CN111757475A

CN111757475A - Method and communication device for updating beam

Info

Publication number: CN111757475A
Application number: CN201910244846.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 管鹏; 张希
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-03-28
Filing date: 2019-03-28
Publication date: 2020-10-09
Anticipated expiration: 2039-03-28
Also published as: WO2020192719A1; CN114845398A; CN111757475B

Abstract

The application provides a method and a communication device for updating beams, so that terminal equipment can acquire a plurality of sending beams after resource updating, and signaling overhead can be saved as much as possible. The method can comprise the following steps: the terminal equipment receives first signaling, wherein the first signaling comprises information of one or more available beams of a first resource; the terminal equipment receives a second signaling, wherein the second signaling comprises information of one or more available beams of a second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is the same as the transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is part or all of the available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is part or all of the available beams of the second resource; the terminal equipment receives a third signaling, wherein the third signaling comprises beam updating information of the first resource; the terminal device updates the transmission beam of the second resource based on the beam update information of the first resource.

Description

Method and communication device for updating beam

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a method and a communications apparatus for updating a beam.

Background

In a communication process, such as high-frequency communication, a network device and a terminal device communicate through a beam having directivity.

Generally, the selection of the receiving and transmitting beams of the terminal device needs to depend on beam indication information provided by the network device, for example, the network device sends a signaling to the terminal device, where the signaling may indicate a transmitting beam of a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resource of the terminal device, and after receiving the signaling, the terminal device may determine the transmitting beam of the PUCCH resource.

In actual communication, there may be not many, e.g., several or dozens, transmit beams available to the terminal device. The better performing transmit beams may even be only two or three. That is, there is a high possibility that the transmission beams of the plurality of resources are the same.

Then, for multiple resources with the same transmission beam, how does the terminal device know the transmission beam with updated multiple resources when the transmission beam needs to be updated?

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a communication device for updating beams, so that terminal equipment can acquire a plurality of sending beams after resource updating, and signaling overhead can be saved as much as possible.

In a first aspect, a method of updating a beam is provided. The method may be executed by the terminal device, or may also be executed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

The method can comprise the following steps: receiving first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource; receiving second signaling, where the second signaling includes information of one or more available beams of a second resource, a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of the available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of the available beams of the second resource; receiving third signaling, the third signaling comprising beam update information for the first resource; updating the transmission beam of the second resource based on the beam update information of the first resource.

Based on the above technical solution, when the transmission beams of the multiple resources are the same, the network device may indicate to the terminal device to update the transmission beams of the multiple resources through one signaling, for example, the signaling indicating to update the transmission beams sent by the network device includes an Index (ID) of one resource, and accordingly, the terminal device may also update the transmission beams of the multiple resources based on one signaling. That is, when the terminal device receives the signaling indicating to update the transmission beam of one resource, the terminal device may update the transmission beams of all resources whose transmission beams are the same as the resource at the same time based on the signaling. In this way, not only signaling overhead can be saved, but also flexibility is high, for example, for resources with different transmission beams, the terminal device can still select multiple transmission beams for communication.

Optionally, the available beam comprises a transmit beam. The available beams, for example, may represent beams configured by the network device for the terminal device, or may represent beams for which the terminal device can select a transmission beam; the transmission beam, which is understood by those skilled in the art to mean a beam used in a communication process, may also be referred to as an active beam or an active beam, etc.

Alternatively, the transmission beam of the resource may be, for example, a transmission beam of a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH), a physical uplink shared channel (PUCCH),

PUSCH), or an uplink signal (e.g., sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal,

SRS), etc.) and so on.

Optionally, the terminal device updates the transmission beams of the first resource and the second resource based on the beam update information of the first resource.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the third signaling further includes indication information, where the indication information is used to instruct a terminal device to update a transmission beam of the second resource based on the beam update information of the first resource.

Based on the above technical solution, when the network device instructs the terminal device to update the transmission beams of the multiple resources through one signaling, the network device may instruct through the instruction information in the signaling.

Optionally, the indication information may be an implicit indication or a display indication.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementation manners of the first aspect, the indication information is indicated by a 1-bit in the third signaling, or the indication information is indicated by a reserved (reserve) field in the third signaling.

Optionally, the reserved field may be any R field in the signaling. For example, when R is 0, the third signaling updates only the transmission beam of the resource identified by the resource ID included in the third signaling; when R is 1, the third signaling updates the transmission beam of the resource identified by the resource ID and the transmission beams of other resources identical to the resource transmission beam.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, the first signaling or the second signaling is any one of: media access control-control element (MAC-CE) signaling, a combination of MAC-CE signaling and Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, or RRC signaling.

In a second aspect, a method of updating a beam is provided. The method may be performed by a network device, or may be performed by a chip or a circuit configured in the network device, which is not limited in this application.

The method can comprise the following steps: generating first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource; generating second signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a second resource; transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling, wherein a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of available beams of the second resource; generating a third signaling, and sending the third information, where the third signaling includes beam update information of the first resource and indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate that a transmission beam of the second resource is updated based on the beam update information of the first resource.

Based on the above technical solution, when the transmission beams of the multiple resources are the same, the network device may indicate to the terminal device to update the transmission beams of the multiple resources through one signaling, for example, the signaling indicating to update the transmission beams sent by the network device includes an ID of one resource, and accordingly, the terminal device may also update the transmission beams of the multiple resources based on one signaling. That is, when the terminal device receives the signaling indicating to update the transmission beam of one resource, the terminal device may update the transmission beams of all resources whose transmission beams are the same as the resource at the same time based on the signaling. In this way, not only signaling overhead can be saved, but also flexibility is high, for example, for resources with different transmission beams, the terminal device can still select multiple transmission beams for communication.

Optionally, the one or more available beams comprise a transmit beam.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the indication information is indicated by a 1-bit in the third signaling, or the indication information is indicated by a reserved field in the third signaling.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the first signaling or the second signaling is any one of: MAC-CE signaling, a combination of MAC-CE signaling and RRC signaling, or RRC signaling

In a third aspect, a method of updating a beam is provided. The method may be executed by the terminal device, or may also be executed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in this application.

The method can comprise the following steps: receiving first signaling comprising first beam update information for a plurality of resources, the plurality of resources comprising a first resource; receiving second signaling comprising second beam update information for the first resource; updating a transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information; or updating the transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information and the first beam update information.

Based on the above technical solution, when the transmission beams of multiple resources are the same, the network device may indicate to the terminal device to update the transmission beams of multiple resources through one signaling, and accordingly, the terminal device may also update the transmission beams of multiple resources based on one signaling, thereby saving signaling overhead. In addition, when a plurality of beams indicate that there is a collision, for example, when the first signaling and the second signaling occur simultaneously, the terminal device updates the transmission beam of the second resource based on the second signaling or based on the second signaling and the first indication information, thereby avoiding the collision caused by the first signaling and the second signaling indicating one transmission beam for the second resource respectively.

Optionally, the first signaling includes first beam update information of the plurality of resources, that is, indicates that the first signaling is used to activate the same beam for the plurality of resources. Optionally, the second signaling comprises second beam update information for the first resource, in other words, the second signaling only comprises second beam update information for the first resource, i.e. it means that the second signaling is used for activating a beam for the first resource.

Here, "only includes" is only with respect to the first resource and the second resource, in other words, the second signaling includes the beam update information of the first resource, and does not include the beam update information of the second resource. It is not limited that the second signaling only includes the second beam update information, and may not include other contents, for example, the second signaling may also include contents such as a resource ID.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the updating the transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information includes: determining to update a transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information based on a priority rule, wherein the priority rule comprises: terminal device level < carrier cell CC level < bandwidth part BWP level < resource set level < resource group level < resource level, where < means less.

For example, a < B indicates that a is lower in priority than B.

For example, the priority rules may be protocol specified or sent by the network device to the terminal device.

Or, optionally, when the first signaling and the second signaling occur simultaneously, the terminal device determines the transmission beam of the resource based on the second signaling by default.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, in a case that the transmission beam of the first resource is updated based on the second beam update information, the method further includes: receiving third signaling comprising third beam update information for the plurality of resources; based on a preset condition and the second signaling, not updating the transmission beam of the first resource.

Based on the above technical solution, when the terminal device updates the transmission beam of the second resource based on the second signaling, the beam update information of the first resource is no longer valid for the second resource. That is, the terminal device updates the transmission beams of all resources (which are the same as the transmission beam of the first resource) except for the second resource, after receiving the beam update information of the first resource.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first signaling or the second signaling is any one of: MAC-CE signaling, a combination of MAC-CE signaling and RRC signaling, or RRC signaling.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, which is configured to perform the method provided in the first or third aspect. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method provided by the first or third aspect.

In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided, which is configured to perform the method provided by the second aspect. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method provided by the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, which comprises a memory for storing instructions and a processor for executing the instructions stored in the memory, and the execution of the instructions stored in the memory causes the processor to perform the method provided in the first or third aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, which includes a memory for storing instructions and a processor for executing the instructions stored in the memory, and the execution of the instructions stored in the memory causes the processor to execute the method provided in the second aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a chip is provided, where the chip includes a processing module and a communication interface, where the processing module is configured to control the communication interface to communicate with the outside, and the processing module is further configured to implement the method provided in the first aspect or the third aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a chip is provided, where the chip includes a processing module and a communication interface, the processing module is configured to control the communication interface to communicate with the outside, and the processing module is further configured to implement the method provided in the second aspect.

A tenth aspect provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method of the first or third aspect and any possible implementation of the first or third aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to carry out the second aspect, and the method in any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the method provided in the first or third aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer program product containing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the method provided by the second aspect.

