Method and apparatus for sending or receiving synchronization signal block

Abstract

The present application relates to the field of communications, and specifically relates to a method and apparatus for sending or receiving a synchronization signal block. Because the configuration of parameter ssb-PositionInBurst is not affected by a time-slot allocation ratio, some SSBs corresponding to one inOneGroup bit may be located in an uplink time slot, while some SSBs may be located in a downlink time slot. Given the constraint requiring that inOneGroup fields corresponding to different groupPresence fields be the same, base stations can only configure such inOneGroup bits to 0, resulting in a reduction in the number of available SSBs. In the present application, a base station configures the inOneGroup bit to 1, so as to increase the number of available SSBs, and thereby expand SSB coverage.

Description

Method and apparatus for transmitting or receiving synchronization signal block

[0001] The present application claims priority from the Chinese patent application No. 202411396283.6 filed on September 30, 2024, and entitled "Method and apparatus for transmitting or receiving synchronization signal block", the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present application relates to the field of communication, in particular to a method and apparatus for transmitting or receiving synchronization signal block. BACKGROUND

[0003] Synchronization signal and physical broadcast channel block (SSB) is an important signal in the 5th generation (5G) mobile communication system, mainly used for cell search, timing and frequency synchronization, location and mobility management, access and measurement, and beam training, etc.

[0004] In the case that the sub-carrier spacing (SCS) of SSB is large, the number of SSBs that the base station can configure is also large. For example, when the SCS of SSB is 120 kHz, the base station can configure up to 64 SSBs, and the 64 SSBs are divided into 8 SSB groups, each SSB group shares 8 bits, and the 8 bits indicate whether the SSB in each SSB group is transmitted.

[0005] SSB has directionality, and one SSB can only cover an area in one direction. In order to improve the coverage range of SSB, the base station needs to configure multiple SSBs. Since different SSB groups share 8 bits to indicate whether the SSB is transmitted, when the multiple time slots where the multiple SSBs corresponding to one bit are located are configured as uplink time slots and downlink time slots, the base station can only configure the bit as not transmitting SSB. In this way, the number of SSBs available to the terminal is reduced, resulting in a reduction in the coverage range of SSB. SUMMARY

[0006] Embodiments of the present application provide a method and apparatus for transmitting or receiving synchronization signal block, which can expand the coverage range of SSB.

[0007] In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a method for transmitting a synchronization signal block, the method is applied to a base station or a base station chip, and the following description takes the base station as an example. The method comprises: determining a plurality of time units in a first time period, the plurality of time units being used for transmitting SSBs, the plurality of time units comprising a first time unit group and a second time unit group, the first time unit group comprising a first time unit, and the second time unit group comprising a second time unit, the first time unit and the second time unit corresponding to a first bit; when the first time unit is an uplink time unit or a first flexible time unit or a downlink time unit used for transmitting a sensing signal, and when the second time unit is a downlink time unit used for transmitting a communication signal or a second flexible time unit, transmitting first information, the first bit in the first information indicating that the SSBs are transmitted in the first time unit and the second time unit, wherein the first flexible time unit is a flexible time unit in which the SSBs cannot be transmitted, and the second flexible time unit is a flexible time unit in which the SSBs can be transmitted.

[0008] When the first bit indicates that the SSBs are transmitted in the first time unit and the second time unit, and when one of the first time unit and the second time unit cannot transmit the SSBs due to time slot matching, the base station can still set the first bit to indicate the state of transmitting the SSBs (for example, set the first bit to 1), so that the base station can at least transmit the SSBs in one of the first time unit and the second time unit. Compared with setting the first bit to indicate the state of not transmitting the SSBs (for example, setting the first bit to 0), the method increases the number of SSBs in the first time period, thereby expanding the coverage range of the SSBs.

[0009] In an optional implementation of the first aspect, when the subcarrier spacing of the SSBs is 120 kHz, 240 kHz, 480 kHz or 960 kHz, the maximum number of SSBs in the plurality of time units is 64.

[0010] The maximum number of SSBs corresponding to different subcarrier spacings is different, and the maximum number of SSBs can be accurately determined based on the subcarrier spacing of the SSBs.

[0011] In an optional implementation of the first aspect, the first time period is a time period corresponding to one SSB burst set.

[0012] In an optional implementation of the first aspect, when the subcarrier spacing of the SSBs is the same as the subcarrier spacing of the plurality of time units, the first flexible time unit is a time unit in which the number of consecutive downlink symbols is less than 4, and the second flexible time unit is a time unit including at least 4 consecutive downlink symbols.

[0013] The minimum number of symbols capable of carrying the SSB is related to the subcarrier spacing of the SSB and the subcarrier spacing of the time unit (e.g., a slot), and the subcarrier spacing of the SSB and the subcarrier spacing of the time unit can be accurately determined to determine whether the flexible time unit can transmit the SSB.

[0014] In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a method for receiving a synchronization signal block, which is applied to a terminal or a terminal chip. The method is described below with the execution subject being a terminal. The method comprises: receiving first information, the first information indicating whether an SSB is transmitted in a first time period, the first time period comprising a first flexible time unit, and a first bit in the first information indicating that the SSB is transmitted in the first flexible time unit; and determining not to receive the SSB in a downlink symbol and a flexible symbol when a time domain position of the SSB in the first flexible time unit is located in the downlink symbol and the flexible symbol.

[0015] The flexible symbol can also be referred to as a gap (GAP) symbol, which is a symbol for uplink and downlink switching of the terminal, and the terminal cannot use the flexible symbol to receive the SSB although the flexible symbol is not configured as an uplink symbol. In the method, after receiving the first bit, the terminal does not directly receive the SSB according to the indication of the first bit, but determines whether the time unit corresponding to the first bit can transmit the SSB based on the slot mapping, and receives the SSB in the time unit if the time unit can transmit the SSB, and does not receive the SSB in the time unit if the time unit cannot transmit the SSB, for example, the time domain position of the SSB indicated by the first bit is located in the downlink symbol and the flexible symbol, thereby saving power consumption. In addition, the method also increases the number of SSBs in the first time period, thereby expanding the coverage range of the SSB.

[0016] In an optional implementation of the second aspect, the first time period is a time period corresponding to one SSB burst set.

[0017] In a third aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block. The apparatus can comprise a processing unit and a communication unit, configured to perform the method in any of the first aspect and the optional implementations thereof.

[0018] In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block. The apparatus can comprise a processing unit and a communication unit, configured to perform the method in any of the second aspect and the optional implementations thereof.

[0019] In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block, which can be a base station or a chip applied to a base station. The apparatus can comprise a processor configured to perform the method in any of the first aspect and the optional implementations thereof.

[0020] Optionally, the apparatus can further include a transceiver. When the apparatus is a base station, the transceiver can be a transceiver circuit, an antenna, etc.; when the apparatus is a chip applied to a base station, the transceiver can be an input / output interface, a pin, a circuit, etc.

[0021] Optionally, the apparatus can further include a memory for storing a computer program or instructions, and the processor executes the computer program or instructions stored in the memory to enable the apparatus to perform any of the methods in the first aspect and the optional embodiments thereof. When the apparatus is a base station, the memory can be a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.; when the apparatus is a chip applied to a base station, the memory can be a register, a cache, etc.

[0022] In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide an apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block. The apparatus can be a terminal or a chip applied to a terminal. The apparatus can include a processor configured to perform any of the methods in the second aspect and the optional embodiments thereof.

[0023] Optionally, the apparatus can further include a transceiver. When the apparatus is a terminal, the transceiver can be a transceiver circuit, an antenna, etc.; when the apparatus is a chip applied to a terminal, the transceiver can be an input / output interface, a pin, a circuit, etc.

