CN114270945A

CN114270945A - Communication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN114270945A
Application number: CN201980099274.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 肖洁华; 李新县; 唐浩; 王轶
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-08-16
Filing date: 2019-08-16
Publication date: 2022-04-01
Also published as: WO2021031045A1

Abstract

A communication method and device are provided, wherein the method comprises the following steps: receiving configuration information from a network device, the configuration information indicating at least one mode of monitoring a control channel across cells, the at least one mode including a first mode including monitoring the control channel of the first cell on the second cell; receiving first information from a network device, the first information being used for indicating cross-cell monitoring of a control channel and monitoring the control channel of the first cell on the second cell. By adopting the method, the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH can be activated flexibly, so that the terminal equipment can carry out the PDCCH monitoring conversion on different cells flexibly in a CA (and/or DC) mode, and the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved.

Description

Communication method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

In a communication system, a network device may transmit Downlink Control Information (DCI) to a terminal device through a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH). The network device may configure a search space set (search space set) corresponding to the DCI to the terminal device through a high-level signaling, but does not inform the terminal device on which candidate (candidate) PDCCH in the search space set the DCI is to be transmitted; accordingly, the terminal device needs to perform blind detection on the PDCCH in the search space.

However, since the complexity of blind detection of the PDCCH is large, the terminal device consumes a large amount of power.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the embodiments of the present application is to provide a communication method and apparatus, which are used to quickly recover the function of monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell.

In a first aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be executed by a terminal device or may also be executed by a chip disposed in the terminal device. The following describes an example in which the communication method is executed by a terminal device, and for example, the method may include:

the method comprises the steps that terminal equipment receives configuration information sent by network equipment, wherein the configuration information is used for indicating at least one mode of monitoring a control channel across cells, the at least one mode comprises a first mode, and the first mode comprises the step of monitoring the control channel of a first cell on a second cell; the terminal equipment receives first information sent by the network equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating a cross-cell monitoring control channel; and the terminal equipment monitors the control channel of the first cell on the second cell.

By adopting the method, the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH can be activated flexibly, so that the terminal equipment can carry out the PDCCH monitoring conversion on different cells flexibly in a CA (and/or DC) mode, and the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved.

Where the terminal device receives information (such as configuration information or first information or other possible information) sent by the network device, it may also be described that the terminal device receives information from the network device.

In one possible design, the at least one mode includes two or more modes; the method further comprises the following steps: and the terminal equipment receives second information sent by the network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the mode of monitoring the control channel across the cells is the first mode.

In one possible design, the receiving, by the terminal device, the first information and/or the second information sent by the network device includes: and the terminal equipment receives first DCI sent by the network equipment, wherein the first DCI comprises the first information and/or the second information.

By adopting the method, the DCI is directly sent through the physical layer information, so that the time delay for receiving the first information and/or the second information by the terminal equipment is shorter and the response is quicker.

In one possible design, one or more of the following fields in the first DCI are used to carry the first information: the method comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process number indication domain, a redundancy version RV indication domain, a modulation and coding mode indication domain, a frequency domain resource indication domain, a time domain resource allocation indication domain, a new data transmission indication domain, a sending power indication domain, a frequency hopping indication domain and a reservation domain.

In one possible design, the first DCI further includes third information; wherein the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored on the first cell, or the third information is used to indicate a period for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell.

In one possible design, the receiving, by the terminal device, the first DCI transmitted by the network device includes: and the terminal equipment receives the first DCI sent by the network equipment on the first cell.

In one possible design, the receiving, by the terminal device, the first information and/or the second information sent by the network device includes: and the terminal equipment receives a first media access control unit (MAC CE) sent by the network equipment, wherein the first MAC CE comprises the first information and/or the second information.

By adopting the method, the time delay of the terminal equipment for receiving the MAC CE is obviously shorter than the time delay of the RRC signaling, and the MAC CE has the corresponding HARQ feedback information, so that the reliability of the terminal equipment for receiving the first information and/or the second information is higher.

In one possible design, a MAC subheader corresponding to the first MAC CE includes a logical channel identifier LCID, where the LCID is used to indicate that the MAC CE includes the first information and/or the second information.

In one possible design, the method further includes: and the terminal equipment receives fourth information sent by the network equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for indicating to cross a cell monitoring control channel.

In one possible design, the receiving, by the terminal device, fourth information sent by the network device includes: and the terminal equipment receives second DCI sent by the network equipment, wherein the second DCI comprises the fourth information.

In one possible design, the second DCI further includes fifth information; the fifth information is used to indicate a period for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell.

In one possible design, the receiving, by the terminal device, the second DCI transmitted by the network device includes: and the terminal equipment receives the second DCI sent by the network equipment on the second cell.

In one possible design, the receiving, by the terminal device, fourth information sent by the network device includes: and the terminal equipment receives a second MAC CE sent by the network equipment, wherein the second MAC CE comprises the fourth information.

In one possible design, a MAC subheader corresponding to the second MAC CE includes a second LCID, where the second LCID is used to indicate that the second MAC CE includes the fourth information.

In a second aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication method, which may be performed by a network device or may also be performed by a chip disposed in the network device. The following describes an example in which the communication method is executed by a network device, and for example, the method may include:

the method comprises the steps that network equipment sends configuration information to terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information is used for indicating at least one mode of cross-cell monitoring of a control channel, the at least one mode comprises a first mode, and the first mode comprises the step of monitoring the control channel of a first cell on a second cell; and the network equipment sends first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating a cross-cell monitoring control channel.

In one possible design, the at least one mode includes two or more modes; the method further comprises the following steps: and the network equipment sends second information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the mode of monitoring the control channel across the cells is the first mode.

In one possible design, the network device sending the first information and/or the second information to the terminal device includes: and the network equipment sends first Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal equipment, wherein the first DCI comprises the first information and/or the second information.

In one possible design, the network device sending a first DCI to the terminal device includes: and the network equipment sends first DCI to the terminal equipment on the first cell.

In one possible design, the network device sending the first information and/or the second information to the terminal device includes: and the network equipment sends a first MAC CE to the terminal equipment, wherein the first MAC CE comprises the first information and/or the second information.

In one possible design, the method further includes: and the network equipment sends fourth information to the terminal equipment, wherein the fourth information is used for indicating to cross a cell monitoring control channel.

In one possible design, the network device sends fourth information to the terminal device, where the fourth information includes: and the network equipment sends second DCI to the terminal equipment, wherein the second DCI comprises the fourth information.

In one possible design, the network device sending a second DCI to the terminal device includes: and the second DCI is sent by the network equipment to the terminal equipment on a second cell.

In one possible design, the network device sends fourth information to the terminal device, where the fourth information includes: and the network equipment sends a second MAC CE to the terminal equipment, wherein the second MAC CE comprises the fourth information.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus, where the apparatus has a function of implementing the terminal device according to the first aspect, for example, the apparatus includes a module, a unit, or means (means) that the terminal device executes, where the function, the unit, or the means is implemented by software, or implemented by hardware executing corresponding software.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a processing unit and a communication unit, and the functions performed by the processing unit and the communication unit may correspond to the steps performed by the terminal device according to the first aspect.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a processor, and may further include a transceiver, where the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive signals, and the processor executes the program instructions to implement the method performed by the terminal device in any possible design or implementation manner of the first aspect.

Wherein the apparatus may further comprise one or more memories for coupling with the processor. The one or more memories may be integrated with the processor or separate from the processor, which is not limited in this application.

In one possible design, the memory stores the necessary computer program instructions and/or data to implement the functionality of the terminal device referred to in the first aspect above. The processor may execute the computer program instructions stored in the memory to perform the method performed by the terminal device in any possible design or implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an apparatus, where the apparatus has a function of implementing the network device according to the second aspect, for example, the apparatus includes a module, a unit, or means (means) for executing the steps according to the second aspect, where the function, the unit, or the means may be implemented by software, or implemented by hardware executing corresponding software.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a processing unit and a communication unit, and functions performed by the processing unit and the communication unit may correspond to steps performed by the network device according to the second aspect.

In one possible design, the apparatus includes a processor, and may further include a transceiver, and the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive signals, and the processor executes the program instructions to implement the method performed by the network device in any possible design or implementation manner of the second aspect.

In one possible design, the memory stores the necessary computer program instructions and/or data to implement the functionality of the network device referred to in the second aspect above. The processor may execute the computer program instructions stored in the memory to perform the method performed by the network device in any possible design or implementation of the second aspect described above.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon, which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of the possible designs of the first and second aspects.

In a sixth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a computer program product, which when read and executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of the possible designs of the first and second aspects.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip, where the chip is connected to a memory, and is configured to read and execute a software program stored in the memory, so as to implement the method in any one of the possible designs of the first and second aspects.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, including the terminal device in any one of the possible designs of the first aspect and the network device in any one of the possible designs of the second aspect.

Drawings

FIG. 1a is a schematic diagram of a possible system architecture suitable for use in embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 1b is a schematic diagram of another possible system architecture applicable to the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a MAC CE according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of another MAC CE provided in the embodiment of the present application;

fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to a second embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a possible exemplary block diagram of the devices involved in the embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all embodiments.

