Communication method and apparatuses, and storage medium

Abstract

Provided in the present application are a communication method and apparatuses, and a storage medium. On one side of a core network device or an access network device, the communication method comprises: on the basis of signal measurement information corresponding to a first beam direction and the position of an access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, positioning a terminal to obtain position information of the terminal, wherein the first beam direction comprises at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the position of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained on the basis of environment information of a first local area, and the first local area is a local area where the first beam direction arrives. Thus, the dependence of terminal positioning on a plurality of access network devices is eliminated, thus improving the positioning accuracy of terminals.

Description

Communication methods, devices and storage media

[0001] This disclosure claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202411706781.6, filed on November 26, 2024, entitled "Communication Method, Apparatus and Storage Medium", the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. Technical Field

[0002] This disclosure relates to the field of communication technology, and in particular to a communication method, apparatus and storage medium. Background Technology

[0003] Wireless communication networks can determine the location of a terminal through wireless signals and provide the terminal with various location-related services.

[0004] Terminal positioning can be implemented in several ways, including: downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA), multiple cell round trip time (Multi-RTT), downlink angle of departure (DL-AoD), uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA), and enhanced cell ID location (E-CID).

[0005] However, the above positioning method requires the participation of multiple access network devices, and the positioning accuracy drops significantly when the access network devices participating in the positioning do not meet the requirements. Summary of the Invention

[0006] This application provides a communication method, apparatus, and storage medium, which solves the technical problem that the positioning accuracy of the terminal drops significantly when the positioning method relies on multiple access network devices and the access network devices involved in the positioning do not meet the requirements.

[0007] In a first aspect, this application provides a communication method applicable to core network equipment or access network equipment, comprising: locating a terminal based on signal measurement information corresponding to a first beam direction and the location of the access network equipment corresponding to the first beam direction, thereby obtaining the location information of the terminal; the first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network equipment and the terminal; the location of the access network equipment corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on environmental information of a first local area, the first local area being the local area reached by the beam of the first beam direction.

[0008] Secondly, this application provides a communication method applied to a terminal. The communication method includes: sending signal measurement information or UL PRS in a first beam direction, wherein the UL PRS is used to determine the signal measurement information; wherein the first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, and the signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction are used for the positioning of the terminal, and the location of the access network device is obtained based on environmental information of a first local area, wherein the first local area is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

[0009] Thirdly, this application provides a communication device applied to an access network device or a core network device. The first device has the function of providing data services. The communication device includes a memory, a transceiver, and a processor: the memory is used to store a computer program; the transceiver is used to send and receive data under the control of the processor; the processor is used to read the computer program in the memory and perform the following operations: locating a terminal based on signal measurement information corresponding to a first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, thereby obtaining the location information of the terminal; the first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal; the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on environmental information of a first local area, where the first local area is the local area reached by the beam of the first beam direction.

[0010] Fourthly, this application provides a communication device applied to a terminal. The communication device includes a memory, a transceiver, and a processor. The memory stores a computer program. The transceiver transmits and receives data under the control of the processor. The processor reads the computer program from the memory and performs the following operations: transmitting signal measurement information or UL PRS in a first beam direction, wherein the UL PRS is used to determine the signal measurement information. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction are used for the positioning of the terminal. The location of the access network device is obtained based on environmental information of a first local area, wherein the first local area is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

[0011] Fifthly, this application provides a communication device applied to an access network device or a core network device. The communication device includes: a processing unit, configured to locate a terminal based on signal measurement information corresponding to a first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, thereby obtaining the location information of the terminal. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on environmental information of a first local area, where the first local area is the local area reached by the beam of the first beam direction.

[0012] Sixthly, this application provides a communication device applied to a terminal. The communication device includes: a transmitting unit for transmitting signal measurement information or UL PRS in a first beam direction, wherein the UL PRS is used to determine the signal measurement information; wherein the first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between an access network device and the terminal, the signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction are used for the positioning of the terminal, and the location of the access network device is obtained based on environmental information of a first local area, wherein the first local area is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

[0013] In a seventh aspect, this application provides a processor-readable storage medium storing a computer program for causing a processor to execute the communication method provided in the first or second aspect above.

[0014] Eighthly, this application provides a computer program product containing instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the communication method provided in the first or second aspect above.

[0015] Ninthly, this application provides a communication system including any of the above-described access network devices, any of the above-described core network devices, and any of the above-described terminals.

[0016] According to the communication method, apparatus, and storage medium provided in this application, core network equipment or access network equipment can locate a terminal based on signal measurement information corresponding to a first beam direction and the location of the access network equipment corresponding to the first beam direction, thereby obtaining the terminal's location information. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network equipment and the terminal, so the location of the access network equipment corresponding to the first beam direction includes at least one access network equipment location. The location of the access network equipment corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on environmental information of a first local area. The first local area is the local area reached by the beam of the first beam direction, so the environmental information of the first local area is sensed by the beam of the first beam direction. For different beam directions, different locations of the same access network equipment may be obtained based on different sensed environmental information. By combining the signal measurement information of the beam direction and the location of the access network equipment in the beam direction for terminal location, the dependence of terminal location on multiple access network equipment is solved. Even when the terminal is not located in an overlapping area or at the edge of the coverage of multiple access network equipment, the terminal can still be accurately located, improving the accuracy of terminal location.

[0017] It should be understood that the description in the foregoing summary section is not intended to limit the key or essential features of the embodiments of the present invention, nor is it intended to restrict the scope of the invention. Other features of the invention will become readily apparent from the following description. Attached Figure Description

[0018] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in this application or related technologies, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or related technologies will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are some embodiments of this application. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0019] Figure 1 is an example diagram of an application scenario provided in the embodiments of this application;

[0020] Figure 2 is an example of a communication-aware fusion scenario provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0021] Figure 3 is an example of a communication-aware fusion scenario provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0022] Figure 4 is a flowchart illustrating the communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0023] Figure 5 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0024] Figure 6 is a flowchart illustrating the communication method provided in an embodiment of this application.

[0025] Figure 7 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0026] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating the communication method provided in an embodiment of this application.

[0027] Figure 9 is a schematic diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0028] Figure 10 is a second structural schematic diagram of the communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0029] Figure 11 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device provided in the embodiment of this application;

[0030] Figure 12 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the communication device provided in an embodiment of this application;

[0031] Figure 13 is an example diagram of the mirrored location of the access network device provided in the embodiments of this application. Detailed Implementation

[0032] In the embodiments of this application, the term "and / or" describes the relationship between associated objects, indicating that three relationships can exist. For example, A and / or B can represent three cases: A alone, A and B simultaneously, and B alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following associated objects have an "or" relationship.

[0033] In the embodiments of this application, the term "at least one" refers to one or more items, and other quantifiers are similar. "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, or c can be expressed as: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, or abc, where a, b, and c can be single or multiple.

[0034] In the embodiments of this application, the term "multiple" refers to two or more, and other quantifiers are similar.

[0035] The technical solutions provided in this application can be applied to a variety of systems. For example, applicable systems may include Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems, LTE Time Division Duplex (TDD) systems, Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) systems, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) systems, 5G New Radio (NR) systems and their evolved communication systems, and 6G (sixth generation mobile communication technology) systems. These systems may include terminal equipment and network equipment. The systems may also include a core network component, such as the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) and the 5G Core Network (5GC).

[0036] The terminal involved in the embodiments of this application can be a device that provides voice and / or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with wireless connectivity, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem. The name of the terminal device may differ in different systems; for example, in a 5G or 6G system, the terminal device may be called User Equipment (UE). The wireless terminal device can be a USB storage device, other personal computer memory devices, and a dongle. It can also communicate with one or more core networks (CNs) via a Radio Access Network (RAN). The wireless terminal device can be a mobile terminal device, such as a mobile phone (or "cellular" phone) and a computer with a mobile terminal device. For example, it can be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer-embedded, or vehicle-mounted mobile device that exchanges voice and / or data with the radio access network. Examples of such devices include Personal Communication Service (PCS) telephones, cordless phones, Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), personal computers, tablets, and Machine-type Communication (MTC) terminal devices. Wireless terminal devices can also be referred to as systems, subscriber units, subscriber stations, mobile stations, mobile devices, remote stations, access points, remote terminals, access terminals, user terminals, user agents, user devices, and wireless access devices and routers / modems that meet the limitations of this definition, but are not limited to these in the embodiments of this application.

[0037] The network device involved in this application embodiment can be a base station, which may include multiple cells providing services to terminals. Depending on the specific application, the base station may also be called an access point, or a device in the access network that communicates with wireless terminal devices through one or more sectors on the air interface, or other names. The network device can be used to exchange received air frames with Internet Protocol (IP) packets, acting as a router between the wireless terminal device and the rest of the access network, where the rest of the access network may include an Internet Protocol (IP) communication network. The network device can also coordinate the attribute management of the air interface. For example, the network device involved in this application embodiment can be an evolved Node B (eNB or e-NodeB) in a long term evolution (LTE) system, a 5G base station (gNB) in a next generation system, or a Home evolved Node B (HeNB), relay node, femto, pico, network testing equipment, etc., and is not limited in this application embodiment. In some network architectures, network devices may include centralized unit (CU) nodes and distributed unit (DU) nodes, which may also be geographically separated.

[0038] To facilitate understanding of this solution, the technical problems and technical concepts solved by the embodiments of this application are described below.

[0039] The basic idea of ​​integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) is to introduce wireless sensing functionality into wireless mobile communication, merging communication and sensing functions together. In the wireless sensing process, the transmitting end emits radio signals to the environment to be sensed, and the receiving end collects the wireless signals transmitted through multiple paths, reflected and scattered by objects in the environment. Because the wireless signals collected by the receiving end are influenced by the environment and carry environmental information, complex signal processing can be performed on the collected wireless signals to discover environmental features. Based on these features, the environment sensed by the wireless signals can be reconstructed. For example, it can identify people and objects in the environment, detect human movements, and even detect the breathing and heart rate of people in the environment. Therefore, ISAC can be used in various scenarios: intrusion detection and location tracking in scenarios such as drones or smart factories, and personnel health monitoring in smart home scenarios. ISAC can also be used to improve terminal positioning performance, but there are currently no mature solutions for this.

[0040] Terminal positioning technologies include the following: downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA), uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA), multiple cell round trip time (Multi-RTT), downlink angle of departure (DL-AoD), uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA), and enhanced cell ID location (E-CID). All of these methods require the participation of multiple access network devices.

[0041] The above-mentioned positioning methods require the participation of multiple access network devices only when the terminal is located at the edge of the cell or in an indoor environment where multiple transmission receive points (TRPs) are deployed. Furthermore, these positioning technologies require the terminal to be in line-of-sight (LOS) mode (i.e., line-of-sight wireless transmission mode). If multiple access network devices cannot participate in the positioning process or the terminal lacks LOS mode, the positioning accuracy of these methods will decrease significantly.

