.

[0161] Table 1

[0162] In some embodiments, the case that the first information indicates that the DCI type does not need to be monitored can be one of the following: a, the DL DCI does not need to be monitored; b, the UL DCI does not need to be monitored.

[0163] Exemplarily, the first information occupies 1 bit, and the bit value of the field of the first information indicates the DCI type as shown in Table 2.

[0164] Table 2

[0165] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device can determine the DCI type that needs to be monitored and / or the DCI type that does not need to be monitored according to the indication of the first information, which can reduce the DCI type to be monitored by the terminal device, which is equivalent to reducing the number of PDCCH candidates to be monitored by the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0166] Exemplarily, when the first information indicates that the DL DCI and the UL DCI do not need to be monitored, the terminal device has received a low-power signal, and the first information indicates whether the terminal device needs to monitor the DL DCI and the UL DCI for the low-power signal.

[0167] Optionally, the first information indicates the aggregation level that needs to be monitored or not monitored, for example, the aggregation level of the PDCCH candidate to be monitored can include L=1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc., and L is referred to as the aggregation level of the PDCCH candidate. In future communication systems, the aggregation level can also include other L values, which are not limited in the present application. For example, the following examples of a and b can be possible here.

[0168] a, the indication manner of the first information is a bitmap indication manner, and different aggregation levels correspond to one bit in the bitmap.

[0169] In some embodiments, the bitmap occupies 5 bits, which respectively correspond to the aggregation levels {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}.

[0170] For example, when the bit value of the bitmap is 11111, it indicates that the aggregation levels to be monitored are {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}; when the bit value of the bitmap is 10000, it indicates that the aggregation level to be monitored is {1}, and the aggregation levels 2-16 do not need to be monitored.

[0171] For example, when the bit value of the bitmap is 10000, it indicates that the aggregation levels {2, 4, 8, 16} do not need to be monitored.

[0172] In the present application, the correspondence between the bitmap and the aggregation level of the PDCCH to be monitored or not monitored can be protocol predefined or configured by high layer signaling.

[0173] b, the bit value of the first information indicates a serial number, and one serial number corresponds to one or more aggregation levels, indicating whether the aggregation level needs to be monitored.

[0174] In some embodiments, the relationship between the serial number indicated by the field of the first information and the aggregation level is shown in Table 3 or Table 4, and the present application does not limit the correspondence relationship of Table 3 and Table 4, which can also be other correspondence relationships.

[0175] Table 3

[0176] Table 4

[0177] In the present application, the correspondence between the serial number indicated by the bit value of the first information and the aggregation level of the PDCCH to be monitored or not monitored can be protocol predefined or configured by high layer signaling.

[0178] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device does not need to monitor the PDCCH on all aggregation levels of the PDCCH candidate when monitoring the PDCCH, but selects the aggregation level on which the PDCCH needs to be monitored according to the first information, or avoids monitoring on the aggregation level on which the PDCCH does not need to be monitored, which can reduce the number of PDCCHs monitored by the terminal device and reduce the power consumption of the terminal device in blind detection of the PDCCH.

[0179] Optionally, the first information indicates a DCI size that needs to be monitored or does not need to be monitored, and / or a range of DCI sizes. There can be a case where different types of DCI have the same size. The case of different DCI types shown in Table 5 is only an example, and in future communication systems, the sizes of different types of DCI can be different. Table 5 shows the DCI format, the indicated content, and the number of bits occupied for different DCI types. That is, the size of the DCI is shown by the number of bits occupied by the DCI.

[0180] Table 5

[0181] For example, the field of the first information occupies 1 bit, when the value of the 1 bit is 0, it indicates that the DCI size to be monitored or not to be monitored includes PDCCH with a bit number of 36-83, and when the value of the 1 bit is 1, it indicates that the DCI size to be monitored or not to be monitored includes PDCCH with a bit number other than 36-83.

[0182] For example, the field of the first information occupies at least 1 bit, and the value of the field can indicate a range of DCI sizes to be monitored or a range of DCI sizes not to be monitored. For example, refer to the correspondence between the field value of the first field and the range of DCI sizes to be monitored shown in Table 6, or the correspondence between the field value of the first field and the range of DCI sizes not to be monitored shown in Table 7. Different ranges of DCI sizes to be monitored or not to be monitored can be protocol predefined, can be configured by high layer signaling, or can be configured by other means.

[0183] Table 6

[0184] For example, the range 1 of DCI sizes to be monitored is PDCCH with a bit number of 36-83, and the range 2 of DCI sizes to be monitored is PDCCH with a bit number of 36-49.

[0185] Table 7

[0186] For example, the PDCCH with DCI size in range 1 is not needed to be monitored, which is the PDCCH with bit number of 36-43; the PDCCH with DCI size in range 2 is not needed to be monitored, which is the PDCCH with bit number of 37-83.

[0187] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device can not need to monitor all the PDCCH candidates with DCI size, and can monitor part of the PDCCH candidates with DCI size according to the first information, so as to reduce the number of blind detection of the PDCCH candidates by the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device in blind detection of the PDCCH.

[0188] Optionally, the first information indicates a candidate set of the PDCCH that needs or does not need to be monitored. Here, the candidate set of the PDCCH can be a specific format of DCI, or a candidate set configured by the protocol or high layer signaling.

[0189] For example, the specific format set of DCI can include Format 0_0, Format 0_1, Format 0_2, Format 0_3, Format 1_0, Format 1_1, Format 1_2, Format 1_3, Format 2_0, Format 2_1, Format 2_2, Format 2_3, Format 2_4, Format 2_5, Format 2_6, Format 2_7, Format 2_8 and Format 2_9. The format of DCI is not limited to the examples herein, and can also include possible DCI formats in future communication networks.

[0190] For example, the specific format set of DCI can include Format 0 series (uplink format, including Format 0_0-Format 0_3, which can be extended by future communication networks); Format 1 series (downlink format, including Format 1_0-Format 1_3, which can be extended by future communication networks); Format 2 series (other formats, including Format 2_0-Format 2_9, which can be extended by future communication networks).

[0191] For example, the field of the first information occupies 1-2 bits. For example, the 2 bits of the first information can indicate that the DCI format that needs or does not need to be monitored includes one or more of the following: Format 0 series, Format 1 series or Format 2 series.

[0192] Optionally, the first information indicates a candidate set number of PDCCHs that need or do not need to be monitored. The correspondence between the candidate set number and one or more candidate PDCCHs is pre-defined by a protocol or configured by high-layer signaling.

