CN118524408A

CN118524408A - Communication method, apparatus, computer-readable storage medium, and program product

Info

Publication number: CN118524408A
Application number: CN202311010714.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘梦婷; 高鑫; 黄甦; 朱宁波
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-02-17
Filing date: 2023-08-10
Publication date: 2024-08-20

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments provide a communication method, apparatus, computer-readable storage medium, and article in which a terminal device receives a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells, based on the first set of configuration information, the terminal device transmits at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance, TA, request message in a non-connected state, and the terminal device receives TA information for determining a TA. Therefore, the embodiment of the disclosure can realize TA updating of the terminal equipment in the non-connection state, and the TA updating can be realized without the terminal equipment entering the connection state, thereby achieving the purpose of low-power consumption and high-precision positioning.

Description

Communication method, apparatus, computer-readable storage medium, and program product

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of communications, and more particularly to a communication method, apparatus, computer readable storage medium, and computer program product.

Background

The 3GPP (The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, third generation partnership project) positioning problem research mentions that positioning with high accuracy for low power consumption can be achieved by studying The related art of rrc_inactive state (deactivated state) positioning. The TA (TIMING ADVANCE ) is generally used for UE (user equipment) uplink transmission (data or reference signal), which means that a system frame for transmitting uplink data by a terminal device needs to be advanced by a certain amount of time compared to a corresponding downlink frame. If the terminal equipment sends a reference signal according to the failure/inaccurate TA, the positioning accuracy is affected; if the TA needs to be updated in the rrc_connected state, the power consumption of the terminal device is increased. Therefore, in order to achieve low-power-consumption and high-precision positioning, the TA update problem of the rrc_inactive state terminal device needs to be studied.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method, a communication device, a computer readable storage medium and a computer program product, which can realize TA updating of a terminal device in a non-connection state, and can realize TA updating without the terminal device entering a connection state, thereby achieving the purpose of low-power consumption and high-precision positioning.

In a first aspect, a communication method is provided, where the method may be executed by a terminal device or a chip applied in the terminal device. The following describes an example in which the execution subject is a terminal device. In the method, a terminal device receives a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells; based on the first configuration information set, the terminal device transmits at least one of a reference signal or a Timing Advance (TA) request message in a non-connected state; and the terminal equipment receives the TA information, wherein the TA information is used for determining the TA. In this way, the TA can be updated by the terminal equipment in the non-connection state, and the TA can be updated without the terminal equipment entering the connection state, thereby realizing the positioning with low power consumption and high precision.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes first configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the first configuration information being used to determine a reference signal transmitted when the terminal device resides in the first cell. In some implementations, the terminal device determines the reference signal based on the first set of configuration information and the currently camped cell, the reference signal determined by the terminal device being cell-associated, i.e., the reference signal determined by the terminal camping on a different cell is also different. In this way, the network device receives the reference signal sent by the terminal device, and can determine the cell in which the terminal device is currently located based on the reference signal, so that the network device can be assisted to perceive which cell the terminal device is currently resident in.

In some implementations, the first configuration information includes reference signal sequence identification information, such as a sequence identification of the reference signal (seuqnce ID). In some implementations, the reference signal sequence identity information is cell-specific configured, i.e., each cell is associated with different reference signal identity information. The terminal equipment determines the reference signal according to the reference signal identification information associated with the current resident cell, so that the network equipment receives the reference signal sent by the terminal equipment, and the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located can be judged based on the reference signal, thereby assisting the network equipment in perceiving which cell the terminal equipment is currently resident.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes identification information of a plurality of cells, such as Cell identification (Cell ID). In one possible implementation manner, the terminal device determines the reference signal according to the identification information of the currently camping cell, so that the network device receives the reference signal sent by the terminal device, and can determine the cell where the terminal device is currently located based on the reference signal, so as to assist the network device in sensing which cell the terminal device currently camps on.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes reference signal configuration information for a plurality of cells, e.g., time domain resource configuration information, frequency domain resource configuration information. In one possible implementation manner, the terminal device sends the reference signal according to the reference signal configuration information of the currently resident cell, so that the network device can judge the cell where the terminal device is currently located by receiving the reference signal sent by the terminal device, so as to assist the network device in sensing which cell the terminal device is currently resident in.

In some implementations, further comprising: the terminal device receives a second set of configuration information associated with the plurality of cells, the second set of configuration information being for the terminal device to receive the TA information. In some implementations, the terminal device may receive TA information in a non-connected state based on the second set of configuration information. Therefore, the terminal equipment can realize TA updating without entering a connection state, thereby realizing low-power-consumption and high-precision positioning.

In some implementations, the second set of configuration information includes second configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the second configuration information for receiving the TA information when the terminal device resides in the first cell. In one possible implementation, when the terminal device resides in the first cell, the terminal device may receive the TA information in the non-connected state based on the second configuration information in the second configuration information set. Therefore, the terminal equipment can realize TA updating without entering a connection state, thereby realizing low-power-consumption and high-precision positioning.

In some implementations, the second configuration information includes configuration information for a timing advance command, the configuration information for the timing advance command including at least one of: a wireless network temporary identity of the timing advance command; a transmission period of the timing advance command; the duration of the timing advance command; timing advance command reception window. For example, when a terminal device resides in a different cell at a different time, its associated second configuration information may be different. In this way, the flexibility of the network configuration can be increased. For another example, when the terminal device resides in a different cell, its associated second configuration information may be the same. In this way, signaling overhead may be reduced.

In some implementations, the radio network temporary identities of the timing advance commands associated with different cells in the second set of configuration information are the same, in such a way that the radio network temporary identities of the timing advance commands need only occur once, so that signaling overhead can be reduced. In other words, when the terminal device camps on different cells, the TA information may be received using the same radio network temporary identity of the timing advance command. In other implementations, the transmission period of the timing advance command, the duration of the timing advance command, and the receiving window of the timing advance command associated with different cells in the second configuration information set are different, so that the network device can perform reasonable configuration based on the resource allocation situation of different cells, and flexibility and efficiency of resource configuration are improved. In other words, when the terminal device camps on different cells, the TA information may be received based on different transmission periods of the timing advance command, the duration of the timing advance command, or the timing advance command.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes at least one of a first threshold or a second threshold for the terminal device to determine a first condition to send the TA request message. The terminal equipment can determine whether to send the TA request information based on the first configuration information set, so that the frequent initiation of TA update requests is avoided, and the power consumption of the terminal equipment can be reduced.

In some implementations, sending the TA request message includes: the terminal equipment determines a first condition based on the first configuration information set; and the terminal equipment sends a TA request message based on the first condition. In this way, frequent initiation of TA update requests can be avoided, and power consumption of the terminal device can be reduced.

In some implementations, the first condition includes at least one of: the number of the resident cells of the terminal equipment is smaller than or equal to a first threshold value; the number of times that the change of the reference signal receiving power value of the terminal device exceeds the preset threshold is smaller than or equal to the second threshold. In some implementations, the reference signal is a positioning reference signal.

In some implementations, during positioning, a terminal device receives a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells; based on the first set of configuration information, the terminal device transmits positioning reference signals associated with the cell in a non-connected state. In some implementations, the network device determines, from the received positioning reference signal, a cell in which the terminal device is currently camping. The network device currently residing in the cell transmits the TA information. The terminal equipment receives TA information based on the second configuration information set and determines TA. In some implementations, the terminal device sends a positioning reference signal for positioning based on the updated TA. In this way, the terminal device can realize TA updating without entering a connection state, and realize low-power-consumption and high-precision positioning.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, and advantageous effects may be found in the description of the first aspect and are not repeated here. The execution subject of the method can be network equipment or a chip applied to the network equipment. The following describes an example in which the execution subject is a network device. In the method, a network device transmits a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells, the first set of configuration information being for a terminal device to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance, TA, request message in a non-connected state.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes first configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the first configuration information being used to determine a reference signal transmitted when the terminal device resides in the first cell. In some implementations, the terminal device determines the reference signal based on the first set of configuration information and the currently camped cell such that the reference signal determined by the terminal device is cell-associated, i.e., the reference signal determined by the terminal camping on a different cell is also different. In this way, the network device receives the reference signal sent by the terminal device, and can determine the cell in which the terminal device is currently located based on the reference signal, so that the network device can be assisted to perceive which cell the terminal device is currently resident in.

In some implementations, the first configuration information includes reference signal sequence identification information. Such as a sequence identification of the reference signal (seuqnce ID). In some implementations, the reference signal sequence identity information is cell-specific configured, i.e., each cell is associated with different reference signal identity information. The terminal equipment determines the reference signal according to the reference signal identification information associated with the current resident cell, so that the network equipment receives the reference signal sent by the terminal equipment, and the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located can be judged based on the reference signal, thereby assisting the network equipment in perceiving which cell the terminal equipment is currently resident.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes identification information of a plurality of cells. Such as Cell identification (Cell ID). In one possible implementation manner, the terminal device determines the reference signal according to the identification information of the currently camping cell, so that the network device receives the reference signal sent by the terminal device, and can determine the cell where the terminal device is currently located based on the reference signal, so as to assist the network device in sensing which cell the terminal device currently camps on.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes reference signal configuration information for a plurality of cells, e.g., time domain resource configuration information, frequency domain resource configuration information. In some implementations, the terminal device sends the reference signal according to the reference signal configuration information of the currently camping cell, so that the network device can determine the cell in which the terminal device is currently located by receiving the reference signal sent by the terminal device, so as to assist the network device in sensing which cell the terminal device currently camps in.

In some implementations, further comprising: the network device transmits a second set of configuration information associated with the plurality of cells, the second set of configuration information being for the terminal device to receive the TA information.

In some implementations, the second set of configuration information includes second configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the second configuration information for receiving the TA information when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

In some implementations, the second configuration information includes configuration information for a timing advance command, the configuration information for the timing advance command including at least one of: a wireless network temporary identity of the timing advance command; a transmission period of the timing advance command; the duration of the timing advance command; or a receive window for timing advance commands. For example, when a terminal device resides in a different cell, its associated second configuration information may be different. In this way, the flexibility of the network configuration can be increased. For another example, when the terminal device resides in a different cell, its associated second configuration information may be the same. In this way, signaling overhead may be reduced.

