CN113271685B

CN113271685B - Method for adding auxiliary cell group, access network equipment and terminal equipment

Info

Publication number: CN113271685B
Application number: CN202010093894.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王洲; 王键; 刘海义; 金乐
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-02-14
Filing date: 2020-02-14
Publication date: 2023-05-02
Anticipated expiration: 2040-02-14
Also published as: CN113271685A; WO2021159862A1

Abstract

The application provides a method for adding SCG of a secondary cell group, access network equipment and terminal equipment. The method comprises the following steps: the method comprises the steps that an access network device determines a cell group to be added supporting dual-connection DC with a cell where a terminal device is currently located from alternative auxiliary cell groups, wherein the cell group to be added comprises at least one cell; in the cell group to be added, when determining that the cell group is doubly connected with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located, the terminal equipment supports carrier aggregation CA and/or a cell supporting Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) capability is a target secondary cell group SCG; and sending a first configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the target SCG under the current cell. Thus, the access network device ensures that the terminal device supports dual connectivity capabilities when adding SCGs, can use noGAP measurements, and does not cause fallback redundancy.

Description

Method for adding auxiliary cell group, access network equipment and terminal equipment

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of communications, and more specifically, to a method for adding a secondary cell group, an access network device, and a terminal device.

Background

Dual connectivity (Dual Connectivity, DC) functionality was introduced in long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) systems, DC comprising two cell groups: a primary cell group (Master Cell Group, MCG) and a secondary cell group (Secondary Cell Group, SCG), in a New Radio (NR) system, MCG and SCG are also present. The access network device managing the MCG may add the SCG to the terminal device according to the capability of the terminal device and the service of the terminal device. Meanwhile, the access network device managing the MCG may also add an auxiliary component carrier (Secondary component carrier, SCC) to the terminal device in the MCG, and the access network device may also configure Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) capability of the terminal device.

The access network device may add SCG or SCC to the terminal device at random and configure MIMO capabilities of the terminal device. When the access network device adds the SCG to the terminal device, the terminal device has added the SCC or has configured higher MIMO capability, and under the current carrier aggregation (Carrier Aggregation, CA) combination or higher MIMO capability, the terminal device may not support dual connection, needs to perform gap measurement, may not detect the SCG signal, and if the SCG is to be added continuously, must fall back CA or MIMO, which not only causes fall-back redundancy, but also brings loss of transmission rate and performance, and reduces the use experience of the user.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method for adding a secondary cell group, access network equipment and terminal equipment. In the method, before SCC addition and MIMO capability configuration, the equipment on the access network preferentially performs SCG addition so as to ensure that the terminal equipment smoothly performs SCG addition and avoid CA and MIMO capability rollback caused by incapability of SCG addition.

In a first aspect, a method for adding secondary cell group SCG is provided, including: the access network equipment determines a cell group to be added supporting dual-connection DC with a cell where the terminal equipment is currently positioned from the alternative auxiliary cell group, wherein the cell group to be added comprises at least one cell; the access network equipment determines that a cell supporting carrier aggregation CA and/or supporting multiple input multiple output MIMO capability of the terminal equipment is a target secondary cell group SCG when the access network equipment is in double connection with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located in the cell group to be added; the access network device sends a first configuration message to the terminal device, where the first configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the target SCG under the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

In the application, the access network device preferentially performs SCG addition on the terminal device, the access network device determines a cell group to be added, which supports dual-connection DC with a cell where the terminal device is currently located, from the alternative auxiliary cell group, and in the cell group to be added, when determining that the cell where the terminal device is currently located is dual-connected with the cell where the terminal device is currently located, the cell where the terminal device supports carrier aggregation CA and/or supports multiple-input multiple-output MIMO capability is the added SCG. Therefore, the access network equipment ensures that the terminal equipment has the capability of supporting double connection when adding SCG, can use noGAP measurement, and preferentially performs SCG addition before SCC addition and MIMO capability configuration of the access network equipment, so as to ensure that the terminal equipment smoothly performs SCG addition and avoid CA and MIMO capability rollback caused by incapability of performing SCG addition.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, in determining, in the cell group to be added, that a cell supporting carrier aggregation CA and/or supporting multiple input multiple output MIMO capability is a target SCG when the terminal device is doubly connected to a cell where the terminal device is currently located, the method includes: and when the CA supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a first threshold value and/or the number of MIMO supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a second threshold value, determining the cell as a target SCG.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, before the determining, from the candidate secondary cell groups, a cell group to be added to support dual connectivity DC with a cell in which the terminal device is currently located, the cell group to be added includes at least one cell, the method further includes: and when the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned has carried out carrier aggregation CA and/or MIMO configuration, and the alternative auxiliary cell group does not support dual-connection DC with the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned, sending an infinite resource control RCC message to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to back off the carrier aggregation and/or the quantity of the MIMO.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, before the determining, from the candidate secondary cell groups, a cell group to be added to support dual connectivity DC with a cell in which the terminal device is currently located, the cell group to be added includes at least one cell, the method further includes: and receiving a feedback message sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the feedback message comprises the current cell of the terminal equipment and the quantity of MIMO, and the cell group supporting dual-connection DC exists in the current cell of the terminal equipment and the alternative auxiliary cell group configured with the quantity of MIMO.

With reference to the first aspect, in some implementations of the first aspect, when a cell in which the terminal device is currently located has performed carrier aggregation CA and/or configured MIMO, and a cell in which the terminal device is currently located supports dual connectivity DC exists in the alternative secondary cell group, the method further includes: determining the target SCG supporting dual-connection DC with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located from the alternative auxiliary cell group; and sending the first configuration message to the terminal equipment.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: and receiving a first report sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the first report comprises a result of measuring the SCG of the secondary cell.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: sending a second configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the second configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the component carrier SCC under the current cell; and receiving a second report sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the second report comprises a result of measuring the SCC.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the method further includes: transmitting a third configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the third configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to configure the MIMO quantity under the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located; and receiving a third report sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the third report comprises the MIMO quantity configured by the terminal equipment under the current cell.

With reference to the first aspect, in certain implementations of the first aspect, the DC includes a connection ENDC with an access network device being 5G core network being 4G or a connection NEDC with an access network device being 4G core network being 5G.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method of adding a secondary cell group, comprising: when the terminal equipment does not measure the SCG of the secondary cell according to the measurement GAP configured by the access network equipment, the terminal equipment backs off the component carrier SCC and/or reduces the MIMO quantity, wherein the cell group supporting the dual-connection DC exists in the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located and the alternative secondary cell group after the component carrier SCC and/or the MIMO quantity is reduced; the terminal device sends a feedback message to the access network device, wherein the feedback message comprises the number of SCCs (carrier control channels) of the current component carrier of the terminal device and the number of MIMO (multiple input multiple output).

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: receiving a first configuration message sent by access network equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the target SCG under the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located; measuring the target SCG according to the first configuration message; a first report is sent to the access network device, the first report comprising a result of the measurement of the target SCG.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: receiving a second configuration message sent by the access network device, wherein the second configuration message is used for indicating the terminal device to measure the SCC under the cell where the terminal device is currently located; measuring the SCC according to the second configuration message; a second report is sent to the access network device, the second report including results of the measurements on the SCC.

With reference to the second aspect, in certain implementations of the second aspect, the method further includes: after the SCC is added, receiving a third configuration message sent by the access network equipment, wherein the third configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to configure the MIMO quantity under the current cell; configuring the MIMO quantity according to the third configuration message; and sending a third report to the access network equipment, wherein the third report comprises the MIMO quantity configured by the terminal equipment under the current cell.

In a third aspect, an access network device is provided, including: a processing unit, configured to determine, from an alternative secondary cell group, a cell group to be added that supports dual-connection DC with a cell where a terminal device is currently located, where the cell group to be added includes at least one cell; the processing unit is further configured to determine, in the cell group to be added, that a cell supporting carrier aggregation CA and/or supporting multiple input multiple output MIMO capability of the terminal device is a target secondary cell group SCG when the terminal device is connected to the cell currently located by the terminal device; and the receiving and transmitting unit is used for sending a first configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the target SCG under the current cell.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, in determining, in the cell group to be added, that a cell supporting carrier aggregation CA and/or supporting multiple input multiple output, MIMO, is a target secondary cell SCG when the terminal device is doubly connected to a cell where the terminal device is currently located, the method includes: and when the CA supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a first threshold value and/or the number of MIMO supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a second threshold value, determining the cell as a target secondary cell SCG.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the transceiver unit is further configured to: and when the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned has carried out carrier aggregation CA and/or MIMO configuration, and the alternative auxiliary cell group does not support dual-connection DC with the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned, sending an infinite resource control RCC message to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to back off the carrier aggregation and/or the quantity of the MIMO.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a feedback message sent by the terminal device, where the feedback message includes a cell group supporting dual-connection DC in a cell and an alternative secondary cell group where the terminal device configured with the MIMO number is currently located and the number of MIMO.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, when the cell in which the terminal device is currently located has performed carrier aggregation CA and/or configured MIMO, and a cell supporting dual connectivity DC with the cell in which the terminal device is currently located exists in the alternative secondary cell group, the access network device further includes: determining the target SCG supporting dual-connection DC with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located from the alternative auxiliary cell group; and sending the first configuration message to the terminal equipment.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a first report sent by the terminal device, where the first report includes a result of measuring the secondary cell SCG.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the transceiver unit is configured to send a second measurement configuration message to the terminal device, where the second configuration message is configured to instruct the terminal device to measure the component carrier SCC under a cell where the terminal device is currently located; the transceiver unit is configured to receive a second report sent by the terminal device, where the second report includes a result of measuring the SCC.

