Method and apparatus for receiving and transmitting information in a wireless communication system

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a 5G communication system or a 6G communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a 4G communication system such as long term evolution (LTE). The present disclosure relates to a method and device for receiving and transmitting information, and more particularly, to a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system and a UE performing the method. The method includes receiving, from a base station, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting; performing the second interference measurement based on the second resource configuration information; reporting, to the base station, a result of the second interference measurement based on the reporting configuration information, wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, and wherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING AND TRANSMITTING INFORMATION IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

[0001] The present application relates to wireless communication technology field, and more specifically, to a method and device for receiving and transmitting information.

[0002] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5G (5th generation) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6G (6th generation) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems. For these reasons, 6G communication systems are referred to as beyond-5G systems.

[0003] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, will have a peak data rate of tera (1,000 giga)-level bit per second (bps) and a radio latency less than 100μsec, and thus will be 50 times as fast as 5G communication systems and have the 1 / 10 radio latency thereof.

[0004] In order to accomplish such a high data rate and an ultra-low latency, it has been considered to implement 6G communication systems in a terahertz (THz) band (for example, 95 gigahertz (GHz) to 3THz bands). It is expected that, due to severer path loss and atmospheric absorption in the terahertz bands than those in mmWave bands introduced in 5G, technologies capable of securing the signal transmission distance (that is, coverage) will become more crucial. It is necessary to develop, as major technologies for securing the coverage, Radio Frequency (RF) elements, antennas, novel waveforms having a better coverage than Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), beamforming and massive Multiple-input Multiple-Output (MIMO), Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas, and multiantenna transmission technologies such as large-scale antennas. In addition, there has been ongoing discussion on new technologies for improving the coverage of terahertz-band signals, such as metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM), and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface (RIS).

[0005] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collision avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of UE computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mechanisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0006] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive eXtended Reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0007] The present disclosure relates to method and apparatus for receiving and transmitting information in a wireless communication system.

[0008] According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a communication method in a wireless communication system.

[0009] Aspects of the present disclosure provide efficient communication methods in a wireless communication system.

[0010] For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure and its advantages, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals represent like parts:

[0011] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0012] FIG. 2 illustrates an example base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0013] FIG. 3 illustrates an example user equipment according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0014] FIG. 4 illustrates an example where a base station is subject to neighboring cell interference;

[0015] FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate examples where a terminal determines distribution of subbands for which interference measurement is to be performed based on resource configuration information for interference measurement according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0016] FIG. 6 illustrates an example where a terminal determines distribution of subbands for which interference measurement is to be performed based on resource configuration information for interference measurement according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0017] FIG. 7 illustrates an example where a terminal performs two-step interference measurement according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0018] FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a new resource scheduling scheme determined by a base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0019] FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a new resource scheduling scheme determined by a base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0020] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a communication system supporting JPTA technology;

[0021] FIG. 11 illustrates an example where a base station supporting JPTA schedules three terminals (UE1 / UE2 / UE3);

[0022] FIG. 12 illustrates a structure 1200 of a user equipment according to various embodiments of the present disclosure;

[0023] FIG. 13 illustrates a structure 1300 of a base station according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0024] FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of a user equipment, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0025] FIG. 15 illustrates a block diagram of a base station, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0026] FIG. 16 illustrates a block diagram of a network entity, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0027] An aspect of the present disclosure provides a method performed by a user equipment UE in a communication system, including receiving, from a base station, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting; performing the second interference measurement based on the second resource configuration information; reporting, to the base station, a result of the second interference measurement based on the reporting configuration information, wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, and wherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

[0028] In an example, the reporting configuration information includes information related to report quantity and / or a reporting threshold condition.

[0029] In an example, the size of the subband unit is associated with a bandwidth with which the UE is allocated or a minimum bandwidth supported by the base station.

[0030] In an example, the second resource configuration information further includes a frequency domain starting point and first information indicating a computation direction of the subband unit, wherein a frequency domain resource for the second interference measurement is determined based on the frequency domain starting point and the first information, and wherein the computation direction of the subband unit includes a forward direction, a backward direction or a bidirectional direction.

[0031] In an example, the information related to the report quantity indicates reporting an index of the subband unit and / or a measured quantity corresponding to the index of the subband unit.

[0032] In an example, the reported index of the subband unit includes an index of a subband unit satisfying or not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, and wherein the result of the second interference measurement further includes indication information for indicating whether the reported index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition or the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition.

[0033] In an example, when a number of subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is larger than a number of subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition; or when the number of the subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is smaller than the number of the subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition.

[0034] In an example, the reporting threshold condition includes the measured quantity being larger than or equal to a first threshold, or the measured quantity being smaller than or equal to a second threshold.

[0035] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a method performed by a user equipment UE in a communication system, including receiving, from a base station, resource configuration information for interference measurement, wherein the resource configuration information includes second information indicating at least one subband division method; performing, for each of the at least one subband division method, an interference measurement based on the resource configuration information; reporting, to the base station a result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method, wherein the result of the interference measurement includes: an index of a subband division method satisfying a threshold condition in the result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method; or information indicating that the at least one subband division method not satisfying the threshold condition.

[0036] In an example, each of the at least one subband division method includes one of the followings: information related to a size of a subband unit; information related to a frequency domain position of the UE in the subband division method.

[0037] In an example, each of the at least one subband division method further includes information for indicating a frequency domain resource not for measurement.

[0038] In an example, the threshold condition includes a result of an interference measurement related to a subband division method being smaller than or smaller than or equal to a third threshold.

[0039] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a method performed by a base station in a communication system, including transmitting, to a user equipment UE, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting; receiving, from the UE, a result of the second interference measurement performed based on the second resource configuration information; wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, and wherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

[0040] In an example, the reporting configuration information includes information related to report quantity and / or a reporting threshold condition.

[0041] In an example, the size of the subband unit is associated with a bandwidth with which the UE is allocated or a minimum bandwidth supported by the base station.

[0042] In an example, the second resource configuration information further includes a frequency domain starting point and first information indicating a computation direction of the subband unit, wherein a frequency domain resource for the second interference measurement is determined based on the frequency domain starting point and the first information, and wherein the computation direction of the subband unit includes a forward direction, a backward direction or a bidirectional direction.

[0043] In an example, the information related to the report quantity indicates reporting an index of the subband unit and / or a measured quantity corresponding to the index of the subband unit.

[0044] In an example, the reported index of the subband unit includes an index of a subband unit satisfying or not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, and wherein the result of the second interference measurement further includes indication information for indicating whether the reported index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition or the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition.

[0045] In an example, when a number of subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is larger than a number of subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition; or when the number of the subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is smaller than the number of the subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition.

[0046] In an example, the reporting threshold condition includes the measured quantity being larger than or equal to a first threshold, or the measured quantity being smaller than or equal to a second threshold.

[0047] In an example, determining information for inter-cell interference management based on the result of the second interference measurement; transmitting, to another base station, the information for inter-cell interference management, wherein the information for inter-cell interference management includes at least one of the followings: information associated with an interfered resource, information associated with an interfered position range.

[0048] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a method performed by a base station in a communication system, including transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), resource configuration information for interference measurement, wherein the resource configuration information includes second information indicating at least one subband division method; receiving, from the UE, a result of an interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method performed based on the resource configuration information, wherein the result of the interference measurement includes: an index of a subband division method satisfying a threshold condition in the result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method; or information indicating that the at least one subband division method not satisfying the threshold condition.

[0049] In an example, each of the at least one subband division method includes one of the followings: information related to a size of a subband unit; information related to a frequency domain position of the UE in the subband division method.

[0050] In an example, each of the at least one subband division method further includes information for indicating a frequency domain resource not for measurement.

[0051] In an example, the threshold condition includes a result of an interference measurement related to a subband division method being smaller than or smaller than or equal to a third threshold.

[0052] Another aspect of the present disclosure provides a user equipment including a transceiver; and a controller coupled to the transceiver, the controller is configured to perform the above method which may be performed by the user equipment.

[0053] Yet another aspect of the present disclosure provides a base station including a transceiver; and a controller coupled to the transceiver, the controller is configured to perform the above method which may be performed by the base station.

[0054] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0055] In describing the embodiments, while numerous details are set forth for the purpose of illustration, it is understood that some aspects of the disclosure may be practiced with less than all of these details. Numerous variations and alternatives to the details provided herein are possible and are considered within the scope of the disclosure. In some instances, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art may be omitted so as to not obscure an understanding of the disclosure, and such omitted descriptions are understood to be within the scope of the disclosure.

[0056] For the same reason, in the accompanying drawings, some elements may be exaggerated, omitted, or schematically illustrated. Further, the size of each element does not completely reflect the actual size. In the drawings, identical or corresponding elements are provided with identical reference numerals or different reference numerals.

[0057] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described herein in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein, but may be implemented in various different forms. Other features, aspects, and advantages of the subject matter described herein will become apparent from the disclosure. The following embodiments are merely examples to aid in an understanding of the disclosure and should not be construed to narrow the scope or spirit of the subject matter described herein in any way, but on the contrary, the disclosure covers all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the subject matter as defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, terms which will be described herein are terms defined in consideration of the functions in the disclosure, and may be different according to users, intentions of the operators, or customs. Therefore, the definitions of the terms should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

[0058] Herein, it will be understood that each block of flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, may be performed based on computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded collectively onto at least one processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which perform through any one of, or in any combination of, the at least one processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for performing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s). These computer program instructions may also be stored in a non-transitory computer usable or computer-readable memory that may direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer usable or computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that perform the function specified in the flowchart block(s). The computer program instructions may 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 data processing apparatus to produce a computer executed process such that the instructions that perform on the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus provide steps for executing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s).

[0059] Further, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which includes one or more executable instructions for executing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks may occur out of the order. For example, two blocks(or functions) shown in succession may in fact be performed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be performed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved.

[0060] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a “~unit / module” may refer to a software element or a hardware element, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), which performs a predetermined function. However, the term including the word “~unit / module” does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The “~unit / module” may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the “~unit / module” includes, for example, software elements, object-oriented software elements, components such as class elements and task elements, processes, functions, properties, procedures, sub-routines, segments of a program code, drivers, firmware, micro-codes, circuits, data, database, data structures, tables, arrays, and parameters. The components and functions provided by the “~unit / module” may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a “~unit / module,” or divided into additional components and a “~unit / module.” Moreover, the components and “~units / modules” may be implemented to reproduce one or more central processing units (CPUs) within a device or a security multimedia card. Further, in the embodiments, the “~unit / module” may include one or more processors.

[0061] The entirety of the one or more computer programs may be stored in a single memory device or the one or more computer programs may be divided with different portions stored in different multiple memory devices.

[0062] Any of the functions or operations described herein can be processed by one processor or a combination of processors. The one processor or the combination of processors is circuitry performing processing and includes circuitry like an application processor (AP, e.g. a CPU), a communication processor (CP, e.g., a modem), a graphics processing unit (GPU), a neural processing unit (NPU) (e.g., an artificial intelligence (AI) chip), a Wi-Fi chip, a Bluetooth® chip, a global positioning system (GPS) chip, a near field communication (NFC) chip, connectivity chips, a sensor controller, a touch controller, a finger-print sensor controller, a display driver integrated circuit (IC), an audio CODEC chip, a universal serial bus (USB) controller, a camera controller, an image processing IC, microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, FPGA, ASIC, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like. The one processor or the combination of processors executes instructions that can be stored in a memory, such as the operating system, in order to control the overall operation of the device. Also, the one processor or the combination of processors is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory, such as processes for the disclosure.

[0063] It will be appreciated that various embodiments of the disclosure according to the claims and description in the specification can be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software.

[0064] Any such software may be stored in non-transitory computer readable storage media. The non-transitory computer readable storage media store one or more computer programs (software modules), the one or more computer programs include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure. Additionally, or alternatively, such software may be a computer program [product] comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more processors of an electronic device individually or collectively, cause the electronic device to perform a method of the disclosure.

[0065] Any such software may be stored in the form of volatile or non-volatile storage such as, for example, a storage device like read only memory (ROM), whether erasable or rewritable or not, or in the form of memory such as, for example, random access memory (RAM), memory chips, device or integrated circuits or on an optically or magnetically readable medium such as, for example, a compact disk (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), magnetic disk or magnetic tape or the like. It will be appreciated that the storage devices and storage media are various embodiments of non-transitory machine-readable storage that are suitable for storing a computer program or computer programs comprising instructions that, when executed, implement various embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a program comprising code for implementing apparatus or a method as claimed in any one of the claims of this specification and a non-transitory machine-readable storage storing such a program.

[0066] Hereinafter, the determination of priority between A and B in the present disclosure may refer to various actions such as selecting the one having a higher priority based on a predefined priority rule and performing an operation corresponding thereto, or omitting or dropping an operation corresponding to the one having a lower priority.

[0067] Hereinafter, "A or B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0068] In addition, "at least one of A, B, and C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0069] In addition, "at least one of A, B, or C" as described in the present disclosure may be understood to include A, or B, or C, or any combination of A, B, and C.