[0024] Optionally, the apparatus can further include a memory for storing a computer program or instructions, and the processor executes the computer program or instructions stored in the memory to enable the apparatus to perform any of the methods in the second aspect and the optional embodiments thereof. When the apparatus is a terminal, the memory can be a read-only memory, a random access memory, etc.; when the apparatus is a chip applied to a terminal, the memory can be a register, a cache, etc.

[0025] In a seventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication system, which includes the apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block in the third aspect and the apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block in the fourth aspect, or the apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block in the fifth aspect and the apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block in the sixth aspect.

[0026] In an eighth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program or instructions; when the computer program or instructions are executed on the apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block, the apparatus performs any of the methods in the first aspect and the optional embodiments thereof; or when the computer program or instructions are executed on the apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block, the apparatus performs any of the methods in the second aspect and the optional embodiments thereof.

[0027] In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a computer program product, which comprises a computer program or instructions; when the computer program or instructions are run by an apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block, the apparatus is caused to perform any one of the methods in the first aspect and optional implementation manners thereof; or when the computer program or instructions are run by an apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block, the apparatus is caused to perform any one of the methods in the second aspect and optional implementation manners thereof. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0028] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applied;

[0029] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an O-RAN provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0030] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a structure of an O-RAN device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0031] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an SSB provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0032] FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of a method for transmitting and receiving an SSB provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0033] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of several flexible slots provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of a beam training provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a cell handover initiation state provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0036] FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a process of a cell handover provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0037] FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of a cell handover result provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0038] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a structure of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0039] FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of another structure of a communication apparatus provided by an embodiment of the present application;

[0040] FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0041] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of a communication system 1000 to which embodiments of the present application are applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the communication system 1000 includes a radio access network (RAN) 100, wherein the RAN 100 includes at least one RAN node (e.g., 110a and 110b in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 110), and can further include at least one terminal (e.g., 120a-120j in FIG. 1, collectively referred to as 120). The RAN 100 can further include other RAN nodes, such as wireless relay devices and / or wireless backhaul devices (not shown in FIG. 1). The terminals 120 are connected to the RAN nodes 110 in a wireless manner. Terminals and terminals, and RAN nodes and RAN nodes can be connected to each other in a wired or wireless manner. The communication system 1000 can further include a core network 200. The RAN nodes 110 are connected to the core network 200 in a wireless or wired manner. The core network devices in the core network 200 and the RAN nodes 110 in the RAN 100 can be independent and different physical devices, or can be the same physical device integrated with the logical functions of the core network devices and the logical functions of the RAN nodes. Optionally, the communication system 1000 can further include an Internet 300.

[0042] The RAN 100 can be an evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) system, a new radio (NR) system, or a future wireless access system defined in the 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP), or a Wi-Fi system. The RAN 100 can also include two or more different wireless access systems. The RAN 100 can also be an open RAN (O-RAN).

[0043] The RAN node, also referred to as a network device, a radio access network device, a RAN entity, or an access node, is used to help terminals access the communication system in a wireless manner. In different systems, the RAN node can have different names.

[0044] In one application scenario, the RAN node can be a base station, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB), a transmission reception point (TRP), a next generation NodeB (gNB) in a 5th generation (5G) mobile communication system, a base station in a future communication network, an access node (AP) in a Wi-Fi system, an AP in a long range radio (LoRa) system, or an AP in a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) system. The RAN node can be a macro base station (such as 110a in FIG. 1), or a micro base station or an indoor station (such as 110b in FIG. 1), or a relay node or a donor node.

[0045] In another application scenario, a terminal can access a wireless network through cooperation of a plurality of RAN nodes, and different RAN nodes implement part of functions of a base station. For example, the RAN node can be a central unit (CU), a distributed unit (DU), or a radio unit (RU).

[0046] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an architecture of an O-RAN according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0047] As shown in FIG. 2, the O-RAN 200 includes a CU 210, a DU 220, and an RU 230. Optionally, the CU 210 and the DU 220 can be integrated in a BBU 240, and the BBU 240 can be co-located with the RU 230 or not. The CU 210 can communicate with a core network 250 through a backhaul link, the CU 210 can communicate with the DU 220 through a midhaul link, the DU 220 can communicate with the RU 230 through a fronthaul link, and the RU 230 can communicate with a user equipment (UE) 260 through an air interface.

[0048] In the O-RAN, the CU can be referred to as an open CU (O-CU), the DU can be referred to as an open DU (O-DU), and the RU can be referred to as an open RU (O-RU).

[0049] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a network element function and a protocol layer structure of an O-RAN device according to an embodiment of the present application.

[0050] In some examples, the CU 210 is a logical node that carries a radio resource control (RRC) layer, a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer, a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, and other control functions of a wireless access network device. The CU 210 is connected to network nodes such as the core network 250 through some interfaces, which can be an E2 interface or the like. Optionally, the CU 210 can have part of the functions of the core network 250. The CU 210 is connected to the DU 220 through some interfaces, which can be an Fl interface or the like, for example, the PDCP layer and higher layers carried by the CU 210 are connected to the radio link control (RLC) layer and lower layers carried by the DU 220 through the Fl interface. In some examples, these interfaces (for example, the Fl interface) can provide control plane (C-Plane) and user plane (U-Plane) functions, for example, interface management, system information management, UE context management, RRC message transmission, and the like.

[0051] In some examples, the CU 210 can be split into a control plane CU (control unit-control plane, CU-CP) and a user plane CU (control unit-user plane, CU-UP), where the CU-CP is a logical node that carries the RRC layer and the control plane part of PDCP (PDCP-C) layer, used to implement the control plane function of the CU 210. The CU-CP can interact with a network element in the core network 250 for implementing the control plane function. The network element in the core network 250 for implementing the control plane function can be an access and mobility function network element, such as an access and mobility management function (AMF) in a 5G system. The AMF is used to be responsible for mobility management in a mobile network, such as location updating of a terminal, registration network of a terminal, handover of a terminal, etc. The CU-UP is a logical node that carries the service data adaptation protocol (SDAP) layer and the user plane part of PDCP (PDCP-U), used to implement the user plane function of the CU 210. The CU-UP can interact with a network element in the core network 250 for implementing the user plane function. The network element in the core network 250 for implementing the user plane function, for example, a user plane function (UPF) in a 5G system, is used to be responsible for forwarding and receiving data in a terminal.

[0052] In some examples, the DU 220 is a logical node that carries the RLC layer, the medium access control (MAC) layer, the higher physical layer (Higher-PHY), and other functions. In some examples, the DU 220 can control at least one RU. The DU 220 is connected to the RU 230 through some interfaces, which can be a front-haul interface. In some examples, the Higher-PHY includes parts of physical layer (PHY) processing, such as forward error correction (FEC) encoding and decoding, scrambling, modulation and demodulation, etc.

[0053] The configuration of the CU 210 and the DU 220 above is merely an example, and the CU 210 and the DU 220 can be configured to have functions as needed. For example, the CU 210 or the DU 220 can be configured to have functions of more protocol layers, or the CU 210 or the DU 220 can be configured to have partial processing functions of the protocol layers. For example, partial functions of the RLC layer and functions of the protocol layers above the RLC layer are provided in the CU 210, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and the functions of the protocol layers below the RLC layer are provided in the DU 220. For another example, the functions of the CU 210 or the DU 220 can be divided according to a service type or other system requirements, for example, according to a delay requirement. For example, functions requiring a processing time to meet a delay requirement are provided in the DU 220, and functions not requiring the delay requirement are provided in the CU 210.

