CN116419255A - A communication method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

A communication method and device are provided, the method includes: a terminal device receives first indication information from a first network device, the first indication information indicates that the terminal device communicates with a second network device, and the cell served by the first network device is The first cell, the cell served by the second network device is the second cell, the first cell is the serving cell of the terminal device; receiving second indication information from the second network device, the second indication information indicating the system information of the first cell A change occurs; receiving changed system information of the first cell. When the system information of the serving cell of the terminal device changes, it can directly receive the notification of the system information change through the second network device with better signal quality. In this way, the terminal device can receive the notification without switching back to the network device of the serving cell. The above notification is received, which in turn helps to increase the reliability of the terminal device receiving the above notification, and is beneficial to reduce the time delay.

Description

A communication method and device

technical field

The present application relates to the communication field, and in particular to a communication method and device.

Background technique

The fifth generation (5th generation, 5G) mobile communication technology directs each signal to the optimal path to the receiver through beamforming, so as to improve signal strength, avoid signal interference, and improve communication quality.

When the terminal device is within the coverage of the serving cell and other cells, the terminal device is allowed to use the beam directions of other cells for uplink and downlink communication without switching the serving cell. At this time, if the system information of the serving cell is changed, the terminal device may not be able to successfully receive the notification of the change of the system information.

Therefore, it is desirable to provide a communication method so that the terminal device can receive the above-mentioned notifications in a timely and reliable manner.

Contents of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and device, so that terminal equipment can receive notifications of system information changes in a timely and reliable manner.

In the first aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which can be executed by a terminal device, or can also be executed by a component configured in the terminal device (such as a chip, a chip system, etc.), or can also be implemented by Logic modules or software implementations of all or part of the functions of the terminal equipment are not limited in this application.

Exemplarily, the method includes: receiving first indication information from the first network device, the first indication information indicating that the terminal device communicates with the second network device, the cell served by the first network device is the first cell, and the second network device The cell served by the device is the second cell, and the first cell is the serving cell of the terminal device; receiving second indication information from the second network device, the second indication information indicating that the system information of the first cell has changed; receiving the first cell The changed system information of .

Based on the above technical solution, after the terminal device receives the first indication information, it can realize cross-cell communication, that is, it can communicate with a non-serving cell (such as the second cell) with better communication quality without switching cells, wherein the second The cell is served by the second network device. When the system information of the serving cell of the terminal device changes, the notification of the change of the system information can be sent directly through the second network device, so that the terminal device can receive the notification of the system information change without switching back to the network device of the serving cell. Notification can reduce the overhead of handover signaling, and can prevent the terminal equipment from frequently performing beam switching, thereby helping to reduce time delay. On the other hand, since the quality of the signal received by the terminal device in the second cell is relatively good, sending the notification through the second network device will help increase the possibility of the terminal device receiving the above notification, so that the terminal device can receive the notification in a timely and reliable manner. Notification of system information changes.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the second indication information is downlink control information (downlink control information, DCI), and the DCI is used to indicate a cell whose system information changes.

Use the DCI to indicate the cell whose system information has changed. For example, the reserved bits in the DCI can be used to indicate the cell where the system information has changed. Problems with system information changes.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, receiving the second indication information from the second network device includes: receiving based on a public physical downlink control channel (physical downlink control channel, PDCCH) of the first cell Configure to receive the DCI from the second network device; or receive the DCI from the second network device based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell; or receive all the DCI from the second network device based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell the above DCI; or receive the DCI from the second network device based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the second cell.

The terminal device may receive the second indication information from the second network device based on the PDCCH reception configuration, for example, including the following possible designs: The first possible design is that the terminal device receives the second indication information from the second network device based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell. DCI of the second network device. The second possible design is that the terminal device receives the DCI from the second network device based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell. A third possible design is that the terminal device receives the DCI from the second network device based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell. A fourth possible design is that the terminal device receives the DCI from the second network device based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the second cell. In this case, the terminal device needs to configure an additional set of dedicated PDCCH receiving configurations in the second cell. For example, the terminal device can additionally configure a set of dedicated PDCCH receiving configurations for the terminal device in the second cell. The dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration of the cell may be the dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration additionally assigned to the terminal device by the second cell; or the common PDCCH receiving configuration of the second cell may be used as the dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration of the terminal device in the second cell. The above solutions provide multiple possible designs of PDCCH reception configurations, and the terminal device can receive the second indication information based on any one of the above PDCCH reception configurations, which is beneficial to improve flexibility.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the first aspect, the first indication information indicates that a beam direction for communication between the terminal device and the second network device is a beam direction of the second cell.

As mentioned above, the first indication information instructs the terminal device to communicate with the second network device, and then the terminal device can communicate with a non-serving cell (such as the second cell) after receiving the first indication information. A possible implementation manner is that the first indication information indicates that the beam direction of the communication between the terminal device and the second network device is the beam direction of the second cell, and the terminal device can communicate with the second network device based on the beam direction, thereby improving the communication quality.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, receiving the changed system information of the first cell includes: switching the direction of the receiving beam to the beam direction of the first cell; Changed system information from the first network device.

After receiving the second indication information, the terminal device can automatically switch the direction of the receiving beam to the beam direction of the first cell, and receive the changed system information from the first network device through the receiving beam, in other words, the second indication information It is also possible to instruct the terminal device to switch the beam direction without receiving other information instructing the terminal device to switch the beam direction, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

After the terminal device receives the changed system information from the first network device through the above receiving beam, if it does not receive the new beam indication information, it can switch back to the beam direction of the second cell for communication, for example, switching back to receiving the changed system information The system information prior to the beam direction is communicated. If new beam indication information is received, communication can be performed based on the new beam direction. Wherein, the beam indication information is used to indicate the beam direction corresponding to the reference signal with better quality.

A possible implementation manner is that after receiving the second indication information, the terminal device may start or restart a timer, and the duration of the timer may be preconfigured or predefined through a protocol. When the terminal device receives changed system information or receives new beam indication information, the timer is stopped, and when the timer is started next time, it starts timing from the initial value of the timer. If the terminal device has not received the changed system information or new beam indication information when the timer expires, it will automatically switch the beam direction to the beam direction of the second cell, thereby avoiding communication interruption.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, receiving the changed system information of the first cell includes: receiving the changed system information from the second network device through a beam direction of the second cell. system message.

Wherein, the beam direction of the second cell corresponds to a transmission configuration indication (transmission configuration indication, TCI) state. The terminal device directly receives the changed system information from the second network device through the beam direction of the second cell, without switching the beam direction, which reduces the delay, and the quality of the reference signal corresponding to the beam direction of the second cell is better, It is beneficial for the terminal equipment to reliably receive the changed system information.

With reference to the first aspect, in some possible implementations of the first aspect, the second indication information is further used to indicate the resources bearing the changed system information, and to receive the information from the second network device through the beam direction of the second cell. The changed system information includes: receiving the changed system information from the second network device on the resource.

The second indication information also indicates the resource bearing the changed system information, that is, instructs the terminal device to receive the time domain resource, frequency domain resource, etc. of the changed system information, so that the terminal device can pass the beam of the second cell on the above resource The changed system information is received in the direction, which is beneficial for the terminal equipment to receive the changed system information in a timely and reliable manner.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a communication method, which may be executed by the second network device, or may also be executed by a component (such as a chip, a chip system, etc.) configured in the second network device, or may also be It may be realized by a logic module or software capable of realizing all or part of the functions of the second network device, which is not limited in this application.

Exemplarily, the method includes: generating second indication information, the second indication information indicating that the system information of the first cell is changed, the first cell is a serving cell of the terminal device, the first cell is served by the first network device, and the first cell is served by the first network device. The cell served by the second network device is the second cell; and the second indication information is sent to the terminal device.

