Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus, which relate to the technical field of communications, and enable a terminal to improve the measurement flexibility, reduce the measurement redundancy and decrease measurement overheads when the terminal performs synchronization signal block (SSB) measurement. The method comprises: after establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection, a terminal acquiring first information and second information, wherein the first information is used for indicating at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first satellite, and the second information is used for indicating at least one SSB of a second satellite; and on the basis of the first information and the second information, the terminal selecting at least one SSB from among the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite, and then performing SSB measurement.

Description

Communication method and apparatus

[0001] The present application claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 202410972388.5, filed on July 18, 2024, and entitled "Communication method and apparatus", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

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

[0003] In a communication system, a network device can send synchronization signal block (SSB) configuration information to a terminal, and the terminal performs SSB measurement according to the received SSB configuration information.

[0004] Among them, the network device can enable the terminal to perform SSB measurement through reference signal resource configuration based on SSB measurement timing configuration (SMTC).

[0005] However, the SSB measurement configuration based on SMTC is not flexible enough, which can cause excessive measurement redundancy of the terminal and increase the measurement overhead of the terminal. SUMMARY

[0006] The present application provides a communication method and apparatus, which can improve the flexibility of measurement, reduce measurement redundancy and reduce measurement overhead when the terminal performs SSB measurement.

[0007] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to the terminal side, such as a terminal or a communication module in the terminal, or a circuit or chip responsible for communication function in the terminal (such as a Modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system on chip (SoC) chip or a system in package (SIP) chip containing a Modem core). For example, the method comprises: after establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection, obtaining first information and second information, the first information being used to indicate at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first satellite; the second information being used to indicate at least one SSB of a second satellite; determining at least one SSB to be measured according to the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0008] Based on the first aspect, when the network side configures the SSB measurement for the terminal, the network side can send the SSB measurement configuration corresponding to the terminal to the terminal after the terminal establishes the RRC connection, and in the case that the terminal is in the connected state. The SSB measurement configuration configured by the network side for the terminal in the present application is terminal-level, such as indicating at least one SSB of the first satellite and at least one SSB of the second satellite to the terminal. Compared with broadcasting all SSB measurement configurations corresponding to the cell or beam through the cell-level or beam-level SMTC configuration, the flexibility of the SSB measurement configuration can be improved, and the signaling overhead can be reduced. When the terminal performs SSB measurement, the terminal can determine at least one SSB to be measured from the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite, thereby improving the flexibility and accuracy of the SSB measurement, reducing the measurement redundancy, reducing the measurement overhead, and reducing the measurement power consumption of the terminal.

[0009] In a possible design, the first information and the second information are acquired by: sending position information of the terminal; and receiving the first information and the second information; wherein the first information and the second information are determined according to the position information of the terminal.

[0010] Based on the possible design, the terminal sends the position information of the terminal to the network side device, so that the network side device can more accurately determine a limited number of deterministic SSBs to be measured (such as the first SSB corresponding to the position information of the terminal, the second SSB corresponding to the region adjacent to the terminal in the first satellite, and at least one SSB corresponding to the region adjacent to the terminal in the second satellite) around the terminal, thereby improving the flexibility and accuracy of the SSB measurement configuration and reducing the signaling overhead.

[0011] In a possible design, the first information and the second information are acquired by: receiving first RRC signaling; wherein the first RRC signaling includes the first information and the second information; or receiving first non-access stratum (NAS) signaling; wherein the first NAS signaling includes the first information and the second information.

[0012] Based on the possible design, the network side device can send the terminal-level first information and the second information to the terminal through RRC signaling or NAS signaling when the terminal is in the connected state.

[0013] In a possible design, the method further includes: sending first indication information; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate to update one or more of the following: the first information, or the second information; and acquiring updated first information and / or updated second information.

[0014] Based on the possible design, the terminal can update the first information and the second information, thereby avoiding inaccurate mobility management caused by SSB measurement deviation.

[0015] In a possible design, the first indication information is sent when a preset condition is met, where the preset condition includes at least one of the following: a distance between a center point of a region corresponding to the first SSB and the terminal is greater than a distance between a center point of a region corresponding to another SSB and the terminal, the distance between the center point of the region corresponding to the first SSB and the terminal is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the terminal determines, according to coverage range information of the region corresponding to the first SSB, that the terminal has moved out of the coverage range of the region corresponding to the first SSB, the terminal determines, according to a measurement result of the SSB, that an optimal SSB has changed from the first SSB to another SSB, or the terminal determines that the terminal has changed from a center region of the first satellite to an edge region of the first satellite, where the first SSB is an SSB corresponding to location information of the terminal.

[0016] Based on this possible design, the terminal can perceive the SSB measurement configuration change based on one or more of the above conditions, and can update the first information and the second information in a timely manner, thereby avoiding inaccurate mobility management caused by SSB measurement deviation.

[0017] In a possible design, the first indication information is sent, including: sending a random access request, where the random access request includes the first indication information, and the first indication information is a preamble related to updating one or more of the following: the first information or the second information; or sending second RRC signaling, where the second RRC signaling includes the first indication information; or sending second NAS signaling, where the second NAS signaling includes the first indication information.

[0018] Based on this possible design, the terminal can request updating of the first indication information through a random access request or RRC signaling or NAS signaling when in a connected state.

[0019] In a possible design, the method further includes: determining measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured; performing measurement on the at least one SSB to be measured within the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured, to obtain a measurement result; and sending the measurement result.

[0020] Based on this possible design, the terminal can assist the network side device in beam switching by reporting the measurement result to the network side device. The terminal can enable subsequent procedures such as cell reselection and cell switching based on the measurement result.

[0021] In a possible design, when the at least one SSB to be measured includes at least one SSB of a first satellite, the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured is determined, including: determining the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured according to measurement time information of the first SSB and a transmission period of the SSB, where the first SSB is an SSB corresponding to location information of the terminal.

[0022] In a possible design, in a case where the at least one SSB to be measured includes at least one SSB of the second satellite, the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured is determined according to the measurement time information of the first SSB, the transmission period of the SSB, the ephemeris information of the second satellite, and the preset offset corresponding to the second satellite; and the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured is determined.

[0023] Based on the above two possible designs, when measuring the SSB of the first satellite, the terminal can determine the measurement time information of the SSB of the first satellite according to the first SSB and the transmission period of the SSB. When measuring the SSB of the second satellite, the measurement time information of the SSB of the second satellite can be determined in combination with the ephemeris information of the second satellite and the preset offset of the second satellite. The measurement flexibility is improved, the measurement redundancy is reduced, and the measurement cost is reduced.

[0024] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided. The method can be applied to a network side, for example, a network side device or a communication module in the network side device, or a circuit or chip (such as a Modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a SoC chip or SIP chip containing a Modem core) responsible for communication functions in the network side device. For example, the method includes: determining first information and second information after the terminal establishes an RRC connection, and sending the first information and the second information to the terminal; wherein the first information is used to indicate at least one SSB of a first satellite; and the second information is used to indicate at least one SSB of a second satellite.

[0025] Based on the second aspect, when the network side configures SSB measurement for the terminal, the network side can send the SSB measurement configuration corresponding to the terminal to the terminal after the terminal establishes an RRC connection, in a case where the terminal is in a connected state. That is, the SSB measurement configuration configured by the network side for the terminal in this application is a terminal-level SSB measurement configuration, such as indicating at least one SSB of a first satellite and at least one SSB of a second satellite to the terminal. Compared with broadcasting all SSB measurement configurations corresponding to a cell or a beam through a cell-level or beam-level SMTC configuration, the flexibility of the SSB measurement configuration is improved, and the signaling cost is reduced.

[0026] In a possible design, the network side device can be a core network device, or a network device with a base station function. The network device can be a device set on the ground, or a non-ground device such as a satellite or a drone, without limitation.

[0027] In a possible design, the location information of the terminal is obtained after the terminal establishes an RRC connection, and the first information and the second information are determined according to the location information of the terminal.

[0028] Based on the possible design, the network-side device determines the first information and the second information corresponding to the terminal according to the location information of the terminal, which can more accurately determine a limited number of SSBs (e.g., the first SSB corresponding to the location information of the terminal, the second SSB corresponding to the region adjacent to the first SSB in the first satellite, and at least one SSB corresponding to the region adjacent to the first SSB in the second satellite) to be measured with certainty around the terminal, improves the flexibility and accuracy of SSB measurement configuration, and reduces signaling overhead.

[0029] In a possible design, the first information and the second information are sent to the terminal, including: sending first RRC signaling to the terminal; wherein the first RRC signaling includes the first information and the second information; or sending first NAS signaling to the terminal; wherein the first NAS signaling includes the first information and the second information.

[0030] Based on the possible design, the network-side device can send the terminal-level first information and the second information to the terminal in the connected state through RRC signaling or NAS signaling.

[0031] In a possible design, the measurement result is received from the terminal; wherein the measurement result is determined according to at least one SSB of at least one SSB of the first satellite and the second satellite.

[0032] Based on the possible design, the terminal reports the measurement result to the network-side device, which can assist the network-side device in beam switching. The terminal can enable subsequent processes such as cell reselection and cell switching according to the measurement result.

[0033] In a possible design, the first indication information is received from the terminal; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate to update one or more of the following: the first information, or the second information; and the updated first information and / or the updated second information are sent to the terminal according to the location information of the terminal.

[0034] Based on the possible design, the terminal can request the network-side device to update the first information and the second information through the first indication information, avoiding inaccurate mobility management caused by SSB measurement deviation.

[0035] In a possible design, the first indication information is received from the terminal, including: receiving a random access request from the terminal; wherein the random access request includes the first indication information, and the first indication information is a preamble related to updating one or more of the following: the first information, or the second information; or receiving second RRC signaling from the terminal; wherein the second RRC signaling includes the first indication information; or receiving second NAS signaling from the terminal; wherein the second NAS signaling includes the first indication information.

[0036] Based on the possible design, the terminal can request the update of the first indication information through a random access request, or RRC signaling, or NAS signaling when in the connected state.

[0037] In combination with the first aspect and the second aspect, in a possible design, the at least one SSB of the first satellite includes a first SSB; or the at least one SSB of the first satellite includes the first SSB and at least one second SSB; where the first SSB is an SSB corresponding to the location information of the terminal, and the second SSB corresponds to an area adjacent to an area corresponding to the first SSB.

[0038] Based on the possible design, the network-side device can indicate, to the terminal, a limited number of SSBs (for example, the first SSB corresponding to the location information of the terminal and the second SSB corresponding to an area adjacent to an area corresponding to the first SSB) to be measured around the terminal according to the location information of the terminal, thereby improving flexibility of SSB measurement configuration and reducing signaling overhead.

[0039] In combination with the first aspect and the second aspect, in a possible design, the at least one SSB of the second satellite corresponds to an area adjacent to an area corresponding to the first SSB.

[0040] Based on the possible design, when the network-side device indicates the SSBs of the second satellite to the terminal, the network-side device can indicate, to the terminal, SSBs corresponding to areas adjacent to an area corresponding to the first SSB according to the location information of the terminal, thereby improving flexibility of SSB measurement configuration and reducing signaling overhead.

[0041] In combination with the first aspect and the second aspect, in a possible design, the second information is used to indicate one or more of the following: a difference between a preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and a preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, a difference between identification information of the first satellite and identification information of the second satellite, measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, coverage range information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, or location order information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite; where the location order information is used to indicate a geographical location relationship between coverage ranges of the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0042] Based on the possible design, by indicating, through the second information, the difference between the preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and the preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, the terminal can determine an index of the at least one SSB of the second satellite according to the difference. Alternatively, by indicating, through the second information, the difference between the identification information of the first satellite and the identification information of the second satellite, the terminal can determine the index of the at least one SSB of the second satellite according to the difference.

[0043] With reference to the first aspect and the second aspect, in a possible design, the second information includes one or more of the following: difference information between a preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and a preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, difference information between identification information of the first satellite and identification information of the second satellite, index information of at least one SSB of the second satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to at least one SSB of the second satellite, measurement time information corresponding to at least one SSB of the second satellite, and position sequence information of at least one SSB of the second satellite; the position sequence information is used to indicate a geographical position relationship between coverage ranges of regions corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0044] Based on the possible design, multiple possible designs are provided for the design of the second information. With reference to the first aspect and the second aspect, in a possible design, the first information is used to indicate one or more of the following: measurement configuration information of at least one SSB of the first satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite; the position sequence information is used to indicate a geographical position relationship between coverage ranges of regions corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite.