[0042] To address the aforementioned problems, this application proposes a communication method, apparatus, and storage medium. In the communication method, terminal positioning is performed based on signal measurement information corresponding to at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, and the location of the access network device corresponding to that at least one beam direction. The location of the access network device corresponding to the at least one beam direction is obtained based on environmental information of the local area reached by the beam in that beam direction. Thus, by utilizing the sensed environmental information, terminal positioning is assisted, solving the dependence of terminal positioning on multiple access network devices and eliminating the need for the terminal to be in a LOS state, thereby improving the accuracy of terminal positioning in various scenarios. The terminal positioning process can be performed on either the access network device or the core network device.

[0043] The method and apparatus are based on the same concept of the application. Since the methods and apparatus solve problems in similar ways, the implementation of the apparatus and methods can refer to each other, and the repeated parts will not be described again.

[0044] The technical solutions of the embodiments of this application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of this application, and not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of this application, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of this application.

[0045] It is understood that the steps or operations in the embodiments of this application are merely examples, and other operations or variations thereof may also be performed in the embodiments of this application. Furthermore, the steps may be performed in different orders as presented in the embodiments of this application, and it is not necessary to perform all the operations in the embodiments of this application.

[0046] Figure 1 is an example diagram of an application scenario provided by an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 1, the application scenario involved in this embodiment may include a core network device 101, an access network device 102, and a terminal 103. A sensing service 104 or a positioning service 105 may be deployed on the core network device 101 or the access network device 102 (Figure 1 uses the deployment of sensing service 104 and positioning service 105 on the core network device 101 as an example) to achieve terminal positioning through communication sensing fusion and improve the accuracy of terminal positioning.

[0047] Optionally, since the positioning process requires the use of environmental information in the sensing service, the sensing service 104 can locate the terminal, obtain the terminal's location information, and feed back the terminal's location information to the positioning service 105.

[0048] It should be noted that the above application scenarios are only shown to facilitate understanding of the spirit and principles of this application, and the embodiments of this application can be applied to any applicable scenario.

[0049] Figure 2 is an example of a communication sensing fusion scenario provided in this application embodiment. As shown in Figure 2, the communication sensing scenario may include multiple access network devices (e.g., access network device A and second access network device B), multiple terminals (e.g., terminal A and terminal B), and sensing network functions (i.e., sensing services). Depending on the participating devices (access network devices or UEs) and whether the signal transmission and reception are performed by the same device, the sensing mode may include the following six forms:

[0050] 1. Access network device self-transmission and self-reception: For example, the sensing beam transmission path represented by dashed line 1 in Figure 2, access network device A sends a sensing beam, and after the sensing beam is reflected by the object being measured (such as a vehicle), access network device A receives the reflected beam (i.e., the echo signal).

[0051] 2. Access network device A sends and access network device B receives: For example, the sensing beam transmission path represented by dashed line 2 in Figure 2. Access network device A sends a sensing beam. After the sensing beam is reflected by the object being measured (such as a vehicle), access network device B receives the reflected beam (i.e., the echo signal).

[0052] 3. Terminal sends and access network device receives: For example, the sensing beam transmission path represented by dashed line 3 in Figure 2. Terminal A sends a sensing beam. After the sensing beam is reflected by the object being measured (such as a human body), access network device A receives the reflected beam (i.e., the echo signal).

[0053] 4. Access network device transmits and terminal receives: For example, the sensing beam transmission path represented by dashed line 4 in Figure 2, access network device B sends a sensing beam, and after the sensing beam is reflected by the object being measured (such as a vehicle), terminal B receives the reflected beam (i.e., the echo signal).

[0054] 5. Terminal self-transmission and self-reception: For example, the sensing beam transmission path represented by the dashed line 5 in Figure 2, terminal A sends a sensing beam, and after the sensing beam is reflected by the object being measured (such as the human body), terminal A receives the reflected beam (i.e., the echo signal).

[0055] 6. Terminal A sends, Terminal B receives: For example, the sensing beam transmission path represented by the dashed line 6 in Figure 2, Terminal A sends the sensing beam, and after the sensing beam is reflected by the object being measured (such as the human body), Terminal B receives the reflected beam (i.e., the echo signal).

[0056] Taking the self-transmitting and self-receiving of the access network device as an example, Figure 3 is an example diagram of the communication sensing fusion scenario provided in the embodiments of this application. As shown in Figure 3, the access network device performs beam scanning in multiple beam directions. The sensing beams in multiple beam directions will reach multiple local areas (e.g., multiple grids or grids in Figure 3) within the coverage area of ​​the access network device, obtaining environmental information of these multiple local areas. If the sensing beam directly reaches a certain local area, the sensing beam is a line-of-sight (LOS) beam. If the sensing beam reaches a certain local area in a non-direct manner (e.g., after being reflected by a building in Figure 3), the sensing beam is a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) beam. Through beam scanning, the access network device can obtain environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within its own coverage area, forming an environmental database containing environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas.

[0057] Figure 4 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method provided in this embodiment. As shown in Figure 4, the communication method of this embodiment may include the following steps:

[0058] S401, based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, the terminal is located to obtain the terminal's location information. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on the environmental information of the first local area. The first local area is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

[0059] The signal measurement information is obtained by measuring the downlink positioning reference signal (DL PRS) in the direction of the first beam.

[0060] The environmental information of the first local area can be obtained by sensing and scanning the first local area with a beam in the direction of the first beam. That is, the environmental information of the first local area can be obtained by processing the echo beam that returns after the beam in the direction of the first beam reaches the first local area. The environmental information of the first local area can reflect the path of the beam in the direction of the first beam to reach the first local area, and thus reflect the location of the access network equipment corresponding to the direction of the first beam.

[0061] Optionally, the environmental information of the first local region is obtained from an environmental database. The environmental database contains environmental information corresponding to multiple local regions, and is obtained by beam scanning in multiple beam directions. The construction of the environmental database will be described later through corresponding embodiments and will not be described here.

[0062] It should be noted that the sensing process of environmental information of the first local area or environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas in the environmental database can adopt any one or more of the six forms described in Figure 2 above. This embodiment of the application takes the form of self-transmission and self-reception by the access network device as an example.

[0063] The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. For ease of description, this is referred to as the first beam direction. Different beam directions correspond to different beam paths; some beam paths are direct paths, and some are indirect paths. Therefore, the locations of the access network devices corresponding to different beam directions may be the same or different. Since there is at least one first beam direction, the first local area is at least one local area within the coverage area of ​​the access network device.

[0064] This step can be performed by the sensing service. Since the sensing service can be deployed on both core network devices and access network devices, this step can be performed by either the core network device or the access network device. Therefore, this embodiment can be applied to either core network devices or access network devices. The positioning service can also be deployed on either core network devices or access network devices. For example, both the sensing service and the positioning service can be deployed on the core network device; or both can be deployed on the access network device; or the sensing service can be deployed on the core network device and the positioning service on the access network device.

[0065] In this embodiment, when there is only one first beam direction, i.e., when the first beam direction is a beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the terminal location can be obtained by combining the signal measurement information corresponding to that single beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to that single beam direction. Thus, in addition to the location of the access network device, signal measurement information is used to assist in terminal location, solving the dependence of terminal location on multiple access network devices and improving the accuracy of terminal location.

[0066] In this embodiment, when there are multiple first beam directions, i.e., when the first beam directions are multiple beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, the terminal can be located by combining the signal measurement information corresponding to each of the multiple beam directions and the location of the access network device corresponding to each of the multiple beam directions. Thus, by using the locations of multiple access network devices instead of multiple access network devices, the dependence of terminal positioning on multiple access network devices is resolved, multi-beam positioning of the terminal is realized, and the accuracy of terminal positioning is improved.

[0067] In this embodiment, in addition to the location of the access network devices, signal measurement information is used to assist in terminal positioning. When there are multiple access network devices in the first beam direction, the location of multiple access network devices is used to replace multiple access network devices, which solves the dependence of terminal positioning on multiple access network devices. It has the advantages of fewer access network devices participating in positioning and no need for the terminal to have a LOS state, which improves the accuracy of terminal positioning and the accuracy is not affected by the scene.

[0068] In some embodiments, a positioning service can send a positioning request to a sensing service, instructing the sensing service to locate the terminal. Upon receiving the positioning request, the sensing service can obtain environmental information of a first local area from an environmental database, determine the location of the access network device corresponding to a first beam direction based on the environmental information of the first local area, and locate the terminal based on the signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, thus obtaining the terminal's positioning information. This achieves terminal positioning through communication and sensing fusion.

[0069] In this embodiment, when the sensing service is located in the core network device, the core network device can receive signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction. Based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, the core network device can locate the terminal to obtain the terminal's location information. Alternatively, when the sensing service is located in the access network device, the access network device can receive signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction, or the access network device can receive DL PRS in the first beam direction, measure the DL PRS to obtain signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction, and locate the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction to obtain the terminal's location information.

[0070] In some embodiments, the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction includes: the actual location of the access network device and / or the mirrored location of the access network device relative to environmental reflectors (e.g., vehicles, buildings). Specifically, when the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam, the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is the actual location of the access network device; when the beam in the first beam direction is an NLOS beam, the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is the mirrored location of the access network device relative to environmental reflectors. Therefore, by using the actual location and / or mirrored location of the access network device, sufficient access network device locations are provided for terminal positioning, solving the dependence of terminal positioning on multiple access network devices, and particularly improving the accuracy of terminal positioning in scenarios with a single access network device or a single TRP.

[0071] NLOS beams with different beam directions may encounter different environmental reflectors or have different incident angles relative to the environmental reflectors. Therefore, NLOS beams with different beam directions may correspond to different beam paths and may correspond to different mirror positions of access network devices.

[0072] As an example, Figure 13 is an example diagram of the mirror position of an access network device provided in an embodiment of this application. As shown in Figure 13, for an access network device located at the apex of a cell, its beams in different directions may reach the terminal after being reflected by different environmental reflectors. Based on one of the reflection paths (not shown in the figure), the mirror position 1 corresponding to the access network device can be determined, and based on the other reflection path (not shown in the figure), the mirror position 2 corresponding to the access network device can be determined. The dashed lines connecting the access network device, the terminal, mirror position 1, and mirror position 2 in Figure 13 do not represent reflection paths, but rather represent a correspondence, indicating that mirror position 1 and mirror position 2 are mirror positions of the access network device, and that mirror position 1 and mirror position 2 are mirror positions determined based on the echo beam returned by the terminal.

[0073] Optionally, in the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, the mirror position of the access network device relative to the environmental reflectors is obtained by mirroring the beam in the first beam direction based on the actual location of the access network device and the reflector information of the first local area. The environmental information of the first local area includes the reflector information of the first local area, which can be obtained from the environmental information of the first local area during the positioning process; or, the reflector information of the first local area is determined based on the environmental information of the first local area, and the reflector information of the first local area can be obtained by analyzing and processing the environmental information of the first local area during the positioning process.

[0074] In this optional method, during the process of mirroring the beam in the first beam direction based on the actual location of the access network device and the reflector information of the first local area, a reflection path (reflection beam) corresponding to the transmitted beam in the first beam direction can be constructed based on the actual location of the access network device and the reflector information of the first local area. The reflection path is then mirrored based on the reflector information to obtain the mirrored position of the access network device.