Based on the above technical solution, the terminal device can communicate with a non-serving cell (such as the second cell) with better signal quality. The second cell is served by the second network device. When the system information of the serving cell of the terminal device changes, the second cell 2. The network device can directly send the notification of the system information change to the terminal device, and the network device can receive the notification of the system information change without the terminal device switching back to the serving cell, which can reduce the overhead of handover signaling and avoid the terminal device Frequent beam switching is beneficial to reduce delay. On the other hand, since the quality of the signal received by the terminal device in the second cell is relatively good, sending the notification through the second network device is beneficial to increase the reliability of the terminal device receiving the notification.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the second aspect, the second indication information is DCI, and the DCI is used to indicate a cell whose system information is changed.

Use the DCI to indicate the cell whose system information has changed. For example, the reserved bits in the DCI can be used to indicate the cell where the system information has changed. System information has changed.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, sending the second indication information to the terminal device includes: sending DCI based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell; The dedicated PDCCH reception configuration sends the DCI; or receives and sends the DCI based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell; or sends the DCI based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the second cell.

The second network device may send the second indication information to the terminal device based on the PDCCH reception configuration, for example, including the following possible designs: The first possible design is that the second network device sends the DCI based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell . The second possible design is that the second network device sends the DCI based on the terminal device's dedicated PDCCH reception configuration in the first cell. A third possible design is that the second network device sends the DCI based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell. A fourth possible design is that the second network device sends the DCI based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the second cell. For example, the above-mentioned dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration of the terminal device in the second cell may be the dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration additionally allocated to the terminal device by the second cell; Dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell. The above solutions provide multiple possible designs of PDCCH receiving configurations, and the second network device can send the second indication information based on any of the above configurations, which is beneficial to improve flexibility.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, before sending the changed system information of the first cell to the terminal device, the method further includes: receiving a third indication from the first network device Information, the third indication information includes the common PDCCH receiving configuration of the first cell or the dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration of the terminal device in the first cell.

The second network device may receive the public PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell from the first network device or the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell, so that the second network device may send the second PDCCH reception configuration to the terminal device based on the above PDCCH reception configuration. Instructions.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementation manners of the second aspect, the method further includes: receiving changed system information of the first cell from the first network device; and sending the changed system information to the terminal device.

After the second network device receives the changed system information from the first network device, it can send it to the terminal device, without the need for the terminal device to switch to the first network device to receive the changed system information, which is conducive to the timely and reliable reception of the terminal device to the changed system information.

With reference to the second aspect, in some possible implementations of the second aspect, the second indication information is also used to indicate the resources bearing the changed system information, and send the changed system information to the terminal device, including: The resource sends the changed system information to the terminal device.

The second indication information also indicates the resources bearing the changed system information, that is, the time domain resources, frequency domain resources, etc. that instruct the terminal device to receive the changed system information, and the second network device passes the beam direction of the second cell on the above resources Sending the changed system information is beneficial for the terminal device to receive the changed system information in a timely and reliable manner.

It should be noted that, in this application, a change in system information includes a change in emergency information and/or a change in system information other than emergency information. For example, the notification of a change in emergency information may be an earthquake and tsunami warning system (earthquake and tsunami warning system, ETWS) notification and/or a commercial mobile alert system (commercial mobile alert system, CMAS) notification.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a communication device that can implement the first aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect. The apparatus comprises corresponding means for carrying out the method described above. The units included in the device may be implemented by software and/or hardware.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a communication device that can implement the second aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. The apparatus comprises corresponding means for carrying out the method described above. The units included in the device may be implemented by software and/or hardware.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, where the device includes a processor. The processor is coupled with the memory, and can be used to execute the computer program in the memory, so as to implement the first aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect.

In a sixth aspect, the present application provides a communications device, where the device includes a processor. The processor is coupled with the memory, and can be used to execute the computer program in the memory, so as to implement the second aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor and an interface circuit, and the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices other than the device and transmit them to the processor or transmit signals from the processor Sending to other communication devices other than the device, the processor implements the first aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect through a logic circuit or executing code instructions.

In an eighth aspect, the present application provides a communication device, including a processor and an interface circuit, and the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices other than the device and transmit them to the processor or transmit signals from the processor Sending to other communication devices other than the device, the processor implements the second aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect through a logic circuit or executing code instructions.

In a ninth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, in which a computer program or instruction is stored, and when the computer program or instruction is executed, any one of the first aspect and the first aspect can be realized. A communication method in a possible implementation manner, or a communication method in any one of the second aspect and the second aspect.

In a tenth aspect, the present application provides a computer program product, the computer program product including instructions, when the instructions are executed, to implement the first aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, or Realize the second aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system, the chip system includes a processor, and may also include a memory, for implementing the first aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the first aspect, or implementing The second aspect and the communication method in any possible implementation manner of the second aspect. The system-on-a-chip may consist of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

In the twelfth aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, the system includes the communication device described in the third aspect, the fifth aspect, or the seventh aspect, and, the fourth aspect, the sixth aspect, or the eighth aspect The communication device described in the aspect.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is another schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

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

The technical solution provided by this application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: global system for mobile communications (GSM) system, code division multiple access (code division multiple access, CDMA) system, wideband code division multiple access (wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA) system, general packet radio service (general packet radio service, GPRS), wireless local area network (wireless local area network, WLAN), long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system, LTE frequency division duplex (frequency division) duplex, FDD) system, LTE time division duplex (time division duplex, TDD), side chain (sidelink) communication system, universal mobile telecommunications system (universal mobile telecommunications system, UMTS), worldwide interconnection microwave access (worldwide interoperability for microwave access, WiMAX ) communication system, 5G mobile communication system or new radio access technology (new radio access technology, NR). Wherein, the 5G mobile communication system may include non-standalone networking (non-standalone, NSA) and/or standalone networking (standalone, SA).

The technical solutions provided in this application can also be applied to future communication systems, such as sixth generation (6thGeneration, 6G) mobile communication systems and the like. This application is not limited to this.

In this embodiment of the present application, the network device may be any device with a wireless transceiver function. Network devices include but are not limited to: evolved Node B (evolved Node B, eNB), radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), Node B (Node B, NB), base station controller (base station controller, BSC), In base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), home base station (for example, home evolved Node B, or homeNode B, HNB), baseband unit (baseband unit, BBU), wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, Wi-Fi) system Access point (access point, AP), wireless relay node, wireless backhaul node, transmission point (transmission point, TP) or transmission and reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP), etc., can also be 5G (such as NR) A gNB or a transmission point (TRP or TP) in the system, or one or a group (including multiple antenna panels) antenna panels of a base station in a 5G system, or it can also be a network node that constitutes a gNB or a transmission point, such as A baseband unit (BBU), or a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU), etc.

In some deployments, a gNB may include a centralized unit (CU) and a DU. Exemplarily, the CU implements some functions of the gNB, and the DU implements some functions of the gNB. For example, the CU is responsible for processing non-real-time protocols and services, implementing radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC), packet data convergence layer protocol (packet data convergence protocol) , PDCP) layer functions; DU may include radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer functions, media access control (media access control, MAC) layer functions, and, physical (physical, PHY) layer Some functions.

Exemplarily, a DU may include functions of higher layers in the PHY layer. Wherein, the functions of the upper layers in the PHY layer may include cyclic redundancy check (cyclic redundancy check, CRC) function, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping; or, the functions of the higher layers in the PHY layer may include cyclic Redundancy checking, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, layer mapping and precoding. The functions of the middle and lower layers of the PHY layer can be realized by another network entity independent from the DU, wherein the functions of the middle and lower layers of the PHY layer can include precoding, resource mapping, physical antenna mapping and radio frequency functions; or, the functions of the middle and lower layers of the PHY layer can be Includes resource mapping, physical antenna mapping, and radio frequency functions. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the function division of the upper layer and the lower layer in the PHY layer. When the functions of the middle and lower layers of the PHY layer can be realized by another network entity independent of the DU, the DU sends data or information to other communication devices (such as terminal equipment, core network equipment), which can be understood as: DU executes RLC layer, MAC layer functions, and, some functions of the PHY layer. For example, after the DU completes the functions of the RLC layer and the MAC layer, as well as cyclic redundancy check, channel coding, rate matching, scrambling, modulation, and layer mapping, the network independent of the DU that performs the functions of the middle and lower layers of the PHY layer The entity performs the remaining functions of mapping and sending on physical resources.

