Cell reselection method and apparatus

Abstract

A cell reselection method and apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal device determining at least one candidate cell, and reselecting one cell among the at least one candidate cell on the basis of the priority of the at least one candidate cell, wherein the at least one candidate cell includes a first cell, and when the first cell meets a first condition, the first cell is a cell having the highest priority, and the first condition comprises supporting a low power consumption characteristic. In the method, a terminal can set the priority of a cell on the basis of whether the first condition is met. For example, if the first cell supports the low power consumption characteristic, the terminal can set the priority of the first cell to the highest priority, such that the terminal has a greater probability of selecting the first cell when executing cell reselection, thereby facilitating energy saving of the terminal device.

Description

A cell reselection method and apparatus

[0001] Cross-reference to related applications

[0002] This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202410930873.6, filed on July 11, 2024, entitled “A Cell Reselection Method and Apparatus”, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0003] This application relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a cell reselection method and apparatus. Background Technology

[0004] The terminal device performs radio resource management (RRM) measurements to determine whether to remain in the current serving cell or perform cell reselection, aiming to camp on a cell with better channel quality. On the other hand, to reduce the terminal device's power consumption, a low-power wake-up signal (LP-WUS) is introduced. The terminal device wakes up the power-hungry receiver only when LP-WUS is detected; otherwise, the receiver can remain in sleep mode, thus reducing the terminal device's power consumption. However, during cell reselection, the terminal device may reselect to a cell that does not support LP-WUS, preventing it from entering low-power mode and hindering energy saving. Summary of the Invention

[0005] This application provides a cell reselection method and apparatus for reducing the power consumption of terminal devices.

[0006] To achieve the above objectives, the embodiments of this application adopt the following technical solutions:

[0007] Firstly, a cell reselection method is provided. This method can be applied to the terminal side, for example, to a terminal device; or to a larger device including the terminal device; or to a module or unit that performs some functions of the terminal device, such as circuits or chip / chip system (e.g., a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system-on-chip (SoC) chip or system-in-package (SIP) chip containing a modem core) or other functional modules in the terminal device. For ease of description, the following example uses the method applied to a terminal device. In the various aspects of this application described below, the terminal device supports low-power characteristics.

[0008] The cell reselection method includes: the terminal device determining at least one candidate cell, and reselecting to one of the at least one candidate cell according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a first cell, which is the highest priority cell when it meets a first condition, the first condition including supporting low-power characteristics.

[0009] In this scheme, for terminal devices that support low-power characteristics, priority can be set based on whether the frequency point / cell supports low power. For example, if the first cell supports low power, then the priority of the first cell is set to a higher priority, so that the terminal device has a higher probability of selecting the first cell during cell reselection. The terminal device can receive low-power signals in the first cell, which is beneficial to the energy saving of the terminal device.

[0010] In one implementation, the terminal device supports orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) receivers to receive signals. The first condition further includes: supporting some or all of the low-power signal information to be mapped only to a first time unit, where the signal amplitude in the first time unit is not zero.

[0011] In this scheme, some or all of the information supporting low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit. Mapping low-power signals consumes fewer resources and is suitable for scenarios with high loads. When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics, cells that support both low-power features and OFDM receiver signals are considered to have the highest priority. Through this scheme, when a terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power features and OFDM receiver signals, thus having sufficient resources for transmitting low-power signals. This increases the probability of enabling low-power features, benefiting not only the energy saving of the terminal device but also enabling energy saving for more terminal devices. Furthermore, it ensures good coverage performance.

[0012] In one implementation, the terminal device supports on-off keying (OOK) receivers to receive signals, and the first condition further includes: supporting all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK.

[0013] When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics, cells that support both low-power characteristics and OOK modulation are considered to have the highest priority. Through this scheme, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics and OOK receiver signals, thus having sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals. This increases the probability of enabling low-power characteristics and is beneficial for energy saving in the terminal device.

[0014] In one implementation, the terminal device supports receiving signals with an OOK receiver and also supports receiving signals with an OFDM receiver.

[0015] When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics, cells that support both OOK and OFDM receivers are considered to have the highest priority. With this scheme, during cell reselection, the terminal device is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports both OOK and OFDM receivers, thus having sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals and increasing the probability of enabling low-power features, which is beneficial for energy saving. Furthermore, the terminal device can choose to transmit signals using OOK modulation or map only part or all of the signal information to the first time unit, giving it greater flexibility to choose between greater energy saving or better coverage performance.

[0016] In one implementation, the power saving gain of the terminal device is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and the first condition further includes: supporting all bit information of the low-power signal modulated by OOK.

[0017] When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics and has significant energy-saving requirements, cells that support both low-power characteristics and OOK receiver signal reception can be considered to have the highest priority. Through this scheme, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics and OOK receiver signal reception, thus having sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals, increasing the probability of enabling low-power characteristics, and meeting the energy-saving requirements of the terminal device.

[0018] In one implementation, the energy-saving gain of the terminal device is less than or equal to a second threshold, and the first condition further includes: some or all of the information supporting low-power signals is mapped only to a first time unit, and the signal amplitude on the first time unit is not 0.

[0019] When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics and has relatively low energy-saving requirements, cells that support both low-power characteristics and OFDM receiver signal reception can be considered to have the highest priority. With this scheme, when a terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics and OFDM receiver signal reception. These cells have sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals, increasing the probability of enabling low-power characteristics. This satisfies the energy-saving needs of the terminal device while also saving resources, enabling more terminal devices to save energy.

[0020] In one implementation, the energy-saving gain of the terminal device is greater than or equal to a first threshold.

[0021] When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics and has significant energy-saving requirements, cells supporting low-power characteristics can be considered to have the highest priority. Through this scheme, when a terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics, and the probability of enabling low-power characteristics is greater, thus meeting the energy-saving needs of the terminal device.

[0022] In one implementation, the first condition also includes: the lowest frequency.

[0023] In this scheme, when a terminal device supports low-power characteristics, the cell with the lowest frequency and support for low-power characteristics is considered to have the highest priority. Therefore, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect the cell with the lowest frequency and support for low-power characteristics, which is beneficial for energy saving and minimizes path loss, ensuring better coverage performance.

[0024] In one implementation, the priority is a cell reselection priority; or, the priority is a cell reselection sub-priority; or, the priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority.

[0025] The priority mentioned here refers to the priority of cell reselection. Compared to the cell reselection priority and cell reselection sub-priorities, the cell priority can be considered as the absolute priority of cell reselection. This application does not limit the specific implementation of the cell priority in its embodiments. For example, the cell priority can be the cell reselection priority, or it can be the cell reselection sub-priorities, or the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priorities can be used as the cell priority.

[0026] In one implementation, when the priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority, cells supporting low-power characteristics have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell reselection sub-priority corresponding to the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics is the highest; or, cells supporting low-power characteristics and whose partial or all information of low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell reselection sub-priority corresponding to the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics and whose partial or all information of low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit is the highest; or, cells supporting low-power characteristics and supporting all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell reselection sub-priority corresponding to the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics and supporting all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK is the highest.

[0027] When a cell's priority is the sum of its cell reselection priority and its sub-priorities, these cells can be treated as having equal cell reselection priorities, even if their sub-priorities differ. This approach, designing priorities at different granularities, offers greater flexibility. Furthermore, prioritizing at different granularities can meet the needs of terminal or network devices with varying levels of complexity.

[0028] In one implementation, the priority corresponds to a value within a first value list. The values ​​in the first value list are all integers; or, the values ​​in the first value list are all decimals less than 1; or, the values ​​in the first value list include both integers and decimals.

[0029] For example, the first value list includes the following values: (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7); or, the first value list includes the following values: (0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8); or, the first value list includes the following values: (0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1,1.2,1.4,1.6,…7.4,7.6,7.8), where the minimum interval between any two values ​​is 0.2. This scheme reuses the priority values ​​configured in the network configuration, without introducing new priority values, making it simpler to implement and having less impact on the protocol.

[0030] In one implementation, the priority of the first cell is higher than the priority of the network device configuration.

[0031] For the first cell, the priority configured on the network device is the original priority of the first cell. After adjustment, the priority of the first cell is higher than the priority configured on the network device. For example, the terminal device can raise the priority of the first cell to the highest priority. In this way, without changing the priorities of other candidate cells, it can be guaranteed that the priority of the first cell is the highest among all candidate cells.

[0032] In one implementation, the method further includes: the terminal device receiving one or more of the following: first information, second information, or third information. The first information is used to determine the cell reselection priority. The second information is used to determine the cell reselection sub-priority. The third information is used to determine the priority. Thus, different types of priorities can correspond to the same or different information, making the implementation of priorities, cell reselection priorities, and cell reselection sub-priorities more flexible.

[0033] In one implementation, the priority is further used for one or more of the following: inter-frequency neighbor cell measurement, inter-system neighbor cell measurement, neighbor cell measurement, serving cell measurement, co-frequency measurement, co-frequency cell measurement, inter-frequency and inter-system cell reselection, inter-frequency cell reselection, or co-frequency cell reselection.

[0034] The aforementioned priorities can be applied not only to cell reselection (e.g., cell reselection criteria) but also to measurement procedures (e.g., measurement criteria). In this case, better cell reselection can be achieved based on the different needs of terminal devices and the different capabilities of the network.

[0035] In one implementation, the first condition further includes: the signal quality is greater than or equal to a third threshold, and the signal quality includes one or more of the following: reference signal received power, reference signal received quality, received signal energy indication, signal-to-noise ratio, or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio.

[0036] When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics, cells that support low-power characteristics and have signal quality greater than or equal to the third threshold are considered to have the highest priority. With this scheme, when a terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics and has high signal quality. This not only helps the terminal device save energy but also ensures communication quality.

[0037] In one implementation, at least one candidate cell further includes a second cell. When the second cell meets a second condition, the second cell has the lowest priority. The second condition includes not supporting low-power features.

[0038] Cells that do not support low-power features can be prioritized to the lowest priority. In other words, if a cell does not support low-power features, it will be the lowest priority cell. With this scheme, when a terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly unlikely to reselect a cell that does not support low-power features, thus promoting energy conservation in the terminal device.

[0039] In one implementation, the second condition also includes: the signal quality is less than or equal to a fourth threshold.

[0040] In one implementation, the method further includes the terminal device receiving one or more of the following: fourth information, fifth information, sixth information, or seventh information. The fourth information is used to determine a first condition. The fifth information is used to determine a second condition. The sixth information is used to determine a first threshold and / or a second threshold. The seventh information is used to determine a third threshold and / or a fourth threshold.

[0041] In one implementation, the low-power signal includes a low-power wake-up signal.

[0042] Secondly, a cell reselection method is provided, which can be applied to a terminal-side device, also known as a terminal device. For a description of the implementation of this terminal device, please refer to the first aspect.

[0043] The cell reselection method includes: the terminal device determining at least one candidate cell, and reselecting to one of the at least one candidate cell according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a second cell, the second cell satisfying a second condition, the second cell having the lowest priority, and the second condition including not supporting low-power features.

[0044] In one implementation, the second condition also includes the highest frequency point.

[0045] The beneficial effects of the second aspect and its implementation method can be referred to the beneficial effects of the first aspect and its implementation method mentioned above, and will not be repeated here.

[0046] Thirdly, a cell reselection method is provided, which can be applied to a terminal-side device, also known as a terminal device. For a description of the implementation of this terminal device, please refer to the first aspect.

[0047] The cell reselection method includes: the terminal device determining at least one candidate cell, and reselecting to one of the at least one candidate cell according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a third cell, which satisfies a third condition, has the highest priority, and the third condition includes the lowest frequency.

[0048] The beneficial effects of the third aspect and its implementation method can be referred to the beneficial effects of the first aspect and its implementation method mentioned above, and will not be repeated here.

[0049] Fourthly, a cell reselection method is provided, which can be applied to a terminal-side device, also known as a terminal device. For a description of the implementation of this terminal device, please refer to the first aspect.

[0050] The cell reselection method includes: the terminal device determining at least one candidate cell, and reselecting to one of the at least one candidate cell according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a fourth cell, which satisfies a fourth condition, has the highest priority, and the fourth condition includes signal quality greater than or equal to a fifth threshold.

[0051] In one implementation, the method further includes the terminal device receiving one or more of the following: eighth information or ninth information, wherein the eighth information is used to determine the fourth condition and the ninth information is used to determine the fifth threshold.

[0052] The beneficial effects of the fourth aspect and its implementation method can be referred to the beneficial effects of the first aspect and its implementation method mentioned above, and will not be repeated here.

[0053] Fifthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication device that has the functionality to implement the behaviors described in any of the method examples of the first to fourth aspects. The beneficial effects can be found in the relevant descriptions of the first to fourth aspects and will not be repeated here. For example, the communication device can be a terminal device in any of the first to fourth aspects, or it can be a device capable of supporting the terminal device in implementing the functions required by the methods provided in any of the first to fourth aspects. For example, the communication device can be a chip or chip system in the terminal device.

[0054] In one possible design, the communication device includes a baseband device and a radio frequency device.

[0055] In one possible design, the communication device includes corresponding means, modules, or units for performing the methods of any of the first to fourth aspects. These modules, units, or means can be implemented in software, hardware, or a combination of both. For example, the communication device includes a processing unit (sometimes also called a processing module or processor) and / or a transceiver unit (sometimes also called a transceiver module or transceiver). The transceiver unit is capable of both sending and receiving functions. When the transceiver unit performs the sending function, it can be called a sending unit (sometimes also called a sending module), and when it performs the receiving function, it can be called a receiving unit (sometimes also called a receiving module). The sending unit and the receiving unit can be the same functional unit, referred to as the transceiver unit, which performs both sending and receiving functions; or, the sending unit and the receiving unit can be different functional units, with "transceiver unit" being a general term for these functional units. These units (modules) can perform the corresponding functions in the method examples of any of the first to fourth aspects described above, as detailed in the method examples, and will not be repeated here.

[0056] Sixthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication device including a processor configured to execute methods from any of the first to fourth aspects and any implementation thereof. Optionally, the communication device further includes a communication interface. Optionally, the communication device also includes a memory for storing computer programs (also referred to as code or instructions), data, etc. The processor is coupled to the memory and the communication interface. When the processor reads the computer program, data, etc., from the memory, it causes the communication device to execute methods from any of the first to fourth aspects and any implementation thereof.

[0057] In a seventh aspect, embodiments of this application provide a communication device including an input / output interface and logic circuitry. The input / output interface is used for inputting and / or outputting information. The input / output interface may be an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin, or related circuitry, etc. The logic circuitry is used to execute the methods described in any of the first to fourth aspects.

[0058] In the sixth and seventh aspects, the communication device can be a terminal device according to any of the first to fourth aspects. Alternatively, the communication device can be a means capable of supporting the terminal device to perform the functions required by the methods provided in any of the first to fourth aspects; for example, the communication device can be a chip or chip system in the terminal device. The chip can be a baseband chip and / or a radio frequency chip, and the chip system can be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices.

[0059] In one implementation of the seventh aspect, when the communication device is a terminal device, the interface circuit can be the radio frequency processing chip in the terminal device, and the processing circuit can be the baseband processing chip in the terminal device.

[0060] In one implementation of the seventh aspect, when the communication device is a chip or chip system, the input circuit can be an input pin, the output circuit can be an output pin, and the logic circuit can be a transistor, gate circuit, flip-flop, or various other logic circuits. The input signal received by the input circuit can be received and input by, for example, but not limited to, a receiver; the signal output by the output circuit can be, for example, but not limited to, output to a transmitter and transmitted by the transmitter. Furthermore, the input circuit and the output circuit can be the same circuit, which is used as both the input circuit and the output circuit at different times. This application does not limit the specific implementation of the input / output interface and the logic circuit.

[0061] Eighthly, embodiments of this application provide a communication system, the communication system including a terminal device and a network device, wherein the terminal device is used to implement the functions of the method described in any of the first to fourth aspects.

[0062] Ninthly, embodiments of this application provide a computer-readable storage medium for storing a computer program or instructions that, when executed, cause the methods described in any of the first to fourth aspects and any implementation thereof to be implemented.

[0063] In a tenth aspect, embodiments of this application also provide a computer program product containing instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the methods described in any of the first to fourth aspects and any of their implementations to be implemented.