[0075] Optionally, the reflector information includes the reflector position and the reflector angle. The reflector position indicates the position of the environmental reflector relative to the access network device, and the reflector angle indicates the angle of the reflector surface of the environmental reflector relative to the access network device. Furthermore, the reflector position indicates the position of the environmental reflector relative to the antenna surface of the access network device, and the reflector angle indicates the angle of the environmental reflector relative to the antenna surface of the access network device.

[0076] In this optional method, the beam in the first beam direction can be mirrored based on the actual location of the access network device, the position of the reflector in the first local area, and the angle of the reflector surface in the first local area, to obtain the mirrored position of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction. Further, a reflection path (reflected beam) corresponding to the transmitted beam in the first beam direction can be constructed based on the actual location of the access network device, the position of the reflector in the first local area, and the angle of the reflector surface in the first local area. This reflection path is then mirrored based on the position of the reflector in the first local area and the angle of the reflector surface in the first local area to obtain the mirrored position of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction.

[0077] Optionally, the environmental information of the first local area includes at least one of the following: indication information indicating whether the beam in the first beam direction is an LOS beam or an NLOS beam, time delay information of the beam in the first beam direction, angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction, or power information of the beam in the first beam direction.

[0078] Specifically, the indication information indicating whether the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam can reflect whether the beam in the first beam direction reaches the first local area directly or in a non-direct manner (such as reflection or refraction), thereby determining whether the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is the actual location of the access network device or its mirror image location; the time delay information of the beam in the first beam direction indicates the time it takes for the beam in the first beam direction to reach the first local area; the angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction indicates the angle at which the beam in the first beam direction reaches the receiving end (e.g., the receiving end is the access network device when the access network device transmits and receives itself); and the power information of the beam in the first beam direction indicates the transmit power of the beam.

[0079] Optionally, the reflector information of the first local region is obtained by reconstructing the environment based on the indication information, time delay information, angle of arrival information, and power information in the environmental information of the first local region. The indication information, time delay information, angle of arrival information, and power information are as described above and will not be repeated here.

[0080] In this optional approach, taking the self-transmitting and self-receiving of the access network device as an example, during the sensing process, the access network device transmits a beam in the first beam direction and receives the corresponding echo signal. Based on the echo signal, environmental information of the first local area can be obtained, namely, indication information indicating whether the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam, the time delay information of the beam in the first beam direction, the angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction, and the power information of the beam in the first beam direction. Based on the indication information indicating whether the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam, the time delay information of the beam in the first beam direction, the angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction, and the power information of the beam in the first beam direction, environmental reconstruction is performed to obtain reflector information of the first local area. Thus, by obtaining reflector information of the first local area through environmental sensing, such as the position of reflectors and the angle of reflective surfaces, the reflection path can be located for the terminal based on the reflector information. When there are multiple first beam directions, different reflection paths can be constructed for the terminal, enabling multi-beam positioning of the terminal and improving the accuracy of terminal positioning.

[0081] In some embodiments, the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction includes: identification information of the first beam direction, indication information indicating that the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam, or the path information with the strongest power in the first beam direction. The path information includes at least one of the following: time delay information, distance information, angle of arrival information, power information, or Doppler information. Therefore, by using this signal measurement information, the accuracy of terminal positioning can be improved.

[0082] Figure 5 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method provided in this embodiment. As shown in Figure 5, for ease of description, this embodiment takes the step of the core network device performing the location of the terminal as an example, that is, taking the core network device performing the location information of the terminal as an example. The communication method of this embodiment may include the following steps:

[0083] S501, the access network device sends DL PRS to the terminal in the first beam direction.

[0084] S502, the terminal determines the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction based on DL PRS.

[0085] S503, the terminal sends signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction to the access network equipment.

[0086] S504, the access network equipment sends signal measurement information to the core network equipment.

[0087] S501 to S504 are optional steps.

[0088] In this embodiment, the access network device sends DL PRS in the first beam direction. After the terminal measures the DL PRS, it obtains the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and sends the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction to the access network device. The access network device then sends the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction to the core network device.

[0089] S505, the terminal sends UL PRS to the access network equipment in the first beam direction.

[0090] S506, the access network equipment determines the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction based on UL PRS.

[0091] S507, the access network equipment sends signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction to the core network equipment.

[0092] Steps S505 to S507 are optional. Steps S501 to S504 and S505 to S507 are parallel options; users can choose to execute S501 to S504 (i.e., the terminal performs signal measurement) or S505 to S507 (i.e., the access network device performs signal measurement). If the access network device performs the terminal's positioning operation, it can receive signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction sent by the terminal, or it can receive the UL PRS sent by the terminal in the first beam direction, perform signal measurement on the UL PRS, and obtain signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction.

[0093] In this embodiment, the access network device receives UL PRS in the first beam direction, measures the UL PRS to obtain signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction, and sends the signal measurement information to the core network device.

[0094] Optionally, the terminal determines the first beam direction and can receive the signal in the first beam direction in the next cycle after the access network device sends the scanning signal; then, it immediately or after a set delay sends UL PRS in the first beam direction.

[0095] S508: The core network equipment locates the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the access network location corresponding to the first beam direction, thereby obtaining the terminal's location information.

[0096] The implementation method and technical effects of S508 can be referred to the aforementioned embodiments.

[0097] Below, we provide several implementation methods for S508.

[0098] In one possible implementation, the first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal. S508 may include: determining the signal transmission time difference and the signal arrival time difference between the at least three beam directions based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction; and determining the location information of the terminal based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least three beam directions.

[0099] The signal transmission time difference between at least three beam directions refers to the transmission time difference of the PRS between any two beam directions, which may be the transmission time difference of the DL PRS between any two beam directions; the signal arrival time difference between at least three beam directions refers to the arrival time difference of the PRS between any two beam directions, which may be the arrival time difference of the DL PRS between any two beam directions.

[0100] In this implementation, taking the example of the access network device sending DL PRS and the terminal measuring the DL PRS, the terminal receives DL PRS signals from at least three beam directions, measures the time difference of arrival (TDOA) of the DL PRS signals from these three beam directions, and sends the TDOA of the DL PRS signals from these three beam directions to the access network device. The access network device can measure the transmission time difference of the DL PRS signals from these three beam directions. The access network device can then send the TDOA and transmission time differences of the DL PRS signals from these three beam directions to the core network device (taking the core network device performing a location operation on the terminal as an example). For instance, the TDOA and transmission time differences of the DL PRS signals from these three beam directions can be sent to the location management function (LMF) deployed in the core network device. In the core network device, the terminal is located based on the signal transmission time difference between the at least three beam directions, the signal arrival time difference between the at least three beam directions, and the location of the access network device corresponding to each of the at least three beam directions, thereby obtaining the terminal's location information. Therefore, by utilizing the time difference of arrival and transmission in multiple beam directions, and combining this with the location of access network devices obtained based on environmental awareness, multi-beam positioning of the terminal is achieved, improving the accuracy of terminal positioning.

[0101] Optionally, in two-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, and the two-dimensional position coordinates indicating the terminal's location can be determined by the arrival time difference and transmission time difference of the at least three beam directions; in three-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least four beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, and the three-dimensional position coordinates indicating the terminal's location can be determined by the arrival time difference and transmission time difference of the at least four beam directions.

[0102] Optionally, the first beam direction includes at least three of the following: the optimal beam direction, the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, or the fourth strongest beam direction. Thus, by utilizing at least three of the optimal, second-best, third strongest, and fourth strongest beam directions, the accuracy of terminal positioning can be improved.

[0103] Optionally, the terminal's location information is determined based on the signal transmission time difference between the at least three beam directions, the signal arrival time difference between the at least three beam directions, and the locations of the access network devices corresponding to the at least three beam directions. This includes: determining at least two hyperbolic functions based on the signal transmission time difference between the at least three beam directions, the signal arrival time difference between the at least three beam directions, and the locations of the access network devices corresponding to the at least three beam directions; and determining the terminal's location information based on the at least two hyperbolic functions. Thus, by constructing multiple hyperbolic functions for terminal positioning, the accuracy of terminal positioning is improved.

[0104] In two-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, which can construct at least two hyperbolic functions; in three-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least four beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, which can construct at least three hyperbolic functions.

[0105] In this embodiment, after constructing multiple (at least two or at least three) hyperbolic functions, the intersection points of these multiple hyperbolic functions can be solved to determine the position coordinates of the terminal as the intersection points of these multiple hyperbolic functions.

[0106] Taking three-dimensional space as an example: To determine the terminal's position information in three-dimensional space, at least three hyperbolic functions need to be established. The intersection of the hyperbolas corresponding to each hyperbolic function represents the terminal's three-dimensional position coordinates. Therefore, at least four signal arrival time differences and signal transmission time differences from different beam directions are required. Assuming that the signal transmission times for beam directions 1, 2, 3, and 4 are T1, T2, T3, and T4 respectively, and the terminal's signal reception times for these beam directions are τ1, τ2, τ3, and τ4 respectively, a system of equations including three hyperbolic functions can be constructed:

[0107] Where (x, y, z) are the three-dimensional position coordinates of the terminal, (x1, y1, z1) are the access network device positions corresponding to beam direction 1, (x2, y2, z2) are the access network device positions corresponding to beam direction 2, (x3, y3, z3) are the access network device positions corresponding to beam direction 3, and (x4, y4, z4) are the access network device positions corresponding to beam direction 4. c represents the signal transmission speed.

[0108] In this example, the three-dimensional coordinates of the terminal can be obtained by solving the above system of equations.

[0109] In another possible implementation, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal. S508 may include: determining angle information corresponding to at least two beam directions based on signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction, wherein the angle information includes the downlink departure angle or the uplink arrival angle of the beam; and determining the location information of the terminal based on the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least two beam directions.

[0110] In this implementation, where the angle information corresponding to at least two beam directions includes the downlink departure angle, the terminal is located using a multi-beam and downlink departure angle positioning method. This solves the problem of the downlink departure angle positioning method's dependence on multiple access network devices and improves the accuracy of terminal positioning.

[0111] In this implementation, where the angle information corresponding to at least two beam directions includes the uplink angle of arrival, the uplink angle of arrival can be either the angle of arrival (AOA) or the zenith of arrival (ZOA). This implementation uses multiple beams and the uplink angle of arrival to locate the terminal, thus solving the problem of the uplink angle of arrival positioning method's dependence on multiple access network devices and improving the accuracy of terminal positioning.

[0112] Optionally, the first beam direction includes at least two of the following: the optimal beam direction, the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, or the fourth strongest beam direction. Thus, by utilizing at least two beams from the optimal, second-best, third strongest, and fourth strongest beam directions, the accuracy of terminal positioning can be improved.

