Method and apparatus for requesting system information in a wireless communication system
Patent Information
- Application Number
- PCT/KR2026/003180
- Authority / Receiving Office
- WO · WO
- Patent Type
- Applications
- Current Assignee / Owner
- Priority Date
- 2025-03-24
- Filing Date
- 2026-02-26
- Publication Date
- 2026-10-01
Smart Images
Figure KR2026003180_01102026_PF_FP_ABST
Abstract
Description
METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REQUESTING SYSTEM INFORMATION IN A WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM
[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communication systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to method and apparatus for requesting system information in a wireless communication system.
[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 generally to wireless communication systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to method and apparatus for requesting system 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. 3a illustrates an example user equipment according to embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0014] FIG. 3b shows a schematic diagram of a 4-step random access procedure according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0015] FIG. 3c shows a schematic diagram of a frequency-domain resource group;
[0016] FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a method according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure;
[0017] FIGs. 5-6 show schematic diagrams of UE and cell interaction according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0018] FIGs. 7-9 show schematic diagrams of the relative locations of time-frequency resource groups and downlink reference signals in the time-frequency domain according to example embodiments of the present disclosure;
[0019] FIGs. 10-25 illustrate various example diagrams of time-frequency resource group patterns according to example embodiments of the disclosure;
[0020] FIGs. 26-28 show that the second part of the downlink reference signal is a schematic diagram;
[0021] FIG. 29 shows a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure;
[0022] FIG. 30 shows a schematic structural diagram of a network side device according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0023] FIG. 31 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) according to an embodiment of the disclosure;
[0024] FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) according to an embodiment of the disclosure; and
[0025] FIG. 33 is a block diagram of a network entity according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
[0026] Hereinafter, embodiments of the disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0027] In describing the embodiments, descriptions related to technical contents well-known in the art and not associated directly with the disclosure will be omitted. Such an omission of unnecessary descriptions is intended to prevent obscuring of the main idea of the disclosure and more clearly transfer the main idea.
[0028] 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.
[0029] The advantages and features of the disclosure and ways to achieve them will be apparent by making reference to embodiments as described below in detail in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments set forth below, but may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are provided only to completely disclose the disclosure and inform those skilled in the art of the scope of the disclosure, and the disclosure is defined only by the scope of the appended claims. Throughout the specification, the same or like reference numerals designate the same or like elements. Furthermore, in describing the disclosure, a detailed description of known functions or constitution incorporated herein will be omitted in the case that it is determined that the description may make the subject matter of the disclosure unnecessarily unclear. The terms which will be described below 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.
[0030] Herein, it will be understood that each block of the 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).
[0031] 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.
[0032] As used in embodiments of the disclosure, a "~unit" 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" does not always have a meaning limited to software or hardware. The "~unit" may be constructed either to be stored in an addressable storage medium or to execute one or more processors. Therefore, the "~unit" 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" may be either combined into a smaller number of components and a "~unit," or divided into additional components and a "~unit." Moreover, the components and "~units" 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" may include one or more processors.
[0033] It should be appreciated that the blocks in each flowchart and combinations of the flowcharts may be performed by one or more computer programs which include instructions. 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.
[0034] 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, a microprocessor unit (MPU), a system on chip (SoC), an IC, or the like.
[0035] 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.
[0036] 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.
[0037] 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.
[0038] 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.
[0039] 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.
[0040] 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.
[0041] 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.
[0042] 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.
[0043] 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.
[0044] 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.
[0045] 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.
[0046] 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, 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.
[0047] 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.
[0048] 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.
[0049] 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.
[0050] 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.
[0051] 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.
[0052] 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.
[0053] 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.
[0054] In the specific embodiments of the present disclosure described below, 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.
[0055] The drawings or flowcharts described below illustrate exemplary 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.
[0056] 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.
[0057] 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.
[0058] 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 described below, 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) where appropriate.
[0059] Hereinafter, a base station 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 base station (BS), a wireless access unit, a BS controller, or a node on a network.
[0060] 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 5G base station architectures in which such CU and DU functional splits are implemented.
[0061] A terminal may include a UE, a mobile station (MS), a cellular phone, a smartphone, a computer, or a multimedia system capable of performing communication functions.
[0062] In the disclosure, a downlink (DL) refers to a radio link through which a BS transmits a signal to a UE, and an uplink (UL) refers to a radio link through which a UE transmits a signal to a BS.
[0063] Furthermore, hereinafter, 5th generation (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
[0064] 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."
[0065] 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, ...), radio resource control (RRC), or medium access control (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 L3 (layer 3) signaling.
[0066] 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), downlink control information (DCI), user equipment (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.
[0067] 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.
[0068] Hereinafter, the operational principle of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0069] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of various embodiments of the present disclosure as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the various embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions may be omitted for clarity and conciseness.
[0070] The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of various embodiments of the present disclosure is provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
[0071] It is to be understood that the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a component surface" includes reference to one or more of such surfaces.
[0072] The term "include" or "may include" refers to the existence of a corresponding disclosed function, operation or component which can be used in various embodiments of the present disclosure and does not limit one or more additional functions, operations, or components. The terms such as "include" and / or "have" may be construed to denote a certain characteristic, number, step, operation, constituent element, component or a combination thereof, but may not be construed to exclude the existence of or a possibility of addition of one or more other characteristics, numbers, steps, operations, constituent elements, components or combinations thereof.
[0073] The term "or" used in various embodiments of the present disclosure includes any or all of combinations of listed words. For example, the expression "A or B" may include A, may include B, or may include both A and B.
[0074] Unless defined differently, all terms used herein, which include technical terminologies or scientific terminologies, have the same meaning as that understood by a person skilled in the art to which the present disclosure belongs. Such terms as those defined in a generally used dictionary are to be interpreted to have the meanings equal to the contextual meanings in the related field of art, and are not to be interpreted to have ideal or excessively formal meanings unless clearly defined in the present disclosure.
[0075] The various embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied to various communication systems, such as: a global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, a code division multiple access (CDMA) system, a broadband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, a general packet radio service (GPRS), a long term evolution (LTE) system, a LTE Frequency division duplex (FDD) system, a LTE time division duplex (TDD) system, an universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS), a worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) communication system, a fifth generation (5G) system or new radio (NR) system, etc. In addition, the various embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to future oriented communication technologies.
[0076] Before undertaking the Mode for Invention 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 relationship 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.
[0077] 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.
[0078] 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.
[0079] 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.
[0080] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:
[0081] receiving a downlink reference signal;
[0082] based on the downlink reference signal, obtain first-uplink configuration information related to a first-uplink signal and / or a first-uplink signal resource for requesting a first system information block, the first-uplink configuration information including first information for indicating whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access;
[0083] transmitting the first-uplink signal;
[0084] receiving the first system information block, or receiving the first system information block and a random access response, based on the first information.
[0085] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal comprises first configuration information, the first configuration information comprising information on resources for receiving first-uplink configuration information,
[0086] wherein, obtaining the first-uplink configuration information comprises: receiving the first-uplink configuration information based on the first configuration information.
[0087] In an implementation, the UE receives the first-uplink configuration information based on the first configuration information in a case that the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating that a network is in a first state.
[0088] In an implementation, the UE receives the first system information block based on first configuration information in case the downlink reference signal does not include state information indicating that a network is in a first state.
[0089] In an implementation, the first-uplink configuration information is included in the downlink reference signal.
[0090] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal is a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block (SSB), and the first-uplink configuration information is included in a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) of the SSB.
[0091] In an implementation, state information indicating whether a network is in a first state is further included in the SSB,
[0092] in case that the state information indicates that the network is in the first state, the UE receives the first-uplink configuration information according to the PBCH resource corresponding to the first state.
[0093] In an implementation, a first part of the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating whether the network is in a first state, the first-uplink configuration information is included in a second part of the downlink reference signal,
[0094] the first part and the second part are frequency division multiplexed on the same time domain resources, or time division multiplexed on the same frequency domain resources.
[0095] In an implementation, the second part comprises at least two sub-parts that are frequency division multiplexed or time division multiplexed with the first part.
[0096] In an implementation, obtaining the first-uplink configuration information comprises:
[0097] receiving second downlink information related to the first-uplink configuration information,
[0098] the second downlink information includes third information indicating the first-uplink configuration information, or
[0099] the second downlink information includes scheduling information of a downlink channel for receiving the first-uplink configuration information,
[0100] wherein, the third information indicates one of multiple first-uplink configuration information.
[0101] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal includes first configuration information,
[0102] wherein the UE receives the second downlink information according to the first configuration information in case that state information indicates that a network is in a first state,
[0103] wherein the UE receives the first system information block according to the first configuration information in case that the state information indicates that the network is not in the first state.
[0104] In an implementation, the downlink channel is a physical downlink shared channel including a second system information block, wherein information bits carried by the second system information block are less than those carried by the first system information block.
[0105] In an implementation, the method further comprising: transmitting a third uplink signal for requesting the first-uplink configuration information.
[0106] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating whether a network is in a first state;
[0107] wherein, in case that the state information indicates that the network is in the first state, the UE transmits the third uplink signal.
[0108] In an implementation, the UE transmits the first-uplink signal based on a first reference time unit and a first time offset,
[0109] the first reference time unit is related to a time unit in which the UE receives the first-uplink configuration information,
[0110] the first time offset is determined based on the first-uplink configuration information, or is predetermined or preconfigured.
[0111] In an implementation, the method further comprises:
[0112] obtaining first-uplink resource configuration information related to a first-uplink signal resource for transmitting the first-uplink signal based on the first information, wherein if the first information indicates that the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource are used for requesting random access, the first-uplink resource configuration information is resource configuration information in the first resource configuration information, otherwise the first-uplink resource configuration information is resource configuration information in second resource configuration information, or
[0113] if the first information indicates that the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resources are for requesting random access, the first-uplink resource configuration information is third resource configuration information corresponding to a first parameter set, otherwise, the first-uplink resource configuration information is third resource configuration information corresponding to a second parameter set.
[0114] In an implementation, in case that the first information indicates that the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access:
[0115] the first-uplink resource configuration information includes configuration information of a resource group, the resource group includes the first-uplink resource and a second-uplink resource for a second-uplink signal,
[0116] wherein, the second-uplink signal corresponds to an uplink signal in a type 2 random access process.
[0117] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising:
[0118] receive a first system information block, the first system information block includes configuration information of a resource group, the resource group includes a first-uplink resource for a first-uplink signal for requesting random access and a second-uplink resource for a second-uplink signal, the second-uplink signal corresponding to an uplink signal in type 2 random access;
[0119] transmitting a message A in the type 2 random access based on the configuration information of the resource group, the message A comprising the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal,
[0120] wherein the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink resource are associated within the resource group.
[0121] In an implementation, location of the resource group is determined based on a resource location of a received downlink reference signal and a first time offset and / or a first frequency offset,
[0122] wherein the first time offset is determined based on index information of the downlink reference signal,
[0123] the first frequency offset is determined based on a cell ID.
[0124] In an implementation, the frequency domain start of the resource group is the lowest frequency location among the first-uplink resource and the second-uplink resource.
[0125] In an implementation, the configuration information of the resource group includes information indicating a pattern of the resource group.
[0126] In an implementation, the pattern of the resource group includes at least one of:
[0127] including one first-uplink resource and one second-uplink resource;
[0128] including one first-uplink resource and multiple second-uplink resources;
[0129] including multiple first-uplink resources and one second-uplink resource;
[0130] including multiple first-uplink resources and multiple second-uplink resources.
[0131] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network side device in a communication system, comprising:
[0132] transmitting a downlink reference signal and first-uplink configuration information, the first-uplink configuration information being related to a first-uplink signal and / or a first-uplink signal resource for requesting a first system information block, the first-uplink configuration information including first information indicating whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access;
[0133] receiving the first-uplink signal;
[0134] transmitting the first system information block, or transmitting the first system information block and a random access response, based on the first information.
[0135] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal comprises first configuration information, the first configuration information comprising information on resources for receiving first-uplink configuration information.
[0136] In an implementation, the first-uplink configuration information is received based on the first configuration information in a case that the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating that a network is in a first state.
[0137] In an implementation, the first system information block is received based on first configuration information in case the downlink reference signal does not include state information indicating that a network is in a first state.
[0138] In an implementation, the first-uplink configuration information is included in the downlink reference signal.
[0139] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal is a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block (SSB), and the first-uplink configuration information is included in a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) of the SSB.
[0140] In an implementation, state information indicating whether a network is in a first state is further included in the SSB,
[0141] in case that the state information indicates that the network is in the first state, the first-uplink configuration information is received according to the PBCH resource corresponding to the first state.
[0142] In an implementation, a first part of the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating whether the network is in a first state, the first-uplink configuration information is included in a second part of the downlink reference signal,
[0143] the first part and the second part are frequency division multiplexed on the same time domain resources, or time division multiplexed on the same frequency domain resources.
[0144] In an implementation, the second part comprises at least two sub-parts that are frequency division multiplexed or time division multiplexed with the first part.
[0145] In an implementation, the first-uplink configuration information is obtained based on second downlink information,
[0146] the second downlink information includes third information indicating the first-uplink configuration information, or
[0147] the second downlink information includes scheduling information of a downlink channel for receiving the first-uplink configuration information,
[0148] wherein, the third information indicates one of multiple first-uplink configuration information.
[0149] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal includes first configuration information,
[0150] wherein the second downlink information is received according to the first configuration information in case that state information indicates that a network is in a first state,
[0151] wherein the first system information block is received according to the first configuration information in case that the state information indicates that the network is not in the first state.
[0152] In an implementation, the downlink channel is a physical downlink shared channel including a second system information block, wherein information bits carried by the second system information block are less than those carried by the first system information block.
[0153] In an implementation, the method further comprising: receiving a third uplink signal for requesting the first-uplink configuration information.
[0154] In an implementation, the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating whether a network is in a first state;
[0155] wherein, in case that the state information indicates that the network is in the first state, the third uplink signal is transmitted.
[0156] In an implementation, the first-uplink signal is transmitted based on a first reference time unit and a first time offset,
[0157] the first reference time unit is related to a time unit in which the first-uplink configuration information is received,
[0158] the first time offset is determined based on the first-uplink configuration information, or is predetermined or preconfigured.