With reference to the third aspect, in some implementations of the third aspect, the transceiver unit is configured to send a third configuration message to the terminal device, where the third configuration message is configured to instruct the terminal device to configure the MIMO number under a cell where the terminal device is currently located; the receiving and transmitting unit is configured to receive a third report sent by the terminal device, where the third report includes the MIMO number configured by the terminal device in the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

With reference to the third aspect, in certain implementations of the third aspect, the DC includes a connection ENDC with an access network device being 5G core network being 4G or a connection NEDC with an access network device being 4G core network being 5G.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a terminal device, including: the processing unit is used for backing off the component carrier SCC and/or reducing the MIMO quantity when the terminal equipment cannot detect the secondary cell SCG according to the measurement GAP configured by the access network equipment and the cell group supporting the dual-connection DC exists in the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located and the alternative secondary cell group after backing off the component carrier SCC and/or reducing the MIMO quantity; the receiving and transmitting unit is configured to send a feedback message to the access network device, where the feedback message includes the number of SCCs and the number of MIMO of the current component carrier of the terminal device.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a first configuration message sent by the access network device, where the first configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the target SCG in a cell where the terminal device is currently located; the processing unit is used for measuring the target SCG according to the first configuration message; the transceiver unit is configured to send a first report to an access network device, where the first report includes a result of the measurement of the target SCG.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is configured to receive a second configuration message sent by the access network device, where the second configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure SCC in a cell where the terminal device is currently located; the processing unit is used for measuring the SCC according to the second configuration message;

the transceiver unit is configured to send a second report to the access network device, where the second report includes a result of the measurement of the SCC.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in some implementations of the fourth aspect, the transceiver unit is configured to receive, after adding the SCC, a third configuration message sent by the access network device, where the third configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to configure the MIMO number under a cell where the terminal device is currently located; the processing unit is used for configuring the MIMO quantity according to the third configuration message; the transceiver unit is configured to send a third report to the access network device, where the third report includes the MIMO number configured by the terminal device in the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided an access network device, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and a memory, the memory being for storing instructions, the processor being for executing the memory-stored instructions, and the at least one processor being for performing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, when the processor executes the memory-stored instructions.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a terminal device, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and a memory, the memory being for storing instructions, the processor being for executing the memory-stored instructions, and the at least one processor being for performing the method of the second aspect above or any possible implementation of the second aspect when the processor executes the memory-stored instructions.

In a seventh aspect, an access network device is provided, the apparatus comprising at least one processor and interface circuitry, the at least one processor being configured to perform the method of the first aspect above or any possible implementation of the first aspect.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a terminal device comprising at least one processor and interface circuitry, the at least one processor being configured to perform the method of the second aspect above or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

A ninth aspect provides a computer program product comprising instructions which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or to perform the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program for performing the method of the first aspect or any of the possible implementations of the first aspect or performing the method of the second aspect or any of the possible implementations of the second aspect when the computer program is executed.

In an eleventh aspect, a chip is provided, comprising a processor and a communication interface, the processor being configured to invoke and execute instructions from the communication interface, the processor, when executing the instructions, implementing the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect, or the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

Optionally, the chip may further include a memory having instructions stored therein, the processor being configured to execute the instructions stored in the memory or derived from other instructions. The processor, when executed, is adapted to carry out the method of the first aspect or any possible implementation of the first aspect or the method of the second aspect or any possible implementation of the second aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, a communication system is provided, which includes an apparatus having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the first aspect, and an apparatus having functions for implementing the methods and the various possible designs of the second aspect.

Drawings

Fig. 1a is a schematic diagram showing an application scenario of the present application.

Fig. 1b is a schematic diagram showing an application scenario of the present application.

Fig. 2a is a schematic diagram of one application scenario in the ENDC architecture.

Fig. 2b is a schematic diagram of one application scenario under NEDC architecture.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a method of adding secondary cell groups of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a method of adding secondary cell groups of the present application.

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of measuring configuration parameters of GAPs.

Fig. 6 is a schematic flow chart of a method of adding secondary cell groups of the present application.

Fig. 7 is a schematic block diagram of adding SCG. .

Fig. 8 is a schematic flow chart of another method of adding secondary cell groups of the present application.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device of an embodiment of the present application.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided in the present application.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

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

The technical solution of the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: for example: global system for mobile communications (global system for mobile communications, GSM), code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA), wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA) systems, general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) systems, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division duplex, FDD) systems, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunication system, UMTS), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, wiMAX) communication systems, fifth generation (5th generation,5G) systems or new radio, NR), subsequent evolution communication systems, and the like.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may also be referred to as: a User Equipment (UE), a Mobile Station (MS), a Mobile Terminal (MT), 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, etc.

The terminal device may be a device providing voice/data connectivity to a user, e.g., a handheld device with wireless connectivity, an in-vehicle device, etc. Currently, some examples of terminals are: a mobile phone, tablet, laptop, palmtop, mobile internet device (mobile internet device, MID), wearable device, virtual Reality (VR) device, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) device, wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), wireless terminal in unmanned (self driving), wireless terminal in teleoperation (remote medical surgery), wireless terminal in smart grid (smart grid), wireless terminal in transportation security (transportation safety), wireless terminal in smart city (smart city), wireless terminal in smart home (smart home), cellular phone, cordless phone, session initiation protocol (session initiation protocol, SIP) phone, wireless local loop (wireless local loop, WLL) station, personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), handheld device with wireless communication function, public computing device or other processing device connected to wireless modem, vehicle-mounted device, wearable device, terminal device in 5G network or evolving land mobile terminal (public land mobile network), and the like, without limiting the examples of this.

As an example and not by way of limitation, in the embodiments of the present application, the wearable device may also be referred to as a wearable smart device, which is a generic term for applying wearable technology to intelligently design daily wear and develop wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, apparel, shoes, and the like. The wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the clothing or accessories of the user. The wearable device is not only a hardware device, but also can realize a powerful function through software support, data interaction and cloud interaction. The generalized wearable intelligent device includes full functionality, large size, and may not rely on the smart phone to implement complete or partial functionality, such as: smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and focus on only certain types of application functions, and need to be used in combination with other devices, such as smart phones, for example, various smart bracelets, smart jewelry, etc. for physical sign monitoring.

In addition, in the embodiment of the application, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an internet of things (internet of things, ioT) system, and the IoT is an important component of future information technology development, and the main technical characteristic of the terminal device is that the article is connected with a network through a communication technology, so that an intelligent network for man-machine interconnection and internet of things interconnection is realized.

While the various terminal devices described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g., placed in a vehicle or mounted in a vehicle), may be considered as in-vehicle terminal devices, for example, also referred to as in-vehicle units (OBUs).

In the embodiment of the application, the terminal device may further include a relay (relay). Or it is understood that all that is capable of data communication with a base station can be seen as a terminal device.

The access network device in the embodiments of the present application may be a device for communicating with a terminal device, where the access network device may also be referred to as an access device or a radio access network device, may be an evolved NodeB (eNB or eNodeB) in an LTE system, may also be a radio controller in a cloud radio access network (cloud radio access network, CRAN) scenario, or the access device may be a relay station, an access point, a vehicle device, a wearable device, an access device in a 5G network, or an access network device in a PLMN network that evolves in the future, may be an Access Point (AP) in a WLAN, and may be a gNB in a new radio system (NR) the embodiments of the present application are not limited.

In addition, in the embodiment of the present application, the access network device is a device in the RAN, or a RAN node that accesses the terminal device to the wireless network. For example, by way of illustration and not limitation, as access network devices, there may be cited: a gNB, a transmission and reception point (transmission reception point, TRP), an evolved Node B (eNB), a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a Node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (e.g., home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), a baseband unit (BBU), or a wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, wifi) Access Point (AP), etc. In one network architecture, the access network device may include a Centralized Unit (CU) node, or a Distributed Unit (DU) node, or a RAN device including a CU node and a DU node, or a RAN device including a control plane CU node (CU-CP node) and a user plane CU node (CU-UP node), and a DU node.

The access network device provides service for a cell, and the terminal device communicates with the access network device through transmission resources (e.g., frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources) used by the cell, where the cell may be a cell corresponding to the access network device (e.g., a base station), and the cell may belong to a macro base station or a base station corresponding to a small cell (small cell), where the small cell may include: urban cells (metro cells), micro cells (micro cells), pico cells (pico cells), femto cells (femto cells) and the like, and the small cells have the characteristics of small coverage area and low transmitting power and are suitable for providing high-rate data transmission services.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an application scenario 100 of the present application. In fig. 1a an access network device 110 and a terminal device 120 are included. The access network device 110 operates in an evolved universal mobile telecommunications system terrestrial radio access (evolved UMTS terrestrial radio access, E-UTRA) system, or in an NR system, or in a next generation communication system or other communication system, for example, and the access network device 110 and the terminal device 120 can communicate via a Uu interface. In the embodiment of the present application, one access network device may serve multiple terminal devices, and fig. 1a only exemplifies one of the terminal devices.

The access network device in fig. 1a is for example a base station. The access network device corresponds to different devices in different systems, for example, may correspond to an eNB in a 4G system, and corresponds to an access network device in 5G in a 5G system, for example, a gNB. The technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the application can also be applied to a future mobile communication system, so that the access network device in fig. 1a can also correspond to the access network device in the future mobile communication system. In fig. 1a, the access network device is taken as an example of a base station, and in fact, referring to the foregoing description, the access network device may also be an RSU or the like.

It should be understood that more network nodes may be included in the communication system shown in fig. 1a, such as other terminal devices or access network devices, and that the access network devices or terminal devices included in the communication system shown in fig. 1a may be access network devices or terminal devices of the various forms described above. Embodiments of the present application are not shown in the figures one by one.

In the moving process, the coverage area of one cell can be transferred to that of another cell, and the terminal device can perform cell Reselection (Reselection) or cell Handover (Handover), so as to obtain continuous service of the wireless network, as shown in fig. 1 b. Depending on the RRC connection state between the terminal device and the access network device, the terminal device may be: RRC connected state (connected state), RRC idle state (idle state), and inactive state (inactive state).

Herein, "connected state" and "RRC connected state" are the same concept, and the two designations may be interchanged): the terminal device establishes an RRC connection with the network, and can perform data transmission.

Herein, "idle state" and "RRC idle state", are the same concept, and the two designations are interchangeable): the terminal device does not establish an RRC connection with the network and the base station does not store the context of the terminal device. If the terminal device needs to enter the RRC connected state from the idle state, an RRC connection establishment procedure needs to be initiated.

The deactivation is dynamic, the terminal device has previously entered the RRC connected state, and then the base station releases the RRC connection, but the base station maintains the context of the terminal device. If the terminal device needs to re-enter the RRC connected state from the deactivated state, an RRC connection recovery procedure (alternatively referred to as an RRC connection re-establishment procedure) needs to be initiated. Compared with the RRC establishment process, the RRC recovery process has shorter time delay and smaller signaling overhead. However, the base station needs to save the context of the terminal device, which occupies the storage overhead of the base station.