[0070] Furthermore, "A / B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0071] Furthermore, "A, B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0072] Furthermore, "A and B" as described in the present disclosure may be understood as "A and / or B," which may include A, or B, or both A and B.

[0073] Furthermore, “if condition A and condition B are satisfied,” as described in the present disclosure, may not be limited to a case where both condition A and condition B are satisfied, but may be understood to include a case where either condition A or condition B is individually satisfied, both condition A and condition B are satisfied, or one or more additional conditions are satisfied in combination.

[0074] Furthermore, throughout this disclosure, ordinal terms such as "first," "second," "third," etc., (and similar qualifiers) are used merely to distinguish between different instances, occurrences, configurations, messages, stages, elements or aspects of elements, operations, or information as described herein. Unless the context clearly dictates otherwise, the use of such ordinal terms does not itself require that the elements, operations, or information distinguished by these terms be structurally different, numerically distinct, or substantively dissimilar. For example, a "first signal" and a "second signal" may refer to instances of the same signal transmitted at different times or containing the same core information despite minor variations, or they may refer to signals with different content or characteristics, depending on the specific context. Similarly, a "first value" and a "second value" may represent the same magnitude but measured or applied in different circumstances, or they may represent different magnitudes. The interpretation should be guided by the specific technical context, function, and relationship described in the relevant portion of the specification and claims.

[0075] Furthermore, the terms “first ~”, “second ~”, etc., as described in the present disclosure with respect to various elements (e.g., information, objects, operation, sequences, or the like), should not limit those elements. These terms may only be intended to distinguish one element from another, and may not be intended to indicate a specific order. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and, similarly, a second element could be termed a first element.

[0076] Furthermore, even if “first ~” and “second ~” are described in the present disclosure, it may be understood that element(s) referred to by “first ~” and “second ~” may be the same or different. For example, in case of element(s) being information, first information and second information may both be same information and, in some cases, are separate and different information.

[0077] In addition, the terms “if ~” and “in case that ~” as used in the disclosure or claims may be interpreted to include the meanings of “when (or upon) ~,” “in response to ~,” “based on ~,” or “according to ~,” and may be used interchangeably with these expressions. In addition, expressions other than those exemplified herein may also be used, as long as they have substantially the same meaning and do not impair the technical features of the present disclosure. If a method step (e.g. transmit a signal) is performed according to the disclosure of the application in connection with one of the above terms (such as “in case that ~” or the like), it may be interpreted to include the meanings (disclosure) of a prior determination that a feature has a specific state “~” (e.g. a bit length is above X), and then perform the method step in response to said determination.

[0078] For example, the physical layer signaling may be referred to as Layer 1 (L1) signaling and may include downlink control information (DCI). In addition, the higher layer signaling may include a medium access control (MAC) control message, a radio resource control (RRC) signaling message, a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as L3 (layer 3) signaling. It should be noted, however, that the higher layer signaling is not limited to the aforementioned examples.

[0079] In addition, the term "not perform" as used in the present disclosure or claims may, in context, be understood to mean that the corresponding step is omitted or skipped. Such a term may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0080] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and B" as described in the present disclosure, may be understood as encompassing both (i) transmitting A and B in a single message, and (ii) transmitting A and B separately via multiple messages (e.g., transmitting a first message including A and a second message including B). This interpretation may also apply to messages that include two or more items (e.g., A, B, C), transmitted either together or separately.

[0081] In addition, "transmitting a message including A and transmitting a message including B" may also be interpreted as transmitting a message including A and B in a single message.

[0082] In the embodiments of the present disclosure described herein, terms or components included in the disclosure may be expressed in singular or plural form depending on the specific embodiments presented. However, such singular or plural expressions are selected appropriately for convenience of description, and the present disclosure is not limited to a singular or plural number of components. A component expressed in the plural form may be implemented as a single component, and a component expressed in the singular form may be implemented as multiple components.

[0083] The drawings or flowcharts described herein illustrate example methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure, and various modifications may be made to the methods illustrated in the flowcharts of the present disclosure. For example, although illustrated as a series of steps, various steps in each drawing or flowchart may overlap, occur in parallel, occur in a different order, or be repeated. In other examples, any step may be omitted or replaced with another step.

[0084] The process of the flowchart may be performed by a device. One or more of the steps of the flowchart can be implemented by one or more processors / computer programs executing instructions to perform the noted functions.

[0085] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be disclosed in connection with drawings disclosing flowcharts to illustrate example methods that may be implemented according to the principles of the present disclosure. Such flowcharts may contain different branches and / or sub-branches. It is understood that the principles of the present disclosure do not only contain the combination of all branches / sub-branches disclosed in the embodiment, but the present disclosure also contains at least one isolated branch / isolated sub-branch, in particular to a single branch / single sub-branch.

[0086] The methods and apparatuses proposed in the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to each embodiment individually, but may also be applied in combination of all or some of the embodiments proposed in the disclosure. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure may be modified and applied without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure, as would be understood by those skilled in the art.

[0087] In this case, even if certain wordings are described differently across embodiments, they may be used interchangeably or in substitution or in combination if their underlying concepts are equivalent. For example, for the same or equivalent concept, even if one embodiment uses the expression "A" and another embodiment uses the expression "B", such expressions may be understood interchangeably, in substitution, or in combination.

[0088] The terms used in the following description to refer to access nodes, network entities, messages, interfaces between network entities, various types of identification information, and the like, are provided merely for the convenience of explanation by way of example. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to the terms describedherein, and other terms having equivalent technical meanings may also be used. Such terms may also be interchangeable with terms defined in any 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specifications (TS) or similar technical specifications, e.g., from the European telecommunications standards institute (ETSI), where appropriate.

[0089] Hereinafter, a base station (BS) is an entity that allocates resources to terminals, and may be at least one of a gNode B, an eNode B, a Node B, a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.

[0090] Furthermore, the base station of the present disclosure may include a split architecture comprising a central unit (CU) and a distributed unit (DU). In this structure, the CU is configured to process the higher layers of the control and user planes, while the DU is configured to process lower-layer radio resource functions. The embodiments of the present disclosure may be equally applicable to 5th generation (5G) base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.

[0091] A terminal may include a user equipment (UE), a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, a tablet, a wearable device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, or any other device / system capable of performing communication functions.

[0092] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a terminal, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a terminal transmits a signal to a BS.

[0093] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5G mobile communication technologies (e.g., 5G new radio (NR)), 6th generation (6G) mobile communication technologies may be described by way of example, but the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems having similar technical backgrounds or channel types. For example, newly evolved mobile communication systems developed after 5G and 6G may be included. Furthermore, based on determinations by those skilled in the art, the embodiments of the present disclosure may also be applied to other communication systems (e.g., Wi-Fi systems) through some modifications without significantly departing from the scope of the present disclosure

[0094] In the following description, the terms physical channel and signal may be used interchangeably with data or control signal. For example, the term physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) refers to a physical channel through which data is transmitted, but the term PDSCH may also be used to refer to the data itself. That is, in the present disclosure, the expression "transmit a physical channel" may be interpreted as being equivalent to the expression "transmit data or a signal via a physical channel."

[0095] Hereinafter, in the context of the present disclosure, higher layer signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of the following: master information block (MIB), system information block (SIB) or SIB M (M = 1, 2, ...), RRC, or MAC control element (CE), or a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling message, or an application layer message. The RRC signaling message may be referred to as Layer 3 (L3) signaling.

[0096] In addition, L1 signaling may refer to signaling corresponding to at least one or any combination of signaling techniques using the at least one or any combination of the following physical layer channels or signaling: physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), DCI, UE-specific DCI, group-common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI used for scheduling downlink or uplink data), non-scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI not used for scheduling downlink or uplink data) physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or uplink control information (UCI). The L1 signaling message may be referred to as a physical layer signaling.

[0097] Hereinafter, the expression that information is configured by the BS, as used in the present disclosure or claims, may, in context, be understood to mean that the terminal receives the corresponding information from the BS via a physical layer signaling or a higher layer signaling. Such an expression may be replaced with other terms having the same or substantially equivalent meaning.

[0098] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0099] Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document. The term “couple” and its derivatives refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether those elements are in physical contact with one another. The terms “transmit,” “receive,” and “communicate,” as well as derivatives thereof, encompass both direct and indirect communication. The terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and / or. The phrase “associated with,” as well as derivatives thereof, means to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, have a relation to or with, or the like. The term “controller” means any device, system or part thereof that controls at least one operation. Such a controller may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and software and / or firmware. The functionality associated with any particular controller may be centralized or distributed, whether locally or remotely. The phrase “at least one of,” when used with a list of items, means that different combinations of one or more of the listed items may be used, and only one item in the list may be needed. For example, “at least one of: A, B, and C” includes any of the following combinations: A, B, C, A and B, A and C, B and C, and A and B and C. Likewise, the term “set” means one or more. Accordingly, a set of items can be a single item or a collection of two or more items.

[0100] Moreover, various functions described below can be implemented or supported by one or more computer programs, each of which is formed from computer readable program code and embodied in a computer readable medium. The terms “application” and “program” refer to one or more computer programs, software components, sets of instructions, procedures, functions, objects, classes, instances, related data, or a portion thereof adapted for implementation in a suitable computer readable program code. The phrase “computer readable program code” includes any type of computer code, including source code, object code, and executable code. The phrase “computer readable medium” includes any type of medium capable of being accessed by a computer, such as read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), a hard disk drive, a compact disc (CD), a digital video disc (DVD), or any other type of memory. A “non-transitory” computer readable medium excludes wired, wireless, optical, or other communication links that transport transitory electrical or other signals. A non-transitory computer readable medium includes media where data can be permanently stored and media where data can be stored and later overwritten, such as a rewritable optical disc or an erasable memory device.

[0101] Definitions for other certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document. Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

[0102] The figures included herein, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way to limit the scope of the disclosure. Further, those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged wireless communication system.

[0103] Considering the development of wireless communication from generation to generation, the technologies have been developed mainly for services targeting humans, such as voice calls, multimedia services, and data services. Following the commercialization of 5th-generation (5G) communication systems, it is expected that the number of connected devices will exponentially grow. Increasingly, these will be connected to communication networks. Examples of connected things may include vehicles, robots, drones, home appliances, displays, smart sensors connected to various infrastructures, construction machines, and factory equipment. Mobile devices are expected to evolve in various form-factors, such as augmented reality glasses, virtual reality headsets, and hologram devices. In order to provide various services by connecting hundreds of billions of devices and things in the 6th-generation (6G) era, there have been ongoing efforts to develop improved 6G communication systems.

[0104] 6G communication systems, which are expected to be commercialized around 2030, have various significantly improved metrics compared to the current 5G communication systems. The peak data rate will reach at least 50 Gbit / s, and the user experienced data rate will reach at least 300 Mbit / s, the air-interface latency will be less than 1 ms, and the air-interface reliability will reach 10-5. In addition to the above basic communication metrics, the 6G communication systems will also have sensing capabilities, AI-related capabilities, better security, better interoperability and better sustainability.

[0105] In order for the 6G communication systems to fulfill the above metrics, more advanced air-interface technologies and network technologies need to be developed. The evolution of extreme Multiple Input Multiple Output (extreme MIMO) has been already under consideration, including the use of ultra-large scale antenna arrays, the development and evolution of distributed antenna systems, and the design of MIMO air-interface algorithms assisted by Artificial Intelligence (AI). This technology enables higher spectral efficiency, greater coverage, and precise localization and sensing capabilities. Additionally, technologies that contribute to improve high-frequency band coverage, including metamaterial-based lenses and antennas, new antenna architectures, and reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), etc., need to be better evolved and developed.

[0106] In order to meet some of newly added functions of the 6G communication systems, new technologies need to be developed in the terms of network energy saving, air-interface security, and network security, meanwhile the feasibility of fusion technologies such as Integrated Sensing and Communication, needs to be studied.

[0107] Moreover, in order to improve the spectral efficiency and the overall network performances, the following technologies have been developed for 6G communication systems: a full-duplex technology for enabling an uplink transmission and a downlink transmission to simultaneously use the same frequency resource at the same time; a network technology for utilizing satellites, high-altitude platform stations (HAPS), and the like in an integrated manner; an improved network structure for supporting mobile base stations and the like and enabling network operation optimization and automation and the like; a dynamic spectrum sharing technology via collision avoidance based on a prediction of spectrum usage; an use of artificial intelligence (AI) in wireless communication for improvement of overall network operation by utilizing AI from a designing phase for developing 6G and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions; and a next-generation distributed computing technology for overcoming the limit of user equipment (UE) computing ability through reachable super-high-performance communication and computing resources (such as mobile edge computing (MEC), clouds, and the like) over the network. In addition, through designing new protocols to be used in 6G communication systems, developing mechanisms for implementing a hardware-based security environment and safe use of data, and developing technologies for maintaining privacy, attempts to strengthen the connectivity between devices, optimize the network, promote softwarization of network entities, and increase the openness of wireless communications are continuing.

