CN114424619B

CN114424619B - Communication method, cell measurement method and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN114424619B
Application number: CN201980100706.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 郑黎丽; 耿婷婷; 吴烨丹; 张宏平
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-09-30
Filing date: 2019-09-30
Publication date: 2024-10-18
Anticipated expiration: 2039-09-30
Also published as: WO2021062599A1; CN114424619A

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and a communication device. The method may include: the terminal equipment receives time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on the satellite ephemeris of the satellite, and the terminal equipment can determine the information such as the running track of the satellite according to the satellite ephemeris; the terminal equipment can determine the frequency point information to be measured currently according to a certain moment, such as the current moment, and the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point, and can also determine the frequency point information to be measured when the terminal equipment reselects to other cells. By the method, signaling overhead caused by the fact that the terminal equipment requests the system message for many times can be reduced, and power saving of the terminal equipment is facilitated.

Description

Communication method, cell measurement method and communication device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and in particular, to a communication method, a cell measurement method, and a communication device.

Background

Terrestrial communication systems cannot achieve true "seamless coverage. For example, in rural areas with a low population density, there is often insufficient cellular network, and for example, in the offshore or aeronautical fields, communication is more unavailable via land networks.

Due to the ubiquitous and direct user-oriented characteristics of satellite communication, satellite communication technology has rapidly developed in the fields of satellite television live broadcast service, mobile satellite service, internet access, private network, military communication and the like. Thus, in the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) protocol discussion about the fifth generation (5th generation,5G) system, satellites will be the new way of access.

In satellite communications, then, in some scenarios, such as cell selection or reselection, how to determine a cell is a problem to be solved.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method, a cell measurement method and a communication device, which are used for determining a cell by utilizing the characteristics of satellite communication in satellite communication and further reducing signaling overhead caused by repeated request of terminal equipment for broadcasting cell information.

In a first aspect, a method of communication is provided. The method may be performed by the terminal device or may be performed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in the present application.

The method may include: receiving time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of a satellite; and determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the first moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

Optionally, the terminal device is in an idle state or an inactive state.

Optionally, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point may include time information corresponding to one frequency point or a plurality of frequency points.

Optionally, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point may be included in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message (e.g., an RRC release (release) message received when the terminal device enters an idle state or an inactive state from a connected state) or a broadcast message.

Alternatively, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point may be time information of the terminal device for measuring the at least one frequency point. For example, the terminal device measures time information of each frequency point. Or the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point can be understood as neighbor cell information required by cell reselection acquired by the terminal equipment in the serving cell, including not only neighbor cells required to be measured by the current serving cell of the terminal equipment, but also neighbor cell information required to be measured after the terminal equipment selects other cells as serving cells.

Optionally, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point is valid in a specific area (AREA SPECIFIC). That is, each cell in the area may broadcast time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

Alternatively, the frequency point corresponding to the satellite may represent a frequency point on the satellite ephemeris of the satellite, or a frequency point distributed or deployed in the satellite network, or a frequency point distributed or deployed under the satellite.

Optionally, the terminal device determines at least one frequency point, which may be a frequency point for measurement. That is, the terminal device determines at least one frequency point to be measured according to the first time and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

Alternatively, the first time may be any time, for example, the first time may be the current time.

Based on the technical scheme, the fact that the satellite orbit has a certain rule is considered, and the frequency point distribution on the satellite ephemeris also has a certain rule is considered, so that at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite can be determined by utilizing the characteristics of satellite communication. Determining a frequency point may also be understood as determining a cell under the frequency point. For example, the terminal device may determine one or more cells based on the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point. According to the scheme, when the terminal equipment determines the cell, for example, the cell for measurement is determined, the network equipment does not need to be required to request the broadcast cell information every time, signaling cost caused by repeated request of the broadcast cell information can be further saved, and the terminal equipment can be helped to save electricity.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes: receiving the satellite ephemeris, wherein the satellite ephemeris is used for indicating the information of the satellite orbit; the determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the first time and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: and determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the satellite ephemeris, the first moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

Optionally, the terminal device may calculate the satellite's trajectory and time information, etc., based on the satellite ephemeris (EPHEMERIS INFORMATION).

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementation manners of the first aspect, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: a time period corresponding to each frequency point in the at least one frequency point, or a time period corresponding to each group of frequency points in the N groups of frequency points; the at least one frequency point comprises the N groups of frequency points, the N groups of frequency points comprise at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Optionally, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: and a time period corresponding to each frequency point in the at least one frequency point. For example, the terminal device may determine a time period for measuring each frequency point according to the time information corresponding to each frequency point. For example, the terminal device determines the frequency point to be measured at the current time according to the current time and one or at least one frequency point corresponding to the time period of the current time.

Optionally, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: and the time period corresponding to each group of frequency points in the N groups of frequency points. For example, the terminal device may determine, according to the time information corresponding to each group of frequency points, a time for measuring each group of frequency points. For example, the terminal device determines the frequency point to be measured at the current time according to the current time and one or more groups of frequency points corresponding to the time period of the current time.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementation manners of the first aspect, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: and measuring the time information of each frequency point in the at least one frequency point.

Alternatively, at different times, the serving cell or the camping cell frequency point of the terminal device may be different. The information of the time of each frequency point in at least one frequency point is also understood as that the frequency point information acquired by the terminal equipment not only includes neighbor cell information to be measured in the current serving cell, but also includes neighbor cell information to be measured when the terminal equipment reselects to other cells.

Based on the technical scheme, the terminal equipment not only packages the neighbor cell required to be measured in the service cell, but also packages the neighbor cell required to be measured after the terminal equipment reselects to another cell. Therefore, based on the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point and the first time (such as the current time), the terminal device can determine the frequency points to be measured at different times. In this way, through the broadcast message of the serving cell (or the resident cell), the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point required for cell reselection can be obtained, and further, the signaling overhead caused by the fact that the terminal equipment requests the system message for many times can be reduced, so that the power saving of the terminal equipment is facilitated.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite includes: and the first time corresponds to one or at least one frequency point and/or M groups of frequency points corresponding to M time periods after the first time, wherein each time period in the M time periods corresponds to one group of frequency points, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Based on the technical scheme, the neighbor cell information required by the cell reselection acquired by the terminal equipment in the service cell not only comprises neighbor cells required to be measured by the terminal equipment in the current service cell, but also comprises neighbor cell information required to be measured when the service cell of the terminal equipment is other cells.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementation manners of the first aspect, the method further includes: measuring the frequency point corresponding to the first moment; and/or measuring the frequency point corresponding to each time period in each time period of the M time periods.

Optionally, the frequency point corresponding to each time period is measured in each time period, which can be understood as that when the serving cell of the terminal device is a different cell, the measured neighbor cell required by the terminal device in the cell is measured.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the M time periods include a first time period and a second time period, the first time period being located before the second time period; the frequency point corresponding to the second time period comprises: and the frequency points with association relation with all or part of the frequency points corresponding to the first time period.

The frequency points with the association relation can be expressed, namely, along with the running of the satellite, the frequency points possibly included in the running track of the terminal equipment.

For example, assuming a first period of time, the frequency points on the running track of the terminal device may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 7, and frequency bin 3.

In an example, in a case where the frequency points corresponding to the second time period include frequency points having an association relationship with all frequency points corresponding to the first time period, the frequency points corresponding to the second time period may include: a bin associated with bin 1, a bin associated with bin 7, and a bin associated with bin 3.

In still another example, in a case where the frequency point corresponding to the second period includes a frequency point having an association relationship with a part of the frequency points corresponding to the first period, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include any one or two of the following: a bin associated with bin 1, a bin associated with bin 7, a bin associated with bin 3.

When the service cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 1, the frequency point possibly included in the running track of the terminal device along with the running of the satellite. When the frequency point associated with the frequency point 7, that is, the serving cell of the terminal equipment is the cell of the frequency point 7, along with the running of the satellite, the frequency point possibly included in the running track of the terminal equipment. When the frequency point associated with the frequency point 3, that is, the serving cell of the terminal equipment is the cell of the frequency point 3, along with the running of the satellite, the frequency point possibly included in the running track of the terminal equipment.

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

The method may include: generating time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of a satellite, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point can be used for determining the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite; and sending the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

Based on the technical scheme, the fact that the satellite orbit has a certain rule is considered, and the frequency point distribution on the satellite ephemeris also has a certain rule is considered, so that at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite can be determined by utilizing the characteristics of satellite communication. The network device (e.g., the current serving cell) may notify the terminal device of time information corresponding to at least one frequency point, so that the terminal device may determine at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite based on the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point. According to the scheme, when the terminal equipment determines the cell, for example, the cell for measurement is determined, the terminal equipment does not need to request the network equipment for broadcasting the cell information every time, signaling overhead caused by the fact that the terminal equipment requests the broadcasting cell information for many times can be further reduced, and the terminal equipment can be helped to save electricity.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: and transmitting the satellite ephemeris, wherein the satellite ephemeris is used for indicating the information of the satellite orbit.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: a time period corresponding to each frequency point in the at least one frequency point, or a time period corresponding to each group of frequency points in the N groups of frequency points; the at least one frequency point comprises the N groups of frequency points, the N groups of frequency points comprise at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

With reference to the second aspect, in some implementations of the second aspect, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: and measuring the time information of each frequency point in the at least one frequency point.

Based on the technical scheme, the network equipment informs the terminal equipment of neighbor cell information, not only the neighbor cell which needs to be measured in the service cell by the terminal equipment, but also the neighbor cell which needs to be measured after the terminal equipment reselects to another cell. Therefore, based on the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point and the first time (such as the current time), the terminal device can determine the frequency points to be measured at different times. In this way, through the broadcast message of the serving cell (or the resident cell), the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point required for cell reselection can be obtained, and further, the signaling overhead caused by the fact that the terminal equipment requests the system message for many times can be reduced, so that the power saving of the terminal equipment is facilitated.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementation manners of the second aspect, the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite includes: and the first time corresponds to one or at least one frequency point and/or M groups of frequency points corresponding to M time periods after the first time, wherein each time period in the M time periods corresponds to one group of frequency points, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the M time periods include a first time period and a second time period, the first time period being located before the second time period; the frequency point corresponding to the second time period comprises: and the frequency points with association relation with all or part of the frequency points corresponding to the first time period.

In a third aspect, a method of cell measurement is provided. The method may be performed by the terminal device or may be performed by a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, which is not limited in the present application.

The method may include: measuring neighbor cells under the condition that the cell quality of the serving cell is smaller than a first threshold; reselecting the neighbor cell under the condition that the cell quality of the neighbor cell is larger than or equal to a second threshold or the cell quality difference is larger than or equal to a third threshold; the cell quality difference is a difference value between the cell quality of the adjacent cell and the cell quality of the service cell, and the service cell and the adjacent cell are satellite cells.

Optionally, the first threshold, the second threshold, and the third threshold may be predefined, such as predefined by a protocol or a network device, or may be configured by a network device, which is not limited.