First, some terms in the embodiments of the present application are explained so as to be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

(1) The terminal equipment: may be a wireless terminal device capable of receiving network device scheduling and indication information, which may be a device providing voice and/or data connectivity to a user, or a handheld device having wireless connection capability, or other processing device connected to a wireless modem. The terminal devices, which may be mobile terminal devices such as mobile telephones (or "cellular" telephones), computers, and data cards, for example, mobile devices that may be portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included, or vehicle-mounted, may communicate with one or more core networks or the internet via a radio access network (e.g., a RAN). Examples of such devices include Personal Communication Service (PCS) phones, cordless phones, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones, Wireless Local Loop (WLL) stations, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), tablet computers (pads), and computers with wireless transceiving functions. A wireless terminal device may also be referred to as a system, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a Mobile Station (MS), a remote station (remote station), an Access Point (AP), a remote terminal device (remote terminal), an access terminal device (access terminal), a user terminal device (user terminal), a user agent (user agent), a Subscriber Station (SS), a user terminal device (CPE), a terminal (terminal), a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc. The terminal device may also be a wearable device and a next generation communication system, for example, a terminal device in a 5G network or a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) network for future evolution, a terminal device in an NR communication system, etc.

(2) A network device: is an entity in the network side for transmitting or receiving signals and the network device may be a device for communicating with the mobile device. The network device may be an AP in a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), an evolved Node B (eNB) or eNodeB in Long Term Evolution (LTE), a relay station or an access point, or a network device in a vehicle-mounted device, a wearable device, and a future 5G network, or a network device in a future evolved Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) network, or a new generation base station (generation Node B, gnnodeb) in an NR system, and the like. In addition, in this embodiment of the present application, a network device provides a service for a cell, and a terminal device communicates with the network device through a communication resource (for example, a frequency domain resource or a spectrum resource) used by the cell, where the cell may be a cell corresponding to the network device (for example, a base station), and the cell may belong to a macro base station or a base station corresponding to a small cell (small cell), and the small cell may include: urban cells (Metro cells), Micro cells (Micro cells), Pico cells (Pico cells), Femto cells (Femto cells), and the like, and the small cells have the characteristics of small coverage area and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-rate data transmission service. Furthermore, the network device may be other means for providing wireless communication functionality for the terminal device, where possible. The embodiments of the present application do not limit the specific technologies and the specific device forms used by the network devices. For convenience of description, in the embodiments of the present application, an apparatus for providing a wireless communication function for a terminal device is referred to as a network device.

(3) Carrier Aggregation (CA): in a wireless communication system, as the user of an intelligent terminal is continuously increased, the user traffic and the data throughput are also continuously increased, and further higher requirements are put forward on communication bandwidth and speed, so that a CA technology is introduced. CA serves one terminal device by aggregating a plurality of carrier units (CCs). In fact, each downlink carrier unit corresponds to an independent cell, and generally, one downlink carrier unit can be equivalent to one cell. Carrier aggregation may also be referred to as aggregation of cells.

The aggregated cells include a primary cell (PCell), and a carrier cell corresponding to the PCell is referred to as a Primary Component Carrier (PCC). The downlink carrier of the primary carrier unit is referred to as a downlink primary carrier unit (DL PCC), and the uplink carrier of the primary carrier unit is referred to as an uplink PCC (UL PCC).

The aggregated cells include one or more secondary cells (scells). A carrier element corresponding to the SCell is referred to as a Secondary Component Carrier (SCC). The downlink carrier of the secondary carrier unit is referred to as a downlink secondary carrier unit (DL SCC), and the uplink carrier of the secondary carrier unit is referred to as an uplink secondary carrier unit (UL SCC).

The PCell is determined when the connection establishment (connection establishment) between the terminal equipment and the network side is established, and is responsible for RRC communication with the terminal equipment; the SCell is added/modified/released by an RRC connection reconfiguration message (RCC connection configuration) after an initial security activation procedure (initial security activation procedure) to provide additional radio resources, and no important RRC communication (such as establishment, release, etc. of an RRC link) is performed between the SCell and the terminal device.

(4) Double Connection (DC): the terminal device supports simultaneous access to two network devices, which is called DC, wherein one network device is a primary network device and the other network device is a secondary network device. The primary network device may also be referred to as a Master Node (MN), and the secondary network device may also be referred to as a Secondary Node (SN). In this embodiment of the application, the primary network device is one of an LTE network device (e.g., eNB), a 5G network device (e.g., gNB) or a future communication network device, the secondary network device is also one of the LTE network device, the 5G network device or the future communication network device, and the primary network device and the secondary network device may be network devices of the same standard, such as both enbs, or network devices of different standards, such as the primary network device is an eNB and the secondary network device is a gNB. The communication system of the main network device and the auxiliary network device is not limited in the application.

Illustratively, a cell group managed by a primary network device is referred to as a Master Cell Group (MCG), a cell group managed by a secondary network device is referred to as a Secondary Cell Group (SCG), the MCG may include one or more carriers, if the MCG includes multiple carriers, the carriers may serve a terminal device by means of CA, the SCG may include one or more carriers, and if the SCG includes multiple carriers, the carriers may serve a terminal device by means of CA.

(5) Control channel: the control channel related in the embodiment of the present application may be a downlink control channel, such as a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH), an enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH), or other possible downlink control channels, which is not limited specifically. In the embodiment of the present application, a control channel is mainly used as a PDCCH for description.

(6) Cell, carrier: after the terminal device and the network device establish a connection, each downlink carrier (cell) corresponds to an independent cell, or one cell may also be said to include one downlink carrier, and 1 downlink carrier may be generally equal to 1 cell. For example, a cell may include one downlink carrier, one downlink carrier and one uplink carrier, and may further include one downlink carrier and a plurality of uplink carriers. In the embodiment of the present application, the concepts of the carrier and the cell may be interchanged.

(7) BWP: in the 5G communication system, to adapt the bandwidth capability of the terminal device, BWP may be configured for the terminal device within a bandwidth supported by one carrier (which may be referred to as a carrier bandwidth, and may specifically take values of 10MHz, 15MHz, 20MHz, 50MHz, 100MHz, or 400MHz, etc.), and multiple BWPs may be configured in one carrier, for example, 4 BWPs may be configured in one carrier. BWP may also be referred to as carrier bandwidth part (carrier bandwidth part), sub-band (subband) bandwidth, narrowband (narrowband) bandwidth, or other names, and the name is not limited in this application, and for convenience of description, the name BWP is taken as an example. For example, one BWP contains K (K >0) subcarriers; or, one BWP is a frequency domain resource where N non-overlapping RBs are located, and the subcarrier spacing of the RBs may be 15KHz, 30KHz, 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, 480KHz, or other values; alternatively, a BWP is a frequency domain resource where M non-overlapping Resource Block Groups (RBGs) are located, for example, an RBG includes P (P >0) consecutive RBs whose subcarrier spacing (SCS) may be 15KHz, 30KHz, 60KHz, 120KHz, 240KHz, 480KHz or other values, for example, integer multiples of 2.

For a cell (carrier), if it includes multiple BWPs, the network device may activate one of the BWPs for the terminal device to communicate. Exemplarily, when BWP is introduced, the monitoring of the PDCCH of the first cell on the second cell in the embodiments of the present application may be understood as monitoring the PDCCH of the BWP of the first cell on the activated BWP of the second cell.

(8) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. "at least one" means one or more, "a plurality" means two or more. "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, wherein A and B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship. "at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the 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.

And, unless specifically stated otherwise, the embodiments of the present application refer to the ordinal numbers "first", "second", etc., for distinguishing between a plurality of objects, and do not limit the order, sequence, priority, or importance of the plurality of objects. For example, the first information and the second information are different information only for distinguishing them, and do not indicate a difference in priority, importance, or the like between the two information.

Fig. 1a is a schematic diagram of a possible system architecture applicable to the embodiment of the present application. The system architecture as shown in fig. 1a comprises a network device 101 and a terminal device 102. The network device 101 has a plurality of cells (e.g., cell 1a and cell 2a) that serve the terminal device 102 by means of CA. That is, the system architecture illustrated in fig. 1a may be understood as a CA architecture.

Fig. 1b is a schematic diagram of another possible system architecture applicable to the embodiment of the present application. The system architecture shown in fig. 1b includes a network device 1011, a network device 1012 and a terminal device 102. The network device 1011 and the network device 1012 together serve the terminal device 102, where the network device 1011 is a primary network device and the network device 1012 is a secondary network device, or the network device 1011 is a secondary network device and the network device 1012 is a primary network device, which is not limited specifically. That is, the system architecture illustrated in fig. 1b may be understood as a DC architecture.

Further, the network device 1011 may have multiple cells (e.g., cell 1b and cell 2b) that serve the terminal device 102 by means of CA. The network device 1012 may also have multiple cells (e.g., cell 3b and cell 4b) that serve the terminal device 102 by way of CA. In this case, the system architecture illustrated in fig. 1b may be understood as a DC + CA architecture.

