CN118540802A

CN118540802A - Communication method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN118540802A
Application number: CN202410718210.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 高宽栋; 李赛楠; 黄煌
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-09-08
Filing date: 2017-09-08
Publication date: 2024-08-23
Also published as: WO2019047770A1; CN109474998A; CN109474998B

Abstract

A communication method and communication device. The method receives downlink control information DCI sent by a network device through a physical downlink control channel PDCCH, wherein the DCI includes information about a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH time-frequency resource block, and the DCI schedules N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks, each PDSCH time-frequency resource block provides paging information for at least one terminal device, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1; determines a PDSCH time-frequency resource block that needs to be demodulated according to the DCI, wherein the PDSCH time-frequency resource block that needs to be demodulated is a part of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks; and demodulates the PDSCH time-frequency resource block that needs to be demodulated. Since only a part of the time-frequency resource block is demodulated, compared with demodulating all the PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks, the power consumption overhead of the terminal device caused by demodulating the PDSCH time-frequency resource block is reduced.

Description

Communication method and communication device

The present application is a divisional application, the application number of the original application is 201710807518.X, the original application date is 2017, 09, 08, and the entire content of the original application is incorporated by reference.

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a communication method and a communication device in a wireless communication system.

Background

The development of mobile services places increasing demands on the data rate and efficiency of wireless communications. In future wireless communication systems, beamforming techniques are used to limit the energy of the transmitted signal to a certain beam direction, thereby increasing the efficiency of signal and reception. The beam forming technology can effectively enlarge the transmission range of wireless signals and reduce signal interference, thereby achieving higher communication efficiency and obtaining higher network capacity. However, in a communication network employing the beamforming technology, it is first necessary to match a transmission beam and a reception beam so that the gain from the transmitting end to the receiving end is maximized, otherwise, relatively high communication efficiency cannot be obtained. Moreover, in order to achieve full coverage, the base station side beam is required to scan. Beam scanning presents a number of problems, one of which is the increased overhead of broadcast information transmissions, especially paging information.

To reduce the overhead of paging information, the number of terminal device identities per page is often increased. However, an increase in the number of terminal device identifications will result in overhead in power consumption of the terminal device.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method, communication equipment and related products, which are used for reducing the power consumption expenditure of terminal equipment in the paging process.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, where the method includes:

Receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) sent by network equipment, wherein the DCI comprises information of Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) time-frequency resource blocks, the DCI schedules N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks, each PDSCH time-frequency resource block provides paging information of at least one terminal equipment, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

determining a PDSCH time-frequency resource block to be demodulated according to the DCI, wherein the PDSCH time-frequency resource block to be demodulated is a part of time-frequency resource blocks in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks;

and demodulating the PDSCH time-frequency resource block needing demodulation.

In the above method, the PDSCH time-frequency resource block to be demodulated is a part of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks. Compared with the PDSCH time-frequency resource block included in the demodulation DCI, the power consumption expenditure of the terminal equipment caused by the demodulation of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block is reduced.

In one possible implementation of the present invention,

The value of N is obtained by one of the following modes:

Receiving the value of the N indicated by the network equipment through DCI;

Receiving the value of the N indicated by the network equipment through network configuration information; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

Taking the value of N as the value of N according to the preset value of N.

Optionally, the network configuration information includes at least one of the following information: system information, control-Control element (MEDIA ACCESS Control-Control element, MAC-CE) for medium access layer Control, radio resource Control (Radio resource Control, RRC) signaling, remaining minimum system information (REMAINING MINIMUM SYSTEMINFORMATION, RMSI) or system information block (system information block, SIB).

Optionally, the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block includes but is not limited to: subcarrier position, symbol position, demodulation method, etc. of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

In one possible implementation, the time-frequency resource size of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the same; and/or the modulation and coding strategy MCS of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the same.

In one possible implementation, each PDSCH time-frequency resource block of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is of a different size; the modulation and coding strategy MCS of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the same. The modulation and coding strategy MCS of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block is the same, so that the cost of PDCCH resources caused by indication MSC can be reduced.

In one possible implementation, the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks further includes a size and/or a location of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks.

In a possible implementation manner, the DCI further includes the number of terminal devices paged by each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The DCI also comprises the number of terminal equipment identifiers carried by each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation manner, the determining, according to the DCI, a PDSCH time-frequency resource block that needs to be demodulated includes:

And taking the remainder of N according to all or part of data bits of the self identifier, and acquiring the number or the position of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier.

In a possible implementation manner, the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is information of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block is information of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks are PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks after limiting the number of physical resource blocks (physical resource block, PRBs) or bandwidth size by means of pre-configuration or the network device indication. In one possible implementation, when the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the information of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks:

the information of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks indicates the information after the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks are grouped; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The information of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks indicates the size of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, when the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block is information of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks:

Receiving one DCI through one physical downlink control channel PDCCH, wherein the one DCI comprises information of N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

N DCIs are received through N PDCCHs, and each DCI in the N DCIs comprises information of one PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

In one possible implementation of the present invention,

The DCI also comprises grouping index information of a terminal equipment identifier, a resource block size and an MCS; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The DCI also comprises Paging access occasion (PO) index information, resource block size and MCS of the terminal equipment identification.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

receiving configuration information sent by the network device,

The configuration information comprises Y groups of information, and each group of information comprises information of X pieces of paging terminal equipment or identification of X pieces of terminal equipment; x and Y are positive integers greater than or equal to 1;

the method further comprises the steps of:

and determining the PO to be received according to the values of X and Y.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, including:

Determining downlink control information DCI to be transmitted, wherein the DCI comprises information of physical downlink shared channel PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks, the DCI schedules N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks, each PDSCH time-frequency resource block provides paging information of at least one terminal device, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

and sending the DCI through a physical downlink control channel PDCCH.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

indicating the value of N through the DCI;

Indicating the value of N through network configuration information; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

The value of N is determined according to a pre-configuration.

In one possible implementation, the time-frequency resource size of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the same; the modulation and coding strategy MCS of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the same.

In one possible implementation, each PDSCH time-frequency resource block of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is of a different size; and/or the modulation and coding strategy MCS of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the same.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes: and limiting the number or bandwidth size of physical resource blocks PRBs of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks in a pre-configuration or indication mode.

In a possible implementation manner, the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is information of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks; or, the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block is information of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks.

In one possible implementation, when the information of the PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks is the information of the N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks:

receiving one DCI through one PDCCH, wherein the one DCI comprises information of N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks; or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

In a possible implementation manner, the DCI further includes packet index information of a terminal device identifier, a resource block size and an MCS; or, the DCI further includes PO index information, a resource block size, and an MCS of the terminal device identifier.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

transmitting configuration information, wherein the configuration information comprises Y groups of information, and each group of information comprises X pieces of paging terminal equipment or identification of X pieces of terminal equipment; x and Y are positive integers greater than or equal to 1; the method further comprises the steps of: and determining paging access opportunity PO to be received according to the values of X and Y.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application further provides a communication method, including:

Sending configuration information of paging information to terminal equipment; the configuration information comprises information of one control resource block of the Paging message, wherein the one control resource block consists of time-frequency resources of control resources of the Paging message corresponding to N Paging access opportunities (PO); n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

And sending control resources of the paging message to the terminal equipment based on the configuration information.

In the method, one control resource block consists of the time-frequency resources of the control resources of the paging messages corresponding to the N POs, and the paging messages of the POs can be scheduled by one control resource block, so that the cost of configuration information about the POs can be reduced.

Optionally, the control resources include, but are not limited to: a physical downlink control channel PDCCH of a paging message corresponding to PO, downlink control information DCI of a paging message corresponding to PO, or a control resource set CORESET of a paging message corresponding to PO.

Optionally, the N may be a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

Alternatively, the one control resource block may be composed of time-frequency resources of control resources of a plurality of paging messages within one PO duration.

Optionally, the duration of the POs is the number of slots (slots), the number of subframes, or the number of mini-slots (mini-slots) in one PO. The duration of the PO may be implicitly indicated by the SS block number, RMSI number, or SIB number.

The duration of the PO is related to the SS block number, RMSI number, or SIB number. For example, the duration of the PO may be an integer or fractional multiple of the SS block number, RMSI number, or SIB number.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

and acquiring the duration time of the PO according to the SS block number, RMSI number or SIB number.

Alternatively, paging messages for multiple POs may be grouped together. The control resources of paging messages within a group are transmitted using one control resource block. The control information of paging messages of different POs in each group may use the same DCI format or may use different DCI formats. The same number of bits may be used for paging messages using different DCI formats. The number of paging messages in different groups may be equal or different.

Optionally, the information of the paging message for configuration includes, but is not limited to: minimum system information (REMAINING MINIMUM SYSTEMINFORMATION, RMSI) remaining, physical broadcast channel (Physical Broadcast channel, PBCH), DCI, radio resource control (Radio resource control, RRC) or medium access control-control element (Medium Access control-control element, MAC-CE).

Alternatively, the control resources of the paging messages corresponding to the plurality of POs may be located in a common search space or may be in a control resource set.

Alternatively, the control resources of multiple paging messages within a PO duration (e.g., PDCCHs of multiple paging messages within a PO duration) may be Quasi-synchronized (QCL) or associated with a synchronization signal block (synchronization signal block, SS block), or QCL or associated with a particular reference signal. The control resources of multiple paging messages (e.g., PDCCHs of paging messages corresponding to multiple POs) within one PO duration may also be QCL or associated with different SS blocks or QCL or associated with different specific reference signals.

In one possible implementation, the time-frequency resource block is divided into K equal parts, where K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1.

Alternatively, the value of K may be the same as the number of paging messages. The value of K may also be less than the number of paging messages, such that each aliquot of time-frequency resources may include control resources for multiple paging messages.

Alternatively, the value of K may be preconfigured by the network device (e.g., a base station), or may be agreed in advance by the terminal device and the network device. The number of time-frequency resources (i.e., the value of K) may also be implicitly indicated based on the common search space resource size or the configured resource size.

Optionally, the time-frequency resource blocks of the K equal parts may be prioritized according to time sequence, or may be placed or distributed according to frequency sequence. The time-frequency resource blocks of the K equal parts can be in sequence or in reverse sequence, can be pre-agreed by a terminal and network equipment, or can be pre-defined by a protocol.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another communication method, including:

Receiving configuration information of paging messages sent by network equipment; the configuration information comprises time-frequency position information of one control resource block of the paging message, wherein the one control resource block consists of time-frequency resources of control resources of the paging message corresponding to N paging access occasions PO; n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

and receiving control resources of the paging message sent by the network equipment.

Optionally, the control resources include, but are not limited to: PDCCH of paging message corresponding to PO, DCI of paging message corresponding to PO or CORESET of paging message corresponding to PO.

Optionally, the N may be a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

Optionally, the method further comprises:

In one possible implementation, the terminal device determines, according to the period of the configuration information, a location of a time-frequency resource of a control resource of a paging message of a PO sent to the terminal device.

The embodiment of the application also provides a signal transmission method, a related device and a system, which can dynamically configure the number of data bits of the paging indication and reduce the resource overhead of beam scanning in the paging message transmission process. In an embodiment of the present application, the paging indication may be referred to as a first message.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the terminal receives first configuration information and first information sent by network equipment; the first configuration information is used for the terminal to determine a group where the terminal is located, and the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in the group where the terminal is located; the terminal determines a group in which the terminal is located according to the first configuration information; and if the group in which the terminal is positioned has the terminal to be paged, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network equipment.

In a sixth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the network equipment sends first configuration information and a first message to the terminal; the first configuration information is used for the terminal to determine a group where the terminal is located, and the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in the group where the terminal is located; if the group in which the terminal is located is paged, the network equipment receives an uplink signal sent by the terminal; and the network equipment sends a paging message to the terminal according to the uplink signal.

With reference to the fifth aspect and/or the sixth aspect, in an optional embodiment, the first configuration information may include at least one of: the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits in the first message indicating each group, the number of data bits used to calculate packet information, the location of the data bits used to calculate packet information in the terminal identity, the number of paging occasions, the length of a discontinuous reception period, or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

In an alternative embodiment, the first configuration information may flexibly configure the size of the first message, i.e. the number of data bits of the first message, according to the actual situation. One possible way is that the number of data bits of the first message configured is greater or the number of groups with which the first message is associated is greater when the number of terminals is greater. Another possibility is that the more terminals that are paged, the more data bits of the first message are configured or the more groups the first message is associated with. In addition, the number of beams scanned by the network device can be reduced, so that the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning in the paging message transmission process is reduced.

With reference to the fifth aspect and/or the sixth aspect, optionally, in the present application, a plurality of terminals in a tracking area or a jurisdiction of a network device, or a plurality of terminals corresponding to a paging occasion may be grouped. The number of groups of packets, i.e. the number of groups with which the first message is associated. The grouping mode can be pre-agreed by the network equipment and the terminal, and can be pre-defined by a standard protocol.

In the present application, the group in which the terminal is located is related to at least one of a terminal identifier, a number of packets, a number of data bits of the first message, a number of groups associated with the first message, a number of data bits indicating each group in the first message, a number of data bits for calculating packet information, a position of the data bits for calculating packet information in the terminal identifier, a number of paging occasions, a length of a discontinuous reception period, or a number of synchronization signal blocks. It will be appreciated that some or all of the above at least one item of information may be predefined by standard protocols or may be agreed upon by the network device and the terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, after receiving the first configuration information, the terminal may calculate the group in which the terminal is located through the following two calculation policies.

The first calculation strategy is calculated by the formulaTo calculate the group in which the terminal is located.

The ue id is a numerical value represented by the terminal identifier. N may be at least one of the number of paging occasions, the length of the discontinuous reception period, or the number of synchronization signal blocks, for example, the number of POs included in the DRX period or the number of paging windows, the number of synchronization signal blocks, and the like. n represents that the terminal belongs to the nth group of the K groups.

The second calculation strategy calculates the group in which the terminal is located by the formula n= (the value represented by the data bits used to calculate the grouping information) mod K.

Wherein the data bits used for calculating the packet information are part of the data bits in the terminal identification. The data bits used to calculate the packet information are selected by two factors: for calculating the position of the data bits of the packet information in the terminal identity, for calculating the number of data bits of the packet information.

Alternatively, the two factors described above may be determined by: the first factor, namely, the position of the data bits for calculating the packet information in the terminal identity, may be determined based on the constant N described above; the second factor, the number of data bits used to calculate the packet information, may be determined based on the number of groups of packets K.

With reference to the fifth aspect and/or the sixth aspect, in an alternative embodiment, the first message may be used to indicate whether a group in which the terminal is located has terminals that are paged. Specifically, in the present application, a plurality of terminals are divided into a plurality of groups, and if each terminal in a group includes a terminal to be paged, it means that the group has terminals to be paged.

Specifically, the first message may indicate whether each group has terminals paged through the value of each bit.

Optionally, each group indicated by the first message may be each group obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals in a tracking area, each group obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals in a jurisdiction of a network device, or each group obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals in a PO.

Optionally, each group indicated by the first message may be each group obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals included in the range of the plurality of tracking areas; or respectively grouping a plurality of terminals included in the jurisdiction of a plurality of network devices to obtain each group; the plurality of terminals included in the plurality of paging occasions may be grouped to obtain respective groups.

In the application, the terminal can determine the group according to the first configuration information, and determine whether the terminal is paged in the group according to the first message.

With reference to the fifth aspect and/or the sixth aspect, in an alternative embodiment, the network device may not need to send first configuration information to the network device, and each item configured in the first configuration information may be agreed between the terminal and the network device, or may be predefined by a standard protocol. In this case, the group in which the terminal is located may be determined between the terminal and the network device according to conventions, or according to information predefined by a standard protocol.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the terminal receives first configuration information and paging information sent by network equipment; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the paging message comprises a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal; the terminal determines a truncation mark or index of the terminal according to the first configuration information; and if the interception identification of the terminal is the same as the interception identification of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network equipment.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the network equipment sends first configuration information and paging information to the terminal; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the paging message comprises a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal; and if the interception identification of the terminal is the same as the interception identification of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the network equipment receives the uplink signal sent by the terminal.

By implementing the method described in the seventh aspect and/or the eighth aspect, the truncated identifier or index of each terminal can be flexibly configured through the first configuration information, and by truncating the identifier or index paging terminal, the paging message has fewer contents, so that the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning in the transmission process of the paging message can be reduced.

In an implementation of the seventh and/or eighth aspect, in an optional embodiment, the first configuration information may include at least one of:

The number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits in the first message indicating each group, the number of data bits used to calculate packet information, the location of the data bits used to calculate packet information in the terminal identity, the number of paging occasions, the length of a discontinuous reception period, or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

With reference to the seventh aspect and/or the eighth aspect, in an optional embodiment, in the present application, a truncated identifier or index of a plurality of terminals may be configured by using first configuration information, where the plurality of terminals may be a plurality of terminals in a tracking area, or a plurality of terminals in a jurisdiction of a network device, or a plurality of terminals corresponding to a paging occasion or a paging window.