Cell Reselection (Reselection) is mainly implemented by the terminal equipment itself, which determines whether it is within the coverage of a cell by radio resource management (Radio Resource Management, RRM) measurement, and receives reference signals from a plurality of cell base stations, calculates the power of the signals, and compares and selects them. After a certain trigger condition and access criterion are met, the terminal device completes cell reselection. In the rrc_idle state and the rrc_inactive state, there is no RRC link between the terminal device and the access network device. When the signal quality of the service cell where the terminal resides is lower than a certain threshold, the terminal equipment measures the signal quality of the service cell and the adjacent cell according to the common-frequency, different-frequency and/or different-system adjacent cell information configured in the system message by the access network equipment, and judges whether the signal quality meets the reselection condition. And if so, reselecting to the neighbor cell, and residing in the neighbor cell.

Cell Handover (Handover) requires the access network device to configure the terminal device with a series of RRM measurement configurations, based on feedback from the terminal device. The RRM measurement results meet certain conditions and will trigger a measurement report. After receiving the measurement report of the terminal device, the network device may send a handover command to the terminal device, indicating that the terminal device is to be handed over from one cell to another cell. In the rrc_connected state, an RRC connection exists between the terminal device and the access network device, and the access network device configures the terminal to perform co-frequency, inter-frequency and/or inter-system neighbor cell measurement through RRC signaling. And the terminal equipment reports the measurement results of the serving cell and the neighbor cells to the access network equipment through RRC signaling, and the access network equipment switches the terminal to a cell with better signal quality according to the measurement results.

The present application relates to dual connectivity (Dual Connectivity, DC) technology, and a brief description of DC follows. The dual connectivity consists of two cell groups: a primary cell group MCG and a secondary cell group SCG. Wherein the MCG comprises one PCell or additionally one or more scells, the SCG comprises one primary Secondary Cell (Primary Secondary Cell, PSCell) or additionally one or more Secondary cells (scells). The base station managing the MCG is called a Master eNB (MeNB), and the base station managing the SCG is called a Secondary eNB (SeNB). The control plane bearer of the UE in dual connectivity mode only has connectivity between the MeNB and the core network element. Each eNodeB is capable of independently managing radio resources in the UE and the respective cell. The resource coordination work between the MeNB and the SeNB is transferred via signaling messages over the X2 interface.

In dual connectivity, the data plane radio bearer may be served by the MeNB or the SeNB independently, or may be served by both the MeNB and the SeNB. The case of being served by the MeNB only is called an MCG bearer (MCG: group of serving cells controlled by the MeNB), the case of being served by the SeNB only is called an SCG bearer, and the case of being served by the MeNB and the SeNB are called a split bearer.

In the independent bearer mode, the same data bearer (uplink and downlink) is allocated to the MeNB or SeNB under the control of the core network. After the core network is divided, the data flow is independently transmitted through the MeNB and the senB, and the senB plays a role in load sharing. Under the separated bearing mode, all downlink data flows are firstly transmitted to the MeNB, then the MeNB is used for dividing according to a certain algorithm and proportion, the X2 interface is used for transmitting part of data to the SeNB, and finally the data are simultaneously transmitted to the UE on the MeNB and the SeNB.

Deployment of 5G networks is a progressive process. The 5G hot spot can be deployed on the basis of the existing LTE network in early stage, namely, the 5G wireless system is connected into the existing LTE core network through a Non-independent Networking (NSA) network architecture, so that quick deployment and scheme verification of the 5G system are realized. After the 5G core network is built, the 5G system can implement independent networking, in which case, although the 5G can provide higher-speed data service and higher service quality, in some areas of insufficient coverage, better coverage can be still provided by means of the LTE system.

The NSA networking comprises an E-UTRA NR dual connectivity (E-UTRA NR Dual Connectivity, ENDC) architecture, an NR E-UTRA dual connectivity (NR E-UTRA Dual Connectivity, NEDC) architecture and an E-UTRA NR dual connectivity (Next Generation E-UTRA NR Dual Connectivity, NGENDC) architecture under a 5g core network. The ENDC architecture uses eNB as a main base station, and all control plane signaling is forwarded through the eNB. LTE enbs and NR gnbs provide high data rate services for users in the form of dual connectivity to increase the throughput of the system's capacity. Fig. 2a shows a schematic diagram of one of application scenarios in an ENDC architecture, where all control plane signaling is forwarded via an eNB, and the eNB shunts data to the gNB.

The NEDC architecture uses a gNB as a main base station, and the LTE eNB and the NR gNB provide high data rate services for users in a dual connection mode. Fig. 2b is a schematic diagram of one application scenario in NEDC architecture, where all control plane signaling is forwarded via the gNB, which shunts data to the eNB.

All control plane signaling in the NGENDC architecture is forwarded via the eNB, with LTE enbs and NR gnbs providing high data rate services to users in the form of dual connectivity.

Several possible LTE/5G dual connectivity modes are defined in 3GPP Release: 3/3a/3x,4/4a and 7/7a/7x. The dual connectivity mode is described here by way of example only and without any limitation on the structure of the dual connectivity, other modes being possible for the dual connectivity.

In the prior art, when the terminal equipment is in a connection state or a deactivation state, SCG can be added according to the configuration of the access network equipment, or component carriers can be added and MIMO capacity can be optimized. The access network device randomly initiates the addition of SCG or SCC to the terminal device and optimizes MIMO capabilities. When the access network device adds SCG to the terminal device, the terminal device does not support dual connection under the current carrier aggregation (Carrier Aggregation, CA) combination or MIMO capability, if the SCG needs to be added continuously, the CA or MIMO must be retracted, so that not only is the retraction redundancy caused, but also the loss of the transmission rate and the performance is caused, and the use experience of a user is reduced.

In view of this, the present application proposes a method of adding secondary cell groups, in which an access network device determines, from among alternative secondary cell groups, a cell group to be added that supports dual connectivity DC with a cell in which a terminal device is currently located, the cell group to be added including at least one cell; and in the cell group to be added, when the cell dual-connection with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located is determined, the cell which supports carrier aggregation CA and/or supports Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) capability of the terminal equipment is a target secondary cell SCG. Thus, the access network device ensures that the terminal device supports dual connectivity capabilities when adding SCGs, can use noGAP measurements, and does not cause fallback redundancy.

A method for adding a secondary cell group provided in the present application is described in detail below with reference to fig. 3, and fig. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a method 200 for adding a secondary cell group according to an embodiment of the present application, where the method 200 may be applied to the scenario shown in fig. 1, and of course, may also be applied to other communication scenarios, and embodiments of the present application are not limited herein.

It should also be understood that in the embodiments of the present application, the method is described taking the terminal device and the access network device as the execution bodies of the execution method. By way of example, and not limitation, the execution subject of the execution method may also be a chip, a chip system, or a processor or the like applied to the terminal device and the access network device.

As shown in fig. 3, the method 200 shown in fig. 3 may include S201 to S210. The various steps in method 200 are described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 3.

S201, the access network equipment initially selects the added SCG cell.

S202, the access network equipment determines whether the cell in which the newly added SCG and the current terminal equipment work meets DC combination.

S203, if the cell of the newly selected added SCG and the cell of the current terminal equipment do not meet the DC combination, the adjustment is carried out, and the added SCG cell is reselected.

S204, if the cell of the initially selected added SCG and the cell working with the current terminal equipment meet the DC combination, the access network equipment selects to add the component carrier SCC under the current combination.

S205, the access network equipment determines whether the added SCC and the cell working by the current terminal equipment meet the CA combination or not under the current combination.

S206, if the added SCC and the cell working with the current terminal equipment meet the CA combination, the access network equipment improves the MIMO capability under the current combination.

S207, if the added SCC and the cell working with the current terminal equipment do not meet the CA combination, the access network equipment adjusts and reselects the added SCC.

S208, the access network device determines whether the enhanced MIMO capability is satisfied under the current combination.

S209, if the enhanced MIMO capability is satisfied under the current combination, the access network device adds the primary SCG.

S210, if the increased MIMO capability is not satisfied under the current combination, the access network device adjusts and reconfigures the MIMO capability.

In general, the terminal device supports most DC combinations with low MIMO capability and non-CA, in this application, the access network device preferentially performs SCG addition on the terminal device, and the access network device determines, from the candidate secondary cell groups, a cell group to be added that supports dual-connectivity DC with a cell where the terminal device is currently located, and determines, in the cell group to be added, that, when the cell group to be added is dual-connectivity with the cell where the terminal device is currently located, the cell where the terminal device supports carrier aggregation CA and/or supports multiple-input multiple-output MIMO capability as the added SCG. Therefore, the access network equipment ensures that the terminal equipment has the capability of supporting double connection when adding SCG, can use noGAP measurement, and preferentially performs SCG addition before SCC addition and MIMO capability configuration of the access network equipment, so as to ensure that the terminal equipment smoothly performs SCG addition and avoid CA and MIMO capability rollback caused by incapability of performing SCG addition.

In step S201, the access network device initially selects an added SCG cell from the candidate secondary cell group, and may select one SCG cell or may select multiple SCG cells. For example, the terminal device currently accesses to the cell 1, the access network device may learn that the alternative secondary cell is the cell 2, the cell 3 and the cell 4, the access network device may initially select the cell 2 as an added SCG cell, and then go to the judgment of step S202, and the access network device may also initially select the cell 2, the cell 3 and the cell 4 as added SCG cells, and then, with respect to the cell 2, the cell 3 and the cell 4, go to the judgment of step S202.

In step S204, if the cell in which the primary added SCG cell and the current terminal device operate meets the DC combination, the access network device selects to add the component carrier SCC under the connection combination of the primary added SCG cell and the cell in which the current terminal device operates. For example, in step S202, after the access network device determines that the cell 2, the cell 3 and the cell 4 can be doubly connected to the cell 1, in step S204, the access network device may add the component carrier SCC to the terminal device when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are doubly connected; the access network equipment can add a component carrier SCC to the terminal equipment when the cell 1 and the cell 3 are connected in double; the access network device may add the component carrier SCC to the terminal device when cell 1 and cell 4 are dual connected.

It should be understood that in step S204, under the connection combination of the initially added SCG cell and the cell where the current terminal device is operating, the access network device may choose to add multiple component carriers SCC, e.g. the access network device may add component carriers SCC1, SCC2 and SCC3 to the terminal device when cell 1 and cell 2 are dual connected.

In step S205, the access network device determines whether the added SCC and the cell in which the current terminal device operates satisfy the CA combination under the current combination. For example, the access network device judges whether the component carrier SCC added by the terminal device and the cell in which the current terminal device works meet the CA combination when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are connected in double; the access network equipment judges whether a component carrier SCC added to the terminal equipment and a cell working by the current terminal equipment meet CA combination or not when the cell 1 and the cell 3 are connected in double; and the access network equipment judges whether the component carrier SCC added to the terminal equipment and the cell working by the current terminal equipment meet CA combination or not when the cell 1 and the cell 4 are in double connection.