[0159] In an implementation, in case that the first information indicates that the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access:
[0160] the first-uplink resource configuration information includes configuration information of a resource group, the resource group includes the first-uplink resource and a second-uplink resource for a second-uplink signal,
[0161] wherein, the second-uplink signal corresponds to an uplink signal in a type 2 random access process.
[0162] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a method performed by a network side device in a communication system, comprising:
[0163] transmitting a first system information block, the first system information block includes configuration information of a resource group, the resource group includes a first-uplink resource for a first-uplink signal for requesting random access and a second-uplink resource for a second-uplink signal, the second-uplink signal corresponds to an uplink signal in type 2 random access;
[0164] receiving a message A in the type 2 random access transmitted based on the configuration information of the resource group, the message A comprising the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal,
[0165] wherein the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink resource are associated within the resource group.
[0166] In an implementation, location of the resource group is determined based on a resource location of a downlink reference signal transmitted by the network side and a first time offset and / or a first frequency offset,
[0167] wherein the first time offset is determined based on index information of the downlink reference signal,
[0168] the first frequency offset is determined based on a cell ID.
[0169] In an implementation, the frequency domain start of the resource group is the lowest frequency location among the first-uplink resource and the second-uplink resource.
[0170] In an implementation, the configuration information of the resource group includes information indicating a pattern of the resource group.
[0171] In an implementation, the pattern of the resource group includes at least one of:
[0172] including one first-uplink resource and one second-uplink resource;
[0173] including one first-uplink resource and multiple second-uplink resources;
[0174] including multiple first-uplink resources and one second-uplink resource;
[0175] including multiple first-uplink resources and multiple second-uplink resources.
[0176] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a user equipment UE in a communication system, comprising:
[0177] a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;
[0178] a controller configured to control the UE to perform a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0179] According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, there is provided a network side device in a communication system, comprising:
[0180] a transceiver configured to transmit and / or receive signals;
[0181] a controller configured to control the network side device to perform the method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0182] FIGS. 1-33 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.
[0183] FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the wireless network shown 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.
[0184] As shown 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.
[0185] 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.
[0186] 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 in accordance with 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).
[0187] 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.
[0188] 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.
[0189] 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.
[0190] 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.
[0191] As shown 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.
[0192] 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.
[0193] 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.
[0194] 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 in accordance with well-known principles. The controller / processor 205 could support additional functions as well, such as more advanced wireless communication functions.
[0195] 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.
[0196] 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.
[0197] 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.
[0198] 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).
[0199] 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 shown 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.
[0200] FIG. 3a illustrates an example user equipment according to embodiments of the present disclosure. The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3a 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. 3a does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.
[0201] As shown in FIG. 3a, 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.
[0202] 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).
[0203] 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.
[0204] 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 in accordance with well-known principles. In some embodiments, the processor 307 includes at least one microprocessor or microcontroller.
[0205] 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.
[0206] 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.
[0207] 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.
[0208] Although FIG. 3a illustrates one example of UE 116, various changes may be made to FIG. 3a. For example, various components in FIG. 3a 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. 3a 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.
[0209] The exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
[0210] The text and drawings are provided as examples only to aid the reader in understanding the present disclosure. They are not intended, nor should they be construed, to limit the scope of the disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, based upon this disclosure, that changes may be made to the embodiments and examples shown without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
[0211] Those skilled in the art will understand that, as used herein, the singular forms "a," "an," "the," and "the" may include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. It should be further understood that the term "including" / "comprising" used in the specification of this application refers to the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements and / or components, but does not exclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components and / or groups thereof. It will be understood that when we refer to an element as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it may be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may also be present. Further, "connected" or "coupled" as used herein may include wirelessly connected or wirelessly coupled. As used herein, the term "and / or" includes all or any units and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
[0212] It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the prior art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless specifically defined herein.
[0213] Those skilled in the art may understand that the "terminal" and "terminal device" used herein include both devices for wireless signal receivers, which only have devices for wireless signal receivers without transmitting capabilities, and devices for receiving and transmitting hardware, which have devices for receiving and transmitting hardware capable of bidirectional communication on a bidirectional communication link. Such devices may include: cellular or other communications devices with single line displays or multi-line displays or cellular or other communications devices without multi-line displays; a PCS (Personal Communications Service), which may combine capabilities of voice, data processing, facsimile and / or data communications; a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) that may include a radio frequency receiver, pager, Internet / intranet access, web browser, notepad, calendar and / or a GPS (Global Locationing System) receiver; a conventional laptop and / or palmtop computer or other device having and / or including a radio frequency receiver. As used herein, a "terminal", "terminal device" may be portable, transportable, installed in a vehicle (aeronautical, maritime, and / or land), or adapted and / or configured to operate locally, and / or operate in a distributed fashion, at any other location on earth and / or space. The "terminal" and "terminal device" used herein may also be a communication terminal, an Internet terminal, a music / video playback terminal, such as a PDA, an MID (Mobile Internet Device) and / or a mobile phone with music / video playback function, or a smart TV, a set-top box and other devices.
[0214] The term "send" in the present invention may be used interchangeably with "transmit", "report", "notify", etc. without departing from the scope of the present invention.
[0215] The text and drawings are provided as examples only to aid the reader in understanding the present disclosure. They are not intended, nor should they be construed, to limit the scope of the disclosure in any way. Although certain embodiments and examples have been provided, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, based upon this disclosure, that changes may be made to the embodiments and examples shown without departing from the scope of the disclosure.
[0216] Transmission in the wireless communication system includes: transmission from the base station (gNB) to the User Equipment (UE) (called downlink transmission), the corresponding slot is called a downlink slot, and transmission from the UE to the base station (called uplink transmission), the corresponding slot is called an uplink slot.
[0217] In wireless communication systems, such as LTE or NR systems, a 2-step or 4-step random access procedure is used to establish the link between the device and the base station. The base station periodically transmits the synchronization signal and broadcast channel to the user through the synchronization signal block (SSB, synchronization signal / PBCH block, or called the first downlink reference signal), and the periodicity is the synchronization signal block periodicity (SSB periodicity), or is also called the synchronization signal block burst periodicity (SSB burst periodicity). Meanwhile, the base station will configure a random access configuration period (physical random access channel configuration period, PRACH configuration period), and configure a certain number of random access transmission occasions (also called random access occasions, PRACH transmission occasions, ROs) within this period.
[0218] In New Radio (NR) communication systems, before radio resource control is established, such as during the random access procedure, the performance of random access directly affects the user experience. In traditional wireless communication systems, such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, or in 5G or NR systems, the random access procedure is applied to multiple scenarios such as establishing initial links, cell handover, re-establishing uplink links, RRC connection reestablishment, etc., and is classified as contention-based random access and contention-free random access according to whether the user exclusively occupies preamble resource. Since in contention-based random access, each user selects a preamble sequence from the same preamble sequence resource when trying to establish an uplink link, multiple users may select the same preamble sequence and transmit it to the base station. Therefore, the collision resolution mechanism is an important research direction in random access. How to reduce the probability of conflict and how to quickly resolve conflict that has occurred are key metrics that affect the performance of random access.
[0219] FIG. 3b illustrates a schematic diagram of a 4-step random access procedure according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For example, the contention-based random access procedure is divided into four steps, as shown in FIG. 3b. In the first step, the UE randomly selects a preamble sequence (also interchangeably referred to as "preamble" herein) from the preamble sequence resource pool and transmits it to the base station. The base station performs correlation detection on the received signal to identify the preamble sequence transmitted by the UE. In the second step, the base station transmits a random access response (RAR) to the UE. The RAR may include a random access preamble sequence identifier, a timing advance indication determined based on the time delay estimation between the UE and the base station, a temporary cell-radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), and / or time-frequency resource allocated for the next uplink transmission of the UE (time-frequency resource may refer to time domain resource and / or frequency domain resource). The UE is to search for the PDCCH carrying the response based on the RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH occasion where the random access preamble sequence is transmitted. The RA-RNTI associated with the PRACH occasion (e.g., RO) where the random access preamble sequence is transmitted may be based on the index of the first OFDM symbol of the PRACH occasion, the index of the first slot of the PRACH occasion in the system frame, the index of the PRACH occasion in frequency domain, the UL carrier used for random access preamble transmission. For example, RA-RNTI may be calculated according to the following formula:
[0220] RA-RNTI = 1 + s_id + 14×t_id + 14×80×f_id + 14×80×8×ul_carrier_id,
[0221] where s_id is the index of the first OFDM symbol of the PRACH occasion (0 ≤ s_id < 14), t_id is the index of the first slot of the PRACH occasion in the system frame (0 ≤ t_id < 80), wherein, the subcarrier spacing used to determine t_id is based on the value of μ for μ = {0, 1, 2, 3}, and for μ = {5, 6}, t_id is the index of the 120 kHz slot containing the PRACH occasion in the system frame (0 ≤t_id < 80), f_id is the index of the PRACH occasion in frequency domain (0 ≤f_id < 8), ul_carrier_id is the UL carrier used for random access preamble transmission (0 for NUL carrier, 1 for SUL carrier).
[0222] In the third step, the user transmits a third message (message 3, Msg3) to the base station based on the information in the RAR. Msg3 contains information such as user terminal identifier and RRC link request, where the user terminal identifier is unique to the user and is used to resolve conflict; in the fourth step, the base station transmits a conflict resolution identification to the user, including the identifier of the user terminal that wins in the conflict resolution. After detecting its own identifier, the user upgrades the temporary C-RNTI to C-RNTI, transmits an ACK signal to the base station, completes the random access procedure, and waits for the scheduling from the base station. Otherwise, the user will start a new random access procedure after a delay.
[0223] For the contention-free random access procedure, since the base station knows the user identifier, a preamble sequence may be allocated to the user. Therefore, when transmitting the preamble sequence, the user does not need to randomly select a sequence, but uses the allocated preamble sequence. After detecting the allocated preamble sequence, the base station will transmit a corresponding random access response, including information such as timing advance and uplink resource allocation, etc. After receiving the random access response, the user considers that the uplink synchronization has been completed and waits for further scheduling from the base station. Therefore, the contention-free random access procedure only includes two steps: step one is to transmit the preamble sequence; Step two is to transmit a random access response.
[0224] For example, the random access procedure applies to the following scenarios:
[0225] 1. Initial access in RRC_IDLE;
[0226] 2. Re-establish RRC connection;
[0227] 3. Cell handover;
[0228] 4. Downlink data arrives in the RRC connected state and a random access procedure is requested (when the uplink is asynchronous);
[0229] 5. Uplink data arrives in the RRC connected state and a random access procedure is requested (when the uplink is asynchronous or no resource is allocated to the scheduling request in the PUCCH resource);
[0230] 6. Locationing.
[0231] Among the configured ROs, valid ROs may be determined based on a method for determining validity of a RO. It is satisfied that all SSBs can be mapped onto corresponding valid ROs within an association period (a certain time span or time duration). In a mapping cycle from SSB to RO, all SSBs in an SSB periodicity may be mapped to required random access resource exactly. There may be one or more mapping cycles in an association period. An SSB-to-RO association pattern period includes one or more association periods, and the SSB-to-RO association patterns in each association pattern period are the same.
[0232] The base station may configure a random access configuration period (for example, PRACH configuration period), and a certain number of ROs are configured within this period. By using a certain validity determination method or validity rule, valid ROs are determined from the configured ROs so that all SSBs may be mapped to corresponding valid ROs within an association period (a certain time duration), and in a mapping cycle from SSB to RO, all SSBs in an SSB periodicity may be mapped to required random access resource exactly. There may be one or more mapping cycles in an association period. An SSB-to-RO association pattern period includes one or more association periods, and the SSB-to-RO association patterns in each association pattern period are the same.
[0233] The frequency domain resource unit (also called frequency resource unit, frequency domain unit or frequency unit) in the embodiment of the present disclosure may be: a subcarrier, a subcarrier group (consisting of multiple subcarriers), a resource block (RB), may also be called a physical resource block (PRB), a resource block group (consisting of multiple RBs), a bandwidth part (BWP), a bandwidth part group (consisting of multiple BWPs), a band / carrier, a bandwidth group / carrier group; may also be in absolute frequency domain units, such as 1 Hz, 1 kHz, etc.; the frequency domain unit may also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as M1 PRBs plus M2 subcarriers, etc.
[0234] The time domain resource unit (also called time domain unit, time resource unit or time unit) in the embodiment of the present disclosure may be: an OFDM symbol, an OFDM symbol group (consisting of multiple OFDM symbols), a slot, a slot group (consisting of multiple slots), a subframe, a subframe group (consisting of multiple subframes), a system frame, a system frame group (consisting of multiple system frames); may also be in absolute time units, such as 1 millisecond, 1 second, etc.; the time unit may also be a combination of multiple granularities, such as N1 slots plus N2 OFDM symbols, etc. It may also be the time length of an OOK (On-Off Keying) chip.
[0235] In the embodiment of the present invention, the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may be used to schedule DL transmission on PDCCH and UL transmission on PUSCH, wherein the downlink control information (DCI) on the PDCCH includes:
[0236] -Downlink assignment, which at least includes modulation and coding scheme, resource allocation and hybrid ARQ information related to DL-SCH;
[0237] -Uplink scheduling grant, which at least includes modulation and coding scheme, resource allocation and hybrid ARQ information related to UL-SCH.
[0238] In addition to scheduling, PDCCH may also be used for:
[0239] -activating and deactivating configured PUSCH transmission using configured grant;
[0240] -activation and deactivation of PDSCH semi-persistent transmission;
[0241] - notifying one or more UEs of the slot format;
[0242] -notifying one or more UEs of PRBs and OFDM symbols, wherein the UE may assume that no transmission is intended for the UE;
[0243] -transmitting TPC commands of PUCCH and PUSCH;
[0244] - transmitting, by one or more UE, one or more TPC commands for SRS transmission;
[0245] -switching the active bandwidth part of the UE;
[0246] -start random access procedure;
[0247] -instructing the UE to monitor PDCCH during the next DRX on-duration ;
[0248] -in the IAB context, representing the availability of soft symbols of the IAB-DU;
[0249] -triggering a single HARQ-ACK codebook feedback;
[0250] -for the operation for shared spectrum channel access, including at least one of:
[0251] -triggering a search space set group switch;
[0252] -indicating available RB sets and channel occupancy duration to one or more UEs;
[0253] -indicating the configured grant PUSCH downlink feedback information (CG-DFI).
