CN111465092A

CN111465092A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN111465092A
Application number: CN201910108920.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 谢信乾; 郭志恒; 程型清
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-01-18
Filing date: 2019-01-18
Publication date: 2020-07-28
Anticipated expiration: 2039-01-18
Also published as: CN111465092B; WO2020147694A1

Abstract

The application provides a communication method and device. The method comprises the following steps: the first signal sent by the network device to the terminal device carries a first physical broadcast channel PBCH, and the first part and the second part carried by the first PBCH carry the same broadcast information, so that the coverage of the PBCH is improved, the number of times of obtaining the PBCH carrying the same broadcast information is increased when the terminal device at the edge of the cell is synchronized with the network device, the coverage enhancement effect is achieved, and the probability of successful synchronization between the terminal device at the edge of the cell and the network device can be increased.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

New Radio (NR) technology for 5th generation (5G) communication defines Synchronization Signal/Broadcast CHannel blocks (SS/PBCH blocks, SSBs), one SSB including Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSs) and Physical Broadcast CHannel (PBCH). The PBCH can be used for synchronization between the terminal device and the network device.

Based on PBCH defined in the prior art, there are currently major problems: for terminal devices with a particularly low cell edge snr, it is difficult to ensure the transmission performance of PBCH, so that the terminal devices at the cell edge cannot synchronize with the network device.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a communication method and device, which are used for realizing synchronization of terminal equipment and network equipment at the edge of a cell by enhancing PBCH (physical broadcast channel).

In a first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: the terminal device receives a first signal from the network device in a first time unit, wherein the first signal carries a first PBCH, the first PBCH comprises a first part and a second part which are different in time domain resource, and the broadcast information carried by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH is the same; the terminal device acquires the first PBCH from the first signal. The "first portion and the second portion having different time domain resources" are referred to herein to illustrate that the time domain resources of the first portion and the second portion are different.

Based on the above scheme, the first PBCH is carried by the first signal sent by the network device to the terminal device, and the first portion and the second portion carried by the first PBCH carry the same broadcast information, so that the coverage of the PBCH is improved, and the number of times that the terminal device at the cell edge can acquire the PBCH carrying the same broadcast information when synchronizing with the network device is increased, thereby achieving the effect of coverage enhancement, and further increasing the probability of successful synchronization between the terminal device at the cell edge and the network device.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, including: the network device generates a first signal, wherein the first signal carries a first PBCH, the first PBCH comprises a first part and a second part, the time domain resources of the first PBCH are different, and the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH carry the same broadcast information. The network device sends a first signal to the terminal device within a first time unit.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in a time domain, and the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in the time domain, where M, N is an integer greater than 1.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, the first PBCH satisfies one of the following conditions: the resources occupied by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are continuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in the time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in a time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are discontinuous in the time domain.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH have the same subcarrier spacing, the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH occupy the same number of time-frequency resource units, or the first part of the first PBCH occupies more time-frequency resource units than the second part of the first PBCH.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, a subcarrier spacing of the first portion of the first PBCH is smaller than a subcarrier spacing of the second portion of the first PBCH, and a number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH is smaller than a number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by the second portion of the first PBCH; or the subcarrier spacing of the first part of the first PBCH is greater than the subcarrier spacing of the second part of the first PBCH, and the number of time-frequency resource units occupied by the first part of the first PBCH is greater than the number of time-frequency resource units occupied by the second part of the first PBCH.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, the terminal device further receives a second signal from the network device, where the second signal carries a second PBCH; the second PBCH includes a first part and a second part with different time domain resources, and the first part of the second PBCH and the second part of the second PBCH carry the same broadcast information.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in a time domain, and the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in the time domain, where M, N is an integer greater than 1; the first PBCH satisfies one of the following conditions: the resources occupied by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are continuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in the time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in a time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are discontinuous in the time domain.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, the broadcast information carried by the first PBCH and the broadcast information carried by the second PBCH are the same; and the second signal is received within the first time unit, or the second signal is received within a second time unit, the second time unit being a contiguous time unit with the first time unit.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, the first PBCH includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate a number of repetitions of a PDCCH; wherein the indication information is carried by one of: reserved bits in the first PBCH; or, reserved bits in a master information block carried by the first PBCH; or, the reserved bits of the first PBCH and the reserved bits in the master information block carried by the first PBCH.

Based on the first aspect or the second aspect, in a possible implementation method, there is a correspondence between the number of repetitions of the PDCCH and a subcarrier interval.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication apparatus, where the communication apparatus has a function of implementing a terminal device or a network device in the foregoing method embodiments. The function can be realized by hardware, and can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more units or modules corresponding to the above functions.

In one possible design, the communication device includes: a processor, a memory, a bus, and a communication interface; the memory stores computer-executable instructions, the processor is connected with the memory through the bus, and when the communication device runs, the processor executes the computer-executable instructions stored in the memory, so that the communication device executes the communication method in any one of the first aspect or the first implementation manner, or executes the communication method in any one of the second aspect or the second implementation manner. For example, the communication device may be a terminal device or a network device, etc.