With respect to the system architectures illustrated in fig. 1a and 1b, it should be understood that, in the embodiment of the present application, the number of network devices and the number of terminal devices in the system architecture are not limited, and the system architecture to which the embodiment of the present application is applied may further include other devices, such as a core network device, a wireless relay device, a wireless backhaul device, and the like, besides the network devices and the terminal devices, and the embodiment of the present application is also not limited. In addition, the network device in the embodiment of the present application may integrate all functions into one independent physical device, or may distribute the functions over a plurality of independent physical devices, which is not limited to the embodiment of the present application. In addition, the terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be connected to the network device in a wireless manner.

The above illustrated system architecture may be applied to various Radio Access Technology (RAT) communication systems, such as a 5G communication system and communication systems that may appear in the future. The system architecture and the service scenario described in the embodiment of the present application are for more clearly illustrating the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application, and do not form a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, and as a person of ordinary skill in the art knows that along with the evolution of the communication system architecture and the appearance of a new service scenario, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

Taking the system architecture illustrated in fig. 1a as an example, the network device 101 may transmit the PDSCH to the terminal device 102 on the cell 1a or the cell 1b, and the PDSCH is generally scheduled by the control information carried in the PDCCH, for example, the control information is DCI. Therefore, in order to correctly receive the PDSCH in the cell 1a or the cell 1b, the terminal device 102 needs to monitor the PDCCH in the cell 1a or the cell 1b, and obtain the DCI carried in the PDCCH through the monitoring PDCCH, so as to obtain relevant information required for receiving the PDSCH, such as the location and size of the PDSCH time-frequency resource. Similarly, terminal device 102 may transmit PUSCH to network device 101 on cell 1a or cell 1b, and the PUSCH is typically scheduled by control information carried in PDCCH, such as DCI. Therefore, in order to correctly transmit the PUSCH on the cell 1a or the cell 1b, the terminal device 102 needs to monitor the PDCCH on the cell 1a or the cell 1b, and obtain the DCI carried by the PDCCH through the monitoring PDCCH, so as to obtain relevant information required for transmitting the PUSCH, such as the PUSCH time-frequency resource position and size. For simplicity of description, the embodiments of the present invention are described by taking downlink data PDSCH transmission as an example, and the method or apparatus related to the embodiments may also be used for transmission of uplink data PUSCH. Wherein monitoring the PDCCH may also be described as monitoring the PDCCH.

In view of the complexity of monitoring the PDCCH being relatively high, if the terminal device needs to monitor the PDCCH in multiple cells, a large amount of power consumption may be consumed, and therefore, embodiments of the present application provide some possible energy saving schemes, for example, during a service data interval, the period of monitoring the PDCCH in a certain cell or certain cells may be adjusted (for example, the period of monitoring the PDCCH is elongated) by the terminal device or the monitoring of the PDCCH in a certain cell or certain cells is turned off, so as to achieve an effect of saving power. For example, the period for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH on the cell 1a is 2 slots (slots), and to save power consumption, the period for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH on the cell 1a may be adjusted to 6 slots, or the monitoring of the PDCCH on the cell 1a by the terminal device is turned off. Extending the PDCCH monitoring period may also be understood as reducing the number of times that the terminal needs to monitor the PDCCH in the same time. The unit of the period for monitoring the PDCCH may be a time slot, a subframe (sub-frame), a Transmission Time Interval (TTI), or other possible time units, which is not specifically limited.

However, in a possible scenario (referred to as scenario 1), after the period of monitoring the PDCCH on the cell 1a by the terminal device is lengthened or the monitoring of the PDCCH on the cell 1a by the terminal device is turned off, if the cell 1a is not pre-configured to be cross-cell scheduled by another cell (such as the cell 2a), when the terminal device has an emergency demand for data transmission on the cell 1a and needs to monitor the PDCCH of the cell 1a, on one hand, the terminal device cannot quickly recover the function of monitoring the PDCCH of the cell 1a through the self-scheduled PDCCH because the monitoring period of the terminal device on the cell 1a is longer or the monitoring of the PDCCH on the cell 1a is turned off; on the other hand, since the cross-cell scheduling is configured by the network device through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, the time delay for the terminal device to receive the RRC signaling is large, so that the terminal device cannot quickly recover the function of monitoring the PDCCH of the cell 1a through newly configuring the PDCCH scheduled in the cross-cell. That is to say, after the period of monitoring the PDCCH on the cell 1a by the terminal device is lengthened or the monitoring of the PDCCH on the cell 1a by the terminal device is closed, if the cell 1a is not pre-configured to be cross-cell scheduled by other cells, the function of monitoring the PDCCH of the cell 1a cannot be quickly recovered, so that the timeliness of data transmission may be affected.

In yet another possible scenario (referred to as scenario 2), after the period for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH on the cell 1a is lengthened or the terminal device is turned off from monitoring the PDCCH on the cell 1a, if the cell 1a is pre-configured to be cross-cell scheduled by another cell (e.g., the cell 2a), the terminal device may monitor the PDCCH of the cell 1a on the cell 2a, so as to implement timely data transmission. However, in this case, if it is necessary to stop the cell 2a from scheduling the cell 1a across cells, it is necessary to be able to stop by RRC reconfiguration, which causes a problem of a long delay.

Based on this, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication method, which may include: the network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment, the configuration information is used for indicating cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, and correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the configuration information; and the network equipment sends information 1 to the terminal equipment, wherein the information 1 is used for indicating to activate or deactivate the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, and correspondingly, the terminal equipment receives the information 1. By adopting the method, the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH can be activated or deactivated flexibly, so that the terminal equipment can carry out the switching of PDCCH monitoring on different cells flexibly in a CA (and/or DC) mode, and the power consumption of the terminal equipment is saved. Thus, on one hand, when the method is applied to the scenario 1, the network device may configure the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH for the terminal device, and the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH is not activated after configuration (different from cross-cell scheduling in the prior art, and is activated after cross-cell scheduling configuration), but when activation is required, the network device sends the information 1 for activation. On the other hand, when the method is applied to the scenario 2, the configuration information of the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH may multiplex the configuration information of the cross-cell scheduling, and when the cross-cell monitoring needs to be stopped (or the cross-cell monitoring needs to be deactivated), the network device may send the information 1 to implement fast deactivation of the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH.

It is understood that the scheme described in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to many possible scenarios, and is not limited to scenario 1 and scenario 2 described above.

In the following description, the method provided by the embodiment of the present application is applied to the system architecture shown in fig. 1a as an example. In addition, the method may be performed by two communication devices, for example, a first communication device and a second communication device, where the first communication device may be a network device or a communication device capable of supporting the network device to implement the functions required by the method, and may also be other communication devices, such as a chip or a chip system. The second communication means may be a terminal device or a communication means capable of supporting the terminal device to implement the functions required by the method, but may of course also be other communication means, such as a chip or a system of chips. For convenience of introduction, in the following, the method is performed by a network device and a terminal device as an example, that is, the first communication apparatus is a network device and the second communication apparatus is a terminal device as an example. If the present embodiment is applied to the system architecture shown in fig. 1a, the network device (for example, the network device for executing the embodiment shown in fig. 4 or fig. 5) described below may be the network device in the system architecture shown in fig. 1a, and the terminal device (for example, the terminal device for executing the embodiment shown in fig. 4 or fig. 5) described below may be the terminal device in the system architecture shown in fig. 1 a.

The following describes related technical features related to embodiments of the present application.

(1) The network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment, wherein the configuration information is used for indicating cross-cell monitoring PDCCH; accordingly, the terminal device receives the configuration information sent by the network device.

Illustratively, the network device may send the configuration information to the terminal device through a high-layer signaling, where the high-layer signaling may refer to a signaling sent by a high-layer protocol layer, and the high-layer protocol layer is at least one protocol layer above a physical layer. Wherein the higher layer protocol layer may include at least one of the following protocol layers: a MAC layer, a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, an RRC layer, and a non-access stratum (NAS) layer. For example, the network device may send the configuration information to the terminal device on any one of one or more serving cells of the terminal device, which is not limited specifically.

Here, the network device may have a plurality of cells, and the plurality of cells may include the first cell and the second cell, and may further include a third cell, a fourth cell, and a fifth cell. A plurality of cells may provide services to the terminal device by means of CA.

Illustratively, the configuration information may be used to indicate at least one mode of monitoring PDCCH across cells, which may include one or more modes.

In one example, the at least one mode may include one or more modes configured by the network device for a cell (e.g., a first cell) of the plurality of cells, in which case, for example, the at least one mode includes a first mode, a second mode, and a third mode, wherein the first mode includes monitoring a PDCCH of the first cell on a second cell, the second mode includes monitoring a PDCCH of the first cell on a third cell, and the third mode includes monitoring a PDCCH of the first cell on a fourth cell. This example will be mainly described hereinafter.

In yet another example, the at least one mode may refer to multiple modes that the network device is configured for two or more of the plurality of cells, in which case one or more modes may be configured for each cell. For example, the at least one mode includes a first mode, a second mode, a third mode, a fourth mode, and a fifth mode, wherein the first mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the second cell, the second mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the third cell, the third mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the third cell on the fourth cell, the fourth mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the third cell on the fifth cell, and the fifth mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the fourth cell on the fifth cell. The first mode and the second mode are two modes configured for the first cell, the third mode and the fourth mode are two modes configured for the third cell, and the fifth mode is one mode configured for the fourth cell.

