Patent Description:
A downlink signal-based measurement manner is used in a radio resource management (Radio Resource Management, RRM) method in an existing long term evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE) system. To be specific, a network device sends a downlink reference signal, for example, a cell (cell)-specific reference signal (Cell-specific Reference Signal, CRS) in a fixed time-frequency position, a terminal device measures a measurement result such as reference signal received power (Reference Signal Received Power, RSRP)/reference signal received quality (Reference Signal Received Quality, RSRQ) of the CRS sent by the network device and reports the measurement result to the network device, and the network device determines handover and movement of the terminal device. In a next generation wireless communications system (NR), for mobility of UE, the UE may be configured to perform measurement by using a channel state information-reference signal (channel state information Reference Signal, CSI-RS). CSI-RSs in different cells do not need to be sent in one measurement window, in other words, sending times are different. However, discontinuous reception (Discontinuous Reception, DRX) UE periodically wakes up, and reads a PDCCH signal, paging (paging) information, and another operation in an on duration (on duration) period, to reduce power consumption. However, in an off duration (off duration) period, the UE stops monitoring the PDCCH signal and even disables a transceiver, to save energy. In this case, the UE cannot receive a CSI-RS or needs to consume extra power to receive the CSI-RS.

<CIT> discloses a method of energy efficient wireless communication including obtaining a signal pattern defining resources for use in transmitting or receiving signals with variable signal density over time, the signals including a plurality of signals defining a signal burst, configuring the resources based on the signal pattern, including aligning a discontinuous reception (DRX) period with the signal burst, and transmitting or receiving the signals, including the signal burst aligned with the DRX period, according to the signal pattern to achieve variable density signal transmission or reception over time.

<CIT> discloses a method for wireless communication which includes allocating overlapping sets of resources to different UEs. The resources may be for channel state information (CSI) measurement and received power measurements.

<CIT> relates to communication in unlicensed radio spectrum based on a discontinuous reception pattern where preconfigured periods are provided for communication of control information.

<CIT> discloses a system and method for providing efficient uplink resource utilization wireless communication. The system and the method are used with a network access equipment in scheduling uplink transmissions to ensure that a user equipment is not transmitting unnecessary information at inconvenient times.

This application provides a time configuration method according to claim <NUM>, a time configuration method according to claim <NUM>, a time configuration method according to claim <NUM>, a time configuration apparatus according to claim <NUM> and a computer readable storage medium according to claim <NUM>.

To describe the technical solutions in this application or in the prior art more clearly, the following briefly describes the accompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the following description show some embodiments of this application, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

The terms used in this application are merely for the purpose of describing a specific possible implementation, but are not intended to limit this application. The terms "a", "the", and "this" of singular forms used in this application and the appended claims are also intended to include plural forms, unless otherwise specified in a context clearly. It should be further understood that the term "and/or" used in this specification indicates and includes any or all possible combinations of one or more associated listed items. It should be further understood that the term "include" adopted in this specification specifies presence of features, data, information, integers, steps, operations, elements and/or components, with presence or addition of one or more other features, data, information, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or their combinations not excluded.

It should be noted that a sequence of steps in this application may be freely arranged. This is not limited in this application.