Based on the embodiment of the present application, when the transmission beams of multiple resources are the same, the network device may indicate, through one signaling, to the terminal device to update the transmission beams of multiple resources, and accordingly, when the terminal device receives the signaling indicating to update the transmission beam of one resource, the terminal device may simultaneously update the transmission beams of all resources that are the same as the transmission beam of the resource based on the signaling. In this way, not only signaling overhead can be saved, but also flexibility is high, for example, for resources with different transmission beams, the terminal device can still select multiple transmission beams for communication.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system suitable for use with embodiments of the present application;

fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating a format of a MAC CE in the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a schematic interaction diagram of a method for updating beams according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 to 7 are schematic diagrams of formats of MAC CEs suitable for an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic interaction diagram of a method of updating beams provided by yet another embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 10 is yet another schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic block diagram of a network device provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. The terminology used herein in the description of the present application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application.

The embodiments of the present application may be applied to a beam-based communication system, for example, a 5G system or a New Radio (NR) system.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, some terms related to the embodiments of the present application will be described first.

1. Wave beam

A beam belongs to one communication resource and different beams may be considered different resources. The representation of a beam in the NR protocol may be a spatial filter, or a so-called spatial filter or spatial parameter or spatial relationship. A beam used for transmitting a signal may be referred to as a transmission beam (Tx beam), may be referred to as a spatial domain transmission filter (spatial domain transmission filter), or a spatial transmission parameter (spatial transmission parameter); the beam used for receiving the signal may be referred to as a reception beam (Rx beam), may be referred to as a spatial domain receive filter (spatial Rx filter), or a spatial Rx parameter (spatial Rx parameter).

The transmit beam may refer to a distribution of signal strengths formed in different spatial directions after the signal is transmitted through the antenna, and the receive beam may refer to a distribution of signal strengths of the wireless signal received from the antenna in different spatial directions.

In the embodiment of the present application, the available beams are mentioned multiple times, and it should be understood that the available beams may include one or more transmit beams and may also include one or more receive beams, which is not limited thereto. In the following embodiments, for convenience of description, the available beams including the transmission beam are exemplified.

Further, 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 beamforming technique or other technique. The beamforming technology may specifically be a digital beamforming technology, an analog beamforming technology, or a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technology.

The beam generally corresponds to the resource, for example, when the beam measurement is performed, the network device measures different beams through different resources, the terminal device feeds back the measured quality of the resource, and the network device knows the quality of the corresponding beam. In data transmission, the beam information is also indicated by its corresponding resource. For example, the network device indicates the information of the terminal device PDSCH beam through the TCI resource in the DCI.

Alternatively, a plurality of beams having the same or similar communication characteristics may be regarded as one beam.

One or more antenna ports may be included in a beam for transmitting data channels, control channels, sounding signals, and the like. The one or more antenna ports forming one beam may also be seen as one set of antenna ports.

In addition, in the beam measurement, each beam of the network device corresponds to one resource, so that the beam corresponding to the resource can be uniquely identified by the index of the resource.

2. Resource(s)

In the beam measurement, a beam corresponding to a resource can be uniquely identified by an index of the resource. The resource may refer to an uplink signal or a downlink signal.

Uplink signals include, but are not limited to: sounding Reference Signal (SRS) and demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

Downlink signals include, but are not limited to: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), a cell specific reference signal (CS-RS), a UE specific reference signal (US-RS), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS), and a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SS/PBCH block). The SS/PBCH block may be referred to as a Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) for short.

The resources may be configured through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

In the configuration structure, a resource is a data structure, and includes relevant parameters of uplink/downlink signals corresponding to the resource, such as types of the uplink/downlink signals, resource granules for carrying the uplink/downlink signals, transmission time and period of the uplink/downlink signals, and the number of ports used for transmitting the uplink/downlink signals.

The resource of each uplink/downlink signal has a unique index to identify the resource of the uplink/downlink signal. It is to be understood that the index of the resource may also be referred to as an identifier of the resource, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit this.

It should be understood that the resource mentioned in the embodiment of the present application may be a resource of a downlink signal, and may also be a resource of an uplink signal.

3. Spatial Relationship (SR)

The spatial relationship may also be referred to as an uplink TCI (UL TCI). The spatial relationship may be used to determine a transmit beam for the uplink signal. The spatial relationship may be determined by beam training. The reference signal used for beam training may be, for example, an uplink reference signal, such as SRS, or a downlink reference signal, such as SSB or CSI-RS.

During communication, the terminal device may determine a transmit beam based on a spatial relationship indicated by the network device, and the network device may determine a receive beam based on the same spatial relationship.

In the embodiment of the present application, the transmission beam indication may also be replaced by a spatial relationship indication or a spatial filter indication. Regarding the receive beam, in the embodiment of the present application, the receive beam indication may also be replaced with a QCL indication.

4. Carrier Aggregation (CA)

To efficiently utilize the fragmented frequency spectrum, the system supports aggregation between different Carrier Components (CCs). A technique of aggregating 2 or more than 2 carriers together to support a larger transmission bandwidth may be referred to as carrier aggregation. CA includes intra-band continuity, intra-band discontinuity, inter-band discontinuity, and the like.

In addition, in CA, the PDCCH and the PDSCH are allowed in the same CC or different CCs, i.e., cross-carrier scheduling is allowed.

5. Bandwidth part (BWP)

The bandwidth may represent a contiguous segment of frequency domain resources, e.g., the bandwidth may be BWP. In the embodiment of the present application, "BWP" and "CC" may be used interchangeably, and their intended meanings are consistent when the differences are not emphasized.

The BWP may be a set of consecutive frequency resources on a carrier, and the frequency resources occupied by different BWPs may partially overlap or may not overlap. The bandwidth of the frequency domain resource occupied by different BWPs may be the same or different, and the application is not limited thereto.

In embodiments of the present application, different bandwidth portions may correspond to different numerologies. The definition of the bandwidth part can refer to the prior art, such as but not limited to various proposals for NR. With the development of technology, the above definition may also change. The technical scheme of the embodiment of the application can be applied to a 5G system or a New Radio (NR) system, a beam-based communication system, a beam-based multi-carrier communication system and the like.

6. Quasi-parity

Quasi-isotopologue: or quasi-co-location (QCL). The co-location relationship may be used to indicate that the plurality of resources have one or more identical or similar communication characteristics, and for the plurality of resources having the co-location relationship, the same or similar communication configuration may be adopted. For example, if two antenna ports have a co-located relationship, the channel large scale characteristic of one port transmitting one symbol can be inferred from the channel large scale characteristic of the other port transmitting one symbol. That is, the signals corresponding to the antenna ports having the QCL relationship have the same parameters, or the parameters of one antenna port can be used to determine the parameters of another antenna port having the QCL relationship with the antenna port, or two antenna ports have the same parameters, or the parameter difference between the two antenna ports is smaller than a certain threshold. Wherein the parameter or large scale characteristic may include one or more of: delay spread (delay spread), Doppler spread (Doppler spread), Doppler shift (Doppler shift), average delay (average delay), average gain, spatial receive parameters (spatial rx parameters). Wherein the spatial reception parameters may include one or more of: angle of arrival (AOA), average AOA, AOA extension, angle of departure (AOD), average angle of departure (AOD), AOD extension, receive antenna spatial correlation parameter, transmit beam, receive beam, and resource identification.

7. Spatial QCL (spatial QCL)

Spatial quasi-parity may be considered as a type of QCL. For spatial, it can be explained from two angles: interpreted from the transmitting end or interpreted from the receiving end.

From the transmitting end, if two antenna ports are spatially quasi co-located, it means that the corresponding beam directions of the two antenna ports are spatially identical, i.e., spatial filters are the same.

From the perspective of the receiving end, if it is said that the two antenna ports are spatially quasi-co-located, it means that the receiving end can receive signals transmitted by the two antenna ports in the same beam direction, that is, the receiving parameters QCL are the same.

8. Cell (cell)

The cells are described by the higher layers from the point of view of resource management or mobility management or serving elements. The coverage area of each network device may be divided into one or more serving cells, and the serving cells may be considered to be composed of certain frequency domain resources. In the embodiment of the present application, a cell may be replaced with a serving cell or a CC. In the present embodiment, "cell", "serving cell", and "CC" are used interchangeably, and the intended meaning thereof is consistent when the distinction thereof is not emphasized. Similarly, "index of serving cell", "Identification (ID) of serving cell", "cell identification (cell ID)" and "CC identification (CC ID)" are used interchangeably, and their intended meanings are consistent when their differences are not emphasized.

The communication system applied in the embodiment of the present application may include one or more network devices and one or more terminal devices. A network device may transmit data or control signaling to one or more terminal devices. Alternatively, a plurality of network devices may transmit data or control signaling for one terminal device at the same time.

By way of example, and not limitation, fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication system 100 to which embodiments of the present application are applied. The communication system 100 includes a terminal device 110 and a plurality of network devices 120 (such as network device 120a and network device 120b shown in fig. 1). The network device may transmit 1 or more analog beams simultaneously over 1 or more radio frequency channels to transmit data for the terminal device. As shown in fig. 1, the network device simultaneously transmits beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4, for example, network device 120a transmits beam 1 and beam 2, network device 120b transmits beam 3 and beam 4, and beam 1, beam 2, beam 3, and beam 4 may all be used for transmitting data for terminal device 110.

As previously described, the selection of the receive and transmit beams by the terminal device relies on the network device to provide beam indication information.

The network device may configure the terminal device with 1 or more available beams through signaling, such as higher layer signaling (e.g., Radio Resource Control (RRC), medium access control-control element (MAC-CE)) or physical layer signaling (e.g., Downlink Control Information (DCI)). The transmission beam is taken as an example for explanation. For example, the network device may configure a beam of a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) for the terminal device by using a method of RRC + MAC-CE + DCI; for another example, the network device may also configure a beam of a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) for the terminal device by using an RRC + MAC-CE method; for another example, the network device may also configure the SRS beam for the terminal device by using the RRC + MAC-CE method or the RRC + DCI method. These beam indication methods are performed by spatialation.