The network device provides services for the cell, and the terminal device communicates with the cell through the transmission resources (for example, frequency domain resources, or spectrum resources) allocated by the network device. The cell may belong to a macro base station (for example, a macro eNB or a macro gNB, etc.) , may also belong to a base station corresponding to a small cell, where the small cell may include: a metro cell, a micro cell, a pico cell, a femto cell, etc., These small cells have the characteristics of small coverage and low transmission power, and are suitable for providing high-speed data transmission services.

In this embodiment of the present application, a terminal device may also be called a user equipment (user equipment, UE), an access terminal, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, Terminal, wireless communication device, user agent or user device.

A terminal device may be a device that provides voice/data connectivity to users, for example, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, a vehicle-mounted device, and the like. At present, examples of some terminal devices can be: mobile phone (mobile phone), tablet computer (pad), computer with wireless transceiver function (such as notebook computer, palmtop computer, etc.), mobile internet device (mobile internet device, MID), virtual Reality (virtual reality, VR) equipment, augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) equipment, wireless terminals in industrial control (industrial control), wireless terminals in self-driving (self driving), drones, telemedicine (remote Wireless terminals in medical, wireless terminals in smart grid, wireless terminals in transportation safety, wireless terminals in smart city, wireless terminals in 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, Computing devices or other processing devices connected to wireless modems, vehicle-mounted devices, wearable devices, terminal devices in the 5G network or terminal devices in the future evolving public land mobile network (PLMN), etc.

Among them, wearable devices can also be called wearable smart devices, which is a general term for the application of wearable technology to intelligently design daily wear and develop wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing and shoes. A wearable device is a portable device that is worn directly on the body or integrated into the user's clothing or accessories. Wearable devices are not only a hardware device, but also achieve powerful functions through software support, data interaction, and cloud interaction. Generalized wearable smart devices include full-featured, large-sized, complete or partial functions without relying on smart phones, such as smart watches or smart glasses, etc., and only focus on a certain type of application functions, and need to cooperate with other devices such as smart phones Use, such as various smart bracelets and smart jewelry for physical sign monitoring.

In addition, the terminal device may also be a terminal device in an Internet of Things (internet of things, IoT) system. IoT is an important part of the future development of information technology. Its main technical feature is to connect objects to the network through communication technology, so as to realize the intelligent network of human-machine interconnection and object interconnection. IoT technology can achieve massive connections, deep coverage, and terminal power saving through narrowband (narrowband, NB) technology, for example.

In addition, terminal equipment can also include sensors such as smart printers, train detectors, and gas stations. The main functions include collecting data (part of terminal equipment), receiving control information and downlink data from network equipment, sending electromagnetic waves, and transmitting uplink data to network equipment. .

It should be understood that the roles of network equipment and terminal equipment may be relative. For example, drones may be configured as mobile network equipment. For those terminal equipment connected to the network through drones, drones are network equipment. ; But for the network equipment connected by the drone, the drone is a terminal device.

It should also be understood that the present application does not limit the specific forms of the network device and the terminal device.

In order to clearly describe the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, in the embodiments of the present application, words such as "first" and "second" are used to distinguish the same or similar items with basically the same function and effect. For example, the first indication information and the second indication information are for distinguishing different indication information, and the sequence thereof is not limited. Those skilled in the art can understand that words such as "first" and "second" do not limit the quantity and execution order, and words such as "first" and "second" do not necessarily limit the difference.

In order to better understand the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the terms involved in the present application are briefly explained first.

1. Cross-cell communication: When the terminal device is within the coverage of the serving cell and other cells, the terminal device is allowed to use the beam direction of other cells for uplink and downlink communication without switching the serving cell. For example, if the terminal device is located within the coverage of cell #1 and cell #2, where cell #1 is the serving cell of the terminal device, the terminal device can use the beam direction of cell #2 for up and down without switching cells. communication. Cross-cell communication can be understood as a way of multi-cell communication. In the embodiment of the present application, cross-cell communication is used to describe the communication scenario where the terminal device is located, and the specific multi-cell communication technology used is not limited.

2. Cell: A cell is described by high-level layers from the perspective of resource management, mobility management, or service unit. The coverage of each network device can be divided into one or more cells, and each cell can correspond to one or more frequency points, or in other words, each cell can be regarded as the coverage area of one or more frequency points formed area.

It should be noted that the cell may be an area within the coverage of the wireless network of the network device. In this embodiment of the present application, different cells may correspond to the same or different network devices, and the network device is used as a base station for description below. For example, the network device to which cell #1 belongs and the network device to which cell #2 belongs may be different base stations, that is, cell #1 and cell #2 may be managed by different base stations. Or, for another example, cell #1 and cell #2 may be managed by the same base station, have the same baseband processing unit and intermediate frequency processing unit, but have different radio frequency processing units. Or, for another example, cell #1 and cell #2 may be managed by the same base station. In this case, it may be called that cell #1 and cell #2 are co-sited. This application does not specifically limit it.

It should be understood that, for a terminal device that can perform cross-cell communication, it can use the beam direction of the serving cell to perform uplink and downlink communication, and can also use the beam direction of its assisting cell to perform uplink and downlink communication. The assisting cell may also be referred to as an assisting cell. The embodiment of the present application does not specifically limit the name of the assisting cell, and the terminal device may regard the beam resources of the assisting cell as beam resources other than the serving cell. For example, the terminal device can use the beam direction corresponding to TRP#1 to perform uplink and downlink communication with the serving cell, and can also use the beam direction corresponding to TRP#2 of its assisting cell to perform uplink and downlink communication with the assisting cell. Wherein, the cell served by TRP#1 is the serving cell of the terminal device, and the cell served by TRP#2 is the assisting cell. On the other hand, the terminal device can also regard the beam resources of the assisting cell as part of the beam resources of the serving cell. For example, the terminal device can be configured with two sets of beam resources, the first set of beam resources corresponds to the beam direction of TRP#1, and the second set of beam resources The beam resource corresponds to the beam direction of TRP#2. When the terminal device switches from the first set of beam resources to the beam direction of the second set of beam resources during the communication process, it does not consider the serving cell to change.

3. Beam: It can be understood as a spatial filter or a spatial parameter. A beam used to send a signal may be called a transmit beam, and may be a spatial transmit filter or a spatial transmit parameter; a beam used to receive a signal may be called a receive beam, and may be a spatial receive filter or a spatial receive parameter.

The beamforming technique may be beamforming technique or other techniques. For example, the beamforming technology may specifically be a digital beamforming technology, an analog beamforming technology, or a hybrid digital/analog beamforming technology, and the like. The transmitting beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength formed in different directions in space after the signal is transmitted by the antenna, and the receiving beam may refer to the distribution of signal strength in different directions in space of the wireless signal received from the antenna.

In NR protocols, the beams can be spatial filters, for example. However, it should be understood that this application does not rule out the possibility of defining other terms in future agreements to represent the same or similar meanings.

In the embodiment of the present application, a beam is associated with a reference signal, or in other words, different reference signals may be sent using different beam directions, and each reference signal corresponds to a beam direction.

4. System information: specifically, it may include a master information block (master information block, MIB) and a system information block (SIB) (system information block, SIB). The MIB can be used to instruct the terminal equipment to further receive information required for system information (such as SIB1), and the like. SIBs are divided into multiple types, for example, in LTE, SIBs can be divided into SIB types (type) 1 to SIB types 29 . For another example, in NR, SIBs can be classified into SIB type 1 to SIB type 14. It should be understood that the types of SIBs listed here are only examples, and as the protocol evolves, the present application does not exclude the possibility of other SIBs defined in future protocols.

In this document, for the convenience of distinction and description, the SIB type X is recorded as SIBX, and X can be a positive integer. For example, SIB type 1 is denoted as SIB1.

