Communication method and communication apparatus

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a communication method and a communication apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal receives an SSB, the SSB indicating N CORESETs, and N having a plurality of candidate values and being a positive integer; further, on the basis of search spaces associated with the N CORESETs, the terminal receives at least one piece of control information, the at least one piece of control information comprising first control information, and the first control information being used for scheduling system information associated with the terminal; and, on the basis of the first control information, the terminal receives the system information associated with the terminal. Compared with the terminal demodulating system information of which the beam width is the same as the beam width of an SSB, the terminal demodulating system information of which the beam width is less than the beam width of the SSB helps to improve the demodulation performance of the system information, thereby helping to increase the rate of the terminal accessing a network.

Description

Communication method and communication apparatus

[0001] This application claims priority to the Chinese Patent Application No. 202411000592.7, filed on July 24, 2024, and entitled "A communication method and communication apparatus", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

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

[0003] A synchronization signal block (SSB) is composed of a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH). The master information block (MIB) carried in the PBCH is associated with a control resource set (CORESET) and a search space (SS). The terminal can receive (or understand as blind detection) a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) according to the CORESET and SS associated with the MIB, and receive system information (such as system information block 1 (SIB1)) according to the control information carried in the PDCCH.

[0004] System information is sent through a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). Generally, the beam of the network device sending the system information and the beam of the network device sending the SSB are the same (or understood as the same beam width). In the scenario where the beam of the network device sending the SSB covers a wide range (such as a wide coverage scenario or a non-terrestrial network (NTN) scenario, etc.), if the system information is sent through the same beam as the SSB, the demodulation performance of the system information will be degraded, thereby affecting the rate of the terminal accessing the network. SUMMARY

[0005] The embodiment of the present application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are beneficial to improving the demodulation performance of system information, thereby improving the rate of terminal access to a network.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which is executed by a terminal or a module applied to the terminal. Taking the terminal as an example, the method comprises the following steps: the terminal receives an SSB, the SSB indicates N CORESETs, the candidate value of the N is a plurality, and the N is a positive integer. Further, the terminal receives at least one piece of control information according to a search space associated with the N CORESETs, the at least one piece of control information comprises first control information, and the first control information is used for scheduling system information associated with the terminal. The terminal receives the system information associated with the terminal according to the first control information.

[0007] In the method of the first aspect, the SSB is allowed to be associated with a plurality of CORESETs, or is understood as the SSB being allowed to be associated with a plurality of system information blocks (SIBs). In this case, the actual terminal can receive an SSB associated with N CORESETs, that is, the SSB is associated with N system information blocks, and the N is a positive integer. The system information associated with the terminal (which can be understood as the system information required by the terminal to access the network) is one of the N system information blocks. In this case, the number of CORESETs associated with the SSB sent by the network device can be determined according to the actual application scenario, which is beneficial to the compatibility of the SSB associated with one CORESET, and improves the flexibility of SSB configuration. Moreover, in the case that the N is greater than 1, the beam width of the terminal receiving the system information associated with the terminal is smaller than the beam width of the terminal receiving the SSB. Compared with the terminal demodulating the system information with the same beam width as the SSB, it is beneficial to improve the received signal strength of the terminal receiving the system information, thereby improving the demodulation performance of the system information, and thereby improving the rate of the terminal accessing the network.

[0008] In a possible implementation, the SSB further indicates the value of the N.

[0009] In a possible implementation, the N CORESETs correspond to N spatial domain filters one by one, and the coverage of any spatial domain filter in the N spatial domain filters is less than or equal to the coverage of the spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB.

[0010] In a possible implementation, the SSB is further used to indicate the coverage of each spatial domain filter in the N spatial domain filters.

[0011] In a possible implementation, the terminal acquires position information of the terminal. Further, the terminal determines a first spatial domain filter from the N spatial domain filters according to the position information of the terminal, the terminal is located in a coverage range of the first spatial domain filter, and the first spatial domain filter corresponds to the first control information. The terminal receives the first control information according to a search space associated with a CORESET corresponding to the first spatial domain filter. By implementing the possible implementation, the terminal can determine the spatial domain filter corresponding to the terminal according to the position of the terminal, and receive the first control information according to the search space associated with the CORESET corresponding to the spatial domain filter, thereby avoiding the terminal receiving other control information, and saving power consumption of the terminal.

[0012] In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which is executed by a network device or a module applied to the network device. Taking the method executed by the network device as an example, the method includes: the network device sends an SSB, the SSB indicates N CORESETs, candidate values of the N are a plurality of values, and the N is a positive integer. The network device sends N pieces of control information in search spaces associated with the N CORESETs, the N pieces of control information include first control information, and the first control information is used to schedule system information associated with a terminal. Further, the network device sends the N pieces of system information, and the N pieces of system information correspond to the N pieces of control information in a one-to-one manner.

[0013] In the method of the second aspect, the SSB is allowed to be associated with a plurality of CORESETs, or is understood as the SSB being allowed to be associated with a plurality of pieces of system information. In the allowed case, the network device can send an SSB associated with N CORESETs in an actual application scenario, that is, the SSB is associated with N pieces of system information, and the N is a positive integer. In this case, the number of CORESETs associated with the SSB sent by the network device can be determined according to an actual application scenario, which is beneficial to compatibility of the SSB being associated with one CORESET, and improves flexibility of SSB configuration. Further, in the case that the N is greater than 1, a beam width of any one of the N pieces of system information is smaller than a beam width of the SSB, which is beneficial to improving signal strength of the system information, thereby improving demodulation performance of the terminal demodulating the system information, and improving a rate of the terminal accessing a network.

[0014] In a possible implementation, the network device determines the value of the N from the plurality of candidate values. In this possible implementation, the number of candidate values is a plurality of values, and the network device can determine the number of CORESETs associated with the SSB according to actual needs of an actual application scenario, which is beneficial to improving flexibility of SSB configuration.

[0015] In a possible implementation, the SSB further indicates the value of the N.

[0016] In a possible implementation, the N CORESETs correspond to N spatial domain filters one-to-one, and a coverage of any one of the N spatial domain filters is less than or equal to a coverage of the spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB.

[0017] In a possible implementation, the SSB is further used to indicate the coverage of each of the N spatial domain filters.

[0018] In a third aspect, a communication apparatus is provided. The communication apparatus can be a terminal, a device in the terminal, or a device that can be used with the terminal. The communication apparatus can also be a chip system. The communication apparatus can perform the method in the first aspect. The functions of the communication apparatus can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the functions described above. The units or modules can be software and / or hardware. The operations and advantages of the communication apparatus can be seen from the method in the first aspect and the advantages described above.