[0254] In describing a wireless communication system and in the present disclosure described below, higher layer signaling or higher layer signal may be a signal transfer method for transferring information from a base station to a terminal through a downlink data channel in the physical layer or from a terminal to a base station through an uplink data channel in the physical layer, and examples of the signal transfer method may include a signal transfer method for transferring information through radio resource control (RRC) signaling, packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) signaling or medium access control (MAC) control element (CE).
[0255] In the following description of the present disclosure, higher layer signaling may be signaling corresponding to at least one or a combination of one or more of the following signaling.
[0256] -MIB (main information block)
[0257] -SIB (system information block) or SIB X (X = 1,2, ...)
[0258] -RRC signaling
[0259] - MAC CE
[0260] The physical layer (Layer 1(L1)) signaling may be a signaling corresponding to at least one or a combination of one or more of the following signaling.
[0261] -PDCCH (physical downlink control channel)
[0262] -DCI (downlink control information)
[0263] -UE specific DCI
[0264] -group common DCI
[0265] - common DCI
[0266] -scheduling DCI (for example, DCI for scheduling downlink or uplink data)
[0267] -non- scheduling DCI (e.g., DCI other than DCI for scheduling downlink or uplink data)
[0268] -PUCCH (physical uplink control channel)
[0269] -UCI (uplink control information)
[0270] In embodiments of the present disclosure, the uplink control signaling may include physical layer signaling and / or higher layer signaling. As mentioned above, the physical layer signaling may include UCI and / or PUCCH, and the higher layer signaling may include RRC signaling and / or MAC CE.
[0271] In embodiments of the present disclosure, downlink control signaling may include physical layer signaling and / or higher layer signaling. As mentioned above, the physical layer signaling may include one or more of PDCCH, DCI, UE-specific DCI, group common DCI, common DCI, scheduling DCI (for example, DCI for scheduling downlink or uplink data), and non-scheduling DCI, and the higher layer signaling may include one or more of MIB, SIB or SIB X (X = 1,2, ...), RRC signaling or MAC CE. Therefore, "configuring or indicating X through downlink control signaling" will be understood as configuring or indicating X through physical layer signaling, or configuring or indicating X through higher layer signaling, or configuring or indicating X through a combination of higher layer signaling and physical layer signaling.
[0272] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, a section of continuous spectrum resource is referred to as a "frequency domain resource group". A UE may transmit or receive physical channels and / or physical signals on a frequency domain resource group. It may be understood that a frequency domain resource group is a section of continuous spectrum resource that UE may use to transmit or receive signals. As shown in FIG. 3c, the first downlink frequency domain resource group has a bandwidth of X MHz, including X0 subcarriers, and the second downlink frequency domain resource group has a bandwidth of Y MHz and Y0 subcarriers. In some embodiments, there is a certain gap between the subcarrier with the highest index of the first downlink frequency domain resource group and the subcarrier with the lowest index of the second downlink frequency domain resource group, for example, Z MHz. In some embodiments, the subcarrier with the highest index of the first downlink frequency domain resource group and the subcarrier with the lowest index of the second downlink frequency domain resource group may be continuous.
[0273] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, the frequency domain resource group may also be equivalently replaced by one of the following items or a combination of at least one of the following items: carrier, bandwidth part, carrier clip or carrier segment, etc.
[0274] Hereinafter, for convenience of description, the first downlink frequency domain resource group may be referred to as the first frequency domain resource group and the second downlink frequency domain resource group as the second frequency domain resource group. Alternatively, the first frequency domain resource group includes a first-uplink frequency domain resource group and a first downlink frequency domain resource group, and the second frequency domain resource group includes a second-uplink frequency domain resource group and a second downlink frequency domain resource group.
[0275] The method provided by embodiments of the present disclosure, which activates the network to transmit broadcast signals (such as system information blocks, such as SIB1 (system information block1), etc.) based on an user request signal may at least solve the problem of high energy consumption of the network caused by the cell periodically transmitting broadcast signals, and reduce the impact on random access performance of the user due to aperiodic transmission of broadcast signals. In the description of the present disclosure, the broadcast signal transmitted based on the request signal of UE may be referred to as an on-demand broadcast signal (e.g., on-demand SIB1 or OD-SIB1, etc.), or may be referred to as the broadcast signal transmited by the network on-demand, or other similar description; a request for such a signal may accordingly be referred to as a request for an on-demand broadcast signal or requesting for an on-demand broadcast signal or the like. It should be understood that for the convenience of description, SIB1 is used as a non-limiting example of the broadcast signal requested by the UE in this disclosure. This is only exemplary, and the technical solution of the present disclosure may also be correspondingly applied to cases where the UE requesting other types of broadcast signals. These alternative methods are all within the scope intended to be covered by this disclosure.
[0276] Network (or network-side) energy saving is an important research direction in communication systems. In some communication systems, the network side needs to periodically transmit broadcast signals in order to provide users with necessary cell-related information, such as necessary information for users access to the cell. However, the communication system periodically transmits broadcast signals, which will cause the network to be unable to enter deep sleep even when there are no users or there is low user load, and cannot achieve high-gain network energy saving. Therefore, how to achieve network energy saving under the premise of ensuring user access performance is an urgent issue.
[0277] Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for activating the network to transmit broadcast signals based on user request signals. This method may prevent the network from always periodically transmitting broadcast signals, thereby achieving energy saving. When a broadcast signal is required, the user equipment UE may request the broadcast signal from the network side as needed to activate or trigger the network side to transmit the requested broadcast signal, thereby reducing the impact on the normal operation of the UE side (for example, initiating random access according to the information in the broadcast signal, etc.).
[0278] Embodiments of the present disclosure also provide a method for the network side to indicate to the UE whether a request signal for requesting a broadcast signal may be used to initiate random access. Through this method, the network side may determine whether two behaviors of requesting for a broadcast signal and initiating random access by the UE may be combined into one behavior based on the actual network state or the state of the network side, and indicate to the UE (for example, through the first indication or first information which will be described in detail later). In the case where the network side configures or indicates the UE to combine the two behaviors of requesting for a broadcast signal and initiating random access by the UE into one behavior, the UE may simultaneously implement two functions of the request for a broadcast signal and initiation of random access by transmitting one signal. In this way, the time point at which the UE may initiate random access may be advanced as much as possible while achieving energy saving on the network side, thereby potentially reducing the random access delay on the UE side. On the other hand, since the request for the broadcast signal and the initiation of random access are combined to be triggered by transmitting one signal, the signaling overhead may be reduced, the signaling process may be simplified, etc.
[0279] In addition, according to the method of the embodiment of the present disclosure, the network side may also flexibly configure (for example, through a first indication to be described in detail later) whether two behaviors of requesting for a broadcast signal and initiating random access by the UE may be combined into one behavior according to the actual network state or the state of the network side. For example, the network side may indicate to the UE that two behaviors of requesting for a broadcast signal and initiating random access by the UE cannot be combined into one behavior. For example, the network side may indicate to the UE through the first indication that the signal for requesting a broadcast signal cannot be used to initiate random access, thereby better ensuring the performance of the UE in receiving the requested broadcast signal.
[0280] Through the method provided by the embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE may initiate random access while transmitting a request for a broadcast signal, which may solve the problem of high network energy consumption caused by the cell periodically transmitting broadcast signals while ensuring user access performance.
[0281] It should be noted that the problems that may be solved by the present disclosure are not limited to the problems mentioned in the above and following descriptions, but can also solve all problems that may actually be solved according to the technical essence of the present disclosure.
[0282] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure and the technical effects produced by the technical solutions of the present disclosure will be described below through the description of several exemplary implementations. It should be noted that the following embodiments may be referred to, referenced or combined with each other, and the same terms, similar features, similar implementation steps, etc. in different embodiments will not be described repeatedly.
[0283] Furthermore, in some cases, random access resources may be configured for other features (e.g., network energy saving (NES)). Aspects of performing random access in case random access resources are configured for other features (e.g., NES) need to be considered. Example embodiments according to the present disclosure propose methods for requesting SIB1 transmission in systems configured with uplink resources (e.g., random access resources) for other features (e.g., NES), such as random access configuration, random access resource determination, SSB to RO (SSB-RO) mapping, etc.
[0284] On the other hand, in the scenario where the network transmits SIB1 on demand, if the network side configures that the signal for the UE to request SIB1 may also be used to initiate random access, how to determine the uplink resource for requesting SIB1 and initiate random access., is also a problem that needs to be solved. The uplink resource for requesting SIB1 may also be called an uplink resource for requesting SIB1transmission, an uplink resource for requesting to transmit SIB1, or an uplink resource for transmitting an uplink wake-up signal, or similar expressions.
[0285] In an implementation, by designing a solution to obtain the configuration information of the uplink resources used by the present cell to request SIB1 and initiate random access from the present cell, the UE may determine the uplink resources for requesting SIB1 and initiating random access in a simpler manner and more accurately. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the configuration information of the uplink resources used by the cell to request SIB1 and initiate random access may be determined based on the downlink reference signal of the cell (e.g., SSB or CSI-RS (channel state information reference signal), etc.). In this way, at least one of the following effects may be achieved: the UE may use the information available to the present cell to determine resources for the present cell to request SIB1 and initiate random access, thereby simplifying UE operations, reducing signaling overhead, and reducing delay in random access, improving the accuracy of determined uplink resource location, and improving energy saving gain in single cell scenarios.
[0286] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, unless otherwise specified, the configuration information includes at least one of information configured by the base station, indicated in received signaling, configured by the higher layer, and preconfigured. Further, it may be a group of configuration information obtained through the above method; it may also be multiple groups of configuration information obtained through the above method, and the UE or node may select a group of configuration information to use according to predetermined conditions; it may also be a group of configuration information obtained through the above method, and the group of configuration information includes multiple subsets, and the UE or node may select a subset to use according to predetermined conditions.
[0287] An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method performed by a UE in a communication system. As shown in FIG. 4, the method includes: S410, S420, S430, etc. It should be noted that at least one of the above operations may be omitted, or additional operations, for example, one or more operations in the methods described in various embodiments of the present disclosure, may be included.
[0288] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, for convenience of description, uplink resources related to specific features (such as NES) may be called first type of uplink resources or first-uplink resources, and the first-uplink resources may be random access resources, including first type of random access preamble (referred to as first-preamble for short) and first type of PRACH occasion (PRACH occasion, RO) (referred to as first-RO for short). In contrast, the traditional or legacy uplink resources may be called normal uplink resources or a second type of uplink resources or second-uplink resources, and the second-uplink resource may be a random access resource, including a second type of random access preamble (referred to as a second-preamble for short) and a second type of PRACH occasion (PRACH occasion, RO) (referred to as a second-RO for short). Alternatively, the first-uplink resource may also be other uplink resources related to specific features. For example, the first-uplink resource may be an uplink resource dedicated to requesting SIB1, or an uplink resource dedicated to requesting SIB1 and initiating random access. For example, the first-uplink resource may be a random access resource dedicated to requesting SIB1 or transmitting an uplink wake-up signal, the uplink wake-up signal may be used for random access. In an embodiment of the present disclosure, in the case where the UE is configured with a first indication that the signal requesting SIB1 may also be for transmitting an uplink wake-up signal, the first-uplink resource may also be considered as an uplink resource for initiating random access.
[0289] In an implementation, a random access resource may be used to activate or request the network to transmit broadcast signals and initiate random access. This is only an example, and the resources that may be used to activate or request the network to transmit broadcast signals are not limited to random access resources, but may also be other types of uplink resources preconfigured by the network, such as PUCCH or PUSCH resources. The first type of random access resource in the embodiment of the present disclosure may be replaced by a first type of uplink resource, or a first-uplink resource, the first-uplink resource is used to activate or request the network to transmit a broadcast signal, or is used to activate or request the network to transmit a broadcast signal and initiate random access.
[0290] In order to reduce the energy consumption caused by the base station due to periodic transmitting of broadcast signals (for example, system information block 1 (SIB1)) and reduce the delay of random access, the base station (or network) may configure resources for the UE to request the network to transmit broadcast signals and initiate random access (called first-uplink resources), such as first type of random access resources or other uplink resources. For example, the UE may simultaneously request the network to transmit a broadcast signal and initiate random access on the same resource. In this way, when the UE needs a certain broadcast signal (such as SIB1) and expects to initiate random access, it may use this resource to request the transmission of the broadcast signal from the network and initiate random access, and the network side does not have to periodically transmit the broadcast signal, thereby achieving energy saving on the network side, and the UE may not need to obtain the related configuration of random access after receiving the broadcast signal and then initiate random access, thereby reducing the delay of random access.
[0291] In a scenario where the cell does not have periodic SIB1 broadcast, the UE may quickly determine the first-uplink resource, such as PRACH and PUSCH resources, through the time-frequency location of a downlink reference signal, for initiating a request for requesting SIB1 to transmit and / or initiate a random access process, which reduces the delay for the UE to access the system, reduces system signaling overhead, and helps energy saving at the network and UE.
[0292] In an example method, if the UE needs to request the network side to transmit a broadcast signal (e.g., SIB1, etc.) for a certain cell, the UE may obtain corresponding information from other cells and use this information to determine the uplink resources for requesting broadcast signaling from the network side.
[0293] In another example method, if the UE needs to request the network side to transmit a broadcast signal (e.g., SIB1, etc.) for a certain cell, the UE may obtain the corresponding information from the downlink reference signal (e.g., SSB) periodically transmitted by the network side, and use this information to determine the uplink resources for requesting broadcast signal transmission from the network side.
[0294] In the description of the present disclosure, for convenience of description, a signal for requesting the network side to transmit a broadcast signal is called a first-uplink signal. In the case where the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate random access, an uplink signal that constitutes a msgA together with the first-uplink signal in the 2-step random access (for example, PUSCH in msgA) is called a second-uplink signal.
[0295] In the description of the present disclosure, for convenience of description, at least one of configuration information related to the first-uplink signal (for example, including information on whether the first-uplink signal may also be used to initiate random access (for example, a first indication)), information related to first-uplink resource related to the transmission of the first-uplink signal and configuration information related to the second-uplink signal is called first-uplink configuration information.
