Communication method and apparatus, and storage medium

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a communication method and apparatus, and a storage medium. The communication method may comprise: sending first information to a network device, wherein the first information is used for determining a first paging rate, the first paging rate is related to a first granularity and a second granularity or is related to the second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, and the first paging rate is used for assisting in determining a paging sub-group of a terminal device; and receiving second information from the network device, wherein the second information comprises an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device. By using the embodiments of the present application, a more granular paging rate is reported, which facilitates the subdivision of paging sub-groups of terminal devices, so that the probability of a terminal device being falsely paged can be reduced, thereby lowering the power consumption.

Description

Communication method, apparatus and storage medium

[0001] The present application claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 202411096301.9, filed on August 12, 2024, and entitled "Communication method, apparatus and storage medium", 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, apparatus and storage medium. BACKGROUND

[0003] In a wireless communication system, most of the power consumption of a terminal device is used for channel monitoring. In order to save power consumption, the terminal device can be in a sleep state, but staying in the sleep state for too long will increase the information processing or transmission delay. Therefore, the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) introduces a low power wake up signal (LP WUS or LP-WUS).

[0004] In the case that the terminal device supports LP WUS, if the LP WUS indicates to wake up a main receiver (MR), after waking up the MR, the terminal device can monitor a paging occasion (PO) through the MR. If the LP WUS indicates not to wake up the MR, the MR remains in a closed state, and an awake receiver (such as LP WUR) is enabled, thereby saving power consumption. Further, for the scenario that one PO corresponds to multiple terminal devices, the skilled in the art proposes that the multiple terminal devices corresponding to the PO can be grouped to avoid all terminal devices in the PO monitoring the PO, which can further save power consumption.

[0005] Currently, terminal devices with paging rates belonging to the same interval range can be divided into a group. According to simulation results, the greater the paging rate of a terminal device, the less the energy gain of using the awake MR, and even negative, which can lead to all terminal devices being divided into one paging sub-group, thereby increasing the false alarm rate of the terminal device and reducing the energy gain. SUMMARY

[0006] Embodiments of the present application disclose a communication method, apparatus and storage medium, which can report a fine-grained paging rate, so that the paging rates of terminal devices in a paging sub-group are closer, which can reduce the probability of terminal devices being falsely paged and save power consumption.

[0007] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application disclose a first communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device, or by a component (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) in the terminal device, or by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the terminal device. Hereinafter, the terminal device is taken as an example, and the communication method comprises the following steps.

[0008] sending first information to a network device; and receiving second information from the network device. The first information comprises first sub-paging information and second sub-paging information, the first sub-paging information is used to indicate a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity, the second sub-paging information is used to indicate a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate are used to determine a first paging rate, and the first paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device. The second information comprises an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0009] In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application disclose a second communication method, which can be executed by a network device, or by a component (e.g., a processor, a chip, or a chip system, etc.) in the network device, or by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the network device. Hereinafter, the network device is taken as an example, and the communication method comprises the following steps.

[0010] receiving first information from a terminal device, the first information comprising first sub-information and second sub-information; determining a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity based on the first sub-information, and determining a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity based on the second sub-information, the first granularity being greater than the second granularity; determining a first paging rate based on the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate, the first paging rate being used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device; and sending second information to the terminal device, the second information comprising an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0011] It can be understood that, by implementing the first communication method or the second communication method, the terminal device sends first information to the network device. The first information comprises first sub-paging information and second sub-paging information, the first sub-paging information and the second sub-paging information respectively represent sub-paging rates in different granularities, and the first granularity of the first sub-paging rate indicated by the first sub-paging information is greater than the second granularity of the second sub-paging rate indicated by the second sub-paging information. In this way, by reporting the second sub-paging rate, a more fine-grained paging rate can be reported. The first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate can determine the first paging rate, and the first paging rate can be used to assist the network device in determining the paging sub-group of the terminal device, which is conducive to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device and can save power consumption.

[0012] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, the first paging rate is equal to a sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate.

[0013] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the determining the first paging rate based on the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate comprises: obtaining a sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate to obtain the first paging rate.

[0014] In the embodiments of the present application, the paging rate corresponding to the sum of the first sub-paging rate and the first granularity can be referred to as a third sub-paging rate. The third sub-paging rate has one gear higher than the first sub-paging rate. In this way, when the first paging rate is equal to the sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate, the first paging rate is greater than the first sub-paging rate and less than the third sub-paging rate. That is, the first paging rate can be reported between the first sub-paging rate and the third sub-paging rate, that is, a more fine-grained paging rate is reported compared with the reported paging rate of the first granularity, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-groups of the terminal devices and can reduce the probability of the terminal devices being mispaged and save power consumption.

[0015] With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in some possible examples, the first information further comprises first sub-type information and second sub-type information, the first sub-type information being used to indicate the first granularity, and the second sub-type information being used to indicate the second granularity. In this way, the first granularity can be determined through the first sub-type information, and the second granularity can be determined through the second sub-type information. Then, the first paging rate is determined according to the first granularity and the first sub-paging information, and the second paging rate is determined according to the second granularity and the second sub-paging information.

[0016] With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in some possible examples, the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a first byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a second byte. In this way, signaling can be saved. Furthermore, the first sub-type information associated with the first granularity and the first sub-paging information are indicated by one byte, and the second sub-type information associated with the second granularity and the second sub-paging information are indicated by another byte, which can improve the efficiency of determining the paging rate.

[0017] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, the second sub-paging information comprises first-level paging information and second-level paging information; the first-level paging information is used to indicate a first-level paging rate corresponding to a first-level granularity, the second-level paging information is used to indicate a second-level paging rate corresponding to a second-level granularity, the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate are used to indicate the second sub-paging rate, the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity are used to determine the second granularity, and the first-level granularity is greater than the second-level granularity.

[0018] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the second sub-paging information includes first-level paging information and second-level paging information; the communication method further includes: determining a first-level paging rate corresponding to a first-level granularity based on the first-level paging information, and determining a second-level paging rate corresponding to a second-level granularity based on the second-level paging information; and determining the second sub-paging rate based on the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate.

[0019] In the embodiments of the present application, the first-level granularity can be understood as a coarse granularity, and the second-level granularity can be understood as a fine granularity. In this way, the first-level paging rate determined based on the coarse granularity and the second-level paging rate determined based on the fine granularity are reported, so that the granularity of the reported paging rate is smaller, which is beneficial to the subdivision of the paging sub-groups of the terminal devices, can reduce the probability of the terminal devices being mis-paged, and saves power consumption.

[0020] With reference to the first aspect, in some possible examples, the second sub-paging rate is equal to the sum of the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate, and the second-level granularity is equal to the sum of the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity.

[0021] With reference to the second aspect, in some possible examples, the second-level granularity is equal to the sum of the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity; and the determining of the second sub-paging rate based on the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate includes: obtaining the sum of the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate to obtain the second sub-paging rate.

[0022] In the embodiments of the present application, the paging rate corresponding to the sum of the first-level paging rate and the first-level granularity can be referred to as a third-level paging rate. The third-level paging rate has one more gear than the first-level paging rate. In this way, when the second sub-paging rate is equal to the sum of the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate, the second sub-paging rate is greater than the first-level paging rate and less than the third-level paging rate. That is, the second-level paging rate can be reported between the first-level paging rate and the third-level paging rate, that is, a finer granularity paging rate is reported than the first-level granularity paging rate, which is beneficial to the subdivision of the paging sub-groups of the terminal devices, can further reduce the probability of the terminal devices being mis-paged, and saves power consumption.

[0023] With reference to the first aspect or the second aspect, in some possible examples, the first granularity is an original granularity.

[0024] The original granularity can be understood as a pre-configured or originally configured granularity of the network device, such as 5%. The second granularity can be understood as an increased granularity, that is, a newly configured granularity. It can be understood that, in the case that the first granularity is the original granularity, increasing the second granularity is equivalent to improving the reporting mechanism of the original paging rate. In the case that the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, the second sub-paging rate corresponding to the second granularity is reported, that is, a finer-grained paging rate is reported, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device and can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mis-paged and save power consumption.

[0025] In a third aspect, the embodiments of the present application disclose a third communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device, or can be executed by a component (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system) in the terminal device, or can be executed by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the terminal device. The following takes the terminal device as an example, and the communication method comprises:

[0026] sending first information to a network device; and receiving second information of the network device. The first information is used to indicate a first paging rate or a second paging rate. The second paging rate corresponds to a first granularity, and the first paging rate corresponds to a second granularity. The first granularity is greater than the second granularity. The first paging rate or the second paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device. The second information comprises an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0027] In a fourth aspect, the embodiments of the present application disclose a fourth communication method, which can be executed by a network device, or can be executed by a component (for example, a processor, a chip, or a chip system) in the network device, or can be executed by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the network device. The following takes the network device as an example, and the communication method comprises: receiving first information of a terminal device; determining a first paging rate or a second paging rate based on the first information. The second paging rate corresponds to a first granularity, and the first paging rate corresponds to a second granularity. The first granularity is greater than the second granularity. The first paging rate or the second paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device. The second information comprises an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0028] It can be understood that, by implementing the third communication method or the fourth communication method, the terminal device sends first information to the network device. The first information is used to indicate a first paging rate corresponding to a first granularity or a second paging rate corresponding to a second granularity, and the first granularity is greater than the second granularity. In this way, a finer-grained first paging rate can be reported. The first paging rate can be used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device and can save power consumption.

[0029] With reference to the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, in some possible examples, the second granularity corresponds to a plurality of the first paging rates, and the first granularity corresponds to a plurality of the second paging rates, and the plurality of the second paging rates comprises a maximum paging rate and a minimum paging rate in the plurality of the first paging rates.

[0030] With reference to the third aspect, in some possible examples, the first information comprises a first number of bits or a second number of bits, the first paging rate is determined based on the first number of bits and the second granularity, and the second paging rate is determined based on the second number of bits, the second granularity and the first granularity.

[0031] With reference to the fourth aspect, in some possible examples, the first information comprises a first number of bits or a second number of bits, and the method further comprises: determining the first paging rate based on the first number of bits and the second granularity; and determining the second paging rate based on the second number of bits, the second granularity and the first granularity.

[0032] In a case where the second granularity is less than the first granularity, the first paging rate can be located between a first gear and a second gear in the second paging rate, so that the first paging rate can be determined based on the first number of bits and the second granularity. The number of the increased first paging rates is related to the second granularity, and after the first paging rate is increased, a value corresponding to the second number of bits is greater than a number of gears corresponding to the second paging rate, so that the second paging rate can be determined based on the second number of bits, the second granularity and the first granularity.

[0033] With reference to the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, in some possible examples, the first paging rate and the second paging rate each occupies M bits, a difference between a number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity and a number of repeated paging rates is less than or equal to a first value, the first value is equal to a difference between a total number of paging rates corresponding to M and a number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity, and the repeated paging rate is a repeated paging rate in the paging rates corresponding to the first granularity and the paging rates corresponding to the second granularity. In this way, the number of the first paging rates of the increased refined granularity does not need to reduce the second paging rate, and does not need to modify the number of bits occupied by the paging rate.

[0034] With reference to the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, in some possible examples, the first information comprises first type information, the first type information is used to indicate the second granularity when the first information is used to indicate the first paging rate, and the first type information is used to indicate the first granularity when the first information is used to indicate the second paging rate. That is, whether to report based on the first granularity or to report based on the second granularity is determined by the first type information, and then the first paging rate or the second paging rate can be determined according to the reported first paging information.

[0035] With reference to the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, in some possible examples, the first information includes first paging information, the first paging information being used to indicate the first paging rate or the second paging rate, the first paging information and the first type information being indicated by different fields of a third byte. In this way, signaling can be saved. Moreover, the first type information and the first paging information correspond to the same granularity, and the efficiency of determining the paging rate can be improved.

[0036] With reference to the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, in some possible examples, the first granularity is a basic granularity. In this way, the second paging rate is reported based on the basic granularity, or the first granularity is reported based on a newly configured granularity. The first granularity is greater than the second granularity, and the basic granularity is finer than the newly configured granularity. Therefore, the first paging rate is reported using a finer granularity, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging subgroups of the terminal devices, can reduce the probability of the terminal devices being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0037] In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a communication apparatus, which includes units or modules or means for performing the steps of the above-mentioned first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, and any possible example thereof.

[0038] In a sixth aspect, the present application discloses a fifth communication apparatus, which can be a network device or a terminal device, or can include an apparatus in these devices, for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, or an apparatus capable of implementing related functions. The communication apparatus includes a processor configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, when the instructions are executed, the communication method in the above-mentioned first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, and any possible example thereof.

[0039] In some possible examples, the communication apparatus further includes one or more of the memory and the transceiver, and the transceiver is configured to transceive data and / or signaling.

[0040] In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a computer-readable storage medium, and the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program. When the computer program is run on one or more processors, the communication method in the above-mentioned first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, and any possible example thereof is implemented.

[0041] In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application discloses a computer program product for storing a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer, the computer is caused to perform the communication method in the above-mentioned first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect, and any possible example thereof.

[0042] In a ninth aspect, a first chip is disclosed, comprising a processor and a memory, the processor is configured to invoke and run instructions stored in the memory, so that a device installed with the chip executes the communication method in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, or any possible embodiment of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect.

[0043] In a tenth aspect, a second chip is disclosed, comprising an input interface, an output interface, and a processing circuit, the input interface, the output interface, and the processing circuit are connected through internal connection paths, and the processing circuit is configured to execute the communication method in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, or any possible embodiment of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect.