Based on the above technical solution, in satellite communication, the terminal device can perform simple cell reselection. For example, the terminal device measures the neighbor cell when the quality of the serving cell measured by the terminal device is less than a certain threshold. As another example, as long as there is a suitable neighboring cell, the terminal device may reselect to the neighboring cell, e.g., the quality of the neighboring cell is higher than a certain threshold, e.g., the quality of the neighboring cell is higher than the quality of the serving cell by a certain threshold, etc. Unnecessary measurement can be further reduced, and power saving of the terminal equipment is facilitated.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the first threshold is equal to the second threshold.

That is, as long as there is a cell of higher quality than the serving cell, the terminal device can reselect to the cell.

In a fourth aspect, a communication apparatus is provided for performing the communication method provided in the first or third aspect. In particular, the communication apparatus may comprise means for performing the communication method provided in the first or third aspect. The communication device may be a terminal device, a chip or a circuit configured in the terminal device, or a device including the terminal device.

In a fifth aspect, a communication device is provided for performing the method provided in the second aspect above. In particular, the communication device may comprise means for performing the method provided by the second aspect. The communication means may be a network device, a chip or a circuit configured in the network device, or a device including the network device.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided that includes a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory and operable to execute instructions in the memory to implement the method of the first aspect or the third aspect as described above in any one of the possible implementations of the first aspect or the third aspect. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a memory. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is coupled with the communication interface, and the communication interface is used for inputting and/or outputting information. The information includes at least one of instructions and data.

In one implementation, the communication device is a terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal device, the communication interface may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface.

In another implementation, the communication device is a chip or a system-on-chip. When the communication device is a chip or a chip system, the communication interface may be an input/output interface, an interface circuit, an output circuit, an input circuit, a pin, or related circuits on the chip or the chip system. The processor may also be embodied as processing circuitry or logic circuitry.

In another implementation, the communication device is a chip or a system of chips configured in a terminal device.

Alternatively, the transceiver may be a transceiver circuit. Alternatively, the input/output interface may be an input/output circuit.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided that includes a processor. The processor is coupled to the memory and operable to execute instructions in the memory to implement the method of the second aspect and any one of the possible implementations of the second aspect. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a memory. Optionally, the communication device further comprises a communication interface, and the processor is coupled with the communication interface, and the communication interface is used for inputting and/or outputting information. The information includes at least one of instructions and data.

In one implementation, the communication apparatus is a network device. When the communication apparatus is a network device, the communication interface may be a transceiver, or an input/output interface.

In another implementation, the communication device is a chip or a system of chips configured in a network device.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a communication apparatus, causes the communication apparatus to implement the first or third aspect and the method in any possible implementation of the first or third aspect.

A ninth aspect provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a communication apparatus, causes the communication apparatus to implement the second aspect, and the method in any possible implementation of the second aspect.

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

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause a communication device to carry out the method provided by the second aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, a communication system is provided, comprising the aforementioned network device and a terminal device.

Drawings

Fig. 1 to 4 are schematic diagrams of satellite communications suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 5 and 6 are schematic diagrams of IAB systems suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture suitable for use with embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a communication method suitable for use in an embodiment of the application.

Fig. 9 and 10 are schematic diagrams of frequency bin distribution suitable for use in embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of a communication method applicable to a further embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 12 is a schematic diagram of a method of cell measurement applicable to another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 13 is a schematic diagram of a serving cell and neighbor cell adapted for use in another embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 14 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 15 is a schematic block diagram of another communication apparatus provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 16 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 17 is a schematic block diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical scheme of the 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 application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application.

For a better understanding of the embodiments of the present application, the following describes a communication system to which the embodiments of the present application are applicable, and the concepts involved.

The technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may be applied to various communication systems, for example, a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, a fifth generation mobile communication (the 5th Generation,5G) system, a machine-to-machine communication (machine to machine, M2M) system, a non-terrestrial communication (non-TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, NTN) system, or other communication systems evolving in the future. Among them, the wireless air interface technology of 5G is called New Radio (NR), and the 5G system may also be called NR system. NTN systems may also be referred to as satellite communication systems. In addition, the non-terrestrial communication system may also include an high altitude platform (high altitude platform station, HAPS) communication system.

Terrestrial communication systems sometimes fail to achieve true "seamless coverage. For example, there is often insufficient cellular network in rural areas with a low population density. As another example, in the offshore and aeronautical fields, communication is not possible over a ground network. Due to the ubiquitous and direct user-oriented characteristics of satellite communication, satellite communication technology has rapidly developed in the fields of satellite television live broadcast service, mobile satellite service, internet access, private network, military communication and the like.

Satellite systems can be classified as Low Earth Orbit (LEO), medium orbit (medium earth orbit, MEO), high orbit (geostationary earth orbit, GEO) (alternatively referred to as stationary orbit) satellites according to satellite altitude, i.e., satellite orbit altitude.

In one possible manner, the satellite altitude of the LEO is about: 300 kilometers (km) -1500km. The satellite altitude of MEOs is between LEO and GEO. GEO, the satellite movement speed is the same as the earth rotation speed, and keeps a static state relative to the ground; the satellite altitude is about 35768km. The embodiment of the application does not limit the division modes of GEO, MEO and LEO.

Fig. 1-4 show several schematic architecture diagrams suitable for satellite communications in accordance with embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 1 shows a radio access network (radio access network, RAN) architecture (RAN architecture WITH TRANSPARENT SATELLITE) with transparent satellites.

As shown in fig. 1, in this scenario, it may include: user Equipment (UE), satellite, NTN gateway (gateway), base station (e.g. NR base station (next generation node B, gNB)), 5G Core Network (CN), data network (datanetwork).

The data network may be a network for providing transmission data. Such as a network of operator services, internet network, third party service network, etc.

The UE may be various mobile terminals, such as a mobile satellite phone, or various fixed terminals, such as a communication ground station.

The terminal may be a wireless terminal or a wired terminal. A wireless terminal may be a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with wireless connectivity, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. The wireless terminal may communicate with one or more core networks via the RAN. The wireless terminals may be mobile terminals such as mobile telephones (or "cellular" telephones) and computers with mobile terminals, which may be, for example, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-built-in or car-mounted mobile devices which exchange voice and/or data with radio access networks. Such as personal communication services (personal communication service, PCS) phones, cordless phones, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phones, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) stations, personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), etc. A wireless terminal may also be called a system, subscriber Unit (SU), subscriber station (subscriber station, SS), mobile station (MB), mobile station (Mobile), remote Station (RS), access Point (AP), remote Terminal (RT), access terminal (ACCESS TERMINAL, AT), user Terminal (UT), user Agent (UA), terminal device (UD). Terminal devices represented by satellite phones, vehicle-mounted satellite systems, can communicate directly with satellites. Fixed terminals, represented by ground communication stations, need to be relayed by the ground station before they can communicate with satellites. The terminal equipment sets and acquires the communication state through installing the wireless receiving and transmitting antenna, and the communication is completed.

The satellites may be composed of stationary orbit satellites (GEO) or non-stationary orbit (none-geostationary earth orbit, ngao) satellites (such as LEO or MEO), or may be composed of a plurality of satellite networks composed of both.

In the transmission scenario shown in fig. 1, the satellite is mainly a relay (L1 relay) as layer 1 (layer 1, L1), and can regenerate physical layer signals, which are not visible to higher layers. The roles of satellites may include, but are not limited to: radio frequency filtering (radio frequency filtering), variable frequency amplification (frequency conversion and amplification). In fig. 1, a satellite may transmit downlink data to a terminal device.

The satellite and NTN gateway may act as a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU). The satellite and the NTN gateway may communicate via a Uu interface (e.g., an NR Uu interface). The gNB and the core network may communicate over an NG interface. Communication between the core network and the data network may be through an N6 interface.

In fig. 2, the regenerated satellite (REGENERATIVE SATELLITE) has no inter-satellite link (inter-SATELLITE LINK, ISL) (REGENERATIVE SATELLITE without ISL).

As shown in fig. 2, in this scenario, it may include: UE, satellite, NTN gateway, 5G core network, data network.

For the introduction of each network element, reference may be made to the description in fig. 1, and no further description is given here.

In satellite communication systems, satellites may also be referred to as satellite base stations. In the scenario shown in fig. 2, the satellite may act as a gNB. When the satellite is used as a gNB, the satellite functions similarly to a common gNB. For example, a satellite may process a payload (payload) as the gNB.

The satellite and NTN gateway may communicate via an NG interface over a satellite radio interface (SATELLITE RADIO INTERFACE, SRI). The satellite and the core network may communicate via an NG interface. Communication between the core network and the data network may be through an N6 interface.

In fig. 2, the broken line refers to a communication signal between a satellite and a terminal. In fig. 2, a satellite base station may transmit downlink data to a terminal device. The downlink data can be transmitted to the terminal equipment after channel coding, modulation and mapping. The terminal device may also transmit uplink data to the satellite base station. The uplink data can also be transmitted to the satellite base station after channel coding, modulation and mapping.

In fig. 2, the solid lines refer to communication signals between the satellites and the equipment of the ground segment, and communication signals between the network elements of the ground segment.

In fig. 3, the regenerating satellite has ISL.

As shown in fig. 3, in this scenario, it may include: UE, satellite, NTN gateway, 5G core network, data network.

In the scenario shown in fig. 3, the satellite may act as a gNB. When the satellite is used as a gNB, the satellite functions similarly to a common gNB. For example, a satellite may process a payload (payload) as the gNB.

In the scenario shown in fig. 2 and 3, the satellite may be referred to as a gNB. The difference is that there is no ISL in the scenario shown in fig. 2, and that there is an ISL in the scenario shown in fig. 3.

The satellite and satellite may communicate via an Xn interface over the ISL. The satellite and NTN gateway may communicate via an NG interface over SRI. The satellite and the core network may communicate via an NG interface. Communication between the core network and the data network may be through an N6 interface.

In fig. 3, the broken line refers to a communication signal between a satellite and a terminal. In fig. 3, a satellite base station may transmit downlink data to a terminal device. The downlink data can be transmitted to the terminal equipment after channel coding, modulation and mapping. The terminal device may also transmit uplink data to the satellite base station. The uplink data can also be transmitted to the satellite base station after channel coding, modulation and mapping.

In fig. 3, the solid lines refer to communication signals between the satellites and the devices of the ground segment, as well as communication signals between the network elements of the ground segment, and between the satellites.

Fig. 4 shows an NG-RAN architecture (NG-RAN WITH A REGENERATIVE SATELLITE based on the gNB-DU) based on the gNB-DU regenerative satellite.

As shown in fig. 4, in this scenario, it may include: UE, satellite, NTN gateway, centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) (e.g., gNB-CU), 5G core network, data network.

In the scenario shown in fig. 4, the satellite may be a Distributed Unit (DU) (e.g., a gNB-DU). When the satellite is used as a gNB-DU, the satellite functions similarly to a common Distributed Unit (DU).

The satellite and NTN gateway may communicate via an F1 interface over SRI. Communication between the satellite and the gNB-CU (i.e., between the gNB-DU and the gNB-CU) may be through the F1 interface. Communication between the core network and the data network may be through an N6 interface.