[0296] In the description of the present disclosure, for convenience of description, SIB1 is described as a non-limiting example of the broadcast signal requested by the UE.
[0297] In the description of the present disclosure, the case described as indicating "whether" may also be replaced by the case described as indicating "yes", or the case described as indicating "no". For example, an indication indicating whether the network side is in an energy-saving state may also be described as indicating that the network side is in an energy-saving state, or may also be described as indicating that the network side is not in an energy-saving state or in a non-energy-saving state, etc.
[0298] In some implementations, for example, the first-uplink configuration information includes configuration information related to the UE initiating a 4-step random access process and requesting SIB1through the first-uplink signal, or includes configuration information related to the UE initiating a 2-step random access process and requesting SIB1 for example through the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal. In other words, the first-uplink configuration information may enable the UE to obtain necessary configuration information for requesting SIB1 and initiating random access through the first-uplink signal. For example, the first-uplink configuration information may include at least some of configuration related to the first-uplink signal, configuration related to transmission resources of the first-uplink signal, configuration related to random access, etc., for example, according to the configuration information, the UE may receive SIB1 at the corresponding location, or monitor the PDCCH that schedules SIB1, or receive the RAR that includes SIB1, or monitor the PDCCH that schedules RAR that includes SIB1, or receive SIB1 and receive RAR, or monitor the PDCCH that schedules SIB1 and RAR.
[0299] In some embodiments, the UE may obtain the first-uplink configuration information based on the downlink reference signal. For example, the UE may obtain configuration information related to receiving the first-uplink configuration information based on the downlink reference signal, and receive or monitor the first-uplink configuration information through the obtained configuration information. For example, the downlink reference signal includes a network side energy saving state indication and first configuration information. The network side energy saving state indication is used to indicate whether the network side is in an energy saving state (for example, it may also be called a first state). In case the network side is in a non-energy saving state (e.g. the network side may periodically transmit SIB1), the first configuration information comprises configuration information related to monitoring or receiving SIB1 by the UE; in case the network side is in an energy saving state (for example, the network side does not periodically transmit SIB1 and the UE needs to request SIB1 to transmit), the first configuration information includes configuration information related to monitoring or receiving the first-uplink configuration information by the UE. Based on the energy saving state indication in the downlink reference signal indicating network side energy saving, the UE may monitor or receive the first-uplink configuration information based on the first configuration information. In this way, fields related to the PDCCH configuring the periodic SIB1 in the downlink reference signal (e.g., SSB) or its resources may be reused for transmitting configurations related to the first-uplink configuration information (e.g., receiving resource configuration, monitoring related configuration, etc.), thereby improving resource utilization or saving signaling overhead, etc.
[0300] In some implementations, the UE may obtain the first-uplink configuration information based on the downlink reference signal. For example, the first-uplink configuration information is included in the downlink reference signal, and the UE obtains the first-uplink configuration information by receiving the downlink reference signal. In an implementation, a first part of the downlink reference signal includes a network side energy saving state indication, which is used to indicate whether the network side is in an energy saving state. For example, the UE may determine whether the network is in an energy saving state based on the first part of the downlink reference signal, where the first part includes a network energy saving state indication. For example, the first part may be a part of the PBCH in the downlink reference signal. For example, the frequency resources occupied by the first part (for example, equal to the number of PRBs) are predetermined or predetermined in the protocol. If the network is in an energy saving state, the UE may obtain the first-uplink configuration information in a second part of the received downlink reference signal or a second part of the downlink reference signal received in a subsequent (for example, next) downlink reference signal period, for example, the second part may be a part of the PBCH in the downlink reference signal.
[0301] Accordingly, when the network side is in the energy saving state, the network side may transmit an indication indicating that the network side is in the energy saving state in the first part of the downlink reference signal, and transmit the first-uplink configuration information in the second part of the downlink reference signal (for example, a part of the PBCH). In an implementation, in case the network side is in an energy saving state, the second part of the downlink reference signal may include additional resources for transmitting the first-uplink configuration information. For example, the additional resources may be predetermined or configured through other parts of the downlink reference signal. For example, in case that the network side is in an energy saving state, the UE may assume that the downlink reference signal includes the second part, and the UE may receive the downlink reference signal including the second part in the subsequent (for example, the next) downlink reference signal period, where the frequency resources occupied by the second part may be greater than or less than the frequency resources of the first part of the downlink reference signal; Alternatively, the frequency resources occupied by a part of the second part may be larger than frequency resources of the first part of the downlink reference signal, and the frequency resources occupied by another part may be smaller than frequency resources of the first part of the downlink reference signal; Alternatively, the time resource of the second part is greater than the time resource of the first part of the downlink reference signal, for example, after the time unit where the first part is located (for example, the next time unit).
[0302] In a possible implementation, the frequency resources occupied by the first part of the downlink reference signal may be frequency resources corresponding to the frequency index 1 / 2 * (N-M) ~ 1 / 2 * (N + M)-1, and the frequency resources occupied by the second part may be frequency resources corresponding to the frequency index 0 ~ (N-M) / 2-1, N-M / 2~ N-1, where N is the number of frequency resources occupied by the downlink reference signal, M is the number of frequency resources occupied by the first part, M and N are positive integers, M is less than or equal to N, and the frequency index increases sequentially from the lowest frequency resource to the highest frequency resource start from 0, for example, the number of frequency resources occupied by the downlink reference signal is N PRBs, and the corresponding frequency index is 0 ~ N-1.
[0303] FIG. 26 shows an example of a downlink reference signal or a part of the downlink reference signal, which shows one of the time units (e.g., symbols) in the downlink reference signal, wherein the number of frequency resources of the downlink reference signal is N = 8, and the number of frequency resources occupied by the first part is M = 4, then the indexes of the frequency resources corresponding to the first part are 1 / 2 * (8-4) ~ 1 / 2 * (8 +4)-1, that is, the indexes of the frequency resources occupied by the first part are 2 ~ 5; The indexes of the frequency resources corresponding to the second part are 0 ~ (8-4) / 2-1, 8-4 / 2 ~ 8-1, that is, the indexes of the frequency resources occupied by the second part are 0 ~ 1, 6 ~ 7; Specifically, in time unit 1, the frequency resources of the first part of the downlink reference signal occupy 4 frequency units (such as RBs), and the corresponding RB indexes are 2, 3, 4, and 5; The frequency resources of the second part of the downlink reference signal occupy 4 frequency units (for example, RBs), and the corresponding RB indexes are 0, 1, 6, and 7.
[0304] It should be understood that FIG. 26 shows only a part of the downlink reference signal and is not a complete illustration. In addition to the first part and the second part shown in the figure, the downlink reference signal may also include other parts. For example, it may also include synchronization signals (such as primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS)), other types of reference signals, reference signals that may be used for channel estimation, etc. For example, the first part and the second part shown in the figure may be included in the PBCH of the SSB, or the first part or the second part may be partially included in the PBCH, and the remaining part is transmitted through additional resources.
[0305] Through the above manner, the UE may determine whether it needs to receive the second part by receiving the first part. For example, if it is determined that the network is in an energy saving state based on the received first part, the UE may expect that the first-uplink configuration information will be included in the second part of the current downlink reference signal or the second part of the next downlink reference signal, so that performing necessary operations such as reception, detection, or decoding, etc. on the first-uplink configuration information; Otherwise, if it is determined that the network is not in an energy saving state based on the received first part, the UE may expect that the first-uplink configuration information will not be included in the second part of the current downlink reference signal or the second part of the next downlink reference signal, so that there is no need to perform corresponding operations such as reception, detection, or decoding, etc. on the first-uplink configuration information.
[0306] In another possible implementation, the frequency resources occupied by the first part of the downlink reference signal may be frequency resources corresponding to the frequency indexes 0 ~ 1 / 2 * N-1, and the frequency resources occupied by the second part may be frequency resources corresponding to the frequency indexes 1 / 2 * N ~ 1 / 2 * N+M-1, where M is the number of frequency resources occupied by the first part, N is the number of frequency resources occupied by the downlink reference signal, M and N are positive integers, M is less than or equal to N, and the frequency index increases sequentially from the lowest frequency resource to the highest frequency resource start from 0. For example, the number of frequency resources occupied by the downlink reference signal is N PRBs, and the corresponding frequency indexes are 0 ~ N-1.
[0307] FIG. 27 shows an example of a downlink reference signal or a partial downlink reference signal. This example shows one of the time units (for example, symbols) in the downlink reference signal, where the number of frequency resources of the downlink reference signal is N = 8, the number of frequency resources occupied by the first part is M = 4, then the indexes of the frequency resources corresponding to the first part are 0 ~ 1 / 2 * N-1, that is, the indexes of the frequency resources occupied by the second part are 0 ~ 3; The indexes of the frequency resources corresponding to the second part are 1 / 2 * N ~ 1 / 2 * N+M-1, that is, the indexes of the frequency resources occupied by the second part are 4 ~ 7; Specifically, in time unit 1, the frequency resources of the first part of the downlink reference signal occupy 4 frequency units (such as RBs), and the corresponding RB indexes are 0, 1, 2, and 3; The frequency resources of the second part of the downlink reference signal occupy 4 frequency units (for example, RBs), and the corresponding RB indexes are 4, 5, 6, and 7.
[0308] It should be understood that FIG. 27 shows only a part of the downlink reference signal and is not a complete illustration. In addition to the first part and the second part shown in the figure, the downlink reference signal may also include other parts. For example, it may also include synchronization signals (such as primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS)), other types of reference signals, reference signals that may be used for channel estimation, etc. For example, the first part and the second part shown in the figure may be included in the PBCH of the SSB, or the first part or the second part may be partially included in the PBCH, and the remaining part is transmitted through additional resources.
[0309] Through the above manner, the UE may determine whether it needs to receive the second part by receiving the first part. For example, if it is determined that the network is in an energy saving state based on the received first part, the UE may expect that the first-uplink configuration information will be included in the second part of the current downlink reference signal or the second part of the next downlink reference signal, so that performing necessary operations such as reception, detection, or decoding, etc. on the first-uplink configuration information; Otherwise, if it is determined that the network is not in an energy saving state based on the received first part, the UE may expect that the first-uplink configuration information will not be included in the second part of the current downlink reference signal or the second part of the next downlink reference signal, so that there is no need to perform corresponding operations such as reception, detection, or decoding, etc. on the first-uplink configuration information.
[0310] In another possible implementation, the frequency resources occupied by the first part and the second part of the downlink reference signal may be the same, and the first part and the second part occupy different time domain resources, for example, the first part occupies time unit 1 and the second part occupies time unit 2, where time unit 2 follows the time unit, for example, time unit 1 and time unit 2 are continuous in time, where the number of frequency domain resources occupied by the downlink reference signal is equal to the number of frequency domain resources occupied by the first part and / or the second part, for example, M = N, where M is the number of frequency resources occupied by the first part or the second part, the frequency resources occupied by the first part and the second part of the downlink reference signal are, for example, the frequency resources corresponding to the frequency indexes 0 ~ 1 / 2 * N-1, N is the number of frequency resources occupied by the downlink reference signal, M and N are positive integers, M is less than or equal to N, and the frequency index increases sequentially from the lowest frequency resource to the highest frequency resource, For example, the number of frequency resources occupied by the downlink reference signal is N PRBs, and the corresponding frequency indexes are 0 ~N-1.
[0311] FIG. 28 shows an example of a downlink reference signal or a part of the downlink reference signal. This example shows two time units (such as symbols) of the downlink reference signal (indexes 0, 1, 2, in order of increasing time units), where the number of frequency resources of the downlink reference signal is N = 4, the first part and the second part occupy different time units. In FIG. 28, the first part occupies time unit 1, the second part occupies time unit 2, and the first part and the second part occupies the same number of frequency resources, which is M = 4, then the indexes of the frequency resources corresponding to the first part or the second part are 0 ~ 1 / 2 * N-1, that is, the indexes of the occupied frequency and frequency resources are 0 ~ 3; Specifically, in time unit 1, the frequency resources of the first part of the downlink reference signal occupy 4 frequency units (such as RBs), and the corresponding RB indexes are 0, 1, 2, and 3; In time unit 2, the frequency resources of the second part of the downlink reference signal occupy 4 frequency units (for example, RBs), and the corresponding RB indexes are 0, 1, 2, and 3.
[0312] It should be understood that FIG. 28 shows only a part of the downlink reference signal and is not a complete illustration. In addition to the first part and the second part shown in the figure, the downlink reference signal may also include other parts. For example, it may also include synchronization signals (such as primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS)), other types of reference signals, reference signals that may be used for channel estimation, etc. For example, the first part and the second part shown in the figure may be included in the PBCH of the SSB, or the first part or the second part may be partially included in the PBCH, and the remaining part is transmitted through additional resources.
[0313] Through the above manner, the UE may determine whether it needs to receive the second part by receiving the first part. For example, if it is determined that the network is in an energy saving state based on the received first part, the UE may expect that the first-uplink configuration information will be included in the second part of the current downlink reference signal or the second part of the next downlink reference signal, so that performing necessary operations such as reception, detection, or decoding, etc. on the first-uplink configuration information; Otherwise, if it is determined that the network is not in an energy saving state based on the received first part, the UE may expect that the first-uplink configuration information will not be included in the second part of the current downlink reference signal or the second part of the next downlink reference signal, so that there is no need to perform corresponding operations such as reception, detection, or decoding, etc. on the first-uplink configuration information.
[0314] In some embodiments, the UE may determine whether it is necessary to request the first-uplink configuration information based on the network side energy saving state indication in the downlink reference signal. For example, if it is determined that the network side is in an energy saving state according to the network side energy saving state indication, the UE may request the network side to transmit the first-uplink configuration information through a third uplink signal. The network side may transmit second downlink information to the UE in response to the third uplink signal, and the second downlink information may be used by the UE to determine the first-uplink configuration information.