[0044] In an eleventh aspect, a third chip is disclosed, comprising an input interface, an output interface, and a processor, and optionally, a memory, the input interface, the output interface, the processor, and the memory are connected through internal connection paths, and the processor is configured to execute code in the memory, and when the code is executed, the processor is configured to execute the communication method in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, or any possible embodiment of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect.

[0045] In a twelfth aspect, a chip system is disclosed, comprising at least one processor, a memory, and an interface circuit, the memory, the transceiver, and the at least one processor are connected through lines, and the at least one memory stores a computer program; the computer program is executed by the processor to execute the communication method in the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, the fourth aspect, or any possible embodiment of the first aspect, the second aspect, the third aspect, or the fourth aspect.

[0046] It should be understood that the implementation and advantages of the above aspects of the present application can be mutually referred to. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0047] The following describes the drawings used in the embodiments of the present application.

[0048] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system architecture provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0049] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a terminal device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0050] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a paging cycle provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0051] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a paging rate and energy gain provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0052] FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram of a scenario of indicating terminal device wake-up through a PEI provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0053] FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram of another scenario of waking up a terminal device by an LP WUS according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0054] FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a method for configuring a terminal device with paging sub-groups by a network side according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0055] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a paging rate according to the prior art;

[0056] FIG. 8 is an interaction diagram of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0057] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a first paging rate according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0058] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a second paging rate according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0059] FIG. 11 is an interaction diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] FIG. 12A is a schematic diagram of a structure of a third paging rate according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0061] FIG. 12B is a schematic diagram of a structure of a fourth paging rate according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0062] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0063] FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a structure of another communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram of a structure of another terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0065] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example, a long term evolution (LTE) system, a new radio (NR) system, a long term evolution advanced (LTE-A) system, a device-to-device (D2D) communication system, a vehicle to everything (V2X) communication system, a machine to machine (M2M) communication system, an internet of things (IoT), a narrow band internet of thing (NB-IoT), a cognitive communication integrated system, a frequency division duplex (FDD) system, a time division duplex (TDD) system, a non-terrestrial communication (NTN) system, a wireless projection communication system, an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) communication system, a public land mobile network (PLMN), a non-public network (NPN), and a communication system evolved after a 5G communication system (for example, a 6G communication system), or a non-(3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP) communication system, and the like, without limitation.

[0066] The following is exemplarily explained with the system architecture shown in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 100 includes at least one network device 110 and at least one terminal device 120. Among them, the terminal device 120 can be connected with the network device 110 in a wireless manner or a wired manner, so that the terminal device 120 can perform uplink (UL) communication or downlink (DL) communication with the network device 110. The terminal devices 120 can be connected in a wireless manner or a wired manner, so that the terminal devices 120 can perform sidelink (SL) communication.

[0067] The terminal device 120 and the network device 110, the network devices 110, and the terminal devices 120 can communicate through a licensed spectrum, or can communicate through an unlicensed spectrum, or can communicate through both the licensed spectrum and the unlicensed spectrum. The spectrum resource used by the terminal device 120 and the network device 110 is not limited in the present application.

[0068] In FIG. 1, the larger solid circle represents the cell coverage of the network device 110, and the smaller solid circle represents the low-power wake-up signal (LP WUS) coverage, i.e., the signal coverage of the LP WUS sent by the network device 110. The LP WUS coverage can be smaller than the cell coverage. The terminal device 120 is in the LP WUS coverage and can monitor and receive the LP WUS. The terminal device 120 is in the cell coverage and can monitor the paging occasion (PO) and receive the paging message.

[0069] The terminal device involved in the present application is an entity on the user side for receiving or transmitting signals, which can provide voice and / or data to users. Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a structural schematic diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 2, the terminal device mentioned in the embodiment of the present application can include a main receiver (MR) and a wake-up receiver (WUR). The wake-up receiver is used to detect the paging message or the wake-up information from other devices, and has lower power consumption compared with the MR, and thus can be referred to as a lower power receiver (LPR), or a low power wake up receiver (LPWUR), or a low power radio (also referred to as LPR), or a low power wake up radio (also referred to as LPWUR).

[0070] In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device can be a power-sensitive device, or in other words, the terminal device has a low power consumption requirement. Alternatively, the terminal device can be a static, action-limited, and / or low-speed mobile device.

[0071] The terminal device involved in the present application can also be referred to as a terminal, a user equipment (UE), an access terminal, a UE unit, a UE station, a mobile device, a mobile station, a mobile station (mobile station), a mobile terminal, a mobile client, a mobile unit, a remote station, a remote terminal, a remote unit, a wireless unit, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user device, etc. Among them, the access terminal can be 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 or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal in future 5G or a terminal in future evolved PLMN, or a terminal in future NPN, etc. The terminal device can also be other devices with terminal functions, for example, the terminal device can also be a device that plays a terminal function in D2D communication.

[0072] Embodiments of the present application do not limit the device form of the terminal device, and the device for realizing the function of the terminal device can be a terminal device; or it can be a device capable of supporting the terminal device to realize the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the terminal device or used with the terminal device. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or it can include a chip and other discrete devices. Hereinafter, it is sometimes described as a terminal, and it is exemplified as a UE. It should be understood that the terminal and the UE can be replaced by any of the terminal devices described above.

[0073] In the embodiments of the present application, the network device 110 can be an access network (AN) device or a radio access network (RAN) device, which can also be referred to as a RAN node (or device). The access network device is used to help the terminal device to realize wireless access (or access). In some scenarios, if no specific network device is described, the network device can be understood as an access network device.

[0074] Optionally, the access network device can include, but is not limited to: an access point (AP), an enhanced node B (eNB), a home base station (for example, a home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), a next-generation base station (NR nodeB, gNB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a transmission point (TP), or some other access node, such as a wireless relay node, a wireless backhaul node, etc. The AN / RAN node can be one or more constituent antenna panels, or can be a network node constituting a gNB or a transmission point, such as a BBU or a distributed unit (DU), etc., or can be a device assuming a RAN function in a D2D, V2X, M2M, U2U, etc. communication system, etc. The AN / RAN node can be a wireless controller in a cloud radio access network (CRAN) scenario, or can be an open access network (open RAN, O-RAN or ORAN) device, or can be an access network device in a communication system evolved after the 5G communication system, such as an xNodeB in a 6G communication system, or can be an access network device in a PLMN network evolved after the 5G communication system, etc., without limitation.

[0075] All or part of the functions of the access network device in the present application can also be implemented by software functions running on hardware, or by virtualized functions instantiated on a platform, such as a cloud platform. The access network device in the present application can also be a logical node, a logical module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the access network device.

[0076] Optionally, a plurality of access network devices cooperate to assist a terminal device to implement wireless access, and different access network devices respectively implement part of the functions of a base station. For example, an access network device can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), a CU-control plane (CP), a CU-user plane (UP), or a radio unit (RU), etc. The CU and the DU can be separately arranged, or can be included in the same network element, such as the CU and the DU being included in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, such as being included in a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna processing unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH). It can be understood that the access network device can be a device including a CU node, or can be a device including a DU node, or can be a device including a CU node and a DU node.

[0077] In different systems, the CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU can also have different names, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in an ORAN 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, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU are taken as examples for description in this application. Any one of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and 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.

[0078] The embodiments of the present application do not limit the form of the access network device, and the device for implementing the function of the access network device can be the access network device; or can be a device capable of supporting the access network device to implement the function, such as a chip system. The device can be installed in the access network device or used in combination with the access network device.

[0079] It needs to be stated that in the network architecture as shown in FIG. 1, although the access network device and the terminal device are shown, the application scenario can not be limited to including the access network device and the terminal device, for example, can also include a device for carrying a virtualized network function, etc., which is obvious to those skilled in the art, and will not be described one by one here.

[0080] In addition, the number and types of network devices and terminal devices included in the network architecture shown in FIG. 1 are merely examples, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, more or fewer terminal devices can be included that communicate with the network devices. For another example, more or fewer network devices can be included that communicate with the terminal devices. For the sake of brevity, not all of the network devices and terminal devices are described in the drawings.

[0081] Optionally, the communication system can also include network devices not shown in FIG. 1, such as core network (CN) devices, data network devices, and the like.

[0082] In different communication systems, the core network device (hereinafter referred to as the core network) can correspond to different devices. For example, in a 3G communication system, it can correspond to a serving GPRS support node (SGSN) and / or a gateway GPRS support node (GGSN); in a 4G communication system, it can correspond to a mobility management entity (MME) and / or a serving gateway (S-GW); in a 5G communication system, it can correspond to the above-mentioned policy control function (PCF) network element, unified data management (UDM) network element, application function (AF) network element, access and mobility management function (AMF) network element, session management function (SMF) network element, location management function (LMF) network element, user plane function (UPF) network element, and the like. In this document, the core network device is sometimes referred to simply as the core network.

[0083] Among them, the UPF network element is responsible for managing the transmission of user plane data and quality of service (QoS) control, traffic statistics, and the like, and can perform user data packet forwarding according to the routing rules of the session management network element, such as sending uplink data to a data network or other user plane network elements, and forwarding downlink data to other user plane network elements or (R)AN network elements.

[0084] The AMF network element is responsible for user access management, security authentication, and mobility management. The LMF network element is responsible for managing and controlling positioning service requests of a target terminal and processing positioning-related information. The SMF network element is responsible for session management and allocating and releasing resources for a session of a terminal device. The UDM network element is responsible for context management of user subscription. For example, subscription information of a terminal device is stored. The PCF network element is responsible for user policy management. Similar to a policy and charging rules function (PCRF) network element in LTE, the PCF network element is mainly responsible for generating policy authorization, quality of service, and charging rules, and delivering corresponding rules to a UPF network element through an SMF network element to complete installation of corresponding policies and rules. The AF network element can be a third-party application control platform or can be a device of an operator. The AF network element is responsible for implementing application management and can provide services for multiple application servers.

[0085] In the embodiments of the present application, a data network device is used to provide service for a user. Generally, a client is a terminal device, and a server is a data network device. The data network provided by the data network device can include a private network, such as a local area network. The data network can also include an external network not managed by an operator, such as the Internet. The data network can also include a proprietary network jointly deployed by operators, such as a network providing an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) service.

[0086] In some embodiments, the network device and the terminal device can also be referred to as communication apparatuses, which can be general-purpose devices or special-purpose devices, and the embodiments of the present application do not make specific limitations thereto.

[0087] In order to facilitate understanding of the content of the present scheme, some concepts or technologies involved in the embodiments of the present application will be explained below to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art. This part is only for the convenience of understanding and cannot be regarded as a specific limitation of the present application.

[0088] (1) System information is cell-level information periodically broadcast by a network device on a broadcast control channel (BCCH). After a terminal device performs cell search and completes downlink synchronization with a cell, the terminal device needs to obtain system information of the cell to access the cell and work in the cell.

[0089] Currently, the system information of 5G NR includes a master information block (MIB) and a plurality of system information blocks (SIBs). Among them, the SIBs currently include 14 kinds of system information blocks SIB1-SIB14, and more SIBs can be introduced in the future. The MIB includes some necessary physical layer information, for example, the MIB can include a system frame number (SFN), which is carried through a systemFrameNumber field, and is used for synchronization between the terminal device and the network side.

[0090] It should be noted that the present application only lists the information included in the MIB related to the present application, and in fact, the MIB can also include other information, for example, subcarrier spacing, subcarrier offset, demodulation reference signal (DMRS) position information, etc. For reference, the relevant description in the standard can not be expanded here.

[0091] (2) Paging, used to inform the terminal device in idle or inactive state to establish a called service, or to inform the terminal device that the system information of the communication system has changed, and the terminal device needs to re-read the changed system broadcast message, or to inform the terminal device to receive earthquake and tsunami warning system (ETWS) information.

[0092] The terminal device can periodically receive the paging message, and the period is the paging cycle. Optionally, when the discontinuous reception (DRX) technology is used, the paging cycle can be the DRX cycle of the terminal device (DRX cycle of the UE), for example, 1.28s or 2.56s, etc. That is, the terminal device is woken up when the DRX cycle arrives, and is used to obtain the paging message.

[0093] The time when the terminal device specifically receives the paging message is called the paging occasion PO, which is determined by the network device and configured to the terminal device. In one paging cycle, a plurality of paging frames (PFs) can be included, and each PF includes a plurality of POs. Among them, each PO corresponds to an SFN, and one PO corresponds to one or more terminal devices, that is, the paging message transmitted in one PO can take effect for one or more terminal devices.

[0094] Exemplarily, refer to FIG. 3, which is a structure diagram of a paging cycle according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 3, one paging cycle can include four PFs, i.e., PF1, PF2, PF3 and PF4, each of which includes two POs, i.e., PO1 and PO2. The PO1 corresponds to six terminal devices, i.e., UE#1-UE#6.

[0095] Optionally, each PF can further include an offset.

[0096] Optionally, each PF corresponds to multiple synchronization signal / physical layer broadcast channel blocks (SSBs).

[0097] The paging message is a kind of downlink control information (DCI), which can be a DCI (such as DCI1_0) scrambled by a paging radio network temporary identity (P-RNTI). The paging message is a radio resource control (RRC) message carried on a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), which is used to send a call request to a terminal device in an RRC idle state and notify the terminal device to enter random access.

[0098] The process of receiving the paging message by the terminal device is as follows: calculating the possible positions of the paging message, i.e., PO and PF; detecting the paging message based on the PO and the PF. Currently, the determination method of the PF can refer to the following formula (1), and the determination method of the PO can refer to the following formula (2).