In the application, the truncated mark of the terminal is part of data bits of the terminal mark. The truncated identity of the terminal may be determined according to at least one of the following information: the number of data bits of the truncated identity, the position of the truncated identity in the terminal identity, the identity of the terminal, the number of paging occasions, the number of synchronization signal blocks or the length of the discontinuous reception period. In the present application, part or all of the above-mentioned at least one item of information may be predefined by a standard protocol or agreed in advance by the network device and the terminal. The method for determining the truncated identifier of the terminal according to the at least one item of information is various, and can be predefined by a standard protocol or can be agreed by the network equipment and the terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, after receiving the first configuration information, the terminal may determine its own truncated identifier according to the first configuration information. Similar to the data bits used to calculate the packet information described above, the truncated identity of the terminal may be chosen by two factors: the number of data bits of the truncated identity, the position of the truncated identity in the terminal identity.

By way of example, the two factors described above may be determined according to the following: the first factor, the number of data bits of the truncated identity; the second factor, i.e., the location of the truncated identity in the terminal identity, may be determined based on N, which is a constant, and which may be determined by at least one of the number of paging occasions, the length of the discontinuous reception period, or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

For example, when the complete identifier of the terminal is represented by binary, the truncated identifier of the terminal may occupy M bits, and the truncated identifier of the terminal is adjacent to the lowest log ₂ N bits of the identifier of the terminal. The lowest log ₂ N bits of the terminal identifier can be used to calculate the paging occasion corresponding to the terminal.

With reference to the seventh aspect and/or the eighth aspect, in an optional embodiment, a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal may be included in the paging message. The terminal may determine its own truncated identity or index according to the first configuration information and determine whether to be paged according to the paging message.

In an alternative embodiment, if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, the terminal considers that the terminal is paged and sends an uplink signal to the network device.

In another alternative embodiment, the terminal is not necessarily paged even if the truncated identity of the terminal is the same as the truncated identity of the at least one paged terminal, or the index of the terminal is the same as the truncated identity of the at least one paged terminal. In this case, the terminal needs to determine whether to page itself in combination with a confirmation message sent by the network device, where the confirmation message may carry a complete identifier of at least one terminal to be paged.

With reference to the seventh aspect and/or the eighth aspect, in an alternative embodiment, the network device may not need to send the first configuration information to the network device, and the truncated identifier of each terminal may be agreed on by the terminal and the network device, or may be predefined by a standard protocol. In this case, both the terminal and the network device may determine their own truncated identity or index according to conventions, or according to information predefined by a standard protocol.

With reference to the fifth aspect, the sixth aspect, the seventh aspect, and the eighth aspect, optionally, the first configuration information may be configured by at least one of: system information, system information blocks, remaining minimum system information, other system information, downlink control information, radio resource control information, or medium access control layer control elements. Alternatively, the first message may be sent via a physical downlink shared channel or a physical downlink control channel.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the terminal sends a second message to the network equipment, wherein the second message comprises data bits which correspond to the terminal and are used for calculating grouping information; the terminal receives a first message sent by the network equipment, wherein the first message is sent after the network equipment determines a group where the terminal is located according to the second message, and the first message is used for indicating whether the group where the terminal is located has terminals to be paged or not; and if the group in which the terminal is located has the terminal to be paged, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network equipment.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the network equipment receives a second message sent by a terminal, wherein the second message comprises data bits which correspond to the terminal and are used for calculating grouping information; the network equipment determines a group where the terminal is located according to the second message; the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal, wherein the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in a group where the terminal is located; if the group in which the terminal is located is paged, the network equipment receives an uplink signal sent by the terminal; and the network equipment sends a paging message to the terminal according to the uplink signal.

Implementing the method described in the ninth aspect and/or the tenth aspect may reduce the number of beams scanned by the network device, so as to reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning during the transmission of the paging message.

In the ninth aspect and/or the tenth aspect, the grouping manner of the terminals may refer to the related description of the fifth aspect or the sixth aspect, and the manner in which the network device determines the group in which the terminals are located may also refer to the related description of the fifth aspect or the sixth aspect, which is not repeated herein.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the terminal sends a second message to the network equipment, wherein the second message comprises a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the terminal receives a paging message sent by the network equipment, wherein the paging message is sent after the network equipment determines a truncation identifier or index of the terminal according to the second message, and the paging message comprises the truncation identifier or index of at least one paged terminal; and if the interception identification of the terminal is the same as the interception identification of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network equipment.

In a twelfth aspect, the present application provides a signal transmission method, which may include: the network equipment receives a second message sent by a terminal, wherein the second message comprises a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the network equipment determines a truncation mark or index of the terminal according to the second message; the network equipment sends a paging message to the terminal, wherein the paging message comprises a truncated identifier or index of at least one paged terminal; and if the interception identification of the terminal is the same as the interception identification of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the network equipment receives the uplink signal sent by the terminal.

Implementing the method described in the eleventh and/or twelfth aspect may reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning during transmission of paging messages by truncating the identifying or indexing paging terminals, and the content of the paging messages is less.

In the eleventh and/or twelfth aspects, the truncated identification of the terminal may refer to the related description of the seventh or eighth aspect, which is not repeated herein.

In a thirteenth aspect, the present application provides a terminal, which may include a plurality of functional modules for performing the method provided in the fifth aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the fifth aspect. The terminal may include: a receiving unit, a determining unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit is used for receiving first configuration information and first information sent by the network equipment; the first configuration information is used for the terminal to determine a group where the terminal is located, and the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in the group where the terminal is located; the determining unit is used for determining a group where the terminal is located according to the first configuration information; and the sending unit is used for sending an uplink signal to the network equipment if the group in which the terminal is located has the terminal to be paged.

In a fourteenth aspect, the present application provides a network device, which may comprise a plurality of functional modules for performing the method provided in the sixth aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the sixth aspect. The network device may include: a receiving unit, a transmitting unit. The sending unit is used for sending the first configuration information and the first message to the terminal; the first configuration information is used for the terminal to determine a group where the terminal is located, and the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in the group where the terminal is located; the receiving unit is used for receiving an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the terminal is paged in the group where the terminal is located; the sending unit is further configured to send a paging message to the terminal according to the uplink signal.

With reference to the thirteenth and/or fourteenth aspect, in an optional embodiment, the first configuration information includes at least one of: the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits in the first message indicating each group, the number of data bits used to calculate packet information, the location of the data bits used to calculate packet information in the terminal identity, the number of paging occasions, the length of a discontinuous reception period, or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

With reference to the thirteenth aspect and/or the fourteenth aspect, in an optional embodiment, a group n where the terminal is located is: wherein ue id is an identity of the terminal, K is a number of groups associated with the first message, N is a constant, and N is determined by at least one of a number of paging occasions, a length of the discontinuous reception period, or a number of the synchronization signal blocks.

In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a terminal, which may comprise a plurality of functional modules for performing the method provided by the seventh aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the seventh aspect, respectively. The terminal may include: a receiving unit, a determining unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit is used for receiving the first configuration information and the paging message sent by the network equipment; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the paging message comprises a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal; the determining unit is used for determining a truncation mark or index of the terminal according to the first configuration information; and the sending unit is configured to send an uplink signal to the network device if the truncation identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncation identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

In a sixteenth aspect, the present application provides a network device, which may comprise a plurality of functional modules for performing the method according to the eighth aspect or any one of the possible embodiments of the eighth aspect. The network device may include: a transmitting unit, a receiving unit. The sending unit is used for sending the first configuration information and the paging message to the terminal; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the paging message comprises a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal; the receiving unit is configured to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

With reference to the fifteenth and/or sixteenth aspect, in an optional embodiment, when the first configuration information is used to configure a truncated identifier of the terminal, the first configuration information includes at least one of: the number of data bits of the truncated identity of the terminal, the position of the truncated identity of the terminal in the terminal identity, the number of paging occasions, the length of a discontinuous reception period or the number of synchronous signal blocks; wherein the truncated identifier of the terminal is a part of data bits of the terminal identifier.

With reference to the fifteenth and/or sixteenth aspects, in an optional embodiment, a position of a truncated identity of the terminal is adjacent to a lowest log ₂ N data bits of the terminal identity; n is a constant, and N is determined by at least one of the number of paging occasions, the length of the discontinuous reception cycle, or the number of the synchronization signal blocks.

With reference to the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth aspects, in an optional embodiment, the first configuration information is configured by at least one of: system information, system information blocks, remaining minimum system information, other system information, downlink control information, radio resource control information, or medium access control layer control elements.

In a seventeenth aspect, the present application provides a terminal, which may include a plurality of functional modules for performing the method provided by the ninth aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the ninth aspect, respectively. The terminal may include: a receiving unit, a transmitting unit. The sending unit is configured to send a second message to a network device, where the second message includes data bits corresponding to the terminal and used for calculating packet information; the receiving unit is configured to receive a first message sent by the network device, where the first message is sent after the network device determines, according to the second message, a group where the terminal is located, and the first message is used to indicate whether the group where the terminal is located has a terminal that is paged; and the sending unit is further configured to send an uplink signal to the network device if the group in which the terminal is located has the terminal paged.

In an eighteenth aspect, the present application provides a network device, which may include a plurality of functional modules for performing the method provided in the tenth aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the tenth aspect. The network device may include: a receiving unit, a determining unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit is configured to receive a second message sent by a terminal, where the second message includes data bits corresponding to the terminal and used for calculating packet information; the determining unit is used for determining the group where the terminal is located according to the second message; the sending unit is used for sending a first message to the terminal, wherein the first message is used for indicating whether a group in which the terminal is located has the terminal paged or not; the receiving unit is further configured to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the group in which the terminal is located has the terminal paged; the sending unit is further configured to send a paging message to the terminal according to the uplink signal.

In a nineteenth aspect, the present application provides a terminal, which may include a plurality of functional modules for performing the method provided by the eleventh aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the eleventh aspect, respectively. The terminal may include: a receiving unit, a transmitting unit. The sending unit is configured to send a second message to a network device, where the second message includes a truncated identifier or index of the terminal; the receiving unit is configured to receive a paging message sent by the network device, where the paging message is sent after the network device determines a truncation identifier or index of the terminal according to the second message, and the paging message includes at least one truncation identifier or index of the terminal to be paged; the sending unit is further configured to send an uplink signal to the network device if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

In a twentieth aspect, the present application provides a network device, which may include a plurality of functional modules for performing the method provided by the twelfth aspect or any one of the possible implementation manners of the twelfth aspect. The network device may include: a receiving unit, a determining unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit is configured to receive a second message sent by a terminal, where the second message includes a truncated identifier or index of the terminal; the determining unit is used for determining a truncation mark or index of the terminal according to the second message; the sending unit is used for sending a paging message to the terminal, wherein the paging message comprises a truncated identifier or index of at least one paged terminal; the receiving unit is further configured to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

With reference to the seventeenth aspect, the eighteenth aspect, the nineteenth aspect and the twentieth aspect, in an optional embodiment, the second message is sent when the terminal initiates an attach request. The second message may be sent by at least one of: system information, system information blocks, remaining minimum system information, other system information, downlink control information, radio resource control information, or medium access control layer control elements.

In a twenty-first aspect, the present application provides a terminal for performing the signal transmission method described in the fifth aspect or the seventh aspect or the ninth aspect or the eleventh aspect. The terminal may include: a memory and a processor, transceiver coupled to the memory, wherein: the transceiver is used to communicate with other communication devices, such as network devices. The memory is configured to store implementation codes of the signal transmission method described in the fifth aspect or the seventh aspect or the ninth aspect or the eleventh aspect, and the processor is configured to execute the program code stored in the memory, that is, execute the method provided in the fifth aspect or the seventh aspect or the ninth aspect or the eleventh aspect, or execute the method provided in any one of possible implementation manners of the fifth aspect or the seventh aspect or the ninth aspect or the eleventh aspect.

In a twenty-second aspect, the present application provides a network device for performing the signal transmission method described in the sixth aspect or the eighth aspect or the tenth aspect or the twelfth aspect. The terminal may include: a memory and a processor, transceiver coupled to the memory, wherein: the transceiver is used for communicating with other communication devices, such as terminals. The memory is configured to store implementation codes of the signal transmission method described in the sixth or eighth or tenth or twelfth aspect, and the processor is configured to execute the program code stored in the memory, that is, execute the method provided in the sixth or eighth or tenth or twelfth aspect, or execute the method provided in any one of possible implementation manners of the sixth or eighth or tenth or twelfth aspect.

In a twenty-third aspect, a communication system is provided, the communication system comprising: a terminal and a network device. Wherein:

The terminal may be a terminal described in the thirteenth or fifteenth or seventeenth or nineteenth aspect, and the network device may be a network device described in the fourteenth or sixteenth or eighteenth or twentieth aspect. The terminal may also be a terminal as described in the twenty-first aspect above, and the network device may also be a network device as described in the twenty-second aspect above.

The present application also provides, in an embodiment, a communication device including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, the processor executing the program to cause the communication device to implement the steps performed by the method.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer readable medium storing a computer program which, when executed, causes the method of any of the possible implementations described above to be performed.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of the possible implementations described above.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are needed in the description of the embodiments will be briefly described below, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort to a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a wireless communication system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 4 is a flow chart of another communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of one possible method for calculating the number of data bits and the position in the terminal identity of packet information provided by the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the number of data bits and the location in the terminal identity of one possible truncated identity provided by the present application;

Fig. 7A to fig. 7G are schematic flow diagrams of a signal transmission method according to the present application;

fig. 8A-8D are functional block diagrams of a wireless communication system, a terminal, and a network device provided by the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First, some terms and related technologies related to the present application will be explained for convenience of understanding:

1) Terminal equipment

The terminal device in the present application is a device with an infinite communication function, and may be a handheld device, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, a computing device, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, etc. with a wireless communication function. Terminal devices in different networks may be called different names, for example: a user equipment, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent or user equipment, a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a session initiation protocol (Session Initiation Protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (Wireless Local Loop, WLL) station, a Personal digital assistant (Personal DIGITAL ASSISTANT, PDA), a terminal device in a 5G network or a future evolution network, and the like.

2) Base station

The base station in the present application may also be called a base station device, which is a device deployed in a radio access network to provide a radio communication function, may be a base station (Base Transceiver Station, abbreviated as BTS) in global mobile communications (Global System of Mobile communication, abbreviated as GSM) or code division multiple access (Code Division Multiple Access, abbreviated as CDMA), may be a base station (NodeB, abbreviated as NB) in wideband code division multiple access (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, abbreviated as WCDMA), may also be an evolved base station (Evolutional Node B, abbreviated as eNB or eNodeB) in long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, abbreviated as LTE), or a relay station or an access point, a transmission node or a transceiver point (transmission reception point, TRP or TP) in a new air interface (NR) system, or a base station of a next generation node B (gNB), a Wireless backhaul node, a small station, a micro station, or a base station in a future generation mobile communications (the 5th Generation Mobile Communication,5G) network, and the present application is not limited herein.

3) Beam

A beam (beam) may be understood as a spatial resource and may refer to a transmit or receive precoding vector with energy transmission directivity. And, the transmission or reception precoding vector can be identified by index information. The energy transmission directivity may mean that in a certain spatial position, a signal after being subjected to precoding processing by the precoding vector has better receiving power, for example, the signal to noise ratio of receiving demodulation is satisfied; the energy transmission directivity may also mean that the same signal transmitted from different spatial locations received through the precoding vector has different received powers.

Alternatively, the same communication device (e.g., a terminal device or a network device) may have different precoding vectors, and different devices may also have different precoding vectors, i.e., corresponding to different beams. One communication device may use one or more of a plurality of different precoding vectors at the same time, i.e. may form one or more beams simultaneously, for the configuration or capabilities of the communication device. The information of the beam may be identified by index information. Optionally, the index information may correspond to a resource identifier of a configured User Equipment (UE), for example, the index information may correspond to an ID or a resource of a configured channel state information reference signal (Channel status information REFERENCE SIGNAL, CSI-RS) or an ID or a resource of a configured uplink Sounding reference signal (Sounding REFERENCE SIGNAL, SRS). Or alternatively, the index information may be index information that is displayed or implicitly carried through a signal or a channel carried by the beam, for example, the index information may be index information indicating the beam through a synchronization signal or a broadcast channel transmitted by the beam.

The beam pair may include a transmit beam at the transmitting end and a receive beam at the receiving end, or also referred to as an upstream beam or a downstream beam. For example, the beam pair may include a gNB Tx beam transmit beam or a UE Rx beam receive beam, or a UE Tx beam transmit beam or a gNB Rx beam receive beam, where the transmit beam may also be understood as a transmit beam.