Different types of SIBs work differently. For example in NR, SIB1 defines the scheduling of other system information blocks and contains information required for initial access. SIB2 contains cell reselection information, which is mainly related to the serving cell. SIB3 contains information about the serving frequency and intra-frequency neighboring cells related to cell reselection (eg, including frequency sharing cell reselection parameters and cell-specific reselection parameters). SIB4 contains information about other NR frequencies and inter-frequency neighboring cells relevant to cell reselection (eg including frequency sharing cell reselection parameters as well as cell specific reselection parameters). SIB5 contains information about evolved universal terrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) frequencies and E-UTRA neighboring cells relevant to cell reselection (e.g. cell reselection parameters including frequency sharing and cell-specific reselection parameters). SIB6 contains ETWS main notifications. SIB7 contains ETWS auxiliary notifications. SIB8 contains CMAS warning notices. SIB9 contains information related to global positioning system (GPS) time and universal time coordinated (UTC). For the sake of brevity, different types of SIBs will not be listed here.

In this embodiment of the application, the notification of system information change may be a notification of emergency information change, such as ETWS notification and/or CMAS notification, or it may be a notification of system information change other than emergency information, or it may be The notification of the change of the emergency information and the notification of the change of the system information other than the emergency information are not limited in this embodiment of the present application. The above-mentioned notification of changes in emergency information and/or emergency information may also be referred to as public early warning system information. The second indication information may be used to indicate that the system information is changed, and the third indication information may be used to indicate the changed system information. When the second indication information is used to indicate that the emergency information is changed, the third indication information indicates the specific content of the emergency information, for example, the level of the earthquake, and the like. When the second indication information is used to indicate that the system information other than the emergency information is changed, the third indication information indicates the changed system information.

5. DCI: DCI has multiple purposes, and DCI for different purposes has different formats. The embodiment of the present application focuses on the DCI used to indicate the change of the system message, and the format of this type of DCI is introduced below: it is mainly divided into three parts, which are respectively the first part, the second part and the third part.

The first part is short message (Short Message) indication information, occupying 2 bits. For example, the first part being 01 indicates that only the scheduling information of the paging message exists in the DCI, that is, only the third part exists. The first part being 10 indicates that only Short Message exists in the DCI, that is, only the second part exists. The first part being 11 indicates that the scheduling information and the Short Message of the paging message exist in the DCI, that is, the second and third parts exist at the same time. The first part is 00, which means reserved bits.

The second part is Short Message, occupying 8 bits. When the second part does not exist, the 8 bits are reserved bits; when the second part exists, the 8 bits can be recorded as b1 to b8.

Wherein, when b1 is 1, it indicates system information changes other than SIB6/7/8; when b2 is 1, it indicates ETWS notification and/or CMAS notification. Among them, the ETWS main notification information is carried in SIB6, the ETWS secondary notification information is carried in SIB7, and the CMAS information is carried in SIB8; when b3 is set to 1, in the shared spectrum scenario, it indicates that the terminal device can stop on the paging occasion Monitor paging; b4 to b8 are reserved bits.

The third part is the scheduling information of the paging message, and the number of bits occupied is not fixed. When the third part does not exist, these bits are reserved bits; when the third part exists, these bits indicate the scheduling information of the paging message, including: frequency domain resource allocation, time domain resource allocation, modulation and Encoding and other information.

In order to facilitate understanding of the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the system architecture applicable to the method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described below. It can be understood that the system architecture described in the embodiments of the present application is for more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, and does not constitute a limitation on the technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a network architecture of a communication system provided by an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 1 , the communication system 100 includes a terminal device and a network device, such as a network device 110 , a network device 120 , a terminal device 130 and a terminal device 140 as shown in the figure. Wherein, the terminal device 130 and the terminal device 140 may be mobile or fixed. The network device 110 and the network device 120 may be a micro base station, or a TRP or other types of network devices, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. Each network device can provide communication coverage for a specific geographical area, and can perform wireless link communication with terminal devices located in the coverage area (cell). For example, the cell served by the network device 110 is denoted as cell #1, the cell #1 is the serving cell of the terminal device 130, the cell served by the network device 120 is denoted as cell #2, and the cell #2 is the assisting cell of the terminal device 130. The terminal device 130 can use the beam direction of the serving cell to communicate with the network device 110 of the serving cell, or use the beam direction of the assisting cell to communicate with the network device 120 of the assisting cell. The terminal device 140 may be a terminal device that does not perform cross-cell beam management, and its serving cell is cell #2.

Optionally, the communication system shown in the communication system 100 may include more or fewer network devices, and the coverage of each network device may include other numbers of terminal devices, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application .

It can be seen from Fig. 1 that when the terminal device is within the coverage of the serving cell and other cells, the terminal device can use the beam directions of other cells for uplink and downlink communication without switching cells. In some cases, for example, if the quality of the reference signal corresponding to the beam direction of a certain cell is higher than that of the serving cell, the terminal device can use the beam direction in the cell for uplink and downlink communication. At this time, if the system information of the serving cell is changed, a notification of the change of the system information may be sent to the terminal device through the network device of the serving cell. Specifically, the terminal device needs to switch the beam direction back to the beam direction of the serving cell, and then the network device of the serving cell sends a notification of system information change to the terminal device. It can be seen from the foregoing that the quality of the reference signal corresponding to the beam direction may be poor. Therefore, this method may result in the failure of the terminal device to successfully receive the above notification.

In order to solve the above problems, this application provides a communication method, the terminal device can communicate with the network equipment of the non-serving cell, when the system information of the serving cell of the terminal device changes, the terminal device can directly access the The network device can receive the notification of the change of system information without switching back to the network device in the serving cell. Therefore, it is beneficial to improve the possibility of the terminal device receiving the above notification, and the terminal device does not need to switch back to the network device in the serving cell. It is beneficial to reduce signaling overhead and delay.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the application, the terminal device switching back to the network device of the serving cell refers to the beam direction of the terminal device switching back to the serving cell to communicate with the network device of the serving cell, which does not mean that the terminal device is switching cells. That is, the terminal device can use the beam directions of other cells to perform uplink and downlink communication without switching cells.

The communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the embodiments shown below describe the method from the perspective of interaction among the terminal device, the first network device, and the second network device. The terminal device may be the terminal device 130 shown in FIG. 1 , the first network device may be the network device 110 shown in FIG. 1 , and the second network device may be the network device 120 shown in FIG. 1 .

It should also be understood that, although the embodiments shown below are described by taking the interaction between the terminal device, the first network device, and the second network device as an example, the execution subject of the method should not be construed in any way. As long as the program recorded with the code of the method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be executed, the method provided by the embodiment of the present application can be executed. For example, the terminal device can also be replaced with components configured in the terminal device (such as chips, chip systems, etc.), or other functional modules that can call programs and execute programs, and the first network device can also be replaced with Components in the device (such as chips, chip systems, etc.), or other functional modules that can call programs and execute programs, the second network device can also be replaced with components configured in the second network device (such as chips, chip systems etc.), or other functional modules that can call programs and execute programs. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

It should be noted that, for ease of distinction, the cell served by the first network device is marked as the first cell, and the cell served by the second network device is marked as the second cell. The first cell is the serving cell of the terminal device, and the second cell can be viewed as It is the assisting cell of the terminal equipment. Unless otherwise specified, the terminal device described below is a terminal device in which the first cell is the serving cell.

Fig. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application. The method 200 shown in FIG. 2 may include S210 to S230. Each step in the method 200 is described in detail below.

S210. The first network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information instructs the terminal device to communicate with the second network device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information from the first network device.

Wherein, the cell served by the first network device is the first cell, the cell served by the second network device is the second cell, the first cell is the serving cell of the terminal device, and the second cell may be regarded as an assisting cell of the terminal device. When the quality of the reference signal corresponding to the beam direction of the second cell is higher than the quality of the reference signal corresponding to the beam direction of the first cell, the first network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device to indicate that the terminal device and the second Network devices communicate. It is not difficult to see that the first indication information indicates that the terminal device communicates with the second network device, that is, the terminal device can communicate across cells. In other words, the terminal device can communicate with other cells other than the serving cell without switching the serving cell. After receiving the first indication information, the terminal device can communicate with the second network device, which is beneficial to improve the communication quality.