[0099] Wherein, "div" is integer division calculation, " / " is division calculation. "*" is multiplication calculation, "+" is addition calculation. floor() means rounding down. "mod" means modulus operation, that is, the remainder obtained after the two numbers before and after the modulus operation are divided. SFN is the system frame number, which takes the value range of 0-1023. T is the paging cycle (such as DRX cycle) of the terminal device, which is a constant, such as 32, 64, 128, 256, etc., the unit is ms. N is the number of PFs in T. Ns is the number of POs in PF, as shown in FIG. 3, the Ns of PF1 is 2. PF_offset is the offset of PF. UE_ID is the identifier of the terminal device, i_s is used to indicate that the PO is the first PO of the PF. That is, i_s+1 indicates that the PO for sending the paging message of the terminal device is the first PO of the PF.

[0100] The application does not limit the identifier of the terminal device, which can be a UE-level identifier such as an international mobile subscriber identification number (IMSI), an international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), a system architecture evolution temporary mobile station identity (S-TMSI), etc., or a cell-level or group-level identifier such as a cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), etc.

[0101] Optionally, the value corresponding to the identifier of the terminal device can be the modulus value between the identifier of the terminal device and the first threshold value. Wherein, the first threshold value can be 1024 or 4096. Exemplarily, UE_ID = IMSI mod 1024. Wherein, IMSI can be S-TMSI in the 5G system.

[0102] From the above formula (1) and formula (2), for a certain terminal device, by calculating the PF, the SFN of the paging message received by the terminal device can be known, and by calculating i_s, the PO of the terminal device in the PF can be known. That is, the terminal device can calculate which PO in which PF to listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI according to formula (1) and formula (2).

[0103] (3) a low power wake-up signal (LP WUS) that can be monitored by the terminal device when the terminal device is in a coverage of the LP WUS. As shown in FIG. 2, the LP WUS can indicate to wake up or not to wake up a main receiver (MR). When the terminal device turns off the MR and turns on a low receiver (LR), the terminal device can monitor the LP WUS. If the LP WUS indicates to wake up the MR, the terminal device can monitor a paging occasion (PO) through the MR after the MR is woken up. If the LP WUS indicates not to wake up the MR, the MR remains in a turned-off state.

[0104] In an embodiment of the present application, during the process of monitoring the LP WUS, the wake-up receiver is in an on state, and the terminal device can monitor the LP WUS through the wake-up receiver. Correspondingly, the wake-up receiver in an off state can also be described as the wake-up receiver in a sleep state.

[0105] When the network device needs to page the terminal device, the network device can wake up the terminal device belonging to a group through the LP WUS, or in other words, the network device can notify the terminal device belonging to the group to wake up the MR to monitor the PO through the LP WUS. In an embodiment of the present application, the wake-up MR can also be described as the wake-up terminal device, and the two descriptions can be used alternatively.

[0106] In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device monitoring the PO has the same meaning as the terminal device monitoring the DCI scrambled by the P-RNTI in the PO, and the two descriptions can be used alternatively. Or it can be described as monitoring paging.

[0107] In an embodiment of the present application, during the process of monitoring the PO, the MR is in an on state, and the terminal device can monitor the PO through the MR. Correspondingly, the MR in an off state can also be described as the MR in a sleep state.

[0108] It should be noted that the terminal device does not monitor the PO during the process of monitoring the LP WUS, and the terminal device does not monitor the LP WUS during the process of monitoring the PO. That is, the terminal device does not monitor the LP WUS and the PO at the same time, but monitors one of the LP WUS and the PO.

[0109] It should be further noted that in the embodiments of the present application, the following descriptions represent the same meaning and can be used alternatively: "the terminal device monitors the LP WUS", "the terminal device is in a state of monitoring the LP WUS", "the terminal device is in an LP WUS monitoring state", "the terminal device turns off the MR and uses the LR to monitor the LP WUS", "the terminal device enters an ultra-deep sleep mode". The LP WUS can also be described as a wake-up signal.

[0110] In the embodiments of the present application, the following descriptions represent the same meaning and can be used alternatively: "the terminal device stops monitoring the LP WUS", "the terminal device exits a state of monitoring the LP WUS", "the terminal device exits an LP WUS monitoring state", "the terminal device monitors the PO", "the terminal device is in a state of monitoring the PO", "the terminal device is in a PO monitoring state", "the terminal device is in a conventional PO monitoring state", "the terminal device turns off the LR and uses the MR to monitor the PO", "the terminal device monitors the DCI under the PO", "the terminal device monitors the DCI scrambled by the P-RNTI under the PO".

[0111] In the embodiments of the present application, the content indicated by the LP WUS can be any one of the following: "stop monitoring the LP WUS", "exit monitoring the LP WUS", "exit a state of monitoring the LP WUS", "exit an LP WUS monitoring state", "enter monitoring the PO", "enter a state of monitoring the PO", "enter a PO monitoring state", "enter a conventional PO monitoring state", "state transition", "perform state transition", "transition from monitoring the LP WUS to monitoring the PO", "transition from a state of monitoring the LP WUS to a state of monitoring the PO", "transition from an LP WUS monitoring state to a PO monitoring state". The above content indicated by the LP WUS can represent the same meaning and can be used alternatively.

[0112] In the embodiments of the present application, the power consumption of the terminal device in a deep sleep state is taken as a reference, that is, the power consumption of the terminal device in the deep sleep state is taken as 1 unit as a reference. The power consumption of the terminal device in different states can be as shown in Table 1.

[0113] Table 1

[0114] The terminal device in the state of monitoring the PO needs to monitor the PDCCH scrambled by the P-RNTI. If the PDCCH scrambled by the P-RNTI is not monitored, in this case, the power consumption of the terminal device monitoring the PO is 100 units. If the terminal device monitors and receives the PDCCH, the terminal device can receive the PDSCH on the time-frequency resource indicated by the DCI in the PDCCH. In this case, the power consumption of the terminal device monitoring the PO is 300 units. The PDSCH includes a paging message, and the paging message indicates whether the terminal device is paged. In the embodiments of the present application, the terminal device monitoring the PDCCH scrambled by the P-RNTI can represent the same meaning as the terminal device monitoring the DCI scrambled by the P-RNTI, and can be used instead.

[0115] In the existing simulation results, it is shown that the power consumption of the terminal device is in the range of 15000 units to 40000 units each time the state conversion is performed. The "state conversion" can refer to the terminal device converting from monitoring the PO to monitoring the LP WUS, or the terminal device converting from monitoring the LP WUS to monitoring the PO. It can be seen that the power consumption of the terminal device performing state conversion is much greater than the power consumption of the terminal device monitoring the PO.

[0116] (4) Paging probability and false alarm probability.

[0117] In the embodiments of the present application, the paging probability refers to the probability of the terminal device parsing the paging message of itself in the monitored paging message. The false alarm probability refers to the probability of the terminal device parsing the paging message that is not the paging message of the terminal device in the monitored paging message. The paging probability and the false alarm probability can both be a value greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 1. Usually, the paging probability and the false alarm probability are expressed in percentage. Alternatively, the sum of the false alarm probability and the paging probability is 1.

[0118] For terminal devices associated with the same PO, all need to monitor the DCI scrambled by the P-RNTI in the PO, which leads to a high false alarm probability. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, UE#1-UE#6 all need to monitor the DCI scrambled by the P-RNTI in PO1, and receive the paging message on the time-frequency resource indicated by the DCI. Assuming that the network device only pages UE#1-UE#3 in PO1, UE#1-UE#3 can determine that they are paged through the paging message, but UE4-UE6 determine that they are not paged through the paging message. In this case, the false alarm number for UE#4-UE#6 is 1. If this situation often occurs, it will lead to an increase in the false alarm probability and increase the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0119] Referring to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a mapping relationship between a paging rate and a power saving gain according to an embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 4, the solid line represents the paging rate and the power saving gain of the MR performing resource management (RRM) in a paging cycle, and the dotted line represents the paging rate and the power saving gain of the MR not performing RRM. The power saving gain of performing RRM specifically refers to the power saving gain of waking up the MR using the LP WUS. As shown in FIG. 4, the greater the paging rate of the terminal device, the less the power saving gain of waking up the MR using the LP WUS, and even a negative number.

[0120] To solve this problem, the UEs associated with the same PO can be grouped, for example, UEs 1-UE 6 associated with PO 1 in PF 1 in FIG. 3 are divided into two groups, wherein group 1 includes UE #1-UE #3, and group 2 includes UE #4-UE #6.

[0121] (5) Paging early indication (PEI) for indicating terminal devices belonging to which groups need to wake up and listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI.

[0122] Exemplarily, the PEI indicates which group of terminal devices needs to wake up and listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI through a bitmap, please refer to FIG. 5A, which is a schematic diagram of a scenario of indicating terminal devices to wake up through PEI according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 5A, if the value of the bitmap in the PEI is 0 and 1, wherein the bit value of 1 corresponds to group 1, and the bit value of 0 corresponds to group 2, in this case, the PEI indicates that the terminal devices belonging to group 1 need to wake up and listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI, and the terminal devices belonging to group 2 do not need to wake up and listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI. That is, UE #1-UE #3 need to listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI in the PO (i.e. PO 1 in PF 1) corresponding to themselves, and UE #4-UE #6 do not need to listen to the DCI in the PO (i.e. PO 1 in PF 1) corresponding to themselves, which can reduce the false alarm rate.

[0123] In some feasible examples, the PEI can be indicated through the LP WUS. For example, the LP WUS carries 8 bits of information, and each bit corresponds to whether a group of terminal devices is woken up and listens to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI. For example, the LP WUS carries 10000001, which indicates that the first group of terminal devices and the eighth group of terminal devices are woken up and listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI.

[0124] Please refer to FIG. 5B, which is a schematic diagram of a scenario of waking up a terminal device by an LP WUS. In addition to the LP WUS, information such as the grouping case, the number of PFs in a DRX cycle, the number of POs in a PF, and the like in FIG. 5B can be referred to the related description in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, which will not be repeated here. In FIG. 5B, UE#1-UE#6 associated with PO1 in PF1 are divided into two groups, wherein group 1 includes UE#1-UE#3, and group 2 includes UE#4-UE#6. It is assumed that the LP WUS indicates which group of terminal devices needs to be woken up by a bitmap, as shown in FIG. 5B, if the value of the bitmap in the LP WUS is 0 and 1. Among them, the bit with a value of 1 corresponds to group 1, and the bit with a value of 0 corresponds to group 2. In this case, the LP WUS indicates that the terminal devices belonging to group 1 need to be woken up, and the terminal devices belonging to group 2 do not need to be woken up. That is, UE#1-UE#3 need to be woken up, and then listen to the DCI scrambled by P-RNTI at the PO corresponding to itself (i.e., PO1 in PF1), and UE#4-UE#6 do not need to listen to the DCI at the PO corresponding to itself (i.e., PO1 in PF1), which can reduce the false alarm rate.

[0125] The current grouping mode of the terminal device includes a grouping mode based on the identity of the terminal device (UE_ID based) and a grouping mode assigned by the core network (CN assigned). The UE_ID based grouping mode is calculated according to the UE_ID value. The CN assigned grouping mode can be grouped by the AMF network element in the core network based on the paging rate of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 6, the network side configures the paging subgroup of the terminal device, which can include steps S601 and S603.

[0126] S601, the AMF network element receives a registration request of a terminal device, and the registration request includes a paging rate of the terminal device.

[0127] Correspondingly, the terminal device sends a registration request to the network device. Specifically, the terminal device sends a registration request to the AMF network element.

[0128] S602, the AMF network element determines the paging subgroup of the terminal device.

[0129] Optionally, the AMF divides terminal devices with similar paging rates into a group, which can be called a paging subgroup.

[0130] The AMF network element can group the terminal device based on the paging rate reported by the terminal device, or can group the terminal device based on the paging rate of the terminal device determined by itself. That is, the paging rate reported by the terminal device assists the network side in determining the paging sub-group of the terminal device, and the network side can determine the paging sub-group of the terminal device based on the paging rate reported by the terminal device, or not based on the paging rate reported by the terminal device. It can be understood that grouping terminal devices with similar paging rates into one paging sub-group can avoid grouping terminal devices with very different paging rates into one group, and can reduce the false alarm rate.

[0131] S603, the AMF network element sends a registration response to the terminal device, and the registration response includes an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0132] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the registration response of the AMF.

[0133] The identifier of the paging sub-group can be represented by an identifier (ID) of the paging sub-group, and the identifier of the paging sub-group can also be referred to as the number of the paging sub-group. The present application does not limit the identifier of the paging sub-group and its determination method, which can be related to the size of the paging rate, or can be related to one or more of the identifier of the terminal device, the number of paging sub-groups, the number of POs in the PF, the number of terminal devices corresponding to the PO, the number of PFs in a DRX cycle, etc.

[0134] Currently, the terminal device reports the paging rate with a granularity of 5%. The paging rate can be represented by the number of bits corresponding to 5 bits. For example, refer to Table 2, which describes a correspondence between the paging rate and the number of bits corresponding to the paging rate.

[0135] Table 2

[0136] In Table 2, each 5% probability increases a gear. For example, gear 0 corresponds to a paging rate of 0, gear 1 corresponds to a paging rate of 5%, gear 2 corresponds to a paging rate of 10%, etc. In some examples, the gears can be counted from 1 in this example. That is, gear 1 corresponds to a paging rate of 0, gear 2 corresponds to a paging rate of 5%, gear 3 corresponds to a paging rate of 10%, etc. The present application does not limit the description of different gears, and the above different gears can also be described as the first gear, the second gear, etc.

[0137] The structure of the paging rate can refer to the schematic diagram of FIG. 7. In FIG. 7, each row represents 1 byte, and 1 byte can include 8 bits. As shown in FIG. 7, the first row is used to indicate an information element identity (IEI) of LP WUS assistance information (LP WUS assistance information IEI). The second row is used to indicate the length (Length) of the paging rate, which is 1, that is, 1 byte is used to represent the paging rate. The third row is used to indicate the type (Type) of the paging rate and the value corresponding to the number of bits.