[0193] For example, the candidate set number of PDCCHs can include candidate set 1, candidate set 2, or candidate set 3, each of which includes one or more candidate PDCCHs. The first information can occupy at least 1 bit to indicate the candidate set number.

[0194] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device does not need to monitor DCI of all formats in the format set, but monitors or avoids monitoring a candidate set of DCI in the format set according to the first information, which reduces the number of PDCCH candidates blindly detected by the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device in blind detection of PDCCH.

[0195] Optionally, the first information indicates a format of a radio network temporary identity (RNTI) that needs or does not need to be monitored. The format of the RNTI can also be understood as the type of the RNTI.

[0196] For example, the format of the RNTI can include temporary cell RNTI (TC-RNTI) and random access RNTI (RA-RNTI). When the bit value of the field of the first information is 0, it indicates that the format of the RNTI that needs or does not need to be monitored is TC-RNTI, and when the bit value of the field of the first information is 1, it indicates that the format of the RNTI that needs or does not need to be monitored is RA-RNTI. Alternatively, when the bit value of the field of the first information is 0, it indicates that TC-RNTI and RA-RNTI do not need to be monitored, and when the bit value of the field of the first information is 1, it indicates that TC-RNTI and RA-RNTI need to be monitored.

[0197] Exemplarily, the format of the RNTI can include system information RNTI (SI-RNTI), RA-RNTI, TC-RNTI, interruption RNTI (INT-RNTI), slot format indication RNTI (SFI-RNTI), transmit power control-PUSCH-RNTI (TPC-PUSCH-RNTI), transmit power control-PUCCH-RNTI (TPC-PUCCH-RNTI), transmit power control-sounding reference symbols-RNTI (TPC-SRS-RNTI), cell RNTI (C-RNTI), modulation and coding scheme Cell RNTI (MCS-C-RNTI), or configured scheduling RNTI (CS-RNTI), semi-persistent channel state information (CSI) RNTI (SP-CSI-RNTI). The first information can occupy at least 1 bit, indicating the format of the RNTI in these formats that needs to be monitored, and / or the format of the RNTI that does not need to be monitored.

[0198] Exemplarily, the format of the RNTI is classified according to the search space type, for example, the CSS includes SI-RNTI, RA-RNTI, TC-RNTI, INT-RNTI, SFI-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, CS-RNTI, and SP-CSI-RNTI, and the USS includes C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI, SP-CSI-RNTI, and CS-RNTI. The first information can indicate the format of the RNTI in the CSS that needs to be monitored, and / or the format of the RNTI that does not need to be monitored; or the first information can occupy at least 1 bit, indicating the format of the RNTI in the USS that needs to be monitored, and / or the format of the RNTI that does not need to be monitored.

[0199] For example, the CSS can also be classified according to PDCCH Type, such as Type 0-PDCCH, the corresponding RNTI format including SI-RNTI; Type 0A-PDCCH, the corresponding RNTI format including SI-RNTI; Type 1-PDCCH, the corresponding RNTI format including RA-RNTI and TV-RNTI; Type 2-PDCCH, the corresponding RNTI format including P-RNTI; Type 3-PDCCH, the corresponding RNTI format including INT-RNTI, SFI-RNTI, TPC-PUSCH-RNTI, TPC-PUCCH-RNTI, TPC-SRS-RNTI, C-RNTI, MCS-C-RNTI or CS-RNTI. The first information can occupy at least 1 bit, indicating the format of the RNTI that needs to be monitored in the RNTI format of the PDCCH type classification of the CSS, and / or the format of the RNTI that does not need to be monitored.

[0200] Optionally, the first information indicates the number of RNTIs that need or do not need to be monitored. The correspondence between the number of RNTIs and one or more RNTIs can be predefined by a protocol or configured by high-layer signaling.

[0201] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device does not need to monitor all PDCCHs corresponding to the RNTI formats, but monitors or avoids monitoring PDCCH candidates corresponding to part of the RNTI formats according to the first information, which can reduce the number of PDCCH candidates to be blindly detected by the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device in blind detection of PDCCH.

[0202] Case 2: The first information indicates a range related to the carrier on which the PDCCH is monitored.

[0203] Optionally, the first information is used to indicate whether the PDCCH needs to be monitored on one or more secondary carriers.

[0204] For example, the field of the first information occupies 1 bit, which is used to indicate that the PDCCH needs to be monitored on one or more secondary carriers, or is used to indicate that the PDCCH does not need to be monitored on one or more secondary carriers.

[0205] Optionally, the first information is used to indicate whether the PDCCH needs to be monitored on one or more secondary carriers.

[0206] For example, the field of the first information occupies 1-3 bits, and each bit value of the field corresponds to a carrier sequence number. For example, Table 8 shows an example of the correspondence between the bit value of the field of the first information and the carrier sequence number.

[0207] Table 8

[0208] That is, the present application can indicate whether the corresponding carrier sequence number needs to monitor PDCCH or does not need to monitor PDCCH through the bit value of the field of the first information.

[0209] For example, the field of the first information occupies 1-3 bits. The bit value of the field corresponds to a plurality of carrier sequence numbers or a carrier sequence number group. For example, as shown in Table 9, it is an example of the correspondence between the bit value of the field of the first information and the plurality of carrier sequence numbers.

[0210] Table 9

[0211] That is, the present application can indicate whether the corresponding one or more carrier sequence numbers needs to monitor PDCCH or does not need to monitor PDCCH through the bit value of the field of the first information.

[0212] Of course, the above-mentioned Table 8 and Table 9 are only an exemplary case, the number of bits occupied by the field of the first information can be more than 3 bits, and the correspondence between the bit value and the carrier sequence number or the carrier sequence number group can be other possible cases.

[0213] In the present application, the correspondence between the field value of the first information and the identification of the carrier or the identification of the carrier group which needs to monitor or does not need to monitor PDCCH can be protocol predefined or high layer signaling configured.

[0214] Optionally, the above-mentioned different carriers (or carrier groups) can be different radio access technologies (RAT), different bands, different power amplifiers, different frequency domains, or different cell levels.

[0215] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device does not need to monitor all PDCCH candidate carriers or secondary carriers when monitoring PDCCH, but monitors PDCCH candidates on part of the carriers or secondary carriers according to the first information, or avoids monitoring PDCCH candidates on part of the carriers or secondary carriers, which can reduce the number of PDCCH candidate blind detection of the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device blind detection of PDCCH.

[0216] Case 3: The first information indicates the range related to the time domain of monitoring PDCCH.

[0217] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset of the time domain position which needs to monitor or does not need to monitor PDCCH.