In fig. 4, the broken line refers to a communication signal between a satellite and a terminal. In fig. 4, a satellite base station may transmit downlink data to a terminal device. The downlink data can be transmitted to the terminal equipment after channel coding, modulation and mapping. The terminal device may also transmit uplink data to the satellite base station. The uplink data can also be transmitted to the satellite base station after channel coding, modulation and mapping.

In fig. 4, the solid lines refer to communication signals between the satellites and the equipment of the ground segment, and communication signals between the network elements of the ground segment.

It should be understood that fig. 1 through 4 are merely exemplary illustrations, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, a greater number of terminal devices may be included in fig. 1-4. As another example, more NTN gateways may be included in fig. 1-4.

It should also be appreciated that four scenarios are described above by way of example in connection with fig. 1-4, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, the satellite may also act as an access backhaul Integrated (IAB) node.

The IAB node is configured to provide a wireless backhaul (backhaul) service to a node (e.g., a terminal) of a wireless access wireless backhaul node. The wireless backhaul service refers to data and/or signaling backhaul services provided through a wireless backhaul link. The IAB node is a specific name of the relay node, and is not limited to the configuration of the scheme of the present application, and may be one of the base station or the terminal device having a forwarding function, or may be an independent device. In a network including an IAB node (for example, an IAB network may be abbreviated as an IAB network), the IAB node may provide a radio access service for a terminal and may be connected to a donor base station (donor gNB) through a radio backhaul link to transmit service data of a user.

The IAB node may also be, for example, a customer premises device (customer premises equipment, CPE), a home gateway (RESIDENTIAL GATEWAY, RG), or the like. In this case, the method provided by the embodiment of the application can also be applied to a home connection (home access) scene.

From the above, the architecture of satellite communication can be generally divided into the following two main categories.

The first is the transmission, namely the satellite is used as a relay, and radio frequency filtering, amplification and the like can be performed to regenerate the signal.

And the second is that the satellite can do gNB, DU, relay. In the architecture, when the satellite does relay, the satellite does not only relay, but also has a signal processing function, similar to IAB.

Fig. 5 and 6 show schematic diagrams of IAB systems suitable for use in embodiments of the application.

IAB technology refers to that both an access Link (ACCESS LINK) and a backhaul Link (backhaul Link) adopt a wireless transmission scheme, so as to avoid optical fiber deployment.

In an IAB network, a relay node (relav node, RN), or an IAB node (IAB node), may provide radio access services for terminal devices, and traffic data of the terminal devices may be transmitted by one or more IAB nodes via a radio backhaul link to a host node (IAB donor), or a host base station (donor gnob, dgNB).

As shown in fig. 5, an IAB system includes at least one base station 500, and one or more terminal devices 501 served by the base station 500, one or more relay nodes (i.e., IAB nodes) 510, and one or more terminal devices 511 served by the IAB nodes 510. The IAB node 510 is connected to the base station 500 by a wireless backhaul link 513. In general, the base station 500 is referred to as a host base station. Alternatively, the host base station is also referred to herein as a host (donor) node or an IAB host (IAB donor). In addition, the IAB system may include one or more intermediate IAB nodes. For example, IAB node 520 and IAB node 530.

A base station (e.g., access point) may refer to a device in an access network that communicates over the air-interface, through one or more sectors, with wireless terminals. The base station device may also coordinate attribute management for the air interface. For example, the base station device may be an evolved base station in LTE or a base station or access point in NR, and the present application is not limited. It should be understood that, the base station in the embodiment of the present application may be not only base station equipment, but also relay equipment, or other network element equipment with a base station function.

The host base station may be an access network element with a complete base station function, or may be in a form of CU and DU separated, that is, the host node is composed of a centralized unit of the host base station and a distributed unit of the host base station. Herein, the centralized unit of the host node is also referred to as an IAB donor CU (may also be referred to as a donor CU, or directly referred to as a CU). The distributed units of the host node are also called IAB donor DUs (or donor DUs). It is also possible that the donor CU is in a form in which the Control Plane (CP) (referred to herein as CU-CP) and the User Plane (UP) (referred to herein as CU-UP) are separate. For example, a CU may consist of one CU-CP and one or more CU-UPs.

In 5G, considering that the coverage area of the high frequency band is small, in order to ensure the coverage performance of the network, multi-hop networking may be adopted in the IAB network. Considering the requirements of reliability of traffic transmission, the IAB node may be enabled to support dual connectivity (dual connectivity, DC) or multiple connectivity (multi-connectivity) to cope with anomalies that may occur in the backhaul link. For example, the interruption or blocking (blockage) of the link, load fluctuation and other anomalies, improve the reliability guarantee of the transmission. Therefore, the IAB network supports multi-hop networking and may also support multi-connection networking.

And (3) link: a path between two adjacent nodes in a path may be represented.

Access link: may represent a link between a terminal device and a base station, or between a terminal device and an IAB node, or between a terminal device and a hosting DU. Or the access link comprises a radio link used when a certain IAB node is in the role of a common terminal device to communicate with its parent node. When the IAB node takes the role of common terminal equipment, no backhaul service is provided for any child node. The access links include an uplink access link and a downlink access link. In the present application, the access link of the terminal device is a wireless link, so the access link may also be referred to as a wireless access link.

Backhaul link: the link between the IAB node and the parent node may be represented when the IAB node is acting as a wireless backhaul node. When the IAB node is used as the wireless backhaul node, the wireless backhaul service is provided for the child node. The backhaul links include an uplink backhaul link and a downlink backhaul link. In the present application, the backhaul link between the IAB node and the parent node is a wireless link, so the backhaul link may also be referred to as a wireless backhaul link.

Parent and child nodes: each IAB node treats the neighboring nodes for which wireless access service and/or wireless backhaul service are provided as parent nodes (parent nodes). Accordingly, each IAB node may be considered a child node (child node) of its parent node.

Alternatively, a child node may also be referred to as a lower node, and a parent node may also be referred to as an upper node.

As shown in fig. 6, the parent node of IAB node 1 is IAB donor, IAB node 1 is a parent node of IAB node 2 and IAB node 3, IAB node 2 and IAB node 3 are both parent nodes of IAB node4, and the parent node of IAB node 5 is IAB node 3. The uplink data packet of the UE may be transmitted to the host site IAB node via one or more IAB nodes, and then sent by the IAB node to the mobile gateway device (e.g., the user plane function UPF in the 5G core network). And the downlink data packet of the UE is received by the IAB node from the mobile gateway equipment and then is sent to the UE through the IAB node. Wherein there are two available paths for data transmission between UE1 and the host base station. Path 1: terminal 1→iab node4→iab node 3→iab node 1→host node, terminal 1→iab node4→iab node 2→iab node 1→host node. The transmission of the data packet between the terminal 2 and the host node has three available paths: terminal 2→iab node4→iab node 3→iab node 1→a host node, terminal 2→iab node4→iab node 2→iab node 1→a host node, and terminal 2→iab node 5→iab IAB node 2→iab node 1→a host node.

It should be understood that the IAB networking scenario shown in fig. 6 is merely exemplary, and that there are many other possibilities in the multi-hop and multi-connection combined IAB scenario, for example, the IAB donor in fig. 6 and the IAB node under another IAB donor form a dual connection to serve a terminal device, etc., which are not listed here.

The network device involved in the embodiment of the application includes but is not limited to: an evolved node B (evolved node base, eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (home evolved NodeB, or home node B, HNB), a baseband Unit (BBU), an evolved LTE (eete) base station, a base station in the RAN (e.g., NR base station (next generation node B, gNB)), and the like.

The base station may be a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) split architecture. The RAN may be connected to a core network (e.g., a core network of LTE or a core network of 5G). CU and DU can be understood as a division of the base station from a logical function perspective. The CUs and DUs may be physically separate or may be deployed together.

As shown in fig. 7, a plurality of DUs may share one CU. One DU may also connect a plurality of CUs (not shown in the figure). The CU and the DU may be connected by an interface, for example, an F1 interface.

CUs and DUs may be partitioned according to the protocol layers of the wireless network.

For example, one possible division is: the CU is used to perform functions of a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) layer, a service data adaptation protocol (SERVICE DATA adaptation protocol, SDAP) layer, and a packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer. The DU is used to perform functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, a physical (physical) layer, and the like.

It will be appreciated that the partitioning of CU and DU processing functions in accordance with such protocol layers is merely exemplary, and may be partitioned in other ways, and embodiments of the present application are not limited in this respect. For example, a CU or DU may be divided into functions with more protocol layers. As another example, a CU or DU may also be divided into partial processing functions with protocol layers. In one design, a part of functions of the RLC layer and functions of protocol layers above the RLC layer are set at CU, and the remaining functions of the RLC layer and functions of protocol layers below the RLC layer are set at DU. In another design, the functionality of a CU or DU may also be partitioned by traffic type or other system requirements. For example, according to the time delay division, the function of processing time which needs to meet the time delay requirement is set in the DU, and the function which does not need to meet the time delay requirement is set in the CU. In another design, a CU may also have one or more functions of the core network. One or more CUs may be centrally located, as well as separately located. For example, the CUs can be arranged on the network side to facilitate centralized management. The DU may have multiple radio functions, or the radio functions may be set remotely.

The functionality of a CU may be implemented by one entity or by a different entity. For example, the functionality of the CU may be further split, e.g. separating the Control Plane (CP) and the User Plane (UP), i.e. the control plane (CU-CP) and the CU user plane (CU-UP) of the CU. For example, CU-CP and CU-UP may be implemented by different functional entities, which may be coupled to DUs, together performing the functions of the base station.

Several possible scenarios suitable for embodiments of the present application are exemplarily shown above in connection with fig. 1-7, it being understood that the present application is not limited thereto.

As previously mentioned, in the third generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project,3GPP) protocol discussion about 5G systems, satellites will be the new means of access. In satellite communications, cell selection/reselection is based on the cell selection/reselection mechanism of the terrestrial network (TERRESTRIAL NETWORK, TN).

For ease of understanding, a brief description of cell selection/reselection for terrestrial networks will first be presented.

1. Cell selection

When the terminal device is powered on or radio link failure occurs, the terminal device will perform a cell search procedure and select a suitable cell residence as soon as possible, which is called "cell selection".

One possible cell selection procedure is exemplified as follows:

The terminal device can read the system information of the cell in the cell searching process, acquire parameters such as Qrxlevmeas, qrxlevmin, qrxlevminoffset and the like, evaluate whether the cell is a proper cell according to the S criterion, and once the proper cell is found, namely, the cell meeting the S criterion, the cell selecting process is completed. If the cell is not a suitable cell, the terminal device continues searching until a suitable cell is found and camping.

S criterion formula: s _rxlev > 0, i.e. if the S value of the cell is greater than 0, it is indicated that the cell is a suitable cell, i.e. a suitable cell for camping, and the calculation formula of S _rxlev is:

S_rxlev＝Q_rxlevmeas-(Q_rxlevmin-Q_{rxlevminoffset})-P_compensation

wherein:

S _rxlev: the calculated cell selection receiving level value;

Q _rxlevmeas: the terminal device measures a received signal strength value, which is a measured reference signal received power (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVING power, RSRP);

q _rxlevmin: minimum received signal strength value required by the cell;

P _compensation: (PEMAX PUMAX) or 0, wherein PEMAX is the maximum allowed transmit power set by the system when the terminal device accesses the cell; PUMAX refers to the maximum output power specified according to the terminal device class.