[0019] In a fourth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided. The communication apparatus can be a network device, a device in the network device, or a device that can be used with the network device. The communication apparatus can also be a chip system. The communication apparatus can perform the method in the second aspect. The functions of the communication apparatus can be implemented by hardware, or by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the functions described above. The units or modules can be software and / or hardware. The operations and advantages of the communication apparatus can be seen from the method in the second aspect and the advantages described above.

[0020] In a fifth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided. The communication apparatus includes a processor and an interface circuit. The interface circuit is configured to receive a signal from another communication apparatus and transmit the signal to the processor, or transmit a signal from the processor to another communication apparatus. The processor is configured to implement the method in the first aspect or the method in the second aspect by means of logic circuit or executing code instructions.

[0021] In a sixth aspect, a computer readable storage medium is provided. The storage medium stores a computer program or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are executed by a communication apparatus, the method in the first aspect or the method in the second aspect is implemented.

[0022] In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when read and executed by a communication device, cause the communication device to perform the method of the first aspect, or cause the communication device to perform the method of the second aspect.

[0023] In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication system comprising a communication device for performing the method of the first aspect, and a communication device for performing the method of the second aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0024] Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0025] Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a structure of an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0026] Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of transmitting an SSB according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0027] Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0028] Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of a coverage of a spatial domain filter according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0029] Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0030] Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0031] Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of another communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0032] In order to facilitate the specific understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the system architecture related to the embodiments of the present application will be introduced first.

[0033] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system 1000 to which embodiments of the present application are applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network 200. Optionally, the communication system 1000 can also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 can also include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG. 1). The terminal 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 in a wireless manner, and the RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network device in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 can be independent and different physical devices, or can be the same physical device integrated with the logical functions of the core network device and the logical functions of the RAN node. Terminals and terminals, and RAN nodes and RAN nodes can be connected to each other in a wired or wireless manner. It should be noted that the RAN node 110 can also be referred to as a network device 110 hereinafter.

[0034] The RAN 100 can be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, and a future wireless access system defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP). The RAN 100 can also include two or more different wireless access systems. The RAN 100 can also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0035] A RAN node, also referred to as a radio access network device, a RAN entity, or an access node, is configured to help a terminal to access to a communication system over the air. In one application scenario, the RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5th generation (5G) mobile communication system, a next generation NodeB in a 6th generation (6G) mobile communication system, or a base station in a future mobile communication system. The RAN node can be a macro base station (e.g., 110a in FIG. 1), or a micro base station or an indoor station (e.g., 110b in FIG. 1), or a relay node or a donor node.

[0036] In another application scenario, a terminal can access to a communication system over the air by cooperation of a plurality of RAN nodes, and different RAN nodes implement part of functions of a base station. For example, the RAN node can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU). Here, the CU implements functions of a radio resource control protocol and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) of a base station, and can further implement a function of a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP). The DU implements functions of a radio link control layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer of a base station, and can further implement part of functions or all functions of a physical layer. For details of the protocol layers, refer to relevant technical specifications of 3GPP. The RU can be configured to implement functions of transceiving a radio frequency signal. The CU and the DU can be two independent RAN nodes, or can be integrated in a same RAN node, e.g., integrated in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device, e.g., included in a remote radio unit (RRU) or an active antenna unit (AAU). The CU can be further divided into two types of RAN nodes, i.e., a CU-control plane and a CU-user plane.

[0037] In different systems, the RAN node can have different names, for example, in an O-RAN system, the CU can be referred to as an open CU (O-CU), the DU can be referred to as an open DU (O-DU), and the RU can be referred to as an open RU (O-RU). The RAN node in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module, for example, the RAN node can be a server loaded with a corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific equipment form adopted by the RAN node. For ease of description, a base station is described as an example of the RAN node in the following.

[0038] The terminal is a device with wireless transceiver function, which can send signals to the base station or receive signals from the base station. The terminal can also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile terminal, etc. The terminal can be widely used in various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), internet of things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, autonomous driving, remote medical treatment, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. The terminal can be a mobile phone, tablet computer, computer with wireless transceiver function, wearable device, vehicle, airplane, ship, robot, mechanical arm, smart home device, etc. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific equipment form adopted by the terminal.

[0039] The base station and the terminal can be fixed in position or movable. The base station and the terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on water surface; can also be deployed on airplanes, balloons and artificial satellites. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the base station and the terminal.

[0040] The roles of the base station and the terminal can be relative. For example, the helicopter or the drone 120i in FIG. 1 can be configured as a mobile base station, and for the terminal 120j that accesses the wireless access network 100 through the 120i, the terminal 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, the 120i is a terminal, that is, the 110a and the 120i communicate through a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, the 110a and the 120i can also communicate through a base station-to-base station interface protocol, and in this case, the 120i is also a base station relative to the 110a. Therefore, the base station and the terminal can be collectively referred to as a communication device, and the 110a and the 110b in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication device with a base station function, and the 120a-120j in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication device with a terminal function.

[0041] The base station and the terminal, the base station and the base station, and the terminal and the terminal can communicate through a licensed spectrum, can communicate through an unlicensed spectrum, or can communicate through both the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum; can communicate through a spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), can communicate through a spectrum above 6 GHz, or can communicate through both the spectrum below 6 GHz and the spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0042] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station can also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station or by a control subsystem containing base station functions. The control subsystem containing base station functions herein can be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grids, industrial control, intelligent transportation, and smart cities. The functions of the terminal can also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal or by a device containing terminal functions.

[0043] In the present application, the base station sends a downlink signal or downlink information to the terminal, and the downlink information is carried on a downlink channel; the terminal sends an uplink signal or uplink information to the base station, and the uplink information is carried on an uplink channel. In order to communicate with the base station, the terminal needs to establish a wireless connection with a cell controlled by the base station. The cell that establishes a wireless connection with the terminal is called a service cell of the terminal. When the terminal communicates with the service cell, it will also be interfered by signals from neighboring cells.

[0044] In the embodiments of the present application, a time domain symbol can be an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol or a Discrete Fourier Transform-spread-OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) symbol. If not specified, the symbol in the embodiments of the present application refers to a time domain symbol.

