Communication method and apparatus

Abstract

A communication method and apparatus, which relate to the technical field of communications. In the method, a related indication regarding the paging of a terminal that has performed non-RRC-connected-state measurement is newly added to a paging message, such that an access network apparatus can actively awaken, by means of the paging message, the terminal that has performed non-RRC-connected-state measurement, and thus the terminal reports a measurement result in a non-RRC-connected state. Therefore, the measurement result of the terminal in the non-RRC-connected state can be quickly acquired, thereby facilitating an improvement in subsequent communication performance.

Description

Communication method and apparatus

[0001] The present application claims priority to the Chinese patent application No. 202411320005.2, filed on September 20, 2024, and entitled "Communication method and apparatus", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

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

[0003] When a user equipment (UE) is in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state or an RRC non-connected state, the UE can perform measurement. However, after the UE completes the measurement, the UE usually needs to report the measurement result to a base station through an RRC message. Since the UE can only send the RRC message in the RRC connected state, if the UE is in the RRC non-connected state, the UE needs to enter the RRC connected state first, and then report the measurement result to the base station. Currently, the reasons for the RRC non-connected state UE to establish an RRC connection with the base station mainly include: the UE has data or signaling to send to the network, or the network has data or signaling to send to the UE. However, if the UE or the network has no data or signaling transmission requirement for a long time, the RRC non-connected state UE will always be in the RRC non-connected state, so the base station cannot quickly obtain the measurement result of the UE. SUMMARY

[0004] The present application provides a communication method and apparatus, which can quickly obtain the measurement result of the RRC non-connected state terminal, and thus is beneficial to improve the subsequent communication performance.

[0005] The present application will be described from different aspects below. It should be understood that the implementation manners and beneficial effects of the different aspects below can be mutually referred.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a terminal-side device, such as a terminal or a communication module / processing module in the terminal, or a circuit or chip responsible for communication functions in the terminal (such as a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a system on chip (SoC) chip or system in package (SIP) chip containing a modem core, or a circuit or chip responsible for processing functions in the terminal (such as a graphics processing unit (GPU), an artificial intelligence (AI) processor, or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)). Taking the case where the method is applied to a terminal, in the method, the terminal receives a paging message, which contains first information indicating that the paged terminal has performed non-RRC connected state measurement. Then, the terminal can determine whether to establish an RRC connection with the access network device according to the first information.

[0007] In the present application, the related indication (i.e., the first information) about the "non-RRC connected state measurement" is added in the paging message, which enables the access network device to actively wake up the non-RRC connected state terminal through the paging message and make it report the measurement results in the non-RRC connected state. Compared with the current scheme in which the access network device passively waits for the terminal to enter the RRC connected state due to other reasons, the present application actively triggers the terminal to enter the RRC connected state, which reduces the time for the access network device to wait for the terminal to enter the RRC connected state, thus reducing the time to obtain the measurement results of the terminal in the non-RRC connected state, and further improving the subsequent communication performance.

[0008] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: determining to establish an RRC connection with the access network device in the case where the non-RRC connected state measurement is performed.

[0009] In this design, for the terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement, it can establish an RRC connection with the access network device after receiving the above-mentioned paging message, so that the measurement results in the non-RRC connected state can be sent to the access network device through the RRC connection.

[0010] In a possible implementation, the first information includes one or more of the following information:

[0011] The paging cause, the measurement type information, the measurement use case information, the measurement object information, or the measurement index information;

[0012] The paging cause is used to indicate a reason for paging to obtain measurement results of the non-RRC connected state terminal.

[0013] The measurement type information is used to indicate a measurement type that the paged terminal should meet.

[0014] The measurement use case information is used to indicate a measurement use case that the paged terminal should meet.

[0015] The measurement object information is used to indicate a measurement object of the paged terminal.

[0016] The measurement indicator information is used to indicate a measurement indicator of the paged terminal.

[0017] In this design, by carrying the conditions that the paged terminal needs to meet in the paging message, the access network device can page the non-RRC connected state terminal that meets the requirements, so as to help the access network device to obtain the measurement results of the non-RRC connected state terminal that it needs, and better meet the data acquisition requirements of the access network device.

[0018] In a possible implementation, the determining to establish the RRC connection with the access network device comprises: determining to establish the RRC connection with the access network device in a case where at least one of the following conditions is met:

[0019] The measurement type of the terminal is the same as the measurement type included in the paging message; or,

[0020] The measurement use case of the terminal is the same as the measurement use case included in the paging message; or,

[0021] The measurement object of the terminal is the same as the measurement object included in the paging message; or,

[0022] The measurement indicator of the terminal is the same as the measurement indicator included in the paging message.

[0023] In this design, when the terminal meets the conditions specified in the paging message, the RRC connection is established with the access network device in response to the paging, which helps to improve the access success rate and meet the data acquisition requirements of the access network device.

[0024] In a possible implementation, the method further comprises: in a case where it is determined to establish the RRC connection with the access network device, sending a first request message, the first request message being used to request to establish the RRC connection, wherein the first request message includes a reason value, and the reason value indicates that the terminal requests to establish the RRC connection because of reporting the measurement results of the non-RRC connected state.

[0025] In this design, when the terminal requests to establish an RRC connection, the terminal informs the access network device that the request reason is to report the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state, so that the access network device can learn the request reason and accurately decide whether to accept the request of the terminal.

[0026] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving a downlink control information (DCI), the DCI being used for scheduling the paging message, wherein the first indication information is included in the DCI, and the first indication information indicates that the paging message scheduled by the DCI is a paging message specially for paging the terminal performing the non-RRC connected state measurement.

[0027] In this design, the access network device sends the DCI before sending the paging message, and adds a new indication information (i.e., the first indication information) in the DCI, to indicate that the paging message scheduled by the DCI is a paging message specially for paging the terminal performing the non-RRC connected state measurement. In this way, the terminal can know, according to the first indication information, that the paging message is only for the terminal performing the non-RRC connected state measurement after receiving the DCI. If the terminal does not perform the non-RRC connected state measurement, the terminal does not need to receive the paging message. Therefore, the terminal can be helped to avoid receiving invalid paging messages, and the energy consumption of the terminal can be reduced.

[0028] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: in a case where an RRC connection between the terminal and the access network device is established, sending the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state to the access network device through the RRC connection.

[0029] In this design, when the terminal establishes the RRC connection with the access network device, the terminal can send the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state to the access network device through the RRC connection, and then the access network device can use the received measurement result for load balancing or model optimization, to guarantee the communication performance.

[0030] In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a terminal-side device, such as a terminal or a communication module / processing module in the terminal, or a circuit or chip responsible for communication functions in the terminal (such as a modem chip, also known as a baseband chip, or a SoC chip or SIP chip containing a modem core), or a circuit or chip responsible for processing functions in the terminal (such as a GPU, an AI processor, or an ASIC). Taking the case where the method is applied to a terminal, in the method, the terminal receives a DCI, the DCI being used to schedule a paging message, wherein the DCI includes first indication information, the first indication information indicating that the scheduled paging message is a paging message specially for a terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement. Then the terminal can determine whether to receive the paging message according to the first indication information.

[0031] In the present application, the access network device sends a DCI before sending a paging message, and adds a new indication information (i.e. the first indication information) in the DCI, which is used to indicate that the paging message scheduled by the DCI is a paging message specially for a terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement. The advantage of this is that the terminal can know that the paging message is only for a terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement according to the first indication information after receiving the DCI.

[0032] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: in the case where the terminal has not performed non-RRC connected state measurement, determining not to receive the paging message.

[0033] Under this design, if the terminal has not performed non-RRC connected state measurement, the terminal does not need to receive the paging message, thus helping the terminal to avoid receiving invalid paging messages and reducing the energy consumption of the terminal.

[0034] In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be applied to a network-side device, such as an access network device on the network side. The access network device can be an access network equipment, a module (such as a circuit, a chip or a chip system, etc.) in the access network equipment, or a logic node, a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the access network device. Taking the case where the method is applied to an access network device, in the method, the access network device determines a paging message and sends the paging message, wherein the paging message includes first information, the first information being used to indicate that the paged terminal is a terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement.

[0035] In a possible implementation, the first information includes one or more of the following information:

[0036] The paging cause, the measurement type information, the measurement use case information, the measurement object information, or the measurement index information;

[0037] The paging cause is used to indicate a cause of the paging for obtaining measurement results of the non-RRC connected state terminal.

