CN109462425B

CN109462425B - Beam scanning indication method and device

Info

Publication number: CN109462425B
Application number: CN201710803372.1A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 施弘哲; 毕晓艳; 尚鹏; 蒋鹏
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-09-06
Filing date: 2017-09-06
Publication date: 2021-08-13
Anticipated expiration: 2037-09-06
Also published as: CN109462425A; WO2019047808A1

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a beam scanning indication method and a device thereof, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the network equipment generates indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating a beam scanning mechanism, and the beam scanning mechanism is one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms; the network equipment sends the indication information to the terminal equipment; the terminal equipment receives the indication information from the network equipment, and determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information. By adopting the embodiment of the application, the indication of the network equipment to the beam scanning mechanism can be realized, and the problem of low execution efficiency of the existing beam scanning technology can be solved.

Description

Beam scanning indication method and device

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of communication, in particular to a beam scanning indication method and a beam scanning indication device.

Background

The beam forming is a signal preprocessing technology based on an antenna array, and generates a directional beam by adjusting the weighting coefficient of each array element in the antenna array, so that obvious array gain can be obtained. In New Radio (NR), in order to combat path loss in high frequency scenarios, the antenna array introduces more beamforming to gain. Since the data channel, the control channel, the synchronization signal, and the broadcast signal can be transmitted through the beam, Beam Management (BM) is important in NR.

In 3rd generation partnership project (3 GPP) related meetings, downlink beam management in NR can be divided into three phases: p-1, P-2 and P-3. Wherein, in the P-1 phase, a User Equipment (UE) can select one or more transmit beams through measurement and establish a transceiving beam association with one or more receive beams. The transmit beams in the established transceiving beam associations may be from one or more transmission access points (TRPs), and the receive beams may be from UEs. And normal communication service can be carried out between the TRP and the UE through the established receiving and transmitting beam association. In the P-2 phase, the UE may update a transmit beam of the one or more transceiver beam associations based on the measurement results. The transmit beam may still be from one or more TRPs but is generally smaller than the candidate range for the P-1 phase. In the P-3 phase, the UE may update the receive beams in one or more of the transceive beam associations according to the measurement results. The receive beams may still come from the UE. It will be appreciated that the P-2 phases and P-3 phases are a subset of the P-1 phases.

In NR, a frame (frame) is shared by beam management and Channel State Information (CSI) acquisition (acquisition), so in each of the beam management phases, the base station needs to configure a corresponding reference signal (e.g., a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS)) resource and a Channel State Information (CSI) reporting period, and notify the UE of the configuration information so that the UE can perform measurement and reporting.

The current beam scanning technology only defines some basic processing procedures, and if the current beam scanning technology is directly applied to product implementation, the implementation is likely to be inefficient, for example, the efficiency is low or the cost is large, so that many details are yet to be optimized. For example, according to the current beam scanning technology, for each transmission beam scanning, the base station needs to configure a piece of Uplink Control Information (UCI) resource for the UE, so that the UE informs the base station of one or more transmission beams with the best reception quality through the UCI resource. When the transmission beam is scanned frequently, more UCI resources need to be allocated, so that the feedback overhead in the beam reporting process is too large.

Disclosure of Invention

An embodiment of the present invention provides a beam scanning indication method and a device thereof, which can be used to solve the problem of low execution efficiency of the existing beam scanning technology.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a beam scanning indication method, including:

step 1: the network equipment generates indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating a beam scanning mechanism, and the indicated beam scanning mechanism is one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms;

step 2: and the network equipment sends the indication information to the terminal equipment.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a network device, including a processing unit and a transceiver unit, where the processing unit is configured to generate indication information, the indication information is used to indicate a beam scanning mechanism, the indicated beam scanning mechanism is one of multiple beam scans, and the transceiver unit is configured to send the indication information to a terminal device.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a network device, including at least one processing element and at least one storage element, where the at least one storage element is configured to store a program and data, and the at least one processing element is configured to execute the method provided in the first aspect of the embodiment of the present application.

In a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a network device, which includes at least one circuit or chip, where the at least one circuit or chip is configured to perform the method of the first aspect.

In a fifth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication program, which when executed by a processor is configured to perform the method of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a program product, such as a computer-readable storage medium, in which the program of the fifth aspect is stored.

It can be seen that, in the first to sixth aspects, the network device indicates the beam scanning mechanism through the indication information, so that the terminal device determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information, performs receive beam scanning and other related operations according to the indicated beam scanning mechanism, and can solve the problem of low execution efficiency of the existing beam scanning technology.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to report a value, and the network device determines, according to the value, a reference signal resource required by the terminal device for receiving beam scanning or a period for reporting a scanning result.

The number may be the number of received beams at the terminal device side, which refers to the number of beams that the terminal device needs to perform beam training in a time-division round robin manner, and the number of received beams may be equal to the number of reference signal resources required for scanning the received beams by the terminal device, or the number of repetitions of reference signal resources required for transmitting beams by the network device. The value may also be the number of transmit beams on the terminal device side or the number of sounding reference signal resources required for the terminal device to transmit beam scanning, where the number of transmit beams of the terminal device has an explicit correlation, e.g. equal or proportional relationship, with the number of receive beams thereof, and the correlation is at least known to the network device. In other words, the association may be embodied in that the number of receive beams may be determined from the number of transmit beams or the number of transmit beams may be determined from the number of receive beams.

The terminal device reports a numerical value to the network device under the support of corresponding time sequence and reporting format when receiving the indication information; if the reporting behavior is not indicated by the network device, but reported autonomously by the terminal device, the protocol needs to always reserve overhead for reporting values in the uplink signaling. And the indication mode is carried out through the indication information, the overhead of the uplink signaling is configured according to the requirement, and compared with the reserved mode, the signaling overhead is saved.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to report a value interval, and the network device determines, according to the value interval, a reference signal resource required by the terminal device for receiving beam scanning or a period for reporting a scanning result, so that signaling overhead can also be saved.

Similarly, the value interval may be a receiving beam number interval, and is different from the receiving beam number in that one is a value interval and one is a specific value.

In a possible implementation manner based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to send a transmission beam scanning request, where the transmission beam scanning request is used to request the network device to stop a current transmission beam scanning or trigger a next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning. By transmitting the beam scanning request, the terminal device can assist the network device to execute beam scanning. In this way, the network device only needs to configure the reference signal resource corresponding to the transmission beam on the network device side, and does not need to acquire the information of the number of the reception beams on the terminal device side.

Based on the first to sixth aspects, in a possible implementation manner, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to associate a preset threshold with beam scanning, that is, the network device notifies the terminal device that the number of available receiving beams is a known value, and the network device configures, according to the known value, the required reference signal resource or the corresponding period for reporting the scanning result. In this implementation, the terminal device does not need to report, and selects the corresponding receiving beam to participate in beam scanning by using the known value as a threshold, thereby saving the reporting overhead.

Under the condition that a plurality of preset thresholds exist, the network equipment instructs the terminal equipment through the indication information which preset threshold is associated with the beam scanning, namely, the corresponding receiving beam is selected to participate in the beam scanning according to which preset threshold.

If the number of the receiving beams of the terminal equipment is less than or equal to a preset threshold value, the terminal equipment can select all or part of the receiving beams to participate in beam scanning; if the number of the receiving beams of the terminal equipment is larger than the preset threshold value, the terminal equipment can only select part of the receiving beams to participate in beam scanning.

In a possible implementation manner according to the first to sixth aspects, the indication information is sent by physical layer signaling.

Based on the first aspect to the sixth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the physical layer signaling is in the downlink control information, that is, the indication information is indicated by a related indication field in the downlink control information.

The protocol may pre-define the corresponding relationship between different values of the indication field and the beam scanning mechanism, so that when the terminal device receives the indication information, the terminal device may determine the corresponding beam scanning mechanism according to the value of the indication field.

In a possible implementation manner according to the first to sixth aspects, the network device generates the configuration information and sends the configuration information to the terminal device. The configuration information is used to configure a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms, specifically including a corresponding relationship between different values of the indication domain and the beam scanning mechanisms, and then the network device indicates one of the beam scanning mechanisms through the indication information, so that when the terminal device receives the indication information, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is determined according to the corresponding relationship included in the configuration information.

In a possible implementation manner according to the first to sixth aspects, the configuration information is sent by radio resource control signaling.

In a seventh aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides another beam scanning indication method, including:

step 1: the terminal equipment receives indication information from the network equipment, wherein the indication information is used for indicating a beam scanning mechanism, and the beam scanning mechanism is one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms;

step 2: and the terminal equipment determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information.

In an eighth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal device, including a transceiver unit and a processing unit, where the transceiver unit is configured to receive indication information from a network device, the indication information being used to indicate a beam scanning mechanism, the indicated beam scanning mechanism being one of multiple beam scanning mechanisms, and the processing unit is configured to determine the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information.

In a ninth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a terminal device, including at least one processing element and at least one memory element, where the at least one memory element is configured to store programs and data, and the at least one processing element is configured to execute the method provided in the seventh aspect of the embodiment of the present application.

In a tenth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a terminal device, which includes at least one circuit or chip, where the at least one circuit or chip is configured to perform the method of the seventh aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a communication program, which when executed by a processor is configured to perform the method of the seventh aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, embodiments of the present application provide a program product, such as a computer-readable storage medium, in which the program of the eleventh aspect is stored.