Q _{rxlevminoffset}: this parameter is only valid when the terminal device normally resides in a virtual private mobile network (virtual private mobile network, VPMN), periodically searches for a high priority public land mobile network (public land mobile network, PLMN) for cell selection evaluation, and biases Q _rxlevmin to a certain extent.

It should be noted that, due to evolution of the communication protocol version, the S criterion formula and the calculation formula of S _rxlev may change for some reasons, and the formulas given herein are only examples and do not limit the formulas. The embodiment of the application does not limit the parameters and the criteria of cell selection.

2. Cell reselection

When a terminal device is camping on a cell, the terminal device may need to be changed to another higher priority or better signal cell camping, which is a cell reselection procedure, as the terminal device moves. Cell selection is the process of finding a suitable cell as soon as possible, and cell reselection is the process of selecting a more suitable cell. For power saving of the terminal device, the protocol specifies measurement criteria:

for the frequency layer or system with higher priority than the resident cell, the terminal equipment always measures the frequency layer or system;

If the cell is camping S _rxlev＜＝S_intrasearch, the terminal equipment starts the measurement of the same-frequency cell, wherein S _intrasearch is the same-frequency measurement threshold value;

If S _rxlev＜＝S_{nonintrasearch} or S _{nonintrasearch} of the resident cell is not configured, the terminal equipment starts measurement of the same priority frequency or low priority frequency and system;

after the measurement, the terminal device may determine whether to perform cell reselection to a new cell, where the reselection criteria are as follows:

High priority frequency or reselection criteria for the system: s _rxlev＞T_hreshx-high of the target frequency cell, and lasting for a certain time, wherein T _hreshx-high is a threshold value when the current service carrier frequency is reselected to a frequency with high priority;

low priority frequency or reselection criteria for the system: s _rxlev＜T_{hreshserving-low} of camping on the cell for a certain period of time, where T _hreshx-low refers to a threshold value when reselecting from the current serving carrier frequency to a frequency with a low priority;

Reselection criteria for the same priority frequency or system: cell reselection to same priority frequency the cell is based on the Ranking (Ranking) criteria of same frequency cell reselection. The same-frequency cell reselection Ranking standard is defined as follows, wherein R _s is a Ranking value of a current resident cell, and R _n is a Ranking value of a neighbor cell:

R_s＝Q_{meas_s}+Q_hyst-Q_{offset_temp},R_n＝Q_{meas_s}-Q_offset-Q_{offset_temp}

wherein:

q _hyst: hysteresis value for preventing ping-pong reselection;

q _{meas_s}: the terminal equipment measures the received signal strength value of the resident cell;

Q _offset: for the same frequency, when Q _{offsets_n} is effective, the value is Q _{offsets_n}, otherwise, the value is 0; for different frequencies, when Q _{offsets_n} is effective, the value is Q _{offsets_n}+Q_{offsetfrequency}, otherwise, the value is Q _{offsetfrequency};

Q _{offset_temp}: the amount of deviation may be represented. The offset may be, for example, an offset that is broadcasted by the network and added to a cell when the terminal device fails to establish an RRC connection on that cell.

The terminal device performs ranking of ranking values on all cells meeting the cell selection S criteria, and instead of simply reselecting the cell with the best ranking, the terminal device reselects the cell with the highest ranking value in the ranking, which is within a certain range (such as x dB, where x is configurable) to the highest ranking value, to determine the cells as similar (similar) cells, and reselects the terminal device to the cell with the largest number of good beams.

In general, the configuration parameters needed above the currently camping cell and the neighboring cell are broadcasted in the system message of the currently camping cell, so that the terminal device can calculate parameters such as R _s and R _n. Q _meas is the received signal strength value of the cell measured by the terminal device. Up to N beams (beams) with signal strength above the threshold for each cell may be used to generate a cell quality, which is filtered by layer 3 as Q _meas. Wherein the threshold and N notify the terminal device in the broadcast message, N is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Where a beam above the threshold is considered a good beam.

It should be noted that, due to evolution of the communication protocol version, the calculation formulas of R _s and R _n may change for some reasons, and the formulas given herein are only examples and do not limit the formulas. The embodiment of the application does not limit the parameters and the criteria of cell reselection.

In satellite communications, cell selection/reselection uses the cell selection/reselection mechanism of the terrestrial network as a baseline, and some characteristics of satellite communications are not considered, which may cause waste of resources and increase energy consumption.

In view of this, the present application proposes a method for optimizing a cell selection/reselection mechanism in a satellite communication scenario, so as to effectively obtain a neighbor cell to be measured, save signaling overhead, and help a terminal device save power.

Various embodiments provided by the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 8 is a schematic interaction diagram of a communication method 800 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method 800 may include the following steps.

810, The terminal device receives time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of a satellite.

The satellite may be constituted by LEO. Alternatively, the satellite may be formed by GEO and LEO, that is, the terminal device may communicate with a satellite network formed by GEO and LEO; or the satellite may be formed by a plurality of satellite networks of LEO and MEO, that is, the terminal device may communicate with the satellite networks of LEO and MEO. This is not limited thereto.

The satellite trajectory and time information, etc., can be calculated based on the satellite ephemeris (EPHEMERIS INFORMATION).

The satellite ephemeris may be pre-stored, i.e. the terminal device needs to use the satellite ephemeris and may directly read the pre-stored or pre-acquired satellite ephemeris. Or the satellite ephemeris may be sent by the network device to the terminal device.

Optionally, the terminal device receives satellite ephemeris, which is information indicating the orbit of the satellite.

The satellite ephemeris of the satellites is fixed for a period of time and the direction of travel is also fixed, so that the terminal device can be informed of the satellite ephemeris. The terminal equipment can determine the information of satellite speed, moving direction, track and the like according to the satellite ephemeris.

In satellite communications, such as LEO scenarios, the movement speed of the satellite is fast and the movement speed of the terminal device has less impact than the satellite. The terminal device thus determines which neighbors to measure, the direction of movement of the satellites may be mainly considered, that is, the terminal device may selectively make neighbor measurements.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic diagram of a frequency bin distribution. The frequency bin distribution is assumed to be as shown in fig. 9.

The direction of travel of the satellite is from east to west as shown in fig. 9.

It is assumed that the terminal device is located in the cell under the frequency point 7, that is, the current serving cell of the terminal device is the cell under the frequency point 7. The inter-frequency point of the terminal equipment cell reselection comprises: frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5 and frequency point 6. It is assumed that the running direction of the terminal device is as shown in fig. 9.

Combining the distribution of each frequency point and the running direction of the satellite, the different frequencies on the running track of the terminal equipment may include: frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5.

Therefore, when the terminal device is in the cell under the frequency point 7, the terminal device may only measure the cell under the frequency point 3, the cell under the frequency point 4, and the cell under the frequency point 5.

It should be understood that the frequency bin distribution shown in fig. 9 is only an example, and the present application is not limited thereto.

For example, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point may be included in an RRC release (release) message (e.g., when the terminal device enters an idle state or a deactivated state from a connected state) or a broadcast message. That is, the network device (e.g., serving cell) may send the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point to the terminal device through an RRC release message or a broadcast message.

In the embodiment of the application, the service cell is a satellite cell. A satellite cell, i.e. a cell deployed in a satellite network, or in other words a cell located in a satellite communication system. For example, the satellite may be constituted by LEO. Alternatively, the satellite may be composed of a plurality of satellite networks composed of GEO and LEO, or LEO and MEO, which are not limited thereto.

The serving cell is a satellite cell, i.e. it means a communication between the terminal device and the satellite, or a communication of the terminal device accessing the satellite communication network.

Alternatively, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point may be time information of the terminal device for measuring the at least one frequency point. For example, the terminal device measures time information of each frequency point. Or it may be understood that the terminal device needs measured neighbor information at different serving cells.

The time information corresponding to at least one frequency point is described in detail below.

820, According to the first moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, the terminal device determines the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite.

The frequency point corresponding to the satellite may represent a frequency point on the satellite ephemeris of the satellite, or a frequency point distributed or deployed in the satellite network, or a frequency point distributed or deployed under the satellite. Hereinafter, for brevity, frequency points are used.

For example, the first time may be any time, such as the first time may be the current time. For example, according to the first time and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, the terminal device may determine the at least one frequency point to be measured at the first time.

Each frequency point may include one or more cells. Determining a frequency point is also understood to mean determining at least one cell under the frequency point. Measuring a frequency point, it is understood that at least one cell under the frequency point is measured.

For example, the terminal device may determine, according to the first time and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, a frequency point to be measured at the first time and/or a frequency point to be measured after the first time. Accordingly, the terminal device may measure the frequency point corresponding to the first time at the first time.

For example, the terminal device may determine, according to the current time and time information corresponding to at least one frequency point, a frequency point that needs to be measured at the current time. For another example, the terminal device may further determine, according to the current time and time information corresponding to at least one frequency point, a frequency point that needs to be measured after the current time.

It should be understood that the terminal device determines the frequency point to be measured at the current time, and does not limit that the terminal device must measure the frequency point only at the current time. The time for the terminal device to actually measure the frequency point may be in a period of time adjacent to the current time.

The time information may be a specific time period, or may be a specific time, or may be a start time and a duration, or may be an end time and a duration, for example. The following is an exemplary description taking a time period as an example.

The satellite orbit has a certain rule, and the frequency point distribution on the satellite ephemeris also has a certain rule, so that the frequency point can correspond to time.

As shown in fig. 9, assume that at a first time, the terminal device is in a cell under frequency point 7. Then, according to the satellite running direction and the distribution of the frequency points, it can be determined that the frequency point 3, the frequency point 4 and the frequency point 5 correspond to a certain time period after the first time. That is, in this period, the terminal device measures frequency bin 3, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5.

The lengths of the time periods after the first time corresponding to the frequency point 3, the frequency point 4, and the frequency point 5 may be determined according to a satellite operation speed, for example, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

For example, the correspondence between a frequency point and time may be understood as the correspondence between a frequency point and a time at which the terminal device measures the frequency point, or the correspondence between time and one or more frequency points. For example, bin 1 corresponds to a first time and bin 2 corresponds to a second time. The terminal device measures frequency bin 1 at a first time and frequency bin 2 at a second time.

The time information corresponding to at least one frequency point, or the time information of at least one frequency point, can be understood as neighbor cell information required by cell reselection acquired by the terminal equipment in the serving cell, and not only includes neighbor cells required to be measured by the terminal equipment in the serving cell, but also includes neighbor cells required to be measured by the terminal equipment after the terminal equipment reselects to another cell. Or the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point can be understood as neighbor cell information required by cell reselection acquired by the terminal equipment in the serving cell, including not only neighbor cells required to be measured by the terminal equipment at the current moment, but also neighbor cell information required to be measured by the terminal equipment after the current moment.