In some implementations, the radio network temporary identities of the timing advance commands associated with different cells in the second set of configuration information are the same, in such a way that the radio network temporary identities of the timing advance commands need only occur once, so that signaling overhead can be reduced. In other words, when the terminal device camps on different cells, the TA information may be received using the same radio network temporary identity of the timing advance command. In some implementations, the transmission period of the timing advance command, the duration of the timing advance command, and the receive window of the timing advance command associated with different cells in the second set of configuration information are different, in this way, the network device may perform a reasonable configuration based on the resource allocation situation of different cells, and improve flexibility and efficiency of the resource configuration. In other words, when the terminal device camps on different cells, the TA information may be received based on different transmission periods of the timing advance command, the duration of the timing advance command, or the timing advance command.

In some implementations, the first set of configuration information includes at least one of a first threshold or a second threshold for the terminal device to determine a first condition to send the TA request message.

In some implementations, further comprising: the network device receives at least one of a first set of configuration information or a second set of configuration information from the first network device. In some implementations, the first network device may send part or all of the first configuration information (constituting the first set of configuration information) for the plurality of cells and/or part or all of the second configuration information (constituting the second set of configuration information) for the plurality of cells to the plurality of network devices within the PA for local maintenance of the configuration information by the plurality of network devices. In some implementations, the first set of configuration information, the second set of configuration information, of the first network device may be obtained or received from the plurality of network devices. In some implementations, the network device may send the first set of configuration information and/or the second set of configuration information to the core network device in response to the request. In other implementations, the plurality of network devices may actively report the first set of configuration information and/or the second set of configuration information to the first network device. In this way, the network device can obtain the first configuration information and the second configuration information of the plurality of cells, so that the network device in the plurality of network devices can judge the cell in which the terminal device is currently located by receiving the reference signal sent by the terminal device, thereby assisting the network device in the plurality of network devices to sense which cell the terminal device is currently resident in.

In some implementations, further comprising: the network device receives at least one of configuration information in a first set of configuration information or configuration information in a second set of configuration information from the second network device.

In some implementations, further comprising: the network device transmits at least one of the first set of configuration information or the second set of configuration information.

In some implementations, the reference signal is a positioning reference signal.

In a third aspect, a communication device is provided, and advantageous effects may be seen from the description of the first aspect, which is not repeated here. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the actions in the method example of the first aspect described above. The functions may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. In one possible design, the communication device includes: a receiving unit configured to receive a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells; a transmitting unit configured to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance TA request message in a non-connected state of the terminal device based on the first configuration information set; and the receiving unit is further configured to receive TA information, where the TA information is used to determine a TA.

In a fourth aspect, a communication device is provided, and advantageous effects may be seen from the description of the first aspect, which is not repeated here. The apparatus has the functionality to implement the behavior in the method example of the second aspect described above. The functions may be realized by hardware, or may be realized by hardware executing corresponding software. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. In one possible design, the communication device includes: a transmitting unit, configured to transmit a first configuration information set associated with a plurality of cells, where the first configuration information set is used for the terminal device to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance TA request message in a non-connected state.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a communication apparatus comprising: a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform any of the methods according to the first aspect and implementations thereof.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method of the above aspects performed by a communication apparatus.

In a seventh aspect, a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by an electronic device, cause the electronic device to perform the method performed by the communication apparatus in the above aspects.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor for implementing the functions of the communication device in the methods of the above aspects. In one possible design, the chip system further includes a memory for storing program instructions and/or data. The chip system can be composed of chips, and can also comprise chips and other discrete devices.

In a ninth aspect, the present application also provides a communication system, including: a terminal device for performing the method of the first aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 1B is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to further embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow diagram of an example of a communication method in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of an example of a communication method in other embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an uplink-downlink timing relationship according to some embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic flow chart of an example of a communication method in further embodiments of the application.

Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of cells within a PA according to some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 7 is a flow chart implemented at a terminal device in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 8 is a flow chart implemented at a network device in some embodiments of the application.

Fig. 9 shows a simplified block diagram of an example device of one possible implementation in an embodiment of the application.

FIG. 10 illustrates a block diagram of components of an example device for one possible implementation in an embodiment of the application.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While certain embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein, but are provided to provide a more thorough and complete understanding of the present disclosure. It should be understood that the drawings and embodiments of the present disclosure are for illustration purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

In describing embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "comprising" and its like should be taken to be open-ended, i.e., including, but not limited to. The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first," "second," and the like, may refer to different or the same object. Other explicit and implicit definitions are also possible below.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in accordance with any suitable communication protocol, including, but not limited to, third generation (3rd Generation,3G), fourth generation (4G), fifth generation (5G), and future communication protocols (e.g., sixth generation (6G)), cellular communication protocols such as, for example, institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, wireless local area network communication protocols such as, for example, institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ELECTRICAL AND Electronics Engineers), and/or any other protocol now known or later developed.

The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure are applied to communication systems following any suitable communication protocol, such as: general Packet Radio Service (GPRS), global system for mobile communications (Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (ENHANCED DATA RATE for GSM Evolution, EDGE), universal mobile telecommunications system (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service, UMTS), long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system, wideband code Division multiple access system (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access, WCDMA), code Division multiple access 2000 system (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA 2000), time Division-Synchronization Code Division Multiple Access, TD-SCDMA), frequency Division duplex (Frequency Division Duplex, FDD) system, time Division duplex (Time Division Duplex, TDD), fifth generation (5G) system (e.g., new Radio, NR)) and the like.

For purposes of illustration, embodiments of the present disclosure are described below in the context of a 5G communication system in 3 GPP. However, it should be understood that embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to this communication system, but may be applied to any communication system where similar problems exist, such as a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a wired communication system, or other communication systems developed in the future, and the like.

The term "terminal" or "terminal device" as used in this disclosure refers to any terminal device capable of wired or wireless communication with a network device or with each other. The terminal device may sometimes be referred to as a User Equipment (UE). The terminal device may be any type of mobile terminal, fixed terminal or portable terminal. The terminal device may be various wireless communication devices having a wireless communication function. With the advent of internet of things (Internet of Things, IOT) technology, more and more devices that have not previously been provided with communication functions, such as, but not limited to, home appliances, vehicles, tool devices, service devices, and service facilities, began to obtain wireless communication functions by configuring a wireless communication unit so that the wireless communication network can be accessed and remote control can be accepted. Such devices are also included in the category of wireless communication devices because they are equipped with a wireless communication unit and have a wireless communication function. As an example, the Terminal device may include a Mobile cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, a Mobile Terminal (MT), a Mobile station, a Mobile device, a wireless Terminal, a handheld device, a client, a subscription station, a portable subscription station, an internet node, a communicator, a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a Personal communication system device, a Personal navigation device, a Personal digital assistant (Personal DIGITAL ASSISTANT, PDA), a wireless data card, a wireless Modem (Modulator demodulator, modem), a positioning device, a radio broadcast receiver, an electronic book device, a gaming device, an internet of things (Internet of Things, ioT) device, an in-vehicle device, an aircraft, a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an augmented Reality (Augmented Reality, AR) device, a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch, etc.), a Terminal device in a 5G network or any of the evolved public land Mobile networks (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN), other devices available for communication, or any combination of the above. Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited in this regard.

The term "network node" or "network device" as used in this disclosure is an entity or node that may be used for communication with a terminal device, e.g. an access network device. The access network device may be an apparatus deployed in a radio access network to provide wireless communication functionality for mobile terminals, and may be, for example, a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) network device. The access network device may include various types of base stations. The base station is used for providing wireless access service for the terminal equipment. Specifically, each base station corresponds to a service coverage area, and terminal devices entering the service coverage area can communicate with the base station through wireless signals, so as to receive wireless access services provided by the base station. There may be an overlap between service coverage areas of base stations, and a terminal device in the overlapping area may receive wireless signals from multiple base stations, so that multiple base stations may serve the terminal device at the same time. Depending on the size of the service coverage area provided, the access network device may include Macro base stations providing Macro cells (Macro cells), micro base stations providing micro cells (Pico cells), pico base stations providing Pico cells, and Femto base stations providing Femto cells (Femto cells). The access network devices may also include various forms of relay stations, access points, remote Radio units (Remote Radio Unit, RRU), radio Heads (RH), remote Radio heads (Remote Radio Head, RRH), and so on. In systems employing different radio access technologies, the names of access network devices may vary, e.g., in long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) networks referred to as evolved nodebs (enbs or enodebs), in 3G networks as Nodebs (NB), in 5G networks as G nodebs (gNB) or NR nodebs (NR NB), etc. In some scenarios, the access network device may contain a Centralized Unit (CU) and/or a Distributed Unit (DU). The CUs and DUs may be placed in different places, for example: DU is far-pulled, placed in the area of high traffic, CU is placed in the central machine room. Or the CU and DU may be placed in the same room. The CU and DU may also be different components under one shelf. For convenience of description, in the subsequent embodiments of the present disclosure, the above devices for providing wireless communication functions for mobile terminals are collectively referred to as network devices, and embodiments of the present disclosure are not specifically limited.

The 3gpp sa1#94 conference agrees with the use cases and requirements for low power consumption and high precision positioning (S1-210366), as shown in table 1, some of which use cases (such as asset tracking, cart tracking, indoor physics, etc.) place a requirement for low power consumption and high precision positioning for the terminal for more than half a year.

In addition, the research on the positioning problem of 3GPP refers to the low-power-consumption high-precision positioning, which can be implemented by researching the relevant enhancement technology of rrc_inactive (deactivated state) positioning, that is, the UE completes the whole positioning procedure in rrc_inactive state (the UE does not need to enter rrc_connected state). For an rrc_inactive Positioning scenario, either uplink or joint uplink and downlink, the introduction of a Positioning active area (PA), which may comprise a group of cells, may be considered. One possible implementation may configure a reference signal for the PA, i.e. the terminal device does not move out of the service range of the cell in the PA, or the cell in which the terminal device currently resides belongs to the PA, the reference signal configuration information being valid. Thus, the terminal equipment can be prevented from frequently entering a connection state to update the reference signal configuration information, so that the power consumption of the terminal equipment is reduced. Because the range of the positioning effective area PA is larger, and a group of cells is usually included, when the UE moves in the PA, the original timing advance (TIMING ADVANCE, TA) value may fail, and if the UE sends the SRS according to the failed/inaccurate TA, the positioning accuracy may be affected; if the UE enters the RRC_CONNECTED state to update the TA, the power consumption of the UE is increased. Therefore, in order to achieve low-power-consumption and high-precision positioning, the TA update problem of the rrc_inactive UE needs to be studied, so that the UE can accurately update the TA when moving in the PA.

