Patent Description:
NR (New Radio) technology in <NUM> (Fifth-generation of Wireless Mobile Telecommunications Technology) is similar to LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology in <NUM> (Fourth-generation of Wireless Mobile Telecommunications Technology), and is also an air interface technology with a time-frequency structure, where time-frequency resources are used, the time dimension is divided into different OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) symbols, and the frequency dimension is divided into different sub-carriers.

In <NUM>, the frequency deployed for the NR is mostly in a high-frequency range and may be deployed from <NUM> to <NUM>, and thus, the carrier frequency range of the NR in <NUM> may be much larger than the carrier range of the LTE in <NUM>. As such, for one UE (User Equipment) and from the perspective of radio frequency capability and power consumption, a frequency band of the NR in <NUM> is divided into a plurality of BWPs (Band Width Part), and the UE is configured to work at at least one BWP at the same time. There is one RORESET (Control Resource Set) present in each BWP correspondingly, and the RORESET is a set of all the control information in the BWP to which it belongs, including such as control information, reference signals, etc. In general, a base station sends the RORESET to the UE via preset time-frequency resources in the BWP, and the UE working at the BWP may acquire the control information corresponding to itself in the RORESET from the preset time-frequency resources.

D1 (<CIT>) discloses a method and apparatus for performing carrier management in a broadband wireless communication system supporting multiple carriers. The method for a mobile station to perform carrier management procedure with a base station supporting multiple carriers includes receiving a carrier management command message from the base station, the carrier management command message including an action code for carrier management and a polling bit in a MAC Control Extended Header (MCEH) indicating whether an acknowledgement message is required, transmitting the acknowledgement message in
response to the carrier management command message to the base station when the carrier management command message is successfully received and the polling bit is set to <NUM>, and transmitting a carrier management indication message corresponding to the action code included in the carrier management command message to the base station.

D2 (<CIT>) discloses a method and arrangement in a base station for scheduling communication between the base station and a user equipment in a multi-carrier communication net-work system. The base station and the user equipment are comprised in the multi-carrier communication network system, and adapted to communicate with each other on downlink carriers and uplink carriers in at least a first frequency band and a second frequency band over a radio interface. The method comprises signaling an indication to the user equipment on the downlink carrier in the first frequency band, which the user equipment cur-rently is scheduled on, to switch to a second carrier in order to communicate data and/or control signaling on the second carrier. In addition, a method and an arrangement in a user equipment for assisting the base station in scheduling radio resources are described.

D3 (by <NPL>) discloses bandwidth adaptation and scalable design in NR.

To overcome the problems existing in the related art, the present disclosure provides a method, an apparatus and a system for acquiring control information. The technical solutions are as follows:
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising the features of claim <NUM>.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method comprising the features of claim <NUM>.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a terminal, comprising the features of claim <NUM>.

A terminal receives indication information sent by a base station, wherein the indication information is configured to indicate a standby BWP that is used when a BWP switching failure occurs, and the BWP indicated by the indication information is a BWP at which a terminal works currently, a BWP at which the terminal works previously, and any of preset BWPs; the BWP indicated by the indication information is switched to when the BWP switching is detected to have failed; and control information corresponding to the terminal that is sent by the base station at the BWP indicated by the indication information is received. In this way, when the BWP switching failure occurs, the terminal may acquire control information corresponding to itself from the BWP indicated by the base station, leading to low possibility of getting offline by the terminal.

In order to describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present more clearly, the following briefly introduces the accompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the following description show merely some embodiments of the present disclosure, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may also derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

Instead, they are merely examples of apparatuses and methods consistent with aspects related to the disclosure as recited in the appended claims.

Sometimes, when the UE has a service requirement, the base station sends a BWP switching instruction to the UE. For example, the UE needs to switch from a BWP with a small frequency range to a BWP with a large frequency range when the size of the data to be sent thereby is large, and the like. After receiving the BWP switching instruction sent by the base station, the UE parses the BWP switching instruction to obtain the BWP to be switched to, and switches from a current BWP at which it works to the BWP obtained through parsing. However, in a BWP switching process, there may be BWP switching failures. For example, the UE receives the BWP switching instruction sent by the base station, but due to an error occurring during the parsing of the BWP switching instruction, obtains a wrong BWP through parsing and switches to the wrong BWP, and the like. In this way, the UE may not obtain the control information belonging to itself from the control resource set corresponding to the post-switching BWP, and may neither be dispatched nor receive the data sent by the base station, leading to the UE getting offline.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method for acquiring control information. As shown in <FIG>, the method for acquiring control information may be implemented by a base station and a terminal jointly.