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

Some terms in this application are first explained and described to facilitate understanding by a person skilled in the art.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a system to which this application is applied. As shown in <FIG>, the system <NUM> may include a network device <NUM> and terminal devices <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM>. The network device and the terminal devices are wirelessly connected to each other. It should be understood that <FIG> is described only by using an example in which the system includes one network device. However, this application is not limited thereto. For example, the system may alternatively include more network devices. Similarly, the system may alternatively include more terminal devices. It should be further understood that the system may also be referred to as a network. This is not limited in this application.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of an example of a network architecture to which this application may be applied. The schematic diagram of the network architecture may be a diagram of a network architecture in NR in a next generation wireless communications system. In the schematic diagram of the network architecture, a network device may be divided into a centralized unit (Centralized Unit, CU) and a plurality of transmission reception points (Transmission Reception Point, TRP)/distributed units (Distributed Unit, DU). In other words, a bandwidth based unit (Bandwidth Based Unit, BBU) of the network device is reconstructed as DU and CU function entities. It should be noted that forms and quantities of centralized units and TRPs/DUs do not constitute a limitation on this application. Although forms of centralized units respectively corresponding to a network device <NUM> and a network device <NUM> shown in <FIG> are different, functions of the network device <NUM> and the network device <NUM> are not affected. It may be understood that a centralized unit <NUM> and TRPs/DUs in a dashed line range are composing elements of the network device <NUM>, a centralized unit <NUM> and TRPs/DUs in a solid line range are composing elements of the network device <NUM>, and the network device <NUM> and the network device <NUM> are network devices (or referred to as base stations) in the NR system. The CU can process a radio upper-layer protocol stack function, for example, a radio resource control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) layer and a packet data convergence protocol (Packet Data Convergence Protocol, PDCP) layer, and can even support some core network functions in sinking to an access network. A network in which the core network functions sink to the access network is referred to as an edge computing network, to meet a higher network latency requirement of a future communications network for an emerging service such as video, online shopping, and virtual/augmented reality. The DU can mainly process a physical layer function and a layer <NUM> function with a relatively high real-time requirement. Considering transmission resources of a radio remote unit (Radio Remote Unit, RRU) and the DU, some physical layer functions of the DU may be moved up to the RRU. With miniaturization of the RRU, a more radical DU may be combined with the RRU. CUs can be deployed in a centralized manner. Deployment of DUs depends on an actual network environment. In an area with higher traffic density, a smaller inter-site distance, and limited equipment room resources, for example, a core urban area, a university, and a large-scale performance venue, DUs may also be deployed in a centralized manner. However, in an area with lower traffic density, a larger inter-site distance, and the like, for example, a suburb and a mountainous area, DUs may be deployed in a distributed manner. An S1-C interface shown in <FIG> may be a standard interface between a network device and a core network, and a specific device connected to the S1-C is not shown in <FIG>.

In the NR, it is configured that UE performs mobility measurement by using a CSI-RS, and in addition, a sending time of the CSI-RS is associated with an on duration period of the UE, to reduce a possibility of measurement failure and reduce power consumption. The on duration period may be referred to as an on duration period, on duration, or an on period. For example, it is assumed that the UE measures three cells (A/B/C), and the cell A is a serving cell (serving cell) of the UE. The cell A (or a network device, or a network device using the cell A) sends configuration information of CSI-RSs in the three cells to the UE, and the UE obtains the configuration information of the CSI-RSs in the three cells. The configuration information includes sending times of the CSI-RSs (namely, sending times of reference signals). The UE receives the CSI-RSs in the three cells at a corresponding sending time on a time frequency resource. In this application, the sending times of the CSI-RSs in the three cells are within the on duration period of the UE. The UE may be connected mode DRX UE (C-DRX UE).

The following describes a specific solution for determining a sending time of a reference signal according to an on duration period. The determined sending time is sent to UE by using configuration information. Then, a network device sends the reference signal at the sending time, and the UE receives the reference signal at the sending time. Before the specific solution is described, for ease of understanding, an on duration period of the UE and various cases in which the sending time is within the on duration period and the like are first described.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of an on duration period of UE and a reference signal in this application. <FIG> shows an on duration period of at least one of all UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where on refers to an on duration period of each UE. <FIG> are merely examples. It should be understood that more or fewer UEs may exist in this application. <FIG> shows an on duration period of one UE, namely, UE <NUM>, in all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal. <FIG> shows on duration periods of three of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where the on duration periods of UE <NUM>, UE <NUM>, and UE <NUM> are different. It should be understood that the three UEs may be all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal. <FIG> shows on duration periods of two of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where the on duration periods of UE <NUM> and UE <NUM> are the same. Correspondingly, only one reference signal may be configured in a same on duration period. <FIG> shows on duration periods of four of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where on duration periods of UE <NUM> and UE <NUM> are the same, and on duration periods of UE <NUM> and UE <NUM> are the same. In this case, the UE <NUM> and the UE <NUM> may be considered as one group, and the UE <NUM> and the UE <NUM> may be considered as one group. A network device may perform grouping according to a preset rule. A specific grouping rule may be as follows: UEs whose on duration periods are the same or similar are classified into one group, UEs whose geographic locations are close are classified into one group, or UEs whose moving speeds are similar are classified into one group.