The network device (e.g., a serving cell of the terminal device) may notify the terminal device of time information corresponding to at least one frequency point, e.g., the network device may broadcast the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point. The time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point notified by the network device may be valid within a certain specific area (AREA SPECIFIC). That is, each cell in the area broadcasts time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point. When the terminal equipment moves out of the area, the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point can be acquired again from the broadcast message.

For a terminal device in an idle state or a deactivated state, time information corresponding to at least one frequency point required for cell reselection may be acquired from a serving cell (or, alternatively, a camping cell). For example, for a terminal device in an idle state or a deactivated state, time information corresponding to at least one frequency point required for cell reselection may be obtained through a broadcast message or RRC message of a serving cell (or, in other words, a camping cell).

Alternatively, the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point may be expressed in any one of the following forms.

Form 1, time information corresponding to at least one frequency point, comprising: and a time period corresponding to each frequency point in the at least one frequency point.

For example, the terminal device may determine the time of measuring each frequency point according to the time information corresponding to each frequency point.

For example, the terminal device determines the frequency point to be measured at the current time according to the current time and one or more frequency points corresponding to the time period of the current time.

It can be appreciated that the frequency points of the serving cells of the terminal device in different time periods may be different. For example, the terminal device determines the frequency point to be measured at the current time according to the current time and one or more frequency points corresponding to the time period of the current time, which can be understood as, and the terminal equipment determines the frequency points to be measured of the terminal equipment in the current service cell according to the current time and one or more frequency points corresponding to the time period of the current time.

The time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point in the form 2 comprises a time period corresponding to each group of frequency points in the N groups of frequency points.

The at least one frequency point comprises N groups of frequency points, the N groups of frequency points comprise at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

For example, the terminal device may determine, according to the time information corresponding to each group of frequency points, a time for measuring each group of frequency points.

For example, the terminal device determines the frequency point to be measured at the current time according to the current time and one or more groups of frequency points corresponding to the time period of the current time.

It can be appreciated that the frequency points of the serving cells of the terminal device in different time periods may be different. For example, the terminal device determines the frequency point to be measured at the current time according to the current time and one or more groups of frequency points corresponding to the time period of the current time. It may also be understood that the terminal device determines, according to the current time and one or more frequency points corresponding to the time period in which the current time is located, one or more groups of frequency points that need to be measured by the terminal device in the current serving cell.

It should be understood that the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point may be sent by the network device (e.g. the serving cell) to the terminal device, or may be predefined, e.g. predefined by the protocol or the network device. For example, the correspondence between the frequency point and the time may be pre-stored, and the terminal device may read the correspondence as required.

This is illustrated below in connection with fig. 10.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic diagram of a frequency bin distribution. The frequency bin distribution is assumed to be as shown in fig. 10. The direction of travel of the satellite is east-west as shown in fig. 10.

Assume that at the first moment, the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 2, and the terminal device requests neighbor cell information required by the broadcast cell reselection of the serving cell.

For example, the terminal device requests a system message (system information, SI) from the serving cell, which may be used to request a determination as to whether camping on the serving cell may continue or whether a reselection to another cell is required. The serving cell may send a response message to the terminal device, as may be contained in a broadcast message or an RRC message. Taking a broadcast message as an example, the broadcast message may include time information corresponding to at least one frequency point. The broadcast message may also include parameters for the current serving cell, such as parameters used in cell selection or cell reselection, for determining whether to select to camp on the serving cell. Or the broadcast message may also include neighbor information, such as parameters for a neighbor cell, such as parameters used in cell selection or cell reselection, for determining whether to reselect to a neighbor cell. The embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard as to parameters that may be used in cell selection or cell reselection procedures. The time information corresponding to at least one frequency point is described in detail below. The terminal device may request the broadcast message through a special request message, may request the broadcast message through a preamble transmission manner, or may request the corresponding broadcast message through a preamble and a time-frequency resource manner. The embodiment of the application does not limit the mode of requesting the neighbor cell information required by the broadcast cell reselection of the service cell by the terminal equipment.

Example 1, take form 1 as an example. The time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, that is, neighbor cell information broadcasted by the serving cell to the terminal device, may include: frequency point 1, frequency point 7, and frequency point 3 correspond to a first time period, frequency point 1, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5, and frequency point 6 correspond to a second time period, and frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, and frequency point 6 correspond to a third time period.

Wherein the start time of the first time period is located before the start time of the second time period, and the start time of the second time period is located before the start time of the third time period.

The first period, the second period, and the third period may be determined according to a satellite orbit, a movement speed, and the like, which are not limited.

The frequency point 1, the frequency point 7, and the frequency point 3 correspond to a first time period, that is, the frequency point 1, the frequency point 7, and the frequency point 3 are measured in the first time period. Frequency point 1, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5, and frequency point 6 correspond to a second time period, that is, the measurement of frequency point 1, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5, and frequency point 6 in the second time period is indicated. Frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, and frequency point 6 correspond to a third time period, that is, the measurement of frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, and frequency point 6 in the third time period is indicated.

It can be understood that, when the current time is in the first time period, the frequency point determined by the terminal device includes: frequency point 1, frequency point 7, and frequency point 3, that is, the frequency point that the terminal device needs to measure at the current moment includes: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 7, and frequency bin 3. When the current moment is in the second time period, the frequency point determined by the terminal equipment comprises: frequency point 1, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5, and frequency point 6, that is, the determining, by the terminal device, the frequency point to be measured at the current time includes: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 3, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6. When the current moment is in the third time period, the frequency point determined by the terminal equipment comprises: frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, and frequency point 6, that is, the determining, by the terminal device, the frequency point to be measured at the current time includes: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 2, frequency bin 3, and frequency bin 6.

For example, in example 1 above, when the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 2, as the satellite operates, in the first period, the frequency point on the operation track of the terminal device may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 7, and frequency bin 3. In this case, it can be considered that the bin 2 is associated with the bin 1, the bin 7, and the bin 3. That is, in the first period, the terminal device measures the frequency point associated with the frequency point 2: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 7, and frequency bin 3.

As another example, in example 1 described above, the serving cell of the terminal device may change from the cell of frequency point 2 to the cell of frequency point 7 as the satellite operates. When the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 7, along with the operation of the satellite, in the second period of time, the frequency point on the operation track of the terminal device may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 3, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6. In this case, it can be considered that the frequency bin 7 is associated with the frequency bin 1, the frequency bin 3, the frequency bin 4, the frequency bin 5, and the frequency bin 6. That is, in the second period, the terminal device measures frequency bin 1, frequency bin 3, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6.

As another example, in example 1 described above, the serving cell of the terminal device may change from the cell of frequency point 7 to the cell of frequency point 5 as the satellite operates. When the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 5, along with the operation of the satellite, in the second period of time, the frequency point on the operation track of the terminal device may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 2, frequency bin 3, and frequency bin 6. In this case, it can be considered that the bin 5 is associated with the bin 1, the bin 2, the bin 3, and the bin 6. That is, in the third period, the terminal device measures frequency bin 1, frequency bin 2, frequency bin 3, and frequency bin 6.

Example 2, take form 2 as an example. The time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, that is, neighbor cell information broadcasted by the serving cell to the terminal device, may include: the first set of frequency points corresponds to a first time period, the second set of frequency points corresponds to a second time period, and the third set of frequency points corresponds to a third time period.

Wherein, the first group of frequency points includes: frequency point 1, frequency point 7, frequency point 3. The second set of bins includes: frequency point 1, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5, frequency point 6. The third set of bins includes: frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, frequency point 6

The first set of frequency points corresponds to a first time period, that is, the first set of frequency points are measured in the first time period. The second set of frequency points corresponds to a second time period, i.e. it means that the second set of frequency points is measured during the second time period. The third set of frequency points corresponds to a third time period, which means that the third time period measures the third set of frequency points.

It can be understood that, when the current time is in the first time period, the frequency point determined by the terminal device includes: the first group of frequency points, that is, the frequency points to be measured at the current moment are determined by the terminal equipment, including: a first set of bins. When the current moment is in the second time period, the frequency point determined by the terminal equipment comprises: the second set of frequency points, that is, the frequency points that the terminal device needs to measure at the current moment, include: a second set of bins. When the current moment is in the third time period, the frequency point determined by the terminal equipment comprises: the third set of frequency points, that is, the frequency points that the terminal device needs to measure at the current moment, include: and a third set of frequency bins.

For example, in example 2 above, when the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 2, as the satellite operates, in the first period, the frequency point on the operation track of the terminal device may include: a first set of bins. In this case, frequency bin 2 may be considered to be associated with a first set of frequency bins. That is, in the first period, the terminal device measures the frequency point associated with the frequency point 2: a first set of bins.

As another example, in example 2 above, the serving cell of the terminal device may change from the cell of frequency point 2 to the cell of frequency point 7 as the satellite operates. When the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 7, along with the operation of the satellite, in the second period of time, the frequency point on the operation track of the terminal device may include: a second set of bins. In this case, the frequency bin 7 can be considered to be associated with the second group of frequency bins. That is, in the second period, the terminal device measures the frequency point associated with the frequency point 7: a second set of bins.

As another example, in example 2 above, the serving cell of the terminal device may change from the cell of frequency point 7 to the cell of frequency point 5 as the satellite operates. When the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 5, along with the operation of the satellite, in the second period of time, the frequency point on the operation track of the terminal device may include: and a third set of frequency bins. In this case, the frequency bin 5 can be considered to be associated with the third group of frequency bins. That is, in the third period, the terminal device measures the third set of frequency points.

It should be understood that the above example 1 or example 2 is merely an exemplary illustration, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto. For example, the neighbor cell information broadcast by the serving cell to the terminal device may include information of at least one layer of frequency points. Each layer of frequency points comprises one or more frequency points. Each layer of frequency points may default to a time period. For example, the time period corresponding to the first layer frequency point is located before the time period corresponding to the second layer frequency point, the time period corresponding to the second layer frequency point is located before the time period corresponding to the third layer frequency point, and so on.

In one example, it is assumed that the time period closest to the current time is a time period corresponding to the first layer frequency point. After receiving neighbor cell information broadcast by a serving cell, the terminal device measures first layer frequency points at a certain time (such as a first time period). After the serving cell of the terminal device changes, the second layer frequency point is measured at a certain time (such as a second time period), and so on.

As yet another example, the neighbor cell information broadcast by the serving cell to the terminal device may further include a time period corresponding to any layer of frequency points therein. After receiving the neighbor cell information broadcast by the serving cell, the terminal equipment determines the frequency point corresponding to the time period close to the current time according to the time interval between the current time and the time period corresponding to the received frequency point of any layer. For example, the neighbor cell information broadcast by the serving cell to the terminal device may further include a time period corresponding to the first layer frequency point. After receiving the neighbor cell information broadcasted by the serving cell, the terminal equipment determines that the current time is possibly located in the time period corresponding to the second layer frequency point according to the time interval between the current time and the time period corresponding to the first layer frequency point, so that the terminal equipment determines that the frequency point to be measured in the current time measurement is the second layer frequency point. After the serving cell of the terminal device changes, the terminal device measures the third layer frequency point in a certain time (such as a third time period), and so on.