The PDCCH of the first cell according to the embodiment of the present invention may be understood as a PDCCH used for the first cell, a PDCCH serving the first cell, or a PDCCH serving the first cell.

In the embodiment of the present application, the configuration information may have a plurality of possible structures, and some possible structures of the configuration information are described below.

In one possible implementation (referred to as implementation 1), the network device may configure a mode for one cell, as follows, a structure example of configuration information for one cell (the structure of the configuration information may be applicable to each cell):

in the above structure, CHOICE indicates that one of the listed information options is selected for configuration. In the structure, two options are provided, one is own, which indicates that the cell is not configured with the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, that is, the cell monitors the PDCCH in the cell of the cell; the other is other, which means that the cell configures cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, i.e. PDCCH of the cell is monitored on other cells.

Based on the above structure, assuming that the network device has the first cell, the second cell, the third cell, the fourth cell, and the fifth cell, the network device configures the first mode for the first cell. In this case, the configuration information of the first cell may include an identifier of the first cell, where the identifier of the first cell may be information used for the terminal device to identify the PDCCH of the first cell in the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, and may be information capable of identifying the first cell. In an example, considering that one cell may correspond to one downlink carrier, the identifier of the first cell may also be information capable of identifying a (downlink) carrier corresponding to the first cell, such as carrier indication information (i.e., CIF-incontrolling cell value) or a CIF value.

When the network device performs configuration of the first cell, another may be selected in a cross carrier PDCCH monitoring structure of the first cell (indicating that PDCCHs of the first cell may be monitored on other cells), and the configuration information of the first cell may include an identifier of the second cell, which corresponds to a controllingcellid in the above structural example, and may further include an identifier of the first cell, where the identifier of the first cell may be carrier indication information for a PDCCH differentiated into the first cell for serving on the second cell, which corresponds to cif-incontrolling cell in the above structural example, such as 1. Correspondingly, after receiving the configuration information of the first cell, the terminal device acquires the PDCCH capable of monitoring the first cell on other cells according to the other, acquires the PDCCH capable of monitoring the first cell on the second cell according to the controllingCellId, and determines that the PDCCH is the PDCCH of the first cell if the value of the CIF carried in the PDCCH is CIF-InControlingCell when the PDCCH is acquired to be monitored on the second cell according to CIF-InControlingCell.

When the network device performs configuration of the second cell, own may be selected in a cross carrier PDCCH monitoring structure of the second cell (indicating that the cell monitors a PDCCH on its own cell), and the configuration information of the second cell may include information for indicating whether a Carrier Indicator Field (CIF) is included in the DCI, which corresponds to CIF-Presence in the above structural example. When the second cell is configured as a cell for controlling PDCCHs of other cells, the CIF-Presence may be configured as True, indicating that a Carrier Indicator Field (CIF) needs to be included in DCI information. For example, the second cell is configured to control the cell of the PDCCH of the first cell, and when the PDCCH of the second cell is transmitted on the second cell, the CIF value included in the DCI is 0; when the PDCCH of the first cell is transmitted on the second cell, a value of the CIF included in the DCI depends on the relevant configuration on the first cell, for example, if CIF-incontrolling cell in the configuration information of the first cell is 1, the CIF here is 1. Correspondingly, after receiving the configuration information of the second cell, the terminal device acquires, according to an own, that the PDCCH of the second cell can be monitored on the second cell, and acquires, according to CIF-Presence, that the PDCCH sent by the second cell carries the CIF (that is, the PDCCH sent by the second cell may be the PDCCH of the second cell, and may also be the PDCCH of other cells, and specifically, may be distinguished according to the CIF carried in the PDCCH), and when monitoring the PDCCH on the second cell, if it is determined that the CIF carried by the PDCCH is 0, it is acquired that the PDCCH is the PDCCH of the second cell, and if it is determined that the CIF carried by the PDCCH is 1, it is acquired (in combination with the configuration information of the first cell) that the PDCCH is the PDCCH of the first cell.

When the network device configures the third cell, it may select an own in a cross carrier PDCCH monitoring structure of the third cell (indicating that the cell monitors a PDCCH on its own cell), and the configuration information of the third cell may include information indicating whether the DCI includes a CIF, which corresponds to CIF-Presence in the above structural example. When the third cell is not configured as a cell for controlling PDCCHs of other cells, the CIF-Presence may be configured as False, indicating that CIF does not need to be included in DCI transmitted on the cell. Correspondingly, after receiving the configuration information of the third cell, the terminal device learns that the PDCCH of the third cell can be monitored on the third cell according to own, and learns that the PDCCH sent by the third cell does not carry CIF according to CIF-Presence, that is, the PDCCH sent by the third cell is the PDCCH of the third cell. The configuration of the fourth cell or the fifth cell performed by the network device may refer to the configuration of the third cell, which is not described again.

In yet another possible implementation (referred to as implementation 2), the network device may configure multiple modes for one cell, and, taking configuring two modes for one cell as an example, as follows, a structure example of configuration information for a certain cell (a structure of the configuration information may be applicable to each cell):

Based on the above structure, assuming that the network device has the first cell, the second cell, the third cell, the fourth cell, and the fifth cell, the network device configures the first mode and the second mode for the first cell.

When the network device performs configuration of the first cell, other (indicating that the PDCCH of the cell can be monitored on other cells) can be selected in the CrossCarrierPDCCHMonitoring structure of the first cell. The configuration information of the first cell includes an identifier of the second cell, which corresponds to the controllingcellid of mode1 in the above structural example, and also includes carrier indication information of a PDCCH for distinguishing a PDCCH serving a different cell on the second cell, which corresponds to cif-incontrollingcell of mode1 in the above structural example, such as 1; the configuration information of the first cell further includes an identifier of a third cell, which corresponds to the controllingcellid of mode2 in the above structural example, and further includes carrier indication information of a PDCCH for distinguishing a PDCCH serving a different cell on the third cell, which corresponds to cif-incontrollingcell of mode2 in the above structural example, such as 2. Correspondingly, after receiving the configuration information of the first cell, the terminal device acquires the PDCCH capable of monitoring the first cell on other cells according to the other, acquires the PDCCH capable of monitoring the first cell on the second cell according to the controllingCellId in the mode1, and determines the PDCCH as the PDCCH of the first cell if the value of the CIF carried in the PDCCH is the value of the CIF-InControlingCell in the mode1 when acquiring the PDCCH on the second cell according to the CIF-InControlingCell in the mode 1; knowing that the PDCCH of the first cell can be monitored on the third cell according to the controllingCellId in the mode2, and when knowing that the PDCCH is monitored on the third cell according to the CIF-InControlingCell in the mode2, if the value of the CIF carried in the PDCCH is the value of the CIF-InControlingCell in the mode2, determining that the PDCCH is the PDCCH of the first cell.

When the network device performs configuration of the second cell, own (indicating that the cell monitors the PDCCH on its own cell) may be selected in a cross carrier PDCCH monitoring structure of the second cell, and the configuration information of the second cell may include information indicating whether the DCI includes the CIF, which corresponds to CIF-Presence in the above structural example. When the second cell is configured as a cell for controlling PDCCHs of other cells, the CIF-Presence may be configured as True, indicating that a Carrier Indicator Field (CIF) needs to be included. For example, the second cell is configured as a cell for controlling the PDCCH of the first cell, and when the PDCCH of the second cell is transmitted on the second cell, the CIF included in the DCI is 0; when the PDCCH of the first cell is transmitted on the second cell, a value of the CIF included in the DCI depends on the relevant configuration on the first cell, for example, if CIF-incontrolling cell in the configuration information of the first cell is 1, the CIF here is 1. The configuration of the third cell is similar to that of the second cell, and is not described in detail.

When the network device performs configuration of the fourth cell, own (indicating that the cell monitors the PDCCH on its own cell) may be selected in a cross carrier PDCCH monitoring structure of the fourth cell, and the configuration information of the fourth cell may include information indicating whether the DCI includes the CIF, which corresponds to CIF-Presence in the above structural example. When the fourth cell is not configured as a cell for controlling PDCCHs of other cells, the CIF-Presence may be configured as False, indicating that the CIF is not required to be included in the DCI transmitted on the cell. The configuration of the fifth cell is similar to that of the fourth cell, and is not described again.

In yet another possible implementation (referred to as implementation 3), the network device may configure the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH for multiple cells, as follows as a structural example of configuration information for the multiple cells (in this case, the configuration information may be configured for a certain terminal device):

in the above structure, the cell1 may be understood as the configuration of the cell1, the cell2 may be understood as the configuration of the cell2, and so on. The configuration of each cell may include cross carrier pdcchmonitoring in implementation 1 or implementation 2.