In another possible design, the communication device may also be a chip, such as a chip of a terminal, the chip including a processing unit and optionally a storage unit, and the chip may be configured to perform the communication method in any implementation manner of the first aspect or the first aspect as described above, or perform the communication method in any implementation manner of the second aspect or the second aspect as described above.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a computer storage medium storing computer software instructions for use by the terminal described above, including a program designed to perform any of the above aspects.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product comprising computer software instructions that can be loaded by a processor to implement the flow in the communication method of any of the above aspects.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communication system, which includes a terminal device configured to perform the communication method in the first aspect or any implementation manner of the first aspect, and a network device configured to perform the communication method in the second aspect or any implementation manner of the second aspect.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a possible network architecture to which the present application is applicable;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a communication method provided in the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a prior art SSB;

FIG. 3a is a schematic structural diagram of an SSB provided herein;

FIG. 3b is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 3c is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 3d is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 4a is a schematic structural diagram of an SSB provided herein;

FIG. 4b is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 4c is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 4d is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of yet another SSB provided herein;

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a SSB time domain pattern in the prior art;

FIG. 8a is a schematic diagram of an SSB time domain pattern provided herein;

FIG. 8b is a schematic diagram of yet another SSB time domain pattern provided herein;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of yet another SSB time domain pattern in the prior art;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of yet another SSB time domain pattern provided herein;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of yet another SSB time domain pattern in the prior art;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of yet another SSB time domain pattern provided herein;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of yet another SSB time domain pattern provided herein;

FIG. 14 is a schematic view of an apparatus provided herein;

fig. 15 is a schematic view of yet another apparatus provided herein.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more clear, the present application will be further described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The particular methods of operation in the method embodiments may also be applied to apparatus embodiments or system embodiments. In the description of the present application, the term "plurality" means two or more unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a possible network architecture to which the present application is applied, which includes a network device and at least one terminal device. The network device and the terminal device may operate on a 5G NR communication system, wherein the terminal device may communicate with the network device over the 5G NR communication system.

The terminal equipment is equipment with a wireless transceiving function, can be deployed on land and comprises an indoor or outdoor, a handheld or a vehicle-mounted terminal; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). The terminal may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (transportation safety), a wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), a wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), and may further include a User Equipment (UE), and the like.

The network device may be, for example, a base station (NodeB), an evolved Node B (eNodeB), a base station in a 5G mobile communication system, a next generation mobile communication base station (gNB), a base station in a future mobile communication system, or an access Node in a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) system.

Some of the communication terms referred to in this application are explained below.

1. Subcarrier: in an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system, Frequency domain resources are divided into a number of sub-resources, and a sub-resource in each Frequency domain may be referred to as a sub-carrier. The subcarriers may also be understood as the smallest granularity of frequency domain resources.

2. Subcarrier spacing-value of spacing between center positions or peak positions of two subcarriers adjacent in the frequency domain in the OFDM system, for example, the subcarrier spacing in the L TE system is 15 kilohertz (kHz), and the subcarrier spacing in the 5GNR system may be 15kHz, or 30kHz, or 60kHz, or 120kHz, etc.

3. For example, one resource block in the L TE system includes 12 subcarriers, and one resource block in the NR system in 5G also includes 12 subcarriers.

4. Time slot: one slot in the 5G NR system includes 14 OFDM symbols, and the slot length corresponding to a 15kHz subcarrier interval is 1ms, and the slot length corresponding to a 30kHz subcarrier interval is 0.5 ms. Of course, as the communication technology evolves, the number of OFDM symbols included in one slot may be other values, which is not limited in this application.

5. And a subframe: the time length of one subframe in the 5G NR system is 1 ms. Of course, as the communication technology evolves, the time length of one timeslot may also be other values, and the present application is not limited thereto.

6. OFDM symbol: the smallest time unit in the time domain in an OFDM system.

7. Time-frequency resource unit: the minimum resource granularity in the OFDM system is one OFDM symbol in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain.

It should be noted that, in the present application, the resource a and the resource B are referred to as being consecutive in the time domain, which generally means that there is no interval between the resource a and the resource B in the time domain. In the present application, it is mentioned that the resource a is continuous in the time domain, and generally, the symbols included in the resource a in the time domain are continuous and have no interval. The two meanings are different, and the concrete reference is made to the description of the embodiment.

To solve the problems mentioned in the background art, the present application provides a communication method based on the network architecture shown in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 2, the method comprises the steps of:

in step 201, a network device generates a first signal.

The first signal carries a first PBCH, the first PBCH comprises a first part and a second part which are different in time domain resource, and the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH carry the same broadcast information. Optionally, time domain resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH respectively do not overlap, or time domain resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH respectively partially overlap.

Optionally, the first signal also carries PSS and SSS.

Optionally, in the current communication system, the first signal may also be referred to as an SSB.

Optionally, the first time unit may be a slot (slot), a subframe, or the like.

Step 202, the network device sends a first signal to the terminal device within a first time unit. Accordingly, the terminal device may receive the first signal.

In step 203, the terminal device obtains a first PBCH from the first signal.

Optionally, the terminal device may further perform synchronization with the network device according to the first signal.

Based on the above scheme, the first PBCH is carried by the first signal sent by the network device to the terminal device, and the first portion and the second portion of the first PBCH carry the same broadcast information, or carry the same broadcast information, so that the coverage of the PBCH is improved, and when the terminal device at the cell edge is synchronized with the network device, the number of times of obtaining the PBCH carrying the same broadcast information is increased, thereby achieving the effect of coverage enhancement, and further increasing the probability of successful synchronization between the terminal device at the cell edge and the network device.

The above method of the present application is described below with reference to the structure of a specific SSB of the prior art.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an SSB in the prior art. In the time domain (or referred to as time domain), one SSB occupies 4 consecutive OFDM symbols (hereinafter referred to as symbols). In the frequency domain (or called frequency domain), a SSB occupies 240 consecutive subcarriers, and the 240 subcarriers are numbered from 0 to 239. In an OFDM-based communication system, 1 frequency domain resource block (hereinafter referred to as resource block) generally includes 12 consecutive subcarriers, the 12 subcarriers are numbered from 0 to 11, so that 240 subcarriers occupied by one SSB may also be referred to as 20 resource blocks, and the 20 resource blocks are numbered from 0 to 19. Referring to fig. 2, the first symbol from the left carries the PSS, the subcarriers numbered 0, 1, …,55,183,184, …,239 are set to 0, and the subcarriers numbered 56, 57, …,182 are the subcarriers occupied by the PSS; the 2 nd and 4 th symbols from the left carry the PBCH, and each 4 consecutive subcarriers have a Demodulation Reference Signal (DMRS) corresponding to the PBCH; the 3 rd symbol from the left carries SSS and PBCH, the subcarriers numbered 56, 57, …,182 carry SSS, the subcarriers numbered 0, 1, …,47, 192, 193, …,239 carry PBCH, and the remaining subcarriers are set to 0.