[0045] It can be understood that, in the embodiments of the present application, the PDSCH is an example of a downlink data channel, and the PDCCH is an example of a downlink control channel. In different systems and different scenarios, the data channel and the control channel can have different names, and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0046] In order to facilitate understanding of the related content of the embodiments of the present application, the following explains some terms involved in the embodiments of the present application. This part is only for the convenience of understanding and cannot be regarded as the disclosure or specific limitation of the technical solutions of the present application.

[0047] 1. Beam

[0048] In the NR protocol, the beam can also be embodied as a spatial filter, or a spatial parameter, or a precoding matrix. In the present application, the beam, the spatial filter, the spatial parameter and the precoding matrix have the same meaning and can be replaced by each other. For example, the beam used for transmitting a signal can be referred to as a transmission beam (Tx beam) and can be referred to as a spatial transmission filter or a spatial transmission parameter; the beam used for receiving a signal can be referred to as a reception beam (Rx beam) and can be referred to as a spatial reception filter or a spatial reception parameter.

[0049] The transmission beam can refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted by an antenna, and the reception beam can refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space of the wireless signal received by the antenna.

[0050] It should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments of the beam in the NR protocol are only examples and should not constitute any limitation on the present application. The present application does not exclude the possibility of defining other terms in other protocols to represent the same or similar meaning.

[0051] In addition, a beam can be a wide beam, or a narrow beam, or other types of beams. Different beams can be considered to correspond to different resources (including one or more of time domain resources, frequency domain resources, or spatial domain resources). The same information or different information can be transmitted through different beams. Techniques for forming a beam can be beamforming techniques or other techniques.

[0052] Optionally, one beam can correspond to one or more antenna ports, used for transmitting data, control signaling, or sounding signals, etc. One or more antenna ports forming one beam can also be considered as one antenna port set.

[0053] 2. CORESET and its associated SS

[0054] In the NR system, the time domain resource location and the frequency domain resource location of the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) can be configured, and the terminal needs to know the location of the PDCCH in the frequency domain and the location of the PDCCH in the time domain to successfully decode the PDCCH. Generally, the NR system encapsulates information such as the frequency band occupied by the PDCCH in the frequency domain and the number of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols occupied by the PDCCH in the time domain in the CORESET, that is, the CORESET represents a set of time-frequency resources for carrying the PDCCH. The NR system encapsulates information such as the starting OFDM symbol number of the PDCCH and the PDCCH monitoring period in the SS. One SS is associated with one CORESET, and the terminal can determine the configuration of the PDCCH according to the CORESET and the SS associated with the CORESET.

[0055] According to the receiving object (or content) of the PDCCH (or understood as the downlink control information (DCI) carried thereby), the SS is classified into a common search space (CSS) and a terminal-specific search space (USS).

[0056] According to the application scenario, the CORESET is classified into CORESET 0 and normal CORESET. Among them:

[0057] CORESET 0 is a time-frequency resource set for scheduling information of SIB1, and the terminal acquires the scheduling information of SIB1 through CORESET 0, thereby completing initial access. CORESET 0 belongs to part of initial bandwidth part (Initial BWP) configuration information, which is provided to the terminal through MIB. Generally, the SS associated with CORESET 0 is referred to as Type0 PDCCH-CSS. It should be noted that the configuration of the CORESET 0 and the Type0 PDCCH-CSS can be referred to the relevant description in the following.

[0058] The common CORESET is a CORESET configured for the terminal by the network device through the RRC configuration message after the RRC connection between the network device and the terminal is established. The common CORESET can be one or multiple.

[0059] 3、SSB

[0060] It should be noted that the SSB mentioned in the present application can also be referred to as a synchronization signal / physical broadcast channel (SS / PBCH) block. Generally, the SSB is composed of a PSS, an SSS, and a PBCH. One SSB occupies 4 consecutive OFDM symbols in time domain and 20 consecutive resource blocks (RBs) in frequency domain. The first symbol is the PSS, and the third symbol is the SSS. Both the PSS and the SSS occupy 127 subcarriers. The PBCH is distributed in the second to fourth symbols of the SSB. In the second and fourth symbols, the PBCH occupies 240 subcarriers, and in the third symbol, there are a part of REs unused on both sides of the SSS. The subcarrier positions occupied by the PSS, the SSS, and the PBCH in one SSB are shown in FIG. 2.

[0061] The SSB is mainly used for cell access, that is, the terminal receives the MIB through the SSB, so that the terminal acquires the SIB1 associated with the SSB according to the MIB, and accesses the cell based on the SIB1. In addition, the SSB can also be used for the terminal to perform time-frequency tracking (or time-frequency synchronization), beam management, radio resource management (RRM) measurement, radio link monitoring (RLM) measurement, channel state information (CSI) measurement, and the like.

[0062] Generally, a communication system needs to rely on several different directional broadcast beams to deliver SSBs to terminals for terminal synchronization in the initial access stage. Taking the transmission of 256 SSB beams as an example, a communication protocol configures a SSB transmission pattern in frequency range 1 (FR1) as shown in FIG. 3, and the 256 SSBs are included in 32 SSB groups (i.e., SSB Group #1-SSB Group #32 in FIG. 3). Among them, each 8 SSBs is a SSB group, and each SSB group corresponds to two system frames (for example, SSB Group #1 in FIG. 3 corresponds to system frame numbers (SFNs) SFN #0 and SFN #1 of two system frames), and the duration of each system frame is 10 ms, and each system frame includes 20 slots. That is, the total duration of each SSB group is 20 ms, and the 32 SSB groups last a total of 640 ms. In the first 2 ms of the 20 ms duration of each SSB group (i.e., the first 4 slots of the first system frame corresponding to each SSB group), 8 SSBs are transmitted, and the remaining 18 ms can be used for data transmission.

[0063] 4. SIB1 acquisition procedure

[0064] In the process of accessing the network, the terminal obtains the uplink synchronization related configuration information through the SIB1 message. For example, the SIB1 is scheduled by the DCI1-0 carried by the PDCCH, and the SIB1 is transmitted in the PDSCH. The search space of the PDCCH scheduling the SIB1 is called Type0 PDCCH-CSS, and the CORESET associated with the Type0 PDCCH-CSS is CORESET 0. The CORESET 0 is configured by the parameter pdcch_ConfigSib1 in the MIB. The parameter pdcch_ConfigSib1 is composed of 8 bits, and the high 4 bits and the low 4 bits of the 8 bits indicate an index respectively, and the value range of each index is 0-15. Among them:

[0065] The high 4 bits of the parameter pdcch_ConfigSib1 are used to determine the configuration of CORESET 0, and the index indicated by the high 4 bits is used to indicate the subcarrier spacing (SCS) of the SSB, the PDCCH SCS and the minimum bandwidth and the corresponding query table. Among them, the corresponding query table is any one of the tables 13-1 to 13-10 in 3GPP TS 38.213 V15.6.0, according to which the RB number (frequency domain length), symbol number (time domain length) and RB offset (offset relative to the starting position of the SSB frequency domain) of the CORESET 0 can be obtained. In addition, the high four-bit index also indicates the multiplexing mode of the CORESET 0 and the SSB, and the multiplexing mode includes mode 1, mode 2 and mode 3.