[0045] With reference to the first aspect and the second aspect, in a possible design, the first information includes one or more of the following: index information of at least one SSB of the first satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite, measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite; the position sequence information is used to indicate a geographical position relationship between coverage ranges of regions corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite.

[0046] Based on the two possible designs, multiple possible designs are provided for the design of the first information.

[0047] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a communication system comprising a terminal-side device and a network-side device. The terminal-side device can be a terminal or a communication module in the terminal, or a circuit or chip (such as a Modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a SoC chip or SIP chip containing a Modem core) responsible for communication functions in the terminal. The network-side device can be a network-side device or a communication module in the network-side device, or a circuit or chip (such as a Modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a SoC chip or SIP chip containing a Modem core) responsible for communication functions in the network-side device. For example, the method comprises: determining, by the network-side device, first information and second information after the terminal establishes an RRC connection, and sending the first information and the second information to the terminal; and determining, by the terminal, at least one SSB to be measured according to at least one SSB of a first satellite and at least one SSB of a second satellite. The first information is used to indicate at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of the first satellite, and the second information is used to indicate at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0048] The detailed description of the first information or the second information can refer to the detailed description of various possible designs of the first aspect or the second aspect, and the technical effects brought by the various possible designs of the first aspect or the second aspect can refer to the technical effects brought by the various possible designs of the first aspect or the second aspect, which will not be repeated.

[0049] Optionally, the terminal-side device can also be used to implement the method described in various possible designs of the first aspect, and the technical effects brought by the various possible designs of the first aspect can refer to the technical effects brought by the various possible designs of the first aspect, which will not be repeated.

[0050] Optionally, the network-side device can also be used to implement the method described in various possible designs of the second aspect, and the technical effects brought by the various possible designs of the second aspect can refer to the technical effects brought by the various possible designs of the second aspect, which will not be repeated.

[0051] In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, which can be applied to the terminal of the first aspect to implement the functions performed by the terminal. The communication device can be a terminal, a chip or a chip system or a system on chip, etc. The communication device can perform the functions of the terminal through hardware, or perform the functions through corresponding software. The hardware or software comprises one or more modules corresponding to the functions. For example, a transceiver module and a processing module. The transceiver module can independently complete the transceiving operations described below, or can cooperate with the processing module to complete the transceiving operations. Correspondingly, the processing module can also independently complete the processing operations described below, or can cooperate with the transceiver module to complete the processing operations, which is not limited.

[0052] The transceiver module is configured to acquire first information and second information after establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection, the first information being used to indicate at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first satellite, and the second information being used to indicate at least one SSB of a second satellite.

[0053] Optionally, the transceiver module and the processing module of the communication apparatus in the fourth aspect can also perform the corresponding functions in any possible design of the first aspect, and the specific implementation can be referred to the detailed description in the method examples, and the beneficial effects can also be referred to the foregoing description.

[0054] In the fifth aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which can be applied to the network-side device in the second aspect to implement the functions performed by the network-side device. The communication apparatus can be the network-side device, a chip or a chip system or a system on chip, etc. of the network-side device. The communication apparatus can implement the functions performed by the network-side device through hardware or through corresponding software executed by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions. For example, a transceiver module and a processing module. The transceiver module can independently complete the transceiving operations described below, or can cooperate with the processing module to complete the transceiving operations. Correspondingly, the processing module can independently complete the processing operations described below, or can cooperate with the transceiver module to complete the processing operations. No limitation is imposed.

[0055] The processing module is configured to determine first information and second information after the terminal establishes a radio resource control (RRC) connection, and the transceiver module is configured to send the first information and the second information to the terminal. The first information is used to indicate at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first satellite, and the second information is used to indicate at least one SSB of a second satellite.

[0056] Optionally, the transceiver module and the processing module of the communication apparatus in the fifth aspect can also perform the corresponding functions in any possible design of the second aspect, and the specific implementation can be referred to the detailed description in the method examples, and the beneficial effects can also be referred to the foregoing description.

[0057] In the sixth aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a communication apparatus, which includes one or more processors, and the one or more processors are configured to run computer programs or instructions, and when the one or more processors execute the computer programs or instructions, the communication method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect is executed.

[0058] In a possible design, the communication apparatus further includes one or more memories coupled to the one or more processors, and the one or more memories are configured to store the computer program or the instructions. In a possible implementation, the memories are located outside the communication apparatus. In another possible implementation, the memories are located inside the communication apparatus. In embodiments of this application, the processor and the memories can also be integrated into one device, i.e., the processor and the memories can also be integrated together. In a possible implementation, the communication apparatus further includes a transceiver, and the transceiver is configured to receive information and / or send information.

[0059] In a possible design, the communication apparatus further includes one or more communication interfaces coupled to the one or more processors, and the one or more communication interfaces are configured to communicate with other modules outside the communication apparatus.

[0060] In a seventh aspect, this application provides a communication apparatus, which includes an interface circuit and a logic circuit. The interface circuit is configured to input and / or output information. The logic circuit is configured to perform the communication method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect, process and / or generate information according to the information.

[0061] In an eighth aspect, this application provides a computer-readable storage medium, which stores computer instructions or programs. When the computer instructions or programs are run on a computer, the communication method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect is performed.

[0062] In a ninth aspect, this application provides a computer program product containing computer instructions. When the computer instructions are run on a computer, the communication method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect is performed.

[0063] In a tenth aspect, this application provides a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer, the communication method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect is performed.

[0064] In an eleventh aspect, this application provides a chip, which includes a processor and a memory. The memory is coupled to the processor and is configured to store programs or instructions. When the programs or instructions are executed by the processor, the communication method in any one of the first aspect to the second aspect is performed.

[0065] The technical effects brought by any one of the sixth aspect to the eleventh aspect can be referred to the technical effects brought by any one of the first aspect to the second aspect, which will not be repeated here.

[0066] In a twelfth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, which can include a communication device for performing the communication device as described in the first aspect or any possible design of the first aspect, and a communication device for performing the communication device as described in the second aspect or any possible design of the second aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0067] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of an NTN network according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0068] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a transmission mode of an SSB beam according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0069] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a satellite coverage range according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0070] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an arrangement pattern of an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0071] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a mobility management according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0072] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a measurement time window according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0073] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a measurement time window according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0074] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0075] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of an NTN communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0076] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of an NTN communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0077] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of an NTN communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0078] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a random access procedure according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0079] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a region and an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0080] FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of coverage range information of a region corresponding to an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0081] FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0082] FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a region and an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0083] FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a region and an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0084] FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a region and an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0085] FIG. 19 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0086] FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0087] FIG. 21 is a block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0088] Before describing the embodiments of the present application, the technical terms related to the embodiments of the present application are described.

[0089] Non-terrestrial network (NTN): refers to a network that uses radio frequency resources on a platform such as a satellite platform (including low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, middle earth orbit (MEO) satellites, geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites), unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or high altitude platform station (HAPS) to provide communication services. Compared with a ground cellular network (such as a 5th generation (5G) new radio (NR) communication system), an NTN network has the characteristics of wider coverage, higher path loss, larger delay, faster speed, and lower cost. As a supplement and extension of ground networks, NTN can achieve the purpose of seamless coverage in a wide area that cannot be achieved by wired telephone networks and ground mobile communication networks, and effectively solve the problem of Internet access in areas where communication infrastructure is scarce. For example, when a large number of satellites are arranged in LEO, through reasonable constellation construction, seamless coverage of the ground can be achieved, and the round-trip transmission delay between data on the satellite and the ground terminal can also be greatly reduced to tens of milliseconds compared with GEO satellites. With the use of high-frequency bands, multi-point beams, and frequency reuse technologies, the communication capabilities of satellites have been significantly improved, and the cost per wideband has been reduced, so as to meet the demand for high information rate services. Compared with ground 5G networks and submarine optical fiber cables and other communication infrastructure, NTN also has a significant cost advantage. Modern small satellites have low development and manufacturing costs, and software-defined technology can further extend the on-orbit satellite service life.

[0090] For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the application scenarios of the NTN network include one or more of the following: broadband access in remote areas (such as home broadband access, rural education, broadcast television, etc.), broadband access in large transportation (such as airplanes, high-speed trains, and ocean vessels, etc.), temporary network applications (such as emergency rescue, temporary bandwidth demand, scientific exploration, etc.), government and enterprise private networks (such as remote area expansion, vertical management network, etc.), basic backbone interconnection of telecommunications enterprises (such as remote sites, temporary site construction, etc.), Internet of Things (such as disaster monitoring, unattended areas, etc.), and the like.

[0091] Satellite synchronization signal block (SSB) broadcast beam: The communication system relies on a number of broadcast beams in different directions to send SSBs to users for terminal synchronization in the initial access stage. Compared with ground networks, the coverage area is wider, the transmission loss is larger, and the moving speed is faster, which is a significant feature of NTN networks. Unlike the ground system, which defines a maximum of 8 SSBs in the frequency range 1 (FR1) or a maximum of 64 SSBs in FR2 corresponding to the broadcast beams that can cover the service range of a single network device, the number of broadcast beams required by NTN networks can reach hundreds or even thousands. For example, a NTN network with an orbit height of 600 km, the service range of a single satellite can reach hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. In order to overcome the path loss caused by the transmission distance and ensure the quality of communication services, satellites generally use large-scale antenna arrays to provide higher array gain, but at the same time, the main lobe of the beam is narrower. For example, the coverage radius of a 3dB beam width is only a few dozen kilometers, and the coverage area is about a few hundred square kilometers, so using narrow beams to complete seamless coverage of the service range of a single satellite requires thousands of beams. Further, even if the beam is processed to a certain extent, in order to ensure the gain level, hundreds of beams (such as 256 beams) are also needed to achieve coverage.

[0092] For example, 8 SSBs can be sent in the first 2ms of every 20ms, and the overall sending mode of 256 SSB beams can be as shown in FIG. 2, wherein the 256 SSB beams can be divided into 32 groups (Group), 8 SSBs for one group, and one group lasts for 20ms, so a total of 640ms, in each group, only the first 2ms contains SSBs, and the remaining 18ms sends normal data.

[0093] Considering that the satellites fly in orbits and maintain certain specific relative relationship between orbits, as shown in FIG. 3, seamless coverage of the overall constellation can be ensured when each satellite covers a rectangular area. In addition, the terminal can perform beam management and mobility management during the satellite service time. Taking the above rectangular coverage as an example, assuming that the satellite corresponds to 256 SSB beams, the service range of the satellite can be evenly divided into 256 areas, and each SSB beam covers a corresponding area, and then the arrangement pattern of the SSB can be as shown in FIG. 4. According to a certain arrangement pattern, the area position on the ground actually covered by the satellite SSB beam can be referred to as an SSB coverage pattern.

[0094] Beam management and mobility management: In a communication system, the movement of a terminal can cause the terminal to select and switch between different beams or cells of a network device or between different network devices. Especially in an NTN system, because the satellite moves very fast, the terminal will frequently select and switch between multiple beams or multiple satellites, so beam management and mobility management are particularly important.

[0095] When the terminal is in a non-connected state (such as an IDLE state / INACTIVE state), movement can cause the terminal to reselect between beams or cells; when the terminal is in a connected state, movement can cause the terminal to switch between beams or cells. The judgment of beam reselection and switching depends on beam management, and the judgment of cell reselection and switching related states depends on mobility management.

[0096] Beam management generally includes a pairing process between beams, and the terminal obtains the transmission and reception beam direction for data transmission, signal reception, link recovery, and other related processes through beam management. In a communication system, the reference signal used for beam management includes at least one of the following: SSB, or channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS). The embodiments of the present application take SSB as an example for description.

[0097] Mobility management mainly refers to a measurement procedure related to radio resource management (RRM) and a mobility signaling procedure triggered based on measurement results. In mobility management, a network device or network side sends a RRM measurement task to a terminal, including two basic measurement configurations: ① measurement object: specifies the frequency band to be measured, the form of the reference signal, and the time domain position of the reference signal to be measured, and the like. ② measurement reporting: specifies the conditions for triggering measurement and the way of reporting measurement results. If the center frequencies of the SSBs of two measurement cells are the same and the subcarrier spacings are also the same during RRM measurement, the measurement between the two cells is referred to as intra-frequency measurement, otherwise it is referred to as inter-frequency measurement. As in beam management, there are also two types of reference signals that can be used for RRM measurement, namely SSB and CSI-RS. The embodiments of the present application take mobility management based on SSB as an example for description.