[0064] The beneficial effects of the fifth to tenth aspects and their implementation methods mentioned above can be referenced to the beneficial effects of any aspect of the first to fourth aspects and any implementation method thereof. Attached Figure Description

[0065] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the architecture of the communication system provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0066] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the principle of OOK modulation provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0067] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of the OFDM modulation principle provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0068] Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating the cell reselection method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0069] Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0070] Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of another structure of the communication device provided in an embodiment of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0071] The technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application can be applied to various communication systems, such as long term evolution (LTE) communication systems, the sixth generation (5G) mobile communication systems / new radio (NR) communication systems, or they can also be applied to future mobile communication systems, or other similar communication systems. Other similar communication systems may include wireless fidelity (WIFI), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) systems, internet of things (IoT) systems, and so on.

[0072] Please refer to Figure 1, which illustrates a communication system applicable to an embodiment of this application. The communication system includes a wireless access network 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system may also include an Internet 300 (Figure 1 uses this as an example).

[0073] The wireless access network 100 may include at least one network device and at least one terminal device. For example, the wireless access network 100 includes two network devices, 110a and 110b, and terminal devices 120a to 120j. The network architecture shown in Figure 1 is only schematic; the number of terminal devices and / or network devices may be fewer or more. The communication system described in the embodiments of this application is for the purpose of more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application and does not constitute a limitation on the communication system to which the embodiments of this application are applicable. For example, the communication system may also include other devices, such as wireless relay devices and wireless backhaul devices, which are not shown in Figure 1. As those skilled in the art will know, with the evolution of network architecture, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are also applicable to similar technical problems. When applying the technical solutions of the embodiments of this application to other communication systems, the devices, components, modules, etc. in the embodiments can be replaced with corresponding devices, components, modules in other communication systems without limitation.

[0074] In this embodiment, network equipment refers to (radio)access network ((R)AN) equipment / RAN node. In this embodiment, (R)AN and RAN are interchangeable. RAN can be a cellular system related to the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), such as a 5G / NR mobile communication system, or a future-oriented evolution system (e.g., a 6G mobile communication system). RAN can also be an open RAN (O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), a virtualized RAN (vRAN), a non-terrestrial network (NTN), etc. RAN can also be a communication system that integrates two or more of the above systems. RAN equipment can also be called a RAN node, RAN entity, or access node, etc.

[0075] In one possible scenario, a RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), an access point (AP), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next-generation NodeB (gNB), a next-generation base station in a 6G mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. A RAN node can also be a macro base station, a micro base station, an indoor station, a relay node, a donor / host node, or a radio controller. RAN nodes can also be servers, wearable devices, vehicles, or in-vehicle equipment. For example, in V2X technology, a RAN node can be a roadside unit (RSU).

[0076] In another possible scenario, a RAN node can be a module or unit that performs some of the functions of a base station; or multiple RAN nodes can collaborate to assist terminal devices in achieving wireless access, with different RAN nodes performing some of the 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). The function of a CU can be implemented by a single entity or by different entities. For example, the function of a CU can be further divided, that is, the control plane and the user plane can be separated and implemented by different entities, namely the control plane CU entity (i.e., CU-control plane (CP) entity) and the user plane CU entity (i.e., CU-user plane (UP) entity). The CU-CP entity and the CU-UP entity can be coupled with the DU to jointly complete the function of the RAN node. The CU and DU can be set up separately or included in the same network element, such as in the baseband unit (BBU). Any of the units among the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU, and RU in this application can be implemented by software modules, hardware modules, or a combination of software modules and hardware modules.

[0077] In different systems, CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU, or RU may have different names, but those skilled in the art will understand their meaning. For example, in an ORAN system, CU can also be called O-CU (open CU), DU can also be called O-DU, CU-CP can also be called O-CU-CP, CU-UP can also be called O-CU-UP, and RU can also be called O-RU. For ease of description, this application uses CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU, and RU as examples.

[0078] The CU and DU can be configured according to the protocol layer functions of the wireless network they implement: for example, the CU can be configured to implement the functions of the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer and above (such as the Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer and / or the Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP) layer); the DU can be configured to implement the functions of the protocol layers below the PDCP layer (such as the Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, the Media Access Control (MAC) layer, and / or the Physical (PHY) layer). For specific descriptions of the above protocol layers, please refer to the relevant 3GPP technical specifications or the technical specifications of other applicable communication protocols.

[0079] The above division of the processing functions of CU and DU according to protocol layers is merely an example; other division methods are also possible, and this application does not limit this. For example, in one design, CU or DU can be further divided into processing functions with protocol layers. In one design, some functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layer above the RLC layer are located in the CU, while the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layer below the RLC layer are located in the DU.

[0080] In another possible design, the DU and RU collaborate to implement the PHY layer functionality, or, more specifically, a portion of the PHY layer functionality of the DU can be moved to the RU. A DU can be connected to one or more RUs. The functions of the DU and RU can be configured in various ways depending on the design. For example, the DU may be configured to implement baseband functions, and the RU may be configured to implement mid-RF functions. Alternatively, the DU may be configured to implement higher-level functions in the PHY layer, and the RU may be configured to implement lower-level functions in the PHY layer, or both lower-level and RF functions. Higher-level functions in the physical layer may include a portion of the physical layer's functionality closer to the MAC layer, and lower-level functions may include another portion of the physical layer's functionality closer to the mid-RF side. This application does not limit the specific functions of the DU and RU. The interface between the DU and RU can be called a fronthaul interface. In one design, the CU may not have a PDCP layer; for example, the CU may only include an RRC layer. The CU-CP may not have PDCP-C. The CU-UP may not have PDCP-U, or may not have a CU-UP. In one design, the DU may not have an RLC layer; for example, the DU may only have a MAC and a higher PHY layer.

[0081] When the RAN is O-RAN, it can also have artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. For example, O-RAN includes an intelligent controller. The intelligent controller can be a non-real-time RAN intelligent controller (RIC / non-RT RIC / NRT RIC) or a near-real-time RAN intelligent controller (RIC / near-RT RIC / nRT RIC). A non-real-time RIC can be used to implement non-real-time intelligent management of RAN functions, enabling workflows including model training and model updates, and guiding applications / functions in the nRT RIC based on policies. A near-real-time RIC can be used to implement near-real-time intelligent management of the RAN. Through data collection and related operations on the E2 interface, near-real-time control and optimization of O-RAN modules and resources are achieved.

[0082] In this application embodiment, anything capable of data communication with a base station can be considered a terminal device. Terminal devices are also called terminals, terminal equipment, user equipment (UE), mobile stations, or mobile terminals, etc. Terminal devices can be widely used in various scenarios. For example, terminal devices can be: mobile phones, computers, mobile internet devices (MID), wearable devices, virtual reality (VR) devices, augmented reality (AR) devices, stations (STA), robotic arms, cameras, robots, vehicles, drones, helicopters, airplanes, ships, or smart home devices (such as televisions, air conditioners, robot vacuums, speakers, set-top boxes), relays, customer premises equipment (CPE), etc.

[0083] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the terminal device can also be a terminal device in an IoT system, such as a water meter or electricity meter. IoT is an important component of future information technology development. Its main technical characteristic is connecting objects to networks through communication technology, thereby realizing an intelligent network that enables human-machine interconnection and object-to-object interconnection.

[0084] When the terminal device is applied to V2X, it can also be called a V2X device, such as a smart car, digital car, unmanned car, driverless car, pilotless car, autonomous car, pure electric vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), range-extended electric vehicle (REEV), plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), new energy vehicle, and roadside unit (RSU).

[0085] The various terminal devices described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g., placed / installed inside the vehicle), can all be considered in-vehicle terminal devices. In-vehicle terminal devices can be built into a vehicle's in-vehicle module, in-vehicle component, in-vehicle chip, or in-vehicle unit as one or more components or units. The vehicle can implement the methods of this application through the built-in in-vehicle module, in-vehicle component, in-vehicle chip, or in-vehicle unit. In-vehicle terminal devices can be vehicle equipment, in-vehicle modules, vehicles, on-board units (OBU), roadside units (RSU), in-vehicle systems (or in-vehicle transmitting units) (telematics boxes, T-boxes), chips, or systems on chips (SOCs), etc. These chips or SOCs can be installed in the vehicle, OBU, RSU, or T-box.

[0086] Taking a network device as a base station and a terminal device as a UE as an example, the base station and UE can be fixed or mobile. The base station and UE can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; they can also be deployed on water; and they can also be deployed on airplanes, balloons, and artificial satellites. The embodiments of this application do not limit the application scenarios of the base station and UE.

[0087] The roles of base station and UE can be relative. For example, the helicopter or drone 120i in Figure 1 can be configured as a mobile base station. For UEs 120j that access the radio access network 100 through 120i, UE 120i is a base station; however, for base station 110a, 120i is a UE, meaning that 110a and 120i communicate via a radio interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate via a base station-to-base station interface protocol. In this case, relative to 110a, 120i is also a base station. Therefore, both base station and UE can be collectively referred to as communication devices. 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be called communication devices with base station functions, and 120a-120j in Figure 1 can be called communication devices with UE functions.

[0088] The communication system applicable to the embodiments of this application has been described above. To facilitate understanding of the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of this application, the relevant technical features involved in the embodiments of this application will be explained below. It should be noted that these explanations are intended to make the embodiments of this application easier to understand and should not be considered as a limitation on the scope of protection claimed by this application.

[0089] (1) Wake up radio (WUR)

[0090] Wake-up radio can be understood as a function that reduces the power consumption of terminal devices. For terminal devices, wake-up radio refers to introducing a low-power (LP) interface on top of the traditional main radio (MR) module / circuit. This LP interface is implemented through a simple circuit or chip with low power consumption. The specific form of the LP interface is not limited in the embodiments of this application. For example, the LP interface can be implemented through a wake-up receiver (WUR), a low-power wake-up receiver (LP-WUR), a low-power radio (LR), a wake-up module, or a wake-up circuit. In this document, WUR can refer to a wake-up radio or a wake-up receiver. WUR in this document is interchangeable with LP-WUR, LR, wake-up module, or wake-up circuit.

[0091] The MR (Mobile Receiver) is primarily used for sending and / or receiving data / signaling. If there is no need for sending and / or receiving data / signaling, the MR can be turned off or placed in a sleep state or sleep mode. The WUR (Wake-up Receiver) can be used to wake up a sleep MR, for example, when there is a need for sending and / or receiving data / signaling, the WUR will wake up the MR. This design reduces the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0092] The signal received by the WUR can be called a low-power signal or a low-power wake-up signal (LP-WUS). When the terminal device detects / receives a low-power signal or LP-WUS, it can wake up the MR that is in a dormant state. For ease of description, this article uses LP-WUS as an example of a low-power signal.

[0093] (2) Types of WUR

[0094] LP-WUS bit information can be mapped to time units in various ways, or in other words, LP-WUS bit information can be modulated in various ways. For example, LP-WUS can use OOK modulation, and correspondingly, the WUR in the terminal device receives LP-WUS using envelope detection. As another example, WUS can also be transmitted using OFDM waveforms, and correspondingly, the WUR in the terminal device receives LP-WUS using phase detection. For ease of description, in this embodiment, LP-WUS using OFDM waveform transmission is referred to as LP-WUS using OFDM modulation (which will be described below).

[0095] A WUR that receives LP-WUS using phase detection can be considered as one type of receiver (e.g., called a Type I WUR), while a WUR that receives LP-WUS using envelope detection can be considered as another type of WUR (e.g., called a Type II WUR). The terms Type I and Type II WUR are relative and can be interpreted in various ways. Examples are given below.

[0096] (2.1) The first type of WUR is an OFDM receiver, and the second type of WUR is an OOK receiver.

[0097] (2.2) The first type of WUR is a receiver with both I and Q channels, and the second type of WUR is a receiver with only one of the I and Q channels.

[0098] (2.3) The first type of WUR is a coherent receiver, and the second type of WUR is a non-coherent receiver.

[0099] (2.4) The first type of WUR is a coherent receiver with both I and Q channels, while the second type of WUR is a non-coherent receiver with only one of the I and Q channels.

[0100] (2.5) The first type of WUR receives the signal using phase detection, and the second type of WUR receives the signal using energy / power / amplitude detection. Alternatively, the first type of WUR can / is able to detect phase information, and the second type of WUR can / is able to detect signal energy / power / amplitude.

[0101] (2.6) The first type of WUR can receive complex signals, while the second type of WUR cannot receive complex signals (e.g., the second type of WUR receives real signals).

[0102] (2.7) The first type of WUR has phase detection capability, while the second type of WUR has envelope detection capability or no phase detection capability. Alternatively, the first type of WUR supports receiving signals via phase detection, while the second type of WUR supports receiving signals via envelope detection. In the embodiments of this application, phase detection capability can be interchanged with correlation detection capability and sequence detection capability.

[0103] (2.8) Type I receivers can receive OFDM signals, while Type II receivers cannot receive OFDM signals (e.g., Type II receivers receive OOK signals).

[0104] (3) OOK modulation and OFDM modulation

[0105] OOK modulation uses the presence or absence of a signal to represent digital information. The bit information corresponding to a signal is mapped to at least one time unit through OOK modulation. One time unit corresponds to one bit of information, and the bit information is determined by detecting whether there is a signal in the time unit. A signal in a time unit means that the signal amplitude is not zero; this time unit is also called an ON time unit, or the time unit is in ON mode. Conversely, a signal in a time unit means that the signal amplitude is zero; this time unit is also called an OFF time unit, or the time unit is in OFF mode. Generally, if a sequence is transmitted in a time unit, then that time unit has a signal; if no sequence is transmitted in a time unit, then that time unit has no signal. For a given time unit, being ON or in ON mode can be decoded as 1; conversely, being OFF or in OFF mode can be decoded as 0.

[0106] Please refer to Figure 2, which illustrates the principle of OOK modulation. Figure 2 uses a signal with bit information of 1001 as an example.

[0107] After OOK modulation, the 4-bit information 1001 is sequentially mapped to four time units (e.g., time units 1 to 4). It should be understood that time units 1 and 4 are signal-containing time units, with sequences transmitted on them. Time units 2 and 3 are signal-free time units, with no sequences transmitted on them. When the receiver detects a sequence in time units 1 and 4, it can decode it as 1. When the receiver does not detect a sequence in time units 2 and 3, it can decode it as 0. Combining the decoding of the four time units yields 1001. It can be seen that for OOK modulation, only 1 bit of information can be obtained within a time unit. It can be understood that when the receiver detects a sequence in a time unit, it means the receiver has detected the envelope of the signal in that time unit; correspondingly, when the receiver does not detect a sequence in a time unit, it means the receiver has not detected the envelope of the signal in that time unit.

[0108] Please refer to Figure 3, which illustrates the principle of OFDM modulation. Figure 4 shows an example where the transmitting end stores four sequences (sequences 1 to 4 in the figure). These four sequences can be used to carry 2 bits of information; for example, sequence 0 corresponds to 00, sequence 1 corresponds to 01, sequence 2 corresponds to 10, and sequence 3 corresponds to 11. In a time unit, the corresponding bit information is 01. The access network device can determine the sequence 1 corresponding to bit information 01 based on the above correspondence between the four sequences and bit information. The access network device can then use sequence 1 to scramble this time unit.

[0109] As shown in Figure 3, within a single time unit, in addition to obtaining 1 bit of information through the ON / OFF mode, the sequence information of the ON time unit (2 bits of sequence information in Figure 3) can also be detected. Compared to OOK modulation, OFDM modulation can obtain more bits of information. Therefore, OFDM modulation requires less time-domain resources to transmit signals of the same length of bit information compared to OOK modulation. For example, to transmit signals of the same length of bit information, OFDM modulation requires M symbols, while OOK modulation requires N symbols, where M is less than N, and both M and N are positive numbers.

