Terminal synchronization method and apparatus, and device, storage medium and computer program product

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of wireless communications. Disclosed are a terminal synchronization method and apparatus, and a device, a storage medium and a computer program product. The method comprises: a terminal receiving first information sent by a serving cell, wherein the first information comprises first time information of a candidate cell; on the basis of the first time information, calculating a timing advance; and on the basis of the timing advance, executing uplink synchronization with the candidate cell.

Description

Terminal synchronization method, apparatus, device, storage medium and computer program product

[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0002] The present disclosure claims priority from Chinese Patent Application No. 202510075568.8 filed on January 17, 2025 in China, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. TECHNICAL FIELD

[0003] The present disclosure relates to the technical field of wireless communication, and in particular to a terminal synchronization method, apparatus, device, storage medium and computer program product. BACKGROUND

[0004] Since the fifth generation mobile communication technology (5G) deployment frequency band is high and works in the way of beam sweeping, it is easy to occur interrupt switching, and the terminal may switch back and forth between multiple cells. In order to adapt to this rapid change, the related technology introduces L1 / L2 triggered mobility (L1 / L2 Triggered Mobility, LTM), the terminal reports layer 1 (Layer 1, L1) measurement result, and the base station triggers the terminal to change the cell (Cell Switch) based on the L1 measurement result, and the triggered signaling is layer 2 (Layer 2, L2) signaling medium access control (Medium Access Control, MAC) control element (Control Element, CE). In addition, in order to realize faster Cell Switch, LTM supports the mechanism that the terminal synchronizes in advance; wherein the downlink synchronization is mainly realized through the terminal acquiring the primary synchronization signal (Primary Synchronization Signal, PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (Secondary Synchronization Signal, SSS) of the adjacent area; and the advanced uplink synchronization supports two ways, one is based on the order of the physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH) to obtain, and the other is based on UE-based TA measurement (UE-based TA measurement), UE refers to user equipment (User Equipment), and TA refers to timing advanced (Timing advanced).The TA acquisition based on PDCCH order is that the serving cell sends a PDCCH order to the UE to indicate the target cell and the corresponding beam and other information to be acquired TA, the terminal sends a preamble to the corresponding cell, the target cell sends the TA of the UE to the serving cell, and the serving cell sends the TA to the UE in the cell switching command such as MAC CE; and for the UE-based TA measurement, the protocol does not specify the specific implementation, but indicates whether the UE can perform the UE-based TA measurement in the radio resource control protocol (RRC) configuration; in the discussion of the UE-based TA measurement, whether the serving cell configures the UE to perform the UE-based TA measurement for a certain target cell mainly depends on whether the serving cell and the target cell are synchronized, if synchronized, the UE can estimate the TA based on the first time information of the serving cell and the received downlink.

[0005] However, the above related technology is in the intra-CU scenario, that is, the serving cell and the target cell belong to one CU, for example, the serving cell and the target cell belong to one base station, so the base station can easily know whether the two cells are synchronized. For the inter-CU scenario, that is, the serving cell and the target cell belong to different CUs, for example, the serving cell and the target cell belong to different base stations, which will increase the probability that the two cells / base stations are not synchronized. To support the UE-based TA measurement, the terminal needs to acquire the TA through the configuration of additional preamble resources or access, and the terminal needs to know the TA difference between the two stations to estimate the TA of the target cell, which increases the cell switching delay. SUMMARY

[0006] To solve the problems in the prior art, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a terminal synchronization method, device, equipment, storage medium and computer program product, which can realize UE-based TA measurement of a terminal in an intra-CU / inter-CU scenario when different base stations are not synchronized, avoid the terminal from needing to acquire TA or access by configuring additional preamble resources, and effectively reduce the time delay of cell switching and improve the utilization rate of access resources.

[0007] In a first aspect, the embodiments of the present disclosure provide a terminal synchronization method applied to a terminal, comprising:

[0008] receiving first information sent by a serving cell, wherein the first information comprises first time information of a candidate cell;

[0009] calculating a time advance according to the first time information;

[0010] performing uplink synchronization with the candidate cell according to the time advance.

[0011] As an improvement of the above-mentioned solution, the first time information comprises at least one of the following:

[0012] a first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0013] a first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell and reference time provided by the serving cell;

[0014] clock information of the serving cell and clock information of the candidate cell;

[0015] clock information of the serving cell, clock information of the candidate cell and first reference clock information;

[0016] clock information of the serving cell, clock information of the candidate cell and a first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0017] a time difference index of the serving cell and the candidate cell, wherein the time difference index is used to indicate a time difference value or a time difference range;

[0018] a second time difference between the candidate cell and a reference clock;

[0019] a second time difference between the candidate cell and a reference clock and second reference clock information of the reference clock;

[0020] a second time difference between the candidate cell and a reference clock and reference clock indication information, wherein the reference clock indication information is used to indicate the ownership of the reference clock.

[0021] As an improvement to the above scheme, the time difference index is included in system messages or dedicated radio resource control signaling.

[0022] As an improvement to the above scheme, the first reference clock information includes the time in the satellite navigation system or the time in the system broadcast message.

[0023] As an improvement to the above scheme, the reference clock includes the clock of the serving cell or the clock of the satellite navigation system.

[0024] As an improvement to the above scheme, the reference clock indication information indicates the ownership of the reference clock through an index or bit; the ownership of the reference clock includes the serving cell or the satellite navigation system.