The beam may be a wide beam, or a narrow beam, or other type of beam. The technique of forming the beam may be a beam forming technique or other means of technique. The beamforming technique may be embodied as a digital beamforming technique, an analog beamforming technique, a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technique. Different beams may be considered different resources. The same information or different information may be transmitted through different beams. Alternatively, a plurality of beams having the same or similar communication characteristics may be regarded as one beam. One beam may include one or more antenna ports for transmitting data channels, control channels, probe signals, etc., for example, a transmit beam may refer to a distribution of signal strengths formed in spatially different directions after signals are transmitted through an antenna, and a receive beam may refer to a signal strength distribution of wireless signals received from the antenna in spatially different directions. One or more antenna ports forming a beam may also be considered as a set of antenna ports. The beam may also be a spatial filter (SPATIAL FILTER).

4) System frame in LTE

In the LTE system, transmission of a channel is in units of radio frames, one radio frame (radio frame) includes 10 subframes (subframes), each of which has a length of 1 millisecond (ms), each of which includes two slots (slots), each of which is 0.5ms. The number of symbols included in each slot is related to the CP (cyclic prefix) length in the subframe. If the CP is a normal CP, each slot includes 7 symbols, and each subframe is composed of 14 symbols, for example, each subframe is composed of symbols with sequence numbers #0, #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, respectively. If the CP is an extended CP, each slot includes 6 symbols, and each subframe is composed of 12 symbols, for example, each subframe is composed of symbols with sequence numbers of #0, #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, respectively. The downlink symbols are referred to as orthogonal frequency division multiple access (orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, OFDM) symbols. In the LTE system, a Resource Element (RE) is the smallest element in the time-frequency domain, and is uniquely identified by an index pair (k, l), where k is a subcarrier index and l is a symbol index.

5) Communication resource

In the present application, the communication resource may also be simply referred to as a resource. The communication resources may be used to transmit signals. Communication resources come in a variety of types. For example: from a physical characteristic point of view, the types of communication resources may be spatial resources, time domain resources, and frequency domain resources. For example: from a different manifestation perspective, the type of communication resource may be a beam, a port, etc. A set of heterogeneous communication resources is also a kind of communication resource. For example: the time-frequency resource block (including time-domain resources and frequency-domain resources) is a communication resource, and the combination of beams and ports is also a communication resource.

6) Other terms

The term "plurality" herein refers to two or more.

The term "and/or" is herein merely an association relationship describing an associated object, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.

The terms "first" and "second" in the present application are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defining "a first" or "a second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more such feature.

In LTE, the base station pages 4 times per frame, 16 users each, and 10ms per frame, so the base station can call up to 6400 users per second. The maximum number of SS blocks is 64 among NRs, the maximum number of POs within each frame is 4, and in one PO, data of one beam occupies at least 2 OFDM symbols, the first symbol is PDCCH and the second is PDSCH. The scanning resources occupied by four POs are 512 OFDM symbols. For a 120KHz subcarrier spacing, a total of 1120 symbols for a frame, 45% (512/1120) of the paging resources are occupied. Is a significant overhead for limited paging resources.

By reducing the number of POs and increasing the number of terminal device identities in the POs, the total resource occupancy of paging resources can be reduced. However, an increase in the number of terminal device identities will increase the bandwidth in the PO, and searching for terminal device identities in a larger bandwidth will increase the overhead of power consumption.

Fig. 1 shows a wireless communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. The wireless communication system may operate in a high frequency band, and may be a 5G system, an NR system, a machine-to-machine (machine to machine, M2M) system, or the like, not limited to the LTE system. As shown in fig. 1, a wireless communication system 100 may include: one or more network devices 101, one or more terminals 103. Wherein:

Network device 101 may be an access network device, such as a base station, which may be configured to communicate with one or more terminals, or may be configured to communicate with one or more base stations having some terminal functionality (e.g., macro base station to micro base station, such as an access point). The network device 101 may also be a core network device that may be used to communicate with a base station or terminal 103. The core network device may be a mobility management entity (mobility MANAGEMENT ENTITY, MME), a mobility management device in future 5G, or the like.

Terminals 103 may be distributed throughout wireless communication system 100 and may be stationary or mobile.

In the present application, the wireless communication system 100 is a multi-beam communication system. Wherein:

network device 101 may be configured with a large-scale antenna array and control the antenna array to form differently directed beams using beamforming techniques.

It will be appreciated that when a terminal is in a certain position, the terminal can receive signals transmitted using one or more of the above-mentioned directional beams when the terminal is in the certain position, and the corresponding signals fall within the transmission range of one or more of the directional beams.

During paging, since the network device 101 does not know where the terminal being paged is located, the network device 101 needs to send paging messages (paging) using multiple beams of different directions to cover the entire cell 107, ensuring that the terminal being paged receives the paging messages, a process that may be referred to as Beam scanning (Beam scanning).

In the embodiment of the present application, the network device 101 may configure the number of users or the number of terminal device identities (UE identification, UE IDs) for one PO page. The terminal equipment identifier may be all of the UE IDs, may be part of the UE IDs, or may be an Index-Based UE ID (Index-Based UE ID).

The network device 101 may configure the number of users or the number of UE IDs of one PO page in at least one of the system information, RRC signaling, MAC-CE signaling, RMSI, or system information block SIBs, for example, through network configuration information.

Specifically, the maximum UE ID number of the POs may be related to the SS block number, the paging mechanism, and the SCS.

When the maximum UE ID number of the POs is related to the SS block number, n=1, the UE ID maximum number may be 16; when N < = 4 or 8, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 32; n > =8 UE IDs can be 64 or 32 at maximum. Wherein N is

When the maximum number of UE IDs of the PO is related to the paging mechanism, for example, if the paging mechanism is a beam scanning mode, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 32 or 64; if the paging mechanism is a wide beam or omni-directional beam pattern, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 16; if the paging mechanism is LTE mode, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 16.

When the maximum number of UE IDs of the POs is related to the SCS, for example if SCS = 15khz, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 16; if scs=30 khz, the ue ID maximum number may be 32; if scs=120 khz, the maximum number of ue IDs may be 64 or 32.

When the maximum number of UE IDs of the POs is related to the frequency band, if the frequency band is higher than 6ghz, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 64 or 32; if the frequency band is 3GHz to 6GHz, the maximum number of UE IDs can be 32 or 64; if the frequency band is below 3GHz, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 16 or 32.

When the maximum number of UE IDs of the PO is related to the transmission bandwidth of the paging message, for example, at 120KHz subcarrier, the transmission bandwidth is higher than 100m, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 64 or 32; if the transmission bandwidth is less than 100m at 120KHz subcarrier, the maximum number of ue IDs may be 16 or 32.

When the maximum number of UE IDs of the PO is related to the TA zone, if the number of base stations of the TA zone is greater than 32, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 64; if the number of base stations in the TA area is greater than 8 and less than 32, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 32; if the number of base stations in the TA area is less than 8, the maximum number of UE IDs may be 16.

There may be various methods for the network device 101 to configure the number of terminal devices or the number of UE IDs for one PO page. For example, a network device may configure a Y group, e.g., y=4, with a group of X terminal devices, e.g., x=16; i.e. the configuration can page 16 x 4 = 64 terminal devices at a time. The terminal device 103 can thus determine the PO of the terminal device based on at least one of the values of X and Y, and the UE ID. Alternatively, the method by which the network device 101 determines the PO may be determined by querying a pre-configured table. Alternatively, the network device 101 may also configure the total number of terminal devices that can be paged at most.

Alternatively, when the network device 101 schedules a plurality of groups of terminal devices 103 at a time or the number of scheduled terminal devices 103 is large, one PDCCH may be used to schedule a plurality of PDSCH, or one PDCCH may be used to schedule one PDSCH.

When the network device 101 increases the number of terminal device identifications in the PO by decreasing the number of POs, the number of terminal device 103 identifications will increase, which in turn will increase the bandwidth in the PO. Searching for terminal device identification within a relatively large bandwidth by terminal device 103 increases the overhead of power consumption.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication method and equipment, which are used for reducing the problem of high power consumption expenditure of terminal equipment when searching for a terminal equipment identifier.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 2, the method includes:

step 100: when a network device indicates information of a Physical downlink Down LINK SHARED CHANNEL, PDSCH time-frequency resource block to a terminal device, the network device sends DCI to the terminal device, wherein the DCI comprises information of a PDSCH time-frequency resource block; the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block comprises more than one second PDSCH time-frequency resource block, and each second PDSCH time-frequency resource block provides paging information of at least one terminal device, namely each second PDSCH time-frequency resource block maps the identifier of at least one terminal device;

the network device may send DCI to the terminal device through a physical downlink control channel (Physical Downlink Control Channel, PDCCH).

The network device sends the PDCCH to the terminal device, which is mainly used for sending downlink scheduling information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device receives the PDSCH. The DCI specifies the resources occupied by the PDSCH, modulation and coding scheme (modulation and coding scheme, MCS), information related to primary transmission or retransmission, layer, precoding, and the like. The network device may configure the content of the DCI first and then send it to the terminal device.

Wherein, the information of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block includes but is not limited to: subcarrier locations, symbol locations, demodulation methods, etc. of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

Specifically, the network device may divide a large first PDSCH time-frequency resource block into W small second PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks according to a packet corresponding to the identifier of the terminal device, where W >1, for example, w=4 or 2. Since the identifier of each terminal device corresponds to one packet, each packet includes identifiers of a plurality of terminal devices. The network equipment divides the identifier of the terminal equipment mapped by one large first PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to the group corresponding to the identifier of each terminal equipment and the group where each terminal equipment is positioned to obtain a second PDSCH time-frequency resource block smaller than the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

Optionally, the network device may also take the identifier of the terminal device scheduled by the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block off the 10, and determine the packet according to the result after the taking off. For example, the remainder results are set from 0 to 3, the remainder results are set from 4 to 7, and the remainder results are set from 8 to 9. It should be noted that, taking the remainder of 10 is merely an example, and other values may be taken during the implementation, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, to simplify the terminal device from acquiring the location of the second PDSCH to which it belongs, the size of each second PDSCH time-frequency resource block may be the same. Of course, the size of each second PDSCH time-frequency resource block may also be different, and embodiments of the present application are not limited to specific implementations.

Alternatively, the MSC of each second PDSCH time-frequency resource block may be the same. In this way, the overhead of PDCCH resources due to the indication MSC can be reduced.

Optionally, the number of the more than one second PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks may be sent to the terminal device by the network device by sending DCI or network configuration information, and the terminal device determines the number of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks according to the number of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks indicated in the received DCI or network configuration information. The network configuration information includes, but is not limited to, at least one of system information, RRC signaling, MAC-CE signaling, RMSI, SIB1, or a system information block. Of course, the number of second PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks scheduled by DCI sent by the network device may also be determined in a preconfigured manner.

Optionally, the DCI may further include the number of terminal device identifiers in each second PDSCH time-frequency resource block. Therefore, the method can be used for replacing the allocation of the resource block field, and the bit cost of the DCI field can be saved because the number of bits occupied by the resource block field is more and the number of bits occupied by the terminal equipment identification is less.

Optionally, the network device includes, but is not limited to: a base station, a transmission reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), or a relay.

Step 102: the terminal equipment receives DCI sent by the network equipment and determines a second PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to the DCI;

The second PDSCH time-frequency resource block is the PDSCH time-frequency resource block that needs demodulation.

Optionally, the determining, by the terminal device, the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to its own identifier includes but is not limited to:

And obtaining the number or the position of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier according to the fact that all or part of data bits of the terminal equipment identifier are subjected to N surplus. The value of N is the value of N when the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block is divided into N time-frequency resource blocks of the second PDSCH.

Step 104: the terminal device demodulates the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block determined in step 102.

In the above method, the terminal device first determines a second PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier, and demodulates the determined second PDSCH time-frequency resource block. Compared with the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block which is larger than the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block, the power consumption expense of the terminal equipment caused by demodulating the PDSCH time-frequency resource block is reduced.

Optionally, after step 104, the method may further include: and the terminal equipment searches whether the self identifier is in the demodulated second PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to the demodulated second PDSCH time-frequency resource block. In this way, the terminal device can learn whether or not it is paged.

As an alternative implementation, the network device may also indicate information of PDSCH time-frequency resource block size scheduled by the terminal device. In order to clearly describe the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the implementation of another communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described below by taking the example that the network device schedules two PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks. It can be appreciated that, for an implementation manner of scheduling N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks (N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1) by the network device, similar to the implementation manner described below, a description thereof will not be repeated.

Referring to fig. 3, fig. 3 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 3, the method includes:

Step 200: when a network device indicates information of a PDSCH time-frequency resource block to a terminal device, the network device transmits DCI through PDCCH, wherein the DCI comprises information of a first PDSCH time-frequency resource block and information of a second PDSCH time-frequency resource block in the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block, and the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block comprises the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and a third PDSCH time-frequency resource block; the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block maps the identifier of at least one terminal device, and the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block maps the identifier of at least one terminal device;

the DCI further includes an MCS of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block. The network device may configure the content of the DCI first and then send it to the terminal device.

Wherein, the information of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block includes but is not limited to: subcarrier locations, symbol locations, demodulation methods, etc. of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block. The information of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block includes, but is not limited to: subcarrier locations, symbol locations, demodulation methods, etc. of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

Alternatively, the DCI sent by the network device through the PDCCH may include only the information of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the information of the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

Optionally, to simplify the terminal device from acquiring the location of the second PDSCH to which the terminal device belongs, the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block may have the same size. Of course, the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block may also be different in size. The embodiments of the present application are not limited to a specific implementation.

Optionally, the modulation and coding strategies of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block are the same. The MCS of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block is the same as the MCS of the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block, so that the cost of PDCCH resources caused by indication MSC can be reduced.

Optionally, the DCI may further include the number of terminal device identifiers in each second PDSCH time-frequency resource block, which may be used to replace allocation of resource block fields, so as to save the overhead of DCI fields.

Optionally, the network device includes, but is not limited to: base station, TRP or relay.

Step 202: and the terminal equipment receives the DCI sent by the network equipment and determines a PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to the self identification.

Specifically, after demodulating the received PDCCH, the terminal device may acquire the size of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the size of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block. The terminal device can further obtain the size of the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to the size of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the size of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block. For example, the terminal device obtains the size of the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block by subtracting the size of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block from the size of the first PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

The DCI received by the terminal device may further include MCS of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

Optionally, the terminal device may search the location of the PDSCH time-frequency resource block where the self identifier is located according to the self identifier.

Optionally, the determining, by the terminal device, the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier includes but is not limited to:

and obtaining the number or the position of the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier according to the fact that all or part of data bits of the terminal equipment identifier are subjected to N surplus. Wherein, N can be any positive integer.

The PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the identifier of the terminal device may be the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block or the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block. The second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block may be separate coding processes. The second PDSCH time-frequency resource block and the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block may have the same size or different sizes.

Step 204: the terminal device demodulates the PDSCH time-frequency resource block determined in step 202.

In the above method, the terminal device first determines a PDSCH time-frequency resource block (the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block or the third PDSCH time-frequency resource block) corresponding to the self-identifier, and determines whether the self-identifier is in the determined PDSCH time-frequency resource block by demodulating the determined PDSCH time-frequency resource block. Compared with the demodulation of the time-frequency resource block which is larger than the first PDSCH, the power consumption expense of the terminal equipment caused by the demodulation of the time-frequency resource block of the PDSCH is reduced.

Optionally, after step 204, the method may further include: and the terminal equipment searches whether the self identifier is in the information carried by the demodulated PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to the demodulated PDSCH time-frequency resource block. In this way, the terminal device can learn whether or not it is paged.

Referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a flow chart of a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 4, the method includes:

Step 300: when network equipment indicates information of PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks to terminal equipment, the network equipment schedules N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks through one PDCCH, and DCI sent by the network equipment comprises the information of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block; or the network equipment schedules N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks through N PDCCHs, and the network equipment transmits N DCIs, wherein each DCI comprises information of one PDSCH time-frequency resource block;

Wherein, N can be any positive integer. Optionally, the value of N may be sent by the network device to the terminal device by sending DCI and network configuration information, where the terminal device determines the number of PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks according to the value of N indicated in the received DCI or network configuration information. The network configuration information includes, but is not limited to, at least one of system information, RRC signaling, MAC-CE signaling, RMSI, SIB1, or a system information block. Of course, the number of PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks scheduled by DCI transmitted by the network device may also be determined in a preconfigured manner.

Optionally, the DCI may include a PDSCH time-frequency resource block size and MCS.

Alternatively, to simplify the terminal device from acquiring the location of the PDSCH to which it belongs, the size of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block may be the same. Of course, the size of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block may also be different, and embodiments of the present application are not limited to specific implementations.

Alternatively, the MSC of each PDSCH time-frequency resource block may be the same. In this way, the overhead of PDCCH resources due to the indication MSC can be reduced.

Optionally, the DCI may further include packet index information, a PO index, or a PDSCH index of the terminal device identifier.

Optionally, the DCI may further include the number of terminal device identifiers in each PDSCH time-frequency resource block. Therefore, the method can be used for replacing the allocation of the resource block field, and the bit cost of the DCI field can be saved because the number of bits occupied by the resource block field is more and the number of bits occupied by the terminal equipment identification is less.