[0038] The measurement type information is used to indicate a measurement type that the paged terminal should meet.

[0039] The measurement use case information is used to indicate a measurement use case that the paged terminal should meet.

[0040] The measurement object information is used to indicate a measurement object of the paged terminal.

[0041] The measurement indicator information is used to indicate a measurement indicator of the paged terminal.

[0042] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving a first request message, the first request message being used to request establishment of an RRC connection, wherein a cause value is included in the first request message, the cause value indicating a cause of terminal request for establishment of the RRC connection, i.e., reporting measurement results of a non-RRC connected state.

[0043] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: sending a downlink control information (DCI), the DCI being used to schedule the paging message, wherein first indication information is included in the DCI, the first indication information indicating that the scheduled paging message is a paging message that is specially used for paging terminals that have performed measurement in a non-RRC connected state.

[0044] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: receiving a second request message, the second request message being used to request obtaining of measurement results of a terminal, and second indication information being included in the second request message, the second indication information indicating that the access network device is allowed to trigger a non-RRC connected state terminal to report measurement results of a non-RRC connected state; and the sending of the DCI includes: sending the DCI according to the second indication information.

[0045] Under this design, other network devices send a request (i.e., the second request message) for data collection to the access network device, and the second request message includes indication information (i.e., the second indication information) for indicating whether the access network device is allowed to trigger a non-RRC connected state terminal to report measurement results of a non-RRC connected state, so that the access network device can make a reasonable decision on whether to collect measurement results of a non-RRC connected state terminal, and unnecessary triggering of a non-RRC connected state terminal to report measurement results is avoided, thereby reducing terminal energy consumption.

[0046] In a possible implementation, the method further includes: in a case where an RRC connection between the terminal and the access network device is established, receiving measurement results of a non-RRC connected state from the terminal through the RRC connection.

[0047] It should be understood that the beneficial effects of the implementation of the second aspect described above can be referred to the beneficial effects of the implementation of the first aspect, and will not be repeated here.

[0048] Fourthly, this application provides a communication device comprising units or modules for performing any of the methods described in the first to third aspects, or any possible implementation thereof.

[0049] Fifthly, this application provides a communication device including a processor and a communication interface. The communication interface is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit them to the processor, or to send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device. The processor uses logic circuits and / or executes computer programs or instructions to implement any of the methods in the first to third aspects, or any possible implementation of any of the aspects.

[0050] Optionally, the communication interface can be a transceiver, interface circuit, input / output interface, input / output module, chip pin, or other type of communication interface.

[0051] Optionally, the communication device further includes a memory storing computer programs or instructions; the processor is used to invoke the computer program in the memory, causing the communication device to perform the method shown in any of the first to third aspects, or any possible implementation thereof.

[0052] In one possible design, the communication device can be a chip, a chip system, or a device containing a chip that implements the above method.

[0053] In a sixth aspect, this application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program or instructions that, when executed by a computer, implement the method shown in any of the first to third aspects, or any possible implementation thereof.

[0054] In a seventh aspect, this application provides a computer program product that, when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform any of the methods in the first to third aspects, or any possible implementation thereof.

[0055] Eighthly, this application provides a chip system including at least one processor and an interface, the processor being configured to read and execute instructions stored in a memory, wherein when the instructions are executed, the chip performs the method as described in any one of the first or third aspects, or the method shown in any possible implementation of any of the aspects.

[0056] In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which can include a terminal and an access network device. The terminal is configured to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect. The access network device is configured to perform the method of the third aspect or any possible implementation of the third aspect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0057] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applied;

[0058] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an O-RAN device provided by the present application;

[0059] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a flow of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0060] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of information elements in a paging message provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0061] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of information elements in a DCI provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0062] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of another flow of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0063] FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of still another flow of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0064] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a possible communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0065] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a possible communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0066] The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be described clearly and completely below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

[0067] In the description of the present application, "first" and "second" are used only to distinguish different objects, and are not used to describe a specific order. In addition, unless otherwise specified, " / " means "or", for example, A / B can mean A or B. "And / or" in this article only describes the relationship between the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B, which can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, "at least one" means one or more, and "multiple" means two or more. "At least one" or the like refers to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or multiple items. For example, at least one of a, b, or c can mean: a, b, c; a and b; a and c; b and c; or a and b and c. Where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0068] The terms "comprising" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product or device, etc. including a series of steps or units is not limited to the listed steps or units, but optionally also includes steps or units not listed, etc., or optionally also includes other steps or units inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices, etc.

[0069] In this application, the words "exemplary" or "for example" are used to mean serving as an example, instance, or illustration. Any embodiment or design described as "exemplary", "for example" or "for instance" in this application should not be construed as being more preferred or advantageous than other embodiments or designs. Rather, the use of "exemplary", "for example" or "for instance" is primarily intended to present concepts in a concrete manner.

[0070] It can be understood that in this application, "when", "if" and "if" all refer to the corresponding processing of the device under certain objective conditions, not the time limit, and also does not require the device to have a judgment action when it is implemented, nor does it mean that there are other limitations.

[0071] In this application, the use of singular elements is intended to represent "one or more", not "one and only one", unless otherwise specified.

[0072] It can be understood that in each embodiment of the present application, "A corresponding to B" means that A and B have a corresponding relationship, and B can be determined according to A. Determining B according to A does not mean that B is determined only according to A, but B can also be determined according to A and / or other information.

[0073] In order to better understand the embodiments of the present application, first, the system architecture related to the embodiments of the present application will be introduced as follows:

[0074] Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applied. It is noted that FIG. 1 is one possible, non-limiting example of a system. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 10 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100 and a core network (CN) 200. Optionally, the communication system 10 can also include the Internet 300. The RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 110) and at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 120). Other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG. 1), etc., can also be included in the RAN 100. The terminal 120 is connected to the RAN node 110 in a wireless manner. The RAN node 110 is connected to the core network 200 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network network element in the core network 200 and the RAN node 110 in the RAN 100 can be different physical devices respectively, can be the same physical device integrated with the logical functions of the core network and the logical functions of the radio access network, or can be a physical device integrated with the functions of part of the core network network element and part of the RAN node 110. The terminals and the terminals, and the RAN nodes 110 and the RAN nodes 110 can be connected to each other in a wired or wireless manner. FIG. 1 is only a schematic diagram, and the communication system can also include other network devices, such as a network management device, a core network device, another base station, or a new device introduced in future networks (e.g., a mobile intelligent unit responsible for wireless intelligent functions), etc. The other network devices are connected to the RAN node through a wired or wireless link.

[0075] The RAN 100 can be a 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP)-related cellular system, such as a 4G, 5G mobile communication system, or a future-oriented evolution system. The RAN 100 can also be an open radio access network (O-RAN or ORAN), a cloud radio access network (CRAN), or a wireless fidelity (WiFi) system. The RAN 100 can also be a communication system in which two or more of the above systems are integrated.

[0076] The RAN node 110, which can also be referred to as a radio access network device, an access network device, an access network equipment, a RAN entity or an access node, etc., forms part of a communication system to help terminals to access the wireless access. The RAN nodes 110 in the communication system 10 can be of the same type or of different types. In some scenarios, the roles of the RAN nodes 110 and the terminals 120 are relative, e.g., the network element 120i in Figure 1 can be a helicopter or a drone, which can be configured to be a mobile base station, for a terminal 120j accessing to the RAN 100 through the network element 120i, the network element 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, the network element 120i is a terminal. The RAN nodes 110 and the terminals 120 are sometimes referred to as communication devices, e.g., the network elements 110a and 110b in Figure 1 can be understood as communication devices with base station functionalities, and the network elements 120a-120j can be understood as communication devices with terminal functionalities.

[0077] In a possible scenario, the RAN node 110 can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), an access point (AP), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB), a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access node in a WiFi system, etc. The RAN node 110 can be a macro base station (e.g., 110a in Figure 1), a micro base station or an indoor station (e.g., 110b in Figure 1), a relay node or a donor node, or a wireless controller in a CRAN scenario. Optionally, the RAN node 110 can also be a server, a wearable device, a vehicle or a vehicle-mounted device, etc. For example, the wireless access network equipment in the vehicle to everything (V2X) technology can be a road side unit (RSU). All or part of the functions of the RAN node 110 in this application can also be implemented by software functions running on hardware, or by virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). The RAN node 110 in this application can also be a logical node, a logical module or software capable of implementing all or part of the functions of the RAN node 110.