The TA is generally used for UE uplink transmission (data or reference signals, hereinafter, described by taking data as an example), and means that a system frame in which the UE transmits uplink data is advanced by a certain period of time from a corresponding downlink frame. A possible implementation of TA calculation, the timing advance is calculated by T _TA＝(N_TA+N_TA,offset)T_c (see TS 38.211). Where T _TA is the actual timing advance (in s); n _TA is the (unbiased) timing advance (e.g., NR in basic time unit T _c) and is related to the subcarrier spacing that depends on the first uplink transmission after receiving the RAR (Random Access Response ) message, i.e., the subcarrier spacing of Msg3, N _TA can be parsed from the timing advance Command (TIMING ADVANCE Command, TAC); n _TA,offset is a timing advance offset value, which is a constant value that varies according to different frequency bands and subcarrier intervals, and is informed to the UE by the serving base station through an N-TimingAdvanceOffset parameter (see TS 38.213,4.2).

The following presents some key terms related to aspects of embodiments of the present application.

(1)TP,RP,TRP

TP (Transmission Point): a transmission point, a transmission node, or a transmitting node, represents a set of geographically co-located transmit antennas, e.g., an antenna array (with one or more antenna elements), the concept applies to one cell, a part of a cell, or one TP supporting only DL-PRS (DownLink-Positioning reference signal) REFERENCE SIGNAL. The transmitting node may include an antenna of a base station (ng-eNB or gNB), a remote radio module remote radio heads, a remote antenna of the base station, an antenna supporting only TP of DL-PRS (downlink-positioning reference signal), etc. A cell may include one or more transmission points;

RP (Reception Point): a receiving point or node, representing a set of geographically co-located receiving antennas, e.g. an antenna array (with one or more antenna elements), the concept applies to one cell, a part of a cell or an RP supporting only UL-SRS. The transmission node may include an antenna of a base station (ng-eNB or gNB), a remote radio module remote radio heads, a remote antenna of the base station, an antenna of an RP supporting only UL-SRS (uplink sounding reference signal), and the like. One cell may include one or more reception points;

TRP (Transmission-Reception Point): a transmit-receive node represents a set of geographically co-located antennas (e.g., an antenna array (having one or more antenna elements)) that support TP and/or RP functions.

(2) Physical channel

The time-frequency resource carrying the information of the higher layer (each layer above the physical layer) is called a physical channel, wherein the physical downlink channel related to the present invention mainly comprises:

a physical downlink shared channel (Physical Downlink SHARED CHANNEL, PDSCH) for downlink data transmission.

A physical downlink control CHannel (Physical Downlink Control chnnel, PDCCH) for downlink control information transmission, the downlink control information comprising: scheduling decisions required for receiving downlink data (PDSCH) and scheduling grants allowing UEs to transmit uplink data (PUSCH).

(3) Timing advance, timing advance command

Timing advance (TIMING ADVANCE, TA): the timing advance is generally used for uplink transmission of the UE, and refers to that in order to enable an uplink data packet sent by the UE to reach a base station at a desired time, a transmission delay caused by a distance is estimated, and the data packet is sent out in advance by a corresponding time.

Timing advance Command (TIMING ADVANCE Command, TAC): and a timing advance command, wherein the base station informs the UE of the specific timing advance size by sending the TAC to the UE.

(4) CONNECTED state (rrc_connected), deactivated state (rrc_inactive), IDLE state (rrc_idle)

Connection state: when the terminal device is in a connected state, the terminal device has established an RRC context. Parameters required for establishing communication between the terminal device and the network device are acquired by both communication parties. The network device allocates a cell radio network temporary identity (cell radio network temporary identifier, C-RNTI) for the accessed terminal device. Meanwhile, the terminal device also establishes connection with the core network device, that is, the core network device is in cn_connected (core network connection state). At this time, if the terminal device is transmitting data, it is in continuous reception state, and when the data transmission is completed and the waiting state is entered, it is switched to discontinuous reception (discontinuous reception, DRX) in connection state to save power consumption. If there is more data to be transmitted subsequently, the terminal device returns to the continuous reception state again. At this time, since the RRC context is already established, the switching time required for the UE to leave the connected state DRX and prepare for continuous reception is much shorter than the time to switch from the idle state to the connected state.

Deactivated state: when the terminal device is in a deactivated state, an RRC context is maintained between the terminal device and the network device. Meanwhile, the terminal device also establishes connection with the core network device, that is, the core network device is in cn_connected (core network connection state). At this time, the process of switching to the connected state for data reception is relatively fast, and no additional core network signaling overhead is generated. In addition, the terminal device in the RRC deactivated state may also enter the sleep state. Thus, the deactivated state can meet the requirements of reducing connection latency, signaling overhead, and power consumption.

Idle state: when the terminal device is in idle state, the terminal device does not reserve radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), context. The RRC context is a parameter for establishing communication between the terminal device and the network device. The RRC context may include a security context, capability information of the terminal device, and the like. Meanwhile, the terminal equipment does not establish connection with the core network equipment, namely the core network equipment is in a CN-IDLE (core network IDLE state). The terminal device does not have data to be transmitted, and enters a Sleep (Sleep) state, and the transceiver unit is closed to reduce power consumption. The terminal device in idle state only wakes up periodically to receive the paging message.

Notably, the "unconnected state" in this document refers to states other than the "connected state", e.g., deactivated state, idle state.

Some related concepts involved in the downlink data transmission and reception are described below.

PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel ), which is mainly used for transmitting DCI (Downlink control information ) and UL Grant, so that UE correctly receives PDSCH (Physical Downlink SHARED CHANNEL ) and allocates Uplink resources for PUSCH (Physical Uplink SHARED CHANNEL).

CORESET (Control-Resource Set), CORESET is configured to carry information such as a frequency band occupied by the PDCCH in a frequency domain and the number of OFDM symbols occupied in a time domain. The concept CORESET is introduced in the TS 38.211 protocol 7.3.3.2, CORESET comprising a number of physical resource blocks (Physical Resource Block, PRBs) in the frequency domain and 1-3 OFDM symbols in the time domain.

SEARCH SPACE search space, 5G NR is added with the time domain configuration information of SEARCH SPACE search space set, and UE detects candidate PDCCH according to the time domain position without detecting PDCCH in every downlink subframe similar to LTE.

PDCCH blind detection, in general, a base station transmits PDCCH to a plurality of UEs simultaneously. In order to ensure that control information belonging to the UE is received, the UE needs to continuously detect downlink PDCCH scheduling information. However, before detection, the UE does not know what information the PDCCH transmits, what format is used, but the UE knows the desired information. For different expected information, the UE uses the corresponding X-RNTI to sum CCE information to do CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check ) check, if the CRC check is successful, the UE knows that the information is needed by itself.

RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Identifier, radio network temporary identity). The RNTI is control information that the higher layer uses to indicate that the physical layer needs to receive or transmit. The RNTI may be denoted as X-RNTI according to different control messages. The PDCCH information of different terminals is distinguished by their corresponding RNTI information, i.e. the CRC of their DCI is scrambled by RNTI. For different information, the UE uses the corresponding RNTI and CCE to do CRC check, if the CRC check is successful, the UE knows that the information is expected by itself, and further analyzes the content of the DCI according to a modulation coding mode.

In view of this, the embodiment of the application provides a technical scheme which can assist the base station to sense which cell the terminal equipment (for example, UE) currently resides in, so as to realize updating of TA by the terminal equipment in a non-connection state, and the terminal equipment can realize updating of TA without entering a connection state, thereby achieving the purpose of positioning with low power consumption and high precision. In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more apparent, the present application will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The specific methods of operation, functional descriptions, etc. in the method embodiments may also be applied in the apparatus embodiments or the system embodiments.

Fig. 1A is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to some embodiments of the application. Wherein the terminal device 110 may communicate with the network devices 120, 130, 140, respectively, the network devices 120, 130 may communicate with the network device 140, respectively, and also between the network device 120 and the network device 130. The terminal device 110 may be a UE (user equipment) and the network devices 120, 130 may be base stations. In some embodiments, network device 120 may be a base station corresponding to a cell in which terminal device 110 is currently camping, and network device 130 may be a base station corresponding to a cell in which terminal device 110 was last camping (which may be referred to as a last camping cell) or a last serving base station. The network device 140 may be a core network device, such as an LMF (Location Management Function ). In some embodiments, the network devices 120, 130 may be network devices under different network systems, such as devices with wireless transceiving functions. Including but not limited to: the legacy UMTS/LTE (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, universal mobile telecommunications system/Long Term Evolution, long term evolution) wireless communication system may be a legacy macro Base station eNB (evolved node B), a micro Base station eNB in a HetNet (Heterogeneous Network ) scenario, a baseband processing Unit BBU (Base Band Unit, Baseband unit) and radio frequency unit RRU (Remote Radio Unit ), which may be baseband pool BBU pool and radio frequency unit RRU in CRAN (Cloud Radio Access Netowrk, cloud radio access network) scenario, and may be gNB, base station of 3GPP subsequent evolution, access node in WiFi system, wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, etc. in future wireless communication system. The base station may be: macro base station, micro base station, pico base station, small station, relay station, or balloon station, etc. The network device 120 may also be a server, a wearable device, or an in-vehicle device, etc. The UE (user equipment) may be various user communication devices. In some embodiments, the user device may be a vehicle-mounted communication module or other embedded communication module, a mobile phone, a tablet (Pad), a computer with wireless transceiver function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal device, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal device, a wireless terminal in an industrial control (industrial control), a haptic terminal device, a vehicle-mounted terminal device, a wireless terminal in unmanned driving, a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in a smart grid (SMART GRID), Wireless terminals in transportation security (transportation safety), wireless terminals in smart city (SMART CITY), wireless terminals in smart home (smart home), wearable terminal devices, and the like.

Fig. 1B is a schematic diagram of a communication system according to further embodiments of the present application. As shown in fig. 1B, in LTE and NR Rel-16, the positioning process is mainly based on a 5G core network, LMF (Location Management Function ), access network and UE terminal-assisted system architecture, and in the 5G core network-based positioning architecture, the functions of the functional entities are as follows:

The LMF is responsible for supporting different types of location services with respect to the target UE, including positioning of the UE and delivery of assistance data to the UE, its control and user planes being E-SMLC (ENHANCED SERVING Mobile Location Centre, enhanced services mobile location center) and SLP (SUPL Location Platform, SUPL positioning platform), respectively. The LMF may interact with ng-eNB (Next-generation eNodeB, next generation LTE base station)/gNB (Next-generation NodeB) and UE as follows:

Information interaction is performed with the ng-eNB/gNB through NRPPa (NR Positioning Protocol Annex, NR Positioning protocol, which is a signaling protocol between the LMF and the base station), for example, PRS (Positioning reference signal) is obtained, SRS configuration information, cell timing, cell location information, and the like.