[0098] SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC): for SSB-based mobility management, since SSBs are not continuous in the time domain in most cases, the terminal does not need to search and measure SSBs continuously in the time domain when performing measurement, but only needs to operate within the time window in which the SSBs are locked. Therefore, the communication protocol introduces the concept of SMTC in the measurement configuration sent by the network side. SMTC is configured at intervals according to a certain period in the time domain (such as a minimum period of 5 ms and a maximum period of 160 ms), and its measurement window maintains a fixed duration (such as a minimum of 1 ms and a maximum of 5 ms). From the perspective of measurement, the terminal will only search and measure SSBs within the measurement window of SMTC, and considers that SSBs outside SMTC do not exist. The network side configures an SMTC for each SSB measurement frequency point. For intra-frequency measurement, the SSBs to be measured by multiple cells are included in the SMTC, which is sent to the terminal by the network side of the serving cell. In addition, the network side can also configure another SMTC with a shorter period for individual cells on the SSB frequency point, but the measurement window lengths of the two SMTCs need to remain the same.

[0099] Specifically, in the 5G NR communication system, the network device or network side mainly enables the terminal to perform SSB measurement in the non-connected state and the connected state through the reference signal resource configuration and the SMTC configuration. Among them, the reference signal resource configuration is used for beam management, and the SMTC configuration is used for mobility management. In the beam management, for the terminal in the non-connected state, the SSB resource to be measured is indicated by the signaling parameter (such as “ssb-PositionsInBurst”) in the system message block 1 (SIB1) (the terminal measures all SSBs in a period by default), and for the terminal in the connected state, the SSB index to be measured can be indicated by the measurement resource configuration in the radio resource control (RRC) signaling. In the mobility management, as shown in FIG. 5, the SMTC configuration of the terminal in the non-connected state is mainly configured in the intra-frequency cell reselection information “intraFreqCellReselectionInfo” of the SIB2 and the inter-frequency carrier frequency information “InterFreqCarrierFreqInfo” of the SIB4, which can be configured in the cell level or the area level and is issued by the network side through broadcasting; the SMTC configuration of the terminal in the connected state is mainly configured in the measurement object “MeasObjectNR” in the RRC signaling, which can be configured in the user level, that is, the parameters configured for each user are different. The terminal can obtain the SSB measurement configuration of the serving cell and the adjacent cell according to the received SMTC configuration, and select the optimal SSB to initiate an access request or report a measurement result to the network device.

[0100] Based on the above description of SMTC, the NR protocol defines four kinds of SMTC, namely SMTC1-4.

[0101] Wherein, SMTC1 is defined as a main measurement configuration, including 3 parameters, which are periodicity, offset and duration respectively. Wherein, the periodicity specifies the frequency of the terminal measuring SSB. The offset specifies the starting time position of the terminal measuring SSB, so that the measurement starting time position = measurement period starting frame number time position + offset time, and the measurement period is not more than the configured period. The duration controls the length of the time window of the terminal measuring SSB. SMTC2 mainly includes a cell list (such as a physical cell identifier list (PCI-list)) and a period. Compared with SMTC1, SMTC2 only measures SSB for some specific cells, and the period is generally shorter than SMTC1, but the same offset and duration are multiplexed with SMTC1. SMTC3, compared with SMTC1 and SMTC2, not only separately configures the period, offset, duration and cell list, but also specifies the SSB index to be measured, but is generally used in the integrated access and backhaul (IAB) scenario.

[0102] In the NTN system, the SSB beam of the satellite is more, which will greatly lengthen the SSB search and measurement time of the terminal in beam management and mobility management. In addition, as shown in FIG. 6, because the distances from the serving satellite and the adjacent satellite to the terminal are different, the time delays of the SSBs transmitted by the serving satellite and the adjacent satellite to the terminal are also different. If the same offset configuration is adopted, the SSB of the adjacent satellite may not be measured within the configured duration, resulting in measurement failure. Based on this, in view of the current situation that different satellites have different time delays, SMTC4 configuration is added, that is, in order to ensure the feasibility of the SSB measurement of the adjacent satellite, a longer measurement window time can be configured for the adjacent satellite through SMTC4.

[0103] Wherein, SMTC4 contains a cell list and an offset, and for each cell list, one offset can be configured, and at most 3 cell lists are allowed. Compared with SMTC1, the network side generally calculates the arrival time delay of different satellites according to the positions of the satellites and the terminal, and configures the corresponding satellite cell list and offset in SMTC4, so that the SSB of the adjacent satellite can be detected by the terminal at the corresponding time position. As for the period and the duration, SMTC4 shares them with SMTC1. In addition, the NR protocol also configures the parameter of the SSB to be measured “ssb-ToMeasure” on the basis of the SMTC window, which further reduces the number of SSBs to be measured by specifying the SSB index to be measured.

[0104] Among the four SMTC configurations above, for the NTN scenario, due to the large number of SSB beams of the satellite, and the segmented transmission of the SSB beams as shown in FIG. 2, in order to ensure that the SSB to be measured by the terminal can be included in the configured SMTC window, the values of the period, offset and duration of the SMTC can be extended. However, the extended SMTC window will cause excessive measurement redundancy of the terminal for a long time, and the measurement overhead will be significantly increased.

[0105] For example, as shown in FIG. 2, taking 256 SSBs corresponding to a satellite as an example, the scanning period of the 256 SSBs is 640 ms, and the SSBs are transmitted in segments, with a maximum of 8 SSBs transmitted every 20 ms. The SSBs to be measured by the terminal can span multiple different 20 ms. In order to ensure that the terminal can completely measure all SSBs, the network side needs to configure a very long measurement time for the terminal, which will cause excessive measurement redundancy of the terminal and increase the measurement overhead of the terminal.

[0106] To solve the above technical problems, when the network side configures the SMTC window for the terminal, multiple offsets can be configured in the window to support the terminal to start multiple measurement windows at different starting points, i.e., using intermittently started short windows for SSB measurement, thereby reducing measurement redundancy and reducing measurement overhead.

[0107] For example, the network side can increase multiple offset values in SMTC4 by the following method:

[0108] Wherein, pci-List represents a list of physical cell identifiers. offset represents an offset, which is used to indicate the starting time position of the terminal to measure SSBs. duration represents a duration, which is used to control the time window length of the terminal to measure SSBs. By configuring 3 offsets starting at 0 ms, 40 ms and 80 ms, and duration as 2 ms, the measurement time window configuration as shown in FIG. 7 can be achieved, so that the terminal can measure the required measurement SSBs in 0-2 ms, 40-42 ms and 80-82 ms, thereby saving the measurement overhead of extending the length of the measurement time window to ensure measurement. Compared with configuring only one offset (such as 0 ms) and extending the duration to 82 ms, the measurement overhead of the terminal can be reduced on the basis of enabling the terminal to measure the required SSBs.

[0109] However, in the above scheme, for the terminal in the connected state, when the network side issues the SMTC, the terminal needs to measure using the intermittently started short window as indicated by the SMTC, which means that the terminal needs to frequently switch between measurement and sleep, and the power consumption overhead is large.

[0110] In addition, for a terminal in an idle state, since the network side does not have the location information of the terminal, the network side cannot accurately instruct, the network side can perform beam-level configuration for each SSB beam, broadcast the measurement configuration corresponding to each SSB beam, but this will cause the signaling overhead broadcast in the system message to be too large, exceeding the allowed capacity. Alternatively, the network side can configure the offset as the upper and lower limits in all beam sets, and configure according to the maximum, so as to ensure that all terminals have the required SSBs within the configured measurement time window, but a large amount of redundant measurement will occur, causing large measurement overhead of the terminal.

[0111] In summary, how to reduce the measurement power consumption of the terminal, reduce the measurement redundancy, and reduce the measurement overhead when the terminal performs SSB measurement has become a technical problem to be solved.

[0112] To solve the above technical problems, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, in which the terminal can obtain first information and second information after establishing an RRC connection, the first information is used to indicate at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first satellite, and the second information is used to indicate at least one SSB of a second satellite; and the terminal selects at least one SSB from the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite for SSB measurement according to the first information and the second information.

[0113] In the embodiment of the present application, when the network side configures SSB measurement for the terminal, the network side can issue SSB measurement configuration corresponding to the terminal to the terminal when the terminal is in a connected state after establishing an RRC connection with the terminal, that is, the SSB measurement configuration configured by the network side for the terminal in the present application is terminal-level, such as indicating at least one SSB of a first satellite and at least one SSB of a second satellite to the terminal, compared with broadcasting all SSB measurement configurations corresponding to the cells or beams through cell-level or beam-level SMTC configuration, the flexibility of the SSB measurement configuration can be improved, and the signaling overhead can be reduced. When the terminal performs SSB measurement, the terminal can determine at least one SSB to be measured from the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite, improve the flexibility and accuracy of the SSB measurement, and at the same time, reduce the measurement redundancy, reduce the measurement overhead, and reduce the measurement power consumption of the terminal.

[0114] The implementation of the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0115] The communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application can be used in any communication system, which can be a third generation partnership project (3GPP) communication system, for example, a long term evolution (LTE) system, or a 5G communication system, a system with mixed networking of LTE and 5G, an NR system, an NR vehicle to everything (V2X) system, a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a machine to machine (M2M) communication system, an internet of things (IoT), a narrow band-internet of things (NB-IoT) system, an enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) system, an ultra-reliable and low-latency communication (URLLC) system, an enhanced machine-type communication (eMTC) system, and various types of future communication systems, or an NTN system (such as a satellite communication system), a non-3GPP communication system, etc., without limitation.

[0116] The communication system provided by the embodiments of the present application is described below taking FIG. 8 as an example.

[0117] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application, as shown in FIG. 8, the communication system can include a terminal, a network device, and a core network device.

[0118] The terminal in FIG. 8 can be a device with wireless transceiving function or a chip or chip system that can be provided in the device, can allow a user to access a network, and is a device used to provide voice and / or data connectivity for a user, and can be located within the beam / cell coverage range of the network device and be provided with communication services by the network device. The terminal can also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), a subscriber unit, a terminal device, or a mobile station (MS) or a mobile terminal (MT), etc. The terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld, wearable, or vehicle-mounted; can be deployed on water (such as ships, etc.); or can be deployed in the air (such as airplanes, balloons, etc.), without limitation.

[0119] Exemplarily, the terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, or a computer with wireless transceiver function. The terminal can also be a user station, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile terminal, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, a user device, a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication function, a computing device, a processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal in Internet of Things, a household appliance, a virtual reality (VR) terminal, an augmented reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical treatment, a wireless terminal in smart grid, a wireless terminal in smart city, a wireless terminal in smart home, a road side unit (RSU), a vehicle with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication capability, a smart connected vehicle, a drone with unmanned aerial vehicle to unmanned aerial vehicle (U2U) communication capability, a terminal in future network, or a terminal in future evolved public land mobile network (PLMN), etc., without limitation.

[0120] In FIG. 8, the network device can be any device deployed in an access network and capable of wireless communication with a terminal, can also be a chip or chip system that can be provided in the above device, can also be a logical node or a logical module or a software-implemented function, and is mainly responsible for functions such as wireless physical control, resource scheduling, radio resource management, quality of service management, data compression and encryption, wireless access control, and mobility management. Specifically, the network device can be a device supporting wired access or a device supporting wireless access.

[0121] The network devices can support a network of the same technology or a network of different technologies. The network devices can include one or more co-sited or non-co-sited transmission reception points (TRPs). The network devices can be of the same type or of different types. The base stations can communicate with the terminals directly or through a relay station. The terminals can communicate with multiple base stations supporting different technologies, for example, the terminals can communicate with a base station supporting an LTE network and a base station supporting a 5G network, and can support dual connectivity with the base station supporting the LTE network and the base station supporting the 5G network.

[0122] For example, a network device can be composed of one or more access network (AN) / radio access network (RAN) nodes. The AN / RAN node can be various forms of base stations, such as a satellite base station, a gNB, a TRP, an eNB, a radio network controller (RNC), a NodeB, a base station controller (BSC), a base transceiver station (BTS), a home base station (such as a home eNB or home NodeB, HNB), a macro base station, a micro base station, a pico base station, a femto base station, a relay station, a balloon station, a drone station, a wireless backhaul node, a base band unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) access point (AP), etc. It can be understood that the network device can be a device arranged on the ground or a non-ground device (such as a satellite, a drone, a high-altitude communication device, etc.). In addition, in a communication system using different radio access technologies, the name of the network device with the function of the base station can be different, which is not limited in the present application.

