CN111245537B

CN111245537B - Measuring method and device

Info

Publication number: CN111245537B
Application number: CN201811443577.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 黄煌; 高宽栋; 颜矛
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-11-29
Filing date: 2018-11-29
Publication date: 2021-06-01
Anticipated expiration: 2038-11-29
Also published as: CN111245537A; WO2020107954A1

Abstract

The application provides a measurement method, comprising: receiving a plurality of half frames from a network device in one SS/PBCH block period, wherein at least two half frames in the plurality of half frames comprise SS/PBCH blocks; measuring the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block. The scheme provided by the application can save the time of beam measurement and reduce the expense of the terminal equipment.

Description

Measuring method and device

Technical Field

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

Background

The development of mobile services places increasing demands on the data rate and efficiency of wireless communications. In future wireless communication systems, beamforming techniques are used to limit the energy of the transmitted signal within a certain beam direction, thereby increasing the efficiency of signal and reception. The beam forming technology can effectively enlarge the transmission range of wireless signals and reduce signal interference, thereby achieving higher communication efficiency and obtaining higher network capacity. However, in a communication network using a beamforming technique, a transmit beam and a receive beam need to be matched first, so that a gain from a transmitting end to a receiving end is maximized, otherwise, relatively high communication efficiency cannot be obtained. And to achieve full coverage requires the base station side beams to scan.

When the terminal has a plurality of beams, it needs to measure the beams using a Synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel Block (SS/PBCH Block) of a plurality of half frames. In the prior art, only one half frame in one SS/PBCH block period has the SS/PBCH block, and multiple periods need to be spanned by terminal equipment for measuring multiple beams, so that the time for measuring the beams by the terminal equipment is longer.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a measuring method and a measuring device, which can reduce the time of measuring beams by terminal equipment. The specific scheme is as follows:

in a first aspect, a measurement method is provided, which includes: receiving a plurality of half frames from a network device in a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block period, wherein at least two half frames in the plurality of half frames comprise SS/PBCH blocks; measuring the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

Therefore, according to the scheme provided by the application, the plurality of half frames containing the SS/PBCH blocks are configured in one SS/PBCH block period, so that the terminal equipment completes beam measurement in one SS/PBCH block period or a shorter time period, the beam measurement does not need to span a plurality of periods, and the time for beam measurement is effectively reduced.

In a second aspect, there is provided a measurement method, the method comprising: generating a plurality of half frames, wherein at least two half frames in the plurality of half frames comprise SS/PBCH blocks, and transmitting the plurality of half frames in one synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel SS/PBCH block period.

Therefore, the scheme provided by the application enables the terminal equipment to complete the beam measurement in one period or a shorter time period by configuring a plurality of half frames containing the SS/PBCH block in one SS/PBCH block period without spanning a plurality of periods, thereby greatly reducing the time of the beam measurement.

In a third aspect, an apparatus is provided, comprising: a receiving unit, configured to receive a plurality of half frames from a network device in a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel SS/PBCH block period, where at least two half frames of the plurality of half frames include an SS/PBCH block; and the processing unit is used for measuring the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

Therefore, according to the scheme provided by the application, the plurality of half frames containing the SS/PBCH blocks are configured in one SS/PBCH block period, so that the terminal equipment completes beam measurement in one SS/PBCH block period or a relatively short time period, the beam measurement does not need to span a plurality of periods, and the time for beam measurement is effectively reduced.

In a fourth aspect, an apparatus is provided that includes: a processing unit configured to generate a plurality of field frames, at least two field frames of the plurality of field frames including an SS/PBCH block; and a sending unit, configured to send the plurality of half frames in a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel SS/PBCH block period.

In a fifth aspect, a measurement method is provided, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of SS/PBCH block-based radio resource management measurement time configuration (SMTCs) from network equipment in a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block period, wherein at least two SMTCs in the plurality of SMTCs comprise the SS/PBCH block, and one SMTC comprises one SS/PBCH block; measuring the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

Therefore, according to the scheme provided by the application, the terminal equipment completes beam measurement in one SS/PBCH block period or a shorter time period by configuring the SMTCs containing the SS/PBCH blocks in the SS/PBCH block period, and the beam measurement time is effectively reduced without spanning multiple periods.

In a sixth aspect, a measurement method is provided, the method comprising: generating a plurality of SS/PBCH block-based radio resource management measurement time configuration (SMTCs), wherein at least two SMTCs in the plurality of SMTCs comprise SS/PBCH blocks, and one SMTC comprises one SS/PBCH block; transmitting the plurality of SMTCs within one SS/PBCH block period.

In a seventh aspect, an apparatus is provided, comprising: a receiving unit, configured to receive a plurality of radio resource management measurement time configurations SMTCs based on SS/PBCH blocks from a network device in a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel SS/PBCH block period, where at least two SMTCs in the plurality of SMTCs include an SS/PBCH block; wherein, one SMTC comprises one SS/PBCH block; and the processing unit is used for measuring the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

Therefore, according to the scheme provided by the application, the terminal equipment completes beam measurement in one SS/PBCH block period or a relatively short time period by configuring the SMTCs containing the SS/PBCH blocks in the SS/PBCH block period, and the beam measurement time is effectively reduced without spanning multiple periods.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided an apparatus comprising: a processing unit configured to generate a plurality of SMTCs, at least two of the plurality of SMTCs comprising an SS/PBCH block; wherein, one SMTC comprises one SS/PBCH block; a sending unit, configured to send the multiple SMTCs in one synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel SS/PBCH block period.

