Patent Description:
In NR (New Radio) technologies, a carrier bandwidth can be divided into multiple bandwidth parts (BWP). When an active downlink BWP is inactive for a period of time, a function of automatically switching back to the default or initial BWP is provided. A BWP inactivity timer is set to record the duration of inactivity of the active downlink BWP.

However, the fallback function for the active downlink BWP in the related art is only applicable to the case where there is one active downlink BWP in a cell, which is not conducive to the expansion of application scenarios. Related technologies are known from a non-patent disclosure titled "<NPL>.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method, a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device, an electronic device, and a computer-readable storage medium.

According to the above embodiments, each active downlink bandwidth part is associated with a timer, and thus time can be calculated separately for each active downlink bandwidth part by the timer. For example, the timer can be used to record the inactivity time period of each active downlink bandwidth part. When there is a timer that has timed out, that is, among one or more active downlink bandwidth parts for which the timer is used to record the inactivity time periods, the inactivity time period of at least one active downlink bandwidth part is greater than a preset time period, the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer can be switched back to downlink bandwidth part(s) in a preset state. That is, the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer is(are) deactivated, and the downlink bandwidth part(s) in the preset state corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer is(are) activated.

Accordingly, multiple active downlink bandwidth parts can be configured for a serving cell, ensuring that the serving cell can be applied to a wider range of application scenarios. By associating each active downlink bandwidth part with a respective timer, time can be calculated for each active downlink bandwidth part. This can ensure that once an active downlink bandwidth part is inactive for a period longer than a preset time period, it can be determined that the timer runs out, and the active downlink bandwidth part is switched back to a downlink bandwidth part in the preset state. Embodiments of the present disclosure can avoid the situation that when the active downlink bandwidth part is inactive for a period longer than the preset time period, the timer is not determined as timed-out. Thus, embodiments of the present disclosure can ensure that user equipment can communicate normally by the serving cell configured with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts.

In order to more clearly describe the technical solutions in embodiments of the present disclosure, the following will briefly introduce the drawings in the description of the embodiments. The drawings show only some embodiments of the present disclosure, and for those of ordinary skill in the art, other drawings can be obtained from these drawings.

The following will clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in some embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to drawings. The described embodiments are only a part of embodiments of the present disclosure, and not all of the embodiments. The protection scope of the present disclosure is provided by the appended claims.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The downlink bandwidth part adjustment method shown in this embodiment can be applied to user equipment, such as an electronic device like mobile phone or tablet computer. The user equipment may communicate with a base station, and the base station may be, for example, a <NUM> base station, a <NUM> base station, or the like.

As shown in <FIG>, the downlink bandwidth part adjustment method may include the following steps:.

In step S1, whether at least one timer associated with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts of a current serving cell of the user equipment times out is determined.

In step S2, if there is at least one timed-out timer among the at least one timer, each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is deactivated, and a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part is activated.

In an embodiment, multiple active downlink bandwidth parts can be configured for the serving cell, and each active downlink bandwidth part is associated with a timer. The timer may be an inactivity timer for a bandwidth part. There may be a case where multiple active downlink bandwidth parts are associated with the same timer, or there may also be a case where multiple active downlink bandwidth parts are associated with different timers respectively, or the two cases may exist at the same time.

In an embodiment, the preset state can be a default state or an initial state. The default state can be configured by the base station. For different active downlink bandwidth parts, different default states can be configured, or the same default state can be configured. The initial state can also be configured by the base station, and the same configuration is performed for all user equipment. The difference between the initial state and the default state is that a downlink bandwidth part in the initial state is applicable to all user equipment, while a downlink bandwidth part in the default state is only applicable to some user equipment. Therefore, as compared with downlink bandwidth parts in the default state, more user equipment uses the downlink bandwidth parts in the initial sate, and thus congestion is more serious.