[0138] The type of the paging rate can be used to indicate the granularity of the paging rate, and the granularity of the paging rate is 5% as shown in Table 2. The number of bits corresponding to the paging rate is used to indicate the number of gears of the paging rate. In this way, the number of gears determined according to the number of bits corresponding to the paging rate and the granularity determined by the type of the paging rate can be used to determine the paging rate. For example, when the value shown in FIG. 7 is 00001, the value corresponding to 00001 is 1, and the paging rate can be equal to 1*5%, that is, 5%.

[0139] However, in the mapping relationship between the paging rate and the energy gain as shown in FIG. 4, when the paging rate of the terminal device is greater than 3%, the energy gain of the MR awakened by the LP WUS is almost zero. That is, the paging rate of the terminal device using the LP WUS is likely to be no higher than 3% or a relatively low value, and reporting the paging rate of the terminal device with a granularity of 5% can cause all terminal devices to be divided into one paging sub-group, thereby increasing the false alarm rate of the terminal device and reducing the energy gain.

[0140] Based on this, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which can report a paging rate with finer granularity, is beneficial to subdivide the paging sub-group of the terminal device, and can save power consumption.

[0141] The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail below based on the system architecture shown in FIG. 1. Through the communication method, it is beneficial to avoid unnecessary or frequent state conversion, and beneficial to save the power consumption of the terminal device.

[0142] The terminal device in the following embodiments (corresponding to the embodiments of FIG. 8 or FIG. 11) can be the terminal device in the network architecture shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2, and the functions performed by the terminal device in the embodiments can also be performed by a device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) in the terminal device. The network device in the following embodiments can be the access network device or the core network device in the network architecture shown in FIG. 1, and the functions performed by the network device in the embodiments can also be performed by a device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) in the network device. The embodiments of the present application are uniformly described here, and will not be repeated in the following.

[0143] Optionally, the network device includes an AMF network element. In this way, the steps performed by the network device in FIG. 8 or FIG. 11 can be performed by the AMF network element.

[0144] The communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application is introduced below. Please refer to FIG. 8 first, which is an interaction diagram of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The communication device involved in the communication method can refer to the description of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 8, the communication method includes the following steps:

[0145] S101, the terminal device sends first information to the network device, and the first information includes first sub-paging information and second sub-paging information.

[0146] Correspondingly, the network device receives the first information of the terminal device.

[0147] In the embodiments of the present application, the first information can be carried in the registration request, or in any uplink signaling, such as uplink control information (UCI), reference signal (RS), etc. The present application does not limit the type of first information.

[0148] S102, the network device determines a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity based on the first sub-paging information, and the second sub-paging information is used to indicate a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity, and the first granularity is greater than the second granularity.

[0149] In the embodiments of the present application, the first sub-paging information is used to indicate a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity, and the second sub-paging information is used to indicate a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity. The first sub-paging rate can be understood as a first type of paging rate, and the second sub-paging rate can be understood as a second type of paging rate. The first granularity can include a reporting granularity of the first type of paging rate, and the second granularity can include a reporting granularity of the second type of paging rate. That is, the paging rate reported according to the first type (the first granularity) is the first sub-paging rate, and the paging rate reported according to the second type (the second granularity) is the second sub-paging rate. When the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate are both not 0, the first sub-paging rate is an integer multiple of the first granularity, and the second sub-paging rate is an integer multiple of the second granularity.

[0150] The present application does not limit the size of the first granularity and the second granularity. For example, the first granularity is 5%, and the second granularity is 0.2%. In the embodiments of the present application, the first sub-paging rate corresponding to the first granularity can also be referred to as the first sub-paging rate based on the first granularity, which can be understood as that the first sub-paging rate is an integer multiple of the first granularity or 0. The second sub-paging rate corresponding to the second granularity can also be referred to as the second sub-paging rate based on the second granularity, which can be understood as that the second sub-paging rate is an integer multiple of the second granularity or 0. When the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate are both not 0, A times of the first granularity can be referred to as the first sub-paging rate, and B times of the second granularity can be referred to as the second sub-paging rate. That is, the first sub-paging rate is A times of the first granularity, and the second sub-paging rate is B times of the second granularity.

[0151] The present application does not limit the size of A and B. For example, when the first granularity is 5%, A can be any integer from 1 to 20, that is, the first sub-paging rate reported by the terminal device can be 5%, 50%, 75%, 1, and the like. When the second granularity is 0.2%, B can be any integer from 1 to 500, that is, the second sub-paging rate reported by the terminal device can be 0, 0.2%, 1.6%, 4.4%, 1, and the like.

[0152] In the embodiments of the present application, the first sub-paging information can include the first sub-paging rate or a value associated with the first sub-paging rate, and the second sub-paging information can include the second sub-paging rate or a value associated with the second sub-paging information. The gear number of the paging rate can be associated with the paging rate, and the value associated with the first sub-paging rate can be the gear number of the paging rate to which the first sub-paging rate belongs or the binary number corresponding to the gear number, and the value associated with the second sub-paging rate can be the gear number of the paging rate to which the second sub-paging rate belongs or the binary number corresponding to the gear number.

[0153] The base number can be a binary number, an octal number, a decimal number, a hexadecimal number, etc. The decimal number can be understood as the number itself, and the octal or hexadecimal representation of the number has a shorter character length than the number itself, which can save signaling. The bit number described in the embodiments of the present application is usually a binary number.

[0154] Optionally, the first sub-paging rate is determined by the first granularity and the number of levels of the first sub-paging rate, and the second sub-paging rate is determined by the second granularity and the number of levels of the second sub-paging rate.

[0155] The number of levels of the first sub-paging rate can be A, and the number of levels of the second sub-paging rate can be B.

[0156] For example, the first granularity is 5%, and the second granularity is 0.2%. The number of levels of the first sub-paging rate A is 1, which corresponds to the bit number 00001 (1), and the first sub-paging rate is equal to 1*5%. The number of levels of the second sub-paging rate B is 2, which corresponds to the bit number 00010 (2), and the second sub-paging rate is equal to 2*0.2%.

[0157] It should be noted that in the above example, the bit number corresponding to the paging rate is equal to the number of levels of the paging rate. In some feasible examples, the bit number corresponding to the paging rate can be greater than or less than the number of levels of the paging rate. For example, the bit number corresponding to the paging rate is equal to the difference between the number of levels of the paging rate and 1, that is, the bit number corresponding to the paging rate is less than the number of levels of the paging rate. For another example, the bit number corresponding to the paging rate is equal to the sum of the number of levels of the paging rate and N, where N is the number of paging rates that are increased by the second granularity, so that the bit number corresponding to the paging rate is greater than the number of levels of the paging rate.

[0158] In some feasible examples, the first granularity is the original granularity.

[0159] The original granularity can be understood as a preconfigured or originally configured granularity of the network device, such as the aforementioned 5%. The second granularity can be understood as an increased granularity, that is, a newly configured granularity.

[0160] For example, the second granularity is 0.2%, and please refer to Table 3, which is used to describe another correspondence between the paging rate and the bit number corresponding to the paging rate.

[0161] Table 3

[0162] In Table 3, each 0.2% probability increases a gear. For example, the paging rate corresponding to gear 0 is 0, the paging rate corresponding to gear 1 is 0.2%, the paging rate corresponding to gear 2 is 0.4%, the paging rate corresponding to gear 24 is 4.8%, and so on. In this example, the gears are counted from 0. In some examples, the gears can be counted from 1. That is, the paging rate corresponding to gear 1 is 0, the paging rate corresponding to gear 2 is 0.2%, the paging rate corresponding to gear 3 is 0.4%, the paging rate corresponding to gear 25 is 4.8%, and so on.

[0163] It should be noted that the maximum paging rate corresponding to the second granularity in Table 3 is 4.8%, which is less than the first granularity (5%). In some feasible examples, the maximum paging rate corresponding to the second granularity can be greater than the first granularity, and can even be 1.

[0164] It can be understood that, in the case of the first granularity being the original granularity, increasing the second granularity is equivalent to improving the original reporting mechanism of the paging rate. In the case of the first granularity being greater than the second granularity, the second sub-paging rate corresponding to the reported second granularity, that is, the paging rate of a finer granularity is reported, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0165] In the embodiments of the present application, the first granularity can be understood as a coarse granularity, and the second granularity can be understood as a fine granularity. In this way, reporting the first sub-paging rate determined by the coarse granularity and the second sub-paging rate determined by the fine granularity makes the granularity of the reported paging rate smaller, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0166] In S103, the network device determines a first paging rate based on the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate, and the first paging rate is used to assist in determining the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0167] In the embodiments of the present application, the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate are used to determine the first paging rate. The present application does not limit the method for determining the first paging rate, for example, the following three determination methods.

[0168] The first paging rate can be equal to the sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate.

[0169] For example, the first granularity is 5%, and the second granularity is 0.2%. The first sub-paging rate can be 5%, and the second sub-paging rate can be 0.2%. Then the first paging rate is equal to 5%+0.2%, that is, 5.2%. The first paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6%, …, 99.8%, and 1, and the first paging rate can increase a gear every 0.2% probability.

[0170] In the embodiment of the present application, the paging rate corresponding to the sum of the first sub-paging rate and the first granularity can be referred to as a third sub-paging rate. The third sub-paging rate has a gear higher than that of the first sub-paging rate. In this way, when the first paging rate is equal to the sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate, the first paging rate is greater than the first sub-paging rate and less than the third sub-paging rate. That is, the first paging rate can be reported between the first sub-paging rate and the third sub-paging rate, that is, a more fine-grained paging rate is reported compared with the reported first granularity, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-groups of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mis-paged, and saves power consumption.

[0171] The second determination method is that when the difference between the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate is greater than 0, the first paging rate is equal to the difference; and when the difference between the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate is less than 0, the first paging rate is equal to 0.

[0172] Taking the first granularity as 5% and the second granularity as 1% as an example. For example, the first sub-paging rate can be 5%, and the second sub-paging rate can be 2%, and the difference between the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate is equal to 5%-2%, that is, 3%, which is greater than 0, and the first paging rate is equal to 3%. For another example, the first sub-paging rate can be 5%, and the second sub-paging rate can be 20%, and the difference between the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate is equal to 5%-20%, which is less than 0, and the first paging rate is equal to 0. The first paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 1%, 2%, …, 99%, and 1, and the first paging rate can increase a gear according to every 1% probability.

[0173] It can be understood that when the first paging rate is equal to the difference between the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate or 0, the first paging rate is less than the first sub-paging rate. That is, a smaller paging rate is reported, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-groups of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mis-paged, and saves power consumption.

[0174] The third determination method is that the first paging rate is equal to the product between the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate.

[0175] For example, the first granularity is 5%, and the second granularity is 2%. The first sub-paging rate can be 5%, and the second sub-paging rate can be 2%, and the first paging rate can be 5%*2%, that is, 0.1%. The first paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.01%, 0.02%, …, 99.9%, and 1, and the first paging rate can increase a gear according to every 0.01% probability.

[0176] It can be understood that the second sub-paging rate is greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 1. The value obtained by multiplying the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate is necessarily less than or equal to the first sub-paging rate. That is, a smaller paging rate can be reported, which is beneficial to subdivide the paging sub-groups of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0177] It should be noted that the above three determination methods are only examples. In fact, other methods can also be used to determine the first paging rate. For example, the first paging rate is equal to the product of the overall paging rate and the number of levels of the first sub-paging rate. The overall paging rate is equal to the difference between the first granularity and the second granularity.

[0178] For example, the first granularity is 5%, the second granularity is 1%, the overall granularity is 5%-1%, that is, 4%. The first paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 4%, 8%, …, 95%, and 1, and the first paging rate can be increased by one level with a probability of every 4%. In this way, the level of the paging rate can be reduced, so that a more fine-grained paging rate can be reported, which is beneficial to subdivide the paging sub-groups of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0179] For another example, the above determination method three is used, but it is not limited whether the first granularity is greater than the second granularity. That is, the first granularity can be less than or equal to the second granularity. For example, the first granularity is 5%, and the second granularity is 10%. The first sub-paging rate can be 5%, and the second sub-paging rate can be 10%. The first paging rate can be 5%*10%, that is, 0.5%. The first paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.5%, 1%, …, 99.5%, and 1, and the first paging rate can be increased by one level with a probability of every 0.5%. In this way, a more fine-grained paging rate can be reported, which is beneficial to subdivide the paging sub-groups of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0180] In some feasible examples, the first information further includes first sub-type information and second sub-type information, the first sub-type information is used to indicate the first granularity, and the second sub-type information is used to indicate the second granularity.

[0181] The first sub-type information can be the first type or the first granularity, or the value corresponding to the first type or the value corresponding to the first granularity, and the second sub-type information can be the second type or the second granularity, or the value corresponding to the second type or the value corresponding to the second granularity, which is not limited in the present application.

[0182] For example, the first sub-type information is a value corresponding to the first type, such as when the first type is type1, the first sub-type information can be 1 or a value corresponding to 1 (such as binary number 001). The second sub-type information is a value corresponding to the second type, such as when the second type is type2, the first sub-type information can be 2 or a value corresponding to 2 (such as binary number 010).

[0183] For another example, the first sub-type information is a value corresponding to the first granularity, such as when the first granularity is 5%, the first sub-type information can be 5 or a value corresponding to 5 (such as binary number 101). The second sub-type information is a value corresponding to the second granularity, such as when the second granularity is 2%, the second sub-type information can be 2 or a value corresponding to 2 (such as binary number 010).

[0184] In this way, the first granularity can be determined by the first sub-type information, and the second granularity can be determined by the second sub-type information. Then, the first paging rate can be determined according to the first granularity and the first sub-paging information, and the second paging rate can be determined according to the second granularity and the second sub-paging information.