And the UE capability information transfer, auxiliary information transfer, measurement information transfer and the like are carried out between the mobile terminal and the UE through LPP (LTE Positioning Protocol ) information.

The AMF (ACCESS AND Mobility Management Function ) may receive Location Service requests related to the target UE from a 5GC (5G Core Network) LCS (Location Service) entity, or the AMF itself may initiate some Location services on behalf of a specific target UE and forward the Location Service requests to the LMF. And after the position information returned by the UE is obtained, the related position information is returned to the 5GC LCS entity.

The UE may measure downlink signals from NG-RAN (Next-generation Radio Access Network, next generation radio access network) and other sources to support positioning.

The gNB/ng-eNB may provide measurement information for the target UE and communicate this information to the LMF.

The embodiment of the application can be applied to 5G positioning scenes, and relates to network elements, which are as follows: LMF, network device (e.g. network device 120, 130, in particular a base station (gNode B G system, gNB), a centralized network element (centralized unit), a new radio base station, a remote radio module, a micro base station (also called a small station), a relay, a distributed network element (distributed unit), various forms of macro base stations, a reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), a Reception Point (RP), a transmission measurement function (transmission measurement function, TMF) or a transmission point (transmission point, TP) or any other radio access device) and UE (an example of terminal device 110). The functions of the involved network elements include: 1) The LMF sends LPP information to the UE, the UE completes corresponding operation according to the indication of the LPP information, and reports position measurement information to the LMF according to the situation, and the network elements involved in the process are as follows: LMF and UE. 2) Possibly, the gNB/ng-eNB sends an RRC message or an MAC CE to the UE, the UE completes corresponding operation according to the indication of the RRC message or the MAC CE, and reports a confirmation message to the gNB/ng-eNB according to the situation, and the network elements involved in the process are as follows: gNB/ng-eNB and UE.

Referring to fig. 1A and 1B, a network architecture provided by some embodiments of the present application may include: terminal equipment, access management network elements, location management network elements, (radio) access network equipment, and some network elements not shown, such as session management network elements, network storage network elements, etc.

It should be understood that the network architecture according to the embodiments of the present application may be the fifth generation system (5th generation system,5GS), and the network element in 5GS may also be referred to as a 5G core network element.

The functions of the individual network elements or devices involved in the network architecture are described below.

1. A terminal device, which may also be referred to as a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc., is a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user. For example, the terminal device may include a handheld device having a wireless connection function, an in-vehicle device, and the like. Currently, the terminal device may be: a mobile phone, a tablet, a notebook, a palm, a mobile internet device (mobile INTERNET DEVICE, MID), a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in unmanned driving (self-driving), a wireless terminal in teleoperation (remote medical surgery), a wireless terminal in smart grid (SMART GRID), a wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (SMART CITY), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), or the like. Wherein in the network architecture, the terminal device is shown as a UE, by way of example only, and not by way of limitation.

2. Access management network element: the method is mainly used for mobility management, access management and the like. In a 5G communication system, the access management network element may be an access and mobility management function (ACCESS AND mobility management function, AMF), in which network architecture it may mainly perform mobility management, access authentication/authorization, etc. In addition, it is responsible for transferring user policies between the terminal and the policy control function (policy control function, PCF) network elements. It may receive non-access stratum (NAS) signaling of the terminal device, including mobility management (mobility management, MM) signaling and session management (session management, SM) signaling, and related signaling of the access network device, for example, N2 (next generation Network (NG) 2 interface) signaling of the granularity of the base station interacting with the AMF, to complete the registration procedure of the user and forwarding of the SM signaling, and mobility management. Specifically, the AMF network element may receive a location service request related to the target UE from a 5G core network (5G core network,5GC) location service (location services, LCS) entity, or the AMF itself may initiate some location services on behalf of a specific target UE and forward the location service request to a location management network element, and after obtaining the location information returned by the UE, return the related location information to the 5GC LCS entity. In future communications, such as 6G, the access management network element may still be an AMF network element, or may be named otherwise, and the application is not limited.

3. Position management network element: mainly responsible for location management. For example, positioning requests of other network elements (such as an AMF network element) are received, positioning data of the user are collected, and the user position is obtained after positioning calculation. The location management network element can also manage and configure the base station or the location management unit, so as to realize the configuration of the location reference signals and the like. The location management network element may be a location management function network element (location management function, LMF), or a local location management function network element (local LMF), or other network element having similar functionality. In a 5G core network based positioning architecture, the LMF network element may be responsible for supporting different types of location services related to the target UE, including positioning of the UE and delivery of assistance data to the UE, the control plane and user plane of which are an evolved serving mobile location center (evolved serving mobile location center, E-SMLC) and a serving positioning protocol (service location protocol, SLP), respectively. The LMF network element can perform the following information interaction with the ng-eNB/gNB and the UE:

Information interaction is carried out between the cell timing information and the ng-eNB/gNB through NRPPa information, such as PRS, SRS configuration information, cell timing, cell position information and the like;

and carrying out UE capability information transfer, auxiliary information transfer, measurement information transfer and the like between the mobile terminal and the UE through LPP messages.

4. (Radio) access network device (radio access network, (R) AN): the access network device may also be referred to as AN access device, where the (R) AN may be capable of managing radio resources, providing access services for the user device, and completing forwarding of user device data between the user device and the core network, and may also be understood as a base station in the network.

The access network device in the embodiment of the present application may be any communication device with a wireless transceiver function for communicating with the user equipment. The access network device includes, but is not limited to: an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home evolved Node B, heNB, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (baseBand unit, BBU), an Access Point (AP), a radio relay Node, a radio backhaul Node, a transmission point (transmission point, TP), or a transmission reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP) in a wireless fidelity (WIRELESS FIDELITY, WIFI) system, or the like, may also be 5G, such as a gNB in an NR system, or a transmission point (TRP or TP), one or a group (including a plurality of antenna panels) of base stations in a 5G system, or may also be a network Node constituting a gNB or a transmission point, such as a baseband unit (BBU), or a Distributed Unit (DU), or the like. In a 5G core network based positioning architecture, the gNB/ng-eNB may provide measurement information for the target UE and communicate this information to the LMF.

In some deployments, the gNB may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and DUs. The gNB may also include an active antenna unit (ACTIVE ANTENNA units, AAU). The CU implements part of the functionality of the gNB and the DU implements part of the functionality of the gNB. For example, the CU is responsible for handling non-real time protocols and services, implementing the functions of the radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), packet data convergence layer protocol (PACKET DATA convergence protocol, PDCP) layer. The DU is responsible for handling physical layer protocols and real-time services, and implements functions of a radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layer. The AAU realizes part of physical layer processing function, radio frequency processing and related functions of the active antenna. The information of the RRC layer is generated by the CU and finally becomes PHY layer information through PHY layer encapsulation of DU or is converted from the information of the PHY layer. Thus, under this architecture, higher layer signaling, such as RRC layer signaling, may also be considered to be sent by a DU, or by a du+aau. It is understood that the access network device may be a device comprising one or more of a CU node, a DU node, an AAU node. In addition, the CU may be divided into access network devices in an access network (radio access network, RAN), or may be divided into access network devices in a Core Network (CN), and the access network devices may be next-generation radio access networks (NG-generation radio access network, NG-RAN), which is not limited in this regard.

5. Session management network element: the method is mainly used for session management, network interconnection protocol (internet protocol, IP) address allocation and management of user equipment, terminal node of selecting manageable user plane function, strategy control and charging function interface, downlink data notification and the like. For example, the session management function (session management function, SMF) network element is responsible for session management functions, and performs procedures such as setup, release, update, etc. related to the protocol data unit (protocol data unit, PDU) session.

6. Network storage network element: and providing a storage function and a selection function of network function entity information for other core network elements. In a 5G communication system, the network element may be a network function repository function network element (network function repository function, NRF), mainly comprising the following functions: service discovery function, maintaining NF text of available Network Function (NF) instances and services they support.

The functional network elements may be network elements in hardware devices, software functions running on dedicated hardware, or virtualized functions instantiated on a platform (e.g., a cloud platform). The functional network element may divide one or more services and further, services may occur that exist independent of network functionality. In the present application, the instance of the above-described functional network element, or the instance of the service included in the above-described functional network element, or the instance of the service existing independently of the network function may be referred to as a service instance.

It should be understood that, where the above network elements appear in the architecture below, the above description of the functions included in each network element may be equally applicable, and for brevity, the next appearance will not be repeated.

In the network architecture, user equipment UE may be connected to an AMF network element through NG-RAN, where the AMF network element is connected to an LMF network element, and the LMF network element is connected to an E-SMLC network element and an SLP network element, respectively. The interfaces and connections in the architecture may include: LTE-Uu, NR-Uu, NG-C, and NL1. Wherein NG-C is control plane connection between NG-RAN and AMF network element, LTE-Uu is protocol interface between NG-eNB and UE, NR-Uu is protocol interface between UE and gNB, NL1 is protocol interface between LMF network element and AMF network element.

Of course, other network elements, such as an SMF network element, a network slice selection function (network slice selection function, NSSF), a unified data repository (unified data repository, UDR), or a network storage function (network repository function, NRF), or a device, may also be included in the network architecture, and are not limited in particular.

It should be understood that the interfaces or serviced interfaces between network elements in the network architecture are only one example, and in 5G networks and other networks in the future, the interfaces or serviced interfaces between network elements may not be the interfaces shown in the figures, which the present application is not limited to.

It should be understood that the naming of each network element in the network architecture is only a name, and the name does not limit the function of the network element itself. In 5G networks and other networks in the future, the above-mentioned network elements may also be named, which is not particularly limited in the embodiment of the present application. For example, in a 6G network, some or all of the above network elements may use the terminology in 5G, and other names may also be used, which is generally described herein and not described in detail herein.