The following is an exemplary description of a beam indication method of the PUCCH.

Assuming that there are multiple PUCCH resources (PUCCH resources), a beam indication may be performed for each PUCCH resource separately.

For example, in higher layer signaling (e.g. RRC), a beam list is configured for all PUCCH resources in a BWP, and is referred to as a spatial relationship list. For all PUCCH resources, one or more available beams may be configured by a method of adding and releasing the cell PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo.

To better understand the architecture of the beam configuration, the following is a specific format of the beam configuration in the R15 protocol, by way of example and not limitation.

For example, for PUCCH resource, one or more available beams may be configured by a method of adding and releasing a cell PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo. The format may be as follows:

spatialRelationInfoToAddModList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofSpatialRelationInfos))OF PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfo,

spatialRelationInfoToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofSpatialRelationInfos))OF PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoId,

……

as another example, a control-resource set (CORESET) configuration: for each CORESET, a plurality of possible beams are configured by adding and releasing a TCI state (TCI state).

For example, for PDCCH, the network device may configure the TCI status list for the terminal device by a TCI status add mode list (TCI-statepdcch-ToAddList) in an RRC message. The format may be as follows:

tci-StatesPDCCH-ToAddList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofTCI-StatesPDCCH))OFTCI-StateId,

……

for example, for PDCCH, the network device may configure the TCI status list for the terminal device through the TCI status release mode list (TCI-statepdcch-ToReleaseList) in the RRC message. The format may be as follows:

tci-StatesPDCCH-ToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofTCI-StatesPDCCH))OF TCI-StateId,

……

as another example, CSI-RS configuration: for all CSI-RS resources, a plurality of possible beams are configured by a method of adding and releasing TCI-State.

Illustratively, the network device may configure the TCI status list for the terminal device by a TCI status add mode list (TCI-StatesToAddModList) in the RRC message. The format may be as follows:

tci-StatesToAddModList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofTCI-States))OF TCI-State,

……

illustratively, the network device may configure the TCI status list for the terminal device by a TCI status release mode list (TCI-StatesToReleaseList) in the RRC message. The format may be as follows:

tci-StatesToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofTCI-States))OF TCI-StateId,

……

as another example, PDSCH TCI configuration: for the PDSCH, a plurality of possible beams are configured by a method of adding and releasing TCI-State.

tci-StatesToAddModList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofTCI-States))OF TCI-State,

……

tci-StatesToReleaseList SEQUENCE(SIZE(1..maxNrofTCI-States))OF TCI-StateId,

……

it should be understood that the above description is only exemplary for ease of understanding and does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

The network device may activate one or more spatial relationships via higher layer signaling (e.g., MAC CE signaling). Alternatively, it may be understood that for PUCCH resource, the network device may indicate the transmission beam of PUCCH resource by transmitting MAC-CE to the terminal device. This is illustrated below in connection with fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating a format of a MAC CE in the related art. As shown, one octet (Oct, octet) in the figure represents one byte (byte) composed of 8 bits (bits). The MAC CE includes an Identifier (ID) of a serving cell (serving cell), an ID of the BWP, and an indication bit for indicating whether each beam is activated.

Specifically, Si in the MAC CE is used to indicate whether each beam is activated. Each Si may occupy one bit, i corresponds to the spatial relationship with PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfoID in the RRC message as i above. For example, i is equal to the value of SpatialRelationInfoID, or i can also be the position of a spatialrelationship list configured by higher layer signaling (e.g., RRC), and so on. The value of Si may be 1 or 0, 1 may represent that the beam corresponding to Si is selected to be active, and 0 may represent that the beam corresponding to Si is not selected to be active.

As shown in fig. 2, if the value of S1 is 1, which indicates that the spatial relationship of PUCCH-spatial relationship info id is 1 or the first of the RRC-configured spatial relationship list is activated, the terminal apparatus transmits an uplink signal using a transmission beam indicated by the spatial relationship.

It should be understood that fig. 2 is only an exemplary illustration, and the specific format thereof does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

For example, 8 Si, i.e., S0 to S7, are shown in fig. 2, and the present application is not limited thereto. In the embodiments of the present application, for example, more or less Si may be included.

For example, fig. 2 illustrates an example in which each Si represents one beam, and the present application is not limited thereto. In the embodiment of the present application, for example, S0 to S7 may represent a sequence with a total length of 8 bits, and then S0 to S7 may represent 256 beams (i.e., 8 powers of 2).

The above description has been given by taking a network device as an example to instruct a terminal device to transmit a PUCCH beam, and the present application is not limited to this. For example, the network device may also send signaling (e.g., MAC-CE signaling, RRC signaling, etc.) to the terminal device, where the signaling may be used to configure a TCI state for a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in the indicated serving cell. As another example, the network device may also send signaling (e.g., MAC-CE signaling, RRC signaling, etc.) to the terminal device, which may be used to configure the TCI state for the PUSCH in the indicated serving cell. For another example, the network device may also send signaling (e.g., MAC-CE signaling, RRC signaling, etc.) to the terminal device, where the signaling may be used to configure a TCI state for a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) in the indicated serving cell.

Wherein, the activated TCI state indicated by the MAC CE may be understood as: the TCI state configured for its indicated serving cell and BWP, that is, when PDSCH, PUSCH or PDCCH is transmitted on the BWP in the serving cell, a reception beam may be determined based on the information indicated by the TCI state.

In some scenarios, for example, the relative positions of the terminal device and the network device are changed, the network device needs to update the transmission beam of the resource (for example, PUCCH resource) for the terminal device, and send the beam update information to the terminal device.

In the prior art, for each resource requiring updating of a transmission beam, a network device needs to transmit a MAC-CE signaling to indicate beam information. Taking PUCCH resource as an example, PUCCH resource in R15 may be up to 128, for example, when the transmission beam of 128 PUCCH resource needs to be updated, the network device needs to transmit 128 MAC-CE signaling to indicate the updated beam.

Furthermore, in actual communication, there may be fewer beams available to the terminal device, e.g., several or dozens. The better performing beams may even be only two or three. That is, there is a high possibility that the transmission beams of the plurality of resources are the same.

Then, when the transmission beams of multiple resources are the same, and the transmission beam of one resource is the same, the transmission beams of other resources will generally be updated accordingly. If a plurality of MAC-CEs are transmitted to update the transmission beam for each resource, a waste of resources is caused.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method, which can reduce signaling overhead of beam indication.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as: user Equipment (UE), Mobile Station (MS), Mobile Terminal (MT), access terminal, subscriber unit, subscriber station, mobile station, remote terminal, mobile device, user terminal, wireless communication device, user agent, or user device, etc.

The terminal device may be a device providing voice/data connectivity to a user, e.g. a handheld device, a vehicle mounted device, etc. with wireless connection capability. Currently, some examples of terminal devices are: a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palm computer, a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an Augmented Reality (AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote operation (remote medical supply), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in city (city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol) mobile phone, a PDA phone, a wireless local loop (wireless local) local station, a personal digital assistant (SIP) device, and a wireless terminal with wireless communication function, A computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, a wireless modem (modem), a hand-held device (handset), a laptop computer (laptop computer), a Machine Type Communication (MTC) terminal, a terminal device in a 5G network, a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future evolution, and the like, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an internet of things (IoT) system, where IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and a main technical feature of the present application is to connect an article with a network through a communication technology, so as to implement an intelligent network with interconnected human-computer and interconnected objects.

In addition, the network device in this embodiment may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, the network device may also be referred to as an access network device or a radio access network device, and may be a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), an evolved NodeB (eNB) or an eNodeB in an LTE system, a home NodeB (or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (base unit, BBU), a global system for mobile communications (GSM) or a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, cn), or a wireless controller in a future network device such as a relay station, a vehicle-mounted device, a PLMN 5 network device, or a wearable network device in a future network, may be an Access Point (AP) in the WLAN, may be a gNB in a New Radio (NR) system, and the embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method 300 for updating beams according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 300 may include the following steps.

The network device generates and sends a first signaling to the terminal device, the first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of the first resource 310. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the first signaling.

Optionally, the first resource may include one or more resources, and the resource may include an uplink signal resource and may also include a downlink signal resource.

For example, the first resource may include one or more PUCCH resources; for another example, the first resource may include one or more SRS resource/SRS resource sets; as another example, the first resource may include one or more pdcchresources, i.e., CORESET; as another example, the first resource may include one or more CSI-RS resources/CSI-RSresource sets; as another example, the first resource may include one or more resources for uplink signals or downlink signals, and so on.

In the following embodiments, for convenience of understanding and without loss of generality, the first resource is exemplarily illustrated as resource # 1.

The available beams may represent, for example, beams that the network device configures for the terminal device, or may represent beams for which the terminal device may select a transmit beam. As shown in fig. 2, the available beams may include beams corresponding to S0 through S7 configured by the network device.

The available beams may include one or more transmit beams, in other words, the transmit beams are some or all of the available beams. The transmission beam means a beam used in a communication process and may also be referred to as an active beam. For example, taking PUCCH as an example, the transmission beam indicates a transmission beam for the terminal device to transmit an uplink signal to the network device.

The available beams may also include one or more receive beams, in other words, the receive beams are some or all of the available beams. The receive beam represents a beam used during communication and may also be referred to as an active beam. For example, taking a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) as an example, the reception beam indicates a reception beam when the terminal device receives a downlink signal transmitted by the network device. The reception beam of the resource may be, for example, a reception beam of a PDCCH, a reception beam of a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH), or a reception beam of a downlink signal (e.g., CSI-RS).

In the following embodiments, for convenience of description, the resource is taken as an uplink signal resource (e.g., PUCCH resource), and the available beams include transmission beams. Those skilled in the art will understand that the resources in the following embodiments may be replaced by downlink signal resources, and the transmission beam may be replaced by a reception beam.