[0110] The modulation method used for the signal depends on the receiver's capabilities. Taking the aforementioned WUR as an example, if the WUR is a Type I WUR, then the LP-WUS bit information can be carried through the ON / OFF mode of the symbols and the sequence on the ON symbol. If the WUR is a Type II WUR, then the LP-WUS bit information can be carried through the ON / OFF mode of the symbols. The signal corresponding to a Type I WUR can be considered as one type of signal (e.g., called a Type I signal), and the signal corresponding to a Type II WUR can be considered as another type of signal (e.g., called a Type II signal). Since a Type II WUR requires more time-domain resources than a Type I WUR, the Type II signal is longer than the Type I signal; it can be called a "long signal," and the Type I signal a "short signal." The Type I signal can also be called a Type I low-power signal or Type I LP-WUS, and correspondingly, the Type II signal can also be called a Type II low-power signal or Type II LP-WUS. Relatively speaking, the power consumption required for a Type II WUR receiver to receive a Type II signal is greater than the power consumption required for a Type I WUR receiver to receive a Type I signal. Terminal devices using a Type I WUR to receive a Type I signal have greater energy-saving gains. Furthermore, the detection performance of Type II WURs is lower than that of Type I WURs, and the coverage performance supported by Type II WURs is also lower than that supported by Type I WURs. Generally, if a Type II WUR is used to receive signals, coverage enhancement techniques are employed to improve coverage performance. For example, for Type II WURs, coverage performance can be improved by increasing the number of signal repetitions.

[0111] In this embodiment, "time unit" refers to any unit of time. A time unit can be a radio frame, subframe, slot, mini-slot, OFDM symbol, millisecond (ms), or fractional milliseconds (e.g., 1 / 32ms). Alternatively, a time unit can be multiple slots, multiple subframes, multiple mini-slots, multiple OFDM symbols, several milliseconds (ms), or several fractional milliseconds. A radio frame may include multiple subframes, a subframe may include one or more slots, and a slot may include at least one symbol. Alternatively, a radio frame may include multiple slots, and a slot may include at least one symbol. For ease of distinction, in this embodiment, the time unit mapped by OOK modulation is called an OOK time unit, and the time unit mapped by OFDM modulation is called an OFDM symbol. For ON mode, the OOK time unit is also called an OOK ON time unit.

[0112] (4) First LP-WUS generation method and second LP-WUS generation method

[0113] The first LP-WUS generation method refers to LP-WUS using OFDM modulation. Terminal equipment supporting the first LP-WUS generation method can be replaced by the terminal equipment supporting the use of at least OOK symbols or sequences on OOK ON symbols to carry LP-WUS bit information. For example, if the LP-WUS bit information includes first and second bits, the first LP-WUS generation method means that the first bit information of the LP-WUS is based on OOK modulation, and the second bit information of the LP-WUS is based on sequence modulation or OFDM modulation. Alternatively, the first LP-WUS generation method means that the first bit information of the LP-WUS is carried using an ON / OFF mode, and the second bit information of the LP-WUS is carried using sequences on OOK symbols or OOK ON symbols. It is understood that LP-WUS generated based on the first LP-WUS generation method can only be received by Type I WURs, and LP-WUS generated based on the first LP-WUS generation method does not need to be retransmitted, or the maximum number of retransmissions of LP-WUS generated based on the first LP-WUS generation method is 1.

[0114] Since the LP-WUS generated using the first LP-WUS generation method is a "short signal" and occupies fewer time-domain resources, from this perspective, the first LP-WUS generation method can also be understood as: an LP-WUS generation method that occupies fewer time-domain resources. The terminal device supporting the first LP-WUS generation method can be replaced by: the terminal device supporting LP-WUS that occupies / uses fewer time-domain resources; the terminal device supporting LP-WUS transmission with fewer time-domain resources; or, the terminal device supporting LP-WUS resource occupancy rate being less than or equal to x1%; or, the terminal device supporting available resource ratio being greater than or equal to x1%, where x1 can be (pre)configured or protocol-defined. In the embodiments of this application, resources include time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources.

[0115] Furthermore, the terminal device receives LP-WUS generated using the first LP-WUS generation method with lower power consumption and greater energy-saving gain when using the first type of WUR, making it suitable for scenarios with high load. From this perspective, the first LP-WUS generation method can also be understood as: an LP-WUS generation method with a load rate greater than or equal to y1%, or an LP-WUS generation method with an energy-saving gain greater than or equal to z1%. Here, y1 and z1 can both be (pre)configured or protocol-defined. The terminal device supporting the first LP-WUS generation method can be replaced by: the terminal device supporting LP-WUS with a load rate greater than or equal to y1%, or the terminal device supporting LP-WUS with an energy-saving gain greater than or equal to z1%.

[0116] Similarly, the second LP-WUS generation method refers to LP-WUS using OOK modulation. Terminal device support for the second LP-WUS generation method can be replaced by the terminal device supporting at least the use of ON / OFF mode to carry all bit information of the LP-WUS. For example, if the LP-WUS bit information is the first bit information, the second LP-WUS generation method refers to using ON / OFF mode to carry the first bit information of the LP-WUS. It can be understood that LP-WUS generated based on the second LP-WUS generation method can only be received by Type II WURs, while LP-WUS generated based on the first LP-WUS generation method needs to be repeatedly transmitted, or the maximum number of repeated transmissions of LP-WUS generated based on the second LP-WUS generation method is greater than or equal to 1.

[0117] Since the LP-WUS generated using the second LP-WUS generation method is a "long signal," it occupies more time-domain resources. From this perspective, the second LP-WUS generation method can also be understood as an LP-WUS generation method that occupies more time-domain resources. The terminal device's support for the second LP-WUS generation method can be replaced by: the terminal device supporting LP-WUS that occupies / uses more time-domain resources; the terminal device supporting LP-WUS transmission with more time-domain resources; or the terminal device supporting LP-WUS resource occupancy rate greater than or equal to x2%; or the terminal device supporting available resource ratio greater than or equal to x2%, where x2 can be (pre)configured or protocol-defined. In this embodiment, resources include time-domain resources and / or frequency-domain resources.

[0118] Furthermore, receiving LP-WUS generated by the second LP-WUS generation method using the second type of WUR consumes more power and has a smaller energy-saving gain, making it suitable for scenarios with lower loads. From this perspective, the second LP-WUS generation method can also be understood as: an LP-WUS generation method with a load rate less than or equal to y2%, or an LP-WUS generation method with an energy-saving gain less than or equal to z2%. Here, y2 and z2 can both be (pre)configured or protocol-defined. The terminal device supporting the second LP-WUS generation method can be replaced by: the terminal device supporting LP-WUS with a load rate less than or equal to y2%, or the terminal device supporting LP-WUS with an energy-saving gain less than or equal to z2%.

[0119] It should be noted that the resource utilization statistics mentioned above are based on time-domain resource utilization over a fixed period of time. The available resource ratio statistics mentioned above are based on the average, median, minimum, or maximum value of available resources over a fixed period of time. There are no restrictions on the size of the statistical granularity; for example, the statistical granularity can be a time unit, which can be a month / week / day / h / s / ms / system frame / subframe / half-frame / slot / min-slot / symbol, or even smaller time units, such as further splitting symbols (e.g., 1 / 2 symbol or 1 / 4 symbol, etc.). The frequency domain resource utilization statistics are based on the UE's maximum bandwidth capacity, or the network's maximum system bandwidth, or the PDSCH's maximum transmission bandwidth, or the PDCCH's maximum transmission bandwidth, or the maximum transmission bandwidth, or the maximum carrier bandwidth, or the maximum bandwidth portion of the BWP, or the maximum transmission bandwidth portion. Here, bandwidth can be understood as radio frequency bandwidth or baseband bandwidth. The frequency domain resources occupied by this baseline can be considered as 100%.

[0120] In the embodiments of this application, "the terminal device supports a first LP-WUS generation method," "the terminal device supports an OFDM modulation method," "the terminal device supports an OFDM receiver receiving signals," "the terminal device supports mapping part or all of the signal to at least one time unit, where the signal amplitude in the at least one time unit is not zero," and "the terminal device only supports mapping part or all of the signal to at least one time unit, where the signal amplitude in the at least one time unit is not zero" are interchangeable. "The terminal device supports a second LP-WUS generation method" is interchangeable with "the terminal device supports an OOK modulation method" and "the terminal device supports an OOK receiver receiving signals."

[0121] It should be noted that the specific names of the first LP-WUS generation method and the second LP-WUS generation method are not limited in the embodiments of this application; they essentially refer to two methods of signal generation.

[0122] (5) Cell reselection process

[0123] In RRC idle or RRC inactive states, the UE can perform RRM measurements for the serving cell and neighbor cells. RRM measurements are used for cell reselection. Neighbor cell measurements further include one or more of intra-frequency, inter-frequency, or inter-system (RAT) measurements. During measurement, the UE should measure the serving cell and simultaneously measure neighbor cells according to the S-criteria configured by the base station. The UE performs neighbor cell measurements according to the S-criteria as follows: for test frequencies with a priority higher than the serving cell's frequency, the UE should measure them; for test frequencies with a priority equal to or lower than the current serving cell's frequency, if the current measurement result of the serving cell is higher than the threshold corresponding to the S-criteria, the UE does not need to measure these test frequencies; if the current measurement result of the serving cell is lower than or equal to the threshold corresponding to the S-criteria, the UE needs to measure these test frequencies.

[0124] Based on measurement results, the UE can decide whether to remain in the current serving cell (e.g., the cell the UE is currently camped on) or perform cell reselection to ensure the UE camps on a cell with better channel quality. For example, for cells on frequencies with higher reselection priority (also known as high-priority frequencies), if the signal quality value of neighboring cells exceeds a certain threshold within a certain time interval, the UE should perform cell reselection. Therefore, for cells on frequencies with higher reselection priority, even if the serving cell has better signal quality, the UE may still reselect to a cell on a frequency with higher reselection priority. For cells on frequencies with the same reselection priority as the serving cell (also known as equal-priority frequencies), the UE can perform cell reselection according to cell reselection criteria. During cell reselection, the UE starts with the highest-priority cell / frequency and judges according to the cell reselection criteria; if the requirements are not met, it then judges with the next lower-priority cell / frequency and judges according to the cell reselection criteria.

[0125] The criteria for cell reselection are as follows:

[0126] 1) If the system message broadcasts the serving cell low-priority RSRQ threshold (threshServingLowQ), the cell will reselect to a higher-priority NR frequency or inter-system frequency than the serving cell frequency when the following conditions are met: The UE has camped in the current serving cell for more than 1 second, and the cell with a higher-priority NR or EUTRAN RAT / frequency satisfies Squal(signal quality of the current serving cell) > Thresh within the TreselectionRAT time interval. X,HighQ (High-priority RSRQ reselection threshold for different frequencies / systems).

[0127] 2) If the system message does not broadcast `threshServingLowQ`, the cell will reselect to a higher priority NR frequency or inter-system frequency than the serving cell frequency when the following conditions are met: The UE has camped in the current serving cell for more than 1 second, and the cell with a higher priority NR or EUTRAN RAT / frequency satisfies `Srxlev(signal quality of the current serving cell) > Thresh` within the `TreselectionRAT` time interval. X,HighQ .

[0128] 3) If the system message broadcasts threshServingLowQ, the cell will be reselected to an NR frequency or a frequency from another system with a lower priority than the serving cell frequency when the following conditions are met: the UE has been camped in the current serving cell for more than 1 second, and the serving cell meets the Squal... <Thresh Serving, LowQand the cell with a lower priority NR or EUTRAN RAT / frequency satisfies Squal > Thresh within the time interval TreselectionRAT X,HighQ .

[0129] 4) If hreshServingLowQ is not broadcast in the system message, when the following conditions are met, the cell reselects to an NR frequency or an inter-system frequency with a lower priority than the serving cell frequency: The UE has camped on the current serving cell for more than 1 s, and the serving cell satisfies Srxlev < ThreshServing,LowP, and the cell with a lower priority NR or EUTRAN RAT / frequency satisfies Srxlev > Thresh within the time interval TreselectionRAT X,LowP .

[0130] If multiple cells with different priorities meet the cell reselection criteria, the reselection of the cell with a higher priority RAT / frequency shall take precedence over that of the cell with a lower priority RAT / frequency. If more than one cell meets the above criteria, the UE shall reselect the cell as follows: If the highest priority frequency is an NR frequency, select the cell with the highest rank among the cells that meet the conditions under the highest priority frequency. If the highest priority frequency is an inter-system frequency, select the cell with the strongest signal among the cells on the highest priority frequency that meet the requirements of that system

[0131] For co-frequency and equal-priority inter-frequency cells, cell reselection can be based on the R criterion. The so-called R criterion means that, according to the signal quality of the cell, a rank (R) value is calculated for each neighbor cell and the serving cell, and the cells are sorted according to the R value. The neighbor cell with an R value greater than the current serving cell meets the reselection standard. If multiple neighbor cells meet the reselection standard, select the cell with the best signal quality among them. For the cells under the frequency with a lower reselection priority (also known as the low-priority frequency), the reselection conditions are more stringent. For example, the reselection condition is that within a certain time interval, if the signal quality value of the serving cell is lower than a certain threshold and the signal quality value of the neighbor cell is greater than a certain threshold, the UE shall perform cell reselection

[0132] Specifically, the cell sorting criterion Rs of the serving cell satisfies Rs = Qmeas,s + Qhyst - Qoffsettemp, and the sorting criterion Rn of the neighbor cell satisfies: Rn = Qmeas,n - Qoffset - Qoffsettemp. Where

[0133] The UE will sort all cells that satisfy cell selection criterion S. The conditions for satisfying cell selection criterion S are: Srxlev > 0 and Squal > 0. Where Srxlev = Qrxlevmeas - (Qrxlevmin + Qrxlevminoffset) - Pcompensation - Qoffsettemp, and Squal = Qqualmeas - (Qqualmin + Qqualminoffset) - Qoffsettemp. By deriving Qmeas,n and Qmeas,s, and calculating the R value using the average of the RSRP results, cells are sorted according to the R criterion specified above. If rangeToBestCell is not configured, the UE will perform cell reselection to the highest-ranked cell. If rangeToBestCell is configured, the UE should perform cell reselection to the cell with the maximum number of beams above the threshold (i.e., absThreshSS-BlocksContegration) within the rangeToBestCell of the highest-ranked cell. If multiple such cells exist, the UE should reselect the highest-ranked cell among them.

[0134] In all cases, a UE can only reselect to a new cell if the following conditions are met: during the TreselectionRAT time interval, the new cell is preferred over the serving cell according to the cell reselection criteria specified above; and the UE has been camped on the current serving cell for more than 1 second.

[0135] It should be noted that if rangeToBestCell is configured on the NR frequency point but absThreshSS-BlocksConfixation is not configured, the UE will assume that each cell on that frequency point has a beam that is above the threshold.

[0136] (6) Priority of cell reselection

[0137] The configuration of cell reselection priority (hereinafter referred to as priority) includes cell reselection priority and cell reselection sub-priority.

[0138] Among them, the cell reselection priority includes public / general priority and private priority.

[0139] The common / general priority is the cell reselection priority that applies to all UEs. The common / general priority is configured by the network and broadcast to the UEs via cell broadcast. The common / general priority is generally obtained from the system messages of the currently serving cell. The configuration of the general cell reselection priority includes the cell reselection priority and cell reselection sub-priorities.

[0140] Dedicated priorities are obtained from RRC Release messages or inherited from other systems. Dedicated priorities include: subscriber profile ID (SPID) dedicated priority, frequency selection priority (RAT / Frequency Selection Priority, RFSP) dedicated priority, and operator-specific priorities. The SPID / RFSP dedicated priority is the cell reselection priority valid for a single UE, enabling differentiated cell reselection for the UE. Operator-specific priorities are designed for multi-operator co-carrier frequency sharing scenarios. Configuring operator-specific priorities allows for different inter-system neighbor frequency priorities based on different serving cells and public land mobile networks (PLMNs). SPID / RFSP dedicated priorities are higher than operator-specific priorities.

[0141] When both public and private priorities exist, the rules for the UE to select cell reselection priority are as follows: When the UE is camped in a suitable cell, if the RRC connection release message carries a private priority, the UE will discard the public priority for cell reselection; when the UE is camped in an acceptable cell, the UE will use the public priority for cell reselection; if the UE enters a different RRC state or the validity period of the private reselection priority expires, the UE will delete the private cell reselection priority. Specifically, when the UE is camped in an acceptable cell, even if a private priority exists, the UE only retains the private priority information and does not use the private priority for reselection.