[0025] As an improvement to the above scheme, the first information is sent through a cell handover command; or, the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration; or, the first information is sent through Layer 3 (L3) / Layer 2 (L2) signaling after the LTM candidate cell configuration; or the first information is included in a system message.

[0026] As an improvement to the above scheme, when the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, the first information includes implicit first indication information for indicating whether the terminal performs terminal-based time advance measurement, or the first information includes second indication information for indicating terminal configuration independent of terminal-based time advance measurement.

[0027] As an improvement to the above solution, the method further includes:

[0028] When the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, it is determined whether to perform terminal-based timing advance measurement based on the first indication information or the second indication information in the first information.

[0029] As an improvement to the above scheme, when the first information is sent through Layer 3 (L3) / Layer 2 (L2) signaling after the TM candidate cell is configured, the first information includes the first time information of the candidate cells that can perform terminal-based time advance measurement, or the first time information of all candidate cells.

[0030] Secondly, embodiments of this disclosure provide a terminal synchronization method applied to a serving cell, comprising:

[0031] Obtain first information; wherein, the first information includes first-time information of the candidate cell;

[0032] The first information is sent to the terminal so that the terminal calculates the timing advance based on the first time information and performs uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the timing advance.

[0033] As an improvement to the above solution, the first time information includes at least one of the following:

[0034] The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0035] The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell, and the reference time provided by the serving cell;

[0036] The clock information of the serving cell and the clock information of the candidate cell;

[0037] The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first reference clock information;

[0038] The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0039] The time difference index between the serving cell and the candidate cell, wherein the time difference index is used to indicate a time difference value or a time difference range;

[0040] The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock;

[0041] The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock, and the second reference clock information of the reference clock;

[0042] The candidate cell and the reference clock's second time difference and reference clock indication information; wherein, the reference clock indication information is used to indicate the reference clock's affiliation.

[0043] As an improvement to the above solution, the method further includes:

[0044] Send the reference time to the candidate cell;

[0045] The system receives the first time difference value and / or the clock information of the candidate cell sent by the candidate cell; wherein the first time difference value is the time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell calculated by the candidate cell based on the reference time.

[0046] As an improvement to the above solution, the method further includes:

[0047] Send a first request to the target cell; wherein the first request is used to instruct the target cell to provide a second time difference and / or the clock information of the target cell; the second time difference is the time difference between the target cell and a reference clock, and the target cell is determined by the candidate cell;

[0048] Receive the second time difference value sent by the candidate cell and / or the clock information of the target cell.

[0049] As an improvement to the above solution, the method includes:

[0050] Before or after the terminal switches to a new serving cell, the second time information of all candidate cells is sent to the next-hop serving cell;

[0051] The second time information includes the clock information of the candidate cell and / or the third time difference between the candidate cell and the common reference clock.

[0052] As an improvement to the above scheme, the common reference clock is the clock of the current serving cell; the second time information is used to instruct the next-hop serving cell to calculate the fifth time difference between the next-hop serving cell and other candidate cells based on its own fourth time difference with the current serving cell and the third time difference between the current serving cell and other candidate cells among all candidate cells excluding the next-hop serving cell.

[0053] As an improvement to the above solution, the method includes:

[0054] When the terminal completes a cell handover, the new serving cell updates the second time information of all candidate cells except the new serving cell.

[0055] Thirdly, embodiments of this disclosure provide a terminal synchronization device, applied to a terminal, including:

[0056] The first information receiving module is used to receive first information sent by the serving cell, the first information including the first time information of the candidate cell;

[0057] The time advance calculation module is used to calculate the time advance based on the first time information;

[0058] The uplink synchronization module is used to perform uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the time advance.

[0059] Fourthly, embodiments of this disclosure provide a terminal synchronization device applied to a serving cell, comprising:

[0060] The first information acquisition module is used to acquire first information; wherein, the first information includes the first time information of the candidate cell;

[0061] The first information sending module is used to send the first information to the terminal, so that the terminal calculates the timing advance based on the first time information and performs uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the timing advance.

[0062] Fifthly, embodiments of this disclosure provide a terminal synchronization device, including: a processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, wherein the processor executes the computer program to implement the terminal synchronization method as described in any one of the first aspects or the terminal synchronization method as described in any one of the second aspects.

[0063] In a sixth aspect, embodiments of this disclosure provide a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein, when the computer program is executed, it controls the device where the computer-readable storage medium is located to perform a terminal synchronization method as described in any one of the first aspects or any one of the second aspects.

[0064] In a seventh aspect, embodiments of this disclosure provide a computer program product, including a computer program / instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the terminal synchronization method as described in any one of the first aspects or the terminal synchronization method as described in any one of the second aspects.

[0065] Compared to related technologies, the terminal synchronization method, apparatus, device, storage medium, and computer program product of this disclosure send first information carrying first time information of candidate cells to the terminal through the serving cell. This enables the terminal to calculate the time advance based on the first time information and perform uplink synchronization with the candidate cells based on the time advance. This allows the terminal to configure UE-based TA measurement even when base stations are not synchronized in intra-CU / inter-CU scenarios, avoiding the need for the terminal to obtain TA or access by configuring additional preamble resources. This effectively reduces cell handover latency and improves the utilization rate of access resources. Attached Figure Description

[0066] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of this disclosure, the accompanying drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly introduced below. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of this disclosure. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative effort.