With reference to any one of the first to fourth aspects, in a possible implementation manner, the number of SS/PBCH blocks of different half frames is the same.

With reference to any one of the first to fourth aspects, in one possible implementation, the SS/PBCH blocks of different half-frames are quasi co-located QCL.

With reference to any one of the first to fourth aspects, in a possible implementation manner, the SS/PBCH block of the second half frame of the at least two half frames has a time offset X with respect to the SS/PBCH block of the first half frame of the at least two half frames or the first half frame of the at least two half frames has a time offset X with respect to a starting position of the SS/PBCH block period, where the unit of X is millisecond or half frame.

With reference to any one of the fifth to eighth aspects, in one possible implementation, the SS/PBCH blocks of different SMTCs are quasi co-located QCL.

With reference to any one of the fifth aspect to the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the SS/PBCH block of the second SMTC of the at least two SMTCs has a time offset X with respect to the SS/PBCH block of the first SMTC of the at least two SMTCs or the first SMTC of the at least two SMTCs has a time offset X with respect to a starting position of the SS/PBCH block period, where the unit of X is millisecond or half frame.

With reference to any one of the first aspect to the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the value of X is received from the network device.

With reference to any one of the first aspect to the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the terminal device receives the value of X or information indicating the value of X through one or more of the following signaling:

radio resource control RRC, medium access control element MAC-CE, downlink control information DCI, system information block SIB1 or SIB2 or SIB 3.

With reference to any one of the first aspect to the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the value of X is one or more of the following:

5ms，10ms，15ms，20ms，25ms，30ms，35ms，40ms，45ms，50ms，55ms，60ms，65ms，70ms，75ms，80ms，85ms，90ms，95ms，100ms，105ms，110ms，115ms，120ms，125ms，130ms,135ms,140ms,145ms,150ms,155ms。

with reference to any one of the first aspect to the eighth aspect, in a possible implementation manner, the value of X is:

any one of the integers 1 to 31.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a communication device comprising a memory for storing instructions and a processor for executing the instructions stored by the memory, and execution of the instructions stored in the memory causes the processor to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or to perform the method as in any possible implementation of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect.

A tenth aspect provides a communication device comprising a memory for storing instructions and a processor for executing the instructions stored by the memory, and execution of the instructions stored in the memory causes the processor to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect or to perform the method as in any possible implementation of the sixth aspect or the sixth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, a chip is provided, where the chip includes a processing module and a communication interface, where the processing module is configured to control the communication interface to communicate with the outside, and the processing module is further configured to implement the method in the first aspect or any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, or implement the method in any possible implementation manner of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, a chip is provided, where the chip includes a processing module and a communication interface, where the processing module is configured to control the communication interface to communicate with the outside, and the processing module is further configured to implement the method in the second aspect or any possible implementation manner of the second aspect, or implement the method in any possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect or any possible implementation manner of the sixth aspect.

A thirteenth aspect provides a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement the method of the first aspect or any of its possible implementations, or the method of the fifth aspect or any of its possible implementations.

In a fourteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon, which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to implement the method of the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect or to implement the method of the sixth aspect or any of the possible implementations of the sixth aspect.

A fifteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or the method of any possible implementation of the fifth aspect or the fifth aspect.

A sixteenth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to carry out the method of the second aspect or any of its possible implementations, or the method of the sixth aspect or any of its possible implementations.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a scenario applied in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a cross-cycle measurement beam;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a measurement beam across cycles;

FIG. 4 is a schematic interaction flow diagram of a measurement method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of a measurement beam provided herein;

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram of a measurement beam provided herein;

figure 7 is a schematic block diagram of the SS/PBCH block time domain offset;

fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device provided in the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a network device provided herein;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in the present application;

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided in the present application.

Detailed Description

The technical solution in the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. The terminology used herein in the description of the present application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application.

To facilitate understanding of the embodiments of the present application, a brief description of several terms referred to in the present application will be given below.

1. The beam.

The representation of the beams in the NR protocol may be spatial filters, or so-called spatial filters or spatial parameters. A beam for transmitting a signal may be referred to as a transmission beam (Tx beam), may be referred to as a spatial domain transmit filter (spatial domain transmit filter), or a spatial transmit parameter (spatial domain transmit parameter); the beam used for receiving the signal may be referred to as a reception beam (Rx beam), may be referred to as a spatial domain receive filter (spatial domain receive filter), or a spatial domain receive parameter (spatial domain receive parameter).

The transmit beam may refer to a distribution of signal strengths formed in different spatial directions after the signal is transmitted through the antenna, and the receive beam may refer to a distribution of signal strengths of the wireless signal received from the antenna in different spatial directions.

It should be understood that the embodiment of the NR protocol listed above for the beams is only an example and should not constitute any limitation to the present application. This application does not exclude the possibility that other terms may be defined in future protocols to have the same or similar meaning.

Further, the beam may be a wide beam, or a narrow beam, or other type of beam. The technique of forming the beam may be a beamforming technique or other technique. The beamforming technology may specifically be a digital beamforming technology, an analog beamforming technology, or a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technology. Different beams may be considered different resources. The same information or different information may be transmitted through different beams.