It can be seen that, in the seventh to twelfth aspects, when the terminal device receives the indication information, the terminal device determines the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information, so that the terminal device performs the received beam scanning and other related operations according to the indicated beam scanning mechanism, thereby solving the problem of low execution efficiency of the existing beam scanning technology.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device reports a value to the network device according to the indication information, so that the network device configures at least one of the resource configuration information and the reporting configuration information according to the value, and avoids configuring redundant resources. Wherein the value may be the number of receive beams.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device reports a value interval to the network device according to the indication information, so that the network device configures at least one of the resource configuration information and the reporting configuration information according to the value interval, thereby avoiding configuring redundant resources. Wherein the value interval may be a receiving beam number interval.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device sends, to the network device, a transmission beam scanning request according to the indication information, where the transmission beam scanning request is used to request the network device to stop current transmission beam scanning, or trigger next transmission beam scanning after current transmission beam scanning, so that the terminal device assists the network device in performing beam scanning.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device associates a preset threshold with beam scanning according to the indication information, and selects a corresponding receiving beam to participate in the beam scanning according to the preset threshold, at this time, the terminal device is not required to report, and reporting overhead can be saved.

Based on the seventh to twelfth aspects, in a possible implementation manner, the indication information is carried in physical layer signaling.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the physical layer signaling is downlink control information, that is, the indication information is indicated by an associated indication field in the downlink control information.

The protocol may predefine a corresponding relationship between different values of the indication field and the beam scanning mechanism, and when receiving the indication information, the terminal device may determine the corresponding beam scanning mechanism according to the value of the indication field.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device, where the configuration information is used to configure multiple beam scanning mechanisms, and specifically configure corresponding relationships between different values of the indication fields and the beam scanning mechanisms. The terminal device may store the configuration information when receiving the configuration information, so that when receiving the indication information, the terminal device determines the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information according to the configuration information.

Based on the seventh aspect to the twelfth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the configuration information is carried in radio resource control signaling.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a method for configuring a beam scanning mechanism, including: the network equipment generates configuration information, the configuration information is used for configuring a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms, and the network equipment sends the configuration information to the terminal equipment; and the terminal equipment stores the configuration information when receiving the configuration information, so that when receiving the indication information subsequently, the terminal equipment determines the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information according to the configuration information.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides network equipment corresponding to the method. In one mode, the network device includes a processing unit configured to generate configuration information and a transceiver unit configured to transmit the configuration information to the terminal device. In one approach, the network device includes at least one processing element for storing programs and data and at least one memory element for executing the method on the network device side of the method. In one approach, the network device includes at least one circuit or chip for performing the method on the network device side of the method. Embodiments of the present application also provide a communication program, which when executed by a processor is configured to perform a method on a network device side in the method. An embodiment of the present application further provides a program product, for example, a computer-readable storage medium, where the program product stores therein a program for executing the method on the network device side in the method.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides the terminal equipment corresponding to the method. In one mode, the terminal device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit, the transceiver unit is configured to receive the configuration information, and the processing unit is configured to control storage of the configuration information. In one form, the terminal device includes at least one processing element for storing programs and data and at least one memory element for executing the method on the terminal device side of the method. In one mode, the network device includes at least one circuit or chip for performing the method of the terminal device side of the method. An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication program, which is configured to execute a method on a terminal device side in the method when executed by a processor. An embodiment of the present application further provides a program product, such as a computer-readable storage medium, in which a program for executing the method on the terminal device side in the method is stored.

In one possible implementation, the network device sends the configuration information to the terminal device through radio resource control signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, after sending the configuration information, the network device generates indication information and sends the indication information to the terminal device, where the indication information is used to indicate a beam scanning mechanism, and the indicated beam scanning mechanism is one of multiple beam scanning mechanisms included in the configuration information, so that the terminal device determines, according to the configuration information, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a beam scanning indication method, including: the network equipment generates indication information, the indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to report the number of the receiving beams or the interval of the number of the receiving beams, and the network equipment sends the indication information to the terminal equipment; the terminal device receives the indication information and reports the number of the receiving beams or the interval of the number of the receiving beams to the network device according to the indication information, so that the network device configures at least one of resource configuration information or reporting configuration information according to the number of the receiving beams or the interval of the number of the receiving beams.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides network equipment corresponding to the method. In one mode, the network device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit, where the processing unit is configured to generate indication information, the indication information is used to indicate a terminal device to report a number of received beams or a number interval of the received beams, and the transceiver unit is configured to send the indication information to the terminal device. In one approach, the network device includes at least one processing element for storing programs and data and at least one memory element for executing the method on the network device side of the method. In one approach, the network device includes at least one circuit or chip for performing the method on the network device side of the method. Embodiments of the present application also provide a communication program, which when executed by a processor is configured to perform a method on a network device side in the method. An embodiment of the present application further provides a program product, for example, a computer-readable storage medium, where the program product stores therein a program for executing the method on the network device side in the method.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides the terminal equipment corresponding to the method. In one mode, the terminal device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit, where the transceiver unit is configured to receive indication information, and the processing unit is configured to report the number of received beams or the interval of the number of received beams to the network device according to the indication information. In one form, the terminal device includes at least one processing element for storing programs and data and at least one memory element for executing the method on the terminal device side of the method. In one mode, the network device includes at least one circuit or chip for performing the method of the terminal device side of the method. An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication program, which is configured to execute a method on a terminal device side in the method when executed by a processor. An embodiment of the present application further provides a program product, such as a computer-readable storage medium, in which a program for executing the method on the terminal device side in the method is stored.

In a possible implementation manner, the number of the receiving beams is less than or equal to a rated receiving beam number of the terminal device, and a maximum value of the receiving beam number interval is less than or equal to the rated receiving beam number of the terminal device. The nominal receiving beam number of the terminal device refers to the maximum receiving beam number that the terminal device can support, and the nominal receiving beam number of the terminal device and the nominal transmitting beam number of the terminal device have a certain relevance, which can be embodied as an equal or proportional relationship, and the like.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a beam scanning method, including: the terminal equipment generates a transmission beam scanning request instruction and sends the transmission beam scanning request instruction to the network equipment; the network equipment receives the transmitting beam scanning request indication and executes corresponding transmitting beam scanning operation according to the transmitting beam scanning request indication, so that the terminal equipment assists the network equipment in beam scanning.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides network equipment corresponding to the method. In one mode, the network device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit, where the transceiver unit is configured to receive a transmission beam scanning request indication sent by a terminal device, and the processing unit is configured to perform a corresponding transmission beam scanning operation according to the transmission beam scanning request indication. In one approach, the network device includes at least one processing element for storing programs and data and at least one memory element for executing the method on the network device side of the method. In one approach, the network device includes at least one circuit or chip for performing the method on the network device side of the method. Embodiments of the present application also provide a communication program, which when executed by a processor is configured to perform a method on a network device side in the method. An embodiment of the present application further provides a program product, for example, a computer-readable storage medium, where the program product stores therein a program for executing the method on the network device side in the method.

Correspondingly, the embodiment of the application also provides the terminal equipment corresponding to the method. In one mode, the terminal device includes a processing unit and a transceiver unit, the processing unit is configured to generate a transmission beam scanning request indication, and the transceiver unit is configured to send the transmission beam scanning request indication to the network device. In one form, the terminal device includes at least one processing element for storing programs and data and at least one memory element for executing the method on the terminal device side of the method. In one mode, the network device includes at least one circuit or chip for performing the method of the terminal device side of the method. An embodiment of the present application also provides a communication program, which is configured to execute a method on a terminal device side in the method when executed by a processor. An embodiment of the present application further provides a program product, such as a computer-readable storage medium, in which a program for executing the method on the terminal device side in the method is stored.

In a possible implementation manner, the network device stops the current transmission beam scanning according to the transmission beam scanning request indication, or triggers the next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning, so that the terminal device assists the network device to terminate the current transmission beam scanning or trigger the beam scanning again.

In a possible implementation manner, when the period type of the current beam scanning is indicated as the semi-continuous type according to the transmission beam scanning request, the network device stops the current transmission beam scanning, so that the terminal device assists the network device to terminate the current transmission beam scanning.

In a possible implementation manner, when the periodic type of the current beam scanning is an aperiodic type, after the current transmission beam scanning, the next transmission beam scanning is triggered, so that the terminal device assists the network device to trigger the beam scanning again.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or the background art of the present application, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments or the background art of the present application will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which embodiments of the present application are applied;

fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a beam scanning indication method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flow chart provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is another exemplary flow chart provided by embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 5 is yet another exemplary flow chart provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is yet another exemplary flow chart provided by an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for configuring a beam scanning mechanism according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic flowchart of a beam scanning method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a simplified schematic diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 10 is a simplified structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a simplified diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a simplified structural diagram of a network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

Hereinafter, some terms in the present application are explained to facilitate understanding by those skilled in the art.

1) A terminal device, also called a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), etc., is a device that provides voice and/or data connectivity to a user, for example, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, etc. Currently, some examples of terminals are: a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palm top computer, a Mobile Internet Device (MID), a wearable device, a Virtual Reality (VR) device, an Augmented Reality (AR) device, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote surgery (remote medical supply), a wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), a wireless terminal in transportation safety (smart security), a wireless terminal in city (smart city), a wireless terminal in home (smart home), and the like.

2) A Radio Access Network (RAN) is the part of a network that accesses terminals to the radio network. A RAN node (or device) is a node (or device) in a radio access network, which may also be referred to as a base station. Currently, some examples of RAN nodes are: a gbb, a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a Node B (NB), a Base Station Controller (BSC), a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved Node B, or home Node B, HNB), a Base Band Unit (BBU), a Station (STA), a wireless fidelity (Wifi), or an Access Point (AP), etc. In addition, in one network configuration, the RAN may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node and a Distributed Unit (DU) node. The structure separates the protocol layers of the eNB in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, the functions of part of the protocol layers are centrally controlled by the CU, the functions of the rest part or all of the protocol layers are distributed in the DU, and the DU is centrally controlled by the CU.

3) "plurality" means two or more, and other terms are analogous. "and/or" describes the association relationship of the associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, which may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the former and latter associated objects are in an "or" relationship.