For convenience of description, the configuration information in this embodiment may be referred to as cross-cell monitoring configuration information, taking the cross-cell monitoring configuration information as an example for indicating a first mode of cross-cell monitoring a PDCCH (that is, monitoring the PDCCH of a first cell on a second cell), in a possible case, a network device configures cross-cell scheduling for a terminal device (for example, scheduling the first cell on the second cell), the cross-cell monitoring configuration information may multiplex the cross-cell scheduling configuration information, and at this time, the cross-cell scheduling configuration information sent by the network device is the cross-cell monitoring configuration information, which is not described in detail again. In this case, after the network device configures the cross-cell monitoring, the terminal device may monitor the PDCCH of the first cell on the second cell, which is equivalent to that the cross-cell monitoring has been activated; if the cross-cell monitoring needs to be deactivated, the network device may send information 1 to the terminal device for deactivation. In yet another possible scenario, the network device does not configure cross-cell scheduling for the terminal device (as opposed to scheduling the first cell on the second cell), and cross-cell monitoring may be configured in a similar manner as cross-cell scheduling. In this case, the network device is configured with cross-cell monitoring and is not activated, and if the cross-cell monitoring needs to be activated or deactivated, the network device may send information 1 to the terminal device for activation or deactivation.

(2) The network equipment sends information 1 to the terminal equipment, wherein the information 1 is used for indicating to activate or deactivate the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH; accordingly, the terminal device receives the information 1 transmitted by the network device.

The information 1 may include first information or fifth information, where the first information is used to indicate that cross-cell monitoring PDCCH is activated, and the fifth information is used to indicate that cross-cell monitoring PDCCH is deactivated. Exemplarily, the first information is used to indicate that cross-cell monitoring PDCCH is activated, and may also be understood as the first information is used to indicate cross-cell monitoring PDCCH. When the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH needs to be activated (or when the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH needs to be activated), the network device may send first information to the terminal device, and when the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH needs to be deactivated, the network device may send fifth information to the terminal device.

In this embodiment, the network device may send the information 1 to the terminal device in multiple ways, for example, the information 1 may be sent through a dynamic signaling or a semi-static signaling, where the dynamic signaling may be understood as information sent through a PDCCH, for example, Downlink Control Information (DCI), and since the DCI is directly sent through physical layer information, the terminal device has a short time delay for receiving the information 1 and a fast response. Semi-static signaling can be understood as information transmitted through a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, such as a medium access control element (MAC CE), where a time delay for a terminal device to receive such information (e.g., MAC CE) is significantly shorter than a time delay of RRC signaling, and the information has HARQ feedback information corresponding to the information, so that reliability is high.

Some possible implementations of the network device sending the information 1 are described below.

Implementation mode 1: and the network equipment transmits DCI to the terminal equipment, wherein the DCI comprises information 1.

Here, the DCI may be scrambled using a cell radio network temporary identifier (C-RNTI), or may also be scrambled using a newly defined RNTI, which may be a cross-carrier PDCCH-radio network temporary identifier (CRPDCCH-RNTI), and is not limited in particular.

In the embodiment of the application, the DCI is scrambled by using the C-RNTI or the newly defined RNTI, and the CRC in the DCI is scrambled by using the C-RNTI or the newly defined RNTI. The DCI encoding process will be briefly described below to illustrate the meaning of DCI using C-RNTI scrambling (here, DCI using C-RNTI scrambling is taken as an example, when DCI using newly defined RNTI scrambling may refer to the understanding of using C-RNTI scrambling), and includes: step 1, information bits are grouped into information blocks according to a certain format (DCI format), or called information sequence, such as a₀,a ₁,a ₂,a ₃,...,a _A-1(ii) a Step 2, according to the information block a₀,a ₁,a ₂,a ₃,...,a _A-1Generating CRC check information p₀,p ₁,p ₂,p ₃,...,p _L-1Appending CRC check information generation to the information block

Wherein: b_k＝a _k，for _{k＝0,1,2,...,A-1}；b _k＝p _k-A，for _{k＝A,A+1,A+2,...,A+L-1}. Step 3, after the attachment, the CRC check information can use C-RNTI (such as x)_rnti,0,x _rnti,1,...,x _rnti,15) Scrambling is carried out to generate an information sequence c₀,c ₁,c ₂,c ₃,...,c _K-1For example, the following operation may be performed: c. C_k＝b _k，for k＝0,1,2,…,A+7；c _k＝(b _k+x _rnti,k-A-8) mod2, for k ═ a +8, a +9, a + 10. And 4, carrying out channel coding and rate matching to complete the coding process and obtain the coded DCI.

The DCI in the embodiment of the present application may be a DCI in multiple possible formats (formats), such as DCI format 0_0, DCI format 0_1, DCI format 1_0, or DCI format 1_ 1. One or more of a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) process number (HARQ process number) indication field, a Redundancy Version (RV) indication field, a Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS) indication field, a frequency domain resource allocation (frequency domain resource allocation) indication field, a time domain resource allocation (time domain resource allocation) indication field, a New Data Indicator (NDI) indication field, a Transmit Power Control (TPC) indication field (which may be a TPC for a PUSCH or a PUCCH), a frequency hopping (frequency hopping flag) indication field, and a reserved field may be included in the DCI. Taking the DCI format 1_0 scrambled by the C-RNTI as an example, as shown in table 1, the fields included in the DCI format 1_0 scrambled by the C-RNTI are exemplified.

Table 1: domain examples included in C-RNTI-scrambled DCI format 1_0

In the embodiment of the application, the HARQ process number indication field, the RV indication field, the MCS indication field, the frequency domain resource allocation indication field, the time domain resource allocation indication field, the newly transmitted data indication field, the transmission power control indication field, and the frequency hopping indication field are used for indicating corresponding information when scheduling uplink data or downlink data transmission; for example, when the DCI format 1_0 is used to schedule downlink data, the frequency domain resource allocation indication field is used to indicate frequency domain resources occupied by the downlink data. When the DCI includes the information 1, the DCI is no longer used for scheduling uplink data or downlink data, and therefore, the information 1 may be carried by means of the above field. In one example, one or more of the following domains may be used to carry information 1: the method comprises a HARQ process number indication domain, an RV indication domain, an MCS indication domain, a frequency domain resource allocation indication domain, a time domain resource allocation indication domain, a newly transmitted data indication domain, a transmission power control indication domain, a frequency hopping indication domain, a newly expanded first bit domain and a reserved domain. It is to be understood that the information 1 may also be carried by other possible domains, which is not limited by the embodiment of the present application.

For example, as shown in table 2, values of a field and a field for carrying the first information are given, and as shown in table 3, values of a field and a field for carrying the fifth information are given.

Table 2: domain carrying first information and example of values of the domain

Table 3: domain carrying fifth information and example of values of the domain

As can be seen from the contents in tables 2 and 3, taking DCI format 0_0 as an example, when the value of the HARQ process number indication field is all 0 and the value of the redundancy version indication field is 00, it indicates that the information carried in the DCI is the first information; and when the value of the HARQ process number indication domain is all 0, the value of the redundancy version indication domain is 00, the value of the MCS indication domain is all 1, and the value of the frequency domain resource allocation indication domain is all 1, indicating that the information carried in the DCI is the fifth information. Or, in a possible example, when the value of the HARQ process number indication field is all 1 and the value of the redundancy version indication field is 11, it may be stated that the information carried in the DCI is the first information; and when the value of the HARQ process number indication domain is all 1, the value of the redundancy version indication domain is 11, the value of the MCS indication domain is all 0, and the value of the frequency domain resource allocation indication domain is all 0, indicating that the information carried in the DCI is the fifth information.

Illustratively, the new data indication field and the transmission power control indication field may be further included in tables 2 and 3. In an example, taking DCI format 0_0 as an example, when the value of the HARQ process number indication field is all 0, the value of the redundancy version indication field is 00, the value of the newly transmitted data indication field is all 0, and the value of the transmission power control indication field is all 0, it is described that information carried in DCI is the first information; when the value of the HARQ process number indication field is all 0, the value of the redundancy version indication field is 00, the value of the newly transmitted data indication field is all 0, the value of the transmission power control indication field is all 0, the value of the MCS indication field is all 1, and the value of the frequency domain resource allocation indication field is all 1, it is described that the information carried in the DCI is the fifth information.

For another example, the first information or the fifth information may be carried by any one of a HARQ process number indication field, an RV indication field, an MCS indication field, a frequency domain resource allocation indication field, a time domain resource allocation indication field, a new data transmission indication field, a transmission power control indication field, a frequency hopping indication field, a newly extended first bit field, and a reserved field, for example, the first information or the fifth information may be carried by the time domain resource allocation indication field. In an example, taking DCI format 0_0 as an example, when the values of the time domain resource allocation indication domain are all 0, it is described that information carried in DCI is first information; and when the value of the time domain resource allocation indication domain is all 1, indicating that the information carried in the DCI is fifth information.

It should be noted that, the foregoing merely exemplifies the fields and the values of the fields carrying the first information, and the fields and the values of the fields carrying the fifth information, and in other possible embodiments, there may be other situations, and there is no one-to-one enumeration.

In the embodiment of the present application, it is considered that DCI does not have HARQ feedback information, and reliability of information transmission may be reduced, and therefore, in order to improve reliability of activating or deactivating cross-cell PDCCH monitoring, the terminal device may generate HARQ feedback information for DCI carrying information 1, so as to feed back whether the DCI is correctly received.

Implementation mode 2: and the network equipment transmits the MAC CE to the terminal equipment, wherein the MAC CE comprises the information 1.