Alternatively, a plurality of beams having the same or similar communication characteristics are regarded as one beam. One or more antenna ports may be included in a beam for transmitting data channels, control channels, sounding signals, and the like. The one or more antenna ports forming one beam may also be seen as one set of antenna ports.

2. Beam measurement

The transmitting end can transmit downlink signals in a beam scanning mode, and the receiving end can also receive downlink signals in the beam scanning mode. Specifically, the transmitting end may form beams with different directivities in space by means of beam forming, and may poll on a plurality of beams with different directivities to transmit the downlink signal through the beams with different directivities, so that the power of the downlink signal transmitting the downlink signal in the direction in which the transmitting beam is directed may be maximized. The receiving end can also form beams with different directivities in space in a beam forming mode, and can poll on a plurality of beams with different directivities to receive downlink signals through the beams with different directivities, so that the power of the receiving end for receiving the downlink signals can be maximized in the direction pointed by the receiving beams.

By traversing each transmitting beam and each receiving beam, the receiving end can perform channel measurement based on the received downlink signal and report the measured result to the transmitting end. For example, the receiving end may report a part of downlink signal resources with larger downlink signal receiving power (RSRP) to the transmitting end, for example, report an identifier of the downlink signal resources, so that the transmitting end receives and transmits signals by using a beam pairing relationship with better channel quality when transmitting data or signaling.

The downlink signal may be any one of a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel SS/PBCH block, a broadcast channel, a broadcast signal demodulation signal, a channel state information downlink signal (CSI-RS), a cell specific reference signal (CS-RS), a UE specific reference signal (US-RS), a downlink control channel demodulation reference signal, a downlink data channel demodulation reference signal, and a downlink phase noise tracking signal. The embodiment of the invention takes the SS/PBCH block as a downlink signal as an example for introduction.

The current 3GPP R15 has standardized beam management methods, which are briefly described as follows:

1) and configuring beam management resources.

And the network equipment configures the beam measurement report to the terminal equipment. The beam measurement report contains one or more of the following parameters: reporting configuration ID, reference signal resource time-frequency domain position for beam measurement, reporting configured time domain behavior (periodicity/semi-static/trigger type), reporting configured frequency domain behavior (subband/bandwidth and the like), reporting specific content (such as RSRP/CQI/PMI/RI/LI/CRI/SS/PBCH-ID) and the like.

And the network equipment sends the beam measurement signal to the terminal equipment based on the beam measurement reporting configuration. For example, the network device configures the terminal with resources of channel state information reference signals of non-zero power or configures the terminal with SS/PBCH signals.

2) Measuring and selecting beams, and reporting beams.

When the information bit "repetition" in the beam measurement resource configured for the terminal device by the network device is set to OFF, the terminal device is informed that the network device transmits different transmission beams, and in this case, the terminal device needs to report the measurement information of the transmission beams based on the reporting behavior of the beam measurement reporting configuration.

For example, the terminal device receives the measurement signal at the corresponding time-frequency domain position based on the beam measurement reporting configuration.

The terminal device selects N (N is an integer greater than 1) transmission beams from the transmission beams delivered by the network device based on a specific criterion, and reports resource IDs (in 3GPP, the resource IDs may be CSI-RS resource indices or SS/PBCH indices) and signal reception power corresponding to the N transmission beams to the network device.

The selection criterion of the beam reported by the terminal device may be specified by the network device or may be an internal implementation algorithm of the terminal device. For example, the terminal device may select the first few beams with the best beam quality from the configured resource set of the non-zero power CSI-RS for beam management for reporting.

3. SS/PBCH block period

The definition of NR for the SS/PBCH block period can be understood as:

for the reception of SS/PBCH blocks in each cell, the terminal is configured periodically at each cell by a high level parameter ssb-periodicityserving cell every half frame, for which the chinese understanding can also refer to the following english: a Terminal can be provided with a provided service cell by a high layer parameter ssb-period serving cell a period of the half frames for the receiving of the SS/PBCH blocks for the serving cell.

4. SS/PBCH block

A field contains a SS/PBCH block whose position in the field is related to the subcarrier spacing of the system. The SS/PBCH block in the present invention contains at least one of Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS), Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSs), and physical broadcast channel PBCH Signal.

A field is 5ms long, and at different subcarrier intervals, the field contains different numbers of slots, and a slot includes 14 OFDM symbols. The SS/PBCH block occupies 4 OFDM symbols in a half frame, a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS) at a first sign bit, a PBCH at a second sign bit, a PBCH at a third sign bit, a Secondary Synchronization Signal (SSS) and a PBCH at a fourth sign bit, wherein the PBCH symbols comprise demodulation Reference signals (De-Modulation Reference signals, DMRS) of the PBCH.

In the existing NR protocol, the position of the SS/PBCH block in a field is determined, and the current time domain position of the SS/PBCH block in the field has a pattern (pattern) of 5, which is pattern na, pattern B, pattern c, pattern D, and pattern E. The pattern a is mainly for the case where the subcarrier spacing is 15kHz, the patterns B and C are mainly for the case where the subcarrier spacing is 30kHz, and the patterns D and E are mainly for the cases of 120kHz and 240 kHz.

