Patent Description:
In a new radio (New Radio, NR) system, different monitoring periods can be configured for different PDCCH search spaces (Search Space, SS), and configurable monitoring periods include one slot, two slots, four slots, five slots, eight slots, ten slots, sixteen slots, and twenty slots. Services of user equipment (User Equipment, UE) are random. For example, at some moments, there are many downlink services, and downlink data packets also arrive frequently. In this case, the UE needs to frequently monitor a PDCCH on which downlink scheduling (scheduling of a PDSCH) is performed, to receive the downlink data packets. Because there is less uplink data or uplink feedback, relatively few PDCCHs on which uplink scheduling (scheduling of physical uplink shared channels (Physical Uplink Shared Channel, PUSCH)) is performed are monitored. At some other moments, there may be many uplink services, and uplink data packets also arrive frequently. In this case, the UE needs to frequently monitor a PDCCH on which uplink scheduling (scheduling of a PUSCH) is performed, to receive the uplink data packets. Because there is less downlink data or downlink feedback, relatively few PDCCHs on which downlink scheduling is performed are monitored.

Currently, in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3rd Generation Partnership Project, 3GPP) NR (New Radio) release <NUM> (Release <NUM>, R15) protocol, different downlink control information (Downlink Control Information, DCI) formats (for example, a DCI format 0_1 and a DCI format 1_1) are configured with a same monitoring period. If the configured monitoring period is ten slots, the UE needs to monitor the DCI format 0_1 and the DCI format 1_1 every ten slots. Similarly, different control channel element (control channel element, CCE) aggregation levels (Aggregation Level, AL) are configured with a same monitoring period, and therefore the UE monitors unnecessary DCI formats or CCE aggregation levels.

In addition, in the 3GPP NR release <NUM>, a control resource set (CORESET) of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, a DCI format in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, a CCE aggregation level in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, an association relationship between the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH and the CORESET of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and the like, are configured by using RRC signaling. A latency of the RRC signaling is relatively high, and the RRC signaling only supports a semi-static change in the above configuration parameters, and cannot quickly change the above configuration parameters.

"<NPL>) discusses some details related to NR PDCCH search space design as well as the blind decoding of UE.

An objective of embodiments of the present disclosure is to provide a method for monitoring a physical downlink control channel, user equipment, and a network side device, to reduce unnecessary PDCCH monitoring.

According to a first aspect, a method for monitoring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) is provided, and the method is applied to user equipment and includes:.

According to a second aspect, a method for configuring a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) is further provided, and the method is applied to a network side device and includes:
sending RRC signaling to user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a monitoring parameter, and the monitoring parameter is associated with a downlink control information, DCI, format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment or a control channel element, CCE, aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, or the monitoring parameter is associated with at least two of the DCI format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a CCE aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and the CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; where the DCI format comprises at least one of the following: a first DCI format and a second DCI format of a common search space, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell; a first DCI format and a second DCI format of a UE-specific search space, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell; and a first DCI format, a second DCI format, a third DCI format, and a fourth DCI format, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell, the third DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the fourth DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell.

According to a third aspect, user equipment is further provided, including:.

According to an fourth aspect, a network side device is further provided, including:
a third sending module, configured to send RRC signaling to user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a monitoring parameter, and the monitoring parameter is associated with a downlink control information, DCI, format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment or a control channel element, CCE, aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, or the monitoring parameter is associated with at least two of the DCI format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a CCE aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and the CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; where the DCI format comprises at least one of the following: a first DCI format and a second DCI format of a common search space, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell; a first DCI format and a second DCI format of a UE-specific search space, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell; and a first DCI format, a second DCI format, a third DCI format, and a fourth DCI format, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell, the third DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the fourth DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell.

In this way, unnecessary PDCCH monitoring can be reduced, thereby reducing power consumption and improving efficiency.

It becomes clear for a person skilled in the art to learn various other advantages and benefits by reading detailed description of the following preferred implementation manners. Accompanying drawings are merely used for showing the preferred implementation manners, but not considered as a limitation on the present disclosure. In all accompanying drawings, a same reference symbol is used to indicate a same part. In the accompanying drawings:.