[0067] Figure 1 is a flowchart of a terminal synchronization method provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0068] Figure 2 is another flowchart of a terminal synchronization method provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0069] Figure 3 is a first example diagram of information interaction between serving cells and candidate cells provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0070] Figure 4 is a second example diagram of information interaction between serving cells and candidate cells provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0071] Figure 5 is a third example diagram of information interaction between serving cells and candidate cells provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0072] Figure 6 is a fourth example diagram of information interaction between the serving cell and the candidate cell provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0073] Figure 7 is a fifth example diagram of information interaction between the serving cell and the candidate cell provided in the embodiments of this disclosure;

[0074] Figure 8 is a structural block diagram of a terminal synchronization device provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0075] Figure 9 is another structural block diagram of a terminal synchronization device provided in an embodiment of this disclosure;

[0076] Figure 10 is a structural block diagram of a terminal synchronization device provided in an embodiment of this disclosure. Detailed Implementation

[0077] The technical solutions of the embodiments of this disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only some embodiments of this disclosure, and not all embodiments. Based on the embodiments of this disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative effort are within the scope of protection of this disclosure.

[0078] It is understood that the various numerical designations used in the embodiments of this disclosure are merely for descriptive convenience and are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. The order of the process numbers does not imply the order of execution; the execution order of each process should be determined by its function and internal logic.

[0079] In embodiments of this disclosure, relational terms such as "first" and "second" are used merely to distinguish one entity or operation from another, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. The terms "comprising," "including," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising..." does not exclude the presence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes said element. The term "at least one" refers to one or more. "And / or" describes the relationship between related objects, indicating that three relationships can exist; for example, A and / or B can represent: A alone, A and B simultaneously, and B alone. The character " / " generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an "or" relationship.

[0080] It should be noted that, in the embodiments of this disclosure, the term "serving cell" can also be described as "serving cell", and the two can be used interchangeably; the term "candidate cell" can also be described as "candidate cell", and the two can be used interchangeably; the term "target cell" can also be described as "target cell", and the two can be used interchangeably; the term "UE-based time advance measurement" can also be described as "UE-based TA measurement", and the two can be used interchangeably. In the embodiments of this disclosure, no specific limitation is made.

[0081] Please refer to Figure 1, which is a flowchart of a terminal synchronization method provided in an embodiment of this disclosure. The terminal synchronization method, applied to a terminal, includes:

[0082] S11: Receive first information sent by the serving cell, the first information including first time information of the candidate cell;

[0083] S12: Calculate the time advance based on the first time information;

[0084] S13: Perform uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the time advance.

[0085] In this embodiment, the terminal receives first time information of at least one candidate cell from the current serving cell and uses this first time information to calculate the time advance (also described as TA value) of the corresponding candidate cell. Based on the calculated TA value, the terminal can perform uplink synchronization with the corresponding candidate cell. Regardless of whether it is an intra-CU scenario or an inter-CU scenario, the TA value can be calculated based on the time information related to the candidate cell from the serving cell. This allows the terminal to configure UE-based TA measurement even when the base stations (i.e., the serving cell and the candidate cells) are not synchronized. This avoids the terminal needing to configure additional preamble resources for TA acquisition or access, thereby effectively reducing cell handover latency and improving the utilization rate of access resources.

[0086] It should be noted that the timing advance can be calculated based on the first time information and the timing advance measurement value obtained by the terminal performing a UE-based TA measurement. The specific calculation method is not specifically limited in this embodiment. For example, the terminal can first perform a UE-based TA measurement to obtain the timing advance measurement value TA1 of the corresponding candidate cell, and then combine it with the first time information and the terminal's clock information to determine the time difference Δt1 between the terminal and the candidate cell to obtain the final timing advance, for example, TA = TA1 + Δt1. The time difference Δt1 between the terminal and the candidate cell can be determined based on the terminal's clock information, the time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell, and the clock information of the serving cell. Alternatively, the terminal can first perform a UE-based TA measurement to obtain the timing advance measurement value TA2 of the corresponding serving cell, and then combine it with the time difference Δt2 between the serving cell and the candidate cell determined by the first time information to obtain the final timing advance, for example, TA = TA2 + Δt2.

[0087] For each candidate cell, the initial information includes at least one of the following:

[0088] (1) The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell.

[0089] (2) The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell and the reference time provided by the serving cell.

[0090] (3) The clock information of the serving cell and the clock information of the candidate cell.

[0091] (4) The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first reference clock information.

[0092] The first reference clock information includes the time in the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or the time in a system broadcast message (such as the System Information Block (SIB) 19).

[0093] (5) The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell.

[0094] (6) The time difference index between the serving cell and the candidate cell, wherein the time difference index is used to indicate a specific time difference value or a time difference range (i.e., a specific time difference value or time difference range between the serving cell and the candidate cell).

[0095] The time difference index is included in system messages or dedicated radio resource control signaling.

[0096] (7) The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock.

[0097] (8) The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock and the second reference clock information of the reference clock.

[0098] (9) The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock and the reference clock indication information; wherein the reference clock indication information is used to indicate the ownership of the reference clock.