<FIG>, <FIG>, <FIG>, and <FIG> are another schematic diagram of an on duration period of UE and a reference signal in this application. <FIG>, <FIG>, <FIG>, and <FIG> show an overlapping on duration period of at least two of all UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where on refers to an on duration period of each UE. <FIG>, <FIG>, <FIG>, and <FIG> are merely examples. It should be understood that more or fewer UEs may exist in this application. <FIG> shows an overlapping on duration period of two of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal. It can be learned from the figure that on duration periods of the two UEs partially overlap. <FIG> shows an overlapping on duration period of two of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where on duration periods of UE <NUM> and UE <NUM> fully overlap. UEs whose on duration periods fully overlap may be considered as one group, and a grouping rule for the UEs is the same as that in the description in <FIG>. <FIG> shows overlapping on duration periods for three of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where an overlapping on duration period includes an overlapping on duration period <NUM> of UE <NUM> and UE <NUM> and an overlapping on duration period <NUM> of the UE <NUM> and UE <NUM>. The overlapping on duration period in this application may include either of the overlapping on duration period <NUM> and the overlapping on duration period <NUM>, or both the overlapping on duration period <NUM> and the overlapping on duration period <NUM>. <FIG> shows an overlapping on duration period for three of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal, where the overlapping on duration period may include an overlapping on duration period of two UEs, for example, either of an overlapping on duration period <NUM> and an overlapping on duration period <NUM>, or an overlapping on duration period <NUM> of the three UEs. This is not limited in this application.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a relationship between a sending time and an on duration period of UE. For brief description, <FIG> shows an example of the relationship between the sending time and the on duration period only by using <FIG> as an example. It should be understood that the relationship between the sending time and the on duration period may include any one or more cases in <FIG>. As shown in <FIG>, the sending time is within the on duration period. As shown in <FIG>, the sending time partially overlaps with the on duration period. As shown in <FIG>, the sending times and the on duration periods are regularly spaced. It should be understood that there may also be another relationship between the sending time and the on duration period. <FIG> is merely an example for description, and does not constitute a limitation.

<FIG> is further refined according to <FIG>. <FIG> is a schematic diagram in which a sending time is within an on duration period. As shown in <FIG>, that the sending time is within the on duration period includes one or more of the following: <FIG> is a schematic diagram in which a start point of the sending time is the same as a start point of the on duration period; <FIG> is a schematic diagram in which an end point of the sending time is the same as an end point of the on duration period; and <FIG> is a schematic diagram in which a start point of the sending time is after a start point of the on duration period, and an end point of the sending time is before an end point of the on duration period.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of determining a sending time according to an on duration period in this application.

A network device determines a sending time of a reference signal according to an on duration period of user equipment UE.

For example, a serving base station collects statistics on all UEs (the UEs may be DRX UEs, or further, connected mode DRX UEs) for which a CSI-RS needs to be configured, obtains an overlapping on duration period of at least two UEs through calculation according to DRX configurations of the UEs, and configures CSI-RS resources (sending times of reference signals) of a serving cell and a neighboring cell in the overlapping on duration period according to the overlapping on duration period of the UEs that is obtained through calculation.

For example, a serving base station collects statistics on all UEs for which a CSI-RS needs to be configured, groups the UEs according to DRX configurations of the UEs, obtains an overlapping on duration period of each group of UEs through calculation, and configures CSI-RS resources of a serving cell and a neighboring cell of the group of UEs in the overlapping on duration period according to the overlapping on duration period of the group of UEs that is obtained through calculation.

For example, a serving base station collects statistics on all UEs for which a CSI-RS needs to be configured, obtains on duration periods of all the UEs according to DRX configurations of the UEs through calculation, and configures CSI-RS resources of a serving cell and a neighboring cell in all the on duration periods according to the on duration periods of all the UEs that are obtained through calculation.

Optionally, S601 may include: The network device determines the sending time of the reference signal according to the on duration period and a time configuration information table of the reference signal. For example, the time configuration information table of the CSI-RS is shown in Table <NUM>. Time configuration information of the CSI-RS may be an intersection of a CSI-RS subframe configuration and an on duration period of UE.

Optionally, the network device obtains an intersection of a sending time in the time configuration information table and the on duration period, and then selects the sending time of the reference signal from the intersection. If the intersection includes a plurality of sending times, the network device may select one or more sending times randomly, periodically, or by comprehensively considering another factor.

