Patent Description:
The fifth generation (5th Generation, <NUM>) mobile communications system new radio (New Radio, NR) has introduced a massive antenna technology, which can better support a multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output, MU-MIMO) antenna technology. In order to reduce device cost and complexity of baseband processing caused by large-scale antenna arrays, a hybrid digital-analog beamforming technology is used to roughly match transmitted signals with channels.

However, in the hybrid digital-analog beamforming technology, there still lacks a scheme for determining parameter information of a search space (search space#<NUM>) in a control resource set (CORESET#<NUM>) based on configuration information of a CORESET#<NUM>, which prevents search space#<NUM> from being accurately monitored.

<NPL> discloses that for the broadcast PDCCH, it is up to the UE which common search space to monitor based on which SSB. It also suggests that CORESET#<NUM> could be configured with a TCI state and that configuring TCI state on CORESET#<NUM> makes it possible to use narrow beam of CSI-RS on CORESET#<NUM> and to base configuration of CORESET#<NUM> on the SSB which is QCLed with the configured CSI-RS.

<NPL> discloses that for the broadcast PDCCH, it is up to the UE which common search space to monitor based on which SSB. It discusses various suggestions related to TCI states for CORESET#<NUM>. One suggestion is to re-configure the TCI state of CORESET#<NUM> using RRC signalling. One suggestion is configuring CORESET#<NUM> with the TCI state of CSI-RS and another is that CORESET#<NUM> is QCLed with an associated SSB. It suggests re-configuring the TCI state of CORESET#<NUM> using RRC signalling.

An objective of embodiments of this disclosure is to provide a method and a terminal device for determining a search space parameter to solve a problem in related technologies that a terminal device is unable to accurately determine parameter information of a search space#<NUM>.

According to a first aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure provides a method for determining a search space parameter, applied to a terminal device, where the method includes:.

According to a second aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure further provides a terminal device, including:.

According to a fourth aspect, an embodiment of this disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program. When the computer program is executed by a processor, the steps of the method for determining a space search parameter according to the first aspect are implemented.

In the embodiments of this disclosure, a TCI state of a CORESET#<NUM> is configured for a terminal device by using dedicated signaling. When a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> is a CSI-RS, the terminal device determines a target SSB having a first association relationship with the CSI-RS, so that the terminal device can accurately determine parameter information of a search space#<NUM> based on the target SSB, and then accurately monitoring the search space#<NUM> by the terminal device is effectively implemented.

The drawings described herein are intended for a further understanding of this disclosure and constitute a part of this disclosure. In the drawings:.

The following clearly describes the technical solutions in the embodiments of this disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of this disclosure.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a network architecture according to an embodiment of this disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, the network architecture includes a user terminal <NUM> and a base station <NUM>. The user terminal <NUM> may be user equipment (User Equipment, UE), for example, may be a terminal-side device such as a mobile phone, a tablet computer (Tablet Personal Computer), a laptop computer (Laptop Computer), a personal digital assistant (personal digital assistant, PDA), a mobile internet device (Mobile Internet Device, MID), or a wearable device (Wearable Device). It should be noted that the user terminal <NUM> is not limited to any specific type in this embodiment of this disclosure. The base station <NUM> may be a base station (for example, a gNB or a <NUM> NR NB) in <NUM> or a later release, or a base station in another communications system, or referred to as a NodeB. It should be noted that a <NUM> base station is used only as an example in this embodiment of this disclosure, but the base station <NUM> is not limited to any specific type.

It should be noted that specific functions of the terminal device <NUM> and the base station <NUM> are described in detail by using the following embodiments.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a method for determining a search space parameter according to an embodiment of this disclosure. The method is applied to a terminal device, and may be illustrated as follows.

Step <NUM>. Receive dedicated signaling, where the dedicated signaling is used to configure a transmission configuration indication state (Transmission Configuration Indication state, TCI state) of a CORESET#<NUM> for a terminal device. A source reference signal (Source Reference Signal, Source RS) indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> is a channel state information reference signal (Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS).

Step <NUM>. Determine a target synchronization signal block (Synchronizing Signal Block, SSB) having a first association relationship with the CSI-RS.