[0078] In another possible scenario, a terminal is assisted by multiple RAN nodes 110 to implement wireless access in cooperation, and different RAN nodes 110 respectively implement part of functions of a base station. For example, a RAN node 110 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 also be included in the same network element, for example, in a baseband unit (BBU). The RU can be included in a radio frequency device or a radio frequency unit, for example, included in a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna processing unit (AAU), or a remote radio head (RRH).

[0079] The CU (or CU-CP and CU-UP), DU or RU can also have different names in different systems, but those skilled in the art can understand their meanings. For example, in the ORAN system, the CU can also be referred to as O-CU (open CU), the DU can also be referred to as O-DU, the CU-CP can also be referred to as O-CU-CP, the CU-UP can also be referred to as O-CU-UP, and the RU can also be referred to as O-RU. For the convenience of description, the CU, CU-CP, CU-UP, DU and RU are taken as examples for description in the present application. Any one of the CU (or CU-CP, CU-UP), DU and RU in the present application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of a software module and a hardware module. Exemplarily, please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an O-RAN device provided in the present application. As shown in FIG. 2, the O-RAN device includes a non-real-time radio access network intelligent controller (Non-RT RIC), a near-real-time radio access network intelligent controller (Near-RT RIC), an open network architecture central unit control plane (O-CU-CP), an open network architecture central unit user plane (O-CU-UP), an open network architecture distributed unit (O-DU), and an open network architecture evolved NodeB (O-eNB). In the ORAN system, the RAN node 110 in FIG. 1 can be replaced by the O-CU-CP or the O-eNB shown in FIG. 2, and other network devices can be the Non-RT RIC or the Near-RT RIC, which are not limited.

[0080] The terminal can also be referred to as a terminal device, user equipment (UE), mobile station (MS), mobile terminal (MT), etc., or a device used to provide voice or data connectivity to a user, or a handheld device having a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, etc. The terminal can be widely applied to various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D) communication, vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), internet of things (IOT), virtual reality, augmented reality, industrial control, automatic driving, remote medical treatment, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. At present, the terminal can be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palm computer, a mobile internet device (MID), a computer with a wireless transceiver function, a wearable device (such as a smart watch, a smart bracelet, a pedometer, smart glasses, etc.), a vehicle-mounted device (such as a car, a bicycle, an electric vehicle, an airplane, a ship, a train, a high-speed rail, etc.), a satellite terminal, a virtual reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (AR) device, a smart point of sale (POS) machine, a customer-premises equipment (CPE), a light UE, a reduced capability UE (REDCAP UE), a wireless terminal in industrial control, a smart home device (such as a refrigerator, a television, an air conditioner, an electric meter, etc.), a smart robot, a mechanical arm, a workshop device, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical treatment, a wireless terminal in a smart grid, a wireless terminal in transportation safety, a wireless terminal in a smart city, or a wireless terminal in a smart home, a flight device (such as a smart robot, a hot air balloon, a drone, an airplane), etc. The terminal can also be a vehicle device, such as a whole vehicle device, a vehicle-mounted module, a vehicle-mounted chip, an on board unit (OBU), or a telematics box (T-BOX), etc. The terminal can also be other devices with terminal functions, such as a device that plays a terminal function in D2D communication, etc. Embodiments of the present application do not limit the device form of the terminal, and the device used to implement the function of the terminal can be a terminal, or a device capable of supporting the terminal to implement the function, such as a chip system.The apparatus can be installed in a terminal or used with a terminal. In the embodiments of the present application, the chip system can be composed of a chip, or can include a chip and other discrete devices. All or part of the functions of the terminal 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).

[0081] For ease of description, the following describes a base station as an example of the RAN node 110. The base station and the terminal can be fixed in position or mobile. The base station and the terminal can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on water; can also be deployed on an airplane, balloon, and artificial satellite. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the base station and the terminal.

[0082] The roles of the base station and the terminal can be relative, for example, the helicopter or the drone 120i in FIG. 1 can be configured as a mobile base station, and for those terminals 120j that access the wireless access network 100 through 120i, the terminal 120i is a base station; but for the base station 110a, 120i is a terminal, that is, 110a and 120i communicate through a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate through a base station-to-base station interface protocol, at this time, relative to 110a, 120i is also a base station. Therefore, the base station and the terminal can be collectively referred to as a communication apparatus, 110a and 110b in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication apparatus with a base station function, and 120a-120j in FIG. 1 can be referred to as a communication apparatus with a terminal function.

[0083] The base station and the terminal, the base station and the base station, and the terminal and the terminal can communicate through a licensed frequency spectrum, or through an unlicensed frequency spectrum, or through both a licensed frequency spectrum and an unlicensed frequency spectrum; can communicate through a frequency spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), or through a frequency spectrum above 6 GHz, or through both a frequency spectrum below 6 GHz and a frequency spectrum above 6 GHz. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the frequency spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0084] In the embodiments of the present application, the functions of the base station can also be performed by a module (such as a chip) in the base station, or by a control subsystem containing base station functions. The control subsystem containing base station functions here can be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart grid, industrial control, intelligent transportation, and smart city. The functions of the terminal can also be performed by a module (such as a chip or a modem) in the terminal, or by a device containing terminal functions.

[0085] In the present application, a base station sends downlink signals or downlink information to a terminal, and the downlink information is carried on a downlink channel; a terminal sends uplink signals or uplink information to a base station, and the uplink information is carried on an uplink channel. In order to communicate with a base station, a terminal needs to establish a radio connection on a cell controlled by the base station. A cell with which a terminal has established a radio connection is referred to as a serving cell of the terminal. When the terminal communicates with the serving cell, it is also interfered by signals from neighboring cells.

[0086] In the present application, "sending information" can be understood as that a device sends information to another device, or can also be understood as that a logical module in a device sends information to another logical module. For example, "a base station sending information" can be understood as that the base station sends information to another device (e.g., a terminal), or can be understood as that a logical module 1 in the base station sends information to a logical module 2 in the base station.

[0087] In the present application, "receiving information" can be understood as that a device receives information from another device, or can also be understood as that a logical module in a device receives information from another logical module. For example, "a base station receiving information" can be understood as that the base station receives information from another device (e.g., a terminal), or can be understood as that a logical module 1 in the base station receives information from a logical module 2 in the base station.

[0088] In the present application, "sending information to (e.g., a terminal)" or related illustrations in the drawings can be understood as that the destination of the information is the terminal. This can include directly or indirectly sending information to the terminal. "Receiving information from (e.g., a terminal)" or "receiving information sent by (e.g., a terminal)" or related illustrations in the drawings can be understood as that the source of the information is the terminal. This can include directly or indirectly receiving information from the terminal. The information can be processed as necessary between the source and the destination, for example, format change, etc., but the destination can understand the valid information from the source. Similar expressions in the present application can be understood similarly, and will not be described here.

[0089] To facilitate understanding of the related content of the embodiments of the present application, some knowledge / terminology needed by the schemes of the present application is introduced below. It should be noted that these explanations are to make the embodiments of the present application more easily understood, and should not be regarded as limiting the scope of protection claimed by the present application.

[0090] 1. RRC state of a terminal

[0091] In a wireless network, a terminal can be in different RRC states. Currently, the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) standard defines three RRC states: RRC connected state (RRC_CONNECTED), RRC idle state (RRC_IDLE), and RRC inactive state (RRC_INACTIVE). The meanings of the three RRC states are as follows:

[0092] The terminal is in the RRC idle state when no RRC connection is established between the terminal and the access network device.

[0093] The terminal is in the RRC connected state when an RRC connection is established between the terminal and the access network device, and the terminal normally processes data.

[0094] The terminal is in the RRC inactive state when an RRC connection is established between the terminal and the access network device, but the terminal suspends processing data.

[0095] The terminal can only be in one RRC state at a time. The terminal can be converted between different RRC states by establishing, releasing, reestablishing, resuming, and suspending the RRC connection with the access network device.

[0096] Hereinafter, for convenience of description, the other RRC states except the RRC connected state are collectively referred to as non-RRC connected states. That is, the "non-RRC connected state" can include the RRC idle state, the RRC inactive state, and other RRC states that may be introduced in the future.