[0315] For example, the second downlink information includes indicating one first-uplink configuration information among multiple predetermined first-uplink configuration information. Alternatively, the second downlink information may indicate a physical resource or downlink channel including the first-uplink configuration information. For example, the second downlink information includes configuration information of the downlink channel, and the UE may receive the first-uplink configuration information by receiving the downlink channel, for example, the downlink channel is a downlink physical shared channel, and the UE may receive a system information block including the first-uplink configuration information in the downlink physical shared channel. And the system information block occupies fewer physical resources than SIB1, for example, may be called light SIB or SIB0, etc., accordingly, the downlink channel and the second downlink information or the resource or channel where the second downlink information is located may be called SIB0 PDSCH and SIB0 PDCCH respectively. In an implementation, the configuration related to monitoring or receiving the second downlink information may be obtained based on first configuration information, wherein in case the network side is in a non-energy-saving state (for example, the network side may periodically transmit SIB1), the first configuration information includes configuration information related to the UE monitoring or receiving SIB1, and in case the network side is in an energy-saving state (for example, the network side does not periodically transmit SIB1), the first configuration information includes configuration related to monitoring or receiving the second downlink information.
[0316] In some implementations, according to the obtained first-uplink configuration information, the UE determines resources for transmitting an uplink signal and determines whether the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate random access. For example, if it is determined that the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate random access, the UE assumes or expects that it may monitor or detect or receive the random access responses RAR and SIB1 after transmitting the first-uplink signal. For example, if it is determined that the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate random access, the UE assumes or expects to monitor or detect or receive the random access response RAR including SIB1 after transmitting the first-uplink signal, or monitor or detect or receive the RAR and SIB1, respectively, or monitor or detect or receive SIB1 including RAR. The configuration information of resources for monitoring or detecting or receiving RAR and / or SIB1 may be determined based on at least one of the above-mentioned downlink reference signal, the second downlink information, the first configuration information, the downlink channel corresponding to the second downlink information, and the first-uplink configuration information, or may be predetermined (for example, protocol predetermined, preconfigured, etc.).
[0317] In some embodiments, a system information block (e.g., SIB1) periodically transmitted by the network side includes resource configuration information of the RO and PO for 2-step random access, where the resource configuration information corresponds to the joint configuration information of the RO and PO. In an implementation, the resource configuration information includes configuration information of a resource group associated with the RO and the PO, and the resources of the RO and the PO are included in the resource group. In this way, the resources of RO and PO may be jointly configured to save signaling overhead. In addition, the RO and PO in the configured resource group are associated with each other, and the operation of the UE in transmitting the msgA may be simplified.
[0318] It should be understood that in the exemplary description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, for convenience of description, whether the first-uplink signal may be used for random access is used as an example to describe the solution, but this is only exemplary, and the described solution may also be applied accordingly to whether the first-uplink signal resource may be used for random access, or whether the first-uplink signal and the first-uplink signal resource may be used for random access. For example, based on the first-uplink configuration information, the UE may determine whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource may be used for random access, and accordingly adopt the solutions described in various example embodiments of the present disclosure.
[0319] In addition, although in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the first-uplink configuration information includes a first indication (or referred to as first information) to indicate whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource may be used for random access, but this is only exemplary. The information about whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource may be used for random access may also be predetermined, for example, predetermined by the protocol, or preconfigured.
[0320] In addition, in addition to the solutions described in some embodiments of the present disclosure, in some implementations, some uplink resource configurations of multiple uplink resource configurations may be used for the case where the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource may be used for random access, for example, these uplink resource configurations may be used to simultaneously initiate random access and request SIB1 transmission; Alternatively, each of the multiple uplink resource configurations includes a field, which is used to indicate whether the uplink resource configuration is used for the case where the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource may be used for random access, for example, this field is used to indicate whether the uplink resource configuration may be used to simultaneously initiate random access and request SIB1 transmission.
[0321] It should be understood that in the exemplary description of the embodiments of the present disclosure, for convenience of description, when describing the location of a resource, the start or end of the resource or location, etc. are sometimes used. Such description is by way of example only and is not intended to be limiting. The start referred to in the description of the present disclosure may be alternatively described as an end, a center location, or other location, and vice versa. For example, the expression described as the end may also be replaced by the start, the center location, or other locations, as long as the use of the location may achieve the effect required by the corresponding technology.
[0322] An embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method performed by a UE in a communication system. As shown in FIG. 4, the method includes: S410, S420, S430, etc. It should be noted that at least one of the above operations may be omitted, or additional operations may be included, for example, one or more operations in the methods described in various embodiments of the present disclosure.
[0323] In step S410, the UE receives a downlink reference signal and obtains cell-related configuration information.
[0324] For example, the cell-related configuration information includes configuration information related to the first-uplink resource;
[0325] In step S420, the UE transmits a first-uplink signal, or transmits the first-uplink signal and a second-uplink signal according to the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource.
[0326] For example, the time-frequency resource group for transmitting the first-uplink signal, or the time-frequency resource group for transmitting the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal, is determined according to the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource, and the first-uplink signal is used by the UE to request the cell to transmit OD-SIB1 and / or perform a random access process;
[0327] In step S430, the UE receives first downlink information, where the first downlink information includes OD-SIB1 and / or information related to random access response.
[0328] For example, if it is determined that the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate random access, the UE assumes or expects that the random access responses RAR and SIB1 may be monitored or detected after transmitting the first-uplink signal. For example, if it is determined that the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate random access, the UE assumes or expects that after transmitting the first-uplink signal, it may monitor or detect the random access response RAR including SIB1, or monitor RAR and SIB1 respectively, or monitor SIB1 including RAR.
[0329] In the embodiment of the present disclosure, in step S410, the UE receives a downlink reference signal transmitted by the serving cell to perform cell search, where the downlink reference signal includes at least one of: physical broadcast channel (PBCH), PSS, and SSS. For example, the downlink reference signal is SSB. Optionally, the serving cell is PCell. Among them, the UE is in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE state, or in RRC_CONNECTED state when T311 is running.
[0330] Various optional details of the disclosure will be described below in connection with various example embodiments.
[0331] [First-uplink configuration information]
[0332] In an implementation, the cell-related configuration information includes a combination of at least one or more of:
[0333] 1) first-uplink configuration information;
[0334] 2) indication related to cell energy saving state;
[0335] 3) first configuration information, used to determine related configuration for monitoring the second downlink information.
[0336] Wherein, the first-uplink configuration information includes a combination of at least one or more of:
[0337] 1) Configuration information related to the first-uplink signal;
[0338] 2) Configuration information related to the second-uplink signal;
[0339] 3) Configuration information related to the first-uplink resource.
[0340] [Function of the first-uplink signal]
[0341] In an implementation, the configuration information related to the first-uplink signal may include a 1-bit indication (for example, called a first indication) used to indicate whether the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate a random access process, such as "0" indicates that the first-uplink signal may only be used for an OD-SIB1 transmission request, "1" indicates that the first-uplink signal may be used for OD-SIB1 request and initiating a random access process at the same time, where the random access process may be a four-step random access process or a two-step random access process.
[0342] The benefit of introducing this first indication is that it may ensure that the network may flexibly configure uplink resources according to different scenarios. For example, when the first-uplink signal may be used to initiate random access and request OD-SIB1 transmission at the same time, the signaling overhead related to simultaneous configuration of an OD-SIB1 request and random access may be reduced.
[0343] In an implementation, the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource may include an n-bit indication (second indication), which is used to indicate one of 2^n first-uplink resource configuration indexes predetermined by the protocol, where the first-uplink resource is for transmitting a first-uplink signal.
[0344] In an implementation, the configuration information related to the first-uplink signal also includes at least one of: preamble index, preamble root sequence index, number of preambles, and preamble format.
[0345] In a possible implementation, the protocol predefines two first-uplink resource configuration tables, such as Table 1 and Table 2, where Table 1 corresponds to the configuration of the first-uplink resource corresponding to the first-uplink signal only used for OD-SIB1 transmission request, wherein Table 2 corresponds to the configuration of the first-uplink resource corresponding to the first-uplink signal used for both OD-SIB1 transmission request and initiating random access process, and configurations of the first-uplink resources corresponding to the indexes in Table 1 and Table 2 indicated by the second indication may be completely different or partially the same. The UE may determine the table corresponding to the first-uplink resource configuration according to the first indication. For example, when the first indication is "0", Table 1 is indicated; For example, when the first indication is "1", Table 2 is indicated.
[0346] In a possible implementation, the protocol predefines a first-uplink resource configuration table, wherein each index in the table (for example, a row in the table) corresponds to configuration of the first-uplink configuration, and all or some of configuration parameters in each row have two possible values, namely optional value 1 and optional value 2, which respectively correspond to the configuration of the first-uplink resource corresponding to the first-uplink signal only used for OD-SIB1 transmission request and the configuration of the first-uplink resource corresponding to the first-uplink signal that is used for both OD-SIB1 transmission request and initiating random access process. The UE may determine which of the two possible values to select as the configuration of the first-uplink resource based on the first indication. For example, when the first indication is "0", the optional value 1 is indicated; For example, when the first indication is "1", the optional value 2 is indicated.
[0347] [Obtain cell-related configuration information according to energy saving state of a cell]
[0348] In an implementation, the cell energy saving state related indication is used to indicate whether the cell is in an energy saving state, for example, a 1-bit indication is used to indicate that the cell is in one of two states: energy saving or non-energy saving. For example, when the cell is in the energy saving state, the UE assumes that SIB1 of the current cell is not periodically transmitted, or that SIB1 is not in a state of being transmitted; When the cell is in a non-energy-saving state, the UE assumes that SIB1 of the current cell is periodically transmitted, or SIB1 is in a state of being transmitted.
[0349] In an implementation, when the cell is in the energy saving state, before the UE transmits the first-uplink signal, the UE requests the cell to transmit the first-uplink configuration information, where the UE determines whether the cell is in the energy saving state according to an indication related to the energy saving state of the cell.
[0350] In a possible implementation, as shown in FIG. 5, the UE transmits a third uplink signal for obtaining the first-uplink configuration information, and the UE transmits the first-uplink signal according to the first-uplink configuration information, wherein the third uplink signal may be a dedicated uplink reference signal predetermined by the protocol and for requesting the cell to transmit the first-uplink configuration information. For example, the third uplink signal is a reference signal generated based on a sequence with low complexity, and the benefit of requesting the cell to transmit the first-uplink configuration information based on the third uplink signal is that the cell may flexibly schedule downlink resources according to the load of the cell for transmitting the aperiodically transmitted first-uplink configuration information, which helps energy saving of the network. For example, in this implementation, there is no need to periodically transmit the first-uplink configuration information through the downlink reference signal, and the UE may determine whether to request the first-uplink configuration information through the third uplink signal based on the indication related to the cell energy saving state in the downlink reference signal, realizing on-demand requests for the first-uplink configuration information, thereby better saving signaling overhead.
[0351] In an implementation, after transmitting the third uplink signal, the UE monitors the second downlink information, such as downlink control information, where the related configuration for monitoring the second downlink information may be provided by, for example, the first configuration information, where the first configuration information is included in the downlink reference signal. In an implementation, the first configuration information may be implemented by reusing configuration information related to SIB1. For example, in the case where the cell periodically transmits SIB1, the first configuration information in the downlink reference signal includes configuration related to the reception of SIB1; In the case where the cell is in an energy saving state or SIB1 is not periodically transmitted, the first configuration information in the downlink reference signal includes configuration related to the reception of the second downlink information. The first configuration information includes configuration related to a common search space (CSS) and an associated control resource set (CORESET) for monitoring the second downlink information; the format of the second downlink information may be DCI format 1_0 or DCI format 1_1, the DCI format may be scrambled according to SI-RNTI.
[0352] In a possible implementation, the second downlink information includes a field used to indicate configuration information related to the first-uplink configuration information. For example, the field is n bits, which may be used to indicate one of 2^n predetermined (for example, predetermined by the protocol or preconfigured) configuration indexes related to the first-uplink configuration information.
[0353] In another possible implementation, the second downlink information also includes a field related to indicating the transmission power of the first-uplink signal. This field may indicate the power ramping step. For example, this field is n bits and may be used to indicate one of 2^n power ramping step indexes predetermined by the protocol.
[0354] In another possible implementation, as shown in FIG. 6, the UE receives a downlink channel including the first-uplink configuration information according to the second downlink information, for example, the downlink channel is a PDSCH including SIB0, where SIB0 includes the first-uplink configuration information. The UE transmits the first-uplink signal according to the first-uplink configuration information provided by SIB0. Optionally, the frequency domain resources where the PDSCH including SIB0 and the PDCCH including the second downlink information are located may have a frequency division multiplexing relationship with the frequency domain resources where the downlink reference signal is located. In an implementation, after the UE transmits the third uplink signal to request the first-uplink configuration information, the base station may transmit the next downlink reference signal frequency division multiplexed with the PDSCH including SIB0 and the PDCCH including the second downlink information; In another implementation, without the UE transmitting a third uplink signal to request the first-uplink configuration information, the base station determines whether to transmit the PDSCH including SIB0 and the PDCCH including the second downlink information frequency division multiplexed with the downlink reference signal according to the energy saving state of the cell. For example, if the base station determines that the cell is in the energy saving state, it includes an indication that the cell is in the energy saving state in the downlink reference signal, and transmits a channel including the first-uplink configuration information frequency division multiplexed with the downlink reference signal. The channel including the first-uplink configuration information is, for example, the PDSCH including the first-uplink configuration information, or the PDSCH including the first-uplink configuration information and the PDCCH corresponding to the PDSCH. For example, the first-uplink configuration information may be included in SIB0, and the PDSCH including the first-uplink configuration information may be called a PDSCH including SIB0, where SIB0 represents a system information block containing a smaller number of information bits than SIB1, or a system information block received by the UE before receiving SIB1 and including configuration information related to requesting SIB1 to transmit, or a system information block broadcast by the cell in an energy saving state. It may be understood that SIB0 is only an example name, and other names may also be used, such as light SIB, etc., or the first-uplink configuration information may also be included in other information elements or higher-layer parameters transmitted through the PDSCH instead of in the system information block.
[0355] In an implementation, when the cell is in a non-energy-saving state, the UE monitors first downlink information according to first configuration information, and receives SIB1 PDSCH according to the detected first downlink information. Wherein, the first configuration information when the cell is in the non-energy saving state is different from the first configuration information when the cell is in the energy saving state. In an implementation, the first configuration information is included in the downlink reference signal, and the first configuration information may include different information contents or be interpreted differently by the UE depending on different states of the cell (e.g., energy saving state or non-energy saving state). Alternatively, it may be considered that in the cell energy saving state, the field originally used to carry the configuration information for monitoring or receiving the periodic SIB1 in the downlink reference signal is reused to carry the above-mentioned first configuration information for monitoring or receiving the second downlink information. Alternatively, the field used to carry the first configuration information in the downlink reference signal carries different first configuration information according to different states of the cell. For example, in the cell energy saving state, the first configuration information carried in this field includes information related to monitoring or reception of the second downlink information; In the cell non-energy saving state, the first configuration information carried in this field includes information related to monitoring or reception of periodic SIB1.