[0108] It is expected that research and development of 6G communication systems in hyper-connectivity, including person to machine (P2M) as well as machine to machine (M2M), will allow the next hyper-connected experience. Particularly, it is expected that services such as truly immersive extended reality (XR), high-fidelity mobile hologram, and digital replica could be provided through 6G communication systems. In addition, services such as remote surgery for security and reliability enhancement, industrial automation, and emergency response will be provided through the 6G communication system such that the technologies could be applied in various fields such as industry, medical care, automobiles, and home appliances.

[0109] FIGS. 1-3 below describe various embodiments of the present disclosure implemented in wireless communications systems. The descriptions of FIGS. 1-3 are not meant to imply physical or architectural limitations to the manner in which different embodiments may be implemented. Different embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably-arranged communications system.

[0110] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network illustrated in FIG. 1 is for illustration only. Other embodiments of the wireless network 100 could be used without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0111] As illustrated in FIG. 1, the wireless network includes a base station (next generation nodeB, gNB or gNodeB) 101, a gNB 102, and a gNB 103. The gNB 101 communicates with the gNB 102 and the gNB 103. The gNB 101 also communicates with at least one network 130, such as the Internet, a proprietary Internet Protocol (IP) network, or other data network.

[0112] The gNB 102 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a first plurality of user equipments (UEs) within a coverage area 120 of the gNB 102. The first plurality of UEs includes a UE 111, which may be located in a small business; a UE 112, which may be located in an enterprise (E); a UE 113, which may be located in a WiFi hotspot (HS); a UE 114, which may be located in a first residence (R1); a UE 115, which may be located in a second residence (R2); and a UE 116, which may be a mobile device (M), such as a cell phone, a wireless laptop, a wireless personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like. The gNB 103 provides wireless broadband access to the network 130 for a second plurality of UEs within a coverage area 125 of the gNB 103. The second plurality of UEs includes the UE 115 and the UE 116, as well as subscriber stations (SS, for example, UEs) 117, 118 and 119. In some embodiments, one or more of the gNBs 101-103 may communicate with each other and with the UEs 111-116 using existing wireless communication techniques, and one or more of the UE 111-119 may communicate directly with each other (e.g., UEs 117-119) using other existing or proposed wireless communication techniques.

[0113] Depending on the network type, the term “base station” or “BS” can refer to any component (or collection of components) configured to provide wireless access to a network, such as transmit point (TP), transmit-receive point (TRP), an enhanced (or “evolved”) base station (eNodeB or eNB), a 5G base station (gNB), a macrocell, a femtocell, a wireless fidelity (WiFi) access point (AP), or other wirelessly enabled devices. Base stations may provide wireless access according to one or more wireless communication protocols, e.g., 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR), Long Term Evolution (LTE), LTE Advanced (LTE-A), high speed packet access (HSPA), Wi-Fi 802.11a / b / g / n / ac, etc. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a base station-type apparatus and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to network infrastructure components that provide wireless access to remote terminals. Also, depending on the network type, the term “user equipment” (UE) can refer to any component such as a mobile station (MS), subscriber station (SS), remote terminal, wireless terminal, receive point, or user device. For the sake of convenience, the various names for a user equipment-type device and functionality are used interchangeably in this patent document to refer to remote wireless equipment that wirelessly accesses a BS, whether the UE is a mobile device (such as a mobile telephone or smartphone) or is normally considered a stationary device (such as a desktop computer or vending machine).

[0114] Dotted lines show the approximate extents of the coverage areas 120 and 125, which are shown as approximately circular for the purposes of illustration and explanation only. It should be clearly understood that the coverage areas associated with gNBs, such as the coverage areas 120 and 125, may have other shapes, including irregular shapes, depending upon the configuration of the gNBs and variations in the radio environment associated with natural and man-made obstructions.

[0115] As described in more detail below, one or more of the UEs 111-119 include circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof. In certain embodiments, and one or more of the gNBs 101-103 includes circuitry, programing, or a combination thereof.

[0116] Although FIG. 1 illustrates one example of a wireless network, various changes may be made to FIG. 1. For example, the wireless network could include any number of gNBs and any number of UEs in any suitable arrangement. Also, the gNB 101 could communicate directly with any number of UEs and provide those UEs with wireless broadband access to the network 130. Similarly, each gNB 102-103 could communicate directly with the network 130 and provide UEs with direct wireless broadband access to the network 130. Further, the gNBs 101, 102, and / or 103 could provide access to other or additional external networks, such as external telephone networks or other types of data networks.

[0117] FIG. 2 illustrates an example base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the gNB 102 illustrated in FIG. 2 is for illustration only, and the gNBs 101 and 103 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, gNBs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 2 does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a gNB.

[0118] As illustrated in FIG 2, the gNB 102 includes multiple antennas 200a-200n, multiple radio frequency (RF) transceivers 201a-201n, transmit (TX) processing circuitry 203, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 204. The gNB 102 also includes a controller / processor 205, a memory 206, and a backhaul or network interface 207.

[0119] The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive, from the antennas 200a-200n, incoming RF signals, such as signals transmitted by UEs in the network 100. The RF transceivers 201a-201n down-convert the incoming RF signals to generate intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband signals. The IF or baseband signals are sent to the RX processing circuitry 204, which generates processed baseband signals by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signals. The RX processing circuitry 204 transmits the processed baseband signals to the controller / processor 205 for further processing.

[0120] The TX processing circuitry 203 receives analog or digital data (such as voice data, web data, electronic mail, or interactive video game data) from the controller / processor 205. The TX processing circuitry 203 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate processed baseband or IF signals. The RF transceivers 201a-201n receive the outgoing processed baseband or IF signals from the TX processing circuitry 203 and up-converts the baseband or IF signals to RF signals that are transmitted via the antennas 201a-201n.

[0121] The controller / processor 205 can include one or more processors or other processing devices that control the overall operation of the gNB 102. For example, the controller / processor 205 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceivers 201a-201n, the RX processing circuitry 204, and the TX processing circuitry 203 according to well-known principles. The controller / processor 205 could support additional functions as well, such as more advanced wireless communication functions.

[0122] For instance, the controller / processor 205 could support beam forming or directional routing operations in which outgoing signals from multiple antennas 200a-200n are weighted differently to effectively steer the outgoing signals in a desired direction. Any of a wide variety of other functions could be supported in the gNB 102 by the controller / processor 205.

[0123] The controller / processor 205 is also capable of executing programs and other processes resident in the memory 206, such as an operating system (OS). The controller / processor 205 can move data into or out of the memory 206 as required by an executing process.

[0124] The controller / processor 205 is also coupled to the backhaul or network interface 207. The backhaul or network interface 207 allows the gNB 102 to communicate with other devices or systems over a backhaul connection or over a network. The interface 207 could support communications over any suitable wired or wireless connection(s). For example, when the gNB 102 is implemented as part of a cellular communication system (such as one supporting 5G, LTE, or LTE-A), the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate with other gNBs over a wired or wireless backhaul connection. When the gNB 102 is implemented as an access point, the interface 207 could allow the gNB 102 to communicate over a wired or wireless local area network or over a wired or wireless connection to a larger network (such as the Internet). The interface 207 includes any suitable structure supporting communications over a wired or wireless connection, such as an Ethernet or RF transceiver.

[0125] The memory 206 is coupled to the controller / processor 205. Part of the memory 206 could include a random access memory (RAM), and another part of the memory 206 could include a Flash memory or other read only memory (ROM).

[0126] Although FIG. 2 illustrates one example of gNB 102, various changes may be made to FIG. 2. For example, the gNB 102 could include any number of each component illustrated in FIG. 2. As a particular example, an access point could include a number of interfaces 207, and the controller / processor 205 could support routing functions to route data between different network addresses. As another particular example, while shown as including a single instance of TX processing circuitry 203 and a single instance of RX processing circuitry 204, the gNB 102 could include multiple instances of each (such as one per RF transceiver). Also, various components in FIG. 2 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs.

[0127] FIG. 3 illustrates an example user equipment according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3 is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 and 117-119 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.

[0128] As illustrated in FIG. 3, the UE 116 includes an antenna 301, a radio frequency (RF) transceiver 302, TX processing circuitry 303, a microphone 304, and receive (RX) processing circuitry 305. The UE 116 also includes a speaker 306, a controller or processor 307, an input / output (I / O) interface (IF) 308, an input device 309, a touchscreen display 310, and a memory 311. The memory 311 includes an OS 312 and one or more applications 313.

[0129] The RF transceiver 302 receives, from the antenna 301, an incoming RF signal transmitted by a gNB of the network 100. The RF transceiver 302 down-converts the incoming RF signal to generate an IF or baseband signal. The IF or baseband signal is sent to the RX processing circuitry 305, which generates a processed baseband signal by filtering, decoding, and / or digitizing the baseband or IF signal. The RX processing circuitry 305 transmits the processed baseband signal to the speaker 306 (such as for voice data) or to the processor 307 for further processing (such as for web browsing data).

[0130] The TX processing circuitry 303 receives analog or digital voice data from the microphone 304 or other outgoing baseband data (such as web data, e-mail, or interactive video game data) from the processor 307. The TX processing circuitry 303 encodes, multiplexes, and / or digitizes the outgoing baseband data to generate a processed baseband or IF signal. The RF transceiver 302 receives the outgoing processed baseband or IF signal from the TX processing circuitry 303 and up-converts the baseband or IF signal to an RF signal that is transmitted via the antenna 301.

[0131] The processor 307 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 312 stored in the memory 311 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116. For example, the processor 307 could control the reception of forward channel signals and the transmission of reverse channel signals by the RF transceiver 302, the RX processing circuitry 305, and the TX processing circuitry 303 according to well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor 307 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.

[0132] The processor 307 is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory 311, such as processes for CSI reporting on uplink channel. The processor 307 can move data into or out of the memory 311 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, the processor 307 is configured to execute the applications 313 based on the OS 312 or in response to signals received from gNBs or an operator. The processor 307 is also coupled to the I / O interface 308, which provides the UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop computers and handheld computers. The I / O interface 308 is the communication path between these accessories and the processor 307.

[0133] The processor 307 is also coupled to the touchscreen display 310. The user of the UE 116 can use the touchscreen display 310 to enter data into the UE 116. The touchscreen display 310 may be a liquid crystal display, light emitting diode display, or other display capable of rendering text and / or at least limited graphics, such as from web sites.

[0134] The memory 311 is coupled to the processor 307. Part of the memory 311 could include RAM, and another part of the memory 311 could include a Flash memory or other ROM.

[0135] Although FIG. 3 illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes may be made to FIG. 3. For example, various components in FIG. 3 could be combined, further subdivided, or omitted and additional components could be added according to particular needs. As a particular example, the processor 307 could be divided into multiple processors, such as one or more central processing units (CPUs) and one or more graphics processing units (GPUs). Also, while FIG. 3 illustrates the UE 116 configured as a mobile telephone or smartphone, UEs could be configured to operate as other types of mobile or stationary devices.

[0136] With rapid development of mobile communication technologies, higher requirements are being placed on network transmission rates. During the deployment and development of 5G / 6G technologies, advantages such as large bandwidth, high capacity, and fast data rates of high-frequency communication are evident, however, issues such as significant transmission loss, small coverage areas, high power consumption, and high costs have been exposed, particularly in millimeter wave and terahertz (THz) frequency bands. These challenges have, to some extent, limited the large-scale application of millimeter wave communication, with only a few countries currently able to provide services in these frequency bands.

[0137] The transmission distance of a signal is inversely proportional to the operating frequency thereof. For the same base station transmission power and the same transmission distance, the higher the frequency of the transmitted signal, the greater the path loss, and the weaker the signal strength received by the terminal (e.g., UE). To ensure complete coverage of the cell of high-frequency signal, it may be implemented by increasing the transmission power of the base station or increasing the density of base station deployment, however, these approaches lead to a sharp increase in equipment costs and base station energy consumption, posing significant barriers to the large-scale commercialization of high-frequency communication. Focusing energy of the transmitting beam of the base station via beamforming and using a narrower beam to transmit data improve signal-to-noise ratio, thereby achieving a wider coverage and higher data transmission efficiency. For a base station antenna with multiple antenna elements, adjusting phases output by each antenna element and allowing electromagnetic wave signals radiated by different elements overlapping on each other may enable coherent addition of beams in a specified direction and coherent subtraction in other directions, and the transmission of high-gain narrow beams in the specified direction.

[0138] In existing communication systems, a base station supporting beamforming function may fail to obtain accurate interference measurement results. For example, the base station cannot obtain accurate interference measurement results through overhead-limited or unlimited number of terminal interference measurements. Therefore, enhancement to interference measurement is required. Additionally, interference received by the base station from neighboring cells is not only related to frequency domain resources but also to the position of the terminal. FIG. 4 illustrates an example where a base station is subject to neighboring cell interference. As illustrated in FIG. 4, if during communication between base station 1 (gNB1) and a terminal (e.g., UE2), the beam used by communication between base station 2 (gNB2) in the neighboring cell and a terminal in base station 2's cell is received by the terminal (e.g., UE2), the received signal from the neighboring cell acts as an interference signal, affecting communication quality of the receiving terminal. The interfered terminal UE2 reports communication quality related information (e.g., channel quality indicator (CQI)) to its serving base station (gNB1). If base station 1 determines that the decline in communication quality of the terminal may be due to interference from the neighboring cell, whether the terminal has experienced inter-cell interference and information about the resource(s) subject to inter-cell interference may be determined by configuring interference measurement, and various methods may be used to solve the inter-cell interference.