A possible design is that the first indication information may indicate a beam direction for communication between the terminal device and the second network device, where the beam direction is a beam direction of the second cell. For example, the first indication information may include a TCI state, and the first network device may indicate the beam direction through the TCI state, where there is a corresponding relationship between the TCI state and the reference signal. The terminal device may determine the reference signal based on the above TCI state. As mentioned above, the reference signal corresponds to the beam direction one by one, and then the terminal device determines the beam direction for communicating with the second network device based on the reference signal.

S220. The second network device sends second indication information to the terminal device, where the second indication information indicates that the system information of the first cell is changed. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second indication information from the second network device.

Wherein, the change of system information may be a change of emergency information, or a change of system information other than emergency information, and may be a change of emergency information or a change of system information other than emergency information. For example, the emergency information may be an ETWS notification and/or a CMAS notification, or other types of emergency information, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, before the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device, the first network device may send a notification that the system information of the first cell has changed to the second network device, so that the second network device can send the terminal device The device sends second indication information. After receiving the notification from the first network device that the system information has changed, the second network device may directly send the notification to the terminal device.

The second network device sends second indication information to the terminal device to indicate that the system information of the first cell of the terminal device is changed. A possible design is that the second indication information may be DCI. The second network device sends the DCI to the terminal device to indicate that the system information has changed, for example, the Short Message in the second part of the DCI may indicate that the system information has changed.

Several possible designs in which the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device are described in detail below, where the second indication information may be DCI, for example.

A first possible design is that the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell. The common PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell refers to the PDCCH reception configuration that all terminal devices in the first cell can use. In other words, all terminal devices in the first cell can receive the second indication information based on the above common PDCCH reception configuration.

A second possible design is that the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell. For example, the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device based on the dedicated search space and dedicated control resource set (CORESET) configuration of the terminal device in the first cell. For another example, the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device based on the terminal device's dedicated search space configuration in the first cell and the first cell's common CORESET configuration.

A third possible design is that the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell. Since the terminal device is located within the coverage of the second cell, the terminal device may also receive the second indication information from the second network device based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell.

A fourth possible design is that the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the second cell. For example, the terminal device may be additionally configured with a set of dedicated PDCCH receiving configurations for the terminal device in the second cell, and the above-mentioned dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration for the terminal device in the second cell may be a dedicated receiving configuration additionally assigned to the terminal device by the second cell ; It is also possible to use the public PDCCH receiving configuration of the second cell as the dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration of the terminal device in the second cell, in other words, the public PDCCH receiving configuration of the second cell can be used as the dedicated PDCCH receiving configuration of the terminal device in the second cell configuration.

In the above design, the PDCCH reception configuration may include, for example, one or more of the following: common search space configuration, common CORESET configuration, paging cycle configuration, paging slot configuration, DCI format configuration, wireless network temporary identifier for scrambling and descrambling (radio network temporary identifier, RNTI), the dedicated search space configuration of the terminal device, and the dedicated CORESET configuration of the terminal device.

It can be understood that when the second network device sends the second indication information to the terminal device based on the above first or second possible design, the second network device needs to know the public PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell or the terminal device is in the first cell. Dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the cell. A possible implementation manner is that the first network device and the second network device pre-store the foregoing PDCCH receiving configuration of the opposite cell. Another possible implementation manner is that the second network device determines the foregoing PDCCH reception configuration through communication with the first network device. For example, the first network device sends third indication information to the second network device, where the third indication information includes the public PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell or the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell.

It can be seen from the foregoing that the change of system information includes the change of emergency information and/or the change of system information other than emergency information. Therefore, a possible situation is that the second indication information indicates that the system information of the first cell is changed, and the system information is system information other than emergency information. Another possible situation is that the second indication information indicates a change of emergency information. Another possible situation is that the second indication information indicates a change of the emergency information and a change of the system information of the first cell except the emergency information.

It can be understood that the change of emergency information may be a change in a larger area, such as an earthquake, tsunami, etc., may occur in both the first cell and the second cell, so there is no need to distinguish which cell it is. However, system information changes other than emergency information are aimed at a certain cell, so it is necessary to distinguish which cell the system information changes occur. In order to prevent the terminal equipment with the second cell as the serving cell from mistakenly thinking that the system information of its serving cell has changed after receiving the second indication information, two possible ways are given below as an example to distinguish the occurrence of system information Changed neighborhood.

It should be understood that, unless otherwise specified, the terminal device mentioned herein refers to the terminal device with the first cell as the serving cell. In the following description, in order to facilitate the distinction between a terminal device using the first cell as the serving cell and a terminal device using the second cell as the serving cell, the terminal device using the first cell as the serving cell may be recorded as the first terminal device, The terminal equipment using the second cell as the serving cell is recorded as the second terminal equipment.

One possible way is to use DCI as the second indication information, where the DCI includes indication bits used to indicate the cell where the system information change occurs. Exemplarily, the second network device may use the reserved bits in the second part of the DCI to indicate the cell where the system information change occurs. For example, when b4 is 1, it indicates that the system information of the serving cell of the first terminal device has changed, that is, the system information of the first cell has changed. After receiving the above-mentioned second indication information, the second terminal device considers that it is not the second The system information of the cell is changed, thereby avoiding the problem that the second terminal device using the second cell as the serving cell mistakenly thinks that the system information of the serving cell has changed.

Another possible manner is that different PDCCH receiving configurations correspond to different cells, so that the second indication information is sent based on the PDCCH receiving configurations of different cells, so that the terminal device can distinguish. The specific content included in the PDCCH reception configuration is as described above, and will not be repeated here. The PDCCH reception configurations of different cells are different, that is to say, the PDCCH reception configurations of different cells are different in one or more of the following: common search space configuration, common CORESET configuration, paging cycle configuration, paging slot configuration, DCI format configuration, RNTI for scrambling and descrambling, dedicated search space configuration for terminal equipment, and dedicated CORESET configuration for terminal equipment. Sending the second indication information based on different PDCCH receiving configurations may enable terminals using different cells as serving cells to receive DCI based on different PDCCH receiving configurations. For example, the PDCCH receiving configuration of the first cell is marked as configuration #1, and the PDCCH receiving configuration of the second cell is marked as configuration #2. Sending the second indication information to the first terminal device, in this way, the second terminal device will not receive the second indication information, thereby preventing the second terminal device that takes the second cell as the serving cell from mistakenly thinking that it is the serving cell Problems with system information changes.

S230. The second network device sends the changed system information of the first cell to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the changed system information of the first cell from the second network device.

The second network device sends the changed system information to the terminal device through the beam direction of the second cell. Exemplarily, the beam direction of the second cell corresponds to the TCI. It can be seen from the above that the change of system information includes the change of emergency information or the change of system information other than emergency information. Therefore, the above-mentioned changed system information may be the specific content of emergency information, such as the level of earthquake or tsunami, etc., or it may be Changed system messages other than emergency messages.

A possible implementation manner is that the second network device receives the changed system information from the first network device, and then directly sends the changed system information to the terminal device. It should be noted that if the changed system information refers to the specific content of emergency information, and the emergency information is for a larger area, such as the entire area including the first cell and the second cell, then the second network The device does not need to obtain the changed system information from the first network device. For example, if an earthquake occurs in areas where both the first cell and the second cell are located, the second network device does not need to obtain changed system information from the first network device.

Several possible designs in which the second network device sends the changed system information to the terminal device through the beam direction of the second cell will be described in detail below.

A possible design is that the second indication information is also used to indicate a resource that bears the changed system information, and the second network device sends the changed system information to the terminal device on the resource. Wherein, the resources bearing the changed system information include one or more of the following: time domain resources, frequency domain resources and air domain resources. Exemplarily, the above-mentioned resources are included in the third part of the DCI, so as to instruct the terminal device how to receive the changed system information.

Another possible design is that the second network device does not need to send the second indication information, and directly sends the changed system information through RRC dedicated signaling. For specific solutions, reference may be made to known technologies, which will not be described in detail here.