In an embodiment, an active downlink bandwidth part used by the user equipment in the current cell may be inactive for a long time. In this case, the active downlink bandwidth part needs to be deactivated, that is, it is needed to set the downlink bandwidth part in an inactive state. The inactivity time period of the active downlink bandwidth part can be recorded by a timer. In the case of the timer timeout, it can be determined that the inactivity time period of the active downlink bandwidth part is greater than a preset time period. Therefore, it is needed to deactivate the active downlink bandwidth part, and to activate a downlink bandwidth part in the preset state corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part, for use by the user equipment.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, each active downlink bandwidth part is associated with a timer, and thus time can be calculated separately for each active downlink bandwidth part by the timer. For example, the timer can be used to record the inactivity time period of each active downlink bandwidth part. When there is a timer that has timed out, that is, among one or more active downlink bandwidth parts for which the timer is used to record the inactivity time periods, the inactivity time period of at least one active downlink bandwidth part is greater than a preset time period, the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer can be switched back to downlink bandwidth part(s) in a preset state. That is, the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer is(are) deactivated, and the downlink bandwidth part(s) in the preset state corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer is(are) activated.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, deactivating each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activating a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part includes:.

In step S201, if the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is not the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state, and the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state has been activated, the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is deactivated.

In an embodiment, when the timer times out, the active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timer needs to be deactivated, and the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part needs to be activated.

However, in some cases, for example, multiple active downlink bandwidth parts correspond to the same downlink bandwidth part in the preset state, the following situation may occur. For example, an active downlink bandwidth part A and an active downlink bandwidth part B correspond to the same downlink bandwidth part C in the preset state. When the timer corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part A times out, the user equipment deactivates the active downlink bandwidth part A, and activates the downlink bandwidth part C in the preset state corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part A. Then, when the timer corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part B times out, the downlink bandwidth part C in the preset state corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part B has already been activated, that is, the user equipment is performing communications using the active downlink bandwidth part C of the present state. Under such condition, for the active downlink bandwidth part B corresponding to the timed-out timer, there is no downlink bandwidth part in the preset state that needs to be activated.

In this case, it is only needed to deactivate each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, so as to avoid keeping the active state of the active downlink bandwidth part that is inactive for a long time.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the method further includes the following step:.

In step S3, the timed-out timer is stopped.

In an embodiment, after deactivating the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer, the deactivated downlink bandwidth part(s) is(are) in the inactive state and will not be active, and thus there is no need for the timer to continue to record the duration of its inactivity. Accordingly, the expired timer can be stopped to reduce the operating load of the user equipment.

In step S202, if there are multiple active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the timed-out timer, and the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts correspond to a same downlink bandwidth part in the preset state, the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts are deactivated, and the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state corresponding to the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts is activated.

In an embodiment, if the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the timer correspond to the same downlink bandwidth part in the preset state, it is needed to activate the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state corresponding to the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts and deactivate the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts, when the timer times out. In this way, the embodiment can make the active downlink bandwidth parts that are inactive for a long time in the inactive state, and the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state becomes active for use by the user equipment.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the method further includes:.

In step S4, before determining whether at least one timer associated with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts of a current serving cell of the user equipment times out, at least one target downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts which is configured with a function of automatically falling back to a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state is determined.

Determining whether at least one timer associated with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts of a current serving cell of the user equipment times out includes the following step:.

In step S101, whether at least one timer associated with the at least one target downlink bandwidth part times out is determined.

In an embodiment, the base station can configure a function of automatically falling back to a downlink bandwidth part in the preset state for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) of the serving cell. When an active downlink bandwidth part of the serving cell is configured with the function, an associated timer can be configured for the active downlink bandwidth part to record its inactivity duration.

Therefore, before determining whether at least one timer associated with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts of the current serving cell of the user equipment times out, at least one target downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts which is configured with a function of automatically falling back to a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state may be first determined. Since only the target downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts is associated with a timer, it is possible to determine whether the timer has expired only for the target downlink bandwidth part, and there is no need to consider other downlink bandwidth parts among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts, thereby reducing workload.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, determining at least one target downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts which is configured with a function of automatically falling back to a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state includes the following step:.

In step S401, whether the current serving cell is configured with the at least one timer is determined, and if the current serving cell is configured with the at least one timer, each of the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts is determined as the target downlink bandwidth part.

In an embodiment, the base station can configure a timer for a cell. When the user equipment determines that the current serving cell of the user equipment is configured with the timer, it can be determined that all active downlink bandwidth parts of the current serving cell are configured with the above function, and thus all the active downlink bandwidth parts of the current serving cell can be used as the target downlink bandwidth parts.