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

The following describes the embodiments of this disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings. A method for configuring a physical downlink control channel, user equipment, and a network side device provided in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied to a wireless communications system. The wireless communications system may be a <NUM> system, an evolved Long Term Evolution (Evolved Long Term Evolution, eLTE) system, or a subsequent evolved communications system. <FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of a wireless communications system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, the wireless communications system may include a network side device <NUM> and user equipment. For example, the user equipment is denoted as UE <NUM>, and the UE <NUM> may be connected to the network side device <NUM>. In actual application, a connection between the devices is a wireless connection. For ease of visually indicating a connection relationship between the devices, solid lines are used for illustration in <FIG>.

It should be noted that the above communications system may include a plurality of UEs, and the network side device may communicate with the plurality of UEs (transmit signaling or data).

The network side device <NUM> provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure may be a base station, and the base station may be a commonly used base station, or may be an evolved node base station (evolved node base station, eNB), or may be a device such as a network side device in a <NUM> system (for example, a next generation node base station (next generation node base station, gNB) or a transmission and reception point (transmission and reception point, TRP)).

The user equipment provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, an ultra-mobile personal computer (Ultra-Mobile Personal Computer, UMPC), a netbook, a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), or the like.

<FIG> shows a procedure of a method for monitoring a PDCCH according to an embodiment that is not covered by the claims of the present disclosure. The method is performed by UE, and specific steps are as follows:.

The first parameter related to the PDCCH monitoring behavior of the serving cell includes at least one of the following:.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the search space may be a common search space or a UE-specific search space.

In this way, the UE can dynamically disable or configure or reconfigure one or more search spaces or CORESETs by receiving a media access control control element or DCI, thereby avoiding unnecessary monitoring of a plurality of search spaces or CORESETs of different reception points by the UE when there are fewer services. However, in the 3GPP R15 protocol, only semi-static configuration of a search space or CORESET through radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) signaling is supported, but dynamic disabling or configuration or reconfiguration of one or more search spaces or CORESETs through receiving of a media access control control element or DCI is not supported.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, before step <NUM> or step <NUM>, or after step <NUM> or step <NUM>, the method further includes:
determining a monitoring parameter based on the physical layer signaling or the MAC layer signaling, where the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, for example, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the monitoring parameter and the at least one of the downlink control information (DCI) format of the PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, the control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and the CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE may monitor the PDCCH based on the monitoring parameter. In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, before step <NUM>, the method further includes: receiving radio resource control (RRC) signaling sent by the network side; and determining, based on the RRC signaling, a second parameter related to the PDCCH monitoring behavior of the serving cell, where the second parameter includes at least one of the following: the control resource set (CORESET) of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; the DCI format in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; the CCE aggregation level in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; and the association relationship between the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH and the CORESET of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, the DCI format includes at least one of the following:.

If the DCI format in this embodiment of the present disclosure is the DCI format 0_1 and the DCI format 1_1 of the UE-specific search space, different monitoring parameters may be configured for the DCI format 0_1 and the DCI format 1_1. For example, at least one of monitoring periods, monitoring offsets, and monitoring patterns within a slot configured for the DCI format 0_1 and the DCI format 1_1 may be different.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, the monitoring parameter includes at least one of the following: a monitoring period, a monitoring offset, and a monitoring pattern within a slot, where the monitoring pattern within a slot is used to indicate one or more time-domain symbols in a CORESET for PDCCH monitoring in a slot. In this way, at least one of monitoring periods, monitoring offsets, and monitoring patterns within a slot in monitoring parameters of different DCI formats is different, or at least one of monitoring periods, monitoring offsets, and monitoring patterns within a slot in monitoring parameters of different CCE aggregation levels is different.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, a unit of the monitoring period may be a slot or milliseconds (ms), or the like. It should be noted that the slot in this specification may be a normal slot, for example, the normal slot includes fourteen time-domain symbols, or the slot may be a mini slot, and the mini slot includes less than fourteen time-domain symbols, for example, two, four, or seven time-domain symbols form one mini slot.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, the CCE aggregation level includes at least one of the following: one CCE, two CCEs, four CCEs, eight CCEs, and sixteen CCEs. Certainly, the present disclosure is not limited thereto.

In this way, different DCI formats or CCE aggregation levels in a search space of a CORESET of a PDCCH are configured with different monitoring periods, thereby resolving a problem that the UE monitors unnecessary DCI formats or CCE aggregation levels because the different DCI formats or CCE aggregation levels are configured with a same monitoring period.

<FIG> shows a procedure of a method for monitoring a PDCCH according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method is performed by UE, and specific steps are as follows:.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the UE may monitor the PDCCH based on the monitoring parameter.