For example, for pattern a, the temporal position of the SS/PBCH block in a field satisfies the following equation:

the 1 st OFDM symbol index of the SS/PBCH block is {2,8} +14 x n. For carrier frequencies less than or equal to 3GHz, n is 0, 1. For carrier frequencies greater than 3GHz and less than 6GHz, there is n ═ 0,1,2, 3.

For pattern B, the temporal position of the SS/PBCH block in a field satisfies the following equation:

the 1 st OFDM symbol index of the SS/PBCH block is {4,8,16,20} +28 x n. For carrier frequencies less than or equal to 3GHz, n is 0. For carrier frequencies greater than 3GHz and less than 6GHz, there is n-0, 1.

For patternrc, the time-domain position of the SS/PBCH block in a field satisfies the following equation:

the 1 st OFDM symbol index of the SS/PBCH block is {2,8} +14 x n. When the carrier frequency or the working frequency is less than 3GHz, n is 0 and 1; when the carrier frequency or operating frequency is greater than 3GHz and less than 6GHz, the value of n is 0,1,2, 3.

For pattern D, the temporal position of the SS/PBCH block in a field satisfies the following equation:

the 1 st OFDM symbol index of the SS/PBCH block is {4,8,16,20} +28 × n, and when the carrier frequency or operating frequency is greater than 6GHz, n has a value of 0,1,2,3,5,6,7,8,10,11,12,13,15,16,17, 18.

For pattern E, the temporal position of the SS/PBCH block in a field satisfies the following equation:

the 1 st OFDM symbol index of the SS/PBCH block is {8,12,16,20,32,36,40,44} +56 × n, and when the carrier frequency or operating frequency is greater than 6GHz, n has a value of 0,1,2,3,5,6,7, 8.

The foregoing is a description of the terminology and knowledge associated with the present application and the following description is presented to illustrate specific embodiments of the invention.

The embodiments of the present application may be applied to a beam-based multi-carrier communication system, for example, a 5G system or a New Radio (NR) system.

Fig. 1 is a diagram of a communication system 100 according to an embodiment of the present application. The communication system 100 includes a network device 110 and a plurality of terminal devices 120 (e.g., terminal device 120a and terminal device 120b shown in fig. 1). Network device 110 may transmit multiple analog beams simultaneously over multiple radio frequency channels to transmit data for multiple terminal devices. As shown in fig. 1, the network device transmits beam 1 and beam 2, where beam 1 is used for transmitting data for terminal device 120a and beam 2 is used for transmitting data for terminal device 120 b. Beam 1 may be referred to as the transmit beam for terminal device 120a and beam 2 may be referred to as the transmit beam for terminal device 120 b.

The network device 101 may be a base station, and the base station may be configured to communicate with one or more terminals, and may also be configured to communicate with one or more base stations having partial terminal functions (e.g., communication between a macro base station and a micro base station, such as an access point). The Base Station may be a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) in a Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) system, an evolved Node B (eNB) in an LTE system, and a Base Station in a 5G system or a new air interface (NR) system. In addition, the base station may also be an Access Point (AP), a transmission node (Trans TRP), a Central Unit (CU), or other network entity, and may include some or all of the functions of the above network entities.

A terminal device may refer to a User Equipment (UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a wireless communication device, a user agent, or a user equipment. The terminal device may also be a cellular phone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a handheld device with wireless communication capability, a computing device or other processing device connected to a wireless modem, a vehicle mounted device, a wearable device, a terminal device in a 5G network or a terminal device in a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN) for future evolution, etc.

The maximum number of SS/PBCH blocks in one SS/PBCH block period is regulated to be 4 or 8 at low frequency and 64 at high frequency according to the existing New Radio (NR) standard. The terminal device is in an idle state (idle) when receiving the SS/PBCH block, the paging message (paging) is also in the idle state, and the transmission beams of the paging message and the SS/PBCH block may be the same beam, i.e. the SS/PBCH block and the paging message have a quasi-co-location relationship. The terminal equipment wakes up in advance before receiving the paging message, and a beam needs to be measured, wherein the beam can adopt SS/PBCH block signals. However, the current NR protocol specifies that only one half frame in a SS/PBCH block period has SS/PBCH block signals, and if multiple beams are measured, multiple SS/PBCH block periods need to be spanned, resulting in longer beam measurement time.

As shown in fig. 2, assuming that the period of the SS/PBCH block is 10ms, the length of the half frame is 5ms, and each SS/PBCH block period has only one half frame with the SS/PBCH block, if the transmitting end transmits 2 beams through the SS/PBCH block, the terminal needs to measure the two beams, and then it takes 20ms to complete beam reception.

As shown in fig. 3, assuming that the period of the SS/PBCH block is 40ms, the network device sends 4 beams, the terminal needs to measure the four beams, only one half frame of one period includes the SS/PBCH block, and if 4 beam measurements need to be completed, 160ms is needed.

The present application provides a method and an apparatus for measuring, which can make the time for beam measurement shorter than the prior art.

The embodiment of the invention provides a measuring method which can reduce the measuring time.