[0218] For example, the first information indicates a subset number of one or more time domain positions of PDCCH that needs to be monitored or not to be monitored. For example, the subset of time domain positions can be one or more symbols, one or more absolute positions (or times), one or more relative positions (or times), one or more mini-slots, one or more slots, one or more search spaces, or other subset of one or more time domain positions.

[0219] In this application, the correspondence between the subset of time domain positions and the number in this application can be protocol predefined or high layer signaling configured.

[0220] The correspondence between the bit value of the first information and the subset (number) of time domain positions of PDCCH that needs to be monitored or not to be monitored can be protocol predefined or high layer signaling configured.

[0221] For example, in the case of understanding the time domain position of monitoring PDCCH as a slot, the first information indicates a subset of PDCCH that needs to be monitored or not to be monitored in the slot.

[0222] For example, the first information indicates that PDCCH needs to be monitored or not to be monitored on the pth symbol in the slot, p is a positive integer, or p is at least one integer in 1-14. For example, the first information indicates that PDCCH needs to be monitored or not to be monitored on the 2nd, 5th or 8th symbol in the slot. Wherein, the slot can be the slot where the low-power consumption signal is monitored, or the next slot of the slot where the low-power consumption signal is monitored.

[0223] As shown in FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a time domain position of monitoring PDCCH. In the case of a slot including 14 symbols, assuming that the symbol where the terminal device monitors the low-power consumption signal is the 1st symbol (symbol 0) in the slot, the first information can indicate that the relative position of PDCCH and low-power consumption signal in time domain that needs to be monitored is: the 2nd symbol after the symbol where the low-power consumption signal is monitored in the slot, lasting for 3 symbols, that is, the symbol where the low-power consumption signal is monitored is symbol 3-5. Alternatively, the first information can indicate that the absolute position of PDCCH that needs to be monitored is the 4th symbol in the slot, and lasts for 3 symbols, that is, symbol 3-5.

[0224] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset of search spaces in multiple search spaces that needs to be monitored or not to be monitored.

[0225] For example, the first information indicates one or more search spaces in multiple search spaces that do not need to be monitored. For example, the relationship between the bit value of the field of the first information and the search space that does not need to be monitored can be as shown in Table 10.

[0226] Table 10

[0227] For example, the first information indicates one or more search spaces in the plurality of search spaces that need to be monitored. For example, the relationship between the bit value of the field of the first information and the search space that needs to be monitored can be as shown in Table 11.

[0228] Table 11

[0229] For example, the first information indicates that at least one of the CSS or the USS needs to be monitored, or the first information indicates that at least one of the CSS or the USS does not need to be monitored.

[0230] Optionally, the first information indicates a search space group that needs to be monitored or does not need to be monitored, wherein the search space group is protocol predefined or configured by high layer signaling. For example, the corresponding relationship between the field value of the first information and the search space group that needs to be monitored is as shown in Table 12, or the corresponding relationship between the field value of the first information and the search space that does not need to be monitored is as shown in Table 13.

[0231] In this application, the corresponding relationship between the field value of the first information and the identification of the search space of the PDCCH that needs to be monitored or does not need to be monitored or the identification of the search space group can be protocol predefined or configured by high layer signaling.

[0232] Table 12

[0233] Table 13

[0234] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device does not need to monitor the PDCCH on all the search spaces of the PDCCH candidate when the terminal monitors the PDCCH, but monitors the PDCCH candidate on part of the search spaces according to the first information, or avoids monitoring the PDCCH candidate on part of the search spaces, which can reduce the number of blind detection of the PDCCH candidate by the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of the terminal device in blind detection of the PDCCH.

[0235] Optionally, the first information indicates the relative position of the PDCCH and the low-power consumption signal that needs to be monitored or does not need to be monitored. For example, the relative position indicates the starting position and the duration of the PDCCH relative to the low-power consumption signal in the time domain.

[0236] For example, the first information indicates that the relative position of the PDCCH to be monitored and the low-power consumption signal is the mth symbol in a time slot, and lasts for n symbols, where m and n are positive integers. The time slot can be the time slot in which the low-power consumption signal is monitored, or the next time slot of the time slot in which the low-power consumption signal is monitored. For example, in the case where the time slot is the time slot in which the low-power consumption signal is monitored, the first information indicates that the time domain position of the PDCCH to be monitored is the 2nd symbol in the time slot in which the low-power consumption signal is monitored, and lasts for 4 symbols.

[0237] Optionally, the first information indicates an absolute position of the PDCCH to be monitored.

[0238] For example, the absolute position indicates the sequence number of the time slot in which the PDCCH is to be monitored, and the number of time slots. For example, the first information indicates that the position of the PDCCH to be monitored is the ith time slot, and lasts for j time slots, where i is an integer greater than or equal to 0, and j is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0239] Alternatively, the absolute position indicates the sequence number of the symbol in the time slot in which the PDCCH is to be monitored, and the number of symbols.

[0240] Alternatively, the absolute position indicates the absolute time at which the PDCCH is to be monitored, and the absolute time. The unit of the absolute time can be microseconds, milliseconds, seconds, etc.

[0241] In this way, for the terminal device, the terminal device does not need to monitor the time domain position of all PDCCH candidates when monitoring the PDCCH, but can monitor the PDCCH candidates at partial time domain positions according to the first information, or avoid monitoring the PDCCH candidates at partial time domain positions, which can reduce the number of PDCCH candidates to be blindly detected by the terminal device, and thus reduce the power consumption of the terminal device when blindly detecting the PDCCH.

[0242] Case 4: The first information indicates a range related to the frequency domain of the PDCCH to be monitored.

[0243] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset of the frequency domain position of the PDCCH to be monitored.

[0244] Exemplarily, the first information indicates a subset (number) of one or more frequency domain locations of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required. For example, the subset of frequency domain locations can include one or more BWPs, one or more frequency bands, one or more sub-bands, one or more carriers, one or more carrier groups, one or more CORESETs, one or more resource elements (REs), one or more RBs, one or more CCEs, and / or one or more other frequency domain locations.

[0245] In the present application, the correspondence between the subset of frequency domain locations and the number can be pre-defined by a protocol or configured by high layer signaling.

[0246] In the present application, the correspondence between the bit value of the first information and the subset (number) of frequency domain locations of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required can be pre-defined by a protocol or configured by high layer signaling.

[0247] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset of resources in a resource block (RB) of a CORESET of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required.

[0248] Exemplarily, the first information indicates a location (number) of a CCE in a CORESET of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required.