[0185] In the embodiments of the present application, the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information can be indicated by different bytes, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information can be indicated by different bytes. Or in some feasible examples, the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a first byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a second byte. That is, the first byte is the same byte occupied by the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information, and the second byte is the same byte occupied by the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information.

[0186] The present application does not limit the number of fields (bits) occupied by the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information, for example, the first sub-paging information and the second sub-paging information can occupy 5 bits, and the first sub-type information and the second sub-type information can occupy 3 bits. The number of bits corresponding to these bits is a binary number, then 5 bits can represent 32 paging rates, and 3 bits can represent 8 types of paging rates. In this way, the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information can occupy 8 bits of the first byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information can occupy 8 bits of the second byte.

[0187] Exemplarily, refer to FIG. 9, which is a schematic diagram of a structure of the first paging rate according to an embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 9, each row represents one byte, and one byte can include 8 bits. The first row and the second row in FIG. 9 can refer to the description of FIG. 7, and will not be repeated here. Different from the second row in FIG. 7, the length of the paging rate in FIG. 9 is 2, that is, 2 bytes are used to represent the paging rate. The third row is used to indicate the type of the first sub-paging rate and the number of bits corresponding to the first sub-paging rate, and the fourth row is used to indicate the type of the second sub-paging rate and the number of bits corresponding to the second sub-paging rate. When the first type is the type corresponding to the original granularity, the number of bits corresponding to the first sub-paging rate can be determined according to Table 2, and the number of bits corresponding to the second sub-paging rate can be determined according to Table 3. As shown in FIG. 9, the number of bits corresponding to the first sub-paging rate is 00001 (1), that is, when the first granularity is 5%, the first sub-paging rate can be 5%. The number of bits corresponding to the second sub-paging rate is 00001, that is, when the second granularity is 0.2%, the second sub-paging rate can be 0.2%.

[0188] It can be understood that the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information are indicated by different fields of the same byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields of another same byte, which can save signaling. And the first sub-type information and the first sub-paging information associated with the first granularity are indicated by one byte, and the second sub-type information and the second sub-paging information associated with the second granularity are indicated by another byte, which can improve the efficiency of determining the paging rate.

[0189] In some feasible examples, the first byte and the second byte can be the same byte.

[0190] For example, the first sub-paging information and the second sub-paging information can occupy 2 bits, and the first sub-type information and the second sub-type information can occupy 1 bit. The number of bits corresponding to the 2 bits is octal number, which can represent 64 paging rates. The number of bits corresponding to the 1 bit is binary number, which can represent 2 types of paging rates.

[0191] It can be understood that the first sub-paging information, the first sub-type information, the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields of the same byte, which can further save signaling.

[0192] It should be noted that in the above examples, the number of fields (bits) occupied by the first sub-paging information and the second sub-paging information is equal. In fact, the number of fields (bits) occupied by the first sub-paging information can be greater than the number of fields (bits) occupied by the second sub-paging information. For example, the first sub-paging information occupies 3 bits, and the second sub-paging information occupies 2 bits.

[0193] In the embodiments of the present application, the first sub-paging information and the second sub-paging information can be indicated by different bytes. Alternatively, in some other possible examples, the first sub-paging information and the second sub-paging information are indicated by different fields in the same byte, which can save signaling.

[0194] In some other possible examples, the first information can further include other information, which can be indicated by the first byte or the second byte, and the type of the information and the number of occupied fields (bits) are not limited herein.

[0195] S104, the network device sends the second information to the terminal device, and the second information includes the identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0196] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second information of the network device.

[0197] The second information is used to indicate the paging sub-group of the terminal device. It can be understood that the identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device can determine the paging sub-group of the terminal device. Alternatively, before step S104, the network device further determines the identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device. For details, refer to the description of step S602, which will not be repeated here.

[0198] The present application does not limit the type of the second information, and the second information can include system information such as MIB or SIB. The second information can also be configuration information. For example, the second information includes high-layer signaling such as RRC signaling, medium access control-control element (MAC CE) signaling, and the like. The second information can also include physical layer signaling such as DCI. Alternatively, the second information can be a registration response.

[0199] In the communication method shown in FIG. 8, the terminal device sends the first information to the network device. The first information includes first sub-paging information and second sub-paging information, the first sub-paging information and the second sub-paging information respectively represent the sub-paging rate with different granularities, and the first granularity of the first sub-paging rate indicated by the first sub-paging information is greater than the second granularity of the second sub-paging rate indicated by the second sub-paging information. In this way, by reporting the second sub-paging rate, a more fine-grained paging rate can be reported. The first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate can determine the first paging rate, and the first paging rate can be used to assist the network device to determine the paging sub-group of the terminal device, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device and can save power consumption.

[0200] In some possible examples, the second sub-paging information includes first-level paging information and second-level paging information, the first-level paging information is used to indicate a first-level paging rate corresponding to a first-level granularity, and the second-level paging information is used to indicate a second-level paging rate corresponding to a second-level granularity. The first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate are used to indicate the second sub-paging rate. The second granularity is determined by the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity, and the first-level granularity is greater than the second-level granularity.

[0201] In the embodiments of the present application, the first type can include a first sub-type corresponding to the first-level granularity and a second sub-type corresponding to the second-level granularity. The first-level paging rate can be understood as a paging rate of the first sub-type, and the second-level paging rate can be understood as a paging rate of the second sub-type. The first-level granularity refers to a reporting granularity of the paging rate of the first sub-type, and the second-level granularity refers to a reporting granularity of the paging rate of the second sub-type. That is, the paging rate reported according to the first sub-type (the first-level granularity) is the first-level paging rate, and the paging rate reported according to the second sub-type (the second-level granularity) is the second-level paging rate. When the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate are not 0, the first-level paging rate is an integer multiple of the first-level granularity, and the second-level paging rate is an integer multiple of the second-level granularity.

[0202] The present application does not limit the size of the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity, and the first-level granularity is greater than the second-level granularity. For example, the first-level granularity is 1, and the second-level granularity is 0.5%. Please refer to Table 4 and Table 5 respectively, which are used to describe another correspondence between the paging rate and the number of bits corresponding to the paging rate. The paging rate in Table 4 is the first-level paging rate, and the paging rate in Table 5 is the second-level paging rate.

[0203] Table 4

[0204] In Table 4, each 1% probability increases a gear. For example, the paging rate corresponding to gear 0 is 0, the paging rate corresponding to gear 1 is 1%, the paging rate corresponding to gear 3 is 3%, and the paging rate corresponding to gear 4 is 4%. In this example, the gear starts from 0, and in some examples, the gear can start from 1. That is, the paging rate corresponding to gear 1 is 0, the paging rate corresponding to gear 2 is 1%, the paging rate corresponding to gear 3 is 2%, the paging rate corresponding to gear 4 is 3%, and the paging rate corresponding to gear 5 is 4%.

[0205] It should be noted that the maximum paging rate corresponding to the first-level granularity in Table 4 is 4%, which is less than the first granularity (5%). In some possible examples, the maximum paging rate corresponding to the first-level granularity can be greater than the first granularity, and can even be 1. When the first-level granularity is indicated by 3 bits, the first-level granularity can be at most 8 times the first-level granularity.

[0206] Table 5

[0207] In Table 5, each 0.5% probability increases a gear. For example, the paging rate corresponding to gear 0 is 0, and the paging rate corresponding to gear 1 is 0.5%. In this example, the gears are counted from 0, and in some examples, the gears can be counted from 1. That is, the paging rate corresponding to gear 1 is 0, and the paging rate corresponding to gear 2 is 0.5%.

[0208] It should be noted that the maximum paging rate corresponding to the second level granularity in Table 5 is 0.5%. In practice, other values less than 1 can be used.

[0209] In the embodiments of the present application, when the first level paging rate and the second level paging rate are not 0, C times of the first level granularity can be referred to as the first level paging rate, and D times of the second level granularity can be referred to as the second level paging rate. That is, the first level paging rate is C times of the first level granularity, and the second level paging rate is D times of the second level granularity.

[0210] The present application does not limit the size of C and D. For example, when the first level granularity is 1%, C can be any integer from 1 to 100, i.e., the first level paging rate reported by the terminal device can be 1%, 5%, 70%, 1, etc. When the second level granularity is 0.5%, D can be any integer from 1 to 200, i.e., the second level paging rate reported by the terminal device can be 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 1, etc.

[0211] In the embodiments of the present application, the first level paging information can be the first level paging rate or a value associated with the first level paging rate, and the second level paging information can be the second level paging rate or a value associated with the second level paging rate. The number of gear of the paging rate can be associated with the paging rate, and the value associated with the first level paging rate can be the number of gear of the first level paging rate or the binary number corresponding to the number of gear, and the value associated with the second level paging rate can be the number of gear of the second level paging rate or the binary number corresponding to the number of gear.

[0212] Optionally, the first level paging rate is determined by the first level granularity and the number of gear of the first level paging rate, and the second level paging rate is determined by the second level granularity and the number of gear of the second level paging rate.

[0213] In the embodiments of the present application, the number of gear of the first level paging rate can be C, and the number of gear of the second level paging rate can be D.

[0214] For example, the first level granularity is 1%, and the second level granularity is 0.5%. The number of gear C of the first level paging rate is 1, and the corresponding bit number is 001. The number of gear D of the second level paging rate is 1, and the corresponding bit number can be 01. When the first level paging rate is equal to 1*1%, and the second level paging rate is equal to 1*0.5%.

[0215] In the embodiments of the present application, the first granularity can be understood as a coarse granularity, and the second granularity can be understood as a fine granularity. In this way, the first level paging rate determined by the coarse granularity and the second level paging rate determined by the fine granularity are reported, so that the granularity of the reported paging rate is smaller, which is beneficial to the subdivision of the paging subgroups of the terminal devices, can reduce the probability of the terminal devices being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0216] It should be noted that the second granularity is determined by the first granularity and the second granularity, which is only an example. In fact, more levels of granularity can be determined to enable the terminal device to report a finer granularity of the paging rate.

[0217] The present application does not limit the method for determining the second sub-paging rate, for example, the following three determination methods.

[0218] Determination method A, the second sub-paging rate can be equal to the sum of the first level paging rate and the second level paging rate.

[0219] Optionally, the second granularity is equal to the sum of the first level granularity and the second level granularity.

[0220] For example, the first level granularity is 1%, the second level granularity is 0.5%, the second granularity is equal to 1+0.5%, that is, 1.5%. The first level paging rate can be 1%, the second level paging rate can be 0.5%, and the first level paging rate is equal to 1%+0.5%, that is, 1.5%. The terminal device can report the first level paging rate according to Table 4, and the terminal device can report the second level paging rate according to Table 5. The second sub-paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.5%, 1, …, 99.5%, and 1, and the second sub-paging rate can increase by one step every 0.5%.

[0221] In the embodiments of the present application, the sum of the first level paging rate and the first level granularity can be referred to as the third level paging rate. The step of the third level paging rate is higher than that of the first level paging rate. In this way, when the second sub-paging rate is equal to the sum of the first level paging rate and the second level paging rate, the second sub-paging rate is greater than the first level paging rate and less than the third level paging rate. That is, the second paging rate can be reported between the first level paging rate and the third level paging rate, that is, a finer granularity of the paging rate is reported compared with the reported first level granularity of the paging rate, which is beneficial to the subdivision of the paging subgroups of the terminal devices, can further reduce the probability of the terminal devices being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0222] Determination method B, when the difference between the first level paging rate and the second level paging rate is greater than 0, the second sub-paging rate is equal to the difference; when the difference between the first level paging rate and the second level paging rate is less than 0, the second sub-paging rate is equal to 0.

[0223] Optionally, the second granularity is equal to a difference between the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity or 0.

[0224] Taking an example of the first-level granularity being 1% and the second-level granularity being 0.5%, the second granularity can be equal to 1%-0.5%, i.e. 0.5%. For example, the first-level paging rate can be 4%, and the second-level paging rate can be 0.5%, and a difference between the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate is equal to 4%-0.5%, i.e. 3.5%, which is greater than 0, and the second sub-paging rate is equal to 3.5%. For another example, the first-level paging rate can be 0%, and the second-level paging rate can be 0.5%, and a difference between the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate is equal to 0%-0.4%, which is less than 0, and the second sub-paging rate is equal to 0. The second sub-paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.5%, 1%, …, 99.5%, and 1, and the second sub-paging rate can be increased by one step according to a probability of every 0.5%.

[0225] It can be understood that when the second sub-paging rate is equal to a difference between the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate or 0, the second sub-paging rate is less than the first-level paging rate. That is, a smaller paging rate is reported, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mis-paged, and saves power consumption.

[0226] The determination method C is that the second sub-paging rate is equal to a product between the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate.

[0227] Optionally, the second granularity is equal to a product between the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity.

[0228] Exemplarily, the first-level granularity is 1%, and the second-level granularity is 0.5%, and the second granularity can be equal to 1%*0.5%, i.e. 0.005%. The first-level paging rate can be 1%, and the second-level paging rate can be 0.5%, and the second sub-paging rate can be 0.005%. The second sub-paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.005%, 0.01%, …, 99.995%, and 1, and the second sub-paging rate can be increased by one step according to a probability of every 0.005%.

[0229] It can be understood that the second-level paging rate is a number greater than or equal to 0 and less than or equal to 1. The number obtained by multiplying the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate is necessarily less than or equal to the second sub-paging rate. That is, a smaller paging rate can be reported, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device, can reduce the probability of the terminal device being mis-paged, and saves power consumption.