For the structure of the SSB shown in fig. 3, the PBCH in the SSB occupies 48 resource blocks, and due to the limitation of the number of resource blocks occupied by the PBCH, it is difficult to ensure the transmission performance of the PBCH for terminal devices with a particularly low cell edge signal-to-noise ratio, that is, it is difficult for terminal devices with a particularly low cell edge signal-to-noise ratio to achieve synchronization with network devices through the PBCH, thereby affecting the performance of the terminal devices.

For the structure of the SSB shown in fig. 3, the present application may perform coverage enhancement on PBCH based on the SSB of fig. 3.

In one implementation, the first portion of the first PBCH herein occupies M symbols that are consecutive in time domain, and the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in time domain, where M, N is an integer greater than 1.

Fig. 3a is a schematic structural diagram of an SSB provided in the present application. The SSB is an SSB enhanced with respect to the PBCH of the SSB shown in fig. 3. The SSB carries a first PBCH, where the first PBCH includes a first portion (which may be abbreviated as PBCH1) and a second portion (which may be abbreviated as PBCH2) with different time domain resources, and the PBCH1 and the PBCH2 carry the same broadcast information. It should be noted that the SSB carries one PBCH, and not two PBCHs. For convenience of description only, the first part of the first PBCH is abbreviated as PBCH1, and the second part of the first PBCH is abbreviated as PBCH 2. This PBCH2 may also be referred to as part of PBCH enhancement.

Based on the structure of the SSB shown in fig. 3a, PBCH1 occupies 3 symbols that are consecutive in the time domain, and PBCH2 occupies 2 symbols that are consecutive in the time domain.

Based on the structure of the SSB shown in fig. 3a, the resources occupied by PBCH1 and PBCH2 are contiguous in the time domain (i.e., contiguous symbols carrying PBCH1 are also contiguous to contiguous symbols carrying PBCH2), and the resources occupied by the first signal are contiguous in the time domain. Referring to fig. 3a, the 2 nd to 4 th symbols carry PBCH1, the 5th to 6 th symbols carry PBCH2, and the first signal occupies the 1 st to 6 th symbols and is thus continuous.

Fig. 3b is a schematic structural diagram of another SSB provided in the present application. The SSB is an SSB enhanced with respect to the PBCH of the SSB shown in fig. 3. The main differences between the SSB and the SSB shown in fig. 3a are: the resources occupied by PBCH1 and PBCH2 are discontinuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain. Specifically, the 4 th to 6 th symbols carry PBCH1, the 1 st to 2 nd symbols carry PBCH2, and the first signal occupies the 1 st to 6 th symbols, and thus is continuous.

Fig. 3c is a schematic structural diagram of another SSB provided in the present application. The SSB is an SSB enhanced with respect to the PBCH of the SSB shown in fig. 3. The main differences between the SSB and the SSB shown in fig. 3a are: the resources occupied by PBCH1 and PBCH2 are discontinuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are discontinuous in the time domain. Specifically, the 2 nd to 4 th symbols carry PBCH1, the K + 5th to K +6 th symbols carry PBCH2, the PBCH1 is separated from the PBCH2 by K symbols, and K is a positive integer. The first signal occupies the 1 st to 4 th symbols and occupies the K + 5th to K +6 th symbols, and thus is discontinuous.

Fig. 3d is a schematic structural diagram of another SSB provided in the present application. The SSB is an SSB enhanced with respect to the PBCH of the SSB shown in fig. 3. The main differences between the SSB and the SSB shown in fig. 3a are: the resources occupied by PBCH1 and PBCH2 are discontinuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are discontinuous in the time domain. Specifically, the 1 st to 2 nd symbols carry PBCH2, the K +3 th to K +6 th symbols carry PBCH1, the PBCH1 is separated from the PBCH2 by K symbols, and K is a positive integer. The first signal occupies the 1 st to 2 nd symbols and occupies the K +3 th to K +6 th symbols, and thus is discontinuous.

The first signals shown in fig. 3a to 3d have several possible implementations as follows:

one possible implementation manner of the first signal is that the first signal occupies L consecutive OFDM symbols, the first p consecutive OFDM symbols of the L OFDM symbols carry the PSS, the SSS, and the first part of the PBCH, the last L-p OFDM symbols of the L OFDM symbols carry the second part of the PBCH of the first signal, the first part of the PBCH and the second part of the PBCH carry the same information, L is an integer greater than 1, and p is a positive integer, taking fig. 3a as an example, where L is 6 and p is 4.

Still another possible implementation manner of the first signal is that the first signal occupies L consecutive OFDM symbols, the last p consecutive OFDM symbols of the L OFDM symbols carry a first part of PSS, SSS, and PBCH, the first L-p OFDM symbols of the L OFDM symbols carry a second part of PBCH, the first part of PBCH and the second part of PBCH carry the same information, L is an integer greater than 1, p is a positive integer, and in the example of fig. 3b, L is 6 and p is 4.

Yet another possible implementation manner of the first signal is that the first signal occupies L OFDM symbols, the L OFDM symbols include p consecutive OFDM symbols before time and L-p consecutive OFDM symbols after time, the p consecutive OFDM symbols and the L-p consecutive OFDM symbols are not consecutive, the p consecutive OFDM symbols carry a PSS, an SSS and a first part of a PBCH of the first signal, the L-p OFDM symbols carry a second part of the PBCH of the first signal, the first part of the PBCH and the second part of the PBCH carry the same information, L is an integer greater than 1, and p is a positive integer, taking fig. 3c as an example, L is 6 and p is 4.