[0142] In this article, "priority" refers to the priority of cell reselection. A cell's priority can be determined based on its cell reselection priority, or it can be determined based on both its cell reselection priority and cell reselection sub-priority. For example, a network device can configure a cell reselection priority for a cell using the `cellReselectionPriority` parameter, and it can also configure a cell reselection sub-priority for a cell using the `CellReselectionSubPriority` parameter. If a network device configures a cell reselection priority for a cell but not a cell reselection sub-priority, then the cell reselection priority is the cell reselection priority itself; or, if a network device configures both a cell reselection priority and a cell reselection sub-priority for a cell, then the cell reselection priority can be determined based on both of them. For example, the cell reselection priority plus the cell reselection sub-priority can be used as the cell reselection priority. The cell reselection priority parameter can range from 0 to 7, meaning the cell reselection priority value includes integers between 0 and 7. A larger value indicates a higher cell reselection priority. The cell reselection sub-priority parameter can range from 0.2 to 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, meaning the cell reselection sub-priority value includes 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8.

[0143] It should be noted that cell reselection priority is determined by frequency. That is, cells on the same frequency using the same radio access technology (RAT) have the same reselection priority, while cells on different frequencies may have the same or different reselection priorities.

[0144] (7) In the embodiments of this application, "transmission" includes "sending" and / or "receiving". "Sending" and "receiving" indicate the direction of signal transmission. For example, "sending information to XX" can be understood as the destination of the information being XX, which may include direct transmission via the air interface or indirect transmission by other units or modules via the air interface. "Receiving information from YY" can be understood as the source of the information being YY, which may include direct reception from YY via the air interface or indirect reception from YY by other units or modules via the air interface. "Sending" can also be understood as the "output" of the chip interface, and "receiving" can also be understood as the "input" of the chip interface. In other words, sending and receiving can occur between devices, such as between access network devices and terminal devices, or within a device, such as between components, modules, chips, software modules, or hardware modules within the device via a bus, wiring, or interface.

[0145] In this application embodiment, the number of nouns, unless otherwise specified, refers to "singular nouns or plural nouns," that is, "one or more." "At least one" means one or more, and "more than one" means two or more. "And / or" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, or B exists alone, where A / B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the related objects before and after are in an "or" relationship. For example, A / B means: A or B. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one of a, b, and / or c means the following combinations: a exists alone, b exists alone, c exists alone, a and b exist simultaneously, a and c exist simultaneously, b and c exist simultaneously, or a, b, and c exist simultaneously, where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0146] In the embodiments of this application, "when," "if," and "if" all refer to the device taking corresponding actions under certain objective circumstances, and are not time-limited, nor do they require the device to perform a judgment action, nor do they imply any other limitations. Unless otherwise specified, "if" and "if" can be substituted, and "when" and "in the case of" can be substituted. "When" and "if" / "if" can be substituted.

[0147] In the embodiments of this application, the terms "exemplary" or "for example" are used to indicate that something is an example, illustration, or description. Any embodiment or design that is described as "exemplary" or "for example" in this application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or designs. Specifically, the use of the terms "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a specific manner.

[0148] In this application, the ordinal numbers such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the size, content, order, timing, priority, or importance of the multiple objects. For example, the first condition and the second condition refer to two different conditions, and do not indicate a difference in the priority or importance of these two conditions.

[0149] In the embodiments of this application, the solutions in each embodiment can be used in a reasonable combination, and the explanations or descriptions of various terms, similar operations, or steps appearing in the embodiments can be referenced or explained to each other in the embodiments, without limitation.

[0150] As mentioned earlier, the terminal device performs RRM measurements on the cell and decides whether to perform cell reselection based on the measurement results, in order to ensure that it can camp on a cell with better channel quality as much as possible. However, during cell reselection, the terminal device may reselect to a cell that does not support LP-WUS, which will prevent the terminal device from detecting LP-WUS and is detrimental to the energy saving of the terminal device.

[0151] Therefore, the technical solution of the embodiments of this application is provided. In the embodiments of this application, for terminal devices that support low power consumption, priority can be set according to whether the frequency point / cell supports low power consumption. For example, if the first cell supports low power consumption, then the priority of the first cell is set to a higher priority. Thus, for terminal devices that support low power consumption, the probability of the terminal device selecting the first cell during cell reselection is greater, and the terminal device can receive low power signals in the first cell, which is beneficial to energy saving of the terminal device.

[0152] Furthermore, due to varying resource utilization rates in different cells, even if the terminal device reselects a cell that supports LP-WUS, it may still fail to detect LP-WUS, resulting in limited energy savings or even preventing the terminal device from achieving energy conservation. For example, if a cell has limited available resources, it may only be able to enable the first LP-WUS generation method, but the terminal device does not support this method, thus preventing energy savings through LP-WUS detection. Therefore, the technical solution provided in this application, in addition to setting priorities based on whether a cell supports low power consumption, can also set priorities based on the cell's available resource rate and supported LP-WUS generation methods to maximize the energy savings of the terminal device.

[0153] Furthermore, since different frequency points have different path losses, the coverage performance they can achieve varies. To ensure optimal coverage performance, embodiments of this application can also set priorities based on the frequency points to maximize the energy-saving gain of terminal devices while ensuring optimal coverage performance.

[0154] The solutions provided in the embodiments of this application are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0155] In the following description, the cell reselection method provided in this application embodiment is applied to the network architecture shown in Figure 1 as an example. The cell reselection method provided in this application embodiment can be executed by network devices and terminal devices. The steps executed by the network device can be implemented by the RAN device itself, by components within the RAN device (such as a baseband chip, or other processing units or processor modules), or by a larger device including the RAN device. The steps executed by the terminal device can be implemented by the terminal device itself, by components within the terminal device (such as a baseband chip, or other processing units or processor modules), or by a larger device including the terminal device. There are no restrictions on the specific form of the network device and the terminal device. For example, the network device can be a chip, and the terminal device can be a device; or both the network device and the terminal device can be chips or devices. In possible scenarios, the network device can be the terminal device 120a shown in Figure 1, or it can be the chip (system) in the terminal device 120a in Figure 1; the terminal device can be the network device 110a in Figure 1, or it can be the chip (system) in the network device 110a in Figure 1. In possible scenarios, the network device can be the terminal device 120b shown in Figure 1, or it can be the chip (system) in the terminal device 120b in Figure 1; the terminal device can be the terminal device 120a in Figure 1, or it can be the chip (system) in the terminal device 120a in Figure 1.

[0156] In this application embodiment, the terminal device supporting low-power (LP) features means that the terminal device has LP capability / WUR capability. Having WUR capability is equivalent to any of the following descriptions: having the ability to receive low-power signals, or having the ability to receive wake-up signals, or having the ability to receive low-power wake-up signals; or supporting LP-WUS, having LP-WUS monitoring capability, or being configured with WUR or LP-WUS functions; or having energy-saving needs (preference), or having energy-saving interests; or having WUR or LP-WUS functions enabled, or having LP-WUS monitoring enabled; supporting receiving LP signals through an LP receiver / link / interface, or being configured to receive LP signals through an LP receiver / link / interface, or being allowed / activated to receive LP signals through an LP receiver / link / interface. Additionally, "supporting low-power features" can be replaced with "supporting LP-WUS features". "The terminal device supports LP-WUS features" can be understood as "The terminal device has an LP-WUS module", "The terminal device has a low-power receiver", "The terminal device has a simple receiver", "The terminal device has a low-power receiver architecture", "The terminal device supports OOK modulation", "The terminal device only has radio frequency circuits", "The terminal device does not enable baseband related modules", "The terminal device enables LP-WUS", "The terminal device is capable of receiving LP-WUS", "The terminal device is capable of receiving low-power signals", "The terminal device can activate LP-WUS", or "The terminal device has the ability to monitor low-power signals".

[0157] This application does not limit the type of low-power signal in its embodiments. For example, low-power signals can be low-power physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), low-power physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), low-power physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), low-power physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), low-power synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel block (SSB), low-power synchronization signal, low-power tracking reference signal (TRS), low-power channel status information reference signal (CSI-RS), low-power positioning signal, low-power sensing communication signal, low-power sounding reference signal (SRS), low-power random access channel (RACH), low-power preamble, low-power contention resolution message, low-power downlink control information (DCI), or low-power uplink control information (UCI), etc.

[0158] The greater the energy-saving demand of a terminal device, the greater the required energy-saving gain. A terminal device with a significant energy-saving demand can be considered to expect to operate in a low-power mode, or to expect to enter a low-power mode, or to support a low-power mode. Conversely, the smaller the energy-saving demand of a terminal device, the lower the required energy-saving gain. A terminal device with a small energy-saving demand can be considered to not need to operate in a low-power mode, or not need to enter a low-power mode.

[0159] "Cell" can be understood as "cell frequency point", "carrier frequency", "carrier frequency point", or "frequency point", and these terms are interchangeable unless otherwise specified. A frequency point can be the center frequency point, carrier frequency, frequency domain position corresponding to a frequency number, frequency band, frequency domain position corresponding to the center of a bandwidth, frequency domain position, the center frequency point of a bandwidth portion, or the frequency domain position corresponding to the center of a bandwidth portion.

[0160] Considering that during cell reselection, terminal devices may reselect cells that do not support WUS, which is detrimental to energy saving, this application embodiment resets the priority of cell reselection to increase the probability that the terminal device will select a cell that supports WUS during cell reselection. This application embodiment can reset the priority of cell reselection based on one or more factors. For example, the so-called factors may include one or more of the following: whether the cell supports low power consumption, supported LP-WUS generation methods, supported modulation methods, energy-saving requirements, signal quality, or frequency level, etc. Alternatively, the priority of cell reselection can be reset based on whether the cell meets specific conditions, and the specific conditions may include those determined by one or more of the above factors. For a cell (e.g., cell A), resetting the priority of cell A's reselection can mean increasing the priority of cell A. For example, if cell A's priority is first priority, when cell A meets specific conditions, its priority can be set to second priority, where the second priority is higher than the first priority. Wherein, when cell A does not meet the specific conditions, the priority of cell A's reselection may not be adjusted or may be decreased. Alternatively, resetting the priority of cell A's reselection can involve lowering its priority. For example, if cell A has the highest priority, it can be set to the second highest priority (lower than the first) if it meets certain conditions. If cell A does not meet these conditions, its reselection priority can either remain unchanged or be increased.

[0161] Furthermore, the specific condition can be one or more conditions, and this application embodiment does not limit which condition is prioritized for adjusting the cell reselection priority. It is understood that when a terminal device performs cell reselection, it sorts the candidate cells by priority and selects a cell based on the sorted priority.

[0162] Depending on the conditions on which the priority of cell reselection is adjusted, and the method of adjusting the priority (increasing or decreasing it), the final cell reselected by the terminal device will also vary. A specific embodiment will be described in detail below.

[0163] Example 1: For cells that meet specific conditions, increase the priority of cell reselection.

[0164] Please refer to Figure 4, which is a flowchart illustrating the cell reselection method provided in this embodiment. Figure 4 describes the method from the perspective of interaction between network devices and terminal devices, wherein the terminal device supports low-power characteristics. It should be understood that the cell reselection method can also be implemented by other devices, such as by a chip or communication device with communication functions. Furthermore, the processing performed by a single execution entity can be divided into multiple execution entities, which can be logically and / or physically separated. For example, the processing performed by the network device can be divided into execution by at least one of CU, DU, RU, etc. As shown in Figure 4, the flow of this cell reselection method includes the following steps.

[0165] S401, The terminal device determines at least one candidate cell.

[0166] The terminal device performs cell measurements, which can identify at least one candidate cell. Cell measurements include one or more of the following: inter-frequency neighbor cell measurement, inter-system neighbor cell measurement, neighbor cell measurement, serving cell measurement, intra-frequency measurement, or intra-frequency cell measurement. The frequency point measured by the terminal device can be one or more of the following: a frequency point indicated by the network device, a cell indicated by the network device, an inter-frequency point selectable by the terminal device, an intra-frequency point selectable by the terminal device, or an inter-system frequency point selectable by the terminal device.

[0167] When a terminal device performs cell reselection, it can choose from at least one candidate cell. Considering energy-saving requirements, before cell reselection, the priority of cells meeting specific conditions among the at least one candidate cell can be adjusted to increase the probability that the terminal device will select a WUS-supporting cell during reselection. For example, the priority of cells meeting a first condition, which is related to the terminal device's power consumption, can be adjusted to the highest level. Accordingly, the at least one candidate cell includes a first cell; when the first cell meets the first condition, it is the cell with the highest priority. It should be noted that if a cell's original priority is the highest and the cell meets the first condition, then the cell's priority does not need to be adjusted. If a cell does not meet the first condition, then the cell's priority can be lowered, or it can remain unchanged.

[0168] The first condition can be one or more conditions. For example, the first condition may include one or more of the following: supporting low power consumption, supporting a certain LP-WUS generation method, supporting a certain receiver signal reception, the terminal device having (significant) energy-saving requirements, supporting energy-saving gain greater than or equal to a certain threshold, supporting load rate greater than or equal to a certain threshold, signal quality greater than or equal to a certain threshold, supporting the lowest frequency, etc.

[0169] When there are multiple conditions as the first condition, if a cell does not meet all of them, its priority may not be adjusted, or its priority may be lowered. This application does not limit the extent of the priority reduction. For example, the adjustment can be determined based on the performance indicators met. For instance, a condition may correspond to one or more performance indicators. For a cell that does not meet the first condition, if the performance indicator corresponding to the first condition is very poor, the priority adjustment will be larger; if the performance indicator corresponding to the first condition is only relatively poor, the priority adjustment will be smaller, for example, the cell's priority may be lowered by one level.

[0170] If a cell meets all of these conditions, then the cell's priority is adjusted to the highest priority.

[0171] If a cell meets some of these conditions, its priority can be adaptively increased, but not to the highest level, or the priority may remain unchanged, or even decreased. This application does not limit the magnitude of the priority increase. As mentioned above, the magnitude of the priority adjustment can also be determined based on the performance indicators met. For example, if the performance indicators corresponding to some of the met conditions are poor, the priority adjustment will be smaller; for instance, the cell's priority may be increased by one level. If the performance indicators corresponding to some of the met conditions are better, the priority adjustment will be larger. If the performance indicators corresponding to some of the met conditions are poor and few conditions are met, the cell's priority may be decreased.

[0172] The above three schemes are for cases where the first condition is multiple. These three schemes can be used in combination, any two of them can be used together, or they can be used individually.

[0173] For ease of understanding, examples are provided below. In the tables below, "Does it support low power consumption?" can be replaced with "Does it support low power signals?", "Does it support low power wake-up signals?", or "Does it support wake-up signals?". The original priority in the table is the priority before the adjustment, and the current priority is the priority after the adjustment. Furthermore, cells #0 to #3 in the table represent at least one candidate cell. The magnitude of the priority reduction or increase shown in the table is merely an example.

[0174] (1) The first condition includes support for low power consumption features.

[0175] Cells supporting low-power characteristics can be prioritized to the highest priority. In other words, if a cell supports low-power characteristics, it will be the highest priority cell. When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics, it will consider cells supporting low-power characteristics to have the highest priority. Therefore, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it will be highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics, which is beneficial for energy saving.

[0176] For example, see Table 1 for an example of resetting cell priority.

[0177] Table 1

[0178] As shown in Table 1, the highest priority for cells supporting low power consumption is 7. Cell #0 supports low power consumption, so its priority can be adjusted from 4 to 7. Cell #1 supports low power consumption, but its original priority was 7, so its priority does not need to be adjusted. Cells #2 and #3 do not support low power consumption, so their original priorities can be maintained.

[0179] Of course, since cell #2 and cell #3 do not support low power consumption, their priority can be lowered, as shown in Table 2.

[0180] Table 2

[0181] It should be noted that Tables 1 and 2 are only examples of the extent to which priority is lowered.

[0182] (2) The first condition includes supporting low power consumption and supporting the first LP-WUS generation method.

[0183] Alternatively, when the terminal device supports receiving signals via an OFDM receiver, the first condition includes supporting low-power characteristics and supporting the first LP-WUS generation method. Cells supporting both low-power characteristics and the first LP-WUS generation method can be prioritized to the highest priority. That is, if a cell supports low-power characteristics and the first LP-WUS generation method, then that cell has the highest priority. When the terminal device supports low-power characteristics, it considers cells supporting both low-power characteristics and the first LP-WUS generation method to have the highest priority. Thus, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports both low-power characteristics and the first LP-WUS generation method, thereby having sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals. This increases the probability of enabling low-power characteristics, which not only benefits energy saving for the terminal device but also enables energy saving for more terminal devices. Furthermore, it ensures better coverage performance.

[0184] For example, see Table 3 for an example of resetting cell priority.