It should be understood that if in step S204 the access network device selects to add a plurality of component carrier SCCs to the current terminal device if the connection combination of the added SCG cell and the cell in which the current terminal device is operating is initially selected, in step S205 it is determined whether the current terminal device adds a plurality of component carrier SCCs and the cell in which the current terminal device is operating meet the CA combination, respectively.

In step S206, the access network device determines that MIMO capability is improved under the current combination. Before step S206, the access network device has selected that the added SCG cell and the cell where the current terminal device works meet DC combination, and when the SCG cell is added, the cell where the current terminal device works may also add component carrier SCC, where the access network device may improve MIMO capability of the terminal device. For example, the access network device may add component carriers SCC1 to the terminal device when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are dual connected, the SCC1 may work with a cell CA of the current terminal device, and the access network device may in this case increase the MIMO capability, e.g. set the MIMO capability to 4.

In step S208, the access network device determines whether the enhanced MIMO capability satisfies the DC combination in the case where the added SCG cell and the cell in which the current terminal device is operating satisfy this combination, and in the case where the SCG cell is added, the component carrier SCC is also added by the cell in which the current terminal device is operating. For example, when the access network device is connected in both cell 1 and cell 2, component carrier SCC1 may be added to the terminal device, where SCC1 may be used with cell CA of the current terminal device, when the access network device sets MIMO capability to 4 and MIMO capability of the terminal device is 4, whether the current access network device may be connected in cell 1 and cell 2, and component carrier SCC1 may be added to the terminal device.

In step S209, the access network device determines that the current combination satisfies the enhanced MIMO capability, and the access network device may add the initially selected SCG cell to the terminal device at this time. The access network device may send a measurement configuration message to the terminal device, where the measurement configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the initially selected SCG cell under the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

It should be understood that in step S201, the access network device initially selects an added SCG cell from the alternative secondary cell group, and may select one SCG cell, or may select multiple SCG cells. When selecting an SCG cell, the access network device performs the judgment of step S202, step S205 and step S208, and if the current SCG cell does not meet any of the above judgment conditions, the access network device needs to reselect an SCG cell, and performs the judgment. When the plurality of SCG cells are selected, the access network device performs the judgment in step S202, step S205, and step S209, if any one of the plurality of SCG cells does not satisfy any judgment condition, the SCG cell that does not satisfy the judgment condition may be discarded, and the SCG cell that satisfies the judgment condition may be reserved. For example, in the current access cell 1 of the terminal device, the access network device may learn that the alternative secondary cell is cell 2, cell 3, cell 4 and cell 5, and the access network device initially selects cell 2, cell 3, cell 4 and cell 5 as added SCG cells to perform subsequent judgment. In step S202, the access network device determines that the cell 1 and the cell 2 can be connected in dual mode, the cell 1 and the cell 3 can be connected in dual mode, the cell 1 and the cell 4 can be connected in dual mode, and the cell 1 and the cell 5 cannot be connected in dual mode. The access network device discards cell 5 and makes a judgment when cell 2, cell 3 and cell 4 are connected to cell 1 respectively; in step S205, when cell 1 and cell 2 are doubly connected, cell 1 adds SCC1 and SCC2, where SCC1 and SCC2 can be CA with the cell in which the current terminal device is operating, when cell 1 and cell 3 are doubly connected, cell 1 adds SCC1, SCC1 can be CA with the cell in which the current terminal device is operating, when cell 1 and cell 4 are doubly connected, cell 1 adds SCC1, and cell in which SCC1 and the current terminal device are operating can not be CA, in which case the access network device discards cell 4, and cell 2 can be preferentially selected among cell 2 and cell 3 because cell 2 is more CA combinations supported when cell 1 is connected with cell 1. In step S208, when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are doubly connected, the access network device promotes the MIMO capability to 4, when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are doubly connected, and when the cell 1 adds the SCC1 and the SCC2, the current terminal device may support the MIMO capability to 4, and at this time, the access network device may add the cell 1 to the terminal device as an SCG.

In step S201, the access network device initially selects that the added SCG cell is a plurality of SCG cells from the candidate secondary cell group, and when the access network device performs the judgment in step S202, step S205 and step S208, a threshold may be preset, and in step S205, the access network device determines whether the number of CA combinations is greater than a first threshold when the added SCC and the cell in which the current terminal device works in the current combination. If the first threshold is 2, when the terminal device is currently connected to the cell 1, the access network device judges that the cell 1 and the cell 2 can be connected in double, the cell 1 and the cell 3 can be connected in double, when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are connected in double, the cell 1 is added with the SCC1 and the SCC2, wherein the SCC1 and the SCC2 can be connected with the cell working with the current terminal device in CA, the CA number is 3, when the cell 1 and the cell 3 are connected in double, the cell 1 is added with the SCC1, the SCC1 and the cell working with the current terminal device can be connected in CA, the CA number is 2, when the cell 1 and the cell 4 are connected in double, the SCC1, the SCC2 and the SCC3 are added in double, the CA number is 4 when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are connected in double, the CA number is greater than the first threshold 2, the cell 1 and the cell 2 are selected as the cell to be added, and the judgment is continued.

In step S208, the access network device determines whether the number of MIMO supported by the terminal device under the current combination is greater than or equal to a second threshold. If the second threshold is 4, the CA number is 3 when the terminal equipment is currently accessed to the cell 1 and the cell 2 are connected in double, and the number of MIMO supportable by the terminal equipment is 2; the CA number is 4 when the cell 1 and the cell 4 are in double connection, the number of MIMO which can be supported by the terminal equipment is 4, and the number of MIMO which can be supported by the terminal equipment is 4 when the cell 1 and the cell 4 are in double connection, and meets the preset condition of the second threshold, so that the cell 4 is selected as the target SCG for adding.

It should be understood that in step S208, a situation may occur in which multiple cells are doubly connected to cell 1 and may be connected to multiple component carriers CA under cell 1, at which time the access network device may select a cell with high supported MIMO capability as the added SCG. For example, in the case of dual connection of cell 1 and cell 2, cell 1 may be connected to SCC1 and SCC2CA, where the MIMO capability supported by the terminal device is 4; when the cell 1 and the cell 3 are connected in double, the cell 1 can be connected with the SCC2 and the SCC2CA, at this time, the MIMO capability supported by the terminal equipment is 2, and the access network equipment selects the combination with high MIMO capability as the SCG to be added, namely, the access network equipment selects the cell 2 as the SCG to be added.

It should also be understood that, when the access network device may have multiple cells connected to cell 1 in dual, and may be in the case of multiple component carriers CA in cell 1, and the terminal device may be in the case of multiple component carriers CA in cell 1 in conformity with the number of MIMO supported, then the access network device may arbitrarily determine that one cell is added for the target SCG. If, when the terminal equipment is currently accessed to the cell 1, the CA number is 4 when the cell 1 and the cell 2 are in dual connection, and the supportable MIMO number of the terminal equipment is 4; the CA number is 4 when the cell 1 and the cell 4 are connected in double, the number of MIMO which can be supported by the terminal equipment is 4, and the access network equipment can select the cell 2 or the cell 4 as a target SCG for adding.

The method mainly describes how the access network equipment selects the added target SCG, after the access network equipment determines the target SCG, the access network equipment sends a first configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the newly selected SCG cell under the current cell, and the first configuration message can be sent through RRC signaling. Specific flow chart as shown in fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic flow chart of a method 300 for adding a secondary cell group according to the present application, where the method 300 may be applied to the scenario shown in fig. 1, and of course, may also be applied to other communication scenarios, and embodiments of the present application are not limited herein.

As shown in fig. 4, the method 300 shown in fig. 4 may include S310 to S330. The various steps in method 300 are described in detail below in conjunction with FIG. 4.

S310, the access network equipment determines a cell group to be added supporting dual-connection DC with a cell where the terminal equipment is currently located from the alternative auxiliary cell group, wherein the cell group to be added comprises at least one cell;

s320, in a cell group to be added, when the access network equipment determines that the cell is in double connection with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located, the terminal equipment supports carrier aggregation CA and/or a cell supporting Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) capability is a target secondary cell group SCG;

s330, the access network device sends a first configuration message to the terminal device, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal device to measure the target SCG under the current cell.

After receiving the first configuration message, the terminal device may measure a parameter of the SCG to be added, which may be a signal power of the SCG to be added, using a noGAP measurement.

The noGAP measurement referred to in this application is a way for a terminal device to measure on different frequencies or different system cells. Under the communication scene of cell reselection, cell switching, adding auxiliary cell groups, adding component carriers and the like, the terminal equipment needs to measure different frequencies or different system cells. Common measurement methods include those requiring GAPs or those not requiring GAPs.

For inter-frequency/inter-system measurements in RRC idle state or inactive state, since the terminal device is in idle state most of the time, it is not necessary to send and receive data on the serving cell, these idle times can be used for inter-frequency/inter-system measurements, and therefore measurement GAPs are not to be configured.

For inter-frequency/inter-system measurements of RRC connected state, measurements requiring GAPs or measurements not requiring GAPs may be employed depending on the capabilities of the terminal device. If the terminal equipment is provided with a plurality of radio frequency paths, the terminal equipment can support to simultaneously receive signals on different frequencies/different systems of adjacent cells when receiving and transmitting signals on a service cell, and the terminal equipment supports a measurement mode without GAP; otherwise, the measurement mode requiring GAP is needed, the signal receiving and transmitting on the serving cell is stopped in the GAP, the radio frequency channel is adjusted to the different frequency/different system frequency point, and the different frequency/different system neighbor cell signal is received. GAP measurements can affect the communication of the terminal device with the current serving cell.

The measuring GAP is configured by the access network device, and the access network device in the GAP does not schedule the downlink receiving and uplink sending of the terminal on the service cell, so that uplink and downlink error codes are not caused in the GAP. The configuration of the measurement GAP is shown in fig. 5, and fig. 5 is configuration parameters of the measurement GAP, and the measurement GAP mainly comprises 3 parameters: MGRP (Measurement Gap Repetition Period, measurement slot repetition period) configures measurement GAP period; MGL (Measurement Gap Length, measuring slot length) configuration measures the length of GAP; the gapOffset configuration measures the start position of the gap. From these 3 parameters, it can be determined that the measurement GAP starts on SFN (System Frame Number ) and subframe (subframe) satisfying the following conditions:

SFN mod T＝FLOOR(gapOffset/10)；

subframe＝gapOffset mod 10；

T＝MGRP/10；

The above SFN and subframe are SFN and subframe of PCell (Primary Cell). The MGL is 6ms maximum.