As can be seen from the foregoing example 1 or example 2, according to the embodiment of the present application, when the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 2, the neighbor cell information acquired by the terminal device includes not only the neighbor cell information of the cell of the frequency point 2, but also the neighbor cell information of the cell of the frequency point 7 and the neighbor cell information of the cell of the frequency point 5. Thus, the terminal equipment can be prevented from requesting the system information (system information, SI) for a plurality of times, for example, when the service cell of the terminal equipment is the cell of the frequency point 2, the terminal equipment requests to broadcast the neighbor cell information of the cell of the frequency point 2; when the serving cell of the terminal equipment is the cell of the frequency point 7, the terminal equipment requests to broadcast the neighbor cell information of the cell of the frequency point 7. Further, signaling overhead can be saved.

It should be understood that, in the above example 1 or example 2, the frequency points corresponding to the second time period and the third time period included in the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point are merely exemplary illustrations, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

With respect to the frequency points corresponding to the second period and the third period described above, examples 1 and 2 show only one possible case. Other cases may also be included with respect to the frequency points corresponding to the second time period and the third time period.

Taking a frequency point corresponding to the second time period as an example.

When the serving cell of the terminal device is the cell of the frequency point 2, along with the operation of the satellite, in a first period of time, the frequency point on the operation track of the terminal device may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 7, and frequency bin 3. Then, the serving cell of the terminal device may change from the cell of the frequency point 2 to the cell of the frequency point 1, the serving cell of the terminal device may also change from the cell of the frequency point 2 to the cell of the frequency point 7, and the serving cell of the terminal device may also change from the cell of the frequency point 2 to the cell of the frequency point 3.

Thus, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include one or more of: a bin associated with bin 1, a bin associated with bin 7, a bin associated with bin 3.

When the frequency point associated with the frequency point 1, namely, the serving cell of the terminal equipment is the cell of the frequency point 1, along with the running of the satellite, the frequency point possibly included in the running track of the terminal equipment. Taking the frequency bin distribution shown in fig. 10 as an example, the frequency bins associated with the frequency bin 1 may include: frequency bin 6, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 4.

When the frequency point associated with the frequency point 7, that is, the serving cell of the terminal equipment is the cell of the frequency point 7, along with the running of the satellite, the frequency point possibly included in the running track of the terminal equipment. Taking the frequency point distribution shown in fig. 10 as an example, the frequency points associated with the frequency point 7 may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 3, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6.

When the frequency point associated with the frequency point 3, that is, the serving cell of the terminal equipment is the cell of the frequency point 3, along with the running of the satellite, the frequency point possibly included in the running track of the terminal equipment. Taking the frequency bin distribution shown in fig. 10 as an example, the frequency bins associated with the frequency bin 3 may include: frequency bin 7, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6.

Optionally, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: and all or part of the frequency points corresponding to the first time period have the frequency points with association relation. The following description will be given respectively.

In case 1, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: and the frequency points with association relation with all the frequency points corresponding to the first time period.

That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period includes: a bin associated with bin 1, a bin associated with bin 7, and a bin associated with bin 3. That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include: frequency point 6, frequency point 5, frequency point 4, frequency point 1, frequency point 3, and frequency point 7.

In case 2, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: and the frequency points with association relation with the partial frequency points corresponding to the first time period.

For example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: a bin associated with bin 1. That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include: frequency bin 6, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 4.

As another example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: a bin associated with bin 7. That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 3, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6.

As another example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: a bin associated with bin 3. That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include: frequency bin 7, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6.

As another example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: frequency bin associated with frequency bin 1 and frequency bin associated with frequency bin 7. That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include: frequency bin 1, frequency bin 3, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6.

For another example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period includes: frequency bin associated with frequency bin 1 and frequency bin associated with frequency bin 3. That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include: frequency bin 7, frequency bin 4, frequency bin 5, and frequency bin 6.

As another example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: a bin associated with bin 7 and a bin associated with bin 3. That is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period may include: frequency point 6, frequency point 5, frequency point 4, frequency point 1, frequency point 3, and frequency point 7.

As another example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include any one or more of the following: a partial frequency point associated with frequency point 1, a partial frequency point associated with frequency point 7, and a partial frequency point associated with frequency point 3.

As another example, the frequency point corresponding to the second time period may include: a frequency point associated with a frequency point corresponding to the first time period, where the frequency point is: the frequency point with the most frequency points is associated with the frequency points corresponding to the first time period. For example, the certain frequency point is frequency point 7, that is, the frequency point corresponding to the second period of time may include a frequency point associated with frequency point 7.

It should be understood that the foregoing is merely exemplary, and that any modifications that fall within the scope of the embodiments of the present application may fall within the two aspects.

It should be further understood that, the foregoing description is given by taking the frequency point corresponding to the second time period as an example, and the manner of determining the frequency point corresponding to the third time period is similar to the manner of determining the frequency point corresponding to the second time period, which is not repeated herein.

It should also be appreciated that the duration of the first, second, and third time periods may be determined according to the satellite running direction, movement speed, etc., which is not limited. For example, further time periods may be included.

Illustratively, at least one frequency bin, also understood as at least one layer of neighbors.

Taking frequency point 1, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5, and frequency point 6 as examples, corresponding to the second time period, and frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, and frequency point 6 as corresponding to the third time period. The first layer neighbor cell may include: a cell of the frequency point 1, a cell of the frequency point 7 and a cell of the frequency point 3. The second layer neighbor cell may include: a cell of frequency point 1, a cell of frequency point 3, a cell of frequency point 4, a cell of frequency point 5, and a cell of frequency point 6. The third neighbor cell may include: a cell of frequency point 1, a cell of frequency point 2, a cell of frequency point 3, and a cell of frequency point 6.

The time information of at least one frequency point can also be understood as the information of at least one layer of neighbor cells. For example, the information of at least one layer of neighbor cells may include:

The time information corresponding to the first layer neighbor cell is a first time period, namely, the first layer neighbor cell is measured in the first time period;

the time information corresponding to the second layer neighbor cell is a second time period, namely, the second layer neighbor cell is measured in the first time period;

and the time information corresponding to the third neighbor cell is a third time period, namely, the third neighbor cell is measured in the third time period.

In the embodiment of the present application, each cell of the terminal device under the satellite may broadcast time information (or information of at least one layer of neighbor cells) corresponding to at least one frequency point as described above. That is, for the terminal device in the idle state or the deactivated state, information of at least one layer of neighbor cells required for cell reselection is acquired. For example, the terminal device may acquire information of at least one layer of neighbor cells required for cell reselection through a broadcast message or RRC message of a serving cell (or, alternatively, a camping cell).

Based on the above technical solution, considering that in the satellite communication scenario, the satellite ephemeris, the moving speed, etc. are known to the satellite, therefore, the network device (such as the serving cell of the terminal device) may notify the terminal device of the time information (or the information of at least one layer of neighbor cells) corresponding to at least one frequency point, for example, the network device (such as the serving cell of the terminal device) may broadcast the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point. For the terminal equipment in the idle state or the deactivated state, time information corresponding to at least one frequency point required for cell reselection can be acquired. For example, the terminal device may obtain the time information corresponding to at least one frequency point required for cell reselection by reading a broadcast message or an RRC message of the serving cell. That is, the terminal device not only can obtain the information of the current neighboring cell, but also can obtain the information of the neighboring cell (i.e. the neighboring cell that the terminal device needs to measure in other service cells), further can also reduce signaling overhead caused by the fact that the terminal device requests the system message for many times, and helps the terminal device save electricity.

For ease of understanding, fig. 11 shows a specific flow. The method 1100 shown in fig. 11 may include the following steps.

1110, The network device sends time information corresponding to at least one frequency point through an RRC release message or a broadcast message.

The network device may send, for example, time information corresponding to at least one frequency point to the terminal device through the serving cell. The serving cell is a satellite cell.

Reference is made to the description of the satellite cell and satellite in the foregoing method 800.

For convenience of description, the interaction between the serving cell and the terminal device is illustrated in fig. 11.

Alternatively, the serving cell may also send the satellite almanac to the terminal device.

The terminal equipment can obtain the information of satellite speed, moving direction, track and the like according to the satellite ephemeris.

Each cell under the satellite can broadcast time information (or information of at least one layer of neighbor cells) corresponding to at least one frequency point. Take the frequency bin distribution in fig. 10 as an example. The time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point may include: frequency point 1, frequency point 7, and frequency point 3 correspond to a first time period, frequency point 1, frequency point 3, frequency point 4, frequency point 5, and frequency point 6 correspond to a second time period, and frequency point 1, frequency point 2, frequency point 3, and frequency point 6 correspond to a third time period.

Other possible situations are possible for the frequency points corresponding to the second time period and the third time period, and specific reference may be made to the description in the method 800.

Optionally, the at least one layer of neighbor relation is valid in a certain area, and the neighbor relation can be reacquired when the terminal device moves out of the area.

Regarding the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, reference may be made to the description in method 800.

And 1120, the terminal equipment measures the neighbor cell.

And the terminal equipment determines the neighbor cell to be measured according to the current moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

For example, when the current time is in the first period, the neighbor cell measured by the terminal device may include: a cell of frequency point 1, a cell of frequency point 7, and a cell of frequency point 3. As another example, when the current time is in the second time period, the neighbor cell measured by the terminal device may include: a cell of frequency point 1, a cell of frequency point 3, a cell of frequency point 4, a cell of frequency point 5, and a cell of frequency point 6. As another example, when the current time is in the third time period, the neighbor cell measured by the terminal device may include: a cell of frequency point 1, a cell of frequency point 2, a cell of frequency point 3, and a cell of frequency point 6.

Optionally, the method 1100 may further include step 1130.

1130, Cell reselection.

That is, the terminal device determines whether to perform cell reselection according to the measurement result. For example, the terminal device performs cell reselection when the cell reselection criterion is satisfied.

The above description is presented with reference to fig. 8 to 11, where for a terminal device in an idle state or a deactivated state, time information (i.e. information of at least one layer of neighbor cells) corresponding to at least one frequency point required for cell reselection may be obtained, and further signaling overhead caused by multiple requests of the terminal device for a system message may be reduced, so as to help the terminal device save power.

Another approach is presented below that can also help the terminal device save power by reducing unnecessary measurements. This scheme may be used alone or in combination with the method 800 or the method 1000 described above.

Fig. 12 is a schematic interaction diagram of a communication method 1200 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method 1200 may include the following steps.

The terminal device measures 1210 a serving cell.

The serving cell is a satellite cell. Reference is made to the description of the satellite cell and satellite in the foregoing method 800.

1220, The terminal device measures neighbor cells in case the quality of the serving cell is less than or equal to the first threshold.

The quality of a serving cell refers to the signal quality of that cell. The signal quality of the cell may be characterized in various manners, which are not limited by the embodiments of the present application. For example, the signal quality of a cell may be characterized by any one or more of: reference signal received power (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVING power, RSRP), reference signal received quality (REFERENCE SIGNAL RECEIVING quality, RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (signal to interference plus noise ratio, SINR). For example, the measurement of the signal quality of a cell may be measured by a reference signal, such as by a secondary synchronization signal (secondary synchronization signal, SSS).