In step S402, at least one active downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts which is configured with a downlink bandwidth part in the preset state is determined as the at least one target downlink bandwidth part.

In an embodiment, the base station may configure the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) of the cell. When the user equipment determines that a certain active downlink bandwidth part of the current serving cell is configured with a downlink bandwidth part in the preset state, the user equipment can determine that the active downlink bandwidth part is configured with the above-mentioned function, and accordingly, the active downlink bandwidth part can be used as the target downlink bandwidth part.

According to embodiments, the preset state includes a default state and/or an initial state.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, deactivating each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activating a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part includes the following steps:.

In step S203, if the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is deactivated, and the downlink bandwidth part in the default state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is activated.

In step S204, if the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is not configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is deactivated, and the downlink bandwidth part in the initial state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is activated.

In an embodiment, a downlink bandwidth part in the initial state is applicable to all user equipment, while a downlink bandwidth part in the default state is only applicable to some user equipment. As compared with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, more user equipment uses the downlink bandwidth part in the initial sate, and thus congestion is more serious. Therefore, for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer, the downlink bandwidth part in the default state can be selected first for activation. When the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer is(are) not configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, the downlink bandwidth part in the initial state is selected for activation, so as to ensure the smoothness of user equipment communication as much as possible.

In an embodiment, for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer, if the downlink bandwidth part in the default state configured for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer has been activated, the downlink bandwidth part in the initial state corresponding to the active downlink bandwidth part(s) associated with the timed-out timer can be selected to be activated. This can ensure that after deactivating an active downlink bandwidth part, the user equipment can activate another downlink bandwidth part, thereby ensuring the communication quality of the user equipment to a great extent.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, deactivating each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activating a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part further comprises the following step:.

In step S205, whether the current serving cell is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state is determined, and if the current serving cell is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, it is determined that each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state.

In an embodiment, the base station can configure the downlink bandwidth part in the default state for the cell, and the user equipment can determine whether the current serving cell is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state. For example, the user equipment can query in information received from the base station to determine whether there is a default downlink bandwidth part associated with the identity of the current serving cell; and if there is such default downlink bandwidth part, it is determined that all active downlink bandwidth parts of the current serving cell are configured with the default downlink bandwidth part.

<FIG> is a schematic flowchart of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment method according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, making the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts fall back to downlink bandwidth parts in the preset state further includes the following step:.

In step S206, whether there is a downlink bandwidth part in the default state associated with active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the timed-out timer is determined, and if there is the downlink bandwidth parts of the default state, it is determined that the active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the timed-out timer are configured with the downlink bandwidth part of the default state.

In an embodiment, the base station can configure the downlink bandwidth part in the default state for the downlink bandwidth parts of the cell, and the user equipment can determine which downlink bandwidth parts of the current serving cell are associated with the downlink bandwidth in the default state according to the information received from the base station. For the active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, it can be determined that the active downlink bandwidth parts are configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state.

In step S5, when a deactivation instruction for deactivating at least one of the active downlink bandwidth parts is received, a timer associated with the at least one of the active downlink bandwidth parts is stopped.

In an embodiment, the user equipment may receive a deactivation instruction for deactivating an active downlink bandwidth part. The deactivation instruction may come from the base station or other devices. When the user equipment receives the deactivation instruction, the user equipment can set the active downlink bandwidth part corresponding to the deactivation instruction in an inactive state. The inactive downlink bandwidth part is not active, and thus there is no need to record its inactivity duration by a timer, and accordingly the timer associated with the active downlink bandwidth part may be stopped to reduce the load of the user equipment.

In step S6, when a switching instruction for switching from a first downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts to a second downlink bandwidth part is received, a timer associated with the first downlink bandwidth part is stopped, and a timer associated with the second downlink bandwidth part is started or restarted.

In an embodiment, the serving cell of the user equipment is configured with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts. According to the received switching instruction, the user equipment can switch from the first downlink bandwidth part to the second downlink bandwidth part. After the switching, the user equipment does not use the first downlink bandwidth part temporarily, but uses the second downlink bandwidth part to perform communications, and thus the timer associated with the first downlink bandwidth part can be stopped to reduce load the user equipment, and the timer associated with the second downlink bandwidth part can be started or restarted to record the inactivity time period of the second downlink bandwidth part.