For example, according to Table <NUM>, if ICSI-RS=<NUM>, it indicates that the CSI-RS is sent starting from subframe <NUM>, and a sending period of the CSI-RS is <NUM>, in other words, the CSI-RS is sent in subframe <NUM>/<NUM>/<NUM>/<NUM>, and the like. The on duration period of the UE that is obtained according to a DRX configuration of the UE includes subframes <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, and <NUM> that are <NUM>. The intersection is obtained between the sending time in Table <NUM> and the on duration period of the UE to obtain subframes <NUM> and <NUM>. In other words, the network device may be configured to send the CSI-RS in subframe <NUM> and/or <NUM>.

The network device sends the reference signal to the UE at the sending time.

A relationship is established between the sending time of the reference signal and the on duration period of the UE, so that the reference signal is received in the on duration period of the UE as much as possible, to reduce a possibility of reception failure. In addition, the UE does not need to frequently wake up to receive the reference signal, to save power.

The following describes a specific solution for determining an on duration period according to a sending time of a reference signal. A network device configures an on duration period of UE, and sends a configuration result to the UE. After receiving the information, the UE periodically wakes up according to the on duration period configured by the network device, and receives the reference signal at the sending time of the reference signal.

Before the specific solution is described, the on duration period of the UE is first described. The on duration period is determined according to the sending time. Therefore, it is easily understood that the on duration period herein includes on duration periods of all UEs that need to receive the reference signal. Certainly, the UEs may be grouped in this application. In this case, the on duration period is an on duration period of each UE in at least one group of UEs that need to receive the reference signal. For a specific relationship between the on duration period of the UE and the reference signal, refer to descriptions in <FIG> and <FIG>, <FIG>, <FIG>, and <FIG>.

After the on duration period of the UE is described, a relationship between the on duration period and the sending time of the reference signal needs to be learned of. The following described method for determining an on duration period of UE according to a sending time is slightly different from the foregoing described method for determining the sending time according to the on duration period of the UE. However, for a specific relationship between the on duration period and the sending time, still refer to <FIG> and text description in <FIG>.

It should be noted that a case in which the on duration period of the UE includes the sending time of the reference signal may be essentially consistent with a case in which the sending time is within the on duration period in <FIG>. Therefore, for a specific case in which the on duration period of the UE includes the sending time of the reference signal, refer to <FIG> and text description in <FIG>.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a method for determining an on duration period according to a sending time in this application. A network device determines an on duration period of UE according to a sending time of a reference signal. For example, a serving network device may configure a DRX configuration parameter for each UE or a group of UEs, so that the on duration period includes the following CSI-RS measurement window.

Optionally, before S701, the method further includes the following step: S700. The network device determines the sending time of the reference signal. For example, the serving base station may periodically configure CSI-RS resources of a serving cell and a neighboring cell of each UE or a group of UEs in the CSI-RS measurement window.

The network device sends the reference signal to the UE. The network device sends the reference signal to the UE at the sending time.

The network device or the UE in this application is divided into function units below with reference to one or more of the foregoing methods. For example, each function unit may be obtained through division according to each corresponding function, or two or more functions may be integrated into one unit. All or some of the foregoing integrated units may be implemented by using software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. It should be noted that the unit division in this application is an example, and is merely logical function division. There may be another division manner during actual implementation. <FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of a device <NUM> in this application. The device <NUM> may be applied to a network device or UE that implements this application. Referring to <FIG>, the device <NUM> includes a receiving unit <NUM>, a sending unit <NUM>, and a processing unit <NUM>. When the device <NUM> is configured to implement a function of the network device, the processing unit <NUM> is configured to determine a sending time of a reference signal according to an on duration period of the user equipment UE, or configured to determine an on duration period of the UE according to a sending time of a reference signal. The sending unit <NUM> is configured to send the reference signal to the UE. When the device <NUM> is configured to implement a function of the UE, the receiving unit <NUM> is configured to: receive configuration information of an on duration period from the network device; and receive, in the on duration period, a reference signal from the network device. It should be understood that with reference to any one or more of the foregoing methods, the network device and the UE may further include more function units for implementing more functions, to associate the sending time with the on duration period, reduce power consumption, and reduce a possibility of reception failure.