Please refer to fig. 1, which is a schematic diagram of a network architecture to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, where the network architecture may be a network architecture of a wireless communication system, and may include a terminal device and a network device. It should be noted that the number and form of the terminal devices and the network devices shown in fig. 1 are not limited to the embodiment of the present application, and in practical applications, one network device may connect to a plurality of terminal devices. The network devices may be connected to core network devices, which are not shown in fig. 1. The network device may be a base station, and the base station may include a baseband unit (BBU) and a Remote Radio Unit (RRU). BBU and RRU can be placed in different places, for example: RRU is remote and is placed in an open area with high telephone traffic, and BBU is placed in a central machine room. The BBU and the RRU can also be placed in the same machine room. The BBU and RRU can also be different components under one chassis.

It should be noted that, the wireless communication systems mentioned in the embodiments of the present application include, but are not limited to: narrowband band-internet of things (NB-IoT), global system for mobile communications (GSM), enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, code division multiple access (CDMA 2000) system, time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) system, Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, fifth generation mobile communication system, and future mobile communication system.

In this embodiment, the network device is a device deployed in a radio access network and configured to provide a wireless communication function for a user equipment. The network devices may include various forms of macro base stations, micro base stations (also known as small stations), relay stations, access points, TRPs, etc. In systems using different radio access technologies, the names of devices having a base station function may be different, for example, in an LTE system, referred to as eNB or eNodeB, and in a third Generation (3rd Generation, 3G) system, referred to as NB. For convenience of description, in all embodiments of the present application, the above-mentioned apparatus for providing a wireless communication function for a user equipment is collectively referred to as a network device.

The terminal devices referred to in the embodiments of the present application may include various handheld devices, vehicle mounted devices, wearable devices, computing devices, or other processing devices connected to a wireless modem with wireless communication capability. For convenience of description, in all embodiments of the present application, user equipment connected to a network device is collectively referred to as terminal equipment.

Currently, in NR, a frame (frame) is shared by beam management and channel state information acquisition, so in P-1, P-2, and P-3 stages, a base station needs to configure corresponding reference signal resources, a reporting period, and the like, and notify the UE of the configuration information through the frame, so that the UE can perform measurement and reporting.

In the beam scanning process, in order to determine the appropriate transmit and receive beam associations, it is generally necessary to traverse all transmit and receive beams.

For example, from the angle of the transmission beam of the base station side participating in beam scanning, the base station may grasp information such as the number of transmission beams participating in beam scanning, and therefore, in a frame allowed by a protocol, the base station may accurately configure corresponding reference signal resources (CSI-RS resources (s)) and channel state information reporting (CSI reporting) periods, and the like.

From the angle of participation of the UE-side receive beam in beam scanning, for each transmit beam scanning, the UE receives using the same receive beam, so as to determine the transmit beam or beams with the best reception quality corresponding to the receive beam. When the next transmission beam scanning is carried out, the UE uses another receiving beam to receive so as to determine one or more transmitting beams corresponding to the receiving beam and having the best receiving quality. The UE may determine the transmitting beam with the best receiving quality and the receiving beam corresponding to the transmitting beam by traversing all the receiving beams, report the transmitting beam to the base station, and record the receiving beam corresponding to the transmitting beam.

In the above-mentioned beam-receiving and beam-transmitting traversing scanning process, on one hand, in order to reduce overhead, the beam scanning result may be fed back to the base station through the channel state information report after the UE has traversed all the receiving beams. In other words, the base station does not need to configure corresponding UCI resources for the UE for each transmission beam scan, but may configure one UCI resource for multiple transmission beam scans, where the number of transmission beam scans may be equal to the number of UE reception beams; on the other hand, in aperiodic beam scanning, in order to avoid waste, the base station should accurately control the number of repetitions of transmit beam scanning, i.e., the number of repetitions of the corresponding CSI-RS resource. Therefore, in these cases, it is necessary for the base station to know the number of UE reception beams. However, in the existing beam scanning technology, the base station does not know the number of UE reception beams.

In view of this, an embodiment of the present invention provides a beam scanning indication method and an apparatus thereof, in which a network device indicates a terminal device to execute a beam scanning mechanism through indication information, and specifically may indicate the terminal device to execute one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms. The terminal equipment obtains the indication information, and can determine what beam scanning mechanism is executed, and if the beam scanning mechanism relates to reporting, the UE can determine the reporting time, reporting route, reporting format, etc. of the beam scanning mechanism, which are agreed by the protocol. The beam scanning mechanism may include, but is not limited to:

one of the implementation manners of the beam scanning mechanism may be that the base station triggers the UE to report a value, and the base station determines, with reference to the value, the CSI-RS resource required for the UE to receive beam scanning or a corresponding CSI reporting period.

In the foregoing implementation manner, the value that the base station triggers the UE to report is collectively described as the number of receive beams in this embodiment, but may correspond to any one of the following technical essences: for example, the number of repetitions of the CSI-RS resource corresponding to the base station transmit beam; for example, the repetition times of a certain CSI-RS resource set, where the CSI-RS resource set (CSI-RS resource set) includes at least one CSI-RS resource, and the base stations corresponding to the CSI-RS resources in the CSI-RS resource set transmit different beams; e.g., the number of CSI-RS resources required for UE receive beam scanning; for example, the number of the CSI-RS resources in a certain CSI-RS resource set is the same as the number of the base station transmitting beams corresponding to the CSI-RS resources in the CSI-RS resource set; for example, the reference coefficient of the CSI reporting period corresponds to the number of UE receiving beams, or corresponds to the number of repetitions of CSI-RS resources corresponding to base station transmitting beams.

In particular, the technical nature of the number of receiving beams may also correspond to the number of UE transmitting beams, or the number of Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resources required for UE transmitting beam scanning. In this case, the number of transmit beams and the number of receive beams of the UE have a clear association, e.g., equal, or a proportional relationship, and the association is at least known to the base station. The method of determining the relevance is not a subject of the present invention, and is not limited herein.

Wherein the number of receive beams is less than or equal to a nominal number of receive beams for the UE. The nominal number of receive beams for a UE refers to the maximum number of receive beams that the UE can support. The nominal number of receive beams for the UE also has a certain correlation with the nominal number of transmit beams for the UE.

The second implementation manner of the beam scanning mechanism may be that the base station triggers the UE to report a value interval, and the base station determines, with reference to the value interval, the CSI-RS resource required for the UE to receive beam scanning or the corresponding CSI reporting period.

In the foregoing implementation manner, the value interval that the base station triggers the UE to report is collectively described as a receiving beam number interval in this embodiment of the present application. It should be understood that the difference between the receiving beam number interval and the receiving beam number is only that the former is a value interval, and a value interval may include a plurality of receiving beam numbers, which may save signaling overhead of reporting. The technical nature of the number of receive beams is not described in detail herein.

Wherein the maximum value of the receiving beam number interval is less than or equal to the rated receiving beam number of the UE.

The third implementation manner of the beam scanning mechanism may be that the base station indicates that the UE may report the transmission beam scanning request instruction based on its own needs, and the base station may terminate the current transmission beam scanning according to the reported request instruction, or trigger the transmission beam scanning again.

In the implementation mode, the base station only needs to configure the CSI-RS resource corresponding to the transmitting beam at the base station side, and does not need to acquire the receiving beam number information of the UE.

For example, the base station may configure the CSI-RS resource corresponding to the transmission beam to perform periodic repeated scanning, in each repetition period, the UE may perform measurement through one of the reception beams, after the UE scans all the reception beams required by the UE in rounds, the UE may request the base station to stop the periodic repeated scanning of the transmission beam by reporting a transmission beam scanning request instruction, and after receiving a request instruction to terminate the current transmission beam scanning, the base station may select to terminate the periodic repeated scanning of the transmission beam immediately or later.

For example, the base station may trigger transmission of the CSI-RS resource corresponding to the transmit beam once, at this time, the UE may only select one of the receive beams to perform measurement, and if the UE has other receive beams to be scanned, the base station may be requested to trigger the transmit beam scanning again by reporting the transmit beam scanning request instruction, and the base station may select to trigger the transmit beam scanning again immediately or later after receiving the transmit beam scanning request instruction.

The fourth implementation manner of the beam scanning mechanism may be that the base station indicates the UE, the number of available receiving beams is a known value, and configures the required CSI-RS resource or the corresponding CSI reporting period according to the known value. Meanwhile, the UE does not need to report, and selects the corresponding receiving beam to participate in beam scanning by taking the known value as a threshold value.

In the above implementation manner, the known value may be a numerical value agreed by a protocol, and both the base station and the UE are known without any signaling interaction; or a value configured by the base station, which needs the base station to notify the UE through downlink signaling in advance; or a value corresponding to the beam scanning capability reported by the UE through the capability, where the value may be a value corresponding to the beam scanning capability received by the UE, or in some implementation methods, may be a value corresponding to the beam scanning capability transmitted by the UE.

The UE receives an indication from the base station, and knows the threshold, and if the number of the receive beams of the UE is less than or equal to the threshold, the UE may select all or part of the receive beams to participate in beam scanning; if the number of receive beams of the UE is greater than the threshold, the UE can only select a portion of the receive beams to participate in the beam scanning.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation manner of the beam scanning mechanism, and besides some possible implementation manners listed above, other implementation manners that are not obtained by paying creative efforts shall belong to the protection scope of the embodiment of the present application.

The method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to fig. 2, a flow chart of a beam scanning indication method provided in an embodiment of the present application is illustrated, where the method is introduced from a perspective of interaction between a network device and a terminal device, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S201: the network device generates indication information indicating a beam scanning mechanism.

Wherein the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms. The network device may generate the indication information according to a scene or a requirement, and the beam scanning mechanism indicated by different indication information is different.

For example, reference may be made to the above description for an implementation of the beam scanning mechanism, which is not described herein again.