[0123] In another example, the network device can include a BBU and an RRU. The BBU and the RRU can be placed in different places, for example, the RRU is pulled away and placed in a high traffic area, and the BBU is placed in a central machine room. The BBU and the RRU can also be placed in the same machine room. The BBU and the RRU can also be different components under one rack.

[0124] In another example, the network device can also be a device including a centralized unit (CU) node, or including a distributed unit (DU) node, or including a CU node and a DU node. For example, the network device can be divided into a CU and a DU from a logical function perspective, functions of part protocol layers are centrally controlled in the CU, and the rest or all protocol layers are distributed in the DU and controlled by the CU. The CU and the DU can be separately arranged, or can be included in the same network element, such as a BBU. Further, the centralized unit CU can also be divided into a control plane (CU-CP) and a user plane (CU-UP).

[0125] In another example, the network device can also be a device including a radio unit (RU), or including a CU, a DU and an RU. The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, such as an RRU, an active antenna processing unit (AAU) or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0126] It can be understood that the CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU can also have different names in different systems, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an open radio access network (O-RAN) system, the CU can also be referred to as an O-CU (open CU), the DU can also be referred to as an O-DU, the CU-CP can also be referred to as an O-CU-CP, the CU-UP can also be referred to as an O-CU-UP, and the RU can also be referred to as an O-RU. For the convenience of description, the CU, the CU-CP, the CU-UP, the DU and the RU are taken as examples for description in this application. Any one of the CU (or the CU-CP, the CU-UP), the DU and the RU in this application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module.

[0127] In the figure 8, the core network device can be used to send data of a terminal sent by the network device to a data network. Specifically, the core network device can be used to implement user registration, access control, mobility management, session management, user security authentication, charging and other services. The core network device can be composed of one or more functional units. For example, the core network device can be divided into control plane and data plane functional entities. The control plane functional entity can include a mobility management network element, a session management network element, etc., and the data plane functional entity can include a user plane network element, etc.

[0128] The mobility management network element is mainly responsible for signaling processing, for example: access control, mobility management, attachment and detachment, gateway selection and other functions. In the case of providing services for a session in the terminal, the mobility management network element can provide storage resources for the control plane of the session to store session identifiers, session management network element identifiers associated with the session identifiers, and the like. The session management network element mainly completes the session management functions such as Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation of the terminal, user plane network element selection, charging and Quality of Service (QoS) policy control. The user plane network element mainly performs specific data forwarding of the user plane, and generates a bill based on traffic conditions. At the same time, it also functions as a data plane anchor.

[0129] Optionally, the core network device can further include a policy control network element, a network exposure network element, and the like. The policy control network element is used for policy management of charging policies and QoS policies. The network exposure network element is used to expose the services and capabilities of the 3GPP network functions to the application function network element, and at the same time, the application function network element can also provide information to the 3GPP network functions.

[0130] Based on the above description of the communication system, for example, taking the above communication system as an NTN communication system, the NTN communication system can include a transparent forwarding scenario based on satellite communication and a regenerative mode scenario based on satellite communication.

[0131] For example, as shown in FIG. 9, for the transparent forwarding scenario based on satellite communication, the terminal can communicate with the ground base station and the core network device through the satellite and the NTN gateway. In this scenario, the satellite mainly plays a role of frequency conversion and forwarding, which is equivalent to an analog radio frequency repeater. Specifically, the satellite can copy the NR Uu wireless interface signal from the feeder link (the link between the NTN gateway and the satellite) to the service link (the link between the satellite and the terminal), and vice versa. The satellite wireless interface transmission on the feeder link is the NR Uu interface signal, and the satellite does not terminate the NR Uu interface signal, but copies the signal to the service link. The NTN gateway can support all necessary functions for forwarding all NR Uu interface signals. Different satellites can be connected to the same ground base station.

[0132] In another example, for a regenerative mode scenario based on satellite communication, the terminal can communicate with the ground network based on the satellite and the NTN gateway. In this scenario, the satellite can have part or all of the processing functions of the base station. As shown in FIG. 10, the satellite can act as a base station, communicate with the core network equipment on the ground through the NTN gateway, or, as shown in FIG. 11, the satellite can include a DU, communicate with the CU and core network equipment set on the ground through the NTN gateway. The satellite can implement regeneration of signals received from the ground, i.e., the satellite can transmit NR Uu wireless interface signals on the service link between the terminal and the satellite, and satellite wireless interface signals on the feeder link between the NTN gateway and the satellite. The satellite wireless interface signals transmitted by the satellite are transmitted to the ground network by the NTN gateway.

[0133] It should be noted that the terminal, network device and core network device of the embodiments of the present application can be one or more chips, or SOC, etc. FIGS. 8-11 are only exemplary drawings, and the number of devices included is not limited. The names of the devices in FIGS. 8-11 and the names of the links are not limited, and in addition to the names shown in FIGS. 8-11, the devices and links can also be named by other names, which are not limited.

[0134] In addition, before describing the embodiments of the present application, the technical terms related to the embodiments of the present application are described:

[0135] RRC connection: the terminal can establish an RRC connection with the network device through a random access procedure with reference to FIG. 12: after performing cell search, the terminal synchronizes with the cell in the downlink, acquires the SSB and the remaining minimum system information (RMSI) broadcast by the network device, decodes the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) content by detecting one SSB resource block, acquires timing information, and the terminal can further acquire the information of CORESET 0 according to the content in the master information block (MIB) broadcast by the network device, further acquires the location information of SIB 1, and acquires the random access channel (RACH) configuration information, the uplink and downlink initial bandwidth part (BWP) configuration, the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) configuration information and other information by decoding the SIB 1 information. Further, the terminal can send a physical random access channel (PRACH) through Msg1 on the corresponding RACH resource, and the network device receives the PRACH to acquire the SSB index and the corresponding beam ID. Then the network device can send a random access response (RAR) message to the terminal through Msg2. After the terminal receives the RAR message, it can report its own identification information to the network device through Msg3 to initiate an RRC establishment request, and then the network device can send Msg4 to the terminal to respond to the RRC establishment. After successfully decoding Msg4, the terminal can send an acknowledge (ACK) frame to the network device as a response to Msg4 to complete the establishment of the RRC connection.

[0136] Region: can be a geographical area or range, an administrative area or range, or a wave position, etc. Among them, the wave position refers to the coverage range of the satellite beam mapping to the ground, or is described as the projection range of the beam on the ground. The satellite can move or adjust the weight of the antenna so that the satellite sends the beam to different directions, corresponding to different coverage ranges.

[0137] With the deployment of a large number of satellites, in order to improve the effectiveness and simplicity of satellite beam management, the ground control center can divide the overall ground range covered by the satellite into a plurality of fixed-size regions (also referred to as ground regions), each region corresponding to a wave position, and all regions are assigned non-repeating numbers. The size of each region can be set to be the same as the coverage size of the SSB beam, facilitating periodic scanning of the satellite. The specific location and number of each region can be pre-stored in the satellite, terminal, or ground network device, or periodically issued by the ground control center or core network device. Within a period of time, a satellite will cover the same number of regions as the number of SSB beams, so there is a one-to-one mapping relationship between the SSB index and the region number. The mapping relationship can be maintained by the ground control center and sent to one or more of the satellite, terminal, ground network device, and core network device.

[0138] For example, as shown in FIG. 13, taking the numbers of the ground regions as 0-1023, assuming that the satellite corresponds to 256 SSB beams with indexes 0-255, the 256 SSB beams can be one-to-one corresponding to the 256 regions on the ground.

[0139] Optionally, the coverage range information of the region can be beam coverage range information or wave position coverage range information. The beam coverage range information can include one or more of the following: scanning order of the spatial coverage range of the plurality of beams, coverage geographical area of the spatial coverage range of the plurality of beams, spatial filtering parameters of the spatial coverage range of the plurality of beams, shape information of the spatial coverage range of the plurality of beams.

[0140] Alternatively, the beam coverage range information can also include one or more of the following: coverage radius or coverage diameter of a beam in the plurality of beams, center point and / or beam center angle of a beam in the plurality of beams, coverage angle information of a beam in the plurality of beams.

[0141] The coverage angle information can include one or more of the following: beam coverage angle of the beam projected on the ground, beam coverage angle of the beam projected to a reference surface at a predetermined height, beam angle or beam width angle of the beam when emitted from the network device.

[0142] For example, as shown in FIG. 14, the beam coverage range information can include one or more of the following: radius R, position information C(x, y) of the beam center point, x representing longitude and y representing latitude.

[0143] Alternatively, the beam coverage information can also include parameters related to a beam scanning pattern of the plurality of beams. The parameters related to the beam scanning pattern can include one or more of the following: shape information of the plurality of beams, a number of long-side beams of a rectangular coverage area of the plurality of beams, a number of short-side beams of the rectangular coverage area, a number of beams per circle in the case of a circular scanning of the beam scanning pattern, a number of beams of a square side length in the case of a square scanning of the beam scanning pattern, position information of a starting number beam, a scanning manner of the plurality of beams, a coverage radius or a coverage diameter of a beam in the plurality of beams.

[0144] The description of the beam coverage range information is similar to the description of the beam coverage information, and is not described herein.

[0145] The communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application will be described below in combination with FIGS. 8 to 14, with reference to FIG. 15.

[0146] It can be understood that the processing performed by a single execution subject (terminal, or network device, or core network device) shown in the embodiments of the present application can also be divided into processing performed by multiple execution subjects, which can be logically and / or physically separated, without limitation. In addition, the message name or parameter name in the message exchanged between the devices in the embodiments of the present application is only an example, and other names can also be used in specific implementation, without limitation. The actions, terms, etc. involved in the embodiments of the present application can be mutually referenced, without limitation.

[0147] FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 15, the method can include the following steps.

[0148] In step 1501, the network side device determines the first information and the second information after the terminal establishes an RRC connection.

[0149] The network side device can be a core network device or a network device with base station functions. The network device can be a device arranged on the ground or a non-ground device such as a satellite or a drone, without limitation.

[0150] The network side device determines the first information and the second information after the terminal establishes an RRC connection, which can also be understood as that the network side device determines the first information and the second information after the terminal is in a connected state (or an RRC connected state), or the network side device determines the first information and the second information after establishing a communication connection with the terminal, or the network side device determines the first information and the second information after the terminal accesses the network side device, without limitation.

[0151] Optionally, before determining the first information and the second information, in a possible implementation, the network-side device can obtain the location information of the terminal after the terminal establishes the RRC connection, and determine the first information and the second information according to the location information of the terminal.

[0152] Optionally, the network-side device can obtain the location information of the terminal at any time after the RRC connection establishment with the terminal is completed, and determine the first information and the second information according to the location information of the terminal, which is not limited. For example, the network-side device can obtain the location information of the terminal when the RRC connection establishment with the terminal is completed, and determine the first information and the second information according to the location information of the terminal. Alternatively, the network-side device can also obtain the location information of the terminal periodically after the RRC connection establishment with the terminal is completed, and determine the first information and the second information according to the location information of the terminal. Alternatively, the network-side device can also obtain the location information of the terminal before the terminal performs cell selection or cell switching after the RRC connection establishment with the terminal is completed, and determine the first information and the second information according to the location information of the terminal, so that the terminal performs SSB measurement according to the first information and the second information, and facilitates subsequent operations such as cell selection or cell switching, which is not limited.

[0153] For example, the network-side device can obtain the location information of the terminal according to any one of the following two possible designs:

[0154] In the first possible design, taking the network-side device as a network device for example, the network device can obtain the location information of the terminal based on a positioning process, or the terminal can actively report its own location information to the network device.

[0155] The positioning process of the terminal can be triggered by the network device or the core network device, for example, the network device can send a positioning request to the terminal to request the terminal to report its own location information, or the core network device can send a positioning request to the terminal through the network device to request the terminal to report its own location information. When the terminal reports its own location information, it can directly report its own location information, or report the measurement result of the measurement on the reference signal sent by the network device, and the network device can determine the location information of the terminal according to the measurement result, or the core network device can determine the location information of the terminal according to the measurement result reported by the terminal and send it to the network device. Alternatively, the network device can also measure the reference signal sent by the terminal, and determine the location information of the terminal according to the measurement result. The specific positioning process can refer to the related description in the communication protocol, which is not repeated here.