Yet another possible implementation manner of the first signal is that the first signal occupies L OFDM symbols, the k OFDM symbols include p consecutive OFDM symbols that are later in time and L-p consecutive OFDM symbols that are earlier in time, the p consecutive OFDM symbols and the L-p consecutive OFDM symbols are not consecutive, the p consecutive OFDM symbols carry a PSS, an SSS and a first portion of a PBCH of the first signal, the L-p OFDM symbols carry a second portion of the PBCH of the first signal, the first portion of the PBCH and the second portion of the PBCH carry the same information, L is an integer greater than 1, and p is a positive integer, taking fig. 3d as an example, where L is 6 and p is 4.

Based on any implementation shown in fig. 3 a-3 d, the PBCH1 and the PBCH2 have the same subcarrier spacing, and the PBCH1 and the PBCH2 occupy the same number of time-frequency resource units. Referring to fig. 3 a-3 d, PBCH1 and PBCH2 have the same subcarrier spacing, and PBCH1 occupies 48 resource blocks, that is, 576 subcarriers, out of 3 symbols, so PBCH1 occupies 576 time-frequency resource elements (one time-frequency resource element occupies one symbol in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain), and PBCH2 occupies 48 resource blocks, that is, 576 subcarriers, out of 2 symbols, so PBCH2 also occupies 576 time-frequency resource elements. And, one subcarrier in every 4 consecutive subcarriers among the subcarriers occupied by PBCH1 carries the DMRS. One subcarrier of every 4 continuous subcarriers among the subcarriers occupied by PBCH2 carries the DMRS. Therefore, the number of DMRSs corresponding to PBCH1 is the same as the number of DMRSs corresponding to PBCH 2.

As another implementation manner, the PBCH1 and the PBCH2 have the same subcarrier spacing, and the number of time-frequency resource units occupied by the PBCH1 is greater than the number of time-frequency resource units occupied by the PBCH 2. Taking fig. 3a as an example, the number of time-frequency resource units in the symbol occupied by PBCH2 can be reduced, so that the PBCH2 and PBCH1 occupy the same bandwidth. FIG. 4a is a schematic diagram of another SSB corresponding to FIG. 3 a. As can be seen from the foregoing description, the SSB shown in fig. 3a occupies 20 resource blocks on one symbol, and thus the PBCH2 carried by the SSB shown in fig. 4a occupies 40 time-frequency resource elements, which is less than 48 time-frequency resource elements occupied by the PBCH 1. In order to achieve the purpose that PBCH1 and PBCH2 carry the same broadcast information, optionally, the number of DMRSs corresponding to PBCH2 may be reduced, that is, the number of DMRSs corresponding to PBCH1 is greater than the number of DMRSs corresponding to PBCH2, and/or the number of bits of redundancy information corresponding to PBCH2 is reduced, that is, the number of time-frequency resource units used for carrying redundancy information in the time-frequency resource units occupied by PBCH1 is greater than the number of time-frequency resource units used for carrying redundancy information in the time-frequency resource units occupied by PBCH2, so that the number of time-frequency resource units used for carrying valid information (that is, broadcast information) in the time-frequency resource units occupied by PBCH1 is equal to or substantially equal to the number of time-frequency resource units used for carrying valid information (that is, broadcast information) in the time-frequency resource units occupied by PBCH 2. The term "substantially equal to" means that the difference between the number of time-frequency resource units used for carrying valid information (i.e., broadcast information) in the time-frequency resource units occupied by PBCH1 and the number of time-frequency resource units used for carrying valid information (i.e., broadcast information) in the time-frequency resource units occupied by PBCH2 is smaller than a preset threshold.

Similarly, for the SSBs shown in fig. 3b to 3d, the method shown in fig. 4a may also be adopted to obtain the structures of the SSBs shown in fig. 4b to 4d, which is not described again.

In yet another implementation manner, the subcarrier spacing of PBCH1 may be smaller than that of PBCH2, for example, the subcarrier spacing of PBCH1 is 15kHz, the subcarrier spacing of PBCH2 is 30kHz, 60kHz, 120kHz, or the like; for another example, PBCH1 may have a subcarrier spacing of 30kHz and PBCH2 may have a subcarrier spacing of 60kHz, 120kHz, etc. When the subcarrier spacing of PBCH1 is smaller than that of PBCH2, 8 additional SSB structures corresponding to fig. 3a to 3d and fig. 4a to 4d may be obtained. Taking fig. 3a as an example, and taking PBCH1 with a subcarrier spacing of 15kHz and PBCH2 with a subcarrier spacing of 30kHz as an example, the structure of the SSB shown in fig. 5 can be obtained. The main difference between this SSB and the SSB shown in fig. 3a is that: the number of symbols (4) occupied by PBCH2 carried by SSB in fig. 5 is greater than the number of symbols (2) occupied by PBCH2 carried by SSB in fig. 3a, and the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by PBCH1 in fig. 5 is less than the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by PBCH 2. Optionally, the subcarrier spacing of PBCH2 in fig. 5 is the same as the subcarrier spacing of the common resource.