[0099] In the above situations (7), (8) and (9), the reference clock includes the clock of the serving cell or the clock of the satellite navigation system.

[0100] In the above situation (9), the reference clock is indicated by the reference clock indication information, that is, whether the reference clock used is the clock of the serving cell, the clock of the satellite navigation system, or other reference clocks. This reference clock indication information can specifically indicate the reference clock's ownership through indexes or bits.

[0101] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the first information can be sent or configured to the terminal in any of the following ways.

[0102] (1) The first information is sent through a cell handover command;

[0103] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the first information carrying the first time information can be sent together with the network instruction instructing the terminal to perform cell handover via a cell handover command. At this time, the cell handover command sent by the base station of the serving cell to the terminal includes the network instruction instructing the terminal to perform cell handover and the first information carrying the first time information.

[0104] It should be noted that the term "cell handover command" can also be described as "cell switch command", and the two can be used interchangeably. The term "cell handover" can also be described as "cell switch", and the two can be used interchangeably. No specific limitation is made in the embodiments disclosed herein.

[0105] (2) The first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration;

[0106] In the case where the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, the first information further includes implicit first indication information for instructing whether the terminal performs a terminal-based time advance measurement, or the first information includes second indication information for instructing the terminal configuration independently of the terminal-based time advance measurement.

[0107] Furthermore, when the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, the method further includes:

[0108] Based on the first or second indication information in the first information, determine whether to perform a terminal-based time advance measurement.

[0109] In this embodiment of the disclosure, if the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, even if the terminal receives the first time information sent by the serving cell, the terminal still needs to determine whether to perform the terminal-based time advance measurement operation based on the relevant indication information (i.e. the first indication information or the second indication information mentioned above) based on the terminal's time advance measurement.

[0110] (3) The first information is sent out through L3 / L2 signaling after LTM candidate cell configuration.

[0111] When the first information is sent via separate Layer 3 (L3) / Layer 2 (L2) signaling after the network provides LTM candidate cell configuration, the first time information sent by the serving cell may be the first time information of the candidate cells that can perform terminal-based time advance measurement operations, or the complete set of the first time information of all candidate cells.

[0112] (4) The first information is contained in the system message.

[0113] Please refer to Figure 2, which is another flowchart of a terminal synchronization method provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure. The terminal synchronization method is applied to a serving cell and includes:

[0114] S21: Obtain first information; wherein, the first information includes the first time information of the candidate cell;

[0115] S22: Send the first information to the terminal so that the terminal calculates the time advance based on the first time information and performs uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the time advance.

[0116] The information content of the first-time information and the method of distributing or configuring the first-time information carried by the serving cell can be found above, and will not be repeated here.

[0117] For the first-hand information of candidate cells, the currently serving cell can obtain it through any of the following methods.

[0118] The first method of acquisition:

[0119] Send the reference time to the candidate cell;

[0120] The system receives the first time difference value and / or the clock information of the candidate cell sent by the candidate cell; wherein the first time difference value is the time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell calculated by the candidate cell based on the reference time.

[0121] Based on the first time difference between the current serving cell and the candidate cell and / or the clock information of the candidate cell, combined with the current serving cell clock information and / or the first reference clock information and / or the reference time provided by the current serving cell, the information content corresponding to the first time information in cases (1) to (6) above can be obtained.

[0122] It should be noted that the reference time mentioned above can be the clock information of the current serving cell itself, the time in the satellite navigation system, or the time in SIB 19. No specific limitation is made in this embodiment.

[0123] The second method of obtaining it:

[0124] Send a first request to the target cell; wherein the first request is used to instruct the target cell to provide a second time difference and / or the clock information of the target cell; the second time difference is the time difference between the target cell and a reference clock;

[0125] Receive the second time difference value sent by the candidate cell and / or the clock information of the target cell.

[0126] It should be noted that the target cell is determined by the candidate cells, which refers to the cell among the candidate cells that serves as the next-hop serving cell for the terminal, that is, the target cell belongs to one of the candidate cells.

[0127] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the current serving cell sends a first request to the target cell to request the target cell to provide relevant time information of the target cell, including a second time difference between the target cell and a reference clock and / or the clock information of the target cell.

[0128] Based on the second time difference between the target cell and the reference clock and / or the clock information of the target cell and / or the reference clock, the current serving cell can obtain the information content corresponding to the first time information in cases (7) to (9) above, combined with the reference clock that the current serving cell may additionally provide and / or the clock information of the current serving cell and / or the second reference clock information.

[0129] In some embodiments, the information exchange between the candidate cells (including the target cell) and the serving cell can be achieved through the existing handover (HO) request and ACK knowledge character (ACK) process.

[0130] For the second acquisition method that does not require the serving cell to provide a reference time first, the candidate cell can determine whether the serving cell belongs to the same CU as itself based on the LTM indication in the HO request sent by the serving cell, and / or directly determine whether the serving cell belongs to the same CU as itself.

[0131] To more clearly illustrate the information exchange between the serving cell and the candidate cell, a detailed explanation is provided below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0132] As shown in Figure 3, taking the serving cell providing its own clock information, the candidate cells calculating time difference information (including the aforementioned first time difference and / or second time difference), and the serving cell sending the first time information (containing at least the time difference information or the candidate cell's clock information) as part of the LTM candidate cell configuration to the terminal as an example, the specific process is as follows:

[0133] The serving cell sends a handover request (HO request) to each candidate cell; the HO request carries an LTM indicator and the clock information (i.e., real time) of the serving cell; the LTM indicator can be used to indicate the CU to which the serving cell belongs;

[0134] Time difference calculation is performed for each candidate cell; for example, the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell is calculated, and / or the second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock is calculated.