The terminal may be a mobile phone, a tablet computer and other devices capable of using the mobile communication network, and the terminal may be provided with a processor, a memory, a transceiver, etc.; the processor may be configured to handle a process of acquiring control information; the memory may be configured to store data required and data produced in the process of acquiring control information; the transceiver may be configured to receive and send messages; and the terminal may be further provided with an input/output device such as a screen, which may be configured to display signal quality and the like and may be a touch screen.

The base station may be provided with a processor, a transceiver, a memory, etc.; the processor may be configured for relevant handling in the process of acquiring control information; the transceiver may be configured to receive and send data; and the memory may be configured to store data required and data produced in the process of acquiring control information.

As shown in <FIG>, a process flow of the method may include the following steps.

In step <NUM>, the base station sends the indication information to the terminal.

Among them, the indication information is configured to indicate a standby BWP that is used when the terminal has a BWP switching failure, that is, the standby BWP is a BWP to which the terminal switches when the BWP switching failure occurs. The BWP indicated by the indication information is any of a BWP at which a terminal works currently, a BWP at which the terminal works previously, and preset BWP. In general, the terminal may work at multiple BWPs at the same time. The BWP at which the terminal works currently refers to multiple BWPs at which the terminal works currently at the same time; the BWP at which the terminal works previously refers to BWPs at which the terminal works before the current time point; and the preset BWP may be any of all the BWPs.

In implementation, after each terminal starts up and accesses the network, the base station may send the indication information to the terminal via the broadcast signaling, the upper-layer signaling, or the physical-layer instruction, and the upper-layer signaling may be a signaling based on RRC (Radio Resource Control), or a signaling sent via MAC (Media Access Control). In an embodiment of the present disclosure, a terminal is described in detail, and the processes of other terminals are the same. If the standby BWP is the preset BWP when the terminal has a BWP switching failure, the indication information may be information that carries an identifier of the preset BWP, such as a frequency range of the preset BWP. If the standby BWP is the BWP at which the terminal works currently ("currently" here refers to the time when the switching failure occurs) or previously when the terminal has a BWP switching failure, the indication information may indicate how to select the BWP to be switched to, such as the indication information being the information notifying to select the BWP with the broadest frequency band among the BWPs at which the terminal works currently when the BWP switching failure occurs, or being the information notifying to select the BWP closest to the current time point among the BWPs at which the terminal works previously when the BWP switching failure occurs, or the like.

In step <NUM>, the terminal receives the indication information sent by the base station.

In implementation, the terminal may receive the indication information sent by the base station, and store the indication information.

In step <NUM>, the terminal switches to the BWP indicated by the indication information when detecting that the BWP switching failure occurs.

In implementation, as shown in <FIG>, if the terminal has not detected the control information of its own when it reaches the condition for acquiring the control information (this process will be described later in detail), it is determined that the BWP switching failure occurs. When detecting that the BWP switching failure occurs, the terminal acquires the stored indication information, parses the indication information to obtain the BWP indicated by the indication information, and then switches to the BWP indicated by the indication information.

The BWP indicated by the indication information is switched to when a duration since last successful demodulation to the control information corresponding to the terminal reaches a first duration.

Among them, the first duration is a preset value, or a value computed based on a first reference duration, a BWP parameter corresponding to a pre-switching BWP, and a preset computing method. The preset value may also be preset by a technician and stored in the terminal, or received from the base station. The first reference duration may also be preset by a technician and stored in the terminal, or received from the base station. The BWP parameter includes a sub-carrier spacing of the pre-switching BWP, a bandwidth of the pre-switching BWP, and the like. The preset computing method may also be preset by the technician and stored in the terminal, or received from the base station. For example, the preset computing method may be t1=T/(BWP parameter/<NUM>(KHz)), with t1 being the first duration, T being the first reference duration, and the BWP parameter being the sub-carrier spacing of the pre-switching BWP; and the preset computing method may also be t1=T*(BWP parameter/<NUM>(MHz)), with t1 being the first duration, T being the first reference duration, and the BWP parameter being the bandwidth of the pre-switching BWP.

In implementation, in general, the base station periodically sends the control information corresponding to the terminal in the BWP at which the terminal works currently; sometimes when determining that the terminal needs to perform the BWP switching, the base station may send a BWP switching instruction to the terminal; when the terminal does not receive the BWP switching instruction but the base station considers that the terminal has switched to the BWP indicated by the BWP switching instruction, the base station sends the control information corresponding to the terminal in the post-switching BWP, rather than in pre-switching BWP; in this way, the terminal may detect that the duration since last successful demodulation to the control information corresponding to itself reaches the first duration, and the terminal may acquire the stored indication information, parse the indication information to obtain the BWP indicated by the indication information, and then switch to the BWP indicated by the indication information.