Step 302: the terminal equipment receives DCI sent by the network equipment and determines a PDSCH time-frequency resource block according to the self identification;

optionally, the determining, by the terminal device, the self identifier of the terminal device determines PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks corresponding to the self identifier, including but not limited to:

and searching grouping information, resource position information and MCS of the self identifier according to the self identifier of the terminal equipment so as to determine the PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier. Or searching PO index, resource position information and MCS where the self identifier of the terminal equipment is located according to the self identifier of the terminal equipment, and determining the PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier.

For example, the terminal device takes the number of packets or takes the number of PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks by using the self-identification part, compares the value obtained by taking the number with the PO index or the packet index in the DCI, and obtains the position of the PDSCH resource block with the same PDSCH index or PO index as the value obtained by taking the number of packets or the position of the PDSCH resource block with the PO index to determine the PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

Step 304: the terminal device demodulates the PDSCH time-frequency resource block determined in step 302.

In the above method, the terminal device determines the PDSCH time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self-identification in the DCI, and determines whether the self-identification is in the determined PDSCH time-frequency resource block by demodulating the determined PDSCH time-frequency resource block. Because only the time-frequency resource block corresponding to the self identifier is demodulated, compared with the time-frequency resource block of the PDSCH corresponding to the self identifier, the power consumption expense of the terminal equipment caused by demodulating the time-frequency resource block of the PDSCH is reduced.

Optionally, after step 304, the method may further include: and the terminal equipment searches whether the self identifier is in the information carried by the PDSCH according to the demodulated PDSCH time-frequency resource block.

As another implementation manner, in step 300, when the network device schedules N PDSCH time-frequency resource blocks through N PDCCHs, the N different PDCCHs may be scrambled with M different P-RNTIs.

When PDSCH content of each PDCCH schedule is an identity of a terminal device of a different packet, different packet information may be indicated by different P-RNTIs.

When the PDSCH content of each PDCCH schedule is an identity of a terminal device of a different PO, information of the different PO may be indicated by a different P-RNTI.

Alternatively, when the number of called terminal devices in multiple POs or multiple packets is small, PDSCH of multiple POs or multiple packets may be combined, and one PDCCH is used for scheduling, where multiple POs or multiple UE packets use the same P-RNTI for indication.

The value of N may be configured in the system information, for example, by radio resource control (Radio resource control, RRC) signaling or MAC-CE signaling, or may be configured in the remainder RMSI or SIB 1. The PDCCH may be configured or the protocol may be defined according to a certain rule.

Because the duration of one PO of the paging message is longer, the blind detection times of the UE are larger, and in order to reduce the blind detection times, the network equipment is required to configure the control resource position of the paging message corresponding to each PO.

In NR, there may be multiple POs within one configuration message period. For example, there may be multiple POs in one synchronization signal segment set SS burst set period or PBCH period, and there may be multiple POs in one RMSI period or one SIB information period.

And, the time-frequency resource of the control resource for transmitting the paging message is configured by the base station. The period of the configuration information of the paging message may not coincide with the transmission period of the paging information. It is therefore necessary to configure time-frequency resources of control resources of a plurality of paging messages in configuration information of the paging messages.

Wherein, the control resources of the paging message include, but are not limited to: a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) of a PO, downlink Control Information (DCI) of a PO, or a set of control resources (CORESET) of a PO. The configuration information of the paging message is information for configuring control resources of the paging message, including but not limited to: RMSI, PBCH, DCI, RRC or media MAC-CE.

To reduce the overhead of configuration information for the POs, multiple paging messages may be grouped together. The control resources of paging messages within a group are scheduled or configured together. This may be achieved, for example, by configuring one large time-frequency resource block with configuration information of the paging message.

The network device may send configuration information of the paging message to the terminal device, where the configuration information includes information of one control resource block of the paging message, where the one control resource block is composed of time-frequency resources of control resources of the paging message corresponding to the N POs; n is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1;

And the network equipment sends control resources of the paging message to the terminal equipment based on the configuration information.

Optionally, the N may be a positive integer greater than or equal to 2.

Correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the configuration information sent by the network equipment and receives control resources of paging messages sent by the network equipment.

Alternatively, the configured time-frequency resource block, for example, a control resource block, may be equally divided into K equal parts. K is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1. The value of K may be the same as the number of paging messages. The value of K may also be less than the number of paging messages, such that each aliquot of time-frequency resources may include one or more control resources for the paging message.

Alternatively, the number of paging messages in each paging message group may be configured by the network device (e.g., a base station), or may be pre-agreed by the terminal and the network device.

Optionally, the time-frequency resources of the K equal parts may be prioritized according to a time sequence, or may be placed or distributed in a manner of prioritized according to a frequency sequence. In the embodiment of the application, the sequence of the time-frequency resources of the K equal parts is not limited, and the time-frequency resources of the K equal parts can be in sequence or in reverse order, can be pre-agreed by a terminal and network equipment, or can be pre-configured by a protocol.

Optionally, the number of time-frequency resources (i.e. the value of K) may be configured by a network device (e.g. a base station), or may be pre-agreed by a terminal and the network device. The number of time-frequency resources (i.e., the value of K) may also be implicitly indicated based on the common search space resource size or the configured resource size.

Alternatively, different paging messages within each group may use the same DCI format or may use different DCI formats. The same number of bits may be used for paging messages using different DCI formats. The number of paging messages in different groups may be equal or different.

Alternatively, the control resources of the paging messages corresponding to the plurality of POs (e.g., PDCCH of the paging messages corresponding to the plurality of POs) may be Quasi-synchronized (QCL) or associated to one SS block or QCL to one specific reference signal. The control resources of the paging messages corresponding to the multiple POs (e.g., PDCCHs of the paging messages corresponding to the multiple POs) may also be QCL to different SS blocks or QCL to different specific reference signals.

After the terminal device enters a DRX cycle, for example, after the terminal device wakes up from the DRX cycle, it may first receive configuration information of a paging message sent by the base station, determine a PO group where the terminal device is located by using a terminal device identifier (UE ID), determine a control resource location of a PO corresponding to the terminal device in the PO group by using the UE ID and the number N of the PO group, and determine a location of the paging message related to the terminal device by demodulating the control resource.

The following describes a manner in which the terminal device determines control information and/or paging messages, taking 640ms in the DRX cycle, 256 POs in the DRX cycle, 20ms in the RMSI cycle, and 8 POs in different RMSI cycles, each 8 POs being configured as two groups, each four POs as an example.

The terminal device may modulo 256 according to its device identity (UE ID), assuming that the terminal device modulo 256 according to its UE ID is 125, i.e. UE ID mod 256 = 125. Since the number of POs in RMSI cycles is 8, it can be determined from the modulo result 125 that the terminal device is on the 5 th PO in the 15 th RMSI th cycle. The terminal device can determine the paging message control resource location corresponding to the PO of the terminal device based on the 5 th PO of the 15 th RMSI th period. After the terminal equipment determines the position of the time-frequency resource, the control information can be obtained by demodulating the control resource, and paging information can be further obtained according to the control information.

As an alternative embodiment, the calculation of the PO position of the terminal device (e.g. the position of the time-frequency resource of the control resource of the PO) is related to the period of the configuration information, i.e. the terminal device may calculate the position of the PO based on the period of the configuration information. The configuration information period may be an SS burst set period, a RMSI period, an RRC period, a MAC-CE period, or a SIB period.

As an alternative embodiment, the duration of the PO is related to the number of SS blocks in one SS burst set, which refers to the number of SS blocks from which duplicate SS blocks are removed, or the actual number in an SS block. The duration of the PO may also be related to the number of RMSI in one RMSI period or to the number of system information blocks (e.g., SIB 1) in a certain system information block period. The duration of the PO refers to the number of slots (slots) or the number of subframes or the number of mini-slots in one PO. The duration may be implicitly indicated by the SS block number, RMSI number, or SIB number. The duration of the PO may also be an integer or fractional multiple of the SS block number, RMSI number, or SIB number. For example, the SS burst set may have 16 SS blocks, and the PO may have a duration of 16 subframes or 16 slots, that is, the number of subframes or slots (mini-slots) of the duration of the PO may be a multiple of the number of SS blocks in the SS burst set, or a multiple of the number of RMSI in the RMSI period, or may be other specific values, for example, configured by the network device, where embodiments of the present application are not limited to implementation of specific multiples. The multiple of the number of SS blocks in the SS burst set may be configured by RMSI, PBCH, RRC, MAC-CE or SIB, etc. For example, if the multiple configured by RMSI is 2 times the number of SS blocks, the duration of the PO is 32 subframes or 32 slots. Optionally, during the duration of the PO, some subframes, slots, or mini-slots may be skipped when calculating the duration of the PO, such as skipping subframes for uplink and downlink switching. Or the configuration information configures a single QCL or paging information associated to different SS blocks or different specific reference signals, controls a single duration of resource information or paging information (skipped subframes, slots, or mini-slots may be removed), and multiplies the number of SS blocks or RMSI to obtain the duration of the total PO. Alternatively, since different SS blocks in an SS burst set may be grouped, different paging messages in a PO may be grouped, and the paging message durations in different groups may be configured differently.

Alternatively, the QCL may be associated with paging information on different SS blocks or on different specific reference signals, and the control resource information or paging information may be transmitted in a selected duration of an equal interval period (skipped subframes, slots, or mini-slots may be removed). I.e., the duration of the PO is divided equally into the number of paging message periods, one paging message being sent in each paging period. For example, in the case of twice the number of SS blocks, the QCL or paging message associated to the first SS block may be sent on the first two slots or the first two subframes; the QCL or paging message associated to the second SS block may be sent on the 3 rd or 4 th subframe or s lot. Alternatively, the time offset of the initial subframe or initial slot or mini-slot with respect to each equally spaced time period may be configured by RMSI, PBCH, RRC, MAC-CE or SIB, etc. The QCL or the paging message associated to the first SS block may be sent on the first Slot with a time offset of 0, for example, in the case of twice the number of SS blocks by blind detection; the QCL or paging message associated to the second SS block may be sent on the 4 th slot with a time offset of 1, which is a time offset relative to the 3 rd slot. The time offset of the 3 rd slot may be the time offset of the first slot in the second equidistant time period.

In an embodiment of the present application, the wireless communication system 100 shown in fig. 1 is a multi-beam communication system. Network device 101 may be configured with a large-scale antenna array and control the antenna array to form differently directed beams using beamforming techniques. It will be appreciated that when a terminal is in a certain position, the terminal can receive signals transmitted using one or more of the above-mentioned directional beams when the terminal is in the certain position, and the corresponding signals fall within the transmission range of one or more of the directional beams.

During paging, since the network device 101 does not know where the terminal being paged is located, the network device 101 needs to send paging messages (paging) using multiple beams of different directions to cover the entire cell 107, ensuring that the terminal being paged receives the paging messages, a process that may be referred to as Beam scanning (Beam scanning). Beam scanning covering the whole cell causes a large overhead of resources.

The signal transmission method provided by the embodiment of the application is described below to solve the problem of large resource overhead caused by full beam scanning.

In the present application, the network device sends paging indication (paging indication) to a plurality of terminals, which may be a plurality of terminals in a tracking area (TRACKING AREA IDENTITY, TA), a plurality of terminals in a jurisdiction of the network device, or a plurality of terminals in a Paging Occasion (PO). The plurality of terminals receiving the paging indication all send uplink signals to the network equipment, the network equipment can acquire the beams where the plurality of terminals are located through the uplink signals, and the network equipment uses the beams where the plurality of terminals are located to carry out beam scanning to send paging information because the plurality of terminals comprise the paged terminal, so that the paged terminal can receive the paging information (paging). In the application, the number of the beams scanned by the network equipment is reduced greatly compared with the total beams corresponding to the network equipment, and the cost of beam scanning is saved.

Further, in the present application, the paging indication may be configured by the network device, as described in detail below.

In the application, a plurality of terminals can be grouped, and the plurality of terminals can be a plurality of terminals in the range of a tracking area (TRACKING AREA IDENTITY, TA), a plurality of terminals in the jurisdiction of a network device, and a plurality of terminals in a paging occasion. The network device can inform the group of the paged terminals of the plurality of terminals through the paging indication, if the group of one terminal comprises the paged terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device, the network device can acquire the wave beams of all the terminals in the group of the paged terminal through the uplink signal, and the wave beams are utilized to carry out wave beam scanning to send paging information, so that the paged terminal can be ensured to receive the paging information. In the present application, the size of the paging indication (i.e., the number of data bits occupied by the paging indication) and the number of groups associated with the paging indication (i.e., the number of groups of terminals in the present application) are flexibly configurable.

In the application, the paging indication can be flexibly configured by the network equipment through the configuration information.

In the present application, the paging indication may be referred to as a first message, and the configuration information may be referred to as first configuration information.

For a better understanding of the present application, several basic concepts related to the present application are first described: a discontinuous reception (discontinuous reception, DRX) cycle, paging occasion, and synchronization signal block (synchronization signal block, SS block) of the terminal.

Each terminal has its own DRX cycle for power consumption. The DRX cycle may be a default DRX cycle, i.e. the DRX cycles of all or part of the terminals in a cell are the same, and may be configured by the network device; the DRX cycle may also be a specific DRX cycle that each terminal reports according to its own situation.

In one DRX cycle, multiple POs may be included, which in the present application may also be considered paging windows.

The PO refers to a subframe that may include a paging message. In the paging process, the terminal only needs to monitor the PO corresponding to the terminal in one DRX period. It will be appreciated that during paging, multiple terminals may monitor the same PO. In the present application, a plurality of terminals monitoring the same PO are referred to as terminals corresponding to the PO.

The number of synchronization signal blocks affects the number of POs in one DRX cycle, and a functional relationship is presented between the number of synchronization signal blocks and the number of POs. For example, when the number of synchronization signal blocks in one synchronization signal segment set period is large, the number of POs is reduced.

The length of the DRX cycle may also affect the number of POs in the DRX cycle. For example, when the length of the DRX cycle is longer, the number of POs in the DRX cycle is larger.

The following describes the key technical points related to the present application.

Grouping mode of (one) terminal

In the present application, a plurality of terminals may be grouped. The plurality of terminals may be a plurality of terminals within a tracking area, a plurality of terminals within a jurisdiction of a network device, or a plurality of terminals within a PO.

After grouping the plurality of terminals, each terminal may calculate the group in which it is located. The group in which the terminal is located may be determined according to at least one of the following information: the number of groups K of packets, the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits in the first message indicating each group, the identity of the terminal, the number of data bits used to calculate the packet information, the position of the data bits used to calculate the packet information in the complete terminal identity, the number of POs, the number of synchronization information blocks, or the length of the DRX cycle. In the present application, part or all of the above-mentioned at least one item of information may be predefined by a standard protocol. The terminal can determine the group according to at least one of the above modes, and can be predefined by standard protocol or agreed by network equipment and terminal.

The number K of groups after grouping the plurality of terminals may be determined according to any one or more of the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, and the number of data bits indicating each group in the first message, which may be referred to the related descriptions in the following key technical points (four) and (five), and will not be described herein.

The following illustrates how the terminal determines the group in which it is based on the at least one item of information.

In an alternative embodiment, the group in which the terminal is located may be calculated by the following two calculation strategies.

Wherein the ue id is a terminal identity. The terminal identification may uniquely identify a terminal. The terminal identity may be an international mobile subscriber identity (international mobile subscriber identification number, IMSI), SAE temporary mobile identity (SAE temporary mobile station identifier, S-TMSI) or the like, which may determine the identity of the unique terminal.

Where N may be a constant, and may be determined according to at least one of the number of POs, the length of the DRX cycle, or the number of synchronization signal blocks. For example, N may be the number of POs or the number of paging windows included in the DRX cycle, the number of synchronization signal blocks, and the like.

Where n represents that the terminal belongs to the nth group of the K groups.

The second calculation strategy calculates the group in which the terminal is located by the formula n= (data bits for calculating packet information) mod K.

In an alternative embodiment, a part of data bits of the terminal identifier may be used to calculate the PO corresponding to the terminal, and after the data bits of the PO corresponding to the terminal are removed from the terminal identifier, the remaining data bits may be used to calculate the group in which the terminal is located. Since one PO may correspond to a plurality of terminals, which is equivalent to classifying the terminals by the POs, in the present application, the grouping of the terminals in the paging process and the POs corresponding to the terminals may be configured at the same time.

In the present application, the above two factors can be determined by: the first factor, namely, the position of the data bits for calculating the packet information in the terminal identity, may be determined based on the constant N described above; the second factor, the number of data bits used to calculate the packet information, may be determined based on the number of groups of packets K.

For example, referring to fig. 5, fig. 5 shows a possible schematic diagram of the number of data bits and the position in the terminal identity for calculating the packet information. When the complete identifier of the terminal is represented by binary system, the lowest log ₂ N bits of the identifier of the terminal can be used for calculating the corresponding PO or paging window of the terminal, wherein N is the number of POs. The data bits used to calculate the packet information are: adjacent to the lowest log ₂ N bitsA number of bits.Represent rounding up log ₂ K.