[0185] Table 3

[0186] As shown in Table 3, the highest priority for cells supporting low power consumption is 7. Cell #0 supports both low power consumption and the first LP-WUS generation method, so its priority can be adjusted from 4 to 7. Cell #1 supports both low power consumption and the first LP-WUS generation method, but its original priority is 7, so its priority does not need to be adjusted. Cell #2 supports low power consumption but does not support the first LP-WUS generation method, so its original priority can be maintained (Table 3 uses this as an example), or its priority can be increased, but not to the highest level; for example, its priority can be adjusted from 2 to 4. Cell #3 does not support either low power consumption or the first LP-WUS generation method, so its original priority can be maintained, or its priority can be decreased (Table 3 uses this as an example).

[0187] Table 3 describes the support for the first LP-WUS generation method. As mentioned earlier, if a cell supports the first LP-WUS generation method, then the cell supports a higher load rate; for example, the cell supports a load rate greater than or equal to y1%. Accordingly, the first condition includes supporting low-power characteristics and supporting a load rate greater than or equal to y1%, where y1 is (pre)configured or predefined by the protocol. If a cell supports low-power characteristics and supports a load rate greater than or equal to y1%, then that cell is the highest priority cell.

[0188] For example, please refer to Table 4 for an example of resetting cell priority. Table 4 uses y1=70 as an example.

[0189] Table 4

[0190] As shown in Table 4, the highest priority for cells supporting low power consumption is 7. Cell #0 supports low power consumption and has a load rate greater than 70%, so its priority can be adjusted from 4 to 7. Cell #1 supports low power consumption and has a load rate greater than 70%, but its original priority is 7, so its priority does not need to be adjusted. Cell #2 supports low power consumption and has a load rate less than 70%, so its original priority can be maintained, or its priority can be increased, but not to the highest level; for example, it can be adjusted from 2 to 4 (Table 4 uses this as an example). Cell #3 does not support low power consumption and has a load rate less than 70%, so its original priority can be maintained, or its priority can be decreased (Table 4 uses this as an example).

[0191] Alternatively, if a cell supports low-power characteristics and its load rate falls within a first range, then that cell is the highest priority cell. For example, the first range could be [y1%, v1%].

[0192] For example, please refer to Table 5 for an example of resetting cell priority. Table 5 uses y1=30 and v1=70 as an example.

[0193] Table 5

[0194] As shown in Table 5, the highest priority for cells supporting low power consumption is 7. Cell #0 supports low power consumption, and its supported load rate is not within [30%, 70%]. Therefore, cell #0's original priority can be maintained, or its priority can be lowered (Table 5 uses this as an example). Cell #1 is similar to cell #0 and will not be described further. Cell #2 supports low power consumption, and its supported load rate is within [30%, 70%]. Therefore, cell #2's original priority can be maintained, or its priority can be increased, but not to the highest level. For example, its priority can be adjusted from 2 to 5 (Table 5 uses this as an example). Cell #3 does not support low power consumption, and its supported load rate is within [30%, 70%]. Cell #3's original priority can be maintained, or its priority can be lowered (Table 5 uses this as an example). Cell #4 supports low power consumption, and the load rate supported by cell #4 is within [30%, 70%], so the original priority of cell #4 can be adjusted to the highest priority.

[0195] It should be noted that whether a cell supports the first LP-WUS generation method can be indicated by the network device. The network device can explicitly or implicitly indicate whether a cell supports the first LP-WUS generation method or the second LP-WUS generation method, including, but not limited to, the following four methods.

[0196] (A) The network device uses N bits of information to indicate whether a cell supports the first LP-WUS generation method or the second LP-WUS generation method, where N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

[0197] For example, a network device can use 1 bit of information to indicate whether a cell supports a first LP-WUS generation method or a second LP-WUS generation method. For instance, a value of 0 for the 1 bit indicates support for the first LP-WUS generation method, while a value of 1 for the 1 bit indicates support for the second LP-WUS generation method.

[0198] For example, network devices can use 2 bits to indicate whether a cell supports a first or second LP-WUS generation method. Specifically, a value of "00" indicates support for the second LP-WUS generation method; "01" indicates support for the first type of the first LP-WUS generation method; "10" indicates support for the second type of the first LP-WUS generation method; and "11" indicates support for both the first and second types of the first and second LP-WUS generation methods. In the second LP-WUS generation method, the ON / OFF mode carries all the LP-WUS bit information. The first type indicates that the number of candidate sequences for superimposed / scrambled OOK or ON symbols is 1. The second type indicates that the number of candidate sequences for superimposed / scrambled OOK or ON symbols is greater than 1.

[0199] (B) The network device indicates a cell to support either the first LP-WUS generation method or the second LP-WUS generation method through an indication field.

[0200] For example, if the signaling sent by the network device to the terminal device does not include this indication field, it indicates that both the first LP-WUS generation method and the second LP-WUS generation method are supported. The first LP-WUS generation method includes a first type and a second type.

[0201] (C) Network devices use a bitmap to indicate whether a cell supports the first LP-WUS generation method and / or the second LP-WUS generation method.

[0202] For example, the bitmap includes two bits. The first bit of these two bits indicates whether the first LP-WUS generation method is supported, and the second bit of these two bits indicates whether the second LP-WUS generation method is supported. For example, a value of 00 for both bits indicates that neither the first nor the second LP-WUS generation method is supported; a value of 01 for both bits indicates that the first LP-WUS generation method is not supported, but the second LP-WUS generation method is supported; a value of 10 for both bits indicates that the first LP-WUS generation method is supported, but the second LP-WUS generation method is not supported; and a value of 11 for both bits indicates that both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods are supported.

[0203] (D) Network devices can implicitly determine whether they support the first LP-WUS generation method and / or the second LP-WUS generation method, which can reduce signaling overhead or bit overhead.

[0204] For example, a network device sends SIBx to a terminal device, indicating whether it supports the first LP-WUS generation method and / or the second LP-WUS generation method. The value of x is an integer from 1 to 25. For example, when x is 4, SIBx represents SIB4.

[0205] Optionally, a SIBx can indicate whether the first LP-WUS generation method and the second LP-WUS generation method are supported. For example, the network device sends an SIBx to the terminal device to indicate that the first LP-WUS generation method and the second LP-WUS generation method are supported; or, the network device sends an SIBx to the terminal device to indicate that the first LP-WUS generation method and the second LP-WUS generation method are not supported.

[0206] Optionally, whether the first LP-WUS generation method and the second LP-WUS generation method are supported is indicated by different SIBx values. For example, SIB4 indicates support for the first LP-WUS generation method; SIB5 indicates support for the second LP-WUS generation method.

[0207] Of course, frequency can also be used as the granularity to indicate whether the first LP-WUS generation method and / or the second LP-WUS generation method are supported. If a network device indicates the LP-WUS generation method supported at a certain frequency, it can be considered as indicating the supported LP-WUS generation method at the frequency granularity, rather than indicating the LP-WUS generation method supported by a specific cell at that frequency.

[0208] It is understandable that if the supported LP-WUS generation methods are indicated at the cell level, it can indicate the LP-WUS generation methods supported by cells under a specific frequency. This can be understood as indicating the supported LP-WUS generation methods at the cell level, rather than indicating the LP-WUS generation methods supported by the frequency to which the cell belongs. For example, for any one of M frequencies, it can indicate the LP-WUS generation methods supported by some or all of the cells under that frequency. For instance, if there are P cells under one of the M frequencies, the network device can indicate the LP-WUS generation methods supported by P1 cells out of those P cells, and indicate the LP-WUS generation methods not supported by P2 cells out of those P cells.

[0209] (3) The first condition includes supporting low power consumption and supporting the second LP-WUS generation method.

[0210] Alternatively, when the terminal device supports receiving signals via an OOK receiver, the first condition includes supporting low-power characteristics and supporting the second LP-WUS generation method. Cells supporting both low-power characteristics and the second LP-WUS generation method can be prioritized to the highest priority. That is, if a cell supports low-power characteristics and also supports the second LP-WUS generation method, then that cell has the highest priority. When the terminal device supports low-power characteristics, it considers cells supporting both low-power characteristics and the second LP-WUS generation method to have the highest priority. Thus, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports both low-power characteristics and OOK receiver signals, thereby having sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals, increasing the probability of enabling low-power characteristics, and benefiting the energy saving of the terminal device.

[0211] For example, please refer to Table 6 for an example of resetting cell priority. An explanation of Table 6 can be found in Table 3, and will not be repeated here.

[0212] Table 6

[0213] It is understandable that a cell supporting the second LP-WUS generation method is equivalent to the cell supporting a load rate less than or equal to y2%. Accordingly, the first condition includes supporting low-power characteristics and supporting a load rate less than or equal to y2%, where y2 is (pre)configured or predefined by the protocol. If a cell supports low-power characteristics and supports a load rate less than or equal to y2%, then that cell is the highest priority cell.

[0214] For example, please refer to Table 7 for an example of resetting cell priority. Table 7 uses y2=50 as an example. For an explanation of Table 7, please refer to Table 4, which will not be repeated here.

[0215] Table 7

[0216] Alternatively, if a cell supports low-power features and its load rate falls within the second range, then that cell is the highest priority cell. For example, the first range could be [y2%, v2%].

[0217] For example, please refer to Table 8, which provides an example of resetting cell priority. Table 8 uses y2=20 and v2=50 as an example. For an explanation of Table 8, please refer to Table 5, which will not be repeated here.

[0218] Table 8

[0219] (4) The first condition includes supporting low power consumption characteristics and the terminal device having energy-saving requirements, or the first condition includes supporting low power consumption characteristics and the terminal device having significant energy-saving requirements.

[0220] A terminal device having energy-saving needs, or significant energy-saving needs, can be characterized by its energy-saving gain being greater than or equal to a first threshold. From this perspective, the first condition can be replaced by supporting low-power characteristics, and the terminal device supporting an energy-saving gain greater than or equal to the first threshold. In other words, when a terminal device has energy-saving needs, the first condition includes supporting low-power characteristics.

[0221] When a terminal device has energy-saving requirements, cells supporting low-power characteristics can be prioritized to the highest priority. In other words, if a cell supports low-power characteristics, it will be the highest priority cell. When a terminal device supports low-power characteristics and has a significant energy-saving need, it will consider cells supporting low-power characteristics to have the highest priority. Therefore, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics and offers a greater energy-saving benefit, increasing the probability of enabling low-power characteristics and meeting the terminal device's energy-saving needs.

[0222] For example, please refer to Table 9 for an example of resetting cell priority. An explanation of Table 9 can be found in Table 3, and will not be repeated here.

[0223] Table 9

[0224] (5) The first condition includes that the terminal equipment supports OOK receiver signal reception and the terminal equipment supports OFDM receiver signal reception.

[0225] Alternatively, the first condition includes supporting both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods. When the terminal device supports both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods, and also supports low-power characteristics, the cell supporting low-power characteristics can be prioritized to the highest priority. Alternatively, when the terminal device supports both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods, and also supports low-power characteristics, the terminal device considers the cell supporting low-power characteristics to have the highest priority.

[0226] In other words, when a terminal device supports both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods, if a cell supports low-power characteristics, then that cell has the highest priority. When the terminal device supports low-power characteristics and simultaneously supports both OOK and OFDM receiver signals, the cell supporting both low-power characteristics and the first LP-WUS generation method has the highest priority. Thus, during cell reselection, the terminal device is highly likely to reselect a cell supporting low-power characteristics, which is beneficial for energy saving. Furthermore, prioritizing cells supporting OFDM receiver signals ensures sufficient resources for transmitting low-power signals, increasing the probability of enabling low-power characteristics and achieving higher energy-saving gains. Alternatively, when the terminal device supports low-power characteristics and simultaneously supports both OOK and OFDM receiver signals, the cell supporting OFDM receiver signals has the highest priority. Similarly, during cell reselection, the cell supporting low-power characteristics has a high probability of reselecting a cell supporting low-power characteristics, which is beneficial for energy saving. In this situation, depending on its own needs, the terminal device has greater flexibility to choose between transmitting signals using OOK modulation or mapping part or all of the signal information only to the first time unit, allowing it to choose greater energy saving or better coverage performance.

[0227] For example, please refer to Table 10 for an example of resetting cell priority. An explanation of Table 10 can be found in Table 3, and will not be repeated here.

[0228] Table 10

[0229] (6) The first condition includes supporting low power consumption characteristics, and the terminal device supports OOK receiver signal reception and OFDM receiver signal reception, as well as the terminal device having a large energy-saving requirement.

[0230] Alternatively, the first condition includes support for low-power characteristics, support for both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods, and a significant energy-saving requirement for the terminal device. This can be understood as follows: when the terminal device supports both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods and has a significant energy-saving requirement, the first condition includes low-power characteristics.

[0231] When a terminal device supports both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods and has significant energy-saving requirements, cells supporting low-power characteristics should be prioritized. Similarly, when a terminal device supports low-power characteristics and simultaneously supports both OOK and OFDM receiver signals, and also has significant energy-saving requirements, cells supporting low-power characteristics should be prioritized. In this case, during cell reselection, the terminal device is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports both low-power characteristics and OOK receiver signals, thus having sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals and increasing the probability of enabling low-power characteristics, thereby maximizing the energy-saving requirements of the terminal device.

[0232] For example, please refer to Table 11 for an example of resetting cell priority. An explanation of Table 11 can be found in Table 3, and will not be repeated here.

[0233] Table 11

[0234] (7) The first condition includes supporting low power consumption characteristics, and the terminal device supports OOK receiver signal reception and OFDM receiver signal reception, and the terminal device has a small energy-saving requirement.

[0235] Alternatively, the first condition includes supporting low-power characteristics, supporting both a first LP-WUS generation method and a second LP-WUS generation method, and the terminal device having relatively low energy-saving requirements. The terminal device having relatively low energy-saving requirements can be defined as the energy-saving gain supported by the terminal device being less than or equal to a second threshold. Therefore, it can also be understood that the first condition includes supporting low-power characteristics, supporting both a first LP-WUS generation method and a second LP-WUS generation method, and the energy-saving gain supported by the terminal device being less than or equal to the second threshold. Alternatively, it can be considered that when the terminal device supports both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods and has relatively low energy-saving requirements, the first condition includes low-power characteristics.

[0236] When a terminal device supports both the first and second LP-WUS generation methods and has a significant energy-saving requirement, cells supporting low-power characteristics should be prioritized to the highest priority. Conversely, when a terminal device supports low-power characteristics, supports both OOK and OFDM receivers, and has a relatively low energy-saving requirement, cells supporting low-power characteristics can be considered to have the highest priority. In this way, during cell reselection, the terminal device is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports both low-power characteristics and OFDM receivers, thus having sufficient resources to transmit low-power signals. This increases the probability of enabling low-power characteristics, satisfying the terminal device's energy-saving needs while conserving resources and enabling more terminal devices to save energy.

[0237] For example, please refer to Table 12 for an example of resetting cell priority. An explanation of Table 12 can be found in Table 3, and will not be repeated here.

[0238] Table 12

[0239] (8) The first condition includes supporting low power consumption and having the lowest frequency.

[0240] Prioritize the lowest frequency point that supports low-power features. In other words, when a terminal device supports low power, the frequencies supporting low power can be sorted from smallest to largest, with their corresponding priorities decreasing. Thus, when a terminal device supports low power features, it can consider the lowest frequency point supporting low power features to have the highest priority. When the terminal device performs cell reselection, it will most likely reselect a cell that supports low power features and has a lower frequency, which is beneficial for energy saving, minimizes path loss, and ensures better coverage performance.

[0241] For example, see Table 13 for an example of resetting cell priority.

[0242] Table 13

[0243] As shown in Table 13, the highest priority for cells supporting low power consumption is 7. Cell #0 supports low power consumption, and its frequency is 2.6GHz, which is not the lowest frequency. Therefore, cell #0's original priority can be maintained (Table 13 uses this as an example), or its priority can be lowered. Cell #1 supports low power consumption, and its supported frequency is 2.6GHz, which is the lowest frequency. Cell #1's priority can be adjusted to the highest priority. Cell #2 supports low power consumption, and its frequency is 3GHz, which is not the lowest frequency. Therefore, cell #2's original priority can be maintained, or its priority can be lowered (Table 13 uses this as an example). Cell #3 does not support low power consumption, so its priority can be lowered.