In step S7, when the user equipment initiates random access in the current serving cell, one or more timers associated with at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts is stopped.

In an embodiment, according to related protocols, when user equipment initiates random access in a serving cell, the user equipment will stop the timer(s) for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) of the serving cell. In this embodiment, there are multiple active downlink bandwidth parts in the current serving cell of the user equipment. When the user equipment initiates random access in the current serving cell, not all the active downlink bandwidth parts may be related to the random access, and thus only one or more timers associated with at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts are stopped, and for the downlink bandwidth parts which do not participate in the random access among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts, the inactivity time period is still recorded by a timer.

In an embodiment, the downlink bandwidth part(s) involved in the random access can be directly determined as the downlink bandwidth part(s) participating in random access, for example, the downlink bandwidth part(s) used by the user equipment to receive the second message (MSG2) in the random access or the fourth message (MSG4) in random access.

In an embodiment, some downlink bandwidth parts that are not involved in the random access still need to be regarded as the downlink bandwidth parts that participate in the random access. For example, there may be the following situations:.

When the user equipment adopts the frequency division duplex (FDD) communication mode, the uplink carrier and the downlink carrier can be used as a pair of spectrum, that is, the uplink carrier and the downlink carrier are different carriers, the uplink bandwidth part can correspond to the uplink carrier, and the downlink bandwidth part can correspond to the downlink carrier.

When the user equipment adopts time division duplex (TDD) communication mode, the uplink carrier and the downlink carrier can be used as unpaired spectrum, that is, the uplink carrier and the downlink carrier are the same carrier, and the uplink bandwidth part and the downlink bandwidth part correspond to the same carrier.

When user equipment initiates random access in a non-special cell which refers to a cell other than the primary cell and primary secondary cell in the serving cell, if the uplink bandwidth part used by the user equipment to initiate the random access corresponds to the carrier of the unpaired spectrum, since the downlink carrier and the uplink carrier corresponding to the unpaired spectrum are the same carrier, the downlink bandwidth part corresponding to the unpaired spectrum is determined as the downlink bandwidth part participating in the random access.

When user equipment initiates random access in a non-special cell, if the uplink bandwidth used by the user equipment to initiate the random access corresponds to the carrier of the paired spectrum, since the downlink carrier and the uplink carrier corresponding to the paired spectrum are different carriers but there is still a corresponding relationship between the downlink carrier and the uplink carrier, the downlink bandwidth part corresponding to the paired spectrum can also be determined as the downlink bandwidth part participating in the random access. It should be noted that, in this case, the downlink bandwidth part corresponding to the spectrum may also be determined as the downlink bandwidth part participating in the random access, which can be specifically set as required.

In step S8, if the current serving cell is a non-special cell, one or more timers associated with the at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among multiple active downlink bandwidth parts in a special cell are stopped.

In an embodiment, if the current serving cell is a non-special cell, that is, when the user equipment initiates random access on the non-special cell, for example, the user equipment sends a random access preamble to the base station in the non-special cell, the user equipment needs to receive the physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) message sent by the base station in the special cell. The physical downlink control channel message may include the second message (MSG2) or the fourth message (MSG4) in the random access. And the user equipment determines, according to the received physical downlink control channel message, whether the initiated random access is successful.

In this procedure, the downlink bandwidth part used to receive the physical downlink control channel message among the active downlink bandwidth parts in the special cell also belongs to the downlink bandwidth part participating in the random access, and thus the timer associated with the downlink bandwidth part can be stopped.

In an embodiment, the user equipment may receive the physical downlink control channel message sent by the base station in a predetermined active downlink bandwidth part, and the predetermined active downlink bandwidth part is the downlink bandwidth part participating in the random access among multiple active downlink bandwidth parts in the special cell. The active downlink bandwidth part can be determined according to the serial number of the active downlink bandwidth part, or according to configuration information from the base station.

In an embodiment, the user equipment may monitor multiple active downlink bandwidth parts to receive the physical downlink control channel message in any one of the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts. The multiple active downlink bandwidth parts are the downlink bandwidth parts participating in the random access among multiple active downlink bandwidth parts in the special cell.