[0230] It should be noted that the above three determination methods are only examples. In fact, other methods can also be included to determine the second sub-paging rate. For example, the second sub-paging rate is equal to the product of the second granularity and the number of levels of the first-level paging rate. Wherein, the second granularity is equal to the difference between the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity.

[0231] For example, the first-level granularity is 1%, the second-level granularity is 0.5%, and the second granularity is 0.5%. The second sub-paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.5%, 1%, …, 99.5%, and 1, and the second sub-paging rate can increase by one level every 0.5%. In this way, the level of the paging rate can be reduced, so as to report a more fine-grained paging rate, which is beneficial to subdivide the paging subgroups of terminal devices, can reduce the probability of terminal devices being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0232] For another example, the determination method C described above is adopted, but it is not limited whether the first-level granularity is greater than the second-level granularity. That is, the first-level granularity can be less than or equal to the second-level granularity. For example, the first-level granularity is 1%, and the second-level granularity is 5%. The first-level paging rate can be 5%, and the second-level paging rate can be 10%, and the second sub-paging rate can be 5%*10%, that is, 0.5%. The second sub-paging rate reported by the terminal device can be at least one of 0, 0.5%, 1%, …, 99.5%, and 1, and the second sub-paging rate can increase by one level every 0.5%. In this way, a more fine-grained paging rate can be reported, which is beneficial to subdivide the paging subgroups of terminal devices, can reduce the probability of terminal devices being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0233] The present application does not limit the number of fields (bits) occupied by the first-level paging information and the second-level paging information. Because the first-level granularity is greater than the second-level granularity, the number of fields occupied by the first-level paging information is greater than or equal to the number of fields occupied by the second-level paging information. For example, when the second sub-paging information occupies 5 bits, the first-level paging information can occupy 3 bits, and the second-level paging information can occupy 2 bits.

[0234] Please refer to FIG. 10, which is a schematic diagram of a structure of a second paging rate according to an embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 10, each row represents one byte, and one byte can include 8 bits. The first row, the second row, the third row and the fourth row in FIG. 10 can refer to the description of FIG. 9, which will not be repeated here. Unlike the fourth row in FIG. 9, the second sub-paging rate in FIG. 10 is determined by the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate. The number of bits corresponding to the first-level paging rate can be determined according to Table 4, and the number of bits corresponding to the second-level paging rate can be determined according to Table 5. As shown in FIG. 10, the number of bits corresponding to the first-level paging rate is 001 (1), that is, when the first-level granularity is 1%, the first-level paging rate can be 1*1%. The number of bits corresponding to the second-level paging rate is 01 (1), that is, when the second-level granularity is 0.5%, the second-level paging rate can be 1*0.5%. The second granularity can be equal to 1%+0.5%, that is, 1.5%. The second sub-paging rate can also be equal to 1.5%. The number of bits corresponding to the first sub-paging rate is 00000 (0), that is, the first sub-paging rate is 0. The first paging rate can be equal to 0+1.5%, that is, 1.5%.

[0235] It can be understood that the first-level paging information and the second-level paging information are indicated by different fields of the same byte, which can save signaling.

[0236] Please refer to FIG. 11, which is an interaction diagram of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication device involved in the communication method can refer to the description of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, which will not be repeated here. As shown in FIG. 11, the communication method can include the following steps:

[0237] S201, the terminal device sends first information to the network device.

[0238] Correspondingly, the network device receives the first information of the terminal device.

[0239] In the embodiments of the present application, the first information is used to indicate the first paging rate or the second paging rate. The type of the first information can refer to the description of FIG. 8, which will not be repeated here.

[0240] S202, the network device determines the first paging rate or the second paging rate based on the first information, the second paging rate corresponds to a first granularity, the first paging rate corresponds to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, and the first paging rate or the second paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0241] The first granularity and the second granularity can refer to the description of FIG. 8, which will not be repeated here.

[0242] In some feasible examples, the first granularity is the original granularity.

[0243] Thus, the second paging rate is reported based on the original granularity, or the first granularity is reported based on the newly configured granularity. The first granularity is larger than the second granularity, so the original granularity is finer than the newly configured granularity. Therefore, the finer granularity paging rate is used when reporting the first paging rate, which is beneficial to the subdivision of the paging subgroups of terminal devices, can reduce the probability of terminal devices being mispaged, and saves power consumption.

[0244] In the embodiments of the present application, the second paging rate corresponds to the first granularity, and the first granularity can correspond to multiple second paging rates. The first paging rate corresponds to the second granularity, and the second granularity can correspond to multiple first paging rates. In S201, one first paging rate or one second paging rate is reported.

[0245] The second paging rate corresponding to the first granularity can also be referred to as the (second) paging rate based on the first granularity. The second paging rate can be an integer multiple of the first granularity or 0. The first paging rate corresponding to the second granularity can also be referred to as the (first) paging rate based on the second granularity. The first paging rate can be an integer multiple of the second granularity or 0. When the first paging rate and the second paging rate are not 0, E times the first granularity can be referred to as the second paging rate, and F times the second granularity can be referred to as the first paging rate. That is, the second paging rate is E times the first granularity, and the first paging rate is F times the second granularity.

[0246] The present application does not limit the size of E and F. For example, when the first granularity is 5%, E can be any integer from 1 to 20, that is, the second paging rate reported by the terminal device can be 5%, 50%, 75%, 1, etc. When the second granularity is 0.5%, F can be any integer from 1 to 200, that is, the first paging rate reported by the terminal device can be 0.5%, 1.0%, 4.5%, 1, etc.

[0247] In the embodiments of the present application, the first paging rate can be understood as a third type of paging rate, and the second paging rate can be understood as a fourth type of paging rate. The fourth type can be understood as the original coarse granularity type, and the third type can be understood as the type corresponding to the first type of the first sub-paging rate and the second type of the second sub-paging rate, that is, a new type of subdivided granularity.

[0248] The first granularity can include the reporting granularity of the fourth type of paging rate, and the second granularity can include the reporting granularity of the third type of paging rate. That is, the paging rate reported according to the fourth type (first granularity) is the second paging rate, and the paging rate reported according to the third type (second granularity) is the first paging rate.

[0249] Optionally, the first paging rate belongs to a first paging rate group, and the second paging rate belongs to a second paging rate group.

[0250] Any paging rate in the second paging rate group is an integer multiple of the first granularity or 0, and any paging rate in the first paging rate group is an integer multiple of the second granularity or 0. That is, the (first) paging rate corresponding to the second granularity can be divided into a group, and referred to as the first paging rate group. The (second) paging rate corresponding to the first granularity can also be divided into a group, and referred to as the second paging rate group.

[0251] In the embodiments of the present application, the plurality of second paging rates corresponding to the first granularity and the plurality of first paging rates corresponding to the second granularity can include different paging rates, or can include the same paging rate. That is, the second paging rate group corresponding to the first granularity and the first paging rate group corresponding to the second granularity can include different paging rates, or can include the same paging rate. For example, in some feasible examples, the plurality of second paging rates corresponding to the first granularity includes the maximum paging rate and the minimum paging rate in the plurality of first paging rates corresponding to the second granularity. That is, the first paging rate group includes 2 paging rates in the second paging rate group, one as the maximum paging rate of the first paging rate group, and the other as the minimum paging rate of the first paging rate group.

[0252] Exemplarily, please refer to Table 6, which is used to describe another kind of correspondence between the paging rate and the number of bits corresponding to the paging rate.

[0253] Table 6

[0254] In Table 6, the first granularity can be 5%, and the second granularity can be 0.5%. The plurality of first paging rates corresponding to the second granularity includes 0, 0.5%, 1.0% to 5.0%, a total of 11 values. The plurality of second paging rates corresponding to the first granularity includes 0, 5.0%, 10% to 100%, a total of 21 values. The minimum paging rate 0 in the first paging rate and the maximum paging rate 5.0% in the first paging rate belong to the first paging rate group, and belong to the second paging rate group. The first paging rate increases by one gear every 0.5%, and the second paging rate increases by one gear every 5%.

[0255] In some feasible examples, the first information includes first paging information, and the first paging information is used to indicate the first paging rate or the second paging rate.

[0256] In the first paging information indicates the first paging rate, the first paging information can include the first paging rate or a value associated with the first paging rate. In the first paging information indicates the second paging rate, the first paging information can include the second paging rate or a value associated with the second paging rate. The value associated with the first paging rate can be a gear number of the first paging rate or a binary number corresponding to the gear number, and the value associated with the second paging rate can be a gear number of the second paging rate or a binary number corresponding to the gear number. The gear number of the second paging rate can be E, and the gear number of the first paging rate can be F. The binary number can be indicated by bits in a byte, and can also be referred to as a bit number.

[0257] In some possible examples, the first information includes a first bit number or a second bit number; the first paging rate is determined by the first bit number and the second granularity, and the second paging rate is determined by the second bit number, the second granularity, and the first granularity.

[0258] The first information in this example can be the first paging information, that is, the first paging information includes the first bit number or the second bit number. The first bit number can be a gear number corresponding to the first paging rate, and the second bit number can be a gear number corresponding to the second paging rate. This scheme is to subdivide the paging rate, and the second granularity is smaller than the first granularity. The first paging rate can be located between the first gear and the second gear of the second paging rate, and the gear number corresponding to the first paging rate can be equal to the value corresponding to the first bit number. Because the first paging rate is added, the value corresponding to the second bit number increases, and the number of added paging rates (excluding the repeated paging rates in the first paging rate and the second paging rate) is related to the second granularity. The gear number of the second paging rate can be equal to the difference between the value corresponding to the second bit number and the number of added paging rates. After the gear number of the first paging rate and the gear number of the second paging rate are obtained, the first paging rate can be determined according to the product of the gear number of the first paging rate and the second granularity, and the second paging rate can be determined according to the product of the gear number of the second paging rate and the first granularity.

[0259] For example, the first granularity is 5%, and the second granularity is 0.5%. Referring to Table 6, when the first bit number is 00010 (2), the gear number of the first paging rate is 2, and the first paging rate is equal to 2*0.5%, that is, 1.0%. When the second bit number is 01011 (11), the number of first paging rates corresponding to the second granularity is 11, and the number of repeated paging rates in the first paging rate and the second paging rate is 2, that is, the number of added paging rates is 11-2, that is, 9. The gear number of the second paging rate is 11-9, that is, 2. The second paging rate is equal to 2*5%, that is, 10%.

[0260] It should be noted that the first number of bits is equal to the number of levels of the first paging rate in the above example. In some possible examples, when the number of levels is counted from 1, the first number of bits can be equal to the difference between the number of levels of the first paging rate and 1. The second number of bits is equal to the sum of the number of increased paging rates and the number of levels of the second paging rate. In some possible examples, when the number of levels is counted from 1, the second number of bits can be equal to the difference between the sum of the number of increased paging rates and the number of levels of the second paging rate and 1.

[0261] In some possible examples, the first information includes first type information; when the first information is used to indicate the first paging rate, the first type information is used to indicate the second granularity; and when the first information is used to indicate the second paging rate, the first type information is used to indicate the first granularity.

[0262] That is, whether to report based on the first granularity or to report based on the second granularity is determined by the first type information, and then the first paging rate or the second paging rate can be determined according to the reported first paging information. The determination method of the first paging rate or the second paging rate can refer to the description of the previous example, which will not be described here.

[0263] Exemplarily, refer to FIG. 12A, which is a schematic diagram of a structure of a third paging rate provided by an embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 12A, each row represents 1 byte, and 1 byte can include 8 bits. The first row, the second row and the third row in FIG. 12A can refer to the description of FIG. 7, which will not be described here. Unlike the third row of FIG. 7, the type of the paging rate in FIG. 12A can indicate the first granularity or the second granularity. The number of bits corresponding to the second paging rate corresponding to the first granularity, and the number of bits corresponding to the first paging rate corresponding to the second granularity can refer to Table 6. As shown in FIG. 12A, when the first type information is used to indicate the first paging rate, the first type information indicates the second granularity by 010, and the number of bits corresponding to the first paging rate is 00101 (5). When the second granularity is 0.5%, the first paging rate can be 5*0.5%, that is, 2.5%.

[0264] Alternatively, in some other possible examples, the first information includes first type information, and the first type information is used to indicate a fourth type. The fourth type is the original type as described above, which can refer to the type of the paging rate shown in FIG. 7. In this way, the type of the description of the original structure is not modified.

[0265] Exemplarily, refer to FIG. 12B, which is a schematic diagram of a structure of a fourth paging rate according to an embodiment of the present application. In FIG. 12B, each row represents one byte, and one byte can include 8 bits. The first row, the second row and the third row in FIG. 12B can refer to the description of FIG. 7, which will not be repeated here. Different from the third row in FIG. 7 and FIG. 12A, the type of the paging rate in FIG. 12B is the original type, that is, indicating the first granularity. As shown in FIG. 12B, the first type information is indicated by 001, the first paging information is indicated by the bit number 00101 (5), and according to Table 6, the first paging rate can be 2.5%.

[0266] In some possible examples, the first paging rate and the second paging rate both occupy M bits, the difference between the number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity and the number of repeated paging rates is less than or equal to a first value, and the first value is equal to the difference between the total number of paging rates corresponding to M and the number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity.

[0267] In some possible examples, the first paging rate and the second paging rate both occupy M bits, the difference between the number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity and the number of repeated paging rates is less than or equal to a first value, and the first value is equal to the difference between the total number of paging rates corresponding to M and the number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity.

[0268] For example, M is 5, and the total number of paging rates corresponding to M is 32. Referring to Table 6, when the first granularity is 5% and the second granularity is 0.5%, the number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity is 21, the number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity is 11, and the number of repeated paging rates is 2. The first value is equal to 32-21, that is, 11. The difference between the number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity and the number of repeated paging rates is equal to 11-2, that is, 9<11. In this way, the number of first paging rates of the increased refined granularity does not need to delete the second paging rate, and does not need to modify the number of bits occupied by the paging rate.