Fig. 4 is a schematic interaction flow diagram of a measurement method 400 provided in an embodiment of the present application. The method 400 includes:

s410, in a SS/PBCH block period T, the network equipment sends a plurality of half frames to the terminal, wherein at least two half frames in the plurality of half frames comprise SS/PBCH blocks;

and S420, the terminal equipment receives the plurality of half frames and measures the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

Compared with the prior art, the embodiment provided by the application can reduce the time of beam measurement and save the expense of terminal equipment.

It should be understood that the terminal measurement beam may be a beam corresponding to all SS/PBCH blocks, or may be a beam corresponding to a portion of the SS/PBCH blocks.

Optionally, the method 400 further comprises: and the network equipment transmits the message by adopting the beam corresponding to the SS/PBCH block. For example, the beam corresponding to the SS/PBCH block is used to transmit the paging message.

As shown in fig. 5, assuming that the period of the SS/PBCH block is 10ms, the length of the half frame is 5ms, and each SS/PBCH block period has 2 half frames with SS/PBCH blocks, if the network device sends 2 beams through the SS/PBCH blocks, the terminal only needs 10ms of time to complete beam reception and measurement.

Taking the SS/PBCH block period as 20ms, and taking the example that the terminal device measures 4 beams through the SS/PBCH block, the prior art needs 40ms to complete beam measurement; by adopting the scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention, the beam measurement can be completed only by less than 20 ms.

As shown in fig. 6, in the scheme provided by the present application, it is assumed that the period of the SS/PBCH block is 40ms, the network device sends 4 beams, the terminal needs to use the four beams to receive and measure the SS/PBCH block, and 4 half frames containing the SS/PBCH block are configured in one SS/PBCH block period, so that the terminal can use 20ms to complete the measurement of the beams, thereby saving 140ms of time and greatly reducing overhead.

The value of the period of the SS/PBCH block may be sent through a higher layer signaling, for example, through a parameter ssb-periodicityserving cell of the higher layer signaling.

In one implementation, the SS/PBCH blocks of the second half of the plurality of half frames are offset in time X, which may be in units of milliseconds, half frames, subframes, slots, OFDM symbols, relative to the SS/PBCH blocks of the first half of the plurality of half frames.

In another implementation, the starting position of the SS/PBCH block period may be used as a reference point, and the SS/PBCH block of the first half frame of the plurality of half frames has a time offset X relative to the reference point, where X may be in units of milliseconds, half frames, subframes, slots, and OFDM symbols.

For example, when the time offset value is in milliseconds, a specific value may be sent, or an index indicating the specific value may be sent.

Illustratively, suppose that the period T of the SS/PBCH block is 30ms, the time length of a field is 5ms, and there are 6 fields in one period T, where the 6 fields contain 3 SS/PBCH blocks. As shown in figure 7 of the drawings,

the first SS/PBCH block is located in the 1 st half frame;

the second SS/PBCH block is located in the 3 rd half frame;

the third SS/PBCH block is located in the 5 th field.

The time length between the first SS/PBCH block and the second SS/PBCH block is an offset value, for example, as shown in fig. 7, the offset value is 10ms, or the offset value is 2 half frames.

The offset values may be the same or different within one SS/PBCH period.

Optionally, when the network device configures the offset value, the time position of one of the SS/PBCH blocks in the SS/PBCH period may also be configured, and then the offset of each SS/PBCH block with respect to the SS/PBCH block is reconfigured.

For example, the position value of the first SS/PBCH field or the time position of the last SS/PBCH field may be configured, and then the time offset of the remaining SS/PBCH fields relative to the first SS/PBCH field or the time offset of the remaining SS/PBCH fields relative to the last SS/PBCH field may be configured.

Optionally, when the network device configures the offset value, it may also select a fixed position in the SS/PBCH block period as a reference point of the offset value, for example, configure the start position of the period (the first slot of the first frame in the period) as the reference point, and then configure the time offset of the half frame in which each SS/PBCH block is located with respect to the reference point.

The value of the time offset may be positive or negative.

The offset values may be different for different SS/PBCH block period lengths.

For example, the period of the SS/PBCH block is 20ms, and the number of half frames containing the SS/PBCH block that can be configured in the SS/PBCH block period is 1,2, or 3. The offset can be configured to be 5ms, 10ms, or 15 ms.

For another example, if the period of the SS/PBCH block is 40ms, the number of half frames of the SS/PBCH block in the SS/PBCH block period may be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 or all or part of the number of half frames. The specific position value of the half frame in which the SS/PBCH block is located in the SSB period or the relative time offset value offset of the SS/PBCH block may be 5,10,15,20,25,30,35 partially or completely; the unit is ms; if the unit is a half frame, the offset takes on a part or all of 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7.

For another example, if the period of the SS/PBCH block is 80ms, the number of half frames of the SS/PBCH block in the SS/PBCH block period may be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15 or all or part of them. The specific position value of the field in which the SS/PBCH block is located in the SSB period or the relative time offset value offset of the SS/PBCH block may be 0,5,10,15, 20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55,60,65,70,75, in part or all, with the unit of ms; if the unit is a half frame, the offset takes on a part or all of the values 1-15.

For another example, the period of the SS/PBCH block is 160ms, then the number of half frames of the SS/PBCH block in the SS/PBCH block period may be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31, all or part of the SS/PBCH block, and the specific position value of the half frame of the SS/PBCH block in the SSB period or the relative time offset value offset of the SS/PBCH block may be 5,10,15,20,25,30,35, 40,45,50,55,60,65,70,75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120, 130,135,140, 125, 145,150,155, and the unit is ms; if the unit is a half frame, the offset takes on a part or all of the values 1-31.