[0156] For example, the network device can send a "coarseLocationRequest" information element to the terminal to request the terminal to report its location information after the terminal establishes an RRC connection with the network device. The terminal can carry its location information in a "coarseLocationInfo" information element and send it to the network device.

[0157] In a second possible design, the network device is taken as an example of a core network device. The core network device can obtain the location information of the terminal based on a positioning procedure, or the terminal can actively report its location information to the core network device.

[0158] Similar to the first possible design, the terminal or the network device can send the location information of the terminal to the core network device, or the core network device can determine the location information of the terminal based on a positioning procedure.

[0159] Based on the description of the location information of the terminal, the network device can determine the first information and the second information according to the location information of the terminal.

[0160] The first information can be used to indicate at least one SSB of the first satellite, and the second information can be used to indicate at least one SSB of the second satellite. The first satellite can be a satellite corresponding to the location information of the terminal, that is, the terminal is located within the coverage range of the first satellite, and the first satellite can also be referred to as a home satellite. The second satellite can be a satellite adjacent to the first satellite, that is, the coverage range of the second satellite is adjacent to the coverage range of the first satellite, and the second satellite can also be referred to as a neighbor satellite.

[0161] Possible implementation manners of the first information are as follows.

[0162] The first information can be used to indicate one or more of the following: measurement configuration information of at least one SSB of the first satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite, or position sequence information of at least one SSB of the first satellite.

[0163] For example, the measurement configuration information of at least one SSB of the first satellite can include one or more of the following: index information of at least one SSB of the first satellite, or measurement time information corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite.

[0164] Based on this, the first information can include one or more of the following: index information of at least one SSB of the first satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite, measurement time information corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite, or position sequence information of at least one SSB of the first satellite.

[0165] The network side device can determine the index information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite according to a mapping manner (mapping manner one, or mapping manner two, or mapping manner three) of the region and the SSB index predefined by a communication protocol or preconfigured.

[0166] It can be understood that, different from the network side device carrying the index information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite in the first information to display the measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite, the network side device can also carry the region number and the preset offset of the first satellite in the first information based on the mapping manner one, and the terminal determines the index information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite based on the mapping manner one to implicitly indicate the measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite. Alternatively, the network side device can also carry the region number and the identification information of the first satellite in the first information based on the mapping manner two, and the terminal determines the index information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite based on the mapping manner two to implicitly indicate the measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite.

[0167] Mapping manner one: the preset offset of each satellite is planned, and the SSB index corresponding to the satellite is determined according to the preset offset of the satellite, for example, SSB index = (region number + preset offset of satellite) mod N, N represents the maximum value of the SSB index.

[0168] Mapping manner two: the SSB index corresponding to the satellite is determined according to the identification information of the satellite, for example, SSB index = (region number + identification information of satellite) mod N, N represents the maximum value of the SSB index.

[0169] Mapping manner three: different satellites can define a set of mapping rules of the region and the SSB index, but need to meet the following conditions to ensure that the SSBs corresponding to the same region in the satellite overlapping coverage are different in the SSB index of different satellites, and avoid SSB measurement interference: 1) adjacent regions should not be mapped to the same SSB index; 2) the center point distance of two regions mapped to the same SSB index should be as far as possible; 3) according to the coverage range and shape of a single satellite, the SSB index on the coverage region should be as different as possible.

[0170] It can be understood that the description of the mapping manner of the region and the SSB index can refer to the related description of FIG. 16, FIG. 17 and FIG. 18, which will not be repeated here.

[0171] Exemplarily, taking the aforementioned mapping manner one as an example, assuming that N is 256 and the preset offset of the first satellite is 2, if the region number corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite corresponding to the terminal includes {12}, the SSB index corresponding to the region with the region number 12 is equal to (12+2)mod 256=14, that is, the SSB index of at least one SSB of the first satellite corresponding to the terminal includes {14}.

[0172] In another example, taking the aforementioned mapping manner one as an example, assuming that N is 256 and the preset offset of the first satellite is 2, if the region number corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite corresponding to the terminal includes {12, 13, 14}, the SSB index corresponding to the region with the region number 12 is equal to (12+2)mod 256=14, the SSB index corresponding to the region with the region number 13 is equal to (13+2)mod 256=15, and the SSB index corresponding to the region with the region number 14 is equal to (14+2)mod 256=16, that is, the SSB index of at least one SSB of the first satellite corresponding to the terminal includes {14, 15, 16}.

[0173] The measurement time information can include measurement time, measurement period, or information that can be used to indicate measurement time, such as measurement time offset.

[0174] The position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite can be used to indicate the geographical position relationship between the coverage ranges of the regions corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite. By carrying the position sequence information in the first information, the terminal can determine the specific coverage range of the region corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite indicated by the first information.

[0175] Based on the above description of the first information, the at least one SSB of the first satellite indicated by the first information is described with reference to the following two possible designs:

[0176] In the first possible design, the at least one SSB of the first satellite includes a first SSB.

[0177] The first SSB is an SSB corresponding to the position information of the terminal (i.e., the terminal is located in the coverage range of the region corresponding to the first SSB).

[0178] When the network side device indicates the at least one SSB of the first satellite through the first information, the network side device can indicate all SSBs of the first satellite through the first information, and the terminal can determine the first SSB corresponding to itself from the SSBs indicated by the first information when receiving the first information.

[0179] For example, when the network-side device indicates all SSBs of the first satellite to the terminal through the first information, the terminal can determine the first SSB as the first SSB corresponding to the first information.

[0180] Alternatively, when the network-side device indicates at least one SSB of the first satellite through the first information, the network-side device can also indicate only the first SSB. Compared with the network-side device indicating all SSBs of the first satellite through the first information, the signaling overhead can be reduced, and the processing complexity of the terminal can be reduced.

[0181] In a second possible design, the at least one SSB of the first satellite includes the first SSB and at least one second SSB.

[0182] The first SSB is an SSB corresponding to the location information of the terminal (i.e., the terminal is located in the coverage range of the area corresponding to the first SSB), and the area corresponding to the second SSB is adjacent to the area corresponding to the first SSB.

[0183] In a first possible implementation, when the network-side device indicates the first SSB and the at least one second SSB through the first information, the network-side device can indicate all SSBs of the first satellite through the first information. When the terminal receives the first information, the terminal can determine the first SSB and the at least one second SSB corresponding to the terminal from the SSBs indicated by the first information.

[0184] For example, when the network-side device indicates all SSBs of the first satellite to the terminal through the first information, the terminal can determine the first SSB as the first SSB corresponding to the first information. The terminal can also determine the at least one second SSB according to the coverage range information of the area corresponding to the first SSB and the coverage range information of the area corresponding to the other SSBs.

[0185] The coverage range information of the area corresponding to the SSB can be pre-configured in the terminal, or can be sent by the network-side device to the terminal. For example, the network-side device can send the coverage range information of the area corresponding to the SSB to the terminal through the first information, or can send the coverage range information of the area corresponding to the SSB to the terminal through other information, which is not limited.

[0186] In another example, when the network-side device indicates all SSBs of the first satellite to the terminal through the first information, the terminal can determine the first SSB corresponding to the terminal as the first SSB in the information of all SSBs. The terminal can also determine at least one second SSB according to the position sequence information of the plurality of SSBs, and the position sequence information of the plurality of SSBs can be used to indicate the geographical position relationship between the coverage ranges of the areas corresponding to the plurality of SSBs.

[0187] The position sequence information of the plurality of SSBs can be preconfigured in the terminal, or can be sent by the network-side device to the terminal. For example, the network-side device can send the position sequence information of the plurality of SSBs to the terminal through the first information, or can send the position sequence information of the plurality of SSBs to the terminal through other information, which is not limited.

[0188] In another example, the network-side device can also determine the first SSB corresponding to the terminal and the information of at least one second SSB as the first n information of all SSBs. Thus, when the terminal receives the first information, the terminal can determine the SSB corresponding to the first information as the first SSB, and determine the SSBs corresponding to the second to nth information as at least one second SSB, where n is an integer greater than or equal to 2.

[0189] In a second possible implementation, when the network-side device indicates the first SSB and at least one second SSB through the first information, the network-side device can also only indicate the first SSB and at least one second SSB. Compared with the first possible implementation, the signaling overhead can be reduced, and the processing complexity of the terminal can be reduced.

[0190] For example, when the network-side device indicates the first SSB and at least one second SSB to the terminal through the first information, the network-side device can sequentially indicate the information of the first SSB and the information of at least one second SSB. Thus, when the terminal receives the first information, the terminal can determine the SSB corresponding to the first information as the first SSB, and determine the SSBs corresponding to the other information as at least one second SSB.

[0191] In another example, when the network-side device indicates the first SSB and at least one second SSB to the terminal through the first information, the network-side device can indicate the first SSB and at least one second SSB according to the position sequence of each SSB. Thus, when the terminal receives the first information, the terminal can determine the first SSB and at least one second SSB according to the position sequence information of the SSBs.

[0192] The possible implementation of the second information is as follows:

[0193] The second information can be used to indicate one or more of the following: a difference between the preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and the preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, a difference between the identification information of the first satellite and the identification information of the second satellite, measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0194] For example, the measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite can include one or more of the following: index information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, or measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0195] Accordingly, the second information can include one or more of the following: difference information between the preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and the preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, difference information between the identification information of the first satellite and the identification information of the second satellite, index information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite, measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0196] The second information can be used to indicate one or more of the following: a difference between the preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and the preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, a difference between the identification information of the first satellite and the identification information of the second satellite, measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0197] The difference between the identification information of the first satellite and the identification information of the second satellite indicated by the second information can enable the terminal to determine the identification information of the second satellite according to the difference, and then determine the index of the at least one SSB of the second satellite according to the identification information of the second satellite based on the above-mentioned mapping mode two. Alternatively, the terminal can also determine the SSB index of the same area in the second satellite in the first satellite based on the same area in the overlapping coverage range of the first satellite and the second satellite according to the difference. That is, the network side device can implicitly indicate the index of the at least one SSB of the second satellite by indicating the difference. For example, as shown in FIG. 18, taking the difference between the identification information of the first satellite and the identification information of the second satellite as 3 as an example, assuming that the SSB indexes of the same area in the first satellite in the overlapping coverage range of the first satellite and the second satellite are SSB17, SSB16, and SSB31, since the difference is 3, it can be determined that the SSB indexes of the same area in the second satellite are SSB20, SSB19, and SSB34.

[0198] The network side device can determine the index of the at least one SSB of the second satellite based on the above-mentioned mapping mode one, or mapping mode two, or mapping mode three, and display the index of the at least one SSB of the second satellite to the terminal through the second information.

[0199] The measurement time information can include measurement time, measurement period, or information that can be used to indicate measurement time, etc.

[0200] The position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite can be used to indicate the geographical position relationship between the coverage ranges of the areas corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite. By carrying the position sequence information in the second information, the terminal can determine the specific coverage range of the areas corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite indicated by the second information. For example, as shown in FIG. 18, taking the position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite indicating the sequence from left to right and from top to bottom as an example, the network side device can indicate the at least one SSB of the second satellite to the terminal in the following order: SSB20, SSB19, and SSB34.

[0201] Based on the above description of the second information, optionally, the area corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite is adjacent to the area corresponding to the first SSB.

[0202] In the first possible design, when the network side device indicates the at least one SSB of the second satellite through the second information, the network side device can indicate all SSBs of the second satellite through the second information. When the terminal receives the second information, the terminal can determine the SSB corresponding to the area adjacent to the area of the first SSB in the second satellite from all SSBs of the second satellite indicated by the second information.

[0203] For example, when the network-side device indicates all SSBs of the second satellite to the terminal through the second information, the network-side device can take the SSBs corresponding to the regions adjacent to the region of the first SSB in the second satellite as the first m pieces of information in the information of all SSBs of the second satellite. In this way, when the terminal receives the second information, the terminal can determine the first m SSBs as the SSBs corresponding to the regions adjacent to the region of the first SSB in the second satellite. Alternatively, the terminal can also determine the SSBs corresponding to the regions adjacent to the region of the first SSB in the second satellite according to the coverage range information of the region corresponding to the first SSB and the coverage range information of the regions corresponding to the SSBs of the second satellite. Alternatively, the terminal can also determine the SSBs corresponding to the regions adjacent to the region of the first SSB in the second satellite according to the position sequence information of the SSBs of the second satellite.