[0054] In some examples, the RU 230 is a logical node that hosts lower physical layer (Lower-PHY) and radio frequency (RF) chain functions. In some examples, the RU 230 can be a TRP, a remote radio unit (RRU), an active antenna unit (AAU), a remote radio head (RRH), or other similarly functioning entity. In some examples, the Lower-PHY includes portions of PHY processing such as fast Fourier transform (FFT), inverse fast Fourier transformation (IFFT), digital beamforming, and filtering, among other processing functions. The RU 230 communicates with one or more UEs over a wireless link.

[0055] The DU 220 and the RU 230 can or can not be co-located. The DU 220 and the RU 230 exchange information of a control, user and synchronization plane (CUS-Plane) over a fronthaul link via a lower layer split-control, user and synchronization plane (LLS-CUS) interface. The LLS-CUS can include interfaces providing a control plane and a user plane, respectively, such as a lower layer split-control plane (LLS-C) interface and a lower layer split-user plane (LLS-U) interface. In some examples, the control plane refers to real-time control functionality between the DU 220 and the RU 230. The DU 220 and the RU 230 can exchange management information over a lower layer split-management plane (LLS-M) interface of the fronthaul link, and the management plane (M-Plane) refers to non-real-time management operation functionality between the DU 220 and the RU 230.

[0056] The DU 220 and the RU 230 can cooperate to jointly implement the functionality of the PHY. One DU can be connected to one or more RUs. The functionality of the DU 220 and the RU 230 can be configured in multiple ways according to design. For example, the DU 220 is configured to implement baseband functionality, and the RU 230 is configured to implement intermediate radio frequency functionality. For another example, the DU 220 is configured to implement high layer functionality in the PHY, and the RU 230 is configured to implement low layer functionality in the PHY or to implement the low layer functionality and radio frequency functionality. The high layer functionality in the PHY can include a portion of the functionality of the PHY that is closer to the MAC layer, and the low layer functionality in the PHY can include another portion of the functionality of the PHY that is closer to the intermediate radio frequency side.

[0057] The RAN node in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented by a software module, a hardware module, or a combination of the software module and the hardware module, for example, the RAN node can be a server loaded with a corresponding software module. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form of the RAN node. For ease of description, a base station is taken as an example of the RAN node in the following description.

[0058] A terminal is a device with wireless transceiving function, which can send signals to a base station or receive signals from a base station. The terminal can also be referred to as a terminal device, a UE, a mobile station, a mobile terminal, etc. The terminal can be widely applied to various scenarios, such as device-to-device (D2D), vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, machine-type communication (MTC), internet of things (IOT), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), industrial control, automatic driving, remote medical treatment, smart power grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation, smart city, etc. The terminal can be a mobile phone (such as 120a, 120e, 120f and 120j in FIG. 1), a tablet computer (such as 120g in FIG. 1), a printer with wireless transceiving function (such as 120h in FIG. 1), a wearable device, a vehicle (such as 120b in FIG. 1), a charging pile (such as 120c in FIG. 1), an airplane (such as 120i in FIG. 1), a ship, a robot, a mechanical arm, a smart home device (such as 120d in FIG. 1), etc. Embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technology and specific device form adopted by the terminal.

[0059] By way of example and not limitation, in embodiments of the present application, a wearable device can also be referred to as a wearable smart device, which is a general term for devices that are designed and developed by applying wearable technology to daily wear, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing and shoes, etc. A wearable device is a portable device that is directly worn on the body or integrated into the clothes or accessories of a user. A wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also a device that realizes powerful functions through software support and data interaction and cloud interaction. Broadly, a wearable smart device includes an electronic device with full functionality and large size, which can realize complete or partial functions without relying on a smart phone, such as a smart watch or smart glasses, or an electronic device that focuses on a certain application function and needs to be used in cooperation with other devices such as a smart phone, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for measuring vital signs.

[0060] The various terminals introduced above can be considered as on-board terminals if they are located on a vehicle (e.g., placed inside or installed inside the vehicle), and the on-board terminal can also be referred to as an on-board module, an on-board component, an on-board chip or an on-board unit (OBU).

[0061] The base stations and the terminals can be fixed in position or mobile. The base stations and the terminals can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can be deployed on water surface; can also be deployed on airplanes, balloons and artificial satellites. Embodiments of the present application do not limit the application scenarios of the base stations and the terminals.

[0062] The roles of the base stations and the terminals can be relative, for example, 120i in FIG. 1 (which can be a helicopter or a drone) can be configured as a mobile base station, and for 120j that accesses the wireless access network 100 through 120i, 120i is a base station; but for 110a, 120i is a terminal, that is, 110a communicates with 120i through a wireless air interface protocol. Of course, 110a and 120i can also communicate through an interface protocol between base stations and base stations, and in this case, 120i is also a base station relative to 110a. Therefore, the base stations and the terminals can be collectively referred to as communication devices, 110a and 110b in FIG. 1 can be referred to as communication devices with base station functions, and 120a-120j in FIG. 1 can be referred to as communication devices with terminal functions.

[0063] The base stations and the terminals, the base stations and the base stations, and the terminals and the terminals can communicate through licensed spectrum, can communicate through unlicensed spectrum, or can communicate through both licensed spectrum and unlicensed spectrum; can communicate through spectrum below 6 gigahertz (GHz), can communicate through spectrum above 6 GHz, or can communicate through both spectrum below 6 GHz and spectrum above 6 GHz. Embodiments of the present application do not limit the spectrum resources used for wireless communication.

[0064] In 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 can be performed by a control subsystem containing base station functions. The control subsystem containing base station functions herein can be a control center in the above-mentioned application scenarios such as smart 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 can be performed by a device containing terminal functions.

[0065] To facilitate understanding of embodiments of the present application, the technologies involved in embodiments of the present application are briefly introduced as follows.

[0066] SSB is an important signal in the 5G mobile communication system, mainly used for cell search, timing and frequency synchronization, location and mobility management, access and measurement, and beam training, etc.

[0067] As shown in FIG. 4, the SSB includes a primary synchronization signal (PSS), a secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and a physical broadcasting channel (PBCH), occupies 4 orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in the time domain, and occupies 240 subcarriers in the frequency domain, where the PSS and the SSS each occupy 127 subcarriers.

[0068] In 5G, the period of the SSB is variable, for example, the period of the SSB can be configured as 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms. Within each period, the SSB is only transmitted within a certain half frame (5 ms). Depending on the SCS of the SSB, the time domain position of the SSB also varies.

[0069] Generally, in the case of a larger SCS of the SSB, there are more time domain positions of the SSB within a period, that is, the base station can configure more SSBs. For example, when the SCS of the SSB is 120 kHz, the base station can configure up to 64 SSBs within a period.

[0070] In actual deployment of a network, the base station can configure which SSBs are transmitted and which SSBs are not transmitted within a period as needed. The actual transmission of the SSBs within a period can be configured by the parameter ssb-PositionInBurst.

[0071] The ssb-PositionInBurst configures whether the SSB is transmitted in the form of a bitmap, and the bitmap is as shown in Table 1.

[0072] Table 1

[0073] In Table 1, the groupPresence field contains 8 bits, B1-B8, representing 8 SSB groups. The inOneGroup field also contains 8 bits, A1-A8, representing 8 SSBs in one SSB group. Optionally, each bit can take a value of 0 or 1. When a bit in the groupPresence field takes a value of 0, it means that the SSB group corresponding to the bit is not configured. When a bit in the groupPresence field takes a value of 1, it means that the SSB group corresponding to the bit is configured. When a bit in the inOneGroup field takes a value of 0, it means that the SSB corresponding to the bit is not configured. When a bit in the inOneGroup field takes a value of 1, it means that the SSB corresponding to the bit is configured.