It should be noted that each time when the control information corresponding to the terminal is successfully demodulated from the BWP, the terminal re-times from zero to determine whether the duration since the last successful demodulation to the control information corresponding to the terminal reaches the first duration.

The terminal receives configuration information of the first duration that is sent by the base station via a broadcast signaling, an upper-layer signaling, or a physical-layer signaling.

Among them, the configuration information includes a first reference duration and a preset computing method. The first reference duration, such as <NUM>, may be preset by a technician and stored in the base station. The preset computing method may also be preset by the technician, and stored in the base station.

In implementation, after the terminal starts up and accesses the network, the base station may send the configuration information of the first duration to the terminal via the broadcast signaling, the upper-layer signaling, or the physical-layer instruction, and the upper-layer signaling may be a signaling based on RRC (Radio Resource Control), or a signaling sent via the MAC (Media Access Control). After receiving the configuration information sent by the base station, the terminal may store the configuration information of the first duration.

In addition, the configuration information may further include a BWP parameter of the pre-switching BWP, such as a bandwidth of the pre-switching BWP, a sub-carrier spacing of the pre-switching BWP, etc..

The first duration is expressed by a length of time, a number of unit time-domain resources, or a number of code block groups.

In implementation, the first duration may be expressed by a length of time, such as <NUM> and the like as the first duration.

The first duration may also be expressed by a number of unit time-domain resources. For example, the unit time-domain resource may be a symbol, a time slot, a sub-frame, etc.; the first duration may be a time slot, i.e. <NUM>; and the first duration is a sub-frame, i.e. <NUM>.

The first duration may also be expressed by a number of code clock groups. In general, one TTI may contain multiple code block groups, and the duration of each TTI is <NUM>, and thus, the number of code block groups may be used for timing. For example, if one TTI includes <NUM> code block groups, each of which has a duration of <NUM>, and the number of the code block groups is <NUM>, then the first duration is <NUM>.

In step <NUM>, the base station sends control information corresponding to the terminal to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information.

In implementation, when the BWP indicated by the indication information is a preset BWP, a pre-switching BWP, or a post-switching BWP, the base station may send the corresponding control information to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information when determining that the terminal has a BWP switching failure (the process will be described later in detail).

In addition, when the BWP indicated by the indication information is a preset BWP, the base station may send the control information corresponding to the terminal in the preset BWP in each cycle. In this way, it is unnecessary for the base station to determine whether the terminal has a BWP switching failure.

Optionally, when the switching success notification is not received, the control information corresponding to the terminal may be sent to the terminal, and the corresponding step <NUM> may include the following process:
sending control information corresponding to the terminal to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information when a BWP switching success notification sent by the terminal is not received within a third duration after a BWP switching instruction is sent to the terminal.

Among them, the third duration may be preset by the technician and stored in the base station, or may be computed from the first duration, such as by adding an offset to the first duration to obtain the third duration, where the offset here represents the sum of a transmission duration and a parsing duration of the BWP switching instruction.

In implementation, when determining that the terminal needs to perform the BWP switching, the base station may send a BWP switching instruction to the terminal; the timing starts after the BWP switching instruction is sent; when the duration reaches the third duration and the BWP switching success notification sent by the terminal has not been received, the base station determines that the terminal has a BWP switching failure. The base station may send corresponding control information to the terminal periodically at the BWP indicated by the indication information.

Optionally, the third duration may also be expressed by a length of time, a number of unit time-domain resources, or a number of code block groups.

Optionally, when the terminal may not switch to the BWP indicated by the indication information all along due to its own reasons (such as a fault), the base station may stop sending the corresponding control information to the terminal, and a corresponding process may be as follows:
stopping sending the control information corresponding to the terminal to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information when a BWP switching failure notification sent by the terminal is not received within a fourth duration after the control information corresponding to the terminal is sent to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information.

Among them, the fourth duration may be preset by a technician and stored in the base station.

In implementation, after the base station sends the corresponding control information to the terminal for the first time at the BWP indicated by the indication information, the base station may start timing; when the duration reaches the fourth duration and the BWP switching failure notification sent by the terminal has not been received, the base station does not send the control information corresponding to the terminal to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information, thereby saving transmission resources.

Optionally, the fourth duration may also be expressed by a length of time, a number of unit time-domain resources, or a number of code block groups.

In step <NUM>, the terminal receives control information corresponding to the terminal that is sent by the base station at the BWP indicated by the indication information.