In this way, different DCI formats or CCE aggregation levels in a search space of a CORESET of a PDCCH are configured with different monitoring parameters, thereby resolving a problem that the UE monitors unnecessary DCI formats or CCE aggregation levels because the different DCI formats or CCE aggregation levels are configured with a same monitoring period.

For example, there is a one-to-one correspondence between a monitoring parameter and a CCE aggregation level of a search space. In a same slot, some search spaces are configured with only a low CCE aggregation level, for example, one CCE, two CCEs, or four CCEs, and some search spaces are configured with only a high CCE aggregation level, for example, eight CCEs or sixteen CCEs. If the UE is in a non-high-speed movement state for a period of time, a CCE aggregation level corresponding to the UE is relatively stable, and the UE can preferentially perform blind detection in a search space corresponding to the CCE aggregation level of the UE, thereby reducing a total quantity of blind detections.

<FIG> shows a procedure of a method for configuring a PDCCH according to an embodiment that is not covered by the claims of the present disclosure. The method is performed by a network side device, and specific steps are as follows:
Step <NUM>: Send physical layer signaling or media access control (MAC) layer signaling to user equipment, where the physical layer signaling or the media access control (MAC) layer signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a first parameter related to a PDCCH monitoring behavior of a serving cell.

The first parameter includes at least one of the following:.

It should be noted that the physical layer signaling or the MAC layer signaling is further used by the UE to determine a monitoring parameter configured by a network side for the PDCCH, and the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

In this way, the UE can dynamically disable or configure one or more search spaces or CORESETs by receiving a media access control control element or DCI, thereby avoiding unnecessary monitoring of a plurality of search spaces or CORESETs of different reception points by the UE when there are fewer services. However, in the 3GPP R15 protocol, only semi-static configuration of a search space or CORESET through RRC signaling is supported, but dynamic disabling or configuration of one or more search spaces or CORESETs through receiving of a media access control control element or DCI is not supported.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, before step <NUM>, the method further includes:
Step <NUM>: Send RRC signaling to the user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a second parameter related to the PDCCH monitoring behavior of the serving cell, and the second parameter includes at least one of the following:.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, the CCE aggregation level includes at least one of the following: one CCE, two CCEs, four CCEs, eight CCEs, and sixteen CCEs.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, the monitoring parameter includes at least one of the following: a monitoring period, a monitoring offset, and a monitoring pattern within a slot, where the monitoring pattern within a slot is used to indicate one or more time-domain symbols in a CORESET for PDCCH monitoring in a slot.

<FIG> shows a procedure of a method for configuring a PDCCH according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method is performed by a network side device, and specific steps are as follows:
Step <NUM>: Send RRC signaling to user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a monitoring parameter, and the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides user equipment. Because a problem-solving principle of the user equipment is similar to that of a method for monitoring a PDCCH in the embodiments of the present disclosure, reference may be made to implementation of the method for implementation of the user equipment, and no repeated description is provided.

<FIG> shows a structure of user equipment <NUM> according to an embodiment that is not covered by the claims of the present disclosure, and the user equipment <NUM> includes:.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, the user equipment <NUM> further includes:
a second determining module <NUM>, configured to determine a monitoring parameter based on the physical layer signaling or the MAC layer signaling, where the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, optionally, the user equipment further includes:.

<FIG> shows a structure of user equipment <NUM>, and the user equipment <NUM> includes:.

The user equipment provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure may perform the foregoing method embodiment. An implementation principle and a technical effect of the user equipment are similar to those of the method embodiment, and details are not described again in this embodiment.

An embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a network side device. Because a problem-solving principle of the network side device is similar to that of a method for monitoring a PDCCH in the embodiments of the present disclosure, reference may be made to implementation of the method for implementation of the network side device, and no repeated description is provided.

<FIG> shows a structure of a network side device <NUM> according to an embodiment that is not covered by the claims of the present disclosure, and the network side device <NUM> includes:
a first sending module <NUM>, configured to send physical layer signaling or media access control (MAC) layer signaling to user equipment, where the physical layer signaling or the media access control (MAC) layer signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a first parameter related to a PDCCH monitoring behavior of a serving cell, and the first parameter includes at least one of the following:.

Still referring to <FIG>, the network side device <NUM> further includes:
a second sending module <NUM>, configured to send RRC signaling to the user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a second parameter related to the PDCCH monitoring behavior of the serving cell, and the second parameter includes at least one of the following:.