The MAC CE may be a newly defined MAC CE in the embodiment of the present application, and the information 1 is sent by the newly defined MAC CE, so that the information expansion is more convenient and the influence on the standard is smaller.

Illustratively, a MAC PDU consists of one or more MAC sub-PDUs (sub-PDUs). Each MAC sub pdu contains one of: only the MAC subheader; MAC subheader and MAC SDU; MAC subheader and MAC CE; MAC subheader and padding. Each MAC subheader corresponds to a MAC SDU, MAC CE or padding. In one example, the MAC subheader consists of four header fields R/F/LCID/L, which is primarily for MAC subheaders other than fixed-size MAC CE, padding, and MAC SDU containing uplink common control channel (UL CCCH); in yet another example, the MAC subheader consists of two header fields R/LCID, which is primarily a MAC subheader for fixed size MAC CE, padding, and MAC SDUs containing UL CCCH. The LCID is a logical channel ID and represents a logical channel instance of a corresponding MAC SDU or a corresponding MAC CE or a filling type, each MAC subheader is provided with an LCID field, and the size of the LCID field is 6 bits; l is a length field indicating the length (in bytes) of a corresponding MAC SDU or variable-size MAC CE, one L field per MAC subheader except for a MAC subheader corresponding to a fixed-size MAC CE, padding, and a MAC SDU containing UL CCCH, the size of the L field being indicated by the F field; f is a format field indicating the size of the length field. Each MAC subheader has an F field except for a subheader corresponding to a MAC CE, padding and MAC SDU containing UL CCCH of fixed size. The size of the F field is 1 bit, when the value is 0, the length field is represented as 8 bits, and when the value is 1, the length field is represented as 16 bits; r is a reserved bit set to 0.

The MAC subheader corresponding to the MAC CE newly defined in the embodiment of the present application includes an LCID, where the LCID is used to indicate that the MAC CE includes information 1. In an example, the value of the LCID may be any one of values 33 to 46, and is not limited specifically. For example, the MAC CE may be sent as a separate MAC PDU, or may be sent together with other MAC SDUs, which is not limited specifically.

Illustratively, the MAC CE may be a fixed-length MAC CE. As shown in fig. 2, taking a case that a terminal device can be configured with 31 cells at maximum as an example, where R represents a reserved bit, Ci represents activation or deactivation of a cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of an ith cell, for example, a value of Ci is 1, which represents activation of the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of the ith cell, and a value of Ci is 0, which represents deactivation of the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of the ith cell. Taking C1 corresponding to the first cell as an example, C1 ═ 1 indicates that the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of the first cell is activated (for example, the first cell may be monitored on the second cell for activation), and C1 ═ 0 indicates that the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of the first cell is deactivated. It should be noted that, if only 10 cells actually serve the terminal device by means of CA, that is, no corresponding cell is configured in the C11-C31 fields, the terminal device may ignore the C11-C31 fields after receiving the MAC CE.

(3) The network equipment sends information 2 to the terminal equipment, wherein the information 2 is used for indicating the mode of activating or deactivating the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH; accordingly, the terminal device receives the information 2 transmitted by the network device.

Illustratively, information 2 may be used in conjunction with information 1, information 1 indicating activation or deactivation of cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, and information 2 further indicating a specific mode of activating or deactivating cross-cell monitoring PDCCH. In one example, information 1 may indicate to activate or deactivate cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of a certain cell, and information 2 further indicates a mode configured by the network device for the cell; for example, if the network device configures a first mode, a second mode, and a third mode for the first cell, information 1 may indicate the first cell, and information 2 may further indicate one of the first mode, the second mode, and the third mode. In yet another example, the information 1 may also only indicate to activate or deactivate cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, but not to indicate a specific cell, and the information 2 may indicate a mode of network device configuration; for example, the network device configures a first mode, a second mode, a third mode, a fourth mode, and a fifth mode for multiple cells, information 1 may only indicate to activate or deactivate cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, and information 2 may further indicate one of the first mode, the second mode, the third mode, the fourth mode, and the fifth mode.

The information 2 may include second information or sixth information, the second information being used to indicate that a mode of cross-cell monitoring PDCCH is activated, and the sixth information being used to indicate that a mode of cross-cell monitoring PDCCH is deactivated. For example, if the information 1 sent by the network device to the terminal device is the first information, the information 2 sent to the terminal device may be the second information; if the information 1 sent by the network device to the terminal device is the fifth information, the information 2 sent to the terminal device may be the sixth information. It should be noted that, sending the information 2 to the terminal device by the network device is an optional step, for example, if the network device only configures a mode of monitoring the PDCCH across cells, only sending the information 1 may implement activating or deactivating the mode, and may not send the information 2 any more.

In this embodiment of the application, the network device may send the information 1 and the information 2 through the same message, or may send the information 1 and the information 2 through different messages, which is not limited specifically. Taking the network device to send information 1 and information 2 through the same message as an example, for example, the network device sends DCI to the terminal device, where the DCI includes information 1 and information 2, and for example, information 2 may be carried in the newly extended second bit field and/or the reserved field; for another example, the network device sends the MAC CE to the terminal device, where the MAC CE includes information 1 and information 2, and as shown in fig. 3, the CRPDlndi corresponding to Ci indicates a mode of activating or deactivating the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of the ith cell. For example, the number of bits occupied by the information 2 may be determined according to the number of modes of the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH configured by the network device, for example, the mode of the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH configured by the network device for the first cell includes a first mode, a second mode and a third mode, and then the information 2 may occupy 2 bits, for example, when a value of the 2 bits is 00, the first mode is indicated, when a value of the 2 bits is 01, the second mode is indicated, and when a value of the 2 bits is 10, the third mode is indicated. For example, C1 ═ 1 and CRPDlnd1 ═ 00 indicate a first mode in which the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH of the first cell is activated.

(4) The network equipment sends information 3 to the terminal equipment, wherein the information 3 is used for controlling the period of monitoring the PDCCH on the first cell; accordingly, the terminal device receives the information 3 transmitted by the network device.

In one example, the information 3 may control the period for monitoring the PDCCH on the first cell by indicating a period for monitoring the PDCCH on the first cell or indicating that the PDCCH is not monitored on the first cell (in this case, the information 3 may be understood as PDCCH monitoring control information). In yet another example, the network device may configure multiple BWPs (multiple BWPs belong to the same cell) for the terminal device, where each BWP corresponds to a period of the monitoring PDCCH, and when the active BWP changes (i.e. BWP handover occurs), the period of the monitoring PDCCH changes accordingly; therefore, the information 3 may also control the period of monitoring the PDCCH on the first cell by indicating handover of BWP (at this time, the information 3 may be understood as BWP indication information), for example, the information 3 may indicate index information including a target BWP, such as a BWP ID.

For example, the information 3 may include third information or fourth information, such as two periods, for example, a first period is 2 slots, and a second period is 6 slots, where the network device configures the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell. The third information may be used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored on the first cell, or the third information may be used to indicate a period (e.g., 6 slots) in which the PDCCH of the first cell is monitored on the first cell; the fourth information may be used to indicate a period (e.g., 2 slots) in which the PDCCH of the first cell is monitored on the first cell. The third information and the fourth information may be carried by the same information field, for example, the information field may include two bits, 00 indicates that the PDCCH is not monitored, 01 indicates that the monitoring period is a first period, such as 2 slots, and 10 indicates that the monitoring period is a second period, such as 6 slots. That is, the network device may configure a plurality of monitoring periods in advance, and then selectively indicate the corresponding monitoring period by transmitting the information 3 to the terminal device. For example, when the period of monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell by the terminal device is 2 slots (this state is understood as a normal state) on the first cell, if the network device determines that the power consumption of the terminal device needs to be saved, the network device may send third information (at this time, the value of the information field may be 10 or 00) to the terminal device, so that the terminal device enters the energy saving state; when the terminal device does not monitor the PDCCH of the first cell in the first cell, or the period in which the terminal device monitors the PDCCH of the first cell in the first cell is 6 slots (this state is understood as an energy saving state), the network device may send fourth information (at this time, the value of the information field is 01) to the terminal device, so that the terminal device enters a normal state.

In this embodiment of the application, the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored in the first cell, and may also be described as the third information is used to indicate that monitoring of the PDCCH of the first cell in the first cell is turned off, or the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is ignored in the first cell, or other possible descriptions are used, which is not limited specifically.

For example, the network device may send the information 3 through the DCI, in this case, the DCI carrying the information 3 and the DCI carrying the information 1 (and the information 2) may be the same DCI, or may also be different DCIs, which is not limited specifically. When the DCI carrying information 3 and the DCI carrying information 1 may be the same DCI, the DCI may include the first information and the third information, or include the fifth information and the fourth information.

It should be noted that, in order not to increase the number of blind detections of the terminal device, the size of the DCI format used for carrying the information 1 (and the information 2 and the information 3) needs to be aligned with the size of the original DCI format, for example, when the information 1 is transmitted using the DCI format 1_0, the size of the DCI format 1_0 needs to be consistent with the size of the DCI format 1_0 used for scheduling downlink data.

Based on the above introduction of the related technical features, the following describes an implementation flow of the communication method provided in the embodiments of the present application with reference to the first embodiment and the second embodiment.