[0113] Optionally, in two-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, and the two-dimensional position coordinates of the terminal can be determined by the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the position of the access network device corresponding to the at least two beam directions; in three-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, and the three-dimensional position coordinates of the terminal can be determined by the angle information corresponding to the at least three beam directions and the position of the access network device corresponding to the at least three beam directions.

[0114] Optionally, the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction may include the reference signal receiving power (RSRP) of the DL PRS. Based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction, the angle information corresponding to at least two beam directions is determined, including: based on the RSRP of the DL PRS in the first beam direction and the at least two beam directions, the downlink departure angle of the beams in the at least two beam directions is determined.

[0115] Optionally, if the angle information corresponding to at least two beam directions includes the uplink angle of arrival, spatial line equations corresponding to at least two beam directions can be constructed based on the uplink angle of arrival and the access network device locations corresponding to at least two beam directions. The terminal's location information can be obtained by solving these spatial line equations. Therefore, the accuracy of terminal positioning is improved by using the at least two beam directions and uplink angle of arrival positioning method.

[0116] Taking two-dimensional space as an example, the terminal is located using two beam directions: Assuming the access network device positions corresponding to the two beam directions are (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) respectively, and the uplink angles of arrival corresponding to the two beam directions are φ1 and φ2 respectively, and the two-dimensional position coordinates of the terminal are (x, y), then the following spatial straight line equation can be constructed according to the uplink angle of arrival positioning method:

[0117] In this example, the three-dimensional coordinates of the terminal can be obtained by solving the above system of equations.

[0118] In another possible implementation, S508 includes: determining the round-trip time (RRT) and angle of arrival (AOA) of the beam in the first beam direction based on signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction; determining the distance information between the access network device location and the terminal in the first beam direction based on the RRT; and determining the terminal's location information based on the distance information between the access network device location and the terminal, the AOA of the beam in the first beam direction (which can be AOA or ZOA), and the location of the access network device in the first beam direction. Thus, by utilizing the time arriving (TA) of the beam in the first beam direction (which can be determined based on the RRT) and the AOA of the beam in the first beam direction, the accuracy of terminal positioning is improved without relying on multiple access network devices.

[0119] In this implementation, for each first beam direction, the terminal is located on a circle centered on the location (real or mirrored) of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, with the distance between the terminal and the access network device location corresponding to the first beam direction as the radius. Therefore: the RRT corresponding to the first beam direction can be determined based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction; the TA of the beam in the first beam direction can be determined based on the RRT; the distance between the terminal and the access network device location corresponding to the first beam direction can be determined based on the TA; and the terminal's location information can be determined based on the angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction, the distance between the terminal and the access network device location corresponding to the first beam direction, and the location of the access network device location corresponding to the first beam direction.

[0120] Considering the clock error between the access network equipment and the terminal, the round-trip time (RTT) method is used to measure the distance between them. The RTT between the access network equipment and the terminal, specifically the RRT corresponding to the first beam direction, is measured. The RRT is defined as twice the propagation delay between the access network equipment and the terminal. The measurement process for the RRT corresponding to the first beam direction is as follows: For DL ​​PRS, the access network equipment uses its local clock to measure the transmission time t0 of the DL PRS, and the terminal uses its local clock to measure the arrival time t1 of the DL PRS. For UL PRS, the terminal uses its local clock to record the transmission time t2 of the UL PRS, and the access network equipment uses its local clock to measure the arrival time t3 of the UL PRS. Thus, the propagation delay on the access network equipment side is t3-t0, and the propagation delay on the terminal side is t1-t2. Finally, RTT = (t1-t0) + (t3-t2) = (t3-t0) + (t1-t2), and then TA = RTT / 2 is calculated.

[0121] In another possible implementation, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal. S508 includes: determining the RRT corresponding to each of the at least two beam directions based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction; determining the distance information between the access network device location and the terminal corresponding to each of the at least two beam directions based on the RRT corresponding to each of the at least two beam directions; and determining the terminal's location information based on the access network device location corresponding to each of the at least two beam directions and the distance information between the access network device location and the terminal corresponding to each of the at least two beam directions. Thus, terminal positioning is achieved using the RRT of multiple beam directions, improving the accuracy of terminal positioning without relying on multiple access network devices.

[0122] The process of determining the RRT corresponding to at least two beam directions based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction can be referred to the description in the foregoing embodiment, and will not be repeated here.

[0123] In this implementation, for each first beam direction, the terminal is located on a circle with the location (real or mirrored) of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction as the center and the distance between the terminal and the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction as the radius. Therefore: the RRT corresponding to the first beam direction can be determined based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction; the TA of the beam in the first beam direction can be determined based on the RRT; and the distance between the terminal and the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction can be determined based on the TA; when there are at least two first beam directions, the terminal's location information can be determined based on the distance between the terminal and the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction (i.e., the radius of the circle) and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction (i.e., the center of the circle). In this case, the terminal's location information is the intersection of at least two circles.

[0124] Optionally, the first beam direction includes at least two of the following: the optimal beam direction, the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, or the fourth strongest beam direction. Thus, by utilizing at least two beams from the optimal, second-best, third strongest, and fourth strongest beam directions, the accuracy of terminal positioning can be improved.

[0125] Optionally, in two-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, and the two-dimensional position coordinates of the terminal can be determined by the intersection of at least two circles; in three-dimensional space, the first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal, and the three-dimensional position coordinates of the terminal can be determined by the intersection of at least three circles. This improves the positioning accuracy of the terminal without relying on multiple access network devices.

[0126] Below, we provide an example of environmental perception.

[0127] In some embodiments, the access network device can obtain first information by performing beam scanning in multiple beam directions. The first information includes environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage area of ​​the access network device and identification information corresponding to each of these local areas. The first information can exist in the form of a database, specifically the environmental database mentioned in the preceding embodiments. The first information can be used to assist in terminal positioning, as detailed in the preceding embodiments. Thus, environmental perception is performed by the access network device in a self-transmitting and self-receiving manner to establish the first information, i.e., to establish an environmental database corresponding to the coverage area of ​​the access network device.

[0128] Optionally, in the first information, the identification information corresponding to each of the multiple local regions is associated with at least one of the following: beam direction identification information, beam transmission distance, or beam angle of arrival information, wherein the beam direction refers to the beam direction corresponding to the local region, and the beam refers to the beam in that beam direction. Taking the first local region as an example, the identification information corresponding to the first local region is associated with at least one of the following: first beam direction identification information, beam transmission distance in the first beam direction, or beam angle of arrival information in the first beam direction, wherein the beam angle of arrival information may include AOA and / or ZOA. Thus, by using at least one of the beam direction identification information, beam transmission distance, or beam angle of arrival information, multiple local regions are both identified and associated with the beams that scanned the multiple local regions.

[0129] Furthermore, in the first information, the identification information corresponding to multiple local regions may include a first index value, a second index value, and a third index value. The first index value is related to the beam direction, the second index value is related to the beam transmission distance, and the third index value is related to the beam angle of arrival. Thus, using at least three index values ​​makes the identification of local regions more concise and reduces the difficulty of retrieving environmental information about local regions from the first information.

[0130] The range of the first index value is determined based on the beam coverage range and beamwidth of the access network device. The range of the second index value is determined based on the farthest coverage range and average decorrelation distance of the access network device. The range of the third index value is determined based on the beam scanning angle of the access network device and the minimum angle that the terminal can resolve. Therefore, based on the characteristics of the access network device (beam coverage range, beam scanning angle, etc.), index values ​​for the identification information of local areas are designed to ensure the uniqueness of the identification information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage range of the access network device.

[0131] Among them, multiple local regions can also be referred to as multiple grids or multiple meshes, and the identification information corresponding to each of the multiple local regions can also be referred to as the fingerprint positions corresponding to each of the multiple local regions.

[0132] Optionally, the first information also includes large-scale parameter information corresponding to multiple local regions and / or candidate beam directions corresponding to multiple local regions. The large-scale parameters include at least one of the following: time delay spread information of multiple local regions, angular spread information of multiple local regions, and Doppler spread information of multiple local regions. For a local region, there may be multiple beam directions that can reach it, including the optimal beam direction, the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, and the fourth strongest beam direction, etc. The second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, and the fourth strongest beam direction can then be used as candidate beam directions for that local region.

[0133] As an example, the access network device uses sensing beams to scan within the coverage area (i.e., transmits beams in multiple beam directions). For one beam direction, based on the received echo signal, it can obtain information about multiple cells corresponding to different beam transmission distances (e.g., the j-th beam transmission distance d_j in the i-th beam direction) and different beam angles of arrival (e.g., the k-th beam angle of arrival AOA_k in the i-th beam direction) under the corresponding beam number (e.g., beam_i in the i-th beam direction). Each cell is uniquely identified using a fingerprint location. For example, the cells scanned by the beams with the j-th beam transmission distance d_j and the k-th beam angle of arrival AOA_k in the i-th beam direction can be uniquely identified using (beam_i, d_j, AOA_k).

[0134] Among them, beam_i is obtained by dividing the beam coverage range of the access network device by the minimum beam granularity of the access network device, and the beam width of the access network device can be used as the minimum beam granularity; d_j is the farthest coverage range / distance minimum granularity of the access network device, and the average decorrelation distance can be used as the distance minimum granularity; AOA_k is the 360° / angle minimum granularity, and the smallest angle that the best-performing terminal can resolve can be used as the angle minimum granularity.

[0135] As an example, the first piece of information is represented as the following environment database:

[0136] In the table above, LOS / NLOS indicates whether the beam corresponding to the grid is an LOS beam or an NLOS beam. DS refers to delay spread (DS), ASA refers to azimuth spread of arrival angle (ASA), ASD refers to azimuth spread of departure angle (ASD), ZSA refers to zenith spread of arrival angle (ZSA), and ZSD refers to zenith spread of departure angle (ZSD), which are angle spread parameters.

[0137] When the beam in the beam direction is an NLOS beam, the local area reached by the beam may not correspond to the local area in the beam direction. It is highly likely that the beam hits an obstacle in the beam direction and is reflected to a local area in another direction. Therefore, after establishing the first information, the first information can be updated through the embodiment shown in Figure 6.

[0138] Figure 6 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method provided in this embodiment of the application. This communication method can be applied to core network equipment or access network equipment. As shown in Figure 6, taking the core network equipment as the executing entity as an example, that is, taking the update of the first information as an example, the update of the first information may include the following steps:

[0139] S601, during the random access process of the terminal, or after the terminal randomly accesses the network, or after the terminal performs beam switching, the access network device sends third information to the terminal. The third information instructs the terminal to report second information. The second information is related to the second beam direction, which includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0140] S601 is an optional step. The terminal can proactively report the second piece of information.

[0141] If, after the terminal performs beam switching, the access network device sends third information to the terminal, then the beam in the second beam direction is the target beam in the beam switching, so as to update the relevant information (environmental information, large-scale parameters, etc.) of the local area reached by the target beam in the first information.

[0142] Optionally, during the terminal's random access process, the third information may be carried in the MSG4 message of the random access process, and / or the terminal may obtain the second information by receiving the broadcast signal and / or MSG4. Here, MSG4 is the contention resolution message during the random access process.