Optionally, the one or more available beams comprise a transmit beam. The information of the one or more available beams may include, for example, IDs of the one or more available beams, and the like. It should be understood that the available beam may also include a plurality of transmission beams, and the following embodiments are exemplified by the case where the available beam includes one transmission beam for the sake of understanding.

In the embodiment of the present application, the activated transmission beam is mentioned multiple times, and those skilled in the art can understand that the meaning of the activated transmission beam is used to indicate a transmission beam or indicate a transmission beam indication, or may also indicate a spatial relationship indication, in other words, indicate a transmission beam used in a communication process. It should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the transmission beam indication may be replaced by a spatial relationship indication or a spatial filter indication.

Optionally, the first signaling may be higher layer signaling, such as MAC-CE signaling and/or RRC signaling. Any signaling that can implement this function falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Illustratively, the first signaling is MAC-CE signaling. The MAC-CE signaling is used to activate one or more beams (i.e., transmit beams) for resource # 1. For example, the network device transmits MAC-CE signaling including information of the transmission beam of resource #1 to the terminal device. After receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device may determine a transmission beam of resource # 1.

Illustratively, the first signaling is a combination of MAC-CE signaling and RRC signaling. RRC signaling is used to configure the beam list and MAC-CE signaling is used to activate one or more beams (i.e., transmit beams) therein for resource # 1.

Illustratively, the first signaling is RRC signaling. The RRC signaling configures only one beam from the beam list, which is also a transmission beam.

Illustratively, the first signaling is RRC signaling. The RRC signaling is used to configure a beam list, and defaults to one or more previous beams in the beam list as transmission beams.

In the following embodiments, for convenience of understanding and without loss of generality, the first signaling is exemplarily illustrated as signaling # 1.

The network device may indicate a transmission beam for resource #1 by either of the following.

Case 1: one signaling activates a plurality of transmission beams for one resource.

That is, in case 1, the network device transmits to the terminal device signaling #1 indicating a transmission beam of the terminal device resource # 1. Accordingly, the terminal device can determine the transmission beam of resource #1 after receiving the signaling # 1.

For example, taking the resource as PUCCH resource and the signaling as MAC-CE signaling as an example, the network device transmits MAC-CE signaling to the terminal device, where the MAC-CE signaling is used to indicate a transmission beam of PUCCH resource of the terminal device. Accordingly, after receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device may determine the transmission beam of the PUCCH resource.

Case 2: one signaling activates multiple transmit beams for multiple resources.

That is, in case 2, the network device transmits to the terminal device signaling #1, the signaling #1 being for a transmission beam indicating a plurality of resources of the terminal device, the plurality of resources including resource # 1. Accordingly, the terminal device can determine the transmission beams of the plurality of resources (the transmission beam including resource # 1) after receiving the signaling # 1.

For example, taking PUCCH resource as a resource and MAC-CE signaling as a signaling as an example, the network device transmits MAC-CE signaling to the terminal device, where the MAC-CE signaling is used to indicate a plurality of PUCCH resource transmission beams of the terminal device. Accordingly, after receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device may determine the transmission beams of the plurality of PUCCH resources.

Case 2 may be implemented by various schemes, and the implementation of case 2 is described in detail below.

In any of the above cases, the terminal device may determine the transmission beam of resource #1 based on the received signaling # 1.

And 320, the network equipment generates and transmits second signaling to the terminal equipment, wherein the second signaling comprises information of one or more available beams of the second resource, and the transmission beam of the first resource is the same as the transmission beam of the second resource. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the second signaling.

The transmit beams are identical and the meaning will be understood by those skilled in the art. For example, the transmit beam identity may be embodied as a spatial relationship ID identity or correlation. The spatial relationship ID can be embodied as the same or related reference signal identifier in the spatial relationship cell. The reference signal identification correlation may be embodied as that an uplink signal and a downlink signal are correlated.

Optionally, the second resource may include one or more resources, and the resource may be an uplink signal resource or a downlink signal resource.

For example, the second resource may include one or more PUCCH resources; for another example, the second resource may include one or more SRS resource/SRS resource sets; as another example, the second resource may include one or more pdcchresources, i.e., CORESET; as another example, the second resource may include one or more CSI-RS resources/CSI-RSresource sets; as another example, the second resource can include one or more resources for uplink signals or downlink signals, and so on. In the embodiment of the present application, a transmission beam is taken as an example for explanation, so that the second resource is an uplink signal resource here.

In the following embodiment, for convenience of understanding and without loss of generality, the example of the second resource being denoted as resource #2 is exemplified.

The available beams may include one or more transmit beams, or alternatively, the available beams may include one or more receive beams, as described in step 310. The embodiments of the present application are all exemplified by the case that the available beam includes one transmission beam.

Optionally, the second signaling may be higher layer signaling, such as MAC-CE signaling and/or RRC signaling. Any signaling that can implement this function falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application. The second signaling is similar to the first signaling, and the second signaling can refer to the description of the first signaling in step 310.

In the following embodiments, for convenience of understanding and without loss of generality, the second signaling is exemplarily illustrated as signaling # 2.

Similarly, the network device may indicate a transmission beam for resource #2 by either of case 1 and case 2 described above.

In one possible implementation, signaling #1 and signaling #2 may be separate and distinct signaling (e.g., MAC-CE signaling), for example, as described above for case 1. The network device indicates the transmission beam of resource #1 to the terminal device through signaling #1, and the network device indicates the transmission beam of resource #2 to the terminal device through signaling # 2.

In one possible implementation, signaling #1 and signaling #2 may be the same signaling, as in one MAC-CE signaling, e.g., case 2 above. The network device indicates the transmission beams of resource #1 and resource #2 to the terminal device through one signaling.

Step 320 is similar to step 310 and is not in sequence.

And 330, the network device generates and sends a third signaling to the terminal device, wherein the third signaling comprises the beam updating information of the first resource. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the third signaling.

In other words, the network device transmits the third signaling to the terminal device, the third signaling including the beam update information of resource # 1. In this embodiment, after receiving the third signaling, the terminal device may update the transmission beams of resource #1 and resource #2 at the same time. As described below in connection with step 340.

When the sending beam of the resource needs to be updated, the network equipment sends a signaling to the terminal equipment to indicate the beam updating information. If the transmission beams of the plurality of resources are the same, the transmission beam of one of the resources is the same, and the other transmission beam is also updated accordingly.

For example, the example is given by taking 4 PUCCH resources as an example, which are respectively referred to as PUCCH resource #1, PUCCH resource #2, PUCCH resource #3, and PUCCH resource #4, and the current transmission beams of PUCCH resource #1 and PUCCH resource #2 are the same. When the transmission beam of the PUCCH resource #1 is updated, the transmission beam of the PUCCH resource #2 is updated accordingly; alternatively, when the transmission beam of the PUCCH resource #2 is updated, the transmission beam of the PUCCH resource #1 is also updated accordingly.

Alternatively, the third signaling may be higher layer signaling, such as MAC-CE signaling. Any signaling that can implement this function falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

In the following embodiments, for convenience of understanding and without loss of generality, the third signaling is exemplarily illustrated as signaling # 3.

In one possible implementation, the format of signaling #3 is the same as the format of signaling #2 or signaling # 1. For example, the MAC-CE signaling shown in fig. 2, which is not described again.

In one possible implementation, the format of signaling #3 is different from the format of signaling #2 or signaling # 1. As described below in connection with step 340.

It should be understood that the beam update information is only a name, and does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Based on the beam update information of the first resource, the terminal device updates the transmission beam of the second resource 340. In other words, based on the beam update information of resource #1, the terminal apparatus updates the transmission beam of resource # 2.

In other words, upon receiving the signaling #3, the terminal apparatus updates not only the transmission beam of the resource #1 but also the transmission beam of the resource # 2.

Optionally, the signaling #3 includes indication information for instructing the terminal device to update the transmission beam of the resource #2 based on the beam update information of the resource # 1. The indication information may be an implicit indication or a display indication.

After receiving the signaling #3, the terminal device may update the transmission beam of the resource #2 based on any one of the following methods.

The method comprises the following steps: the protocol predefines such rules.

That is, regardless of how the transmission beams of the current resource #1 and resource #2 are configured, the terminal device updates the transmission beams of the resource having the same transmission beam by default after receiving the signaling indicating the update of the beams.

Taking resource #1 and resource #2 as an example, for example, the terminal device receives signaling #3, and signaling #3 includes beam update information of resource # 1. Upon receiving the signaling #3, the terminal apparatus updates not only the transmission beam of the resource #1 but also the transmission beam of the resource # 2. As another example, the terminal device receives signaling #3, and signaling #3 includes beam update information of resource # 2. Upon receiving the signaling #3, the terminal apparatus updates not only the transmission beam of the resource #2 but also the transmission beam of the resource # 1.

It should be understood that the above description has been made only by taking resource #1 and resource #2 as examples, and the present application is not limited thereto. After receiving the signaling #3, the terminal device includes the beam update information of any one of the plurality of resources having the same transmission beam in the signaling # 3. The terminal device may update the transmission beam of each of the plurality of resources based on the signaling # 3.

In method 1, signaling #3 may be the same as existing MAC-CE signaling (e.g., R15MAC-CE signaling).

The method 2 comprises the following steps: the field length may be, for example, 1 bit (bit), with some existing or newly added field in the signaling.

With signaling #3 as MAC-CE signaling, any one of the R fields in MAC-CE signaling may be utilized. That is, the network device may indicate whether the terminal device is to update the transmission beams of all resources whose transmission beams are the same through a reserved field in the MAC-CE signaling. Alternatively, the network device may indicate whether the terminal device is to update the transmission beams of all resources whose transmission beams are the same through a 1-bit field in the MAC-CE signaling.