[0135] Each candidate cell returns a handover response HO ACK to the serving cell, which carries time difference information and / or the clock information of the candidate cell;

[0136] The serving cell sends LTM candidate cell configuration to the terminal; the LTM candidate cell configuration carries the clock information of the serving cell and each candidate cell, and / or the time difference information of each candidate cell.

[0137] As shown in Figure 4, taking the example of the serving cell requesting LTM configuration from a candidate cell (i.e., sending the first request, at this time, the request does not display the request time information), the candidate cell feeds back its own clock information, the serving cell calculates the time difference information (including the aforementioned first time difference value and / or second time difference value), and sends the time difference information and the candidate cell's clock information to the terminal, the specific process is as follows:

[0138] The serving cell sends a handover request (HO request) to each candidate cell; the HO request carries an LTM indication.

[0139] Each candidate cell returns a handover response HO ACK to the serving cell, which carries the clock information of the candidate cell;

[0140] The serving cell calculates the time difference between each candidate cell; for example, it calculates the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cells, and / or the second time difference between the candidate cells and the reference clock.

[0141] The serving cell sends LTM candidate cell configuration to the terminal; the LTM candidate cell configuration carries the clock information of the serving cell and each candidate cell, and / or the time difference information of each candidate cell.

[0142] As shown in Figure 5, taking the example where the serving cell obtains the clock information of the candidate cell but does not distribute it as part of the LTM candidate cell configuration, and only sends the time difference information to the terminal when instructing the terminal to perform cell handover (for example, the time difference information is included in the cell switch command), the specific process is as follows:

[0143] The serving cell sends a handover request (HO request) to each candidate cell; the HO request carries an LTM indication.

[0144] Each candidate cell returns a handover response HO ACK to the serving cell, which carries the clock information of the candidate cell;

[0145] The serving cell calculates the time difference between each candidate cell; for example, it calculates the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cells, and / or the second time difference between the candidate cells and the reference clock.

[0146] The serving cell sends the LTM candidate cell configuration (LTM configuration) to the terminal.

[0147] The terminal sends a measurement report to the serving cell;

[0148] The serving cell sends an LTM cell switch command to the terminal. This cell switch command carries the time difference information of each candidate cell (including the first time difference and / or the second time difference mentioned above).

[0149] In other embodiments, the information exchange between the candidate cells (including the target cell) and the serving cell can also be achieved through an Xn interface establishment or Xn interface update process between the two corresponding base stations. It should be noted that this information exchange can be direct or based on an indication from one of the base stations that LTM is supported; no specific limitations are imposed in this disclosure.

[0150] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the granularity of information exchanged with the serving cell can be per cell, per cell list (each cell list includes multiple cells), or per base station (each base station has multiple cells). No specific limitation is made in this embodiment. For example, when the serving cell synchronizes with multiple candidate cells, or when a serving cell in a cell list synchronizes with multiple candidate cells, or when a serving cell under a base station synchronizes with multiple candidate cells, the above-mentioned information exchange is performed, exchanging the same information to obtain the first-time information of the corresponding candidate cells.

[0151] In this embodiment of the disclosure, considering support for subsequent LTM features, the current serving cell may also perform the following operations:

[0152] Before or after the terminal switches to a new serving cell, the second time information of all candidate cells is sent to the next-hop serving cell;

[0153] The second time information includes the clock information of the candidate cell and / or the third time difference between the candidate cell and the common reference clock.

[0154] The common reference clock is the clock of the current serving cell; the second time information is used to instruct the next-hop serving cell to calculate the fifth time difference between the next-hop serving cell and other candidate cells based on its own fourth time difference with the current serving cell and the third time difference between the current serving cell and other candidate cells among all candidate cells excluding the next-hop serving cell.

[0155] It should be understood that the new serving cell refers to the first cell that the terminal will hand over from its current serving cell among the candidate cells; the next-hop serving cell refers to the next cell that the terminal is expected to hand over from the new serving cell among the candidate cells.

[0156] In this embodiment of the disclosure, the current serving cell will send the second time information of all candidate cells to the next-hop serving cell of the terminal before or after the terminal switches to a new serving cell. Using the clock of the current serving cell as a common reference clock, the next-hop serving cell can calculate the fifth time difference between itself and other candidate cells based on the fourth time difference between itself and the current serving cell and the third time difference between other candidate cells and the current serving cell. For example, the fifth time difference can be obtained by calculating the difference between the fourth time difference and the third time difference.

[0157] For example, as shown in Figure 6, the serving cell broadcasts the second-time information of all candidate cells to all candidate cells. The specific process is as follows:

[0158] The service community collects real-time information from each candidate community.

[0159] The serving cell sends the second-time information of all candidate cells to each candidate cell.

[0160] Alternatively, when the terminal completes a cell handover, the new serving cell updates the second time information of all candidate cells except the new serving cell.

[0161] In this embodiment of the disclosure, as the terminal switches to a new serving cell, the new serving cell will update the third time difference between the corresponding candidate cell and the new serving cell in the second time information of other candidate cells.