[0204] In the second possible design, the second information can also indicate only the SSBs corresponding to the regions adjacent to the region of the first SSB in the second satellite. Compared with the first possible design, the second possible design can reduce signaling overhead and reduce the processing complexity of the terminal.

[0205] In the above description of the first information and the second information, the network-side device can determine the index of at least one SSB of the first satellite and the index of at least one SSB of the second satellite according to the mapping relationship between the regions and the SSBs. The mapping relationship is described in detail as follows:

[0206] To prevent the index of the SSB to be measured by the terminal from frequently changing with the movement of the satellite, the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application can be applied to a scenario of a fixed region on the ground, that is, a SSB coverage pattern design scheme based on a region on the ground. In this scheme, the mapping relationship between the number of the fixed region on the ground and the index of the SSB is always unchanged.

[0207] For example, according to the upper limit N of the index of the SSB, each SSB index can be repeatedly mapped according to certain criteria. The mapping principles are as follows: adjacent regions should not be mapped to the same SSB index; the distance between the center points of the two regions mapped to the same SSB index should be as far as possible; and according to the coverage range and shape of a single satellite, the SSB indexes on the coverage region should be as different as possible.

[0208] For example, as shown in FIG. 16, each rectangle represents a region, and the numbers in the rectangle represent SSB indexes. All regions can be one-to-one mapped with 256 SSBs. When the coverage of a single satellite is approximately rectangular, 256 regions with adjacent SSB indexes 0-255 can form a rectangle that is basically consistent with the coverage of the satellite. Further, taking such a rectangle (the dashed rectangle in FIG. 16) as an SSB coverage pattern unit, the repeated mapping configuration is obtained on all regions, as shown in the region diagram in FIG. 16. That is, all regions on the ground correspond to the repeated mapping configuration of multiple SSB coverage pattern units, so that the SSB indexes of adjacent regions are different, and the distances between the center points of regions with the same SSB index are as far as possible. At a certain moment, each satellite can cover 256 regions with different SSB indexes.

[0209] From the perspective of a terminal, since the mapping relationship between a region and an SSB index remains unchanged, for a quasi-stationary terminal, when its geographic position remains unchanged or changes by no more than 1 region size, the SSB index to be measured also remains unchanged. Therefore, the network side device can only issue the first information and the second information once for such a quasi-stationary terminal, so as to save signaling overhead.

[0210] However, the SSB index determined based on the above scheme can cause the SSB indexes of the same regions in the overlapping coverage of the current satellite and a neighbor satellite to be the same. When the current satellite and the neighbor satellite simultaneously send SSBs, measurement interference can occur.

[0211] As shown in FIG. 17, each rectangle represents a region, and the numbers in the rectangle represent SSB indexes. It can be seen that the coverage of satellite 1 includes regions filled with pattern 1 and pattern 2, and the coverage of satellite 2 includes regions filled with pattern 2 and pattern 3. The SSB indexes of the same regions in the overlapping coverage of satellite 1 and satellite 2 (i.e., the regions filled with pattern 2) are the same, which can cause terminals in the regions in the overlapping coverage to receive SSB signals from satellite 1 and satellite 2 at the same moment, resulting in interference.

[0212] Based on this, the mapping rule between a region and an SSB index can be adjusted to avoid SSB measurement interference in the regions in the overlapping coverage of satellites.

[0213] For example, the mapping relationship between a region and an SSB index can be determined according to any one of the following three mapping modes:

[0214] Mapping mode one, the preset offset of each satellite can be planned, and the SSB index corresponding to the satellite is determined according to the preset offset of the satellite, for example, SSB index = (region number + preset offset of the satellite) mod N.

[0215] Wherein, the ground can be divided into several fixed size regions, and all regions are assigned with non-repeating region numbers. For example, the ground can be divided into 1024 regions, and the corresponding region numbers are 0-1023.

[0216] Wherein, the preset offset corresponding to different satellites is different. For example, the preset offset corresponding to satellites 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 can be 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 respectively; or the preset offset corresponding to satellites 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 can be 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 respectively, without limitation.

[0217] Wherein, N represents the maximum value of SSB index. For example, N can be 256.

[0218] For example, as shown in FIG. 18, each rectangle represents a region, and the numbers in the rectangle represent the SSB index. As can be seen, the coverage range of satellite 1 includes the region filled with pattern 1 and pattern 2, the coverage range of satellite 2 includes the region filled with pattern 2 and pattern 3, and the overlapping coverage range of satellite 1 and satellite 2 is the region filled with pattern 2. Taking the preset offset corresponding to satellite 1 as 2, the preset offset corresponding to satellite 2 as 5, and N as 256 as an example, for the same region in the overlapping coverage range of satellite 1 and satellite 2, such as region numbers 271, 270 and 285, the corresponding SSB index in satellite 1 can be 17 (i.e. (271+2) mod 256), 16 (i.e. (270+2) mod 256) and 31 (i.e. (285+2) mod 256), and the corresponding SSB index in satellite 2 can be 20 (i.e. (271+5) mod 256), 19 (i.e. (270+5) mod 256) and 34 (i.e. (285+5) mod 256), so as to ensure that the SSB corresponding to the same region in the overlapping coverage range of the satellites is different in the SSB index in different satellites, and avoid SSB measurement interference.

[0219] Mapping mode two, the SSB index corresponding to the satellite can be determined according to the identification information of the satellite, for example, SSB index = (region number + identification information of the satellite) mod N.

[0220] Wherein, N represents the maximum value of SSB index. For example, N can be 256.

[0221] Since the identification information of different satellites is different, according to the second possible design, it can be ensured that the SSBs corresponding to the same area in the overlapping coverage of satellites are different in the SSB index of different satellites, so as to avoid SSB measurement interference.

[0222] The third mapping manner is that different satellites can define a set of mapping rules of area and SSB index, but need to meet the following conditions to ensure that the SSBs corresponding to the same area in the overlapping coverage of satellites are different in the SSB index of different satellites, so as to avoid SSB measurement interference: 1) adjacent areas should not be mapped to the same SSB index; 2) the center point distance of two areas mapped to the same SSB index should be as far as possible; 3) according to the coverage range and shape of a single satellite, the SSB indexes on its coverage area should be as different as possible.

[0223] Based on the above description of the mapping relationship between the area and the SSB index, the network side device can determine the first information (indicating at least one SSB of the first satellite) and the second information (indicating at least one SSB of the second satellite) according to the position information of the terminal based on the mapping relationship between the area and the SSB index.

[0224] Step 1502, the network side device sends the first information and the second information to the terminal; correspondingly, the terminal receives the first information and the second information from the network side device after establishing the RRC connection.

[0225] For example, the network side device can send the first information and the second information to the terminal by referring to any one of the following two possible designs.

[0226] In the first possible design, taking the network side device as an example, the network device can carry the first information and the second information in the RRC signaling (such as the first RRC signaling) to send to the terminal.

[0227] The network device can send the first information and the second information to the terminal by adding a new RRC signaling, or the network device can also send the first information and the second information to the terminal by RRC reconfiguration signaling, which is not limited.

[0228] For example, taking the network device sending the first information and the second information to the terminal by adding a new RRC signaling as an example, the RRC signaling can include the following contents:

[0229] Wherein, SSBpattern represents the first information, SSB index represents the index of the SSB indicated by the first information, the first index is the index of the SSB corresponding to the location information of the terminal, and if the first information further includes at least one second SSB, the indexes of the at least one second SSB can be given in order from left to right and from top to bottom. Taking SSB0 as an example, the index of the SSB corresponding to the location information of the terminal, the indexes of the at least one second SSB are SSB241, SSB1, SSB17, SSB240, SSB16, SSB255, SSB15 and SSB31 in order. Coverageinfo represents the coverage range information of the area corresponding to each SSB. Through the first information, the terminal can uniquely determine at least one SSB (including the first SSB or further including at least one second SSB) of the first satellite and the accurate position corresponding thereto.

[0230] Wherein, NeighborInfo represents the second information, PCI-List represents the identification information of the second satellite, and Offset-List represents the difference between the preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and the preset offset corresponding to the second satellite. Through the second information, the terminal can uniquely determine at least one SSB of the second satellite and the accurate position corresponding thereto.

[0231] In the second possible design, taking the network side device as an example, the core network device can carry the first information and the second information in the non access stratum (NAS) signaling (such as the first NAS signaling) and send them to the terminal.

[0232] Wherein, the NAS signaling can be transmitted from the core network device to the network device through a container, and then transmitted from the network device to the terminal. Optionally, the core network device can carry the NAS signaling including the first information and the second information in a downlink information transmission (DLInformationTransfer) message and send it to the terminal.

[0233] Alternatively, the network side device can send the first information and the second information to the terminal respectively, that is, the network side device can carry the first information and the second information in different signaling and send them to the terminal.

[0234] For example, the network side device can carry the first information in the RRC signaling or the NAS signaling and send it to the terminal, and carry the second information in the SIB 19 and send it to the terminal.

[0235] In addition, different from the network-side device sending the first information and the second information to the terminal to indicate that the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite are different according to the preconfigured mapping relationship between the area and the SSB, the terminal can also determine the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite according to the preconfigured mapping relationship between the area and the SSB.

[0236] At step 1503, the terminal determines at least one SSB to be measured according to the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0237] The at least one SSB to be measured is an SSB in the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0238] Specifically, the terminal can determine the at least one SSB to be measured from the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite according to actual communication needs of the terminal.

[0239] For example, when the terminal is not moving, the terminal can take the first SSB as the SSB to be measured. Alternatively, the terminal can also select one or more SSBs from the respective second SSBs and the at least one SSB of the second satellite as the SSBs to be measured, so as to prepare for cell switching or beam switching by measuring the one or more SSBs when the signal quality is poor.

[0240] In another example, when the terminal is moving, the terminal can take the first SSB as the SSB to be measured, and the terminal can also determine one or more SSBs to be measured according to the moving track of the terminal and the coverage range information of the areas corresponding to the respective second SSBs and the at least one SSB of the second satellite, so as to prepare for cell switching or beam switching.

[0241] For example, as shown in FIG. 18, taking the SSB corresponding to the area where the terminal is located, i.e., SSB0, as an example, the second SSB of the first satellite can include SSB241, SSB1, SSB17, SSB240, SSB16, SSB255, SSB15, and SSB31; and the at least one SSB of the second satellite can include SSB20, SSB19, and SSB34. Assuming that the terminal determines that it is currently moving towards the coverage range of the area corresponding to SSB16 according to the moving track of the terminal, the terminal can take SSB16 of the first satellite and SSB19 of the second satellite as the SSBs to be measured.

[0242] After determining the at least one SSB to be measured, the terminal can also determine the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured.

[0243] In a case where the at least one SSB to be measured includes at least one SSB of the first satellite, the terminal can determine the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured according to the measurement time information of the first SSB and the transmission period of the SSB.

[0244] In a case where the at least one SSB to be measured includes at least one SSB of the second satellite, the terminal can determine the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured according to the measurement time information of the first SSB, the transmission period of the SSB, the ephemeris information of the second satellite, and the preset offset corresponding to the second satellite.

[0245] The measurement time information can include a measurement period, a measurement bias, a measurement duration, etc., without limitation.

[0246] Optionally, the measurement period of the at least one SSB to be measured can be a multiple of a default SSB measurement period.

[0247] Optionally, the terminal can measure the at least one SSB to be measured within the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured, obtain a measurement result, and send the measurement result to the network side device.

[0248] The terminal can assist the network side device in beam switching by reporting the measurement result to the network side device. The terminal can enable subsequent procedures such as cell reselection and cell switching according to the measurement result.

[0249] Specifically, after the terminal reports the measurement result to the network side device, if the current optimal SSB of the terminal is replaced, the network side device can subsequently determine the scheduling beam of the terminal based on the replaced optimal SSB; or if the terminal measures a better SSB signal quality of a neighbor satellite, the terminal can subsequently perform a subsequent cell reselection or cell switching procedure according to the measured optimal neighbor satellite SSB. Further, the terminal can start an initial access procedure of the neighbor satellite according to the optimal neighbor satellite SSB, initiate random access, etc., without limitation.