Take the resource as PUCCH resource, signaling #3 as MAC-CE signaling, and reserve R field as an example. Assume that one PUCCH resource ID is included in MAC-CE signaling. For example, when R is 0, the MAC-CE signaling updates only the transmission beam of the PUCCH resource identified by the PUCCH resource id; when R is 1, this MAC-CE signaling updates the transmission beam of the PUCCH resource identified by the PUCCH resource ID and the transmission beams of other PUCCH resources identical to the PUCCH resource ID transmission beam.

The resource #1 and the resource #2 are specifically described as an example.

In step 330, the terminal device receives the MAC-CE signaling, which includes beam update information for resource # 1. When R in the MAC-CE signaling is 0, the MAC-CE signaling updates only the transmission beam of the resource # 1; when R in the MAC-CE signaling is 1, the MAC-CE signaling updates the transmission beams of the resource #1 and the resource # 2.

The method 3 comprises the following steps: new MAC-CE signaling is introduced.

The format of the new MAC-CE signaling is not limited in the present application, for example, the MAC-CE signaling may include the same contents as the existing MAC-CE signaling: CC ID, BWP ID, PUCCH resource ID, spatial relationship activation information. Unlike existing MAC-CE signaling, the new MAC-CE signaling may identify the functionality of the new MAC-CE signaling through a Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) in the MAC-CE signaling. In other words, after receiving the MAC-CE signaling of the ID, the terminal device can know that the MAC-CE signaling is used to update the transmission beam for all resource indications with the same transmission beam.

The method 4 comprises the following steps: based on any one of several implementations in case 2 above.

As in case 2, the network device sends a signaling to the terminal device, where the signaling is used to instruct the terminal device to update the transmission beam of the plurality of resources, where the plurality of resources include resource #1 and resource # 2. Accordingly, after receiving the signaling, the terminal device may determine the transmission beams of the multiple resources.

That is, several implementations in case 2 are also applicable to updating the beam scene. As described in detail below.

Therefore, according to the above-described technical solution, the updated transmission beam can be indicated in units of the same resource as the transmission beam. That is to say, the network device indicates, through one signaling, to the terminal device to update the transmission beams of multiple resources that are the same as the transmission beam, which not only saves overhead, but also allows the terminal device to select multiple beams, and is therefore more flexible.

Optionally, before step 310, method 300 may further comprise step 301.

301, the network device configures a beam list of resources.

The network device may configure the beam list of resources by any of the following implementations.

The implementation mode A adopts the same method as the prior art.

Taking the resource as PUCCH resource as an example, as described above, one spatial relationship list (i.e., transmission beam list) is configured for all PUCCH resources in each BWP in the higher layer signaling (e.g., in RRC).

RRC configuration may be transmitted through the PDSCH, and may be divided into one or more Transport Blocks (TBs) to be transmitted in one or more time units (e.g., slots) according to the size of the configuration information. This is not limitative.

In implementation B, a transmit beam list is configured for a terminal device.

That is, the network device configures the transmission beam list in units of terminal devices. The network device configures a transmission beam list for the terminal device, wherein the transmission beam list can be applicable to a plurality of CCs of the terminal device.

Implementation C configures one transmit beam list for one CC.

That is, the network device configures the transmission beam list in CC units. For one CC, the network device configures a transmit beam list that may be applicable to BWPs of one CC of the terminal device. For example, if there are 4 BWPs in one CC of the terminal device, the configured transmission beam list may be applicable to the 4 BWPs.

Implementation D configures a cell-level transmit beam list.

That is, the network device configures the transmission beam list in units of cells. The network device configures a transmission beam list for the cell, and the transmission beam list can be applicable to all terminal devices of the cell.

The four implementation manners are exemplarily described above, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific configuration mode of the beam list of the network device configuration resource.

The following describes an implementation manner of case 2 in detail, taking an example that the signaling is MAC-CE signaling and the resource is PUCCH resource.

Case 2 includes at least one or more of the following implementations.

Implementation mode 1: the PUCCH resource ID in MAC-CE signaling is replaced with PUCCH resource set ID (PUCCH resource set ID).

The PUCCH resource set may include a plurality of PUCCH resources, and after receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device determines transmission beams of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of PUCCH resources) belonging to the PUCCH resource set. Or, after receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device determines to update the transmission beams of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of PUCCH resources) belonging to the PUCCH resource set.

As shown in fig. 4, PUCCH resource set ID is included in MAC-CE signaling. Assuming that S2 is 1, after receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device determines that the transmission beams of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of PUCCH resources) belonging to the PUCCH resource set are beams corresponding to S2. Or, the terminal device determines that the updated transmission beam of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of PUCCH resources) belonging to the PUCCH resource set is the beam corresponding to S2.

In implementation 2, the PUCCH resource ID of MAC-CE signaling is replaced by PUCCH resource group ID (PUCCH resource group ID).

The PUCCH resource group may include a plurality of PUCCH resources, and after receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device determines transmission beams of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of pucchresources) belonging to the PUCCH resource group. Or, after receiving the MAC-CE signaling, the terminal device determines to update the transmission beams of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of PUCCH resources) belonging to the PUCCH resource group.

As shown in fig. 5, PUCCH resource group ID is included in MAC-CE signaling. Assuming that S2 is 1, after receiving the MAC-CE, the terminal device determines that the transmission beams of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of PUCCH resources) belonging to the PUCCH resource group are beams corresponding to S2. Or, the terminal device determines that the updated transmission beam of all PUCCH resources (i.e., the plurality of PUCCH resources) belonging to the PUCCH resource group is the beam corresponding to S2.

In the implementation mode 3, the PUCCH resource ID in the MAC-CE signaling is replaced by a plurality of PUCCH resource IDs.

As shown in fig. 6, the MAC-CE signaling includes a plurality of PUCCH resource IDs, such as PUCCH resource 1, PUCCH resource 2, … … in fig. 6. Assuming that S2 is 1, the terminal device determines that the transmission beam belonging to the plurality of PUCCH resources is the beam corresponding to S2, upon receiving the MAC-CE. Alternatively, the terminal device determines that the transmission beam after updating the plurality of PUCCH resources is the beam corresponding to S2.

In implementation 4, the MAC-CE signaling does not include a specific PUCCH resource ID, and includes CC or BWP information, and the MAC-CE signaling is used to indicate the indication information of the transmission beam for the PUCCH.

As shown in fig. 7, the serving cell ID and BWP ID are included in the MAC-CE signaling, and the PUCCHresource ID is not included. Assuming that S2 is 1, after receiving the MAC-CE, the terminal device determines that the transmission beams of all PUCCH resources belonging to the serving cell ID and the BWP ID are the beams corresponding to S2. Or, the terminal device determines that the transmission beam after updating all PUCCH resources belonging to the serving cell ID and BWP ID is the beam corresponding to S2.

That is, in implementation 4, the MAC-CE signaling may indicate a transmission beam for all pucchresources within the CC or BWP.

In implementation 4, the indication information may be carried in the MAC-CE in a display manner, or the function of the MAC-CE is identified by a Logical Channel Identifier (LCID) in the MAC-CE. In other words, the MAC-CE receiving the ID can know that the MAC-CE indicates the transmission beam for all PUCCHresource in the CC or BWP.

It should be understood that, in some embodiments, PUCCH resource is taken as an example for illustration, and the present application is not limited thereto, for example, the PUCCH resource may be replaced by other uplink signal resources, and the like.

It should also be understood that the foregoing embodiment has been described by taking a transmission beam as an example, the present application is not limited thereto, for example, in the foregoing embodiment, the resource may be replaced by a downlink signal resource, and the transmission beam may be replaced by a reception beam, and in this case, the reception beam indication may be replaced by a QCL indication.

It should also be understood that, in the above embodiments, the transmission beam indication may be replaced by a spatial relationship indication, or the transmission beam indication may be replaced by a spatial filter indication.

Based on the above technical solution, when the transmission beams of the multiple resources are the same, the network device may indicate to the terminal device to update the transmission beams of the multiple resources through one signaling, and accordingly, the terminal device may also update the transmission beams of the multiple resources based on one signaling. In this way, not only signaling overhead can be saved, but also flexibility is high, for example, for resources with different transmission beams, the terminal device can still select multiple transmission beams for communication.

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart diagram of a method 400 for updating beams according to an embodiment of the present application. The method 400 may include the following steps.

The network device sends 410 a signaling # a to the terminal device, the signaling # a being used to activate the same transmission beam for a plurality of resources. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the signaling # a, and based on the signaling # a, the transmission beams of the plurality of resources can be determined.

In other words, the signaling # a is used to activate beams for a plurality of resources, that is, the signaling # a includes information of one or more available beams of the plurality of resources, the available beams including one or more transmission beams.

For the description of the transmission beam, reference is made to the description of the method 300, and the description is not repeated here. It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. The transmission beam may be replaced with a reception beam and the corresponding resource may be replaced with a downlink signal resource.

Taking the resource as PUCCH resource as an example, the network device activates a transmission beam for a plurality of PUCCH resources. That is to say, the network device sends signaling to the terminal device, where the signaling includes beam update information for multiple PUCCH resources, and after receiving the signaling, the terminal device may determine the transmission beams of the multiple PUCCH resources based on the signaling.

The signaling # a may be higher layer signaling, such as MAC-CE signaling. Any signaling that can implement this function falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the signaling # a in the method 400 is similar to the signaling #3 in the method 300, and specific reference may be made to the description of the method 300, which is not repeated herein.

It should be understood that signaling # a is exemplified for ease of understanding and without loss of generality. The signaling # a is only a name, and does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application, for example, the signaling # a may also be referred to as R16 signaling.

The network device may activate the transmission beam for multiple PUCCH resources by implementing any one of the implementations in case 2 of the method 300 described above. In the following, the MAC-CE signaling is taken as an example to briefly describe various implementation manners.

In the implementation mode 1, PUCCH resource ID in MAC-CE signaling is replaced by PUCCH resource set ID.