[0097] 2. Terminal measurement

[0098] The terminal can perform measurement when it is in the RRC connected state and the non-RRC connected state. The measurement target can be the signal quality of a cell, the position coordinates of the terminal, and the like.

[0099] Measurement configuration. The access network device can configure the terminal measurement, and the configuration content includes the measurement object, the measurement index, the measurement time, the measurement area, and the like. The access network device can configure the terminal measurement in different RRC states respectively.

[0100] Measurement report. After completing the measurement, the terminal can report the measurement result to the access network device through an RRC message. Since the terminal can only send the RRC message in the RRC connected state, if the terminal is in the non-RRC connected state, the terminal needs to enter the RRC connected state first to report the measurement result to the access network device.

[0101] Measurement in non-RRC connected state. When a terminal is in non-RRC connected state, different types of measurements can be performed. Currently, multiple types of non-RRC connected state measurements are defined in 3GPP standards, including logged measurement, early measurement, idle / inactive measurement, etc. Different types of measurements, their measurement configurations and the use of measurement results are usually different.

[0102] 3. Paging

[0103] Paging refers to the access network device sending a notification to a non-RRC connected state terminal, informing the terminal that the network is looking for it. The network looks for the terminal (non-RRC connected state terminal) usually because the network has data or signaling to send to the terminal. After receiving the notification, the terminal establishes an RRC connection (i.e., enters an RRC connected state) with the access network device through a random access procedure, and then receives the data or signaling.

[0104] The "notification" sent by the access network device to the terminal is actually a paging message. The paging message contains the identity (UE ID) of the paged terminal. After receiving the paging message, if the terminal finds that the terminal identity contained in the paging message is the same as its own identity, it will respond to the paging, i.e., establish an RRC connection with the access network device and enter an RRC connected state; otherwise, the terminal will not respond to the paging and continue to be in a non-RRC connected state. It should be noted that the terminal corresponding to the terminal identity contained in the paging message can be referred to as a specific terminal in this application, that is, the paging message can be used to page a specific terminal.

[0105] Before sending the paging message, the access network device will first send a DCI. The role of the DCI is to tell the terminal the scheduling information of the paging message (including the frequency domain resource, time domain resource, modulation and coding mode used by the paging message), so that the terminal can correctly receive the paging message according to the scheduling information.

[0106] Currently, if an access network device wants to obtain the measurement result of a non-RRC connected terminal in the non-RRC connected state (for example, when the number of RRC connected terminals is insufficient, the measurement result of the non-RRC connected terminal needs to be collected), the terminal needs to be first put into the RRC connected state for other reasons. If the terminal does not enter the RRC connected state for a long time (for example, the terminal sleeps for a long time at night and does not need to interact with the network), the access network device needs to wait for a long time to obtain the measurement result of the terminal. Generally, the reasons for the terminal to establish an RRC connection with the access network device currently include: ① the terminal has data or signaling to send to the network (at this time, the terminal initiates a random access process to establish an RRC connection with the access network device), or ② the network has data or signaling to send to the terminal (at this time, the network pages the terminal, and the terminal initiates a random access process to establish an RRC connection with the access network device after receiving the page). These reasons are referred to as "other reasons" in this document because they do not include "the network needs to obtain the non-RRC connected measurement result".

[0107] However, in some cases, the access network device may need to complete the collection of the measurement result in a very short time. For example, the access network device finds that the network throughput has decreased significantly, and therefore needs to quickly collect the measurement result of the terminal to determine where the network failure occurs. For another example, the access network device runs a machine learning model to make handover decisions, and finds that the performance of the model decreases (for example, the probability of handover failure increases) after a period of time, and therefore needs to quickly collect the measurement result (for example, the signal quality of the current cell and neighboring cells, terminal location information) of the terminal as training data to retrain the model to ensure network performance. In the above scenarios, using the current solution to collect the measurement result may need to wait for a long time, which cannot meet the requirement of fast collection.

[0108] Based on this, the present application provides a communication method and device, which can realize fast collection of the measurement result of a non-RRC connected terminal.

[0109] The communication method and device provided by the present application will be further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It can be understood that the access network device and the terminal are taken as the execution subject of the interaction in the present application, but the present application does not limit the execution subject of the interaction. For example, the method performed by the access network device in the present application can be implemented by the access network device or a module (such as a circuit, a chip or a chip system, etc.) in the access network device, or a logic node, a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the function of the access network device; the method performed by the terminal in the present application can also be implemented by a communication / processing module or a circuit or chip (such as a modem chip (also known as a baseband chip), or a SoC chip / SIP chip containing a modem core, or a GPU / AI processor / ASIC) responsible for communication / processing function in the terminal.

[0110] Please refer to FIG. 3, which is a flow diagram of a communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application. As shown in FIG. 3, the communication method can include the following steps:

[0111] S301, the access network device sends a paging message to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the paging message from the access network device.

[0112] The paging message contains first information, where the first information is used to indicate that the paged terminal has performed non-RRC connected state measurement. Or described as the paging message is used to page the terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement, or described as the paging message is a message specially used to page the terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement. In a possible design, the above-mentioned first information can specifically include one or more of the following information: paging cause, measurement type information, measurement use case information, measurement object information, or measurement index information, etc.

[0113] Wherein, the paging cause is used to indicate that the paging cause is to obtain the measurement result of the non-RRC connected terminal, or described as the paging cause is used to indicate that the paging is to collect the measurement result of the non-RRC connected terminal. It should be noted that the paging cause here can be understood as explicitly indicating that the paged terminal has performed non-RRC connected state measurement.

[0114] The measurement type information is used to indicate the measurement type that the paged terminal should meet, or described as the measurement type information is used to indicate which type of measurement the paged terminal needs to perform. Exemplarily, the measurement type can be logged measurement, early measurement, or idle / inactive measurement, etc., without limitation. In one design, the measurement type information contained in the paging message can adopt an enumeration type, for example, the enumeration value space is {logged measurement, early measurement, idle / inactive measurement}. In another design, the measurement type information can also be represented by several bits, for example, taking 2 bits as an example, when the value of the 2 bits is 00, it represents logged measurement; when the value of the 2 bits is 01, it represents early measurement; when the value of the 2 bits is 10, it represents idle / inactive measurement. In yet another design, the measurement type information can also be indicated by a bit map, where one bit in the bit map corresponds to one measurement type, and when the value of the corresponding bit is "1", it means that the corresponding measurement type is carried in the paging message. For example, when the value of the bit map is 001, it represents logged measurement; when the value of the bit map is 010, it represents early measurement; when the value of the bit map is 100, it represents idle / inactive measurement.

[0115] The measurement use case information described above is used to indicate the measurement use cases that the paged terminal should meet, or it can be described as measurement use case information used to indicate which / which use cases the paged terminal performed the measurement for, or it can be understood as the test use case referring to the application scenario in which the test results are used. For example, the measurement use case can be load balancing, mobility optimization, or channel compression feedback, etc., and is not limited thereto. In one design, the measurement use case information can be an identifier or name of the use case. For example, assuming identifier 1 corresponds to load balancing, identifier 2 corresponds to mobility optimization, and identifier 3 corresponds to channel compression feedback, then when the value of the measurement use case information is "1", it indicates load balancing. For another example, when the measurement use case information is "load balance", it indicates load balancing. In another design, the measurement use case information can also be represented by several bits. For example, using 2 bits, when the value of these 2 bits is 00, it indicates load balancing; when the value of these 2 bits is 01, it indicates mobility optimization; and when the value of these 2 bits is 10, it indicates channel compression feedback. In yet another design, the measurement use case information can also be indicated using a bitmap, where one bit in the bitmap corresponds to one measurement use case.

[0116] The aforementioned measurement object information is used to indicate the measurement object of the paged terminal, or the information describing the measurement object is used to indicate which object the paged terminal measured. For example, the measurement object can be a cell, tracking area (TA), radio access network notification area (RNA), etc. The measurement object information may include the identifier of the measurement object, such as a physical cell identity (PCI), tracking area identity (TAI), radio access network area identity, etc.

[0117] The information of the measurement index is used to indicate the measurement index / measurement index group of the paged terminal, or the information described as the measurement index is used to indicate which index / indices the paged terminal measures. The measurement index can be a reference signal received power (RSRP), a reference signal received quality (RSRQ), a channel matrix, a user position, etc. The information of the measurement index can contain an identifier or a name of a single measurement index or a group of measurement indices, for example, the information takes a value of "3" to represent the 3rd measurement index (or the 3rd measurement index group), or takes a value of "RSRP" to represent the measurement index RSRP. It can be understood that the measurement indices contained in each measurement index group can be predefined in a protocol.