It should also be understood that the embodiments of the present application are not limited to the description of the network architecture described above. For example, a communication system to which the present application may be applied may include more or fewer network elements or devices. The devices or network elements in the network architecture may be hardware, or may be functionally divided software, or a combination of the two. The devices or network elements in the network architecture can communicate with each other through other devices or network elements.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of an exemplary communication method in an embodiment of the present application. In flow 200, the network device 130 transmits (210) a first set of configuration information 205 associated with a plurality of cells, the first set of configuration information 205 for use by the terminal device 110 in transmitting at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance, TA, request message in a non-connected state. Terminal device 110 receives (220) a first set of configuration information 205 associated with a plurality of cells. Based on the first set of configuration information 205, the terminal device 110 transmits (230) at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance, TA, request message in a non-connected state. Terminal device 110 receives (240) TA information, which is used to determine a TA.

As shown in fig. 2, in some embodiments, the first set of configuration information 205 may be transmitted by the network device 130 and received by the terminal device 110. In some embodiments, network device 130 may send information to terminal device 110 (which may be one or more terminal devices) via a broadcast message or a unicast message. In some embodiments, the broadcast message is, for example, a system information block (system information blocks, SIB) or a positioning system information block (positioning system information blocks, posSIB). In some embodiments, the unicast message is, for example, RRC signaling.

In some embodiments, terminal device 110 may be a UE. The network device 130 may be a base station, for example, a base station to which the UE last camps.

An embodiment will be described below first with respect to the terminal device 110 transmitting (230) a reference signal in a non-connected state.

In some embodiments, the first set of configuration information 205 includes first configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, which may be the cell in which the terminal device 110 is currently camping, or other cells of the plurality of cells, i.e., the first configuration information in embodiments of the present application is configured by cell. The first configuration information is used to determine a reference signal transmitted when the terminal device 110 camps on the first cell. In some embodiments, the plurality of cells may be several cells within the PA.

In some embodiments, the first configuration information may include reference signal sequence identification information, such as an SRS sequence ID.

In other embodiments, the first set of configuration information 205 may include identification information for a plurality of cells, e.g., the first set of configuration information 205 may include a list of Cell IDs. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may utilize the cell identity and the identity of the terminal device 110 to generate the reference signal sequence identity information. In some embodiments, the manner in which the terminal device 110 generates the reference signal sequence identification information is as follows: sequence id= UE ID mod Cell ID, or sequence id=ue ID (taking the upper 6 bits) & Cell ID (lower 10 bits), where sequence ID is an example of reference signal sequence identification information, cell ID is an example of Cell identification, and UE ID is an example of identification of terminal device 110.

In some embodiments, terminal device 110 may receive a second set of configuration information associated with the plurality of cells, which may be used for terminal device 110 to receive TA information.

In some embodiments, the second set of configuration information includes second configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the second configuration information being for receiving TA information when the terminal device 110 resides in the first cell.

In some embodiments, the second configuration information includes configuration information of a Timing Advance Command (TAC), and in some embodiments, the configuration information of the timing advance command may specifically include one or more configuration information of a radio network temporary identifier of the timing advance command, a transmission period (TAC period) of the timing advance command, a duration of the timing advance command, a receiving window (TAC window) of the timing advance command, and so on. In some embodiments, the radio network temporary identity of the timing advance command may be a TAC-RNTI. In some embodiments, when terminal device 110 resides in a different cell at a different time, its associated second configuration information may be different, which may increase flexibility of network configuration. In other embodiments, when the terminal device resides in a different cell, its associated second configuration information may be the same, which may reduce signaling overhead.

In some embodiments, the radio network temporary identities of the timing advance commands associated with different cells in the second set of configuration information are the same, i.e. the radio network temporary identities are PA configured, in such a way that the radio network temporary identities of the timing advance commands need only occur once, whereby signalling overhead can be reduced. In other words, when the terminal device 110 camps on a different cell, the same timing advance commanded radio network temporary identity may be used to receive the TA information. In other embodiments, the transmission period of the timing advance command, the duration of the timing advance command and the receiving window of the timing advance command associated with different cells in the second configuration information set are different, so that the network device can perform reasonable configuration based on the resource allocation situation of different cells, and flexibility and efficiency of resource configuration are improved. In other words, when terminal device 110 camps on a different cell, TA information may be received based on different timing advance command transmission periods, timing advance command durations, or timing advance commands.

In some embodiments, when terminal device 110 camps on a first cell, the base station of the first cell (an example of network device 120) is able to receive a reference signal sent by terminal device 110, and because the reference signal is associated with the first cell, network device 120 is able to determine that terminal device 110 camps on the cell of the present network device 120. Accordingly, the network device 120 transmits the TA information to the terminal device 110, so that the terminal device 110 can receive the TA information from the network device 120.

An embodiment is described below with respect to terminal device 110 sending (230) a timing advance TA request message in a non-connected state.

In some embodiments, the first set of configuration information 205 may include: a first threshold, or a second threshold, or both the first and second thresholds. The first threshold or the second threshold is used for the terminal device 110 to determine a first condition for transmitting the TA request message.

In other embodiments, the first set of configuration information includes at least one of a first threshold, a second threshold, or a third threshold for the terminal device to determine a first condition for sending the TA request message.

In some embodiments, terminal device 110 may determine a first condition based on first set of configuration information 205 and send a TA request message based on the first condition. In some embodiments, the first condition may be a predefined condition that triggers whether the terminal device 110 initiates a TA update request. Based on the first condition, the TA request message is sent, specifically, the terminal device 110 sends the TA request message to the network device 130 based on that the first condition is not satisfied. In some embodiments, the TA request message may be sent through MSG1 or MSG a.

In some embodiments, the first condition may include the number of camped cells of terminal device 110 being less than or equal to a first threshold, and in other embodiments, the first condition may include: (condition 1) the number of times the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device 110 exceeds the preset threshold is less than or equal to the second threshold. The number of cells already camped may specifically be the number of cells that the terminal device 110 has camped on at a different time from the last time the TA request message was sent or after the last TA update.

In still other embodiments, the first condition may include: (condition 2) the number of camped cells of the terminal device 110 is less than or equal to the first threshold, and the number of times the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device 110 exceeds the preset threshold is less than or equal to the second threshold. In these embodiments, such that when the terminal device 110 is not moving in a single direction, e.g. moving again to a cell that was camping on at a previous moment, it is avoided that it is not possible to effectively determine whether or not a TA request message needs to be sent by condition 1.

In still other embodiments, the first condition may include: (condition 1) the number of times the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device 110 exceeds the preset threshold is less than or equal to the second threshold, and (condition 2) the number of resident cells of the terminal device 110 is less than or equal to the first threshold, and the number of times the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device 110 exceeds the preset threshold is less than or equal to the second threshold. In these embodiments, for the case where the speed of movement of the terminal device 110 is fast (e.g., the speed exceeds a certain value), the change of the reference signal reception power value is not obvious, or the terminal device 110 does not move in a single direction, e.g., moves again to a cell that has been camping on at a certain time before, these embodiments can avoid that it is not possible to effectively determine whether or not to send the TA request message only by the condition 1 or only by the condition 2.

In some embodiments, the reference signal may be one of a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS), a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), a positioning sounding reference signal (positioning-sounding REFERENCE SIGNAL, pos-SRS), a tracking reference signal (TRACKING REFERENCE SIGNAL, TRS), a channel state information reference signal (CHANNEL STATE information-REFERENCE SIGNAL, CSI-RS), a demodulation reference signal (demodulatin REFERENCE SIGNAL, DM-RS), a phase noise tracking reference signal (phase noise TRACKING REFERENCE SIGNAL, PT-RS), a side-link reference signal, a random access preamble (preamble).

It is noted that in some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may send (230) both the reference signal and the timing advance TA request message in the non-connected state.

In some embodiments, the network device 130 may receive a first set of configuration information from a first network device. In other embodiments, the network device 130 may receive a second set of configuration information from the first network device. In still other embodiments, the network device 130 may receive the first set of configuration information and the second set of configuration information. In some embodiments, the first network device may be a core network device (an example of network device 140), and in some embodiments, the first network device may be specifically an LMF.

In some embodiments, the core network device may send one or both of the first set of configuration information, the second set of configuration information to a plurality of base stations (examples of network devices 120, 130, etc., e.g., base stations corresponding to a plurality of cells in the PA cell list). For example, the LMF may send some or all of the first configuration information (constituting the first set of configuration information) for the plurality of cells and/or some or all of the second configuration information (constituting the second set of configuration information) for all cells to one or more base stations within the PA for local maintenance of the configuration information by the base station that received the configuration information. In some embodiments, the first set of configuration information, the second set of configuration information, of the core network device may be obtained or received from the respective base station. In some other embodiments, the first set of configuration information, the second set of configuration information of the core network device is sent from the base station or the last serving base station corresponding to the cell where the terminal device 110 last resides, e.g. LAST SERVING g nb mentioned below, to the core network device. One possible implementation manner, the core network device may request the configuration information from each base station. Alternatively, the base station may send the first set of configuration information and/or the second set of configuration information to the core network device in response to the request. In another possible implementation manner, the base station actively reports the first configuration information set and/or the second configuration information set to the core network device.

In some embodiments, the network device 130 receives at least one of configuration information in the first set of configuration information or configuration information in the second set of configuration information from the second network device. The second network device may be a different network device than the network device 130, such as a further base station. In some embodiments, the second network device may be plural, i.e., the network device 130 may receive at least one of configuration information in the first configuration information set, configuration information in the second configuration information set from plural base stations, thereby obtaining the first configuration information set and/or the second configuration information set. Optionally, the network device 130 may transmit at least one of the first set of configuration information or the second set of configuration information. For example, the network device 130 may send at least one of the first set of configuration information or the second set of configuration information to the core network device. It should be noted that, when the network device 130 may send the first configuration information set or the second configuration information set to the core network device, it may specifically be to send part or all of the configuration information in the first configuration information set or the second configuration information set, or the modified first configuration information set or the modified second configuration information set.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary flow 300 of a communication method in further embodiments of the application. Referring to fig. 3, a flow 300 is illustrated by taking an example in which terminal device 110 is UE 310, network device 120 is a gNB (base station) 340, and network device 130 is a gNB 320, where LMF 350 is located at a core network device (an example of network device 140). The number of UEs, gnbs mentioned in the present embodiment is not limited to the number listed in fig. 3, and the UE 310 may be replaced with other terminal devices other than the UE, and the gnbs 320, 330, 340 may be replaced with other network devices other than the gnbs.