The above examples are merely exemplary illustrations, and in a specific implementation, the data bits for calculating the packet information determined according to the number of groups K and the constant N may be different from those in the above examples, and the manner of determining the data bits for calculating the packet information may be various. The determination mode of the data bits used for calculating the packet information can be determined by the network equipment, the terminal, the agreement between the network equipment and the terminal, and the standard protocol.

It is understood that the two calculation strategies described above are only exemplary illustrations. The present application is not limited to the above-mentioned calculation strategies, and in a specific implementation, at least one of the above-mentioned calculation strategies may be used to calculate the group in which the terminal is located. In the present application, the specific calculation policy may be predefined by a standard protocol or agreed upon between the network device and the terminal.

Cut-off identification of (II) terminal

Similar to the data bits used for calculating the packet information described above, the truncated identity of the terminal is obtained by truncating a portion of the segment identified by the terminal. Since the truncated identifier is a part of the terminal identifier, the truncated identifier does not have uniqueness, that is, the truncated identifiers of a plurality of terminals may be the same, and one truncated identifier may correspond to a plurality of terminals.

In the present application, the truncated identification of the terminal may be determined according to at least one of the following information: the number of data bits of the truncated identity, the position of the truncated identity in the terminal identity, the identity of the terminal, the number of POs, the number of synchronization signal blocks or the length of the DRX cycle. In the present application, part or all of the above-mentioned at least one item of information may be predefined by a standard protocol or agreed in advance by the network device and the terminal. The method for determining the truncated identifier of the terminal according to the at least one item of information is various, and can be predefined by a standard protocol or can be agreed by the network equipment and the terminal.

The following illustrates how to determine the truncated identity of the terminal based on at least one item of information as described above.

Similar to the data bits used to calculate the packet information described above, the truncated identity of the terminal may be chosen by two factors: the number of data bits of the truncated identity, the position of the truncated identity in the terminal identity.

In the present application, the above two factors can be determined according to the following manner: the first factor, namely the number of data bits of the truncated identity, can be determined according to the false alarm probability or according to the number of terminals; the second factor, i.e., the location of the truncated identity in the terminal identity, may be determined according to N, which is a constant, and N may be determined by at least one of the number of POs, the length of DRX, or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

The terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device, so that the network device sends a paging message to the terminal, but the terminal is not a paged terminal, which may be called a false alarm. When the number of data bits of the truncated identity is related to the false alarm probability, one possible implementation manner is that when the false alarm probability is higher, the number of data bits of the truncated identity can be increased in order to reduce the false alarm probability.

Wherein when the number of data bits of the truncated identity is related to the number of terminals, a possible implementation way is to reduce the number of data bits of the truncated identity when the number of terminals is larger. By means of the implementation mode, the signaling overhead of the network equipment in the paging process can be reduced.

For example, referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of the number of data bits of a possible truncated identity of a terminal and the position of the truncated identity in the terminal identity. When the complete identifier of the terminal is represented by binary system, the truncated identifier of the terminal can occupy M bits, and the truncated identifier of the terminal is adjacent to the lowest log ₂ N bits of the identifier of the terminal. The lowest log ₂ N bits of the terminal identifier may be used to calculate a PO or paging window corresponding to the terminal.

Not limited to the number and location of possible data bits of the truncation flag in the above example, the truncation flag of the terminal may also be: the highest or lowest M bits in the S-TMSI of the terminal identification, the lowest log ₂ N bits of the terminal identification are consecutive or non-consecutive M bits adjacent to each other. Optionally, the start position or the end position of the terminal truncation flag may also be adjacent to the bits used for calculating the PO in the terminal flag. Wherein, M and the bit used for calculating PO can be predefined by standard protocol, or can be agreed by network equipment and terminal.

The above examples are merely exemplary illustrations, and in a specific implementation, the manner of determining the truncated identifier of the terminal according to the at least one item of information may be different from that in the above examples, and there may be a plurality of manners of determining the truncated identifier. The manner of determining the truncated identifier may be determined by the network device, or may be determined by the terminal, or may be agreed between the network device and the terminal, or may be predefined by a standard protocol.

In the application, the selection of the terminal interception identifier may be based on the area, may be based on the PO, and may be based on both the area and the PO, which will be described in detail below.

In an alternative embodiment, the terminal truncation identification is based on the region. For example, the jurisdiction of the network device includes a plurality of sub-areas, and the truncated identity of the terminal is related to the sub-area in which the terminal is located. For example, the two factors are the same for the terminal located in sub-region 1 and the two factors are the same for the terminal located in sub-region 2.

In an alternative embodiment, the terminal truncation flag is based on the PO. For example, two factors when terminals corresponding to different POs select the truncated identifier may be different. For example, in one DRX cycle, the two factors of the terminals corresponding to the 1 st PO may be: occupying K1 adjacent bits, wherein the starting position of the interception mark is the starting position of the terminal mark; the two factors of the terminals corresponding to the 2 nd PO may be: and occupying K2 adjacent bits, wherein the ending position of the truncation mark is the ending position of the terminal mark.

In an alternative embodiment, the terminal truncation identification is based on both the region and the PO. For example, the jurisdiction of the network device includes a plurality of sub-areas, and the truncated identity of the terminal is related to: the sub-area in which the terminal is located, and the PO corresponding to the terminal. For example, the two factors of the terminals located in the sub-area 1 and corresponding to the 1 st PO are the same; the two factors are the same for the terminals located in sub-area 1 and corresponding to the 2 nd PO.

(III) index of terminal in paging procedure (paging index)

In the paging procedure, the index of the terminal may be used for paging. The indexes of the terminals do not have uniqueness, i.e., the indexes of the plurality of terminals may be the same, and one index may correspond to the plurality of terminals.

In the present application, the index of the terminal may be a complete terminal identifier, or may be a part of the terminal identifier, or may be only an index value, which is described in the following case.

In the first case, when the index of the terminal is a complete terminal identifier, one index corresponds to one terminal.

In the second case, when the index of the terminal is a part of the terminal identifier, and the same as the truncated identifier of the terminal, the terminal index is obtained by intercepting a part of the segment of the terminal identifier, and the index of the terminal can be determined according to at least one of the following information: the length of the index, the position of the index in the terminal identity, the identity of the terminal, the number of POs, the number of synchronization signal blocks, or the length of the DRX cycle. In the present application, part or all of the above-mentioned at least one item of information may be predefined by a standard protocol or agreed in advance by the network device and the terminal. The index of the terminal is determined according to the at least one item of information in various ways, and can be predefined by a standard protocol or can be agreed by the network equipment and the terminal.

The following illustrates how the terminal index is determined based on at least one item of information described above.

In an alternative embodiment, similar to the truncation flag described above, the terminal index may be selected based on the following factors: the number of data bits of the terminal index, the position of the terminal index in the terminal identity. The determination of the above two factors can be referred to the related description in the key technical point (two), and is not repeated here.

In the third case, the index of the terminal is only one index value.

In the present application, for the first case described above, one index corresponds to one terminal, that is, the index of the terminal is based on the terminal identification.

In the present application, for the second case and the third case, similar to the above-mentioned cut-off identifier, the index of the terminal may be area-based, PO-based, or both area and PO-based, which will be described in detail below.

In an alternative embodiment, the index of the terminal is based on the region. For example, the jurisdiction of a network device includes a plurality of sub-regions, and the index of a terminal is related to the sub-region in which the terminal is located. For example, corresponding to the second case, the two factors are the same at the terminal of the sub-area 1 and the two factors are the same at the terminal of the sub-area 2. For example, corresponding to the third case, the terminal index values in the sub-area 1 are the same, and the terminal index values in the sub-area 2 are the same.

In an alternative embodiment, the index of the terminal is based on the PO. For example, in one DRX cycle, the two factors of the terminal corresponding to the 1 st PO are the same, corresponding to the second case; the two factors of the terminal corresponding to the 2 nd PO are the same. Also illustrated, corresponding to the third case, in one DRX cycle, the terminal index value corresponding to the 1 st PO is the same; the terminal index value corresponding to the 2 nd PO is the same.

In an alternative embodiment, the index of the terminal is based on both the region and the PO. For example, the jurisdiction of the network device includes a plurality of sub-areas, corresponding to the second case, the two factors of the plurality of terminals corresponding to the 1 st PO located in the sub-area 1 are the same, and the two factors of the plurality of terminals corresponding to the 2 nd PO located in the sub-area 2 are the same. For example, the jurisdiction of the network device includes a plurality of sub-areas, corresponding to the third case, the index values of the plurality of terminals corresponding to the 1 st PO in the sub-area 1 are the same, and the index values of the plurality of terminals corresponding to the 2 nd PO in the sub-area 2 are the same.

(IV) implementation of the first message

In the present application, the first message is the paging indication. The first message may be implemented in three ways.

In a first implementation, the first message may be used to indicate whether each group includes paged terminals, i.e., the first message may be used to indicate whether a terminal is paged in the group in which the terminal is located.

In a first implementation, whether or not terminals are paged in each group may be indicated by the value of each bit of the first message. Wherein, how many bits are used to indicate a group may be agreed upon between the network device and the terminal, or may be predefined by a standard protocol.

In an alternative embodiment, the groups indicated by the first message may be groups obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals in a tracking area, groups obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals in a jurisdiction of a network device, or groups obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals in a PO.

For example, in one particular embodiment, packets are directed to multiple terminals within a PO. The first message includes 16 bits, each bit having a value 1100011000110000. Wherein, a bit represents a group, and a value of "1" in each bit represents that a terminal in the corresponding group is paged, and a value of "0" represents that no terminal in the corresponding group is paged. If the number of groups of the plurality of terminals in the PO is 16, the first message indicates that there are terminals in groups 1,2, 6, 7, 11, 12 that are paged, i.e., that all of the terminals in groups 1,2, 6, 7, 11, 12 include paged terminals. It can be understood that if the number of groups of the plurality of terminals in the PO is 4, four bits represent one group, "1100", "0110", "0011", "0000" respectively correspond to the 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th groups, and when the four bits take what values, it means that the terminals in the corresponding groups are paged, which can be predefined by the standard protocol.

In another alternative embodiment, the respective groups indicated by the first message may be respective groups obtained by grouping a plurality of terminals included in the range of the plurality of tracking areas; or respectively grouping a plurality of terminals included in the jurisdiction of a plurality of network devices to obtain each group; the plurality of terminals included in the plurality of paging occasions may be grouped to obtain respective groups. In this case, the number of terminal packets within each tracking area, each network device jurisdiction, each PO may be different, i.e., in the first message, the number of data bits used to indicate whether each group within each tracking area, each network device jurisdiction, each PO includes a paged terminal may be different.

For example, in one particular embodiment, multiple terminal packets included in two POs within one DRX cycle are targeted. The terminals in the first PO are grouped into 10 groups and the terminals in the second PO are grouped into 6 groups. The first message includes 16 bits, the first 10 bits for indicating groups in the first PO and the last 6 bits for indicating groups in the second PO. The value of each bit is 1100011000110000. Wherein, a bit represents a group, and a value of "1" in each bit represents that a terminal in the corresponding group is paged, and a value of "0" represents that no terminal in the corresponding group is paged. The first message may then be used to indicate that the paged terminals are included in groups 1, 2, 6, 7 of terminals in the first PO and that the paged terminals are included in groups 1, 2 of terminals in the second PO.

It can be understood that, in the case of grouping a plurality of terminals included in the range of the plurality of tracking areas and grouping a plurality of terminals included in the jurisdiction of the plurality of network devices, the implementation of the first message is similar to the above-described specific embodiment, and will not be repeated herein.

In a second implementation, the first message may include a truncated identification of the at least one paged terminal.

Here, the truncation flag may refer to the related description in the key technical point (two).

For example, if in the paging process, the object of the paging message is terminal 1, and the truncated flag of terminal 1 is "0011". The first message takes a value of "0011" using 4 bits to indicate that the terminal with the truncated identity "0011" may be paged.

In a third implementation, the first message may include an index of at least one paged terminal.

Here, the index of the terminal may refer to the related description in the key technology point (iii).

For example, the first message may include a partial identity of at least one paged terminal when the terminal index is part of the terminal identity, and the first message may include an index value of at least one paged terminal when the terminal index is only one index value.

In the three implementations, the first message may be sent through a physical downlink shared channel (physical downlink sharedchannel, PDSCH) of the paging information or a physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) of the paging information, or through a set of control resources (CORESET).

(Fifth) implementation of first configuration information

In the present application, the first configuration information may be implemented in the following three ways.

In a first implementation manner, the first configuration information is used for determining, by the terminal, a group in which the terminal is located, and the first configuration information may include at least one of the following information: the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits in the first message indicating each group, the number of data bits used to calculate the packet information, the location of the data bits used to calculate the packet information in the terminal identity, the number of POs, the length of the DRX cycle, or the number of synchronization signal blocks. The first message here corresponds to the first implementation of the first message in the key technical point (four) above.

In an alternative embodiment, when the first configuration information is used to configure the number of data bits of the first message, there may be the following two configurations.

In the first configuration, the number indicated by each bit is directly indicated. For example, the first configuration information may indicate the number of data bits of the first message by 4 bits, and the value of 4 bits may be any one of 0001 to 1111, and may indicate the numbers 1 to 16, respectively, that is, the number of data bits of the first message is any one of 1 to 16.

The second configuration scheme indicates the configuration scheme of the first message by the number of the respective bit identification. For example, four configuration schemes are predefined for the first message, and the number of data bits of the first message corresponding to the four configuration schemes is: 8. 10, 12 or 18. The first configuration information may indicate a configuration scheme by 2 bits, and indicate a first configuration scheme when the value of 2 bits is 00, that is, when the number of data bits of the first message is 8 and the value of 2 bits is 01, indicate a second configuration scheme, that is, when the number of data bits of the first message is 10, and so on.

The first configuration information may also configure the number of data bits of the first message in other forms without being limited to the above two configuration schemes, and the present application is not limited thereto.

In the present application, the number of groups associated with the first message is the number of groups K of the terminal group. There are two cases of the number of groups associated with the first message, which are described in detail below.

In the first case, the number of groups associated with the first message may be the number of groups that are grouped by a plurality of terminals in a tracking area, the number of groups that are grouped by a plurality of terminals in a jurisdiction of a network device, or the number of groups that are grouped by a plurality of terminals in a PO.

In the first case, the first configuration information may be related to the total number of terminals currently in a tracking area, the total number of terminals currently in a jurisdiction of a network device, or the total number of terminals currently in a PO when configuring the number of groups associated with the first message. One possible way is that the number of configured first message-associated groups is greater when the total number of terminals within one tracking area is greater; the more the total number of terminals within the jurisdiction of one network device, the more the number of groups associated with the configured first message; the more the total number of terminals corresponding to one PO, the more the number of groups associated with the configured first message. Another possibility is that the number of configured first message-associated groups is greater when the number of paged terminals within one tracking area is greater; when the number of the paged terminals in the jurisdiction of one network device is larger, the number of the configured groups associated with the first message is larger; when the number of paged terminals corresponding to one PO is larger, the number of groups associated with the configured first message is larger.

In the first case described above, when the first configuration information configures any one of the number of data bits of the first message, or the number of groups associated with the first message, the other one may be calculated according to the following formula: the number of data bits of the first message=the number K of data bit number packets indicating one group. The number of data bits in the first message indicating a group may be agreed by the network device and the terminal, or may be predefined by a standard protocol.

In the second case, the number of groups associated with the first message may include the number of groups in which the plurality of terminals included in the plurality of tracking areas are respectively grouped, the number of groups in which the plurality of terminals included in the plurality of network device jurisdictions are respectively grouped, and the number of groups in which the plurality of terminals included in the plurality of paging occasions are respectively grouped. Here, the number of groups of multiple terminal packets within each tracking area, each network device jurisdiction, each PO may be different.

In the second case described above, when the first configuration information configures any one of the number of data bits of the first message in the first message, or the number of groups with which the first message is associated, the other one may be calculated according to a formula.

For example, two POs are included in one DRX cycle, and each group associated with the first message includes: the terminals corresponding to the first PO are divided into K1 groups, and the terminals corresponding to the second PO are divided into K2 groups. The calculation formula can be: number of data bits of the first message = number of data bits indicating one group (k1+k2), may also be: the number of data bits of the first message = the number of data bits K1+ indicating one group in the first PO and K2 indicating one group in the second PO. Wherein, the number of data bits indicating one group in the first PO or the number of data bits indicating one group in the second PO can be agreed by the network device and the terminal, or can be predefined by a standard protocol.

It can be understood that, when the plurality of terminals included in the plurality of tracking areas are respectively grouped and the plurality of terminals included in the plurality of network device jurisdictions are respectively grouped, when the first configuration information configures any one of the number of data bits of the first message or the number of groups associated with the first message, the other one may be calculated according to a formula, which may be referred to the above specific embodiment and will not be described herein.