[0118] Generally, if only one of the above contents is contained in the paging message, the paged terminal is the terminal satisfying the item. If multiple items of the above contents are contained in the paging message, the paged terminal is the terminal satisfying the items simultaneously. As shown in FIG. 4, an example of the paging message is shown, in which the paging cause can be indicated by 1 bit, for example, when the value of the 1 bit is 0, it represents collecting the measurement result of the non-RRC connected terminal. The information of the measurement type can be indicated by 2 bits, for example, when the value of the 2 bits is 00, it represents recording measurement; when the value of the 2 bits is 01, it represents early measurement; when the value of the 2 bits is 10, it represents idle / inactive state measurement. The information of the measurement use case can also be indicated by 2 bits, for example, when the value of the 2 bits is 00, it represents load balancing; when the value of the 2 bits is 01, it represents mobility optimization; when the value of the 2 bits is 10, it represents channel compression feedback. The information of the measurement object can be indicated by 10 bits, which is used to represent a physical cell identifier. The information of the measurement index can be indicated by 1 bit, for example, when the value of the 1 bit is 0, it represents the first measurement index group; when the value of the 1 bit is 1, it represents the second measurement index group, wherein the measurement indices contained in each measurement index group can be predefined in a protocol.

[0119] It should be noted that the information of the measurement type, the information of the measurement use case, the information of the measurement object, or the information of the measurement index can be understood as implicitly indicating that the paged terminal is a terminal performing non-RRC connected state measurement. Alternatively, the present application can also indicate that the paged terminal is a terminal performing non-RRC connected state measurement through the name of the paging message, for example, the name of the paging message can be "paging message of non-RRC connected terminal".

[0120] S302, the terminal determines whether to establish an RRC connection with the access network device according to the first information.

[0121] For the terminal, the terminal can determine whether to establish RRC connection with the access network device according to the first information, or it is described that the terminal can determine / decide whether to respond to the paging according to the received paging message. The terminal responding to the paging means that the terminal enters the RRC connected state and reports the measurement result to the access network device. Generally, when the terminal makes the above decision whether to respond to the paging, it should consider whether it meets the conditions indicated in the paging message. Generally, in the case where the terminal has performed non-RRC connected state measurement, the terminal determines to establish RRC connection with the access network device; in the case where the terminal has not performed non-RRC connected state measurement, the terminal determines not to establish RRC connection with the access network device.

[0122] Specifically, when the terminal makes the decision whether to establish RRC connection with the access network device, it should consider whether it meets the conditions indicated in the paging message. For example, when the paging message includes the information of the measurement type, in the case where the measurement type of the terminal is the same as the measurement type included in the paging message, it is determined to establish RRC connection with the access network device, otherwise not to establish RRC connection with the access network device. For another example, when the paging message includes the information of the measurement use case, in the case where the measurement use case of the terminal is the same as the measurement use case included in the paging message, it is determined to establish RRC connection with the access network device, otherwise not to establish RRC connection with the access network device. For another example, when the paging message includes the information of the measurement object, in the case where the measurement object of the terminal is the same as the measurement object included in the paging message, it is determined to establish RRC connection with the access network device, otherwise not to establish RRC connection with the access network device. For another example, when the paging message includes the information of the measurement indicator, in the case where the measurement indicator of the terminal is the same as the measurement indicator included in the paging message, it is determined to establish RRC connection with the access network device, otherwise not to establish RRC connection with the access network device. As described above, when the paging message only contains one of the above contents, the terminal paged is the terminal that meets the item, and when the paging message contains multiple items of the above contents, the terminal paged should be the terminal that meets all the items at the same time.

[0123] For example, it is assumed that the paging message contains the paging cause, indicating that the paging is for collecting non-RRC connected state terminal measurement results. If the terminal has performed measurement in the non-RRC connected state, the terminal responds to the paging. Otherwise, it does not respond to the paging.

[0124] For another example, it is assumed that the paging message contains the information of the measurement type, indicating that the measurement type is "recorded measurement". If the terminal has performed "recorded measurement" operation in the non-RRC connected state, the terminal responds to the paging. Otherwise, it does not respond to the paging.

[0125] For example, assume that the paging message contains information of a measurement object and information of a measurement metric, indicating that the measurement object is cell 1 and the measurement metric is RSRP. If the terminal has measured the RSRP of cell 1 in the non-RRC connected state, the terminal responds to the paging. Otherwise, the terminal does not respond to the paging.

[0126] Hereinafter, the establishment of the RRC connection between the terminal and the access network device is exemplarily described. Specifically, when the terminal determines to establish the RRC connection with the access network device (or when the terminal decides to respond to the paging), the terminal can send a request message (referred to as a first request message in the present application for the sake of distinction) to the access network device for requesting the establishment of the RRC connection. It should be noted that the "establishment of the RRC connection" described in the present application can be understood as the establishment or reestablishment or resumption of the RRC connection, which is not limited in the present application. For example, when the terminal is in the RRC idle state, the terminal can request the establishment or reestablishment of the RRC connection, i.e., the first request message can be an RRC setup request or an RRC reestablishment request. For another example, when the terminal is in the RRC inactive state, the terminal can request the resumption of the RRC connection, i.e., the first request message can be an RRC resume request, etc. It should be noted that the "establishment of the RRC connection" can also have other meanings, i.e., the first request message can also be a request message sent by the terminal in other RRC states that can be introduced in the future.

[0127] Optionally, the first request message can include a cause value, which indicates the reason why the terminal requests the establishment of the RRC connection.

[0128] For the access network device, after receiving the first request message, the access network device can decide whether to accept the request. Optionally, when the first request message includes the cause value, the access network device can consider the cause value included in the first request message when making the decision of whether to accept the request. For example, if "collecting the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state" is a high-priority item of the access network device at present, the access network device will preferentially accept the request including the cause value "reporting the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state"; otherwise, the access network device can not accept the request.

[0129] It can be understood that if the access network device decides to accept the first request message, the access network device can send a corresponding response message (referred to as a first response message in this application for ease of distinction) to the terminal, indicating the terminal to establish an RRC connection. As described above, the RRC connection establishment includes the meanings of RRC connection establishment / reestablishment / resume, based on which, when the first request message is an RRC establishment request, the first response message can be an RRC setup message; when the first request message is an RRC reestablishment request, the first response message can be an RRC reestablishment message; when the first request message is an RRC resume request, the first response message can be an RRC resume message, and the like, which are not limited in this application.

[0130] It should be understood that when the terminal enters the RRC connected state (or in the case where the terminal has established an RRC connection with the access network device), the terminal can send the measurement results in the non-RRC connected state to the access network device through the RRC connection. For the access network device, the access network device can perform coverage optimization or communication parameter adjustment or model optimization, etc. according to the received data / measurement results, to improve the subsequent communication performance.

[0131] The above steps S301-S302 mainly introduce a scheme in which the access network device wakes up / trigger the terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement through a paging message, so that the terminal enters the RRC connected state and can report the measurement results. In actual implementation, before the above step S301, the following step S300 can also be included:

[0132] S300, the access network device sends a DCI to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the DCI from the access network device.

[0133] The DCI is used to schedule the paging message, or described as including scheduling information of the paging message in the DCI, for example, the scheduling information of the paging message includes frequency domain resources, time domain resources, mapping mode of virtual resource block to physical resource block, modulation and coding mode, etc. used by the paging message, which are not limited here, and an example of the DCI is shown in (a) of FIG. 5. The specific meaning of the scheduling information can be referred to the provisions in 3GPP TS 38.212 about DCI format 1_0, which is not described here.

[0134] In a possible design, the DCI can further include first indication information. The first indication information indicates that the scheduled paging message is a paging message dedicated to paging terminals performing non-RRC connected state measurement, or describes that the first indication information indicates that the scheduled paging message is only used for paging terminals performing non-RRC connected state measurement, or describes that the first indication information indicates that the paging message is only used for collecting non-RRC connected state measurement results, or describes that the first indication information indicates that the scheduled paging message does not include a terminal identifier. As described above, the terminal corresponding to the terminal identifier included in the paging message can be referred to as a specific terminal in this application, that is, the paging message can be used to page the specific terminal. In this embodiment, the paging message does not include a terminal identifier can be understood as the paging message is not used to page a specific terminal, but is only used to page terminals performing non-RRC connected state measurement.