[0249] Exemplarily, the first information indicates a location (number) of an aggregation level in a CORESET of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required.

[0250] In the present application, the correspondence between the bit value of the first information and the location or number of a CCE in a CORESET of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required can be pre-defined by a protocol or configured by high layer signaling.

[0251] Optionally, the first information indicates one of a plurality of CORESETs of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required.

[0252] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset of a plurality of CORESETs of which monitoring PDCCH is required or not required.

[0253] Exemplarily, as shown in FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a first information indicating whether monitoring PDCCH of a CORESET is required or not required. In a slot containing 14 symbols shown in FIG. 7, it is assumed that a low-power consumption signal is monitored on the first symbol (symbol 0) of the slot, and the first information included in the low-power consumption signal indicates that monitoring PDCCH on CORESET0 is required and monitoring PDCCH on CORESET1 is not required.

[0254] In the present application, the correspondence between the bit value of the first information and the position or number of the CORESET for which PDCCH monitoring is required or not required can be protocol predefined or configured by high layer signaling.

[0255] Optionally, the first information indicates one of the plurality of BWPs for which PDCCH monitoring is required or not required.

[0256] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset of the plurality of BWPs for which PDCCH monitoring is required or not required.

[0257] Optionally, the first information indicates one or more numbers of BWPs for which PDCCH monitoring is required or not required.

[0258] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset number of the plurality of BWPs for which PDCCH monitoring is required or not required.

[0259] Optionally, the first information indicates a subset of a part bandwidth BWP for which PDCCH monitoring is required or not required.

[0260] Optionally, the first information indicates a number of a subset of a BWP for which PDCCH monitoring is required or not required.

[0261] In this way, for the terminal device, when monitoring PDCCH, the terminal device does not need to monitor the frequency domain positions of all PDCCH candidates, but can monitor PDCCH candidates on a part of the frequency domain positions according to the first information, or avoid monitoring PDCCH candidates on a part of the frequency domain positions, which can reduce the number of PDCCH candidates for blind detection by the terminal device, thereby reducing the power consumption of blind detection of PDCCH by the terminal device.

[0262] The above embodiments are described by taking the network side indicating the range of monitoring or not monitoring PDCCH as an example, in some other embodiments of the present application, the network side can also indicate whether the terminal device monitors PDCCH to avoid invalid PDCCH blind detection by the terminal device, so as to reduce the power consumption of blind detection of PDCCH by the terminal device.

[0263] As shown in FIG. 8, a flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application is shown, in which the method can indicate monitoring PDCCH or not monitoring PDCCH through a low-power signal to avoid invalid PDCCH blind detection by the terminal device, and reduce the power consumption of blind detection of PDCCH. The method includes the following processes.

[0264] 801、The terminal device receives a low-power signal, and the low-power signal comprises second information indicating whether to monitor a PDCCH or not.

[0265] Correspondingly, the network device sends a low-power signal.

[0266] In some embodiments, the low-power signal is at least one of a chirp signal, a sequence signal, an OFDM signal, an FSK signal, an OOK signal, or a low-power synchronization signal. Alternatively, the low-power signal can also be a combination or optimized form of the various signal types listed here. The low-power signal can be received by the LP-WUR of the terminal device. When the LP-WUR determines that the low-power signal indicates monitoring the PDCCH, the MR monitors the PDCCH, or when the LP-WUR determines that the low-power signal indicates monitoring the PDCCH, the MR can also be in a normal working state.

[0267] 802、The terminal device determines whether to monitor a PDCCH based on the low-power signal.

[0268] For example, the MR can be in a light sleep state / sleep state before the terminal device receives a wake-up signal of the LP-WUR to enter a normal working state, at which time the power consumption of the terminal device is low. When the MR receives a low-power signal from the LP-WUR indicating monitoring the PDCCH, the MR enters a normal working state and monitors the PDCCH.

[0269] In this way, for the terminal device, the MR of the terminal device does not need to be in a normal working state all the time, and can be determined by the second information in the low-power signal whether to enter a normal working state to monitor the PDCCH. That is, when the LP-WUR determines that the second information indicates not monitoring the PDCCH, no wake-up signal is sent to the MR, so as to avoid invalid PDCCH blind detection of the terminal device and reduce the power consumption of blind detection of the PDCCH.

[0270] In this application, the content of the low-power information and the time-frequency domain position information can also be indicated by protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling. In this way, the terminal device can not only monitor the low-power signal, but also determine whether to monitor the PDCCH according to the content of the low-power signal based on the information indicated by the protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling.

[0271] The following exemplary introduces how to protocol predefine or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling the following content: the content indicated by the low-power signal, the field meaning (or format) of the low-power signal, the time-frequency position of the low-power signal, and the retransmission mode, etc. For the terminal device, the terminal device can determine whether there is a low-power signal and whether the low-power signal indicates monitoring the PDCCH according to the information indicated by the protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling.

[0272] As shown in FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a communication method, which comprises the following steps.

[0273] 901. The network device configures or indicates the content, format and time-frequency domain position of the low-power signal by protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0274] For example, the high-layer signaling can be radio resource control (RRC) signaling, medium access control control element (MAC CE) signaling. The physical layer signaling can be DCI.

[0275] 902. The terminal device monitors whether there is a low-power signal based on the content, format and time-frequency domain position of the low-power signal configured or indicated by protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0276] For example, the LP-WUR of the terminal device can monitor whether there is a low-power signal based on the time-frequency domain position of the low-power signal configured or indicated by protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0277] 903. The terminal device receives the low-power signal, which comprises second information indicating whether to monitor PDCCH or not.

[0278] 904. The terminal device determines whether to monitor PDCCH based on the low-power signal.

[0279] For example, when the LP-WUR receives the low-power signal, if the LP-WUR determines according to the content and format of the low-power signal configured or indicated by protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling or physical layer signaling that the second information carried by the low-power signal indicates to monitor PDCCH, the LP-WUR sends a wake-up signal to the MR to make the MR monitor PDCCH in a normal working state. If the LP-WUR determines according to the content and format of the low-power signal configured or indicated by protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling or physical layer signaling that the second information carried by the low-power signal indicates not to monitor PDCCH, the LP-WUR does not send a wake-up signal to the MR.

[0280] The content, format and time-frequency domain position of the low-power signal configured or indicated by protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling or physical layer signaling are introduced as follows.

[0281] 1. The content of the low-power signal.

[0282] In some embodiments, the content of the low-power consumption signal indicates whether at least one terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period in step 901.