In some embodiments, the UE 310 may receive a first set of configuration information. In other embodiments, the UE 310 may receive a second set of configuration information. In still other embodiments, the UE 310 may receive a first set of configuration information and a second set of configuration information. Referring to fig. 3, in some embodiments, a UE 310 may receive (305 a) a first set of configuration information and/or a second set of configuration information from a gNB 320. In one possible implementation, the UE 310 receives a first message from LAST SERVING g nb (the base station where the UE last camped on RRC CONNECTED or the base station where the UE camped when releasing the RRC connection) that contains the first set of configuration information and/or the second set of configuration information. Optionally, the first message is an RRC message, for example RRC RELEASE messages. In another possible implementation, UE 310 receives a second message from the corresponding gNB 340 of the currently camped cell, the second message including the first set of configuration information and/or the second set of configuration information. Optionally, the second message is a message, such as Msg2 or Msg4 or MsgB, for downlink packet transfer (SMALL DATA transmission, SDT).

In other embodiments, the UE 310 may receive (305 b) the first set of configuration information and/or the second set of configuration information from the LMF 350. For example, the UE 310 receives a third message from the LMF 350 that includes the first set of configuration information and/or the second set of configuration information. Optionally, the first message is an LPP message, such as a provideasistancedata message.

The UE 310 may send 307 a reference signal (illustrated as SRS example) based on the first set of configuration information. The base station within the PA determines (309) which cell the UE 310 currently camps on based on the received SRS. In this embodiment, UE 310 is currently camped on a cell of gNB 340. In one possible implementation, the base station gNB 340 corresponding to the currently camping cell may determine 311 TA information based on SRS or other reference signals. Alternatively, the TA information may be a TA value or a TA update value.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an uplink-downlink timing relationship according to some embodiments of the present application. Based on the above description, in fig. 4, T _TA is the actual timing advance, N _TA is the (unbiased) timing advance, N _TA,offset is the timing advance offset, T _c is the basic time unit, and the timing advance can be calculated from T _TA＝(N_TA+N_TA,offset)T_c.

The gNB 340 sends 313 a TA Command (TAC) to the UE 310, for example by means of DL MAC CE (downlink media Access control element) or downlink packets. In other words, the base station corresponding to the current camping cell sends the TA information through a downlink packet (e.g. Msg 2/Msg B or preset downlink time-frequency resource) or DL MAC CE.

The UE 310 receives 315 TA information based on the second set of configuration information. In a possible implementation, for the case where the TA information is a TA update value, the UE 310 receives the TA information and performs the update of the TA value at step 315.

In some embodiments, optionally, interactions may be performed between the gnbs 320, 330, 340 and the LMF 350, i.e., there is also interaction information between the LMFs, base stations, TRPs, or other network entities on the network side. The network side (LMF, base station, TRP or other network entity interactions) is further described below.

In some embodiments, the gnbs (e.g., the gnbs 320, 330, 340) may send (301 a, 301 b) configuration information (e.g., first configuration information, second configuration information) corresponding to respective cells to the LMF 350, the configuration information being sent to the LMF 350 by the gnbs 330, 340 being exemplarily shown in fig. 3. I.e. the base station in the PA sends the first configuration information and/or the second configuration information of the respective cell to the LMF. In one possible implementation, the LMF 350 receives a fourth message from the base station, the fourth message including the first configuration information and/or the second configuration information. Illustratively, the fourth message is NRPPa messages, such as POSITIONING INFORMATION RESPONSE messages. Optionally, the LMF 350 transmits a fifth message for requesting the first configuration information and/or the second configuration information from the base station. Illustratively, the fifth message is NRPPa message, e.g., POSITIONING INFORMATION REQUEST message.

In other embodiments, base stations within the PA (other than LAST SERVING g nb 320) may send the first configuration information and/or second configuration information for each cell to LAST SERVING g nb 320, e.g., information between base stations may be implemented through the Xn port. Optionally, LAST SERVING g nb 320 sends the first configuration information and/or the second configuration information (partially or fully or modified) of each cell to the LMF, which is not shown in fig. 3.

The LMF 350 may obtain a first set of configuration information (e.g., may be a portion or all of the configuration information in the first set of configuration information, or a modified first set of configuration information) and a second set of configuration information (e.g., may be a portion or all of the configuration information in the second set of configuration information, or a modified second set of configuration information) based on the configuration information sent by the plurality of gnbs. The LMF 350 sends (303) the first and second sets of configuration information to each gNB (e.g. gnbs 320, 330, 340), i.e. the LMF sends the information received in steps 301a, 301b (including the first and/or second configuration information of all cells) to one or more base stations within the PA, which are maintained locally by the respective base stations. The case where the LMF 350 transmits the first configuration information set and the second configuration information set to the gNB 320 is exemplarily shown in fig. 3.

Based on the above description, the first configuration information set and the second configuration information set are respectively sets of two different configuration information, and the configuration information of each cell in the first configuration information set may include SRS sequence ID information. The configuration information of the corresponding cells in the second set of configuration information may be TA Command (TAC) related configuration information. The embodiment of the present application refers to the configuration information corresponding to (or associated with) a cell (e.g., a first cell) in which the UE 310 currently resides in the first configuration information set as first configuration information. The configuration information in the second set of configuration information corresponding to (or associated with) the cell in which the UE 310 is currently camping is referred to as second configuration information.

In some embodiments (noted as embodiment one), the first set of configuration information may include SRS sequence identification information. In some embodiments, the SRS sequence identification information may include an SRS sequence ID (per cell).

In other embodiments (denoted as embodiment two), the SRS sequence identification information may include identification information of one or more cells within range of the PA (per PA). Alternatively, the UE may generate an SRS sequence ID (i.e., SRS sequence ID) under different cells according to a Cell ID (Cell ID). In some embodiments, calculating the SRS sequence ID may be calculated by: sequence id= UE ID mod Cell ID, or sequence id=ue ID (taking the upper 6 bits) & Cell ID (lower 10 bits).

In yet other embodiments, the UE may receive other SRS configuration information, i.e., the first set of configuration information may include other SRS configuration information, e.g., time domain configuration information, frequency hopping information, etc. In some embodiments, at least one of the following information may be specifically included: scrambling code information, location information, period information, interval information, frequency hopping information, density information, reserved time information, tuning time information, and different transmission information. In these embodiments, the SRS configuration is totally different for each cell, so that the network side (e.g., the base station side) can identify which cell the UE 310 currently camps on, e.g., the SRS configuration information for cell 1 (denoted as SRS configuration 1) is different from the SRS configuration information for cell 2 (denoted as SRS configuration 2), and then the network side device can determine that the UE 310 currently camps on cell 1 based on the SRS configuration 1 receiving the SRS transmitted by the UE 310.

In some embodiments, the scrambling code information includes at least one of: scrambling code range and scrambling code value set of m signals. In some embodiments, the location information is time domain resource location information occupied by m signals, such as a start and end location of 1T (first time unit), or a start location of 1T and a time domain length of 1T. In some embodiments, the period information is a transmission period of m signals, for example, a first period (including 1T, 2T (second time unit) and two time intervals), and the period information may also be a period of time domain resources of m signals. In some embodiments, the interval information is a transmission time interval of signals corresponding to two adjacent time units among the m signals, for example, a time interval between 1T of the transmission signal 1 and 2T of the transmission signal 2. In some embodiments, the density information refers to the number of times m signals are transmitted within a particular time frame. In some embodiments, the reserved time information refers to a length of time to be reserved before m signals are transmitted, or a length of time to be reserved after m signals are transmitted, or a length of time to be reserved between two adjacent time units. In some embodiments, the tuning time information refers to the time taken for frequency tuning (radio frequency retuning, RF retuning). In some embodiments, the above-mentioned non-simultaneous transmission information is that the terminal device does not support transmission of other information than the m signals when transmitting the m signals. In some embodiments, the frequency hopping information includes one or more of the following: whether or not transmission of m signals in a frequency hopping manner is supported, i.e., frequency hopping between two adjacent signals among the m signals; transmitting a hop count of m signals in a specific time, wherein the hop count can be understood as taking two adjacent signals in the m signals as examples, and if the two adjacent signals are transmitted in a frequency hopping manner, the hop count between the two signals is 1; the number of RBs (Resource blocks) occupied by frequency hopping between two adjacent signals among the transmitted m signals may also be understood as the number of RBs spaced between the frequency domain start position of the next signal (next hop signal) and the frequency domain start position of the previous signal (previous hop signal) among the two adjacent signals (adjacent two hop signals); The resource width corresponding to the frequency hopping between two adjacent signals in the m transmitted signals can also be understood as the frequency domain resource size (width) of the interval between the frequency domain starting position of the next signal (the next hop signal) and the frequency domain starting position of the previous signal (the previous hop signal) in the two adjacent signals (the two adjacent hop signals); in an embodiment, the frequency hopping offset between two adjacent signals in the transmitted m signals may refer to an offset of a frequency domain start position of a next signal (a next hop signal) in the two adjacent signals (the two adjacent hop signals) compared with a predetermined frequency domain position, where the predetermined frequency domain position may be determined according to the number of resource blocks RB occupied by frequency hopping in the foregoing or a resource width corresponding to frequency hopping, or may be a frequency domain start position of a previous signal, or may be a designated frequency domain reference position. in some embodiments, m signals transmitted in a frequency hopping manner occupy a range of frequency domain resources. In some embodiments, the subcarrier spacing information where two adjacent signals of the m signals are transmitted are located.

The embodiment of the application configures different SRS configuration information for the UE 310 for different cells within the PA. In this way, the UE 310 transmits SRS using SRS configuration of the corresponding cell based on the currently camping cell, the base station in PA knows which cell the UE 310 currently camps on, and then issues TA information to the UE 310. As introduced above, the configuration information at the cell level in the PA may include: SRS sequence ID information (SRS sequence ID), which may be used to generate an SRS sequence, as well as other information, such as time domain configuration information, frequency hopping information, and the like.

In some embodiments, the second configuration information is specifically TA Command related configuration information, and may specifically include one or more sets of TAC configurations as follows:

TAC-RNTI: DCI CRC for scrambling the scheduling TAC (per PA and per UE, or per cell and per UE);

TAC period: the base station transmits the transmission period of the TAC (per cell and per UE)

TAC window: receiving window of TAC (per cell and per UE)

Specific forms of the first configuration information set and the second configuration information set are described below. In some embodiments, the first set of configuration information and the second set of configuration information are contained in an SRS configuration, e.g., carried in IE SRS-Config. Illustratively, the SRS configuration may include two parts:

(1) Common set or sets of configurations within the PA (PA-level configuration), including one or more of the following (see 3gpp TS 38.331):

·SRS resource set level:

srs-PosResourceIdList

SRS power control info.