[0135] For example, the first indication information can be of a Boolean type, and a value of "true" or "1" indicates that the paging message is only used for collecting non-RRC connected state measurement results, and a value of "false" or "0" indicates that the paging message is not only used for collecting non-RRC connected state measurement results (for example, the paging message is used to page a specific terminal, or the paging message is used to page a specific terminal and collect non-RRC connected state measurement results of terminals). This has the advantage that, after receiving the DCI, the terminal can know that the paging message is only for terminals performing non-RRC connected state measurement according to the first indication information. If the terminal does not perform non-RRC connected state measurement, the terminal does not need to receive the paging message. That is, the above enhancement of the DCI can help the terminal avoid receiving invalid paging messages, thereby reducing the energy consumption of the terminal. As shown in (b) of FIG. 5, another example of the DCI includes scheduling information of the paging message and the first indication information, and the first indication information can be carried by one bit. For example, when the value of the one bit is 1, it indicates that the scheduled paging message is a paging message dedicated to paging terminals performing non-RRC connected state measurement. For another example, when the value of the one bit is 0, it indicates that the scheduled paging message is not a paging message dedicated to paging terminals performing non-RRC connected state measurement, that is, the paging message can be used to page a specific terminal, or the paging message can be used to page a specific terminal and a terminal performing non-RRC connected state measurement.

[0136] Optionally, when the DCI includes the first indication information, the paging message scheduled by the DCI can include the first information or can not include the first information. In the case where the paging message does not include the first information, it is beneficial to save paging overhead.

[0137] In the embodiments of the present application, the access network device wakes up the terminal which has performed the non-RRC connected state measurement in a paging manner, so that the terminal reports the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state. Compared with the current scheme in which the access network device is passively waiting for the terminal to be triggered into the RRC connected state due to other reasons, the scheme of actively triggering the terminal into the RRC connected state reduces the time for the access network device to wait for the terminal to enter the RRC connected state, so that the access network device can quickly obtain the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state. In addition, by adding first indication information in the DCI, the paging message is used only for collecting the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state, so that the terminal can know the purpose of the paging message (i.e., collecting the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state) after receiving the DCI, and then can determine whether to receive the paging message, thereby avoiding receiving invalid paging messages to reduce the energy consumption of the terminal.

[0138] As introduced in the foregoing name explanation, before the terminal performs the non-RRC connected state measurement, the access network device needs to configure the terminal measurement first. Exemplarily, please refer to FIG. 6, which is another flowchart of the communication method provided by the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of the method embodiments of the present application, which shows the detailed communication steps or operations of the method, but these steps or operations are only examples, and the embodiments of the present application can also perform other operations or variations of the various operations in FIG. 6. In addition, the various steps in FIG. 6 can be performed in different order from that presented in FIG. 6, and it is possible that not all the operations in FIG. 6 are to be performed. Among them:

[0139] S601, the access network device sends non-RRC connected state measurement configuration information to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the non-RRC connected state measurement configuration information from the access network device.

[0140] The non-RRC connected state measurement configuration information is used to configure the measurement operation of the terminal in the non-RRC connected state. Exemplarily, the measurement configuration information contains at least one of the following information: measurement type information, measurement use case information, measurement object information, measurement index information, or measurement time information.

[0141] The measurement type can be logged measurement, early measurement, idle state / non-active state measurement, etc. The measurement type information can adopt an enumeration type, for example, the enumeration value space is {logged measurement, early measurement, idle state / non-active state measurement}. The measurement type information can also be implicitly indicated by the name of the configuration information, for example, the name of the configuration information is "logged measurement configuration (Logged Measurement Configuration)", which implicitly indicates that the measurement type is "logged measurement".

[0142] The measurement case refers to a use case corresponding to the measurement operation, such as a "load balancing" use case, indicating that the measurement data is used for "load balancing". Exemplarily, the information of the measurement case can include an identifier or a name of the use case.

[0143] The measurement object can be a cell, a TA, an RNA, and the like. The information of the measurement object can include an identifier of the measurement object, such as a PCI, and the like.

[0144] The measurement indicator can be an RSRP, an RSRQ, a channel matrix, a user position, and the like. The information of the measurement indicator can indicate a single measurement indicator (including an identifier or a name of the measurement indicator), or can also indicate a group of measurement indicators (including an identifier or a name of the group of measurement indicators), wherein the measurement indicators included in the group of measurement indicators can be protocol predefined, and the like, without limitation.

[0145] The information of the measurement time can include one or more of a time of measurement start, a time of measurement end, and a measurement duration.

[0146] S602, after the terminal enters the non-RRC connected state, the terminal performs measurement according to the measurement configuration in the measurement configuration information, and records the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state.

[0147] S603, the access network device determines whether to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result.

[0148] In a possible design (I), the access network device can determine to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result when the following conditions occur: condition 1, the access network device finds that the throughput of a certain cell decreases, and thus needs to determine whether a coverage hole occurs in the cell according to the RSRP of the cell measured by the terminal. Or condition 2, the access network device runs a machine learning (ML) model to make handover decisions, and finds that the performance of the model decreases (for example, the probability of handover failure increases) after running for a period of time, and thus needs to retrain the model according to the information of the RSRP of the cell and adjacent cells measured by the terminal and the terminal position as training data. Understandably, in the above two cases, the access network device can preferentially trigger the RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result; when the number of RRC connected terminals is small / insufficient, the non-RRC connected terminal is further triggered to report the measurement result. The present application mainly focuses on the acquisition of the non-RRC connected measurement result, and does not consider the acquisition of the RRC connected measurement result. Here, the non-RRC connected measurement result refers to the measurement result obtained by the terminal in the non-RRC connected state. For the sake of convenience, the non-RRC connected measurement result is referred to as the measurement result in the following description.

[0149] In a possible design (II), the access network device can also determine whether to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result according to a request from another network device (for example, a network management device, a core network device, another access network device, or a new device introduced in a future network (for example, a mobile intelligent unit responsible for wireless intelligent functions), etc.). For example, as shown in FIG. 7, before step S603, step A can also be included: the other network device sends a second request message to the access network device, and accordingly, the access network device receives the second request message from the other network device. The second request message is used to request the measurement result of the terminal, or the second request message is used to request the access network device to collect data and send it to the other network device. In this embodiment, the data requested by the other network device to collect can be data measured by the non-RRC connected terminal.

[0150] Exemplarily, the second request message can include one or more of the following information: second indication information, or data information. The second indication information indicates whether the access network device is allowed to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state. Exemplarily, the second indication information can implicitly indicate the importance of the requested data to the other network device, or the urgency of the demand of the other network device for the data. For example, when the other network device urgently needs the data, it can be indicated that the access network device is allowed to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report; conversely, if the other network device does not urgently need the data, it can be indicated that the access network device is not allowed to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report. This is because triggering the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result requires the non-RRC connected terminal to enter the RRC connected state, which increases the energy consumption of the terminal, and therefore in a non-urgent case, the non-RRC connected terminal can not be triggered to report, and only the RRC connected terminal can be triggered to report. Exemplarily, the second indication information can be of a Boolean type, for example, taking a value of "true" or "1" to indicate that the access network device is allowed to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result, and taking a value of "false" or "0" to indicate that the access network device is not allowed to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result. Hereinafter, the second indication information is mainly exemplarily described as indicating that the access network device is allowed to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state.

[0151] The data information carried in the second request message can include one or more of the following information: category information of the required data, quantity information of the required data, time information of data feedback, or information of the collection / measurement time of the data.

[0152] The category information of the data is used to indicate the category of the requested data. For example, the category of the data includes a measurement object and a measurement index corresponding to the data, such as the category of the data being "RSRP of cell 1".

[0153] The quantity information of the data is used to indicate the quantity of the requested data or the quantity range. For example, 1000 data, or 1000-2000 data. Generally, one data (or measurement result) can be obtained by one measurement of the terminal.

[0154] The time information of the data feedback is used to indicate the time range in which the access network device is requested to feedback the data. For example, the time information of the data feedback can be a time length, such as 2 minutes, or a specific time point, such as 10:20. Alternatively, when the time information of the data feedback is a time length, the reference time can generally be the time at which the second request message is received by the access network device, for example, the access network device can send the collected data to the other network device within 2 minutes after receiving the second request message.