[0139] Where the interference measurement may be performed by configuring the terminal to measure a zero-power reference signal. For example, the base station configures interference measurement (IM) for designated resources, i.e., the base station transmits the zero-power reference signal (ZP-RS) at the configured resource position (reference signal position). The terminal measures the average power value (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP)) at the reference signal position to determine interference energy level from the neighboring cell. The average power value represents the average value of the interference signal power measured at all reference signal positions within the frequency domain resources configured for the terminal.

[0140] In existing communication systems, the base station may determine information of the interfered frequency domain resource based on the interference measurement performed by the terminal and adjust the frequency domain resource used by the interfered terminal to solve the interference, for example, schedules the interfered terminal 2 to an interference-free frequency band. In the system illustrated in FIG. 4, if base station 1 supports communications that are frequency-divided and with multiple terminals (UE1 / UE2 / UE3) in different directions simultaneously, the interfered resource of UE2 may be used for communication with the terminal (e.g., UE1) in other direction. Scheduling by base station 1 of UE2 may affect the communication with UE1, at this time, UE1 may be scheduled to the frequency band of UE2, i.e. UE1 and UE2 exchange frequency bands. However, if the bandwidth of the interference signal transmitted by the interfering base station (e.g., base station 2) overlaps with the bandwidth of the terminal UE1 which has been scheduled to the original frequency band of UE2, changing the frequency domain resource used by the terminals (UE1 and UE2) may not solve the interference. Additionally, an interference management method of avoiding using the interfered resource may lead to decrease in resource utilization rate.

[0141] Furthermore, a base station may solve inter-cell interference through inter-base station information interaction. For example, the interfered base station uses information interaction via X2 interface to inform the neighboring cell base station of the interfered frequency domain resource (or non-preferred resource) and request the neighboring interfering cell to solve the interference issue. The base station (e.g., base station 2) transmitting the interference signal reduces the transmission power when using the interfered resource according to the received information of the interfering resource transmitted by the interfered neighboring cell to reduce the interference. Because only the information of the frequency resource is exchanged between the interfered base station and the interfering base station, if the transmission power is reduced when using the resource, the coverage will be weakened, so that the resource can only be allocated to the user at the center of the cell, and the resource utilization rate will be decreased.

[0142] To implement accurate measurement of the interfering resource, the present disclosure provides an interference measurement method based on a frequency domain subband unit. The terminal performs the interference measurement based on subband unit on schedulable bandwidth configured by the base station. Accurate interference information of the neighboring cell may be obtained by the method, and the interference information may include frequency resource information and / or positional information. Additionally, a two-step measurement may be performed when the subband unit is used for interference measurement, which enables a second step interference measurement to associates the frequency domain resource for a first step interference measurement in the resource configuration information used for the first step interference measurement, decreasing the overhead of the resource configuration information.

[0143] The present disclosure provides an interference management method suitable for the base station supporting beamforming function (e.g., millimeter-wave band base station). Neighboring cell interference received by the terminal is not only related to the resource (e.g., frequency domain resource) allocated to the terminal, but also to the spatial position (e.g., beam direction). Therefore, interference management may be implemented by adjusting the combined relation between the frequency domain resource and the spatial position. This method improves resource utilization rate, and especially for the user at the edge of the cell, the base station may coordinate interference management without reducing the transmission power. Especially for the cell with multi-user scheduling function supporting frequency division in different directions, based on this method, a new interference-free user scheduling method may be obtained by adjusting the combined relation between the frequency domain resource and the beam direction, solving interference issues rapidly, ensuring data transmission quality and allowing the use of the interfered resource that were previously unusable, thereby improving the resource utilization rate.

[0144] Based on the interference information obtained through interference measurements performed via the subband unit, the present disclosure also provides a new resource scheduling-based inter-cell interference management method to improve the utilization rate of the resource of the cell. The method provided in the present application is suitable for new beamforming antenna systems, especially frequency domain multi-beam systems, for example, communication systems supporting Joint Phased and Timed Array (JPTA). In the present disclosure, “subband unit” may be used interchangeably with “subband”.

[0145] In addition, the present disclosure also relates to new inter-base station interaction information. The interfered base station determines the position information of the interfered area relative to the base station through the information of the interfered terminal and / or the information obtained through interference measurement, and transmits the position information to the interfering base station. The interfering base station determines the corresponding beam range where interference needs to be restricted based on the obtained position information, restricting only the use of the interfering resource in this beam direction during resource scheduling reduces the impact on the interfering cell coverage and resource utilization rate. Using the method of the present disclosure to coordinate inter-cell interference, the possibility of the interfering base station solving the inter-cell interference becomes higher, and the resource utilization rate of the operator is improved. Especially for the interfering base station supporting JPTA function, using the new inter-base station interaction information including the position information provided by the present disclosure, the scheduling restriction on its JPTA is reduced, the number of available codebooks is increased and the scheduling of the user is more flexible.

[0146] Various aspects of embodiments according to the present disclosure are described below.

[0147] - Interference Measurement Based on Subband Unit

[0148] Parameters required to determine the subband unit which the interference measurement is for include at least one of the followings: a total bandwidth for measurement (e.g., bandwidth part (BWP)), a frequency domain starting point (e.g., starting RB), a value of subband unit (e.g., subband unit), and a computation (determination) direction of frequency domain subband. This disclosure does not limit the names of these parameters, “total bandwidth for measurement” may be used interchangeably with “total bandwidth information for measurement”, “frequency domain starting point” may be used interchangeably with “frequency domain starting point information”, “value of subband unit” may be used interchangeably with “value information of subband unit” or “size of subband unit” or “size information of subband unit” or “information related to size of subband unit”, “computation direction of frequency domain subband” may be used interchangeably with “computation direction information of frequency domain subband” or “computation direction of frequency domain subband unit” or “computation direction of subband unit”.

[0149] Optionally, the above parameters may be obtained from configuration information or configuration signaling transmitted by the base station (for example, channel state information measurement configuration CSI-MeasConfig, channel state information resource configuration CSI-ResourceConfig in CSI-MeasConfig, IM resource in ResourceConfig). Optionally, the above parameters may be agreed and stored in the storage unit of the terminal in advance. This disclosure does not limit the name of the information including the above parameters, and the information including the above parameters transmitted by the base station to the terminal may be used interchangeably with “resource configuration information for interference measurement”, “interference measurement resource configuration information”, “information for configuring interference measurement resource” or “resource configuration information” and other terms with equivalent technical meanings.

[0150] Optionally, the total bandwidth for measurement is related to the bandwidth where simultaneous transmission is available supported by the base station. For example, the base station is a base station supporting JPTA, and the total bandwidth for measurement is related to the hardware parameters of the base station, for example, to the value range of the delay device of the base station. Optionally, the total bandwidth for measurement may be the total bandwidth that may be scheduled by the base station.

[0151] Optionally, the frequency domain starting point may be an absolute value, or a relative value of the starting point relative to the frequency domain resource allocated to the terminal. Optionally, if the frequency domain starting point is a relative value, the terminal needs to obtain the relative relation between this relative value and the frequency domain resource allocated to the terminal. The relative relation may be notified by the base station, or agreed and stored in the storage unit of the terminal in advance. For example, the relative value is a positive offset value relative to the starting of the frequency band to which the terminal is allocated.

[0152] Optionally, the value of the subband unit may be at least one of the followings: a value indicated by the resource configuration information of the base station, a value related to the bandwidth allocated to the terminal, a parameter agreed and stored between the terminal and the base station in advance, and a value determined by the configuration information of the base station in connection with a table query. For example, the value of the subband unit may be the subbandwidth of the interfered terminal. As illustrated in FIG. 4, interference measurement performed based on the subbandwidth of the interfered UE2 can directly determine a new subband position where UE2 can be scheduled. Optionally, the value of the subband unit may be the value related to the bandwidth allocated to the terminal. For example, UE2 determines, based on the resource configuration information received from the base station, that the value of the subband unit it measures is the same as the value of the frequency domain bandwidth with which UE2 is allocated. Optionally, the value of the subband unit may be the minimum bandwidth supported by the base station. For the base station supporting JPTA function, the minimum value of the subband unit is related to the hardware parameters of the base station (for example, the maximum delay adjustment quantity supportable by the delay device). Interference measurement based on subband unit performed based on the minimum bandwidth supported by the base station as the subband unit is applicable for subsequent terminal resource scheduling with other bandwidth requirements and inter-base station interference coordination, reducing the chance of receiving interference and improving the service quality of the base station.

[0153] Optionally, the configuration information of the value of the subband unit in the resource configuration information of the base station may be A-bit indication information. The terminal determines its corresponding specific value based on the Table. An example is shown in Table 1 below. The Table may be obtained through at least one of the followings: predefined, the configuration signaling transmitted by the base station, higher-layer information transmitted by the base station, and system information transmitted by the base station.

[0154]

[0155] Optionally, the computation direction of the frequency domain subband may be forward, backward, or bidirectional. Optionally, the computation direction of the frequency domain subband may be agreed and stored in the storage unit of the terminal in advance.

[0156] The method of determining the subband unit which the interference measurement is for is described below.

[0157] Based on the resource configuration information of the base station and / or the resource configuration information stored by the terminal, the terminal may determine frequency information of multiple subbands for interference measurement. FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate examples where the terminal determines distribution of subbands for which interference measurement is to be performed based on the resource configuration information for interference measurement according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the subband distribution for measurement is determined based on the frequency domain starting point f0, the total bandwidth for measurement bwp and the value of the subband unit “subband size”.

[0158] Based on this method, the frequency domain resource corresponding to the n-th subband in FIG. 5A is:

[0159] f0+(n-1)*subannd size~ f0+n*subannd size, when f0+n*subannd size≤f0+bwp;

[0160] f0+(n-1)*subannd size~ f0+bwp, when f0+n*subannd size>f0+bwp.

[0161] Optionally, if the allocated total bandwidth for measurement cannot be divisible by the value of the subband unit, the remaining last subband unit may not be measured (illustrated in FIG. 5A), or may be measured as a special subband (illustrated in FIG. 5B).

[0162] Optionally, if the value of the subband unit is the same for each terminal of multiple terminals, for example, it is the minimum bandwidth that may be scheduled by the base station of JPTA, at this time, the form of the resource configuration information of the base station may be the indication information for the subband unit to be measured. In some embodiments, the base station may divide its entire bandwidth into subband units in advance and index the divided subband units, and transmits the division and indexes of the subband units to the terminal. In this case, when configuring interference measurement based on subband or subband unit, the base station only needs to transmit the subband index corresponding to the subband to be measured to the terminal.

[0163] Optionally, according to the computation direction of the frequency domain subband, the distribution of the subbands and corresponding subband indexes thereof may be determined. If the computation direction of the frequency domain subband is forward, for example, as illustrated in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the subband indexes may increase sequentially, starting from the frequency domain starting point and increasing forward. FIG. 6 illustrates an example where a terminal determines distribution of subbands for which interference measurement is to be performed based on resource configuration information for interference measurement according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 6, if the computation direction of the frequency domain subband is bidirectional, the subband indexes may be divided into two groups, one group increases sequentially, starting from the frequency domain starting point (for example, the frequency domain starting point indicated by the received resource configuration information) and increasing forward; the other group increases sequentially, starting from the frequency domain starting point (for example, the frequency domain starting point indicated by the received resource configuration information) and increasing backward; the forward and backward directions are distinguished by an additional bit, for example, an additional 0 / 1 is added before the index to distinguish different directions.

[0164] Based on this method, the frequency domain resource corresponding to the mn-th subband in FIG. 6 is:

[0165] when m=1,

[0166] f0-(n+1 / 2)*subannd size~ f0-（n-1 / 2）*subannd size, when f0-(n+1 / 2)*subannd size≥f0-bwp / 2;

[0167] f0-bwp / 2~ f0-（n-1 / 2）*subannd size, when f0-(n+1 / 2)*subannd size<f0-bwp / 2;

[0168] when m=0,

[0169] f0+(n-1 / 2)*subannd size~f0+(n+1 / 2)*subannd size, when f0+ (n+1 / 2)*subannd size≤f0+bwp / 2;

[0170] f0+(n-1 / 2)*subannd size~f0+bwp / 2, when f0+(n+1 / 2)*subannd size>f0+bwp / 2.

[0171] - Reporting Method for Interference Measurement Result based on Subband Unit

[0172] The base station may transmit reporting configuration information for the measurement result to the terminal, the reporting configuration information includes at least one of the followings: a report quantity, the number of reported measurement results, a report type, reporting threshold condition. The present disclosure does not limit the name of each parameter / information included in the reporting configuration information.