In step S9, when the user equipment initiates random access in a first serving cell, and it is determined that the initiated random access is successful according to a received physical downlink control channel instruction in a second cell, one or more timers associated with at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among one or more active downlink bandwidth parts in the first cell are started or restarted, and one or more timers associated with at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among one or more active downlink bandwidth parts in the second cell are started or restarted.

In an embodiment, when the user equipment initiates random access on a certain cell, the user equipment stops the timer for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) in the cell.

However, for a certain type of cell, such as a non-special cell, after the user equipment initiates random access on this type of cell, the user equipment needs to receive the physical downlink control channel message sent by the base station in other types of cells, such as primary or primary secondary cells, so as to determine whether the initiated random access is successful.

In this case, the first cell (for example, secondary cell) where the user equipment initiates the random access and the second cell (for example, primary cell or primary secondary cell) where the physical downlink control channel message is received are different. When the user equipment initiates the random access, the user equipment will not only stop the bandwidth part inactivity timer(s) for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) in the first cell, but also stop the bandwidth part inactivity timer(s) for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) in the second cell.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, not only the bandwidth part inactivity timer(s) for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) in the first cell can be started or restarted, but also the bandwidth part inactivity timer(s) for the active downlink bandwidth part(s) in the second cell can be started or restarted. Accordingly, the stopped bandwidth part inactivity timer(s) for the active downlink bandwidth parts in the first cell and the second cell can be started or restarted, so as to ensure that the inactivity duration of the active downlink bandwidth parts in the first cell and the inactivity duration of the active downlink bandwidth parts in the second cell can be recorded.

According to embodiments, the first cell and the second cell are different cells.

According to embodiments, the first cell and the second cell are the same cell.

The embodiment shown in <FIG> may be applicable to the case where the first cell and the second cell are different cells, or may be applicable to the case where the first cell and the second cell are the same cell. In the case that the first cell and the second cell are the same cell, for the same cell, the bandwidth part inactivity timer(s) for the active downlink bandwidth parts only needs to be started or restarted once.

In step S10, if there is a downlink activity in at least one active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and random access is not performed in the current serving cell, the timed-out timer is started or restarted.

In an embodiment, if there is a downlink activity in at least one active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and random access is not performed in the current serving cell, it means that the active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer has been activated and is not occupied by the random access procedure, and thus the timed-out timer can be started or restarted to record the inactivity duration of the active downlink bandwidth part.

In an embodiment, the downlink activity may refer to receiving a physical downlink control channel message. The physical downlink control channel message includes an uplink grant message (UL grant) or a downlink assignment message (DL assignment). The downlink assignment message can be a certain active downlink bandwidth part for the current serving cell. The downlink activity can also refer to receiving a Media Access Control Protocol Data Unit (MAC PDU). Of course, the downlink activity is not limited to the above-mentioned types, and the specific downlink activity can be determined depending on actual situations.

In step S11, if there is an uplink activity in an uplink bandwidth part of an asymmetric spectrum of the current serving cell, and random access is not performed in the current serving cell, a timer associated with a downlink bandwidth part of the asymmetric spectrum is started.

In an embodiment, for an asymmetric spectrum, the uplink bandwidth part and the downlink bandwidth part correspond to the same carrier, that is, the uplink bandwidth part and the downlink bandwidth part are the same. If there is an uplink activity in the uplink bandwidth part of the asymmetric spectrum of the current serving cell, the downlink bandwidth part of the asymmetric spectrum is also active, and if the uplink bandwidth part is not occupied by the random access procedure, the timed-out timer can be started or restarted to record the inactivity duration of the active downlink bandwidth part.

In an embodiment, the uplink activity may be that the user equipment receives an uplink grant message for the uplink bandwidth part, or that the user equipment receives the media access control protocol data unit by the uplink bandwidth part. Of course, the uplink activity is not limited to the above-mentioned types, and the specific uplink activity can be determined depending on actual situations.

In step S12, if the user equipment receives an instruction for deactivating a target cell, and the target cell is a non-special cell, one or more timers associated with one or more active downlink bandwidth parts of the non-special cell are stopped.