[0155] The information of the collection / measurement time of the data is used to indicate the data collected / measured in which time or time period, or the information of the collection / measurement time of the data is used to indicate one or more of the following: the start time of the measurement, the end time of the measurement, and the measurement duration. For example, the collection time information of the data can be from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM, that is, the other network device needs to obtain the data / measurement result collected during 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

[0156] S604, the access network device sends DCI to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the DCI from the access network device.

[0157] The DCI contains scheduling information of the paging message, and the scheduling information includes frequency domain resources, time domain resources, mapping mode of virtual resource block to physical resource block, modulation and coding mode, etc. used for transmission of the paging message. Alternatively, the DCI can also include first indication information, which indicates that the scheduled paging message is a paging message specially for paging the terminal performing non-RRC connected state measurement. For the terminal, when the terminal receives the DCI containing the first indication information, the terminal can determine whether to receive the paging message according to the first indication information. Generally, when the DCI contains the first indication information, it is determined not to receive the paging message in the case that the terminal does not perform non-RRC connected state measurement, and it is determined to receive the paging message in the case that the terminal performs non-RRC connected state measurement. Hereinafter, the application is mainly illustratively described in the case that the terminal performs non-RRC connected state measurement (i.e., the terminal receives the paging message).

[0158] S605, the access network device sends the paging message to the terminal. Accordingly, the terminal receives the paging message from the access network device.

[0159] Generally, the terminal can receive the paging message according to the scheduling information contained in the DCI. For more description of step S605, please refer to the description of S301 in the foregoing embodiment shown in FIG. 3, which will not be repeated here.

[0160] S606, the terminal decides whether to respond to the paging.

[0161] Generally, the terminal responding to the paging means that the terminal enters the RRC connected state and reports the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state to the access network device. It can be understood that when the terminal makes the decision of whether to respond to the paging, it should consider whether it meets the conditions indicated in the paging message. For example, assuming that the paging message contains the information of the measurement object and the information of the measurement index, and the measurement object is cell 1 and the measurement index is RSRP. If the terminal measures the RSRP of cell 1 in the non-RRC connected state, the terminal responds to the paging; otherwise, the terminal does not respond to the paging. Hereinafter, the terminal determining to respond to the paging is mainly taken as an example for illustrative description.

[0162] S607, the terminal sends a first request message to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device sends a first request message to the terminal.

[0163] The first request message is used to request to establish an RRC connection. Optionally, the first request message can further include a reason value, which indicates that the reason for the terminal to request to establish an RRC connection is to report the measurement result in the non-RRC connected state. For more understanding of the first request message, please refer to the description of S302 in the foregoing FIG. 3, which will not be repeated here.

[0164] S608, the access network device decides whether to accept the first request message.

[0165] In some possible embodiments, when the access network device makes the decision of whether to accept the first request message, the access network device can decide whether to allow the terminal to access or be called as deciding whether to accept the first request message according to its own load (for example, storage load, computing load, number of terminals already accessed, etc.). For example, when the number of terminals already accessing the access network device is greater than a certain number, causing the storage and computing margin of the access network device to be very small, it is difficult to serve new terminals, the access network device can refuse the access of new terminals, or refuse the access of new terminals with a certain probability.

[0166] Optionally, the access network device can also consider the cause value included in the first request message when deciding whether to accept the first request message. For example, if "collecting measurement results in non-RRC connected state" is a high priority task of the access network device at present, the access network device will prefer to accept the request including the cause value "reporting measurement results in non-RRC connected state". If "collecting measurement results in non-RRC connected state" is not a high priority task of the access network device at present, the access network device can not accept the request including the cause value "reporting measurement results in non-RRC connected state". Hereinafter, the access network device accepting the first request message is mainly taken as an example for illustrative description.

[0167] S609, the access network device sends a first response message to the terminal. Correspondingly, the terminal receives the first response message from the access network device.

[0168] If the access network device decides to accept the above request, the access network device sends a message (hereinafter referred to as a first response message for ease of distinction) to the terminal, instructing the terminal to establish an RRC connection. After the terminal receives the first response message, the terminal enters the RRC connected state.

[0169] S6010, the terminal sends measurement results in non-RRC connected state to the access network device. Correspondingly, the access network device receives the measurement results in non-RRC connected state from the terminal.

[0170] Generally, after the terminal enters the RRC connected state, the terminal can send the measurement results in non-RRC connected state to the access network device through the RRC connection, or in other words, the terminal can send an RRC message to the access network device, and the RRC message includes the measurement results in non-RRC connected state. Correspondingly, after the access network device receives the measurement results in non-RRC connected state from the terminal, the access network device can perform coverage optimization or communication parameter adjustment or model optimization, etc. based on the received data / measurement results, to improve subsequent communication performance.

[0171] Optionally, if the application scenario is data collection triggered by other network devices requesting data from the access network device (such as the design (two) in the foregoing step S603), the access network device can further send the collected data to other network devices after receiving the data / measurement results sent by the terminal (as shown in step B in FIG. 7), so that other network devices can adjust the communication parameters based on the received data, etc. to improve subsequent communication performance.

[0172] In the embodiment, the detailed process of the scheme is mainly introduced, and the interaction process between the access network device and the other network device is added. In particular, the other network device sends a second request message for data collection to the access network device, and the second request message includes second indication information, which is used to indicate whether the access network device is allowed to trigger the non-RRC connected terminal to report the non-RRC connected measurement result. In this way, the access network device can make a reasonable decision on whether to collect the measurement result of the non-RRC connected terminal, and avoid unnecessary triggering of the non-RRC connected terminal to report the measurement result, thereby facilitating the reduction of terminal energy consumption.

[0173] Optionally, the embodiments shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 6 can also be applied to the O-RAN scenario, and it should be understood that in the O-RAN scenario, the access network device involved in FIG. 3 and FIG. 6 can be replaced with “O-CU-CP or O-eNB”, and the other network device involved in FIG. 6 can be Non-RT RIC, Near-RT RIC.

[0174] The communication device provided by the present application will be described in detail below in combination with FIG. 8-FIG. 9.

[0175] It can be understood that, in order to implement the functions in the above embodiments, the communication device includes the corresponding hardware structure and / or software module for executing each function. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that, in combination with the units and method steps of the examples described in the embodiments disclosed in the present application, the present application can be realized in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is executed in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application scenario and design constraints of the technical solution.

[0176] FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are structural schematic diagrams of possible communication devices provided by the embodiments of the present application. These communication devices can be used to implement the functions of the terminal or the access network device (such as a base station) in the above method embodiments, and thus can also achieve the beneficial effects possessed by the above method embodiments. In the embodiments of the present application, the communication device can be one of the terminals 120a-120j as shown in FIG. 1, or can also be the RAN node 110a or 110b as shown in FIG. 1. Optionally, it can also be a module (such as a chip) applied to a terminal or an access network device.

[0177] As shown in FIG. 8, the communication device 800 includes a processing unit 810 and a transceiver unit 820. The communication device 800 is used to implement the functions of the terminal or the access network device in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 6 or FIG. 7.

[0178] In an implementation manner, when the communication device 800 is used to implement the functions of the terminal in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 6 or FIG. 7:

[0179] The transceiver unit 820 is configured to receive a paging message, wherein the paging message comprises first information, and the first information is used to indicate that the paged terminal is a terminal that has performed non-radio resource control (RRC) connected state measurement; and the processing unit 810 is configured to determine whether to establish an RRC connection with the access network device according to the first information. Alternatively,

[0180] The transceiver unit 820 is configured to receive a downlink control information (DCI), wherein the DCI is used to schedule a paging message, and the DCI comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the scheduled paging message is a paging message that is specially used to page a terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement; and the processing unit 810 is configured to determine whether to receive the paging message according to the first indication information.

[0181] When the communication device 800 is configured to implement the functions of the access network device in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 6 or FIG. 7, the processing unit 810 is configured to:

[0182] The processing unit 810 is configured to determine a paging message, wherein the paging message comprises first information, and the first information is used to indicate that the paged terminal is a terminal that has performed non-radio resource control (RRC) connected state measurement; and the transceiver unit 820 is configured to send the paging message.