[0066] The low 4 bits of the parameter pdcch_ConfigSib1 are used for the configuration of Type0 PDCCH-CSS (or understood as determining the monitoring occasion of the PDCCH scheduling SIB1), and the corresponding table is queried according to the multiplexing mode indicated by the high 4-bit index. Among them, the corresponding table is any one of the tables 13-11 to 13-15 in 3GPP TS 38.213 V15.6.0, according to which the related information (such as SFN, slot index or starting symbol, etc.) of Type0 PDCCH-CSS can be obtained. Taking the non-spectrum sharing access multiplexing mode 1 as an example, the UE detects the PDCCH in the Type0 PDCCH-CSS detection window (or monitoring window) of the two slots n0, n0+k, and k is the slot length of the detection window. For SSB index i, the slot index n0 satisfies the condition shown in formula (1).

[0067] Among them, is the number of slots in a radio frame; μ ∈ {0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6}, and μ is the subcarrier spacing (SCS) parameter of the PDCCH, and the SCS of the PDCCH is 2 μ × 15 kHz; the parameter O is used to control the position of the Type0 PDCCH-CSS detection window corresponding to the first SSB; and the parameter M controls the overlapping degree of the Type0 PDCCH-CSS detection window corresponding to different SSBs, wherein M = 2 represents no overlap, M = 1 represents overlapping one slot, and M = 1 / 2 represents complete overlap. The parameters O and M can be obtained according to the communication protocol or specified by the network device.

[0068] When the slot n0 satisfies The slot n0 is in an even system frame (i.e., the SFN is even) when the condition shown in the following table is met. The slot n0 is in an odd system frame (i.e., the SFN is odd) when the condition shown in the following table is met.

[0069] Generally, one SSB is allowed to be associated with one CORESET, i.e., the SSB transmitted by the network device is only allowed to be associated with one system information, which is transmitted through a PDSCH. The beam width of the network device transmitting the system information (or understood as transmitting the PDSCH) is the same as the beam width of transmitting the SSB. In the case of the same beam width, the demodulation performance of the terminal on the PDSCH is poorer than the demodulation performance of the terminal on the SSB. In the scenario of wide coverage of the network device, such as non-terrestrial network (NTN) scenario or ultra-large coverage scenario where the coverage range of the network device reaches tens of kilometers, the feature that the demodulation performance of the terminal on the PDSCH is poorer is particularly prominent.

[0070] In order to improve the demodulation performance of the terminal on the PDSCH (or understood as improving the demodulation performance of the terminal on the system information transmitted through the PDSCH), the present application provides a communication method and a communication device. The communication method and the communication device provided by the embodiments of the present application are described in detail below in combination with the drawings.

[0071] Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 4, the communication method includes the following steps S401-S403, and the method execution subject shown in FIG. 4 is taken as an example to illustrate a terminal and a network device. It can be understood that the method execution subject shown in FIG. 4 can also be a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal and a module (for example, a chip, or a CU, or a DU) in the network device. Wherein:

[0072] S401, the network device transmits an SSB. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the SSB. Wherein, the SSB indicates N CORESETs, and the candidate value of N is a plurality, and N is a positive integer.

[0073] That is, the network device broadcasts a plurality of SSBs in its coverage (or understood as in the service-providing area), and each of the plurality of SSBs corresponds to a different spatial filter, and each SSB corresponds to an SSB index. It can be understood that the coverage of the spatial filter corresponding to each of the plurality of SSBs is smaller than the coverage of the network device. When the terminal is in the coverage of the spatial filter corresponding to a certain SSB (hereinafter referred to as SSB#i for the sake of easy distinction, that is, the SSB index is i) in the plurality of SSBs, the terminal receives the SSB#i. Further, the terminal parses the PBCH in the SSB#i to obtain the MIB, and the MIB includes information for indicating N CORESETs.

[0074] It should be noted that each of the plurality of candidate values of N is a positive integer, and each of the plurality of candidate values of N is different. It can be understood that one SSB is allowed to be associated with a plurality of quantities of CORESETs, and the plurality of quantities is recorded as a plurality of candidate values of N. The network device can determine the value of N from the plurality of candidate values, that is, determine the quantity of SSB-associated CORESETs actually transmitted. It can be understood that the network device can determine the quantity of SSB-associated CORESETs actually transmitted according to its actual needs, and the terminal can also determine the quantity of SSB-associated CORESETs actually received according to its actual needs, which is beneficial to improve the flexibility of SSB configuration. In order to facilitate understanding, the present application provides the following two possible implementations (implementation 1 and implementation 2) to exemplarily illustrate the plurality of candidate values of N mentioned in the present application. Among them:

[0075] In a possible implementation 1, the communication protocol indicates a plurality of quantity values (that is, the plurality of candidate values mentioned in the present application) of CORESETs associated with one SSB. Further, the network device can determine the quantity of SSB-associated CORESETs actually transmitted in the current communication scenario according to the actual needs of the current communication scenario from the plurality of candidate values indicated in the communication protocol. For example, the communication protocol indicates that the quantity of CORESETs associated with one SSB can be: 1, 4, 8. That is, it can be understood that the network device is allowed to transmit an SSB associated with 1 CORESET, an SSB associated with 4 CORESETs, or an SSB associated with 8 CORESETs; or it can be understood that the terminal is allowed to receive an SSB associated with 1 CORESET, an SSB associated with 4 CORESETs, or an SSB associated with 8 CORESETs; or it can be understood that the candidate value of N is 3. In this case, the network device determines the value of N according to the actual needs of the current communication scenario, N ∈ {1, 4, 8}.

[0076] In another possible implementation 2, the number of CORESETs that one SSB can be associated with is indicated in the communication protocol as P, P is an integer greater than 1. That is, it can be understood that the network device is allowed to send an SSB associated with P CORESETs at most; or it can be understood that the terminal is allowed to receive an SSB associated with P CORESETs at most; or it can be understood that the candidate value of N is P. In this case, the network device determines the value of N according to the actual needs of the current communication scenario, N ∈ [1, P].