[0356] In an implementation, the UE transmits the first-uplink signal at a period of time interval after a first time point, where the first time point may be a combination of one or more of:
[0357] 1) the start or end of the received downlink reference signal or the slot or radio frame in which the downlink reference signal is located, or the start of the next slot or radio frame of the slot or radio frame where the downlink reference signal is located;
[0358] 2) the start or end of the received second downlink information or the slot or radio frame where the second downlink information is located, or the start of the next slot or radio frame of the slot or radio frame where the second downlink information is located;
[0359] 3) the start or end of the received SIB0 or the slot or radio frame where the SIB0 is located, or the start of the next slot or radio frame of the slot or radio frame where the SIB0 is located;
[0360] Wherein, the period of time interval may be determined based on the time offset (or called time-offset) included in the configuration information related to the first-uplink signal; or a period of time interval predetermined by the protocol, the time interval is related to the subcarrier spacing, for example.
[0361] [First-uplink resource (for example, joint resource of PRACH and PUSCH) configuration]
[0362] In an implementation, after transmitting the first-uplink signal, the UE transmits the second-uplink signal, where the first-uplink signal may be a PRACH preamble, and the second-uplink signal may be a PUSCH. For example, the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal constitute message A (msgA) in the 2-step random access process, and the time-frequency resources for transmitting the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal constitute a time-frequency resource group, the time-frequency resource group is associated with the downlink reference signal.
[0363] In an implementation, the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource also includes configuration information related to a time-frequency resource group, where the time-frequency resource group is for transmitting the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal.
[0364] In an implementation, the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource also includes an n-bit indication (for example, called a third indication), which is used to indicate one of 2^n time-frequency resource group configuration indexes predetermined by the protocol, where the time-frequency resource group is for transmitting the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal.
[0365] In an implementation, the first-uplink signal is exemplified by a PRACH preamble, and the second-uplink signal is exemplified by a PUSCH, where the PRACH preamble may be used as an uplink wake-up signal (UL-WUS) to request the base station to transmit an on-demand system information block 1 (OD-SIB1). It should be noted that without loss of generality, the first-uplink signal and / or the second-uplink signal may also be other uplink channels and signals, which will not be described again here.
[0366] In an implementation, a method for joint resource configuration of PRACH and PUSCH is provided, wherein the time-frequency resources related to PRACH and PUSCH as a whole constitute a time-frequency resource group, and the time-frequency resource group includes a PRACH occasion (RO) for transmitting PRACH preamble and a PUSCH occasion (PO) for transmitting PUSCH. The benefit of such joint resource configuration method of PRACH and PUSCH is to reduce the signaling overhead required in case of configuring PRACH and PUSCH separately, so that the UE may obtain PRACH and PUSCH related configurations for requesting the base station to transmit OD-SIB1 and / or performing a random access process, not through SIB1 but according to the downlink reference signal, in the OD-SIB1 scenario, achieving energy saving especially under single-cell, and may reduce the random access delay of UE. In addition, PRACH and PUSCH are managed as a time-frequency resource group, which may avoid resource fragmentation caused by independent configuration of PRACH and PUSCH, such as time domain or frequency domain overlap, or guard gap redundancy, and reduce the cases where PRACH or PUSCH being invalid caused by resources conflicting with each other, and improve resource utilization.
[0367] It should be understood that although in the exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, the description is made taking the time-frequency resource group including the RO and the PO as an example, this is only exemplary. These exemplary illustrations and descriptions also apply to the case where the time-frequency resource group includes other types of uplink resources, for example, a resource group including resources for other types of uplink wake-up signals and PUSCH channels.
[0368] [Relationship between downlink reference signal and time-frequency resource group]
[0369] As an example, FIG. 7 shows a situation in which the time-frequency resource location of a time-frequency resource group is determined according to the downlink reference signal, wherein the time offset of the time domain start of the time-frequency resource group relative to the start of the downlink reference signal is a first time offset, including one or more time units; The frequency offset between the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group and the lowest frequency of the downlink reference signal is a first frequency offset, including one or more frequency units.
[0370] As an example, FIG. 8 shows the situation of determining the locations of multiple time-frequency resource groups consecutive in time domain based on downlink reference signals. FIG. 8 includes two time-frequency resource groups consecutive in time domain, in which the first time offset and the first frequency offset may be explained with reference to the example in FIG. 7, and will not be described again here. The time interval between two adjacent time-frequency resource groups among multiple time-frequency resource groups consecutive in time domain is G1, including one or more time units.
[0371] As an example, FIG. 9 shows a situation in which the locations of multiple time-frequency resource groups consecutive in time domain and frequency domain are determined according to the downlink reference signal, wherein explanation of the example in FIG. 8 may be referred for the first time offset, the first frequency offset and the guard gap G1, and will not be repeated here. In a first-time instance (for example, a first-time instance is the time length or time domain resource occupied by a time-frequency resource group), multiple frequency division multiplexed time-frequency resource groups are included (two frequency division multiplexed time-frequency resource groups are included in FIG. 9), and the frequency domain gap between two adjacent time-frequency resource groups in frequency domain is the guard band GB1, including one or more frequency units.
[0372] In a possible implementation, first time offsets in FIGs. 7 to 9 are the time offset between the start of the time unit where the downlink reference signal is located and the start of the time unit where the time-frequency resource group is located, where the time unit may be a slot, subframe or radio frame.
[0373] In a possible implementation, first frequency offsets in FIGs. 7 to 9 may also be the frequency offset between the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal; Alternatively, it may also be the frequency offset between the center frequency point of the time-frequency resource group and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal.
[0374] [Method to determine the first time offset]
[0375] In a possible implementation, the first time offset may be a value predetermined by the protocol.
[0376] In an implementation, the index of the downlink reference signal may be based on broadcast information carried in the downlink reference signal, such as an index of the downlink reference signal carried in a master information block (MIB) and / or an index of the downlink reference signal carried in a reference signal included in the downlink reference signal (such as a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) of a physical broadcast channel (PBCH)).
[0377] In a possible implementation, the first time offset may be determined according to the index of the downlink reference signal. For example, the first time offset = downlink reference signal index mod K; or, the first time offset = downlink reference signal index mod K + t_0, where mod is the modulo operator, the parameter K is a positive integer, for example, K = 4, and t_0 is one or more time units, for example, t_0 = 2 slots.
[0378] In a possible implementation, the time domain start of the time-frequency resource group may be determined according to the index of the downlink reference signal. For example, the time domain start of the time-frequency resource group = the start of the downlink reference signal + the downlink reference signal index mod K; or, the time domain start of the time-frequency resource group = the start of the downlink reference signal + the downlink reference signal index mod K + t_0, where mod is the modulo operator, the parameter K is a positive integer, for example, K = 4, and t_0 is one or more time units, for example t_0 = 2 slots. The start of the downlink reference signal may be the start of the time unit where the downlink reference signal is located, such as the start of the located slot.
[0379] The benefit of determining the first time offset or the time domain start of the time-frequency resource group according to the index of the downlink reference signal is that by dividing the downlink reference signal indexes into K groups, it may be ensured implicitly that first time offsets or time domain starts of time-frequency resource groups corresponding to downlink reference signal indexes in different groups are different, and (optionally) the introduction of t_0 may ensure that the minimum value of the first time offset is f = t_0, thereby effectively reducing the collision probability when different UEs, such as UEs selecting different downlink reference signal indexes, use time-frequency resource groups.
[0380] [Method to determine the first frequency offset]
[0381] In a possible implementation, the first frequency offset may be a value predetermined by the protocol.
[0382] In a possible implementation, the first frequency offset may be obtained according to a physical cell identity (PCI). For example, the first frequency offset = (PCI mod M) * N; Alternatively, the first frequency offset = f_0 + (PCI mod M) * N, where the parameters M and N are positive integers, for example M = 16, N = 2, and f_0 is one or more frequency domain units. In an implementation, M may be related to the number of groups of cells, N may be related to the minimum frequency domain gap between time-frequency resource groups corresponding to different cell groups, and f_0 may be related to the minimum value of the first frequency offset.
[0383] In a possible implementation, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group may be obtained according to the frequency domain location of the downlink reference signal and the first frequency offset. In an implementation, the first frequency offset may be obtained based on PCI, and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal is used as the reference location of the first frequency offset. Therefore, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group may be based on PCI and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal. For example, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group = the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal + the first frequency offset. According to different methods for setting the first frequency offset, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group = the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal + (PCI mod M) * N; or, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group = the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal + f_0 + (PCI mod M) * N, where parameters M and N are positive integers, for example, M = 16, N = 2; The center frequency point of the downlink reference signal may also be replaced by the lowest frequency or highest frequency of the downlink reference signal, or using other frequencies of the downlink reference signal as a reference.
[0384] In a possible implementation, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group may be obtained according to the PCI and the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal. For example, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group = the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal + (PCI mod M) * N; or, the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group = the center frequency point of the downlink reference signal + (PCI mod M) * N + f_0, where parameters M and N are positive integers, for example, M = 16, N = 2; The center frequency point of the downlink reference signal may also be replaced by the lowest frequency of the downlink reference signal.
[0385] The benefit of determining the first frequency offset or the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group based on the PCI and the downlink reference signal is that by dividing the PCIs into M PCI groups, it is ensured that first frequency offsets or frequency domain starts of time-frequency resource groups corresponding to cell IDs in different groups are different. The N value may ensure that the interval between different PCI groups is at least N frequency units, and (optionally) the introduction of f_0 may ensure that the minimum value of the first frequency offset is f_0, thereby effectively reducing the collision probability of time-frequency resource groups between cells, reducing the delay of random access of UE, and help energy saving of the network and UE.
[0386] In an implementation, one or more of the parameters K, M, N, t_0, f_0 may be predetermined by the protocol; or,
[0387] included in the first or second downlink information; or,
[0388] included in the cell-related configuration information obtained based on the downlink reference signal.
[0389] [Pattern of time-frequency resource group]
[0390] In an implementation, the time-frequency resource group includes a combination of at least one or more of:
[0391] 1) one or more ROs;
[0392] 2) one or more POs;
[0393] 3) guard gap G2 between RO and PO in time domain;
[0394] 4) guard gap G3 between two adjacent POs in time domain;
[0395] 5) guard band GB between two adjacent POs in frequency domain;
[0396] As a time-frequency resource group, a pattern, or written as a structure or type, of the time-frequency resource group comprises a combination of at least one or more of:
[0397] 1) including one RO and one PO (first pattern);
[0398] 2) including one RO and multiple POs;
[0399] 3) including multiple ROs and one PO;
[0400] 4) including multiple ROs and multiple POs;
[0401] Wherein, if one time-frequency resource group includes one RO or multiple POs, the pattern of the time-frequency resource group further includes at least one or more of the following combinations:
[0402] 1) including one RO and multiple time-division multiplexed POs (second pattern);
[0403] 2) including one RO and multiple frequency division multiplexed POs (third pattern);
[0404] 3) including one RO, and multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed POs (fourth pattern);
[0405] Wherein, if one time-frequency resource group includes multiple ROs or one PO, the pattern of the time-frequency resource group further includes at least one or more of the following combinations:
[0406] 1) including multiple frequency division multiplexed ROs and one PO (fifth pattern);
[0407] 2) including multiple time-division multiplexed ROs and one PO (sixth pattern);
[0408] 3) including multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and one PO (seventh pattern);
[0409] Wherein, if one time-frequency resource group includes multiple ROs or multiple POs, the pattern of time-frequency resource groups further includes at least one or more of the following combinations:
[0410] 1) including multiple frequency division multiplexed ROs and multiple time division multiplexed POs (eighth pattern);
[0411] 2) including multiple frequency division multiplexed ROs and multiple frequency division multiplexed POs (ninth pattern);
[0412] 3) including multiple time-division multiplexed ROs and multiple time-division multiplexed POs (tenth pattern);
[0413] 4) including multiple time division multiplexed ROs and multiple frequency division multiplexed POs (eleventh pattern);
[0414] 5) including multiple frequency division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time division multiplexed and frequency division multiplexed POs (twelfth pattern);
[0415] 6) including multiple time-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed POs (thirteenth pattern);
[0416] 7) including multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time-division multiplexed POs (fourteenth pattern).
[0417] 8) including multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple frequency-division multiplexed POs (fifteenth pattern).
[0418] 9) including multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed POs (sixteenth pattern).
[0419] In an implementation, when a time-frequency resource group includes multiple POs, each PO in the multiple POs occupies the same number of time units and frequency domain units.
[0420] In an implementation, when one time-frequency resource group includes multiple ROs, each of the multiple ROs occupies the same number of time units and frequency domain units.
[0421] In an implementation, a RO and a PO in a time-frequency resource group occupy the same or different number of time domain units in time domain.
[0422] In an implementation, a RO and a PO in a time-frequency resource group occupy the same or different number of frequency domain units in frequency domain.
[0423] In an implementation, the RO and PO in a time-frequency resource group have the same or different start frequencies in frequency domain (for example, the lowest frequency of the RO or PO). If the start frequency (for example, the lowest frequency, written as RO lowest frequency) of one or more ROs included in a time-frequency resource group and the start frequency (for example, the lowest frequency, written as PO lowest frequency) of one or more POs included in the time-frequency resource group are different, for example, the RO lowest frequency and the PO lowest frequency differ by a frequency offset (written as a second frequency offset), and the second frequency offset includes one or more frequency units, the lower frequency among the RO lowest frequency and the PO lowest frequency is considered as the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group. For example, the RO lowest frequency is lower than the PO lowest frequency, the RO lowest frequency is considered as the frequency domain start of the time-frequency resource group.