[0143] S602, the terminal sends second information, which is related to a second beam direction, including at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0144] In this embodiment, the terminal can obtain second information related to the second beam direction through the signal received in the second beam direction, and send the second information to the access network device, which then sends the second information to the core network device.

[0145] Optionally, the second information includes identification information of the second beam direction, channel information of the second beam direction, and the path information with the strongest power in the second beam direction. The channel information may include large-scale parameter information and indication information for indicating whether the beam in the second beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam.

[0146] Optionally, the second beam direction includes at least one of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0147] S603, the core network equipment updates the first information based on the second information.

[0148] The first information includes identification information corresponding to multiple local regions, environmental information (also known as wireless fingerprint information) corresponding to multiple local regions, and channel information corresponding to multiple local regions. The channel information corresponding to multiple local regions includes large-scale parameter information corresponding to each local region. The LOS / NLOS status (i.e., whether the beam is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam) can be located in the environmental information or in the channel information.

[0149] In this embodiment, since the first information is obtained by the access network device through self-transmission and self-reception, there may be perception errors in the local area of ​​the NLOS state. Therefore, in this embodiment, the second information is obtained by the access network device through sending and receiving the terminal, and the first information is updated using the second information to improve the accuracy of the first information, especially to improve the accuracy of the large-scale parameter information of the local area corresponding to the NLOS state in the first information.

[0150] Optionally, S603 includes: determining the identification information of a second local region based on the identification information of the second beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the second beam direction, wherein the second local region is the local region reached by the beam in the second beam direction; updating the large-scale parameter information of the second local region in the first information based on the identification information of the second local region and the channel information of the second beam direction; and / or supplementing or updating the candidate beam directions corresponding to the second local region based on the identification information of the second beam direction.

[0151] In this optional approach, the identification information of the second local region is related to the identification information of the second beam direction and the beam information (beam transmission distance, beam angle of arrival, etc.) of the second beam direction. For details, please refer to the aforementioned description of the identification information corresponding to multiple local regions, which will not be repeated here. The beam information of the second beam direction can be determined using the path information of the strongest beam in the second beam direction. Based on the identification information of the second beam direction and the beam information of the second beam direction, the identification information of the second local region is determined. In the first information, the second local region is queried based on its identification information. Then, based on the channel information corresponding to the second beam direction, the channel information corresponding to the second local region in the first information is updated, especially the large-scale parameter system of the second local region; and / or, in the first information, the alternative beam directions corresponding to the second local region are supplemented or updated.

[0152] Specifically, if the candidate beam direction corresponding to the second local region is empty in the first information, the second beam direction can be added as a candidate beam direction for the second local region; otherwise, the second beam direction can be updated as a candidate beam direction for the second local region. When the second beam direction includes at least one of the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second-best beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, at least one of the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, or the fourth strongest beam direction can be added to or updated as a candidate beam direction for the second local region.

[0153] In this embodiment of the application, after establishing the first information by using the access network device to perform environmental perception in a self-transmitting and self-receiving manner, the first information is updated in the communication phase by using the access network device to send communication signals and the terminal to receive communication signals, and by the terminal to send communication signals and the access network device to receive communication signals. This makes the first information have the advantages of high matching degree with the actual communication channel, support for sharing and use by all users, support for dynamic updates and low maintenance cost.

[0154] Typically, assuming consistent large-scale parameters within a sector, all terminals within the sector use the same large-scale parameters for configuration during communication. This leads to resource allocation or transmission configuration parameters being selected for different terminals within the cell that do not match reality. For example, users with good channel conditions may not achieve optimal performance in the initial stage, resulting in low spectrum resource utilization. Subsequent adjustments require a series of measurement feedback operations, which also increases frequent air interface interactions.

[0155] To address the aforementioned issues, the first information can also be used to assist terminal communication. Corresponding embodiments are provided below.

[0156] Figure 7 is a schematic flowchart of the communication method provided in this embodiment. As shown in Figure 7, the process of using first information to assist terminal communication in this embodiment may include the following steps:

[0157] S701, the terminal sends fourth information, which includes the identification information of the third beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the third beam direction. The third beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the terminal and the access network equipment.

[0158] In this embodiment, the terminal can obtain the fourth information by receiving and measuring the signal in the direction of the third beam. The terminal can then send the fourth information to the access network device.

[0159] Optionally, the terminal may obtain the fourth information during or after the random access process.

[0160] Optionally, the third beam direction includes the optimal beam direction between the terminal and the access network equipment.

[0161] S702, the access network device searches for the large-scale parameter information corresponding to the third local area in the first information based on the fourth information. The third local area is the local area reached by the beam in the third beam direction.

[0162] In this embodiment, the identification information corresponding to the third local region can be obtained based on the fourth information. Then, based on the identification information corresponding to the third local region, the large-scale parameter information corresponding to the third local region can be found in the first information. The process of obtaining the identification information corresponding to the third local region based on the fourth information can be referred to the process of obtaining the identification information corresponding to the second local region based on the second information, and will not be described again.

[0163] For example, the access network device obtains the identification information (beam_i, d_j, AOA_k) corresponding to the third local area based on the fourth information, and retrieves the large-scale parameter information of the third local area from the first information based on the identification information.

[0164] S703, the access network device sends large-scale parameter information to the terminal, or, based on the large-scale parameter information, sends fifth information to the terminal, which is used to configure the terminal's communication.

[0165] The fifth piece of information can be downlink control information (DCI).

[0166] In this embodiment, the access network device obtains configuration information related to the uplink and / or downlink communication process of the terminal based on the large-scale parameter information corresponding to the third local area, and sends the fifth information to the terminal to instruct the terminal to perform communication configuration according to the fifth information; or, the access network device sends the large-scale parameter information corresponding to the third local area to the terminal, and the terminal determines the configuration parameters related to its own communication according to the large-scale parameter information, and performs configuration according to the configuration parameters.

[0167] Optionally, the fifth piece of information includes at least one of the following: reference signal configuration parameters, modulation and coding scheme, number of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transport streams, or selection parameters for the receiving algorithm used to demodulate the communication signal. If the access network device sends large-scale parameters to the terminal, the terminal can determine the selection parameters for the receiving algorithm used to demodulate the communication signal based on the large-scale parameters, and these selection parameters are used to select the receiving algorithm.

[0168] In this embodiment, the direction of the third beam is related to the location of the terminal, so the fourth information is also related to the location of the terminal. Based on the large-scale parameters corresponding to the third local region determined by the fourth information, targeted communication configuration is performed for the terminal, which can effectively assist the terminal's communication, improve communication quality and resource utilization, and avoid frequent air interface interactions.

[0169] The first information can also be used to assist in beam switching of the terminal, and corresponding embodiments are provided below.

[0170] Figure 8 is a flowchart illustrating the communication method provided in this embodiment. As shown in Figure 8, the beam switching process of the communication method in this embodiment, which utilizes the first information to assist the terminal, may include the following steps:

[0171] S801, the access network device obtains the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal.

[0172] S802, if the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal is less than the threshold, the access network device sends the eighth information to the terminal. The eighth information instructs the terminal to report the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction. The fourth beam direction is the beam direction of the beam reaching the fourth local area, and the terminal is located in the fourth local area.

[0173] S801 and S802 are optional steps; the terminal can also proactively report the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the fourth beam direction. Compared to proactive reporting, the access network equipment can instruct the terminal to report only when it assesses whether reporting is necessary, thus reducing the amount of information transmitted.

[0174] The fourth beam direction is the beam direction in which the beam reaches the fourth local region. The terminal is located in the fourth local region. In other words, the fourth beam direction is the beam direction in which the terminal can receive the beam at its current location.

[0175] S803, the terminal sends the seventh information to the access network equipment. The seventh information includes the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the fourth beam direction.

[0176] In this embodiment, the terminal can obtain the fourth beam direction by receiving the signal in the fourth beam direction.

[0177] S804, the access network equipment determines the identification information of the fourth local area based on the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction.

[0178] The access network device determines the identification information of the fourth local area based on the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction. The process of determining the identification information of the second local area in the aforementioned embodiment can be referred to, and will not be repeated here.

[0179] S805, the access network device obtains the alternative beam direction of the fourth local area from the first information based on the identification information of the fourth local area.

[0180] In this embodiment, the access network device retrieves the fourth local area from the first information based on the identification information of the fourth local area, and obtains the candidate beam direction of the fourth local area, that is, the candidate direction of the terminal in the fourth local area.

[0181] For example, the identification information of the fourth local region is (beam_i, d_j, AOA_k), and the candidate beam direction corresponding to this identification information is retrieved from the first information.

[0182] S804 to S805 are optional steps and represent one way for access network equipment to determine the alternative beam direction for the fourth local area.

[0183] S806: If the RSRP of the alternative beam direction in the fourth local area is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal, the access network device sends a sixth message to the terminal, which instructs the terminal to perform beam switching.

[0184] In this embodiment, the access network device performs signal measurement on the candidate beam direction of the fourth local area to obtain the RSRP of the candidate beam direction of the fourth local area. If the RSRP of the candidate beam direction of the fourth local area is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal, the device sends sixth information to the terminal. The sixth information instructs the terminal to perform beam switching. The sixth information includes the identification information of the candidate beam direction to instruct the terminal to switch to the candidate beam direction.

[0185] In this embodiment of the application, if the RSRP of the candidate beam direction in the local area where the terminal is located is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal, the terminal is instructed to switch to the candidate beam direction by using the first information, thereby providing a more accurate beam selection range for the beam switching of the terminal.

[0186] This application provides a communication device that is applied to core network equipment or access network equipment. As shown in FIG9, the communication device may include a transceiver 901, a processor 902, and a memory 903.

[0187] Transceiver 901 is used to receive and send data under the control of processor 902.

[0188] In Figure 9, the bus architecture can include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically linking various circuits of one or more processors represented by processor 902 and memory represented by memory 903. The bus architecture can also link various other circuits such as peripheral devices, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. Transceiver 901 can be multiple elements, including transmitters and receivers, providing units for communicating with various other devices over transmission media, including wireless channels, wired channels, optical fibers, etc. Processor 902 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and memory 903 can store data used by processor 902 during operation.

[0189] The processor 902 can be a CPU, ASIC, FPGA or CPLD, and the processor can also adopt a multi-core architecture.

[0190] The processor 902 executes any of the methods related to the second device provided in the embodiments of this application according to the obtained executable instructions by calling a computer program stored in the memory 903. The processor and the memory may also be physically separated.

[0191] Specifically, the processor 902 is used to perform the following operations: locate the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, and obtain the location information of the terminal. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on the environmental information of the first local area. The first local area is the local area reached by the beam of the first beam direction.

[0192] In some embodiments, the location of the access network device includes: the actual location of the access network device and / or the mirrored location of the access network device relative to environmental reflectors.

[0193] In some embodiments, the mirrored position is obtained by mirroring the beam in the first beam direction based on the actual position of the access network device and the reflective object information of the first local area. The environmental information includes reflective object information, or the reflective object information is determined based on the environmental information.