[0244] One or more of the first conditions mentioned in (1) to (8) above can be combined. The number of conditions in a specific combination is not limited in the embodiments of this application. The first conditions mentioned in (1) to (8) above are just examples. In possible implementations, the first conditions may also include other possible conditions. For example, the first condition may also include signal quality greater than or equal to a third threshold.

[0245] (9) The first condition also includes that the signal quality is greater than or equal to the third threshold.

[0246] The signal quality includes one or more of the following: reference signal received power, reference signal received quality, received signal energy indication, signal-to-noise ratio, or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio.

[0247] Cells that satisfy any one of (1) to (8) and whose signal quality is greater than or equal to the third threshold can be prioritized to the highest priority. In other words, based on satisfying any one of (1) to (8), the terminal device can consider cells with signal quality greater than or equal to the third threshold to have the highest priority. In this way, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell that supports low power consumption characteristics, and it can also select a cell with better signal quality. In addition to being beneficial to the energy saving of the terminal device, it can also maximize the communication quality.

[0248] The aforementioned approach involves the terminal device increasing the priority of cells meeting the first condition to increase the probability of reselecting a cell that supports low-power characteristics. As an alternative implementation, the terminal device can decrease the priority of cells meeting the second condition, or increase the probability of reselecting a cell that supports low-power characteristics. Accordingly, at least one candidate cell includes a second cell; when the second cell meets the second condition, it is the cell with the lowest priority. It should be noted that if a cell's original priority is the lowest and it meets the second condition, its priority does not need to be adjusted. If a cell does not meet the second condition, its priority can be increased or left unchanged.

[0249] The second condition may include one or more conditions. For example, the second condition may include one or more of the following: not supporting low power consumption, signal quality less than or equal to a certain threshold, supporting the highest frequency, etc.

[0250] When the second condition consists of multiple conditions, if a cell does not meet all of these conditions, then the priority of that cell may not be adjusted, or the priority of that cell may be increased.

[0251] If a cell meets all of these conditions, then the cell's priority is adjusted to the lowest priority.

[0252] If a cell meets some of these conditions, its priority can be adjusted downwards, but not to the lowest level, or the priority can remain unchanged, or even be increased.

[0253] The above three solutions address situations where the second condition has multiple conditions. These three solutions can be used in combination, any two of them can be used together, or they can be used individually.

[0254] The following describes a possible second condition.

[0255] (1) The second condition includes not supporting low power consumption.

[0256] Cells that do not support low-power features can be prioritized to the lowest priority. In other words, if a cell does not support low-power features, it will be the lowest priority cell. Therefore, when a terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly unlikely to reselect a cell that does not support low-power features, which is beneficial for energy saving in the terminal device.

[0257] For example, see Table 14 for an example of resetting cell priority.

[0258] Table 14

[0259] As shown in Table 14, the highest priority for cells supporting low power consumption is 7. Cells #0 and #1 support low power consumption, so their original priorities can be maintained. Cells #2 and #3 do not support low power consumption, so the priority of cell #2 can be lowered.

[0260] (2) The second condition includes not supporting low power consumption and having signal quality less than or equal to the fourth threshold.

[0261] Cells that do not support low-power features and have poor signal quality can be prioritized to the lowest priority. For example, if a cell does not support low-power features and its signal quality is less than or equal to the fourth threshold, then that cell has the lowest priority. In this way, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly unlikely to reselect a cell that does not support low-power features and has poor signal quality, which is beneficial for energy saving of the terminal device and can also ensure communication quality.

[0262] (3) The second condition includes not supporting low power consumption and having the highest frequency.

[0263] Cells that do not support low-power features and have the highest frequency can be prioritized and then placed at the lowest priority. For example, if a cell does not support low-power features and has the highest frequency, then that cell will be the lowest priority cell. In this way, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly unlikely to reselect a cell that does not support low-power features and has a high frequency, which is beneficial to the energy saving of the terminal device and can also ensure that the selected cell has low path loss and high communication quality.

[0264] The aforementioned first condition can be either (pre)configured or defined by the protocol. The aforementioned first to fourth thresholds can also be (pre)configured or defined by the protocol.

[0265] For example, a network device may send fourth information to a terminal device, which can be used to determine a first condition. Similarly, a network device may send fifth information to a terminal device, which can be used to determine a second condition. Alternatively, a network device may send fourth information to a terminal device, which can be used to determine both the first and second conditions. The specific signaling, channel, or signal carrying the fourth or fifth information is not limited in this embodiment. For example, the fourth or fifth information may be carried in one or more of the following: RRC message, DCI, MAC CE, PDCCH, PDSCH, CSI-RS, DMRS, or TPS.

[0266] For example, a network device may send a sixth piece of information to a terminal device, which can be used to determine a first threshold and / or a second threshold. Similarly, a network device may send a seventh piece of information to a terminal device, which can be used to determine a third threshold and / or a fourth threshold. The specific signaling, channel, or signal carrying the sixth or seventh information is not limited in the embodiments of this application. For example, the sixth or seventh information may be carried in one or more of the following: RRC message, DCI, MAC CE, PDCCH, PDSCH, CSI-RS, DMRS, or TPS.

[0267] It should be noted that Tables 1 to 14 above use integers between 0 and 7 as examples for the cell priority (i.e., the cell reselection priority). Compared to the cell reselection priority and cell reselection sub-priorities, the cell priority can be considered as the absolute priority of cell reselection. This application does not limit the specific implementation form of the cell priority, and includes, for example, the following three implementation forms.

[0268] (1) The priority of a cell is an integer.

[0269] For example, the cell priority can be a value from a first value list, where all values ​​are integers. For instance, cell priority can be implemented using cell reselection priority. In this case, the cell priority can be considered the cell reselection priority. For example, the first value list might include the following values: (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), as illustrated in Tables 1 to 14 above. The first value list reuses the cell reselection priority values ​​configured in the network, eliminating the need to introduce new priority values, simplifying implementation, and minimizing impact on the protocol.

[0270] (2) The priority of the cell is a decimal value.

[0271] For example, the cell priority can be a value from a first value list, where all values ​​are decimals less than 1. For instance, cell priority can be implemented using cell reselection sub-priorities. In this case, the cell priority can be considered a cell reselection sub-priority. For example, the first value list might include the following values: (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8). The first value list reuses the values ​​of the cell reselection sub-priorities configured in the network, eliminating the need to introduce new priority values, simplifying implementation, and minimizing impact on the protocol. For example, using Table 1 as an example, in this case, Table 1 can become Table 15. It should be noted that the priorities in Table 15 are merely examples.

[0272] Table 15

[0273] (3) The priority values ​​of a cell include integers and decimals.

[0274] For example, the cell priority is a value from a first value list, which includes both integers and decimals. For instance, the cell priority can be implemented as the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority. In this case, the cell priority can be considered the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority. For example, the first value list includes the following values: (0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, ... 7.4, 7.6, 7.8), where the minimum interval between any two values ​​is 0.2. For example, using Table 1 as an example, in this case, Table 1 can become Table 16. It should be noted that the priorities in Table 16 are only examples.

[0275] Table 16

[0276] The priorities of the three implementation methods described above can be viewed as designs with different granularities. By designing priorities with different granularities, priority implementation becomes more flexible. Furthermore, distinguishing priorities based on different granularities can meet the needs of terminal devices or network devices with varying levels of complexity.

[0277] Specifically, when the cell priority value includes both integers and decimals, or when the cell priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority, some cells may be treated as having the same cell reselection priority, while the cell reselection sub-priorities of these cells may be different. Specific examples are provided below to illustrate this.

[0278] (1) Cells that support low-power characteristics have the same cell reselection priority. In this case, the cell with the lowest frequency among the cells that support low-power characteristics has the highest cell reselection priority.

[0279] For example, the cell reselection priority of all frequency points / cells that support low power features can be set to the same (e.g., the highest priority), and then different cell reselection sub-priorities can be determined based on the different frequency point values.

[0280] (2) Cells that support low power consumption and the first LP-WUS generation method have the same cell reselection priority. In this case, the cell with the lowest frequency among the cells that support low power consumption and the first LP-WUS generation method has the highest cell reselection priority.

[0281] Alternatively, if some or all of the low-power signal information is mapped only to cells in the first time unit, the cell reselection priorities are the same, where the signal amplitude in the first time unit is not zero. In this case, the cell reselection priority is highest for the cell that supports low-power characteristics and whose low-power signal information is mapped only to cells in the first time unit with the lowest frequency.

[0282] For example, the cell reselection priority of all frequency points / cells that support low power characteristics and support the first LP-WUS generation method can be set to the same (e.g., the highest priority), and then different cell reselection sub-priorities can be determined according to the different frequency point values.

[0283] (3) Cells that support low-power characteristics and support all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK have the same cell reselection priority. In this case, the cell with the lowest frequency among the cells that support low-power characteristics and support all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK has the highest cell reselection priority.

[0284] For example, the cell reselection priority of all frequency points / cells that support low power consumption can be set to the same (e.g., the highest priority), and then the cell reselection sub-priority can be determined by combining the receiver capability of the terminal equipment, and different cell reselection sub-priorities can be determined according to different frequency point values.

[0285] It is understandable that network devices are configured with a priority. For the purposes of this application, the priority configured by the network device can also be considered the original priority. In this embodiment, the terminal device adjusts the priority of the first cell to the highest priority; therefore, the priority of the first cell is higher than the priority configured by the network device. This ensures that the first cell has the highest priority among all candidate cells without changing the priorities of other candidate cells. For example, if the maximum priority configured by the network device is 7, and the first cell is the highest priority cell, its priority can be adjusted to 8, making it the highest priority among all candidate cells.

[0286] It should be noted that the priority configured for network devices can be: the highest priority that the network device can be configured with, or the highest priority that the network device is capable of configuring, or the highest priority that the network device is configured for this cell / frequency point. Here, the highest priority can be the highest cell reselection priority, or the highest cell reselection sub-priority, or the sum of the highest cell reselection priority and the highest cell reselection sub-priority.

[0287] Network devices indicate cell priorities to terminal devices. The terminal device may or may not reselect the cell corresponding to the priority indicated by the network device. The specific information indicated by the network device will vary depending on how the cell priorities are implemented.

[0288] When the cell priority corresponds to an integer value, the network device can indicate the cell reselection priority. For example, the network device can send first information to the terminal device to determine the cell reselection priority. Accordingly, the terminal device, upon receiving the first information, can determine the cell reselection priority. Similarly, when the cell priority corresponds to a decimal value, the network device can indicate the cell reselection sub-priority. For example, the network device can send second information to the terminal device to determine the cell reselection sub-priority. Accordingly, the terminal device, upon receiving the second information, can determine the cell reselection sub-priority. When the cell priority corresponds to a value including both integers and decimals, the network device can indicate the cell priority. For example, the network device can send third information to the terminal device to determine the cell priority. Accordingly, the terminal device, upon receiving the third information, can determine the cell priority. The specific signaling, channel, or signal carrying the first, second, or third information is not limited in the embodiments of this application. For example, the first, second, or third information may be carried in one or more of the following: RRC message, DCI, MAC CE, PDCCH, PDSCH, CSI-RS, demodulation reference signal (DMRS), paging message, short message, random access response (RAR), conflict resolution message (i.e., Msg4 in the random access process), master information block (MIB), system information (SI), system information block (SIB), SSB, PBCH, or TPS.

[0289] The terminal device adjusts the priority of some or all of the candidate cells based on a first condition and / or a second condition. For example, for a cell that meets all the conditions in the first condition, the priority of that cell can be adjusted to the highest priority; for a cell that meets all the conditions in the second condition, the priority of that cell can be adjusted to the lowest priority; for a cell that meets some of the conditions in the first condition, the priority of that cell can be adjusted to the second highest priority; and for a cell that meets some of the conditions in the second condition, the priority of that cell can be adjusted to the second lowest priority.

[0290] For example, please refer to Figure 4, which shows at least one candidate cell including cells #A to #D. Cell #A does not meet all the conditions in the first condition, cell #B meets all the conditions in the first condition, cell #C does not meet some of the conditions in the first condition, and cell #D meets all the conditions in the second condition. The original priority of cell #A is A1, the original priority of cell #B is B1, the original priority of cell #C is C1, and the original priority of cell #D is D1. According to the method provided in this application embodiment, there is no need to adjust the priority of cell #A; that is, the priority of cell #A remains A1. The priority of cell #B can be adjusted from B1 to B2, and B2 is the highest priority. The priority of cell #C can be adjusted from C1 to C2, and C2 has a lower priority than B2. The priority of cell #D can be adjusted from D1 to D2, and D2 has the lowest priority.

[0291] It is understandable that the priority of all cells in at least one candidate cell may not need to be adjusted, so it is represented by dashed lines in Figure 4.

[0292] S402. The terminal device reselects to one of the at least one candidate cells according to the cell reselection criteria and / or the priority of at least one candidate cell.

[0293] After repricing one or more of the candidate cells, the terminal device can sort the priority cells of the at least one candidate cell. When performing cell reselection, the terminal device can select a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting, based on the cell reselection criteria and the priority of the at least one candidate cell. It should be noted that if the cell reselection criteria include the priority of at least one candidate cell, then the terminal device selects a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting, based on the cell reselection criteria.

[0294] For example, for a terminal device, if all cells at a certain frequency meet the first condition, then during cell reselection, all cells can be treated equally. For instance, if the first condition is supporting low-power characteristics, and all cells at the first frequency meet this condition, then all cells at the first frequency have the highest priority. Therefore, during cell reselection, all cells can be treated equally, and the terminal device can reselect to one of these cells (e.g., the first cell). Alternatively, if at least one cell at the first frequency meets the first condition, while the remaining cells do not, then during cell reselection, priority is given to determining whether to reselect to that at least one cell. If the terminal device can reselect to that at least one cell, then it can reselect to the first cell, which has the highest priority among those at least one cells. If multiple cells (corresponding to the same frequency or different frequencies) meet the cell reselection criteria, then the device will reselect to the first cell, which has the highest priority among those multiple cells.

[0295] Based on the cell reselection method provided in this application, the terminal device can adjust the priority of a cell according to whether the cell meets a first condition, so that the terminal device has a greater probability of selecting a cell that supports low power consumption during cell reselection. For example, if the first cell supports low power consumption (e.g., the first cell supports LP-WUS), the priority of the first cell can be adjusted to the highest priority, so that the terminal device reselects the first cell. The terminal device can detect LP-WUS in the first cell. If LP-WUS carries wake-up indication information, the terminal device wakes up the MR; otherwise, the terminal device remains in sleep mode, thereby saving the terminal device's power consumption.

[0296] Example 2: For cells that meet specific conditions, lower the priority of cell reselection.

[0297] The difference from Embodiment 1 is that, in Embodiment 2, the priority of cell reselection is lowered for cells that meet specific conditions. For example, the terminal device can lower the priority of cells that meet the second condition, thereby increasing the probability that the terminal device will reselect a cell that supports low-power characteristics. Accordingly, at least one candidate cell includes a second cell, and when the second cell meets the second condition, the second cell is the cell with the lowest priority.

[0298] The second condition can include one or more conditions. When there are multiple conditions, if a cell does not meet all of them, its priority may not be adjusted, or its priority may be increased. If a cell meets all of them, its priority is adjusted to the lowest priority. If a cell meets some of them, its priority may be adjusted adaptively, but not to the lowest, or it may not be adjusted, or its priority may even be increased.

[0299] For details regarding the second condition and how to adjust the priority of cells that meet the second condition, please refer to the relevant content in Implementation Example 1, which will not be repeated here.

[0300] It should be understood that in Embodiment 2, the terminal device performs cell measurements, and at least one candidate cell can be determined based on the cell measurements. The terminal device adjusts the priority of the cell that meets the second condition among the at least one candidate cell to the lowest priority. Subsequently, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it can select a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting based on the cell reselection criteria and the priority of the at least one candidate cell. It should be noted that if the cell reselection criteria include the priority of at least one candidate cell, then the terminal device selects a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting based on the cell reselection criteria.

[0301] Optionally, Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2 can be combined. For example, the priority of cells that meet the first condition can be increased, while the priority of cells that meet the second condition can be decreased. For example, at least one candidate cell includes a first cell, and when the first cell meets the first condition, the first cell is the cell with the highest priority. The at least one candidate cell includes a second cell, and when the second cell meets the second condition, the second cell is the cell with the lowest priority.