[0074] For example, when the 8 bits of the groupPresence field are configured as 10000000 and the 8 bits of the inOneGroup field are configured as 00110000, the bitmap configured by the ssb-PositionInBurst is shown in Table 2.

[0075] Table 2

[0076] In Table 2, the first bit of the groupPresence field is 1, meaning that at least one of the SSBs with indexes 0-7 will be transmitted. The remaining bits of the groupPresence field are 0, meaning that all SSBs with indexes 8-63 will not be transmitted. The third bit of the inOneGroup field is 1, meaning that at least one of the SSBs with indexes 2, 10, 18, 26, 34, 42, 50, and 58 will be transmitted. The fourth bit of the inOneGroup field is 1, meaning that at least one of the SSBs with indexes 3, 11, 19, 27, 35, 43, 51, and 59 will be transmitted. The remaining bits of the inOneGroup field are 0, meaning that all SSBs in the columns of these bits will not be transmitted. In combination with the groupPresence field and the inOneGroup field, the terminal can determine that the SSBs with indexes 2 and 3 will be transmitted.

[0077] The above description of SSBs is an example and is not limiting. As technology develops, the time-frequency resources occupied by each SSB can change, and the number of SSBs corresponding to different SCS can also change. As long as the base station still configures SSBs in the form of a bitmap similar to Table 1, future situations also apply to embodiments of the present application.

[0078] An SSB has directivity, and one SSB can only cover an area in one direction. A base station needs to configure multiple SSBs to improve the coverage of the SSBs. However, in some cases, the SSB configuration manner based on the bitmap can cause the number of SSBs that can be configured by the base station to be insufficient. The reasons for this problem will be described in detail below.

[0079] In a communication system including a base station and a terminal, an SSB is a downlink signal and can only be transmitted on a downlink time domain resource (for example, a downlink time slot). Meanwhile, when configuring time domain resources, the base station configures some time slots as uplink time slots and flexible time slots. Here, a downlink time slot refers to a time slot that only contains downlink symbols, an uplink time slot refers to a time slot that only contains uplink symbols, and a flexible time slot refers to a time slot that contains both uplink symbols and downlink symbols. This configuration of the transmission direction of the time slots is referred to as time slot allocation.

[0080] The time domain positions of SSBs are independent of the time slot allocation, and therefore, it can happen that the time domain positions of some SSBs are configured as uplink time slots, causing the SSBs at these time domain positions to be unable to be transmitted. Table 3 is an example of the relationship between the time domain positions of SSBs and the time slot allocation provided in the present application.

[0081] Table 3

[0082] In Table 3, D represents a downlink time slot, S represents a flexible time slot, and U represents an uplink time slot. Each time slot includes two time domain positions of SSBs. The time slots in the third column, the fourth column, the fifth column, the eighth column, the ninth column, and the tenth column are uplink time slots, and these time slots are all unable to transmit SSBs. The time slots in the first column and the sixth column are downlink time slots, and these time slots are all able to transmit SSBs. The time slots in the second column and the seventh column are flexible time slots. If a flexible time slot contains at least 4 consecutive symbols, the flexible time slot is able to transmit SSBs. If the number of consecutive symbols contained in a flexible time slot is less than 4, the flexible time slot is unable to transmit SSBs.

[0083] Suppose that the flexible time slots in Table 3 are all able to transmit SSBs. The bitmap determined based on Table 3 is shown in Table 4.

[0084] Table 4

[0085] In Table 4, the gray cells represent that the SSBs at these positions cannot be transmitted. If the base station needs to configure ssb-PositionInBurst based on Table 4, the inOneGroup fields corresponding to different groupPresence fields must be the same.

[0086] For example, for bit positions B1 and B2, SSBs corresponding to B1 and B2 can be transmitted in each SSB group, and therefore, B1 and B2 need to be configured as 1. For bit positions A1, A2, A5, and A6, some SSBs corresponding to the bit positions can be transmitted, and some SSBs cannot be transmitted. Based on the limitation that the inOneGroup fields corresponding to different groupPresence fields must be the same, the base station sets A1, A2, A5, and A6 as 0, and the configuration result is shown in Table 5.

[0087] Table 5

[0088] Based on the bitmap shown in Table 5, the base station can only transmit 16 SSBs, that is, SSBs with indexes 2, 3, 10, 11, 18, 19, 26, 27, 34, 35, 42, 43, 50, 51, 58, and 59. SSBs with indexes 0, 1, 12, 13, 16, 17, 28, 29, 32, 33, 44, 45, 48, 49, 60, and 61 lose transmission opportunities, so that the number of SSBs that can be configured by the base station is reduced, thereby causing the coverage of the SSBs to be reduced.

[0089] The following describes a method for transmitting and receiving SSBs provided by an embodiment of the present application.

[0090] As shown in FIG. 5, the method 500 includes the following contents.

[0091] S510, the base station determines a plurality of time units in a first period, the plurality of time units being used for transmitting SSBs, the plurality of time units including a first time unit group and a second time unit group, the first time unit group including a first time unit, the second time unit group including a second time unit, the first time unit and the second time unit corresponding to a first bit position, wherein the first time unit is an uplink time unit or a first flexible time unit or a downlink time unit used for transmitting sensing signals, and the second time unit is a downlink time unit used for transmitting communication signals or a second flexible time unit.

[0092] The first period is, for example, a period in which slots 0 to slots 39 shown in Table 3 are located. The first period can be referred to as a half frame (a period of 5 ms), or the first period can be referred to as a period in which an SSB burst set is located.

[0093] The time unit in the first period is a period (such as a slot) in which an SSB can be transmitted, and no other limitation is imposed on the time unit by the embodiments of the present application.

[0094] The base station can determine the number of the plurality of time units in the first period based on the SCS.

[0095] For example, when the subcarrier spacing of the SSB is 120 kHz, 240 kHz, 480 kHz or 960 kHz, the base station can determine that the maximum number of SSBs in a plurality of time units is 64.

[0096] The first time unit group and the second time unit group can be time slots in which SSBs corresponding to any two groupPresence bits are located.

[0097] For example, the first time unit group is time slot 0-time slot 3 in Table 3, and the second time unit group is time slot 4-time slot 7 in Table 3; or the first time unit group is time slot 0-time slot 3 in Table 3, and the second time unit group is time slot 10-time slot 13 in Table 3.

[0098] Optionally, the first flexible time unit is a time unit in which the number of consecutive downlink symbols is less than 4, and the second flexible time unit is a time unit including at least 4 consecutive downlink symbols.

[0099] FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of several flexible time slots provided by an embodiment of the present application.

[0100] Time slot A, time slot B and time slot C each include 14 symbols. Among them, time slot A includes 4 downlink symbols, and the 4 downlink symbols are consecutive downlink symbols, so time slot A can be used to transmit SSBs; time slot B includes 3 downlink symbols, and the number is less than the number of time domain symbols occupied by one SSB, so time slot B cannot be used to transmit SSBs; time slot C includes 4 downlink symbols, but the 4 downlink symbols are not consecutive downlink symbols, so time slot C also cannot be used to transmit SSBs.

[0101] It should be noted that the premise of FIG. 6 is that the SCS of the SSB is the same as the SCS of the symbol used by the base station. If the SCS of the SSB is different from the SCS of the symbol used by the base station, the number of symbols required to carry one SSB can be 4 or can not be 4.