Another possible design is that the second network device sends a system information (system information, SI)-RNTI scrambled PDCCH to the terminal device, the PDCCH indicates resources bearing SIB1, and SIB1 indicates resources bearing changed system information. After receiving the PDCCH, the terminal device can determine the resources bearing the SIB1, and after receiving the SIB1 on the above resources, it can determine the resources bearing the changed system information. Exemplarily, taking the change of system information other than emergency information as an example, after receiving the PDCCH, the terminal device receives SIB1 on the corresponding resource indicated by the PDCCH, and determines the SIB (such as SIB2) based on the received SIB1 Resources, after receiving SIB2 on the corresponding resources, the changed system information can be obtained. As another example, taking the change of emergency information as an example, after receiving the PDCCH, the terminal device receives the SIB1 on the corresponding resource indicated by the PDCCH, and determines the resources bearing other SIBs (such as SIB6) based on the received SIB1, and in the corresponding By receiving SIB6 on the resource, the specific content of the emergency information, such as the magnitude of the earthquake, can be obtained.

Optionally, the terminal device may be configured with multiple sets of system information receiving configurations for receiving changed system information. Wherein, the system information receiving configuration includes the cycle and/or window length of the system information. Each set of system information receiving configuration corresponds to a cell, and the terminal device can use the system information receiving configuration of the cell (such as the second cell) corresponding to the currently activated beam direction to receive the changed system information.

For example, the system information receiving configuration of the first cell is marked as configuration #1, and the system information receiving configuration of the second cell is marked as configuration #2. If the beam direction currently activated by the terminal device is the beam direction of the second cell, the terminal The device may receive changed system information through the beam direction based on the system information receiving configuration corresponding to the second cell.

Based on the above technical solution, the terminal device can communicate with a non-serving cell (such as the second cell) with better signal quality. If the system information of the serving cell of the terminal device changes, the terminal device can directly receive the notification of system information change and the changed system information through the network equipment of the non-serving cell, so that the terminal device does not need to switch back to the network device of the serving cell , the notification and the changed system information can be received, the overhead of switching signaling can be reduced, and frequent beam switching of the terminal equipment can be avoided, thereby reducing the time delay. On the other hand, since the quality of the signal received by the terminal device in the second cell is relatively good, sending the notification through the second network device helps to improve the reliability of the terminal device receiving the above notification.

Fig. 3 is another schematic flowchart of the communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application. The method 300 shown in FIG. 3 may include S310 to S330. Each step in the method 300 is described in detail below.

S310. The first network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information instructs the terminal device to communicate with the second network device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information from the first network device.

This step is the same as S210 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , and will not be repeated here for brevity.

S320. The second network device sends second indication information to the terminal device, where the second indication information indicates that the system information of the first cell is changed. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second indication information from the second network device.

This step is the same as S220 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , and will not be repeated here for brevity.

S330. The first network device sends the changed system information of the first cell to the terminal device. Correspondingly, the terminal device receives the changed system information of the first cell from the first network device.

The difference from the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is that the second network device sends second indication information to the terminal device, indicating that after the system information of the first cell is changed, the first network device sends the changed system information to the terminal device. In other words, the terminal device needs to switch back to the beam direction of the first cell to communicate with the first network device.

A possible implementation manner is that, after receiving the second indication information, the terminal device automatically switches the direction of the receiving beam to the beam direction of the first cell, and receives the changed system information from the first network device through the above receiving beam. information. In other words, the second indication information implicitly instructs the terminal device to switch the beam direction. Optionally, the above-mentioned beam direction of the first cell may be a beam direction used by the terminal device in the first cell before communicating with the second network device.

The process in which the terminal device receives the changed system information from the first network device based on the above receiving beam is described in detail below.

One possible situation is that the change of system information refers to the change of system information other than emergency information. In this case, the terminal device receives the SIB1 in the next system information modification cycle, and the SIB1 includes resources bearing other SIBs (such as SIB2), and the terminal device receives the changed system information on the above resources. Wherein, the system information modification period refers to how often the system information is modified at intervals.

Another possibility is that the change of system information refers to the change of emergency information. At this time, the terminal device immediately starts to receive SIB1, which contains resources carrying other SIBs (such as SIB6), and the terminal device receives the specific content of the emergency information on the above resources, such as the magnitude of the earthquake.

After the terminal device receives the changed system information, if it does not receive the new beam indication information, it can switch back to the beam direction of the second cell for communication, for example, switch back to the beam direction before receiving the changed system information for communication . If new beam indication information is received, communication can be performed based on the new beam direction. Wherein, the beam indication information is used to indicate the beam direction corresponding to the reference signal with better quality.

Optionally, the above method further includes: after receiving the second indication information, the terminal device starts or restarts a timer, and the duration of the timer may be pre-configured or predefined through a protocol. When the terminal device receives changed system information or receives new beam indication information, the timer is stopped, and when the timer is started next time, it starts timing from the initial value of the timer. If the terminal device has not received the changed system information or new beam indication information when the timer expires, it will automatically switch the beam direction to the beam direction of the second cell, thereby avoiding communication interruption.

Optionally, the terminal device may also be configured with a discontinuous reception (DRX) parameter, where DRX refers to the terminal device discontinuously receiving a PDCCH signal, and the DRX parameter is used to indicate a time period for enabling reception and a time period for deactivating reception. After the terminal device receives the second indication information, it can be in a receiving period for a next period of time, so as to quickly receive the changed system information. Exemplarily, after receiving the second indication information, the terminal device starts or restarts an inactivity timer (such as a DRX inactivity timer), and before the timer expires, the terminal device is in a state of starting to receive the PDCCH. After the timer expires, the terminal device determines the time period for enabling and disabling reception according to the DRX parameters, so that the terminal device can quickly receive the specific content of the emergency information in emergency scenarios such as earthquakes or tsunamis.

Based on the above technical solution, the terminal device can communicate with a non-serving cell with better signal quality. When the system information of the serving cell of the terminal device changes, the second indication information can be sent through the network device of the non-serving cell to indicate The system information of the serving cell of the terminal device is changed, and the changed system information is received through the first network device of the serving cell, so that the terminal device can receive the second indication information in a timely and reliable manner. In addition, the terminal device receives the second indication information After that, it automatically switches to the network device of the serving cell for communication without generating new switching signaling, thereby reducing the overhead of switching signaling.

FIG. 4 to FIG. 7 are schematic structural diagrams of possible communication devices provided by the embodiments of the present application.

Fig. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a communication device 400 provided by an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG. 4 , the communication device 400 includes a processing unit 410 and a transceiver unit 420 .

The above apparatus 400 may be used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 above, or, the above apparatus 400 may include any function or operation for realizing the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. A module, which may be fully or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. The above-mentioned apparatus 400 is used to realize the function of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 above, or, the device 400 may include any function used to realize the first network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 above. Or a module of operation, which may be realized in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. The above apparatus 400 is used to implement the functions of the second network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 above, or, the apparatus 400 may include any function of the second network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 Or a module of operation, which may be realized in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof.

When the apparatus 400 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , the transceiver unit 420 can be used to receive first indication information from the first network device, the first indication information indicating that the terminal device Communicating with a second network device, the cell served by the first network device is a first cell, the cell served by the second network device is a second cell, and the first cell is a serving cell of the terminal device; receiving second indication information from the second network device, the second indication information indicating that the system information of the first cell is changed; and receiving the changed system information of the first cell.

When the apparatus 400 is used to realize the function of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , the transceiver unit 420 can be used to send the first indication information to the terminal device, the first indication information indicating that the terminal device and The second network device communicates, the cell served by the first network device is a first cell, the cell served by the second network device is a second cell, and the first cell is a serving cell of the terminal device.

When the apparatus 400 is used to realize the function of the second network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. The system information of a cell is changed; sending the changed system information to the terminal device.

The above apparatus 400 may be used to realize the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 above, or, the above apparatus 400 may include any function or operation for realizing the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. A module, which may be fully or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. The above-mentioned apparatus 400 is used to realize the function of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 above, or, the device 400 may include any function used to realize the first network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 above Or a module of operation, which may be realized in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. The above-mentioned apparatus 400 is used to realize the function of the second network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 above, or, the device 400 may include any function used to realize the second network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 above. Or a module of operation, which may be realized in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof.