In yet another implementation manner, the subcarrier spacing of PBCH1 may be greater than that of PBCH2, for example, PBCH1 has a subcarrier spacing of 30kHz, and PBCH2 has a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz; for another example, PBCH1 has a subcarrier spacing of 60kHz, and PBCH2 has a subcarrier spacing of 15kHz, 30kHz, etc. When the subcarrier spacing of PBCH1 is smaller than that of PBCH2, 8 additional SSB structures corresponding to fig. 3a to 3d and fig. 4a to 4d may be obtained. Taking fig. 3a as an example, and taking PBCH1 with a subcarrier spacing of 30kHz and PBCH2 with a subcarrier spacing of 15kHz as an example, the structure of the SSB shown in fig. 6 can be obtained. The main difference between this SSB and the SSB shown in fig. 3a is that: the number of symbols (1) occupied by PBCH2 carried by SSB in fig. 6 is less than the number of symbols (2) occupied by PBCH2 carried by SSB in fig. 3a, and the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by PBCH1 in fig. 6 is greater than the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by PBCH 2. Optionally, the subcarrier spacing of PBCH2 in fig. 6 is the same as the subcarrier spacing of the common resource.

The above is an example of the structure of the SSB of the prior art shown in fig. 3, and the coverage enhancement method of the present application is combined to provide the structure of 24 SSBs (wherein, fig. 3 a-3 d are totally 4, fig. 4 a-4 d are totally 4, fig. 5 and other 7 SSBs (respectively corresponding to fig. 3 b-3 d, and fig. 4 a-4 d) are totally 8, fig. 6 and other 7 SSBs (respectively corresponding to fig. 3 b-3 d, and fig. 4 a-4 d) are totally 8) designed in the above. It should be noted that, the present application is only exemplified by the structure of the SSB shown in fig. 3, and the present application may be applied to an SSB with any structure (that is, the frequency domain resource occupied by the SSB is not limited, and the time domain resource occupied by the SSB is not limited) in practice, so as to enhance the PBCH carried by the SSB.

Further, in this application, the network device may further send, to the terminal device, a second signal (also referred to as an SSB), where the second signal carries a second PBCH, where the second PBCH includes a first part and a second part of different time domain resources, and the first part of the second PBCH (hereinafter, referred to as PBCH1) and the second part of the second PBCH (hereinafter, referred to as PBCH2) carry the same broadcast information.

Alternatively, the second signal and the first signal may both be sent to the terminal device in step 201, or sent to the terminal device in different steps.

Alternatively, the second signal may be any one of the newly designed 24 SSB structures.

Optionally, the broadcast information carried by the first PBCH and the broadcast information carried by the second PBCH are the same.

Optionally, the terminal device receives the first signal and the second signal in the first time unit, that is, the first signal and the second signal are located in the same time unit in the time domain. For example, when the time unit is a timeslot, the terminal device receives the first signal and the second signal in the same timeslot, and broadcast information carried by a first PBCH carried by the first signal and broadcast information carried by a second PBCH carried by the second signal are the same.

Optionally, the terminal device receives the first signal in the first time unit and receives the second signal in the second time unit, and the first time unit and the second time unit are different time units. For example, when the time unit is a timeslot, the terminal device receives the first signal and the second signal in different timeslots, and broadcast information carried by a first PBCH carried by the first signal and broadcast information carried by a second PBCH carried by the second signal are the same. Optionally, the first time unit and the second time unit are consecutive in time, that is, the first time unit and the second time unit are two adjacent time units.

The SSB time domain pattern in the prior art and the SSB design provided in the present application are combined to provide a new SSB time domain pattern. The description will be given by taking an example in which one time unit is 1 timeslot, and 1 timeslot carries two SSBs. And, 1 slot includes 14 OFDM symbols, numbered 0-13, respectively.

Fig. 7 is a schematic diagram of an SSB time domain pattern in the prior art. Wherein, the first SSB occupies OFDM symbols numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, and the second SSB occupies OFDM symbols numbered 8, 9, 10, 11.

For example, based on the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 7, if both SSBs adopt the PBCH coverage enhancement method shown in fig. 3a, the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 8a can be obtained. It can be seen that the first signal in one slot occupies OFDM symbols numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and the second signal occupies OFDM symbols numbered 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

For another example, based on the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 7, if the SSB before the time adopts the PBCH coverage enhancement method shown in fig. 3b, and the SSB after the time adopts the PBCH coverage enhancement method shown in fig. 3a, the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 8b can be obtained. It can be seen that the first signal in one slot occupies OFDM symbols numbered 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and the second signal occupies OFDM symbols numbered 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

For other combinations of the 24 newly designed SSBs and the SSB time domain pattern of the prior art shown in fig. 7, no description is given, and those skilled in the art can simply combine the above schemes according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a schematic diagram of another SSB time domain pattern in the prior art. Wherein, the first SSB occupies OFDM symbols numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, and the second SSB occupies OFDM symbols numbered 8, 9, 10, 11.

For example, based on the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 9, if the SSB before the time adopts the PBCH coverage enhancement method shown in fig. 3b, and the SSB after the time adopts the PBCH coverage enhancement method shown in fig. 3a, the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 10 can be obtained. It can be seen that the first signal in one slot occupies OFDM symbols numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and the second signal occupies OFDM symbols numbered 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.

For other combinations of the 24 newly designed SSBs and the SSB time domain pattern of the prior art shown in fig. 9, no description is given, and those skilled in the art can simply combine the above schemes according to the present disclosure.

Fig. 11 is a schematic diagram of another SSB time domain pattern in the prior art. Wherein, the first SSB occupies OFDM symbols numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, and the second SSB occupies OFDM symbols numbered 6, 7, 8, 9.

For example, based on the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 11, if both SSBs adopt the PBCH coverage enhancement method shown in fig. 3a, the SSB time domain pattern shown in fig. 12 can be obtained. It can be seen that the first signal in one slot occupies OFDM symbols numbered 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 and the second signal occupies OFDM symbols numbered 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13.

For other combinations of the 24 newly designed SSBs and the SSB time domain pattern of the prior art shown in fig. 11, no description is given, and those skilled in the art can simply combine the above schemes according to the present disclosure.