[0283] In some embodiments, the first time period is at least one slot, or at least one mini-slot, or a time period related to a subcarrier spacing, or a protocol predefined time period or a configured time period.

[0284] For example, in mode 1, when the first time period is one slot, the low-power consumption signal indicates whether one or more terminal devices need to monitor the PDCCH in the slot.

[0285] In mode 2, when the first time period is a protocol predefined time period or a configured time period, the low-power consumption signal indicates whether one or more terminal devices need to monitor the PDCCH in the protocol predefined time period or the configured time period.

[0286] For example, the first time period is one slot or mini-slot.

[0287] Alternatively, the first time period is an absolute time period such as 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.25ms, etc.

[0288] Alternatively, the first time period is a time period in which a plurality of protocol predefined symbols are located. For example, the first time period is 14 symbols, i.e., one slot in NR. Alternatively, the first time period is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 or other values of symbols, i.e., a mini-slot in NR.

[0289] Alternatively, the first time period is X1 slots, X1 is a positive integer, and X1 is protocol predefined or preconfigured. Alternatively, the first time period is X2 symbols, X2 is a positive integer, and X2 is protocol predefined or preconfigured.

[0290] In mode 3, the first time period is a time period related to a subcarrier.

[0291] For example, when the subcarrier spacing is 15KHz, the first time period is 14 OFDM symbols.

[0292] Alternatively, when the subcarrier spacing is 30KHz, the first time period is 28 OFDM symbols.

[0293] Alternatively, when the subcarrier spacing is 60KHz, the first time period is 56 OFDM symbols.

[0294] Alternatively, when the subcarrier spacing is 15*n KHz, the first time period is 14*n OFDM symbols, n is a positive integer.

[0295] 2. Format of the low-power consumption signal.

[0296] In step 901, the low power consumption signal includes second information indicating that the terminal device monitors the PDCCH or does not monitor the PDCCH.

[0297] In some embodiments, the second information indicates that the terminal device monitors the PDCCH or does not monitor the PDCCH in the first time period.

[0298] In one possible way, the low power consumption signal is a broadcast signal or a groupcast signal, and the second information occupies at least 1 bit, and the second information indicates that the at least one terminal device monitors the PDCCH or does not monitor the PDCCH.

[0299] For example, the low power consumption signal is a broadcast signal or a groupcast signal, and the second information included in the low power consumption signal occupies 1 bit.

[0300] When the value of the 1 bit is 0, the second information indicates that the one or more terminal devices do not need to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period, and when the value of the 1 bit is 1, the second information indicates that the one or more terminal devices need to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period.

[0301] Alternatively, when the value of the 1 bit is 1, the second information indicates that the one or more terminal devices need to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period, and when the value of the 1 bit is 0, the second information indicates that the one or more terminal devices do not need to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period.

[0302] For example, the low power consumption signal is a broadcast signal or a groupcast signal, and the second information included in the low power consumption signal occupies a plurality of bits.

[0303] For example, each bit of the plurality of bits corresponds to a terminal device, and each bit indicates whether the corresponding terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period. For example, as shown in (a) of FIG. 10, the second information occupies 4 bits, which correspond to UEs 1-4 respectively, and each bit indicates whether the corresponding UE needs to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period. The correspondence can be predefined by a protocol or configured by high layer signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0304] For example, when the low power consumption signal is a multicast signal, each bit of the multiple bits corresponds to a terminal device group, and each bit indicates whether the corresponding terminal device group needs to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period. For example, as shown in (b) of FIG. 10, the second information occupies 2 bits, 1 bit corresponds to the UE group of UE1-2, and indicates whether UE1 and UE2 need to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period. Another bit corresponds to the UE group of UE3-4, and indicates whether UE3 and UE4 need to monitor the PDCCH in the first time period. The correspondence can be predefined by a protocol or configured by high layer signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0305] In some embodiments, the second information indicates that the at least one terminal device monitors or does not monitor the PDCCH on the at least one carrier or secondary carrier or carrier group.

[0306] For example, the second information indicates whether the at least one terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH on one or more secondary carriers in the first time period. For example, the second signal occupies at least 1 bit, and each bit corresponds to one or more secondary carriers. The correspondence can be predefined by a protocol or configured by high layer signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0307] For example, the second information indicates whether the at least one terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH on one or more carriers in the first time period. For example, the second signal occupies at least 1 bit, and each bit corresponds to one or more carriers. The correspondence can be predefined by a protocol or configured by high layer signaling or physical layer signaling.

[0308] In this way, through the configuration of step 901, the terminal device can determine whether it needs to monitor the PDCCH according to the content and format of the configured low power consumption signal when performing step 904.

[0309] 3. Time-frequency domain position of the low power consumption signal.

[0310] By configuring the time-frequency domain position of the low power consumption signal in step 901, the terminal device can monitor whether there is a low power consumption signal according to the time-frequency domain position when performing step 902.

[0311] 31. Time domain position of the low power consumption signal.

[0312] In some embodiments, in step 901, the time domain position of the low power consumption signal can be indicated by a protocol, high layer signaling or physical layer signaling as the second time period.

[0313] Thus, in step 902 and step 903, the terminal device monitoring or receiving the low-power signal comprises: monitoring the low-power signal in a second time period. Wherein, the second time period is indicated by at least one of the following: an identity of the third time period; a monitoring period; a monitoring window in the third time period; a monitoring window in the monitoring period.

[0314] In way 1, the second time period is an identity of the third time period, and the third time period is at least one time slot. The identity of the third time period can be a slot number of the at least one time slot.

[0315] In some embodiments, the protocol predefines or the higher layer signaling configures or the physical layer signaling indicates the slot number where the low-power signal is located.

[0316] For example, the protocol predefines or the higher layer signaling configures or the physical layer signaling indicates a start slot number and a number of continuous slots where the low-power signal is located. For example, the start slot number is slot2, and the number of continuous slots is 6, i.e. the time domain position of monitoring the low-power signal is slot2-slot7. The terminal device can monitor the low-power signal in each slot of slot2-slot7.

[0317] In way 2, the second time period is a monitoring period.

[0318] For example, when the second time period is a monitoring period, the monitoring period can be fixed. For example, the monitoring period can be 1ms, 2ms, 5ms or 10ms, i.e. the terminal device can monitor whether there is a low-power signal every 1ms, 2ms, 5ms or 10ms. Alternatively, the monitoring period can be one slot, i.e. the terminal device can monitor whether there is a low-power signal every slot.