<FIG> shows a structure of a network side device <NUM>, and the network side device <NUM> includes:
a third sending module <NUM>, configured to send RRC signaling to user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a monitoring parameter, and the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

The network side device provided in this embodiment of the present disclosure may perform the foregoing method embodiment. An implementation principle and a technical effect of the network side device are similar to those of the method embodiment, and details are not described again in this embodiment.

As shown in <FIG>, user equipment <NUM> according to an embodiment that is not covered by the claims of the present disclosure shown in <FIG> includes: at least one processor <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, at least one network interface <NUM>, and a user interface <NUM>. All components of the user equipment <NUM> are coupled by using the bus system <NUM>. It may be understood that the bus system <NUM> is configured to implement a connection and communication between these components. In addition to a data bus, the bus system <NUM> may include 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 clicking device, for example, a mouse, a trackball, a touch panel, or a touchscreen.

It may be understood that the memory <NUM> in this embodiment of the present disclosure may be a volatile memory or a nonvolatile memory, or may include both a volatile memory and a nonvolatile memory. The nonvolatile 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), used as an external cache. Through example but not limitative 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, DDR SDRAM), an enhanced synchronous dynamic random access memory (Enhanced SDRAM, ESDRAM), a synch link dynamic random access memory (Synch link DRAM, SLDRAM), and a direct rambus random access memory (Direct Rambus RAM, DRRAM). The memory <NUM> in the system and the method that are described in this embodiment of the present disclosure is intended to include but is not limited to these memories and a memory of any other proper type.

In some implementations, the memory <NUM> stores the following element: an executable module or a data structure, a subset of an executable module or a data structure, or an extended set of an executable module or a data structure: an operating system <NUM> and an application program <NUM>.

The operating system <NUM> includes various system programs, for example, a framework layer, a kernel library layer, and a driver layer, and is configured to implement various basic services and process hardware-based tasks. The application program <NUM> includes various application programs, for example, a media player (Media Player), and a browser (Browser), and is configured to implement various application services. A program for implementing the method in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be included in the application program <NUM>.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, when a program or an instruction stored in the memory <NUM> is invoked, that is, when a program or an instruction stored in the application program <NUM> is executed, the following steps are implemented: receiving physical layer signaling or media access control (MAC) layer signaling sent by a network side; and determining, based on the physical layer signaling or the MAC layer signaling, a first parameter related to a PDCCH monitoring behavior of a serving cell, where the first parameter includes at least one of the following: a control resource set (CORESET) of a to-be-monitored PDCCH; a search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; a DCI format in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; a CCE aggregation level in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; and an association relationship between the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH and the CORESET of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

Optionally, when the computer program is executed by the processor <NUM>, the following step may be further implemented: determining a monitoring parameter based on the physical layer signaling or the MAC layer signaling, where the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

In another embodiment of the present disclosure, when a program or an instruction stored in the memory <NUM> is invoked, that is, when a program or an instruction stored in the application program <NUM> is executed, the following steps are implemented: receiving RRC signaling sent by a network side; and determining a monitoring parameter based on the RRC signaling, where the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

Referring to <FIG>, an embodiment that is not covered by the claims of the present disclosure provides another network side device <NUM>, including: a processor <NUM>, a transceiver <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, a user interface <NUM>, and a bus interface.

The processor <NUM> may be responsible for managing the bus architecture and general processing. The memory <NUM> may store data used by the processor <NUM> when the processor <NUM> performs an operation.

In this embodiment of the present disclosure, the network side device <NUM> may further include a computer program that is stored in the memory <NUM> and configured to run on the processor <NUM>, where the computer program, when executed by the processor <NUM>, implements the following step: sending physical layer signaling or media access control (MAC) layer signaling to user equipment, where the physical layer signaling or the media access control (MAC) layer signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a first parameter related to a PDCCH monitoring behavior of a serving cell, and the first parameter includes at least one of the following: a control resource set (CORESET) of a to-be-monitored PDCCH; a search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; a DCI format in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; a CCE aggregation level in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; and an association relationship between the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH and the CORESET of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

Optionally, when the computer program is executed by the processor <NUM>, the following step may be further implemented: sending RRC signaling to the user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a parameter related to the PDCCH monitoring behavior of the serving cell, and the parameter includes at least one of the following: the control resource set (CORESET) of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; the DCI format in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; the CCE aggregation level in the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH; and the association relationship between the search space of the to-be-monitored PDCCH and the CORESET of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

In another embodiment that is not covered by the claims of the present disclosure, the network side device <NUM> may further include: a computer program that is stored in the memory <NUM> and configured to run on the processor <NUM>, where the computer program, when executed by the processor <NUM>, implements the following step: sending RRC signaling to user equipment, where the RRC signaling is used by the user equipment to determine a monitoring parameter, and the monitoring parameter is associated with at least one of a downlink control information (DCI) format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a control channel element (CCE) aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and a CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH.