When the network device or the UE is implemented in a form of hardware, for a concept, explanation, detailed description, a method, a procedure, a step, and the like that are related to this application and that used in the network device or the UE, reference may be made to descriptions about the content in the foregoing embodiments. In this application, the receiving unit may be implemented by using a communications interface, a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like. The sending unit may be implemented by using a communications interface, a transmitter, a sending circuit, or the like. It should be understood that functions of the receiving unit and the sending unit may also be integrated together and implemented by a communications interface, a transceiver, and a transceiver circuit. The communications interface is a general term, and may include one or more interfaces.

It may be understood that the foregoing description is only a simplified example of a form of hardware. In actual application, hardware for implementing the network device or the UE is not limited to the foregoing structure, for example, may further include a processor, a memory, an antenna array, a duplexer, and a baseband processing part. The processor may be a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), 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 hardware component, or any combination thereof. Alternatively, the processor may be a combination of processors implementing a computing function, for example, a combination of one or more microprocessors or a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor. The memory may be disposed in the processor, or may independently exist. The duplexer is configured to implement the antenna array and is configured to send and receive signals. The transmitter is configured to implement conversion between a radio frequency signal and a baseband signal. The transmitter may usually include a power amplifier, a digital-to-analog converter, and a frequency converter. The receiver may usually include a low noise amplifier, an analog-to-digital converter, and a frequency converter. The receiver and the transmitter may also be collectively referred to as a transceiver sometimes. The baseband processing part is configured to: process a sent or received signal, for example, layer mapping, precoding, modulation/demodulation, and encoding/decoding, and separately process a physical control channel, a physical data channel, a physical broadcast channel, a reference signal, and the like. In an implementation, it may be considered that functions of the receiver and the transmitter may be implemented by using a transceiver circuit or a dedicated transceiver chip. It may be considered that the processor may be implemented by using a dedicated processing chip, a processing circuit, a processor, or a general-purpose chip. In another implementation, program code used to implement functions of the processor, the receiver, and the transmitter is stored in the memory. The general purpose processor implements the functions of the processor, the receiver, and the transmitter by executing the code in the memory.

For example, for an implementation of the network device, refer to <FIG>. As shown in <FIG>, a network device <NUM> is provided, and includes a processor <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, a receiver <NUM>, and a transmitter <NUM>. The receiver <NUM> and the transmitter <NUM> are configured to communicate with another network element. The memory <NUM> is configured to store a program that can be executed by the processor <NUM>. The program includes an instruction used to implement the methods, the steps, or the procedures described in the foregoing embodiments. For a specific method, procedure, step, beneficial effect, and the like, refer to descriptions about the content in the foregoing embodiments.

For example, for an implementation of the UE, refer to <FIG>. As shown in <FIG>, UE <NUM> is provided, and includes a processor <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, and a transceiver <NUM>. The transceiver <NUM> is configured to communicate with another network element (may communicate with the another network element by using an antenna). The memory <NUM> is configured to store a program that can be executed by the processor <NUM>. The program includes an instruction used to implement the methods, the steps, or the procedures described in the foregoing embodiments. For a specific method, procedure, step, beneficial effect, and the like, refer to descriptions about the content in the foregoing embodiments.

When the network device or the UE is implemented by using software, for a concept, explanation, detailed description, and another step that are related to this application and that are used in the network device or the UE, reference may be made to descriptions about the content in the foregoing methods. In this application, some or all of the methods may be implemented in a form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer, some or all of the procedures or functions in this application are generated. The computer may be a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, a computer network, or another programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium or may be transmitted from a 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 to another website, computer, server, or data center in a wired (for example, a coaxial cable, an optical fiber, or a digital subscriber line (DSL)) or wireless (for example, infrared, radio, or microwave) manner. The computer readable storage medium may be any usable medium accessible by the computer, or a data storage device, such as a server or a data center, integrating one or more usable media. The usable medium may be a magnetic medium (for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, or a magnetic tape), an optical medium (for example, a DVD), a semi-conductor medium (for example, a solid state disk Solid State Disk (SSD)), or the like. The storage medium may be integrated in a device, a module, or a processor, or may be separately disposed.

Claim 1:
A time configuration method, wherein the method comprises:
determining (S601), by a network device, a sending time of a reference signal according to an on duration period of user equipment, UE, wherein the reference signal is a channel state information-reference signal, CSI-RS, used for mobility measurement; and
wherein the on duration period refers to a DRX configuration;
wherein the on duration period of the UE comprises an overlapping on duration period of at least two of all the UEs that need to receive the reference signal;
sending, by the network device, the reference signal to the UE.