According to the scheme provided by the application, the plurality of half frames are sent in the period T of one SS/PBCH block, wherein the plurality of half frames comprise the SS/PBCH block (only one SS/PBCH block is arranged on one half frame), and the terminal equipment can measure the plurality of SS/PBCH blocks in one period, so that the time for measuring the beam is saved, and the efficiency is improved.

In another embodiment, the principle of the technical solution of the present application may also be applied to SS/PBCH block-based radio resource management measurement configuration (SMTC), and the specific application is as follows:

step 1: in a period of one SS/PBCH block, a network device configures a plurality of SMTCs, wherein at least two SMTCs in the plurality of SMTCs comprise the SS/PBCH block, and one SMTC comprises one SS/PBCH block;

step 2: the terminal measures the signal strength of the received SS/PBCH block, it should be understood that the terminal measurement beam may be a beam corresponding to all SS/PBCH blocks or a beam corresponding to a part of SS/PBCH blocks.

For SMTC, the description of the time offset of the SS/PBCH in one SS/PBCH block period may refer to the description of the above embodiments directly, and is not repeated here.

It is to be understood that, in the above-described method embodiments, the method and the operation implemented by the terminal device may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) available for the terminal device, and the method and the operation implemented by the network device may also be implemented by a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) available for the network device.

The method embodiments provided by the embodiments of the present application are described above, and the device embodiments provided by the embodiments of the present application are described below. It should be understood that the description of the apparatus embodiments corresponds to the description of the method embodiments, and therefore, for brevity, details are not repeated here, since the details that are not described in detail may be referred to the above method embodiments.

The above-mentioned scheme provided by the embodiment of the present application is introduced mainly from the perspective of interaction between network elements. It is to be understood that each network element, for example, a transmitting end device or a receiving end device. To implement the above functions, it includes hardware structures and/or software modules for performing the respective functions. Those of skill in the art would readily appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as hardware or combinations of hardware and computer software. Whether a function is performed as hardware or computer software drives hardware depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the functional modules may be divided according to the above method example for the transmitting end device or the receiving end device, for example, each functional module may be divided corresponding to each function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one processing module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the division of the module is schematic, and is only one logic function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. The following description will be given taking the example of dividing each functional module corresponding to each function.

Fig. 8 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device 800 according to an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device 800 may correspond to the terminal device in the above method embodiment. The terminal device 800 includes the following units:

a receiving unit 810, configured to receive a plurality of half frames, where at least two half frames of the plurality of half frames include an SS/PBCH block; or, the apparatus is configured to receive a plurality of SMTCs, where at least two SMTCs of the plurality of SMTCs include an SS/PBCH block;

a processing unit 820, configured to measure the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

It should be understood that the beams measured by the terminal device may be beams corresponding to all SS/PBCH blocks, or beams corresponding to part of the SS/PBCH blocks, which is not limited in the present invention.

Therefore, according to the scheme provided by the application, the SS/PBCH block is sent in a plurality of half frames, so that the time of beam measurement can be reduced, and the overhead of the terminal equipment can be saved.

Optionally, the receiving unit 810 is further configured to receive indication information of a period of an SS/PBCH block from a network device. The value of the period T of the SS/PBCH block may be received through a higher layer signaling, for example, through a parameter ssb-periodicityserving cell of the higher layer signaling.

The receiving unit 810 is further configured to receive the SS/PBCH block of the second half frame of the multiple half frames with a time offset X relative to the SS/PBCH block of the first half frame of the multiple half frames or the SS/PBCH block of the first half frame of the at least two half frames with a time offset X relative to a starting position of the SS/PBCH block period, where the unit of X is millisecond or half frame.

Fig. 9 is a schematic block diagram of a network device 900 according to an embodiment of the present application. The network device 900 may correspond to the network device in the above method embodiments. The network device 900 includes the following elements:

a processing unit 910 configured to generate a plurality of field frames, at least two field frames of the plurality of field frames including an SS/PBCH block; or, generating a plurality of SMTCs, at least two SMTCs of the plurality of SMTCs comprising an SS/PBCH block;

a sending unit 920, configured to send the plurality of half frames or the plurality of SMTCs to a terminal device in one SS/PBCH block period.

Optionally, the sending unit 920 is further configured to send a paging message by using a beam corresponding to the SS/PBCH block.

It should be understood that the network device may select beams corresponding to a part of the SS/PBCH blocks to transmit the paging message, or may select beams corresponding to all SS/PBCH blocks to transmit the paging message, which is not limited in the present invention.

Therefore, according to the scheme provided by the application, a plurality of half frames are sent in one SS/PBCH block period, and at least two half frames in the plurality of half frames comprise the SS/PBCH block, so that the time for beam measurement is greatly reduced.

The embodiment of the application also provides a first communication device, and the first communication device can be a terminal device or a chip. The first communication means may be configured to perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiments.