[0077] It should be further pointed out that the candidate value of N has a correlation with one or more of the following: the number of radio frames corresponding to one SSB period of SSB #i (denoted as ), the number of slots included in one radio frame (denoted as ), the number of slots occupied by SSBs in one SSB period (denoted as ), or the number of SSBs in one SSB burst (denoted as L), the parameter O (used to control the position of the SS indicated by the SSB index 0 (i.e. the first SSB sent by the network device)) or the parameter M (used to indicate the degree of overlap between the SSs indicated by different SSBs). The values of the parameters O and M can be determined according to the communication protocol (for example, the protocol 38.213). In one possible example, in the case of no overlap between the SSs indicated by different SSBs, the value of the parameter M is 2, and the candidate value of N (denoted as N candidate ) satisfies condition 1: In the case of 1 slot overlap between the SSs indicated by different SSBs, the value of the parameter M is 1, and N candidate satisfies condition 2: In the case of complete overlap between the SSs indicated by different SSBs, the value of the parameter M is N candidate satisfies condition 3:

[0078] It should be further noted that the present application does not specifically limit how the network device determines the value of N from the plurality of candidate values. In a possible implementation, the network device or the terminal can determine the number N of SSBs associated with CORESETs in the current communication scenario from the plurality of candidate values according to the actual needs of the current communication scenario. For example, in the case where the coverage of the network device in the current communication scenario is small (i.e., the transmission distance between the network device and the terminal served by the network device is small, for example, less than d1), or in the case where the path loss of the signal in the current communication scenario is small (for example, less than PL1), or in the case where the current communication scenario has a low demand for communication performance (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio, signal demodulation performance, etc.), N is determined to be 1, i.e., the network device transmits an SSB associated with one CORESET. In the case where the coverage of the network device in the current communication scenario is large (i.e., the transmission distance between the network device and the terminal served by the network device is large, for example, greater than d2), or in the case where the path loss of the signal in the current communication scenario is large (for example, less than PL2), or in the case where the current communication scenario has a high demand for communication performance (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio, signal demodulation performance, etc.), N is determined to be an integer greater than 1, i.e., the network device transmits an SSB associated with multiple CORESETs. The specific values of d1, PL1, d2, and PL2 can be adjusted according to specific application scenarios, and the present application does not limit this.

[0079] In a possible implementation, the SSB #i is further used to indicate the value of N, or is understood as the terminal can determine the number of CORESETs according to the SSB #i. Illustratively, the SSB #i implicitly indicates the value of N; for example, the terminal parses the PBCH in the SSB #i to obtain the MIB, the MIB includes first information indicating 4 CORESETs, and then the terminal can determine the value of N to be 4 according to the number of CORESETs indicated by the first information. Illustratively, the SSB #i explicitly indicates the value of N; for example, the terminal parses the PBCH in the SSB #i to obtain the MIB, the MIB includes second information indicating that the value of N is 4, and includes first information indicating 4 CORESETs, and then the terminal determines the value of N to be 4 according to the second information.

[0080] S402, the terminal receives at least one piece of control information according to the N CORESETs associated with the SSB. Among them, the at least one piece of control information includes first control information, and the first control information is used to schedule system information associated with the terminal.

[0081] That is, after the network device transmits the SSB#i, the network device transmits N pieces of control information associated with the SSB#i. After the terminal receives the SSB#i, the terminal parses the MIB in the SSB#i to obtain the MIB, and the MIB includes information indicating the N CORESET-associated SSs. Further, the terminal can receive at least one of the N pieces of control information according to the N CORESET-associated SSs indicated by the SSB#i, and the at least one of the control information received by the terminal includes first control information for scheduling system information associated with the terminal. The system information associated with the terminal can be understood as system information for the terminal to access the network, that is, the terminal accesses the network according to the system information associated with the terminal.

[0082] It needs to be understood that the "control information" mentioned in the present application can be understood as DCI carried by PDCCH, or can also be understood as PDCCH carrying the DCI. The "control information for scheduling system information" mentioned in the present application can be understood as the control information for indicating the time domain resource and the frequency domain resource of the system information (or understood as the PDSCH carrying the system information).

[0083] It also needs to be understood that the SSB#i indicates N CORESETs, and one piece of control information can be received according to one CORESET-associated SS, and the N pieces of control information can correspond to N spatial domain filters (hereinafter referred to as control information spatial domain filters for the sake of distinction). Alternatively, it can also be understood that the N CORESETs and the N control information spatial domain filters correspond one by one. When N is greater than 1, the coverage of any one of the N control information spatial domain filters is smaller than the coverage of the spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB#i; when N is equal to 1, the coverage of the control information spatial domain filter is equal to the coverage of the spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB#i.

[0084] It needs to be noted that the present application does not limit the number of SSs associated with the N CORESETs, for example, the N CORESETs can be associated with the same SS, and for another example, the N CORESETs can be associated with N SSs (that is, the CORESETs correspond one by one to the SSs). For the sake of description, the N CORESETs associated with N SSs are taken as an example in the following description, which should not be regarded as a specific limitation of the present application.

[0085] Exemplarily, for the j+1th SS in the N SSs, the first time slot (denoted as time slot n 0,j ) of the SS satisfies the condition shown in formula (2).

[0086] Wherein, j is an integer greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to N-1. The parameters O, μ, i, M and N in formula (2) are as follows. For further explanation, please refer to the relevant explanation in the aforementioned formula (1). This time slot n 0,j The system frame in question (denoted as system frame SFN) C ),exist In this case, the SFN C For even-numbered frames; In this case, the SFN C It is an odd number of frames.

[0087] It is understandable that after receiving the SSB#i, the terminal first determines the time slot n. 0,j The system frame in question is either an even-numbered frame or an odd-numbered frame, and then the time slot n is determined within the corresponding frame. 0,j The specific location is beneficial for saving terminal power consumption. It should be noted that the condition described by formula (2) only applies to time slot n. 0,j An example of a condition that is satisfied; for example, the time slot n. 0,j It can also satisfy the conditions obtained by transforming the formula (2).

[0088] For ease of understanding, the specific implementation process of the terminal receiving at least one control message will be explained in detail later in conjunction with S403, and will not be described here.

[0089] S403. The terminal receives system information associated with the terminal based on the first control information.