Example one

Fig. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to an embodiment of the present application, where as shown in fig. 4, the method includes:

step 401, a network device configures information 1 to a terminal device, where the configuration information 1 is used to indicate a first mode, a second mode, and a third mode of cross-cell monitoring of a PDCCH, the first mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of a first cell on a second cell, the second mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on a third cell, and the third mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on a fourth cell.

Accordingly, in step 402, the terminal device receives configuration information 1 sent by the network device.

It is assumed that the network device configures two periods for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell in advance for the terminal device, for example, the first period is 2 slots, and the second period is 6 slots. Step 403 may be performed when the terminal device monitors the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell for a period of 2 slots.

Step 403, the network device sends control information-1 a to the terminal device, where the control information-1 a includes first information, second information, and third information, where the first information is used to indicate activation of cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, the second information is used to indicate a first mode, and the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored in the first cell. Illustratively, the control information-1 a may be DCI transmitted by the network device on the first cell.

Accordingly, in step 404, the terminal device receives the control information-1 a sent by the network device, and monitors the PDCCH of the first cell on the second cell according to the control information-1 a, and does not monitor the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell any more.

Step 405, the network device sends control information-1 b to the terminal device, where the control information-1 b includes fourth information, fifth information, and sixth information, where the fourth information is used to indicate that a period for monitoring a PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell is 2 slots, the fifth information is used to indicate to deactivate cross-cell monitoring of the PDCCH, and the sixth information is used to indicate the first mode. Illustratively, the control information-1 b may be DCI transmitted by the network device on the second cell.

Accordingly, in step 406, the terminal device receives the control information-1 b sent by the network device, and resumes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell according to the control information-1 b, and no longer monitors the PDCCH of the first cell on the second cell.

It should be noted that, in general, a cell has only one scheduling cell, that is, a cell can only be scheduled by another cell, but not by multiple cells. Therefore, the control information-1 b may not include the sixth information, and the terminal device may know to deactivate the first mode according to the fifth information.

Example two

Fig. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a communication method according to a second embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 5, the method includes:

step 501, a network device configures information 1 to a terminal device, where the configuration information 1 is used to indicate a first mode, a second mode, and a third mode of cross-cell monitoring of a PDCCH, the first mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of a first cell on a second cell, the second mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on a third cell, and the third mode includes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on a fourth cell.

Accordingly, in step 502, the terminal device receives the configuration information 1 sent by the network device.

It is assumed that the network device configures two periods for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell in advance for the terminal device, for example, the first period is 2 slots, and the second period is 6 slots. Step 503 may be performed when the terminal device monitors the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell for 2 slots.

Step 503, the network device sends control information-2 a to the terminal device, where the control information-2 a includes first information and second information, the first information is used to indicate activation of the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH, and the second information is used to indicate the first mode. Here, the control information-2 a may be DCI transmitted on the first cell or may also be MAC CE.

Accordingly, in step 504, the terminal device receives the control information-2 a and monitors the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell and the second cell.

Step 505, the network device sends control information-2 b to the terminal device, where the control information-2 b includes third information, and the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored on the first cell. Here, the control information-2 b may be DCI transmitted by the network device on the first cell or on the second cell.

Accordingly, in step 506, the terminal device receives the control information-2 b sent by the network device, and according to the control information-2 b, no longer monitors the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell, but monitors the PDCCH of the first cell only on the second cell.

In step 507, the network device sends control information-2 c to the terminal device, where the control information-2 c includes fourth information, and the fourth information is used to indicate a period (for example, 6 slots) for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell. Here, the control information-2 c may be DCI transmitted by the network device on the second cell.

Accordingly, in step 508, the terminal device receives the control information-2 c sent by the network device, and resumes monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell, and at this time, also monitors the PDCCH of the first cell on the second cell.

In step 509, the network device sends control information-2 d to the terminal device, where the control information-2 d includes fifth information, and the fifth information is used to indicate to deactivate the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH. Here, the control information-2 d may be DCI transmitted by the network device on the first cell or the second cell.

Correspondingly, in step 510, the terminal device receives the control information-2 d sent by the network device, and deactivates the cross-cell monitoring PDCCH according to the control information-2 d, that is, the PDCCH of the first cell is no longer monitored on the second cell, and at this time, the PDCCH of the first cell is monitored only on the first cell.

It should be noted that: (1) the step number in fig. 4 or fig. 5 is only an example of an execution flow, and does not limit the order of executing the steps, and there is no strict execution order between steps that have no time sequence dependency relationship between them in this embodiment of the present application. (2) The first embodiment and the second embodiment describe two possible interaction flows based on the technical features described above, and the specific implementation of each step can refer to the technical features described above. In the above-described first embodiment, a case where the first information, the second information, and the third information are transmitted by one message, and the fourth information, the fifth information, and the sixth information are transmitted by one message is mainly described; in the second embodiment, the case where the first information, the second information, and the third information are transmitted by different messages, and the fourth information, the fifth information, and the sixth information are transmitted by different messages is mainly described.

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced mainly from the perspective of interaction between a network device and a terminal device. It is understood that, in order to implement the above functions, the network device or the terminal device may include a corresponding hardware structure and/or software module for performing each function. Those of skill in the art will 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.

In case of integrated units (modules), fig. 6 shows a possible exemplary block diagram of the apparatus involved in the embodiments of the present application, which apparatus 600 may be in the form of software. The apparatus 600 may comprise: a processing unit 602 and a communication unit 603. The processing unit 602 is configured to control and manage operations of the apparatus 600. The communication unit 603 is configured to support communication of the apparatus 600 with other network entities. Optionally, the communication unit 603 is also referred to as a transceiving unit and may comprise a receiving unit and/or a transmitting unit for performing receiving and transmitting operations, respectively. The apparatus 600 may further comprise a storage unit 601 for storing program code and/or data of the apparatus 600.

The processing unit 602 may be, among other things, a processor or controller that may implement or execute the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the embodiment disclosure of the present application. The communication unit 603 may be a communication interface, a transceiver, a transceiving circuit, or the like, 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 601 may be a memory.

The apparatus 600 may be the terminal device in any of the above embodiments, or may also be a chip disposed in the terminal device. The processing unit 602 may enable the apparatus 600 to perform the actions of the terminal device in the above method examples. Alternatively, the processing unit 602 mainly performs internal actions of the terminal device in the method example, and the communication unit 603 may support communication between the apparatus 600 and the network device. For example, the communication unit 602 is configured to perform step 402, step 404, and step 406 in fig. 4, and step 502, step 504, step 506, step 508, and step 510 in fig. 5.

Specifically, in an embodiment, the communication unit 603 is configured to receive configuration information sent by a network device, where the configuration information is used to indicate at least one mode of monitoring a control channel across cells, where the at least one mode includes a first mode, and the first mode includes monitoring the control channel of the first cell on the second cell; receiving first information sent by the network equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating a cross-cell monitoring control channel;

the processing unit 602 is configured to monitor a control channel of the first cell on the second cell.

In one possible design, the at least one mode includes two or more modes; the communication unit 603 is further configured to: and receiving second information sent by the network equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the mode of monitoring the control channel across the cells is the first mode.

In one possible design, the communication unit 603 is specifically configured to: receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) sent by the network equipment, wherein the DCI comprises the first information and/or the second information.

In one possible design, one or more of the following fields in the DCI are used to carry the first information: the method comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process number indication domain, a redundancy version RV indication domain, a modulation and coding mode indication domain, a frequency domain resource indication domain, a time domain resource allocation indication domain, a new data transmission indication domain, a sending power indication domain, a frequency hopping indication domain and a reservation domain.

In one possible design, the DCI further includes third information; wherein the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored on the first cell, or the third information is used to indicate a period for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell.

In one possible design, the communication unit 603 is specifically configured to: and receiving the MAC CE sent by the network equipment, wherein the MAC CE comprises the first information and/or the second information.

In one possible design, a MAC subheader corresponding to the MAC CE includes a logical channel identifier LCID, where the LCID is used to indicate that the MAC CE includes the first information and/or the second information.

In one possible design, the processing unit 602 is specifically configured to: monitoring a control channel of the BWP of the first cell on the activated bandwidth portion BWP of the second cell.

The apparatus 600 may also be the network device in any of the above embodiments, or may also be a chip disposed in the network device. The processing unit 602 may enable the apparatus 600 to perform the actions of the network device in the above method examples. Alternatively, the processing unit 602 mainly performs internal actions of the network device in the method example, and the communication unit 603 may support communication between the apparatus 600 and the terminal device. For example, the communication unit 603 is configured to perform step 401, step 403, and step 405 in fig. 4, and step 501, step 503, step 505, step 507, and step 509 in fig. 5.

Specifically, in one embodiment, the communication unit 603 is configured to: sending configuration information to a terminal device, where the configuration information is used to indicate at least one mode of monitoring a control channel across cells, where the at least one mode includes a first mode, and the first mode includes monitoring the control channel of the first cell on the second cell; and sending first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating a cross-cell monitoring control channel.

In one possible design, the at least one mode includes two or more modes; the communication unit 602 is further configured to: and sending second information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the mode of monitoring the control channel across the cells is the first mode.