It should be noted that, based on the above newly designed time domain pattern provided in the present application, if the network device sends the PBCH carrying the same broadcast information to the terminal device in multiple time slots, the network device may send the PBCH to the terminal device in each time slot according to the same SSB time domain pattern (e.g., fig. 8a, fig. 8b, fig. 10, or fig. 12 or other SSB time domain patterns), where each SSB carries a first part and a second part of the PBCH, and the first part and the second part carry the same broadcast information. Optionally, the PBCH carried between the SSBs may also be the same. Or, the network device sends the PBCH to the terminal device in different time slots according to different SSB time domain patterns, where each SSB carries a first part and a second part of the PBCH, and the first part and the second part carry the same broadcast information. Optionally, the broadcast information part carried by the first part and the second part is the same.

As an example, fig. 13 shows a schematic diagram of another SSB time domain pattern, in which an example of the position relationship of 4 SSBs in the time domain is shown. Wherein the time domain patterns of the first and second SSBs are shown in fig. 10, and the time domain patterns of the third and fourth SSBs are shown in fig. 12. Specific implementations of time domain patterns of other types of SSBs when multiple SSBs are included are not illustrated.

In a possible implementation manner, the PBCH carried by one or more SSBs and sent by the network device to the terminal device includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate the number of times of repeating a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).

Taking the first signal in step 201 as an example, the first PBCH carried by the first signal includes indication information, where the indication information is used to indicate the number of repetitions of the PDCCH.

Optionally, the first portion of the first PBCH includes indication information, and/or the second portion of the first PBCH includes indication information.

Optionally, the indication information is carried by any one of the following implementation manners:

implementation mode one, the reserved bits in the first PBCH carry indication information

Take the reserved bit as 2 bits as an example, which is denoted as b0 and b 1. The 2 bits can be used to define the number of repetitions of 4 PDCCHs. As an example, table 1 gives an example that the reserved bits in the first PBCH carry indication information, i.e., information indicated by b0b 1.

TABLE 1

b0 b1	Number of repetitions of PDCCH
		00	1
01	2
		10	4
11	8

Based on table 1, for example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 01, the terminal device may determine that the number of repetitions of the PDCCH is 2. For another example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 11, the terminal device may determine that the number of repetitions of the PDCCH is 8, and so on.

Second implementation manner, the reserved bits in the master information block carried by the first PBCH carry indication information

Take the reserved bit as 1 bit as an example, and record it as b 2. As an example, table 1 gives an example that the reserved bits in the master information block carried by the first PBCH carry indication information, i.e., the indication information is the information indicated by b 2.

TABLE 2

b2	Number of repetitions of PDCCH
		0	1
1	2

Based on table 2, for example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 0, the terminal device may determine that the number of repetitions of the PDCCH is 1. For another example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 1, the terminal device may determine that the number of repetitions of the PDCCH is 2.

Third implementation manner, the reserved bits of the first PBCH and the reserved bits in the master information block carried by the first PBCH carry indication information

For example, the reserved bits of the first PBCH are 2 bits, and the reserved bits in the master information block carried by the first PBCH are 1 bit, which are respectively denoted as b0, b1, and b 2. As an example, table 3 gives an example that the reserved bits of the first PBCH and the reserved bits in the master information block carried by the first PBCH carry indication information, i.e. the indication information is the information indicated by b0b1b 2.

TABLE 3

b0 b1 b2	Number of PDCCH repetitions
		0 0 0	1
0 0 1	2
		0 1 0	4
0 1 1	8
		1 0 0	16
Other states	Retention

Based on table 3, for example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 010, the terminal device may determine that the number of repetitions of the PDCCH is 4. For another example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 100, the terminal device may determine that the number of repetitions of the PDCCH is 16, and so on.

As a possible implementation method, the number of repetitions of the PDCCH may further correspond to a subcarrier interval, and the correspondence may be defined by a table or may be configured or defined in advance.

For example, taking the reserved bits in the first PBCH carrying the indication information as an example, the number of repetitions of the PDCCH indicated by the indication information is related to the subcarrier spacing of the common resource block indicated in the first PBCH. As an example, table 4 gives an example that the reserved bits in the first PBCH carry indication information, i.e., the indication information is the information indicated by b0b 1.

TABLE 4

b0 b1	PDCCH subcarrier spacing is 15kHz	PDCCH subcarrierSpacing of 30kHz
			0 0	1	1
0 1	4	8
			1 0	8	16
1 1	16	32

Based on table 4, for example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 01 and the common resource block subcarrier interval (i.e., PDCCH subcarrier interval) indicated in the first PBCH is 15kHz, the terminal device may determine that the number of repetitions of the PDCCH is 4. For another example, if the indication information received by the terminal device is 11, and the common resource block subcarrier interval (i.e., PDCCH subcarrier interval) indicated in the first PBCH is 30kHz, the terminal device may determine that the number of PDCCH repetitions is 32, and so on.

Of course, another two tables similar to table 4 may be defined based on the second implementation method or the third implementation method, so as to indicate the number of repetitions of the PDCCH related to the common resource block subcarrier interval indicated in the first PBCH through the indication information, which is not described again.

It is to be understood that, in order to implement the above functions, the above network elements include corresponding hardware structures and/or software modules for executing the functions. Those of skill in the art would readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

As shown in fig. 14, which is a possible exemplary block diagram of a communication device according to the present application, the communication device 1400 may be in the form of software or hardware. The communication device 1400 may include: a processing unit 1402 and a communication unit 1403. As an implementation, the communication unit 1403 may include a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. The processing unit 1402 is used to control and manage the operation of the communication apparatus 1400. A communication unit 1403 is used to support communication of the communication device 1400 with other network entities. The communication device 1400 may also include a storage unit 1401 for storing program codes and data of the communication device 1400.