GAP configurations include period, offset, and length. Once configured by RRC messages, GAPs periodically appear at fixed offset positions until reconfigured by RRC messages.

The NR protocol requires that for LTE and NR belonging to the same FR (frequency Range) frequency band, when LTE measures NR, EN-DC measures LTE abnormal frequency, EN-DC measures NR abnormal frequency, independent networking (SA) measures NR abnormal frequency, SA measures LTE abnormal system, etc., measurement GAP assistance needs to be configured to perform measurement.

And under the same FR, all frequency points of the NR measurement GAP are uniformly configured. For the situation that the independent configuration of the GAPs of the FR1 and the FR2 is not supported, the unified GAPs of the UE level are required to be configured during measurement; for supporting independent configuration of GAP for FR1 and FR2, one measurement GAP is independently configured for all frequency bands of FR1 or all frequency bands of FR2, which is the same as GAP configuration on FR.

The parameters in the NR GAP configuration message are specifically defined as follows:

gapFR1: the measurement GAP configuration applicable only to FR1 is indicated. In EN-DC, gapFR1 cannot be set by NR RRC (only RRC of LTE can configure FR1 gap). gapFR1 cannot be configured with gapUE. See TS 38.133 table 9.1.2-2 for specific configurations.

gapFR2: the measurement GAP configuration applicable only to FR2 is indicated. gapFR2 cannot be configured with gapUE. See TS38.133 for specific configurations, table 9.1.2-1 and Table 9.1.2-2.

gapUE: the measurement GAP configuration for all frequencies (FR 1 and FR 2) is indicated. In the case of EN-DC, gapUE cannot be set by NR RRC (i.e. only LTE RRC can configure GAP for each UE). If gapFR 1 and gapFR2 are not configurable, then gapFR 1 and gapFR2 are both configured. See TS38.133 table 9.1.2-2 for specific configurations.

gapOffset: gapOffset is the GAP offset indicated in the mgrp field. The value should range from 0 to mgrp-1.

Mgl: measurement gap length, in ms. See TS38.133 for specific configurations, table 9.1.2-1 and Table 9.1.2-2.

Mgrp: measurement gap repetition period, in ms. See TS38.133 for specific configurations, table 9.1.2-1&9.1.2-2.Mgta: measurement gap timing advance, in ms. If the UE configures this parameter, then the UE initiates the measurement mgta ms earlier than the sub-frame of the GAP. The use of this parameter is described in section 9.1.2 of TS 38.133.

The measurement of the NR neighbor cell can be based on the synchronization signal block (Synchronization Signal Block, SSB), but due to the special nature of SSB signal design, if the measurement is performed in a manner requiring a gap (inter-frequency/inter-system measurement in RRC_CONNECTED state), the base station needs to configure an accurate gap position to include SSB of the neighbor cell.

Accurate gap position is needed to be measured, the time domain position of the gap is needed to be measured, the timing of the PCell is referred, the time domain position of the neighbor SSB is sent according to the neighbor timing, in order to configure the accurate gap position, the base station needs to know the timing deviation between the PCell and the NR neighbor, and therefore the SFN and the subframe number of the SSB of the NR neighbor correspond to the SFN and the subframe number of the PCell. This can be achieved by obtaining two cell timing offsets by terminal system frame number and frame timing offset (SFN and frame timing difference, SFTD) measurements and reporting to the base station. The SFTD measurements include deviations of the SFN and timing deviations of the frame boundaries. SFTD measurements between LTE PCell and NR PScell under EUTRA-NR dual connectivity (EUTRA-NR Dual Connectivity, EN-DC), NR-EUTRA dual connectivity (NR-EUTRA Dual Connectivity, NE-DC), NR PCell and NR PScell under NR dual connectivity (NR Dual Connectivity, NR-DC), and LTE PCell and NR neighbor under non-dual connectivity DC are currently supported on the protocol.

During SFTD measurement, the terminal needs to receive signals of another measured cell outside the PCell to acquire timing information of the cell. Under DC, since the terminal can support simultaneous operation on the PCell and the PSCell and knows timing information of the PCell and the PSCell at any moment, SFTD measurement has no difficulty; SFTD measurement between LTE PCell and NR neighbor cell under non-DC, if the radio frequency path of the terminal does not support receiving signal on NR neighbor cell while receiving signal on PCell, then SFTD measurement has certain difficulty, and the present protocol supports the following two modes: SFTD measurements of gap and SFTD measurements of connected discontinuous reception (CONNECTED Discontinuous Reception, CDRX) inactive periods are required.

And the terminal equipment firstly detects the synchronous signals of other cells in the GAP measurement, synchronizes the synchronous signals of other cells with the synchronous signals of other cells, and then carries out related measurement on the reference signals sent by other cells so as to finish the measurement of other cells. The measurement of the interruption of the reception and transmission of the original service area data in the GAP can have a large impact on throughput.

At present, an LTE terminal can support CA combination of a plurality of different frequency bands, has a plurality of receiving paths, and has the capability of directly measuring different frequencies/different systems without configuring GAP. Therefore, the data transmission of the original service area is not interrupted, and the service of the original service area of the terminal is not influenced.

However, the LTE has many supported frequency bands and CA combinations, and the different frequency/different system frequency bands to be measured are also many, and based on cost consideration, the terminal generally can only support a limited number of frequency band combinations, and cannot support that GAP is not required to be measured under all frequency band combinations to measure the different frequency/different system.

The current protocol specifies which measurement band combinations need to measure GAPs and which measurement band combinations do not need to measure GAPs, which can be reported in capability messages by the LTE through the interffreqneedledforgaps/inter rat-needledforgaps cells.

interFreqNeedForGaps：

Indicates need for measurement gaps when operating on the E-UTRA band given by the entry in bandListEUTRA or on the E-UTRA band combination given by the entry in bandCombinationListEUTRA and measuring on the E-UTRA band given by the entry in interFreqBandList.

The measurement gap is required to run on the E-UTRA band given by the entry in the bandLittEUTRA or on the E-UTRA band combination given by the entry in bandCombinationList E-UTRA and to make measurements on the E-UTRA band given by the entry in the InterFreqBandList.

interRAT-NeedForGaps：

Indicates need for DL measurement gaps when operating on the E-UTRA band given by the entry in bandListEUTRA or on the E-UTRA band combination given by the entry in bandCombinationListEUTRA and measuring on the inter-RAT band given by the entry in the interRAT-BandList.

The downlink measurement gap is required when running on the E-UTRA band given by the entry in the bandListEUTRA, or on the E-UTRA combined band given by the entry in bandCombinationList E-UTRA, and when making measurements on the inter-RAT band given by the entry in the inter-RAT-BandList.

Service area band is indicated by either bandlistutra (single band supported) or bandcombinedsliteutra (CA supported); the target measurement alien band is indicated by the interFreqBandList, and the target measurement alien band is indicated by the interRAT-BandList. By indicating the service area band/CA combination by 1 bit False or True, whether measuring GAP is needed for inter-frequency band or inter-frequency band, true is needed, false is not needed.

As shown in table 1 below, the access network device decides whether to configure GAPs at the time of measurement according to the capabilities of the terminal device.

Table 1 capability of terminal device reporting if GAP measurement is required

The prior art reports the information with measurement capability, has more information bits, large information quantity, difficult reporting and easy failure. Assuming that N is the number of frequency bands supported by the terminal, M is the number of frequency bands of the supported heterogeneous system, and L is the number of supported LTE CA combinations, the number of information bits to be reported is (n+l) × (n+m). At present, the UE can support 500 CA combinations, 20 different frequency Band measurements and 10 different system measurements, the message quantity required to be reported is 15,600 bits, the message quantity is large, errors are easy to occur, and reporting is difficult.

The measurement noGAP capability reporting of 5G NR is not supported in the current reporting message. The 5G NR supports more frequency bands, and supports more frequency band combinations of EN-DC/NE-DC, NR CA and the like. The NR different frequency and LTE different system are required to be measured, the 23G different system is also required to be measured under NSA, and the different frequency and different system required to be measured are more. The 5G NR allocation measurement GAP measurement pilot frequency and the pilot system can also have a larger influence on the throughput of LTE & NR under NSA/SA. NR also needs to report whether each measurement band combination needs to be measured by measuring GAP.

The supported frequency band combination of NR and the frequency band combination required to be measured are more than those of LTE, the UE is more difficult to support the different frequency and different system without GAP measurement under all frequency band combinations, and the capability of whether the GAP measurement is required to be configured or not is required to report similar LTE frequency division. NR adds more frequency bands, CA, EN-DC, NE-DC and other combinations compared with LTE, if the message is reported continuously by using the measurement capability of LTE, the message quantity is more huge, and the reporting is more difficult.

Therefore, under the application, the access network device selects the auxiliary cell supporting the DC with the current cell of the terminal device to add, in this case, after receiving the measurement configuration message, the terminal device can use the noGAP measurement to measure the parameters of the SCG to be added, and does not need to use GAP measurement, so that the terminal device does not need to report the measurement capability, the communication resource is saved, and the normal communication data between the terminal device and the current cell is not influenced.

In step S210, the access network device determines to add the primary selected SCG. At this time, the access network device sends a first configuration message to the terminal device, where the first configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the initially selected SCG in the cell where the terminal device is currently located. The form of the first configuration message may be as follows:

wherein the target Object at the first configuration message indicates that the first configuration message is a measurement configuration message that adds SCG.

It should be understood that the first configuration message is only used as an example, and the present application does not limit the specific form of the first configuration message.

The terminal device sends a first report to the access network device through the noGAP measurement, wherein the first report comprises the result of measuring the secondary cell SCG. The first report may be in the form of:

wherein the measID at the first report indicates that the first report is a first report to which SCG is added.

It should be understood that the first report is merely an example, and the present application does not set any limitation on the specific form of the first report.

Optionally, in the method 200, steps S211 to S221 of adding SCC and optimizing MIMO may be further included. As shown in particular in fig. 6. Fig. 6 shows a method of adding SCG. Wherein S201 to S210 may refer to the description of fig. 3, and are not described herein. Steps S211 to S221 are described below.

S211, the access network equipment sends a first configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure the target SCG under the current cell.