[0162] For example, as shown in Figure 7, the second time information of all candidate cells is only sent to the next-hop serving cell. For instance, if the next-hop serving cell is candidate cell Hop1 and the next-hop serving cell is candidate cell Hop2, the specific process is as follows:

[0163] The service community collects real-time information from each candidate community.

[0164] The serving cell sends the second-time information of all candidate cells to the next-hop serving cell (Hop1);

[0165] The serving cell sends an LTM cell switch command to the terminal. This cell switch command carries the time difference information of each candidate cell (such as the third time difference value in the second time information).

[0166] The next-hop serving cell (Hop1) sends the second-time information of all candidate cells to the next-hop serving cell (Hop2) as the new serving cell;

[0167] The new serving cell sends an LTM cell switch command to the terminal. This cell switch command carries the time difference information of each candidate cell (such as the third time difference value in the second time information).

[0168] Compared to related technologies, the embodiments of this disclosure allow the terminal to receive first time information of at least one candidate cell from the current serving cell, and use this first time information to calculate the time advance of the corresponding candidate cell. Based on the calculated TA value, the terminal can perform uplink synchronization with the corresponding candidate cell. Regardless of whether it is an intra-CU scenario or an inter-CU scenario, the TA value can be calculated based on the time information related to the candidate cell from the serving cell. This allows the terminal to configure UE-based TA measurement even when the base stations are not synchronized, avoiding the need for the terminal to obtain or access TA by configuring additional preamble resources. This can effectively reduce the latency of cell handover while achieving efficient utilization of access resources.

[0169] Referring to Figure 8, which is a structural block diagram of a terminal synchronization device provided in an embodiment of this disclosure, the terminal synchronization device is applied to a terminal and includes:

[0170] The first information receiving module 11 is used to receive first information sent by the serving cell, the first information including first time information of the candidate cell;

[0171] The time advance calculation module 12 is used to calculate the time advance based on the first time information;

[0172] The uplink synchronization module 13 is used to perform uplink synchronization with the candidate cell according to the time advance.

[0173] In one optional embodiment, the first time information includes at least one of the following:

[0174] The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0175] The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell, and the reference time provided by the serving cell;

[0176] The clock information of the serving cell and the clock information of the candidate cell;

[0177] The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first reference clock information;

[0178] The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0179] The time difference index between the serving cell and the candidate cell, wherein the time difference index is used to indicate a time difference value or a time difference range;

[0180] The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock;

[0181] The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock, and the second reference clock information of the reference clock;

[0182] The candidate cell and the reference clock's second time difference and reference clock indication information; wherein, the reference clock indication information is used to indicate the reference clock's affiliation.

[0183] In an alternative embodiment, the time difference index is included in a system message or a dedicated radio resource control signaling.

[0184] In one alternative embodiment, the first reference clock information includes the time in the satellite navigation system or the time in a system broadcast message.

[0185] In one alternative embodiment, the reference clock includes the clock of the serving cell or the clock of the satellite navigation system.

[0186] In one optional embodiment, the reference clock indication information indicates the attribution of the reference clock by means of an index or bits; the attribution of the reference clock includes the serving cell or the satellite navigation system.

[0187] In one optional embodiment, the first information is sent via a cell handover command; or, the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration; or, the first information is sent via Layer 3 (L3) / Layer 2 (L2) signaling after the LTM candidate cell configuration; or, the first information is included in a system message.

[0188] In an optional embodiment, when the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, the first information includes implicit first indication information for indicating whether the terminal performs a terminal-based time advance measurement, or the first information includes second indication information for indicating the terminal configuration independently of the terminal-based time advance measurement.

[0189] In an optional embodiment, the device further includes:

[0190] The timing advance measurement determination module is used to determine whether to perform terminal-based timing advance measurement based on the first indication information or the second indication information in the first information when the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration.

[0191] In an optional embodiment, when the first information is sent via Layer 3 (L3) / Layer 2 (L2) signaling after LTM candidate cell configuration, the first information includes the first time information of the candidate cells that can perform terminal-based time advance measurement, or the first time information of all candidate cells.

[0192] It should be noted that the working process of each module in the terminal synchronization device described in this embodiment can refer to the working process of the terminal synchronization method described in the above embodiments, and the technical effect achieved is the same as that of the terminal synchronization method described in the above embodiments, so it will not be repeated here.

[0193] Referring to Figure 9, which is another structural block diagram of a terminal synchronization device provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure, the terminal synchronization device is applied to a serving cell and includes:

[0194] The first information acquisition module 21 is used to acquire first information; wherein, the first information includes the first time information of the candidate cell;

[0195] The first information sending module 22 is used to send the first information to the terminal so that the terminal can calculate the time advance based on the first time information and perform uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the time advance.

[0196] In one optional embodiment, the first time information includes at least one of the following:

[0197] The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0198] The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell, and the reference time provided by the serving cell;

[0199] The clock information of the serving cell and the clock information of the candidate cell;

[0200] The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first reference clock information;

[0201] The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell;

[0202] The time difference index between the serving cell and the candidate cell, wherein the time difference index is used to indicate a time difference value or a time difference range;

[0203] The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock;

[0204] The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock, and the second reference clock information of the reference clock;

[0205] The candidate cell and the reference clock's second time difference and reference clock indication information; wherein, the reference clock indication information is used to indicate the reference clock's affiliation.