It should be understood that any way that can characterize the signal quality of a cell falls within the scope of embodiments of the present application.

In NTN scenario, the coverage of a cell is very wide, especially in GEO scenario, not only is the coverage wide, but the cell is stationary with respect to the ground. Therefore, when the quality of the serving cell is lower than or equal to a certain threshold (i.e., the first threshold), the neighbor cell is measured. In this way, unnecessary measurements can be reduced, helping the terminal device to save power.

The first threshold may be predefined, for example, as predefined by a protocol or network device; or may be configured by a network device, without limitation.

For example, the network device (e.g., the current serving cell) sends a broadcast message, which may include the first threshold.

It should be understood that the first threshold is only a naming, and is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should also be appreciated that embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard with respect to the case where the quality of the serving cell is equal to the first threshold. For example, when the quality of the serving cell is equal to the first threshold, the terminal device may measure the neighbor cell; or when the quality of the serving cell is equal to the first threshold, the terminal equipment does not measure the neighbor cell.

After the terminal device measures the neighbor cell, it may be determined whether to perform cell reselection according to the measurement result.

1230, In case the cell quality of the neighbor cell is greater than or equal to the second threshold, or in case the cell quality difference is greater than or equal to the third threshold, the terminal device performs cell reselection.

Wherein the poor cell quality indicates: the difference between the cell quality of the neighbor cell and the cell quality of the serving cell.

The terminal device performs cell reselection, which may mean that the terminal device reselects to the neighbor cell, or that the terminal device selects the neighbor cell as a serving cell.

As shown in fig. 13, the neighbor cell measured by the terminal device may be a cell adjacent to the current serving cell. Or the neighbor cell measured by the terminal equipment is a cell overlapped with the network coverage of the current service cell.

And under the condition that the cell quality of the adjacent cell is larger than or equal to a second threshold or the cell quality difference is larger than or equal to a third threshold, the terminal equipment does not execute the adjacent cell measurement any more, and reselects the adjacent cell.

After the terminal device measures the neighbor cells, it may not be necessary to measure all neighbor cells on one frequency point. That is, the terminal device need not measure all neighbors and then rank (e.g., rank based on the R criteria). Considering that a cell has a wide coverage, the terminal device performs cell reselection whenever there is a suitable neighbor cell, i.e. selects the suitable cell as the serving cell. Thus, not only can communication be ensured, but also the terminal equipment can be helped to save power.

There are various ways of determining suitable neighbors, two of which are briefly described below.

1) The quality of the neighbor cell is greater than or equal to the second threshold.

That is, as long as the quality of the neighbor cell is greater than or equal to a certain threshold, the terminal device selects the neighbor cell as the serving cell.

The second threshold may be predefined, for example, as predefined by the protocol or network device; or may be configured by a network device, without limitation.

For example, the network device (e.g., the current serving cell) sends a broadcast message, which may include the second threshold. The second threshold and the first threshold may be included in the same broadcast message.

For example, the second threshold may be equal to the first threshold.

It will be appreciated that as long as the quality of the neighbor cell is greater than the quality of the current serving cell, the terminal device performs cell reselection, i.e. the terminal device selects the neighbor cell as the serving cell.

2) The cell quality difference is greater than a third threshold.

That is, as long as the quality of the neighbor cell is higher than the quality of the current serving cell by one threshold (i.e., the third threshold), the terminal device selects the neighbor cell as the serving cell.

The third threshold may be predefined, for example, as predefined by the protocol or network device; or may be configured by a network device, without limitation.

For example, the network device (e.g., the current serving cell) sends a broadcast message, which may include the third threshold. The third threshold and the first threshold may be included in the same broadcast message.

It should be understood that 1) and 2) above are merely two exemplary illustrations, and embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

In satellite communication, the satellite has a relatively high speed, and the terminal equipment may need to perform cell reselection once within 1-2 minutes, so that a plurality of neighbor cells do not need to be measured before each reselection, and the most suitable neighbor cell is selected as a serving cell. The solution described in method 1200, for example, in a case where the quality of the serving cell is smaller than the first threshold, the terminal device measures the neighbor cell; for another example, under the condition that the quality of the neighbor cell is greater than or equal to the second threshold, the terminal equipment performs cell reselection; in another example, the terminal device performs cell reselection if the cell quality difference is greater than a third threshold. The scheme described in method 1200 may be considered as a simple cell reselection mechanism, which may not only ensure communication, but also reduce unnecessary measurements, helping the terminal device to save power.

Optionally, prior to step 1210, the method 1200 may further include step 1201.

1201, The terminal device receives the indication information. The indication information may be used to instruct the terminal device to perform a simple cell reselection mechanism (i.e., the scheme described in method 1200).

That is, the terminal device may determine, from the instruction information: and when the quality of the current serving cell measured by the terminal equipment is smaller than a first threshold, the terminal equipment measures the neighbor cell. Or the terminal device may determine from the indication information: when the quality of the neighbor cell measured by the terminal device is greater than or equal to the second threshold, or when the cell quality difference is greater than the third threshold, the terminal device selects the neighbor cell as the serving cell.

The above description in connection with fig. 12 and 13 describes that a terminal device may perform a simple cell reselection. For example, the terminal device measures the neighbor cell when the quality of the serving cell measured by the terminal device is less than a certain threshold. As another example, as long as there is a suitable neighboring cell, the terminal device may reselect to the neighboring cell, e.g., the quality of the neighboring cell is higher than a certain threshold, e.g., the quality of the neighboring cell is higher than the quality of the serving cell by a certain threshold, etc. Unnecessary measurement can be further reduced, and power saving of the terminal equipment is facilitated.

The various embodiments described herein may be separate solutions or may be combined according to inherent logic, which fall within the scope of the present application. For example, reference may be made to a scheme as shown in method 1200 in determining when to begin measuring a serving cell, or when cell reselection may be performed. As another example, the terminal device may refer to a scheme as shown in method 800 when determining which cells to measure.

In one example, after determining at least one frequency point corresponding to a satellite by a scheme as illustrated by method 800, measurements may be made according to the scheme as illustrated by method 1200. If the quality of the serving cell is lower than or equal to a certain threshold, then measuring the serving cell; and under the condition that the cell quality of the adjacent cell is larger than or equal to a second threshold or the cell quality difference is larger than or equal to a third threshold, the terminal equipment executes cell reselection.

It will be understood that the methods and operations implemented by the terminal device in the foregoing respective method embodiments may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) that may be used in the terminal device, and that the methods and operations implemented by the network device in the foregoing respective method embodiments may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) that may be used in the network device.

The method embodiments provided by the present application are described above, and the device embodiments provided by the present application will be described below. It should be understood that the descriptions of the apparatus embodiments and the descriptions of the method embodiments correspond to each other, and thus, descriptions of details not described may be referred to the above method embodiments, which are not repeated herein for brevity.

The scheme provided by the embodiment of the application is mainly described from the interaction point of each network element. It will be appreciated that each network element, e.g. the transmitting device or the receiving device, in order to implement the above-mentioned functions, comprises corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for performing each function. Those of 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 hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is implemented as hardware or computer software driven hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

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

Fig. 14 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 1400 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1400 includes a transceiver unit 1410 and a processing unit 1420. The transceiver unit 1410 may communicate with the outside, and the processing unit 1410 is used for data processing. The transceiver unit 1410 may also be referred to as a communication interface or a communication unit.

Optionally, the communication device 1400 may further include a storage unit, which may be used to store instructions and/or data, and the processing unit 1420 may read the instructions and/or data in the storage unit.

The communication apparatus 1400 may be configured to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment, where the communication apparatus 1400 may be the terminal device or a component that may be configured in the terminal device, the transceiver unit 1410 is configured to perform the operations related to the transceiver on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 1420 is configured to perform the operations related to the processing on the terminal device side in the above method embodiment.

Or the communication apparatus 1400 may be configured to perform actions performed by a network device (e.g., a serving cell) in the above method embodiment, where the communication apparatus 1400 may be a network device or a component that may be configured in a network device, the transceiver unit 1410 is configured to perform operations related to transceiver on the network device side in the above method embodiment, and the processing unit 1420 is configured to perform operations related to processing on the network device side in the above method embodiment.

As a design, the communication apparatus 1400 is configured to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and the transceiver unit 1410 is configured to: receiving time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of a satellite; the processing unit 1420 is configured to: and determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the first moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 1410 is further configured to: receiving satellite ephemeris, wherein the satellite ephemeris is used for indicating information of a satellite orbit; the processing unit 1420 is specifically configured to: and determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the satellite ephemeris, the first moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

Optionally, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: at least one time period corresponding to each frequency point in the frequency points, or a time period corresponding to each group of frequency points in the N groups of frequency points; the at least one frequency point comprises N groups of frequency points, the N groups of frequency points comprise at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Optionally, the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes: information of time of each of the at least one frequency bin is measured.

Optionally, the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite includes: and one or more frequency points corresponding to the first moment and/or M groups of frequency points corresponding to M time periods after the first moment, wherein each time period in the M time periods corresponds to a group of frequency points, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

Optionally, the processing unit 1420 is further configured to: measuring a frequency point corresponding to the first moment; and/or measuring the frequency point corresponding to each time period in each time period of the M time periods.

Optionally, the M time periods include a first time period and a second time period, the first time period being located before the second time period; the frequency point corresponding to the second time period comprises: and all or part of the frequency points corresponding to the first time period have the frequency points with association relation.

As another design, the communication apparatus 1400 is configured to perform the actions performed by the network device (e.g. the serving cell) in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and the processing unit 1420 is configured to: generating time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of the satellite, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point can be used for determining the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite; the transceiver unit 1410 is configured to: and sending time information corresponding to at least one frequency point.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 1410 is further configured to: the satellite ephemeris is transmitted and is used to indicate information about the orbit of the satellite.

As yet another design, the communication apparatus 1400 is configured to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in fig. 12, and the processing unit 1420 is configured to: measuring neighbor cells under the condition that the cell quality of the serving cell is smaller than a first threshold; reselecting the neighbor cell under the condition that the cell quality of the neighbor cell is larger than or equal to a second threshold or the cell quality difference is larger than or equal to a third threshold; the cell quality difference is the difference between the cell quality of the adjacent cell and the cell quality of the service cell, and the service cell and the adjacent cell are satellite cells.

Optionally, the first threshold is equal to the second threshold.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 1410 is further configured to: information of the first threshold and/or the second threshold is received.

The processing unit 1420 in fig. 14 may be implemented by a processor or processor-related circuits. The transceiver unit 1410 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver related circuits. The transceiver unit 1410 may also be referred to as a communication unit or a communication interface. The memory unit may be implemented by a memory.

As shown in fig. 15, the embodiment of the application further provides a communication device 1500. The communication device 1500 comprises a processor 1510, the processor 1510 being coupled to a memory 1520, the memory 1520 for storing computer programs or instructions and/or data, the processor 1510 for executing the computer programs or instructions and/or data stored by the memory 1520, such that the methods in the method embodiments above are performed.

Optionally, the communications apparatus 1500 includes one or more processors 1510.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 15, the communication device 1500 may also include a memory 1520.