S212, the terminal equipment receives the first configuration message and adopts the NOGAP to measure the signal power of the target SCG.

S213, the terminal equipment sends a first report to the access network equipment, wherein the first report comprises a result of measuring the target SCG.

S214, the access network equipment receives the first report, and determines to add SCG according to the first report.

S215, the access network device sends a second configuration message to the terminal device, wherein the second configuration message is used for indicating the terminal device to measure the component carrier SCC under the current cell.

S216, the terminal equipment receives the second configuration message and measures the signal power of the component carrier SCC.

S217, the terminal equipment sends a second report to the access network equipment, wherein the second report comprises a result of measuring the SCC.

S218, the access network equipment receives the second report, and determines to add the SCC according to the second report.

S219, the access network device sends a third configuration message to the terminal device, where the third configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to optimize the MIMO capability under the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

S220, the terminal equipment receives the third configuration message and optimizes the MIMO capability.

S221, the terminal equipment sends a third report to the access network equipment, wherein the third report comprises the result of optimizing MIMO by the terminal equipment.

In the application, the access network equipment ensures that the terminal equipment performs SCC addition and MIMO capability configuration after SCG addition, ensures that the terminal equipment performs SCG addition smoothly, and does not cause CA and MIMO capability rollback due to incapability of SCG addition.

Among them, the component carrier SCC may also be referred to as secondary carrier (sencondary carrier component, SCC). The carriers of the terminal equipment in the same cell can be divided into a main carrier (primary carrier component, PCC) and SCC, wherein a main cell Pcell is a cell for establishing initial connection of the terminal equipment and generally corresponds to the PCC, a secondary cell Scell provides additional frequency band resources through the cell added by RRC reconfiguration and generally corresponds to the SCC; the PCC is always active, while the SCC may be activated or deactivated by signaling (RRC connection reconfiguration); the terminal device configured with CA is connected to 1 Pcell and at most 4 scells at the same time.

It should be appreciated that, in step S215, the access network device receives the second report, and if the signal in the second report indicating that the added SCC is not detected, the access network device may resend a second configuration message to the terminal device, where the second configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the SCC of another component carrier under the cell in which the terminal device is currently located.

The second configuration message, the third configuration message, the second report, and the first configuration message and the first report to which specific forms of the third report may refer are not described herein.

It should be understood that the access network device preferentially performs SCG addition on the terminal device, and then performs SCC addition and MIMO capability configuration, so that from the flow of interaction between the access network device and the terminal device, the first configuration message, the second configuration message, and the third configuration message, and the first report, the second report, and the third report have a front-to-back order.

It should also be understood that the access network device ensures that the terminal device can perform SCC addition first and MIMO capability configuration later after adding SCG, or can perform MIMO capability configuration first and SCC addition later.

In the method 200, when the access network device performs SCG addition, SCC addition and MIMO capability configuration, the access network device should perform addition by selecting a cell with an intersection of a CA combination and MIMO capability according to the preference DC combination. Specifically, under the condition that the DC combination is satisfied, a combination which simultaneously satisfies more CA combinations and has stronger MIMO capability is selected, SCG addition is performed first, and then SCC addition and MIMO capability configuration are performed. As shown in fig. 7, fig. 7 shows a schematic block diagram of adding SCG. In fig. 7, the SCG area that can be added as a preliminary choice is an outer rectangular area, the rectangle included in the outer rectangular area is a cell supporting DC combining, the circular area representing supporting CA combining and the circular area representing supporting higher MIMO capability are included in the inner rectangular area, and the access network device selects the portion where the circular area supporting CA combining and the circular area representing supporting higher MIMO capability intersect as the SCG to be added in the inner rectangular area.

In the existing access network device adding mechanism, SCG adding and SCC adding and MIMO capability configuration are initiated autonomously by the access network device, and the priority order is determined by the access network device. And if the access network equipment performs SCG addition, the terminal equipment is found to have added SCC or/and configured MIMO capability. At this time, the access network device needs to determine whether the terminal device added with the SCC or/and configured MIMO capability can form dual connection with the alternative SCG cell, and when the terminal device supports DC, the terminal device adds SCG. Another method for adding a secondary cell group provided in the present application is described in detail below with reference to fig. 8, and fig. 8 is a schematic flowchart of another method 400 for adding a secondary cell group in the present application, where the method 400 may be applied to the scenario shown in fig. 1, and of course, may also be applied to other communication scenarios, and embodiments of the present application are not limited herein.

As shown in fig. 8, the method 400 shown in fig. 8 may include S401 to S413. The various steps in method 400 are described in detail below in conjunction with fig. 8.

S401, the access network device needs to judge whether the terminal device added with SCC or/and configuration MIMO capability can form dual connection with the alternative SCG cell.

S402, when the terminal equipment added with SCC or/and configuration MIMO capability can form dual connection with an alternative SCG cell, a first configuration message is sent to the terminal equipment.

S403, when the terminal equipment added with SCC or/and configuration MIMO capability can not form dual connection with the alternative SCG cell, an infinite resource control RCC message is sent to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC message is used for indicating the quantity of the terminal equipment for backing back carrier aggregation and/or MIMO.

S404, the access network equipment initially selects the added SCG cell.

S405, the access network equipment determines whether the cell in which the newly added SCG cell and the current terminal equipment work meets DC combination.

S406, if the primary selection added SCG cell and the cell working by the current terminal equipment do not meet the DC combination, adjustment is carried out, and the added SCG cell is reselected.

S407, if the cell of the initially selected added SCG and the cell working by the current terminal equipment meet the DC combination, the access network equipment selects to add the component carrier SCC under the current combination.

S408, the access network equipment determines whether the added SCC and the cell working by the current terminal equipment meet the CA combination or not under the current combination.

S409, if the added SCC and the cell working with the current terminal equipment meet the CA combination, the access network equipment improves the MIMO capability under the current combination.

S410, if the added SCC and the cell working with the current terminal equipment do not meet the CA combination, the access network equipment adjusts and reselects the added SCC.

S411 the access network device determines whether the increased MIMO capability is met under the current combination.

S412, if the increased MIMO capability is met under the current combination, the access network device adds the primary SCG.

S413, if the increased MIMO capability is not met under the current combination, the access network device adjusts, reconfigures the MIMO number.

Under the method, under the existing adding mechanism, whether the terminal equipment with the SCC and/or the configured MIMO quantity added currently supports dual connection with other cells in the current cell or not can be judged, if not, SCC and/or MIMO rollback is carried out, SCG is added again, and lossless nogap measurement is configured for the terminal equipment preferentially; meanwhile, the problem that GAP measurement cannot be performed when SCG is partially added is avoided; the SCC rollback and MIMO capability rollback are avoided, and the data transmission loss caused by the SCC rollback and the MIMO capability rollback are avoided.

The above describes that when a terminal device with added SCC or/and configured MIMO capability cannot form a dual connection with an alternative SCG cell, the access network device sends an infinite resource control RCC message to the terminal device, where the RRC message is used to indicate the number of terminal device back-off carrier aggregation and/or MIMO, which is initiated by the access network device.

The terminal device may also actively back-off the number of carrier aggregation and/or MIMO. When the terminal equipment does not measure the SCG of the secondary cell according to the measurement GAP configured by the access network equipment, the terminal equipment actively backs off the component carrier SCC and/or reduces the MIMO quantity, wherein the cell group supporting the dual-connection DC exists in the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located and the alternative secondary cell group after the component carrier SCC and/or the MIMO quantity is reduced; and the terminal equipment sends a feedback message to the access network equipment, wherein the feedback message comprises the current SCC number and the current MIMO number of the terminal equipment. The access network equipment receives the feedback message sent by the terminal equipment and re-adds the SCG.

The method for measuring the communication parameters of the multi-card terminal device according to the embodiment of the present application is described in detail above with reference to fig. 1 to 8. The following describes the communication device according to the embodiment of the present application in detail with reference to fig. 9 to 11.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic block diagram of a communication device 500 of an embodiment of the present application.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 500 may be a terminal device, or may be a chip or a circuit, for example, may be provided in the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 500 may be an access network device, or may be a chip or a circuit, for example, may be disposed on the access network device.

In one possible approach, the apparatus 500 may include a processing unit 510 (i.e., an example of a processor) and a transceiver unit 530. In some possible implementations, the processing unit 510 may also be referred to as a determination unit. In some possible implementations, the transceiver unit 530 may include a receiving unit and a transmitting unit.

Alternatively, the transceiver unit 530 may be implemented by a transceiver or transceiver related circuits or interface circuits.

Optionally, the apparatus may further comprise a storage unit 520. In one possible implementation, the memory unit 520 is configured to store instructions. Alternatively, the storage unit may be used for storing data or information. The storage unit 520 may be implemented by a memory.

In some possible designs, the processing unit 510 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the storage unit 520, so that the apparatus 500 implements the steps performed by the terminal device in the above method. Alternatively, the processing unit 510 may be configured to invoke the data of the storage unit 520, so that the apparatus 500 implements the steps performed by the terminal device in the method described above.

In some possible designs, the processing unit 510 is configured to execute the instructions stored in the storage unit 520, so that the apparatus 500 implements the steps performed by the access network device in the method described above. Alternatively, the processing unit 510 may be configured to invoke the data of the storage unit 520, so that the apparatus 500 implements the steps performed by the access network device in the method described above.

For example, the processing unit 510, the storage unit 520, and the transceiver unit 530 may communicate with each other via internal communication paths to transfer control and/or data signals. For example, the storage unit 520 is configured to store a computer program, and the processing unit 510 may be configured to invoke and run the computer program from the storage unit 520 to control the transceiver unit 530 to receive signals and/or transmit signals, so as to perform the steps of the terminal device or the access network device in the above method. The memory unit 520 may be integrated into the processing unit 510 or may be provided separately from the processing unit 510.

Alternatively, if the apparatus 500 is a communication device (e.g., a terminal device, or an access network device), the transceiver unit 530 includes a receiver and a transmitter. Wherein the receiver and the transmitter may be the same or different physical entities. Which are the same physical entities, may be collectively referred to as transceivers.

Alternatively, if the apparatus 500 is a chip or a circuit, the transceiver unit 530 includes an input interface and an output interface.

As an implementation, the function of the transceiving unit 530 may be considered to be implemented by a transceiving circuit or a dedicated chip for transceiving. The processing unit 510 may be considered to be implemented by a dedicated processing chip, a processing circuit, a processing unit, or a general-purpose chip.