In implementation, after switching to the BWP indicated by the indication information, the terminal may obtain the control information of its own by demodulating the BWP, so that the terminal may not get offline.

Optionally, after the terminal switches to the BWP indicated by the indication information, the terminal may further notify the base station that its BWP switching fails, and a corresponding process may be as follows:
sending a BWP switching failure notification to the base station.

In implementation, after switching to the BWP indicated by the indication information, the terminal may obtain the control information of its own by demodulation, and then may send a BWP switching failure notification to the base station. After receiving the BWP switching failure notification sent by the terminal, the base station may send a BWP switching instruction to the terminal, with an identifier of the BWP to be switched to carried therein. After receiving the BWP switching instruction sent by the base station, the terminal may perform the BWP switching again.

In the embodiments of the present disclosure, a terminal receives indication information sent by a base station, wherein the indication information is configured to indicate a standby BWP that is used when a BWP switching failure occurs, and the BWP indicated by the indication information is any of a BWP at which a terminal works currently, a BWP at which the terminal works previously, and preset BWP; the BWP indicated by the indication information is switched to when the BWP switching is detected to have failed; and control information corresponding to the terminal that is sent by the base station at the BWP indicated by the indication information is received. In this way, when the BWP switching failure occurs, the terminal may acquire control information corresponding to itself from the BWP indicated by the base station, leading to low possibility of getting offline by the terminal.

Based on the same technical idea, another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a terminal, as shown in <FIG>, which includes:.

The switching module <NUM> is configured to:
switch to the BWP indicated by the indication information when a duration since last successful demodulation to the control information corresponding to the terminal reaches a first duration, wherein the first duration is a preset value, or a value computed based on a first reference duration, a BWP parameter corresponding to a pre-switching BWP, and a preset computing terminal.

The first receiving module <NUM> is further configured to:
receive configuration information of the first duration that is sent by the base station via a broadcast signaling, an upper-layer signaling, or a physical-layer signaling, wherein the configuration information includes the first reference duration and the preset computing terminal.

Optionally, as shown in <FIG>, the terminal further includes:
a sending module 440configured to send a BWP switching failure notification to the base station.

It should be noted that the terminal provided by the present embodiment only takes division of all the functional modules as an example for explanation during acquiring of the control information. In practice, the above functions can be finished by the different functional modules as required. That is, the internal structure of the terminal is divided into different functional modules to finish all or part of the functions described above. In addition, the terminal provided by the present embodiment has the same concept as the method for acquiring control information provided by the foregoing embodiment. Refer to the method embodiment for the specific implementation process of the terminal, which will not be repeated herein.

Based on the same technical idea, another exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure further provides a base station, as shown in <FIG>, which includes:.

Optionally, the second sending module <NUM> is configured to:
send control information corresponding to the terminal to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information when a BWP switching success notification sent by the terminal is not received within a third duration after a BWP switching instruction is sent to the terminal.

Optionally, the second sending module <NUM> is further configured to:
stop sending the control information corresponding to the terminal to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information when a BWP switching failure notification sent by the terminal is not received within a fourth duration after the control information corresponding to the terminal is sent to the terminal at the BWP indicated by the indication information.

It should be noted that the base station provided by the present embodiment only takes division of all the functional modules as an example for explanation during acquiring of the control information. In practice, the above functions can be finished by the different functional modules as required. That is, the internal structure of the base station is divided into different functional modules to finish all or part of the functions described above. In addition, the base station provided by the present embodiment has the same concept as the method for acquiring control information provided by the foregoing embodiment. Refer to the method embodiment for the specific implementation process of the base station, which will not be repeated herein.

A further exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a schematic structural diagram of a terminal. The terminal may be a mobile phone and the like.

Referring to <FIG>, the terminal <NUM> may include one or more of the following components: a processing component <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, a power component <NUM>, a multimedia component <NUM>, an audio component <NUM>, an input/output (I/O) interface <NUM>, a sensor component <NUM>, and a communication component <NUM>.

The processing component <NUM> typically controls the overall operations of the terminal <NUM>, such as the operations associated with display, telephone calls, data communications, camera operations, and recording operations.

The memory <NUM> is configured to store various types of data to support the operation of the terminal <NUM>. Examples of such data include instructions for any applications or methods operated on the terminal <NUM>, contact data, phonebook data, messages, pictures, videos, etc. The memory <NUM> may be implemented by using any type of volatile or non-volatile memory devices, or a combination thereof, such as a static random access memory (SRAM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), a read-only memory (ROM), a magnetic memory, a flash memory, a magnetic or optical disk.