Step <NUM>. Determine parameter information of a search space#<NUM> in the CORESET#<NUM> based on the target SSB.

In practical applications, a network-side device configures related information of the CORESET#<NUM> for the terminal device through a physical broadcast channel (Physical Broadcast Channel, PBCH). The PBCH is a component of an SSB, and the CORESET#<NUM> is in spatial quasi-colocation (spatial Quasi-colocation, spatial QCL) with the SSB in which the PBCH is located. Therefore, the terminal device can determine the parameter information of the search space#<NUM> in the CORESET#<NUM> based on the SSB in which the PBCH for configuring the related information of the CORESET#<NUM> is located.

In some embodiments, the network-side device configures the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> for the terminal device through a PBCH, where an SSB in which the PBCH is located is a first SSB. During physical downlink shared channel (Physical Downlink Shared Channel, PDSCH) scheduling, the network-side device sends downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) for scheduling a PDSCH to the terminal device. If a time offset between a receiving moment at which the terminal device receives the DCI and a receiving moment at which the terminal device receives the PDSCH is less than a preset threshold, the terminal device receives the PDSCH based on TCI state information of a CORESET having a smallest ID on a bandwidth part (Bandwidth Part, BWP) in an activated state in a current serving cell, that is, the terminal device receives the PDSCH based on QCL information of the CORESET#<NUM> configured by the PBCH in the first SSB.

However, if the terminal device has switched SSB from the first SSB to a second SSB due to a location change, and the network-side device unaware of this sends a PDSCH still based on the QCL information of the CORESET#<NUM> configured by the PBCH in the first SSB, the network-side device and the terminal device fail to correctly transmit data during PDSCH scheduling.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, in order to implement flexible configuration of a CORESET#<NUM> and correctly transmit control information on the CORESET#<NUM> between the network-side device and the terminal device, the network-side device configures a TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> for the terminal device by using dedicated signaling, so that the network-side device and the terminal device have consistent understanding on the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM>, ensuring that the network-side device and the terminal device correctly perform data transmission.

When the network-side device configures the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> for the terminal device by using dedicated signaling, a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> in this case may be an SSB, or another RS such as a CSI-RS.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the dedicated signaling includes at least one of the following:.

Radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) signaling, and media access control control element (Medium Access Control Control Element, MAC CE) signaling.

For example, the network-side device configures the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> for the terminal device by using RRC signaling; or, the network-side device configures and indicates the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> for the terminal device by using RRC signaling and MAC CE signaling,.

It should be noted that, the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> refers to an RS in a reference signal set (Reference Signal set, RS set), that is, a source RS.

When the terminal device receives the dedicated signaling sent by the network-side device for configuring the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM>, and determines that the Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> configured by the network-side device is a CSI-RS, that is, the CORESET#<NUM> is in quasi-colocation (Quasi-colocation, QCL) with the CSI-RS, to determine parameter information of a search space#<NUM> in the CORESET#<NUM>, the terminal device needs to determine a target SSB having a first association relationship with the CSI-RS, and then determine the parameter information of the search space#<NUM> based on the target SSB.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the first association relationship is that the CSI-RS is in quasi-colocation (Quasi-colocation, QCL) with the target SSB.

Optionally, the first association relationship is that the CSI-RS is at least in spatial QCL with the target SSB.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the determining a target SSB having an association relationship with the CSI-RS includes:.

In order to determine the target SSB having the first association relationship with the CSI-RS indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM>, the terminal device first determines the TCI state of the CSI-RS, where the TCI state of the CSI-RS is configured or indicated by the network-side device.

In practical applications, a TCI state of an RS configured or indicated by a network-side device for a terminal device is used to indicate QCL information of the RS. When the TCI state is used to indicate the QCL information of the RS, a Source RS and a target reference signal Target RS indicated by the TCI state of the CSI-RS may be as follows: the Source RS is an SSB, and the Target RS is a periodic channel state information reference signal (Periodic CSI-RS, P-CSI-RS)/a semi-persistent channel state information reference signal (Semi-Persistent CSI-RS, SP-CSI-RS); the Source RS is a P-CSI-RS, and the Target RS is a P-CSI-RS; or the Source RS is an SSB/P-CSI-RS/SP-CSI-RS, and the target RS is an aperiodic channel state information reference signal (Aperiodic CSI-RS, AP-CSI-RS). The Source RS is in QCL with the Target RS.