[0102] For example, when the subcarrier spacing of the SSB is 240 kHz, and the SCS of the symbol used by the base station is 120 kHz, the base station can use 2 consecutive downlink symbols to send the SSB. In this case, when the number of consecutive downlink symbols in a flexible time slot is less than 2, the flexible time slot cannot be used to transmit SSBs; when the number of consecutive downlink symbols in a flexible time slot is greater than or equal to 2, the flexible time slot can be used to transmit SSBs.

[0103] In various embodiments of the present application, if not specifically stated, it is assumed that the SCS of the SSB is the same as the SCS of the symbol used by the base station.

[0104] Optionally, the first flexible time unit that cannot be used to transmit the SSB can also be the case shown in slot D in FIG. 6.

[0105] Slot D contains at least 4 consecutive downlink symbols, but the time domain position of the SSB is located in the downlink symbol and the flexible symbol, and the flexible symbol is the symbol for which the terminal switches from receiving to transmitting, for example, the terminal needs to switch from receiving to transmitting using the flexible symbol. Therefore, although the flexible symbol is not configured as an uplink symbol, the terminal still cannot use the flexible symbol to receive the SSB.

[0106] Returning to S510, the first bit is, for example, a bit of the inOneGroup field. Optionally, when the first bit is configured as 0, it indicates that the corresponding SSB is not transmitted; when the first bit is configured as 1, it indicates that the corresponding SSB is transmitted.

[0107] When the first time unit is an uplink time unit or a first flexible time unit or a downlink time unit for transmitting a sensing signal, and when the second time unit is a downlink time unit for transmitting a communication signal or a second flexible time unit, the first time unit cannot be used to transmit the SSB, the second time unit can be used to transmit the SSB, and the base station can configure the first bit as 1.

[0108] It should be noted that the downlink time unit for transmitting a sensing signal includes: a downlink slot in which the entire downlink slot is configured to transmit a sensing signal; or a downlink slot in which part of the symbols are configured to transmit a sensing signal and the remaining downlink symbols are insufficient to transmit an SSB. The downlink time unit for transmitting a communication signal or the second flexible time unit includes: a downlink slot or a flexible time slot in which there are sufficient downlink symbols (such as at least 4 consecutive downlink symbols) for transmitting an SSB.

[0109] An example of the first information containing the first bit is shown in Table 6.

[0110] Table 6

[0111] In Table 6, the groupPresence field is 11111111, indicating that at least one SSB in each SSB group will be transmitted; the inOneGroup field is 11111100, indicating that the SSBs corresponding to the first six column indexes will be transmitted. The first bit can be any one "1" in "11111100", the first information is the inOneGroup field, or the first information is the inOneGroup field and the groupPresence field.

[0112] Although Table 6 configures that SSBs with indexes 4, 5, 8, 9, 20, 21, 24, 25, 36, 37, 40, 41, 52, 53, 56 and 57 are to be transmitted, the base station does not transmit these SSBs, and actually transmits SSBs with indexes 0, 1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 26, 27, 28, 29, 32, 33, 34, 35, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 51, 58, 59, 60 and 61.

[0113] After determining the first information including the first bit, the base station can perform S520.

[0114] In S520, the base station transmits the first information, the first information including the first bit, the first bit indicating that the SSBs are transmitted in the first time unit and the second time unit.

[0115] The first information can be carried in a system information block (SIB) 1 or other messages, and embodiments of the present application do not limit the transmission manner of the first information.

[0116] After receiving the first information, the terminal can perform S530.

[0117] In S530, the terminal determines to receive the SSBs in the second time unit and determines not to receive the SSBs in the first time unit.

[0118] After receiving the first information, the terminal can determine the properties of the time units in the first time period according to the indication information or the configuration information of the base station.

[0119] For example, the terminal can obtain the configuration information from the base station, the configuration information configuring the properties of the time slots in the first time period as shown in Table 3, and in combination with Table 3 and Table 6, the terminal can determine that SSBs with indexes 4, 5, 8, 9, 20, 21, 24, 25, 36, 37, 40, 41, 52, 53, 56 and 57 are actually not to be transmitted. Therefore, the terminal can not receive these SSBs, thereby reducing power consumption.

[0120] It should be noted that for the case that the first flexible time unit is the time slot D shown in FIG. 7, the first bit can indicate whether the SSBs in multiple SSB groups are transmitted or only indicate whether one SSB is transmitted. When the first bit only indicates whether one SSB is transmitted, the application scenario of the terminal is not limited to the scenario that the base station transmits at most 64 SSBs, and the scenario that the base station transmits at most 4 or 8 SSBs is also applicable to the terminal.

[0121] As can be seen from Table 5 and Table 6, the number of SSBs actually transmitted by the base station using Table 5 is 16, and the number of SSBs actually transmitted by the base station using Table 6 is 32. Therefore, the method 500 increases the number of SSBs that can be configured by the base station, thereby improving the coverage of the SSBs.

[0122] The application scenarios of the two methods 500 are described below.

[0123] Application scenario one: beam training.

[0124] A beam is a kind of communication resource, which can be divided into a transmission beam (or a transmitting beam) and a receiving beam. The technology for forming a beam can be beamforming technology or other technical means. Beamforming includes transmission beamforming and receiving beamforming.

[0125] A transmission beam refers to that a transmission end transmits a signal with a certain beamforming weight, so that the transmission signal forms a beam with spatial directivity. A receiving beam refers to that a receiving end receives a signal with a certain beamforming weight, so that the receiving signal forms a beam with spatial directivity.

[0126] Transmission beamforming refers to that a transmission end with an antenna array transmits a signal with a certain amplitude and phase added to each antenna element of the antenna array, so that the transmission signal has a certain spatial directivity, i.e., the signal power is high in some directions and low in some directions, and the direction with the highest signal power is the direction of the transmission beam. The antenna array includes a plurality of antenna elements, and the added specific amplitude and phase are beamforming weights. Receiving beamforming refers to that a receiving end with an antenna array receives a signal with a certain amplitude and phase added to each antenna element of the antenna array, so that the power gain of the received signal has directionality, i.e., the power gain is high when receiving signals in some directions and low when receiving signals in some directions, and the direction with the highest power gain when receiving signals is the direction of the receiving beam. The antenna array includes a plurality of antenna elements, and the added specific amplitude and phase are beamforming weights.

[0127] Using a certain beam to transmit a signal can be understood as using a certain beamforming weight to transmit the signal. Using a certain beam to receive a signal can be understood as using a certain beamforming weight to receive the signal.

[0128] Different beams can be understood as different resources, or different spatial directions, without limitation. The same information or different information can be transmitted using (or through) different beams.

[0129] The base station and the terminal can perform the following steps to align the beams.

[0130] ① Beam determination: the process of selecting the transmission or reception beam by the base station or terminal;

[0131] ② Beam measurement: the process of measuring the received beamformed signal by the base station or terminal;

[0132] ③ Beam reporting: the process of reporting the beam measurement result to the base station by the terminal;

[0133] ④ Beam sweeping: the process of selecting the beam in a specified sweeping manner by the base station or terminal in a time period for transmission or reception, thereby covering a spatial region.

[0134] According to the working state, the beam training can be divided into three states, as shown in FIG. 7.

[0135] Coarse beam training: the terminal measures the set of transmission beams of the base station and selects the transmission beam of the base station;

[0136] Fine beam training: on the basis of the coarse beam training, the terminal measures the set of smaller or narrower transmission beams and improves the transmission beam of the base station;

[0137] Reception beam training: the terminal measures a repeated transmission beam by using different reception beams and improves the reception beam of the terminal itself.