Step S202: the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the indication information from the network device.

The network device may send the indication information to the terminal device through the physical layer signaling, that is, the indication information is carried in the physical layer signaling. The physical layer signaling may be downlink control information, and the downlink control information may be dci (downlink control information) or downlink control information in a future communication system. In all embodiments of the present application, the downlink control information is introduced by taking DCI as an example.

The indication information corresponds to an indication field of the DCI, and the network device transmits the indication information to the terminal device by configuring a value corresponding to the indication field of the DCI.

In one implementation, the correspondence between different values of the indication field in the DCI and the described beam scanning mechanism is predefined in the protocol, in other words, the correspondence is known to the network device and the terminal device and written into the product before shipment. The protocol may also predefine the number of bits the indication field occupies in the DCI. Assuming that the indication field occupies 2 bits in the DCI, the network device may indicate 4 beam scanning mechanisms through four values of "00", "01", "10" and "11", and the specific correspondence relationship may be shown in table 1 below.

TABLE 1

value of indication field (2 bits)	description
		00	Beam scanning mechanism 1
01	Beam scanning mechanism 2
		10	Beam scanning mechanism 3
11	Beam scanning mechanism 4

The four terminal behaviors described in table 1 are different from each other, and the correspondence between different values of the indication field and the described beam scanning mechanism does not constitute a limitation on the embodiment of the present application. Assuming that the indication field occupies 1 bit in the DCI, the network device may indicate 2 beam scanning mechanisms by two values of "0" and "1", where the number of bits occupied by the indication field in the DCI is determined as the case may be. The network device indicates one of the multiple beam scanning mechanisms through the indication information, so that the terminal device determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism, and performs the receiving beam scanning and other related operations after the determination, that is, performs the indicated beam scanning mechanism after the determination.

It should be noted that, the specific location occupied by the indication field in the DCI is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In another implementation, the correspondence of different values of the indication field in the DCI to the described beam scanning mechanism is configured by the network device. The network device generates configuration information, which is used to configure various beam scanning mechanisms, and the configuration information is sent to the terminal device by the network device through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling. Assuming that the indication field occupies 1 bit in DCI, the network device may configure two values of "0" and "1" to indicate 2 beam scanning mechanisms. It is to be understood that at different times, the network device may configure the correspondence between the same 1-bit indication information and different beam scanning mechanisms.

For example, at a time T1 of a longer period, the network device configures 1-bit indication information corresponding to beam scanning mechanism 1 and beam scanning mechanism 2, and issues the indication information through RRC. The network device may indicate the beam scanning mechanism 1 or 2 through the value configuration of the indication field in the DCI before the RRC reconfiguration. The specific correspondence can be seen in table 2 below.

TABLE 2

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Beam scanning mechanism 1
1	Beam scanning mechanism 2

For another example, at a time T2 of a longer period, the network device configures 1-bit indication information corresponding to the beam scanning mechanism 1 and the beam scanning mechanism 3, and issues the indication information through RRC. The network device may indicate the beam scanning mechanism 1 or 3 through the value configuration of the indication field in the DCI before the RRC reconfiguration. The specific correspondence can be seen in table 3 below.

TABLE 3

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Beam scanning mechanism 1
1	Beam scanning mechanism 3

For another example, at a time T3 of a longer period, the network device configures 1-bit indication information corresponding to the beam scanning mechanism 4 and the beam scanning mechanism 3 through RRC, and issues the indication information through RRC. The network device may indicate the beam scanning mechanism 4 or 3 through the value configuration of the indication field in the DCI before RRC reconfiguration. The specific correspondence can be seen in table 4 below.

TABLE 4

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Beam scanning mechanism 4
1	Beam scanning mechanism 3

It should be noted that, in the above three examples, the specific position occupied by the indication field in the DCI is not limited in this embodiment, 1 bit occupied by the indication field is only used for example, in practical application, the indication field occupying 2 bits may be adopted to indicate four beam scanning mechanisms configured by the RRC, and the number of bits occupied by the indication field in the DCI depends on the specific situation.

In this implementation manner, the network device may be flexibly configured through RRC signaling, and the number of bits occupied by the indication field is related to the number of beam scanning mechanisms configured by RRC through DCI dynamic indication, which may save DCI indication overhead compared with a protocol predefined manner. For example, for the same 4 beam scanning mechanisms, the fields indicated in tables 2-4 occupy 1 bit, while the fields indicated in table 1 occupy 2 bits.

Step S203: and the terminal equipment determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information.

The terminal equipment determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information, namely, selects the indicated one from the multiple beam scanning mechanisms according to the indication information. And then, the terminal equipment performs receiving beam scanning and other related operations according to the determined beam scanning mechanism, namely, executes the corresponding beam scanning mechanism. For example, the terminal device may report a value representing the number of the received beams, may report a value interval including the number of the received beams, and may report the beam scanning request instruction or may not report the beam scanning request instruction according to different indication information.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 2, the network device instructs the terminal device to determine the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information through the indication information, so as to execute the corresponding beam scanning mechanism after the determination.

Four beam scanning schemes will be described in the following with four embodiments, which correspond to fig. 3-6, respectively.

Please refer to fig. 3, which is an exemplary flowchart provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device reports the number of received beams to the network device, and corresponds to one of implementation manners of a beam scanning mechanism. This example is presented from the perspective of a network device interacting with a terminal device, and may include, but is not limited to:

step S301: the network equipment generates indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to report a numerical value to the network equipment.

It can be understood that the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to report a value, which is referred to as the number of receiving beams in the embodiment of the present invention, and its possible implementation forms may be referred to the above description, which is not described herein again.

Step S302: the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the indication information from the network device.

In an implementation manner, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to report a numerical value, and may correspond to any one of the beam scanning mechanisms 1 to 4 described in table 1, and if the beam scanning mechanism 1 indicated by the indication field "00" in table 1 is to report a numerical value, that is, the number of received beams, the specific corresponding relationship may be as shown in table 1.1 below.

TABLE 1.1

value of indication field (2 bits)	description
		00	Reporting a value (number of receive beams)
01	Beam scanning mechanism 2
		10	Beam scanning mechanism 3
11	Beam scanning mechanism 4

In one implementation, at time T1 of a longer period, the network device configures 1 bit to indicate beam scanning mechanism 1 and beam scanning mechanism 2, and issues the configuration by RRC. The beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to report a numerical value, and may correspond to any one of the beam scanning mechanisms 1 and 2 described in table 2, and if the beam scanning mechanism 1 indicated by the indication field "0" in table 2 is to report a numerical value, that is, the number of received beams, the specific corresponding relationship may be shown in table 2.1 below.

TABLE 2.1

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Reporting a value (number of receive beams)
1	Beam scanning mechanism 2

In one implementation, the beam scanning mechanism is only one, that is, the indication information can only indicate the number of the received beams reported by the terminal device, and the network device may indicate the number of the received beams reported by the indication field by a default value, for example, a default value "1" indicates the number of the received beams reported, and a "0" indicates no processing or other use.

Step S303: the terminal equipment sends the value to the network equipment; accordingly, the network device receives the value from the terminal device.

Accordingly, the value is the number of receive beams. The selectable number of receive beams is indicated by K1 bits, and K1 bits may be carried by the uplink control information, i.e., the number of receive beams is carried in the uplink control information. The uplink control information may be uci (uplink control information) or uplink control information in a future communication system. In all embodiments of the present application, the uplink control information is introduced by taking UCI as an example.

The specific value of K1 bits and the corresponding relationship between the value of K1 bits and the number of receiving beams are not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

In one implementation, K1 bits are 3 bits, and the correspondence between the value and the number of receiving beams can be as shown in table 5 below, where the number of receiving beams is arranged in order from small to large to obtain an arithmetic progression, and the tolerance of the arithmetic progression is zero.

TABLE 5

In another implementation, the K1 bit is 2 bits, and the correspondence between the value and the number of receiving beams can be as shown in table 6 below, where the number of receiving beams is arranged in order from small to large to obtain an equal ratio sequence, and the common ratio of the equal ratio sequence is 2. Because the geometric series is discontinuous, the terminal device selects a value closest to the requirement of the terminal device to report according to the actual situation, for example, the terminal device actually has 3 receiving beams, and can select reporting "01", that is, the number of the reported receiving beams is 2, the network device can be configured according to the value 2, and the terminal device can select 2 receiving beams from the actual 3 receiving beams to perform beam scanning; the reporting of "10" can be selected, that is, the number of reported receiving beams is 4, the network device can be configured according to the value of 4, and the terminal device performs beam scanning by using actual 3 receiving beams, so that certain resource waste exists. Table 5 supports the maximum number of receive beams to be 8, and table 6 also supports the maximum number of received reports to be scanned to be 8, but table 6 requires 2 bits and table 5 requires 3 bits, so the implementation corresponding to table 6 can save DCI overhead.

It should be noted that the sequence obtained by arranging the numbers of the receiving beams in order from small to large may be an arithmetic sequence, an geometric sequence, an even sequence, an odd sequence, a power sequence, or the like, and may also be 2 predefined by the protocol^K1The irregular numerical values are not limited in the embodiments of the present application, and the specific numerical values of the tolerance and the common ratio are not limited in the embodiments of the present application.

TABLE 6

value (K1 ═ 2 bit)	Number of received beams
		00	1
01	2
		10	4
11	8

In yet another implementation, the K1 bits are 2 bits, and the correspondence between the value and the number of receiving beams can be as shown in table 7 below. Wherein, N represents the number of receive beams that the terminal device sends to the network device through the terminal device capability (UE capacity) information, that is, the maximum number of receive beams that the terminal device can scan in rounds. The terminal device capability information is sent to the network device during an initial access process by the terminal device, and includes, in addition to the maximum number of received beams supported by the terminal device, other capability information of the terminal device, such as Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (EUTRA) capability, Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA) capability, universal radio access network circuit switch (generic radio access network circuit switch, GRAN-CS) capability, generic radio access network packet switch (GRAN-PS) capability, CDMA2000-1x Radio Transmission Technology (RTT) capability, and the like.