When the first communication device is a terminal device, fig. 10 shows a simplified structural diagram of the terminal device. For ease of understanding and illustration, in fig. 10, the terminal device is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the terminal equipment, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is used primarily for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are used primarily for receiving data input by a user and for outputting data to the user. It should be noted that some kinds of terminal devices may not have input/output devices.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside 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. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 10. In an actual end device product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be provided independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit having the transceiving function may be regarded as a transceiving unit of the terminal device, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the terminal device.

As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device includes a transceiving unit 1001 and a processing unit 1002. A transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving device, etc. A processing unit may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like. Alternatively, a device for implementing a receiving function in the transceiving unit 1001 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device for implementing a transmitting function in the transceiving unit 1001 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, the transceiving unit 1001 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A transceiver unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or the like. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like. A transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

For example, in one implementation, the processing unit 1002 is configured to execute step 420 in fig. 4, and/or the processing unit 1002 is further configured to execute other processing steps on the terminal device side in this embodiment of the present application. The transceiving unit 1001 is further adapted to perform step 410 shown in fig. 4, and/or the transceiving unit 1001 is further adapted to perform other transceiving steps at the terminal device side.

It should be understood that fig. 10 is only an example and not a limitation, and the terminal device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit described above may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 10.

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

The embodiment of the present application further provides a second communication device, where the second communication device may be a network device or a chip. The second communication device may be configured to perform the actions performed by the network device in the above-described method embodiments.

When the second communication device is a network device, for example, a base station. Fig. 11 shows a simplified base station structure. The base station includes 1101 parts and 1102 parts. The 1101 part is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals and converting the radio frequency signals and baseband signals; the 1102 part is mainly used for baseband processing, base station control, and the like. Portion 1101 may be generally referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver, transceiving circuitry, transceiver, or the like. Part 1102 is typically a control center of the base station, which may be generally referred to as a processing unit, for controlling the base station to perform the actions of generating the first message by the network device in the above-described method embodiments. Reference is made in particular to the description of the relevant part above.

The transceiver unit of part 1101, which may also be referred to as a transceiver, or transceiver, etc., includes an antenna and a radio frequency unit, wherein the radio frequency unit is mainly used for radio frequency processing. Optionally, a device used for implementing a receiving function in part 1101 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device used for implementing a transmitting function may be regarded as a transmitting unit, that is, part 1101 includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like, and a transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, or the like.

Section 1102 may include one or more boards, each of which may include one or more processors and one or more memories, the processors being configured to read and execute programs in the memories to implement baseband processing functions and control of the base station. If a plurality of single boards exist, the single boards can be interconnected to increase the processing capacity. As an alternative implementation, multiple boards may share one or more processors, multiple boards may share one or more memories, or multiple boards may share one or more processors at the same time.

For example, in one implementation manner, the transceiver unit is configured to perform a transmitting operation on the network device side in step 410 in fig. 4, and/or the transceiver unit is further configured to perform other transceiving steps on the network device side in the embodiment of the present application. The processing unit is configured to perform an action of generating a plurality of half frames, at least two half frames include the SS/PBCH block, and/or the processing unit is further configured to perform other processing steps on the network device side in the embodiment of the present application.

It should be understood that fig. 11 is only an example and not a limitation, and the network device including the transceiving unit and the processing unit may not depend on the structure shown in fig. 11.

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

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a computer, the computer is enabled to implement the method on the terminal device side or the method on the network device side in the above method embodiments.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a computer program product containing instructions, and the instructions, when executed by a computer, enable the computer to implement the method on the terminal device side or the method on the network device side in the foregoing method embodiments.

For the explanation and beneficial effects of the related content in any of the communication apparatuses provided above, reference may be made to the corresponding method embodiments provided above, and details are not repeated here.

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device or the network device includes a hardware layer, an operating system layer running on the hardware layer, and an application layer running on the operating system layer. The hardware layer includes hardware such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Memory Management Unit (MMU), and a memory (also referred to as a main memory). The operating system may be any one or more computer operating systems that implement business processing through processes (processes), such as a Linux operating system, a Unix operating system, an Android operating system, an iOS operating system, or a windows operating system. The application layer comprises applications such as a browser, an address list, word processing software, instant messaging software and the like. Furthermore, the embodiment of the present application does not particularly limit the specific structure of the execution main body of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, as long as the communication can be performed according to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application by running the program recorded with the code of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, for example, the execution main body of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application may be a terminal device or a network device, or a functional module capable of calling the program and executing the program in the terminal device or the network device.

In addition, various aspects or features of the present application may be implemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture using standard programming and/or engineering techniques. The term "article of manufacture" as used herein is intended to encompass a computer program accessible from any computer-readable device, carrier, or media. For example, computer-readable media can include but are not limited to magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., Compact Disk (CD), Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), card, stick, or key drive, etc.). In addition, various storage media described herein can represent one or more devices and/or other machine-readable media for storing information. The term "machine-readable medium" can include, without being limited to, wireless channels and various other media capable of storing, containing, and/or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.

It should be understood that the Processor mentioned in the embodiments of the present Application may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), and may also be other general purpose processors, Digital Signal Processors (DSP), Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) 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.

It will also be appreciated that the memory referred to in the embodiments of the application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The non-volatile Memory may be a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), or a flash Memory. Volatile Memory can be Random Access Memory (RAM), which acts as external cache Memory. By way of example, but not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as Static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), Enhanced Synchronous SDRAM (ESDRAM), Synchronous link SDRAM (SLDRAM), and Direct Rambus RAM (DR RAM).