In an embodiment, the base station may send an instruction to the user equipment to deactivate the target cell in the serving cell of the user equipment. If the target cell is a non-special cell, then all active downlink bandwidth parts of the target cell will also be deactivated, so that for all the downlink bandwidth parts of the target cell, the user equipment can stop their inactivity durations. Accordingly, one or more timers associated with one or more active downlink bandwidth parts in the non-special cell can be stopped.

Corresponding to the foregoing embodiments of the downlink bandwidth part adjustment methods, the present disclosure also provides embodiments of downlink bandwidth part adjustment devices.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. The downlink bandwidth part adjustment device in this embodiment may be applicable to user equipment, such as electronic equipment like mobile phone or tablet computer. The user equipment may communicate with a base station, and the base station may be, for example, a <NUM> base station, a <NUM> base station, or the like.

As shown in <FIG>, the downlink bandwidth part adjustment device may include a time-out determination module <NUM>, and an activation control module <NUM>.

The time-out determination module is configured to determine whether at least one timer associated with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts of a current serving cell of the user equipment times out.

The activation control module <NUM> is configured to, if there is at least one timed-out timer among the at least one timer, deactivate each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activate a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part.

According to embodiments, the activation control module is configured to:
if the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is not the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state, and the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state has been activated, deactivate the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment as shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a first stop module <NUM> configured to stop the timed-out timer.

According to embodiments, the activation control module is configured to:
if there are multiple active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the timed-out timer, and the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts correspond to a same downlink bandwidth part in the preset state, deactivate the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts, and activating the downlink bandwidth part in the preset state corresponding to the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:.

According to embodiments, the configuration determination module is configured to:
determine whether the current serving cell is configured with the at least one timer, and if the current serving cell is configured with the at least one timer, determining each of the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts as the target downlink bandwidth part.

According to embodiments, the configuration determination module is configured to:
determine at least one active downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts which is configured with a downlink bandwidth part in the preset state as the at least one target downlink bandwidth part.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram showing an activation control module according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, the activation control module <NUM> includes:
an activation selection submodule <NUM> configured to, if the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, deactivate the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activate the downlink bandwidth part in the default state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer; and if the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is not configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, deactivate the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activate the downlink bandwidth part in the initial state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram showing an activation control module according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, the activation control module <NUM> further includes:
a first determination submodule <NUM> configured to determine whether the current serving cell is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, and if the current serving cell is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, determine that each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram showing an activation control module according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, the activation control module <NUM> further includes:
a second determination submodule <NUM> configured to determine whether there is a downlink bandwidth part in the default state associated with active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the timed-out timer, and if there is the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, determine that the active downlink bandwidth parts associated with the timed-out timer are configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment show in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a second stop module <NUM> configured to, when a deactivation instruction for deactivating at least one of the active downlink bandwidth parts is received, stop a timer associated with the at least one of the active downlink bandwidth parts.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a timer control module <NUM> configured to, when a switching instruction for switching from a first downlink bandwidth part among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts to a second downlink bandwidth part is received, stop a timer associated with the first downlink bandwidth part, and start or restart a timer associated with the second downlink bandwidth part.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a third stop module <NUM> configured to, when the user equipment initiates random access in the current serving cell, stop one or more timers associated with at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among the multiple active downlink bandwidth parts.

According to embodiments, the third stop module is further configured to:
if the current serving cell is a non-special cell, stop one or more timers associated with the at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among multiple active downlink bandwidth parts in a special cell.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a first start module <NUM> configured to, when the user equipment initiates random access in a first serving cell, and it is determined that the initiated random access is successful according to a received physical downlink control channel instruction in a second cell, start or restart one or more timers associated with at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among one or more active downlink bandwidth parts in the first cell, and start or restart one or more timers associated with at least one downlink bandwidth part which participates in the random access among one or more active downlink bandwidth parts in the second cell.

According to embodiments, the first cell and the second cell are a same cell.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a second start module <NUM> configured to, if there is a downlink activity in at least one active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and random access is not performed in the current serving cell, start or restart the timed-out timer.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a third start module <NUM> configured to, if there is an uplink activity in an uplink bandwidth part of an asymmetric spectrum of the current serving cell, and random access is not performed in the current serving cell, start a timer associated with a downlink bandwidth part of the asymmetric spectrum.