[0090] In other words, the network device sends N system information messages, each corresponding one-to-one with one of the N control information messages in S402. Further, the terminal receives the system information associated with it based on the received first control information.

[0091] For ease of understanding, the following describes the specific implementation process of the terminal receiving at least one of the N control messages (including the first control message) and receiving the system information associated with the terminal based on the at least one control message, in two different scenarios.

[0092] Scenario 1: The terminal receives multiple control messages (including the first control message) and receives system information associated with the terminal based on the multiple control messages.

[0093] In this case, after the terminal receives the SSB#i, the terminal determines the respective CORESET associated SS (or understood as determining the position of the first slot of each SS according to j∈[0,N-1] by bringing each integer j into the aforementioned formula (2)). Further, the terminal performs blind detection according to the respective CORESET associated SS, receives a plurality of control information, and receives system information according to the time domain resource and the frequency domain resource respectively indicated by the plurality of control information until the system information associated with the terminal scheduled by the first control information is received. It should be understood that the system information scheduled by the control information other than the first control information in the plurality of control information does not belong to the terminal, and the terminal cannot receive the system information scheduled by the control information other than the first control information, i.e. the terminal can only receive the system information scheduled by the first control information.

[0094] Exemplarily, the SSB#i indicates 4 CORESETs, and the 4 CORESETs are associated with 4 SSs. The first time slot of each of the 4 SSs is different. The 4 SSs are sorted in the order of the position of the first time slot in the SS, and are sequentially recorded as SS#1, SS#2, SS#3 and SS#4. According to the SS#1, the control information#1 can be received, according to the SS#2, the control information#2 can be received, according to the SS#3, the control information#3 can be received, and according to the SS#4, the control information#4 can be received. As shown in FIG. 5, the range S0 is the coverage range of the spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB#i, the range S1 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the control information#1, the range S2 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the control information#2, the range S3 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the control information#3, and the range S4 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the control information#4. The terminal is in the range S3. In this case, the terminal performs blind detection on the 4 SSs in the order of the position of the first time slot in the SS, and receives each control information. Specifically, the terminal receives the control information#1 on the SS#1, and waits for the system information on the time domain resource and the frequency domain resource indicated by the control information#1. Since the terminal is not in the range S1, the terminal cannot receive the system information scheduled by the control information#1. Then, the terminal receives the control information#2 on the SS#2, and waits for the system information on the time domain resource and the frequency domain resource indicated by the control information#2. Since the terminal is not in the range S2, the terminal cannot receive the system information scheduled by the control information#2. Then, the terminal receives the control information#3 on the SS#3, and waits for the system information on the time domain resource and the frequency domain resource indicated by the control information#3. Since the terminal is in the range S3, the terminal can receive the system information scheduled by the control information#3. The terminal accesses the network according to the system information scheduled by the control information#3. It can be understood that in the present example, the terminal receives 3 control information (i.e. the control information#1 to the control information#3), wherein the control information#3 can be regarded as the first control information in the present application, and the system information scheduled by the control information#3 is the system information associated with the terminal.

[0095] Case two: the terminal receives the first control information, and receives the system information associated with the terminal according to the first control information.

[0096] In case two, the SSB#i is further used to indicate the coverage range of each of the N control information spatial domain filters on the ground. Further, the terminal can obtain the location information of the terminal, and determine a first control information spatial domain filter from the N control information spatial domain filters according to the location information of the terminal. Wherein, the terminal is in the coverage range of the first control information spatial domain filter. Further, the first control information is received according to the SS corresponding to the CORESET corresponding to the first control information spatial domain filter, and the system information associated with the terminal is received according to the first control information. In this way, the terminal can receive the control information according to the location of the terminal, and avoid receiving the control information which does not schedule the system information associated with the terminal, thereby facilitating to save the power consumption of the terminal.

[0097] For example, the SSB#i indicates 4 CORESETs: CORESET#1-CORESET#4. The 4 CORESETs are one-to-one corresponding (or understood as associated) with 4 SSs, and the control information#1-control information#4 can be received according to the CORESET#1-CORESET#4 respectively associated with the SSs. The CORESET#1-CORESET#4 respectively correspond to one control information spatial domain filter. As shown in FIG. 5, the range S0 is the coverage range of the spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB#i, the range S1 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the CORESET#1, the range S2 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the CORESET#2, the range S3 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the CORESET#3, and the range S4 is the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the CORESET#4. In this case, the SSB#i indicates the coverage range of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to each of the 4 CORESETs (for example, the longitude and latitude of the center position of the coverage range, the diameter of the coverage range, etc.), and indicates the index (i.e., j in formula (2)) of the SS associated with each of the control information spatial domain filters in the N SSs. The terminal obtains the location information of the terminal, and determines that the terminal is in the range S3 according to the location information. The control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the CORESET#3 covering the range S3 is the first control information spatial domain filter, and the index of the SS corresponding to the first control information spatial domain filter is 3. Further, the terminal determines the SS associated with the CORESET#3 according to formula (2), and receives the control information#3 (i.e., the first control information) according to the SS. Further, the terminal receives the system information scheduled by the control information#3, and accesses the network according to the system information scheduled by the control information#3.

[0098] It should be noted that the specific indication manner of the network device indicating the index of each control information spatial domain filter associated SS in the N SSs is not limited in the present application. In a possible implementation, a plurality of arrangement patterns of the control information spatial domain filter in the spatial domain filter of the SSB are predefined in the communication protocol, and each arrangement pattern corresponds to an arrangement pattern number; and the communication protocol also defines the numbering rule of the index (or understood as the index of each control information spatial domain filter associated SS in the N SSs) of the control information spatial domain filter in each arrangement pattern. In this possible implementation, the network device determines the arrangement pattern of the control information spatial domain filter in the spatial domain filter of the SSB according to the coverage range of the SSB or the number of SSB associated CORESET (i.e. the value of N), and then indicates (for example, by SSB #i indication) the arrangement pattern number to the terminal. Further, the terminal determines the index number of each control information spatial domain filter according to the arrangement pattern number indicated by SSB #i and the index numbering rule of the control information spatial domain filter in the arrangement pattern predefined in the communication protocol.