For example, as shown in fig. 4, the signaling # a sent by the network device to the terminal device includes PUCCH resource setID. Signaling # a may be used to indicate transmission beams of all PUCCH resources belonging to the PUCCH resource set ID.

In the implementation mode 2, PUCCH resource ID in the MAC-CE signaling is replaced by PUCCH resource groupID.

For example, as shown in fig. 5, the signaling # a sent by the network device to the terminal device includes a PUCCH resource ID. Signaling # a is used to indicate a transmission beam of all PUCCH resources belonging to the PUCCH resource group ID.

For example, as shown in fig. 6, signaling # a sent by the network device to the terminal device includes a plurality of PUCCH resource ids. The signaling # a may be used to indicate a transmission beam of a plurality of PUCCH resources corresponding to the plurality of PUCCH resource IDs.

In implementation 4, the MAC-CE signaling does not include a specific PUCCH resource ID, and includes CC or BWP information, and indication information used by the MAC-CE to indicate a transmission beam for the PUCCH.

For example, as shown in fig. 7, signaling # a sent by the network device to the terminal device includes a serving cell ID and a BWP ID, and does not include a PUCCH resource ID. Signaling # a may be used to indicate the transmit beams of all PUCCH resources belonging to the serving cell ID and BWPID.

The network device sends signaling # B to the terminal device, which is used to update the transmission beam for a certain resource 420. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the signaling # B.

In other words, the signaling # B is used to activate a beam for a certain resource, that is, the signaling # B includes information of available beams of a resource, which include one or more transmission beams.

The network device may update the transmission beam for a certain resource through the signaling # B, and mark the resource indicated by the signaling # B as the resource # B for distinction.

The signaling # B may be higher layer signaling, such as MAC-CE signaling and/or RRC signaling. Any signaling that can implement this function falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Signaling # B is similar to signaling #1 or signaling #2 in method 300, and signaling # B can refer to the description of signaling #1 in step 310.

It should be understood that signaling # B is exemplified for ease of understanding and without loss of generality. The signaling # B is only a name and does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application, for example, the signaling # B may also be referred to as R15 signaling.

Step 420 synchronization step 410 is out of order.

After receiving the signaling # B, the terminal device may update the transmission beam of the resource # B.

430, the terminal apparatus updates the transmission beam of resource # B.

Assuming that the resource # B belongs to one of the plurality of resources in step 420, it may occur that the transmission beam indicated by the signaling # a is different from the transmission beam indicated by the signaling # B. In this case, at least the following two cases are included.

Case a: the terminal device determines a transmission beam of resource # B based on one of the signaling. In other words, there is only one active spatial relationship at a time for the transmit beam of resource # B.

For case a, the terminal device may determine the transmission beam of resource # B based on any one of the following manners.

Mode 1: the terminal apparatus determines a transmission beam of resource # B based on the signaling # B.

That is, by a prescribed provision in advance, when the signaling # a and the signaling # B occur simultaneously, the terminal apparatus determines the transmission beam of the resource # B based on the signaling # B. For example, if the signaling # a received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 1 and the signaling # B received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2, the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2.

Mode 2: the terminal device determines a transmission beam of resource # B based on the priority rule.

The priority rule may be a rule specified by a protocol, or a preset rule, or may be notified to the terminal device by the network device, which is not strictly limited.

Illustratively, the priority rule may be: UE level < CC level < BWP level < resource set level (e.g., PUCCH resource level) < resource group level (e.g., PUCCH resource group level) < resource level (e.g., PUCCH resource level). This approach may increase flexibility.

For example, UE level, may represent a transmission beam indicating all resources belonging to the UE.

Assuming that the signaling # a received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the UE is beam 1, in other words, the signaling # a indicates that the transmission beams of all resources of the UE are beam 1, and the signaling # B received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2, the priority according to the UE level is lower than the priority of the resource level, so the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2.

As another example, the resource group level may represent a transmission beam indicating all resources belonging to the resource group.

Assuming that the signaling # a received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource group is beam 1, in other words, the signaling # a indicates that the transmission beams of all resources belonging to the resource group are beam 1, and the signaling # B received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2, the priority according to the resource group level is lower than the priority of the resource level, so the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2.

As another example, the CC level may represent a transmission beam indicating all resources belonging to the CC level.

Assuming that the signaling # a received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the CC is beam 1, in other words, the signaling # a indicates that the transmission beams of all resources belonging to the CC are beam 1, and the signaling # B received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2, the priority according to the CC level is lower than the priority of the resource level, so the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2.

Illustratively, the priority rule may be: multiple resources > single resource. For example, UE-level > CC-level > BWP-level > resource set-level (e.g., PUCCH resource set-level) > resource group-level (e.g., PUCCH resource group-level) > resource-level (e.g., PUCCH resource level). This approach may reduce signaling overhead and may reduce latency.

For example, the BWP level may represent a transmission beam indicating all resources belonging to the BWP.

Assuming that the signaling # a received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the BWP is beam 1, in other words, the signaling # a indicates that the transmission beams of all resources of the BWP are beam 1, and the signaling # B received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2, the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 1 according to the priority of the plurality of resources being higher than the priority of the single resource.

As another example, the resource set level may represent a transmission beam indicating all resources belonging to the resource set.

Assuming that the signaling # a received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource set is beam 1, in other words, the signaling # a indicates that the transmission beams of all resources belonging to the resource set are beam 1, and the signaling # B received by the terminal device indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2, the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is beam 2 according to the priority of the plurality of resources being higher than the priority of the single resource.

Illustratively, the priority rule may be: signaling # B < Signaling # A

That is, when the signaling # a (e.g., R16 signaling) and the signaling # B (e.g., R15 signaling) occur simultaneously, the terminal apparatus determines the transmission beam of the resource # B based on the signaling # B.

Mode 3: the terminal device determines the transmission beam of resource # B based on the order of the received signaling.

Illustratively, the terminal device may determine the transmission beam of resource # B based on the first received signaling.

For example, the terminal device receives the signaling # a first, and the signaling # a indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is the beam 1, and then the terminal device receives the signaling # B, and the signaling # B indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is the beam 2, then the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is the beam 2.

Illustratively, the terminal device may determine the transmit beam for resource # B based on the most recently received signaling.

For example, the terminal device receives the signaling # a first, and the signaling # a indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is the beam 1, and then the terminal device receives the signaling # B, and the signaling # B indicates that the transmission beam of the resource # B is the beam 2, then the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of the resource # B is the beam 1.

Case B: the terminal device determines a transmission beam of resource # B based on signaling # a and signaling B. In other words, there may be multiple spatial relationships active at a time for the transmit beam of resource # B.

For example, the terminal device receives signaling # a and signaling # B, and signaling # a indicates that the transmission beam of resource # B is beam 1 and signaling # B indicates that the transmission beam of resource # B is beam 2, the terminal device determines that the transmission beam of resource # B includes beam 1 and beam 2.

Optionally, method 400 may also include 440.

The network device sends signaling # C to the terminal device, which signaling # C is used to update the transmission beam for the plurality of resources, 440. Accordingly, the terminal device receives the signaling # C, and based on the signaling # C, the transmission beams of the plurality of resources can be updated.

In other words, the signaling # C includes beam update information of a plurality of resources.

The signaling # C may be higher layer signaling, such as MAC-CE signaling. Any signaling that can implement this function falls within the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the signaling # C is only a name and does not limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application, for example, the signaling # C may also be referred to as R16 signaling.

The network device may implement updating the transmit beam for the plurality of resources by any of the implementations in step 410. And will not be described in detail herein.

Alternatively, the transmission beam of resource # B updated by signaling # B in step 430 is not updated by signaling # C any more.

That is, assuming that the terminal device updates the transmission beam of resource # B based on signaling # B in step 430, the terminal device updates only the transmission beam of the resource other than resource # B among the plurality of resources and does not update the transmission beam of resource # B after receiving signaling # C.

Alternatively, the transmission beam of resource # B updated by signaling # B in step 430 determines whether to be updated by signaling # C according to the indication information in signaling # C.

That is, assuming that the terminal apparatus updates the transmission beam of resource # B based on signaling # B in step 430, the terminal apparatus determines whether to update the transmission beam of resource # B based on the indication information in signaling # C after receiving signaling # C.

The network device may indicate whether the terminal device updates the transmission beam of the resource by using some existing or newly added field in the signaling, and the field length may be, for example, 1 bit. Taking the signaling # C as MAC-CE signaling as an example, it can be indicated whether the transmission beam of the resource # B is updated by the signaling # C by using any R field in the MAC-CE signaling.

For example, the terminal device receives MAC-CE signaling, and when R in the MAC-CE signaling is equal to 0, the MAC-CE signaling indicates that the transmission beam of the plurality of resources (including resource # B) is updated; when R in the MAC-CE signaling is 1, the MAC-CE signaling indicates updating of a transmission beam of a resource other than resource # B among the plurality of resources.

Optionally, the method 400 may further include 401.

The network device configures a beam list of resources 401.

Optionally, the resource may include an uplink signal resource, and may also include a downlink signal resource.

For example, the resource may include one or more PUCCH resources; as another example, the resource may include one or more SRS resource/SRS resource sets; as another example, the resource may include one or more pdcchresources, i.e., CORESET; as another example, the resource may include one or more CSI-RS resource/CSI-RSresource sets; as another example, the resource can include one or more resources for uplink signals or downlink signals, and so on.

Step 401 is similar to step 301, and is for brevity and will not be described again.

It should be understood that, in some embodiments, the resource # B in the plurality of resources is taken as an example for description, but this does not limit the present application, and the description related to the resource # B in this document may be applied to each resource in the plurality of resources.

It should also be understood that, in some embodiments, PUCCH resource is taken as an example for illustration, and the present application is not limited thereto, for example, the PUCCH resource may be replaced by other uplink signal resources, and the like.