It should be noted that when the processor is a general-purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, an FPGA or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, the memory (memory module) is integrated in the processor.

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

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative elements and algorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented as 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.

The functions, if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application or portions thereof that substantially contribute to the prior art may be embodied in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium and including instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to execute all or part of the steps of the method according to the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a usb disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk.

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 of measurement, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of half frames from a network device in a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block period, wherein at least two half frames in the plurality of half frames comprise SS/PBCH blocks; quasi co-location QCL is adopted between SS/PBCH blocks of different half frames;

measuring the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of SS/PBCH blocks for different fields is the same.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the SS/PBCH block of the second half of the at least two half frames has a time offset of X in milliseconds or half frames from the SS/PBCH block of the first half of the at least two half frames or the SS/PBCH block of the first half of the at least two half frames has a time offset of X from the start of the SS/PBCH block period.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the value of X is received from the network device, or wherein information indicating the value of X is received from the network device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the value of X or information indicating the value of X is received by one or more of the following signaling:

6. The method according to any one of claims 3 to 5, wherein when X is expressed in milliseconds, the value of X is one or more of the following:

5ms，10ms，15ms，20ms，25ms，30ms，35ms，40ms，45ms，50ms，55ms，60ms，65ms，70ms，75ms，80ms，85ms，90ms，95ms，100ms，105ms，110ms，115ms，120ms，125ms，130ms,135ms,140ms,145ms,150ms,155ms；

when the unit of X is a half frame, the value of X is as follows:

any one or more of integers 1 to 31.

7. The method of any of claims 1-5, wherein the SS/PBCH block period is received via higher layer signaling.

8. A method of measurement, the method comprising:

generating a plurality of field frames, wherein at least two field frames of the plurality of field frames comprise SS/PBCH blocks; quasi co-location QCL is adopted between SS/PBCH blocks of different half frames;

and transmitting the plurality of half frames in one SS/PBCH block period.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the number of SS/PBCH blocks for different fields is the same.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the SS/PBCH block of the second half of the at least two half frames has a time offset of X relative to the SS/PBCH block of the first half of the at least two half frames or the SS/PBCH block of the first half of the at least two half frames has a time offset of X relative to a start position of a SS/PBCH block period, wherein X is in milliseconds or half frames.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the value of X is sent to a terminal device; or sending information indicating the value of the X to the terminal equipment.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the value of X or information indicating the value of X is sent via one or more of the following signaling:

radio resource control RRC, medium access control element MAC-CE, downlink control information DCI, system information SIB1 or SIB2 or SIB 3.

13. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein when X is expressed in milliseconds, X takes on one or more of the following values:

when the unit of X is a half frame, the value of X is as follows:

any one or more of integers 1 to 31.

14. The method of any of claims 8-12, wherein the SS/PBCH block period is signaled by higher layer signaling.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a receiving unit, configured to receive a plurality of half frames from a network device in a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel SS/PBCH block period, where at least two half frames of the plurality of half frames include an SS/PBCH block; quasi co-location QCL is adopted between SS/PBCH blocks of different half frames;

and the processing unit is used for measuring the signal strength of the SS/PBCH block.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the number of SS/PBCH blocks for different half frames is the same.

17. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein the SS/PBCH block of the second of the at least two fields has a time offset X from the SS/PBCH block of the first of the at least two fields or the SS/PBCH block of the first of the at least two fields has a time offset X in milliseconds or a field from a start position of the SS/PBCH block period.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the receiving unit is further configured to receive the value of X from the network device, or receive information indicating the value of X from the network device.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the receiving unit receives the value of X or information indicating the value of X by one or more of the following signaling:

20. The apparatus according to any one of claims 17-19, wherein when X is in milliseconds, X takes on one or more of the following values:

when the unit of X is a half frame, the value of X is as follows:

any one or more of integers 1 to 31.

21. The apparatus of any of claims 15-19, wherein the receiving unit receives the SS/PBCH block period through higher layer signaling.

22. An apparatus, comprising:

a processing unit configured to generate a plurality of field frames, wherein at least two field frames of the plurality of field frames comprise a synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) block; the SS/PBCH blocks of different half frames are quasi co-located;

a sending unit, configured to send the plurality of half frames in one SS/PBCH block period.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the number of SS/PBCH blocks for different half frames is the same.

24. The apparatus of claim 22 wherein the SS/PBCH block of the second of the at least two fields has a time offset X from the SS/PBCH block of the first of the at least two fields or the SS/PBCH block of the first of the at least two fields has a time offset X in milliseconds or a field from a start position of the SS/PBCH block period.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the sending unit is configured to send the value of X to a terminal device, or send information indicating a value of X to the terminal device.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the sending unit sends the value of X or information indicating the value of X through one or more of the following signaling:

27. The apparatus according to any one of claims 24-26, wherein when X is in milliseconds, X takes on one or more of the following values:

when the unit of X is a half frame, the value of X is as follows:

any one or more of integers 1 to 31.

28. The apparatus of any of claims 22-26, wherein the transmitting unit transmits the SS/PBCH block period via higher layer signaling.

29. A computer storage medium having stored thereon instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to perform the method of any of claims 1-7 or 8-14.