[0138] Based on the above, the basic flow of the beam training of the downlink is as follows:

[0139] The base station configures at most 64 beam directions, each of which corresponds to an SSB and the time-frequency resource to be used by the terminal when performing beam reporting. The base station transmits the SSBs in a scanning manner to each direction, and the terminal performs beam measurement to obtain the reference signal receiving power (RSRP) of the SSB. The terminal selects an SSB set by comparing the RSRP, reports the serial number of the SSB in the set and the corresponding RSRP on the given time-frequency resource to the base station. The base station performs beam determination by using the reporting information, and thus completes the initial beam selection process. Subsequently, the base station and the terminal can continue to perform fine beam training and reception beam training to obtain a beam with higher gain.

[0140] The base station can configure the terminal with the transmission of the SSB in a SSB burst set through SIB1, and can also configure the terminal with the time domain position, frequency domain position, bandwidth, and period of the SSB through a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and the terminal can complete the beam training process by using the SSB parameters configured by the base station.

[0141] Application scenario two: cell switching.

[0142] A cell can be regarded as a wireless signal coverage area identified by a physical cell identifier (PCI) or a cell global identifier (CGI), and different cells can also be distinguished by a serving cell index. Embodiments of the present application do not limit the manner of identifying a cell.

[0143] Cell switching can be regarded as a process of finding a new cell and completing time synchronization and frequency synchronization with the new cell.

[0144] The coverage area of each base station can be divided into one or more cells. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a cell according to an embodiment of the present application. The four hexagons near the terminal represent four cells, and the four cells are located in the signal coverage areas of satellite 1 and satellite 2. In embodiments of the present application, different cells can correspond to different base stations, or can correspond to the same base station. Optionally, satellite 1 and satellite 2 are two base stations.

[0145] For example, cell 1 and cell 2 are both cells of satellite 1, or cell 1 and cell 2 are both cells of satellite 2, or cell 1 is a cell of satellite 1 and cell 2 is a cell of satellite 2.

[0146] A cell providing service for a terminal can be divided into a primary cell (PCell) and a secondary cell (SCell), thus, the PCell and the SCell can both be referred to as a serving cell of the terminal. After an RRC connection is established, the base station can configure the SCell for the terminal to provide additional radio resources. In a carrier aggregation (CA) scenario, the base station can configure one PCell and one or more SCells for the terminal, where the PCell is a cell for which the terminal maintains an RRC connection with the base station, and the remaining serving cells of the terminal can be referred to as SCells. The SCell can be flexibly activated / deactivated through downlink control information (DCI) or a MAC control element (CE).

[0147] The above description of the cell is an example and is not limiting, and as technology develops, concepts that are the same as or similar to the functions of the cell can appear, and these concepts also apply to the embodiments of the present application.

[0148] Due to the mobility of the terminal or the change in the channel state, the cell connected by the terminal can change, that is, the terminal can be handed over from one cell to another cell, where the cell before handover can be referred to as a source cell or an anchor cell, and the cell after handover can be referred to as a target cell.

[0149] For example, in FIG. 8, the component carriers (CCs) corresponding to the cells 1-4 are CC1-CC4, respectively, and the terminal currently uses CC1 and CC2 for communication, where the cell 1 corresponding to CC1 is the PCell, and the cell 2 corresponding to CC2 is the SCell, and the terminal also supports using CC3 and CC4 for communication, but the base station has not configured CC3 and CC4 for the terminal device, that is, CC3 and CC4 are not activated, and the cell 3 corresponding to CC3 and the cell 4 corresponding to CC4 are non-serving cells. As the terminal or satellite moves, the channel state of CC1 and CC2 deteriorates, and the terminal can use CC3 and CC4 for communication instead of using CC1 and CC2 for communication, that is, the base station will reconfigure the PCell and the SCell.

[0150] The base station can configure the ssb-PositionInBurst parameter of the cells 3 and 4 to the terminal through signaling of the cell 1 or the cell 2, so that the terminal can receive the SSB of the cells 3 and 4 by applying the method 500.

[0151] The cell handover procedure is shown in Fig. 9. The terminal can be handed over from cell 1 to cell 3 and from cell 2 to cell 4. Cell 1 and cell 2 are the cells before handover, which can be called source cells. Cell 3 and cell 4 are the cells after handover, which can be called target cells. After the cell handover is completed, the cell corresponding to CC3 is PCell, the cell corresponding to CC4 is SCell, and the cells corresponding to CC1 and CC2 become non-serving cells. The process from CC1 to CC3 can be called PCell handover, and the process from CC2 to CC4 can be called SCell handover (or activation). The status of the cells used by the terminal after the cell handover is completed is shown in Fig. 10.

[0152] It should be understood that the cell handover can be from a cell of one base station to a cell of another base station, or can be from a cell of one base station to a cell of another base station. In addition, the cell handover can be triggered by the base station, or can be triggered by the terminal, or can be triggered by a third party device other than the base station and the terminal.

[0153] The above describes the method examples provided by the embodiments of the present application in detail. It should be understood that the corresponding apparatuses contain the corresponding hardware structures and / or software modules for implementing the functions. Those skilled in the art should easily realize that the units and algorithm steps of the examples described in combination with the embodiments disclosed in the present application can be realized in the form of hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software. Whether a certain function is realized in the form of hardware or computer software driving hardware depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. The skilled person can use different methods to realize the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be considered beyond the scope of the present application.

[0154] Figs. 11 and 12 are structural schematic diagrams of two communication apparatuses provided by the embodiments of the present application. These apparatuses can be used to realize the functions of the base station or the terminal in the above method embodiments, and thus have the beneficial effects of the above method embodiments.

[0155] As shown in Fig. 11, the apparatus 1100 includes a processing unit 1110 and a transceiver unit 1120. The transceiver unit 1120 performs the receiving step and / or the output step under the control of the processing unit 1110. When performing the output step (or the sending step), the transceiver unit 1120 is a sending unit, and when performing the receiving step, the transceiver unit 1120 is a receiving unit. The apparatus 1100 is used to realize the functions of the base station or the terminal in the method embodiments described in Fig. 5.

[0156] When the apparatus 1100 is configured to implement the function of the base station in the method embodiment described in FIG. 5, the processing unit 1110 is configured to: determine a plurality of time units in a first time period, the plurality of time units being used for transmitting SSBs, the plurality of time units comprising a first time unit group and a second time unit group, the first time unit group comprising a first time unit, the second time unit group comprising a second time unit, the first time unit and the second time unit corresponding to a first bit; and the transceiver 1120 is configured to: when the first time unit is an uplink time unit or a first flexible time unit or a downlink time unit used for transmitting sensing signals, and when the second time unit is a downlink time unit used for transmitting communication signals or a second flexible time unit, transmit first information, the first bit in the first information indicating that the SSBs are transmitted in the first time unit and the second time unit, wherein the first flexible time unit is a flexible time unit in which the SSBs cannot be transmitted, and the second flexible time unit is a flexible time unit in which the SSBs can be transmitted.

[0157] Optionally, when the subcarrier spacing of the SSBs is 120 kHz, 240 kHz, 480 kHz or 960 kHz, the maximum number of SSBs in the plurality of time units is 64.

[0158] Optionally, the first time period is a time period corresponding to one SSB burst set.

[0159] Optionally, when the subcarrier spacing of the SSBs is the same as the subcarrier spacing of the plurality of time units, the first flexible time unit is a time unit in which the number of consecutive downlink symbols is less than 4, and the second flexible time unit is a time unit including at least 4 consecutive downlink symbols.