[0194] In some embodiments, the reflector information includes the reflector position and the reflector angle, wherein the reflector position indicates the position of the environmental reflector relative to the access network device, and the reflector angle indicates the angle of the reflector surface of the environmental reflector relative to the access network device.

[0195] In some embodiments, the environmental information includes at least one of the following: indication information indicating whether the beam in the first beam direction is an LOS beam or an NLOS beam, time delay information of the beam in the first beam direction, angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction, or power information of the beam in the first beam direction.

[0196] In some embodiments, reflector information is obtained by reconstructing the environment based on indication information, time delay information, angle of arrival information, and power information.

[0197] In some embodiments, the signal measurement information includes: identification information of the first beam direction, indication information indicating that the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam, or the path information with the strongest power in the first beam direction, wherein the path information includes at least one of the following: time delay information, distance information, angle of arrival information, power information, or Doppler information.

[0198] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: determine the signal transmission time difference and the signal arrival time difference between the at least three beam directions based on signal measurement information; and determine the location information of the terminal based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least three beam directions respectively.

[0199] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least three of the following: the optimal beam direction, the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, or the fourth strongest beam direction.

[0200] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: determine at least two hyperbolic functions based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the access network device locations corresponding to at least three beam directions; and determine the terminal's location information based on the at least two hyperbolic functions.

[0201] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: determine the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions based on signal measurement information, the angle information including the downlink departure angle of the beam or the uplink arrival angle of the beam; determine the location information of the terminal based on the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least two beam directions.

[0202] In some embodiments, the signal measurement information includes the RSRP of the DL PRS, and the processor is further configured to perform the following operations: determine the downlink departure angle of the beams in at least two beam directions based on the RSRP of the DL PRS and at least two beam directions.

[0203] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: determine the round-trip time delay corresponding to the first beam direction and the angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction based on the signal measurement information; determine the distance information between the location of the access network device and the terminal based on the round-trip time delay; and determine the location information of the terminal based on the distance information between the location of the access network device and the terminal, the angle of arrival information, and the location of the access network device.

[0204] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: determine the round-trip time delay corresponding to the at least two beam directions based on signal measurement information; determine the distance information between the access network device location corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the terminal based on the round-trip time delay corresponding to the at least two beam directions; and determine the location information of the terminal based on the access network device location corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the distance information between the access network device location corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the terminal.

[0205] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: receive signal measurement information; or receive UL PRS in the first beam direction; and determine the signal measurement information based on the UL PRS.

[0206] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: obtain first information by performing beam scanning in multiple beam directions of the access network device; wherein the first information includes environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage area of ​​the access network device and identification information corresponding to multiple local areas.

[0207] In some embodiments, the identification information is associated with at least one of the following: beam direction identification information, beam transmission distance, or beam angle of arrival information.

[0208] In some embodiments, the identification information includes a first index value, a second index value, and a third index value. The first index value is related to the identification of the beam direction, the second index value is related to the transmission distance of the beam, and the third index value is related to the angle of arrival information of the beam. The range of the first index value is determined based on the beam coverage range and beamwidth of the access network device, the range of the second index value is determined based on the farthest coverage range and average decorrelation distance of the access network device, and the range of the third index value is determined based on the beam scanning angle of the access network device and the minimum angle that the terminal can support resolution.

[0209] In some embodiments, the first information further includes: large-scale parameter information corresponding to the multiple local regions, wherein the large-scale parameters include at least one of the following: time delay spread information of the multiple local regions, angle spread information of the multiple local regions, and Doppler spread information of the multiple local regions; and / or, alternative beam directions corresponding to the multiple local regions.

[0210] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: receive second information sent by the terminal, the second information being related to a second beam direction, the second beam direction including at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal; and update the first information according to the second information.

[0211] In some embodiments, the second information includes identification information of the second beam direction, channel information of the second beam direction, and the path information with the strongest power in the second beam direction. The channel information includes large-scale parameter information and indication information for indicating whether the beam in the second beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam. The second beam direction includes at least one of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0212] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: determine the identification information of a second local region based on the identification information of the second beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the second beam direction, wherein the second local region is a local region reached by the beam in the second beam direction; update the large-scale parameter information of the second local region in the first information based on the identification information of the second local region and the channel information; and / or supplement or update the candidate beam direction corresponding to the second local region based on the identification information of the second beam direction.

[0213] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: during or after random access to the terminal, sending third information to the terminal; or, after the terminal performs beam switching, sending third information to the terminal, wherein the beam in the second beam direction is the target beam in the beam switching; wherein the third information instructs the terminal to report the second information.

[0214] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: receive fourth information sent by the terminal, the fourth information including identification information of a third beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the third beam direction, the third beam direction including at least one beam direction between the terminal and the access network device; according to the fourth information, search for large-scale parameter information corresponding to a third local region in the first information, the third local region being the local region reached by the beam in the third beam direction; send the large-scale parameter information to the terminal, or, according to the large-scale parameter information, send fifth information to the terminal, the fifth information being used to configure the terminal's communication.

[0215] In some embodiments, the third beam direction includes the optimal beam direction between the terminal and the access network device.

[0216] In some embodiments, the first information further includes candidate beam directions corresponding to multiple local regions respectively, and the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: when the RSRP of the candidate beam direction in the fourth local region is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal, the processor 902 sends a sixth information to the terminal, the sixth information instructing the terminal to perform beam switching; wherein the terminal is located in the fourth local region.

[0217] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: receive seventh information sent by the terminal, the seventh information including identification information of a fourth beam direction and path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction, the fourth beam direction being the beam direction in which the beam reaches the fourth local region; determine identification information of the fourth local region based on the identification information of the fourth beam direction and path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction; and obtain alternative beam directions of the fourth local region from the first information based on the identification information of the fourth local region.

[0218] In some embodiments, the processor 902 is further configured to perform the following operations: obtain the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal; if the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal is less than a threshold, send an eighth message to the terminal, the eighth message instructing the terminal to report the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction.

[0219] It should be noted that the apparatus provided in this application can implement all the method steps of the core network device or access network device in the above method embodiments and can achieve the same technical effect. Therefore, the parts and beneficial effects that are the same as those in the method embodiments will not be described in detail here.

[0220] This application provides a communication device applied to a terminal. As shown in FIG10, the communication device may include a transceiver 1001, a processor 1002, and a memory 1003.

[0221] Transceiver 1001 is used to receive and send data under the control of processor 1002.

[0222] In Figure 10, the bus architecture may include any number of interconnected buses and bridges, specifically linking various circuits of one or more processors represented by processor 1002 and memory represented by memory 1003. The bus architecture may also link various other circuits such as peripheral devices, voltage regulators, and power management circuits, which are well known in the art and therefore will not be described further herein. The bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver 1001 may be multiple components, including a transmitter and a receiver, providing a unit for communicating with various other devices over a transmission medium, including wireless channels, wired channels, optical fibers, etc. Optionally, the communication device also includes a user interface 1004, which, for different user equipment, may also be an interface capable of connecting external or internal devices, including but not limited to keypads, displays, speakers, microphones, joysticks, etc.

[0223] The processor 1002 is responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing, and the memory 1003 can store the data used by the processor 1002 when performing operations.

[0224] Optionally, the processor 1002 may be a central processing unit (CPU), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), or a complex programmable logic device (CPLD). The processor 1002 may also adopt a multi-core architecture.

[0225] The processor 1002 executes any of the methods related to the terminal provided in the embodiments of this application according to the obtained executable instructions by calling the computer program stored in the memory 1003. The processor and the memory may also be physically arranged separately.

[0226] Specifically, the processor 1002 is used to perform the following operations: sending signal measurement information or UL PRS in the first beam direction, wherein the UL PRS is used to determine the signal measurement information; wherein the first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction are used for the positioning of the terminal, and the location of the access network device is obtained based on the environmental information of the first local area, wherein the first local area is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

[0227] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least two of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second-best beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0228] In some embodiments, the processor 1002 is further configured to perform the following operation: receive a scanning signal in the direction of the first beam.

[0229] In some embodiments, the processor 1002 is further configured to perform the following operations: send second information, the second information being related to a second beam direction, the second information being used to update the first information, the first information including environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage area of ​​the access network device and identification information corresponding to multiple local areas respectively, and the second beam direction being at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0230] In some embodiments, the second information includes identification information of the second beam direction, channel information of the second beam direction, and the path information with the strongest power in the second beam direction. The channel information includes large-scale parameter information and indication information for indicating whether the beam in the second beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam. The second beam direction includes at least one of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0231] In some embodiments, the processor 1002 is further configured to perform the following operations: receiving third information during or after random access to the terminal; or receiving third information after the terminal performs beam switching, wherein the second beam direction is the target beam in the beam switching; wherein the third information instructs the terminal to report the second information.

[0232] In some embodiments, the processor 1002 is further configured to perform the following operations: send fourth information, the fourth information including identification information of a third beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the third beam direction, the third beam direction including at least one beam direction between the terminal and the access network device; receive large-scale parameter information or fifth information, the fifth information being used to configure the communication of the terminal.

[0233] In some embodiments, the processor 1002 is further configured to perform the following operations: receive sixth information, the sixth information instructing the terminal to perform beam switching; wherein the terminal is located in a fourth local region, and the RSRP of the alternative beam direction in the fourth local region is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal.

[0234] In some embodiments, the processor 1002 is further configured to perform the following operations: send seventh information, the seventh information including identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest power in the fourth beam direction, wherein the beam in the fourth beam direction can reach the terminal.

[0235] It should be noted that the device provided in this application can implement all the method steps of the terminal in the above method embodiment and achieve the same technical effect. Therefore, the parts and beneficial effects that are the same as those in the method embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0236] This application also provides a communication device applied to core network equipment or access network equipment. As shown in FIG10, the communication device includes: a processing unit 1101.

[0237] The processing unit 1101 is used to locate the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, and obtain the location information of the terminal. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on the environmental information of the first local area. The first local area is the local area reached by the beam of the first beam direction.

[0238] In some embodiments, the location of the access network device includes: the actual location of the access network device and / or the mirrored location of the access network device relative to environmental reflectors.

[0239] In some embodiments, the mirrored position is obtained by mirroring the beam in the first beam direction based on the actual position of the access network device and the reflective object information of the first local area. The environmental information includes reflective object information, or the reflective object information is determined based on the environmental information.

[0240] In some embodiments, the reflector information includes the reflector position and the reflector angle, wherein the reflector position indicates the position of the environmental reflector relative to the access network device, and the reflector angle indicates the angle of the reflector surface of the environmental reflector relative to the access network device.

[0241] In some embodiments, the environmental information includes at least one of the following: indication information indicating whether the beam in the first beam direction is an LOS beam or an NLOS beam, time delay information of the beam in the first beam direction, angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction, or power information of the beam in the first beam direction.

[0242] In some embodiments, reflector information is obtained by reconstructing the environment based on indication information, time delay information, angle of arrival information, and power information.