[0099] For example, two arrangement patterns are defined in the communication protocol: an arrangement pattern in which the control information spatial domain filter is linearly arranged (numbered as A1), and an arrangement pattern in which the control information spatial domain filter is arranged in a matrix (numbered as A2). And the communication protocol also defines that in the arrangement pattern numbered A1, the index of each control information spatial domain filter increases in turn according to the order from large to small of the longitude or latitude of the center coordinate of the coverage range, and in the arrangement pattern numbered A2, the index of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the coverage range center coordinate with larger latitude is larger when the longitudes of the coverage range center coordinates are the same or similar, and the index of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the coverage range center coordinate with larger longitude is larger when the latitudes of the coverage range center coordinates are the same or similar. In this case, if the SSB #i indicates that the number of the arrangement pattern is A2, and there are 4 CORESETs, and the coverage ranges of the control information spatial domain filters corresponding to each CORESET are as shown in FIG. 5. In this case, the terminal can determine that the index of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the coverage range S1 is 1, the index of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the coverage range S2 is 2, the index of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the coverage range S3 is 3, and the index of the control information spatial domain filter corresponding to the coverage range S4 is 4 according to the arrangement pattern number indicated by the SSB #i and the index numbering rule of the control information spatial domain filter in the arrangement pattern predefined in the communication protocol.

[0100] In summary, in the case that the SSB is allowed to be associated with multiple CORESETs, or understood as the SSB is allowed to be associated with multiple pieces of system information, the number of CORESETs associated with the SSB sent by the network device can be determined according to the current communication scenario, which is beneficial to improve the flexibility of SSB configuration. In the case that N is greater than 1, the beam width of the system information received by the terminal is smaller than the beam width of the SSB received by the terminal. Compared with the terminal demodulating the system information with the same beam width as the SSB, the terminal demodulating the system information with a smaller beam width than the SSB is beneficial to improve the demodulation performance of the system information, thereby improving the access rate of the terminal to the network.

[0101] In order to improve the demodulation performance of the terminal on the system information, the present application also provides another communication method. The communication method and the communication device provided by the embodiments of the present application are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0102] Please refer to FIG. 6, which is a flowchart of another communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 6, the communication method includes the following steps S601-S603, and the method execution subject shown in FIG. 6 is taken as an example to illustrate a terminal and a network device. It can be understood that the method execution subject shown in FIG. 6 can also be a module (for example, a chip) in the terminal and a module (for example, a chip, or a CU, or a DU) in the network device. Wherein:

[0103] S601, the network device sends an SSB. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the SSB. Wherein the SSB indicates N CORESETs, and N is an integer greater than 1.

[0104] It can be understood that the main difference between the specific implementation of S601 and the specific implementation of S401 is that N is a positive integer other than 1. The specific process of determining the value of N in S401 includes: S1, determining multiple candidate values of N; S2, determining the value of N from the multiple candidate values. In S601, the candidate value of 1 in S401 can be removed, and the value of N can be determined by referring to the specific process of determining the value of N in S401. Alternatively, in S601, the value of N can be a preset value or a default value; for example, the value of N is 4 by default.

[0105] S602, the terminal receives at least one piece of control information according to the N CORESETs associated with the SSB. Wherein the at least one piece of control information includes first control information, and the first control information is used to schedule the system information associated with the terminal.

[0106] S603, the terminal receives the system information associated with the terminal according to the first control information.

[0107] The specific implementation of S602-S603 can refer to the description of the specific implementation of S402-S403 in FIG. 4, and details are not described herein.

[0108] In summary, when the SSB is associated with multiple CORESETs, the beam width of the system information received by the terminal is smaller than the beam width of the SSB received by the terminal. Compared with the terminal demodulating the system information with the same beam width as the SSB, the terminal demodulating the system information with a beam width smaller than the SSB is beneficial to improve the demodulation performance of the system information, thereby improving the access rate of the terminal to the network.

[0109] It can be understood that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the terminal includes hardware structures and / or software modules corresponding to each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and method steps of the examples described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the present application can be realized in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is implemented in hardware or computer software driven hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0110] FIGS. 7 and 8 are structural schematic diagrams of possible communication apparatuses provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication apparatuses can be used to implement the functions of the terminal in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication apparatus can be the terminal 120 as shown in FIG. 1, and can also be a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal. Alternatively, the communication apparatus can be the network device 110 as shown in FIG. 1, and can also be a module (such as a chip) applied to the network device.

[0111] As shown in FIG. 7, the communication apparatus 700 includes a processing unit 710 and a transceiver unit 720. The communication apparatus 700 is used to implement the functions of the terminal in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 6.

[0112] When the communication apparatus 700 is used to implement the functions of the terminal in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 6, the transceiver unit 720 is configured to receive an SSB, the SSB indicating N CORESETs, a candidate value of the N being a plurality, the N being a positive integer; the transceiver unit 720 is further configured to receive at least one piece of control information according to a search space associated with the N CORESETs, the at least one piece of control information including first control information, the first control information being used to schedule system information associated with the terminal; and the transceiver unit 720 is further configured to receive the system information associated with the terminal according to the first control information.

[0113] In a possible implementation, the SSB further indicates a value of the N. In a possible implementation, the SSB further indicates a value of the N.

[0114] In a possible implementation, the N CORESETs correspond to N spatial domain filters one-to-one, and a coverage range of any one of the N spatial domain filters is less than or equal to a coverage range of a spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB.

[0115] In a possible implementation, the SSB is further used to indicate the coverage range of each of the N spatial domain filters.

[0116] In a possible implementation, the processing unit 710 is further configured to obtain location information of the terminal, and determine, according to the location information of the terminal, a first spatial domain filter from the N spatial domain filters, the terminal being located in a coverage range of the first spatial domain filter, and the first spatial domain filter corresponding to the first control information; and the transceiver 720 is further configured to receive the first control information according to a search space associated with a CORESET corresponding to the first spatial domain filter.

[0117] For more details of the transceiver 720 and the processing unit 710, refer to the descriptions of the terminal in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 6.

[0118] As shown in FIG. 7, the communication apparatus 700 includes a processing unit 710 and a transceiver 720. The communication apparatus 700 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 6.

[0119] When the communication apparatus 700 is configured to implement the functions of the network device in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 4 or FIG. 6, the transceiver 720 is configured to send an SSB, the SSB indicating N CORESETs, a candidate value of the N being a plurality, and the N being a positive integer; the transceiver 720 is further configured to send N pieces of control information in search spaces associated with the N CORESETs, the N pieces of control information including a first control information, the first control information being used to schedule system information associated with a terminal; and the transceiver 720 is further configured to send N pieces of system information, the N pieces of system information corresponding to the N pieces of control information one-to-one.

[0120] In a possible implementation, the SSB is further used to indicate a value of the N.