[0160] When the apparatus 1100 is configured to implement the function of the terminal in the method embodiment described in FIG. 5, the transceiver 1120 is configured to: receive first information, the first information indicating whether SSBs are transmitted in a first time period, the first time period including a first flexible time unit, a first bit in the first information indicating that there is SSB transmission in the first flexible time unit; and the processing unit 1110 is configured to: when the time domain position of the SSB in the first flexible time unit is located in a downlink symbol and a flexible symbol, determine not to receive the SSB in the downlink symbol and the flexible symbol.

[0161] As shown in FIG. 12, the apparatus 1200 includes a processor 1210 and an interface circuit 1220. The processor 1210 and the interface circuit 1220 are coupled to each other. It can be understood that the interface circuit 1220 can be a transceiver or an input / output interface. Optionally, the apparatus 1200 can further include a memory 1230, configured to store instructions executed by the processor 1210 or store input data required by the processor 1210 to execute instructions or store data generated after the processor 1210 executes instructions.

[0162] When the apparatus 1200 is used to implement the method shown in FIG. 5, the processor 1210 is configured to implement the functions of the processing unit 1110 described above, and the interface circuit 1220 is configured to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 1120 described above.

[0163] When the apparatus 1200 is a terminal chip (i.e., a chip applied to a terminal), the terminal chip implements the functions of the terminal in the above method embodiments. The terminal chip receives information from a base station, which can be understood as the information being first received by other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal and then transmitted to the terminal chip by these modules. The terminal chip transmits information to the base station, which can be understood as the information being first transmitted to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the terminal and then transmitted to the base station by these modules.

[0164] When the apparatus 1200 is a base station chip (i.e., a chip applied to a base station), the base station chip implements the functions of the base station in the above method embodiments. The base station chip receives information from a terminal, which can be understood as the information being first received by other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the base station and then transmitted to the base station chip by these modules. The base station chip transmits information to the terminal, which can be understood as the information being first transmitted to other modules (such as a radio frequency module or an antenna) in the base station and then transmitted to the terminal by these modules.

[0165] In this application, entity A sending information to entity B can be A directly sending to B, or A indirectly sending to B through other entities. Similarly, entity B receiving information from entity A can be entity B directly receiving the information sent by entity A, or entity B indirectly receiving the information sent by entity A through other entities. Here, entity A and B can be RAN nodes, or modules inside a RAN node or a terminal. The sending and receiving of information can be the information interaction between a RAN node and a terminal, for example, the information interaction between a base station and a terminal; the sending and receiving of information can also be the information interaction between two RAN nodes, for example, the information interaction between a CU and a DU; the sending and receiving of information can also be the information interaction between different modules inside one apparatus, for example, the information interaction between a terminal chip and other modules of the terminal, or the information interaction between a base station chip and other modules of the base station.

[0166] Embodiments of the present application also provide a communication system, which can include: an apparatus 1100 for implementing a base station function and an apparatus 1100 for implementing a terminal function; or an apparatus 1200 for implementing a base station function and an apparatus 1200 for implementing a terminal function.

[0167] Optionally, the communication system can be the system 1300 shown in FIG. 13.

[0168] As shown in FIG. 13, the system 1300 includes a CU 1310, a DU 1320, an RU 1330, and a UE 1340, wherein the CU 1310 includes a processor 1311, the DU 1320 includes a processor 1321, the RU 1330 includes an O-RAN processing unit (OPU) 1331, a digital processing unit (DPU) 1332, and an O-RAN RF processing unit (ORU) 1333, and the UE 1340 includes a processor 1341 and a transceiver 1342. Optionally, the CU 1310 further includes an accelerator 1312, and the DU 1320 further includes an accelerator 1322.

[0169] In the CU 1310, the processor 1311 can be used to implement part of layer (L) 2 and L3 functions, the DU 1320 can be used to implement L1 and part of L2 functions, and the RU 1330 can be used to implement L1 computation and digital part of RF functions. The traffic between the CU 1310 and the DU 1320 can be carried by a middle haul link, and the traffic between the DU 1320 and the RU 1330 can be carried by a fronthaul link. Optionally, the DU 1320 and the RU 1330 can be integrated as a whole.

[0170] Part of the protocol stack configured by the DU 1320 can be implemented in software running on the processor 1321, and part of the protocol stack can be implemented on the accelerator 1322. For example, computation-intensive L1 and L2 functions can be offloaded to the accelerator 1322, or all L1 functions are offloaded to the accelerator 1322, and other protocol stack contents are implemented in software running on the processor 1321. Alternatively, all contents of the protocol stack configured by the DU 1320 can be implemented in software running on the processor 1321.

[0171] Optionally, the processor 1311 and the processor 1321 can be x86 processors or non-x86 processors, for example, the processor 1311 and the processor 1321 can be central processing units (CPUs) or system on chips (SoCs), and can also be other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) 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. The accelerator 1322 supports interconnection with an x86 processor or a non-x86 processor, for example, the accelerator 1322 has a peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) interface to the processor 1321, and can be connected to other devices through gigabit ethernet (GbE).

[0172] In RU 1330, OPU 1331 can receive enhanced common public radio interface (eCPRI) frames from the fronthaul link and implement functions such as fronthaul interface, bottommost L1 (encoding, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping, precoding), synchronization, beamforming, and resource unit mapping. The form of OPU 1331 can be CPU, FPGA, or ASIC. DPU 1332 is a digital processing unit of the O-RU, which can implement functions such as synchronization, digital down converter (DDC), digital up converter (DUC), crest factor reduction (CFR), and digital pre-distortion (DPD) to improve power amplifier efficiency by reducing PAPR or adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) of the RF front end. The form of DPU 1332 can be FPGA or ASIC. The RF processing unit of ORU 1333 includes transceivers, up / down converters, power amplifiers (PAs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), transmit / receive (Tx / Rx) filters, wherein the transceivers can perform all conversions between the analog and digital domains, such as RF sampling, frequency conversion using RF, intermediate frequency (IF), and local oscillator (LO) mixing can be performed within the transceivers. It should be noted that the physical and logical partitions within the RF processing unit do not require specific boundaries.

[0173] In addition, the hardware components of CU 1310, DU 1320, and RU 1330 can also include a chassis platform, a mainboard, peripheral devices, and cooling devices. The mainboard can include processing units, memories, internal input / output (I / O) interfaces, and external connection ports. The above hardware components can include software, hardware, and system debugging interfaces, memories, single-board management controllers, and the like.

[0174] In the UE 1340, the processor 1341 is mainly configured to process communication protocols and communication data, control the whole UE 1340, execute software programs, and process data of the software programs. For example, the processor 1341 is configured to support the UE 1340 to perform actions described in the above method embodiments. The transceiver 1342 is mainly configured to convert digital signals and radio frequency signals and process the radio frequency signals. The UE 1340 can further include a memory and an input / output device, for example, a touch screen, a display screen, a keyboard, and the like, which are mainly configured to receive user input data and output user data.

[0175] The processor 1341 can read software programs in the memory, interpret and execute instructions of the software programs, and process data of the software programs. When information needs to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor 1341 processes the information to be transmitted and outputs digital signals to the transceiver 1342. The transceiver 1342 converts the digital signals into radio frequency signals and transmits the radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves through an antenna. When receiving information, the transceiver 1342 receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into digital signals, and outputs the digital signals to the processor 1341. The processor 1341 converts the digital signals into information and processes the information.

[0176] Those skilled in the art can understand that, for the convenience of description, FIG. 13 only shows one processor. In actual user equipment, multiple processors can exist.