[0319] For example, when the second time period is a monitoring period, the monitoring period can be variable. For example, the monitoring period can be 14*n symbols, where n is related to the subcarrier spacing, and n is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0320] In way 3, for each third time period or monitoring period of monitoring the low-power signal, a monitoring window of monitoring the low-power signal in the third time period or the monitoring period can be indicated as the second time period by the protocol predefinition or the higher layer signaling configuration or the physical layer signaling. Here, two cases are described.

[0321] In one possible case, the second time period is a subset of the first time period. Here it can be understood that the second information in the low power consumption signal indicates the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH in the same slot or time period as the low power consumption signal, i.e., the low power consumption signal and the associated PDCCH are in one slot or time period. The low power consumption signal can be configured at a position before the slot or time period.

[0322] For example, the time domain position / monitoring window of the low power consumption signal can be the first symbol of the first time period. In this way, the terminal device can determine whether to monitor the PDCCH according to the low power consumption signal as early as possible in the first time period, so as to reduce the latency of monitoring the PDCCH.

[0323] For example, the monitoring window can be the first symbol, or the first 2, 3, or 4, or other number of symbols of the slot in which the low power consumption signal is configured.

[0324] Alternatively, the monitoring window can be the first symbol, or the first 2, 3, or 4, or other number of symbols of the monitoring period of the low power consumption signal.

[0325] Alternatively, the monitoring window can be the first symbol, or the first 2, 3, or 4, or other number of symbols of the CORESET in which the low power consumption signal is configured.

[0326] In another possible case, the second time period does not overlap with the first time period. Here it can be understood that the second information in the low power consumption signal indicates the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH in the next slot or slots of the slot in which the low power consumption signal is monitored, or in the next time period of the time period in which the low power consumption signal is monitored, i.e., the low power consumption signal and the associated PDCCH are not in one slot or time period. The low power consumption signal can be configured at a position after the slot or time period in which the low power consumption signal is monitored. Alternatively, the second time period is in the first symbol or the first multiple symbols of the first time period.

[0327] For example, the monitoring window can be the last symbol, or the second last, third last, or fourth last, or other number of symbols of the slot in which the low power consumption signal is configured.

[0328] Alternatively, the monitoring window can be the last symbol, or the second last, third last, or fourth last, or other number of symbols of the monitoring period of the low power consumption signal.

[0329] The monitoring window can be the last symbol, or the second last, third last, or fourth last, or other number of symbols of the CORESET of the low power consumption signal.

[0330] 32) The frequency domain position of the low power consumption signal.

[0331] In some embodiments, the frequency domain position of the low-power consumption signal is determined by the BWP-related CORESET currently activated by the terminal device. That is, the terminal device can determine the frequency domain position of the low-power consumption signal according to the BWP-related CORESET when the currently activated BWP is determined.

[0332] In some embodiments, the frequency domain position of the low-power consumption signal is a pre-configured / pre-defined fixed position. For example, the fixed position can be irrelevant to the currently activated BWP and / or CORESET.

[0333] In this case, the low-power consumption signal can be a unicast signal or a groupcast signal, and the low-power consumption signals monitored by different terminal devices or different groups of terminal devices are frequency division multiplexed, time division multiplexed, space division multiplexed, or code division multiplexed.

[0334] For example, in mode a, different terminal devices or groups of terminal devices can share one frequency domain position to monitor the low-power consumption signal, and the low-power consumption signals are code division multiplexed.

[0335] For example, in mode a, different terminal devices or groups of terminal devices can share one frequency domain position to monitor the low-power consumption signal, and the low-power consumption signals are code division multiplexed.

[0336] For example, in mode a, different terminal devices or groups of terminal devices can share one frequency domain position to monitor the low-power consumption signal, and the low-power consumption signals are code division multiplexed.

[0337] For example, in mode b, the low-power consumption signals of different terminal devices or groups of terminal devices are frequency division multiplexed. For example, different terminal devices respectively monitor low-power consumption signals on different frequency point sub-channels in the same time slot, the same space, and the same orthogonal code.

[0338] In this way, through the configuration of step 901, the terminal device can determine whether to monitor the low-power consumption signal according to the time-frequency domain information of the configured low-power consumption signal when performing steps 902 and 903.

[0339] In some embodiments, the relative position of the low-power consumption signal and the PDCCH in the time domain is related to the capability of the terminal device.

[0340] The application can also indicate the relative position of the low-power signal and the PDCCH in the time domain and the capability of the terminal device through protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication.

[0341] In this configuration, it can be understood that the terminal device determines from where to start monitoring the PDCCH according to the relative position when receiving the low-power signal, that is, the monitoring position of the PDCCH is configured.

[0342] For example, the network device can configure a relatively short time of the relative position of the low-power signal and the PDCCH in the time domain for a terminal device with strong capability, for example, the time of the relative position is K1.

[0343] The network device can configure a relatively long time of the relative position of the low-power signal and the PDCCH in the time domain for a terminal device with weak capability, for example, the time of the relative position is K2, K2>K1, and the units of K1 and K2 can be symbols, slots, a period of time, or absolute time.

[0344] In this way, the application can flexibly configure the time of the terminal device monitoring the PDCCH according to the capability of the terminal device.

[0345] In some embodiments, the low-power signal is repeatedly transmitted in the time domain or the frequency domain or the space domain.

[0346] The application can also indicate that the low-power signal is repeatedly transmitted through protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication, which can improve the reliability of the transmission of the low-power signal.

[0347] For example, in some embodiments, the network device indicates that the low-power signal is repeatedly transmitted in the frequency domain and the number of times of repeated transmission in the frequency domain through protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication. Alternatively, the network device indicates that the low-power signal is repeatedly transmitted in the time domain and the number of times of repeated transmission in the time domain through protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication. Alternatively, the number of times of repeated transmission in the frequency domain or the time domain can also be protocol predefined.

[0348] In some embodiments, the network device can indicate that the repeated transmission of the low-power signal is related to the beam through protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication.

[0349] For example, the monitoring window of the low-power signal can be predefined by a protocol or configured by high-layer signaling or indicated by physical-layer signaling, and the monitoring window includes multiple repeated low-power signals, the multiple repeated low-power signals are associated with different beams, or part of the multiple repeated low-power signals are associated with the same beam, and the part of the multiple repeated low-power signals are associated with different beams respectively. In this way, the terminal device can monitor the low-power signal on multiple beams to improve the transmission reliability of the low-power signal.