[0243] In some embodiments, the signal measurement information includes: identification information of the first beam direction, indication information indicating that the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam, or the path information with the strongest power in the first beam direction, wherein the path information includes at least one of the following: time delay information, distance information, angle of arrival information, power information, or Doppler information.

[0244] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; the processing unit 1101 is specifically used to: determine the signal transmission time difference and the signal arrival time difference between the at least three beam directions based on signal measurement information; and determine the location information of the terminal based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least three beam directions respectively.

[0245] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least three of the following: the optimal beam direction, the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, or the fourth strongest beam direction.

[0246] In some embodiments, the processing unit 1101 is specifically configured to: determine at least two hyperbolic functions based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the access network device locations corresponding to at least three beam directions; and determine the terminal's location information based on the at least two hyperbolic functions.

[0247] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; the processing unit 1101 is specifically used to: determine the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions according to the signal measurement information, the angle information including the downlink departure angle of the beam or the uplink arrival angle of the beam; and determine the location information of the terminal according to the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least two beam directions.

[0248] In some embodiments, the signal measurement information includes the RSRP of the DL PRS, and the processing unit is specifically configured to: determine the downlink departure angle of the beams in at least two beam directions based on the RSRP of the DL PRS and at least two beam directions.

[0249] In some embodiments, the processing unit 1101 is specifically configured to: determine the round-trip time delay corresponding to the first beam direction and the angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction based on the signal measurement information; determine the distance information between the location of the access network device and the terminal based on the round-trip time delay; and determine the location information of the terminal based on the distance information between the location of the access network device and the terminal, the angle of arrival information, and the location of the access network device.

[0250] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; the processing unit 1101 is specifically configured to: determine the round-trip time delay corresponding to the at least two beam directions based on signal measurement information; determine the distance information between the access network device location corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the terminal based on the round-trip time delay corresponding to the at least two beam directions; and determine the location information of the terminal based on the access network device location corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the distance information between the access network device location corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the terminal.

[0251] In some embodiments, the communication device further includes: a receiving unit 1102, configured to receive signal measurement information; or, receive UL PRS in the first beam direction; and determine the signal measurement information based on the UL PRS.

[0252] In some embodiments, the processing unit 1101 is further configured to: obtain first information by performing beam scanning in multiple beam directions of the access network device; wherein the first information includes environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage area of ​​the access network device and identification information corresponding to multiple local areas.

[0253] In some embodiments, the identification information is associated with at least one of the following: beam direction identification information, beam transmission distance, or beam angle of arrival information.

[0254] In some embodiments, the identification information includes a first index value, a second index value, and a third index value. The first index value is related to the identification of the beam direction, the second index value is related to the transmission distance of the beam, and the third index value is related to the angle of arrival information of the beam. The range of the first index value is determined based on the beam coverage range and beamwidth of the access network device, the range of the second index value is determined based on the farthest coverage range and average decorrelation distance of the access network device, and the range of the third index value is determined based on the beam scanning angle of the access network device and the minimum angle that the terminal can support resolution.

[0255] In some embodiments, the first information further includes: large-scale parameter information corresponding to the multiple local regions, wherein the large-scale parameters include at least one of the following: time delay spread information of the multiple local regions, angle spread information of the multiple local regions, and Doppler spread information of the multiple local regions; and / or, alternative beam directions corresponding to the multiple local regions.

[0256] In some embodiments, the receiving unit 1102 is further configured to: receive second information sent by the terminal, the second information being related to a second beam direction, the second beam direction including at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The processing unit 1101 is further configured to: update the first information according to the second information.

[0257] In some embodiments, the second information includes identification information of the second beam direction, channel information of the second beam direction, and the path information with the strongest power in the second beam direction. The channel information includes large-scale parameter information and indication information for indicating whether the beam in the second beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam. The second beam direction includes at least one of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0258] In some embodiments, the processing unit 1101 is further configured to: determine the identification information of a second local region based on the identification information of the second beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the second beam direction, wherein the second local region is a local region reached by the beam in the second beam direction; update the large-scale parameter information of the second local region in the first information based on the identification information of the second local region and the channel information; and / or supplement or update the candidate beam direction corresponding to the second local region based on the identification information of the second beam direction.

[0259] In some embodiments, the communication device further includes: a sending unit 1103, configured to send third information to the terminal during or after random access to the terminal; or, to send third information to the terminal after beam switching, wherein the beam in the second beam direction is the target beam in the beam switching; wherein the third information instructs the terminal to report the second information.

[0260] In some embodiments, the receiving unit 1102 is further configured to: receive fourth information sent by the terminal, the fourth information including identification information of the third beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the third beam direction, the third beam direction including at least one beam direction between the terminal and the access network device. The processing unit 1101 is further configured to: search for large-scale parameter information corresponding to the third local region in the first information according to the fourth information, the third local region being the local region reached by the beam in the third beam direction; send the large-scale parameter information to the terminal, or, according to the large-scale parameter information, send fifth information to the terminal, the fifth information being used to configure the terminal's communication.

[0261] In some embodiments, the third beam direction includes the optimal beam direction between the terminal and the access network device.

[0262] In some embodiments, the first information further includes candidate beam directions corresponding to multiple local regions respectively, and the transmitting unit is further configured to: send sixth information to the terminal when the RSRP of the candidate beam direction in the fourth local region is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal, the sixth information instructing the terminal to perform beam switching; wherein the terminal is located in the fourth local region.

[0263] In some embodiments, the receiving unit 1102 is further configured to: receive seventh information sent by the terminal, the seventh information including identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction, the fourth beam direction being the beam direction in which the beam reaches the fourth local region. The processing unit 1101 is further configured to: determine the identification information of the fourth local region based on the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction; and obtain candidate beam directions of the fourth local region from the first information based on the identification information of the fourth local region.

[0264] In some embodiments, the processing unit 1101 is further configured to: obtain the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal. The sending unit 1103 is further configured to: send eighth information to the terminal when the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal is less than a threshold, the eighth information instructing the terminal to report the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction.

[0265] It should be noted that the apparatus provided in this application can implement all the method steps of the core network device or access network device in the above method embodiments and can achieve the same technical effect. Therefore, the parts and beneficial effects that are the same as those in the method embodiments will not be described in detail here.

[0266] This application also provides a communication device applied to a terminal. As shown in FIG12, the communication device includes: a transmitting unit 1201.

[0267] The transmitting unit 1201 is used to transmit signal measurement information or UL PRS in the first beam direction. UL PRS is used to determine the signal measurement information. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction are used for the positioning of the terminal. The location of the access network device is obtained based on the environmental information of the first local area. The first local area is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

[0268] In some embodiments, the first beam direction includes at least two of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second-best beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0269] In some embodiments, the communication device further includes a receiving unit 1202 for receiving a scanning signal in the direction of the first beam.

[0270] In some embodiments, the sending unit 1201 is further configured to: send second information, the second information being related to a second beam direction, the second information being used to update the first information, the first information including environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage area of ​​the access network device and identification information corresponding to multiple local areas respectively, and the second beam direction being at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0271] In some embodiments, the second information includes identification information of the second beam direction, channel information of the second beam direction, and the path information with the strongest power in the second beam direction. The channel information includes large-scale parameter information and indication information for indicating whether the beam in the second beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam. The second beam direction includes at least one of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

[0272] In some embodiments, the receiving unit 1202 is further configured to: receive third information during or after random access of the terminal; or, receive third information after the terminal performs beam switching, wherein the second beam direction is the target beam in the beam switching; wherein the third information instructs the terminal to report the second information.

[0273] In some embodiments, the transmitting unit 1201 is further configured to: transmit fourth information, the fourth information including identification information of a third beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the third beam direction, the third beam direction including at least one beam direction between the terminal and the access network device. The receiving unit 1202 is further configured to: receive large-scale parameter information or fifth information, the fifth information being used to configure the terminal's communication.

[0274] In some embodiments, the receiving unit 1201 is further configured to: receive sixth information, the sixth information instructing the terminal to perform beam switching; wherein the terminal is located in a fourth local region, and the RSRP of the alternative beam direction in the fourth local region is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal.

[0275] In some embodiments, the transmitting unit 1201 is further configured to: transmit seventh information, the seventh information including identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the fourth beam direction, wherein the beam in the fourth beam direction can reach the terminal.

[0276] It should be noted that the device provided in this application can implement all the method steps of the terminal in the above method embodiment and achieve the same technical effect. Therefore, the parts and beneficial effects that are the same as those in the method embodiment will not be described in detail here.

[0277] It should be noted that the division of units in the embodiments of this application is illustrative and only represents one logical functional division. In actual implementation, other division methods may be used. Furthermore, the functional units in the various embodiments of this application can be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit can exist physically separately, or two or more units can be integrated into one unit. The integrated units described above can be implemented in hardware or as software functional units.

[0278] If the integrated unit is implemented as a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, it can be stored in a processor-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to related technologies, or all or part of the technical solution, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) or processor to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of this application. The aforementioned storage medium includes various media capable of storing program code, such as USB flash drives, portable hard drives, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disks, or optical disks.

[0279] This application provides a processor-readable storage medium storing a computer program. The computer program is used to cause a processor to execute any of the communication methods described in this application. This enables the processor to implement the method steps of the communication methods in the above method embodiments and achieve the same technical effects. Therefore, the parts and beneficial effects that are the same as those in the method embodiments will not be described in detail here.

[0280] The processor-readable storage medium can be any available medium or data storage device that the processor can access, including but not limited to magnetic memory (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, magneto-optical disk (MO)), optical memory (e.g., CD, DVD, BD, HVD), and semiconductor memory (e.g., ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, non-volatile memory (NAND FLASH), solid-state drive (SSD)).

[0281] Those skilled in the art will understand that embodiments of this application can be provided as methods, systems, or computer program products. Therefore, this application can take the form of a completely hardware embodiment, a completely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, this application can take the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage and optical storage) containing computer-usable program code.

[0282] This application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams of methods, apparatus, and computer program products according to embodiments of this application. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and / or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer-executable instructions. These computer-executable instructions can be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in one or more blocks of the flowchart illustrations and / or one or more blocks of the block diagrams.

[0283] These processor-executable instructions may also be stored in a processor-readable memory that can instruct a computer or other programmable data processing device to operate in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the processor-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement the functions specified in one or more flowcharts and / or one or more block diagrams.

[0284] These processor-executable instructions can also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions, which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus, provide steps for implementing the functions specified in one or more flowcharts and / or one or more block diagrams.

[0285] Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various modifications and variations to this application without departing from the spirit and scope of this application. Therefore, if such modifications and variations fall within the scope of the claims of this application and their equivalents, this application also intends to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A communication method, wherein, The communication method, applicable to core network equipment or access network equipment, includes: The terminal is located based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, and the location information of the terminal is obtained. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on the environmental information of the first local area, which is the local area reached by the beam in the first beam direction.

2. The communication method according to claim 1, wherein, The location of the access network device includes: the actual location of the access network device and / or the mirrored location of the access network device relative to environmental reflectors.