The terminal device may determine the target SSB based on the TCI state of the CSI-RS in at least the following two manners.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the determining the target SSB based on the TCI state of the CSI-RS includes:
if a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CSI-RS is a first SSB, determining the first SSB as the target SSB.

The Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CSI-RS configured or indicated by the network-side device is the first SSB, that is, the CSI-RS is in QCL with the first SSB. Therefore, the terminal device can determine the first SSB as the target SSB.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the determining the target SSB based on the TCI state of the CSI-RS includes:.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the second association relationship is that the target RS is in QCL with the second SSB.

Optionally, the second association relationship is that the target RS is at least in spatial QCL with the second SSB.

When the Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CSI-RS configured or indicated by the network-side device is a target RS, and the target RS is an RS other than an SSB, the terminal device needs to determine a target SSB indirectly as follows:.

First, the terminal device determines a second SSB having a second association relationship with the target RS, that is, the target RS is in QCL with the second SSB.

The target RS is the Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CSI-RS, that is, the target RS is in QCL with the CSI-RS.

Therefore, the terminal device indirectly determines that the CSI-RS is in QCL with the second SSB, and can determine the second SSB as the target SSB.

For example, the terminal device receives dedicated signaling sent by the network-side device for configuring the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM>, and determines that a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> configured by the network-side device is a first P-CSI-RS.

The terminal device determines a TCI state of the first P-CSI-RS configured or indicated by the network-side device. If a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the first P-CSI-RS is a target RS (a second P-CSI-RS), which means that the first P-CSI-RS is in QCL with the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS), the terminal device needs to further determine a second SSB having a second association relationship with the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS), which means that the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS) is in QCL with the second SSB. Then the terminal device can indirectly determine that the first P-CSI-RS is in QCL with the second SSB, and can determine the second SSB as the target SSB.

It should be noted that, the terminal device may determine the second SSB having a second association relationship with the target RS in a direct or indirect manner.

A TCI state of the target RS is determined. If a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the target RS is a second SSB, a terminal device can directly determine the second SSB.

Still using that the target RS is a second P-CSI-RS as an example, the terminal device determines a TCI state of the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS) configured or indicated by the network-side device. If a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS) is a second SSB, which means that the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS) is in QCL with the second SSB, the terminal device can directly determine the second SSB in this case.

A TCI state of the target RS is determined. If a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the target RS is an RS other than an SSB, a terminal device determines a second SSB indirectly based on the target RS by: determining a second SSB having an association relationship with the RS, which means that the RS is in QCL with the second SSB. Because the RS is in QCL with the target RS, the terminal device indirectly determines that the target RS is in QCL with the second SSB, that is, indirectly determines the second SSB.

Still using that the target RS is a second P-CSI-RS as an example, the terminal device determines a TCI state of the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS) configured or indicated by the network-side device. If a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS) is a third P-CSI-RS, the third P-CSI-RS is in QCL with the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS).

The terminal device further determines a TCI state of the third P-CSI-RS configured or indicated by the network-side device. If a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the third P-CSI-RS is a second SSB, the third P-CSI-RS is in QCL with the second SSB.

In this case, the terminal device indirectly determines that the target RS (the second P-CSI-RS) is in QCL with the second SSB, that is, indirectly determines the second SSB.

After determining the target SSB, the terminal device may determine parameter information of a search space#<NUM> in a CORESET#<NUM> based on the target SSB.

The search space#<NUM> is a search space configured in the CORESET#<NUM> and with an index (index) of <NUM>.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the parameter information of the search space#<NUM> is used to indicate the terminal device to monitor a common search space of a physical downlink control channel (Type0 Physical Downlink Control Channel, Type0-PDCCH).

The parameter information of the search space#<NUM> includes at least one of the following:.

Time-frequency resource information, and spatial receiving parameter information.

In an embodiment, the terminal device determines, from four most significant bits of pdcch-ConfigSIB1 in a target protocol table, a quantity of consecutive resource blocks (RB, Resource Block) and a quantity of consecutive symbols of the CORESET#<NUM> in which the search space#<NUM> is located, and determines PDCCH monitoring occasions from four least significant bits of pdcch-ConfigSIB1.