[0350] In this way, the terminal device can monitor the low-power signal through the LP-WUR in the case that the content, format and time-frequency domain position of the low-power signal are predefined by a protocol or configured by high-layer signaling or indicated by physical-layer signaling, without the MR of the terminal device being in a normal working state to monitor the low-power signal all the time, and the power consumption of the terminal device is low. The terminal device can also determine whether to monitor the PDCCH according to the low-power signal to avoid the terminal device performing invalid PDCCH blind detection and reduce the power consumption of the terminal device in blind detection of the PDCCH.

[0351] It can be understood that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the network device and the terminal device include corresponding hardware structures and / or software modules for performing the functions. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and method steps of the examples described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the present application can be realized in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is implemented in hardware or computer software driven hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0352] FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 are structural schematic diagrams of possible communication apparatuses provided by the embodiments of the present application. The communication apparatuses can be used to implement the functions of the terminal or the base station in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication apparatus can be the terminal 120 as shown in FIG. 1, or the base station 110 as shown in FIG. 1, or a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal or the base station.

[0353] As shown in FIG. 12, the communication apparatus 1200 includes a processing unit 1210 and a transceiver unit 1220. The communication apparatus 1200 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device or the network device in the method embodiments shown in at least one of the above FIG. 5, FIG. 8 or FIG. 9.

[0354] When the communication apparatus 1200 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 5, the transceiver unit 1220 is configured to receive the low-power signal, and the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine whether to monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the low-power signal.

[0355] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8, the transceiver 1220 is configured to receive the low-power consumption signal; the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine whether to monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the low-power consumption signal.

[0356] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the transceiver 1220 is configured to receive the low-power consumption signal; the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine the content, format and time-frequency domain location of the low-power consumption signal based on the protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication; monitor whether there is a low-power consumption signal based on the protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication of the content, format and time-frequency domain location of the low-power consumption signal; and determine whether to monitor the physical downlink control channel based on the low-power consumption signal.

[0357] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the transceiver 1220 is configured to send the low-power consumption signal; and the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine the range of the physical downlink control channel that needs to be monitored and / or the range of the physical downlink control channel that does not need to be monitored before sending the low-power consumption signal.

[0358] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 8, the transceiver 1220 is configured to send the low-power consumption signal; and the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine whether the terminal device monitors the physical downlink control channel before sending the low-power consumption signal.

[0359] When the communication apparatus 1200 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the transceiver 1220 is configured to monitor whether there is a low-power consumption signal based on the protocol predefinition or high-layer signaling configuration or physical layer signaling indication of the content, format and time-frequency domain location of the low-power consumption signal; send the low-power consumption signal; and the processing unit 1210 is configured to determine the content, format and time-frequency domain location of the low-power consumption signal.

[0360] For more detailed description of the processing unit 1210 and the transceiver 1220, please refer to the relevant description in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 5, FIG. 8 and FIG. 9.

[0361] Figure 13 shows a structural diagram of a possible communication apparatus. It can be understood that the communication apparatus 130 includes necessary forms of means, such as modules, units, elements, circuits, or interfaces, etc., which are configured to be appropriately combined to perform the present solution. The communication apparatus 130 can be a RAN node, a terminal, a core network device, or other network device in Figure 1, or a component (e.g., a chip) of these devices, to implement the methods described in the following method embodiments. The communication apparatus 130 includes one or more processors 131. The processor 131 can be a general processor or a special-purpose processor, etc. For example, it can be a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor can be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit can be used to control the communication apparatus (e.g., a RAN node, a terminal, or a chip, etc.), execute software programs, and process data of the software programs.

[0362] Optionally, in one design, the processor 131 can include a program 133 (which can also be referred to as code or instructions at times) that can be run on the processor 131, so that the communication apparatus 130 performs the methods described in the following embodiments. In yet another possible design, the communication apparatus 130 includes a circuit (not shown in Figure 13) for implementing the functions of the terminal device and / or network device in the above embodiments.

[0363] Optionally, the communication apparatus 130 can include one or more memories 132 having a program 134 (which can also be referred to as code or instructions at times) stored thereon, which can be run on the processor 131, so that the communication apparatus 130 performs the methods described in the above method embodiments.

[0364] Optionally, the processor 131 and / or the memory 132 can include an artificial intelligence (AI) module 137, 138, which is used to implement AI-related functions. The AI module can be implemented in a software, hardware, or software-hardware combined manner. For example, the AI module can include a radio access network intelligent controller (RIC) module. For example, the AI module can be a near-real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC.

[0365] Optionally, the processor 131 and / or the memory 132 can also store data. The processor 131 and the memory 132 can be separately arranged or integrated together.

[0366] Optionally, the communication device 130 can further include a transceiver 135 and / or an antenna 136. The processor 131 can also be referred to as a processing unit, which controls the communication device (e.g., a RAN node or a terminal). The transceiver 135 can also be referred to as a transceiving unit, a transceiver, a transceiving circuit, or a transceiver, which implements the transceiving function of the communication device through the antenna 136.

[0367] When the communication device is a terminal chip, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the method embodiments. The terminal chip receives information from a base station, which can be understood as that the information is first received by other modules (e.g., a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal, and then transmitted to the terminal chip by the modules. The terminal chip transmits information to the base station, which can be understood as that the information is first transmitted to other modules (e.g., a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal, and then transmitted to the base station by the modules.

[0368] When the communication device is a base station chip, the base station chip implements the functions of the base station in the method embodiments. The base station chip receives information from a terminal, which can be understood as that the information is first received by other modules (e.g., a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the base station, and then transmitted to the base station chip by the modules. The base station chip transmits information to the terminal, which can be understood as that the information is first transmitted to other modules (e.g., a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the base station, and then transmitted to the terminal by the modules.

[0369] In this application, entity A transmits information to entity B, which can be that A directly transmits to B, or A indirectly transmits to B through other entities. Similarly, entity B receives information from entity A, which can be that entity B directly receives the information transmitted by entity A, or entity B indirectly receives the information transmitted by entity A through other entities. Here, entity A and B can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules inside RAN nodes or terminals. The transmission and reception of information can be the information interaction between RAN nodes and terminals, e.g., the information interaction between a base station and a terminal; the transmission and reception of information can also be the information interaction between two RAN nodes, e.g., the information interaction between a CU and a DU; the transmission and reception of information can also be the information interaction between different modules inside one device, e.g., the information interaction between a terminal chip and other modules in the terminal, or the information interaction between a base station chip and other modules in the base station.

[0370] It is to be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application can be a central processing unit (CPU), and can also be other general-purpose processors, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0371] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions executable by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, which can be stored in a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a register, a hard disk, a mobile hard disk, a CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor, so that the processor can read information from and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in the base station or the terminal.