[0250] Based on the method shown in FIG. 15, when the network side configures the SSB measurement for the terminal, the network side can send the SSB measurement configuration corresponding to the terminal to the terminal after establishing the RRC connection with the terminal, that is, the SSB measurement configuration configured by the network side for the terminal in the present application is terminal-level, that is, the network side can indicate the terminal with a limited number of deterministic SSBs around the terminal according to the location information of the terminal, such as at least one SSB of the satellite corresponding to the current location of the terminal (such as the first satellite) and at least one SSB of the adjacent satellite (such as the second satellite). Compared with the SSB measurement configuration of all SSBs corresponding to the cell or beam broadcast by the cell-level or beam-level SMTC configuration, the flexibility of the SSB measurement configuration can be improved, and the signaling overhead can be reduced. When the terminal performs SSB measurement, the terminal can determine at least one SSB to be measured from the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite, thereby improving the flexibility and accuracy of the SSB measurement, reducing the measurement redundancy, reducing the measurement overhead, and reducing the measurement power consumption of the terminal.

[0251] Based on the method shown in FIG. 15, optionally, when the network side device determines that the terminal is located at the edge of the satellite, the network side device can send the first information and the second information to the terminal according to the location information of the terminal. Alternatively, when the network side device determines that there is at least one region that is the overlapping coverage region of the first satellite and the second satellite in the region adjacent to the region corresponding to the first SSB, the network side device can send the first information and the second information to the terminal according to the location information of the terminal.

[0252] It can be understood that when the network side device determines that the terminal is located in the non-edge region of the satellite, the network side device can send the first information to the terminal without sending the second information to the terminal, so as to reduce the signaling overhead. Alternatively, when the network side device determines that there is no overlapping coverage region of the first satellite and the second satellite in the region adjacent to the region corresponding to the first SSB, the network side device can send the first information to the terminal according to the location information of the terminal without sending the second information to the terminal, so as to reduce the signaling overhead.

[0253] Correspondingly, when the network side device sends the first information to the terminal without sending the second information to the terminal, the terminal can determine at least one SSB to be measured according to the first information and perform measurement, and send the measurement result to the network side device.

[0254] In addition, for the foregoing manner in which the terminal determines the SSB measurement configuration based on the cell-level or beam-level SMTC configuration broadcast by the network-side device through the system message, after the terminal receives the system message containing the SSB measurement configuration once, the terminal generally no longer updates the system message, unless the network-side device initiates paging to the terminal using the paging resource and instructs the terminal to receive the system message again. Considering the movement of the satellite or the terminal, the SSB corresponding to the position of the terminal at different moments can be different, and the corresponding measurement window and SSB index to be measured and other parameters are also different. If the terminal continues to use the original SSB measurement configuration, it will cause deviation in measuring the SSB, thereby causing inaccurate mobility judgment, for example, cell reselection error resulting in failure to camp.

[0255] For example, when the terminal moves out of the coverage range of the area corresponding to the first SSB, if the terminal still uses the foregoing first information and second information to perform SSB measurement, it will cause measurement error. For another example, taking that the terminal is located in the central area of the satellite as an example, the network-side device can send the first information to the terminal. When the satellite moves and causes the terminal to move from the central area of the satellite to the edge area of the satellite (i.e., the overlapping coverage area with the neighboring satellite), if the terminal still uses the foregoing first information to perform SSB measurement, it will cause the terminal to be unable to measure the neighboring satellite, resulting in handover failure.

[0256] Based on this, the method shown in FIG. 15 can be used to send the terminal-level SSB measurement configuration (including one or more of the first information or the second information) to the terminal by the network-side device. In addition, the terminal can also update one or more of the following information: the first information or the second information, so that the terminal can timely perceive the change in the measurement configuration caused by the movement of the terminal or the satellite and update it in time, avoiding inaccurate mobility management caused by SSB measurement deviation.

[0257] The terminal can send first indication information to the network-side device to indicate updating one or more of the first information or the second information. When the network-side device receives the first indication information sent by the terminal, the network-side device can send the updated first information and / or the updated second information to the terminal.

[0258] Optionally, the terminal can send the first indication information when a preset condition is met.

[0259] The preset condition can include at least one of the following first to fifth examples:

[0260] In the first example, when the distance between the terminal and the center point of the area corresponding to the first SSB is greater than the distance between the terminal and the center point of the area corresponding to other SSBs, the terminal can send the first indication information to the network-side device.

[0261] In the second example, in a case where a distance between the terminal and a center point of the area corresponding to the first SSB is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the terminal can send the first indication information to the network side device.

[0262] The preset threshold can be a maximum value or a minimum value of the center point of the area and an edge position of the area. The preset threshold can be determined by the terminal itself or indicated by the network side device.

[0263] Optionally, the network side device can carry the preset threshold in one or more of the following signaling to indicate to the terminal: system message (such as SIB1, SIB19), RRC signaling, or NAS signaling, etc., without limitation.

[0264] In the third example, in a case where the terminal determines that the terminal moves out of the coverage range of the area corresponding to the first SSB according to the coverage range information of the area corresponding to the first SSB, the terminal can send the first indication information to the network side device.

[0265] In the fourth example, in a case where the terminal determines that the optimal SSB changes from the first SSB to another SSB according to the measurement result of the SSB, the terminal can send the first indication information to the network side device.

[0266] The terminal can determine the optimal SSB according to the signal quality, such as determining the SSB with the strongest signal quality as the optimal SSB.

[0267] For example, the strength of the signal quality can be represented by one or more of the following parameters: reference signal receiving power (RSRP), reference signal receiving quality (RSRQ), signal noise ratio (SNR), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), reference signal strength indication (RSSI), etc., without limitation.

[0268] In the fifth example, in a case where the terminal determines that the terminal changes from a center area of the first satellite to an edge area of the first satellite, the terminal can send the first indication information to the network side device.

[0269] When the terminal moves, the terminal can change from the center area of the first satellite to the edge area of the first satellite. Alternatively, when the first satellite moves, the terminal can change from the center area of the first satellite to the edge area of the first satellite.

[0270] For example, the terminal can calculate the distance between the terminal and the first satellite or the elevation angle of the terminal according to the position information of the terminal and the ephemeris information received from the network side device. If the distance is greater than a certain threshold or the elevation angle is less than a certain threshold, the terminal can determine that it is currently located in the edge area of the first satellite.

[0271] It should be noted that the above various thresholds can be pre-set by the terminal or indicated by the network side device. For example, the threshold information can be carried in the system message SIB1, or in other system messages (such as SIB19). Alternatively, the threshold information can also be issued through RRC signaling or core network NAS signaling after initial RRC connection establishment, to realize the setting of terminal-level threshold.

[0272] It can be understood that when the terminal does not move, but only changes from the central area of the first satellite to the edge area of the first satellite due to the movement of the first satellite, the terminal can only request the second information from the network side device to reduce the signaling overhead.

[0273] Based on the above description of the first indication information, the terminal can send the first indication information to the network side device when in a connected state.

[0274] In the first possible design, taking the network side device as an example, the terminal can carry the first indication information in the random access request to the network device.

[0275] The first indication information can be a preamble related to updating one or more of the following information: the first information, or the second information.

[0276] Specifically, the first indication information can be assigned a specified preamble, and the terminal can request the network device to issue the updated first information and / or the updated second information by carrying the specified preamble in the random access request. After receiving the random access request, the network device can send Msg2 to respond to the terminal. When the RAPID in Msg2 is consistent with the preamble index sent by the terminal, it is considered that the network device has received the request of the terminal. Then the network device can send the updated first information and / or the updated second information to the terminal through RRC signaling.

[0277] In the second possible design, taking the network side device as an example, the terminal can carry the first indication information in the RRC signaling (such as the second RRC signaling) to the network device.

[0278] Exemplarily, the terminal can add an on-demand SSB pattern information element "ondemandSSBpattern" in RRC signaling, and indicate to the network device that the terminal needs to acquire the updated first information and / or the updated second information by setting the value of the information element to 0 or 1.

[0279] A third possible design, taking a core network device as an example, the terminal can carry the first indication information in NAS signaling (such as second NAS signaling) to the core network device.

[0280] Exemplarily, the terminal can report the first indication information by using an uplink information transmission ULInformationTransfer message, where a dedicated NAS message information element DedicatedNAS-Message is used to transmit UE-specific NAS layer information to the core network device, and the terminal can place the first indication information in the information element. When the core network device receives the first indication information placed in the information element DedicatedNAS-Message, the core network device can send the updated first information and / or the updated second information to the terminal through a downlink information transmission DLInformationTransfer message.

[0281] Based on the above description of the acquisition method of the updated first information or the updated second information, when the terminal is in the non-connected state, if the terminal determines that it needs to acquire the updated first information and / or the updated second information according to the foregoing description, the terminal can first restore itself to the connected state, and then send the first indication information to the network device to acquire the updated first information and / or the updated second information.

[0282] When the terminal acquires the updated first information and / or the updated second information, the terminal can refer to the foregoing FIG. 15, determine at least one SSB to be measured according to the updated first information and / or the updated second information, perform measurement on the at least one SSB to be measured in the measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB to be measured, obtain a measurement result, and send the measurement result to the network device.

[0283] It should be noted that each embodiment of the present application can be implemented independently or in combination, and is not limited. If there is no special description and no logical conflict, the terms and / or descriptions provided in different embodiments of the present application are consistent and can be mutually referenced. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationship.

[0284] It can be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, the execution subject can execute part or all of the steps in the embodiments of the present application, and these steps or operations are only examples, and the embodiments of the present application can also execute other operations or various modifications of the operations. In addition, each step can be executed in a different order from that presented in the embodiments of the present application, and it is possible that not all operations in the embodiments of the present application are executed.

[0285] The above mainly introduces the scheme provided by the embodiments of the present application from the perspective of interaction between devices. It can be understood that, in order to realize the above functions, each device comprises a hardware structure and / or a software module for executing each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the algorithm steps of each example described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the present application can be realized in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical scheme. Professional technicians can use different methods to realize the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the present application.

[0286] The embodiments of the present application can divide the functional modules of each device according to the above method examples, for example, each functional module can be divided according to each function, or two or more functions can be integrated in one processing module. The above integrated module can be realized in the form of hardware or software functional module. It should be noted that the division of modules in the embodiments of the present application is illustrative, and is only a logical function division. When actually implemented, there can be another division method.

[0287] In the case of dividing each functional module according to each function, FIG. 19 shows a communication apparatus 190, which can execute the actions performed by the terminal, or the network device, or the core network device in the above-mentioned methods shown in FIGS. 15 to 18. All related contents of each step involved in the above-mentioned method embodiments can be referred to the function description of the corresponding functional module, and the technical effects that can be obtained are referred to the above-mentioned method embodiments, which will not be described here again.

[0288] The communication apparatus 190 can include at least one processing module 1902, and optionally, at least one transceiver module 1901, which can also be referred to as an interface module. For example, the communication apparatus 190 can be a communication device, or a chip or other combination device, component, etc. having the functions of the communication apparatus described above and applied in the communication device. When the communication apparatus 190 is a communication device, the transceiver module 1901 can be a transceiver, which can include an antenna and a radio frequency circuit, etc. The processing module 1902 can be a processor (or processing circuit), for example, a baseband processor, which can include one or more CPUs. When the communication apparatus 190 is a component having the functions of the communication apparatus described above, the transceiver module 1901 can be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module 1902 can be a processor (or processing circuit), for example, a baseband processor. When the communication apparatus 190 is a chip system, the transceiver module 1901 can be an input / output interface of a chip (for example, a baseband chip), and the processing module 1902 can be a processor (or processing circuit) of the chip system, which can include one or more central processing units. It should be understood that the transceiver module 1901 in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component, and the processing module 1902 can be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component (or processing circuit).

[0289] For example, the transceiver module 1901 can be configured to perform all the transceiver operations performed by the communication apparatus in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 15 to 18, and / or other processes for supporting the technologies described herein; and the processing module 1902 can be configured to perform all the operations performed by the communication apparatus in the embodiments shown in FIGS. 15 to 18, except for the transceiver operations, and / or other processes for supporting the technologies described herein.