In combination with the first implementation manner of the first configuration information, in an optional embodiment, the first configuration information may also configure a time-frequency resource location of a physical downlink control channel for sending a paging indication (first message), or configure a time-frequency resource location of a channel for sending a paging indication, which is used to instruct the terminal to receive the paging indication. When the first message is sent through DCI, the first configuration information can configure the time-frequency resource position of the control channel for sending the first message; when the first message is transmitted through the PDSCH, the first configuration information may configure a time-frequency resource location of a control channel of the PDSCH. The control channel may be a PDCCH, a control resource set, or a common search space.

It is understood that when the first configuration information configures at least one of the following information: the terminal may determine, according to the first configuration information, the group in which the terminal is located by the calculation policy when the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits indicating each group in the first message, the number of data bits for calculating the packet information, the position of the data bits for calculating the packet information in the terminal identifier, the number of POs, the length of the DRX cycle, or the number of synchronization signal blocks, which may be specifically referred to the description related to the key technology point (one) and will not be described herein.

It can be understood that, when at least a part of the information in the above at least one item of information is predefined by a standard protocol or is predefined by the network device and the terminal, the terminal may determine the group in which the terminal is located according to the predefined or predefined information and the first configuration information, and specifically, reference may be made to the related description in the key technical point (one), which is not described herein in detail.

In a second implementation, the first configuration information may be used to configure a truncated identity of the terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, the first configuration information may directly include a truncated identity of the terminal. In another alternative embodiment, the first configuration information may include at least one of the following: the number of data bits of the truncated identity of the terminal, the position of the truncated identity of the terminal in the terminal identity, the number of POs, the length of the DRX cycle or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

After receiving the first configuration information, the terminal can determine its own cut-off identifier according to the first configuration information, and specifically, reference may be made to the related description of the key technical point (ii).

In a third implementation, the first configuration information may be used to configure an index of the terminal.

In the third implementation manner, the index of the terminal is the second case (a part of the terminal identifier) and the third case (only one index value) in the key technical point (three), and the following is described in detail.

In the second case, the index of the terminal is a part of the terminal identifier, and the first configuration information is used for indicating the index of the terminal.

Similar to the second implementation described above, in an alternative embodiment, the first configuration information may directly include an index of the terminal.

In another alternative embodiment, the first configuration information may include at least one of the following: the number of data bits of the index of the terminal, the position of the index of the terminal in the terminal identity, the number of POs, the length of the DRX cycle, or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

In the third case, the index of the terminal is only one index value, and the first configuration information is used for indicating the index value of the terminal. For example, the first configuration information may include table 1, and index values that may correspond to the respective terminals are shown in table 1.

In the above three implementations, the first configuration information may be configured by any one or any multiple of the following: system information (systeminformation, SI), master information block (master information block, MIB), system information block (system information block, SIB), remaining minimum system information (REMAINING MINIMUM SYSTEMINFORMATION, RMSI), other system information (other systeminformation, OSI), downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI), medium access layer control element (medium access control-control element, MAC-CE), radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) information.

Based on the above main inventive principles and key technical points, the signal transmission method of the present application will be described in detail by a plurality of embodiments.

Example 1

In this embodiment, the network device may send a first message (paging indication) to the plurality of terminals. And the plurality of terminals receiving the first message send uplink signals to the network equipment. The network device can acquire the beam where the paged terminal is located according to the uplink signal, and send the paging message by using the beam where the paged terminal is located.

Referring to fig. 7A, the signal transmission method in the present embodiment may include the steps of:

S101, the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal.

In this embodiment, the terminal may include a plurality of terminals in a tracking area, or may include a plurality of terminals in a jurisdiction of the network device, or may further include a plurality of terminals corresponding to one or more POs. And, at least one paged terminal is included in the plurality of terminals.

The specific timing of sending the first message is described below. The network device may send a first message to the terminal at the beginning of the paging procedure. There are two triggering modes for the paging process: in the first triggering manner, a core network device (e.g., MME) generates a paging message (paging) and sends the paging message to a base station (e.g., gNB) to initiate a paging procedure. In the second trigger mode, the base station (e.g., gNB) generates a paging message and initiates the paging procedure.

In this embodiment, the size and specific content of the first message may be configured by the network device. The implementation manner of the first message can be various, and the application is not limited.

S102, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network equipment.

Specifically, the plurality of terminals that receive the first message all send uplink signals to the network device. Further, terminals corresponding to different POs may transmit uplink signals to the network device by using different random access time-frequency resources.

In an alternative embodiment, the uplink signal sent by the terminal may be a preamble sequence (preamble) sent by the random access procedure to the network device.

In alternative embodiments, the terminals in different POs send different preamble sequences to the network device, or the preamble sequences may be sent using different time-frequency resources, so that the network device distinguishes between terminals in different POs.

S103, the network equipment determines the wave beam where the terminal is located according to the uplink signal.

Specifically, the network device may determine, according to an uplink signal sent by the terminal, a beam range where the terminal is located, or a random access resource area corresponding to the terminal, or antenna port information corresponding to the terminal.

In this embodiment, the beam where the terminal is located is a beam whose transmission range can cover the terminal.

In this embodiment, the network device receives the uplink signal by scanning each beam. After receiving the uplink signal, the network device may determine the beam(s) capable of receiving the uplink signal, and the transmission range of the beam covers all terminals transmitting the uplink signal. Since the terminal transmitting the uplink signal includes the paged terminal, the transmission range of the beam covers the paged terminal.

S104, the network equipment uses the wave beam of the terminal to send the paging message.

Specifically, the sending range of the beam where the terminal is located covers the terminal to be paged, the beam where the terminal is located is used for scanning the beam, and the paging message is sent, so that the terminal to be paged can be ensured to receive the paging message in the beam direction where the terminal is located.

After step S104, the plurality of terminals can receive the paging message. After receiving the paging message, the terminal checks whether the information of the paged terminal included in the paging message is the same as the information of the terminal itself, for example, it can check whether the paging IMSI in the paging message is the same as the IMSI of the terminal itself. If the paging information is the same, the paging information is sent to the terminal, the terminal performs corresponding operation according to the paging information, if the paging information is different, the paging information is not sent to the terminal, and the terminal waits for the arrival of the next paging information.

Specifically, in the present application, the paging message may be used to send paging information to the paged terminal, notify the terminal of system information update, notify the terminal of receiving an earthquake, tsunami warning system (earthquake and tsunami WARNING SYSTEM, ETWS) or commercial mobile alert (commercial mobile ALERT SERVICE, CMAS), etc.

In the paging process, the network device needs to scan all beams (i.e. the total number of beams corresponding to the network device) without knowing the specific direction of the terminal to be paged, and send a paging message. In short, it is equivalent to that the network device needs to limit the energy of the paging message to each beam corresponding to the network device through the beamforming technology, and then send the paging message out, so as to ensure that the paged terminal receives the paging message. The beamforming overhead for each beam is large. Through the steps in the method embodiment shown in fig. 7A, the network device can learn that the transmission range can cover the beams of multiple terminals (including the paged terminal), and use the beams to perform beam scanning, and send the paging message. Here, the number of beams scanned by the network device is much reduced compared to the total number of beams corresponding to the network device. Therefore, the embodiment can reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the network equipment sends the paging message.

(Second) embodiment II

This embodiment corresponds to the scene of grouping in the above-described key technical point (one).

In this embodiment, the network device may send the first configuration information and the first message to the plurality of terminals. The plurality of terminals determine a group according to the first configuration information, and determine whether terminals are paged in the group according to the first message. All or a portion of the terminals within the group including the paged terminal may transmit uplink signals to the network device. The network device sends paging information according to the uplink signal.

In this embodiment, the implementation manner of the first message is the first implementation manner of the key technical point (fourth), and the implementation manner of the first configuration information is the first implementation manner of the key technical point (fifth).

Referring to fig. 7B, the signal transmission method in the present embodiment may include the steps of:

S201, network equipment sends first configuration information and a first message to a terminal; the first configuration information is used for the terminal to determine a group where the terminal is located; the first message is used for indicating whether a group in which the terminal is located has terminals paged.

In this embodiment, the first configuration information and the first message may be sent simultaneously or separately, which is not limited by the present application.

First, first configuration information is introduced.

The first configuration information sent by the network device each time may be different or the same. That is, the network device may dynamically configure at least one of the following information: the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits in the first message indicating each group, the number of data bits used to calculate the packet information, the location of the data bits used to calculate the packet information in the terminal identity, the number of POs, the length of the DRX cycle, or the number of synchronization signal blocks. For example, the first configuration information may configure the number of bits of the first message to be X1 for a period of time, and the first configuration information may configure the number of bits of the first message to be X2 for another period of time.

In this embodiment, when the network device configures the at least one item of information through the first configuration information, the network device may be dynamically configured according to the current actual situation (the total number of terminals or the number of paged terminals), and specifically, reference may be made to the description related to the first implementation manner of the key technical point (fifth). Next, the first message is introduced. In this embodiment, the implementation of the first message may refer to the related description of the first implementation in the key technical point (four), which is not described herein.

In an alternative embodiment, the first message may be sent with a system modification related message. For example, in DCI, a first message and a system modification related message may be included at the same time. For another example, in the PDSCH message, the first message and the system modification related message may be included at the same time. Here, the system modification related message may include at least one of: information for notifying the updating of the system information of the terminal, information for notifying the terminal to receive earthquake and tsunami warning system or information for commercial mobile warning, and the like.

S202, the terminal determines the group according to the first configuration information.

Referring to the description related to the first implementation of the key technical point (one) and the key technical point (five), the terminal may determine the group in which the terminal is located according to the first configuration information. Since each item of information configured by the first configuration information may be dynamically changed, the group in which each terminal is located, which is determined according to the first configuration information, may also be dynamically changed.

Further, the terminal may further determine a corresponding PO according to the first configuration information, and after determining the PO, in a paging process, the terminal may monitor the PO corresponding to the terminal in the DRX cycle to check whether there is a paging message, a first message, or other paging information.

In an alternative embodiment, the PO in which the terminal is located may be related to the period of the configuration information of the PO. Since it is possible to include configuration information of the POs in RMSI information or OSI information, for example, the PO in which the terminal is located may be related to the period of RMSI, or to the period of other system information.

S203, the terminal judges whether the terminal is paged in the group according to the first message.

Referring to the description of the first implementation of the first message of the key technical point (four), the terminal may determine whether any terminal in the group is paged according to the first message.

S204, if the terminal is paged in the group of the terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network equipment.

In this embodiment, all or part of the terminals included in the group in which the paged terminal is located transmit an uplink signal to the network device. It can be understood that in step S204, the implementation of the terminal to send the uplink signal is similar to that in step S102 in the first embodiment, and reference may be made to the related description, which is not repeated here.

S205, the network equipment determines the wave beam where the terminal is located according to the uplink signal.

In this embodiment, the implementation of step S205 is similar to step S103 in the first embodiment, and the network device receives the uplink signal by scanning each beam. After receiving the uplink signal, the network device may determine the beam(s) capable of receiving the uplink signal, and the transmission range of the beam covers all terminals transmitting the uplink signal. Since the terminal transmitting the uplink signal includes the paged terminal, the transmission range of the beam covers the paged terminal.

In alternative embodiments, the terminals within different POs send different preamble sequences to the network device, or the preamble sequences may be sent using different time-frequency resources, so that the network device distinguishes between terminals within different POs.

S206, the network equipment uses the wave beam of the terminal to send the paging message.

In this embodiment, the function of the paging message is the same as that in the first embodiment, and reference is made to the related description. Here, the implementation of the paging message is two possible, as will be described in detail below.

The first possibility is that the paging message includes a terminal identification list (record list) of the paged terminal. The network equipment uses the wave beam of the terminal to scan the wave beam and send the paging message, and a plurality of terminals in the group of the paged terminal can receive the paging message. Each terminal in the plurality of terminals can check whether the terminal identification which is the same as the terminal identification of the terminal to be paged exists in the terminal identification list to be paged, if so, the terminal is the terminal to be paged, and the terminal performs corresponding operation according to the paging message.

The second possibility is that the paging message includes a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal. When there are a plurality of paged terminals, the paging message may include a truncated identification list of the paged terminal or an index list of the paged terminal. The network equipment uses the wave beam of the terminal to scan the wave beam and send the paging message, and a plurality of terminals in the group of the paged terminal can receive the paging message. Each of the plurality of terminals may check to see if itself is a paged terminal: if the truncated identifier list of the paged terminal includes the truncated identifier of a certain terminal, or the index list of the paged terminal includes the index of a certain terminal, the terminal may be the paged terminal. It is explained below why the terminal may be a paged terminal and how the terminal determines whether it is a paged terminal itself.

Since the truncated identification or index does not have uniqueness, a terminal is not necessarily a terminal to be paged even if the truncated identification of the terminal is the same as the truncated identification of the terminal to be paged or the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the terminal to be paged. In the case that the terminal cannot determine whether the terminal is a terminal to be paged, the network device may send a confirmation message to the terminal through a message 4 (MSG 4), where the confirmation message may carry indication information of the terminal to be paged, and the indication information may be a complete identifier of the terminal to be paged, and is used to indicate whether the terminal is paged. After receiving the confirmation message, the terminal can determine whether the terminal is a paged terminal, for example, if the identity of the terminal is the same as the identity of the paged terminal, the terminal is the paged terminal. If the terminal is a paged terminal, the terminal performs corresponding operation according to the paging message.

Based on embodiment two, in alternative embodiments, a timer or threshold may be set. The network device and the terminal can both calculate the number of times that the terminal transmits an uplink signal to the network device in the time represented by the timer, but the terminal is not the paged terminal of the present paging, and when the number of times exceeds a threshold, the terminal can apply for the network device to replace the group where the terminal is located, or the network device can directly reconfigure the terminal to determine the first configuration information for the terminal, so that the terminal can redetermine the group where the terminal is located. One possible way is that the network device reconfigures the at least one item of information for the terminal through the first configuration information, so that the probability that the terminal sends the uplink signal but is not the paged terminal can be reduced, namely the false alarm probability is reduced.

In another alternative embodiment, the timer or the threshold may not be set, and the terminal applies to the network device to replace the group where the terminal is located once the false alarm occurs, or the network device directly reconfigures the relevant information for the terminal.

By the method shown in the second embodiment, the network device can configure the size of the number of occupied bits of the first message and the number of groups associated with the first message according to the actual situation, so as to dynamically configure the first message. In this embodiment, all or part of the terminals in the group where the paged terminal is located send uplink signals to the network device, and the network device can learn that the sending range can cover the beams of multiple terminals (including the paged terminal), and use the beams to perform beam scanning, and send paging messages. Here, the number of beams scanned by the network device is much reduced compared to the total number of beams corresponding to the network device. Therefore, the embodiment can reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the network equipment sends the paging message.

(III) example III

The difference between the present embodiment and the second embodiment is that in step S201, the network device does not need to send the first configuration information to the terminal, and step S202 is not included, and the terminal does not need to determine the group according to the first configuration information. Other steps are the same as in the examples.

In this embodiment, the network device does not need to send the first configuration information to the terminal, and at least one of the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits indicating each group in the first message, the number of data bits used for calculating the packet information, the position of the data bits used for calculating the packet information in the terminal identifier, the number of POs, the length of the DRX cycle, or the number of synchronization signal blocks may be agreed by the network side and the terminal, or may be predefined by a standard protocol. The grouping mode of the terminal according to the key technical point (one) can be known, and the terminal can determine the group through the information agreed by the network equipment side and the terminal or the information predefined by the standard protocol.

In this embodiment, the same as in the second embodiment, the first message is also used to indicate whether or not the group in which the terminal is located has a terminal paged. The implementation of the first message may refer to the relevant description of the first implementation of the key technical point (four).

By the method shown in the third embodiment, all or part of the terminals in the group where the paged terminal is located send uplink signals to the network device, and the network device can learn that the sending range can cover the beams of a plurality of terminals (including the paged terminal), and use the beams to perform beam scanning, and send paging messages. Here, the number of beams scanned by the network device is much reduced compared to the total number of beams corresponding to the network device. Therefore, the embodiment can reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the network equipment sends the paging message.

(IV) example IV

The embodiment corresponds to the scene of the truncation flag in the key technical point (two) and the terminal index in the key technical point (three).

In this embodiment, the network device may send the first configuration information and the paging message to the plurality of terminals. The terminals determine their own truncated identifications or indexes according to the first configuration information, and determine whether to be paged or not according to the paging message.

In this embodiment, the implementation manner of the first configuration information is the second implementation manner and the third implementation manner in the above-mentioned key technical point (fifth).

Referring to fig. 7C, the signal transmission method in the present embodiment may include the steps of:

s301, network equipment sends first configuration information and paging information to a terminal; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the paging message includes a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal.

In this embodiment, the first configuration information and the paging message may be sent simultaneously or may be sent separately, which is not limited by the present application. The first configuration information sent by the network device each time may be different or the same. That is, the network device may dynamically configure the truncated identity or index of the terminal, which may dynamically change for one terminal.