·SRS resource level:

transmissionComb

resourceMapping

freqDomainShift

freqHopping

groupOrSequenceHopping

resourceType(periodicityAndOffset)

Cell list of PA (first set of configuration information, see embodiment two above)

TAC-RNTI (second configuration information when the TAC-RNTI is configured per PA and per UE)

(2) Cell-specific set or sets of configurations within the PA (cell-level configuration), including one or more of the following (see 3gpp TS 38.331):

·SRS resource set level

pathlossReferenceRS-Pos

·SRS resource level

sequenceId (first configuration information, see embodiment one above)

spatialRelationInfoPos

·TAC configuration

TAC-RNTI (second configuration information, when TAC-RNTI is PER CELL PER UE configuration)

TAC period

TAC window

It should be noted that, the step sequence of the embodiment of the present application is not limited by the step numbers shown in fig. 3, and other execution sequence forming schemes are also possible.

In some embodiments, the positioning reference signal may be replaced with other uplink reference signals. Accordingly, the SRS sequence ID of the positioning reference signal may be replaced by other uplink reference signal identifiers, for example, DMRS (Demodulation REFERENCE SIGNAL ), preamble, etc., which is not limited by the present invention.

In addition, the embodiment of the present application is mainly described by taking the UE in RRC INACTIVE state to update TA as an example, and the related scheme is also applicable to the non-connected state (the state without RRC (Radio Resource Control, radio resource control) signaling connection to the network, such as RRC INACTIVE state and RRC IDLE state).

According to some embodiments of the application, the INACTIVE UE may update the TA by receiving the TA Command, and the UE may employ a different SRS sequence ID (PER CELL PER UE) under different cells, assisting the base station within the PA to know which cell the UE is currently camping on. For example, the SRS sequence ID is associated with the cell. The UE may monitor the PDCCH and the base station may issue TA update information through DL MAC CE/DCI. In some embodiments, the mapping of SRS sequence IDs and cells may be maintained by all base stations within the LMF and PA.

The proposal provided by the embodiment of the application realizes the non-connection TA updating method, avoids the non-connection UE from frequently returning to the connection state or frequently initiating RACH (Random ACCESS CHANNEL ), effectively reduces the power consumption of the UE and realizes the low-power consumption high-precision positioning. The base station in the PA can be assisted to sense which cell the UE is currently resident in, so that the base station corresponding to the cell where the UE is currently resident knows that the UE moves to the cell at the moment, and the base station sends TA update information to the UE. In addition, by introducing the TAC-RNTI, the DCI CRC of the TAC is used for scrambling and scheduling, so that the efficiency of the UE blind detection of the PDCCH is improved, and the power consumption of the UE is reduced.

In some embodiments, a condition (hereinafter referred to as a first condition) that triggers whether the terminal device 110 initiates a TA update request may be predefined, based on which the terminal device 110 decides whether to initiate a TA update request (e.g., via RACH), and the network device 120 updates the TA via downlink packet transfer. In some embodiments, under predefined conditions, the first and second thresholds may not need to be transmitted (by the network device), and the terminal device 110 may obtain these thresholds.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of an example flow 500 of a communication method in further embodiments of the application. Referring to fig. 5, a flow 500 is illustrated with terminal device 110 being UE 510 and network device 120 being base station 520. In some embodiments, the UE 510 receives (501 a) parameters such as N1 (an example of a first threshold), N2 (an example of a second threshold), etc., transmitted by the base station 520. In other embodiments, predefined N1, N2 may be acquired 501b in the UE 510. A set of the first threshold value and the second threshold value may be used as an example of the first configuration information set. In other embodiments, the first set of configuration information may include one of N1, N2. The UE 510 determines (503) whether the first condition is satisfied based on N1, N2. The UE 510 sends (505) an xth message to the base station 520 based on the first condition, e.g., if the first condition is not satisfied, the xth message comprising a TA update request. The base station 520 sends 507 TA information to the UE 510.

In some embodiments, in particular, the UE 510 determines whether the TA is failed/triggers a TA update according to a first condition. In one possible implementation, the first condition may be: inactivePosSRS-TIMEALIGNMENTTIMER (the TA timer, i.e., the first timer, for SRS transmission by an INACTIVE UE) is running or is active or not timed out and meets one or more of the following:

The number of camped cells of UE 510 < =n1, where in some examples N1> =2 (after TA-based update), in other examples N1> =1.

The number of cells already camped may specifically be the number of cells that the terminal device 110 has camped on at a different time from the last time the TA request message was sent or after the last TA update.

Cell (Cell) schematic within the PA of some embodiments as shown in fig. 6, where PA is the region consisting of Cell 1-Cell 12, assuming n1=3. The UE 510 spans 4 cells in the moving process, that is, resides in 4 cells, the number of cells spanned by the UE 510 is > N1, and at this time, the TA is invalid, and the UE 510 is triggered to initiate a TA update request to the network. In some embodiments, the network side (e.g., base station 520) may also determine the number of cells spanned by the UE 510 in conjunction with the speed and direction of movement of the UE 510.

The number of times the RSRP value fluctuates beyond the preset threshold < =n2, where in some examples N2> =2 (based on the last stored RSRP value), in other examples N2> =1.

As shown in fig. 6, assuming that n2=3, the preset threshold is 10dBm, and the RSRP value stored last time on the ue 510 side is-90 dBm. During the movement of the UE 510 (from Cell 2 to Cell 8), the RSRP value fluctuates (the closer to the Cell center, the higher the RSRP value, and the closer to the Cell edge, the smaller the RSRP value), and if the number of times that the difference between the RSRP value and-90 dBm exceeds 10dBm is greater than 3, the TA fails, and the UE 510 is triggered to initiate a TA update request to the network. In some embodiments, to enhance the robustness of the result, the network side may employ a mean value of RSRP for a short period of time (e.g., 10 ms) to make the above determination.

As described above, in some embodiments, the first set of configuration information may include at least one of a first threshold, a second threshold, or a third threshold. Based on these embodiments, another possible implementation of the first condition may be: the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device (e.g., UE) is less than or equal to the third threshold. For example, if the first condition is not satisfied, a TA update request is transmitted to the base station 520. In other words, as an example, if the change in RSRP value of the UE 510 exceeds the third threshold, a TA update request is sent. Alternatively, the terminal device (e.g., UE) may determine that the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device is less than or equal to the third threshold based on the RSRP value stored last time.

Yet another possible implementation of the first condition may be: the first timer is running or is active or not timed out. If the first condition is not satisfied, a TA update request is transmitted to the base station 520. In some examples, if the first timer ends running, the UE 510 sends a TA update request to the base station 520; in other examples, if the first timer expires, the UE 510 sends a TA update request to the base station 520; in yet other examples, if the first timer expires, the UE 510 sends a TA update request to the base station 520.

Yet another possible implementation of the first condition may include both: the first timer is running or is active or not timed out and the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device (e.g. UE) is less than or equal to the third threshold. The third threshold may be a base station transmitted, or a predefined threshold. For example, when the first condition is not satisfied, the terminal device transmits a TA request message. As an example, if the first timer ends running or the first timer expires or the change in the reference signal reception power value of the terminal device (e.g., UE 510) exceeds a third threshold, UE 510 sends a TA update request to base station 520. Based on the above description, if the first condition is not satisfied, the TA is disabled, so that the UE 510 initiates a TA update request (e.g., through RACH), and the base station 520 updates the TA through downlink packets (downlink data packets).

According to the scheme of the embodiment of the application, the condition for triggering the terminal equipment to initiate the TA update request is defined, for example, the condition can comprise the number of cells spanned in the moving process of the terminal equipment and the number of times that the RSRP value fluctuates beyond a preset threshold, and based on the condition, the terminal equipment decides whether to initiate the TA update request (for example, through RACH), and the base station updates the TA through a downlink packet. The method can avoid the terminal equipment in the non-connection state from frequently initiating RACH in the moving process, effectively reduce the power consumption of the terminal equipment and realize the low-power consumption high-precision positioning. The terminal equipment initiates the TA updating request, so that the base station in the PA can be assisted to sense which cell the terminal equipment currently resides in, and the base station corresponding to the cell where the terminal equipment currently resides can send TA updating information to the terminal equipment. In addition, the scheme of the terminal equipment for initiating the TA update request does not need to monitor the PDCCH aiming at acquiring the TAC, and the base station does not need to blindly detect a large number of SRSs, so that the power consumption of the UE can be further reduced, and the network efficiency is improved.

It should be noted that the solutions based on the embodiments of fig. 3 and 5 may be implemented alone or in combination. The embodiments of the application can avoid the non-connected UE from frequently returning to the connected state or frequently initiating RACH, effectively reduce the power consumption of the UE and realize the positioning with low power consumption and high precision.

Fig. 7 is a flow chart implemented at a terminal device in some embodiments of the application. As shown in fig. 7, in flow 700, a terminal device receives a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells (710); based on the first set of configuration information, the terminal device transmits at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance, TA, request message in a non-connected state (720); the terminal device receives TA information for determining a TA (730).

Fig. 8 is a flow chart implemented at a network device in some embodiments of the application. As shown in fig. 8, in flow 800, a network device transmits a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells, the first set of configuration information being for a terminal device to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance, TA, request message in a non-connected state (810).

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a possible communication device according to an embodiment of the present application. These communication apparatuses can implement the functions of the terminal device 110 in the above-described method embodiment, and thus can also implement the beneficial effects provided by the above-described method embodiment. In the embodiment of the present application, the communication device may be the terminal device 110 shown in fig. 1A, or may be a module (such as a chip) applied to the terminal device 110.

As shown in fig. 9, the communication apparatus 900 includes a receiving unit 910 and a transmitting unit 920. The communication means may be adapted to implement the functionality of the terminal device in the embodiment of the method shown in fig. 2 described above. In some embodiments, a processing unit (not shown), which may be a processor, may be included, and the receiving unit may be a receiver.

When the communication apparatus 900 is configured to implement the function of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in fig. 2, a receiving unit 910 is configured to receive a first configuration information set associated with a plurality of cells, and a transmitting unit 920 is configured to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance TA request message in a non-connected state of the terminal device based on the first configuration information set.

For a more detailed description of the receiving unit 910 and the transmitting unit 920, reference may be made to the related description in the above method embodiments, which is not described here.

As shown in fig. 10, the communication device 1000 includes an interface circuit 1010 and may also include a processor 1020. The interface circuit 1010 and the processor 1020 are coupled to each other. It is understood that interface circuit 1010 may be a transceiver or an input-output interface. Optionally, the communication device 1000 may further include a memory 1030 for storing instructions to be executed by the processor 1020 or for storing input data required by the processor 1020 to execute the instructions or for storing data generated after the processor 1020 executes the instructions.