In the target protocol, a time offset (offset) is defined with respect to a subcarrier spacing (Subcarrier Spacing) of the CORESET#<NUM>, from the smallest resource block index (RB index) of the CORESET#<NUM> in which the search space#<NUM> is located to the smallest RB index of a common RB overlapping with the first RB of the target SSB.

For the target SSB and CORESET#<NUM> multiplexing pattern <NUM> (multiplexing pattern <NUM>), the terminal device monitors a PDCCH in the search space#<NUM> over two consecutive slots starting from slot n0. The terminal device determines an index of slot n0 based on an index of the target SSB. For the target SSB and CORESET#<NUM> multiplexing patterns <NUM> and <NUM>, the terminal device monitors a PDCCH in the search space#<NUM> over one slot with the periodicity of the search space#<NUM> equal to the periodicity of the target SSB. The terminal device determines an index of the slot based on an index of the target SSB.

Spatial receiving parameters of the search space#<NUM> are the same as spatial receiving parameters of the CORESET#<NUM>.

In the technical solutions recorded in the embodiments of this disclosure, a TCI state of a CORESET#<NUM> is configured for a terminal device by using dedicated signaling. When a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> is a CSI-RS, the terminal device determines a target SSB having a first association relationship with the CSI-RS, so that the terminal device can accurately determine parameter information of a search space#<NUM> based on the target SSB, and then accurately monitoring the search space#<NUM> by the terminal device is effectively implemented.

<FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal device according to an embodiment of this disclosure. The terminal device <NUM> shown in <FIG> includes:.

It should be noted that, the first determining module <NUM> and the second determining module <NUM> may be a same hardware signal processing module having a signal processing function, or may be different software signal processing modules having the signal processing function, which is not specifically limited herein.

Optionally, the first association relationship is that the CSI-RS is in QCL with the target SSB.

Optionally, the first determining module <NUM> is further configured to:.

Optionally, the first determining module <NUM> is further configured to:
if a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CSI-RS is a first SSB, determine the first SSB as the target SSB.

Optionally, the second association relationship is that the target RS is in QCL with the second SSB.

Optionally, the parameter information of the search space#<NUM> is used to indicate to monitor a common search space of a Type0-PDCCH.

Optionally, the parameter information of the search space#<NUM> includes at least one of the following:
time-frequency resource information and spatial receiving parameter information.

Optionally, the dedicated signaling includes at least one of the following:
RRC signaling, and MAC CE signaling.

The terminal device <NUM> provided by this embodiment of this disclosure can implement each process implemented by the terminal device in the method embodiment in <FIG>. Details are not described herein again to avoid repetition.

<FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of another terminal device according to an embodiment of this disclosure. The terminal device <NUM> shown in <FIG> includes at least one processor <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, at least one network interface <NUM>, and a user interface <NUM>. The components in the terminal device <NUM> are coupled together through a bus system <NUM>. It may be understood that the bus system <NUM> is configured to implement connection and communication between these components. In addition to a data bus, the bus system <NUM> further includes a power bus, a control bus, and a status signal bus. However, for clarity of description, various buses are marked as the bus system <NUM> in <FIG>.

The user interface <NUM> may include a display, a keyboard, or a pointing device (for example, a mouse, a trackball (trackball), a touch panel, or a touchscreen).

It can be understood that the memory <NUM> in this embodiment of this disclosure may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both a volatile memory and a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), a programmable read-only memory (Programmable ROM, PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), which is used as an external cache. By way of example but not restrictive description, many forms of RAMs may be used, for example, a static random access memory (Static RAM, SRAM), a dynamic random access memory (Dynamic RAM, DRAM), a synchronous dynamic random access memory (Synchronous DRAM, SDRAM), a double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory (Double Data Rate SDRAM, DDRSDRAM), an enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (Enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), a synchronous link dynamic random access memory (Synch link DRAM, SLDRAM), and a direct rambus random access memory (Direct Rambus RAM, DRRAM). The memory <NUM> of the system and the method described in the embodiments of this disclosure is intended to include but is not limited to these and any other applicable types of memories.