Based on the above technical solution, when the transmission beams of multiple resources are the same, the network device may indicate to the terminal device to update the transmission beams of multiple resources through one signaling, and accordingly, the terminal device may also update the transmission beams of multiple resources based on one signaling, thereby saving signaling overhead. Further, when a plurality of beams indicate collision, for example, when the above-described signaling # a and signaling # B occur simultaneously, collision may be avoided by a predefined priority rule or a default rule.

The various embodiments described herein may be implemented as stand-alone solutions or combined in accordance with inherent logic and are intended to fall within the scope of the present application.

It is to be understood that, in the above-described method embodiments, the method and the operation implemented by the terminal device may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) available for the terminal device, and the method and the operation implemented by the network device may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) available for the network device.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 3 to 8. Hereinafter, the communication device according to the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail with reference to fig. 9 to 12. It should be understood that the description of the apparatus embodiments corresponds to the description of the method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, details are not repeated here, since the details that are not described in detail may be referred to the above method embodiments.

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced mainly from the perspective of interaction between network elements. It is understood that each network element, for example, the transmitting end device or the receiving end device, includes a corresponding hardware structure and/or software module for performing each function in order to implement the above functions. Those of skill in the art would appreciate that the various illustrative components and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives 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.

In the embodiment of the present application, the functional modules may be divided according to the above method example for the transmitting end device or the receiving end device, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. The following description will be given taking the example of dividing each functional module corresponding to each function.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown, the communication device 900 may include a communication unit 910 and a processing unit 920. The communication unit 910 can communicate with the outside, and the processing unit 920 is used for data processing. The communication unit 910 may also be referred to as a communication interface or a transceiving unit.

In one possible design, the communication apparatus 900 may implement the steps or processes executed by the terminal device corresponding to the above method embodiment, for example, the steps or processes may be executed by the terminal device, or a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device. At this time, the communication apparatus 900 may be referred to as a terminal device. The communication unit 910 is configured to perform transceiving related operations on the terminal device side in the foregoing method embodiments, and the processing unit 920 is configured to perform processing related operations of the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments.

In one possible implementation, the communication unit 910 is configured to: receiving first signaling, the first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource; the communication unit 910 is further configured to: receiving second signaling, wherein the second signaling comprises information of one or more available beams of a second resource, a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of the available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of the available beams of the second resource; the communication unit 910 is further configured to: receiving third signaling, wherein the third signaling comprises beam updating information of the first resource; the processing unit 920 is configured to: the transmission beam of the second resource is updated based on the beam update information of the first resource.

Optionally, the third signaling further includes indication information, where the indication information is used to instruct the communication apparatus 900 to update the transmission beam of the second resource based on the beam update information of the first resource.

Optionally, the indication information is indicated by 1 bit in the third signaling, or the indication information is indicated by a reserved field in the third signaling.

Optionally, the first signaling or the second signaling is any one of the following: medium access control-control element MAC-CE signaling, a combination of MAC-CE signaling and radio resource control RRC signaling, or RRC signaling.

The communication apparatus 900 may implement the steps or the flow corresponding to the steps or the flow executed by the terminal device in the method 300 according to the embodiment of the present application, and the communication apparatus 900 may include a unit for executing the method executed by the terminal device in the method 300 in fig. 3. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions described above in the communication apparatus 900 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows of the method 300 in fig. 3.

When the communication device 900 is configured to execute the method 300 in fig. 3, the communication unit 910 may be configured to execute the steps 310, 320, and 330 in the method 300, and the processing unit 920 may be configured to execute the step 340 in the method 200.

It should be understood that the specific processes of the units for executing the corresponding steps are already described in detail in the above method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, detailed descriptions thereof are omitted.

In yet another possible implementation manner, the communication unit 910 is configured to: receiving first signaling, the first signaling comprising first beam update information for a plurality of resources, the plurality of resources comprising a first resource; the communication unit 910 is further configured to: receiving second signaling, the second signaling including second beam update information for the first resource; the processing unit 920 is configured to: updating the transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information; or, the processing unit 920 is configured to: the transmission beam of the first resource is updated based on the second beam update information and the first beam update information.

Optionally, the processing unit 920 is specifically configured to: determining to update the transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information based on a priority rule, wherein the priority rule comprises: terminal device level < carrier cell CC level < bandwidth part BWP level < resource set level < resource group level < resource level, where < means less.

Optionally, the communication unit 910 is further configured to: receiving third signaling, the third signaling comprising third beam update information for the plurality of resources; the processing unit 920 does not update the transmission beam of the first resource based on the preset condition and the second signaling.

The communication apparatus 900 may implement the steps or the flow corresponding to the steps or the flow executed by the terminal device in the method 400 according to the embodiment of the present application, and the communication apparatus 900 may include a unit for executing the method executed by the terminal device in the method 400 in fig. 8. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions described above in the communication apparatus 900 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows of the method 400 in fig. 8.

Wherein, when the communication device 900 is configured to execute the method 400 in fig. 8, the communication unit 910 is configured to execute the steps 410 and 420 in the method 400, and the processing unit 920 is configured to execute the step 430 in the method 400.

It is to be further appreciated that the communication unit 910 of the communication apparatus 900 can be implemented by the transceiver 2020 of the terminal device 2000 illustrated in fig. 11, and the processing unit 920 of the communication apparatus 900 can be implemented by the processor 2010 of the terminal device 2000 illustrated in fig. 11. Wherein the transceiver may comprise a transmitter and/or a receiver, respectively implementing the functions of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit.

It should also be understood that the communication unit 910 in the communication device 900 may also be an input/output interface.

In another possible design, the communication apparatus 900 may implement the steps or processes executed by the network device corresponding to the above method embodiment, for example, the steps or processes may be implemented by the network device, or a chip or a circuit configured in the network device. At this time, the communication apparatus 900 may be referred to as a network device. The communication unit 910 is configured to perform transceiving related operations on the network device side in the foregoing method embodiments, and the processing unit 920 is configured to perform processing related operations of the network device in the foregoing method embodiments.

In one possible implementation, the processing unit 920 is configured to: generating first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource; the processing unit 920 is further configured to: generating second signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a second resource; the communication unit 910 is configured to: transmitting a first signaling and a second signaling, wherein a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of available beams of the second resource; the processing unit 920 is further configured to: generating a third signaling; the communication unit 910 is further configured to: and transmitting third signaling, wherein the third signaling comprises beam updating information of the first resource and indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating that the transmission beam of the second resource is updated based on the beam updating information of the first resource.

The communication apparatus 900 may implement the steps or the flow corresponding to the steps or the flow executed by the network device in the method 300 according to the embodiment of the present application, and the communication apparatus 900 may include a unit for executing the method executed by the network device in the method 300 in fig. 3. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions described above in the communication apparatus 900 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows of the method 300 in fig. 3.

Alternatively, the communication apparatus 900 may implement steps or flows corresponding to those executed by the network device in the method 400 according to the embodiment of the present application, and the communication apparatus 900 may include a unit for executing the method executed by the network device in the method 400 in fig. 8. Also, the units and other operations and/or functions described above in the communication apparatus 900 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows of the method 400 in fig. 8.

When the communication device 900 is configured to execute the method 300 in fig. 3, the communication unit 910 may be configured to execute steps 310, 320, and 330 in the method 300, and the processing unit 920 may be configured to execute step 301 in the method 300.

Wherein, when the communication device 900 is configured to execute the method 400 in fig. 8, the communication unit 910 is configured to execute the steps 410 and 420 in the method 400, and the processing unit 920 is configured to execute the step 401 in the method 400.

It is also to be understood that the communication unit in the communication apparatus 900 may be implemented by the transceiver 3200 in the network device 3000 shown in fig. 12, and the processing unit 920 in the communication apparatus 900 may be implemented by the processor 3100 in the network device 3000 shown in fig. 12.

It should also be understood that the communication unit 910 in the communication device 900 may also be an input/output interface. Wherein the transceiver may comprise a transmitter and/or a receiver, respectively implementing the functions of the transmitting unit and the receiving unit.

Fig. 10 is a further schematic block diagram of a communication device 1000 provided in an embodiment of the present application. As shown, the communication device 1000 includes a processor 1010, a memory 1020 and a transceiver 1030, wherein the memory 1020 stores programs, the processor 1010 is configured to execute the programs stored in the memory 1020, the execution of the programs stored in the memory 1020 enables the processor 1010 to perform the relevant processing steps in the above method embodiments, and the execution of the programs stored in the memory 1020 enables the processor 1010 to control the transceiver 1030 to perform the relevant transceiving steps in the above method embodiments.

As an implementation, the communication apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment, in this case, the execution of the program stored in the memory 1020 causes the processor 1010 to perform the processing steps on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment, and the execution of the program stored in the memory 1020 causes the processor 1010 to control the transceiver 1030 to perform the receiving and transmitting steps on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment.

As another implementation, the communication apparatus 1000 is configured to perform the actions performed by the network device in the foregoing method embodiment, in this case, the execution of the program stored in the memory 1020 causes the processor 1010 to perform the processing steps on the network device side in the foregoing method embodiment, and the execution of the program stored in the memory 1020 causes the processor 1010 to control the transceiver 1030 to perform the receiving and transmitting steps on the network device side in the foregoing method embodiment.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 2000, where the communication apparatus 2000 may be a terminal device or a chip. The communication means 2000 may be adapted to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiments.

When the communication apparatus 2000 is a terminal device, fig. 11 shows a simplified structure diagram of the terminal device. For easy understanding and illustration, in fig. 11, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 11, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal equipment, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal devices may not have input/output devices.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 11, and in an actual end device article, one or more processors and one or more memories may be present. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be provided independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as a transceiving unit of the terminal device, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device.