In one possible design, the communication unit 603 is specifically configured to: and sending Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal equipment, wherein the DCI comprises the first information and/or the second information.

In one possible design, the communication unit 603 is specifically configured to: and accessing a control unit MAC CE to the terminal equipment media, wherein the MAC CE comprises the first information and/or the second information.

It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the unit (module) is schematic, and is only a logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. The functional modules in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated into one processing module, or each of the modules may exist alone physically, or two or more modules are integrated into one module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode.

The integrated module, if implemented in the form of a software functional module and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application may be essentially implemented or make a contribution to the prior art, or all or part of the technical solutions may be implemented in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, and including several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like) or a processor (processor) to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. The storage medium may be any of various media that can store program codes, such as a memory.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of an apparatus 700, which includes a processor 710, a memory 720 and a transceiver 730. In one example, the apparatus 700 may implement the functionality of the apparatus 600 illustrated in fig. 6, in particular, the functionality of the communication unit 603 illustrated in fig. 6 may be implemented by a transceiver, the functionality of the processing unit 602 may be implemented by a processor, and the functionality of the storage unit 601 may be implemented by a memory. In another example, the apparatus 700 may be a terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment, and the apparatus 700 may be configured to implement the method corresponding to the terminal device described in the foregoing method embodiment, and refer to the description in the foregoing method embodiment specifically.

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. For convenience of explanation, fig. 8 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 8, the terminal apparatus 800 includes a processor 801, a memory 802, a control circuit 803, an antenna 804, and an input-output device 805. The terminal device 800 can be applied to the system architecture shown in fig. 1a, and performs the functions of the terminal device in the above method embodiments.

The processor 801 is mainly configured to process the communication protocol and the communication data, control the entire terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program, for example, to control the terminal device to perform the actions described in the above method embodiments. The memory 802 is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The control circuit 803 is mainly used for conversion between baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing of radio frequency signals. The control circuit 803 and the antenna 804 together, which may also be referred to as a transceiver, are primarily used for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. The input/output device 805, such as a touch screen, a display screen, a keyboard, etc., is mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is powered on, the processor 801 may read the software program in the memory 802, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor 801 performs baseband processing on the data to be sent, and outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and sends the radio frequency signal to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna 804. When data is transmitted to the terminal device, the radio frequency circuit receives a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 801, and the processor 801 converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 8 shows only one memory 802 and processor 801 for ease of illustration. In an actual terminal device, there may be a plurality of processors 801 and memories 802. The memory 802 may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

As an alternative implementation manner, the processor 801 may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, the baseband processor is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and the communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used for controlling the whole terminal device, executing a software program, and processing data of the software program. The processor 801 in fig. 8 integrates functions of a baseband processor and a central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will understand that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may also be independent processors, and are interconnected through a bus or the like. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include a plurality of baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, the terminal device may include a plurality of central processors to enhance its processing capability, and various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor 801, or may be stored in the memory 802 in the form of a software program, and the processor 801 executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

The terminal device 800 shown in fig. 8 is capable of implementing various processes involving the terminal device in the method embodiments illustrated in fig. 4 and 5. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the terminal device 800 are respectively to implement the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the above method embodiments, and the detailed description is appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

Fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 9, the network device 900 includes one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 910 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (which may also be referred to as digital units, DUs) 920. The RRU 910 may be referred to as a communication unit, which corresponds to the communication unit 603 in fig. 6, and optionally may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 911 and a radio frequency unit 912. The RRU 910 is mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending indication information to a terminal device. The BBU 910 is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling a base station, and the like. The RRU 910 and the BBU 920 may be physically disposed together or may be physically disposed separately, i.e., distributed base stations.

The BBU 920 is a control center of a base station, and may also be referred to as a processing module, and may correspond to the processing unit 602 in fig. 6, and is mainly used for completing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing module) may be configured to control the base station to perform an operation procedure related to the network device in the foregoing method embodiment, for example, to generate the foregoing indication information.

In an example, the BBU 920 may be formed by one or more boards, and the boards may jointly support a radio access network of a single access system (e.g., an LTE network), or may respectively support radio access networks of different access systems (e.g., an LTE network, a 5G network, or other networks). The BBU 920 also includes a memory 921 and a processor 922. The memory 921 is used to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 922 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation procedure related to the network device in the above method embodiment. The memory 921 and processor 922 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and processor may be provided separately on each board. Multiple boards may share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

The network device 900 shown in fig. 9 is capable of implementing the various processes involving the network device in the method embodiments illustrated in fig. 4 and 5. The operations and/or functions of the modules in the network device 800 are respectively for implementing the corresponding flows in the above-described method embodiments. Specifically, reference may be made to the description of the above method embodiments, and the detailed description is appropriately omitted herein to avoid redundancy.

In implementation, the steps of the method provided by this embodiment may be implemented by hardware integrated logic circuits in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

It should be noted that the processor in the embodiments of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip having signal processing capability. In implementation, the steps of the above method embodiments may be performed by integrated logic circuits of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The processor may be a general-purpose 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; or a combination that performs a computing function, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs, and microprocessors, among others. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

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

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer programs or instructions. When the computer program or instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in the embodiments of the present application are performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer program or instructions may be stored in or transmitted over a computer-readable storage medium. The computer readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server that integrates one or more available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape; or an optical medium, such as a DVD; it may also be a semiconductor medium, such as a Solid State Disk (SSD).

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 device. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a terminal device.

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 embodiments of the present application have been described with reference to specific features, it is apparent that various modifications and combinations can be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present application. Accordingly, the specification and figures are merely exemplary of embodiments of the 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 embodiments of the application.

Claims

A method of communication, the method comprising:

receiving configuration information from a network device, the configuration information indicating at least one mode of monitoring a control channel across cells, the at least one mode including a first mode, the first mode including monitoring the control channel of a first cell on a second cell;

receiving first information from the network equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating cross-cell monitoring of a control channel;

monitoring a control channel of the first cell on the second cell.
The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one mode comprises two or more modes;

the method further comprises the following steps:

receiving second information from the network device, the second information indicating that a mode of monitoring a control channel across cells is the first mode.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein receiving the first information and/or the second information from the network device comprises:

receiving Downlink Control Information (DCI) from the network equipment, wherein the DCI comprises the first information and/or the second information.
The method of claim 3, wherein:

one or more of the following fields in the DCI are used to carry the first information: the method comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process number indication domain, a redundancy version RV indication domain, a modulation and coding mode indication domain, a frequency domain resource indication domain, a time domain resource allocation indication domain, a new data transmission indication domain, a sending power indication domain, a frequency hopping indication domain and a reservation domain.
The method of claim 3 or 4, wherein the DCI further comprises third information;

wherein the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored on the first cell, or the third information is used to indicate a period for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell.
The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein receiving the first information and/or the second information from the network device comprises:

receiving a media access control element, MAC CE, from the network device, the MAC CE including the first information and/or the second information.
The method according to claim 6, wherein a MAC subheader corresponding to the MAC CE includes a logical channel identifier LCID, and wherein the LCID is used to indicate that the MAC CE includes the first information and/or the second information.
A method of communication, the method comprising:

sending configuration information to a terminal device, wherein the configuration information is used for indicating at least one mode of monitoring a control channel across cells, the at least one mode comprises a first mode, and the first mode comprises monitoring the control channel of a first cell on a second cell;

and sending first information to the terminal equipment, wherein the first information is used for indicating a cross-cell monitoring control channel.
The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one mode comprises two or more modes;

the method further comprises the following steps:

and sending second information to the terminal equipment, wherein the second information is used for indicating that the mode of monitoring the control channel across the cells is the first mode.
The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein sending the first information and/or the second information to the terminal device comprises:

and sending Downlink Control Information (DCI) to the terminal equipment, wherein the DCI comprises the first information and/or the second information.
The method of claim 10, wherein:

one or more of the following fields in the DCI are used to carry the first information: the method comprises a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ process number indication domain, a redundancy version RV indication domain, a modulation and coding mode indication domain, a frequency domain resource indication domain, a time domain resource allocation indication domain, a new data transmission indication domain, a sending power indication domain, a frequency hopping indication domain and a reservation domain.
The method according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the DCI further comprises third information;

wherein the third information is used to indicate that the PDCCH of the first cell is not monitored on the first cell, or the third information is used to indicate a period for monitoring the PDCCH of the first cell on the first cell.
The method according to claim 8 or 9, wherein sending the first information and/or the second information to the terminal device comprises:

and accessing a control unit MAC CE to the terminal equipment media, wherein the MAC CE comprises the first information and/or the second information.
The method according to claim 13, wherein a MAC subheader corresponding to the MAC CE includes a logical channel identifier LCID, and wherein the LCID is used to indicate that the MAC CE includes the first information and/or the second information.
An apparatus comprising a processor, a memory, and instructions stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 7.
An apparatus comprising a processor, a memory, and instructions stored on the memory and executable on the processor, which when executed, cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 8 to 14.
A terminal device, characterized in that it comprises the apparatus of claim 15.
A network device comprising the apparatus of claim 16.
A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions which, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 14.
A computer program product, which, when run on a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 14.