When the apparatus 400 is used to implement the functions of the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the transceiver unit 420 can be used to receive first indication information from the first network device, the first indication information indicating that the terminal device Communicating with a second network device, the cell served by the first network device is a first cell, the cell served by the second network device is a second cell, and the first cell is a serving cell of the terminal device; receiving second indication information from the second network device, the second indication information indicating that the system information of the first cell is changed; and receiving the changed system information of the first cell.

When the apparatus 400 is used to realize the function of the first network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 3 , the transceiver unit 420 can be used to send first indication information to the terminal device, the first indication information indicating that the terminal device is connected with The second network device communicates, the cell served by the first network device is a first cell, the cell served by the second network device is a second cell, and the first cell is a serving cell of the terminal device; The terminal device sends the changed system information.

When the apparatus 400 is used to realize the function of the second network device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. The system information of a cell changes.

More detailed descriptions about the processing unit 410 and the transceiver unit 420 can be directly obtained by referring to the relevant descriptions in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 , and will not be repeated here.

It should be understood that the division of units in the embodiment of the present application is schematic, and is only a logical function division, and there may be another division manner in actual implementation. In addition, each functional unit in each embodiment of the present application may be integrated into one processor, or physically exist separately, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit. The above-mentioned integrated units can be implemented in the form of hardware or in the form of software functional units.

FIG. 5 is another schematic block diagram of a communication device 500 provided by an embodiment of the present application. The device 500 may be a system on a chip, or may also be a device configured with a system on a chip to implement the communication function in the foregoing method embodiments. In the embodiment of the present application, the system-on-a-chip may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

As shown in FIG. 5 , the apparatus 500 may include a processor 510 and a communication interface 520 . Wherein, the communication interface 520 can be used to communicate with other devices through a transmission medium, so that the apparatus 500 can communicate with other devices. The communication interface 520 may be, for example, a transceiver, an interface, a bus, a circuit, or a device capable of realizing a sending and receiving function. The processor 510 can use the communication interface 520 to input and output data, and implement the communication method described in the embodiment corresponding to FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 . Specifically, the apparatus 500 may be used to implement the functions of the first network device, the second network device, or the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments.

When the apparatus 500 is used to implement the method shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 , the processor 510 is used to implement the functions of the processing unit 410 , and the communication interface 520 is used to implement the functions of the transceiver unit 420 .

Optionally, the device 500 further includes at least one memory 530 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 530 is coupled to the processor 510 . The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules. Processor 510 may cooperate with memory 530 . Processor 510 may execute program instructions stored in memory 530 . At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor.

The specific connection medium among the processor 510, the communication interface 520, and the memory 530 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, in FIG. 5 , the processor 510 , the communication interface 520 and the memory 530 are connected through a bus 540 . The bus 540 is represented by a thick line in FIG. 5 , and the connection manner between other components is only for schematic illustration and is not limited thereto. The bus can be divided into address bus, data bus, control bus and so on. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used in FIG. 5 , but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a network device provided by an embodiment of the present application, for example, it may be a schematic structural diagram of a base station. The base station 600 may perform the function of the network device in the foregoing method embodiments. As shown in FIG. 6, the base station 600 may include one or more radio frequency units, such as a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU) 610 and one or more baseband units (BBU) (also called distributed units ( DU)) 620. The RRU 610 may be called a transceiver unit, corresponding to the transceiver unit 420 in FIG. 4 . Optionally, the RRU 610 may also be called a transceiver, a transceiver circuit, or a transceiver, etc., and may include at least one antenna 611 and a radio frequency unit 612 . Optionally, the RRU 610 may include a receiving unit and a sending unit, the receiving unit may correspond to a receiver (or receiver, receiving circuit), and the sending unit may correspond to a transmitter (or transmitter, transmitting circuit). The RRU 610 part is mainly used for sending and receiving radio frequency signals and converting radio frequency signals and baseband signals, for example, for sending configuration information to terminal equipment. The part of the BBU 620 is mainly used for baseband processing, controlling the base station, and the like. The RRU 610 and the BBU 620 may be physically set together, or physically separated, that is, a distributed base station.

The BBU 620 is the control center of the base station, and can also be called a processing unit, which can correspond to the processing unit 410 in FIG. 4 , and is mainly used to complete baseband processing functions, such as channel coding, multiplexing, modulation, and spectrum spreading. For example, the BBU (processing unit) may be used to control the base station to execute the operation procedures related to the network equipment in the above method embodiments.

In an example, the BBU 620 may be composed of one or more single boards, and multiple single boards may jointly support a wireless access network (such as an LTE network) of a single access standard, or may separately support wireless access networks of different access standards. Wireless access network (such as LTE network, 5G network or other networks). The BBU 620 also includes a memory 621 and a processor 622 . The memory 621 is used to store necessary instructions and data. The processor 622 is configured to control the base station to perform necessary actions, for example, to control the base station to execute the operation procedures related to the first network device in the foregoing method embodiments. The memory 621 and the processor 622 may serve one or more single boards. That is to say, memory and processors can be set independently on each single board. It may also be that multiple single boards share the same memory and processor. In addition, necessary circuits can also be set on each single board.

It should be understood that the base station 600 shown in FIG. 6 can implement various processes involving network devices in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 . The operations and/or functions of the various modules in the base station 600 are respectively for implementing the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments. For details, reference may be made to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are appropriately omitted here to avoid repetition.

The above-mentioned BBU 620 can be used to execute the actions implemented by the network device described in the previous method embodiments, and the RRU 610 can be used to perform the actions sent from the network device to the terminal device or received from the terminal device described in the previous method embodiments. For details, please refer to the description in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device provided by an embodiment of the present application. The terminal device 700 has the functions of the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 , and the terminal device 700 can be applied to the communication system 100 shown in FIG. 1 . As shown in FIG. 7 , the terminal device 700 includes a processor 701 and a transceiver 702 . Optionally, the terminal device 700 further includes a memory 703 . Among them, the processor 701, the transceiver 702 and the memory 703 can communicate with each other through an internal connection path, and transmit control and/or data signals. Call and run the computer program to control the transceiver 702 to send and receive signals. Optionally, the terminal device 700 may further include an antenna 704, configured to send the uplink data or uplink control signaling output by the transceiver 702 through wireless signals. Optionally, the terminal device 700 further includes a Wi-Fi module 711, configured to access a wireless network.

The processor 701 and the memory 703 may be combined into a processing device, and the processor 701 is configured to execute the program codes stored in the memory 703 to realize the above functions. During specific implementation, the memory 703 may also be integrated in the processor 701 , or be independent of the processor 701 . The processor 701 may correspond to the processing unit 410 in FIG. 4 or the processor 510 in FIG. 5 .

The above-mentioned transceiver 702 may correspond to the transceiver unit 420 in FIG. 4 or the communication interface 520 in FIG. 5 . The transceiver 702 may include a receiver (or receiver, receiving circuit) and a transmitter (or transmitter, transmitting circuit). Among them, the receiver is used to receive signals, and the transmitter is used to transmit signals.

Optionally, the terminal device 700 may further include a power supply 705, configured to provide power to various devices or circuits in the terminal device 700.

In addition, in order to make the functions of the terminal device more perfect, the terminal device 700 may also include one or more of an input unit 706, a display unit 707, an audio circuit 708, a camera 709, and a sensor 710. The audio The circuitry may also include a speaker 708a, a microphone 708b, and the like.

It should be understood that the terminal device 700 shown in FIG. 7 can implement various processes involving the terminal device in the method embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 . The operations and/or functions of the various modules in the terminal device 700 are respectively for implementing the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments. For details, reference may be made to the descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments, and detailed descriptions are appropriately omitted here to avoid repetition.

When the terminal device 700 is used to execute the operation procedures related to the terminal device in the above method embodiments, the processor 701 can be used to execute the actions described in the above method embodiments implemented by the terminal device, and the transceiver 702 can be used to Execute the actions described in the foregoing method embodiments that the terminal device sends to or receives from the network device. For details, please refer to the description in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

The present application also provides a computer program product, and the computer program product includes: a computer program (also referred to as code, or an instruction), when the computer program is executed, the computer executes the implementation shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 . In this example, the method executed by the terminal device, or the method executed by the first network device, or the method executed by the second network device.