[0269] In the embodiment of the present application, the first paging information and the first type information can be indicated by different bytes. Alternatively, in some possible examples, the first paging information and the first type information are indicated by different fields of a third byte. That is, the third byte is the same byte occupied by the first paging information and the first type information. It can be understood that the first paging information and the first type information are indicated by different fields of the same byte, which can save signaling. And the first type information and the first paging information correspond to the same granularity, which can improve the efficiency of determining the paging rate.

[0270] The present application does not limit the number of fields (bits) occupied by the first paging information and the first type information. As shown in FIG. 12A and FIG. 12B, the first paging information can occupy 5 bits, and the first type information can occupy 3 bits. The number of bits corresponding to these bits is a binary number, then 5 bits can represent 32 paging rates, and 3 bits can represent 8 types of paging rates. In this way, the first paging information and the first type information can occupy 8 bits of the first byte.

[0271] Alternatively, in some other possible examples, the first information does not include the first type information. When the terminal device does not directly report the first paging rate or the second paging rate, the first paging rate or the second paging rate is determined according to the number of bases (number of bytes or number of bits) reported by the terminal device and a pre-set table (such as Table 6).

[0272] S203, the network device sends second information to the terminal device, and the second information includes an identifier of a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0273] Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second information of the network device.

[0274] The second information can refer to the description of FIG. 8, and will not be described here.

[0275] In the communication method shown in FIG. 11, the terminal device sends first information to the network device. The first information is used to indicate a first paging rate corresponding to a first granularity or a second paging rate corresponding to a second granularity, and the first granularity is greater than the second granularity. In this way, a first paging rate of a finer granularity can be reported. The first paging rate can be used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device, which is beneficial to subdividing the paging sub-group of the terminal device and can save power consumption.

[0276] It should be noted that the first granularity and the second granularity in the above examples can be a numerical value or a numerical value of one level. In fact, the second granularity can be determined by a numerical value of two levels of granularity, as described above, or the first granularity and the second granularity can be determined by a numerical value of more levels of granularity, so that the terminal device can report a paging rate of a finer granularity.

[0277] The above describes the method of the embodiment of the present application in detail, and the device of the embodiment of the present application is introduced below.

[0278] Please refer to FIG. 13, which is a structural schematic diagram of a communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication apparatus can include a transceiver unit 101 and a processing unit 102. The transceiver unit 101 can be a device with input (reception) or output (transmission) of signals, for transmission of signals with other devices or other components in the device. The processing unit 102 can be a device with processing functions, which can include one or more processors, for executing instructions (or codes or programs), such as processing of communication protocols and communication data. The communication apparatus can be a terminal device, or a device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, etc.) in the terminal device, or a device capable of being used in matching with the terminal device. The communication apparatus can also be a network device, or a device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit, etc.) in the network device, or a device capable of being used in matching with the network device.

[0279] Optionally, the network device includes an AMF network element. Thus, when the communication apparatus shown in FIG. 13 is a network device, the transceiver unit 101 and the processing unit 102 can belong to the AMF network element.

[0280] Hereinafter, the terminal device and the network device are taken as examples.

[0281] In the first implementation scenario, the communication apparatus can include a terminal device, wherein:

[0282] The transceiver unit 101 is configured to send first information to a network device; wherein the first information includes first sub-paging information and second sub-paging information, the first sub-paging information is used to indicate a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity, the second sub-paging information is used to indicate a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate are used to determine a first paging rate, and the first paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0283] The transceiver unit 101 is further configured to receive second information of the network device; wherein the second information includes an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0284] In some feasible examples, the first paging rate is equal to the sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate.

[0285] In some feasible examples, the first information further includes first sub-type information and second sub-type information, the first sub-type information is used to indicate the first granularity, and the second sub-type information is used to indicate the second granularity.

[0286] In some possible examples, the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a first byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a second byte.

[0287] In some possible examples, the second sub-paging information includes first-level paging information and second-level paging information; the first-level paging information is used to indicate a first-level paging rate corresponding to a first-level granularity, and the second-level paging information is used to indicate a second-level paging rate corresponding to a second-level granularity; the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate are used to indicate the second sub-paging rate; and the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity are used to determine the second granularity, and the first-level granularity is greater than the second-level granularity.

[0288] In some possible examples, the second sub-paging rate is equal to a sum of the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate, and the second granularity is equal to a sum of the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity.

[0289] In some possible examples, the first granularity is a primitive granularity.

[0290] In a first implementation scenario, the communication apparatus can include a network device, and the network device can include:

[0291] The transceiver 101 is configured to receive first information of a terminal device; the first information includes first sub-information and second sub-information.

[0292] The processing unit 102 is configured to determine a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity based on the first sub-information, and determine a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity based on the second sub-information, the first granularity being greater than the second granularity.

[0293] The processing unit 102 is further configured to determine a first paging rate based on the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate, the first paging rate being used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0294] The transceiver 101 is further configured to send second information to the terminal device; the second information includes an identifier of a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0295] In some possible examples, the processing unit 102 is specifically configured to obtain a sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate to obtain a first paging rate.

[0296] In some possible examples, the first information further includes first sub-type information and second sub-type information; the first sub-type information is used to indicate the first granularity, and the second sub-type information is used to indicate the second granularity.

[0297] In some possible examples, the first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a first byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a second byte.

[0298] In some possible examples, the second sub-paging information includes first-level paging information and second-level paging information; the processing unit 102 is further configured to determine a first-level paging rate corresponding to a first-level granularity based on the first-level paging information, and determine a second-level paging rate corresponding to a second-level granularity based on the second-level paging information; the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity are used to determine the second granularity; and the second sub-paging rate is determined based on the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate.

[0299] In some possible examples, the second granularity is equal to a sum of the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity; and the processing unit 102 is specifically configured to obtain a sum of the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate to obtain the second sub-paging rate.

[0300] In some possible examples, the first granularity is a primitive granularity.

[0301] In the second implementation scenario, the communication apparatus can include a terminal device, and the terminal device can include the processing unit 102 and the transceiver unit 101.

[0302] The transceiver unit 101 is configured to send first information to a network device, where the first information is used to indicate a first paging rate or a second paging rate; the second paging rate corresponds to a first granularity, the first paging rate corresponds to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, and the first paging rate or the second paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0303] The transceiver unit 101 is further configured to receive second information of the network device, where the second information includes an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0304] In some possible examples, the second granularity corresponds to a plurality of the first paging rates, the first granularity corresponds to a plurality of the second paging rates, and the plurality of the second paging rates include a maximum paging rate and a minimum paging rate in the plurality of the first paging rates.

[0305] In some possible examples, the first information includes a first bit number or a second bit number; the first paging rate is determined based on the first bit number and the second granularity, and the second paging rate is determined based on the second bit number, the second granularity, and the first granularity.

[0306] In some possible examples, the first paging rate and the second paging rate each occupies M bits, a difference between a number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity and a number of repeated paging rates is less than or equal to a first value, the first value is equal to a difference between a total number of paging rates corresponding to M and a number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity, the repeated paging rate is a paging rate repeated in the paging rates corresponding to the first granularity and the paging rates corresponding to the second granularity.

[0307] In some possible examples, the first information includes first type information, the first type information is used to indicate the second granularity when the first information is used to indicate the first paging rate, and the first type information is used to indicate the first granularity when the first information is used to indicate the second paging rate.

[0308] In some possible examples, the first information includes first paging information, the first paging information is used to indicate the first paging rate or the second paging rate, and the first paging information and the first type information are indicated by different fields of a third byte.

[0309] In some possible examples, the first granularity is a primitive granularity.

[0310] In a second implementation scenario, the communication apparatus can include a network device, and the network device can include:

[0311] The transceiver 101 is configured to receive first information of a terminal device.

[0312] The processing unit 102 is configured to determine a first paging rate or a second paging rate based on the first information, wherein the second paging rate corresponds to a first granularity, the first paging rate corresponds to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, and the first paging rate or the second paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0313] The transceiver 101 is configured to send second information to the terminal device, wherein the second information includes an identifier of a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

[0314] In some possible examples, the second granularity corresponds to a plurality of the first paging rates, the first granularity corresponds to a plurality of the second paging rates, and the plurality of the second paging rates includes a maximum paging rate and a minimum paging rate in the plurality of the first paging rates.

[0315] In some possible examples, the first information includes a first number of bits or a second number of bits, the processing unit 102 is further configured to determine the first paging rate based on the first number of bits and the second granularity, and determine the second paging rate based on the second number of bits, the second granularity, and the first granularity.

[0316] In some possible examples, the first paging rate and the second paging rate each occupies M bits, the number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity is less than or equal to a first value, a difference between the first value and the number of repeated paging rates is equal to a difference between a total number of paging rates corresponding to M and the number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity, and the repeated paging rates are paging rates repeated in the paging rates corresponding to the first granularity and the paging rates corresponding to the second granularity.

[0317] In some possible examples, the first information includes first type information, the first type information is used to indicate the second granularity when the first information is used to indicate the first paging rate, and the first type information is used to indicate the first granularity when the first information is used to indicate the second paging rate.

[0318] In some possible examples, the first information includes first paging information, the first paging information is used to indicate the first paging rate or the second paging rate, and the first paging information and the first type information are indicated by different fields of a third byte.

[0319] In some possible examples, the first granularity is a primitive granularity.

[0320] It should be noted that the implementation of each unit can also correspond to the description of the corresponding unit in at least one of the embodiments of FIG. 8 or FIG. 11.

[0321] Referring to FIG. 14, FIG. 14 is a structural schematic diagram of another communication apparatus provided by the embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 14, the communication apparatus 1400 can include one or more processors 1401, which can also be referred to as processing units, and can implement certain control functions. The processor 1401 can be a general-purpose processor or a special-purpose processor, etc. For example, the processor 1401 can be a baseband processor or a central processing unit. The baseband processor can be used to process communication protocols and communication data, and the central processing unit can be used to control the communication apparatus (for example, a base station, a baseband chip, a terminal, a terminal chip, a DU or a CU, etc.), execute software programs, and process data of the software programs.

[0322] In an optional design, the processor 1401 can also store instructions 1403 and / or data, and the instructions 1403 and / or data can be executed by the processor to enable the communication apparatus 1400 to perform the communication method described in the above method embodiments.

[0323] In an alternative design, the processor 1401 can include a transceiver for implementing the receiving and transmitting functions. For example, the transceiver can be a transceiver circuit, or an interface, or an interface circuit, or a communication interface. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit for implementing the receiving and transmitting functions can be separate or integrated together. The transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit described above can be used for code / data reading and writing, or the transceiver circuit, interface, or interface circuit described above can be used for signal transmission or transfer.

[0324] In yet another possible design, the communication apparatus 1400 can include a circuit, which can implement the functions of the sending or receiving or communicating in the foregoing method embodiments.

[0325] Optionally, the communication apparatus 1400 can include one or more memories 1402, which can store instructions 1404 executable by the processor, so that the communication apparatus 1400 performs the communication method described in the foregoing method embodiments. Optionally, the memory can also store data. Optionally, the processor can also store instructions and / or data. The processor and the memory can be separately arranged or integrated together. For example, the correspondence described in the foregoing method embodiments can be stored in the memory or in the processor.

[0326] Optionally, the communication apparatus 1400 can further include a transceiver 1405 and / or an antenna 1406. The processor 1401 can be referred to as a processing unit, which controls the communication apparatus 1400. The transceiver 1405 can be referred to as a transceiving unit, a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, a transceiving apparatus, or a transceiving module, etc., which is used to implement the transceiving functions.

[0327] Optionally, the communication apparatus 1400 can be used to perform any of the communication methods described in FIG. 8 or FIG. 11.

[0328] In one embodiment, the communication apparatus 1400 can be a terminal device or an apparatus (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) in the terminal device. When the computer program instructions stored in the memory 1402 are executed, the processor 1401 is configured to perform the operations performed by the processing unit 102 in the foregoing embodiments, or to perform the operations performed by the processing unit 102 in the foregoing embodiments. The transceiver 1405 is configured to perform the operations performed by the transceiving unit 101 in the foregoing embodiments, and the transceiver 1405 is further configured to send information to other communication apparatuses outside the communication apparatus. The terminal device or the apparatus in the terminal device can also be used to perform any of the methods performed by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments of FIG. 8 or FIG. 11, which will not be described here.

[0329] In an embodiment, the communication apparatus 1400 can be a network device, or a device (for example, a chip, or a chip system, or a circuit) in the network device. When the computer program instructions stored in the memory 1402 are executed, the processor 1401 is configured to control the transceiver 1405 to perform the operations performed by the transceiver 101 in the above-described embodiments, and the transceiver 1405 is further configured to receive information from other communication apparatuses. The network device or the device in the network device can also be configured to perform any of the communication methods performed by the network device in the above-described method embodiments of FIG. 8 or FIG. 11, which will not be described herein again.

[0330] The processor and the transceiver described in the present application can be implemented on an integrated circuit (IC), an analog IC, a radio frequency interface chip (RFIC), a mixed signal IC, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a printed circuit board (PCB), an electronic device, etc. The processor and the transceiver can also be manufactured by various IC process technologies, such as complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), N-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS), positive channel metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS), bipolar junction transistor (BJT), bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS), silicon germanium (SiGe), gallium arsenide (GaAs), etc.

[0331] The communication apparatus described in the above embodiments can be a terminal device or a network device, but the scope of the apparatus described in the present application is not limited thereto, and the structure of the communication apparatus can not be limited by FIG. 14. The apparatus can be a standalone device or can be part of a larger device. For example, the communication apparatus can be:

[0332] (1) a standalone integrated circuit (IC), or a chip, or a chip system or a subsystem;

[0333] (2) a set of one or more ICs, which can optionally include a storage component for storing data and / or instructions;

[0334] (3) an ASIC, for example, a modem;

[0335] (4) A module that can be embedded within other devices.