[0121] In a possible implementation, the N CORESETs correspond to N spatial domain filters one-to-one, and a coverage range of any one of the N spatial domain filters is less than or equal to a coverage range of a spatial domain filter corresponding to the SSB.

[0122] In a possible implementation, the SSB is further used to indicate the coverage range of each of the N spatial domain filters.

[0123] More details of the transceiver unit 720 and the processing unit 710 can be referred to the descriptions of the network device in the method embodiments of FIG. 4 or FIG. 6.

[0124] As shown in FIG. 8, the communication apparatus 800 includes a processor 810 and an interface circuit 820. The processor 810 and the interface circuit 820 are coupled with each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 820 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the communication apparatus 800 can further include a memory 830 for storing instructions executed by the processor 810 or storing input data required by the processor 810 to run instructions or storing data generated after the processor 810 runs instructions.

[0125] When the communication apparatus 800 is used to implement the method of FIG. 4 or FIG. 6, the processor 810 is configured to implement the functions of the processing unit 710, and the interface circuit 820 is configured to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 720.

[0126] When the communication apparatus is a terminal chip, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above method embodiments. The terminal chip receives information from a base station, which can be understood as that the information is first received by other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal, and then transmitted to the terminal chip by the modules. The terminal chip transmits information to the base station, which can be understood as that the information is first transmitted to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal, and then transmitted to the base station by the modules.

[0127] When the communication apparatus is a network device chip, the network device chip implements the functions of the network device in the above method embodiments. The network device chip receives information from a terminal, which can be understood as that the information is first received by other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and then transmitted to the network device chip by the modules. The network device chip transmits information to the terminal, which can be understood as that the information is first transmitted to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the network device, and then transmitted to the terminal by the modules.

[0128] In the present application, the sending of information from entity A to entity B can be directly from A to B, or indirectly from A to B via other entities. Similarly, the receiving of information from entity A by entity B can be directly from A by B, or indirectly from A by B via other entities. The entities A and B can be RAN nodes or terminals, or modules within RAN nodes or terminals. The sending and receiving of information can be the information exchange between RAN nodes and terminals, e.g., the information exchange between base stations and terminals; the sending and receiving of information can also be the information exchange between two RAN nodes, e.g., the information exchange between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be the information exchange between different modules within one apparatus, e.g., the information exchange between a terminal chip and other modules of the terminal, or the information exchange between a base station chip and other modules of the base station.

[0129] It is understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application can be a central processing unit (CPU), and can also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0130] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware, or in software instructions executable by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, which can be stored in a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a register, a hard disk, a mobile hard disk, a CD-ROM or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor, so that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. The storage medium can also be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in a base station or a terminal.

[0131] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer programs or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions of the embodiments are performed. The computer can be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user equipment or other programmable apparatus. The computer programs or instructions can be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transferred from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer programs or instructions can be transferred from one website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center through wired or wireless manner. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center and the like integrated with one or more available media. The available media can be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape; or an optical medium, such as a digital video disc; or a semiconductor medium, such as a solid state disk. The computer readable storage medium can be a volatile or non-volatile storage medium, or can include both volatile and non-volatile storage media.

[0132] In various embodiments of the present application, the terms and / or descriptions of different embodiments are consistent and can be referred to each other if there is no special description and logical conflict, and the technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationship.

[0133] In the present application, "at least one" means one or more, and "multiple" means two or more. The association relationship between the associated objects is described, which means that there can be three kinds of relationships, for example, A and / or B, which can represent the following cases: A exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. In the textual description of the present application, the character " / ", generally represents that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship; in the formula of the present application, the character " / ", represents that the associated objects before and after are in a "division" relationship. "Including at least one of A, B and C" can mean: including A; including B; including C; including A and B; including A and C; including B and C; including A, B and C.

[0134] It can be understood that various numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only distinguished for convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the serial number of the above processes does not mean the execution order, and the execution order of the processes should be determined according to its function and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method characterized by comprising: The method includes: Receive synchronization signal block SSB, wherein the SSB indicates N control resource sets CORESET, and there are multiple candidate values ​​for N, wherein N is a positive integer; At least one control message is received according to the search space associated with the N CORESETs, and the at least one control message includes a first control message, which is used to schedule the system information associated with the terminal. The system information associated with the terminal is received based on the first control information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The SSB also indicates the value of N.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein, The N CORESETs correspond one-to-one with the N spatial filters, and the coverage of any one of the N spatial filters is less than or equal to the coverage of the spatial filter corresponding to the SSB.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, The SSB is also used to indicate the coverage of each spatial filter among the N spatial filters.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein, Receiving at least one control message based on the search space associated with the N CORESETs includes: Obtain the location information of the terminal; The first spatial filter is determined from the N spatial filters based on the location information of the terminal. The terminal is within the coverage area of ​​the first spatial filter, and the first spatial filter corresponds to the first control information. The first control information is received based on the search space associated with the CORESET corresponding to the first spatial filter.

6. A communication method characterized by comprising: The method includes: Send a synchronization signal block SSB, wherein the SSB indicates N control resource sets CORESET, and the candidate values ​​of N are multiple, wherein N is a positive integer; N control messages are sent to the search space associated with the N CORESETs. The N control messages include first control messages, which are used to schedule system information associated with the terminal. Send N system messages, each corresponding one-to-one with one of the N control messages.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, The SSB also indicates the value of N.

8. The method of claim 6 or 7, wherein, The N CORESETs correspond one-to-one with the N spatial filters, and the coverage of any one of the N spatial filters is less than or equal to the coverage of the spatial filter corresponding to the SSB.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein, The SSB is also used to indicate the coverage of each spatial filter among the N spatial filters.

10. A communications device, characterized by It includes a module for performing the method as described in any one of claims 1-5, or includes a module for performing the method as described in any one of claims 6-9.

11. A communications device, characterized by The device includes a processor and an interface circuit. The interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices besides the communication device and transmit them to the processor, or to send signals from the processor to other communication devices besides the communication device. The processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 1-5 through logic circuits or executable code instructions, or the processor is used to implement the method as described in any one of claims 6-9 through logic circuits or executable code instructions.

12. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The storage medium stores a computer program or instructions, which, when executed by a communication device, cause the communication device to implement the method of any one of claims 1-5, or implement the method of any one of claims 6-9.

13. A computer program product, characterised in that, The computer program product includes a computer program or instructions, which, when executed by a communication device, cause the communication device to implement the method of any one of claims 1-5, or implement the method of any one of claims 6-9.

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