When the communication apparatus 1000 is used to implement the method in the above-described method embodiment, the processor 1020 is used to perform the functions of the above-described processing unit, and the interface circuit 1010 is used to perform the functions of the above-described receiving unit 910 or transmitting unit 920.

When the communication device is a chip applied to the terminal device 110, the terminal device chip implements the functions of the terminal device 110 in the above method embodiment. The terminal device chip receives information from other modules (e.g., radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal device 110, which may be sent by other terminal devices 110; or the terminal device chip sends information to other modules (e.g., radio frequency modules or antennas) in the terminal device 110, which information is sent to other terminal devices 110.

It is to be appreciated that the processor in embodiments of the application may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), but may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (DIGITAL SIGNAL processors, DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (field programmable GATE ARRAY, FPGAs), or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, it may be any conventional processor.

The embodiment of the application provides a communication system. The communication system may include the communication apparatus, such as the terminal device 110, according to the embodiment shown in fig. 9 described above. Alternatively, the terminal device 110 in the communication system may perform the communication method shown in fig. 2.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a circuit, which may be coupled to a memory, may be used to perform the processes associated with terminal device 110 in any of the embodiments of the method described above. The chip system may include the chip, and may also include other components such as a memory or transceiver.

It should be appreciated that the processor referred to in the embodiments of the present application may be a CPU, but may also be other general purpose 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) which acts as external cache memory. By way of example, and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as 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 (doubledata 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) is integrated into the processor.

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

It should be understood that, in various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the foregoing processes do not mean the order of execution, and the order of execution of the processes should be determined by the functions and internal logic thereof, and should not constitute any limitation on the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative modules and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the 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 clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, specific working procedures of the above-described system, apparatus and module may refer to corresponding procedures in the foregoing method embodiments, which are not repeated herein.

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

The modules illustrated as separate components may or may not be physically separate, and components shown as modules may or may not be physical modules, i.e., may be located in one place, or may be distributed over a plurality of network elements. 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 module in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processing module, or each module may exist alone physically, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional modules and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored on a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or contributing parts or parts of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a terminal device 110, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method of the various embodiments of the present application. The foregoing computer-readable storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Taking this as an example but not limited to: the computer readable medium may include random access memory (random access memory, RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (ELECTRICALLY ERASABLE PROGRAMMABLE READ ONLY MEMORY, EEPROM), compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), universal serial bus flash disk (universal serial bus FLASH DISK), removable hard disk, or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

As used herein, the term "comprising" and the like should be understood to be open-ended, i.e., including, but not limited to. The term "based on" should be understood as "based at least in part on". The term "one embodiment" or "the embodiment" should be understood as "at least one embodiment". The terms "first," "second," and the like, may refer to different or the same object and are used solely to distinguish one from another without implying a particular spatial order, temporal order, order of importance, etc. of the referenced objects. In some embodiments, the values, processes, selected items, determined items, devices, means, parts, components, etc. are referred to as "best," "lowest," "highest," "smallest," "largest," etc. It should be understood that such description is intended to indicate that a selection may be made among many available options of functionality, and that such selection need not be better, lower, higher, smaller, larger, or otherwise preferred in further or all respects than other selections. As used herein, the term "determining" may encompass a wide variety of actions. For example, "determining" may include computing, calculating, processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in a table, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like. Further, "determining" may include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in memory), and so forth. Further, "determining" may include parsing, selecting, choosing, establishing, and the like.

The foregoing is merely illustrative of specific embodiments of the present application, and the scope of the embodiments of the present application is not limited thereto, and any person skilled in the art will readily appreciate variations or substitutions within the scope of the embodiments of the present application. Therefore, the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

1. A method of communication, comprising:

the terminal equipment receives a first configuration information set associated with a plurality of cells;

based on the first configuration information set, the terminal device sends at least one of a reference signal or a Timing Advance (TA) request message in a non-connected state; and

And the terminal equipment receives TA information, wherein the TA information is used for determining TA.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises first configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the first configuration information being used to determine a reference signal sent when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first configuration information comprises reference signal sequence identification information.

4. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises identification information of the plurality of cells.

5. A method according to any one of claims 1-3, further comprising:

The terminal device receives a second set of configuration information associated with the plurality of cells, the second set of configuration information being for the terminal device to receive the TA information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises second configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the second configuration information being for receiving the TA information when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the second configuration information comprises configuration information of a timing advance command, the configuration information of the timing advance command comprising at least one of:

a wireless network temporary identity of the timing advance command;

A transmission period of the timing advance command;

The duration of the timing advance command; or alternatively

And a receiving window of the timing advance command.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises at least one of a first threshold, a second threshold, or a third threshold for the terminal device to determine a first condition to send the TA request message.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein sending the TA request message comprises:

the terminal device determines the first condition based on the first configuration information set; and

The terminal device sends the TA request message based on the first condition.

10. The method of claim 8 or 9, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:

the number of the resident cells of the terminal equipment is smaller than or equal to the first threshold value; or alternatively

The number of times that the change of the reference signal receiving power value of the terminal equipment exceeds a preset threshold is smaller than or equal to the second threshold.

11. The method of claim 8 or 9, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:

The first timer is running;

the first timer is active;

the first timer does not timeout; or alternatively

The change of the reference signal receiving power value of the terminal device is smaller than or equal to the third threshold value.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference signal is a positioning reference signal.

13. A method of communication, comprising:

The network device transmits a first set of configuration information associated with the plurality of cells, the first set of configuration information being for the terminal device to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance, TA, request message in a non-connected state.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises first configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the first configuration information being used to determine a reference signal sent when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first configuration information comprises reference signal sequence identification information.

16. The method of claim 13 or 14, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises identification information of the plurality of cells.

17. The method of any of claims 13-15, further comprising:

The network device sends a second set of configuration information associated with the plurality of cells, the second set of configuration information being for the terminal device to receive the TA information.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises second configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the second configuration information being for receiving the TA information when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the second configuration information comprises configuration information of a timing advance command, the configuration information of the timing advance command comprising at least one of:

A wireless network temporary identity of the timing advance command;

A transmission period of the timing advance command;

The duration of the timing advance command; or alternatively

And a receiving window of the timing advance command.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises at least one of a first threshold, a second threshold, or a third threshold for the terminal device to determine a first condition to send the TA request message.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:

The first timer is running;

the first timer is active;

the first timer does not timeout; or alternatively

23. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

the network device receives at least one of the first set of configuration information or the second set of configuration information from a first network device.

24. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

The network device receives at least one of configuration information in the first set of configuration information or configuration information in a second set of configuration information from a second network device.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

the network device transmits at least one of the first set of configuration information or the second set of configuration information.

26. The method according to any of claims 13 to 25, wherein the reference signal is a positioning reference signal.

27. A communication apparatus, comprising:

A receiving unit configured to receive a first set of configuration information associated with a plurality of cells;

A transmitting unit, configured to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance TA request message in a non-connected state of the terminal device based on the first configuration information set; and

The receiving unit is further configured to receive TA information, where the TA information is used to determine a TA.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises first configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the first configuration information being used to determine a reference signal sent when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the first configuration information comprises reference signal sequence identification information.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises identities of the plurality of cells.

31. The apparatus of claim 27, the receiving unit further to:

a second set of configuration information associated with the plurality of cells is received, the second set of configuration information being for the terminal device to receive the TA information.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises second configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the second configuration information being for receiving the TA information when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

33. The apparatus of claim 32, wherein the second configuration information comprises configuration information of a timing advance command, the configuration information of the timing advance command comprising at least one of:

a wireless network temporary identity of the timing advance command;

A transmission period of the timing advance command;

The duration of the timing advance command; or alternatively

And a receiving window of the timing advance command.

34. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises at least one of a first threshold, a second threshold, or a third threshold for the terminal device to determine a first condition to send the TA request message.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, further comprising:

A processing unit configured to determine the first condition based on the first set of configuration information; and

The sending unit is further configured to send the TA request message based on the first condition.

36. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:

37. The apparatus of claim 34, wherein the first condition comprises at least one of:

The first timer is running;

the first timer is active;

the first timer does not timeout; or alternatively

38. The apparatus of any of claims 27-36, wherein the reference signal is a positioning reference signal.

39. A communication apparatus, comprising:

A transmitting unit, configured to transmit a first configuration information set associated with a plurality of cells, where the first configuration information set is used for a terminal device to transmit at least one of a reference signal or a timing advance TA request message in a non-connected state.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises first configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the first configuration information being used to determine a reference signal sent when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

41. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the first configuration information comprises reference signal sequence identification information.

42. The apparatus of claim 40, wherein the first set of configuration information includes an identification of the plurality of cells.

43. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the transmitting unit is further configured to:

And sending a second configuration information set associated with the cells, wherein the second configuration information set is used for the terminal equipment to receive the TA information.

44. The apparatus of claim 43, wherein the second set of configuration information comprises second configuration information associated with a first cell of the plurality of cells, the second configuration information being for receiving the TA information when the terminal device resides in the first cell.

45. The apparatus of claim 44, wherein the second configuration information comprises configuration information for a timing advance command, the configuration information for the timing advance command comprising at least one of:

A wireless network temporary identity of the timing advance command;

A transmission period of the timing advance command;

The duration of the timing advance command; or alternatively

And a receiving window of the timing advance command.

46. The apparatus of claim 39, wherein the first set of configuration information comprises at least one of a first threshold, a second threshold, or a third threshold for the terminal device to determine a first condition of whether to send the TA request message in a non-connected state.

47. The apparatus of claim 39, further comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive at least one of the first configuration information set or the second configuration information set from a first network device.

48. The apparatus of claim 39, further comprising:

And a receiving unit, configured to receive at least one of configuration information in the first configuration information set or configuration information in the second configuration information set from the second network device.

49. The apparatus of claim 47, wherein the transmitting unit is further configured to transmit at least one of the first set of configuration information or the second set of configuration information.

50. The apparatus of any of claims 39-49, wherein the reference signal is a positioning reference signal.

51. A communication apparatus, comprising: a processor, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the method according to any one of claims 1 to 26 to be performed.

52. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed, cause the method of any one of claims 1 to 26 to be performed.

53. A computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed, cause the method according to any one of claims 1 to 26 to be performed.