In table 7, "00" indicates that the network device performs configuration according to the beam value included in the terminal device capability information, and the terminal device performs beam scanning according to the maximum number of received beams. In table 3, the numbers of the receiving beams corresponding to "01", "10", and "11" do not constitute a limitation to the embodiment of the present application, and similarly, because 1,2, and 4 are discontinuous, the terminal device selects a value closest to its requirement according to an actual situation to report, and details are not repeated here.

TABLE 7

In yet another implementation, the K1 bit is 2 bits, and the corresponding relationship between the value and the number of receive beams may be as shown in table 8 below, which is different from table 7 in that each number of receive beams is related to the maximum number of receive beams included in the terminal device capability information, and different proportional relationships are taken based on the maximum number of receive beams, so that each terminal device may proportionally adjust the number of receive beams reported according to the maximum capability thereof. The proportional relationship in table 8 is not to be construed as limiting the examples of the present application.

For example, when N is 8, and K1 bit in UCI is "01," the network device is instructed to configure as 4, and the terminal device selects 4 reception beams from the maximum supportable 8 reception beams for beam scanning.

TABLE 8

value (K1 ═ 2 bit)	Number of received beams
		00	N
01	N/2 rounding up
		10	N/3 rounding up
11	N/4 rounding up

Step S304: and the network equipment configures at least one of the resource configuration information and the reporting configuration information according to the value.

And the network equipment configures at least one of the resource configuration information and the reporting configuration information according to the number of the receiving beams. Since the network device can know information, such as the number, of the transmission beams involved in beam scanning, when the network device receives the number of the reception beams sent by the terminal device, the network device can configure at least one of resource configuration (resource setting) information or reporting configuration (reporting setting) information according to the number of the reception beams and the transmission beam values. It should be noted that, in addition to at least one of configuring resource configuration information or reporting configuration information, the network device may also configure other information according to the number of receiving beams.

The resource configuration information may be reference signal resource configuration information, and the number of receiving beams may be associated with at least one of the number of reference signal resources, the number of repetitions of reference signal resources, or a type of beam scanning period. The reference signal may be a reference signal such as a CSI-RS or a demodulation reference signal (DMRS).

For example, when each transmission beam is represented by one CSI-RS resource, the network device needs to determine the number of repetitions of a CSI-RS resource set representing the transmission beam according to the difference of the number of UE reception beams; or the network device needs to determine the number of repetitions of the CSI-RS resource.

For example, when each receiving beam is represented by one CSI-RS resource, according to the difference of the number of receiving beams of the UE, the network device needs to configure the number of CSI-RS resources in one CSI-RS resource set; or the number of repetitions that the network device needs to configure the set of CSI-RS resources.

It should be understood that the repetition number (or the number of resources) is a minimum repetition number (minimum number of resources), that is, in order to meet the requirement of UE receiving beam scanning, in practice, the network device may configure resources larger than the repetition number (number of resources).

The beam sweep period type may be used to indicate a periodic (periodic) beam sweep, a semi-persistent (semi-persistent) beam sweep, or an aperiodic (aperiodic) beam sweep. For example, if the number of transmit beams is 4 and the number of receive beams is 2, the network device may configure 8 different CSI-RS resources, and may use aperiodic (aperiodic) beam scanning correspondingly, where the different CSI-RS resources represent different transmit-receive beam pairs; 4 different CSI-RS resources may also be configured, the set of CSI-RS resources being repeated once in addition in time, corresponding to a semi-persistent (semi-persistent) beam scan, where the different CSI-RS resources represent different transmit beams; it is also possible to configure 2 different CSI-RS resources, and the set of CSI-RS resources is repeated three additional times in time, where the different CSI-RS resources represent different receive beams.

The reporting configuration information may include at least one of a reporting period or a reporting parameter. The reporting period may be used to instruct the terminal device to report a measurement report when one traversal scan is completed, for example, the number of transmit beams is 4, the number of receive beams is 2, and one traversal scan refers to 8 different combined scans between transmit and receive beams, and at this time, the network device may instruct the terminal device to report a measurement report after one traversal scan is completed. If the network device fails to acquire the number of the received beams, the reporting period can only be reported based on a certain polling period of the transmitted beams, that is, the terminal device reports a measurement report once every time it finishes scanning 4 transmitted beams. In contrast, the former approach can save reporting overhead.

The reporting parameter may include at least one of a Reference Signal Receiving Power (RSRP), a Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), or a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI).

In a possible implementation embodiment, step S305 and step S306 are further included after step S304.

Step S305: the network equipment sends at least one of resource configuration information or reporting configuration information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives at least one of the resource configuration information or the reporting configuration information from the network device.

The network device sends at least one of resource configuration information or reporting configuration information to the terminal device, so that the terminal device performs beam scanning according to at least one of the resource configuration information or the reporting configuration information.

Step S306: and the terminal equipment performs beam scanning according to at least one of the resource configuration information or the reported configuration information.

The terminal equipment determines at least one of the number of the reference signal resources, the repetition times of the reference signal resources or the beam scanning period type according to the resource configuration information, and then performs beam scanning according to the determined information. And the terminal equipment reports according to the reporting configuration information.

In the example illustrated in fig. 3, the network device may instruct the terminal device to report the number of receive beams through the DCI, so that the terminal device reports the number of receive beams to the network device under the support of the corresponding timing sequence and reporting format when receiving the DCI instruction; if the reporting behavior is not indicated by the network device, but reported autonomously by the terminal device, the protocol needs to reserve overhead for reporting the number of received beams all the time in the uplink signaling. Therefore, the overhead of uplink signaling in the embodiment described in fig. 3 is configured as needed, which saves signaling overhead compared to the reserved manner.

Please refer to fig. 4, which is another exemplary flowchart provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the indication information is used to indicate that the terminal device reports a receiving beam number interval to the network device, and corresponds to a second implementation manner of a beam scanning mechanism. This example is presented from the perspective of a network device interacting with a terminal device, and may include, but is not limited to:

step S401: the network equipment generates indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to report a value interval to the network equipment.

It can be understood that the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to report a value interval, which is collectively referred to as a receiving beam number interval in the embodiment of the present invention, and possible implementation forms of the value interval may refer to the above description, and are not described herein again.

Step S402: the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the indication information from the network device.

In an implementation manner, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to report a value interval, and may correspond to any one of the beam scanning mechanisms 1 to 4 described in table 1, and if the beam scanning mechanism 2 indicated by the indication field "01" in table 1 is to report a value interval, that is, a receiving beam number interval, a specific corresponding relationship may be shown in table 1.2 below.

TABLE 1.2

value of indication field (2 bits)	description
		00	Beam scanning mechanism 1
01	Reporting a value interval (receiving wave beam number interval)
		10	Beam scanning mechanism 3
11	Beam scanning mechanism 4

In one implementation, at time T1 of a longer period, the network device configures 1 bit to indicate beam scanning mechanism 1 and beam scanning mechanism 2, and issues the configuration by RRC. The beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to report a value interval, and may correspond to any one of the beam scanning mechanisms 1 and 2 described in table 2, and if the beam scanning mechanism 2 indicated by the indication field "1" in table 2 is to report a value interval, that is, a received beam number interval, the specific corresponding relationship may be as shown in table 2.2 below.

TABLE 2.2

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Beam scanning mechanism 1
1	Reporting a value interval (receiving wave beam number interval)

In an implementation, the beam scanning mechanism is only one, that is, the indication information can only indicate that the terminal device reports the interval of the number of received beams, and the network device may indicate the interval of the number of received beams by using a default value of the indication field, for example, a default value "1" indicates that the interval of the number of received beams is reported, and a "0" indicates that no processing or other purpose is performed.

Step S403: the terminal equipment sends the value interval (receiving beam number interval) to the network equipment; accordingly, the network device receives the value interval (reception beam number interval) from the terminal device.

The selectable option of the reception beam number interval may be indicated by K2 bits, and K2 bits may be carried by uplink control information, i.e., the number of reception beams is carried in the uplink control information. The specific value of K2 bits and the corresponding relationship between the value of K2 bits and the interval of the number of receiving beams are not limited in the embodiment of the present application. The values of K2 and K1 may be the same or different.

In an implementation manner, the K2 bits are 1 bit, the correspondence between the value and the receiving beam number interval can be as shown in table 9 below, two different value intervals are indicated by using 1 bit, and the terminal device can select one of the value intervals according to the actual receiving beam number and report the selected value interval to the network device.

TABLE 9

value (K1 ═ 2 bit)	Interval of receiving wave beam number
		0	[1，2]
1	[3，6]

It can be understood that there is a certain difference in beam scanning capability between different terminal devices, and some terminal devices have no beam scanning capability or have weak beam scanning capability, and have a high possibility to fall into the range of [1, 2], and some terminal devices have strong beam scanning capability, and have a high possibility to fall into the range of [3, 6 ].

Step S404: and the network equipment configures at least one of the resource configuration information and the reporting configuration information according to the value interval.

And the network equipment configures at least one of the resource configuration information and the reporting configuration information according to the receiving beam number interval.

The protocol may agree on which value to configure specifically in the case of such a value interval indication, for example, the default is configured according to the maximum value, or the average value, etc. In this example, assume that the agreement default is configured by the maximum value in the value interval.

For example, based on table 9, the terminal device reports "0", and the network device may default to configure at least one of the resource configuration information or the reporting configuration information according to the value "2"; the terminal device reports '1', and the network device can default to configure at least one of the resource configuration information or the reporting configuration information according to the value '6'.

In one possible implementation, step S405 and step S406 are further included after step S404.