3. The communication method according to claim 2, wherein, The mirrored position is obtained by mirroring the beam in the first beam direction based on the actual position of the access network device and the reflective object information of the first local area. The environmental information includes the reflective object information, or the reflective object information is determined based on the environmental information.

4. The communication method according to claim 3, wherein, The reflective object information includes the reflective object position and the reflective surface angle. The reflective object position indicates the position information of the environmental reflective object relative to the access network device, and the reflective surface angle indicates the angle information of the reflective surface of the environmental reflective object relative to the access network device.

5. The communication method according to claim 3, wherein, The environmental information includes at least one of the following: indication information indicating whether the beam in the first beam direction is a line-of-sight (LOS) beam or a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) beam, time delay information of the beam in the first beam direction, angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction, or power information of the beam in the first beam direction.

6. The communication method according to claim 5, wherein, The reflector information is obtained by reconstructing the environment based on the indication information, the time delay information, the angle of arrival information, and the power information.

7. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, The signal measurement information includes: identification information of the first beam direction, indication information indicating that the beam in the first beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam, or the path information with the strongest power in the first beam direction. The path information includes at least one of the following: time delay information, distance information, angle of arrival information, power information, or Doppler information.

8. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, The first beam direction includes at least three beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; The step of locating the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction to obtain the terminal's location information includes: Based on the signal measurement information, determine the signal transmission time difference between the at least three beam directions and the signal arrival time difference between the at least three beam directions; The location information of the terminal is determined based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least three beam directions.

9. The communication method according to claim 8, wherein, The first beam direction includes at least three of the following: the optimal beam direction, the second-best beam direction, the third strongest beam direction, or the fourth strongest beam direction.

10. The communication method according to claim 8, wherein, Determining the terminal's location information based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the locations of the access network devices corresponding to the at least three beam directions includes: Based on the signal transmission time difference, the signal arrival time difference, and the access network device locations corresponding to the at least three beam directions, at least two hyperbolic functions are determined. The location information of the terminal is determined based on the at least two hyperbolic functions.

11. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, The first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; The step of locating the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction to obtain the terminal's location information includes: Based on the signal measurement information, determine the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions respectively, wherein the angle information includes the downlink departure angle of the beam or the uplink arrival angle of the beam; The location information of the terminal is determined based on the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least two beam directions.

12. The communication method according to claim 11, wherein, The signal measurement information includes the reference signal received power RSRP of the downlink positioning reference signal DL PRS. Determining the angle information corresponding to the at least two beam directions based on the signal measurement information includes: Based on the RSRP of the DL PRS and the at least two beam directions, determine the downlink departure angle of the beams in the at least two beam directions.

13. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, The step of locating the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction to obtain the terminal's location information includes: Based on the signal measurement information, the round-trip time delay corresponding to the first beam direction and the angle of arrival information of the beam in the first beam direction are determined; Based on the round-trip time delay, the distance information between the access network device and the terminal is determined; The location information of the terminal is determined based on the distance information between the location of the access network device and the terminal, the angle of arrival information, and the location of the access network device.

14. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, The first beam direction includes at least two beam directions between the access network device and the terminal; The step of locating the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction to obtain the terminal's location information includes: Based on the signal measurement information, determine the round-trip time delay corresponding to the at least two beam directions respectively; Based on the round-trip delays corresponding to the at least two beam directions, determine the distance information between the access network device locations corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the terminal. The location information of the terminal is determined based on the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least two beam directions, and the distance information between the location of the access network device corresponding to the at least two beam directions and the terminal.

15. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, Also includes: Receive the signal measurement information; Alternatively, receive the uplink positioning reference signal UL PRS in the direction of the first beam; The signal measurement information is determined based on the UL PRS.

16. The communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein, Also includes: First information is obtained by performing beam scanning in multiple beam directions of the access network device; The first information includes environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage area of ​​the access network device and identification information corresponding to each of the multiple local areas.

17. The communication method according to claim 16, wherein, The identification information is related to at least one of the following: beam direction identification information, beam transmission distance, or beam angle of arrival information.

18. The communication method according to claim 17, wherein, The identification information includes a first index value, a second index value, and a third index value. The first index value is related to the beam direction identification, the second index value is related to the beam transmission distance, and the third index value is related to the beam angle of arrival information. The range of the first index value is determined based on the beam coverage range and beamwidth of the access network device; the range of the second index value is determined based on the farthest coverage range and average decorrelation distance of the access network device; and the range of the third index value is determined based on the beam scanning angle of the access network device and the minimum angle that the terminal can resolve.

19. The communication method according to claim 16, wherein, The first information also includes: The large-scale parameter information corresponding to the multiple local regions respectively includes at least one of the following: the time delay spread information of the multiple local regions, the angle spread information of the multiple local regions, and the Doppler spread information of the multiple local regions; And / or, the candidate beam directions corresponding to the plurality of local regions respectively.

20. The communication method according to claim 19, wherein, Also includes: The device receives second information sent by the terminal, the second information being related to a second beam direction, the second beam direction including at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal; The first information is updated based on the second information.

21. The communication method according to claim 20, wherein, The second information includes the identification information of the second beam direction, the channel information of the second beam direction, and the path information with the strongest power in the second beam direction. The channel information includes large-scale parameter information and indication information for indicating whether the beam in the second beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam. The second beam direction includes at least one of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strong beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strong beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

22. The communication method according to claim 21, wherein, The step of updating the first information based on the second information includes: Based on the identification information of the second beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the second beam direction, the identification information of the second local region is determined. The second local region is the local region reached by the beam in the second beam direction. Based on the identification information of the second local region and the channel information, the large-scale parameter information of the second local region is updated in the first information, and / or the candidate beam directions corresponding to the second local region are supplemented or updated based on the identification information of the second beam direction.

23. The communication method according to claim 20, wherein, Also includes: During or after the random access process of the terminal, send third information to the terminal; Alternatively, after the terminal performs beam switching, the third information is sent to the terminal, wherein the beam in the second beam direction is the target beam in the beam switching. The third information instructs the terminal to report the second information.

24. The communication method according to claim 16, wherein, Also includes: The terminal sends a fourth piece of information, which includes identification information of a third beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the third beam direction. The third beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the terminal and the access network device. Based on the fourth information, the large-scale parameter information corresponding to the third local region is searched in the first information. The third local region is the local region reached by the beam in the third beam direction. Send large-scale parameter information to the terminal, or send fifth information to the terminal based on the large-scale parameter information, the fifth information being used to configure the communication of the terminal.

25. The communication method according to claim 24, wherein, The third beam direction includes the optimal beam direction between the terminal and the access network device.

26. The communication method according to claim 16, wherein, The first information also includes candidate beam directions corresponding to the plurality of local regions, and the communication method further includes: If the RSRP of the alternative beam direction in the fourth local region is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal, a sixth message is sent to the terminal, and the sixth message instructs the terminal to perform beam switching. The terminal is located in the fourth local area.

27. The communication method according to claim 26, wherein, Also includes: The terminal sends a seventh message, which includes identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest power in the fourth beam direction. The fourth beam direction is the beam direction in which the beam reaches the fourth local region. The identification information of the fourth local region is determined based on the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction. Based on the identification information of the fourth local region, the candidate beam direction of the fourth local region is obtained from the first information.

28. The communication method according to claim 27, wherein, Also includes: Obtain the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal; If the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal is less than a threshold, an eighth message is sent to the terminal, the eighth message instructing the terminal to report the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest beam in the fourth beam direction.

29. A communication method, wherein, Applied to a terminal, the communication method includes: Send signal measurement information or UL PRS in the first beam direction, wherein the UL PRS is used to determine the signal measurement information; The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction are used for the positioning of the terminal. The location of the access network device is obtained based on the environmental information of a first local area, which is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

30. The communication method according to claim 29, wherein, The first beam direction includes at least two of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second-best beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strongest beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

31. The communication method according to claim 29, wherein, Before transmitting the signal measurement information or UL PRS in the first beam direction, the method further includes: Receive the scanning signal in the direction of the first beam.

32. The communication method according to any one of claims 29 to 31, wherein, Also includes: Send a second message, which is related to a second beam direction. The second message is used to update the first message. The first message includes environmental information corresponding to multiple local areas within the coverage area of ​​the access network device and identification information corresponding to the multiple local areas. The second beam direction is at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

33. The communication method according to claim 32, wherein, The second information includes the identification information of the second beam direction, the channel information of the second beam direction, and the path information with the strongest power in the second beam direction. The channel information includes large-scale parameter information and indication information for indicating whether the beam in the second beam direction is a LOS beam or an NLOS beam. The second beam direction includes at least one of the following: the optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the second optimal beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, the third strong beam direction between the access network device and the terminal, or the fourth strong beam direction between the access network device and the terminal.

34. The communication method according to claim 32, wherein, Also includes: During or after the random access process of the terminal, third information is received. Alternatively, after the terminal performs beam switching, the third information is received, wherein the second beam direction is the target beam in the beam switching; The third information instructs the terminal to report the second information.

35. The communication method according to any one of claims 29 to 31, wherein, Also includes: Send a fourth message, which includes identification information of the third beam direction and the path information with the strongest power in the third beam direction. The third beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the terminal and the access network device. Receive large-scale parameter information or fifth information, the fifth information being used to configure the communication of the terminal.

36. The communication method according to any one of claims 29 to 31, wherein, Also includes: Receive a sixth message, which instructs the terminal to perform beam switching; The terminal is located in a fourth local region, and the RSRP of the candidate beam direction in the fourth local region is greater than the RSRP of the current beam direction of the terminal.

37. The communication method according to claim 36, wherein, Also includes: The seventh message is sent, which includes the identification information of the fourth beam direction and the path information of the strongest power in the fourth beam direction, and the beam in the fourth beam direction can reach the terminal.

38. A communication device, wherein, The communication device, used in core network equipment or access network equipment, includes: The processing unit is used to locate the terminal based on the signal measurement information corresponding to the first beam direction and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction, and obtain the location information of the terminal. The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction is obtained based on the environmental information of the first local area, which is the local area reached by the beam in the first beam direction.

39. A communication device, wherein, The communication device, applied to a terminal, includes: A transmitting unit is used to transmit signal measurement information or UL PRS in the direction of the first beam, wherein the UL PRS is used to determine the signal measurement information; The first beam direction includes at least one beam direction between the access network device and the terminal. The signal measurement information and the location of the access network device corresponding to the first beam direction are used for the positioning of the terminal. The location of the access network device is obtained based on the environmental information of a first local area, which is the local area reached by the first beam direction.

40. A communication device, wherein, The communication device includes a memory, a transceiver, and a processor. Memory, used to store computer programs; Transceiver, used to send and receive data under the control of the processor; A processor is configured to read a computer program from the memory and execute the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 28, or to read a computer program from the memory and execute the communication method according to any one of claims 29 to 37.

41. A non-transiently readable storage medium, wherein, The non-transiently readable storage medium stores a computer program that causes a processor to execute the communication method of any one of claims 1 to 28 or the communication method of any one of claims 29 to 37.

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