In this embodiment, the specific timing of the network device sending the first configuration information may be various, and several possible specific timings of sending the first configuration information are listed below.

First, the network device may transmit the first configuration information to the terminal through MIB information, DCI information, system information, or RMSI in an initial access procedure or in an idle state of the terminal. Here, the truncation identifier or index corresponding to one terminal may be different, and the first configuration information may be dynamically changed or dynamically configured.

Second, when the terminal is in a connected state, the network device may send the first configuration information to the terminal through RRC signaling, DCI, and MAC-CE. Here, the truncation identifier or index corresponding to one terminal may be different, and the first configuration information may be dynamically changed or dynamically configured.

Thirdly, when the terminal enters a TA area or starts up, that is, when the terminal initiates an attachment request and registers with an MME, after reporting registration information (such as an old TA area identifier, a terminal identifier, a specific DRX cycle, etc.) to a network device (for example, MME), the network device sends first configuration information to the terminal. Here, the first configuration information may be transmitted only once, and after the transmission, the truncation flag or index corresponding to the terminal may not change any more.

The specific timing of sending the first configuration information is not limited to the above-listed several specific timings, and in a specific implementation, the network device may also send the first configuration information in other timings, which is not limited in the present application.

S302, the terminal determines a truncation mark or index of the terminal according to the first configuration information.

In this embodiment, the terminal may determine its own truncated identifier or index according to the first configuration information, and specifically may refer to a description related to the second implementation manner in the key technology (two) and the key technology point (five), or may refer to a description related to the third implementation manner in the key technology (three) and the key technology point (five).

S303, the terminal judges whether the interception identification of the terminal is the same as the interception identification of at least one paged terminal or whether the index of the terminal is the same as the index of at least one paged terminal according to the paging message.

S304, if the cut-off identification of the terminal is the same as the cut-off identification of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device.

In this embodiment, the paging message includes a truncated identifier or index of at least one paged terminal. When there are a plurality of paged terminals, the paging message may include a truncated identification list of the paged terminal or an index list of the paged terminal. Each of the plurality of terminals that received the paging message may check to see if it is the paged terminal: if the truncated identifier list of the paged terminal includes the truncated identifier of a certain terminal, or the index list of the paged terminal includes the index of a certain terminal, the terminal may be the paged terminal. It is explained below why the terminal may be a paged terminal and how the terminal determines whether it is a paged terminal itself.

Since the truncated identification or index does not have uniqueness, a terminal is not necessarily a terminal to be paged even if the truncated identification of the terminal is the same as the truncated identification of the terminal to be paged or even if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the terminal to be paged. In the case that the terminal cannot determine whether the terminal is a terminal to be paged, the network device may send a confirmation message to the terminal through a message 4 (MSG 4), where the confirmation message may carry indication information of the terminal to be paged, and the indication information may be a complete identifier of the terminal to be paged, and is used to indicate whether the terminal is paged. After receiving the confirmation message, the terminal can determine whether the terminal is a paged terminal, for example, if the identity of the terminal is the same as the identity of the paged terminal, the terminal is the paged terminal.

If a terminal is a paged terminal, the terminal transmits an uplink signal to the network device in response to the act of the network device transmitting a paging message. In an alternative embodiment, the uplink signal sent by the terminal may be a preamble sequence (preamble) sent by the random access procedure to the network device.

Based on embodiment four, in alternative embodiments, a timer or threshold may be set. The network device and the terminal can both calculate the number of times that the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device in the time represented by the timer, but the terminal is not the paged terminal of the present paging, and when the number of times exceeds a threshold value, the terminal can apply for the network device to change the truncated identifier of the terminal, or the network device can directly configure a new truncated identifier for the terminal. One possible way is that the network device configures a longer truncated identifier for the terminal through the first configuration information, so as to reduce the probability that the terminal sends the uplink signal, but the terminal is not the terminal being paged, i.e. reduce the probability of false alarm.

In another alternative embodiment, the timer or the threshold may not be set, and the terminal applies for the truncated identifier of the replacement terminal to the network device once the false alarm occurs, or the network device directly configures a new truncated identifier for the terminal.

By the method shown in the fourth embodiment, the network device can dynamically configure the truncated identifier or index of each terminal through the first configuration information. And compared with the paging terminal with the complete identifier of the terminal, the paging terminal is carried by the paging message by cutting off the identifier or indexing the paging message, so that the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the paging message is sent is reduced.

(Fifth) example five

The embodiment corresponds to the scene of the truncation identification in the key technical point (two) and the terminal index in the key technical point (three).

In this embodiment, the network device may send the first configuration information and the first message to the plurality of terminals. The terminals determine their own truncated identifiers or indexes according to the first configuration information, and determine whether to send uplink signals to the network device according to the first message. The network device can acquire the beam where the paged terminal is located according to the uplink signal, and send the paging message by using the beam where the paged terminal is located.

In this embodiment, the implementation manner of the first message is the second implementation manner and the third implementation manner in the above-mentioned key technical point (fourth), and the implementation manner of the first configuration information is the second implementation manner and the third implementation manner in the above-mentioned key technical point (fifth).

Referring to fig. 7D, the signal transmission method in the present embodiment may include the steps of:

s401, the network equipment sends first configuration information and a first message to the terminal; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark of the terminal or an index of the terminal; the first message includes a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal.

In this embodiment, the first configuration information and the first message may be sent simultaneously or separately, which is not limited by the present application. The first configuration information sent by the network device each time may be different or the same. That is, the network device may dynamically configure the truncated identity or index of the terminal, which may dynamically change for one terminal.

First, the first configuration information is explained. In this embodiment, the implementation manner of the first configuration information is the second implementation manner and the third implementation manner in the above-mentioned key technical point (fifth). The specific timing of transmitting the first configuration information can be described with reference to the related description in the fourth embodiment.

Next, the first message is explained. In this embodiment, the implementation manner of the first message is the second implementation manner and the third implementation manner in the key technical point (fourth). The specific timing of sending the first message may refer to the related description of step S101 of the embodiment.

S402, the terminal determines a truncation mark or index according to the first configuration information.

S403, the terminal judges whether the interception identification of the terminal is the same as the interception identification of at least one paged terminal or whether the index of the terminal is the same as the index of at least one paged terminal according to the first message.

S404, if the cut-off identification of the terminal is the same as the cut-off identification of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device.

In this embodiment, the terminals are classified by the truncation flag or index. After receiving the first message, the terminal checks whether the interception identifier of the terminal is the same as the interception identifier of at least one paged terminal contained in the first message, or checks whether the index of the terminal is the same as the index of at least one paged terminal contained in the first message. If the uplink signals are the same, the terminal sends the uplink signals to the network equipment.

In this embodiment, all or part of terminals with the same truncation identifier as the truncation identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or all or part of terminals with the same index as the index of the at least one paged terminal, send an uplink signal to the network device. The terminal transmitting the uplink signal comprises a paged terminal. It can be understood that in step S404, the implementation of the terminal to transmit the uplink signal is similar to that in step S102 in the first embodiment, and reference may be made to the related description, which is not repeated here.

S405, the network equipment determines the wave beam where the terminal is located according to the uplink signal.

In this embodiment, the implementation of step S405 is similar to step S103 in the first embodiment, and the network device receives the uplink signal by scanning each beam. After receiving the uplink signal, the network device may determine the beam(s) capable of receiving the uplink signal, and the transmission range of the beam covers all terminals transmitting the uplink signal. Since the terminal transmitting the uplink signal includes the paged terminal, the transmission range of the beam covers the paged terminal.

S406, the network equipment uses the wave beam of the terminal to send the paging message.

In this embodiment, the function of the paging message is the same as that in the first embodiment, and reference is made to the related description. Here, implementation of the paging message may be the same as the first in the second embodiment, and is described in detail below.

The paging message includes a terminal identification list (record list) of the paged terminal. The network equipment uses the wave beam of the terminal to scan the wave beam and send the paging message, and a plurality of terminals in the group of the paged terminal can receive the paging message. Each terminal in the plurality of terminals can check whether the terminal identification which is the same as the terminal identification of the terminal to be paged exists in the terminal identification list to be paged, if so, the terminal is the terminal to be paged, and the terminal performs corresponding operation according to the paging message.

By the method shown in the fifth embodiment, the network device can dynamically configure the truncated identifier or index of each terminal through the first configuration information. In this embodiment, all or part of the terminals (including the paged terminals) of the truncated identifier and the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or all or part of the terminals (including the paged terminals) of the same index and the at least one paged terminal, send an uplink signal to the network device. The network device can learn the beam whose transmission range can cover a plurality of terminals (including the terminal to be paged), and use the beam to perform beam scanning, and transmit the paging message. Here, the number of beams scanned by the network device is much reduced compared to the total number of beams corresponding to the network device. Therefore, the embodiment can reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the network equipment sends the paging message.

(Sixth) example six

In this embodiment, each terminal autonomously determines a data bit for calculating the packet information, and reports the data bit to the network device through the second message. The network device may send a first message to a plurality of terminals that determine whether the group in which they are located includes paged terminals based on the first message. All or a portion of the terminals within the group including the paged terminal may transmit uplink signals to the network device. The network device sends paging information according to the uplink signal.

In this embodiment, the implementation manner of the first message is the first implementation manner in the key technical point (fourth).

Referring to fig. 7E, the signal transmission method in the present embodiment may include the steps of:

s501, the terminal sends a second message to the network equipment; the second message includes data bits corresponding to the terminal for calculating packet information.

The terminal may report the second information and the registration information simultaneously when entering a TA area or starting up, i.e. when the terminal initiates an attach request and registers with the MME, and reporting the registration information (such as a terminal identifier, a specific DRX cycle, etc.) to the network device (for example, MME). Here, the second information may be transmitted only once, and after the transmission, the data bits corresponding to the terminal for calculating the packet information may not change any more.

In this embodiment, each terminal autonomously determines the data bits for calculating the packet information. The length and the position of the data bit for calculating the packet information determined by each terminal may be different, and the present application is not limited.

In this embodiment, the terminal may calculate the data bits of the packet information according to the autonomous determination, which is equivalent to the autonomous determination of the group, and reference may be made to the description of the packet mode in the key technical point (one). For example, the terminal may calculate the group in which the terminal is located according to the second calculation policy in the key technical point (one) by the formula n= (data bit for calculating packet information) mod K, where K may be predefined by a standard protocol, or may be agreed by the network device and the terminal.

S502, the network equipment determines the group where the terminal is located according to the second message.

In this embodiment, the network device may calculate the group in which the terminal is located according to the data bits included in the second message for calculating the packet information, and reference may be made to the description of the packet mode in the key technical point (one). For example, the network device may calculate the group where the terminal is located according to the second calculation policy in the key technical point (one) by the formula n= (data bit for calculating packet information) mod K, where K may be predefined by a standard protocol or may be agreed upon by the network device and the terminal.

Here, in the case where the plurality of terminals send the second message to the network device, the network device may learn the group in which the plurality of terminals are respectively located.

S503, the network equipment sends a first message to the terminal; the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in a group in which the terminal is located.

The network device may inform the respective terminals via a first message which groups have terminals paged. In this embodiment, the implementation of the first message may refer to the related description of the first implementation in the key technical point (four), which is not described herein.

S504, the terminal judges whether the terminal is paged in the group of the terminal according to the first message.

S505, if the group of the terminal is paged, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network equipment.

S506, the network equipment determines the wave beam where the terminal is located according to the uplink signal.

S507, the network device uses the wave beam of the terminal to send the paging message.

In this embodiment, the implementation of steps S504-S507 is the same as the implementation of steps S203-S206 in the second embodiment, and reference may be made to the related description, which is not repeated here.

By the method shown in the sixth embodiment, the terminal autonomously determines the data bits for calculating the packet information, so that the implementation mode is more flexible. In this embodiment, all or part of the terminals in the group where the paged terminal is located send uplink signals to the network device, and the network device can learn that the sending range can cover the beams of multiple terminals (including the paged terminal), and use the beams to perform beam scanning, and send paging messages. Here, the number of beams scanned by the network device is much reduced compared to the total number of beams corresponding to the network device. Therefore, the embodiment can reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the network equipment sends the paging message.

(Seventh) embodiment seven

In this embodiment, each terminal autonomously determines its own truncated identifier or index, and reports the truncated identifier or index to the network device through the second message. The network device may send a paging message to the plurality of terminals, the paging message including a truncated identification list of at least one paged terminal or an index of at least one paged terminal.

Referring to fig. 7F, the signal transmission method in the present embodiment may include the steps of:

S601, the terminal sends a second message to the network equipment, wherein the second message comprises a truncation identification or index of the terminal.

The terminal may report the second information and the registration information simultaneously when entering a TA area or starting up, that is, when the terminal initiates an attach request and registers with the MME, and report the registration information (such as a terminal identifier, a specific DRX cycle, etc.) to the network device (for example, MME). Here, the second information may be transmitted only once, and after the transmission, the truncated identification or index corresponding to the terminal may not change any more.

In this embodiment, each terminal autonomously determines a truncation flag or index. The length and the position of the truncated identifier determined by each terminal may be different, and the present application is not limited.

S602, the network equipment determines a truncation mark or index of the terminal according to the second message.

S603, the network equipment sends a paging message to the terminal; the paging message includes a truncated identification of at least one paged terminal or an index of at least one paged terminal.

In this embodiment, the implementation of the paging message is the same as that in the fourth embodiment, and reference is made to the related description.

S604, the terminal judges whether the cut-off identification of the terminal is the same as the cut-off identification of at least one paged terminal or whether the index of the terminal is the same as the index of at least one paged terminal according to the paging message.

S605, if the cut-off identification of the terminal is the same as the cut-off identification of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device.

It can be understood that the implementation of steps S604-S605 is the same as the implementation of steps S303-S304 in the fourth embodiment, and reference may be made to the related description, which is not repeated here.

Through the method shown in the seventh embodiment, the terminal autonomously determines the truncation identifier or index and reports the truncation identifier or index to the network device. And compared with the paging terminal with the complete identifier of the terminal, the paging terminal is carried by the paging message by cutting off the identifier or indexing the paging message, so that the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the paging message is sent is reduced.

(Eighth) example eight

In this embodiment, each terminal autonomously determines its own truncated identifier or index, and reports the truncated identifier or index to the network device through the second message. The network device may send a first message to a plurality of terminals that determine whether to send an uplink signal to the network device based on the first message. The network device can acquire the beam where the paged terminal is located according to the uplink signal, and send the paging message by using the beam where the paged terminal is located.

In this embodiment, the implementation manner of the first message is the second implementation manner and the third implementation manner in the key technical point (fourth).

Referring to fig. 7G, the signal transmission method in the present embodiment may include the steps of:

s701, the terminal sends a second message to the network equipment, wherein the second message comprises a truncation identification or index of the terminal.

In this embodiment, step S701 is the same as step S601 in the seventh embodiment, and reference is made to the related description.

S702, the network equipment determines the truncation identification or index of the terminal according to the second message.

S703, the network device sends a first message to the terminal, wherein the first message contains a truncated identifier or index of at least one paged terminal.

In this embodiment, here, in the case where the plurality of terminals send the second message to the network device, the network device may learn the respective truncated identifications or indexes of the plurality of terminals. The network device may inform each terminal of a truncated identity or index of at least one paged terminal through a first message. In this embodiment, the implementation of the first message may refer to the related descriptions of the second implementation and the third implementation in the key technical point (fourth), which are not described herein.

S704, the terminal judges whether the interception identification of the terminal is the same as the interception identification of the at least one paged terminal or whether the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal according to the first message.

S705, if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal, the terminal sends an uplink signal to the network device.

S706, the network equipment determines the wave beam where the terminal is located according to the uplink signal.

And S707, the network equipment uses the wave beam where the terminal is positioned to send the paging message.

It can be understood that the implementation of steps S704-S707 is the same as steps S403-S406 in the fifth embodiment, and reference may be made to the related description, which is not repeated here.

Through the method shown in the eighth embodiment, the terminal autonomously determines the truncation identifier or index and reports the truncation identifier or index to the network device. In this embodiment, all or part of the terminals (including the paged terminals) of the truncated identifier and the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or all or part of the terminals (including the paged terminals) of the same index and the at least one paged terminal, send an uplink signal to the network device. The network device can learn the beam whose transmission range can cover a plurality of terminals (including the terminal to be paged), and use the beam to perform beam scanning, and transmit the paging message. Here, the number of beams scanned by the network device is much reduced compared to the total number of beams corresponding to the network device. Therefore, the embodiment can reduce the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the network equipment sends the paging message.

Referring to fig. 8A-8D, fig. 8A-8D illustrate that the present application provides a wireless communication system, terminal, and network device. The terminal may be the terminal in the embodiment of fig. 1 or fig. 2, the network device may be the network device in the embodiment of fig. 1 or fig. 3, and the wireless communication system may be the wireless communication system described in fig. 1. Several possible implementations of the wireless communication system are described below, respectively.