[0173] Optionally, the above reporting configuration information may be obtained from the configuration information or configuration signaling transmitted by the base station (for example, CSI-MeasConfig, or CSI-ReportConfig in CSI-MeasConfig). Optionally, the above reporting configuration information may be agreed and stored in the storage unit of the terminal in advance. This disclosure does not limit the name of the above reporting configuration information for measurement result, “reporting configuration information for measurement result” may be used interchangeably with “measurement result reporting configuration information”, “measurement result reporting configuration”, “measurement reporting configuration information”, “measurement reporting configuration”, “information for configuring measurement result reporting”, “configuration information for interference measurement result reporting” or “reporting configuration information” and other terms with equivalent technical meanings. Optionally, the report quantity may be the subband indexes of all subband units measured by the terminal and their corresponding interference measurement values (for example, RSRP, or Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ)).

[0174] Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting, only the subband index satisfying the threshold condition and / or the interference measurement value corresponding to the subband unit indicated by the subband index may be reported. Where the threshold may be transmitted by the base station, and satisfying the threshold condition may be that the interference measurement value is larger than or larger than or equal to the threshold (i.e., interference exists) or the interference measurement value is smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold (i.e., interference does not exist).

[0175] Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting, the terminal may determine the report quantity based on the number of subband units satisfying the threshold condition. For example, when the number of the subbands with corresponding interference measurement value being larger than or larger than or equal to the threshold is larger than the number of the subbands with corresponding interference measurement value being smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold, report the information (for example, subband index) of the subband with corresponding interference measurement value being smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold and add additional information (for example, 1-bit indication information) for the base station to distinguish the report quantity. When the number of the subbands with corresponding interference measurement value being larger than or larger than or equal to the threshold is larger than the number of the subbands with corresponding interference measurement value being smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold, the terminal may autonomously determine to report the information of the subband with the interference measurement value being smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold or the information of the subband with the interference measurement value being larger than or larger than or equal to the threshold, and add additional information (for example, 1-bit indication information) for the base station to distinguish the report quantity.

[0176] Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting, the base station may configure the number of results reported by the terminal. For example, only N subbands with the smallest interference measurement values are reported, where N is a positive integer. At this time, the terminal needs to order the measurement results and report only the top N interference measurement values satisfying the condition.

[0177] - Interaction of Inter-cell Interference Management

[0178] In order to implement inter-cell interference management, base stations may exchange interference information. The interaction of the interference information may be performed via X2 interface between base stations, or base stations uniformly report the interference information to an Operation, Administration and Maintenance (OAM) node, and the interference information is uniformly processed by the OAM node and delivered to the associated base stations.

[0179] The interference information interacted between base stations includes at least one of the followings: information of interfered (unpreferred) frequency domain resource, information of interfered (unpreferred) time domain resource, and position information of the interfered terminal. Where the position information of the interfered terminal is used by the interfering base station to compute the beam direction for avoiding interference.

[0180] Optionally, the position information may include center position information of the interfered area and radius information of the interfered area. A new method of inter-cell interference management according to embodiments of the present disclosure is described in detail below.

[0181] When multiple terminals communicate with the base station simultaneously in frequency division and report their channel quality related information (for example, CQI), when reporting quality of any one terminal is poor, the base station determines that neighboring cell interference may exist, and configures inter-cell interference measurement for a user group. The terminal of the user group performs interference measurement based on subband unit according to the received resource configuration information, obtains inter-cell interference related information, and reports measurement result according to the measurement reporting configuration information. The terminal receives a new resource scheduling scheme from the base station, and the new resource scheduling scheme is the resource scheduling scheme not interfered by the neighboring cell and determined by the base station based on the reported measurement result. For example, the new resource scheduling scheme may be new operating frequency bands for multiple terminals.

[0182] Further, in order to verify the validity of the new resource scheduling scheme, the terminal may be configured to perform a new interference measurement for the resource scheduled by the terminal for the new resource scheduling scheme based on the new resource configuration information received from the base station to determine whether the previous interference is effectively solved. Optionally, the interference measurement may be an aperiodic measurement. In some cases, the triggering signaling for interference measurement may be carried in downlink control information (DCI) scheduling the resource.

[0183] If the interfered base station cannot obtain a new resource scheduling scheme satisfying the condition based on the interference measurement result, or the new interference measurement after adopting the new resource scheduling scheme still does not satisfy the transmission requirement (cannot solve the previous interference), at this time, the interfered base station may ensure communication quality by restricting the scheduling of the interfered resource in the interfered direction included in the interference measurement result received from the terminal, and / or the interfered base station transmits interfered resource related information to the neighboring base station via inter-cell signaling interaction to request assistance in inter-cell interference management.

[0184] After exchanging inter-cell interference management information with the neighboring base station, within a certain time, the interfered base station releases the resource scheduling restriction in the interfered direction, and determines whether the inter-cell interference issue has been solved based on relevant information, such as the channel quality and / or interference measurement result, etc., reported by the terminal. If the interference is not solved within that time, the interfered base station will continue to restrict the scheduling of the interfering resource in that direction; if the inter-cell interference has been solved within that time, the interfered base station releases the scheduling restriction of the interfering resource in that direction.

[0185] Optionally, the interfering cell receiving the interference management information may transmit acknowledgement information to the interfered cell to determine whether the interfering cell has performed interference management based on the interference information. The interfered cell may determine whether the inter-cell interference is solved and / or determine whether the release of the scheduling restriction on the interfering resource can be attempted based on the received acknowledgement information from the interfering cell.

[0186] Specific steps of the above scheme are as follows:

[0187] Step 0: during communication with the base station, the terminal measures and reports communication quality related information. Optionally, the communication quality related information reported by the terminal may be information such as an acknowledgement (ACK) / negative acknowledgement (NACK), RSRP, Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR), channel quality indication (CQI), Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), etc.

[0188] Step 1: the base station determines whether inter-cell interference may exist based on the communication quality related information, and decides whether to configure the terminal for interference measurement.

[0189] Step 2: the terminal receives the interference measurement configuration information (for example, CSI-MeasConfig) transmitted by the base station, including the resource configuration information for interference measurement and the configuration information for interference measurement result reporting. Optionally, the resource configuration information for interference measurement and the configuration information for interference measurement result reporting may be included in different configuration signaling and transmitted from the base station to the terminal. The resource configuration information for interference measurement includes at least one of the followings: the type of the reference signal for measurement (for example, Channel State Information-Reference Signal (CSI-RS), Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS), IM, Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) including primary synchronization signal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), physical broadcast channel (PBCH)), the resource type (periodic, aperiodic, semi-persistent), the total bandwidth for measurement, the frequency domain starting point, the value of the subband unit, the computation direction of the frequency domain subband.

[0190] Optionally, the total bandwidth for measurement is related to the bandwidth where simultaneous transmission is available supported by the base station, or is related to the total bandwidth that may be scheduled by the base station.

[0191] Optionally, the frequency domain starting point may be an absolute value, or a relative value of the starting point relative to the frequency domain resource allocated to the terminal. If the frequency domain starting point is a relative value, the terminal needs to obtain the relative relation between this relative value and the frequency domain resource allocated to the terminal. The relative relation may be notified by the base station, or agreed and stored in the storage unit of the terminal in advance. For example, the relative value is a positive offset value relative to the starting of the frequency band to which the terminal is allocated.

[0192] Optionally, the value of the subband unit may be at least one of the followings: a value indicated by the resource configuration information of the base station, a value related to the bandwidth allocated to the terminal, a parameter agreed and stored between the terminal and the base station in advance. For example, the value of the subband unit may be the subbandwidth of the interfered terminal. As illustrated in FIG. 4, interference measurement performed based on the subbandwidth of the interfered UE2 can directly determine a new subband position where UE2 can be scheduled.

[0193] Optionally, for multiple terminals in the user group, the subband information (the value of the subband unit) in the resource configuration information therefor may be different. For example, the value of the subband unit is the bandwidth allocated to the terminal. That is, as illustrated in FIG. 4, UE2 measures with the bandwidth of UE2, and UE1 measures with the bandwidth of UE1.

[0194] Optionally, the value of the subband unit may be the minimum allocated bandwidth supported and / or defined by the base station. For the base station supporting JPTA function, the minimum value of the subband unit is related to the hardware of the base station. Interference measurement based on subband unit performed based on the minimum bandwidth supported by the base station as the subband unit is applicable for subsequent terminal resource scheduling with other bandwidth requirements and inter-base station interference coordination, reducing the chance of receiving interference and improving the service quality of the base station.

[0195] Optionally, the computation direction of the frequency domain subband may be forward, backward, or bidirectional. Optionally, the computation direction of the frequency domain subband may be agreed and stored in the storage unit of the terminal in advance.

[0196] The configuration information for interference measurement result reporting includes at least one of the followings: the report quantity (e.g., subband index, RSRP, SINR, CQI, precoding matrix indicator (PMI)), frequency domain configuration information for reporting (e.g., including format indicator and threshold condition), the report type (periodic, aperiodic, semi-persistent), the number of reported measurement results, reporting threshold condition.

[0197] Optionally, the above configuration information for interference measurement result reporting may be group-common or group-shared information for all terminals in the user group. That is, if UE2 receives interference, all terminals (UE1, UE2, UE3) in the user group to which UE2 belongs are configured with the same configuration information for interference measurement result reporting.

[0198] Optionally, the interference measurement reference signal configured by the base station may be a zero power reference signal (ZP-RS) or a non-zero power reference signal (non ZP-RS, NZP-RS).

[0199] Optionally, the report quantity may be the subband indexes of all subband units measured by the terminal and their corresponding interference measurement values (for example, RSRP or RSRQ).

[0200] Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting, only the subband index satisfying the threshold condition and / or the interference measurement value corresponding to the subband unit indicated by the subband index may be reported. Where the threshold may be transmitted by the base station, and satisfying the threshold condition may be that the interference measurement value is larger than or larger than or equal to the threshold (i.e., interference exists) or the interference measurement value is smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold (i.e., interference does not exist).

[0201] Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting, the terminal may determine the report quantity based on the number of subband units satisfying the threshold condition. For example, when the number of the subbands with corresponding interference measurement value being larger than or larger than or equal to the threshold is larger than the number of the subbands with corresponding interference measurement value being smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold, report the information (for example, subband index) of the subband with corresponding interference measurement value being smaller than or smaller than or equal to the threshold and add additional information (for example, 1-bit indication information) for the base station to distinguish the report quantity.

[0202] Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting, the base station may configure the number of results reported by the terminal. For example, only N subbands with the smallest interference measurement values are reported, where N is a positive integer. At this time, the terminal needs to order the measurement results and report only the top N interference measurement values satisfying the condition.

[0203] Step 3: the terminal performs interference measurement based on the resource configuration information for interference measurement. For example, the base station configures the interference measurement on ZP-RS based on the subband unit, that is, the base station does not transmit power at the configured designated reference signal position, and the power value (RSRP) measured by the terminal here is the received interference power value of the neighboring cell.

[0204] Optionally, the number of the terminals performing interference measurement may be one or more. Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting resource, the base station may designate some of the terminals in its user group to perform measurement and report the measurement results. For example, for the terminal where codebook design for exchanging subbands with the interfered terminal is difficult, the base station may not configure it for measurement.

[0205] Optionally, in order to reduce the signaling overhead of reporting, interference measurement may be performed in two steps.

[0206] The first step interference measurement: method 1: each terminal performs interference measurement based on a first value of the subband unit included in first resource configuration information, and reports the measurement result of the first step interference measurement to the base station. Optionally, the first value of the subband unit used by each terminal may be different and correspond to the bandwidth with which each terminal is allocated, respectively; or method 2: each terminal performs interference measurement on its configured subband based on the first resource configuration, and reports the measurement result of the first step interference measurement to the base station. Optionally, each terminal performs interference measurement based on subband based on the first resource configuration information.

[0207] The second step interference measurement: one or more terminals of multiple terminals receive a second value of the subband unit included in second resource configuration information determined by the base station based on the measurement result of the first step interference measurement, and perform interference measurement on its subband resource where frequency domain resource may be adjusted. Optionally, the second value of the subband unit is smaller than the first value of the subband unit. For example, the terminal is configured to perform interference measurement based on subband unit on corresponding subband resource before and after resource adjustment of the terminal with the second value of the subband unit (smaller measurement granularity). Where the second value of the subband unit may be the minimum allocated bandwidth of the base station.

[0208] Optionally, in order to reduce the overhead of resource configuration information, the second step interference measurement only needs to associate the subband index or resource position information of the first step interference measurement in the resource configuration information.