[0290] For example, in the case where the communication apparatus 190 is configured to perform the actions performed by the terminal in the above-described methods shown in FIGS. 15 to 18, the communication apparatus 190 can acquire the first information and the second information by the transceiver module 1901 after establishing the RRC connection by the processing module 1902, and determine the at least one SSB to be measured according to the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite by the processing module 1902. Alternatively, the first information and the second information can be acquired by the processing module 1902, and the at least one SSB to be measured can be determined according to the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0291] In another example, in the case that the communication apparatus 190 is configured to perform the actions performed by the network device or the core network device in the above-mentioned methods shown in FIG. 15 to FIG. 18, the communication apparatus 190 can determine the first information and the second information by the processing module 1902 after the terminal establishes the RRC connection, and transmit the first information and the second information to the terminal by the transceiver module 1901.

[0292] In the above-mentioned two examples, the first information is used to indicate at least one SSB of the first satellite, and the second information is used to indicate at least one SSB of the second satellite.

[0293] As another implementation manner, the transceiver module 1901 in FIG. 19 can be replaced by a transceiver which can integrate the functions of the transceiver module 1901, and the processing module 1902 can be replaced by a processor which can integrate the functions of the processing module 1902. Further, the communication apparatus 190 shown in FIG. 19 can further include a memory.

[0294] Alternatively, when the processing module 1902 is replaced by a processor and the transceiver module 1901 is replaced by a transceiver, the communication apparatus 190 related by the embodiments of the present application can also be the communication apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 20. Wherein, the processor can be a logic circuit 2001, and the transceiver can be an interface circuit 2002. Further, the communication apparatus 200 shown in FIG. 20 can further include a memory 2003.

[0295] The embodiments of the present application also provide a communication apparatus 2100 as shown in FIG. 21. The communication apparatus 2100 can be a dual connectivity device or a chip or system on chip in the dual connectivity device, or can be a core network device or a chip or system on chip in the core network device. As shown in FIG. 21, the communication apparatus 2100 includes a processor 2101, a transceiver 2102 and a communication line 2103.

[0296] Further, the communication apparatus 2100 can further include a memory 2104. Wherein, the processor 2101, the memory 2104 and the transceiver 2102 can be connected through the communication line 2103.

[0297] Wherein, the processor 2101 is a central processing unit (CPU), a general processor network processor (NP), a digital signal processing (DSP), a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable logic device (PLD) or any combination thereof. The processor 2101 can also be other devices with processing functions, such as a circuit, a device or a software module, which are not limited.

[0298] The transceiver 2102 is configured to communicate with other devices or other communication networks. The other communication networks can be an Ethernet, a radio access network (RAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), etc. The transceiver 2102 can be a module, a circuit, a transceiver, or any device capable of implementing communication.

[0299] The communication line 2103 is configured to transmit information between components included in the communication apparatus 2100.

[0300] The memory 2104 is configured to store instructions. The instructions can be a computer program.

[0301] The memory 2104 can be a read-only memory (ROM) or other type of static storage device that can store static information and / or instructions, or can be a random access memory (RAM) or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and / or instructions, or can be an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, a magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, etc., without limitation.

[0302] It should be noted that the memory 2104 can exist independently of the processor 2101, or can be integrated with the processor 2101. The memory 2104 can be configured to store instructions or program codes or some data, etc. The memory 2104 can be located within the communication apparatus 2100, or can be located outside the communication apparatus 2100, without limitation. The processor 2101 is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 2104 to implement the communication method provided by the embodiments described below.

[0303] In an example, the processor 2101 can include one or more CPUs, such as CPU0 and CPU1 in FIG. 21.

[0304] As an optional implementation, the communication apparatus 2100 includes multiple processors, for example, in addition to the processor 2101 in FIG. 21, the processor 2107 can also be included.

[0305] As an optional implementation, the communication apparatus 2100 further includes an output device 2105 and an input device 2106. For example, the input device 2106 is a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a joystick or the like, and the output device 2105 is a display screen, a speaker or the like.

[0306] It should be noted that the communication apparatus 2100 can be a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a network server, a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a wireless terminal, an embedded device, a chip system or a device having a similar structure as shown in FIG. 21. In addition, the constituent structure shown in FIG. 21 does not constitute a limitation on the communication apparatus, and the communication apparatus can include more or less components than those shown in the figure, or combine certain components, or have a different arrangement of components.

[0307] In embodiments of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0308] The embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program product, which, when executed by a computer, can implement the functions of any of the above method embodiments.

[0309] The embodiments of the present application further provide a computer program, which, when executed by a computer, can implement the functions of any of the above method embodiments.

[0310] The embodiments of the present application further provide a computer readable storage medium. All or part of the flow of the above method embodiments can be instructed by a computer program to relevant hardware to complete, and the program can be stored in the above computer readable storage medium. When the program is executed, the program can include the flow of the above method embodiments. The computer readable storage medium can be an internal storage unit of the terminal (including a data sending terminal and / or a data receiving terminal) of any of the above embodiments, such as a hard disk or a memory of the terminal. The computer readable storage medium can also be an external storage device of the terminal, such as a plug-in hard disk, a smart media card (SMC), a secure digital (SD) card, a flash card and the like. Further, the computer readable storage medium can include both the internal storage unit and the external storage device of the terminal. The computer readable storage medium is used to store the above computer program and other programs and data required by the terminal. The computer readable storage medium can also be used to temporarily store data that has been output or will be output.

[0311] It should be noted that the terms "first" and "second," etc., in the specification, claims, and drawings of this application are used to distinguish different objects, not to describe a specific order. "First" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly specifying the number of indicated technical features. Therefore, a feature defined with "first" and "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of that feature. In the description of this embodiment, unless otherwise stated, "a plurality of" means two or more.

[0312] Furthermore, the terms “comprising” and “having”, and any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product, or apparatus that includes a series of steps or units is not limited to the steps or units listed, but may optionally include steps or units not listed, or may optionally include other steps or units inherent to such process, method, product, or apparatus.

[0313] It should be understood that in this application, "at least one (item)" means one or more. "More than one" means two or more. "At least two (items)" means two or three or more. "And / or" is used to describe the relationship between related objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, "A and / or B" can mean: only A exists, only B exists, and A and B exist simultaneously, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character " / " generally indicates that the related objects before and after are in an "or" relationship. "At least one (item) 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 (item) of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c, "a and b", "a and c", "b and c", or "a and b and c", where a, b, and c can be single or multiple. Both "...when" and "if" indicate that a corresponding action will be taken under certain objective circumstances. They are not time limits, nor do they require a judgment action to be taken when the action is taken, nor do they imply any other limitations.

[0314] 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 the embodiments of this application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or design. Specifically, the use of terms such as "exemplary" or "for example" is intended to present the relevant concepts in a specific manner to facilitate understanding.

[0315] In the present application, "sending information to a terminal" can be understood as that the destination of the information is the terminal. It can include directly or indirectly sending information to the terminal. "Receiving information from a terminal" can be understood as that the source of the information is the terminal. It can include directly or indirectly receiving information from the terminal. The information can be processed between the source and the destination of the information sending, for example, format change, etc., but the destination can understand the effective information from the source.

[0316] Through the description of the above embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that, for the convenience and brevity of description, only the above division of functional modules is taken as an example, and in actual application, the above functions can be completed by different functional modules according to needs, that is, the internal structure of the device is divided into different functional modules to complete all or part of the functions described above.

[0317] In several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed device and method can be implemented by other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only schematic, for example, the division of the modules or units is only a logical function division, and actual implementation can have another division manner, for example, a plurality of units or components can be combined or integrated into another device, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection between the units shown or discussed can be indirect coupling or communication connection through some interface, device or unit, and can be electrical, mechanical or other forms.

[0318] The units described as separate components can or can not be physically separated, and the components shown as units can be one physical unit or multiple physical units, that is, can be located in one place, or can be distributed to multiple different places. According to actual needs, part or all of the units can be selected to achieve the purpose of the present embodiment scheme.

[0319] In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application can be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically, or two or more units can be integrated in one unit. The integrated unit can be realized in the form of hardware or in the form of a software functional unit.

[0320] The integrated unit, if in the form of a software function unit and sold or used as an independent product, can be stored in a readable storage medium. Based on such an understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can essentially or partially be embodied in the form of a software product, which is stored in a storage medium, includes several instructions to make an apparatus (which can be a single-chip microcomputer, a chip, etc.) or a processor execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: a U disk, a mobile hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and various media that can store program codes.

Claims

1. A communication method characterized by comprising: Comprising: obtaining first information and second information after establishing a radio resource control (RRC) connection, wherein the first information is used to indicate at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first satellite, and the second information is used to indicate at least one SSB of a second satellite; determining at least one SSB to be measured according to the at least one SSB of the first satellite and the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein: the at least one SSB of the first satellite comprises a first SSB; or the at least one SSB of the first satellite comprises a first SSB and at least one second SSB; wherein the first SSB is an SSB corresponding to location information of the terminal, and the area corresponding to the second SSB is adjacent to the area corresponding to the first SSB.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein: the area corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite is adjacent to the area corresponding to the first SSB.

4. The method of any one of claims 1-3, wherein: the second information is used to indicate one or more of the following: a difference between a preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and a preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, a difference between identification information of the first satellite and identification information of the second satellite, measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, coverage range information of the area corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite; wherein the position sequence information is used to indicate a geographical position relationship between coverage ranges of the areas corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

5. The method of any one of claims 1-4, wherein: the second information comprises one or more of the following: difference information between a preset offset corresponding to the first satellite and a preset offset corresponding to the second satellite, difference information between identification information of the first satellite and identification information of the second satellite, index information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite, coverage range information of the area corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite, measurement time information corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the second satellite; wherein the position sequence information is used to indicate a geographical position relationship between coverage ranges of the areas corresponding to the at least one SSB of the second satellite.

6. The method of any one of claims 1-5, wherein: the first information is used to indicate one or more of the following: measurement configuration information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite, coverage range information of the area corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite, or position sequence information of the at least one SSB of the first satellite; wherein the position sequence information is used to indicate a geographical position relationship between coverage ranges of the areas corresponding to the at least one SSB of the first satellite.

7. The method of any one of claims 1-6, wherein: The first information comprises one or more of the following: index information of at least one SSB of the first satellite, coverage range information of a region corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite, measurement time information corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite, or position sequence information of at least one SSB of the first satellite. The position sequence information is used to indicate a geographical position relationship between coverage ranges of regions corresponding to at least one SSB of the first satellite.

8. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, The method further comprises: sending position information of the terminal; receiving the first information and the second information; wherein the first information and the second information are determined according to the position information of the terminal.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that, The method further comprises: sending first indication information, wherein the first indication information is used to indicate updating one or more of the following: the first information or the second information; obtaining updated first information and / or updated second information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein, The method further comprises: sending the first indication information when a preset condition is met; The preset condition comprises at least one of the following: a distance between the terminal and a center point of a region corresponding to the first SSB is greater than a distance between the terminal and a center point of a region corresponding to another SSB, the distance between the terminal and the center point of the region corresponding to the first SSB is greater than or equal to a preset threshold, the terminal determines that the terminal has moved out of a coverage range of the region corresponding to the first SSB according to coverage range information of the region corresponding to the first SSB, the terminal determines that an optimal SSB has changed from the first SSB to another SSB according to a measurement result of the SSB, or the terminal determines that the terminal has changed from a central region of the first satellite to an edge region of the first satellite; The first SSB is an SSB corresponding to the position information of the terminal.

11. A communication method, comprising: The method further comprises: determining the first information and the second information after the terminal establishes a radio resource control (RRC) connection; sending the first information and the second information to the terminal; wherein the first information is used to indicate at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) of a first satellite, and the second information is used to indicate at least one SSB of a second satellite.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein, The method further comprises: obtaining position information of the terminal after the terminal establishes the RRC connection; determining the first information and the second information according to the position information of the terminal.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that, The method further comprises: receiving first indication information from the terminal; wherein the first indication information is used to indicate updating one or more of the following: the first information or the second information; sending updated first information and / or updated second information to the terminal according to the position information of the terminal.

14. A communications device, characterized by The apparatus comprises a module for performing the method of any one of claims 1-10, or a module for performing the method of any one of claims 11-13.

15. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer readable storage medium stores computer instructions or programs which, when run on a computer, cause the communication method of any one of claims 1-10 to be performed, or cause the communication method of any one of claims 11-13 to be performed.

16. A computer program product, characterised in that, The computer program product comprises computer instructions; when part or all of the computer instructions are run on a computer, cause the communication method of any one of claims 1-10 to be performed, or cause the communication method of any one of claims 11-13 to be performed.

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