In a first implementation, referring to fig. 8A, a wireless communication system 700 includes: a terminal 710 and a network device 720.

As shown in fig. 8A, the terminal 710 may include: the receiving unit 711, the determining unit 712, and the transmitting unit 713.

A receiving unit 711, configured to receive first configuration information and a first message sent by a network device; the first configuration information is used for the terminal to determine a group where the terminal is located, and the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in the group where the terminal is located;

A determining unit 712, configured to determine, according to the first configuration information, a group in which the terminal is located;

a transmitting unit 713, configured to transmit an uplink signal to the network device if the group in which the terminal is located has a terminal that is paged.

As shown in fig. 8A, the network device 720 may include: a receiving unit 721, a transmitting unit 722.

A sending unit 722, configured to send the first configuration information and the first message to the terminal; the first configuration information is used for the terminal to determine a group where the terminal is located, and the first message is used for indicating whether a terminal is paged in the group where the terminal is located;

a receiving unit 721, configured to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the group in which the terminal is located has the terminal paged;

the sending unit 722 is further configured to send a paging message to the terminal according to the uplink signal.

In an alternative embodiment, the first configuration information may include at least one of: the number of data bits of the first message, the number of groups associated with the first message, the number of data bits in the first message indicating each group, the number of data bits used to calculate packet information, the location of the data bits used to calculate packet information in the terminal identity, the number of paging occasions, the length of a discontinuous reception period, or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

In an alternative embodiment, the terminal determines that the group n where the terminal is located is: wherein ue id is an identity of the terminal, K is a number of groups associated with the first message, N is a constant, and N is determined by at least one of a number of paging occasions, a length of the discontinuous reception period, or a number of the synchronization signal blocks.

In an alternative embodiment, the first configuration information is configured by at least one of: system information, system information blocks, remaining minimum system information, other system information, downlink control information, radio resource control information, or medium access control elements.

In a second implementation, referring to fig. 8B, a wireless communication system 700 includes: terminal 720, network device 730.

As shown in fig. 8B, the terminal 720 may include: a receiving unit 721, a determining unit 722, a transmitting unit 723, wherein,

A receiving unit 721, configured to receive first configuration information and a paging message sent by a network device; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the paging message comprises a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal;

a determining unit 722, configured to determine a truncation identifier or index of the terminal according to the first configuration information;

And a sending unit 723, configured to send an uplink signal to the network device if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

As shown in fig. 8B, the network device 730 may include: a receiving unit 731, a transmitting unit 732, wherein,

A transmitting unit 732 configured to transmit the first configuration information and the paging message to the terminal; the first configuration information is used for configuring a truncation mark or index of the terminal; the paging message comprises a truncated identification or index of at least one paged terminal;

And the receiving unit 731 is configured to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

In an alternative embodiment, when the first configuration information is used to configure the truncated identifier of the terminal, the first configuration information includes at least one of the following: the number of data bits of the truncated identity of the terminal, the position of the truncated identity of the terminal in the terminal identity, the number of paging occasions, the length of a discontinuous reception period or the number of synchronization signal blocks.

In a third implementation, referring to fig. 8C, a wireless communication system 700 includes: terminal 740, network device 750.

As shown in fig. 8C, the terminal 740 may include: a receiving unit 741, a transmitting unit 742, wherein,

A transmitting unit 742, configured to transmit a second message to a network device, where the second message includes data bits corresponding to the terminal and used for calculating packet information;

a receiving unit 741, configured to receive a first message sent by the network device, where the first message is sent after the network device determines, according to the second message, a group in which the terminal is located, and the first message is used to indicate whether a terminal is paged in the group in which the terminal is located;

The transmitting unit 742 is further configured to transmit an uplink signal to the network device if the group in which the terminal is located has a terminal that is paged.

As shown in fig. 8C, the network device 750 may include: a receiving unit 751, a determining unit 752, a transmitting unit 753, wherein,

A receiving unit 751, configured to receive a second message sent by a terminal, where the second message includes data bits corresponding to the terminal and used for calculating packet information;

a determining unit 752, configured to determine, according to the second message, a group in which the terminal is located;

A sending unit 753, configured to send a first message to the terminal, where the first message is used to indicate whether a group where the terminal is located has a terminal paged;

A receiving unit 751, configured to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the group in which the terminal is located has a terminal to be paged;

and the sending unit 753 is further configured to send a paging message to the terminal according to the uplink signal.

In an alternative embodiment, the sending timing of the second message is: the terminal initiates an attach request. The second message may be sent by at least one of: system information, system information blocks, remaining minimum system information, other system information, downlink control information, radio resource control information, or medium access control layer control elements.

In a fourth implementation, referring to fig. 8D, a wireless communication system 700 includes: terminal 760, network device 770.

As shown in fig. 8D, terminal 760 may include: a receiving unit 761, a transmitting unit 762, wherein,

A sending unit 762 configured to send a second message to a network device, where the second message includes a truncated identifier or index of the terminal;

A receiving unit 761, configured to receive a paging message sent by the network device, where the paging message is sent after the network device determines a truncation identifier or index of the terminal according to the second message, and the paging message includes a truncation identifier or index of at least one paged terminal;

The sending unit 762 is further configured to send an uplink signal to the network device if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

As shown in fig. 8D, the network device 770 may comprise: a receiving unit 771, a determining unit 772, a transmitting unit 773, wherein,

A receiving unit 771, configured to receive a second message sent by a terminal, where the second message includes a truncated identifier or index of the terminal;

a determining unit 772, configured to determine a truncated identifier or index of the terminal according to the second message;

A transmitting unit 773, configured to transmit a paging message to the terminal, where the paging message includes a truncated identifier or index of at least one paged terminal;

The receiving unit 771 is further configured to receive an uplink signal sent by the terminal if the truncated identifier of the terminal is the same as the truncated identifier of the at least one paged terminal, or if the index of the terminal is the same as the index of the at least one paged terminal.

It will be appreciated that, regarding various implementation manners of the communication system 700, specific implementations of various functional units included in the terminal may refer to the foregoing various embodiments, which are not repeated herein. Reference may be made to the foregoing embodiments for specific implementation of each functional unit included in the network device, which is not described herein.

In summary, by implementing the technical scheme provided by the application, the network equipment can dynamically configure the data bit number of the first message according to the actual situation. In addition, by reducing the scanned beam, or reducing the content of the paging message, the time-frequency resource overhead of beam scanning when the network device sends the paging message can be reduced.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly introduced from the interaction angle among the network elements. It will be appreciated that each network element, e.g. a base station or a terminal device, for implementing the above-mentioned functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art will readily appreciate that the present application may be implemented in hardware or a combination of hardware and computer software, as the method or steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

The embodiment of the application can divide the functional modules of the base station or the terminal equipment according to the method example, for example, each functional module can be divided corresponding to each function, and two or more functions can be integrated in one processing module. The integrated modules may be implemented in hardware or in software functional modules. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the modules is schematic, which is merely a logic function division, and other division manners may be implemented in actual implementation. The following description will take an example of dividing each functional module into corresponding functions.

Referring to fig. 9, fig. 9 illustrates a terminal 200 provided by some embodiments of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the terminal 200 may include: one or more terminal processors 201, memory 202, communication interface 203, receiver 205, transmitter 206, coupler 207, antenna 208, user interface 202, and input/output modules (including audio input/output module 210, key input module 211, and display 212, etc.). These components may be connected by a bus 204 or otherwise, fig. 9 being an example of a connection via a bus. Wherein:

The communication interface 203 may be used for the terminal 200 to communicate with other communication devices, such as network devices. Specifically, the network device may be the network device 300 shown in fig. 10. Specifically, the communication interface 203 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) (4G) communication interface, or may be a communication interface of 5G or a new future air interface. The terminal 200 may also be configured with a wired communication interface 203, such as a local access network (Local Access Network, LAN) interface, not limited to a wireless communication interface.

The transmitter 206 may be used to transmit signals, such as signal modulation, output by the terminal processor 201. The receiver 205 may be configured to perform reception processing, such as signal demodulation, on the mobile communication signal received by the antenna 208. In some embodiments of the present application, the transmitter 206 and the receiver 205 may be considered as one wireless modem. In the terminal 200, the number of transmitters 206 and receivers 205 may each be one or more. The antenna 208 may be used to convert electromagnetic energy in the transmission line into electromagnetic waves in free space or to convert electromagnetic waves in free space into electromagnetic energy in the transmission line. The coupler 207 is used to divide the mobile communication signal received by the antenna 208 into a plurality of channels and distributes the channels to the plurality of receivers 205.

In addition to the transmitter 206 and receiver 205 shown in fig. 9, the terminal 200 may also include other communication components, such as a GPS module, a Bluetooth (Bluetooth) module, a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, wi-Fi) module, and the like. The terminal 200 may also support other wireless communication signals, such as satellite signals, short wave signals, etc., without being limited to the above-described wireless communication signals. The terminal 200 may be configured with a wired network interface (e.g., LAN interface) to support wired communication, not limited to wireless communication.

The input/output module may be used to implement interaction between the terminal 200 and the user/external environment, and may mainly include an audio input/output module 210, a key input module 211, a display 212, and the like. Specifically, the input/output module may further include: cameras, touch screens, sensors, etc. Wherein the input and output modules are in communication with the terminal processor 201 through a user interface 209.

The memory 202 is coupled to the terminal processor 201 for storing various software programs and/or sets of instructions. In particular, memory 202 may include high-speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state storage devices. The memory 202 may store an operating system (hereinafter referred to as a system), such as ANDROID, IOS, WINDOWS, or an embedded operating system, such as LINUX. Memory 202 may also store network communication programs that may be used to communicate with one or more additional devices, one or more terminal devices, and one or more network devices. The memory 202 may also store an interface program that can vividly display the content image of the application program through a graphical operation interface, and receive control operations of the application program by a user through input controls such as menus, dialog boxes, buttons, and the like.

In some embodiments of the present application, the memory 202 may be used to store an implementation program of the communication method provided by one or more embodiments of the present application on the terminal 200 side.

The terminal processor 201 may be used to read and execute computer readable instructions. In particular, the terminal processor 201 may be configured to invoke a program stored in the memory 212, for example, a program for implementing a method provided by one or more embodiments of the present application on the terminal 200 side, and execute instructions included in the program.

It will be appreciated that terminal 200 may be terminal 103 in wireless communication system 100 shown in fig. 1, and may be implemented as a mobile device, mobile station, mobile unit, wireless unit, remote unit, user agent, mobile client, or the like.

The terminal processor 201 is typically a control center of the terminal device and may be generally referred to as a processing unit for controlling the terminal device to perform the steps performed with respect to the terminal device in the above-described fig. 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7A-7G and 8A-8D. For example, the receiver 205 may perform the terminal device in fig. 2 to receive DCI transmitted by the network device, and the terminal processor 201 may perform the implementation of determining the second PDSCH time-frequency resource block in fig. 2. The description of the relevant parts of the terminal equipment can be referred to specifically, and will not be repeated.

It should be noted that the terminal 200 shown in fig. 9 is only one implementation manner of the embodiment of the present application, and in practical application, the terminal 200 may further include more or fewer components, which is not limited herein.

Referring to fig. 10, fig. 10 illustrates a network device 300 provided by some embodiments of the application. As shown in fig. 10, the network device 300 may include: one or more network device processors 301, memory 302, a communication interface 303, a transmitter 305, a receiver 306, a coupler 307, and an antenna 308. These components may be connected by a bus 304 or otherwise, as illustrated in FIG. 10. Wherein:

The communication interface 303 may be used for the network device 300 to communicate with other communication devices, such as terminal devices or other network devices. Specifically, the terminal device may be the terminal 200 shown in fig. 9. Specifically, the communication interface 303 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) (4G) communication interface, or may be a communication interface of 5G or a new future air interface. Not limited to wireless communication interfaces, the network devices 300 may also be configured with a wired communication interface 303 to support wired communication, for example, the backhaul link between one network device 300 and other network devices 300 may be a wired communication connection.

The transmitter 305 may be configured to perform transmission processing, such as signal modulation, on signals output by the network device processor 301. The receiver 306 may be configured to receive the mobile communication signals received by the antenna 308. Such as signal demodulation. In some embodiments of the present application, the transmitter 305 and the receiver 306 may be considered as one wireless modem. In the network device 300, the number of transmitters 305 and receivers 306 may each be one or more. The antenna 308 may be used to convert electromagnetic energy in a transmission line to electromagnetic waves in free space or to convert electromagnetic waves in free space to electromagnetic energy in a transmission line. Coupler 307 may be used to split the mobile communication signal into multiple paths that are distributed to multiple receivers 306.

Memory 302 is coupled to network device processor 301 for storing various software programs and/or sets of instructions. In particular, memory 302 may include high-speed random access memory, and may also include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid-state storage devices. The memory 302 may store an operating system (hereinafter referred to as a system), such as an embedded operating system uCOS, vxWorks, RTLinux. Memory 302 may also store network communication programs that may be used to communicate with one or more additional devices, one or more terminal devices, and one or more network devices.

The network device processor 301 may be configured to perform radio channel management, conduct call and communication link establishment and tear down, and provide cell handover control for terminals within the control region, etc. Specifically, the network device processor 301 may include: a management/communication Module (Administration Module/Communication Module, AM/CM) (for a center of a voice channel exchange and an information exchange), a Basic Module (BM) (for performing call processing, signaling processing, radio resource management, management of a radio link, and circuit maintenance functions), a transcoding and sub-multiplexing unit (franscoder and SubMultiplexer, TCSM) (for performing multiplexing, demultiplexing, and transcoding functions), and the like.

In an embodiment of the present application, the network device processor 301 may be configured to read and execute computer readable instructions. In particular, the network device processor 301 may be configured to invoke a program stored in the memory 302, for example, a program for implementing a method provided by one or more embodiments of the present application on the network device 300 side, and execute instructions included in the program.

It is to be appreciated that the network device 300 can be the network device 101 in the wireless communication system 100 shown in fig. 1, and can be implemented as a base transceiver station, a wireless transceiver, a Basic Service Set (BSS), an Extended Service Set (ESS), a NodeB, eNodeB, an access point or TRP, and so forth.

The network device processor 301 is typically a control center of the base station, and may be generally referred to as a processing unit, for controlling the base station to perform the steps performed in connection with the network device or the base station in the above-described fig. 2, 3, 4,5, 6, 7A-7G and 8A-8D. For example, network device processor 301 may perform the steps of configuring DCI for the network device in fig. 2, and transmitter 305 may perform the steps of the implementation of transmitting DCI over PDCCH in fig. 2. The description of the relevant parts of the network device can be referred to specifically, and will not be repeated.

It should be noted that, the network device 300 shown in fig. 10 is merely an implementation manner of the embodiment of the present application, and in practical application, the network device 300 may further include more or fewer components, which is not limited herein.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied in electronic hardware, in computer software, or in a combination of the two, and that the elements and steps of the examples have been generally described in terms of function in the foregoing description to clearly illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described systems, apparatuses and units may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

In the several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed systems, devices, and methods may be implemented in other manners. For example, the apparatus embodiments described above are merely illustrative, e.g., the division of the units is merely a logical function division, and there may be additional divisions when actually implemented, e.g., multiple units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted or not performed. In addition, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be an indirect coupling or communication connection via some interfaces, devices, or elements, or may be an electrical, mechanical, or other form of connection.

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown as units may or may not be physical units, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network units. Some or all of the units may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the embodiment of the present invention.

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present invention may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

The integrated units, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as stand-alone products, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present invention is essentially or a part contributing to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solution may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present invention. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

While the invention has been described with reference to certain preferred embodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and substitutions of equivalents may be made and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the invention is subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

Determining a paging message;

And sending the paging message in a beam scanning mode, wherein the paging message comprises terminal equipment identifiers, and the maximum number of the terminal equipment identifiers is 32.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises: and sending configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used for configuring the number of terminal equipment identifiers paged by the paging access opportunity PO, and the PO is used for sending the paging message.

3. A method of communication, comprising:

Receiving a paging message;

The paging message comprises terminal equipment identifiers, the maximum number of the terminal equipment identifiers is 32, and the paging message is sent in a beam scanning mode.

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that the method further comprises: and receiving configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used for configuring the number of terminal equipment identifiers paged by paging access opportunity PO, and the PO is used for receiving the paging message.

5. The method of claim 2 or 4, wherein the configuration information is carried on one of: system information, radio resource control RRC signaling, control element MAC-CE signaling for medium access layer control, remaining minimum system information RMSI, or system information block SIB.

6. The method according to any of claims 1-5, wherein the terminal device identification comprises at least one of: all data bits of the terminal equipment identifier, part of data bits of the terminal equipment identifier, or an index of the terminal equipment.

7. A communication device, the communication device comprising: a module for performing the method of any one of claims 1-6.

8. A computer readable medium for storing a computer program which, when run on a communication device, causes the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1-6.

9. A communication device comprising a processor for executing a computer program or instructions to implement the method of any of claims 1-6.

10. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any of claims 1-6.