As another implementation manner, a manner of using a general-purpose computer may be considered to implement the communication device (such as a terminal device or an access network device) provided in the embodiments of the present application. I.e., program codes realizing the functions of the processing unit 510 and the transceiving unit 530 are stored in the storage unit 520, and the general-purpose processing unit realizes the functions of the processing unit 510 and the transceiving unit 530 by executing the codes in the storage unit 520.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 500 may be a terminal device, or a chip or a circuit provided in the terminal device.

When the apparatus 500 is a terminal device, or a chip or a circuit disposed on the terminal device, the processing unit 510 is configured to determine, from the candidate secondary cell groups, a cell group to be added that supports dual-connectivity DC with a cell where the terminal device is currently located, where the cell group to be added includes at least one cell; the processing unit 510 is further configured to determine, in the cell group to be added, that, when the cell group to be added is doubly connected to a cell where the terminal device is currently located, the terminal device supports carrier aggregation CA and/or a cell supporting multiple input multiple output MIMO capability is a target secondary cell SCG; a transceiver unit 530, configured to send a first configuration message to the terminal device, where the first configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the target SCG under the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

Optionally, the processing unit 510 determines that the supported CA is greater than a first threshold and/or determines that the cell is the target secondary cell SCG when the number of MIMO supported by the terminal device is greater than a second threshold.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is further configured to: and when the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned has carried out carrier aggregation CA and/or MIMO configuration, and the alternative auxiliary cell group does not support dual-connection DC with the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned, sending an infinite resource control RCC message to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to back off the carrier aggregation and/or the quantity of the MIMO.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is configured to receive a feedback message sent by the terminal device, where the feedback message includes a cell group supporting dual-connection DC, where the cell group includes a cell where the terminal device is currently located and the number of MIMO, and a cell group supporting dual-connection DC exists in a cell where the terminal device is currently located and an alternative secondary cell group configured with the number of MIMO.

Optionally, when the cell in which the terminal device is currently located has performed carrier aggregation CA and/or configured MIMO, and a cell supporting dual-connection DC with the cell in which the terminal device is currently located exists in the alternative secondary cell group, the processing unit 510 determines, from the alternative secondary cell group, the target SCG supporting dual-connection DC with the cell in which the terminal device is currently located; the transceiving unit 530 transmits the first configuration message to the terminal device.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is configured to receive a first report sent by the terminal device, where the first report includes a result of measuring the secondary cell SCG.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is configured to send a second configuration message to the terminal device, where the second configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the component carrier SCC in the cell where the terminal device is currently located; the transceiver unit 530 is configured to receive a second report sent by the terminal device, where the second report includes a result of measuring the SCC.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is configured to send a third configuration message to the terminal device, where the third configuration message is configured to instruct the terminal device to configure the MIMO number in the cell where the terminal device is currently located; the transceiver unit 530 is configured to receive a third report sent by the terminal device, where the third report includes the MIMO number configured by the terminal device in the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

Optionally, the DC includes a connection ENDC with an access network device of 5G and a core network of 5G or a connection NEDC with an access network device of 5G and a core network of 5G.

When the apparatus 500 is configured in or is a terminal device, each module or unit in the apparatus 500 may be used to execute each action or process performed by the terminal device in the above method, and detailed descriptions thereof are omitted herein for avoiding redundancy.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 500 may be a chip or a circuit when the access network device is, or is disposed in the access network device. When the apparatus 500 is an access network device, or a chip or a circuit disposed in the access network device, a terminal device, comprising: a processing unit 510, where the processing unit 510 is configured to, when the cell in which the terminal device is currently located has undergone carrier aggregation CA and/or configured MIMO number, fail to detect secondary cell SCG according to measurement GAP configured by the access network device, the processing unit 510 backs off component carrier SCC and/or reduces MIMO number, where a cell group supporting dual-connectivity DC exists in the cell in which the terminal device is currently located and an alternative secondary cell group after the component carrier SCC and/or reduces MIMO number is backed off; the transceiver unit 530 is configured to send a feedback message to the access network device, where the feedback message includes the number of SCCs and the number of MIMO of the current component carrier of the terminal device.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is configured to receive a first configuration message sent by an access network device, where the first configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the target SCG in a cell where the terminal device is currently located; the processing unit 510 is configured to measure the target SCG according to the first configuration message; the transceiver unit 530 is configured to send a first report to the access network device, where the first report includes a result of the measurement performed on the target SCG.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is configured to receive a second measurement configuration message sent by the access network device, where the second configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to measure the SCC in the cell where the terminal device is currently located; the processing unit 510 is configured to measure the SCC according to the second configuration message; the transceiving unit 530 is configured to send a second report to the access network device, the second report comprising a result of the measurement of the SCC.

Optionally, the transceiver unit 530 is configured to receive, after the SCC is added, a third configuration message sent by the access network device, where the third configuration message is used to instruct the terminal device to configure the MIMO number in the cell where the terminal device is currently located; the processing unit 510 is configured to configure the MIMO number according to the third configuration message; the transceiver unit 530 is configured to send a third report to the access network device, where the third report includes the MIMO number configured by the terminal device under the cell in which the terminal device is currently located.

When the apparatus 500 is configured in or is an access network device, each module or unit in the apparatus 500 may be used to perform each action or process performed by the access network device in the above method, and detailed descriptions thereof are omitted herein for avoiding redundancy.

The concepts related to the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, explanation, detailed description and other steps related to the apparatus 500 refer to the descriptions of the foregoing methods or other embodiments, and are not repeated herein.

Fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device 600 provided in the present application. The terminal device 600 may perform the actions performed by the terminal device in the above-described method embodiments.

For convenience of explanation, fig. 10 shows only major components of the terminal device. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal apparatus 600 includes a processor, a memory, a control circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device.

The processor is mainly configured to process the communication protocol and the communication data, control the entire terminal device, execute a software program, and process the data of the software program, for example, to support the terminal device to execute the actions described in the above embodiment of the method for indicating the transmission precoding matrix. The memory is mainly used for storing software programs and data, for example, for storing the codebook described in the above embodiments. The control circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The control circuit together with the antenna, which may also be called a transceiver, 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 mainly used for receiving data input by a user and outputting data to the user.

When the terminal device is started, the processor can read the software program in the storage unit, interpret and execute the instructions of the software program, and process the data of the software program. When data is required to be transmitted wirelessly, the processor carries out baseband processing on the data to be transmitted and then outputs a baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit carries out radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and then transmits 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 a radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that for ease of illustration, only one memory and processor is shown in fig. 10. In an actual terminal device, there may be multiple processors and memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or storage device, etc., and embodiments of the present application are not limited in this regard.

For example, the processor may include a baseband processor, which is mainly used to process the communication protocol and the communication data, and a central processor, which is mainly used to control the entire terminal device, execute a software program, and process the data of the software program. The processor in fig. 10 integrates the functions of a baseband processor and a central processing unit, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the baseband processor and the central processing unit may be separate processors, interconnected by bus technology, etc. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the terminal device may include multiple baseband processors to accommodate different network formats, and that the terminal device may include multiple central processors to enhance its processing capabilities, and that the various components of the terminal device may be connected by various buses. The baseband processor may also be expressed as a baseband processing circuit or a baseband processing chip. The central processing unit may also be expressed as a central processing circuit or a central processing chip. The function of processing the communication protocol and the communication data may be built in the processor, or may be stored in the storage unit in the form of a software program, which is executed by the processor 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 610 of the terminal device 600, and the processor having the processing function may be regarded as the processing unit 620 of the terminal device 600. As shown in fig. 10, the terminal device 600 includes a transceiving unit 610 and a processing unit 620. The transceiver unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, transceiver device, etc. Alternatively, the device for implementing the receiving function in the transceiver unit 610 may be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device for implementing the transmitting function in the transceiver unit 610 may be regarded as a transmitting unit, i.e. the transceiver unit includes a receiving unit and a transmitting unit. For example, the receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, etc., and the transmitting unit may be referred to as a transmitter, a transmitting circuit, etc.

Fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of an access network device 700 according to an embodiment of the present application, which may be used to implement the functions of an access device (e.g., a first access network device, a second access network device, or a third access network device) in the foregoing method. The access network device 700 includes one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio frequency unit (remote radio unit, RRU) 710 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (also referred to as digital units, DUs) 720. The RRU710 may be referred to as a transceiver unit, transceiver circuitry, or transceiver, etc., which may include at least one antenna 711 and a radio frequency unit 712. The RRU710 is mainly configured to receive and transmit radio frequency signals and convert radio frequency signals to baseband signals, for example, to send signaling messages to a terminal device as described in the foregoing embodiments. The BBU720 portion is mainly configured to perform baseband processing, control a base station, and the like. The RRU710 and BBU720 may be physically located together or may be physically separate, i.e., a distributed base station.

The BBU720 is a control center of the base station, and may also be referred to as a processing unit, and is mainly configured to perform baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, spreading, and so on. For example, the BBU (processing unit) 720 may be configured to control the base station 40 to perform the operation procedures described above in the method embodiments with respect to the access network device.

In one example, the BBU720 may be configured by one or more single boards, where the multiple single boards may support radio access networks of a single access system (such as an LTE system, or a 5G system), or may support radio access networks of different access systems respectively. The BBU720 further comprises a memory 721 and a processor 722. The memory 721 is used to store the necessary instructions and data. For example, the memory 721 stores the codebook or the like in the above-described embodiment. The processor 722 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to perform the operation procedure related to the access network device in the above-described method embodiment. The memory 721 and processor 722 may serve one or more boards. That is, the memory and the processor may be separately provided on each board. It is also possible that multiple boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, each single board can be provided with necessary circuits.

In one possible implementation, with the development of system-on-chip (SoC) technology, all or part of the functions of the 720 part and the 710 part may be implemented by SoC technology, for example, by a base station function chip, where a processor, a memory, an antenna interface, and other devices are integrated, and a program of a base station related function is stored in the memory, and the processor executes the program to implement the related function of the base station. Optionally, the base station functional chip can also read the memory outside the chip to realize the relevant functions of the base station.

It should be understood that the structure of the access network device illustrated in fig. 11 is only one possible configuration, and should not be construed as limiting the embodiments herein. The present application does not exclude the possibility of other forms of base station architecture that may occur in the future.

It should be appreciated that in embodiments of the present application, the processor may be a central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), the processor may also be other general purpose processors, digital signal processors (digital signal processor, DSP), application specific integrated circuits (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), off-the-shelf programmable gate arrays (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or the like. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like.