In some embodiments, the memory <NUM> stores the following elements: executable modules or data structures, or a subset thereof, or an extended set thereof: an operating system <NUM> and an application program <NUM>.

The operating system <NUM> includes various system programs, such as a framework layer, a core library layer, and a driver layer, for implementing various basic services and processing hardware-based tasks. The application program <NUM> includes various application programs, such as a media player (Media Player) and a browser (Browser), which are used to implement various application services. A program for implementing the method in the embodiments of this disclosure may be included in the application program <NUM>.

In this embodiment of this disclosure, the terminal device <NUM> further includes a computer program stored in the memory <NUM> and capable of running on the processor <NUM>. When being executed by the processor <NUM>, the computer program implements the following steps:
receiving dedicated signaling, where the dedicated signaling is used to configure a TCI state of a CORESET#<NUM> for the terminal device, and a Source RS indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> is a CSI-RS; determining a target SSB having a first association relationship with the CSI-RS; and determining parameter information of a search space#<NUM> in the CORESET#<NUM> based on the target SSB.

The method disclosed in the foregoing embodiments of this disclosure may be applied to the processor <NUM> or implemented by the processor <NUM>. The processor <NUM> may be an integrated circuit chip, having a signal processing capability. During implementation, the steps of the foregoing method may be completed by hardware integrated logic circuits in the processor <NUM> or instructions in the form of software. The foregoing processor <NUM> 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 another programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component. The processor can implement or execute the methods, steps, and logical block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of this disclosure. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, or the processor may be any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the method disclosed with reference to the embodiments of this disclosure may be directly executed and completed by a hardware decoding processor, or executed and completed by a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoding processor. The software module may be located in a computer-readable storage medium mature in the art, such as a random access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory or electrically erasable programmable memory, or a register. The computer-readable storage medium is located in the memory <NUM>, and the processor <NUM> fetches information in the memory <NUM>, and completes the steps of the foregoing method in combination with its hardware. Specifically, the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, where when the computer program is executed by the processor <NUM>, the steps in the method embodiment shown in <FIG> are implemented.

It can be understood that the embodiments described in the embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. For hardware implementation, a processing unit may be implemented in one or more application-specific integrated circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuits, ASIC), digital signal processors (Digital Signal Processing, DSP), digital signal processing devices (DSPD, DSP Device), programmable logic devices (Programmable Logic Device, PLD), field programmable gate arrays (Field-Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), general-purpose processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, other electronic units used to implement the functions described in this disclosure, or a combination thereof.

For software implementation, the techniques described in the embodiments of this disclosure may be implemented by modules (for example, procedures or functions) that perform the functions described in the embodiments of this disclosure. Software code may be stored in the memory and executed by the processor. The memory may be implemented inside the processor or outside the processor.

The terminal device <NUM> is capable of implementing each process implemented by the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiment in <FIG>. Details are not described herein again to avoid repetition.

An embodiment of this disclosure further provides a computer-readable storage medium, where the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, each process of the foregoing method embodiment in <FIG> is implemented, and a same technical effect can be achieved. Therefore, details are not described herein again to avoid repetition. For example, the computer-readable storage medium is a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

It should be noted that the terms "include", "comprise", or any of their variants are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, a method, an article, or an apparatus that includes a list of elements not only includes those elements but also includes other elements that are not expressly listed, or further includes elements inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. In absence of more constraints, an element preceded by "includes a. " does not preclude the existence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes the element.

Claim 1:
A method for determining a search space parameter, applied to a terminal device, wherein the method is characterized in that the method comprises:
receiving (S120) dedicated signaling, wherein the dedicated signaling is used to configure a transmission configuration indication state, TCI, state of a control resource set, CORESET#<NUM>, for the terminal device, and a source reference signal Source, RS, indicated by the TCI state of the CORESET#<NUM> is a channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS;
determining (S220) a target synchronization signal block, SSB, having a first association relationship with the CSI-RS; and
determining (S230) parameter information of a search space#<NUM> in the CORESET#<NUM> based on the target SSB;
wherein the first association relationship is that the CSI-RS is in quasi-colocation, QCL, with the target SSB;
wherein the parameter information of the search space#<NUM> comprises at least one of the following:
time-frequency resource information and spatial receiving parameter information.