[0209] FIG. 7 illustrates an example where a terminal performs two-step interference measurement according to embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the first step interference measurement of the terminal is based on different frequency band allocation methods of multiple terminals (UE1 / UE2 / UE3). Based on the measurement result of the first step interference measurement, the configuration information for the second step interference measurement is only associated with the subbands corresponding to UE1 and UE2 in the first step interference measurement, and the terminal only needs to perform measurement and reporting based on the second value of the subband unit in these two subbands and determines specific information of interference. Specifically, in the first step interference measurement, the base station configures each of UE1-UE3 to perform interference measurement based on the first value of the subband unit corresponding to its allocated bandwidth, determines that only UE2 is interfered (× illustrated in FIG. 7) through interference measurement reporting results of each of UE1-UE3, determines a new resource scheduling method, as illustrated in FIG. 7, for example, exchange the frequency bands of UE1 and UE2, and in the second step interference measurement, configures each of UE1 and UE2 to perform interference measurement on its corresponding subband resource before and after resource adjustment based on the second value of the subband unit determined by the base station through the interference measurement result obtained in the first step interference measurement.

[0210] Step 4: the terminal transmits the interference measurement result to the base station. The interference measurement result may include at least one of the followings: the subband index, the interference measurement value (e.g., RSRP) corresponding to the subband index, the index of the subband satisfying the threshold condition, the index of the subband not satisfying the threshold condition, the indication information for distinguishing whether the reported subband index is the index of the subband satisfying the threshold condition or the index of the subband not satisfying the threshold condition.

[0211] Optionally, in order to reduce signaling overhead, the terminal may only report the interference measurement value satisfying the threshold condition and / or the index of the subband with the interference measurement value satisfying the threshold condition. For example, only the index of the subband with the measurement value being larger than the threshold is reported.

[0212] Optionally, the threshold condition may be obtained from the configuration information for interference measurement result reporting configured by the base station, for example, in the frequency domain configuration information for reporting configured by the base station.

[0213] Optionally, in order to further reduce signaling overhead, the terminal may determine the quantity and form of the report based on the number of subbands satisfying the threshold condition. For example, in N measured subbands, if <N / 2 subbands satisfy the threshold condition, the indexes of the subbands satisfying the threshold condition are reported; If >N / 2 subbands satisfying the threshold condition, the indexes of the remaining subbands not satisfying the threshold condition are reported. At this time, the terminal needs to transmits additional signaling for the base station to distinguish whether the report quantity is the index of the subband satisfying the threshold condition or the index of the subband not satisfying the threshold condition.

[0214] Optionally, the terminal may order the interference measurement results and report the first N or last N measurement results and their corresponding subband indexes.

[0215] Step 5: the base station obtains interfered resource information based on the interference measurement result, and determines a new resource scheduling scheme for at least one terminal not interfered by the neighboring cell.

[0216] Optionally, in order to reduce signaling overhead, in determining the new resource scheduling scheme, it is possible to choose to minimize the number of terminals which are adjusted. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a new resource scheduling scheme determined by a base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure. For the adjustment method illustrated in FIG. 8, when the interference signal power of the interference measured in the subbands corresponding to UE1 and UE3 is smaller than the threshold, the bandwidth of the terminal UE2 is preferentially selected to be exchanged with the subband of UE1 to reduce the number of terminals which are affected.

[0217] Optionally, the base station may adjust multiple subband resources. For example, the frequency domain resources used by multiple terminals change due to resource switching of the interfered terminal. FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a new resource scheduling scheme determined by a base station according to embodiments of the present disclosure. For the example illustrated in FIG. 9, because the frequency bands used by UE2 and UE4 change, the frequency band used by UE1 also changes. At this time, measurement based on subband unit may also be performed on UE1, that is, the measurement based on subband unit may also be performed on the terminal whose frequency resource changes due to the resource scheduling method.

[0218] Optionally, the base station may determine (count) the interfered resource information based on the interference measurement result reported by the terminal for subsequent interference management and resource scheduling selection. For example, the base station counts the frequency of the interfered frequency domain subband unit, and / or the spatial position information of the interfered terminal. The present disclosure does not limit the names of “frequency of interfered frequency domain subband unit” and “spatial position information of interfered terminal”.

[0219] Optionally, the value of the subband unit used by the same terminal for each measurement may be the same, or the value of the subband unit used by different terminals for one measurement may be the same. For example, the value of the subband unit is the minimum bandwidth that the base station may allocate, and the base station may count the corresponding subband resource and beam direction (spatial position of the interfered terminal) where interference exits in multiple measurement results for subsequent resource scheduling reference.

[0220] Optionally, if the subband allocation method for terminal measurement may correspond to the global subband allocation on the total bandwidth supported by the base station, then at this time, the resource configuration information of the base station may be global subband index, and there is no need to use UE specific subband index. At this time, the base station may only record the global subband unit index where interference exists for subsequent resource scheduling count. This will be described in detail below.

[0221] Optionally, the counted interfered resource is related to the direction where the interfering base station transmits the beam. In some cases, the spatial position information of the interfered terminal may also be counted to reduce restriction on resource scheduling and improve resource utilization rate. For example, the position of the terminal may be determined based on the beam direction used by the interfered terminal to connect with the base station and / or the transmission delay between the base station and the terminal.

[0222] Optionally, the base station may determine the interfered range during long-term position counting for the interfered terminal, for example, a circle with a radius R and a center coordinates (x, y), or a circle with a radius R and at a distance L from the base station with relative normal angle θ. Where the center coordinates of the circle may be coordinates relative to the coordinate system of the base station, or coordinate information determined by the base station based on its own position information.

[0223] Step 6: the terminal receives the new resource scheduling scheme transmitted by the base station. The new resource scheduling scheme is determined by the base station based on the interference measurement result.

[0224] Optionally, in order to save signaling overhead, only part of the terminals in the user group receive the new resource scheduling scheme. This part of the terminals are terminals whose frequency domain resources change, and the terminals whose frequency domain resources do not change (are not interfered) do not require additional resource scheduling scheme.

[0225] Step 7 (optional): the terminal receives the resource configuration information for the new interference measurement and performs the new interference measurement. The new interference measurement is the interference measurement for the terminal with adjusted resource in the user group. Through this method, it can be ensured that no new interference will be generated after resource adjustment, inter-cell interference is solved, and the communication quality of the terminal is ensured.

[0226] Optionally, the measurement may be an aperiodic measurement, or a semi-persistent measurement.

[0227] Optionally, the measurement may be measurement based on NZP-CSI-RS, or measurement based on ZP-CSI-RS.

[0228] Optionally, interference measurement may be configured only for the terminal whose resource is adjusted, and there is no need to perform measurement on all terminals in the user group, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

[0229] Optionally, the resource configuration information for the new interference measurement may be transmitted together with the new resource scheduling scheme for the terminal, for example, both are transmitted in DCI.

[0230] Step 8 (optional): the terminal reports the interference measurement result after the adjustment. The terminal reports the measurement result after resource adjustment based on the configuration information.

[0231] Optionally, the interference measurement result reported by the terminal may be represented by 1 bit. This 1 bit is for indicating whether interference exists, or whether the measured result satisfies the threshold condition for interference.

[0232] Step 9: the base station determines whether the interference is solved after the adjustment based on the new interference measurement result reported by the terminal. If the reported measurement result shows that all terminals do not receive interference, the base station may continue transmission based on the new resource scheduling scheme; if the reported measurement result shows that part of terminals still receive interference, the base station may perform interference management and user scheduling through other methods.

[0233] Optionally, the base station may reduce interference by avoiding the use of the interfering resource in this direction. For example, the base station may move the interfered terminal and / or the terminal in the interfered direction out of the frequency divided user group and perform scheduling through other methods.

[0234] Step 10 (optional): if interference still exists after adopting the new resource scheduling method, the base station may solve the interference issue via inter-cell information interaction. Where the content of the inter-cell information interaction includes at least one of the followings: the interfered resource information (for example, physical resource block (PRB)), interfered subband information (subband index), the position information of the interfered terminal.

[0235] Optionally, the inter-cell information may be transmitted to the neighboring cell via the X2 interface for inter-cell information interaction for inter-cell interference management. Optionally, the base station transmits the inter-cell information to the OAM node for unified processing and transmits it to the designated base station.

[0236] Optionally, since different beams of the base station are distinguished by the resource indexes used to transmit the beams, the beam directions corresponding to the same resource of different base stations may be different. If the interfering base station uses the same resource to transmit different beams at different times, when receiving the interfering resource transmitted by the neighboring cell, the interfered beam direction cannot be determined through the interfering resource. At this time, the interfered base station may transmit information of the position of the interfered terminal relative to the base station determined based on other information (such as delay, frequency) to the interfering base station.

[0237] Step 11 (optional): the interfering base station performs inter-cell interference management and / or resource scheduling based on the content of the inter-cell information interaction. For example, the interfering base station may implement interference management by reducing power when using the interfering resource. Optionally, the interfering base station may determine the direction of the interfering beam based on the relative position between base stations and position related information transmitted by the neighboring base station, and implement interference management by reducing the power when using the interfering resource in this direction, or avoid the use of the resource when communicating with the terminal in this direction.

[0238] Optionally, if the interfering base station is the base station supporting frequency division scheduling function, the base station may avoid scheduling of the same frequency domain subband resource in this direction.

[0239] Step 12 (optional): after the inter-cell information interaction is completed, the interfered base station reconfigures the interference measurement on the interfered resource to determine whether the interference issue has been solved. Within a certain time, the interfered base station reconfigures the measurement on the interfered resource and the used beams to determine whether the interference has been solved. For example, within a certain time, if 90% of the interference measurement results of multiple measurements performed are smaller than the threshold, the interference is considered to be solved and the usage restriction on the interfered resource is canceled; on the contrary, if 10% of the interference measurements of the multiple measurements performed are larger than the threshold, the interference is considered to be unsolved and the use of the interfered resource continues to be restricted.

[0240] Based on the above method, the base station may determine the new resource scheduling scheme which is not interfered and / or the corresponding codebook by configuring interference measurement based on frequency domain subband unit. In addition, through the interaction of interfered position information between base stations, the restriction by interference management on resource usage and coverage of the neighboring cell are reduced, and the possibility of good interference management between base stations is improved. Especially for the base station supporting frequency-division multi-user scheduling, the combination of interference beams and resource obtained based on position information may reduce user pairing and scheduling restriction, increasing scheduling flexibility and reducing resource waste.

[0241] In existing base station systems, usually to ensure the gain of the output beam in a certain direction, the same antenna panel can only generate one beam at the same time. At this time, the base station can only serve terminals (for example, UEs) in different beam directions in a time-division method. At this time, a new antenna technology can be used to improve this problem of millimeter wave communication, for example, a new beamforming designs that may implement frequency-division beams. An example of such beamforming method includes Joint Phased and Timed Array (JPTA) technology, as illustrated in FIG. 10, FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a communication system supporting JPTA technology. this technique adds a delay structure in each antenna element, enhances the beam partition phenomenon of array antenna by adjusting the delay structure of each antenna element, and generates multiple transmit or receive beams at the same time. Different beams may be generated in different frequency band ranges (frequency domain subbands) by adjusting the output phase and delay of each antenna element. Using the JPTA method may ensure that the beam gain in each direction remains unchanged without increasing the base station antenna panel, support the generation of multiple transmit or receive beams at the same time and improve uplink and / or downlink coverage capability. The introduction of additional delay hardware due to JPTA function leads to an increase in cost, size, and codebook complexity, thus is usually applied on base station side.

[0242] For the base station supporting JPTA, the value of the frequency bandwidth that may be scheduled by the base station is related to the hardware parameters of the delay device. For example, its minimum allocable bandwidth is related to the longest delay of the delay device. Optionally, the total bandwidth that the base station can schedule at the same time is related to the adjustable range of the delay device.

[0243] In addition, the bandwidth allocated to each terminal may be adjusted by adjustment of the codebook. To simplify base station codebook design and reduce the complexity and the signaling overhead of codebook feedback, a trade-off may be made between the bandwidth flexibility scheduled by the base station supporting JPTA and the parameters of the codebook.

[0244] In some embodiments, the bandwidth allocated to each terminal in the user group served by the base station supporting JPTA may be associated by frequency domain subband unit. For example, the bandwidth allocated to each terminal is an integer multiple of the subband unit bandwidth (subband unit), represented by N*subband unit, where N is a natural number.

[0245] Based on this bandwidth allocation method, the frequency domain subband combination method of the base station may be represented by a frequency domain starting point and a subband allocation matrix. For example, in the system illustrated in FIG. 8, the entire bandwidth of the base station may be represented by a matrix [2, 2, 3], that is, the bandwidths of UE1 and UE2 are the same and both are 2 subband unit bandwidths, and the bandwidth of UE3 is 3 subband unit bandwidths.

[0246] Optionally, if the subband allocated to each terminal is not an integer multiple of the subband unit bandwidth, the subband bandwidth of each terminal may be transmitted, and its associated order may be indicated by a matrix indicating the order of each UE bandwidth (bandwidth with which each UE is configured). For example, bandwidths allocated to each terminal are BW_UE1=25PRB, BW_UE2=27PRB, and BW_UE3=15PRB, respectively, and the matrix indicating the distribution order of their bandwidths in frequency domain is [UE1, UE3, UE2]. Optionally, if the resource configuration information for interference measurement transmitted by the base station to the terminal includes the subband allocation matrix corresponding to multiple subband combinations (divisions), there may be matrices for indicating UE bandwidth order one-to-one corresponding to multiple subband configuration matrices.