The processing unit 1402 may be a processor or a controller, such as a general Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processing (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs, and microprocessors, among others. The communication unit 1403 may be a communication interface, a transceiver or a transceiver circuit, etc., wherein the communication interface is referred to as a generic term, and in a specific implementation, the communication interface may include a plurality of interfaces. The storage unit 1401 may be a memory.

The communication apparatus 1400 may be a terminal device or a network device in any of the above embodiments, and may also be a chip for a terminal device or a chip for a network device. For example, when the communication apparatus 1400 is a terminal device or a network device, the processing unit 1402 can be a processor, and the communication unit 1403 can be a transceiver. Optionally, the transceiver may comprise radio frequency circuitry and the storage unit may be, for example, a memory. For example, when the communication apparatus 1400 is a chip for a terminal device or a chip for a network device, the processing unit 1402 may be a processor, and the communication unit 1403 may be an input/output interface, a pin, a circuit, or the like. The processing unit 1402 can execute computer executable instructions stored in a storage unit, optionally, the storage unit is a storage unit in the chip, such as a register, a cache, and the like, and the storage unit can also be a storage unit located outside the chip in the communication device, such as a read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM), and the like.

In the first embodiment, the communication apparatus 1400 is a terminal device, and then a communication unit 1403 is configured to receive a first signal from a network device in a first time unit, where the first signal carries a first Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH); a processing unit 1402 for performing synchronization with the network device according to the first signal; the first PBCH comprises a first part and a second part which are different in time domain resources, and the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH carry the same broadcast information.

In the second embodiment, if the communication apparatus 1400 is a network device, a communication unit 1403 is configured to send a first signal to a terminal device in a first time unit, where the first signal carries a first Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH); a processing unit 1402 configured to perform synchronization with the terminal device according to the first signal; the first PBCH comprises a first part and a second part which are different in time domain resources, and the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH carry the same broadcast information.

In one possible implementation, the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in time domain, and the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in time domain, where M, N is an integer greater than 1.

In one possible implementation method, the first PBCH satisfies one of the following conditions: the resources occupied by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are continuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in the time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in a time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are discontinuous in the time domain.

In a possible implementation method, the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH have the same subcarrier spacing, the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH occupy the same number of time-frequency resource units, or the first part of the first PBCH occupies more time-frequency resource units than the second part of the first PBCH.

In a possible implementation method, a subcarrier spacing of the first portion of the first PBCH is smaller than a subcarrier spacing of the second portion of the first PBCH, and the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH is smaller than the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by the second portion of the first PBCH; or the subcarrier spacing of the first part of the first PBCH is greater than the subcarrier spacing of the second part of the first PBCH, and the number of time-frequency resource units occupied by the first part of the first PBCH is greater than the number of time-frequency resource units occupied by the second part of the first PBCH.

In a possible implementation method, the terminal device further receives a second signal from the network device, where the second signal carries a second PBCH; the second PBCH includes a first part and a second part with different time domain resources, and the first part of the second PBCH and the second part of the second PBCH carry the same broadcast information.

In one possible implementation, the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in time domain, and the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in time domain, where M, N is an integer greater than 1; the first PBCH satisfies one of the following conditions: the resources occupied by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are continuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in the time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in a time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are discontinuous in the time domain.

In a possible implementation method, the broadcast information carried by the first PBCH and the second PBCH is the same; and the second signal is received within the first time unit, or the second signal is received within a second time unit, the second time unit being a contiguous time unit with the first time unit.

In one possible implementation method, the first PBCH includes indication information indicating a number of repetitions of a PDCCH; wherein the indication information is carried by one of: reserved bits in the first PBCH; or, reserved bits in a master information block carried by the first PBCH; or, the reserved bits of the first PBCH and the reserved bits in the master information block carried by the first PBCH.

It can be understood that, when the communication apparatus is used in the foregoing communication method, specific implementation procedures and corresponding beneficial effects may refer to the related description in the foregoing method embodiment, and are not described herein again.

Referring to fig. 15, a schematic diagram of a communication device according to the present application is shown, where the communication device may be the communication device. The communication apparatus 1500 includes: a processor 1502, a communication interface 1503, and a memory 1501. Optionally, the communications apparatus 1500 can also include communications circuitry 1504. The communication interface 1503, the processor 1502, and the memory 1501 may be connected to each other by a communication line 1504; the communication line 1504 may be a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA) bus, or the like. The communication lines 1504 may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, and the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 15, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

The processor 1502 may be a CPU, microprocessor, ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits configured to control the execution of programs in accordance with the teachings of the present application.

Communication interface 1503 may use any device such as a transceiver for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as AN ethernet, a Radio Access Network (RAN), a wireless local area network (W L AN), a wired access network, etc.

The memory 1501 may be, but is not limited to, a ROM or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a RAM or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), a CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, an optical disk storage (including a compact disk, a laser disk, an optical disk, a digital versatile disk, a blu-ray disk, etc.), a magnetic disk storage medium or other magnetic storage device, 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. The memory may be separate and coupled to the processor via communication line 1504. The memory may also be integral to the processor.

The memory 1501 is used for storing computer-executable instructions for implementing the present invention, and is controlled by the processor 1502. The processor 1502 is configured to execute computer-executable instructions stored in the memory 1501, so as to implement the communication method provided by the above-described embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application program codes, which are not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: the various numbers of the first, second, etc. mentioned in this application are only used for the convenience of description and are not used to limit the scope of the embodiments of this application, but also to indicate the sequence. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one" means one or more. At least two means two or more. "at least one," "any," or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one ) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a-b, a-c, b-c, or a-b-c, wherein a, b, c may be single or multiple.

The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, e.g., from one website site, computer, server, or data center via a wired (e.g., coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DS L)) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) manner to another website site, computer, server, or data center.