It should also be appreciated that the memory in embodiments of the present application may be either volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile memory may be a read-only memory (ROM), a Programmable ROM (PROM), an Erasable PROM (EPROM), an electrically Erasable EPROM (EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be random access memory (random access memory, RAM) which acts as an external cache. By way of example but not limitation, many forms of random access memory (random access memory, RAM) are available, such as Static RAM (SRAM), dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR SDRAM), enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (ESDRAM), synchronous Link DRAM (SLDRAM), and direct memory bus RAM (DR RAM).

The above embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware, or any other combination. When implemented in software, the above-described embodiments may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product comprises one or more computer instructions or computer programs. When the computer instructions or computer program are loaded or executed on a computer, the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the present application are all or partially produced. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from one website site, computer, server, or data center to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. that contains one or more sets of available media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (e.g., floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape), an optical medium (e.g., DVD), or a semiconductor medium. The semiconductor medium may be a solid state disk.

The present application further provides a computer readable medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a computer, implements the steps performed by the terminal device in any of the above embodiments, or the steps performed by the access network device.

The embodiments of the present application also provide a computer program product, which when executed by a computer, implements the steps performed by the terminal device in any of the embodiments described above, or the steps performed by the access network device.

The embodiment of the application also provides a system chip, which comprises: a communication unit and a processing unit. The processing unit may be, for example, a processor. The communication unit may be, for example, a communication interface, an input/output interface, pins or circuitry, etc. The processing unit may execute the computer instructions, so that the chip in the communication device performs the steps performed by the terminal device or the steps performed by the access network device provided in the embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the computer instructions are stored in a storage unit.

According to the method provided by the embodiment of the application, the embodiment of the application also provides a communication system, which comprises the access network equipment and the terminal equipment.

The embodiments in this application may be used independently or in combination, and are not limited herein.

Furthermore, 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 encompasses 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, or magnetic strips, etc.), optical disks (e.g., compact disk, CD, digital versatile disk, digital versatile disc, DVD, etc.), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory, EPROM), cards, sticks, or key drives, etc. Additionally, 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 an "and/or" describes an association relationship of an associated object, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or B, may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. The character "/" generally indicates that the context-dependent object is an "or" relationship. "at least one" means one or more; "at least one of a and B", similar to "a and/or B", describes an association relationship of an association object, meaning that there may be three relationships, for example, at least one of a and B may represent: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone.

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 solution. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

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

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

The units described as separate units may or may not be physically separate, and units shown 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 may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of this embodiment.

In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated in 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 may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art or in a part of the technical solution, in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or an access network device, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of the present application. And the aforementioned storage medium includes: a U-disk, a removable hard disk, a Read-Only Memory (ROM), a random access Memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disk, or other various media capable of storing program codes.

The foregoing is merely 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 think about changes or substitutions within the technical scope of the present application, and the changes and substitutions are intended to 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 adding secondary cell group SCG, comprising:

determining a cell group to be added supporting dual-connection DC with a cell where terminal equipment is currently located from alternative secondary cell groups, wherein the cell group to be added comprises at least one cell;

in the cell group to be added, when determining that the cell group is doubly connected with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located, the terminal equipment supports carrier aggregation CA and a cell supporting Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) capability is a target secondary cell group SCG;

and sending a first configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to perform noGAP measurement on the target SCG under the current cell.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining, in the cell group to be added, that the cell supporting carrier aggregation CA and/or supporting multiple input multiple output MIMO capability is the target SCG when the cell dual-connection with the terminal device is currently located, includes:

And when the CA supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a first threshold value and/or the number of MIMO supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a second threshold value, determining the cell as a target SCG.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that before said determining a cell group to be added to support dual connectivity DC with a cell in which the terminal device is currently located from the candidate secondary cell groups, said cell group to be added comprising at least one cell, the method further comprises:

and when the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned has carried out carrier aggregation CA and/or MIMO configuration, and the alternative auxiliary cell group does not support a cell with dual-connection DC with the cell in which the terminal equipment is currently positioned, sending a radio resource control RRC message to the terminal equipment, wherein the RRC message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to back off the carrier aggregation and/or the MIMO quantity.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that before said determining a cell group to be added to support dual connectivity DC with a cell in which the terminal device is currently located from the candidate secondary cell groups, said cell group to be added comprising at least one cell, the method further comprises:

And receiving a feedback message sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the feedback message comprises the current cell of the terminal equipment and the quantity of MIMO, and the cell group supporting dual-connection DC exists in the current cell of the terminal equipment and the alternative auxiliary cell group configured with the quantity of MIMO.

5. Method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that when the cell in which the terminal device is currently located has undergone carrier aggregation, CA, and/or MIMO, configuration, and there is a cell in the alternative secondary cell group that supports dual connectivity, DC, with the cell in which the terminal device is currently located, the method further comprises:

determining the target SCG supporting dual-connection DC with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located from the alternative auxiliary cell group;

and sending the first configuration message to the terminal equipment.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

and receiving a first report sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the first report comprises a result of measuring the SCG of the secondary cell group.

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

sending a second configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the second configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure a component carrier SCC under a cell where the terminal equipment is currently located;

And receiving a second report sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the second report comprises a result of measuring the SCC.

8. The method according to claim 6 or 7, characterized in that the method further comprises:

transmitting a third configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the third configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to configure the MIMO quantity under the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located;

and receiving a third report sent by the terminal equipment, wherein the third report comprises the MIMO quantity configured by the terminal equipment under the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located.

9. The method according to any of claims 1, 2, 6, 7, wherein the DC comprises a connected ENDC with access network device being 5G core network being 4G or a connected NEDC with access network device being 4G core network being 5G.

10. A method of adding a secondary cell group, comprising:

when the terminal equipment does not measure the SCG of the secondary cell according to the measurement GAP configured by the access network equipment, the terminal equipment backs off the component carrier SCC and/or reduces the MIMO quantity, wherein the cell group supporting the dual-connection DC exists in the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located and the alternative secondary cell group after the component carrier SCC and/or the MIMO quantity is reduced;

Sending a feedback message to the access network equipment, wherein the feedback message comprises the number of the current component carrier SCCs and the number of MIMO of the terminal equipment;

receiving a first configuration message sent by access network equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to perform noGAP measurement on a target SCG in a cell where the terminal equipment is currently located;

the target SCG is a cell supporting carrier aggregation CA and supporting multiple input multiple output MIMO capability when determining that the target SCG is in double connection with a cell where the terminal equipment is currently located in a cell group to be added; the cell to be added is a cell group which is determined from the alternative auxiliary cell group and supports dual-connection DC with the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located, and the cell group to be added comprises at least one cell.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

measuring the target SCG according to the first configuration message;

and sending a first report to access network equipment, wherein the first report comprises a result of measuring the target SCG.

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

Receiving a second configuration message sent by the access network equipment, wherein the second configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to measure SCC under the current cell;

measuring the SCC according to the second configuration message;

and sending a second report to the access network device, wherein the second report comprises a result of measuring the SCC.

13. The method according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that the method further comprises:

after the SCC is added, receiving a third configuration message sent by the access network equipment, wherein the third configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to configure the MIMO quantity in the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located;

configuring the MIMO quantity according to the third configuration message;

and sending a third report to the access network equipment, wherein the third report comprises the MIMO quantity configured by the terminal equipment under the cell where the terminal equipment is currently located.

14. An access network device, comprising:

a processing unit, configured to determine a cell group to be added supporting dual-connection DC with a cell where a terminal device is currently located from alternative secondary cell groups, where the cell group to be added includes at least one cell;

the processing unit is further configured to determine, in the cell group to be added, that, when the cell group to be added is doubly connected with the cell where the terminal device is currently located, the cell where the terminal device supports carrier aggregation CA and supports multiple input multiple output MIMO as a target secondary cell group SCG;

And the receiving and transmitting unit is used for sending a first configuration message to the terminal equipment, wherein the first configuration message is used for indicating the terminal equipment to conduct noGAP measurement on the target SCG under the current cell.

15. The access network device according to claim 14, wherein, in the cell group to be added, when determining that the cell is doubly connected to the cell where the terminal device is currently located, the terminal device supports carrier aggregation CA and/or a cell supporting multiple input multiple output MIMO capability is a target secondary cell SCG, including:

and when the CA supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a first threshold value and/or the number of MIMO supported by the terminal equipment is larger than a second threshold value, determining the cell as a target secondary cell SCG.

16. An access network device according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the transceiver unit is further configured to:

17. An access network device according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the transceiver unit is configured to receive a feedback message sent by the terminal device, where the feedback message includes a cell and the number of MIMO, where a cell group supporting dual-connectivity DC exists in a cell and an alternative secondary cell group where the MIMO number is configured.

18. An access network device according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that when the cell in which the terminal device is currently located has been carrier aggregated CA and/or configured MIMO, and there is a cell in the alternative secondary cell group that supports dual connectivity DC with the cell in which the terminal device is currently located, the access network device further comprises:

and sending the first configuration message to the terminal equipment.

19. The access network device of claim 14, wherein the transceiver unit is configured to receive a first report sent by the terminal device, the first report including a result of measuring the secondary cell group SCG.

20. The access network device of claim 19, wherein the transceiver unit is configured to send a second configuration message to the terminal device, where the second configuration message is configured to instruct the terminal device to measure the component carrier SCC in a cell in which the terminal device is currently located;

the transceiver unit is configured to receive a second report sent by the terminal device, where the second report includes a result of measuring the SCC.

21. An access network device according to claim 19 or 20, wherein the transceiver unit is configured to send a third configuration message to the terminal device, the third configuration message being configured to instruct the terminal device to configure the MIMO number under the cell in which the terminal device is currently located;

the receiving and transmitting unit is configured to receive a third report sent by the terminal device, where the third report includes the number of MIMO configured by the terminal device in the cell where the terminal device is currently located.

22. An access network device according to any of claims 14, 15, 19, 20, characterized in that the DC comprises a connection ENDC with access network device being 4G core network or a connection NEDC with access network device being 4G core network being 5G.

23. A communication apparatus, the apparatus comprising at least one processor coupled with at least one memory:

The at least one processor configured to execute a computer program or instructions stored in the at least one memory to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9, or any one of claims 10 to 13.

24. A computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instructions is stored which, when read and executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9, or any one of claims 10 to 13.

25. A chip, comprising: a processor for calling and running a computer program from a memory, causing a communication device on which the chip is mounted to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 9, or any one of claims 10 to 13.