[0302] In Examples 1 and 2, when adjusting cell priority, priority is given to whether the cell supports low-power characteristics. This application does not limit the factors considered when adjusting cell priority. For example, priority can be given to adjusting the cell priority based on frequency, or signal quality. Examples 3 and 4 are described below.

[0303] Example 3: Adjust the priority of the cell with the lowest frequency to the highest priority.

[0304] In other words, the lowest frequency / cell can always be considered the highest priority cell. For example, if at least one candidate cell includes a third cell that meets a third condition, then the third cell has the highest priority, where the third condition includes having the lowest frequency. When a cell meets the third condition, the terminal device adjusts the priority of that cell to the highest priority. In this way, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell with a lower frequency, thereby reducing path loss and ensuring better coverage performance.

[0305] It should be understood that in Embodiment 3, the terminal device performs cell measurements, and at least one candidate cell can be determined based on the cell measurements. The terminal device adjusts the priority of the cell among the at least one candidate cell that meets the third condition to the highest priority. Subsequently, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it can select a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting based on the cell reselection criteria and the priority of the at least one candidate cell. It should be noted that if the cell reselection criteria include the priority of at least one candidate cell, then the terminal device selects a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting based on the cell reselection criteria.

[0306] Optionally, Embodiment 3 can be combined with Embodiment 1. For example, the third condition may also include the first condition. For example, in addition to including the lowest frequency, the third condition may also include any of the first conditions mentioned in (1) to (9) above. For example, the third condition may include the lowest frequency and support for low power consumption; or the third condition may include the lowest frequency, support for low power consumption and support for the first LP-WUS generation method; or the third condition may include the lowest frequency, support for low power consumption and support for the second LP-WUS generation method; and so on.

[0307] Example 3 and Example 2 can also be combined. The third condition also includes the second condition. For example, in addition to the lowest frequency, the third condition also includes any of the second conditions mentioned in (1) to (2) above. For example, the third condition includes the lowest frequency and does not support low power consumption features; or, for example, the third condition includes the lowest frequency, does not support low power consumption features, and the signal quality is less than or equal to the fourth threshold.

[0308] The third condition can be (pre)configured or defined by a protocol. For example, a network device can send tenth information to a terminal device, which can be used to determine the third condition. The specific signaling, channel, or signal carrying the tenth information is not limited in this embodiment. For example, the tenth information can be carried in one or more of the following: RRC message, DCI, MAC CE, PDCCH, PDSCH, CSI-RS, DMRS, paging message, short message, RAR, Msg4, MIB, SI, SIB, SSB, PBCH, or TPS.

[0309] Example 4: Adjust the priority of cells with higher signal quality to the highest priority.

[0310] In other words, frequencies / cells with higher signal quality are always considered the highest priority cells. For example, if at least one candidate cell includes a fourth cell that meets a fourth condition, then the fourth cell has the highest priority. This fourth condition includes signal quality greater than or equal to a fifth threshold. When a cell meets the fourth condition, the terminal device adjusts its priority to the highest priority. Thus, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it is highly likely to reselect a cell with better signal quality, thereby ensuring communication quality.

[0311] It should be understood that in Embodiment 4, the terminal device performs cell measurements, and at least one candidate cell can be determined based on the cell measurements. The terminal device adjusts the priority of the cell that meets the fourth condition among the at least one candidate cell to the highest priority. Subsequently, when the terminal device performs cell reselection, it can select a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting based on the cell reselection criteria and the priority of the at least one candidate cell. It should be noted that if the cell reselection criteria include the priority of at least one candidate cell, then the terminal device selects a cell from the at least one candidate cell after sorting based on the cell reselection criteria.

[0312] Optionally, Embodiment 4 can be combined with Embodiment 1. For example, the fourth condition also includes the first condition. For instance, in addition to the signal quality being greater than or equal to the fifth threshold, the fourth condition also includes any one of the first conditions mentioned in (1) to (9) above. For example, the third condition includes the signal quality being greater than or equal to the fifth threshold and supporting low-power characteristics; or the third condition includes the signal quality being greater than or equal to the fifth threshold, supporting low-power characteristics and supporting the first LP-WUS generation method; or the third condition includes the signal quality being greater than or equal to the fifth threshold, supporting low-power characteristics and supporting the second LP-WUS generation method; and so on.

[0313] Example 3 and Example 2 can also be combined. The fourth condition also includes the second condition. For example, in addition to the signal quality being greater than or equal to the fifth threshold, the fourth condition also includes any of the second conditions mentioned in (1) to (2) above. For example, the fourth condition includes the signal quality being greater than or equal to the fifth threshold and not supporting low power consumption features.

[0314] The fourth condition can be either (pre)configured or defined by the protocol. The fifth threshold can also be either (pre)configured or defined by the protocol.

[0315] For example, a network device may send an eighth message to a terminal device, which can be used to determine a fourth condition. The embodiments of this application do not limit the specific signaling, channel, or signal carrying the eighth message. For example, the eighth message may be carried in one or more of the following: RRC message, DCI, MAC CE, PDCCH, PDSCH, CSI-RS, DMRS, paging message, short message, RAR, Msg4, MIB, SI, SIB, SSB, PBCH, or TPS.

[0316] For example, a network device may send a ninth message to a terminal device, which can be used to determine a fifth threshold. The specific signaling, channel, or signal carrying the ninth message is not limited in this embodiment. For example, the ninth message may be carried in one or more of the following: RRC message, DCI, MAC CE, PDCCH, PDSCH, CSI-RS, DMRS, paging message, short message, RAR, Msg4, MIB, SI, SIB, SSB, PBCH, or TPS.

[0317] It should be noted that one or more of the information from the first to the tenth information mentioned above can be carried in a single signaling / channel / signal.

[0318] The "cell priority" in this application embodiment can be used for cell reselection (or for cell reselection criteria), including one or more of inter-system cell reselection, inter-frequency cell reselection, or intra-frequency cell reselection. Additionally, the so-called priority can also be used for cell measurement (or for measurement criteria). Cell measurement includes one or more of inter-frequency neighbor cell measurement, inter-system neighbor cell measurement, neighbor cell measurement, serving cell measurement, intra-frequency measurement, or intra-frequency cell measurement. In general, the priority is also used for one or more of the following: inter-frequency neighbor cell measurement, inter-system neighbor cell measurement, neighbor cell measurement, serving cell measurement, intra-frequency measurement, intra-frequency cell measurement, inter-frequency inter-system cell reselection, inter-frequency cell reselection, or intra-frequency cell reselection. Thus, based on the different needs of the terminal device and the different capabilities of the network, better cell reselection can be achieved.

[0319] The neighboring cells described in the various embodiments of this application may include one or more of the following: co-frequency neighboring cells, inter-frequency neighboring cells, or inter-system neighboring cells. Specifically, a co-frequency neighboring cell refers to a neighboring cell whose frequency is the same as the frequency of the UE's serving cell; an inter-frequency neighboring cell refers to a neighboring cell whose frequency is different from the frequency of the UE's serving cell; and an inter-system neighboring cell refers to a neighboring cell whose corresponding RAT is different from the RAT of the UE's serving cell. The UE's serving cell is, for example, the cell where the UE is camped.

[0320] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the secondary priority of cell reselection can reuse the priority of the existing network configuration. Alternatively, the secondary priority of cell reselection can be determined based on the conditions or performance indicators met by the cell. For example, for cell A, the first condition includes multiple conditions. When cell A meets all of these conditions, cell A has the highest priority; when cell A meets some of these conditions, cell A has the next lowest priority.

[0321] The methods provided in the embodiments of this application above are described using terminal devices and network devices as examples. In this application, each embodiment can be implemented independently or in combination based on certain inherent connections; in each embodiment, different implementation methods can be implemented in combination or independently. To achieve the functions of the methods provided in the embodiments of this application above, the steps executed by the terminal device can be implemented by the terminal device itself or by different functional entities constituting the terminal device. The steps executed by the network device can be implemented by the network device itself or by different functional entities constituting the network device. For example, the network device is an access network device, which can be a CU-DU architecture, where the CU can generate request messages and the DU can send request messages. To achieve the functions of the methods provided in the embodiments of this application above, the terminal device and network device can include hardware structures and / or software modules, implementing the above functions in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or hardware structures plus software modules. Whether a particular function is executed in the form of hardware structures, software modules, or hardware structures plus software modules depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0322] Based on the same inventive concept as the method embodiments, this application provides a communication device. The communication device used to implement the above method in the embodiments of this application is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The content above can be used in subsequent embodiments, and repeated content will not be repeated.

[0323] Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 500 provided in an embodiment of this application. This communication device 500 can correspondingly implement the functions or steps implemented by the terminal device in the various method embodiments described above. For example, the communication device 500 can be the terminal device in Figure 1; or, the communication device 500 can be a chip (system) in the terminal device; or, the communication device 500 can be a software module of the terminal device. The communication device 500 may include a processing module 510 and a transceiver module 520. Optionally, it may also include a storage module, which can be used to store instructions (code or program) and / or data. The storage module can be, for example, a memory. The processing module 510 and the transceiver module 520 can be coupled to the storage module. For example, the processing module 510 can read instructions (code or program) and / or data from the storage module to implement the corresponding method. When the communication device 500 is a chip in the terminal device, the storage module can be a storage module within the chip, such as a register or cache. For example, the storage module can also be an external storage module located within the terminal device, such as read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices capable of storing static information and instructions, random access memory (RAM), etc. The aforementioned units can be configured independently, or partially or completely integrated.

[0324] Processing module 510 may be a processor or controller, such as a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU), a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processing unit (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. It may implement or execute the various exemplary logic blocks, modules, and circuits described in conjunction with the disclosure of this application. The processor may also be a combination that implements computing functions, such as including one or more microprocessor combinations, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, etc. Transceiver module 520 is a transceiver, interface circuit, bus, pin, or other possible communication interface for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented as a chip, transceiver module 520 is an interface circuit for the chip to receive signals from other chips or devices, or an interface circuit for the chip to send signals to other chips or devices.

[0325] The communication device 500 can correspondingly implement the behavior and functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiments. The communication device 500 can be the terminal device itself, a component (e.g., a chip or circuit) within the terminal device, a part of a chip or chipset in the terminal device used to execute the relevant method functions, or a software module in the terminal device capable of implementing the above cell reselection method; there are no limitations. For details, please refer to the relevant content of the foregoing method embodiments, which will not be repeated here.

[0326] In one implementation, the processing module 510 is used to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect to one of the at least one candidate cells according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a first cell, which is the highest priority cell when it meets a first condition, the first condition including support for low-power characteristics.

[0327] As an optional implementation, the communication device 500 supports OFDM receiver receiving signals, and the first condition further includes: supporting some or all of the information of low-power signals to be mapped only to the first time unit, and the signal amplitude on the first time unit is not 0.

[0328] As an optional implementation, the communication device 500 supports OOK receivers to receive signals, and the first condition also includes: supporting all bit information of low-power signals modulated in OOK.

[0329] As an optional implementation, the communication device 500 supports both OOK receiver signal reception and OFDM receiver signal reception.

[0330] As an optional implementation, the energy-saving gain of the communication device 500 is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and the first condition also includes: supporting all bit information of the low-power signal modulated by OOK.

[0331] As an optional implementation, the energy-saving gain of the communication device 500 is less than or equal to the second threshold. The first condition also includes: some or all of the information supporting low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit, and the signal amplitude on the first time unit is not 0.

[0332] As an optional implementation, the energy-saving gain of the communication device 500 is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

[0333] As an optional implementation method, the first condition also includes: the lowest frequency.

[0334] As an optional implementation, the priority is a cell reselection priority; or, the priority is a cell reselection sub-priority; or, the priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority.

[0335] As an optional implementation, when the priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority, cells supporting low-power characteristics have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics has the highest cell reselection sub-priority; or, cells supporting low-power characteristics and whose low-power signal information is partially or fully mapped to the first time unit have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics and whose low-power signal information is partially or fully mapped to the first time unit has the highest cell reselection sub-priority; or, cells supporting low-power characteristics and supporting all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics and supporting all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK has the highest cell reselection sub-priority.

[0336] As an optional implementation, the priority value is one of the values ​​in the first value list. The values ​​in the first value list are all integers; or, the values ​​in the first value list are all decimals less than 1; or, the values ​​in the first value list include both integers and decimals.

[0337] For example, the first value list includes the following values: (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,5); or, the first value list includes the following values: (0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8); or, the first value list includes the following values: (0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1,1.2,1.4,1.6,…5.4,5.6,5.8), where the minimum interval between any two values ​​is 0.2.

[0338] As an optional implementation, the first cell has a higher priority than the network device configuration priority.

[0339] As an optional implementation, the transceiver module 520 is used to receive one or more of the following: first information, second information, or third information. The first information is used to determine the cell reselection priority. The second information is used to determine the cell reselection sub-priority. The third information is used to determine the priority.

[0340] As an optional implementation, the priority is also used for one or more of the following: inter-frequency neighbor cell measurement, inter-system neighbor cell measurement, neighbor cell measurement, serving cell measurement, same-frequency measurement, same-frequency cell measurement, inter-frequency and inter-system cell reselection, inter-frequency cell reselection, or same-frequency cell reselection.

[0341] As an optional implementation, the first condition also includes: the signal quality is greater than or equal to the third threshold, and the signal quality includes one or more of the following: reference signal received power, reference signal received quality, received signal energy indication, signal-to-noise ratio, or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio.

[0342] As an optional implementation, at least one candidate cell also includes a second cell. When the second cell meets a second condition, the second cell has the lowest priority. The second condition includes not supporting low-power features.

[0343] As an optional implementation, the second condition also includes: the signal quality is less than or equal to the fourth threshold.

[0344] As an optional implementation, the transceiver module 520 is also used to receive one or more of the following: fourth information, fifth information, sixth information, or seventh information. Wherein, the fourth information is used to determine the first condition. The fifth information is used to determine the second condition. The sixth information is used to determine the first threshold and / or the second threshold. The seventh information is used to determine the third threshold and / or the fourth threshold.

[0345] As an optional implementation, low-power signals include low-power wake-up signals.

[0346] In another implementation, the processing module 510 is used to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect to one of the at least one candidate cell based on the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a second cell that satisfies a second condition, has the lowest priority, and the second condition includes not supporting low-power features.

[0347] As an optional implementation, the second condition also includes the highest frequency.

[0348] The beneficial effects of the second aspect and its implementation method can be referred to the beneficial effects of the first aspect and its implementation method mentioned above, and will not be repeated here.

[0349] In another implementation, the processing module 510 is used to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect to one of the at least one candidate cell based on the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a third cell that satisfies a third condition, has the highest priority, and the third condition includes the lowest frequency.

[0350] In another implementation, the processing module 510 is used to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect to one of the at least one candidate cell based on the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a fourth cell that satisfies a fourth condition, has the highest priority, and the fourth condition includes signal quality greater than or equal to a fifth threshold.

[0351] As an optional implementation, the transceiver module 520 is used to receive one or more of the following: eighth information or ninth information, wherein the eighth information is used to determine the fourth condition and the ninth information is used to determine the fifth threshold.

[0352] When the communication device 500 is a chip-based device or circuit, the transceiver module can be an input / output circuit and / or a communication interface; the processing module is an integrated processor, microprocessor, or integrated circuit.

[0353] Figure 6 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 600 provided in an embodiment of this application. This communication device 600 can be a terminal device as described in the above embodiments. For example, the communication device 600 can be a terminal device in Figure 1 or a chip (system) within a terminal device. In this embodiment, the chip system can be composed of chips or may include chips and other discrete devices. Specific functions can be found in the descriptions of the above method embodiments.

[0354] The communication device 600 includes one or more processors 601, used to implement or support the communication device 600 in implementing the functions of the terminal device in the methods provided in the embodiments of this application. For details, please refer to the detailed description in the method examples, which will not be repeated here. The processor 601 can also be called a processing unit or processing module, and can implement certain control functions. The processor 601 can be a general-purpose processor or a dedicated processor, etc. For example, it includes: a baseband processor, a central processing unit, an application processor, a modem processor, a graphics processor, an image signal processor, a digital signal processor, a video codec processor, a controller, a memory, and / or a neural network processor, etc. The baseband processor can be used to process communication protocols and communication data. The central processing unit can be used to control the communication device 600 (e.g., a terminal device), execute software programs, and / or process data. Different processors can be independent devices or integrated into one or more processors, for example, integrated on one or more application-specific integrated circuits.