The various illustrative logical units and circuits described in this application may be implemented or operated upon by design of a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other similar configuration.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in the embodiments herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software element executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software cells may be stored in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. For example, a storage medium may be coupled to the processor such the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC, which may be disposed in a terminal. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside in different components within the terminal.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Although the present application has been described in conjunction with specific features and embodiments thereof, it will be evident that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. Accordingly, the specification and figures are merely exemplary of the present application as defined in the appended claims and are intended to cover any and all modifications, variations, combinations, or equivalents within the scope of the present application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims

1. A method of communication, the method comprising:

a terminal device receives a first signal from a network device in a first time unit, wherein the first signal carries a first Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), the first PBCH comprises a first part and a second part, time domain resources of the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are different, and broadcast information carried by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are the same;

and the terminal equipment acquires the first PBCH from the first signal.

2. A method of communication, the method comprising:

a network device generates a first signal, wherein the first signal carries a first Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), the first PBCH comprises a first part and a second part, time domain resources of the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are different, and broadcast information carried by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are the same;

and the network equipment sends the first signal to the terminal equipment in a first time unit.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in time domain, wherein the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in time domain, and wherein M, N is an integer greater than 1.

4. The method of any one of claims 1-3, wherein the first PBCH satisfies one of:

the resources occupied by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are continuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or,

resources occupied by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are discontinuous in a time domain, and resources occupied by the first signal are continuous in the time domain; or,

the resources occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are discontinuous in the time domain, and the resources occupied by the first signal are discontinuous in the time domain.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH have the same subcarrier spacing, and wherein the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH occupy the same number of time-frequency resource elements, or wherein the first portion of the first PBCH occupies a greater number of time-frequency resource elements than the second portion of the first PBCH.

6. The method of any one of claims 1-4, wherein a subcarrier spacing of the first portion of the first PBCH is less than a subcarrier spacing of the second portion of the first PBCH, and wherein the first portion of the first PBCH occupies a fewer number of time-frequency resource elements than the second portion of the first PBCH; or,

the subcarrier spacing of the first portion of the first PBCH is greater than the subcarrier spacing of the second portion of the first PBCH, and the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by the first portion of the first PBCH is greater than the number of time-frequency resource elements occupied by the second portion of the first PBCH.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, further comprising:

the terminal equipment receives a second signal from the network equipment, wherein the second signal carries a second PBCH;

the second PBCH includes a first part and a second part, the time domain resources of the first part of the second PBCH and the second part of the second PBCH are different, and the broadcast information carried by the first part of the second PBCH and the second part of the second PBCH are the same.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in time, wherein the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in time, and wherein M, N is an integer greater than 1; the first PBCH satisfies one of the following conditions:

9. The method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that:

the broadcast information carried by the first PBCH and the second PBCH is the same;

and the second signal is received within the first time unit, or the second signal is received within a second time unit, the second time unit being a contiguous time unit with the first time unit.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that:

the first PBCH comprises indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating the repetition times of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH);

wherein the indication information is carried by one of:

reserved bits in the first PBCH; or,

reserved bits in a master information block carried by the first PBCH; or,

reserved bits of the first PBCH and reserved bits in a master information block carried by the first PBCH.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the number of repetitions of the PDCCH corresponds to a subcarrier spacing.

12. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a communication unit, configured to receive a first signal from a network device in a first time unit, where the first signal carries a first Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), the first PBCH includes a first portion and a second portion, time domain resources of the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are different, and broadcast information carried by the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH are the same;

a processing unit, configured to acquire the first PBCH from the first signal.

13. A communications apparatus, comprising:

a processing unit, configured to generate a first signal, where the first signal carries a first Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), where the first PBCH includes a first part and a second part, where time domain resources of the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are different, and broadcast information carried by the first part of the first PBCH and the second part of the first PBCH are the same;

and the communication unit is used for sending the first signal to the terminal equipment in a first time unit.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 or 13, wherein the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in time domain, wherein the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in time domain, and wherein M, N is an integer greater than 1.

15. The apparatus of any one of claims 12-14, wherein the first PBCH satisfies one of:

16. The apparatus of any one of claims 12-15, wherein the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH have the same subcarrier spacing, wherein the first portion of the first PBCH and the second portion of the first PBCH occupy the same number of time-frequency resource elements, or wherein the first portion of the first PBCH occupies a greater number of time-frequency resource elements than the second portion of the first PBCH.

17. The apparatus of any one of claims 12-15, wherein a subcarrier spacing of the first portion of the first PBCH is less than a subcarrier spacing of the second portion of the first PBCH, the first portion of the first PBCH occupying a fewer number of time-frequency resource elements than the second portion of the first PBCH; or,

18. The apparatus of any of claims 12 to 17, wherein the method further comprises:

19. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the first portion of the first PBCH occupies M symbols that are consecutive in time, wherein the second portion of the first PBCH occupies N symbols that are consecutive in time, and wherein M, N is an integer greater than 1; the first PBCH satisfies one of the following conditions:

20. The apparatus of claim 18 or 19, wherein:

21. The apparatus according to any one of claims 12 to 20, wherein:

the first PBCH comprises indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating the repetition number of the PDCCH;

wherein the indication information is carried by one of:

reserved bits in the first PBCH; or,

reserved bits in a master information block carried by the first PBCH; or,

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the number of repetitions of the PDCCH corresponds to a subcarrier spacing.

23. A communications apparatus, comprising: a processor coupled with a memory, the memory for storing a program that, when executed by the processor, causes an apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 11.

24. A storage medium having stored thereon a computer program or instructions, which when executed cause a computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 11.

25. A chip system, comprising: a processor executing instructions or programs to implement the method of any of claims 1 to 11.

26. A communication system, comprising: communication device for performing the method of any of claims 1 to 11.