[0372] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer programs or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed. The computer can be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user equipment or other programmable apparatus. The computer programs or instructions can be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transferred from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer programs or instructions can be transferred from one website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center through wired or wireless manner. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center and the like integrated with one or more available media. The available media can be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape; or an optical medium, such as a digital video disc; or a semiconductor medium, such as a solid state disk. The computer readable storage medium can be a volatile or non-volatile storage medium, or can include both volatile and non-volatile storage media.

[0373] In various embodiments of the present application, the terms and / or descriptions between different embodiments are consistent and can be referred to each other if there is no special description and logical conflict, and the technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationship.

[0374] In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "multiple" means two or more. The "and / or" describes the relationship between the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B, which can represent the following cases: A exists alone, A and B exist together, B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In the textual description of the present application, the character " / ", generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "Including at least one of A, B and C" can mean: including A; including B; including C; including A and B; including A and C; including B and C; including A, B and C.

[0375] It can be understood that various numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only distinguished for convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the serial number of the above processes does not mean the execution order, and the execution order of the processes should be determined by its function and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method characterized by comprising: comprising: receiving a low power consumption signal, the low power consumption signal comprising first information; the first information indicating a range of physical downlink control channels that need to be monitored, and / or a range of physical downlink control channels that do not need to be monitored; determining, based on the low power consumption signal, whether the range of physical downlink control channels need to be monitored or not.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, the range of physical downlink control channels comprising at least one of: downlink control information type; aggregation level; downlink control information size; candidate set of physical downlink control channels; format of wireless network temporary identifier; secondary carrier; carrier numerology group; carrier number; subset of search space; search space group; relative position of the physical downlink control channels to the low power consumption signal; absolute position of the physical downlink control channels; subset of time domain position; subset of frequency domain position; subset of resources in a control resource set; one of multiple control resource sets; one of multiple bandwidth parts; partial subset in a bandwidth part.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first information indicates that, in a first time period, the range of physical downlink control channels need to be monitored, and / or the range of physical downlink control channels do not need to be monitored. comprising:

4. A communication method characterized by comprising: receiving a low power consumption signal, the low power consumption signal comprising second information indicating whether to monitor physical downlink control channels or not to monitor physical downlink control channels; determining, based on the low power consumption signal, whether to monitor the physical downlink control channels or not.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the second information indicates that, in a first time period, to monitor the physical downlink control channels or not to monitor the physical downlink control channels.

6. The method of claim 3 or 5, wherein the first time period is at least one of: a time slot, or a mini-slot, or a time period related to a subcarrier spacing, or a time period predetermined by a protocol, or a time period configured. the low power consumption signal is at least one of:

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, a chirp signal, a sequence signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, a frequency shift keying (FSK) signal, an on-off keying (OOK) signal, or a low power consumption synchronization signal.

8. The method of any one of claims 4-7, wherein the second information indicates that at least one terminal-side device monitors the physical downlink control channels or does not monitor the physical downlink control channels on at least one of: a carrier, or a secondary carrier, or a carrier group. the receiving the low power consumption signal comprises:

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that, monitoring the low power consumption signal in a second time period; the second time period is indicated by at least one of: an identification of a third time period; a monitoring period; a monitoring window in the third time period; a monitoring window in the monitoring period.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the second time period is a subset of the first time period, or the second time period and the first time period do not overlap.

11. The method of any one of claims 1-10, wherein a relative position of the low power consumption signal and the physical downlink control channels in time domain is related to a capability of a terminal-side device. ​ 12. The method of any one of claims 3 or 5-9, wherein a time domain location of the low power consumption signal is a first symbol of the first time period.

13. The method of any one of claims 1-12, wherein a frequency domain location of the low power consumption signal is determined by a control resource set associated with a currently activated bandwidth part of a terminal side device.

13. The method of any one of claims 1-12, wherein a frequency domain location of the low power consumption signal is determined by a control resource set associated with a currently activated bandwidth part of a terminal side device.

13. The method of any one of claims 1-12, wherein a frequency domain location of the low power consumption signal is determined by a control resource set associated with a currently activated bandwidth part of a terminal side device.

14. The method of any one of claims 4-13, wherein the low power consumption signal is a broadcast signal or a groupcast signal, and the second information occupies at least one bit, the second information indicating whether to monitor the physical downlink control channel or not to monitor the physical downlink control channel.

15. The method of any one of claims 1-14, wherein the low power consumption signal is a unicast signal or a groupcast signal, and the low power consumption signals monitored by different terminal side devices or different groups of terminal side devices are frequency division multiplexed, or time division multiplexed, or spatial division multiplexed.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

17. A method of communication, comprising:

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein, 16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

20. A method of communication, comprising:

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

23. The method according to any one of claims 17-22, characterized by, 16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain.

16. The method of any one of claims 1-15, wherein the low power consumption signal is repeatedly transmitted in time domain or frequency domain. a chirp signal, a sequence signal, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal, a frequency shift keying (FSK) signal, an on-off keying (OOK) signal, or a low power synchronization signal.

24. The method of any of claims 20-23, wherein the second information indicates that the at least one terminal-side device monitors or does not monitor the physical downlink control channel on the at least one carrier or secondary carrier or carrier group.

25. The method according to any one of claims 17-24, characterized by, the sending the low power signal comprises: sending the low power signal in a second time period; the second time period is indicated by at least one of the following: an identity of a third time period; a monitoring periodicity; a monitoring window in the third time period; a monitoring window in the monitoring periodicity.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the second time period is a subset of the first time period, or the second time period and the first time period do not overlap.

27. The method of any of claims 17-26, wherein a relative position of the low power signal and the physical downlink control channel in time domain is related to a capability of a terminal-side device.

28. The method of any of claims 19 or 21-25, wherein a time domain position of the low power signal is a first symbol of the first time period.

29. A communications device, characterized by comprising a transceiving module and a processing module; the transceiving module is configured to perform operations related to receiving in the method of any of claims 1-16; the processing module is configured to perform operations related to other actions than receiving in the method of any of claims 1-16.

30. A communications device, characterized by comprising a transceiving module; the transceiving module is configured to perform operations related to transmitting in the method of any of claims 17-28.

31. A communication system, characterized by comprising a first communication device configured to perform the method of any of claims 1-16 and a second communication device configured to perform the method of any of claims 17-28.

32. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising: the computer readable storage medium has stored therein computer instructions, which when executed on a communication device, cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1-28.

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