<FIG> is a schematic block diagram of a downlink bandwidth part adjustment device according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in <FIG>, on the basis of the embodiment shown in <FIG>, the device further includes:
a fourth stop module <NUM> configured to, if the user equipment receives an instruction for deactivating a target cell, and the target cell is a non-special cell, stop one or more timers associated with one or more active downlink bandwidth parts of the non-special cell.

With respect to the devices in the above embodiments, the specific manners for performing operations for individual units therein have been described in detail in the embodiments regarding the method embodiments, which will not be elaborated herein.

The embodiments of devices basically correspond to the embodiments of methods, and thus for related portions, the description about the embodiments of methods may be referred to. The above described embodiments of devices are only illustrative, and portions described as separated units may be or may not be physically separated, and the portions shown as respective units may be or may not be physical modules, i.e., the portions may be located at one place, or may be distributed over a plurality of network units. A part or whole of the modules may be selected to realize the objectives of the technical solutions of the present disclosure according to actual requirements. One of ordinary skill in this art may understand and practice the technical solutions of the present disclosure without creative work.

An embodiment of the prenset disclsoure provides an electronic device, including:.

An embodiment of the prenset disclsoure further provides a computer-readable storage medium having computer programs stored thereon. When the computer programs are executed by a processor, the processor is caused to perform the steps of the method according any one of the above embodiments.

<FIG> is block diagram showing a device <NUM> for downlink bandwidth part adjustment according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. For example, the device <NUM> may be a mobile phone, a computer, a digital broadcast terminal, a messaging device, a gaming console, a tablet, a medical device, exercise equipment, a personal digital assistant, and the like.

The multimedia component <NUM> includes a screen providing an output interface between the electronic device <NUM> and the user.

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 an external audio signal when the device <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>. The audio <NUM> may further include a a speaker to output audio signals.

The communication component <NUM> is configured to facilitate communication, wired or wirelessly, between the device <NUM> and other devices. The device <NUM> can access a wireless network based on a communication standard, such as WiFi, <NUM>, or <NUM>, or a combination thereof. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component <NUM> receives a broadcast signal or broadcast associated information from an external broadcast management system via a broadcast channel. In one exemplary embodiment, the communication component <NUM> further includes a near field communication (NFC) module to facilitate short-range communications. For example, the NFC module may be implemented based on a radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, an infrared data association (IrDA) technology, an ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, a Bluetooth (BT) technology, and other technologies.

In exemplary embodiments, the device <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 method according to any one of the above embodiments.

In exemplary embodiments, there is also provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions, such as included in the memory <NUM>, executable by the processor <NUM> in the device <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.

Other embodiments of the present disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the present disclosure disclosed here. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses, or adaptations of the present disclosure following the general principles thereof and including such departures from the present disclosure as come within known or customary practice in the art. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of the present disclosure being indicated by the following claims.

It will be appreciated that the present invention is not limited to the exact construction that has been described above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the scope thereof. It is intended that the scope of the present disclosure only be limited by the appended claims.

It should be noted that relational terms such as first and second are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply that there is any such actual relationship or sequence between these entities or operations. The terms "include", "comprise" or any other variants thereof are intended to mean non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article of manufacture or device including a series of elements not only includes these elements, but also includes other elements not explicitly listed, or also include elements inherent to such process, method, article of manufacture, or device. If there are no more restrictions, an element defined by the sentence "including a. " does not exclude the existence of other same elements in the process, method, article of manufacture, or device including the element.

Claim 1:
A downlink bandwidth part adjustment method, wherein the method is applicable to user equipment and the method comprises:
determining (S1) whether at least one timer associated with multiple active downlink bandwidth parts of a current serving cell of the user equipment times out; and
in response to that there is at least one timed-out timer among the at least one timer, deactivating (S2) each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activating a downlink bandwidth part in a preset state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part,
wherein the preset state comprises a default state and/or an initial state, the method characterized in that the deactivating each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activating a downlink bandwidth part in the preset state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part comprises:
in response to that the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, deactivating the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activating the downlink bandwidth part in the default state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer; and
in response to that the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer is not configured with the downlink bandwidth part in the default state, deactivating the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer, and activating the downlink bandwidth part in the initial state corresponding to the each active downlink bandwidth part associated with the timed-out timer.