The present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program (also called a code, or an instruction). When the computer program is executed, the computer is made to execute the method executed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3 , or the method executed by the first network device, or the method executed by the second network device.

An embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, and the system includes the aforementioned terminal device, a first network device, and a second network device.

It should be understood that the processor in the embodiment of the present application may be an integrated circuit chip that has a signal processing capability. In the implementation process, each step of the above-mentioned method embodiments may be completed by an integrated logic circuit of hardware in a processor or instructions in the form of software. The above-mentioned processor may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (digital signal processor, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuit, ASIC), a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable Logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components. Various methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented or executed. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or the processor may be any conventional processor, or the like. The steps of the method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware decoding processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the decoding processor. The software module can be located in a mature storage medium in the field such as random access memory, flash memory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory or electrically erasable programmable memory, register. The storage medium is located in the memory, and the processor reads the information in the memory, and completes the steps of the above method in combination with its hardware.

It should also be understood that the memory in the embodiments of the present application may be a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory, or may include both volatile and nonvolatile memories. Among them, the non-volatile memory can be read-only memory (read-only memory, ROM), programmable read-only memory (programmable ROM, PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (erasable PROM, EPROM), electrically programmable Erases programmable read-only memory (electrically EPROM, EEPROM) or flash memory. Volatile memory can be random access memory (RAM), which acts as external cache memory. By way of illustration and not limitation, many forms of RAM are available, such as static random access memory (static RAM, SRAM), dynamic random access memory (dynamic RAM, DRAM), synchronous dynamic random access memory (synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (double data rateSDRAM, DDR SDRAM), enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), synchronous connection dynamic random access memory (synchlink DRAM, SLDRAM) And direct memory bus random access memory (directrambus RAM, DR RAM). It should be noted that the memory of the systems and methods described herein is intended to include, but not be limited to, these and any other suitable types of memory.

The terms "unit", "module" and the like used in this specification may be used to denote a computer-related entity, hardware, firmware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. The units and modules in the embodiments of the present application have the same meaning and can be used interchangeably.

Those of ordinary skill in the art can realize that various illustrative logical blocks (illustrative logical blocks) and steps (steps) described in conjunction with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented with electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. accomplish. Whether these functions are executed by hardware or software depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution. Skilled artisans may use different methods to implement the described functions for each specific application, but such implementation should not be regarded as exceeding the scope of the present application. In the several embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed devices, devices and methods can be implemented in other ways. For example, the device embodiments described above are only illustrative. For example, the division of the units is only a logical function division. In actual implementation, there may be other division methods. For example, multiple units or components can be combined or May be integrated into another system, or some features may be ignored, or not implemented. In another point, the mutual coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed may be through some interfaces, and the indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or units may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms.

The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separated, and the components shown as units may or may not be physical units, that is, they may be located in one place, or may be distributed to multiple network units. Part or all of the units can 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 into one processing unit, each unit may exist separately physically, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

In the above embodiments, the functions of each functional unit may be fully or partially implemented by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it 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 (programs). When the computer program instructions (program) are loaded and executed on the computer, the processes or functions according to the embodiments of the present application will be generated in whole or in part. The computer can be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, or other programmable devices. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website, computer, server or data center Transmission to another website site, computer, server or data center by wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (such as 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 or a data center integrated with one or more available media. The available medium may be a magnetic medium (such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape), an optical medium (such as a digital versatile disk (digital video disc, DVD)), or a semiconductor medium (such as a solid state disk (solid state disk, SSD) )wait.

If the functions described above are realized in the form of software function units and sold or used as independent products, they can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of the present application is essentially or the part that contributes to the prior art or the part of the technical solution can be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including Several instructions are used to make a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in the various embodiments of the present application. The aforementioned storage medium includes: various media capable of storing program codes such as U disk, mobile hard disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic disk or optical disk.

The above is only a specific implementation of the application, but the scope of protection of the application is not limited thereto. Anyone familiar with the technical field can easily think of changes or substitutions within the technical scope disclosed in the application. Should be covered within the protection scope of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of the present application should be determined by the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (22)

1. A communication method, characterized in that, the method is applied to a terminal device, and the method comprises: receiving first indication information from the first network device, the first indication information indicating that the terminal device communicates with the second network device, the cell served by the first network device is the first cell, and the second network device The serving cell is a second cell, and the first cell is a serving cell of the terminal device; receiving second indication information from the second network device, where the second indication information indicates that the system information of the first cell is changed; Receive changed system information of the first cell. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the second indication information is downlink control information (DCI), and the DCI is used to indicate the cell whose system information is changed. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the receiving the second indication information from the second network device comprises: receiving the DCI from the second network device based on the public physical downlink control channel PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell; or receiving the DCI from the second network device based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell; or receiving the DCI from the second network device based on a common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell; or receiving the DCI from the second network device based on a dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the second cell. 4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the first indication information indicates that the beam direction for the terminal device to communicate with the second network device is the direction of the beam of the second cell beam direction. 5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the receiving the changed system information of the first cell comprises: switching the direction of the receiving beam to the beam direction of the first cell; The changed system information from the first network device is received through the receive beam. 6. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the receiving the changed system information of the first cell comprises: The changed system information from the second network device is received through a beam direction of the second cell. 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the second indication information is further used to indicate the resources bearing the changed system information, and The receiving the changed system information from the second network device through the beam direction of the second cell includes: The altered system information from the second network device is received on the resource. 8. A communication method, characterized in that the method is applied to a second network device, and the method comprises: generating second indication information, where the second indication information indicates that the system information of the first cell is changed, the first cell is the serving cell of the terminal device, the first cell is served by the first network device, and the second The cell served by the network equipment is the second cell; Send the second indication information to the terminal device. 9 . The method according to claim 8 , wherein the second indication information is downlink control information (DCI), and the DCI is used to indicate the cell whose system information is changed. 10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the sending the second indication information to the terminal device comprises: Sending the DCI based on the public physical downlink control channel PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell; or Sending the DCI based on the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell; or receiving and sending DCI based on the common PDCCH reception configuration of the second cell; or Sending the DCI based on a dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the second cell. 11. The method according to claim 10, characterized in that before sending the changed system information of the first cell to the terminal device, the method further comprises: receiving third indication information from the first network device, where the third indication information includes the common PDCCH reception configuration of the first cell or the dedicated PDCCH reception configuration of the terminal device in the first cell. 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving changed system information of the first cell from the first network device; Send the changed system information to the terminal device. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the second indication information is further used to indicate the resources bearing the changed system information, and The sending the changed system information to the terminal device includes: sending the changed system information to the terminal device on the resource. 14. A communications device, comprising a unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7. 15. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a processor and a memory, the processor is coupled to the memory, and the processor is used to control the device to implement the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7. method. 16. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a processor and an interface circuit, the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices other than the device and transmit them to the processor or transfer signals from the processor The signal of the processor is sent to other communication devices other than the device, and the processor implements the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 through a logic circuit or executing code instructions. 17. A communications device, comprising a unit for executing the method according to any one of claims 8 to 13. 18. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a processor and a memory, the processor is coupled to the memory, and the processor is used to control the device to implement the method according to any one of claims 8 to 13. method. 19. A communication device, characterized in that it includes a processor and an interface circuit, the interface circuit is used to receive signals from other communication devices other than the device and transmit them to the processor or transfer signals from the processor The signal of the processor is sent to other communication devices other than the device, and the processor implements the method according to any one of claims 8 to 13 through a logic circuit or executing code instructions. 20. A communication system, comprising the device according to any one of claims 14-16 and the device according to any one of claims 17-19. 21. A computer-readable storage medium, wherein a computer program or instruction is stored in the storage medium, and when the computer program or instruction is executed by a computer, the computer program described in any one of claims 1 to 7 can be realized. described method, or realize the method as described in any one in the claim 8 to 13. 22. A computer program product, characterized in that the computer program product includes instructions, and when the instructions are executed by a computer, the method according to any one of claims 1 to 7 is realized, or the method according to any one of claims is realized. The method described in any one of 8 to 13.

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