Step S405: the network equipment sends at least one of resource configuration information or reporting configuration information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives at least one of the resource configuration information or the reporting configuration information from the network device.

Step S406: and the terminal equipment performs beam scanning according to at least one of the resource configuration information or the reported configuration information.

In the example described in fig. 4, the network device may instruct the terminal device to report the receiving beam number interval through DCI, so that the terminal device reports the receiving beam number interval to the network device under the support of the corresponding timing sequence and reporting format when receiving the DCI instruction, and if the reporting behavior is reported by the terminal device independently instead of being indicated by the network device, the protocol needs to always reserve overhead for reporting the receiving beam number interval in the uplink signaling. Therefore, in the embodiment described in fig. 4, the overhead of uplink signaling is configured as needed, which saves signaling overhead compared to the reserved manner.

In fig. 4, the network device is configured according to the number interval, which may cause a certain waste of resources, but the example shown in fig. 3 may also save the reporting overhead. For the terminal equipment falling into the interval [1, 2], under the condition that the network equipment is configured according to the maximum 2 by default, the resource waste is not caused unless the terminal equipment without the beam scanning capability is encountered; and the proportion of terminal devices falling into the interval [3, 6] in actual transmission may not be large. Therefore, in general, such interval indication does not cause excessive waste of reference signal resources while saving reporting overhead.

Please refer to fig. 5, which is a flowchart of another example provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to send a scanning action request to the network device, and corresponds to a third implementation manner of a beam scanning mechanism. This example is presented from the perspective of a network device interacting with a terminal device, and may include, but is not limited to:

step S501: the network equipment generates indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to send a transmission beam scanning request indication to the network equipment.

Under the condition that the network equipment does not acquire the number information of the receiving beams of the terminal equipment, at least one of the resource configuration information and the reporting configuration information can be configured according to the condition of the transmitting beams. The network device may configure the beam scanning period type to be semi-persistent (semi-persistent) beam scanning, and at this time, the network device may need an auxiliary information to determine when to trigger a termination (deactivation) command to end the current beam scanning. The network device may also configure the beam scanning period type to be aperiodic (aperiodic) beam scanning, and at this time, the network device may also need an auxiliary information to determine whether to continue triggering aperiodic (aperiodic) beam scanning.

The auxiliary information may be a transmission beam scanning request indication sent by the terminal device to the network device, and when the network device needs the auxiliary information, the network device generates indication information indicating that the terminal device sends the transmission beam scanning request to the network device, and sends the indication information to the terminal device.

Step S502: the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the indication information from the network device.

In one implementation, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is a transmission beam scanning request indication, and may correspond to any one of the beam scanning mechanisms 1 to 4 described in table 1, and if the beam scanning mechanism 3 indicated by the indication field "10" in table 1 is a transmission beam scanning request indication, the specific corresponding relationship may be as shown in table 1.3 below.

TABLE 1.3

value of indication field (2 bits)	description
		00	Beam scanning mechanism 1
01	Beam scanning mechanism 2
		10	Transmitting a transmit beam scan request indication
11	Beam scanning mechanism 4

In one implementation, at time T2 of a longer period, the network device configures 1 bit to indicate beam scanning mechanism 1 and beam scanning mechanism 3, and issues the configuration by RRC. The beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is a transmission beam scanning request indication, and may correspond to any one of beam scanning mechanisms 1 and 3 described in table 3, and if the beam scanning mechanism 3 indicated by the indication field "1" in table 3 is a transmission beam scanning request indication, the specific corresponding relationship may be as shown in table 3.1 below.

TABLE 3.1

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Beam scanning mechanism 1
1	Transmitting a transmit beam scan request indication

Step S503: the terminal equipment sends a transmission beam scanning request instruction to the network equipment; accordingly, the network device receives a transmission beam scanning request indication from the terminal device.

Wherein the transmission beam scanning request indication is used for requesting the network device to stop the current transmission beam scanning or triggering the next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning. Therefore, the transmission beam scanning request can be divided into a continuous scanning request or a termination scanning request, where the continuous scanning request is used to request the network device to trigger the transmission beam scanning again, that is, after the current transmission beam scanning, the next transmission beam scanning is triggered; the terminate scan request is for requesting the network device to terminate the current transmit beam scan.

In one implementation, the transmission beam scanning request may be carried in uplink control information and may be indicated by 1 bit in UCI, and a specific indication manner may be shown in table 10 below. At this time, the two transmission beam scanning requests are indicated independently, for example, if the request for continuous scanning is made, the UCI carries indication information "0"; and requesting to terminate scanning, wherein the UCI carries indication information of '1'.

Watch 10

value	description
		0	Continuing scan request
1	Terminating scan requests

The correspondence relationship shown in table 10 is not intended to limit the embodiments of the present application.

In another implementation, the transmit beam scanning request may be carried in uplink control information and may be indicated by 1 bit in the UCI, and the specific indication manner may be shown in table 11 below. At this time, the two transmission beam scanning requests have different operations under different beam scanning period types.

TABLE 11

In the case that the network device does not know the information of the number of receiving beams of the terminal device, assuming that semi-persistent (semi-persistent) beam scanning is configured, a sufficient duration may be configured to ensure that the receiving beams of the terminal device can be sufficiently scanned, at this time, the terminal device may send a transmit beam scanning request to the network device after completing the round-robin scanning of the receiving beams, where the request is used to request the network device to stop the currently persistent transmit beam scanning, and the network device may send deactivation acknowledgement information to terminate the semi-persistent beam scanning, so as shown in table 11, when the beam scanning period type is semi-persistent, the request is defaulted to be a termination request (deactivation request), and the termination request is also a termination scanning request.

Under the condition that the network device does not know the information of the number of receiving beams of the terminal device, it is assumed that aperiodic (aperiodic) beam scanning is configured, and a transmitting beam of the network device can be scanned only once in turn each time, at this time, if there is more than one receiving beam, the terminal device may send a transmitting beam scanning request to the network device, where the request is used to request the network device to trigger aperiodic (aperiodic) beam scanning again, and the network device may refer to the request, issue a trigger (trigger) instruction, and trigger aperiodic (aperiodic) scanning again, so as shown in table 11, when the type of the beam scanning period is aperiodic, the request is defaulted to be a trigger request (trigger request), and the trigger request is also a continuous scanning request.

Since the two transmission beam scanning requests have different operations under different beam scanning period types, the indication of the transmission beam scanning request can be realized by using one value in the 1-bit indication field, as shown in table 11, the indication field "1" in the UCI indicates that the scanning request is terminated when the beam scanning type is semi-persistent, and indicates that the scanning request is continued when the beam scanning period type is aperiodic. I.e. the same value of the indication field may indicate two different transmit beam scanning requests in two different beam scanning period types.

The correspondence relationship shown in table 11 is not intended to limit the embodiments of the present application. For example, the present application is not limited to this embodiment, and for example, one value in the 1-bit indication field may be used to indicate the transmission beam scanning requests in three different beam scanning cycle types.

The content described for another value in the 1-bit indication field is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the value may indicate an operation, which may be for a terminal device or a network device; as another example, the content described by the value may be reserved (reserved) for future protocol supplementation, as shown in table 11, indicating that the content described by the field "0" is reserved.

Step S504: and the network equipment executes corresponding transmission beam scanning operation according to the transmission beam scanning request instruction.

When the period type of the current beam scanning is a semi-persistent (semi-persistent) type, the network device instructs to stop the current transmission beam scanning according to the transmission beam scanning request. And when the periodic type of the current beam scanning is an aperiodic type, the network equipment triggers the next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning according to the transmission beam scanning request indication.

In the example depicted in fig. 5, the network device instructs the terminal device to send a transmission beam scanning request instruction, and performs a corresponding transmission beam scanning operation according to the transmission beam scanning request instruction, so as to implement the terminal device to assist the network device in performing the beam scanning.

Please refer to fig. 6, which is a flowchart of another example provided in an embodiment of the present application, where the indication information is used to indicate the terminal device to associate the preset threshold with the beam scanning, and corresponds to a fourth implementation manner of the beam scanning mechanism. This example is presented from the perspective of a network device interacting with a terminal device, and may include, but is not limited to:

step S601: the network equipment generates indication information, and the indication information is used for indicating the terminal equipment to associate a preset threshold with beam scanning.

The preset threshold is used for describing the number of the receiving beams, and can be a value agreed by a protocol, and the base station and the UE are known and do not need any signaling interaction; or a value configured by the base station, which needs the base station to notify the UE through downlink signaling in advance; or a value corresponding to the beam scanning capability reported by the UE through the capability, where the value may be a value corresponding to the beam scanning capability received by the UE, or in some implementation methods, may be a value corresponding to the beam scanning capability transmitted by the UE.

In this example, the network device configures the resource configuration information or reports the configuration information according to at least one of a preset threshold, and it can be understood that the network device performs configuration by using the preset threshold. The network device needs to notify the terminal device of the behavior configured by using the preset threshold, which is equivalent to notifying the terminal device of no need of reporting any information on one hand, and on the other hand, the terminal device cooperates with the network device to perform beam scanning according to the preset threshold.

Step S602: the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the indication information from the network device.

In one implementation, the beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information is to associate a preset threshold with a beam scanning, and may correspond to any one of the beam scanning mechanisms 1-4 described in table 1, and if the beam scanning mechanism 4 indicated by the indication field "11" in table 1 is to associate a preset threshold with a beam scanning, the specific correspondence relationship may be as shown in table 1.4 below.