In <FIG>, a bus architecture may include any quantity of interconnected buses and bridges. Specifically, various circuits of one or more processors represented by the processor <NUM> and a memory represented by the memory <NUM> are interconnected. The bus architecture may further link various other circuits such as a peripheral device, a voltage regulator, and a power management circuit. These are well known in the art, and therefore are not further described in the embodiments of the present disclosure. A bus interface provides an interface. The transceiver <NUM> may be a plurality of components. To be specific, the transceiver <NUM> includes a transmitter and a receiver, and provides a unit configured to communicate with various other apparatuses on a transmission medium.

Method or algorithm steps described in combination with the content disclosed in the present disclosure may be implemented by hardware, or may be implemented by a processor by executing a software instruction. The software instruction may be formed by a corresponding software module. The software module may be stored in a RAM, a flash memory, a ROM, an EPROM, an EEPROM, a register, a hard disk, a removable hard disk, a read-only compact disc, or a storage medium of any other form known in the art. For example, a storage medium is coupled to the processor, so that the processor can read information from the storage medium or write information into the storage medium. Certainly, the storage medium may be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium may be located in the ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may be located in a core network interface device. Certainly, the processor and the storage medium may exist in the core network interface device as discrete components.

A person skilled in the art should be aware that in the foregoing one or more examples, functions described in the present disclosure may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented by software, the foregoing functions may be stored in a computer readable medium or transmitted as one or more instructions or code in the computer readable medium. The computer readable medium includes a computer storage medium and a communications medium, where the communications medium includes any medium that enables a computer program to be transmitted from one place to another. The storage medium may be any available medium accessible to a general-purpose or dedicated computer.

The objectives, technical solutions, and beneficial effects of the present disclosure are further described in detail in the foregoing specific embodiments. It should be understood that the foregoing descriptions are merely specific embodiments of the present disclosure, but are not intended to limit the protection scope of the present disclosure.

A person skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be provided as a method, a system, or a computer program product. Therefore, the embodiments of the present disclosure may use a form of hardware only embodiments, software only embodiments, or embodiments with a combination of software and hardware. Moreover, the embodiments of the present disclosure may use a form of a computer program product that is implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to a magnetic disk memory, a CD-ROM, an optical memory, and the like) that include computer-usable program code.

The embodiments of the present disclosure are described with reference to the flowcharts and/or block diagrams of the method, the device (system), and the computer program product according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that computer program instructions may be used to implement each process and/or each block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams and a combination of a process and/or a block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams. These computer program instructions may be provided for a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, an embedded processor, or a processor of any other programmable data processing device to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by a computer or a processor of any other programmable data processing device generate an apparatus for implementing a specific function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions may be alternatively stored in a computer readable memory that can instruct a computer or another programmable data processing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructions stored in the computer readable memory generate an artifact that includes an instruction apparatus.

Claim 1:
A method for monitoring a physical downlink control channel, PDCCH, performed by user equipment, comprising:
receiving (<NUM>) RRC signaling sent by a network side; and the method further comprising:
determining (<NUM>) a monitoring parameter based on the RRC signaling, wherein the monitoring parameter is associated with a downlink control information, DCI, format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment or a control channel element, CCE, aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, or the monitoring parameter is associated with at least two of the DCI format of a PDCCH to be monitored by the user equipment, a CCE aggregation level of the to-be-monitored PDCCH, and the CCE aggregation level of the DCI format of the to-be-monitored PDCCH;
wherein the DCI format comprises at least one of the following:
a first DCI format and a second DCI format of a common search space, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell;
a first DCI format and a second DCI format of a UE-specific search space, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell; and
a first DCI format, a second DCI format, a third DCI format, and a fourth DCI format, wherein the first DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, the second DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell, the third DCI format is used to schedule a physical uplink shared channel of a serving cell, and the fourth DCI format is used to schedule a physical downlink shared channel of a serving cell.