The power component <NUM> provides power to various components of the terminal <NUM>. The power component <NUM> may include a power management system, one or more power sources, and any other components associated with the generation, management, and distribution of power in the terminal <NUM>.

The multimedia component <NUM> includes a screen providing an output interface between the terminal <NUM> and the user. The touch sensors may not only sense a boundary of a touch or swipe action, but also sense the duration and pressure associated with the touch or swipe action. The front camera and the rear camera may receive external multimedia data while the terminal <NUM> is in an operation mode, such as a photographing mode or a video mode.

The audio component <NUM> is configured to output and/or input audio signals. For example, the audio component <NUM> includes a microphone (MIC) configured to receive external audio signals when the terminal <NUM> is in an operation mode, such as a call mode, a recording mode, and a voice recognition mode. The received audio signal may be further stored in the memory <NUM> or transmitted via the communication component <NUM>. In some embodiments, the audio component <NUM> further includes a speaker for outputting audio signals.

The buttons may include, but are not limited to, a home button, a volume button, a start button, and a lock button.

The sensor component <NUM> includes one or more sensors to provide status assessments of various aspects of the terminal <NUM>. For instance, the sensor component <NUM> may detect an on/off status of the terminal <NUM>, relative positioning of components, e.g., the display device and the mini keyboard of the terminal <NUM>, and the sensor component <NUM> may also detect a position change of the terminal <NUM> or a component of the terminal <NUM>, presence or absence of user contact with the terminal <NUM>, orientation or acceleration/deceleration of the terminal <NUM>, and temperature change of the terminal <NUM>. The sensor component <NUM> may also include a light sensor, such as a CMOS or CCD image sensor, used for imaging applications.

The communication component <NUM> is configured to facilitate communication, wired or wirelessly, between the terminal <NUM> and other devices. The terminal <NUM> can access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as WiFi, <NUM>, or <NUM>, or a combination thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, the communication component <NUM> receives broadcast signals or broadcast associated information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In an exemplary embodiment, the communication component <NUM> further includes a near field communication (NFC) module to facilitate short-range communications.

In exemplary embodiments, the terminal <NUM> may be implemented with one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, or other electronic components, for performing the above described methods.

In exemplary embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions is also provided, such as the memory <NUM> including instructions, executable by the processor <NUM> in the terminal <NUM>, for performing the above-described methods. For example, the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may be a ROM, a RAM, a CD-ROM, a magnetic tape, a floppy disc, an optical data storage device, and the like.

There is provided a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. When instructions in the storage medium are executed by a processor of a terminal, the terminal is enabled to execute the method described above, which includes:.

The switching to the BWP indicated by the indication information when detecting that the BWP switching failure occurs includes:
switching to the BWP indicated by the indication information when a duration since last successful demodulation to the control information corresponding to the terminal reaches a first duration, wherein the first duration is a preset value, or a value computed based on a first reference duration, a BWP parameter corresponding to a pre-switching BWP, and a preset computing method.

The method further includes:
receiving configuration information of the first duration that is sent by the base station via a broadcast signaling, an upper-layer signaling, or a physical-layer signaling, wherein the configuration information includes the first reference duration and the preset computing method.

Optionally, the receiving control information corresponding to the terminal that is sent by the base station at the BWP indicated by the indication information further includes:
sending a BWP switching failure notification to the base station.

Persons of ordinary skills in the art may understand that all or some of the steps described in the embodiments above can be completed through hardware, or through relevant software instructed by a program stored in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, and the storage medium mentioned above may be a read-only memory, a disk or a CD, or the like.

Claim 1:
A method for acquiring control information, performed by a terminal, the method comprises:
receiving control information corresponding to the terminal sent by a base station in a bandwidth part, BWP, at which the terminal works currently; the method being characterized in that it further comprises:
receiving (<NUM>) indication information sent by the base station, wherein the indication information is configured to indicate a standby bandwidth part, BWP, that is used when a BWP switching failure occurs, and the standby BWP indicated by the indication information is any of the BWP at which a terminal works currently, a BWP at which the terminal worked previously, and a preset BWP;
switching (<NUM>) to the standby BWP indicated by the indication information when detecting that the BWP switching failure occurs; and
receiving (<NUM>) control information corresponding to the terminal that is sent by the base station at the standby BWP indicated by the indication information,
wherein the switching (<NUM>) to the standby BWP indicated by the indication information when detecting that the BWP switching failure occurs comprises:
switching to the standby BWP indicated by the indication information when a duration since last successful demodulation to the control information corresponding to the terminal reaches a first duration,
wherein the method further comprises:
receiving configuration information of the first duration that is sent by the base station via a broadcast signaling, an upper-layer signaling, or a physical-layer signaling.