[0355] In one design, processor 601 may include program 603 (sometimes also referred to as code or instructions) that can be executed on processor 601 to cause communication device 600 to perform the methods described in the embodiments below. In yet another possible design, communication device 600 includes circuitry (not shown in FIG. 6) for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the above embodiments.

[0356] In one design, the communication device 600 may include one or more memories 602 storing a program 604 (sometimes referred to as code or instructions), which can be run on the processor 601 to cause the communication device 600 to perform the methods described in the above method embodiments.

[0357] In one design, the processor 601 and / or memory 602 may include an artificial intelligence (AI) module 607 and an AI module 608, which are used to implement AI-related functions. The AI ​​modules can be implemented through software, hardware, or a combination of both. For example, the AI ​​module may include a RAN intelligent controller (RIC) module. For example, the AI ​​module may be a near real-time RIC or a non-real-time RIC.

[0358] In one possible design, the processor 601 and / or memory 602 may also store data. The processor and memory may be configured separately or integrated together.

[0359] In one possible design, the communication device 600 may further include a transceiver 605 and / or an antenna 606. The processor 601, sometimes referred to as a processing unit, controls the communication device 600. The transceiver 605, sometimes referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiver circuit, or transceiver, is used to implement the transmission and reception functions of the communication device 600 through the antenna 606.

[0360] In one possible design, the communication device 600 may further include one or more of the following components: a wireless communication module, an audio module, an external memory interface, internal memory, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a power management module, an antenna, a speaker, a microphone, an input / output module, a sensor module, a motor, a camera, or a display screen, etc. It is understood that in some embodiments, the communication device 600 may include more or fewer components, or some components may be integrated, or some components may be separated. These components may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware.

[0361] The communication device in the above embodiments can be a terminal device, a circuit, a chip applied in a terminal device, or other combined devices or components having the aforementioned terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal device, the transceiver module can be a transceiver, which may include an antenna and radio frequency circuits, etc., and the processing module can be a processor, such as a CPU. When the communication device is a chip system, the communication device can be an FPGA, a dedicated ASIC, a SoC, a CPU, a network processor (NP), a DSP, a microcontroller unit (MCU), a programmable logic device (PLD), or other integrated chips. The processing module can be the processor of the chip system. The transceiver module or communication interface can be the input / output interface or interface circuit of the chip system. For example, the interface circuit can be a code / data read / write interface circuit. The interface circuit can be used to receive code instructions (the code instructions are stored in memory and can be read directly from memory or through other devices) and transmit them to the processor; the processor can be used to run the code instructions to execute the methods in the above method embodiments. For another example, the interface circuit can also be a signal transmission interface circuit between the communication processor and the transceiver.

[0362] This application also provides a communication system, which includes at least one terminal device and at least one network device, wherein the terminal device is used to implement the functions related to the above-described cell reselection method.

[0363] This application also provides a computer-readable storage medium including instructions that, when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method performed by the terminal device in the above-described cell reselection method.

[0364] This application also provides a computer program product, including computer program code, which, when executed, causes the computer to perform the method executed by the terminal device in the above-described cell reselection method.

[0365] This application provides a chip system including a processor and potentially a memory, for implementing the functions of the terminal device in the aforementioned cell reselection method. The chip system can be composed of a chip or may include chips and other discrete components.

[0366] To achieve the functions of the communication devices shown in Figures 5 and 6, this application embodiment also provides a chip, including a processor, for supporting the communication device in implementing the functions involved in the terminal device or network device in the above method embodiments. In one possible design, the chip is connected to a memory or the chip includes a memory for storing necessary computer programs, instructions, and data for the communication device.

[0367] It should be understood that in the various embodiments of this application, the order of the above-mentioned processes does not imply the order of execution. The execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of this application.

[0368] Those skilled in the art will recognize that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented in electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether these functions are implemented in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementations should not be considered beyond the scope of this application.

[0369] Those skilled in the art will understand that, for the sake of convenience and brevity, the specific working processes of the systems, devices, and units described above can be referred to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and will not be repeated here.

[0370] In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, apparatuses, and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative; for instance, the division of units is only a logical functional division, and in actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored or not executed. Furthermore, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some interfaces; the indirect coupling or communication connection between apparatuses or units may be electrical, mechanical, or other forms.

[0371] The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the units can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs.

[0372] If the aforementioned functions are implemented as software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the essential contributing part of the technical solution of this application, or a portion of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, external hard drives, ROM, RAM, magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0373] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this application without departing from the scope of this application. Therefore, if such modifications and variations fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalents, this application also intends to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A cell reselection method, characterized in that, The method includes: At least one candidate cell is determined, the at least one candidate cell including a first cell, and when the first cell meets a first condition, the first cell is the cell with the highest priority, wherein the first condition includes supporting low power consumption characteristics; Reselection to one of the at least one candidate cells is based on the priority of the at least one candidate cell.

2. The method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The terminal device supports Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) receivers to receive signals, and the first condition further includes: Some or all of the information supporting low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit, and the signal amplitude in the first time unit is not 0.

3. The method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The terminal device supports the on / off key control OOK receiver to receive signals, and the first condition also includes: It supports all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK.

4. The method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The terminal device supports receiving signals from an OOK receiver, and the terminal device also supports receiving signals from an OFDM receiver.

5. The method as described in claim 4, characterized in that, The energy-saving gain of the terminal device is greater than or equal to a first threshold, and the first condition further includes: It supports all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK.

6. The method as described in claim 4, characterized in that, The energy-saving gain of the terminal device is less than or equal to the second threshold, and the first condition further includes: Some or all of the information supporting low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit, and the signal amplitude in the first time unit is not 0.

7. The method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The energy-saving gain of the terminal device is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

8. The method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The first condition also includes: the lowest frequency.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1-8, characterized in that, The priority is the cell reselection priority; or The priority is the cell reselection sub-priority; or The priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority.

10. The method as described in claim 9, characterized in that, The priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority; Among them, cells supporting low-power characteristics have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics has the highest cell reselection sub-priority; or... Cells that support low-power characteristics and whose low-power signal information is partially or entirely mapped to cells in the first time unit have the same cell reselection priority; the cell reselection sub-priority of the cell with the lowest frequency point in the first time unit is the highest; or, Cells that support low-power characteristics and support all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK have the same cell reselection priority. Among the cells that support low-power characteristics and support all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK, the cell with the lowest frequency point has the highest cell reselection priority.

11. The method as described in claim 9 or 10, characterized in that, The priority value is one of the values ​​in the first value list; Wherein, all values ​​in the first value list are integers; or, The values ​​in the first value list are all decimals less than 1; or, The values ​​in the first value list include integers and decimals.

12. The method as described in claim 11, characterized in that, The priority of the first cell is higher than the priority of the network device configuration.

13. The method as described in claim 11, characterized in that, The first value list includes the following values: (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7); or, (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8); or, (0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1,1.2,1.4,1.6,…7.4,7.6,7.8), where the minimum interval between any two values ​​is 0.

2.

14. The method according to any one of claims 1-13, characterized in that, The method further includes performing one or more of the following: Receive first information, which is used to determine the cell reselection priority; Receive second information, which is used to determine the cell reselection sub-priority; or, Receive third information, which is used to determine the priority.

15. The method according to any one of claims 1-14, characterized in that, The priority is also used for one or more of the following: inter-frequency neighbor cell measurement, inter-system neighbor cell measurement, neighbor cell measurement, serving cell measurement, same-frequency measurement, same-frequency cell measurement, inter-frequency and inter-system cell reselection, inter-frequency cell reselection, or same-frequency cell reselection.

16. The method according to any one of claims 1-15, characterized in that, The first condition also includes: The signal quality is greater than or equal to a third threshold, and the signal quality includes one or more of the following: reference signal received power, reference signal received quality, received signal energy indication, signal-to-noise ratio, or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio.

17. The method according to any one of claims 1-16, characterized in that, The at least one candidate cell further includes a second cell, which has the lowest priority when it meets a second condition, wherein the second condition includes not supporting low power consumption features.

18. The method as described in claim 17, characterized in that, The second condition also includes: the signal quality is less than or equal to the fourth threshold.

19. The method as described in claim 17 or 18, characterized in that, The method further includes performing one or more of the following: Receive fourth information, the fourth information being used to determine the first condition; Receive fifth information, the fifth information being used to determine the second condition; Receive sixth information, the sixth information being used to determine the first threshold and / or the second threshold; or, Receive seventh information, which is used to determine the third threshold and / or the fourth threshold.

20. The method according to any one of claims 1-19, characterized in that, Low-power signals include low-power wake-up signals.

21. A cell reselection method, characterized in that, The method includes: At least one candidate cell is determined, the at least one candidate cell including a second cell, the second cell satisfying a second condition, the second cell having the lowest priority, the second condition including not supporting low power features; Reselection to one of the at least one candidate cells is based on the priority of the at least one candidate cell.

22. The method as described in claim 21, characterized in that, The second condition also includes the highest frequency.

23. A cell reselection method, characterized in that, The method includes: At least one candidate cell is determined, the at least one candidate cell includes a third cell, the third cell satisfies a third condition, the third cell has the highest priority, and the third condition includes the lowest frequency point; Reselection to one of the at least one candidate cells is based on the priority of the at least one candidate cell.

24. A cell reselection method, characterized in that, The method includes: At least one candidate cell is determined, the at least one candidate cell including a fourth cell, the fourth cell satisfying a fourth condition, the fourth cell having the highest priority, the fourth condition including signal quality greater than or equal to a fifth threshold; Reselection to one of the at least one candidate cells is based on the priority of the at least one candidate cell.

25. The method as described in claim 24, characterized in that, The method further includes performing one or more of the following: Receive the eighth message, which is used to determine the fourth condition; or, Receive the ninth information, which is used to determine the fifth threshold.

26. A communication device, characterized in that, include: A processing unit is configured to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect a cell to one of the at least one candidate cells according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a first cell. When the first cell meets a first condition, the first cell is the cell with the highest priority. The first condition includes supporting low power consumption characteristics. A transceiver unit is used to send and / or receive information.

27. The apparatus as claimed in claim 26, characterized in that, The communication device supports Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) receivers to receive signals, and the first condition further includes: Some or all of the information supporting low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit, and the signal amplitude in the first time unit is not 0.

28. The apparatus as claimed in claim 26, characterized in that, The communication device supports signal reception by an OOK receiver controlled by an on / off switch, and the first condition further includes: It supports all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK.

29. The apparatus as claimed in claim 26, characterized in that, The communication device supports OOK receiver signal reception, and the terminal device supports OFDM receiver signal reception.

30. The apparatus as claimed in claim 29, characterized in that, The energy-saving gain of the communication device is greater than or equal to a first threshold, wherein the first condition further includes: It supports all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK.

31. The apparatus as claimed in claim 29, characterized in that, The energy-saving gain of the communication device is less than or equal to a second threshold, and the first condition further includes: Some or all of the information supporting low-power signals is mapped only to the first time unit, and the signal amplitude in the first time unit is not 0.

32. The apparatus as claimed in claim 26, characterized in that, The energy-saving gain of the communication device is greater than or equal to the first threshold.

33. The apparatus as claimed in claim 26, characterized in that, The first condition also includes: the lowest frequency.

34. The apparatus according to any one of claims 26-33, characterized in that, The priority is the cell reselection priority; or The priority is the cell reselection sub-priority; or The priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority.

35. The apparatus as claimed in claim 34, characterized in that, The priority is the sum of the cell reselection priority and the cell reselection sub-priority; Among them, cells supporting low-power characteristics have the same cell reselection priority, and the cell with the lowest frequency point among the cells supporting low-power characteristics has the highest cell reselection sub-priority; or... Cells that support low-power characteristics and whose low-power signal information is partially or entirely mapped to cells in the first time unit have the same cell reselection priority; the cell reselection sub-priority of the cell with the lowest frequency point in the first time unit is the highest; or, Cells that support low-power characteristics and support all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK have the same cell reselection priority. Among the cells that support low-power characteristics and support all bit information of low-power signals modulated with OOK, the cell with the lowest frequency point has the highest cell reselection priority.

36. The apparatus as claimed in claim 34 or 35, characterized in that, The priority value is one of the values ​​in the first value list; Wherein, all values ​​in the first value list are integers; or, The values ​​in the first value list are all decimals less than 1; or, The values ​​in the first value list include integers and decimals.

37. The apparatus as claimed in claim 36, characterized in that, The priority of the first cell is higher than the priority of the network device configuration.

38. The apparatus as claimed in claim 36, characterized in that, The first value list includes the following values: (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7); or, (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8); or, (0,0.2,0.4,0.6,0.8,1,1.2,1.4,1.6,…7.4,7.6,7.8), where the minimum interval between any two values ​​is 0.

2.

39. The apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 26-38, characterized in that, The transceiver unit is also configured to perform one or more of the following: Receive first information, which is used to determine the cell reselection priority; Receive second information, which is used to determine the cell reselection sub-priority; or, Receive third information, which is used to determine the priority.

40. The apparatus according to any one of claims 26-39, characterized in that, The priority is also used for one or more of the following: inter-frequency neighbor cell measurement, inter-system neighbor cell measurement, neighbor cell measurement, serving cell measurement, same-frequency measurement, same-frequency cell measurement, inter-frequency and inter-system cell reselection, inter-frequency cell reselection, or same-frequency cell reselection.

41. The apparatus according to any one of claims 26-40, characterized in that, The first condition also includes: The signal quality is greater than or equal to a third threshold, and the signal quality includes one or more of the following: reference signal received power, reference signal received quality, received signal energy indication, signal-to-noise ratio, or signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio.

42. The apparatus according to any one of claims 26-41, characterized in that, The at least one candidate cell further includes a second cell, which has the lowest priority when it meets a second condition, wherein the second condition includes not supporting low power consumption features.

43. The apparatus as claimed in claim 42, characterized in that, The second condition also includes: the signal quality is less than or equal to the fourth threshold.

44. The apparatus as claimed in claim 42 or 43, characterized in that, The transceiver unit is also configured to perform one or more of the following: Receive fourth information, the fourth information being used to determine the first condition; Receive fifth information, the fifth information being used to determine the second condition; Receive sixth information, the sixth information being used to determine the first threshold and / or the second threshold; or, Receive seventh information, which is used to determine the third threshold and / or the fourth threshold.

45. The apparatus according to any one of claims 26-44, characterized in that, Low-power signals include low-power wake-up signals.

46. ​​A communication device, characterized in that, include: A processing unit is configured to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect a cell to one of the at least one candidate cells according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a second cell, the second cell satisfies a second condition, the second cell has the lowest priority, and the second condition includes not supporting low power consumption features. A transceiver unit is used to send and / or receive information.

47. The apparatus as claimed in claim 46, characterized in that, The second condition also includes the highest frequency.

48. A communication device, characterized in that, include: A processing unit is configured to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect a cell to one of the at least one candidate cells according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a third cell, which satisfies a third condition, and the third cell has the highest priority. The third condition includes the lowest frequency point. A transceiver unit is used to send and / or receive information.

49. A communication device, characterized in that, include: A processing unit is configured to determine at least one candidate cell and reselect a cell to one of the at least one candidate cells according to the priority of the at least one candidate cell. The at least one candidate cell includes a fourth cell, which satisfies a fourth condition and has the highest priority. The fourth condition includes signal quality greater than or equal to a fifth threshold. A transceiver unit is used to send and / or receive information.

50. The apparatus as claimed in claim 49, characterized in that, The transceiver unit is used to perform one or more of the following: Receive the eighth message, which is used to determine the fourth condition; or, Receive the ninth information, which is used to determine the fifth threshold.

51. A communication device, characterized in that, The communication device includes at least one processor configured to cause the communication device to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20, or to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 22, or to perform the method as claimed in claim 23, or to perform the method as claimed in claim 24 or 25.

52. A chip or chip system, characterized in that, The chip or chip system includes: At least one processor and an interface, the at least one processor being configured to call and execute instructions from the interface, wherein when the at least one processor executes the instructions, it implements the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20, or the method as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 22, or the method as claimed in claim 23, or the method as claimed in claim 24 or 25.

53. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer-readable storage medium is used to store a computer program that, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20, or causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 22, or causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in claim 23, or causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in claim 24 or 25.

54. A computer program product, characterized in that, The computer program product includes a computer program that, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20, or causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 22, or causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in claim 23, or causes the computer to perform the method as claimed in claim 24 or 25.

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