[0183] For more detailed description of the processing unit 810 and the transceiver unit 820, please refer to the relevant description in the method embodiments shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 6 or FIG. 7.

[0184] As shown in FIG. 9, the communication device 900 comprises a processor 910, and optionally further comprises an interface circuit 920. The processor 910 and the interface circuit 920 are coupled with each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 920 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the communication device 900 can further comprise a memory 930, which is used to store instructions executed by the processor 910 or store input data required by the processor 910 to run instructions or store data generated after the processor 910 runs instructions.

[0185] When the communication device 900 is configured to implement the method shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 6 or FIG. 7, the processor 910 is configured to implement the functions of the above-mentioned processing unit 810, and the interface circuit 920 is configured to implement the functions of the above-mentioned transceiver unit 820.

[0186] When the above-mentioned communication device is a terminal chip, the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above-mentioned method embodiments. The terminal chip receives information sent by the access network device to the terminal through other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal; or the terminal chip sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal, and the information is sent by the terminal to the access network device.

[0187] When the communication device is a module applied to an access network device, the access network device module implements the functions of the access network device in the method embodiments. The access network device module receives information from other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the access network device, and the information is sent by the terminal to the access network device. Alternatively, the access network device module sends information to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the access network device, and the information is sent by the access network device to the terminal. The access network device module herein can be a baseband chip of the access network device, or a CU, a DU or other module, or a device under the open radio access network (O-RAN) architecture, such as an open CU, an open DU, etc.

[0188] It can be understood that the processor in the embodiments of the present application can be a central processing unit (CPU), and can also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSP), application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), microprocessor units (MPU), microcontroller units (MCU), graphics processing units (GPU), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), artificial intelligence processors (AI processor) or neural network processors (NPU), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor.

[0189] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions executable by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, which can be stored in a cache, a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a register, a hard disk, a mobile hard disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium well known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor, so that the processor can read information from the storage medium and write information to the storage medium. The storage medium can also be an integral part of the processor. The processor and the storage medium can be located in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC can be located in an access network device or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in the access network device or the terminal.

[0190] In the above embodiments, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, all or part of the embodiments can be implemented in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer programs or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, all or part of the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed. The computer can be a general-purpose computer, a special-purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user equipment, or other programmable apparatus. The computer programs or instructions can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transferred from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer programs or instructions can be transferred from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center through a wired or wireless manner. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that integrates one or more available media. The available media can be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape; an optical medium, such as a digital video disc; or a semiconductor medium, such as a solid-state disk. The computer-readable storage medium can be a volatile or non-volatile storage medium, or can include both volatile and non-volatile storage media.

[0191] In various embodiments of the present application, the terms and / or descriptions of different embodiments are consistent and can be referred to each other if there is no special description and logical conflict. The technical features in different embodiments can be combined to form new embodiments according to their inherent logical relationship.

[0192] It can be understood that various digital numbers involved in the embodiments of the present application are only distinguished for the convenience of description, and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The size of the serial number of the above processes does not mean the order of execution, and the execution order of the processes should be determined according to its function and inherent logic.

Claims

1. A communication method characterized by comprising: The method comprises: receiving a paging message, wherein the paging message comprises first information, and the first information is used to indicate that a terminal being paged is a terminal that has performed non-radio resource control (RRC) connected state measurement; determining whether to establish an RRC connection with an access network device according to the first information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The method further comprises: in the case of performing non-RRC connected state measurement, determining to establish an RRC connection with the access network device.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The first information comprises one or more of the following information: paging cause, measurement type information, measurement use case information, measurement object information, or measurement index information; wherein the paging cause is used to indicate that the paging cause is to obtain measurement results of a non-RRC connected state terminal; the measurement type information is used to indicate a measurement type that the terminal being paged should meet; the measurement use case information is used to indicate a measurement use case that the terminal being paged should meet; the measurement object information is used to indicate a measurement object of the terminal being paged; the measurement index information is used to indicate a measurement index of the terminal being paged.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein, The determination of establishing the RRC connection with the access network device comprises: in the case of meeting at least one of the following conditions, determining to establish the RRC connection with the access network device: the measurement type of the terminal is the same as the measurement type comprised in the paging message; or the measurement use case of the terminal is the same as the measurement use case comprised in the paging message; or the measurement object of the terminal is the same as the measurement object comprised in the paging message; or the measurement index of the terminal is the same as the measurement index comprised in the paging message.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that, The method further comprises: in the case of determining to establish the RRC connection with the access network device, sending a first request message, wherein the first request message is used to request to establish the RRC connection, and the first request message comprises a cause value, and the cause value indicates that the terminal requests to establish the RRC connection because of reporting measurement results of a non-RRC connected state.

6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that, The method further comprises: receiving a downlink control information (DCI), wherein the DCI is used to schedule the paging message, and the DCI comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the scheduled paging message is a paging message that is specially used to page a terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that, The method further comprises: in the case of establishing the RRC connection with the access network device, sending measurement results of a non-RRC connected state to the access network device through the RRC connection.

8. A communication method characterized by comprising: The method comprises: receiving a downlink control information (DCI), wherein the DCI is used to schedule a paging message, and the DCI comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the scheduled paging message is a paging message that is specially used to page a terminal that has performed non-RRC connected state measurement; determining whether to receive the paging message according to the first indication information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein, The method further comprises: in the case of the terminal not performing non-RRC connected state measurement, determining not to receive the paging message.

10. A communication method characterized by comprising: The method comprises: determining a paging message, wherein the paging message comprises first information, and the first information is used to indicate that a terminal being paged is a terminal that has performed non-radio resource control (RRC) connected state measurement; sending the paging message.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein, The first information comprises one or more of the following information: paging cause, measurement type information, measurement use case information, measurement object information, or measurement indicator information; The paging cause is used to indicate the reason for paging to obtain measurement results of the non-RRC connected state terminal. The measurement type information is used to indicate the measurement type that the paged terminal should meet. The measurement use case information is used to indicate the measurement use case that the paged terminal should meet. The measurement object information is used to indicate the measurement object of the paged terminal. The measurement indicator information is used to indicate the measurement indicator of the paged terminal.

12. The method according to claim 10 or 11, characterized in that, The method further comprises: receiving a first request message, wherein the first request message is used to request to establish an RRC connection, and wherein the first request message comprises a cause value, and the cause value indicates that the reason for the terminal to request to establish an RRC connection is to report measurement results of a non-RRC connected state.

13. The method according to any one of claims 10-12, characterized in that, The method further comprises: sending a downlink control information (DCI), wherein the DCI is used to schedule the paging message, and wherein the DCI comprises first indication information, and the first indication information indicates that the scheduled paging message is a paging message that is specifically used to page a terminal that has performed a non-RRC connected state measurement.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein, The method further comprises: receiving a second request message, wherein the second request message is used to request to obtain measurement results of a terminal, and wherein the second request message comprises second indication information, and the second indication information indicates that the access network device is allowed to trigger a non-RRC connected state terminal to report measurement results of a non-RRC connected state; The method further comprises: sending the DCI according to the second indication information.

15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, characterized in that, The method further comprises: receiving measurement results of a non-RRC connected state from the terminal through an established RRC connection.

16. A communications device, characterized by A unit or module for performing the method of any one of claims 1-7, or a unit or module for performing the method of any one of claims 8-9, or a unit or module for performing the method of any one of claims 10-15.

17. A communications device, characterized by A processor and a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is used to receive signals from other communication devices outside the communication device and transmit the signals to the processor or send signals from the processor to other communication devices outside the communication device, and the processor is used to implement the method of any one of claims 1-7, or the method of any one of claims 8-9, or the method of any one of claims 10-15 through a logic circuit and / or executing computer programs or instructions.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein, A memory is further included, and the memory is used to store the computer programs or instructions.

19. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The storage medium stores computer programs or instructions, and when the computer programs or instructions are executed by a communication device, the method of any one of claims 1-7 is implemented, or the method of any one of claims 8-9 is implemented, or the method of any one of claims 10-15 is implemented.

20. A computer program product, characterised in that, A computer program or instructions comprising computer program or instructions which, when run on a computer, implement the method of any of claims 1-7, or the method of any of claims 8-9, or the method of any of claims 10-15.

21. A communication system, characterized by A terminal for performing the method of any of claims 1-7, or the method of any of claims 8-9, and an access network device for performing the method of any of claims 10-15.

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