[0247] Optionally, in order to avoid interference to other terminals, resources of multiple terminals may not be continuously scheduled in frequency domain. At this time, a subband spacing matrix may be defined to indicate the bandwidth of discontinuous area between two neighboring terminals. At this time, the subband matrix transmitted by the base station supporting JPTA may be represented as [UE1,N01,UE3,N02,UE2], where N0 matrix including N01 and N02 =[3PRB,2PRB]. Optionally, the subband spacing matrix may also be transmitted from the base station to the terminal along with the resource configuration information for interference measurement described above.

[0248] Optionally, if the subband spacing matrix is also an integer multiple of the subband unit, at this time, the subband matrix transmitted by the base station supporting JPTA may be represented as [2,N01,2,N02,3], where N0 matrix =[1,2].

[0249] For the interference measurement method described above, for communication systems including the base station supporting JPTA resource scheduling function, different steps are as follows:

[0250] Step 2: the terminal receives the resource configuration information for interference measurement transmitted by the base station. Where the resource configuration information for interference measurement is related to the codebook of the base station supporting JPTA. Optionally, the resource configuration information received by the terminal may include multiple subband combination methods. Where different frequency domain subband combination methods correspond one-to-one to different codebooks of the base station supporting JPTA.

[0251] Optionally, when the base station allocates frequency domain resource to each terminal, the frequency domain resource may be notified in the form of the subband allocation matrix. Each terminal may determine its own allocated bandwidth based on the frequency domain starting point transmitted by the base station, the subband allocation matrix, the subband spacing matrix, and the position information of the terminal in the matrix for indicating the UE bandwidth order.

[0252] Optionally, since the subband allocation matrix of the terminals in a user group served by the base station supporting JPTA is the same, the subband allocation matrix may be transmitted in the resource configuration information for the user group. The base station only needs to transmit additional indication signaling to different terminals to inform the terminals of the position of the allocated frequency domain resource in the matrix for indicating the UE bandwidth order, and the terminals may determine the allocated subband resource. At this time, in the interference measurement configuration, there is no need to repeatedly transmit the frequency subband information for each terminal, and the signaling overhead is reduced.

[0253] Optionally, the terminal may obtain multiple subband allocation matrices of JPTA and their corresponding indexes via other signaling. In the resource configuration information, the terminal only receives the subband allocation matrix index corresponding to the measurement.

[0254] FIG. 11 illustrates an example where a base station supporting JPTA schedules three terminals (UE1 / UE2 / UE3). As illustrated in FIG. 11(a), assuming that UE2 of three different terminals scheduled by the base station supporting JPTA is interfered by the neighboring cell, to solve the interference by adjusting the scheduling method of the base station supporting JPTA, three switching methods on the right (FIG. 11(b), FIG. 11(c), FIG. 11(d)) may be selected. If factors such as interference between beams, base station hardware, etc. are considered, the method in FIG. 11(c) may not be able to implement interference-free scheduling. At this time, the base station only needs to determine whether the scheduling method illustrated in FIG. 11(b) or FIG. 11(d) may be switched to through measurement.

[0255] In the example of FIG. 11, the subband combination method corresponding to the resource configuration information received by the terminal may be transmitted in the form of the subband allocation matrix. For example, two subband allocation matrices transmitted by the base station are [2,5,3] and [2,3,5], respectively, corresponding to two scheduling methods in FIG. 11(b) and FIG. 11(d).

[0256] Step 3: the terminal receives the resource configuration information and performs interference measurement based on frequency domain subband according to the resource configuration information.

[0257] Optionally, the terminal may measure all subbands respectively according to the received resource configuration information, or only measure part of subbands.

[0258] Optionally, the terminal may only measure interference signal strength corresponding to the subband with the same bandwidth as its own bandwidth based on the received the subband allocation matrix. For example, UE3 only needs to find the subband with the value of 3 in each subband allocation matrix configured by the base station, determine its frequency domain position based on the resource configuration information, and perform interference measurement.

[0259] Optionally, the terminal may only measure the subband corresponding to the terminal based on the information of the subband combination order.

[0260] Step 4: the terminal transmits the interference measurement result to the base station. The interference measurement result is determined based on measurement on the resource indicated by the subband allocation matrix.

[0261] Optionally, the terminal may only report the result satisfying the threshold condition. For example, the terminal may report the index of the subband allocation matrix corresponding to the subband combination (disvision) method where interference does not exist in all subbands, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of measurement reporting.

[0262] Optionally, if there is no subband allocation matrix where interference does not exist in all subbands, non-existence indication information (for example, N / A) is reported.

[0263] Optionally, if the number of symbols occupied by the report is small, the report may be performed on specific reserved resource in physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).

[0264] Step 5: based on the measurement result, the base station obtains the interfered resource information and determines a new JPTA resource scheduling scheme that is not interfered by the neighboring cell. The new JPTA resource scheduling scheme corresponds to a new codebook of the base station.

[0265] Optionally, if the terminal reports multiple interference-free available subband combination method indexes, the base station selects a new JPTA resource scheduling subband of the available subband combination methods.

[0266] Through the above method, in configuring the subband allocation matrix for measurement, the base station may directly determine a new available codebook by considering factors such as codebook scheduling complexity and hardware design, thereby improving the efficiency of interference solution and shortening the delay.

[0267] FIG. 12 illustrates a structure 1200 of a user equipment according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 12, the user equipment 1200 includes a controller 1210 configured to perform various methods disclosed herein above and performed by the user equipment, and a transceiver 1220 configured to transceive channels or signals.

[0268] FIG. 13 illustrates a structure 1300 of a base station according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 13, the base station 1300 includes a controller 1310 configured to perform various methods disclosed herein above and performed by the base station, and a transceiver 1320 configured to transceive channels or signals.

[0269] Furthermore, “at least one of / at least one” described in the present disclosure includes any and / or all possible combinations of the listed items, and various embodiments and various examples of the embodiments described in the present disclosure may be changed and combined in any appropriate form, and “ / ” described in the present disclosure means “or”.

[0270] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in the present disclosure may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0271] The steps of a method or algorithm described in this disclosure may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of both. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integrated to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0272] FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 1400 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Furthermore , the UE of FIG. 14 may correspond to UE (or terminal) of FIG. 12.

[0273] The terminal is an electronic device capable of wireless communication and having various form factors, examples of the terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, a tablet, a wearable device, an Internet of Things (IoT) device, or any other device / system capable of performing wireless communication with a base station (BS) and / or another terminal through a wireless channel.

[0274] Referring to FIG. 14, the UE 1400 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1401, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1402, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1403. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1401, the processor 1402, and the memory 1403 of the UE 1400 may operate. However, components of the UE 1400 are not limited to the example components illustrated in FIG. 14. In another embodiment, the UE 1400 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1401, the processor 1402, or the memory 1403 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0275] The transceiver 1401 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 1400 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1401 may enable the UE 1400 to transmit or receive a signal to or from a BS through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another UE through cellular communication. For example, the transceiver 1401 may support at least one of various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1401) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.

[0276] According to an embodiment, the UE 1400 may include a plurality of transceivers. For example, in the case of supporting evolved-universal terrestrial radio access-new radio (E-UTRA-NR) dual connectivity (EN-DC), the UE 1400 may include a first transceiver supporting the 4G LTE wireless communication and a second transceiver supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to another embodiment, in the case of supporting NR-dual connectivity (NR-DC), the UE 1400 may include a plurality of transceivers supporting the 5G NR wireless communication. According to still another embodiment, in the case of supporting near field wireless communication, the UE 1400 may separately include a transceiver supporting at least one standard in the group of wireless communication protocol standards as defined in the protocol standards for Bluetooth®, wireless local area network (WLAN) network (including institute of electrical and electronics engineers (IEEE) 802.11-2016 standard or its amendments, e.g., 802.11ah, 802.11ad, 802.11ay, 802.11ax, 802.11az, 802.11ba, and 802.11be, without being limited thereto).

[0277] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1401 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a BS through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1401 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1401 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1402 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1402.

[0278] The processor 1402 may control general operations of the UE 1400 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1402 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processing operations. The processor 1402 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1403, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1402 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0279] The processor 1402 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1401 to control the transceiver 1401.

[0280] The processor 1402 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. For example, the processor 1402 may include a communication processor (CP) configured to control communication operations and an application processor (AP) configured to control execution of an upper layer (for example, an application layer). In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1402 may be included in one chip (or IC) and the other part of the processor 1402 may be included in another chip (or IC). Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1401 or the memory 1403.

[0281] The processor 1402 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 1400 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1402 may control operations of the UE 1400 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the processor 1402 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1403, so as to control other components of the UE 1400 to enable execution of various operations.

[0282] The memory 1403 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1403 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0283] The memory 1403 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the processor 1402 and may be accessed by the processor 1402.

[0284] The memory 1403 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1402. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1402 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1403, the processor 1402 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0285] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 1400 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1403 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0286] FIG. 15 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 1500 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Furthermore, the base station of FIG. 15 may correspond to the base station of FIG. 13.

[0287] The BS 1500 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 1500 through a wireless channel. The BS 1500 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication.

[0288] Referring to FIG. 15, the BS 1500 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply “transceiver”) 1501, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply “processor”) 1502, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply “memory”) 1503. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 1501, the processor 1502, and the memory 1503 of the BS 1500 may operate. However, components of the BS 1500 are not limited to the example components illustrated in FIG. 15. In another embodiment, the BS 1500 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in some embodiments, any combination of the transceiver 1501, the processor 1502, or the memory 1503 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0289] The transceiver 1501 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 1500 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 1501 may enable the BS 1500 to transmit or receive a signal to or from the UE X00 through cellular communication, or to transmit or receive a signal to or from another network entity through wireless communication. For example, the transceiver 1501 may support various cellular communication technologies including 3rd generation (3G), 4th generation (4G), long term evolution (LTE), 5th generation (5G) NR, 6th generation (6G), and various cellular wireless communication technologies supported by the transceiver (1501) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 1501 may include various circuit structures used to transmit or receive signals to or from a UE through a wireless channel. The signals may include control information and data. For example, the transceiver 1501 may include a radio frequency (RF) transmitter for up-converting and amplifying the frequency of a transmitted signal and an RF receiver for low-noise-amplifying a received signal and down-converting the frequency thereof. The transceiver 1501 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 1502 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 1502.

[0290] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the BS 1500 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 1500 may perform wired or wireless communication with an adjacent BS, or a node or an entity of a core network through a backhaul network. Although not illustrated in FIG. 15, when the BS 1500 performs wired communication, the BS 1500 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 1501. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.

[0291] The processor 1502 may control general operations of the BS 1500 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1502 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processing operations. The processor 1502 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1503, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1502 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme.

[0292] The processor 1502 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 1501 to control the transceiver 1501.

[0293] The processor 1502 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1502 may be included in one chip (or IC) and the other part of the processor 1502 may be included in another chip (or IC). Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 1501 or the memory 1503.

[0294] The processor 1502 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 1500 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1502 may control operations of the BS 1500 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 1500 may transmit or receive a signal to or from a neighboring BS, transfer a signal received from a UE to an upper node of the network, or transmit a signal transferred from an upper node of the network to a UE. To this end, the processor 1502 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1503, so as to control other components of the BS 1500 to enable execution of various operations.

[0295] The memory 1503 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1503 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0296] The memory 1503 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the processor 1502 and may be accessed by the processor 1502.

[0297] The memory 1503 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1502. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1502 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1503, the processor 1502 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0298] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 1500 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1503 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0299] The UE or the base station may perform various communication procedures related to the control plane or the user plane by cooperating with one or more network entities based on wireless communication. For example, the UE may communicate with a network entity (for example, an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), a Session Management Function (SMF), rtc.) via the base station, or the base station may perform at least one communication procedure by directly transmitting and receiving signals to / from, or relaying signals between, the network entities.

[0300] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.

[0301] FIG. 16 is a block diagram of a network entity 1600 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0302] The network entity 1600 may include an entity (apparatus, device, or server, etc.) that performs one or more network functions (NFs) or a part of a network function constituting a core network (e.g., a 5th generation (5G) core (5GC)) in a communication system. In this case, multiple NFs may be implemented within a single network entity, or a single NF may be distributed and implemented across a plurality of network entities. In addition, when an NF is implemented within the network entity, the NF may be implemented in the form of software, and in such a case, a program for operating the NF may be stored in memory of the network entity 1600.

[0303] A single NF may be implemented by one or more instances, which may be deployed on the same network entity or distributed across multiple network entities to operate. The instance may be a software unit that logically executes a specific network function, and may be implemented in a form that is decoupled from physical hardware resources. Further, one or more NFs may be implemented in the form of one network slice to operate to satisfy specifications required by a particular service.

[0304] The NF may include at least one of an access and mobility management function (AMF), a session management function (SMF), a local session management function (L-SMF), a user plane function (UPF), a local user plane function (L-UPF), a policy control function (PCF), a unified data management (UDM), a unified data repository (UDR), a network exposure function (NEF), a network repository function (NRF), an application function (AF), a network slice selection function (NSSF), a network data analytics function (NWDAF), a network slice admission control function (NSACF), an authentication server function (AUSF), or a data network (DN), etc.