TABLE 1.4

value of indication field (2 bits)	description
		00	Beam scanning mechanism 1
01	Beam scanning mechanism 2
		10	Beam scanning mechanism 3
11	Associating preset thresholds with beam scanning

In one implementation, at time T3 of a longer period, the network device configures 1-bit indication beam scanning mechanism 4 and beam scanning mechanism 3, and issues the indication by RRC. The beam scanning mechanism indicated by the indication information, which associates the preset threshold with the beam scanning, may correspond to any one of the beam scanning mechanisms 3 and 4 described in table 4, and if the beam scanning mechanism 4 indicated by the indication field "0" in table 4 is to associate the preset threshold with the beam scanning, the specific corresponding relationship may be as shown in table 4.1 below.

TABLE 4.1

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Associating preset thresholds with beam scanning
1	Beam scanning mechanism 3

In the above example, it is assumed that only one preset threshold is allowed for association with beam scanning and is known to the network device and the terminal device.

In one implementation, if more than one preset threshold is allowed, see table 1.5 below.

TABLE 1.5

value of indication field (2 bits)	description
		00	Beam scanning mechanism 1
01	Beam scanning mechanism 2
		10	Associating a preset threshold of 1 with a beam sweep
11	Associating a preset threshold 2 with the beam sweep

The preset threshold 1 may be predefined by a protocol, and the preset threshold 2 may be a numerical value used for describing the maximum receiving beam capability carried by the terminal device capability information reported to the network device by the terminal device during initial access. It will be appreciated that associating different preset thresholds with the beam sweep corresponds to different beam sweep mechanisms and to different indication information.

In one implementation, if more than one preset threshold is allowed, at time T3 of a longer period, the network device configures 1-bit indication beam scanning mechanism 4 and beam scanning mechanism 3, and issues the indication by RRC. Assuming that the beam scanning mechanism 4 indicated by the indication field "0" in table 4 is to associate the preset threshold value 1 with the beam scanning, and the beam scanning mechanism 3 indicated by the indication field "1" is to associate the preset threshold value 2 with the beam scanning, see table 4.2 below.

TABLE 4.2

value of indication field (1 bit)	description
		0	Associating a preset threshold of 1 with a beam sweep
1	Associating a preset threshold 2 with the beam sweep

The preset threshold 1 may be set by the network device autonomously and notified to the terminal device in advance, and the preset threshold 2 may be a numerical value used for describing the maximum received beam capability carried by the terminal device capability information reported to the network device by the terminal device at the time of initial access. It will be appreciated that associating different preset thresholds with the beam sweep corresponds to different beam sweep mechanisms and to different indication information.

Step S603: and the terminal equipment associates the preset threshold with the beam scanning according to the indication information and carries out the beam scanning.

The terminal device associates a preset threshold with beam scanning, which may be understood as that the terminal device determines the number of receiving beams required for beam scanning according to the preset threshold.

In an implementation manner, when the terminal device receives the indication information, it may know that the network device uses a preset threshold predefined by a protocol to perform configuration, and then the terminal device associates the preset threshold with beam scanning to determine the number of received beams required for beam scanning, and performs beam scanning according to the number of received beams in cooperation with the network device.

In an implementation manner, when the terminal device receives the indication information, it may know that the network device uses a preset threshold which is set autonomously and notified in advance to perform configuration, and then the terminal device associates the preset threshold with beam scanning to determine the number of received beams required for beam scanning, and performs beam scanning according to the number of received beams in cooperation with the network device.

In an implementation manner, when the terminal device receives the indication information, it can be known that the network device uses a preset threshold carried by the terminal device capability information and used for describing the maximum received beam capability to perform configuration, and then the terminal device associates the preset threshold with beam scanning to determine the number of received beams required for beam scanning, and performs beam scanning according to the number of received beams in cooperation with the network device.

It should be noted that, if the actual number of selectable receive beams of the terminal device is greater than or equal to the preset threshold, the terminal device selects receive beams for beam scanning from the actual selectable receive beams to perform beam scanning in cooperation with the network device, where the number of the receive beams is not greater than the preset threshold, for example, the actual number of selectable receive beams is 6, and the preset threshold is 4, and the terminal device may select 4 receive beams from the 6 actual selectable receive beams to configure the network device to perform beam scanning; if the number of the actual selectable receiving beams is smaller than the preset threshold value, the terminal device may scan all the receiving beams in turn.

In the example described in fig. 6, the network device instructs the terminal device to determine the preset threshold, and performs beam scanning according to the preset threshold, which can save the reporting overhead compared with the example in which the network device instructs the terminal device to report the number information of the received beams to be scanned.

It should be noted that there may be other beam scanning mechanisms besides the beam scanning mechanisms listed in fig. 3-6, and it should be understood that the method for indicating other beam scanning mechanisms by the network device through the indication information should fall into the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

Referring to fig. 7, a flowchart of a method for configuring a beam scanning mechanism according to an embodiment of the present application is shown, where the method is introduced from a perspective of interaction between a network device and a terminal device, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S701: the network device generates configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used to configure a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms.

The configuration information configures a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms and a value of an indication domain corresponding to each beam scanning mechanism, that is, configures a corresponding relationship between different values of the indication domain and the described beam scanning mechanism.

The network device may generate different configuration information at different times, which may specifically refer to specific descriptions in tables 2 to 4 in the embodiment shown in fig. 2, and details are not described here again.

Step S702: the network equipment sends configuration information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives configuration information from the network device.

The network device sends the configuration information to the terminal device through the RRC signaling, namely the configuration information is carried in the RRC signaling.

Step S703: the terminal device stores the configuration information.

The terminal device stores the configuration information so as to determine one of the multiple beam scanning mechanisms when receiving indication information indicating the indicated beam scanning mechanism, and then performs receiving beam scanning and other related operations according to the determined beam scanning mechanism.

Step S704: the network device generates indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms.

Step S705: the network equipment sends indication information to the terminal equipment; accordingly, the terminal device receives the indication information from the network device.

Step S706: and the terminal equipment determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information.

The terminal equipment determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information, namely, selects the indicated one from the multiple beam scanning mechanisms according to the indication information. Then, the terminal equipment performs receiving beam scanning and other related operations according to the determined beam scanning mechanism; for example, the terminal device may report a numerical value representing the number of the received beams, may report a number interval including the number of the received beams, and may report the beam scanning request instruction or may not report the beam scanning request instruction according to different indication information.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 7, after the network device generates the configuration information, the network device indicates one of the multiple beam scanning mechanisms in the configuration information through the indication information, so that the terminal device determines the indicated beam scanning mechanism and executes the corresponding beam scanning mechanism after the determination, thereby solving the problem that the existing beam scanning technology is inefficient to execute.

Referring to fig. 8, a flow chart of a beam scanning method provided in an embodiment of the present application is illustrated, where the method is introduced from a perspective of interaction between a network device and a terminal device, and the method may include, but is not limited to:

step S801: the terminal device generates a transmit beam scan request indication.

Wherein the transmission beam scanning request indication is used for requesting the network device to stop the current transmission beam scanning or triggering the next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning.

The terminal equipment can generate the transmission beam scanning request indication according to the self requirement.

The terminal device may generate a transmission beam scanning request indication requesting the network device to stop the current transmission beam scanning, in a case where a cycle type of the current beam scanning is a semi-persistent (semi-persistent) type.

The terminal device may generate a transmission beam scanning request indication, in a case that a periodic type of a current beam scanning is an aperiodic (aperiodic) type, and request the network device to trigger a next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning.

Step S802: the terminal equipment sends a transmission beam scanning request instruction to the network equipment; accordingly, the network device receives a transmission beam scanning request indication from the terminal device.

Step S803: and the network equipment executes corresponding transmission beam scanning operation according to the transmission beam scanning request instruction.

The embodiment shown in fig. 8 is similar to the embodiment shown in fig. 5, except that the embodiment shown in fig. 5 instructs the terminal device to send the transmission beam scanning request instruction to the network device by the network device, whereas the embodiment shown in fig. 8 may instruct the terminal device to send the transmission beam scanning request instruction to the network device without depending on the instruction information sent by the network device, so that the terminal device can better assist the network device to perform beam scanning on the side of the network device.

According to the foregoing method, fig. 9 is a simplified schematic diagram of a device provided in this embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 9, the device may be a terminal device 10, or may be a chip or a circuit, for example, a chip or a circuit that may be disposed in the terminal device. The terminal device 10 may correspond to the terminal device in the above-described method.

The device may include a processor 110 and a memory 120. The memory 120 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 110 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 120, so as to implement step S203 in the method corresponding to fig. 2 in the embodiment of the present application; step S306 in the method corresponding to fig. 3; step S406 in the method corresponding to fig. 4; step S603 in the method corresponding to fig. 5; step S706 in the method corresponding to fig. 7; as in step S801 of the method corresponding to fig. 8. The memory 120 is applied in the embodiment of the present application to implement step S703 in the method corresponding to fig. 7.

Further, the apparatus may further include a receiver 140 and a transmitter 150. Further, the device may further comprise a bus system 130, wherein the processor 110, the memory 120, the receiver 140 and the transmitter 150 may be connected via the bus system 130.

The processor 110 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 120 to control the receiver 140 to receive the signal and control the transmitter 150 to transmit the signal, thereby completing the steps of the terminal device in the above-mentioned method. Wherein the receiver 140 and the transmitter 150 may be the same or different physical entities. When the same physical entity, may be collectively referred to as a transceiver. The memory 220 may be integrated in the processor 210 or may be provided separately from the processor 210.

As an implementation, the functions of the receiver 140 and the transmitter 150 may be realized by a transceiving circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiving. The processor 110 may be considered to be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, processing circuit, processor, or a general-purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, a manner of using a general-purpose computer to implement the terminal device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be considered. I.e., program code that implements the functions of the processor 110, the receiver 140, and the transmitter 150, is stored in the memory, and a general-purpose processor implements the functions of the processor 110, the receiver 140, and the transmitter 150 by executing the code in the memory.