[0336] Referring to FIG. 15, FIG. 15 is a structural schematic diagram of another terminal device provided by the embodiments of the present application. For ease of illustration, FIG. 15 only shows the main components of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 15, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input / output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the whole terminal, executing software programs, and processing data of the software programs. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for conversion between baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing of the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. The input / output device, such as a touch screen, a display screen, a keyboard, etc., is mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

[0337] When the terminal is powered on, the processor can read the software programs in the storage unit, parse and execute the instructions of the software programs, and process the data of the software programs. When data needs to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be transmitted, and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. The radio frequency circuit processes the baseband signal to obtain a radio frequency signal, and transmits the radio frequency signal in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is transmitted to the terminal, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna. The radio frequency signal is further converted into a baseband signal, and the baseband signal is output to the processor. The processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

[0338] For ease of illustration, FIG. 15 only shows one memory and one processor. In an actual terminal, there can be multiple processors and memories. The memory can also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc., and the embodiments of the present application do not limit this.

[0339] As an optional implementation, the processor can include a baseband processor and a central processor, the baseband processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, and the central processor is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal, executing a software program, and processing data of the software program. The processor in FIG. 15 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the central processor, and those skilled in the art can understand that the baseband processor and the central processor can also be independent processors interconnected by a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art can understand that the terminal can include multiple baseband processors to adapt to different network modes, and the terminal can include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal can be connected by various buses. The baseband processor can also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processor can also be referred to as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing communication protocols and communication data can be built into the processor, or can be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

[0340] In one example, the antenna and the control circuit with the transceiving function can be regarded as a transceiving unit of the terminal device, and the processor with the processing function can be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device. As shown in FIG. 15, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit and a processing unit. The transceiving unit can also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Optionally, the device for realizing the receiving function in the transceiving unit can be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for realizing the sending function in the transceiving unit can be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the transceiving unit includes the receiving unit and the sending unit. Exemplarily, the receiving unit can also be referred to as a receiver, a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the sending unit can be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitter or a transmitting circuit, etc. Optionally, the above-mentioned receiving unit and sending unit can be integrated into one unit, or can be multiple independent units. The above-mentioned receiving unit and sending unit can be in one geographical location, or can be dispersed in multiple geographical locations.

[0341] In one embodiment, the transceiving unit is configured to perform the operations performed by the transceiving unit in the above-mentioned embodiments, or is configured to perform the operations performed by the transceiving unit in the above-mentioned embodiments. The processing unit is configured to perform the operations performed by the processing unit in the above-mentioned embodiments. The terminal device can also be configured to perform any communication method performed by the terminal device or the network device in the above-mentioned method embodiments of FIG. 8 or FIG. 11, which will not be described here.

[0342] The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer readable storage medium, which stores a computer program. The computer program is executed by a processor to implement the process related to the network device or the terminal device in the communication method provided by the method embodiment. The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product for storing a computer program. When the computer program is run on a computer (or a processor), the computer is caused to execute one or more steps in any of the above communication methods. The constituent modules of the devices involved above can be stored in a computer readable storage medium if they are realized in the form of software function units and sold or used as independent products.

[0343] The embodiment of the present application provides a chip, comprising a processor, configured to call and run instructions stored in a memory, so that a communication device installed with the chip executes any of the above communication methods.

[0344] The embodiment of the present application further provides another chip, comprising an input interface, an output interface and a processing circuit. The input interface, the output interface and the processing circuit are connected through internal connection paths. The processing circuit is configured to execute any of the above communication methods.

[0345] Optionally, the chip further comprises a memory. The input interface, the output interface, the processor and the memory are connected through internal connection paths. The processor is configured to execute codes in the memory. When the codes are executed, the processor is configured to execute any of the above communication methods.

[0346] The embodiment of the present application further provides a chip system, comprising at least one processor and a communication interface. The communication interface and the at least one processor are interconnected through a circuit. The at least one processor is configured to run computer programs or instructions to execute any of the above communication methods. The chip system can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices.

[0347] The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, which comprises a network device and a terminal device. The specific description can refer to the communication method shown in FIG. 8 or FIG. 11.

[0348] Those skilled in the art can realize that the units and algorithm steps of the examples described in combination with the embodiments provided in the present application can be realized in electronic hardware or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether the functions are realized in hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Those skilled in the art can use different methods to realize the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the present application.

[0349] In several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, device and method can be implemented in other manners. For example, the described device embodiment is merely illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. There can be another division manner for the actual implementation, for example, multiple units or components can be combined or integrated into another system, or some features can be ignored or not executed. In addition, the displayed or discussed mutual couplings or direct couplings or communication connections between different units, can be indirect couplings or communication connections through some interfaces, devices or units, and can be electrical, mechanical or in other forms.

[0350] The units described as separated components can or can not be physically separated, and the components displayed as units can or can not be physical units, i.e., can be located in one place, or can be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purposes of the embodiments.

[0351] In addition, each functional unit in the various embodiments of the present application can be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically as a separate unit, or two or more units can be integrated in one unit. The order of the steps in the method embodiments of the present application can be adjusted, combined and deleted according to actual needs. Some steps of each embodiment can be partially executed (for example, the terminal can not execute the steps executed by the terminal in the above embodiments). The order of execution of different steps can be changed. The embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments, and different steps of different embodiments herein can be combined.

[0352] The modules / units in the device embodiments of the present application can be combined, divided and deleted according to actual needs.

[0353] In this document, reference to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are they necessarily mutually exclusive of one another.

[0354] In the present application, it can refer to a communication protocol or specification, such as a 3GPP communication protocol.

[0355] The terms "first", "second", "third", "fourth" and the like (if any) in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish similar objects, and do not necessarily have to describe a particular order or sequence.

[0356] In the embodiments of the present application, "comprising" can be a containing relationship or can be an equal relationship. For example, A includes B, which can be that A contains B and other contents, or A and B are the same content.

[0357] In the description of the present application, unless otherwise specified, " / " represents that the objects before and after the " / " are in an "or" relationship, for example, A / B can represent A or B; "and / or" in the present application is only a description of the association relationship of the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. In addition, in the description of the present application, unless otherwise specified, "multiple" means two or more than two. "At least one of the following" or the like means any combination of the items, including any combination of single item or multiple items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0358] In the embodiments of the present application, information, signal, message, and channel can be mixed at times, and it should be pointed out that when the distinction is not emphasized, the meanings expressed are consistent. "Of", "corresponding", and "corresponding" can be mixed at times, and it should be pointed out that when the distinction is not emphasized, the meanings expressed are consistent.

[0359] It should be understood that in various embodiments of the present application, the size of the sequence number of the above-mentioned processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of the processes should be determined according to its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Claims

1. A communication method characterized by comprising: The communication method applied to a terminal device comprises: sending first information to a network device, wherein the first information comprises first sub-paging information and second sub-paging information, the first sub-paging information is used to indicate a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity, the second sub-paging information is used to indicate a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate are used to determine a first paging rate, and the first paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device; receiving second information of the network device, wherein the second information comprises an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

2. The communication method according to claim 1, characterized by, The first paging rate is equal to the sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate.

3. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein, The first information further comprises first sub-type information and second sub-type information, the first sub-type information is used to indicate the first granularity, and the second sub-type information is used to indicate the second granularity.

4. The communication method according to claim 3, characterized by, The first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a first byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a second byte.

5. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized by, The second sub-paging information comprises first-level paging information and second-level paging information; The first-level paging information is used to indicate a first-level paging rate corresponding to a first-level granularity, the second-level paging information is used to indicate a second-level paging rate corresponding to a second-level granularity, the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate are used to indicate the second sub-paging rate, the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity are used to determine the second granularity, and the first-level granularity is greater than the second-level granularity.

6. The communication method according to claim 5, wherein, The second sub-paging rate is equal to the sum of the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate, and the second granularity is equal to the sum of the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity.

7. A communication method characterized by comprising: The communication method applied to a terminal device comprises: sending first information to a network device, wherein the first information is used to indicate a first paging rate or a second paging rate; wherein the second paging rate corresponds to a first granularity, the first paging rate corresponds to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, and the first paging rate or the second paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device; receiving second information of the network device, wherein the second information comprises an identifier of the paging sub-group of the terminal device.

8. The communication method according to claim 7, wherein, The second granularity corresponds to a plurality of the first paging rates, the first granularity corresponds to a plurality of the second paging rates, and the plurality of the second paging rates comprises a maximum paging rate and a minimum paging rate in the plurality of the first paging rates.

9. The communication method according to claim 7, wherein, The first information comprises a first bit number or a second bit number; The first paging rate is determined by the first bit number and the second granularity, and the second paging rate is determined by the second bit number, the second granularity, and the first granularity.

10. The communication method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized by, The first paging rate and the second paging rate each occupies M bits, a difference between a number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity and a number of repeated paging rates is less than or equal to a first value, the first value is equal to a difference between a total number of paging rates corresponding to M and a number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity, the repeated paging rate is a paging rate repeated in the paging rate corresponding to the first granularity and the paging rate corresponding to the second granularity.

11. The communication method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized by, The first information includes first type information; When the first information is used to indicate the first paging rate, the first type information is used to indicate the second granularity; When the first information is used to indicate the second paging rate, the first type information is used to indicate the first granularity.

12. The communication method according to claim 11, wherein, The first information includes first paging information, the first paging information is used to indicate the first paging rate or the second paging rate, and the first paging information and the first type information are indicated by different fields of a third byte.

13. The communication method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, characterized by, The first granularity is an original granularity.

14. A communication method, comprising: The communication method applied to a network device includes: receiving first information of a terminal device; wherein the first information includes first sub-information and second sub-information; determining a first sub-paging rate corresponding to a first granularity based on the first sub-information and determining a second sub-paging rate corresponding to a second granularity based on the second sub-information, the first granularity being greater than the second granularity; determining a first paging rate based on the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate, the first paging rate being used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device; sending second information to the terminal device; wherein the second information includes an identifier of a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

15. The communication method according to claim 14, wherein, The determination of the first paging rate based on the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate includes: obtaining a sum of the first sub-paging rate and the second sub-paging rate to obtain the first paging rate.

16. The communication method according to claim 14, wherein, The first information further includes first sub-type information and second sub-type information, the first sub-type information being used to indicate the first granularity, and the second sub-type information being used to indicate the second granularity.

17. The communication method according to claim 16, wherein, The first sub-paging information and the first sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a first byte, and the second sub-paging information and the second sub-type information are indicated by different fields in a second byte.

18. The communication method according to any one of claims 14 to 17, characterized by, The second sub-paging information includes first-level paging information and second-level paging information. The communication method further includes: determining a first-level paging rate corresponding to a first-level granularity based on the first-level paging information and determining a second-level paging rate corresponding to a second-level granularity based on the second-level paging information; wherein the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity are used to determine the second granularity; determining the second sub-paging rate based on the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate.

19. The communication method of claim 18, wherein, The second granularity is equal to a sum of the first-level granularity and the second-level granularity. The determination of the second sub-paging rate based on the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate includes: obtaining a sum of the first-level paging rate and the second-level paging rate to obtain the second sub-paging rate.

20. A method of communication, comprising: The communication method applied to a network device includes: receiving first information of a terminal device; determine a first paging rate or a second paging rate based on the first information, wherein the second paging rate corresponds to a first granularity, the first paging rate corresponds to a second granularity, the first granularity is greater than the second granularity, and the first paging rate or the second paging rate is used to assist in determining a paging sub-group of the terminal device; send second information to the terminal device, wherein the second information comprises an identifier of a paging sub-group of the terminal device.

21. The communication method according to claim 20, wherein, The second granularity corresponds to a plurality of the first paging rates, and the first granularity corresponds to a plurality of the second paging rates, wherein the plurality of the second paging rates comprises a maximum paging rate and a minimum paging rate in the plurality of the first paging rates.

22. The communication method of claim 20, wherein, The first information comprises a first number of bits or a second number of bits. The communication method further comprises: determining the first paging rate based on the first number of bits and the second granularity; determining the second paging rate based on the second number of bits, the second granularity, and the first granularity.

23. The communication method according to any one of claims 20 to 22, characterized by, The first paging rate and the second paging rate each occupies M bits, the number of paging rates corresponding to the second granularity is less than or equal to a first value, the difference between the first value and the number of repeated paging rates is equal to the difference between the total number of paging rates corresponding to M and the number of paging rates corresponding to the first granularity, and the repeated paging rate is a paging rate that is repeated in the paging rates corresponding to the first granularity and the paging rates corresponding to the second granularity.

24. The communication method according to any one of claims 20 to 22, characterized by, The first information comprises first type information. When the first information is used to indicate the first paging rate, the first type information is used to indicate the second granularity. When the first information is used to indicate the second paging rate, the first type information is used to indicate the first granularity.

25. The communication method according to claim 24, wherein, The first information comprises first paging information, the first paging information is used to indicate the first paging rate or the second paging rate, and the first paging information and the first type information are indicated by different fields of a third byte.

26. The communication method according to any one of claims 20 to 22, characterized by, The first granularity is an original granularity.

27. A communications device, characterized by A device for performing the communication method of any one of claims 1-26.

28. A communications device, characterized by A processor configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, when the instructions are executed, implement the communication method of any one of claims 1-26.

29. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, when the computer program is executed on one or more processors, implement the communication method of any one of claims 1-26. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, when the computer program is executed on one or more processors, implement the communication method of any one of claims 1-26.

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