[0424] As an example, FIG. 10 shows a possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as the first pattern), which includes a PRACH occasion (RO) and a PUSCH occasion (PO), where the time interval between the RO and the PO is the guard gap G2, occupying one or more time units. It should be understood that the size ratios of RO, PO, etc. shown in the drawings of the present disclosure are only exemplary and do not imply the size relationship between the number of time domain units or the number of frequency domain units occupied by RO and PO. For example, the number of time domain units occupied by the RO may be greater than, equal to, or less than the number of time domain units occupied by the PO, and the number of frequency domain units occupied by the RO may be greater than, equal to, or less than the number of frequency domain units occupied by the PO.
[0425] As an example, FIG. 11 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as the second pattern), which includes one RO and multiple time-division multiplexed POs, where the time interval between the first PO in time domain and the RO is the guard gap G2, occupying one or more time units; The multiple POs are time division multiplexed POs, and the guard gap between adjacent POs in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units.
[0426] As an example, FIG. 12 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as the third pattern), which includes one RO and multiple frequency division multiplexed POs, where the multiple POs are in multiple frequency division multiplexed POs in a second-time instance, the second-time instance is the time length or time domain resource occupied by one PO; A time interval between the second-time instance and the RO is a guard gap G2 occupying one or more time units; The frequency domain gap between adjacent POs in frequency domain (in one second-time instance) is a guard band (GB), occupying one or more frequency units;
[0427] As an example, FIG. 13 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as a fourth pattern), which includes one RO, and multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple POs are included in multiple second-time instances, wherein each second-time instance includes multiple frequency-division multiplexed POs; A time interval between a first one of the multiple second-time instances and the RO is a guard gap G2 occupying one or more time units; The guard band between adjacent POs in frequency domain (in one second-time instance) is GB, occupying one or more frequency units; The guard gap between adjacent second-time instances in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units.
[0428] As an example, FIG. 14 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as a fifth pattern), the pattern comprising multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs and one PO, wherein the multiple ROs are multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs in a third-time instance, the third-time instance is a time length or time-domain resource occupied by one RO, and the frequency-domain gap between two frequency-division multiplexed ROs in a third-time instance is GB2, comprising one or more frequency units; The time interval between the third-time instance and the PO is the guard gap G2, which occupies one or more time units.
[0429] As an example, FIG. 15 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as the sixth pattern), which includes multiple time-division multiplexed ROs and one PO, wherein the multiple ROs are multiple time-division multiplexed ROs, and the time interval between two adjacent ROs in time domain is G6, including one or more time units; The time interval between the last RO and the PO in time domain is the guard gap G2, which occupies one or more time units.
[0430] As an example, FIG. 16 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as a seventh pattern), the pattern comprising multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, wherein the multiple ROs are included in multiple third-time instances, wherein each of the third-time instances comprises multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and the frequency domain gap between two frequency-division multiplexed ROs that are adjacent in frequency domain in one third-time instance is GB2, comprising one or more frequency units; The time interval between two adjacent third-time instances in time domain is G6, including one or more time units; The time interval between the last third-time instance in time domain and the PO is the guard gap G2, occupying one or more time units.
[0431] As an example, FIG. 17 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as an eighth pattern), the pattern comprising multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs and multiple time-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple ROs are multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs in a third-time instance, and the frequency domain gap between two frequency-division multiplexed ROs adjacent in frequency domain in a third-time instance is GB2, comprising one or more frequency units; The multiple POs are time division multiplexed POs; The guard gap between adjacent POs in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units; The time interval between the third-time instance and the first PO in time domain is the guard gap G2, which occupies one or more time units;
[0432] As an example, FIG. 18 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as a ninth pattern), the pattern comprising multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs and multiple frequency-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple ROs are multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs in a third-time instance, and the frequency domain gap between two frequency-division multiplexed ROs adjacent in frequency domain in a third-time instance is GB2, comprising one or more frequency units; The multiple POs are multiple frequency division multiplexed POs in a second-time instance, a frequency domain gap between two adjacent frequency division multiplexed POs in a second-time instance being GB, comprising one or more frequency units; The guard gap between adjacent POs in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units; The time interval between the third-time instance and the first PO in time domain is the guard gap G2, which occupies one or more time units.
[0433] As an example, FIG. 19 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as tenth pattern), which includes multiple time-division multiplexed ROs and multiple time-division multiplexed POs, with a guard gap G3 occupying one or more time units between adjacent POs in time domain; The guard gap between adjacent ROs in time domain is G6, occupying one or more time units; The time interval between the third-time instance in time domain and the first PO in time domain is a guard gap G2, which occupies one or more time units; The time interval between the last RO in time domain and the first PO in time domain is the guard gap G2, which occupies one or more time units.
[0434] As an example, FIG. 20 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as eleventh pattern), which includes multiple time-division multiplexed ROs and multiple frequency-division multiplexed POs, where the multiple POs are multiple frequency-division multiplexed POs in a second-time instance, the guard band between adjacent POs in frequency domain is GB, occupying one or more frequency units; The guard gap between adjacent ROs in time domain is G6, occupying one or more time units; The time interval between the last RO in time domain and the second-time instance is the guard gap G2, which occupies one or more time units.
[0435] As an example, FIG. 21 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as twelfth pattern), the pattern includes multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple ROs are multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs in a third-time instance; The multiple POs are included in multiple second-time instances, wherein each second-time instance includes multiple frequency division multiplexed POs; The time interval between the first second-time instance and the third-time instance in time domain is the guard gap G2; In the third-time instance, the frequency domain gap between two adjacent RO in frequency domain is GB2, which includes one or more frequency units; The guard gap between adjacent second-time instances in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units; The guard band between adjacent POs in frequency domain in a second-time instance is GB, occupying one or more frequency units.
[0436] As an example, FIG. 22 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as a thirteenth pattern), which comprises multiple time-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple ROs are multiple time-division multiplexed ROs, and the time interval between two adjacent ROs in time domain is G6, comprising one or more time units; The multiple POs are included in multiple second-time instances, wherein each second-time instance includes multiple frequency division multiplexed POs; A time interval between the first second-time instance in time domain and a last RO in time domain is a guard gap G2; The guard gap between adjacent second-time instances in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units; The guard band between adjacent POs in frequency domain in a second-time instance is GB, occupying one or more frequency units.
[0437] As an example, FIG. 23 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as fourteenth pattern), which includes multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple ROs are multiple time-division multiplexed ROs, and the time interval between two adjacent ROs in time domain is G6, including one or more time units; The multiple POs are included in multiple second-time instances, wherein each second-time instance includes multiple frequency division multiplexed POs; A time interval between the first second-time instance in time domain and a last RO in time domain is a guard gap G2; The guard gap between adjacent second-time instances in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units; The guard band between adjacent POs in frequency domain in a second-time instance is GB, occupying one or more frequency units.
[0438] As an example, FIG. 24 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as a fifteenth pattern), the pattern comprising multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple frequency-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple ROs are included in multiple third-time instances, wherein each third-time instance comprises multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and the frequency domain gap between two frequency-division multiplexed ROs that are adjacent in frequency domain in one third-time instance is GB2, comprising one or more frequency units; The time interval between two adjacent third-time instances in time domain is G6, including one or more time units; The multiple POs are multiple frequency division multiplexed POs in a second-time instance, a frequency domain gap between two adjacent frequency division multiplexed POs in a second-time instance being GB, comprising one or more frequency units; The time interval between the last third-time instance and the second-time instance in time domain is the guard gap G2, occupying one or more time units.
[0439] As an example, FIG. 25 shows another possible pattern of a time-frequency resource group (written as a sixteenth pattern), the pattern comprising multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and multiple time-division multiplexed and frequency-division multiplexed POs, wherein the multiple ROs are included in multiple third-time instances, wherein each of the third-time instances comprises multiple frequency-division multiplexed ROs, and the frequency domain gap between two frequency-division multiplexed ROs that are adjacent in frequency domain in one third-time instance is GB2, comprising one or more frequency units; The time interval between two adjacent third-time instances in time domain is G6, including one or more time units; The multiple POs are included in multiple second-time instances, wherein each second-time instance includes multiple frequency division multiplexed POs; The guard band between adjacent PO in frequency domain (in one second-time instance) is GB, occupying one or more frequency units; The guard gap between adjacent second-time instances in time domain is G3, occupying one or more time units; The time interval between the last third-time instance in time domain and the first second-time instance in time domain is the guard gap G2, occupying one or more time units.
[0440] In an implementation, a guard gap G4 (occupying one or more time units) is located at the end of the time-frequency resource group, that is, after the last second-time instance in time domain of the time-frequency resource group. Optionally, the G4 may be 0, or G4 is not included in the time-frequency resource group.
[0441] In an implementation, the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource also includes a combination of at least one or more of:
[0442] 1) the first time offset;
[0443] 2) the first frequency offset;
[0444] 3) the number of frequency division multiplexed time-frequency resource groups in a first-time instance;
[0445] 4) the number of time-frequency resource groups time-division multiplexed in time domain, or the number of time-frequency resource groups related to the downlink reference signal in time domain or the number of first-time instances;
[0446] 5) one or more of guard gaps G1, G2, G3, G4, G5;
[0447] 6) one or more of guard bands GB, GB1, GB2;
[0448] 7) a guard band between time-frequency resource groups adjacent in frequency domain in a first-time instance;
[0449] 8) location of the start symbol of the time-frequency resource group in the located slot;
[0450] 9) the number of time units occupied by a time-frequency resource group;
[0451] 10) the number of second-time instances or POs that are time division multiplexed in a time-frequency resource group;
[0452] 11) the number of ROs or third-time instances that are time-division multiplexed in a time-frequency resource group;
[0453] 12) the number of POs frequency division multiplexed in a second-time instance;
[0454] 13) the number of ROs frequency division multiplexed in a third-time instance;
[0455] 14) the number of frequency domain units and the number of time domain units occupied by a PO in a time-frequency resource group;
[0456] 15) the number of frequency domain units and the number of time domain units occupied by a RO in a time-frequency resource group;
[0457] 16) location of the start symbol of a PO in the located slot in a second-time instance;
[0458] 17) location of the start symbol of a RO in the located slot in a third-time instance;
[0459] 18) frequency domain offset between lowest frequency of RO and lowest frequency of PO in a time-frequency resource group;
[0460] In an implementation, a combination of at least one or more of the following may be predetermined by the protocol:
[0461] 1) one or more of guard gaps G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6;
[0462] 2) one or more of guard bands GB, GB1, GB2;
[0463] 3) a frequency domain offset between start frequency of the RO and start frequency of the PO in the time-frequency resource group;
[0464] In an implementation, the UE determines the pattern of resources of PRACH and PUSCH (such as RO and PO) according to a fourth indication, the pattern including but not limited to the first to sixteenth patterns described in the present invention, and the UE uses at least one of the following methods to obtain the fourth indication:
[0465] 1) obtaining according to the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource;
[0466] 2) a fourth indication field in the second downlink information;
[0467] 3) a fourth indication field in the first downlink information;
[0468] For example, according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the fourth indication for determining the pattern of RO and PO may be obtained through the configuration information related to the first-uplink resource in the first-uplink configuration information, or obtained through the second downlink information transmitted in response to the request for the first-uplink configuration information by UE. In addition, according to example embodiments of the present disclosure, the fourth indication for determining the pattern of RO and PO may be obtained through first downlink information for receiving SIB1 periodically transmitted by the cell, for example, the fourth indication may be included in SIB1. Alternatively, according to an example embodiment of the present disclosure, the fourth indication for determining the pattern of RO and PO may be obtained through the first downlink information for receiving SIB1 transmitted by the cell on demand, for example, the fourth indication may be included in the on-demand transmitted SIB1.
[0469] In a possible implementation, the fourth indication has n bits, which are used to indicate one of the 2^n PRACH and PUSCH patterns predetermined by the protocol. For example, a 2-bit indication may indicate one of four PRACH and PUSCH patterns. As an example, these four patterns may be at least one of the first to sixteenth patterns included in the present invention, but not limited to this.
[0470] In an implementation, the configuration of the DMRS code division multiplexing group (CDM) related to the PUSCH in the time-frequency resource group involved in the configuration information related to the second-uplink signal may be determined according to the PCI. For example, when the PCI is an even number, the DMRS CDM group is implicitly indicated as 0, and when the PCI is an odd number, the DMRS CDM group is implicitly indicated as 1.
[0471] In an implementation, PUSCH related initialization data scrambling in a time-frequency resource group uses PCI obtained from the downlink reference signal.
[0472] [Limitation of UE transmitting the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal]
[0473] In an implementation, the UE does not expect to transmit the first-uplink signal in one time-frequency resource group and transmit the second-uplink signal in another time-frequency resource group. For example, the UE only transmits the first-uplink signal and the second-uplink signal in one time-frequency resource group.
[0474] In an implementation, within a time-frequency resource group, the UE may transmit the second-uplink signal in one or more of the following ways:
[0475] 1) selecting all POs in the time-frequency resource group to transmit the second-uplink signal;
[0476] 2) selecting the PO associated with the first-uplink signal to transmit the second-uplink signal.
[0477] In an implementation, within a time-frequency resource group, the first-uplink signal is associated with POs within the time-frequency resource group.
[0478] In a possible implementation, the method of associating the first-uplink signal with the POs is to, in a time-frequency resource group, the N_p PRACH preamble indexes corresponding to one or more valid ROs in the time-frequency resource group:
[0479] first, in increasing order of preamble indexes within a single RO;
[0480] second, in increasing order of frequency resource indexes for frequency multiplexed ROs
[0481] third, in increasing order of time resource indexes for time multiplexed ROs within a first-time instance;
[0482] are mapped to a valid PUSCH occasion and the associated DMRS resource:
[0483] first, in increasing order of frequency resource indexes f_id for frequency multiplexed POs
[0484] second, in increasing order of DMRS resource indexes within a PO, where a DMRS resource index DMRS_id is first in an ascending order of a DMRS port index and second in an ascending order of a DMRS sequence index;
[0485] third, in increasing order of time resource indexes t_id for time multiplexed POs within a first-time instance;
[0486] fourth, in increasing order of indexes for Ns second-time instances
[0487] whereN_p=ceil(T_preamble / T_pusch), T_preamble is a total number of valid ROs in a time-frequency resource group multiplied by the number of preambles per valid PRACH occasion, and T_PUSCH is a total number of valid POs per PUSCH configuration in a time-frequency resource group multiplied by the number of DMRS resource indexes per valid PO.