For the concepts, explanations, detailed descriptions and other steps related to the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application related to the apparatus, reference is made to the descriptions of the foregoing methods or other embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

Fig. 10 is a simplified structural schematic diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device may be adapted to the network architecture shown in fig. 1. For convenience of explanation, fig. 10 shows only main components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device 10 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output means. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the whole terminal equipment, executing software programs and processing data of the software programs. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The control circuit and the antenna together, which may also be called a transceiver, are mainly used for transceiving radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is turned on, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instruction of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data needs to be sent wirelessly, the processor outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit after performing baseband processing on the data to be sent, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and sends the radio frequency signal outwards in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the terminal equipment, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. In this embodiment, the processor may be configured to execute a terminal device behavior according to the indication information, for example, perform beam scanning according to at least one of the resource configuration information or the reporting configuration information. The memory may be used to store programs needed by the processor to perform the behavior of the terminal device.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fig. 10 shows only one memory and processor for ease of illustration. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory 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 may include a baseband processor and a central processing unit, where the baseband processor is mainly used to process a communication protocol and communication data, and the central processing unit is mainly used to control the whole terminal device, execute a software program, and process data of the software program. The processor in fig. 10 integrates the functions of the baseband processor and the 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 can also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit can 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, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, and the processor executes the software program to realize the baseband processing function.

For example, in the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the control circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as the transceiving unit 101 of the terminal device 10, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as the processing unit 102 of the terminal device 10. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device 10 includes a transceiving unit 101 and a processing unit 102. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiver unit 101 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a sending function in the transceiver unit 101 may be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the transceiver unit 101 includes a receiving unit and a sending unit, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, and the like, and the sending unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a sending circuit, and the like.

According to the foregoing method, fig. 11 is a simplified schematic diagram of a device provided in the present embodiment, as shown in fig. 11, the device may be the network device 20, or may be a chip or a circuit, such as a chip or a circuit that may be disposed in the network device. The network device 20 corresponds to the network device in the above method. The device may include a processor 210 and a memory 220. The memory 220 is configured to store instructions, and the processor 210 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory 220, so as to enable the network device to implement the step S201 in the method corresponding to fig. 2; step S301 and step S304 in the method corresponding to fig. 3; step S401 and step S404 in the method corresponding to fig. 4; step S501 and step S504 in the method corresponding to fig. 5; step S601 in the method corresponding to fig. 6; steps S701 and S704 in the method corresponding to fig. 7; as in step S803 in the method corresponding to fig. 8.

Further, the network may also include a receiver 240 and a transmitter 250. Still further, the network may also include a bus system 230.

The processor 210, the memory 220, the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 are connected via the bus system 230, and the processor 210 is configured to execute instructions stored in the memory 220 to control the receiver 240 to receive signals and control the transmitter 250 to transmit signals, thereby completing the steps of the network device in the above method. Wherein the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 may be the same or different physical entities. When the same physical entity, may be collectively referred to as a transceiver. The memory 220 may be integrated in the processor 210 or may be provided separately from the processor 210.

As an implementation manner, the functions of the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 may be considered to be implemented by a transceiving circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiving. Processor 210 may be considered to be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, processing circuit, processor, or a general-purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, a manner of using a general-purpose computer to implement the network device provided in the embodiment of the present application may be considered. I.e. program code that implements the functions of the processor 210, the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250, is stored in a memory, and a general-purpose processor implements the functions of the processor 210, the receiver 240 and the transmitter 250 by executing the code in the memory.

According to the foregoing method, fig. 12 is a simplified schematic structural diagram of a network device provided in this embodiment of the present application, for example, a schematic structural diagram of a base station. As shown in fig. 12, the base station can be applied to the network architecture shown in fig. 1. The base station 20 includes one or more radio frequency units, such as a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) 201 and one or more baseband units (BBUs) (also referred to as digital units, DUs) 202. The RRU201 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuit, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 2011 and a radio unit 2012. The RRU201 is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending downlink control information described in the above embodiments to a terminal device. The BBU202 is mainly used for performing baseband processing, controlling a base station, and the like. The RRU201 and the BBU202 may be physically disposed together or may be physically disposed separately, that is, distributed base stations.

The BBU202 is a control center of a base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and is mainly used for performing baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and the like. For example, the BBU (processing unit) can be used to control the base station to execute the operation flow related to the network device in the above method embodiment.

In an example, the BBU202 may be formed by one or more boards, and the boards may support a radio access network (e.g., an LTE network) of a single access system together, or may support radio access networks of different access systems respectively. The BBU202 also includes a memory 2021 and a processor 2022. The memory 2021 is used to store the necessary instructions and data. The processor 2022 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation procedures related to the network device in the above method embodiments. The memory 2021 and the processor 2022 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.

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

It should be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and the processor may also be other general-purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, and the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

The memory may include both read-only memory and random access memory, and provides instructions and data to the processor. The portion of memory may also include non-volatile random access memory.

The bus system may include a power bus, a control bus, a status signal bus, and the like, in addition to the data bus. For clarity of illustration, however, the various buses are labeled as a bus system in the figures.

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

It should also be understood that reference herein to first, second, third, fourth, and various numerical designations is made only for ease of description and is not intended to limit the scope of the embodiments of the present application.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" herein is merely one type of association relationship that describes an associated object, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the former and latter related objects are in an "or" relationship.

It should be understood that, in the various embodiments of the present application, the sequence numbers of the above-mentioned processes do not mean the execution sequence, and the execution sequence of each process should be determined by its function and inherent logic, and should not constitute any limitation to the implementation process of the embodiments of the present application.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks and steps (step) described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware or combinations of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the implementation. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Claims

1. A method for beam sweep indication, comprising:

generating indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating a beam scanning mechanism, and the beam scanning mechanism is one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms; the multiple beam scanning mechanisms comprise reporting a value, reporting a value interval, sending a beam scanning request, and associating a preset threshold with beam scanning; the numerical value is the number of the receiving beams at the terminal equipment side, and is used for the network equipment to determine the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment receiving beam scanning according to the numerical value; the value interval is a receiving beam quantity interval on the side of the terminal equipment and is used for determining the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment for receiving beam scanning according to the value interval by the network equipment; the transmission beam scanning request is used for requesting the network equipment to stop current transmission beam scanning or triggering next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning; associating the preset threshold with the beam scanning, and indicating the network equipment to configure the required CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period according to the preset threshold;

and sending the indication information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication information is sent via physical layer signaling.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the physical layer signaling is downlink control information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

generating configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used for configuring the plurality of beam scanning mechanisms;

and sending the configuration information.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the configuration information is sent via radio resource control signaling.

6. A method for configuring a beam scanning mechanism, comprising:

generating configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used for configuring a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms; the multiple beam scanning mechanisms comprise reporting a value, reporting a value interval, sending a beam scanning request, and associating a preset threshold with beam scanning; the numerical value is the number of the receiving beams at the terminal equipment side, and is used for the network equipment to determine the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment receiving beam scanning according to the numerical value; the value interval is a receiving beam quantity interval on the side of the terminal equipment and is used for determining the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment for receiving beam scanning according to the value interval by the network equipment; the transmission beam scanning request is used for requesting the network equipment to stop current transmission beam scanning or triggering next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning; associating the preset threshold with the beam scanning, and indicating the network equipment to configure the required CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period according to the preset threshold;

and sending the configuration information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the configuration information is sent via radio resource control signaling.

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

generating indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating a beam scanning mechanism, and the beam scanning mechanism is one of the plurality of beam scanning mechanisms;

and sending the indication information.

9. A method for beam sweep indication, comprising:

receiving indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating a beam scanning mechanism, and the beam scanning mechanism is one of a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms; the multiple beam scanning mechanisms comprise reporting a value, reporting a value interval, sending a beam scanning request, and associating a preset threshold with beam scanning; the numerical value is the number of the receiving beams at the terminal equipment side, and is used for the network equipment to determine the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment receiving beam scanning according to the numerical value; the value interval is a receiving beam quantity interval on the side of the terminal equipment and is used for determining the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment for receiving beam scanning according to the value interval by the network equipment; the transmission beam scanning request is used for requesting the network equipment to stop current transmission beam scanning or triggering next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning; associating the preset threshold with the beam scanning, and indicating the network equipment to configure the required CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period according to the preset threshold;

determining the indicated beam scanning mechanism according to the indication information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used to configure the plurality of beam scanning mechanisms.

11. A method for configuring a beam scanning mechanism, comprising:

receiving configuration information, wherein the configuration information is used for configuring a plurality of beam scanning mechanisms; the multiple beam scanning mechanisms comprise reporting a value, reporting a value interval, sending a beam scanning request, and associating a preset threshold with beam scanning; the numerical value is the number of the receiving beams at the terminal equipment side, and is used for the network equipment to determine the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment receiving beam scanning according to the numerical value; the value interval is a receiving beam quantity interval on the side of the terminal equipment and is used for determining the CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period required by the terminal equipment for receiving beam scanning according to the value interval by the network equipment; the transmission beam scanning request is used for requesting the network equipment to stop current transmission beam scanning or triggering next transmission beam scanning after the current transmission beam scanning; associating the preset threshold with the beam scanning, and indicating the network equipment to configure the required CSI-RS resource or the CSI reporting period according to the preset threshold;

and storing the configuration information.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving indication information, wherein the indication information is used for indicating one of the plurality of beam scanning mechanisms;

determining one of the plurality of indicated beam scanning mechanisms based on the indication information.

13. A network device comprising a processor, a transceiver, and a memory, the memory for storing instructions, the processor for executing the instructions in the memory such that the method of any one of claims 1-5 or the method of any one of claims 6-8 is implemented.

14. A terminal device comprising a processor, a transceiver and a memory, the memory being configured to store instructions, the processor being configured to execute the instructions in the memory such that the method of any one of claims 9-10 or the method of any one of claims 11-12 is implemented.