As shown in fig. 11, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 2010 and a processing unit 2020. The transceiving unit 2010 may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving means, etc. The processing unit 2020 can also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like. Alternatively, a device in the transceiving unit 2010 for implementing the receiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device in the transceiving unit 2010 for implementing the transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiving unit 2010 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A transceiver unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or the like. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like. A transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

For example, in one implementation, the processing unit 2020 is configured to perform step 340 in fig. 3 and step 430 in fig. 8, and/or the processing unit 2020 is further configured to perform other processing steps on the terminal device side in the embodiment of the present application. The transceiving unit 2010 is further configured to perform steps 310 to 330 shown in fig. 3 and steps 410 to 420 shown in fig. 8, and/or the transceiving unit 2010 is further configured to perform other transceiving steps on the terminal device side.

It should be understood that fig. 11 is only an example and not a limitation, and the terminal device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 11.

When the communication device 2000 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiving unit and a processing unit. The transceiving unit can be an input/output circuit or a communication interface; the processing unit may be a processor or a microprocessor or an integrated circuit integrated on the chip.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication apparatus 3000, where the communication apparatus 3000 may be a network device or a chip. The communication device 3000 may be used to perform the actions performed by the network device in the above-described method embodiments.

When the communication device 3000 is a network device, it is a base station, for example. Fig. 12 shows a simplified base station structure. The base station includes a 3010 portion and a 3020 portion. 3010 the unit is mainly used for receiving and transmitting RF signals and converting RF signals to baseband signals; the section 3020 is mainly used for baseband processing, control of a base station, and the like. Section 3010 may be generally referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or transceiver, etc. Part 3020 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 processing operations on the network device side in the above-described method embodiments.

3010, the transceiver unit, which may also be called as a transceiver or a transceiver, includes an antenna and a radio frequency unit, where the radio frequency unit is mainly used for radio frequency processing. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in section 3010 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, section 3010 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like, and a transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, or the like.

Section 3020 may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories. The processor is used to read and execute programs in the memory to implement baseband processing functions and control of the base station. If a plurality of single boards exist, the single boards can be interconnected to enhance the processing capacity. As an alternative implementation, multiple boards may share one or more processors, multiple boards may share one or more memories, or multiple boards may share one or more processors at the same time.

For example, in one implementation, the transceiver unit of portion 3010 is configured to perform the sending operation on the network device side in steps 310 to 330 shown in fig. 3 and steps 410 to 420 shown in fig. 8, and/or the transceiver unit of portion 3010 is further configured to perform other transceiving steps on the network device side in this embodiment of the present application. The processing unit of section 3020 is configured to perform the processing operations of step 301 in fig. 3 and step 401 in fig. 8, and/or the processing unit of section 3020 is further configured to perform the processing steps on the network device side in the embodiment of the present application.

It should be understood that fig. 12 is only an example and not a limitation, and the network device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit described above may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 12.

When the communication device 3000 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The transceiver unit can be an input/output circuit and a communication interface; the processing unit is a processor or a microprocessor or an integrated circuit integrated on the chip.

The network device is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and may be in another embodiment: for example: the antenna comprises a BBU (baseband unit) and an Adaptive Radio Unit (ARU), or the BBU and an Active Antenna Unit (AAU); the CPE may be a Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) or another type, and the present application is not limited thereto.

BBU 3200 as described above can be used to perform actions described in previous method embodiments as being implemented internally by a network device, while RRU 3100 can be used to perform actions described in previous method embodiments as being sent by or received from a terminal device by a network device. Please refer to the description of the previous embodiment of the method, which is not repeated herein.

The embodiment of the application also provides a processing device which comprises a processor and an interface. The processor may be adapted to perform the method of the above-described method embodiments.

It should be understood that the processing means may be a chip. For example, the processing device may be a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a system on chip (SoC), a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Network Processor (NP), a digital signal processing circuit (DSP), a Microcontroller (MCU), a programmable logic controller (PLD), or other integrated chips.

In implementation, the steps of the above method may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor. To avoid repetition, it is not described in detail here.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor described above may be a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components. The various methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or performed. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module may be located in ram, flash memory, rom, prom, or eprom, registers, etc. storage media as is well known in the art. The storage medium is located in a memory, and a processor reads information in the memory and completes the steps of the method in combination with hardware of the processor.

It will be appreciated that the memory in the embodiments of the subject application can be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. Volatile memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate SDRAM, enhanced SDRAM, SLDRAM, Synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct rambus RAM (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the present application further provides a computer program product, which includes: computer program code which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of the embodiments shown in figures 3 to 8.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, a computer-readable medium is further provided, and the computer-readable medium stores program codes, and when the program codes are executed on a computer, the computer is caused to execute the method of any one of the embodiments shown in fig. 3 to 8.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the present application further provides a system, which includes the foregoing one or more terminal devices and one or more network devices.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the application to occur, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on a computer readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that incorporates one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., a Solid State Disk (SSD)), among others.

The network device in the foregoing various apparatus embodiments corresponds to the terminal device or the network device in the terminal device and method embodiments, and the corresponding module or unit executes the corresponding steps, for example, the communication unit (transceiver) executes the steps of receiving or transmitting in the method embodiments, and other steps besides transmitting and receiving may be executed by the processing unit (processor). The functions of the specific elements may be referred to in the respective method embodiments. The number of the processors may be one or more.

As used in this specification, the terms "component," "module," "system," and the like are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computing device and the computing device can be a component. One or more components can reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. In addition, these components can execute from various computer readable media having various data structures stored thereon. The components may communicate by way of local and/or remote processes such as in accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., data from two components interacting with another component in a local system, distributed system, and/or across a network such as the internet with other systems by way of the signal).

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. 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.

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

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the above-described apparatus embodiments are merely illustrative, and for example, the division of the units is only one logical division, and other divisions may be realized in practice, for example, a plurality of units or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not executed. In addition, the shown or discussed mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection through some interfaces, devices or units, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

The units described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed 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 can be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the embodiment.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present application, but the scope of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art can easily conceive of the changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and shall be covered by the scope of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method for updating a beam, comprising:

receiving first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource;

receiving second signaling, where the second signaling includes information of one or more available beams of a second resource, a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of the available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of the available beams of the second resource;

receiving third signaling, the third signaling comprising beam update information for the first resource;

updating the transmission beam of the second resource based on the beam update information of the first resource.

2. The method of claim 1,

the third signaling further includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate that the transmission beam of the second resource is updated based on the beam update information of the first resource.

3. The method of claim 2,

the indication information is indicated by 1 bit in the third signaling, or the indication information is indicated by a reserved field in the third signaling.

4. A method for updating a beam, comprising:

generating first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource;

generating second signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a second resource;

transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling, wherein a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of available beams of the second resource;

generating a third signaling, and sending the third signaling, where the third signaling includes beam update information of the first resource and indication information, and the indication information is used to indicate that a transmission beam of the second resource is updated based on the beam update information of the first resource.

5. The method of claim 4,

6. A method for updating a beam, comprising:

receiving first signaling comprising first beam update information for a plurality of resources, the plurality of resources comprising a first resource;

receiving second signaling comprising second beam update information for the first resource;

updating a transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information; or the like, or, alternatively,

updating a transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information and the first beam update information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the updating the transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information comprises:

determining to update a transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information based on a priority rule, wherein the priority rule comprises:

terminal device level < carrier cell CC level < bandwidth part BWP level < resource set level < resource group level < resource level, where < means less.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7,

in case that the transmission beam of the first resource is updated based on the second beam update information, the method further comprises:

receiving third signaling comprising third beam update information for the plurality of resources;

based on a preset condition and the second signaling, not updating the transmission beam of the first resource.

9. The method according to any of claims 1 to 8, wherein the first signaling or the second signaling is any of:

medium access control-control element MAC-CE signaling, a combination of MAC-CE signaling and radio resource control RRC signaling, or RRC signaling.

10. A communications apparatus, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit, wherein,

the communication unit is configured to: receiving first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource;

the communication unit is further configured to: receiving second signaling, where the second signaling includes information of one or more available beams of a second resource, a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of the available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of the available beams of the second resource;

the communication unit is further configured to: receiving third signaling, the third signaling comprising beam update information for the first resource;

the processing unit is configured to: updating the transmission beam of the second resource based on the beam update information of the first resource.

11. The communication device of claim 10,

12. The communication device of claim 11,

13. A communications apparatus, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit, wherein,

the processing unit is configured to: generating first signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a first resource;

the processing unit is further to: generating second signaling comprising information of one or more available beams of a second resource;

the communication unit is configured to: transmitting the first signaling and the second signaling, wherein a transmission beam of the first resource is the same as a transmission beam of the second resource, the transmission beam of the first resource is a part or all of available beams of the first resource, and the transmission beam of the second resource is a part or all of available beams of the second resource;

the processing unit is further to: generating a third signaling;

the communication unit is further configured to: and transmitting the third signaling, wherein the third signaling comprises beam update information of the first resource and indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating that a transmission beam of the second resource is updated based on the beam update information of the first resource.

14. The communication device of claim 13,

15. A communications apparatus, comprising: a communication unit and a processing unit, wherein,

the communication unit is configured to: receiving first signaling comprising first beam update information for a plurality of resources, the plurality of resources comprising a first resource;

the communication unit is further configured to: receiving second signaling comprising second beam update information for the first resource;

the processing unit is configured to:

16. The communications apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the processing unit is specifically configured to:

determining to update a generated beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information based on a priority rule, wherein the priority rule comprises:

17. The communication device according to claim 15 or 16,

in case the processing unit updates the transmission beam of the first resource based on the second beam update information,

the communication unit is further configured to: receiving third signaling comprising third beam update information for the plurality of resources;

the processing unit does not update the transmission beam of the first resource based on a preset condition and the second signaling.

18. The communications apparatus according to any one of claims 10 to 17, wherein the first signaling or the second signaling is any one of:

19. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a memory comprising computer instructions;

a processor for executing computer instructions stored in the memory and execution of the computer instructions causes the processor to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 9.

20. A computer storage medium, having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9.