[0206] In an optional embodiment, the device further includes:

[0207] A reference time sending module is used to send a reference time to the candidate cell;

[0208] The first time information receiving module is used to receive the first time difference value and / or the clock information of the candidate cell sent by the candidate cell; wherein, the first time difference value is the time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell calculated by the candidate cell according to the reference time.

[0209] In an optional embodiment, the device further includes:

[0210] A request module is configured to send a first request to a target cell; wherein the first request is configured to instruct the target cell to provide a second time difference and / or the clock information of the target cell; the second time difference is the time difference between the target cell and a reference clock, and the target cell is determined by the candidate cells;

[0211] The second time information receiving module is used to receive the second time difference sent by the candidate cell and / or the clock information of the target cell.

[0212] In an optional embodiment, the device further includes:

[0213] The first-time information sending module is used to send the second-time information of all candidate cells to the next-hop serving cell before or after the terminal switches to a new serving cell.

[0214] The second time information includes the clock information of the candidate cell and / or the third time difference between the candidate cell and the common reference clock.

[0215] In one optional embodiment, the common reference clock is the clock of the current serving cell; the second time information is used to instruct the next-hop serving cell to calculate the fifth time difference between the next-hop serving cell and other candidate cells based on the fourth time difference between itself and the current serving cell, and the third time difference between the current serving cell and other candidate cells among all candidate cells excluding the next-hop serving cell.

[0216] In an optional embodiment, the device further includes:

[0217] The time information update module is used to update the second time information of all candidate cells other than the new serving cell when the terminal completes a cell handover.

[0218] It should be noted that the working process of each module in the terminal synchronization device described in this embodiment can refer to the working process of the terminal synchronization method described in the above embodiments, and the technical effect achieved is the same as that of the terminal synchronization method described in the above embodiments, so it will not be repeated here.

[0219] Referring to Figure 10, which is a structural block diagram of a terminal synchronization device provided in an embodiment of this disclosure, the terminal synchronization device includes a processor 31, a memory 32, and a computer program stored in the memory 32 and executable on the processor 31. When the processor 31 executes the computer program, it implements the steps in the various terminal synchronization method embodiments described above, such as steps S11 to S13 or steps S21 to S22.

[0220] For example, the computer program may be divided into one or more modules / units, which are stored in the memory 32 and executed by the processor 31 to complete the present disclosure. The one or more modules / units may be a series of computer program instruction segments capable of performing a specific function, which describe the execution process of the computer program in the terminal synchronization device.

[0221] The terminal synchronization device may include, but is not limited to, a processor 31 and a memory 32. Those skilled in the art will understand that the schematic diagram is merely an example of a terminal synchronization device and does not constitute a limitation on the terminal synchronization device. It may include more or fewer components than illustrated, or combine certain components, or different components. For example, the terminal synchronization device may also include input / output devices, network access devices, buses, etc.

[0222] The processor 31 can be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), or other general-purpose processors, digital signal processors (DSPs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. The general-purpose processor can be a microprocessor or any conventional processor. The processor 31 is the control center of the terminal synchronization device, connecting various parts of the entire terminal synchronization device through various interfaces and lines.

[0223] The memory 32 can be used to store the computer programs and / or modules. The processor 31 implements various functions of the terminal synchronization device by running or executing the computer programs and / or modules stored in the memory 32 and calling the data stored in the memory 32. The memory 32 may mainly include a program storage area and a data storage area. The program storage area may store the operating system, at least one application program required for a function (such as sound playback function, image playback function, etc.), etc.; the data storage area may store data created according to the use of the mobile phone (such as audio data, phonebook, etc.). In addition, the memory 32 may include high-speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as hard disk, memory, plug-in hard disk, smart media card (SMC), secure digital (SD) card, flash card, at least one disk storage device, flash memory device, or other volatile solid-state storage device.

[0224] Wherein, if the modules / units integrated in the terminal synchronization device are implemented as software functional units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, all or part of the processes in the methods of the above embodiments can also be implemented by a computer program instructing related hardware. The computer program can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when executed by the processor 31, it can implement the steps of the various method embodiments described above. Wherein, the computer program includes computer program code, which can be in the form of source code, object code, executable file, or some intermediate form, etc. The computer-readable medium can include: any entity or device capable of carrying the computer program code, recording media, USB flash drive, portable hard drive, magnetic disk, optical disk, computer memory, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), electrical carrier signal, telecommunication signal, and software distribution medium, etc.

[0225] It should be noted that the device embodiments described above are merely illustrative. The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the modules can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs. Furthermore, in the accompanying drawings of the device embodiments provided in this disclosure, the connection relationships between modules indicate that they have communication connections, which can be specifically implemented as one or more communication buses or signal lines. Those skilled in the art can understand and implement this without any creative effort.

[0226] The above description is a preferred embodiment of this disclosure. It should be noted that, for those skilled in the art, many improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the principles of this disclosure, and these improvements and modifications are also considered to be within the scope of protection of this disclosure.

Claims

1. A terminal synchronization method, applied to a terminal, the method comprising: Receive first information sent by the serving cell, the first information including first time information of the candidate cell; Calculate the time lead based on the first time information; Based on the aforementioned time advance, uplink synchronization with the candidate cell is performed.

2. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 1, wherein, The first time information includes at least one of the following: The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell; The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell, and the reference time provided by the serving cell; The clock information of the serving cell and the clock information of the candidate cell; The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first reference clock information; The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell; The time difference index between the serving cell and the candidate cell, wherein the time difference index is used to indicate a time difference value or a time difference range; The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock; The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock, and the second reference clock information of the reference clock; The candidate cell and the reference clock's second time difference and reference clock indication information; wherein, the reference clock indication information is used to indicate the reference clock's affiliation.

3. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 2, wherein, The time difference index is included in system messages or dedicated radio resource control signaling.

4. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 2, wherein, The first reference clock information includes the time in the satellite navigation system or the time in the system broadcast message.

5. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 2, wherein, The reference clock includes the clock of the serving cell or the clock of the satellite navigation system.

6. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 2, wherein, The reference clock indication information indicates the ownership of the reference clock through an index or bits; the ownership of the reference clock includes the serving cell or the satellite navigation system.

7. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 1, wherein, The first information is sent via a cell handover command; or, the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration; or, the first information is sent via Layer 3 (L3) / Layer 2 (L2) signaling after the LTM candidate cell configuration; or, the first information is included in a system message.

8. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 7, wherein, When the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, the first information includes implicit first indication information for instructing the terminal whether to perform terminal-based time advance measurement, or the first information includes second indication information for instructing the terminal configuration independently of terminal-based time advance measurement.

9. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 8, further comprising: When the first information is included in the LTM candidate cell configuration, it is determined whether to perform terminal-based timing advance measurement based on the first indication information or the second indication information in the first information.

10. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 7, wherein, When the first information is sent via L3 / L2 signaling after LTM candidate cell configuration, the first information includes the first time information of the candidate cells that can perform terminal-based time advance measurement, or the first time information of all candidate cells.

11. A terminal synchronization method applied to a serving cell, the method comprising: Obtain first information; wherein, the first information includes first-time information of the candidate cell; The first information is sent to the terminal so that the terminal calculates the timing advance based on the first time information and performs uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the timing advance.

12. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 11, wherein, The first time information includes at least one of the following: The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell; The first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell, and the reference time provided by the serving cell; The clock information of the serving cell and the clock information of the candidate cell; The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first reference clock information; The clock information of the serving cell, the clock information of the candidate cell, and the first time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell; The time difference index between the serving cell and the candidate cell, wherein the time difference index is used to indicate a time difference value or a time difference range; The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock; The second time difference between the candidate cell and the reference clock, and the second reference clock information of the reference clock; The candidate cell and the reference clock's second time difference and reference clock indication information; wherein, the reference clock indication information is used to indicate the reference clock's affiliation.

13. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 12, further comprising: Send the reference time to the candidate cell; The system receives the first time difference value and / or the clock information of the candidate cell sent by the candidate cell; wherein the first time difference value is the time difference between the serving cell and the candidate cell calculated by the candidate cell based on the reference time.

14. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 12, further comprising: Send a first request to the target cell; wherein the first request is used to instruct the target cell to provide a second time difference and / or the clock information of the target cell; the second time difference is the time difference between the target cell and a reference clock, and the target cell is determined by the candidate cell; Receive the second time difference value sent by the candidate cell and / or the clock information of the target cell.

15. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 11, wherein the method comprises: Before or after the terminal switches to a new serving cell, the second time information of all candidate cells is sent to the next-hop serving cell; The second time information includes the clock information of the candidate cell and / or the third time difference between the candidate cell and the common reference clock.

16. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 15, wherein, The common reference clock is the clock of the current serving cell; the second time information is used to instruct the next-hop serving cell to calculate the fifth time difference between the next-hop serving cell and other candidate cells based on its own fourth time difference with the current serving cell and the third time difference between the current serving cell and other candidate cells among all candidate cells excluding the next-hop serving cell.

17. The terminal synchronization method as described in claim 11, wherein the method comprises: When the terminal completes a cell handover, the new serving cell updates the second time information of all candidate cells except the new serving cell.

18. A terminal synchronization device, applied to a terminal, the method comprising: The first information receiving module is used to receive first information sent by the serving cell, the first information including the first time information of the candidate cell; The time advance calculation module is used to calculate the time advance based on the first time information; The uplink synchronization module is used to perform uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the time advance.

19. A terminal synchronization device, applied to a serving cell, comprising: The first information acquisition module is used to acquire first information; wherein, the first information includes the first time information of the candidate cell; The first information sending module is used to send the first information to the terminal, so that the terminal calculates the timing advance based on the first time information and performs uplink synchronization with the candidate cell based on the timing advance.

20. A terminal synchronization device, comprising: A processor, a memory, and a computer program stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the processor, wherein the processor, when executing the computer program, implements the terminal synchronization method as described in any one of claims 1 to 10 or the terminal synchronization method as described in any one of claims 11 to 17.

21. A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein, When the computer program is running, it controls the device containing the computer-readable storage medium to perform the terminal synchronization method as described in any one of claims 1 to 10 or any one of claims 11 to 17.

22. A computer program product comprising a computer program / instructions that, when executed by a processor, implement the terminal synchronization method according to any one of claims 1 to 10 or the terminal synchronization method according to any one of claims 11 to 17.

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