[0305] Referring to FIG. 16, the network entity 1600 may include at least one network interface 1601, at least one processor 1602 (hereinafter, “processor”), and at least one memory 1603 (hereinafter, “memory”). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 1600, or may be virtualized and executed in the form of an instance. When implemented as an instance, the NF need not necessarily include physical components as illustrated in FIG. 16. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.

[0306] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the network interface 1601, the processor 1602, and the memory 1603 of the network entity 1600 may operate. However, components of the network entity 1600 are not limited to the example components illustrated in FIG. 16. In another embodiment, the network entity 1600 may further include additional components in addition to the above-mentioned components, or some components may be omitted. Further, in an embodiment, the network interface 1601, the processor 1602, or the memory 1603 may be integrated in the form of one component.

[0307] The network interface 1601 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 1600 and a receiver part of the network entity 1600, and may be a communication circuit for transmitting or receiving a signal to or from a user equipment (UE), a base station (BS), or another network entity. Here, the communication circuit may include both a communication circuit for wireless communication and a communication circuit for a wired communication. For example, the network interface 1601 may include a circuit, logic, hardware, etc., configured to exchange a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless communication or wired communication. The network interface 1601 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 1601 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.

[0308] The processor 1602 may control general operations of the network entity 1600 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 1602 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processing operations. The processor 1602 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 1603, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 1602 may include a single-core processor or multi-core processor, and may include a processor assembly including a plurality of processing circuits (circuitry) according to a specific implementation scheme. Further, it should be noted that, according to another embodiment, in a case where NF is implemented in the form of an instance, the network function may be not necessarily configured by physical hardware.

[0309] According to an embodiment, the processor 1602 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the network interface 1601 to control the network interface 1601.

[0310] The processor 1602 may include at least one processor (or processing circuitry), and the at least one processor may perform the following operations individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. In a specific embodiment, at least a part of the processor 1602 may be included in one chip (or IC) and the other part of the processor 1602 may be included in another chip (or IC). Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the network interface 1601 or the memory 1603.

[0311] The processor 1602 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 1600 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 1602 may control operations of the network entity 1600 for exchanging a control plane message or a user plane message with a UE, a BS, or other core network entities through wireless or wired communication, using various protocols (e.g., NAS protocol). To this end, the processor 1602 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 1603, so as to control other components of the network entity 1600 to enable execution of various operations.

[0312] The memory 1603 corresponds to a hardware storage device capable of temporarily or permanently storing information and may include one or more storage media. For example, the memory 1603 may include a memory assembly including one or more storage media. For example, the one or more storage media may include permanent memory, such as a hard drive, flash memory, or read-only memory (ROM), semipermanent memory, such as random access memory (RAM), cache memory, or a combination thereof.

[0313] The memory 1603 may be electrically, operatively, and / or communicatively coupled to the processor 1602 and may be accessed by the processor 1602.

[0314] The memory 1603 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1602. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 1602 may be either stored in a single memory device or separated and distributedly stored in two or more memory devices. By executing the instructions stored in the memory 1603, the processor 1602 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

[0315] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 1600 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 1603 by at least one processor (or processing circuitry) configured to execute the same individually, collectively, or in any combination thereof, based on processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions, and / or based on components of processing circuitry that is not configured to execute instructions.

[0316] In one embodiment, a method performed by a user equipment UE in a communication system is provided, which comprises: receiving, from a base station, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting; performing the second interference measurement based on the second resource configuration information; reporting, to the base station, a result of the second interference measurement based on the reporting configuration information, wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, and wherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

[0317] In another embodiment, a method is provided, wherein the reporting configuration information includes information related to report quantity and / or a reporting threshold condition.

[0318] In another embodiment, a method is provided, wherein the size of the subband unit is associated with a bandwidth with which the UE is allocated or a minimum bandwidth supported by the base station.

[0319] In another embodiment, a method is provided, wherein the second resource configuration information further includes a frequency domain starting point and first information indicating a computation direction of the subband unit, wherein a frequency domain resource for the second interference measurement is determined based on the frequency domain starting point and the first information, and wherein the computation direction of the subband unit includes a forward direction, a backward direction or a bidirectional direction.

[0320] In another embodiment, a method is provided, wherein the information related to the report quantity indicates reporting an index of the subband unit and / or a measured quantity corresponding to the index of the subband unit, wherein the reported index of the subband unit includes an index of a subband unit satisfying or not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, wherein the result of the second interference measurement further includes indication information for indicating whether the reported index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition or the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition. and wherein when a number of subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is larger than a number of subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition; or when the number of the subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is smaller than the number of the subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition.

[0321] In another embodiment, a method is provided, wherein the reporting threshold condition includes the measured quantity being larger than or equal to a first threshold, or the measured quantity being smaller than or equal to a second threshold.

[0322] In one embodiment, a method performed by a user equipment UE in a communication system is provided, which comprises: receiving, from a base station, resource configuration information for interference measurement, wherein the resource configuration information includes second information indicating at least one subband division method; performing, for each of the at least one subband division method, an interference measurement based on the resource configuration information; reporting, to the base station a result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method, wherein the result of the interference measurement includes: an index of a subband division method satisfying a threshold condition in the result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method; or information indicating that the at least one subband division method not satisfying the threshold condition.

[0323] In another embodiment, a method is provided,wherein each of the at least one subband division method includes one of the followings: information related to a size of a subband unit; information related to a frequency domain position of the UE in the subband division method, and wherein each of the at least one subband division method further includes information for indicating a frequency domain resource not for measurement.

[0324] In another embodiment, a method is provided, wherein the threshold condition includes a result of an interference measurement related to a subband division method being smaller than or smaller than or equal to a third threshold.

[0325] In one embodiment, a method performed by a base station in a communication system is provided, which comprises: transmitting, to a user equipment UE, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting; receiving, from the UE, a result of the second interference measurement performed based on the second resource configuration information; wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, and wherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

[0326] In another embodiment, a method is provided, which further comprises: determining information for inter-cell interference management based on the result of the second interference measurement; transmitting, to another base station, the information for inter-cell interference management, wherein the information for inter-cell interference management includes at least one of the followings: information associated with an interfered resource, information associated with an interfered position range.

[0327] In one embodiment, a method performed by a base station in a communication system is provided, which comprises: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), resource configuration information for interference measurement, wherein the resource configuration information includes second information indicating at least one subband division method; receiving, from the UE, a result of an interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method performed based on the resource configuration information, wherein the result of the interference measurement includes: an index of a subband division method satisfying a threshold condition in the result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method; or information indicating that the at least one subband division method not satisfying the threshold condition.

[0328] In another embodiment, a method is provided, wherein each of the at least one subband division method includes one of the followings: information related to a size of a subband unit; information related to a frequency domain position of the UE in the subband division method, wherein each of the at least one subband division method further includes information for indicating a frequency domain resource not for measurement, and wherein the threshold condition includes a result of an interference measurement related to a subband division method being smaller than or smaller than or equal to a third threshold.

[0329] In one embodiment, a user equipment (UE) comprises: at least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to: receive, from a base station, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting; perform the second interference measurement based on the second resource configuration information; report, to the base station, a result of the second interference measurement based on the reporting configuration information, wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, and wherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

[0330] In one embodiment, a base station(BS) comprises: at least one transceiver; at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; and at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the base station to: transmit, to a user equipment UE, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting; receive, from the UE, a result of the second interference measurement performed based on the second resource configuration information; wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, and wherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

[0331] In one or more exemplary designs, the functions described may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored in computer-readable media or transmitted over computer-readable media as one or more instructions or code. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.

[0332] The description set forth herein, in connection with the appended drawings, describes example configurations, methods, and apparatuses and does not represent all the examples that may be implemented or that are within the scope of the claims. The term “example” used herein means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration,” and not “preferred” or “advantageous over other examples”. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing an understanding of the described techniques. These techniques, however, may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the described examples.

[0333] While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any inventions or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features specific to particular embodiments of particular inventions. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable subcombination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be deleted from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a subcombination or variation of the subcombination.

[0334] It is to be understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods of the present disclosure is an illustration of exemplary processes. Based on design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods may be rearranged to achieve the functions and effects disclosed in the present disclosure. The accompanying method claims present elements of the various steps in an example order, and are not meant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless specifically recited therein. Furthermore, although elements may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural form is contemplated unless limitation to the singular is explicitly stated. Accordingly, the disclosure is not limited to illustrated examples and any means for performing the function described herein are included in aspects of the disclosure.

[0335] Meanwhile, although specific embodiments of the present disclosure have been described in detail, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined by the claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims

1.A method performed by a user equipment UE in a communication system, comprising:receiving, from a base station, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting;performing the second interference measurement based on the second resource configuration information;reporting, to the base station, a result of the second interference measurement based on the reporting configuration information,wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, andwherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.2.The method of claim 1, wherein the reporting configuration information includes information related to report quantity and / or a reporting threshold condition.3.The method of claim 1, wherein the size of the subband unit is associated with a bandwidth with which the UE is allocated or a minimum bandwidth supported by the base station.4.The method of claim 1, wherein the second resource configuration information further includes a frequency domain starting point and first information indicating a computation direction of the subband unit,wherein a frequency domain resource for the second interference measurement is determined based on the frequency domain starting point and the first information, andwherein the computation direction of the subband unit includes a forward direction, a backward direction or a bidirectional direction.5.The method of claim 2, wherein the information related to the report quantity indicates reporting an index of the subband unit and / or a measured quantity corresponding to the index of the subband unit,wherein the reported index of the subband unit includes an index of a subband unit satisfying or not satisfying the reporting threshold condition,wherein the result of the second interference measurement further includes indication information for indicating whether the reported index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition or the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition. andwhereinwhen a number of subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is larger than a number of subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit not satisfying the reporting threshold condition; orwhen the number of the subband unit(s) satisfying the reporting threshold condition is smaller than the number of the subband unit(s) not satisfying the reporting threshold condition, the indication information indicates that the index of the subband unit is the index of the subband unit satisfying the reporting threshold condition.6.The method of claims 2, wherein the reporting threshold condition includes the measured quantity being larger than or equal to a first threshold, or the measured quantity being smaller than or equal to a second threshold.7.A method performed by a user equipment UE in a communication system, comprising:receiving, from a base station, resource configuration information for interference measurement, wherein the resource configuration information includes second information indicating at least one subband division method;performing, for each of the at least one subband division method, an interference measurement based on the resource configuration information;reporting, to the base station a result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method,wherein the result of the interference measurement includes:an index of a subband division method satisfying a threshold condition in the result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method; orinformation indicating that the at least one subband division method not satisfying the threshold condition.8.The method of claim 7, wherein each of the at least one subband division method includes one of the followings:information related to a size of a subband unit;information related to a frequency domain position of the UE in the subband division method, andwherein each of the at least one subband division method further includes information for indicating a frequency domain resource not for measurement.9.The method of claims 7, wherein the threshold condition includes a result of an interference measurement related to a subband division method being smaller than or smaller than or equal to a third threshold.10.A method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising:transmitting, to a user equipment UE, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting;receiving, from the UE, a result of the second interference measurement performed based on the second resource configuration information;wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, andwherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.11.The method of claim 10, further comprising:determining information for inter-cell interference management based on the result of the second interference measurement;transmitting, to another base station, the information for inter-cell interference management,wherein the information for inter-cell interference management includes at least one of the followings:information associated with an interfered resource,information associated with an interfered position range.12.A method performed by a base station in a communication system, comprising:transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), resource configuration information for interference measurement, wherein the resource configuration information includes second information indicating at least one subband division method;receiving, from the UE, a result of an interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method performed based on the resource configuration information,wherein the result of the interference measurement includes:an index of a subband division method satisfying a threshold condition in the result of the interference measurement related to the at least one subband division method; orinformation indicating that the at least one subband division method not satisfying the threshold condition.13.The method of claim 12, wherein each of the at least one subband division method includes one of the followings:information related to a size of a subband unit;information related to a frequency domain position of the UE in the subband division method,wherein each of the at least one subband division method further includes information for indicating a frequency domain resource not for measurement, andwherein the threshold condition includes a result of an interference measurement related to a subband division method being smaller than or smaller than or equal to a third threshold.14.A user equipment (UE) comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE to:receive, from a base station, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting;perform the second interference measurement based on the second resource configuration information;report, to the base station, a result of the second interference measurement based on the reporting configuration information,wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, andwherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.15.A base station(BS) comprising:at least one transceiver;at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; andat least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the base station to:transmit, to a user equipment UE, second resource configuration information for a second interference measurement and reporting configuration information for interference measurement result reporting;receive, from the UE, a result of the second interference measurement performed based on the second resource configuration information;wherein the second resource configuration information includes information related to a size of a subband unit, andwherein the second resource configuration information is determined based on a result of a first interference measurement performed by the UE before the second interference measurement, and the second resource configuration information includes information related to a frequency domain resource the first resource configuration information for the first interference measurement.

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