Optionally, the communications apparatus 1500 can include one or more memories 1520.

Alternatively, the memory 1520 may be integrated with the processor 1510 or provided separately.

Optionally, as shown in fig. 15, the communication device 1500 may further include a transceiver 1530, the transceiver 1530 being for receiving and/or transmitting signals. For example, the processor 1510 is configured to control the transceiver 1530 to receive and/or transmit signals.

As an aspect, the communication apparatus 1500 is configured to implement the operations performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

For example, the processor 1510 is configured to implement operations related to processing performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment, and the transceiver 1530 is configured to implement operations related to transceiving performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment.

Alternatively, the communication apparatus 1500 is configured to implement the operations performed by the network device (serving cell) in the above method embodiment.

For example, processor 1510 is configured to perform the processing-related operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiments, and transceiver 1530 is configured to perform the transceiving-related operations performed by the network device in the above method embodiments.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device 1600, and the communication device 1600 can be a terminal device or a chip. The communication apparatus 1600 may be used to perform operations performed by a terminal device in the above-described method embodiments.

When the communication apparatus 1600 is a terminal device, fig. 16 shows a simplified schematic structure of the terminal device. For easy understanding and convenient illustration, in fig. 16, a mobile phone is taken as an example of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 16, 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 mainly used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting a baseband signal and a radio frequency signal and processing the radio frequency signal. 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 mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal apparatuses may not have an input/output device.

When data need to be sent, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be sent and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in fig. 16, and in an actual end device product, one or more processors and one or more memories may be present. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc. The memory may be provided separately from the processor or may be integrated with the processor, as the embodiments of the application are not limited in this respect.

In the embodiment of the application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit with the receiving and transmitting functions can be regarded as a receiving and transmitting unit of the terminal equipment, and the processor with the processing function can be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal equipment.

As shown in fig. 16, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 1610 and a processing unit 1620. The transceiver unit 1610 may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. The processing unit 1620 may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, etc.

Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver 1610 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiver 1610 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, i.e., the transceiver 1610 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver circuitry, or the like. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or receiving circuit, among others. The transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

For example, in one implementation, the transceiver unit 1610 is configured to perform a receiving operation of the terminal device in fig. 8. For example, time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of a satellite is received. The processing unit 1620 is configured to perform a processing action on the terminal device side in fig. 8, for example, determine at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the first time and time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

As another example, in one implementation, processing unit 1620 is configured to perform steps 1120 and 1130 in fig. 11; the transceiver 1610 is configured to perform the receiving operation in step 1110 in fig. 11.

As another example, in one implementation, processing unit 1620 is configured to perform steps 1210, 1220, 1230 in fig. 12; the transceiver unit 1610 is configured to perform a receiving operation of the terminal device in fig. 12, as shown in step 1201.

It should be understood that fig. 16 is only an example and not a limitation, and the above-described terminal device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 16.

When the communication device 1600 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit or a communication interface; the processing unit may be an integrated processor or microprocessor or an integrated circuit on the chip.

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication device 1700, and the communication device 1700 can be a network device or a chip. The communication apparatus 1700 may be used to perform the operations performed by the network device (serving cell) in the method embodiments described above.

When the communication apparatus 1700 is a network device, for example, a base station. Fig. 17 shows a simplified schematic diagram of a base station structure. The base station includes a 1710 part and a 1720 part. The 1710 part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals; section 1720 is primarily for baseband processing, control of the base station, etc. Section 1710 may be generally referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuitry, or transceiver, etc. Portion 1720 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 processing operations on the network device side in the above method embodiment.

The transceiver unit of section 1710, which may also be referred to as a transceiver or transceiver, includes an antenna and radio frequency circuitry, wherein the radio frequency circuitry is primarily for radio frequency processing. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in section 1710 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, i.e. section 1710 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, or a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

Portion 1720 may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories. The processor is used for reading and executing the program in the memory to realize the baseband processing function and control of the base station. If there are multiple boards, the boards can be interconnected to enhance processing power. As an alternative implementation manner, the multiple boards may share one or more processors, or the multiple boards may share one or more memories, or the multiple boards may share one or more processors at the same time.

For example, in one implementation, the network device is a serving cell, and the transceiver unit in portion 1710 is configured to perform the steps related to the transceiver performed by the serving cell in the embodiment shown in fig. 8; portion 1720 is used to perform process-related steps performed by the serving cell in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 8.

For example, in yet another implementation, the network device is a serving cell, the transceiver unit of portion 1710 is configured to perform the transmitting operation in step 810 in fig. 8, and/or the transceiver unit of portion 1710 is further configured to perform other transceiver-related steps performed by the serving cell in the embodiment shown in fig. 8; the processing unit of section 1720 is configured to perform steps related to the processing performed by the serving cell in the embodiment shown in fig. 8.

For example, in yet another implementation, the network device is a serving cell, and the transceiver unit of portion 1710 is configured to perform the transmitting operation in step 1110 in fig. 11; portion 1720 is used to perform process-related steps performed by the serving cell in the embodiment shown in fig. 11.

For example, in yet another implementation, the network device is a serving cell, and the transceiver unit in portion 1710 is configured to perform the steps related to the transceiver performed by the serving cell in the embodiment shown in fig. 12; portion 1720 is used to perform processing related steps performed by the serving cell in the embodiment shown in fig. 12.

It should be understood that fig. 17 is only an example and not a limitation, and the above-described network device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 17.

When the communication device 1700 is a chip, the chip includes a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The receiving and transmitting unit can be an input and output circuit and a communication interface; the processing unit is an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit on the chip.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a computer readable storage medium, on which computer instructions for implementing the method performed by the terminal device in the above method embodiment, or the method performed by the network device (such as a serving cell) are stored.

For example, the computer program when executed by a computer may enable the computer to implement the method performed by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiment, or the method performed by the network device (e.g. the serving cell).

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product containing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to implement the method performed by the terminal device in the method embodiment described above, or the method performed by a network device (e.g. a serving cell).

The embodiment of the application also provides a communication system which comprises the network equipment and the terminal equipment in the embodiment.

As one example, the communication system includes: the network device and the terminal device in the embodiment described above in connection with fig. 8.

As yet another example, the communication system includes: the network device and the terminal device in the embodiment described above in connection with fig. 10.

As yet another example, the communication system includes: the network device and the terminal device in the embodiment described above in connection with fig. 12.

Any explanation and beneficial effects of the related content in any of the communication devices provided above may refer to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and are not described herein.

In an embodiment of the present application, the terminal device or the network device may include a hardware layer, an operating system layer running above the hardware layer, and an application layer running above the operating system layer. The hardware layer may include a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a memory management unit (memory management unit, MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system of the operating system layer may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes (processes), for example, a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or windows operating system, etc. The application layer may include applications such as a browser, address book, word processor, instant messaging software, and the like.

The embodiment of the present application is not particularly limited to the specific structure of the execution body of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, as long as communication can be performed by the method provided according to the embodiment of the present application by running a program in which codes of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application are recorded. For example, the execution body of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module in the terminal device or the network device that can call a program and execute the program.

Various aspects or features of the application may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein may encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to: magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk or tape, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact Disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DIGITAL VERSATILE DISC, DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), card, stick, key drive, etc.).

Various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" may include, but is not limited to: wireless channels, and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

It should be appreciated that the processor referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be a central processing unit (central processingunit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (DIGITAL SIGNAL processors, DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, etc. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should also be understood that the memory referred to in embodiments of the present application may be volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an erasable programmable ROM (erasable PROM), an electrically erasable programmable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM). For example, RAM may be used as an external cache. By way of example, and not limitation, RAM may include the following forms: static random access memory (STATIC RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (DYNAMIC RAM, DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double DATA RATE SDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (ENHANCED SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous link dynamic random access memory (SYNCHLINK DRAM, SLDRAM) and direct memory bus random access memory (direct rambus RAM, DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components, the memory (storage module) may be integrated into the processor.

It should also be noted that the memory described herein is intended to comprise, without being limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the elements and steps of the examples described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented as electronic hardware, or as a combination 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 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.

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

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

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

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

In the above embodiments, it may be implemented in whole or in part 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, produces a flow or function in accordance with embodiments of the present invention, in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. For example, the computer may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, by wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains an integration of one or more available media. For example, the aforementioned usable medium may include, but is not limited to, a U disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random access memory (random access memory, RAM), a magnetic disk or an optical disk, etc. various media that can store program codes.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of the present application, and the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily recognize that variations or substitutions are within 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 of communication, comprising:

Receiving time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of a satellite, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point comprises: measuring time information of the at least one frequency point;

Determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the first moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, wherein the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite is at least one frequency point to be measured, and the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite comprises: one or more frequency points corresponding to the first time and/or M groups of frequency points corresponding to M time periods after the first time, wherein each time period in the M time periods corresponds to a group of frequency points, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1;

measuring the frequency point corresponding to the first moment; and/or measuring the frequency point corresponding to each time period in each time period of the M time periods.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the satellite ephemeris, wherein the satellite ephemeris is used for indicating the information of the satellite orbit;

The determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the first time and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes:

and determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite according to the satellite ephemeris, the first moment and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes:

A time period corresponding to each frequency point in the at least one frequency point, or a time period corresponding to each group of frequency points in the N groups of frequency points;

The at least one frequency point comprises the N groups of frequency points, the N groups of frequency points comprise at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes:

and measuring the time information of each frequency point in the at least one frequency point.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the position of the substrate comprises,

The M time periods include a first time period and a second time period, the first time period being located before the second time period;

The frequency point corresponding to the second time period comprises: and the frequency points with association relation with all or part of the frequency points corresponding to the first time period.

6. A method of communication, comprising:

Generating time information corresponding to at least one frequency point on a satellite ephemeris of a satellite, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point can be used for determining at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite, and the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point comprises: measuring time information of the at least one frequency point, wherein the at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite is the at least one frequency point to be measured;

Transmitting the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point comprises: a time period corresponding to each frequency point in the at least one frequency point, or a time period corresponding to each group of frequency points in the N groups of frequency points; the at least one frequency point comprises the N groups of frequency points, the N groups of frequency points comprise at least one frequency point corresponding to the satellite, and N is an integer greater than or equal to 1.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method further comprises:

and transmitting the satellite ephemeris, wherein the satellite ephemeris is used for indicating the information of the satellite orbit.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the time information corresponding to the at least one frequency point includes:

9. A communication device comprising means or units for performing the method of any of claims 1 to 5.

10. A communication device comprising means or units for performing the method of any of claims 6 to 8.

11. A communication system comprising a communication device according to claim 9 and a communication device according to claim 10.

12. A communication device comprising a processor coupled to a memory for storing a computer program or instructions, the processor for executing the computer program or instructions in memory such that the method of any one of claims 1 to 5, or the method of any one of claims 6 to 8, is performed.

13. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program or instructions for implementing the method of any one of claims 1 to 5 or the method of any one of claims 6 to 8 is stored.

14. A computer program product comprising computer programs or instructions which, when run on a communication device, cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 5 or cause the communication device to perform the method of any of claims 6 to 8.