[0177] As an optional implementation, the processor 1341 can include a baseband processor and / or a central processor. The baseband processor is mainly configured to process communication protocols and communication data. The central processor is mainly configured to control the whole UE 1340, execute software programs, and process data of the software programs. The processor 1341 in FIG. 13 can integrate the functions of the baseband processor and the central processor. Those skilled in the art can understand that the baseband processor and the central processor can also be independent processors interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art can understand that the UE 1340 can include multiple baseband processors to adapt to different network modes. The UE 1340 can include multiple central processors to enhance the processing capability. The components of the UE 1340 can be connected through various buses. The baseband processor can also be referred to as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processor can also be referred to as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing communication protocols and communication data can be built in the processor or stored in the memory in the form of software programs, and the processor executes the software programs to realize the baseband processing function.

[0178] The system composed of the various devices shown in FIG. 13 can also be referred to as a chip system without including the case platform, mainboard, peripheral device, cooling device, and input / output device.

[0179] As an optional example, the DU 1320 can perform S510 and generate the first information, and then send the first information to the RU 1330; the RU 1330 performs S520 and modulates the first information onto a wireless signal and sends it out. The UE 1340 receives the wireless signal carrying the first information through the transceiver 1342, and then demodulates and the like to obtain the first information; then the transceiver 1342 transmits the first information to the processor 1341, and the processor 1341 performs S530 to determine which SSBs are received; then the transceiver 1342 receives the SSBs based on the control of the processor 1341.

[0180] The method steps in the embodiments of the present application can be implemented in hardware or in software instructions executable by a processor. The software instructions can be composed of corresponding software modules, which can be stored in a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory, an erasable programmable read-only memory, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory, a register, a hard disk, a mobile hard disk, a compact disc read-only memory (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 a base station or a terminal. The processor and the storage medium can also exist as discrete components in the base station or the terminal.

[0181] 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 are performed. The computer can be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network device, a user equipment or other programmable apparatus. The computer programs or instructions can be stored in a computer readable storage medium or transferred from one computer readable storage medium to another computer readable storage medium, for example, the computer programs or instructions can be transferred from one website site, computer, server or data center to another website site, computer, server or data center through wired or wireless manner. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center and the like integrated with one or more available media. The available media can be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape; or an optical medium, such as a digital video disc; or a semiconductor medium, such as a solid state disk. The computer readable storage medium can be a volatile or non-volatile storage medium, or can include both volatile and non-volatile storage media.

[0182] Finally, regarding the embodiments of the present application, the following points are explained:

[0183] First, in the embodiments of the present application, the first, second and various numerical numbers are distinguished for convenience of description, and do not 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 by its function and inherent logic.

[0184] Second, in the embodiments of the present application, "indication" can include direct indication and indirect indication, and can also include explicit indication and implicit indication. The information indicated by a certain information is called to be indicated information, and there are many ways to indicate the to-be-indicated information in the specific implementation process, for example, the to-be-indicated information can be directly indicated, such as the to-be-indicated information itself or the index of the to-be-indicated information. The to-be-indicated information can also be indirectly indicated by indicating other information, wherein the other information and the to-be-indicated information have an association relationship. A part of the to-be-indicated information can also be indicated, and the other part of the to-be-indicated information is known or agreed in advance, for example, whether a certain information element exists can be used to indicate the to-be-indicated information by means of pre-agreement (for example, agreement), thereby reducing the indication overhead to a certain extent.

[0185] Thirdly, the "protocol" involved in the embodiments of the present application can refer to a standard protocol in the communication field, which can include a long term evolution (LTE) protocol, an NR protocol, and a related protocol in a future communication system, and the present application does not limit this.

[0186] Fourthly, "at least one" refers to one or more, and "multiple" refers to two or more. The "and / or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, which means that there can be three relationships, for example, A and / or B can represent: A exists alone, B exists alone, and A and B exist at the same time, wherein A and B can be a single object or multiple objects. The character " / " generally represents that the associated objects before and after it are in an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of single or multiple items. For example, at least one of a, b and c can represent: a, or b, or c, or a and b, or a and c, or b and c, or a, b and c. Wherein a, b and c can be a single object or multiple objects.

[0187] Fifthly, in the embodiments of the present application, the descriptions such as "when", "in the case of", "if" and "if" all refer to the objective situation that the device (for example, a terminal or a base station) will make corresponding processing, which is not limited in time, and does not require the device to have a judgment action when implemented, nor does it mean that there are other limitations.

[0188] Sixthly, in various embodiments of the present application, the terms and / or descriptions of different embodiments are consistent and can be mutually referred to 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.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting a synchronization signal block, the method comprising: The method comprises the following steps: determining a plurality of time units in a first time period, the plurality of time units being used for transmitting a synchronization signal block (SSB), the plurality of time units comprising a first time unit group and a second time unit group, the first time unit group comprising a first time unit, the second time unit group comprising a second time unit, the first time unit and the second time unit corresponding to a first bit; when the first time unit is an uplink time unit or a first flexible time unit or a downlink time unit used for transmitting a sensing signal, and when the second time unit is a downlink time unit used for transmitting a communication signal or a second flexible time unit, sending first information, a first bit in the first information indicating that an SSB is sent in the first time unit and the second time unit, wherein the first flexible time unit is a flexible time unit in which an SSB cannot be transmitted, and the second flexible time unit is a flexible time unit in which an SSB can be transmitted.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, When a subcarrier spacing of the SSB is 120 kHz, 240 kHz, 480 kHz or 960 kHz, a maximum number of SSBs in the plurality of time units is 64.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The first time period is a time period corresponding to one SSB burst set.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that, When a subcarrier spacing of the SSB is the same as a subcarrier spacing of the plurality of time units, the first flexible time unit is a time unit in which a number of consecutive downlink symbols is less than 4, and the second flexible time unit is a time unit including at least 4 consecutive downlink symbols.

5. A method of receiving a synchronization signal block, the method comprising: The method comprises the following steps: receiving first information indicating whether a synchronization signal block (SSB) is transmitted in a first time period, the first time period including a first flexible time unit, a first bit in the first information indicating that there is SSB transmission in the first flexible time unit; when a time domain position of the SSB in the first flexible time unit is located in a downlink symbol and a flexible symbol, determining not to receive the SSB in the downlink symbol and the flexible symbol. 6.An apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block, the apparatus comprising: The method comprises the following steps: a module for executing the method of any one of claims 1 to 4.

7. An apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block, the apparatus comprising: The method comprises the following steps: a module for executing the method of claim 5. 8.An apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal block, the apparatus comprising: The method comprises the following steps: a processor for implementing the method of any one of claims 1 to 4 by means of a logic circuit or by executing a computer program or instructions; an interface circuit for receiving signals from other devices and transmitting them to the processor or sending signals from the processor to other devices.

9. An apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal block, the apparatus comprising: The method comprises the following steps: a processor for implementing the method of claim 5 by means of a logic circuit or by executing a computer program or instructions; an interface circuit for receiving signals from other devices and transmitting them to the processor or sending signals from the processor to other devices.

10. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that, The computer readable storage medium stores a computer program or instructions, which, when executed by a device for transmitting a synchronization signal block, implements the method of any one of claims 1 to 4, or which, when executed by a device for receiving a synchronization signal block, implements the method of claim 5.

11. A computer program product, characterised in that, The computer program product comprises computer programs or instructions which, when executed by an apparatus for transmitting a synchronization signal, implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, or when executed by an apparatus for receiving a synchronization signal, implement the method according to claim 5.

12. A communication system, characterized by The communication system comprises a first apparatus configured to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, and a second apparatus configured to implement the method according to claim 5.

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