[0488] In an implementation, unless otherwise specified, all involved ROs are valid ROs, and all involved POs are valid POs.
[0489] FIG. 29 shows a schematic structural diagram of a user equipment 2900 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 29, the user equipment 2900 includes a transceiver 2901 and a controller 2902. The transceiver 2901 is configured to transmit data or signals and to receive data or signals. The controller 2902 is coupled with the transceiver 2901 and configured to perform control such that the user equipment 2900 performs a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the user equipment 2900 may also include a memory (not shown) on which computer-executable instructions are stored. When the instructions are executed by the controller 2902, the user equipment 2900 may perform at least one method corresponding to the above embodiments of the present disclosure.
[0490] FIG. 30 shows a schematic structural diagram of a network side device 3000 according to at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 30, the network side device 3000 includes a transceiver 3001 and a controller 3002. The transceiver 3001 is configured to transmit data or signals and to receive data or signals. The controller 3002 is coupled with the transceiver 3001 and configured to perform control such that the network side device 3000 performs a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an implementation, the network side device 3000 may also include a memory (not shown), and computer-executable instructions are stored on the memory. When the instructions are executed by the controller 3002, the network side device 3000 may perform at least one method corresponding to the above embodiments of the present disclosure. The network side device includes, for example, a base station or other network side devices.
[0491] FIG. 31 is a block diagram of a terminal or user equipment (UE) 3100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
[0492] The terminal is an electronic device capable of wireless communication, may include a User Equipment (UE), a portable phone, a smartphone, a tablet, an Internet of things (IoT) device, etc., having various form factors, and may perform wireless communication with a base station (BS) through a wireless channel. Furthermore, the UE 3100 of FIG. 31 corresponds to the UE of FIGs 1, 3a, and 29.
[0493] Referring to FIG. 31, the UE 3100 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply "transceiver") 3101, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply "processor") 3102, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply "memory") 3103. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 3101, the processor 3102, and the memory 3103 of the UE 3100 may operate. However, components of the UE 3100 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 31. In another embodiment, the UE 3100 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 3101, the processor 3102, or the memory 3103 may be integrated in the form of one component.
[0494] The transceiver 3101 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the UE 3100 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 3101 may enable the UE 3100 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 3101 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 (3101) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.
[0495] According to an embodiment, the UE 3100 may include a plurality of transceivers. For example, in the case of supporting evolved-universal terrestrial radio access-new radio (E-UTRA-NR) sual connectivity (EN-DC), the UE 3100 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 3100 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 3100 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).
[0496] According to an embodiment, the transceiver 3101 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 3101 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 3101 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 3102 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 3102.
[0497] The processor 3102 may control general operations of the UE 3100 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 3102 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 3102 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 3103, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 3102 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.
[0498] The processor 3102 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 3101 to control the transceiver 3101.
[0499] The processor 3102 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 3102 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 3102 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 3102 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 3101 or the memory 3103.
[0500] The processor 3102 may perform or control or cause an operation of the UE 3100 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 3102 may control operations of the UE 3100 for processing a downlink signal received from a BS or generating and transmitting an uplink signal to a BS. To this end, the processor 3102 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 3103, so as to control other components of the UE 3100 to enable execution of various operations.
[0501] The memory 3103 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 3103 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.
[0502] The memory 3103 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 3102 and may be accessed by the processor 3102.
[0503] The memory 3103 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 3102. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 3102 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 3103, the processor 3102 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
[0504] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the UE 3100 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 3103 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.
[0505] FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a base station (BS) 3200 according to an embodiment of the disclosure. Furthermore, the BS 3200 of FIG. 32 corresponds to the base station of FIGs 1, 2, and the network side device of FIG. 30.
[0506] The BS 3200 may perform wireless communication with at least one user equipment (UE) located within the area of the BS 3200 through a wireless channel.
[0507] Referring to FIG. 32, the BS 3200 may include at least one transceiver (hereinafter, referred to as simply "transceiver") 3201, at least one processor (hereinafter, referred to as simply "processor") 3202, and at least one memory (hereinafter, referred to as simply "memory") 3203. According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the transceiver 3201, the processor 3202, and the memory 3203 of the BS 3200 may operate. However, components of the BS 3200 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 32. In another embodiment, the BS 3200 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 3201, the processor 3202, or the memory 3203 may be integrated in the form of one component.
[0508] The transceiver 3201 may be a communication circuit or communication circuitry that enables the BS 3200 to perform wireless communication with a node or an entity of a network. For example, the transceiver 3201 may enable the BS 3200 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 3201 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 (3201) may include all subsequent generations of evolved wireless communications.. According to an embodiment, the transceiver 3201 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 3201 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 3201 may output a signal received through a wireless channel to the processor 3202 and may transmit, through a wireless channel, a signal output from the processor 3202.
[0509] Meanwhile, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the BS 3200 may perform communication with a node or an entity of a network through wired or wireless communication. For example, the BS 3200 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. 32, when the BS 3200 performs wired communication, the BS 3200 may further include a separate network interface for wired communication in addition to the transceiver 3201. The network interface may be referred to as network interface circuitry or communication interface circuitry.
[0510] The processor 3202 may control general operations of the BS 3200 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 3202 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 3202 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 3203, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 3202 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.
[0511] The processor 3202 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the transceiver 3201 to control the transceiver 3201.
[0512] The processor 3202 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 3202 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 3202 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the transceiver 3201 or the memory 3203.
[0513] The processor 3202 may perform or control or cause an operation of the BS 3200 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 3202 may control operations of the BS 3200 for generating and transmitting a downlink signal to a UE or processing an uplink signal received from a UE. Otherwise, the BS 3200 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 3202 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 3203, so as to control other components of the BS 3200 to enable execution of various operations.
[0514] The memory 3203 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 3203 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.
[0515] The memory 3203 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 3202 and may be accessed by the processor 3202.
[0516] The memory 3203 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 3202. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 3202 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 3203, the processor 3202 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
[0517] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the BS 3200 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 3203 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.
[0518] 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 network entity such as an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) or a Session Management Function (SMF) 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.
[0519] The structure of the above-described network entity will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.
[0520] FIG. 33 is a block diagram of a network entity 3300 according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
[0521] The network entity 3300 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 3300. Furthermore, the network entity of FIG. 33 corresponds to a network entity in the network of FIG. 1, and the network side device of FIG. 30.
[0522] 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.
[0523] 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).
[0524] Referring to FIG. 33, the network entity 3300 may include at least one network interface 3301, at least one processor 3302 (hereinafter, "processor"), and at least one memory 3303 (hereinafter, "memory"). As described above, a NF may be implemented in the form of a physical device such as the network entity 3300, 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. 33. In such a case, the instance may be logically represented as comprising one or more logical functional elements.
[0525] According to at least one or a combination of methods corresponding to the embodiments described in the present disclosure, the network interface 3301, the processor 3302, and the memory 3303 of the network entity 3300 may operate. However, components of the network entity 3300 are not limited to the exemplary components illustrated in FIG. 33. In another embodiment, the network entity 3300 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 3301, the processor 3302, or the memory 3303 may be integrated in the form of one component.
[0526] The network interface 3301 is a collective term for a transmitter part of the network entity 3300 and a receiver part of the network entity 3300, 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 3301 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 3301 may operate using various protocols (e.g., non-access stratum (NAS) protocol). The network interface 3301 may also be referred to, for convenience of description or depending on implementation, as communication circuitry, network interface circuitry, or a communication interface circuitry.
[0527] The processor 3302 may control general operations of the network entity 3300 according to embodiments of the disclosure. The processor 3302 may be implemented by one or more integrated circuit (or circuitry) (IC) chips and may execute various data processings. The processor 3302 may include at least one electric circuit, and may execute instructions (or a program, codes, data, etc.) stored in the memory 3303, individually, collectively or in any combination thereof. Further, the processor 3302 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.
[0528] According to an embodiment, the processor 3302 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the network interface 3301 to control the network interface 3301.
[0529] The processor 3302 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 3302 may be included in one chip and the other part of the processor 3302 may be included in another chip. Otherwise, at least one processor may be included in another component, for example, the network interface 3301 or the memory 3303.
[0530] The processor 3302 may perform or control or cause an operation of the network entity 3300 for executing at least one or a combination of methods according to embodiments of the disclosure. For example, the processor 3302 may control operations of the network entity 3300 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 3302 may execute a computer program, codes, or instructions stored in the memory 3303, so as to control other components of the network entity 3300 to enable execution of various operations.
[0531] The memory 3303 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 3303 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.
[0532] The memory 3303 may be electrically, operatively, or communicatively coupled to the processor 3302 and may be accessed by the processor 3302.
[0533] The memory 3303 may store a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 3302. According to an embodiment, a computer program, codes, or instructions executable by the processor 3302 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 3303, the processor 3302 may perform various functions according to an embodiment of the disclosure.
[0534] According to an embodiment of the disclosure, operations of the network entity 3300 may be caused to be performed based on execution of instructions (or a computer program or codes) stored in the memory 3303 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.
[0535] The present disclosure relates to a 5G communication system or a 6G communication system for supporting higher data rates than 4G communication systems such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). According to embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a communication method and device. In an example aspect, there is provided a method performed by a user equipment (UE) in a communication system, comprising: receiving a downlink reference signal; based on the downlink reference signal, obtain first-uplink configuration information related to a first-uplink signal and / or a first-uplink signal resource for requesting a first system information block, the first-uplink configuration information including first information for indicating whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access; transmitting the first-uplink signal; receiving the first system information block, or receiving the first system information block and a random access response, based on the first information.
[0536] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above illustrative embodiments are described herein and are not intended to be limiting. It should be understood that any two or more of the embodiments disclosed herein may be combined in any combination. Additionally, other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made, without departing from the spirit and scope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readily understood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated in the figures, may be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety of different configurations, all of which are contemplated herein.
[0537] Those of skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and steps described herein may be implemented as hardware, software, or combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such design decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.
[0538] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described herein 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. A 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, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.
[0539] The steps of a method or algorithm described herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. 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 that the processor may read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral 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.
[0540] 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 or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. 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 may be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer.
[0541] The above descriptions are only exemplary embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention, which is determined by the appended claims.
[0542] 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 wireless communication system, the method comprising:receiving, from a base station, a downlink reference signal;based on the downlink reference signal, obtaining first-uplink configuration information related to a first-uplink signal and / or a first-uplink signal resource for requesting a first system information block, the first-uplink configuration information including first information for indicating whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access;transmitting, to the base station, the first-uplink signal; andreceiving the first system information block, or receiving the first system information block and a random access response from the base station, based on the first information.2.The method of claim 1, wherein the downlink reference signal comprises first configuration information, the first configuration information comprising information on resources for receiving first-uplink configuration information,wherein, obtaining the first-uplink configuration information comprises: receiving the first-uplink configuration information based on the first configuration information.3.The method of claim 2, wherein the UE receives the first-uplink configuration information based on the first configuration information in a case that the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating that a network is in a first state.4.The method of claim 2, wherein the UE receives the first system information block based on first configuration information in case the downlink reference signal does not include state information indicating that a network is in a first state.5.The method of claim 1, wherein the first-uplink configuration information is included in the downlink reference signal.6.The method of claim 5, wherein the downlink reference signal is a synchronization signal physical broadcast channel block (SSB), and the first-uplink configuration information is included in a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) of the SSB.7.The method of claim 6, wherein state information indicating whether a network is in a first state is further included in the SSB,in case that the state information indicates that the network is in the first state, the UE receives the first-uplink configuration information according to the PBCH resource corresponding to the first state.8.The method of claim 5, wherein a first part of the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating whether the network is in a first state, the first-uplink configuration information is included in a second part of the downlink reference signal,the first part and the second part are frequency division multiplexed on the same time domain resources, or time division multiplexed on the same frequency domain resources.9.The method of claim 8, wherein the second part comprises at least two sub-parts that are frequency division multiplexed or time division multiplexed with the first part.10.The method of claim 1,wherein, obtaining the first-uplink configuration information comprises:receiving second downlink information related to the first-uplink configuration information,the second downlink information includes third information indicating the first-uplink configuration information, orthe second downlink information includes scheduling information of a downlink channel for receiving the first-uplink configuration information,wherein, the third information indicates one of multiple first-uplink configuration information.11.The method of claim 10, wherein the downlink reference signal includes first configuration information,wherein the UE receives the second downlink information according to the first configuration information in case that state information indicates that a network is in a first state,wherein the UE receives the first system information block according to the first configuration information in case that the state information indicates that the network is not in the first state.12.The method of claim 1, further comprising:transmitting a third uplink signal for requesting the first-uplink configuration information,wherein the downlink reference signal includes state information indicating whether a network is in a first state,wherein, in case that the state information indicates that the network is in the first state, the UE transmits the third uplink signal,wherein, in case that the first information indicates that the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access:the first-uplink resource configuration information includes configuration information of a resource group, the resource group includes the first-uplink resource and a second-uplink resource for a second-uplink signal,wherein, the second-uplink signal corresponds to an uplink signal in a type 2 random access process.13.A method performed by a base station in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), a downlink reference signal and first-uplink configuration information, the first-uplink configuration information being related to a first-uplink signal and / or a first-uplink signal resource for requesting a first system information block, the first-uplink configuration information including first information indicating whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access;receiving, from the UE, the first-uplink signal; andtransmitting, to the UE, the first system information block, or transmitting the first system information block and a random access response, based on the first information.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, a downlink reference signal,based on the downlink reference signal, obtain first-uplink configuration information related to a first-uplink signal and / or a first-uplink signal resource for requesting a first system information block, the first-uplink configuration information including first information for indicating whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access,transmit, to the base station, the first-uplink signal, andreceive the first system information block, or receiving the first system information block and a random access response from the base station, based on the first information.15.A base station 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), a downlink reference signal and first-uplink configuration information, the first-uplink configuration information being related to a first-uplink signal and / or a first-uplink signal resource for requesting a first system information block, the first-uplink configuration information including first information indicating whether the first-uplink signal and / or the first-uplink signal resource is for requesting random access;receive, from the UE, the first-uplink signal; andtransmit, to the UE, the first system information block, or transmitting the first system information block and a random access response, based on the first information.